Daily Blend: 03/17/13

Card. Wilfrid Napier

Predictably, the Canadian Government’s decision to lay off all non-Christian prison chaplains has already resulted in a lawsuit.

Public Shaming offers these handy guides on how to thoroughly void your Decent Human Being card.
(via @MotherJones)

In the category of “a first for everything”, I defend a clergyman’s ^[pictured] remarks about pedophilia from someone who apparently can’t distinguish between a sexual paraphilia and the actual act of child abuse.

And finally, here’s another month’s worth of refutations to the claim that religious people are more moral:
(via Friendly Atheist)

Highlights: (click the [+/-] to open/close →)

[−]

African woman says that “everything bad should be done to” gays, including imprisonment and execution;

Former pastor Haden Conrad accused of soliciting sex with a 14-year-old girl;

Metro News: “Six new sex abuse charges for retired Catholic priest”;

Rev. Donald R. Jung accused of molesting his 9-year-old granddaughter;

Birmingham Mail: “Solihull priest Ted Simpson arrested over child sex accusations”;

Baltimore, CO Deacon William Albaugh busted for child porn possession;

The Irish Times: “Report finds Dutch religious abused ‘tens of thousands’ of girls”;

Archdioceses of New Orleans & Lake Charles, LA sued for allegedly harboring accused child-raping priest Mark Anthony Broussard;

The Times: “Papal frontrunner Cardinal Peter Turkson links sex abuse to homosexuality”;

Manitoba, CA school administration & local churches oppose anti-bullying law meant to stop anti-gay discrimination;

The Advocate: “Florist Tells Longtime Gay Customer That Jesus Won't Let Her Do His Wedding”;

Gay Star News: “Brazil elects racist, anti-gay pastor to be human rights boss”;

Kansas City Atheist Coalition blocked from participating in Saint Patrick’s Day parade;

The Raw Story: “Atheist cop sues after being demoted to car washer for refusing to pray”;

North Carolina considers forcing Bible study classes on public-high-schoolers;

The Telegraph: “Church school pupils will need baptism certificate to board school bus”;

Montana’s Pinehaven Christian Children’s Ranch accused of physically abusing troubled children;

Deccan Chronicle: “Attackers hack hand off 7-yr-old Tanzania albino boy for witchcraft”;

Fifteen-year-old Maldives rape victim sentenced to 100 lashes for consensual premarital sex;

Osun Defender: “Father ties, locks up six-year-old daughter for witchcraft”;

UN cancels humanitarian marathon after Hamas bans women from racing;

Toronto Star: “Muslims storm church in Egypt looking for woman suspected of converting to Christianity”;

Middle-Eastern Islamists riot, demand execution of bloggers accused of blasphemy;

The Independent: Pakistani mob torches Christian homes in Lahore over prophet Mohamed 'blasphemy';

Iran bans Buddha statues as “symbols of cultural invasion”;

Bella Naija: “Nigerian Nurse who Caused Baby’s Death after Botched Home Circumcision in the UK Walks Free from Court”;

Miami, FL imam accused by US Gov’t of funneling $50,000 to Taliban;

Global Post: “Cairo court affirms death for 7 Copts over anti-Islam film”; and

11 extremists stopped “weeks or days” before building bombs for “another 9/11”.

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Gawker and the scientific case for treating pedophiles humanely

I got nuthin’, so here’s a flower

It’s been a while since I’ve (presumably) creeped y’all out with this subject matter, but long-time readers may remember that pervasive social stigmas faced by discouraged sexual minorities was an early running theme on this blog (whatever that might say of me). It’s now time to jump back in, not because some other travesty of justice or reason has transpired, but because Cord Jefferson at Gawker has penned a lengthy, detailed and wonderfully insightful piece on the changing scientific views of pedophilia and how those stuck with this most unfortunate sexual attraction truly aren’t the devils that our society makes them out to be.

The whole thing is a definitive must-read, but here are just a few highlights, starting with describing just some of the endless difficulties these people face in their everyday lives:

Then there's the problem of finding homes for pedophiles who are arrested and eventually put back into communities. In Florida, where Miami-Dade County has grown increasingly restrictive about where people who commit sexual crimes can live, the department of corrections has started housing a small group of pedophiles under a bridge, like real-life trolls. Elsewhere in America, with neighborhoods both informed and alarmed by a growing number of sex-offender tracking sites, it's now become easier than ever to harass and intimidate a pedophile in your neighborhood until he moves away. But to where? Nobody seems to care as long as it's not near them.

In an ABC News article from 2003, a corrections officer from Los Angeles told reporter Michael S. James that imprisoned pedophiles "usually don't make it" without protective custody. Leslie Walker, a prisoner's rights activist, told James, "[Child sex offenders] are at risk of being murdered, having their food taken, having their cells defecated and urinated in. Their life is truly a living hell." Good, most people will say.

I take it “most people” haven’t received the memo about how the precepts for being a decent human being include acting like one even towards those one wouldn’t consider to be decent human beings.

The article then focuses on the number of (mostly Canadian!) researchers who are growing convinced that rather than being a mental illness or some other potentially treatable (or even curable) disorder, true pedophilia – as defined as the exclusive sexual attraction towards prepubescent children (as opposed to hebephilia or ephebophilia, and unlike those who engage in pedophilic acts whilst still being attracted to adults) – is in reality more akin to an actual sexual orientation in shape and function, with the accompanying limitations:

Daily Blend: Tuesday, March 06, 2012

A.G. Eric Holder

A.G. Eric Holder ^[pictured] in short: Having the President accuse someone of terrorism and declare them guilty counts as “due process”, which is also not the same as “judicial process”.
(via @ggreenwald)

Lawsuit: Seymour, CT police wrongfully raid grandmother’s home on suspicions of pot, brutalize family and ransack house, then have children removed because of deplorable living conditions they created.
(via The Agitator)

Radley Balko has more about the man appealing his child molestation conviction from a quacktastic “pedophile test”.

Explaining why the U.S. Government thinks it can police any .com, .net or .org domain around the world.
(via @radleybalko)

Gripping exposé by a U.S. soldier-turned-private contractor about the discrepancy between soldiers in reality and how they’re portrayed in the media: “[T]he vast majority of us are straight up sociopaths.”
(via Rob F)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Tags: Eric Holder • Obama administration • due process • judicial process • Kimberly Pignataro • Seymour, CT • drug raids • Pal Satkowski • Michael Arena • pedophile test • Abel Test • child molestation • wrongful conviction • United States • USA • U.S. Government • VeriSign • W. • soldiers • warfare

Daily Blend: Friday, March 02, 2012

Michael Arena

Note to Rush Limbaugh: I think I understand your thinking behind saying that college women need to take more birth control pills the more they have sex. That’s why you need your bottles of Viagra when you go visit Dominican hookers, after all.

Maryland officially becomes 8^th state do let gays do the hanky-panky with wedding bands. Opponents predictably vow to put it up to a vote.
(via @BreakingNews)

Man ^[pictured] convicted at 16 on child molestation charges based on lies and ridiculously crap “pedophile test” now appeals his 20-year sentence.
(via @radleybalko)

Holocaust-denying, Hitler-celebrating, neo-Nazi insurance salesman running for Congress in Illinois.
(via RichardDawkins.net)

How to turn anyone (especially celebrities) into atheists: Get Christians to demonstrate their “love” at them.

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Tags: Maryland • gay marriage • same-sex marriage • marriage equality • Martin O'Malley • Michael Arena • child molestation • wrongful conviction • Arthur Jones • Republicans • Republican Party • Nazis • neo-Nazis • neo-Nazi Party • Holocaust denialism • Jews • Adolf Hitler • PZ Myers • Miley Cyrus • Lawrence Krauss • Christians

Fail Quote: Radio bigot sez gays pedophilize casting industry

John Kobylt

From professional radio asshole John Kobylt of California’s The John and Ken Show ^{[my emphasis]}:

Gay guys control the fashion industry and the casting industry and the whole Hollywood look. And gays like bodies that remind them of a 14 year old-boy. Guys like curves. Guys like curves. Absolutely, positively. It's biological, because a woman with curves looks like she can bear your children successfully and that's biologically what a man is looking for. So sexually a guy is much more turned on by a woman with curves than these 14 year old-boy stick figures. And that's how I know for sure, I don't need to do any research or any proof that it's gay guys who control the entire casting industry.

That last, emboldened bit just says it all. (Not that it wouldn’t have been blatantly obvious even if it hadn’t been mentioned, of course.)

Really, I only have two words for Kobylt: Bullshit and bears. (Okay, three more: Go fuck yourself.)

(via Joe. My. God.)

Tags: John Kobylt • The John and Ken Show • gays • casting industry • Hollywood

Daily Blend: August 17, 2011

• Sir, I’m arresting and threatening you with my taser to inform you that riding your bike at night without reflectors is dangerous.
  (via @radleybalko)

• Homeopathy giant ^[pictured] sues lone Italian blogger for exposing their quackery.
  (via @bengoldacre)

• No, Vox Day, the American Psychological Association’s decision to declassify pedophilia as a mental disorder (which I agree with^*) is not a “normalization” of “aberrant” behavior like homosexuality that announces the death of society (or something).

• NewsBusters finally gets one right, catches MSNBC’s Ed Schultz Breitbarting a Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) quote to sound racist.
  (via @todayspolitics)

• You might be a conservative if (you fit into any of these simplistic but undeniably accurate stereotypes) …
  (via @todayspolitics)

• Oh my, Dépardieu.

• Clothes retailer Abercrombie & Fitch offers large bribe to get Jersey Shore cast to stop wearing their brand.
  (via @radleybalko)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

* I am increasingly of the opinion that pedophilia, as with all other —philias, is simply a (relatively) rare yet ingrained sexual orientation/preference and does not, in itself, constitute a psychological handicap. Details vary, of course.

Tags: George Christopher • Jerome Harrison • bicycles • Boiron • homeopathy • Samuel • Vox Day • American Psychological Association • homosexuality • NewsBusters • MSNBC • Ed Schultz • Rick Perry • Barack Obama • racism • conservatives • Gérard Dépardieu • Abercrombie & Fitch • Jersey Shore • Mike Sorrentino

Fail Quote: FRC’s Sprigg calls Perez Hilton a pedophile

Peter Sprigg

As expected, this Washington Times article on how celebrity blogger Perez Hilton is penning a gay-themed children’s book is nothing but class. But this quote by the Family Research Council’s Peter Sprigg just takes it to a new level of insidiousness:

It would seem that Mr. Hilton, whose legal name is Mario Armando Lavandeira Jr., does indeed have some experience with children.

“He does have a known interest in children,” says Peter Sprigg, a senior fellow for Family Policy Studies at the Family Research Council, “having published a photo of teen star Miley Cyrus that could have been considered child pornography.”

(For those who don’t follow such inanities: Hilton tweeted a pic of Cyrus last June purporting to show a pantyless Cyrus as she was getting out of a car with her legs open and crotch exposed. Mercifully, given that Cyrus was 17 at the time and actually was wearing panties (so I’ve heard), this non-scandal quickly faded away.)

Now, I’m no fan of Hilton, whose gossip-mongering tripe feels like it got caught up in high school and never left. But the little I’ve heard of this upcoming book of his (The Boy With Pink Hair, slated for release in September) sounds benign enough; a typical story about someone who’s “different” but still manages to find acceptance in himself and others. That’s the kind of message kids need to hear, especially those who don’t quite fit heteronormative archetypes.

But, of course, to the Christian-Right, it’s just more proof that teh gheys r after teh kidz. How disgusting and utterly typical.

(via Joe. My. God.)

The Pedophile’s Guide author arrested for obscenity

[source]

Last November, the Internet suddenly boiled with the news that Amazon.com was selling a book titled The Pedophile’s Guide To Love & Pleasure: A Child-Lover’s Code Of Conduct, which was described as a manual purportedly informing pedophiles how to engage in sexual relations with children in a harmless manner. (Again, that’s from the book’s own back-cover description, not mine.) The outcry was as sharp as you’d expect, and before long, Amazon removed the offending book from its listings.

Now, it may be no secret that I don’t consider pedophilia, in itself, to be morally wrong, no more than any other sexuality, no matter how “deviant” society may perceive it as. (It’s the act of molesting children that’s morally wrong, and neither is it inherent to pedophilia, nor are all child molesters pedophiles. Hence my pet peeve with people continually lumping pedophiles and child molesters in the same group; don’t.) However, this being a self-proclaimed guide to consummating sexual relations with children, it had an undeniably high potential for use in harmful acts, and therefore had no place on Amazon.com; thus, and I fully support its removal.

[Update: As mentioned in the comments, I’ve changed my mind and now assert that though it’s certainly Amazon’s right to remove whatever item(s) they wish from their listings for whatever reason(s), doing so is still wrong on the basis that the book, itself, posed no threat to anyone for the simple reason that child molesters don’t need a ruddy guide in order to abuse children, and that decent people won’t be tempted to bugger minors simply because they read a book about it.]

What I most certainly don’t support, though, is its author, Phillip R. Greaves [pictured], being arrested merely for writing (or distributing) it. From The Huffington Post:

Phillip R. Greaves [source]

Now, the book's author, Phillip R. Greaves, has been arrested in Colorado for violating Florida state obscenity laws, reports Central Flordia News 13.

According to the Polk Country sheriff's office in Florida, Internet Crimes Division detectives contacted Greaves at his Colorado home and requested a copy of "The Pedophile's Guide to Love and Pleasure." Greaves allegedly sent a signed copy to the Polk County deputies.

The transaction led to Greaves's arrest on December 20, writes CFNews13.

Greaves faces third-degree felony charges for "distribution of obscene material depicting minors engaged in conduct harmful to minors," according to the Orlando Sentinel.

The science of pedophilia, morality, and free will

Do forgive my lack of blogging for the past couple of days. I’d be tempted to pass the blame off onto Christmas and all that, but then, that would just be lazy. Which is, in fact, the primary reason for my lack of posting. So, to compensate, here is my longest blog post to date. There.

As you can surmise by this post’s title, this is a rather intriguing subject I’m writing about, here. A reader with whom I’ve been having an interesting discussion regarding pedophilia, morality, and the likes, has brought my attention to a couple of stories on how neurological impairment (aka brain damage) and its effects on those who have it, specifically regarding impulses, inhibitions, and sexuality. These cases bring up very intriguing questions on the neurology of morality, and the nature of free will.

The first case is one of the most peculiar stories you’ll ever hear in the realms of neurology and psychology. Imagine a perfectly normal middle-aged man who has a career and a family, a man who has normal interests in sex and shows no signs of any deviancies. Then, virtually overnight, he becomes addicted to sex (a condition known as “hypersexuality”) and becomes entrenched in child pornography. He even tries to molest a prepubescent girl, despite having shown absolutely no sexual interest in children for the first four decades of his life. In other words: a perfectly normal 40-year-old man suddenly turned into a pedophile and a would-be child molester, for no apparent reason (at least at first).

Now, people don’t just become slaves to hyperactive sex drives and start groping children after having lived what is arguably the first half of their lives without having shown the slightest impulses to do so. Yet, this is what happened to the man who is the subject of this first story. However, this is only a partial medical mystery, for neurologists have identified the precise cause of his behavioral issues: a tumor in his prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain responsible for controlling one’s impulses and inhibitions (ie. self-restraint).

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA -- He was a schoolteacher, a husband, a father. Then he became a pedophile preoccupied with sex.

Doctors who treated him at the University of Virginia hospital in 2000 believe that the man's powerful sex addiction was caused by an egg-sized tumor in his brain.

"It turned out he was a guy who had made it into his 40s without having any problem with this," said Dr. Russell Swerdlow, a UVa associate professor of neurology. "He had a brain tumor that was damaging the part of the brain that controls impulse."

Poland slowly sinking into inhumanity

This post contains some opinions of mine that I don’t share very often, for the reason of them being quite … anti-norm, so to speak. Read if you like, but if you don’t like what you find, don’t come crying to me. You’ve been warned.

One thing that has me riled up every time I encounter it is people’s continuing, seemingly obtuse, failure to distinguish between sexual deviants, and sexual criminals. Arguably the best example to use here would be with pedophiles. Pedophilia is merely the “sexual attraction to children”, according to dictionaries. It is not the act itself of harming children, molesting/raping them, and so forth. That is not pedophilia; that is, well, molestation/rape, brought on by pedophilia in those cases. Being sexually attracted to kids, and actually acting on those impulses, are two vastly different things. Pedophilia itself is not a crime, any more than it is a crime to be heterosexual, gay, zoophile, or anything else. Reminding me of the great Dumbledore Quote from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: “It is not our abilities who define who we are, but our choices”. Replace “abilities” with “ingrained, uncontrollable^[1] impulses”, and you get the picture.

This may seem like an odd little outburst, only I’m sick and tired of people being castigated, ostracized and demonized, with varying levels of intensity and hatred, for things that they cannot control. You can control your actions, but you cannot control your impulses. They do not go away just because they’re wrong, can cause harm, or because you don’t want them. Being a pedophile is not a choice, and I am getting seriously irked that most people continue to operate under the belief that it is. One doesn’t choose to be attracted to kids, no more than heteros choose to be attracted to the opposite gender, or gays to the same gender, or zoophiles to animals, and so forth. They just are.

What matters, is whether they choose to act or not on these impulses. A pedophile with a good heart who would sooner rape himself (figure of speech) than an innocent kid, is no more dangerous than anyone else who loves kids. Because of this vicious and unfair anti-pedophile climate, innocent people, with urges they neither want nor control, can get seriously hurt.

Such as in Poland, thanks to a new law enforcing castration for pedophiles.