And you already know what that is, too.  Call the police, er, the real police, not the University police, when Mike McQueary told him he saw Jerry Sandusky sodomizing a child in the football showers.  Paterno claimed that McQueary just claimed to have witnessed an “incident,” so somehow just reporting this to Athletic Director Tim Curley was enough action.  I don’t understand how, even if McQueary didn’t say the words “raping,” “sodomizing,” “having sex with,” “messing around with,” Paterno didn’t do a double take and say “WHAT??? What the hell do you mean, an incident? What the hell did you see???” and then called the police.  The Grand Jury in 2002 certainly had enough information to get a pretty darn good idea what had been going on in that shower.  And I don’t buy for one minute that this was the only peep of pedophilia Paterno had heard regarding Sandusky over all those years.

The reputation of Penn State was the most important issue.  Paterno was an integral part of the University Ubermensch, and he did his duty as such.  Keep it quiet, don’t say anything to anyone.  And so they did, they all kept it quiet and didn’t say anything to anyone, while God knows how many boys were raped, humiliated, and stripped of their innocence by a monstrous, raging pervert.

How can a man who colluded in a cover-up of the violation of children be so blindly hailed as a near saint? He may have been one of the greatest college football coaches in history, he may have been a great donator of money to charities, but when he had the chance to do the most important thing any of us could ever have a chance to do — protect a child who is being harmed — he passed.

The overwhelming questions should not have been so overwhelming if Paterno was the man who was so excessively celebrated this week; such a man should never have had any indecision on the subject of protecting children; such a man never should have made wrong decisions so in need of revisions that were, of course, never made, despite there having been the time.  Paterno should have dared to disturb the universe of Penn State, and it shouldn’t have been so daring a thing, to protect children.  At the end, when all the efforts at concealment, when all the hushes had proved in vain, when all the thin walls came crashing down to reveal the ugly truth, I wonder if it was worth it for Paterno, worth it after all.

This man’s cowardice and arrogance are astounding.  The reason behind the Costa Concordia’s catastrophe seems to be that the captain, and perhaps another crew member tickled with himself and his neat job and neat boat, wanted to draw closer to shore to “salute” someone, or blow the horn at their moms.  Captain Yellow, and, it would appear, most of his crew, clearly belong in jail, and will hopefully live the rest of their deservedly ruined lives far away from all life forms.  Including plants.  Any man or woman who is so cowardly as to abandon ship — especially within site and reach of land!! — while other men, women, and possibly children suck down ocean water cocktails is a danger to every human being in their vicinity and beyond, at sea or on land.   

There should be a price paid for cowardice.  And for other forms of bad behavior related to cowardice, like bullying and physical and verbal bloviating.  The latest murder in Philadelphia (or maybe not; there are a lot of murders in Philadelphia) took place on my street, a few blocks away from where I live.  Sounds like the typical post-2am drunkard situation, except this guy, Kevin Kless, 23, went beyond acting like a soaking drunkard: he bloviated and bullied, and he did it to the wrong group of men. 

I would think that most people, especially those who live in Philadelphia, know that you better watch who you tell off, how nasty you allow your lost temper to make you, and what exactly you allow to fly out of your mouth.  Because if you say the wrong thing the wrong way to the wrong person at the wrong time, you just might end up with a mighty ass whooping.  Which is exactly what happened to this foolish young man. 

Did he deserve to be beaten to death on the street for being a loud-mouth, bloviating wiseass? No.  And the three animals who killed him deserve to be in jail for the rest of their lousy savage lives (actually, I’d hang them, if it were up to me, but I’m one of the few people left who believes in actually executing those unfit for life among humanity, like child molesters and murderers). 

I am saying that it matters how a person behaves in the world, especially a dangerous world, which ours is.  It matters what you do.  It matters what you say.  It matters how you treat other people.  It matters on the street at 2am, on sinking ships, in terrorized skyscrapers, in the hallway at work.  And being scared of death or being drunk are not excuses for lousy behavior.  There is a price to be paid for breaching decency, breaching standards of man- and womanhood.  Sometimes that price is far too steep, as when a too-sauced bloviator tries to push around a pack of wild immorals on the hunt for fresh blood. 

Sometimes the price is too light, as with Captain Yellow, who may live a shamed life from now on, but will live, unlike at least 11 other people.  Of course, how Little Yellow will fair on the street is debatable.  Because there is that price to be paid, and often it is exacted by the street, on the street, rather than in the courtroom.

The libertarians have it all right, if you ask me.  But they’ve got no experience, and they are so damn heartless sometimes.  I mean, I may not be thrilled with our present welfare situation, but I think there should be SOME help for folks on hard times.  And I don’t think anyone in our great American country should go without health care — and I mean preventive as well as emergency.  Access to health care and a sense of control over our bodies, and the knowledge that someone — actual doctors who give a damn and are able to take actual action to fix us — is there for us, to help us, when our bodies betray us and start ruining our lives, no matter what our financial means, that’s important stuff, and ALL people deserve that, not just those of us with Cadillac health insurance and cash to spare for horrific emergencies involving our horrific mortality.

That’s right.  I usually vote republican, but, yeah, I just implied I want some universal health care insurance action.  And republicans aren’t too ok with that sort of thing.  No, they’re kind of pretty overly hard-boiled, if you ask me.  Like, uh, Clueless.  But, then again.

Maybe not.  Think about it.  There ARE some things to consider.

Herman Cain is out.  I liked him in some ways.  I mean, I liked Him.  I didn’t go for the 999 stuff.  Struck me as pretty 666.  But I really liked his manly sense of humor, his no-bullshit demeanor, his grit.  I loved the ad with the dude smoking!! Totally.  Blow that smoke, dude, yeah.  Screw all of everyone who isn’t voting for us.  Give me a light! It was just some good fun.  You’ve got to love a fella a with balls, is all I’m saying.  You don’t have to agree with all of everything he’s saying, but, damn, give me some guts.

And a guy who can perform.  Who can debate.  Who can talk. Jump start us to thinking.  Even if it pisses us off a little.  Or a lot.

The allegations of sexual harassment, of butt-smacking, dirty talking, etc., have been pretty prevalent, to say the least, over the past couple of months.  At first I kind of got a kick out of it.  Like, some chick is pissed Herman Cain smacked her butt, and now that he’s running for president, she’s going to nail him.  Then I thought, o, jeez, the guy’s a jerk, he’s been smacking asses, and hitting on women, and being a schmuck.  And then I thought, he might have even tried for force himself on a woman, or women, and that’s not funny, that’s not fun, and that’s no joke.

I didn’t really seriously suspect that the guy is some kind of attempting rapist, but any kind of forceful behavior of a man upon a woman bothers me.  I mean, of course it does.  But I don’t know what the truth really is.  None of us know.

But we all knew it was over for the guy a few days ago.  There’s just no way to stay in the race when so many are so against you in such a way.

But, then again.  However.  His speech, in which he bowed out of the run for president.  O, god, that speech, with his wife there, who said she’d never be one of those women who just stand by her man, no matter what he did, o, jeez, what if he didn’t really do anything bad? What if he is an honest man? What if?

I’m not saying I think he is a rogue or is not a rogue, and I already said I didn’t agree with his 999 stuff.  But when I see him speak, when I saw the speech I’m about to reprint below, when I listen to him and watch him as he speaks, I can’t help but think we might be losing out.  On what exactly, we could talk about, but this is a man who is worth listening to, even though he’s “over.” Because maybe the good parts of him, the good he represents, the choice he represented, is just beginning.  We don’t always have to be a really two-party system in the most traditional sense, do we? We don’t always have to pick the insiders, do we? Maybe some time, someone unexpected, who is good, who is decent, and capable, and efficient, and good, could rise, couldn’t he? Or she?

Here’s the speech.  Check it out, because it’s worth it.  (Thank you, International Business Times, I copied and pasted Cain’s speech from you, at ibtimes.com [an awesome news site, by the way, readers].) Well, here it is, readers:

“Cain supporters are not warm-weather supporters. … I can’t thank all of you enough for what you’ve done, how far we have come, the things that we have done, and the things that we have been able to achieve.

The politicians in Washington, D.C., wouldn’t do their job. That’s why I chose to run. They have failed to provide economic growth. They have failed to get spending under control. They have failed to make us less dependent on foreign oil. These are some of the reasons that inspired me to run for president.

And if you look at the last 40 years, we’ve seen that same kind of failure. It’s just that the mess has gotten bigger. You were frustrated. I was frustrated. Millions of other people were frustrated, and it was out of that frustration that I made the decision to run, because the people in Washington, D.C., are either playing the blame game or pointing fingers or throwing crumbs to the American people rather than [proposing] bold solutions to fix the problems. America deserves more than that.

I thank you, and I am honored by the deep support of so many people across this country, because it expresses the frustration of so many people across this country.

I didn’t fit the usual description of somebody that ought to be running for president. I had never held public office before. I didn’t have high name ID — right now, my name ID is probably 99.9 — and I didn’t have a patrillion dollars. But the force of the people is more powerful than the force of the media! Secondly, we have learned that message is more powerful than money.

And, you know, we proved something else. You see, I grew up in a world of segregated water fountains. … We showed that you didn’t have to have a degree from Harvard in order to run for president. We showed that you didn’t have to have a political pedigree to run for president. And one of the biggest things that we have shown is that we the people are still in charge of this country.

And so today, we are one month away from the Iowa caucuses. With over 300 million Americans in our nation, we stand here, I stand here, because of you. And if you look at the top three Republican candidates right now, and you consider the president in the White House, we can say I’m in the final four. We’re in the final four! And when you think of where I came from … and now to be in the final four for the presidency? This is a great nation! That’s why this nation is so great. And I tell you what, it’s a powerful and humbling position to be in.

Proving this, that we could do this, was one of the greatest things, one of the greatest gifts that you and I could give to this country. I’ve often said one of America’s greatest strengths is its ability to change, and we have created some significant change on this journey so far. I am proof of that and you are proof of that — because I am proof that a common man could lead this nation; because I consider myself one of you, not one of them political elites. I’m one of you.

Our nation is tired of hearing the politicians blame each other. It’s time for solutions. But as false accusations about me continue, they have sidetracked and distracted my ability to present solutions to the American people. Now, I have made mistakes in life. Everybody has. I’ve made mistakes professionally, personally, as a candidate in terms of how I run my campaign, and I take responsibility for the mistakes that I have made, and I have been the very first to own up to any mistakes that I’ve made. I handled it my way because that’s the type of person that I am.

But because of these false and unproved accusations, it has paid and had a tremendous, painful price on my family. These false and unproved allegations continue to be spun in the media and in the court of public opinion so as to create a cloud of doubt over me and this campaign and my family. That spin hurts. It hurts my wife, it hurts my family, it hurts me and it hurts the American people because you are being denied solutions to our problems.

Here’s why it hurts. Because my wife, my family and I — we know that those false and unproved allegations are not true! … I am at peace with my God. I am at peace with my wife. And she is at peace with me. And I am at peace with my family, and I am at peace with myself. This is one of the most important things.

Now, that being said, becoming president was Plan A. Before you get discouraged, today I want to describe Plan B. So as of today, with a lot of prayer and soul-searching, I am suspending my presidential campaign. I am suspending my presidential campaign because of the continued distractions, the continued hurt caused on me and my family — not because we are not fighters; not because I am not a fighter. It’s just that when I went through this reassessment of the impact on my family first; the impact on you, my supporters — your support has been unwavering and undying — as well as the impact on the ability to continue the race, the necessary funds to be competitive, we had to come to this conclusion. We had to come to this conclusion that it would be best to suspend this campaign.

That’s the bad news. Here’s the good news. The pundits would like for me to shut up, drop out and go away. Well, as my grandmother who lived to be 104 years old used to say when somebody was dead wrong, bless their little hearts. I am not going to be silenced, and I am not going away! And as of today, Plan B. Plan B. And I call it the Cain solutions.com.

You see, there are three audiences out there, folks, that we have dealt with, that I have had to deal with. There’s the media class, there’s the political class and there’s we the people. It is we the people that got us to this point, this far. It is we the people that wants change in Washington, D.C. It is we the people that are responsible for the massive movement that is going on across this country. I call it the citizens’ movement, the Tea Party movement, the conservative movement.

Plan B is that I will continue to be a force for the people. That’s why today we are launching TheCainSolutions.com, where the people will choose — not the media, not the politicians — and the people will show that the people are still in charge of this country. Through this new organization, I will still be promoting the biggest change, transfer of power out of Washington, D.C., back to the people since this nation began, and that is the 9-9-9 plan. It’s not going away. I will still be actively supporting and promoting a foreign policy that starts with peace through strength and clarity. I will still be promoting actively an energy independence plan for America. We can and we will become energy-independent.

And I know that many of you are disappointed. I understand that. I know that many of you all are disappointed and I certainly understand that, and I am disappointed that it came to this point, that we had to make this decision. One of the reasons that I ran for president of the United States was so that I could change Washington, D.C., from the inside. Plan B is that we are going to have to change it from the outside. It’ll take a little longer. We’re going to have to work a little harder. But we will change it from the outside.

One other thing. I will be making an endorsement in the near future. I will be making an endorsement. And I can tell you right now, it will not be the current occupant of the White House. That will not be my endorsement.

America has learned something about this process of running for president. It’s a dirty game. It’s a dirty, dirty game. But I happen to believe that the American people are sick of this mess, and if I’m not the outsider in there, I happen to believe that the day will come when the American people will reject all of the distractions, all of the false accusations and unproved accusations, and it will make a change, because that’s what we’ve got to do to get real change in this country and get it on the right track.

And as I think about my parents, who raised my brother and I right here in the Atlanta area, they taught us three very valuable lessons: belief in God, belief in ourselves and belief in the greatest country in the world, the United States of America. And even though I have had to suspend my campaign, I have not given up on America, and here’s why. Because look at our history. When we have been challenged the most is when we the people have risen to the occasion the most. And I happen to believe that we will do it again, because we the people are still in charge of this country.

Let me leave you with this. I believe these words came from the Pokemon movie. The media pointed that out. I’m not sure who the original author is, so don’t go write an article about it, but it says a lot about where I am, where I am with my wife and my family, and where we are as a nation.

Life can be a challenge. Life can seem impossible. It’s never easy when there’s so much on the line. But you and I can make a difference. There’s a mission just for you and me. Just look inside and you will find just what you can do. Just look inside and you will find just what you can do.

I’ve had to look inside to find what I can do, and here’s what I can do. Here’s what we can do. We can put “united” back into the United States of America and move the shining city on a hill back to the top of the hilltop where it belongs, and I will never apologize for the greatness of the United States of America. God bless you, thank you, and I love you.”

None of these men in positions of authority and power gave a damn about that child, whose body and soul were being violated.  Subsequently, none of these men gave a damn about the many other children this foul horror of a human being had raped, molested, and emotionally ripped asunder. 

What mattered to Joe Paterno and Company was their positions of power, privilege, influence, and money.  That’s all.  Penn State, from bottom to top — from Mike McQueary to university president Graham Spanier — didn’t give a half sh*t about the sanctity of the innocence of children, every person’s unquestionable moral obligation to protect all children at all times, and the obvious moral and legal responsibility to report violators of children to the police, immediately.

How deep in our society does the rape of little boys, and the ensuing administrative cover-up, go? The Catholic Church did it for decades, decades, at least.  The Church would still be covering up pervert priests if it hadn’t gotten caught.  Just like there never would have been a “Penn State Trustee’s Panel” to investigate the rape of children by its employees and the ensuing cover-ups if Penn State hadn’t gotten caught. 

Neither Penn State nor the Church are mindless monolithic institutions, much as they may seem to be.  They are composed of human beings, individuals, with individual minds, individual souls, individual mandates to do the right thing, especially for children in harm’s way, no matter what the cost to self.

Men at the top, rich, powerful, privileged, living above it all, including the Law — whether they be priests, university officials, sports stars, or Wall Street kingpins — must be watched, by us.  And when one of us sees one of them raping a child, we have to step up and stop it, through physical force, legal avenues, and whatever else it takes, without worrying about losing our jobs, or causing harm to the reputation of the pervert.  Mike McQueary ought to be ashamed of himself, he ought to be charged with abetting the rape of a child, and he ought to be damn well fired.  

There isn’t just one horror of a human being in this story; there is a whole Hell’s worth.

It is hard to sympathize with Debbie Bradley, given her own admission of putting her baby down at 6:30 p.m. (who does that???) and then embarking on a Scott Fitzgerald–worthy boozing binge, only to wake up to her husband, home from a night shift, asking, where’s the baby, where’s the baby? But, then again, how hard is it to empathize with a woman whose baby girl is gone, if we believe that she, the mother, did not herself make the baby gone, in one horrible way or another?

I believed, for years, that Patricia Ramsey was responsible for the death of her child, JonBenet Ramsey.  I was utterly convinced of her guilt.  I had read every article in the the news, all the websites hawking the evidence, I had watched Patricia Ramsey on television, “analyzed,” (accurately, I arrogantly believed) her body language.

I don’t know exactly why, exactly, what it was that convinced me of the opposite, recently.  But something about the DNA evidence, sparse as it may be, just caused a sort of Joycean epiphany: I’m an arrogant, presumptuous person, and that poor woman was innocent: she lost her baby girl, for whom she lived, and we all accused and convicted her without a trial.  And now she is dead of ovarian cancer.

Granted, maybe the fact that she died, still young and beautiful, of ovarian cancer, that rotten sneak of a murderer, scratched at my heart and made me feel guilty for having had such thoughts about this woman, this mother.  But had I not kept up with the case, had I not learned to understand further evidence in the case strong enough to vindicate Patricia Ramsey, at least to my mind, I don’t think I would have felt soft or sad towards her just because she died of ovarian cancer, no matter how much I hate the evil illness and its attack upon two women I know, and love, and admire.  No matter how much I want to murder such a murderer.

No.  If I believed that Patricia Ramsey was in fact guilty, I would not have felt bad about her fate.  I’m harsh enough that I might have felt some kind of justice had been done.  Yes, I’m that harsh and vengeful.  I wish I weren’t.  But I am, and I might as well admit it.

But she wasn’t.  Patsy Ramsey was innocent of her baby girl’s death.  So was JonBenet’s father.  Neither parent hurt their baby.  Yes, they entered her in beauty pageants that many of us find creepy, but how many of us, secretly, even, tune in to Toddlers and Tiaras and think, omyGOD, she is SO cute???!!! Well, to many folks in America, these beauty pageants are perfectly a matter of course, perfectly feminine and natural.  Some of us might disagree with them, but what the hell, it’s all perspective, isn’t it? Isn’t it.

Maybe, what we need to do now, in regard to that poor baby Lisa Irwin, is take a step back and consider perspective.  At this point, we don’t know what happened.  We just do not know.  You might feel like you know, and I would understand that, God knows, I would.  But feeling and knowing are two separate things.  The fact is, we do not know.

I’m not writing in favor of Debbie Bradley.  I don’t feel overly fond of her.  If I had a little baby girl, I wouldn’t touch a drop of the fun stuff, as much as I like it.  I just wouldn’t.  My baby would be my life.  My whole life (well, my husband, too, of course).  Full disclosure: I’ve chosen not to have children, but if I did have a little baby girl, she’d be lucky to spend any time in her crib and out of my arms.   And I would never, ever consume alcohol or any other substance when I was in charge of her, which would be always, even if my husband was present.  I just would not ever imagine that I was not 100% responsible, at all times, for my dear baby’s life.

But part of me cannot help but think, who am I to judge? Another part of me answers, what’s wrong with judgment, of COURSE you must judge, as long as you are honest.  Ok, fine.  Obviously, I am judging just by writing what I am now writing.  But I do believe that we should all, all of us, step back.  Feeling pressure or depression or anxiety or any other “feeling” that inspires a person to drink too much once, or repeatedly, does not make a murderer, or even a mother who could have saved her baby had she not been drinking.

I know how lenient that sounds.  But all I’m saying is: we do not know what happened.  Perhaps Baby Lisa Irwin was kidnapped, and this kidnapping was long planned, brilliantly planned.  Maybe it wasn’t –  maybe it was opportunistic.  Maybe the mother or father did do something horrible.  All possibilities are, well, possible, at this point.

I’m saying we should not rush to judgment.  There is nothing wrong with judgment; frankly, I believe being judgmental has a bad rap.  But being mindlessly judgmental is not just stupid and inaccurate; it is evil.  As evil as the kidnapping, or, Christ forbid, the murder, of an innocent baby girl.

With Lisa Irwin’s first birthday just days away, let’s think about that, let’s honor her life, or the memory of her life, with this thought: she deserves the truth, she deserves the search for truth, whether that takes days or years.  This baby, all babies, deserve truth, and they, and we, are worth the time truth sometimes takes.

To make a long story short, Guy Fawkes was a terrorist.  He was a member of a little pack of English Catholics who wanted to get Catholicism back on the throne, and in order to achieve this end, they thought blowing up Parliament and murdering King James I with a pile of gunpowder buried under Westminster would be a nifty idea.  Self-righteous ideologues always think their ideas are nifty, by the way, whether they are violent murderers or peaceful  protesters.  At least the peaceful protesters aren’t hurting anyone physically, but, then again, Lenin and Stalin didn’t start out hurting anyone physically either.  Trotsky never got much of a chance to hurt anyone, unfortunately for him.  He was too busy avoiding Stalin’s hatchet to plant any hatchets of his own.

Anyway, King James survived, and people (well, the Protestants) celebrated by lighting bonfires around London.  Unfortunately, the Observance of 5th November Act, passed in response to the attempted terrorist attack on Parliament and the King, only served to light additional fires of hatred against Catholics, “malignant and devilish papists,” showing that the response to terrorism can be just as terroristic as the terrorists themselves.  Like we didn’t already know that.  What’s kind of cool is that Guy Fawkes Day would have been a mid-summer festival of fire had not threats of a Plague outbreak caused Parliament to close on July 28, 1605, delaying the attempt to blow up the House of Lords until November 5.  Of course, the Gunpowder Plot might have succeeded and King James bitten the dust.

About that mask.  I like V for Vendetta.  It’s a good movie.  It’s exciting and creepy and disturbing in a variety of ways.  What I don’t like is an angry, self-righteous mob glorifying the concept of violent revolution and adopting a symbol of the Terrorist-as-Hero for their ill-conceived, incoherent protest against a country that is hardly evil or abusive.

The very fact that the Occupy Philadelphia participants have been permitted to set up a tent city on the premises of City Hall without any government interference whatsoever is proof of the freedom, tolerance, and respect that exists for the individual, divergent beliefs, and the Constitution.  That is as it should be: the federal, state, and city governments should respect the individual and the individual’s rights under our Constitution.  And the individual, or groups of individuals, have the constitutionally protected right to hold and express divergent viewpoints.

However, when individuals or groups of individuals begin adopting the mask of self-aggrandizing terroristic figures, other individuals need to take notice.  That V for Vendetta mask is not charming or amusing or a creative approach to raising awareness of individual rights, and I don’t think the Occupy protesters intend it to be.  That mask is terroristic.  The Occupy Philadelphia protesters may be peaceful now, and they may stay peaceful, but there is a terroristic lining to their tent city cloud around City Hall, and that is worth noticing as we all try to decide on the best way to move forward from financial crisis and its consequences.

What is it with rich people from the West swooping down upon these sad countries  like vultures and plucking up whatever morsels tickle their fancy? The Christian missionaries are the worst and always have been.  The deal has always been do what we say, live the way we think you should live, worship our god, and we’ll give you food, medicine, and written language.

I’m not saying these poor, messed up countries aren’t poor and messed up.  They are.  And I’m not saying the people of these places are some kind of noble savages that we should admire from afar.  They’re not.  But are the only choices glorification of primitivism or  18^th- and 19^th-century—style imperialistic religious and moral evangelism?

Not to mention kidnapping? Ok, ok, alleged kidnapping.  And, right, the Baptist 10 weren’t really trafficking in children the way “trafficking in children” is usually understood.  They weren’t going to sell them into slavery or sex services, or cook and eat them.  They probably did intend to feed, clothe, and shelter them.  And teach them the Righteous ways of the Lord.  The Baptist’s concept of the Lord, that is.  Maybe three squares a day is worth being kidnapped and indoctrinated by missionaries.  Maybe the proper paperwork shouldn’t matter when a country has experienced catastrophe and children are dying and much worse villains than moralistic do-gooders are lying in wait to get a piece of the pie.

But written permission to remove children, any children, from their country, any country, after a disaster, any disaster, is the law, and no one, not even righteous, altruistic, evangelical, imperialistic, religious packs should be allowed to function above the law.  No one, especially not righteous, altruistic, evangelical, imperialistic, religious wolves, should be allowed to roam poor countries luring children away from their families and villages with promises of better food and shelter. 

In the service of doing right, you don’t get to do wrong.  In the service of charity, you don’t get to steal.  In the service of God, you don’t get to become God.  In the service of saving lives, you don’t get to design those lives in your own image.   At least you shouldn’t get to.

However, I am a huge fan of keeping the President of the United States safe.  Michaele and Tareq Salai, the gate crashers at the White House, are yet another example of how off the rails our society has flown.  These people want to grab themselves a reality tv gig.  What better start than to crash the President’s first State dinner? Well, they looked fabulous strolling in, she attired in a gorgeous red beaded sari, long blond hair flowing gracefully down her back, and he in an elegant tailored suit, all smiles and fabulousness.

Which is I guess what influenced the Secret Service to give them a pass to go on in and hang with the president, even though their names were not on any admittance list, and, yes, I’m going to say it, despite the fact that Mr. Salai has a, um, Middle Eastern˗seeming name.  Obviously, not everyone with a Middle Eastern/Arab/Muslim name is, or should be considered, suspicious.  Obviously.  But, uh, when someone pops by the White House when the President and the Vice President are hosting an official State event, and this, um, gentleman’s name is not on the list, and he is insisting on being allowed inside, and his name is Middle Eastern, or close enough that it might as well be, then I think that maybe the Secret Service ought to do its damn job and not give this unknown person free access to the leader of the free world.

These people walked right up to our President.  They touched him.  They touched our Vice President.  Luckily, these two low-lifes were just out to diddle themselves and to grab their 15 minutes of fame.  But what about all the other people who are out to wage Jihad, to destroy America, to turn the free world into a medieval Gulag? What about them? Well, now they know that all they have to do is put on a snazzy suit, toss a blond into a pretty dress and attach her to their arm, and then play the role of imperious upper class socialite who simply cannot believe their name isn’t on The List, and in they go.  To do whatever they want to the President of the United States.  To harm him.  To hold him and his second in command hostage while they make whatever demands they want of America. 

Absolutely wonderful.  How safe do you feel? Our President is NOT secure.  He is vulnerable and exposed because our Secret Service is so penetrable that STRANGERS were allowed access to our leader simply by showing up groomed and well dressed and insisting on admittance.  That is all it takes.  I’m safer than the President because I don’t let strangers into my parties.  My friends know not to let strangers in.  I’m safer than the President, than the Vice President, and all I have is a baseball bat. 

Mr. President, it’s time to get a baseball bat.  It’ll be much more reliable than the Secret Service, and you can keep your safety in your own hands, while the Secret Service turns what should be secure private events into public open houses.

By “children” I most certainly mean teenagers as well as “little children.” In our society anyone under the age of 18 is a child.  I understand that the age of consent is lower in many states.  For example, in Hawaii and Idaho, the age of consent is 14 years.  That is horrific and wrong, not to mention twisted and perverse.

The desire for sex with children is either a severe mental disorder or it is an indication of pure evil residing in anyone with that desire.  Either way, it is untreatable.  It is a fatal disorder, unique in that it does not kill the disordered person, just his victims.

All sexual acts perpetrated by an adult upon a child are rape.  All sexual acts perpetrated by an adult upon a child are acts of unutterable perversion.  All sexual acts perpetrated by an adult upon a child are acts of murder.

Children violated by adults die a thousand deaths every day.  Yet it is rare that child rapists ever get much punishment for their murderous violations of the only innocent people in the world.  These sexually perverted, morally corrupt, foul soul-murderers should be executed upon their first offense, and swiftly.  The death penalty could not be more appropriately applied than to the most heinous villains walking this earth: the violators of children.

The age of consent should be 18, in all states, and this should be federally mandated, as, clearly, some states are not capable of making an appropriate determination of when adulthood begins (it most absolutely certainly does NOT begin at age 14).  Violation of children should be a federal crime, tried by federal court, and punished on a federal level. Protection of children is too important to be left to the whim of the states, most of which have proven, time and again, that they do not take violation of children seriously, that they do not consider child rape a serious crime, and that they do not even care about the rape of children.

So, Kevin Jennings.  Harry Hay.  NAMBLA (North American Man-Boy Love Association).  I cannot wrap my mind around how NAMBLA is even legal.  They openly advocate for the legalization of child molestation.  Pardon my French, but WTF?

In my high school, which ranked well within the top 15 public schools in the Philadelphia metropolitan area (according to Philadelphia Magazine) this year, there was a teacher, a much older man, who committed sexual acts upon a close male friend of mine.  My friend thought he might be gay, and went along with the sexual acts because he thought that’s what he was supposed to do.  That’s what the teacher told him: that he had to try it to see if he liked it, if it was who he was.  My friend was confused about the acts with the teacher.  He felt uncomfortable.  None of us, his friends in whom he confided, did a damn thing about it because we were all confused, too.  Because we didn’t know if it was ok to have sex with a teacher, especially when the teacher said it was ok.  Because we were easily influenced teenagers, desperate to please the adults, desperate to fit in with the adult world.

Teenagers are CHILDREN.  They need to be educated and protected by responsible adults, moral adults, adults who recognize a difference between adult and child, who respect sexual boundaries and guard all children against those who do NOT respect those boundaries.  They need to be taught that it is NOT ok to have sex with a teacher, that if a teacher tells them it is ok, the teacher is WRONG and committing a CRIME, a crime that must be reported to a parent or directly to the police.

If there were an organization of men who wanted to de-criminalize wife-beating (of wives who believe they deserve it, of course – must be consensual!!), we’d rise up in protest and horror, get treatment for those poor women who think they should be beaten up, and arrest any man who perpetrates violence against women (well, I hope we would).  But men who like to perform sexual acts upon babies, toddlers, boys and teenagers? Hey, that’s ok! They like it, we’re making those babies and kids feel good! It’s natural! It’s love! All love is good! If it feels good, it IS good!

Harry Hay is dead, died in 2002.   Although not a member of NAMBLA, as far as we know, he did support them (what do we think of people who weren’t registered Nazis, but sure liked what they were doing to the Jews?), so good riddance to him.  Unfortunately, there are many others just like him and much, much worse.  Kevin Jennings is one of them, and of course he’s one of Obama’s Czars.  Of course he is.  Now, let’s be clear, Kevin Jennings is not, as far as we know, a member of NAMBLA either, but he is a self-professed admirer of Harry Hay, a man who, clearly, did not respect or even acknowledge moral sexual boundaries.  If he did, he would not have advocated for NAMBLA, not ever, not under any circumstances.  Because it is never, not ever, not under any circumstances, acceptable for an adult to have sex with a child.

And to put some rock salt down on the slippery slope so we don’t all slide right down it, it is not ok to admire someone who admires an organization that advocates for legal boffing of children.  And it is thoroughly inappropriate to have a man like Kevin Jennings, who, as an “admirer” of Harry Hay, has boundaries that are all together too moveable, as Assistant Deputy Secretary for the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools.  Unless we don’t really care about children being safe, protected, and unmolested.

Listen to the call at the link above.  It is bizarre.  It is mono-maniacal.  It is truly the most foul deep-throating for religion I’ve ever heard.  And as someone who is pro-Christianity, pro-Jesus, and pro-faith, I find it deeply disturbing. 

Florida taxpayers are getting sick of it, too.  And they should.  They’re paying for this carnival.  The Rifqa Bary Circus does have a limited-time engagement, though: soon (please, God, VERY soon) she will turn 18 and the state of Florida (or Ohio, as the case may by then be) can cut her loose.  She can then run wild and free, raise “Nazarites,” walk the streets screaming “IMAGINE THE HONOR IN KILLING MEEEEE!!!!!!,” be the Ester she so obnoxiously fancies herself to be, and lead all the oozing, shrieking “prayers” she and her fellow wacknuts want. 

Then we can turn the station or cancel cable and get our evening entertainment from her – as long as the kids are out of the room, that is.  Rifqa Radio is definitely XXX material.  Seriously, that conference call is like a drug-fueled sex orgy – Roman Polanski’s got nothing on this guy, whoever he is.  Shudder (not in the good way).  But in the meantime, let’s get it straight about Rifqa Bary.  She IS a nut.  And so are the nuts who made her a nut. 

Nuts.  I long for the day when the nuts are confined to their rightful place.  Inside Snickers.  Or Almond Joys.  Or, oh yeah, Baby Ruths.