Religious Nuts Hide Their Children

There is a bizarre story out of York, Pennsylvania. A man and a woman kept their five children hidden away from the "outside world" in appalling conditions for years.

The youngsters, who range in age from two to 13, lived inside an abandoned home at 734 South Duke Street. The home had no electricity, heat, water or functioning toilet. The children were never taken to any medical, dental or vision appointments, and did not receive any type of education. ... there are also no existing birth certificates or records for any of the children. ... The lack of information is one reason the York County Office of Children, Youth & Families couldn't pursue any action when tips came in about the family in 2003 and 2007. Sinhue Johnson refused to cooperate & the children simply couldn't be found.

Why would the parents do such a thing? What's a major reason many people do crazy things? That's right, religion.

[The] York couple told police detectives religion was the reason they hid their five children from the outside world for years.

For some reason the report doesn't identify the religion, or provide any information regarding what practices would cause such behavior. It would be interesting to find out more details.

Unbelievable Taser Abuse

There have been numerous cases of unnecessary & abusive taser use by police, but this one has to top them all.  A man called 911 for medical assistance for his 86 year old grandmother who was disabled, bedridden and on oxygen. She didn't know when she had taken her medications, so he asked for an EMT to come evaluate her. Instead, about ten cops showed up.

The grandma, Lona Varner, "told them to get out of her apartment."... "Instead, the apparent leader of the police ... instructed another policeman to 'Taser her!' He stated in his report that the 86 year-old plaintiff 'took a more aggressive posture in her bed,' and that he was fearful for his safety and the safety of others.

She was tasered not once, but twice. The grandson protested before they did it, and for his protest was threatened with tasering and put in handcuffs.  Read the whole thing, it's truly unbelievable. The account is from the grandson and his grandmother, Lona M. Varner, who are suing the city and the police officers involved. If their story is in any way accurate, those cops should face not just a lawsuit but criminal charges. There's absolutely no excuse for tasering an 86 year old, disabled, bedridden woman on oxygen -- whether she went crazy or not.

British Terrorist Rights Supporters Even More Insane Than the US Variety

Today's headline in The Guardian: "Two Pakistani students pose 'serious threat' but can stay in UK." What?!

Britain's counter-terrorism strategy was thrown into turmoil today when a judge ruled that two Pakistani students posed a serious threat to national security but could not be deported because of the risk that they would be tortured or killed in their own country.

According to the court, one of the men is actually an "an al-Qaida operative." Yet they can't be deported because something bad might happen to them. Enemies who want to kill British civilians have to be protected. This is what happens when you listen to the blind legalism of morons who like to bleat about the so-called "rule of law."

Rational people might think that foreign students residing in a host country are there as a privilege on the sufferance of the host nation. If those students turn out to be terror supporters, let alone actual members of Al Qaeda, they should be expelled, and have to take their chance with whatever happens in the country they are returned to. Rational laws are designed and used to protect society, not enemies who wish to destroy it. But terrorist rights supporters are much more concerned with protecting foreign enemies than the society they live in. They have a blind, almost religious veneration for "the law," as if it was a mystical force detached from reality.  

Disgusting & Dangerous Religious Practices

There are plenty of them out there, but this is one I hadn't heard of before. Some guy in Florida and his followers drink the mucus of the giant African snail as part of their religious rituals. Apparently it made the news after some of the participants got sick. 

These snails are one of the nastiest pest creatures around.

Scientists also consider the GALS to be one of the most damaging snails in the world because it is known to consume at least 500 different types of plants. This pest could be potentially devastating to southern agricultural and natural areas because they cause extensive damage to tropical and subtropical environments. GALS are illegal to import into the United States without a permit and currently no permits have been issued.

Not only did these people illegally import a virulent pest that can wreak havoc on agriculture, but they are also risking their lives by ingesting snail fluids.

There are public health concerns surrounding this type of snail because it is known to carry a parasite that can cause serious diseases in humans such as eosinophilic meningitis. These diseases can be transferred to humans by eating raw, undercooked infected snail meat or contaminated vegetables. Humans can also be infected by handling live GALS if the snails' secretions contact mucous membranes of the eyes, nose or mouth.

The article detailing the problems with the snail doesn't mention drinking its mucus. It probably didn't occur to the writers that anyone would be insane enough to do such a thing.  

Murderous Superstition

Uganda has been in the news lately for its barbaric new anti-gay law, pushed by Christian extremists. But that's not the only major problem there caused by religious belief and superstition. There are now rising numbers of human sacrifices taking place throughout the country.

Children are disappearing, victims of human sacrifice. ... belief, that burying a child's body parts will make you rich, is, police say, being promoted by some traditional healers, known locally as witch doctors

From the reaction, this isn't a case of a few incidents.

Two thousand officers have been trained to tackle the hideous crime, forming the Anti-Human Sacrifice Task Force, equipped in part by the U.S. government.

Is there anywhere in the world where U.S. taxpayers aren't paying for something? Well, at least this time it's a worthy cause.  Who would have thought that in 2010 there would be a need for a task force to prevent human sacrifice? This line in the story also caught my attention.

Police are visiting churches and mosques, trying to crush the growing belief in the power of child sacrifice.

They are going to people promoting superstition in order to attack even worse superstition. In between demonizing homosexuals and supporting their execution, mainstream religions in Uganda can take on the problem of human sacrifice. After all, human sacrifice is bad unless God orders it. 

Something Left & Right Can Agree On

There aren't many things the left & right agree on. But I think we all agree that the Saudis can take their greedy demands and drop dead.

Saudi Arabia is trying to enlist other oil-producing countries to support a provocative idea: if wealthy countries reduce their oil consumption to combat global warming, they should pay compensation to oil producers.

That's right. If countries switch to alternative energy sources and move away from oil to combat climate change, Saudi Arabia thinks we should pay them for their lost revenue. Seriously. They've spent decades squandering their oil wealth supporting a lavish lifestyle, and financing the spread of radical Islam, and now they have the nerve to demand that we pay them if we use less oil. This is one situation where diplomats listening to such insanity should refuse to be diplomatic, and greet Saudi demands with the derisive laughter they richly deserve.

Right-wing Nutcase Alert

John L. Perry, writing in Newsmax, seriously suggests that military intervention may be necessary against President Obama to carry out "a bloodless coup to restore and defend the Constitution." And that's not the only crazy thing he writes in the article. The whole thing is a litany of hysterical exaggeration and outright lunacy. Here's an example,

Military intervention is what Obama’s exponentially accelerating agenda for “fundamental change” toward a Marxist state is inviting upon America. A coup is not an ideal option, but Obama’s radical ideal is not acceptable or reversible.

Unthinkable? Then think up an alternative, non-violent solution to the Obama problem. Just don’t shrug and say, “We can always worry about that later.”

Insane conspiracy theories and extremist rhetoric against the president were common from the left during the Bush years. Now that Obama is president, the whackjobs have come out of the woodwork on the right. There has always been a lunatic fringe on both sides, and the left's was front and center under Bush. After having to constantly deal with ridiculous conspiracy theories, assumption of evil motives, and hysterical idiocy of all sorts, it is extremely annoying to find the same type of noxious garbage now being shoveled by people on the right.

People like John L. Perry are the best friends possible for Obama and liberal Democrats. They allow the administration and its supporters to paint all opposition as irrational right-wing extremism, based on hatred and fear. That makes it far easier to dismiss legitimate criticism and override opposition. Every sane person on the right needs to speak out and condemn Perry's poisonous and borderline treasonous ravings. And as for Newsmax, I strongly support free speech and freedom of the press, but how about exercising  some basic editorial judgment? Is that too much to ask?

Rush Limbaugh -- Not Helping

Since Barack Obama became a serious candidate for president, we've been subjected to constant screams of racism from the left. Any time there is opposition to the president, anytime he comes under criticism, any time he is caricatured or made fun of in any way, any time he is treated with disrespect, his supporters have whined about racism. It's just an automatic reflex. It doesn't matter how ridiculous or illogical the charge of racism may be, it will be made if Obama is attacked. In my opinion, no one has done more lately to raise racial tension and poison the atmosphere than Obama supporters and the left in general.

But now here comes Rush Limbaugh acting just like the race-obsessed left. As everyone probably knows by now, there was an incident yesterday where three black high school kids beat up a white kid on a school bus. It's not even clear if race was the main motivating force behind the attack. But Limbaugh seized on the incident to blame President Obama, as if he had anything to do with it. Rush has concocted a crazy theory that goes something like this: All the false accusations about racism from the left, combined with Obama's actions regarding race have created a climate in which white people are seen as the enemy of all that is good in America, and therefore black kids feel justified in beating up white kids. Think I'm exaggerating? Let's go to the transcript.

It's Obama's America, is it not? Obama's America, white kids getting beat up on school buses now. You put your kids on a school bus, you expect safety but in Obama's America the white kids now get beat up with the black kids cheering, "Yay, right on, right on, right on, right on," and, of course, everybody says the white kid deserved it, he was born a racist, he's white.  [AND]...  today it's all based in racism, the criticism of Obama's health care plan or whatever, it's all based in racism and so, if he's going to apologize for America, Obama needs to apologize for the right reasons. White Americans are racists who have created what they call free markets that really just enslave the rest of America and her trading partners. It was white Americans that ran off Van Jones.

This is one of the stupidest and craziest Limbaugh rants ever. He's created a grand conspiracy theory about how white America is under attack because of Obama. He sounds like a mirror image of someone like Reverend Wright. That's right, President Obama is now responsible for a white kid getting beat up by black kids on a school bus. And the sheer illogic of Limbaugh's conspiracy theory actually feeds the left's race obsession. Now they can point to Limbaugh and say, "look, he's so upset by having a black person in the Whitehouse that he thinks the president is responsible for kids beating each other up." However, just because Limbaugh did something idiotic doesn't mean left-wingers shouldn't be called for their hypocritical outrage. 

Here's one example from Obsidian Wings, normally one of the more rational left-wing sites.

This incident is not a run-of-the-mill "Limbaugh said something ridiculous today" story. This is a big deal. Limbaugh was unambiguously racist

If that's the criteria for racism, there are a huge number of racists on the left -- since they do exactly the same thing on a regular basis. Starting well before the election we had people on the left parsing every campaign commercial and trying to concoct charges of racism. Many of the cries of racism were and are every bit as ludicrous as Limbaugh's conspiracy theory.

there's nothing ambiguous about this. It's straight-up George Wallace-style race-baiting. It's an intentional attempt to stir racial prejudices.

But left-wing attempts to smear critics of Obama as racist are just fine.  Yesterday imbecile Congressman Hank Wilson (D of course) said,

people will be putting on "white hoods and white uniforms again and riding through the countryside" if emerging racist attitudes, which he says were subtly supported by Wilson, are not rebuked. He said Wilson must be disciplined as an example.

That's every bit as crazy and inflammatory as anything Limbaugh said. But you don't see the guy at Obsidian Wings hyperventilating about it, do you? Of course not. It's not even mentioned on his site. Race-baiting and stirring up racial prejudices are just fine when done on the left.

But the fact that the left in general is comprised of shameless hypocrites doesn't excuse Limbaugh's idiocy. Everyone on the right should condemn his attempt at conspiracy theory building.  There are all sorts of legitimate attacks to be made on Obama. Blaming the president for school children beating each other up, regardless of their races, is not only stupid, it's downright crazy. Far from helping, Rush Limbaugh is just assisting the left in painting conservatives as deranged, racist lunatics. Thanks a lot Rush.

Protecting the "Rights" of Convicted Foreign Terrorists

Richard Reid, British citizen and Al Qaeda member, is serving a life sentence in a U.S. prison for attempting to blow up an airliner. He was imprisoned under a set of special rules called, "Special Administrative Measures (SAMs)," which are

security directives, renewable yearly, issued by the attorney general when “there is a substantial risk that a prisoner’s communications, correspondence or contacts with persons could result in death or serious bodily injury” to others.

Reid sued to have these removed, claiming that "SAMs violated his First Amendment right of free speech and free exercise of religion." Naturally his lawsuit is supported by useful idiot organizations like the ACLU & the Center for Constitutional Rights, which are working diligently on behalf of foreign terrorist enemies of the U.S. Lest anyone think that's an unfair comment,

In January, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Colorado issued a statement saying that conditions at supermax are “simply another form of torture” worse than Gitmo which “make a mockery of ‘innocent until proven guilty.’” Last month, the ACLU filed a civil lawsuit mirroring Reid’s religious rights claim on behalf of two terrorism inmates held at the Communications Management Unit inside a medium security prison in Terre Haute, Ind.

Instead of protecting the rights of Americans, they are working to assist our enemies. These are not mere suspects, but actual convicted terrorists. Which side are they on?

Back to the Reid and the lawsuit. Without even waiting for legal action to run its course, the spineless Obama Justice Department caved in to Reid's demands after he went on a 58 day hunger strike. The SAMs have been removed. This is yet another illustration of why the idiocy of terrorist rights supporters is so dangerous to the country. It's not enough for them to claim that suspected foreign terrorists have "rights" that need to be respected. Now they want to protect the supposed rights of even convicted terrorists, and argue that reasonable prison restrictions amount to "torture."

Richard Reid is not a U.S. citizen. He is a confirmed member of Al Qaeda and has been convicted of an attempted act of terrorism. He has, or should have no rights whatsoever. Any lawsuits filed on his behalf should be rejected out of hand, and the lawyers censured for wasting the court's time. And rather than caving in to demands as a result of a hunger strike, Reid should have been encouraged to starve himself to death -- saving the U.S. the cost of his continued imprisonment.

UPDATE

Commenter erikm has pointed out that the op-ed used the quote from the ACLU of Colorado in a misleading fashion. That quote is an ACLU objection to the transfer of terrorist suspects from Guantanamo to Supermax facilities, and not a comment on the Richard Reid situation. On the other hand, I stand by my contention that the ACLU is acting as a useful idiot organization for our enemies. Unlike many on the right, I appreciate the necessity and usefulness of the ACLU to protect the rights of Americans, particularly those who have no other recourse or people to speak for them. But the ACLU's stated mission to "defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties that the Constitution and laws of the United States guarantee everyone in this country," has been perverted into an attempt to extend U.S. constitutional rights to foreign terrorist enemies -- the harm of which threatens and diminishes their other good work.

Laughing at the Left - Again

Once again I was skimming through the left-wing blogosphere. A post at Hullabaloo caught my attention. It's called, "The Frenzy Begins." The post is a classic example of how a number of leftists inhabit their own little world completely divorced from reality, where everyone who sees things differently is either an evil "wingnut" or a delusional fool. Just look at this passage:  

can I just ask if those of you who are older than 35 or so are getting that strange familiar feeling? You know the one, where the media are suddenly hostile to the president, the Democrats are running for the hills and the country is confused and doesn't know what to think? The one where cable news gets obsessed with manufactured wingnut sh*tstorms designed to distract and diminish the president's stature and sap his political capital just when he needs it the most?

Let's start with the media being "hostile" to the president. Yeah, they are real hostile. Apparently a two-minute absence of loving adoration counts as hostility. And what has been manufactured, let alone by "wingnuts"? Here's what happened back in the real world. The president 's healthcare reform has bogged down primarily because of problems within his own party, and inherent difficulties with the whole idea. Then, at a news conference, the president made an ill-advised comment about the Gates incident. None of that was in any way "manufactured." But no, Digby senses a vast conspiracy.

It shouldn't be surprising to anyone that we are seeing a rather sudden attention being paid to race. First, our black president nominated a Hispanic woman to the Supreme court. That got the right wing noise machine all hyped up about "reverse discrimination" a concept which began seeping into the mainstream almost immediately. Then we suddenly have a lot of attention being paid to the Birthers, out of the blue. It's not like they haven't been around for a while, but on the heels of the Sotomayor discussion, we are hearing a whole lot about them --- and their claims are being aired over and over and over again on mainstream TV (even as they are being refuted.) Hmmmmm.

Wow, I'm convinced. It's all a big conspiracy to derail the president. How could I have missed it? And who is behind it? Those evil racist wingnuts of course. It's all a big racist conspiracy because Obama is black. No, really.  

we are seeing the veil of racial tolerance among the Villagers slipping.

It's not really clear exactly who she means by "Villagers," apparently normal people who aren't left-wing conspiracy theorists but not the shadowy right-wing enemy either. They must be the  ones deluded and manipulated by the evil "right-wing noise machine" that controls and directs everything from behind the scenes.

You can feel the Big Money, the right wing noise machine and the Village all starting to find their collective voice and take control.

Oh no, not Big Money! (Nevermind that tons of big money interests support the president and healthcare reform). I could go on, but you get the idea. Keep in mind that despite being a conspiracy-theory nut, Digby is actually a major left-wing blogger. Many on the left really see the world in this fashion, where evil right-wing conspirators hatch their nefarious racist plots to undermine all that is good. And the poor unthinking masses fall prey to their machinations. 

Christians Promoting "Witch" Hysteria

CNN reports that thousands of children in Nigeria have been labelled witches, abandoned by relatives, and singled out for abuse.

They are blamed for causing illness, death and destruction, prompting some communities to put them through harrowing punishments to "cleanse" them of their supposed magical powers.

The witch hysteria is being promoted by among others, Christian pastors, who claim to be able to identify witches, and who allow their churches to serve as prisons.

"Children accused of witchcraft are often incarcerated in churches for weeks on end and beaten, starved and tortured in order to extract a confession," said Gary Foxcroft, program director of Stepping Stones Nigeria, a nonprofit that helps alleged witch children in the region.

Another aid worker fighting to put a stop to this abuse points out that

"The role of the international Christian community in this cannot be underestimated,"...""Unfortunately, the fact remains that this belief system is being spread by so-called Christians."

Rather than fighting against primitive superstitions, Nigerian Christians are instead reinforcing them with their own religious hatred & fear of supposed witches.  

Extreme BDS at the New York Times

Frank Rich has a laughable article up called, "The Banality of Bush White House Evil." All you have to do is look at the title to know you are dealing with a complete nutcase, deranged by his insane hatred of former President Bush. Rich, who sneered at the label "Axis of Evil" when applied to Saddam Hussein's Iraq, Iran and North Korea, has no problem calling U.S. efforts to gain  intelligence "evil." They couldn't just be mistaken, normal problems with trying to fight an unconventional war where intelligence is at a premium, or even just bad mistakes in judgment. No, they are pure evil. Not only that, but Rich is pushing a ridiculous conspiracy theory as well,

Five years after the Abu Ghraib revelations, we must acknowledge that our government methodically authorized torture and lied about it. But we also must contemplate the possibility that it did so not just out of a sincere, if criminally misguided, desire to “protect” us but also to promote an unnecessary and catastrophic war. Instead of saving us from “another 9/11,” torture was a tool in the campaign to falsify and exploit 9/11 so that fearful Americans would be bamboozled into a mission that had nothing to do with Al Qaeda. The lying about Iraq remains the original sin from which flows much of the Bush White House’s illegality.

Look at all the unfounded assumptions and blanket assertions. You can tell Rich actually believes this stuff. He's a prime example of why the left can't be taken seriously in their sniveling and whining about torture, and their hysterical cries for show trials. Bush Derangement Syndrome renders them completely incapable of having any sort of rational perspective on almost any issues involving the Bush administration. Even now, with Bush out of power, the effects of BDS continue to ravage the left. Maybe there is no cure.

Another Brilliant Idea from Obama

According to the LA Times, the Obama administration is

preparing to admit into the United States as many as seven Chinese Muslims who have been imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay

Obama has already done plenty of highly questionable things, but this would be amazingly stupid.  First, it's completely unnecessary to risk releasing them in the U.S. The Chinese are not only willing to take them back, they have formally requested that the prisoners be returned to China to stand trial "for separatist activities." Releasing them instead will annoy China for no good reason.

Second, the prisoners have been held in Guantanamo since 2002. They've been sitting in a U.S. prison for about seven years. What are the odds that they might have developed some hostility toward the U.S. during that time, whether they were originally hostile or not?

Releasing any prisoners from Guantanamo Bay into the U.S. is insane. Hopefully the administration will come to its senses.

Attacks on the CIA Continue

Terrorist rights supporters continue to attack the CIA. Today lawyers for Al Qaeda member Abd Al-Rahim Hussain Mohammed al-Nashiri, planner of the Cole bombing and other attacks, sent a letter to the current CIA director, demanding that the agency preserve evidence of his "mistreatment" at black sites where he was held. According to his lawyers,

Evidence held by the CIA "is exculpatory evidence" and Al-Nashiri "will be entitled to it."

Here we have a significant Al Qaeda figure, an openly hostile alien, an individual that respects no laws, has signed no treaties, and who should be entitled to no rights whatsoever. He shouldn't even be alive. Yet his legal team acts like he's some sort of victim. The very fact that he has lawyers working on his behalf at all is ridiculous on its face. Apparently the CIA held Al-Nashiri at secret locations where he was waterboarded and subjected to various other interrogation techniques, some of which, like the waterboarding, amounted to torture.

So basically the CIA did what it was supposed to do. It held a notorious terrorist captive and attempted to extract information from him by various methods. Because terrorist rights supporters don't like those methods, that makes the CIA the bad guy, and an Al Qaeda terrorist a victim who is entitled to a legal defense -- never mind that he's an alien, a terrorist, and a enemy of the U.S. We are now allowing terrorists to use our legal system against us, to attack the very intelligence agency that is on the front line of defense against terrorism. 

The CIA did make some serious mistakes. First, they allowed information to leak out about the black sites. The whole point of having secret detainment and interrogation facilities is that they allow you to operate in secret. If their existence becomes public knowledge, the usefulness of such sites is severely compromised. Their other major mistake was in leaving people like Al-Nashiri alive. No doubt CIA leaders never imagined that their country would be so unbelievably stupid as to allow terrorist enemies access to lawyers and the court system, or that a whole terrorist rights movement would take up the cause of our enemies; but they should have erred on the side of caution. In the future the CIA needs to take better care to preserve the secrecy of its operations. If terrorists need to be tortured for information, they should be eliminated when they are no longer useful.  Given the current legal climate, the benefits of keeping them alive are not worth the possible costs.

You Can't Fight Piracy With Lawyers

A Somali pirate has filed suit against Germany, claiming "inhumane treatment." If anyone wants to know why piracy is flourishing off Somalia despite the presence of numerous international warships, they need look no further than this case.

Ali Mohamed AD was captured by the German Navy when he and eight other pirates attempted to capture a merchant ship. Rather than summarily executing him -- the traditional and customary penalty for anyone taken in an act of piracy -- the Germans stupidly turned him and his cohorts over to Kenya, supposedly for prosecution. Now, rather than just thanking his good luck that the West is paralyzed by ridiculous legalistic rules that forbid the execution of even traditionally-defined "enemies of humanity," this particular pirate is going see how far he can push his advantage. He's going to try to make Germany pay for capturing him while he engaged in piracy. 

Unfortunately there are no doubt lawyers ready to take up his case. And there are probably human rights activists and others looking into it. If this sort of thing continues, there will probably be people calling for an inquiry into how captured pirates are treated. What if they were subjected to any sort of harsh treatment? We can't have that. After all, we can't even harm known terrorists, let alone poor pirates just trying to make a living.

Who Runs the Military?

Who knew that our military operations were run by U.S. judges? The continuing saga of legal attempts to cripple U.S. anti-terror operations took another turn today, when Judge John Bates (a Bush appointee no less) ruled that

some prisoners in the war on terror can use U.S. civilian courts to challenge their detention at a military air base in Afghanistan, for the first time extending rights given to Guantanamo Bay detainees elsewhere in the world.

What's next, allowing prisoners to sue the soldiers who captured them?

The Obama administration, which rightly opposed the utterly ridiculous notion that we should give foreign wartime prisoners access to U.S. courts, should reject this ruling and refuse to abide by it, declaring it to be unconstitutional. The judicial branch is attempting to usurp the powers of the executive. The conduct of military operations, which involves the disposition of prisoners, is clearly an executive branch power and the court should have no jurisdiction. Judge Bates has made his ruling, now let him enforce it. That should be Obama's response. It won't be, but it should be.

Witch Hunting in Africa

Gambia is currently engaged in a massive witch hunt. No, it's not the kind that involves trying to find evidence of wrongdoing, they are actually rounding up suspected witches, the type that cast spells and brew potions. Really. And they are very serious about it. Here's one example:

Local witnesses said the paramilitary police armed with guns and shovels surrounded the village and threatened the villagers that anyone who tries to escape will be killed. “They randomly identified over 300 men and women who were forced at gunpoint into waiting buses and ferried to the President's hometown,” they told Amnesty International.

Apparently suspected witches are forced to bath in and drink something identified only as a "dirty herb." I guess this method is better than throwing them into water and seeing if they sink or float. 

As soon as I saw this story, I had to check to see how much, if any, money the U.S. was giving to Gambia -- because you know the U.S. hands out money to almost anyone. Sure enough we are giving them money, but only $88,000.

Brazilian Child-rape Case Part 2

The case of a 9 year old girl who had an abortion after becoming pregnant because of rape by her stepfather, which I recently wrote about here, has taken another turn. Not content with merely condemning the abortion, the Catholic Church in Brazil is now excommunicating the doctors involved and the girl's mother. According to the BBC, the situation has "has attracted criticism from women's rights groups in Brazil." Only from women's groups? If so, that's pretty sad.

The Ugly Face of Catholicism in Brazil

A nine year old girl was raped by her stepfather. She became pregnant with twins. Although abortion is illegal in Brazil, an exception was made and she had one at 15 weeks. Guess who objected to the abortion and felt the need to speak out? That's right, the Catholic Church.

Marcio Miranda, a lawyer for the Archdiocese of Olinda and Recife in northeastern Brazil, said the girl should have carried the twins to term and had a Caesarean section.

"It's the law of God: Do not kill. We consider this murder," Miranda said in comments reported by O Globo.

What about the little rape victim? He has no problem making a 9 year old go through a pregnancy brought on by rape, and then forcing her to have a major operation. She doesn't matter. Saving potential children is more important than than her life, according to the church in Brazil.

Secret Dictatorship

Anyone who expected that BDS would go away after the election can think again. It's been pretty funny watching the hysterical overreaction to the recently released Bush administration memos. But Scott Horton's article at Harper's is one of the most ludicrous I've seen, especially since it appears in a respected publication rather than on some easily-dismissed left-wing blog. Here's Horton:

We may not have realized it at the time, but in the period from late 2001-January 19, 2009, this country was a dictatorship. The constitutional rights we learned about in high school civics were suspended.

Yeah, we just missed the whole dictatorship thing. Why? Because it was secret. That's right, it was the first secret dictatorship in history. It was so secret that it resulted in the dictator's entire political establishment being voted out of power and getting replaced by the opposition. In a country of 300 million, the violation of constitutional rights was so secret that no one can actually provide any concrete examples (conspiracy theories don't count), other than Jose Padilla -- and the supposed dictator meekly acquiesced when the courts slapped down the executive branch for exceeding its authority in that case. Some dictator. Oops, I almost forgot that Bush was a secret dictator.  I guess that's why it appears to rational people that he wasn't a dictator at all -- just a third-rate president who inspired insanity in his opponents.