So, there it is. I have now instructed someone, anyone who reads this, on how to commit a crime. It’s possible they will act on this instruction and actually harm someone. Should I be jailed? Am I myself guilty of committing a crime? Apparently Florida thinks I am. They recently arrested a man for writing a book that instructed pedophiles in the act of seducing and subsequently raping small children.

Make no mistake, I do not condone pedophilia. I think the author of that text is probably sick and needs help
(it’s possible he’s a media-whore hoping for cheap publicity). But until the moment that he actually commits a sexual act against a child, he is not a criminal. Even if he openly speaks about his sexual desire for children…in writing or otherwise. His thoughts, and his feelings are not crimes. You cannot harm anyone with an evil thought. If that were true, our species would have all been dead and gone a hundred-thousand years ago.

There is something happening, in this country, where the “moral majority” is rising up out of OUTRAGE to trample the voices of those whom they feel say repugnant or “harmful” things. They claim the moral high-ground by saying that they are “protecting” those people who may be victims of violence as a result of this speech. It started earlier this year with a huge outcry over the burning of Muslim holy books by a back-woods preacher. Let’s not mince words, that preacher was voicing hatred of another religion. Yes he was “acting” by burning a book, but it was used as a form of speech. He didn’t destroy other people’s property, and he wasn’t destroying the work itself through systematic gathering and destruction of all printed copies. He was voicing an opinion. His opinion was indeed repugnant…and his actions were met with the outrage of the “moral majority.” The consensus was that he needed to be strung up….arrested….prevented from doing this act at all costs…if nothing else, but for the safety of the nation from the OUTRAGE of Muslim extremists. “If he was murdered by terrorists, he would deserve it,” I heard one otherwise level-headed friend say. Really?! Death is deserved for burning a copy of a religious text?

And as the destruction of a book brought OUTRAGE and condemnation a few months ago, so does the writing of a book bring that same OUTRAGE and condemnation, today! It’s for the same reason, of course. For the safety of others. “I’m all for free speech,” wrote one commenter, “but this sicko should hang for what he’s trying to do to children.” Really?! No less than a death sentence, for words on a page. Repugnant words, yes. Horrifying thoughts, no doubt. But thoughts and words only. There is no action here. And if these words bring about action…who is committing the crime? Is it the child-rapist, or the author of the book that instructed him? Both?

I’m wondering, if you said both are guilty, how you feel about the right-wing radio jockeys who encourage an overthrow (violent, if necessary) of the government? Is that their right? What about the religious leaders who pray publicly for the death of Obama? Is that their right? It’s horrible, I agree. Both of these groups are assholes of the first order. But do they need to be forcibly silenced for the safety of everyone else? If you say yes, Thomas Jefferson might disagree with you. I would have to disagree, as well.

Outrage is a strange thing. I’m seeing it more and more. And the more I see it, the more I need to question its purpose. Who does outrage serve? There was outrage over the Muslim Community Center planned for construction near Ground Zero in NYC, this year. OUTRAGE!!! But, no…everyone agreed it was their right to build there…but, OUTRAGE!!!!!! Why? If it is their right, then it is their right. Disagree, write about why they shouldn’t have made the choice they did. But, protests? Pickets? OUTRAGE?!? What is it besides an attempt at emotional manipulation.

We need to get used to hearing opinions that we don’t agree with spoken plainly and calmly. And we need to get used to meeting those opinions with plain, calm arguments to controvert them. Outrage is only a tool to make people shut up or go away without an argument. I don’t want people to shut up. I want them to talk about their disgusting desires for sexual satisfaction from child-flesh openly. That way I can calmly, rationally, discuss their problem with them, get them help they need, and remove them from their job as a boy’s choir director.

                          

But I don't WANNA have healthcare!!

There is an art to getting what you want. Children are masters of it intuitively, and invoke a special set of rules when faced with parents asking them to do something they don’t want to do (like bathing). First there’s the bargaining, seeing if maybe we can wait a little longer…delay, delay, delay. That’s not working, so then we escalate to simple refusal. This usually takes the form of saying “NONONONONONO” as a sort of prayer of warding.  Not working…Mommy still wants to make me eat my vegetables!  Now the child escalates to screaming, crying, and other general noise-making (protests?) in the hopes that maybe the parent will be persuaded to just appease the child to shut them up. These may take the form of hyperbole about how the parent is oppressing them (“you hate me”, “you’re ruining my life”, “you’re killing America”). This doesn’t work either, for the resolute parent, they know that eventually, children must take their medicine for their own good, and persist despite their angry cries. What is the final tantrum tactic? Combine all of the above with plain old body weight. Drop to the ground, and make the parent either carry or drag you to where they want you to go.

Is this the state of US Government? Apparently so, at least for a part of it. Apparently the GOP is exploiting a routinely ignored rule of Senate Committee ops, and withholding consent to allow committee meetings to proceed past 2 o’clock in the afternoon. They are lying on the proverbial ground and kicking their feet in the air to prevent further forward movement. Amazing.

Here’s a video, in which testimony in a Senate hearing on transparency in government (HA HA HA) must be interrupted due to this new tactic:

Does somebody need a time out?

                          

Texas Caught in Time?

The answer, of course, is about money. The beauty of free-market capitalism is that money walks, even if it means that the only ones walking are the ones dragging their knuckles on the ground. Texas, it seems, has tremendous buying power in the textbook world. Due to their high population, their standards drive publishers to pander to their every whim in order to get their business. So, when they dumb down their own textbooks, they also dumb down the textbooks of other districts in the US who don’t have the “purchasing power” (read “money”) to get custom-made texts.

It’s not as bad as it seems. As someone working in the educational publishing industry, I can tell you that both New York City School Districts and Los Angeles School Districts also have a major influence in the textbook market. Still, if Texas pushes standards to (what shall we call it?) the intellectual right, it can affect many other districts that aren’t looking for content that’s geared toward NYC and LA’s urban populations.

The obvious question is, why isn’t there just a Federal Textbook Standard? Wouldn’t that solve everything? Not gonna happen. I can already hear the pundits crying “nanny state” at the top of their lungs. So, my question is: If money talks, then why aren’t the saner states combining purchasing power to make Texas into small potatoes? Hey, New England! Combine your individual district and state standards into one New England Textbook Standard that makes you all able to purchase as a unit! It seems such a simple solution, I wonder why no one does it? And while you’re at it, combine your standard with NY State, NYC, and Pennsylvania standards to create the Northeast Textbook Standard!! Get North Carolina and Maryland and Virginia to adopt the same standard and turn it into the Atlantic Seaboard Textbook Standard!! And as soon as everyone agrees on the history, the science, and the health curriculum, maybe THEN we can have a Federal Standard.

Of course, it’s not this easy. Politics will get in the way, and everyone will want to do it their own way. “We want to educate our children the way we want! Freedom to learn our own version of the truth!” But people wanted to know what could be done….there you have it. Or maybe nobody really wants a solution.  I have to admit, it is fun to just rip on Texas.

                          

I guess I’m being a little purposely obtuse, because I know that people mean it to say that things were better when they were simpler…when our focus (as a nation, as a people, as a culture, as whatever group you’re addressing) was narrowed and purposed! When people lived simply and had simple wants, needs and desires! Of course, I know that’s what people mean. But is that really what we’re after? Think hard on that. Do you really want to take what humanity has wrought over the centuries and chop the tree off at the stem? What else is “getting back to our roots.” It’s conservative code for the status quo.

So lets look at civilization’s roots. There is the lowly hominid, scraping a living from the world around him, hunting gathering, sweating, running, and dying. Perhaps living a little too, though surely not as we know it. Not with civilizations, legal protections, homes, monuments or schools. Or what about the United States’ roots? A fledgling nation, wrest from the arms of a clutching parent-nation though the violent act of revolution. A tiny group of men, wearied by war, scraping together the foundations of a nation on hopes and dreams. But was their hope really so pure and noble? Did they go home to servants, slaves, and wives all who had no voice in their future’s making? Didn’t this root reach upward to sprout leaves in the form of new laws, amendments, and ideas such as emancipation, and suffrage?  Should we ignore the fruits of hundreds or thousands of years of progress? More importantly, were those people sticking to their roots? Weren’t they taking their footing and using it to cultivate new ideas? Weren’t they rather progressive for their time?

Alright, I know….preachy. But think about the hollowness of the “back to our roots” sentiment. I don’t want to go back to the roots! To run with the plant analogy (near and dear to my heart), I want the branches and leaves and fruits! And some might say, “ah, but even with all those things, the roots must survive for the plant to live.” Well, sure. I can agree with that. But growth is growth. Lets not forget what the goal of laying down roots is. Let’s keep growing as a people, as a country, as a culture, as a society. I want new ideas to replace old and withered ones. I want new science and technology! I want new government and new legal protections. I want new paths and new thinking. And the old stuff, that is still healthy and green and bearing fruit…we can keep it. But the old withered stuff? We need to prune it, dammit! And maybe, if everything works right, that fruit will drop and leave seeds to germinate and lo, and behold, new roots!!

                          

I’m glad to see this is getting some national news coverage, since it looked at first like it was going to be ignored. I emailed the American Atheists and Keith Olbermann about it on Monday, because they hadn’t covered it at all and it seemed they should be the front lines of the push for national coverage on something like this. The American Atheists were nice enough to respond that they had seen it, and sure enough, they covered it in their blog. Keith Olbermann and MSNBC didn’t respond, but they definitely did it justice by covering it appropriately. [EDIT as of 3/24/10] Looks like Olbermann’s segment has been removed from YouTube, probably for rights reasons. I’ve replaced it with a video featuring the audio clip of Davis’ bigoted tirade:

This whole exchange was so misguided, I’m glad that others are as incensed about it as I am. Here’s the text of the entire rant, which is fortunately on public record:

Davis: I don’t know what you have against God, but some of us don’t have much against him. We look forward to him and his blessings. And it’s really a tragedy -it’s tragic- when a person who is engaged in anything related to God, they want to fight. They want to fight prayer in school.

I don’t see you (Sherman) fighting guns in school. You know?

I’m trying to understand the philosophy that you want to spread in the state of Illinois. This is the Land of Lincoln. This is the Land of Lincoln where people believe in God, where people believe in protecting their children.… What you have to spew and spread is extremely dangerous, it’s dangerous–

Sherman: What’s dangerous, ma’am?

Davis: It’s dangerous to the progression of this state. And it’s dangerous for our children to even know that your philosophy exists! Now you will go to court to fight kids to have the opportunity to be quiet for a minute. But damn if you’ll go to [court] to fight for them to keep guns out of their hands. I am fed up! Get out of that seat!

Sherman: Thank you for sharing your perspective with me, and I’m sure that if this matter does go to court—

Davis: You have no right to be here! We believe in something. You believe in destroying! You believe in destroying what this state was built upon.

Truly amazing. Fortunately for Davis, she didn’t say these words to a Muslim, Buddhist or Hindu. Attacking a religion with hate like this would no doubt have the whole world up in arms. But attack an Atheist and you’re lucky if it makes the papers! Oh, in case you were wondering, the hearing was concerning a controversial million dollar government grant for Pilgrim Baptist Church.