Update from the Heartland
No.524
26.12.11 – 1.1.12
Blog version: http://heartlandupdate.blogspot.com/
To all,
On Wednesday, I had my latest appointment with our urologist and received the results of my first post-op blood test. PSA = 0.00. The results suggest the surgeon did extract all the bad tissue. I still have a long way to reach the “cured” state (generally, five years), but this is a very positive next step. Now, I have a long, slow, but hopefully steady process ahead with my recovery from toddlerhood. The doctor said things were “rearranged” during surgery, and it will take a while to get everything working again. Patience! Easy to say, not so easy to practice. Nonetheless, he cleared me for throttle up. So, what would you expect . . . I took a couple of celebratory rides on the Harley – 61º F (16º C) on New Year’s Eve, a great day for a ride. A good ending to a rather rough year for us. Happy New Year to everyone. May 2012 be better than 2011 for all of us
The Wall Street Journal reported that an informant, a senior Bank of New York Mellon (BNYM) executive nicknamed “Rambo,” provided prosecutors a rare inside peek into the bank’s action as it tried to contain the fallout from a fast-growing state fraud investigation into whether the bank overcharged clients to execute their currency trades, and urged traders not to tell clients how much money they made on trading.
“Bishops Say Rules on Gay Parents Limit Freedom of Religion”
by Laurie Goodstein
New York Times
Published: December 28, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/29/us/for-bishops-a-battle-over-whose-rights-prevail.html?_r=1
Roman Catholic bishops in Illinois apparently reached their threshold of tolerance as they filed suit against the government, alleging religious persecution for opposing the requirement to accept same-sex couples for foster care and as adoptive parents. The Catholic Charities affiliates received a total of nearly US$2.9B from the government in 2010, about 62 percent of its US$4.7B annual revenue. This is an interesting legal argument that perhaps inevitably grew from President Bush’s (43) Executive Order 13199, titled: “Establishment of White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives” (29.January.2001) and associated legislation that got religious charities dependent upon government funding. When religious charities gained access to the public Treasury, there was no conditional requirement regarding discrimination against non-heterosexual parents. Now, there is. The bishops rejected the condition, which is their right to do. The twist here is, they are claiming the imposition of the same-sex condition over their religious beliefs that non-heterosexual parents are not appropriate parents or parental models is tantamount to a direct violation of their First Amendment rights – speech and religion. The real losers in this legal tussle are the children that might otherwise be helped by the Catholic Charities. Regardless, children cannot be used as a shield for discrimination based on the social factors. The bishops are apparently quite comfortable arguing for their constitutional guaranteed access to the public Treasury, while they trample on the rights of non-heterosexual couples to equal protection under the law. This legal challenge has potential implications far beyond the prima facie case of religious rights.
Comments and contributions from Update no.523:
Comment to the Blog:
“North Korea continues its effort to win the position of Most Bizarre Nation of All Time. (I have no idea who would give that award, but North Korea is certainly in the playoffs.) Apparently, Kim Jong Un is not the dictator his father and grandfather were. He will be sharing power with the military, and I have already seen a story somewhere that his uncle by marriage, whose name I cannot recall at the moment, will be the ‘power behind the throne.’
“The malfeasance, misfeasance, and nonfeasance on the part of the SEC continue without any interest from the Department of Justice. Your idea of taking away the SEC’s authority to make civil settlements in suits against Wall Street’s worst strikes me as sound. At this point, Americans as a whole owe an apology and a warning to investors and taxpayers worldwide who stand to lose large amounts of money because Wall Street’s criminals have yet to be jailed. Angelo Mozillo is an example of our failure with these offenders. I wish he was the kind of example that would discourage others, but that has yet to happen. At least some of the players in the Madoff drama are doing time. That’s better than nothing, I guess.
“If I go by the story you linked to alleging that a Panama City, Florida, mother offered her 8-year-old for prostitution, this is a sensational story with less than the usual support from evidence. The story states that a man told the police Ms. Mims approached him in a mall and offered her daughter’s sexual services, but it does not say that law enforcement has found anything else at all to support his statement. Not even scraps of corroborating evidence appear in this story. Apparently the Panama City PD did not see fit to set up a sting or use some other method to gather evidence, and we do not know whether the man making the allegation has some ulterior motive. The story does not state whether Ms. Mims has any criminal record. Certainly Ms. Mims looks awful in the picture, but that’s a mug shot. Most people are not at their best when being booked into jail. What the man has alleged is certainly serious, but only time and investigation will reveal whether it actually happened. In this particular allegation, the little girl herself does not appear to have been involved in the event, so unless the police can dig up other offenses the penalty is likely to disappoint the community even if Ms. Mims can be convicted.
“Licensing parents would involve controlling people’s sex lives unless society can somehow sterilize small children and then reverse the procedure upon their licensing as parents.
“I understand that incest is an explosive issue, and I disagree that it’s “all over prime time” as that headline states. “All over prime time” would involve non-pay channels for me. All the same, I suspect that we have seen a harbinger of discussions for a future time.”
My response to the Blog:
Re: DPRK. Spot on! Kim Jong Un’s uncle (by marriage to Kim Jong Il’s younger sister) is Chang Song-taek, Vice-Chairman of the National Defense Commission. Interesting things often happen when flawed men have a taste of power. The next few years have the potential to be uncertain and unstable in that diminutive country. As with most power struggles at the top of any organization, there are likely to be casualties and blood spilt, but it is the collateral damage that I worry about the most.
Re: Mozillo et al. Spot on! He paid US$40M of a US$60M fine for his misconduct, and he only has US$560M left. For him, he gambled in the worst possible way, with the lives of millions of people, just like Citigroup did, betting against the very people they were convincing to buy their contaminated mortgage securities. Mozillo is just as guilty as Madoff and all the others; he is just not man enough to admit his wrong-doing. We can only hope justice will come to him and all the other criminals. I like your idea. Part of their punishment should be standing before the world and apologizing for the damage, pain, uncertainty, and distrust they have caused by their greed . . . then, commit seppuku for their dishonor.
Re: Mims. Of course, you are quite correct. We do not know all the relevant details. It is just the Mims story reminds me of too many similar tales of bad parents, and all the rest of us must pay the price for these freakin’ bad people. Mims may not be one of those bad people, but there sure is a lot of smoke around her.
Re: “licensing parents.” You are again quite correct. Managing private sex lives is certainly not consistent with my belief in keeping government out of our private lives. My bad . . . a sign of my frustration. Regardless, I do advocate for parents paying the price for the conduct of their children. In the Mims case, if she truly did try to prostitute her 8yo daughter, then she should forfeit her custodial rights and be prevented from having any other children unless she gets her life under control. If she did get pregnant again, then her infant should be removed at birth.
Re: “incest.” I think that was the point of the article. I just don’t know how to discuss the topic.
. . . Round Two:
“I share your concern about collateral damage in the North Korea situation. Whether or not Kim Jung Un et al. destroy each other concerns me very little; whether they damage or kill Koreans north and south, attack the rest of East Asia, or potentially trigger another World War worries me. Unfortunately, we as a nation can do very little about that. Our current and past attempts at intervention have gone wrong; one of those created the current Korea situation, with the assistance of the UN and the Koreans themselves.
“I have expressed my disgust with Wall Street and the SEC at some length already. Citizen actions to change the balance of power have not yet produced results, but hope springs eternal. That balance was changed for the better after the Great Depression and we may be able to change it again.
“My doubts about whether Ms. Mimms is guilty derive from the lack of corroborating evidence in the story and from a small-town childhood. I noticed early on that almost everything in small places is driven by individual and personal feelings. Politics, religion, and law enforcement are far more personal than in a big city where more money and larger numbers of people can change the equation.
“While I cannot find a way to license parenting, I am aware of a male child molester who found a female child molester and had a baby with her. (I have no doubt about the harm he did; I know the child in the prior case.) The baby was removed immediately at birth by Children Services.
"Perhaps it would help to tighten the requirements for marriage. As clergy, I take a responsibility for counseling people before I agree to marry them. That is not required by law, but I think that would be a good idea. I don't do many marriages, but maybe I prevent some ill-considered unions."
. . . my response to Round Two:
Re: DPRK succession. We share the same concern. We seem to suffer a paucity of meaningful or actionable intelligence. The inaccessibility of the isolationist regime does not make it any easier. Whatever external spillover action may emanate from the power struggle that appears to be setting up.
Yes, hope does spring eternal. We can only hope the message gets through and we see less deals with more punishment.
Re: Mims. Your point was well-stated. As with so much of any morality discussion, the definitions are critical. As you suggest, the Panama City Police may have knee-jerked emotionally to the simple accusation, rather than hard evidence. If that happens to be true, then I was clearly wrong to use her as such a negative example. Nonetheless, I still see a lot of smoke around her. I hope the police eliminated the emotion of the situation. Good observation regarding big city vs. small town, especially regarding the emotional morality issues. The Prohibition experience of our grandparents is a perfect example.
Re: molesters. Two molesters producing a child . . . I think Children Services did what had to be done. There should be more of that. What child “in the prior case”? Licensing procreation is not practical, even if the urge to impose that control is strong. My favorite example being the NYC, crack-addicted, prostitute who had 8 children by 8 different sperm donors, collecting welfare for the kids but to support her habit; three kids removed by the state so far, and she’s still having more children despite court orders against producing more. We’ve discussed the concept of social police. Somehow, we must find a way to filter and focus on the real abusers . . . not punish children learning sex, etc.
Re: marriage counseling. Nice that you take the time to help folks understand the importance and commitment of marriage. Like so many similar topics, the balance between proper public regulation and individual freedom. Any intervention for ill-conceived unions is good for society. The burdens of family fragmentation is bad enough; any help is good.
. . . Round Three:
“The DPRK has been a loose cannon basically since World War II. No effort to contain it has succeeded so far.
“The child in the ‘prior’ case (of the male molester) is his daughter with a woman I know. That child, now 22 years old, will never be able to function on her own; this is a really severe case. Her father, once he was released from prison, found another woman with similar tendencies to his (to molest babies) and the two of them bred a child. Even though he had been convicted on charges other than the child molesting, the new baby was taken from them immediately. My assumption is that either (a) the woman had been convicted of prior child molesting, (b) the judge or someone in the system had specified that the father could not be around children due to investigations of the case I know about, or (c) both.
“The premarital counseling thus far has been easier than it sounds. Those who know their engagement will not survive a close examination tend to find another person to solemnize their mistake. That is why it occurs to me that a law might help society in this situation. Most likely such a law would reduce the marriage rate, much to the annoyance of some folks, but I suspect it would reduce the number of dysfunctional marriages and make it easier to leave a dysfunctional relationship if responsible clergy had refused to solemnize such a creature. Such a relationship would not have the financial, legal, emotional or religious burdens of a marriage. That would still be imperfect, but I think it would be an improvement over the status quo.
. . . my response to Round Three:
Re: DPRK. Well, as always, it all depends upon how we define “contain.” The late Grand Dear Leader Umpa-Lumpa wanted desperately to be a major player in the nuclear club. They are not and I doubt they ever will be. They remain marginal at best . . . dangerous yes, but still marginal.
Re: molester. Let me see if I have this correct. Male Abuser (MA) produced a Daughter (D) with Mother (M). You know both M & D. After prison for an unspecified crime, MA met up with Female Abuser (FA). MA & FA produced another child, who was immediately taken into custodial protection and removed from their care. Children Protective Services in most states has the authority to temporarily remove a child(ren), but permanent removal takes a judge and court order. As you admonished me in the Mims case, I have not yet heard the evidence. Were FA’s & MA’s “abuse” truly forced or injurious abuse, or just classified as abuse by socially conservative prosecutors? You mentioned D cannot function on her own; that sounds like far more than physical abuse. Were their other factors? Nonetheless, you are suggesting D’s “problems” are the direct result of MA’s sexual abuse of D; is that correct? If so, MA & FA could become the new poster-children for parental sexual abuse. Parents are in mortal fear of some zealous prosecutor who decides their approach to teaching their children is felonious.
Re: counseling. How would you envision a law requiring premarital counseling? How would it be religiously neutral? I want to solve the disgraceful decline of stable, productive marriages. From my perspective, I think one of the primary culprits is the unreasonable expectations created by the notional American Dream pitched by virtually every segment of society. People feel compelled to get married . . . to legitimize the enjoyment of sex, which of course does not turn out quite the way we expect. We need to get more realistic about marriage with more realistic expectations.
My very best wishes to all. Take care of yourselves and each other.
Cheers,
Cap :-)
On Wednesday, I had my latest appointment with our urologist and received the results of my first post-op blood test. PSA = 0.00. The results suggest the surgeon did extract all the bad tissue. I still have a long way to reach the “cured” state (generally, five years), but this is a very positive next step. Now, I have a long, slow, but hopefully steady process ahead with my recovery from toddlerhood. The doctor said things were “rearranged” during surgery, and it will take a while to get everything working again. Patience! Easy to say, not so easy to practice. Nonetheless, he cleared me for throttle up. So, what would you expect . . . I took a couple of celebratory rides on the Harley – 61º F (16º C) on New Year’s Eve, a great day for a ride. A good ending to a rather rough year for us. Happy New Year to everyone. May 2012 be better than 2011 for all of us
The Wall Street Journal reported that an informant, a senior Bank of New York Mellon (BNYM) executive nicknamed “Rambo,” provided prosecutors a rare inside peek into the bank’s action as it tried to contain the fallout from a fast-growing state fraud investigation into whether the bank overcharged clients to execute their currency trades, and urged traders not to tell clients how much money they made on trading.
“Bishops Say Rules on Gay Parents Limit Freedom of Religion”
by Laurie Goodstein
New York Times
Published: December 28, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/29/us/for-bishops-a-battle-over-whose-rights-prevail.html?_r=1
Roman Catholic bishops in Illinois apparently reached their threshold of tolerance as they filed suit against the government, alleging religious persecution for opposing the requirement to accept same-sex couples for foster care and as adoptive parents. The Catholic Charities affiliates received a total of nearly US$2.9B from the government in 2010, about 62 percent of its US$4.7B annual revenue. This is an interesting legal argument that perhaps inevitably grew from President Bush’s (43) Executive Order 13199, titled: “Establishment of White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives” (29.January.2001) and associated legislation that got religious charities dependent upon government funding. When religious charities gained access to the public Treasury, there was no conditional requirement regarding discrimination against non-heterosexual parents. Now, there is. The bishops rejected the condition, which is their right to do. The twist here is, they are claiming the imposition of the same-sex condition over their religious beliefs that non-heterosexual parents are not appropriate parents or parental models is tantamount to a direct violation of their First Amendment rights – speech and religion. The real losers in this legal tussle are the children that might otherwise be helped by the Catholic Charities. Regardless, children cannot be used as a shield for discrimination based on the social factors. The bishops are apparently quite comfortable arguing for their constitutional guaranteed access to the public Treasury, while they trample on the rights of non-heterosexual couples to equal protection under the law. This legal challenge has potential implications far beyond the prima facie case of religious rights.
Comments and contributions from Update no.523:
Comment to the Blog:
“North Korea continues its effort to win the position of Most Bizarre Nation of All Time. (I have no idea who would give that award, but North Korea is certainly in the playoffs.) Apparently, Kim Jong Un is not the dictator his father and grandfather were. He will be sharing power with the military, and I have already seen a story somewhere that his uncle by marriage, whose name I cannot recall at the moment, will be the ‘power behind the throne.’
“The malfeasance, misfeasance, and nonfeasance on the part of the SEC continue without any interest from the Department of Justice. Your idea of taking away the SEC’s authority to make civil settlements in suits against Wall Street’s worst strikes me as sound. At this point, Americans as a whole owe an apology and a warning to investors and taxpayers worldwide who stand to lose large amounts of money because Wall Street’s criminals have yet to be jailed. Angelo Mozillo is an example of our failure with these offenders. I wish he was the kind of example that would discourage others, but that has yet to happen. At least some of the players in the Madoff drama are doing time. That’s better than nothing, I guess.
“If I go by the story you linked to alleging that a Panama City, Florida, mother offered her 8-year-old for prostitution, this is a sensational story with less than the usual support from evidence. The story states that a man told the police Ms. Mims approached him in a mall and offered her daughter’s sexual services, but it does not say that law enforcement has found anything else at all to support his statement. Not even scraps of corroborating evidence appear in this story. Apparently the Panama City PD did not see fit to set up a sting or use some other method to gather evidence, and we do not know whether the man making the allegation has some ulterior motive. The story does not state whether Ms. Mims has any criminal record. Certainly Ms. Mims looks awful in the picture, but that’s a mug shot. Most people are not at their best when being booked into jail. What the man has alleged is certainly serious, but only time and investigation will reveal whether it actually happened. In this particular allegation, the little girl herself does not appear to have been involved in the event, so unless the police can dig up other offenses the penalty is likely to disappoint the community even if Ms. Mims can be convicted.
“Licensing parents would involve controlling people’s sex lives unless society can somehow sterilize small children and then reverse the procedure upon their licensing as parents.
“I understand that incest is an explosive issue, and I disagree that it’s “all over prime time” as that headline states. “All over prime time” would involve non-pay channels for me. All the same, I suspect that we have seen a harbinger of discussions for a future time.”
My response to the Blog:
Re: DPRK. Spot on! Kim Jong Un’s uncle (by marriage to Kim Jong Il’s younger sister) is Chang Song-taek, Vice-Chairman of the National Defense Commission. Interesting things often happen when flawed men have a taste of power. The next few years have the potential to be uncertain and unstable in that diminutive country. As with most power struggles at the top of any organization, there are likely to be casualties and blood spilt, but it is the collateral damage that I worry about the most.
Re: Mozillo et al. Spot on! He paid US$40M of a US$60M fine for his misconduct, and he only has US$560M left. For him, he gambled in the worst possible way, with the lives of millions of people, just like Citigroup did, betting against the very people they were convincing to buy their contaminated mortgage securities. Mozillo is just as guilty as Madoff and all the others; he is just not man enough to admit his wrong-doing. We can only hope justice will come to him and all the other criminals. I like your idea. Part of their punishment should be standing before the world and apologizing for the damage, pain, uncertainty, and distrust they have caused by their greed . . . then, commit seppuku for their dishonor.
Re: Mims. Of course, you are quite correct. We do not know all the relevant details. It is just the Mims story reminds me of too many similar tales of bad parents, and all the rest of us must pay the price for these freakin’ bad people. Mims may not be one of those bad people, but there sure is a lot of smoke around her.
Re: “licensing parents.” You are again quite correct. Managing private sex lives is certainly not consistent with my belief in keeping government out of our private lives. My bad . . . a sign of my frustration. Regardless, I do advocate for parents paying the price for the conduct of their children. In the Mims case, if she truly did try to prostitute her 8yo daughter, then she should forfeit her custodial rights and be prevented from having any other children unless she gets her life under control. If she did get pregnant again, then her infant should be removed at birth.
Re: “incest.” I think that was the point of the article. I just don’t know how to discuss the topic.
. . . Round Two:
“I share your concern about collateral damage in the North Korea situation. Whether or not Kim Jung Un et al. destroy each other concerns me very little; whether they damage or kill Koreans north and south, attack the rest of East Asia, or potentially trigger another World War worries me. Unfortunately, we as a nation can do very little about that. Our current and past attempts at intervention have gone wrong; one of those created the current Korea situation, with the assistance of the UN and the Koreans themselves.
“I have expressed my disgust with Wall Street and the SEC at some length already. Citizen actions to change the balance of power have not yet produced results, but hope springs eternal. That balance was changed for the better after the Great Depression and we may be able to change it again.
“My doubts about whether Ms. Mimms is guilty derive from the lack of corroborating evidence in the story and from a small-town childhood. I noticed early on that almost everything in small places is driven by individual and personal feelings. Politics, religion, and law enforcement are far more personal than in a big city where more money and larger numbers of people can change the equation.
“While I cannot find a way to license parenting, I am aware of a male child molester who found a female child molester and had a baby with her. (I have no doubt about the harm he did; I know the child in the prior case.) The baby was removed immediately at birth by Children Services.
"Perhaps it would help to tighten the requirements for marriage. As clergy, I take a responsibility for counseling people before I agree to marry them. That is not required by law, but I think that would be a good idea. I don't do many marriages, but maybe I prevent some ill-considered unions."
. . . my response to Round Two:
Re: DPRK succession. We share the same concern. We seem to suffer a paucity of meaningful or actionable intelligence. The inaccessibility of the isolationist regime does not make it any easier. Whatever external spillover action may emanate from the power struggle that appears to be setting up.
Yes, hope does spring eternal. We can only hope the message gets through and we see less deals with more punishment.
Re: Mims. Your point was well-stated. As with so much of any morality discussion, the definitions are critical. As you suggest, the Panama City Police may have knee-jerked emotionally to the simple accusation, rather than hard evidence. If that happens to be true, then I was clearly wrong to use her as such a negative example. Nonetheless, I still see a lot of smoke around her. I hope the police eliminated the emotion of the situation. Good observation regarding big city vs. small town, especially regarding the emotional morality issues. The Prohibition experience of our grandparents is a perfect example.
Re: molesters. Two molesters producing a child . . . I think Children Services did what had to be done. There should be more of that. What child “in the prior case”? Licensing procreation is not practical, even if the urge to impose that control is strong. My favorite example being the NYC, crack-addicted, prostitute who had 8 children by 8 different sperm donors, collecting welfare for the kids but to support her habit; three kids removed by the state so far, and she’s still having more children despite court orders against producing more. We’ve discussed the concept of social police. Somehow, we must find a way to filter and focus on the real abusers . . . not punish children learning sex, etc.
Re: marriage counseling. Nice that you take the time to help folks understand the importance and commitment of marriage. Like so many similar topics, the balance between proper public regulation and individual freedom. Any intervention for ill-conceived unions is good for society. The burdens of family fragmentation is bad enough; any help is good.
. . . Round Three:
“The DPRK has been a loose cannon basically since World War II. No effort to contain it has succeeded so far.
“The child in the ‘prior’ case (of the male molester) is his daughter with a woman I know. That child, now 22 years old, will never be able to function on her own; this is a really severe case. Her father, once he was released from prison, found another woman with similar tendencies to his (to molest babies) and the two of them bred a child. Even though he had been convicted on charges other than the child molesting, the new baby was taken from them immediately. My assumption is that either (a) the woman had been convicted of prior child molesting, (b) the judge or someone in the system had specified that the father could not be around children due to investigations of the case I know about, or (c) both.
“The premarital counseling thus far has been easier than it sounds. Those who know their engagement will not survive a close examination tend to find another person to solemnize their mistake. That is why it occurs to me that a law might help society in this situation. Most likely such a law would reduce the marriage rate, much to the annoyance of some folks, but I suspect it would reduce the number of dysfunctional marriages and make it easier to leave a dysfunctional relationship if responsible clergy had refused to solemnize such a creature. Such a relationship would not have the financial, legal, emotional or religious burdens of a marriage. That would still be imperfect, but I think it would be an improvement over the status quo.
. . . my response to Round Three:
Re: DPRK. Well, as always, it all depends upon how we define “contain.” The late Grand Dear Leader Umpa-Lumpa wanted desperately to be a major player in the nuclear club. They are not and I doubt they ever will be. They remain marginal at best . . . dangerous yes, but still marginal.
Re: molester. Let me see if I have this correct. Male Abuser (MA) produced a Daughter (D) with Mother (M). You know both M & D. After prison for an unspecified crime, MA met up with Female Abuser (FA). MA & FA produced another child, who was immediately taken into custodial protection and removed from their care. Children Protective Services in most states has the authority to temporarily remove a child(ren), but permanent removal takes a judge and court order. As you admonished me in the Mims case, I have not yet heard the evidence. Were FA’s & MA’s “abuse” truly forced or injurious abuse, or just classified as abuse by socially conservative prosecutors? You mentioned D cannot function on her own; that sounds like far more than physical abuse. Were their other factors? Nonetheless, you are suggesting D’s “problems” are the direct result of MA’s sexual abuse of D; is that correct? If so, MA & FA could become the new poster-children for parental sexual abuse. Parents are in mortal fear of some zealous prosecutor who decides their approach to teaching their children is felonious.
Re: counseling. How would you envision a law requiring premarital counseling? How would it be religiously neutral? I want to solve the disgraceful decline of stable, productive marriages. From my perspective, I think one of the primary culprits is the unreasonable expectations created by the notional American Dream pitched by virtually every segment of society. People feel compelled to get married . . . to legitimize the enjoyment of sex, which of course does not turn out quite the way we expect. We need to get more realistic about marriage with more realistic expectations.
My very best wishes to all. Take care of yourselves and each other.
Cheers,
Cap :-)
2 comments:
I applaud your recovery from the surgery, and I envy your riding weather. I ride my bicycle for transportation, but I get less pleasure from our temperatures here, which run 15 to 20 degrees lower.
I rejoice that New York prosecutors are using informants and other law enforcement processes to pursue another collection of crooked bankers. That ought to happen in every instance where evidence exists worthy of pursuit, but we both know that it has yet to happen in many cases.
The Roman Catholic bishops’ suit seeking to enforce their church’s prejudice against homosexual parents is frivolous. If we set aside the nonsense and doubletalk, the fact is that the Catholic Church has voluntarily contracted with the US Government to provide a service under specific conditions. If they did not wish to meet the conditions, they ought not to have signed the contract. If they agreed initially but have changed their minds, they may end the contract according to whatever conditions are given in that contract, which may be expensive but is their choice. That concludes the functional part of the discussion. The fact that they entered into an enterprise which has a facet offensive to their beliefs is an internal conflict, not something that taxpayers should be obliged to resolve. At no time were they coerced to do anything against their beliefs; they freely chose to accept that agreement. My personal parallel for this issue is a temporary assignment that I accepted knowing that the client company made a product with which I felt uncomfortable. I became less and less willing to participate in that particular assignment. Despite it being a good assignment otherwise with prospects of becoming permanent at a good pay rate, I found another job, gave the proper notice, etc. Neither the client nor the temporary service had any obligation based on my discomfort. By that same logic, the US Government has no obligation to the Catholic bishops because of the Church’s unwillingness to treat homosexual foster parents the same way they treat heterosexual foster parents. The aim of the Bush-era law was to make it easier for faith-based organizations to provide a service, not to change the nature of the service.
Carrying on from the comment section:
Your technical description of the situation regarding the molesters who had a child confuses me. I will tell you that the molesting began at birth and ended at age 6. The person (daughter) I know has severe developmental delays and equally serious mental health issues, none of which are among those with known genetic causes. No other causes have been found either and no other members of her family share any of those issues. As you may be aware, there is no such thing as “scientific proof,” only evidence. The evidence against the molester here carries a great deal of weight. As far as the legalities of Children Services taking away the molester’s subsequent child, I have little knowledge of the legal side of that. Obviously, my friend and her daughter have no contact with the molester. That the child was removed my friend knows through reliable, sympathetic sources who were involved in this situation. We may assume that the law is not a “cut and dried” thing; in this instance someone apparently found a way to apply the law in the interest of the child.
A law requiring counseling prior to marriage would have to keep the basis for counseling separate from religion while allowing for people to examine religious issues along with their other attitudes. People tend to forget that marriage is not only a religious ritual. The legal contract of marriage can be and often is solemnized by judges, mayors, and ship captains as well as clergy. Writing the specifics for general use would be its own project. My personal approach tends to begin from known issues (prior marriages, events in the relationship, a discussion of both parties’ expectations) and go on from there. In my case, religion plays little to no part in this; I am available to anyone and not limited to or by my own religion.
Calvin,
The riding weather appears to be ending, but never say die. I’ll ride when the opportunity presents. I do enjoy it.
Re: crooked bankers. Spot on! However, let us know forget, there are good bankers out there as well.
Re: Catholic bishops. We need the judge to declare it frivolous. I suspect he may want to push the constitutional question – it is rather unusual. Just to be clear, the non-heterosexual, non-discrimination requirement did not come until after the Bush 43, faith-based initiative, so to be fair, it was a post-contract provision. Nonetheless, like you, I think their argument is extraordinarily weak. Yet, when 62% (US$2.9B) of their annual revenue comes from the public Treasury, it should be no surprise they would take a stretch to preserve the revenue stream.
Re: molesters. If you are confused, imagine how confused I am. I was just trying to understand the relationships. I do not understand the cause & effect with them, other than by implication. There is certainly not much to their story other than has been presented so far. Unfortunately, laws are created by flawed men, enforced by flawed men, and interpreted by flawed men. The origin of this topic was an attempt to separate injurious from non-injurious conduct. Although we do not have more than anecdotal evidence the “abuse” led to the dysfunction, unless otherwise stated, we must assume it was the direct cause; as such, that conduct would be clearly injurious. Cases like your friend cannot be the lowest common denominator, i.e., because she suffered, all physical contact is therefore wrong and felonious. Again, we must separate injurious from non-injurious behavior. One size does not fit all.
Re: pre-marriage counseling. I understand your intentions, and I laud your objectives. However, the specter of imposing religious beliefs upon others causes me considerable pause. You are but one counselor. Others might fall victim to their particular biases, beliefs and idiosyncrasies. I know there are many things that should have been worked out before marriage, i.e., money management; children & child rearing; anger management; religion; sexual orientation, attitudes & preferences; problem resolution; habits; et cetera. We tend to jump into marriages for all the wrong reasons without any understanding of the right reasons. Certainly, professional counseling would help resolve that aspect, but only if it could be done from a neutral, non-judgmental basis.
Thx for yr cmts. Take care and enjoy.
Cheers,
Cap
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