Just My Opinion

Compromise and Revolution

The only ones who don’t compromise are terrorists of one stripe or the other...when a group fails to address the concerns of another group, like the Palestinians for instance, then terrorism is a last resort. Capitalism is already dead. What we have now is something I don’t recognize: or would label Social Darwinism if it wasn’t such a dated term. Democracy here is on its last legs...people are too apathetic at this time to speak of drastic change. I fear that America as a concept of freedom is doomed if not already dead. I despair for my country. Revolution is many years away, but my grandchildren may exist in a country torn apart by civil unrest, and perhaps, be labeled ‘terrorists’ if they have no other way to protect the freedoms of this country than to take up arms against an oppressive regime. I have preached to them that our folks came to this country in 1735 and we (among others) envisioned, fought and died for, and demanded, the freedoms that America is founded on. Yes. We will gladly fight and die for those ideals. And, no. No greedy oil-fat politician is going to divest us of those freedoms.


Spokane Voters

The “voters” vote solely on knee-jerk response, or if someone else tells them who to vote for. Case in point: the mayor of Spokane: My neighbor, R. is a city employee: librarian. Her union told her to vote for this hypocrite because he would staunch the loss of funds from the city and save the libraries. She is a committed lesbian, but she voted for James West (with a long-term record of voting against anything furthering gay issues) instead of the other guy who had a lifetime history of moderation and liberal thinking, and was for all intents and purposes pro-gay. This is typical of these Spokanites. After living in Seattle and other places for almost thirty years these people make me crazy: rednecks with illusions of sophistication, for the most part. I can hear them now: “Why don’t you go back where you came from?” My answer is this: “No. I’m here now and I intend to be part of the change that Spokane needs.” And, no. Jim West didn’t rescue the libraries. Too busy chatting on gay.com, I guess...

Another Mea Culpa

After posting a comment about Islamic Law and the punishment of child molesters, I decided to go searching for the realities of Islamic Law on this subject. What I discovered is that child molestation appears to have an historical precedent in Islam, set by Muhammad himself when he married a 6 year old girl. So, the practice of pedophilia is ‘Sunnah’ (or tradition of the Prophet which lingers in Islamic countries today).

Humanity vs. Muhammad bin Abdallah

I’m not criticizing Islam, but in my culture, using children for sexual gratification is a crime and damaging to the child. I don’t know about Islamic culture, past or present, and searching for answers on the internet is like entering a beehive face first.

Regardless, Islam seems to harbor no answers in regard to the punishment of sexual predators and child molesters.

So, another apologia from this writer for compulsive posting and fact-checking afterward.

The New Inquisition?

As concerns Spokane mayor Jim West, it seems the higher the rocks are lifted in the Inland Northwest, the higher and gamier the smell that oozes from years of what potentially is a vast collection of pedophiles in this community.

The pedophile priests of this diocese just got their organization hit with a huge loss as Catholic Church property was declared by a federal bankruptcy judge to be owned by the church and therefore could be liquidated to reimburse victims of child molestation by these priests. (Of course, ‘for the good of the parishioners, etc.’, there will be an appeals process that might take nearly a decade to complete.)

How long did the Inquisition last? Isn’t this the history of the Catholic Church? There would appear to be precedents set long ago for these arrogant men made more arrogant by association with others of their ilk to do as they will with whatever weaker group they choose.

As far as the Inquisition goes, they can say all they want about it being to ‘root out the Devil’. I just don’t buy that anymore than I can buy the idea that grown men can’t keep their hands off little children because their sexual needs are more important than the child in front of them. I consider the Inquisition one huge frolic by Catholic psychopaths who discovered that torturing women was great fun. Their present-day brothers are no better.

Catholic Psychopaths: let’s rename them and call them what they were then and are now: psychopath, defined in the The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition as a ”person with an antisocial personality disorder, manifested in aggressive, perverted, criminal, or amoral behavior without empathy or remorse”.

As the victims of these men no doubt know, there is no amount of money that will compensate them for the loss of their innocence, idealism, childhood, and trust. However, perhaps it will go a long way to salve their pain.

I, for one, celebrate the federal bankruptcy court ruling, and I question why the huge and profitable Catholic hospitals in the Pacific Northwest are not also included in this ruling. After all, they exist as Catholic entities and pump, no doubt, untold and untaxed millions of dollars into Catholic purses, which incidentally would go a long way in alleviating some of the tax shortages that Spokane is currently facing.

There is probably a vast litany of reasons why I am wrong about this but why isn’t church property taxed these days? It seems to me that the tax-exempt status was fine when the churches were small and struggling, but at this time they are huge and profitable (to somebody, somewhere). Tax them, for instance, not at the collection plate level, but once these ‘charitable’ institutions reach a certain financial level, then they should be taxed like the rest of American corporations.

Luckily, I realize now, I was raised in North Carolina by jumped-up Calvinists and Southern Baptists and I knew right off the bat that the preacher was borderline crazy just by listening to him rant and rave on Sunday morning. My folks pretty much stayed home on Sunday and listened to Oral Roberts (“HEAL!”) and read the Bible as their own form of ‘religion’. There wasn’t a child molester among them and Christianity was a daily prescription for how to live your life: you either knew the difference between right and wrong, or an adult taught it to you very quickly. God bless those folks.

Mea Culpa

Many thanks to Skelly for pointing out my error:

" You might have meant to say, Duncan did not have to say the words "not guilty." In Idaho, standing silent is the equivalent of entering no plea at all, and causes the judge to enter a "not guilty" plea on the defendant's behalf. "

The Trial Begins

So, today Jet Duncan appeared with his 'team' of public defenders in an Idaho courtroom and his public defenders told the judge that Duncan will 'stand silent' in response to the charges that he murdered and tortured children and their parents because his sexual desires are more important than the lives he has ended.

Stand silent.

According to the news here in Spokane, Washington (20 miles from Idaho), standing silent is the same as a guilty plea. Duncan just doesn't have to say 'guilty'.

I have great faith in the Idaho folks, so will trust them to deal with this perversion of a human being and the six counts of capital murder with which they have charged him, any one of which will result in the death penalty when he is convicted. Perhaps Idaho will consider reinstating old-fashioned hanging for Jet Duncan.

Reading the thorough work from Capt. Fantastic in The Cellar and following the links to the pictures of Duncan posing in drag, well, I've got to think that he plans on having fun in prison since the pictures appear to be directed at men who are without women. Let's hope the Powers-That-Be don't allow Duncan these outlets for his maniacal sexuality.

There is dread regarding this trial, knowing that Shasta Groene and her family, and we, as her community of 'family' will have to relive the gory realities of Duncan's acts. My God, the imagination is surely enough...and we are all victims of Joseph Duncan.

Jesus weeps.

July 19, 2004, Monday Georgia Case Tests Reach Of Appeals Based on DNA By SHAILA K. DEWAN (NYT) 1008 words Late Edition - Final , Section A , Page 11 , Column 5 ABSTRACT - Georgia Supreme Court and state parole board have denied request for DNA testing from Eddie Crawford, who is about to be executed for 1983 kidnap and murder of his 2-year-old niece Leslie English; Barry Scheck argued before board, offering to have Innocence Project pay for tests; Crawford's lawyers have appealed to US Supreme Court, hoping that court will establish that defendants have constitutional right to DNA testing of existing evidence; more than 35 states have enacted laws allowing post-conviction testing, but standards of eligibility vary, and Georgia's law calls for showing that testing would have affected outcome of case; Crawford, who confessed shortly after murder, is alcoholic who suffered from blackouts and claims not to remember night in question; photo (M)

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F40B10FD385E0C7A8DDDAE0894DC404482&incamp=archive:search

Case in point...Barry Scheck probably would have us believe this animal deserves Justice.

I don’t necessarily think that a trial is the effective way to go for sexual predators on children. Perhaps something on the order of military courts marshal or a panel which includes the relatives of the child who is harmed, doctors, ministers, a few citizens selected as per jury duty and a preponderance of law enforcement personnel—folks who deal with the damages on a daily basis and are not swayed by these bleeding heart liberals (in these cases, anyway). I mean, I know this sounds extreme, but we’ve GOT to do something to stop this horror. People over here, close to the Groene’s location and in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho (20 miles away) were so up in arms that the newspapers ran articles reminding the readers that vigilantism was not the way to go. And the little prick sits there in jail and calls the shots because he knows we’re not going to hurt him too much. And I’m sure you’ve heard about our so-called mayor, Jim West and it’s looking like he was/is part of a circle of pedophiles which includes prominent Catholics and Deputy Sheriffs...and he’s still in office. I mean, they’re right: we probably won’t do too much to them...

Did you read recently that the Iraqis have ‘humanized’ the stoning process? Now, instead of each citizen picking up a stone and throwing it, they just dig a big hole with a bulldozer and toss the miscreant into the hole and shove the dirt in on top of him with the bulldozer. There are some parts to Islamic law that I think we need to be using here and especially in these cases. These sexual predators are not going to change. Ever. And I, for one, hope we have the good sense to tighten the laws around these people and I do not think that incarceration is a viable idea. I do not think that we should have to pay for food, television, toilet paper, laundry, for these people. I believe that one strike and you’re dead is not too radical. Mistakes will be made. I don’t care. Not one more child should be damaged by these beasts. Our testing methods, (correct me if I’m wrong) are such now that we can be sure beyond a reasonable doubt based on the DNA evidence and perhaps we need to avail ourselves of these technologies in these matters.