"It's better to be ignorant than misinformed."
Well now, in Texas, it's possible to be both. And these people call OBAMA a fascist?! (Well, I guess when you re-write history, anything's possible!) It's unbelievable. If you have to go THAT FAR to INDOCTRINATE CHILDREN into you ideology, at what point does it become easier to just admit YOU'RE WRONG?! RELIGION doesn't even take indoctrination this far!
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Speaking of which...Here's one for Steve: The Devil is in the Vatican, according to chief Exorcist.
Dude, it's MADNESS. MADNESS, I say! And this ins't some wierd sect or cult, it's the ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. The single largest Christian denomonation IN THE WORLD. Are people responsible for their own shortcomings? Nah. It's the DEVIL. And of course it's GOD that's responsible for all GOOD. B-U-L-L-S-H-I-T. PEOPLE should be held accountable for their fuck-ups and PEOPLE deserve CREDIT when they do good things!
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Paul Krugman should be the Fed Chairman. Or head of the SEC. Or treasury Secretary. Or just run our WHOLE DAMNED ECONOMY. But what does HE KNOW, right? While Libertarians were busy bringing about the biggest economic meltdown since Herbert Hoover all THIS pinko liberal did was win the NOBEL PRIZE in economics.
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Here's a sexty one from SLATE. And I think it typifies their Conservtaive bias, or at least their tendency to fall into the trap of framing issues from a conseravtive POV. Here's what I mean...
from SLATE:
A teenager in Wisconsin named Anthony Stancl set up a fake Facebook profile, pretending to be a girl. Seventeen or 18 at the time, Stancl used the profile to lure 30 of the boys he went to high school with to send him nude pictures or videos of themselves. Then Stancl threatened to post the material on the Internet unless they performed sex acts with him. Seven of them say they did—and that Stancl took pictures of them with his cell-phone camera.OK, the CRIME here... has NOTHING whatsoever to do with SEXTING! Since when are rape and blackmail not illegal? The sexting is completely IMMATERIAL to the crime being committed! They go on to give the following insane false-equivalency:
How can states draft laws that protect against Anthony Stancl without sweeping in more innocent behavior, like that of the students in Valparaiso?
Umm, sorry... WHY would we need NEW LAWS to protect people from BLACKMAIL and RAPE?! Especially when the rape was coerced by the blackmail, and largely perpetrated on MINORS?! Last time I checked that kind of behavior carried some of the strictest penalties allowed for non-lethal crimes! What the hell are they TALKING ABOUT?! In the words of my good friend, Jules Winfield: It's aint in the same ballpark. It ain't in the same league. It ain't even the same fucking SPORT!
Should sexting be a felony? NO, morons.
Should blackmailing minors into letting you rape them be illegal? Um... YES, but it already, most profoundly, IS, morons.
Is sending someone a naked picture of your 16 year old ex-girlfriend a crime? Arguably, but it falls under "general harrassment." Is it a SEX CRIME? NO. FUCKING. WAY. Is is CHILD PORNOGRAPHY? In the words of Gorobei Katayama: Are you kidding me?
The difference between sexting and kiddie-porn is the same as the difference between 16 and 6. I'm not saying that a victim doesn't have some right to redress, but, OTOH: You GAVE the other person the picture. It's THEIRS NOW. They can do anything they want with it, unless they're making money, and then you're just entitled to your cut.
EDUCTAION, not CRIMINALIZATION is what's needed here. There is a very easy way to not have your naked ass posted all over the internet: DON'T SEND SOMEONE YOUR NAKED PICTURE. It's pretty easy actually. I'm 37 years old and the olny picture of me naked, ANYWHERE was taken in 1976, when I was three and sitting in the tub. Oh... and maybe another one from about a year later of me taking a leak behind a tree in our back yard.
The other real answer here is that we need to stop being so hung up on nudity and teenaged sexuality. Someone see you naked? Guess what? Despite what you might have been told, it's NOT THE END OF THE WORLD. Embarassing? Sure. But you DID distribute naked pictures of yourself, so...
I'm sorry. While I'm not a nudist/naturist myself, I've read a lot of their literature and I'm convinced that they've got it right when it comes to the human body. Our hangups are largely societally conditioned. I'm strongly convinced of that.
But EDUCATION. Give people the infomration they need, and let them make their own choices. Good or bad, there's no reason AT ALL to be talking about jail-time and sex offender lists! Civil suits, for invasion of privacy or harrassment maybe. And you'd have a pretty steep burden of proof even then.
