Dignified Sluts?

Mark Noonan16 Comments

From the Washington Post:

Women draped sexy lingerie over their street clothes as they marched through Cape Town on Saturday, bringing an international campaign against the notion that a woman’s appearance can excuse attacks to a country where rape is seen as a national crisis…

… “SlutWalks” originated in Toronto, Canada, where they were sparked by a police officer’s remark that women could avoid being raped by not dressing like “sluts.” “It’s very important that women should understand that their dignity should not be taken away from them,” said Tayla Orgill, who was among the Cape Town walkers…

One does wonder – does Ms. Orgill own a dictionary?  Does she know what “dignity” means?

To be sure, a woman dressed like a slut does not excuse rape – but being dignified does require a modicum of modesty in dress.  A woman wearing a miniskirt and a low cut blouse does not deserve to be raped, but she is also by no means dignified while so dressed.  In fact, a woman dressed like that has deliberately decided to present herself to men as a mere object – dressing like that is a to say, “hey, look upon me as a sexual plaything!”.

In contrast to the sheer idiocy of a “slut walk” for female dignity, I offer the words of Mary Lane over at Catholic Exchange:

…I don’t know that I can point to a moment when things changed. All I know is that last summer I was in a bikini, and this summer I’m not. Several months ago, I hardly thought twice about what the effect of what I am wearing will be on the men I meet out in public, and now I never leave the mirror in the morning without thinking about it.

I have come to realize that we live in a world in which guys are virtually expected to objectify women’s bodies. Of course, there is a difference between “appreciating” and “objectifying”—one is natural, the other is sinful. But that line is really thin for a guy, and it’s pretty hard to control—especially when he’s walking down the beach on any given Thursday in August.

This doesn’t mean that every guy who sees you in a bikini is objectifying you—it just means that it’s probably really hard for him not to, at least on some level…

I’m building up quite a list of things I’ll keep saying until everyone agrees with me, because I’m right.  Among them is the fact that advertising works.  The reason that literal tens of billions of dollars are spent every year on advertising is because it works – it convinces people to do things they might otherwise not have done.  Not everyone, of course.  Show a car ad to a million people and hardly any of them will head down to the dealership and buy a car…but a few will.  And that is why advertisement is done…not to get everyone to do it, but to get a few who wouldn’t have done it unless presented the offer via advertisement.

In a sense, everything we see is an advertisement.  And one of the things we see all the time in our society is enticements to sexual activity – coupled with, of course, the complete objectification of those who would gratify sexual desire.  You see it everywhere…car ads, beer ads, vacation ads…all of them spice their message with sexual content.  A woman walking down the street dressed like a slut is just another form of this advertisement, and like all advertisement it won’t move most people to act…but it will move some, including some who have been so heavily propagandized by advertising that they’ve lost all sense of decency.  These are the men who won’t take “no” for an answer…men who, indeed, consider it an outrage that any woman would ever dare say “no”.  So, they take what they want.

This is not to say that a reduction in advertising for sex would eliminate rape…but the fewer advertisement, the less it is shoved front and center of public consciousness, the less likely it is that any particular man will be moved to do it.  An additional benefit of this would be an overall improving of the moral tone of the public square…even men who never move towards direct evil are yet corrupted in their hearts by the advertising, becoming less respectful, and also less willing to defend honor when it is attacked.

The most important thing to remember here is that if we want to be people who are respected and treated as dignified human beings, then our duty is to act respectable and dignified.  A well dressed young man or woman of good manners is someone to whom respect and dignity naturally flows…it is asinine to expect a badly dressed man or woman acting like a rutting beast in public should be respected or thought of as dignified.   This “slut walk” is a negation of dignity…and the real pity is that those participating in it have been so hoodwinked by modern lies that they don’t even understand what they are doing.

HAT TIP:  Hot Air

Democrats Go in to Panic Mode

Mark Noonan7 Comments

Trying to save Wiener’s House seat – Jammie Wearing Fool has the details:

Maybe the folks in Brooklyn and Queens ought to make this a referendum on the failed Obama presidency. Considering he’s at a meager 36% approval in New York, a victory for GOP candidate Bob Turner would send shockwaves nationwide. So naturally the Dems are pulling out all stops. And you’ll never guess how they’re labeling Turner.

“Nervous state Democrats are flooding voters with mailings blasting Republican candidate Bob Turner in the hotly contested 9th Congressional District, upping the ante in the closer-than-expected race to succeed disgraced ex-Rep. Anthony Weiner.

With President Obama’s standing in the polls in free fall, the state Democratic Committee’s mailings to Queens and Brooklyn residents accuse Turner of being a “Tea Party extremist” who wants to dismantle Social Security and Medicare.“…

We’ll see if it works – right now, the Democrat leads in polling by 6 percentage points, which you might think is healthy, but Democrats outnumber Republicans in the district by three to one.  This should be a walkover for anyone with a “D” after his name…but it’s not.  Also doesn’t help Democrats that Ed Koch, a true patriot, has crossed party lines to endorse the Republican (who is, by the way, a New York Republican…trying to paint him as some sort of frothing at the mouth conservative is absurd; but lies never present any difficulty to Democrats).

A message does need to be sent to Obama and his Democrats – something which will tell them that if they don’t ditch their extremism, the voters will punish them.  A win or even a close loss in this heavily Democrat, NY House seat would do it.  Whether or not Obama and Co will listen is another matter…

Pennsylvania Poll: Obama Approval at 35%

Mark Noonan7 Comments

From The Morning Call:

President Barack Obama, who political experts say will need a win in Pennsylvania to retain the White House, dipped to 35 percent approval among the state’s registered voters, according to a Muhlenberg College poll released Friday…

…f there is any silver lining in the poll for Obama, it’s that 31 percent of Pennsylvanians say their vote in November 2012 will depend on who the Republican candidate is. And Obama still slightly edges out an anonymous GOP contender 36 percent to 31 percent…

If your “silver lining” is that you’re scoring 36% against a yet-to-be-determined opponent, then it is pretty tarnished silver.

To be sure, Pennsylvania is a pretty blue State – but it does have some red leanings, as shown by the election of rock-ribbed conservative Pat Toomey to the Senate.  More than likely, Obama will be able to pull out the win in Pennsylvania – GOP hopes State-wide usually falter because of Philadelphia, which is completely under the control of the corrupt, Democrat machine and can usually be counted on to deliver the State for the Democrat (as I think they did in 2004 when the only place Kerry won decisively was Philadelphia, with Bush either carrying or being in a close tie in the rest of the State).  But, that said, this polling shows that Obama will have to fight for the State – money and time will have to be spent there which Obama will desperately need elsewhere.

The way the electoral map is building up for 2012, Obama is going to be spread mighty thin and he’s going to have to thread quite a small needle to win.  He still very much can do it…even if he loses the popular vote, he can cobble together 270 electoral votes…but only if Pennsylvania is in his pocket.  The GOP should start planning to pour massive resources in to that State…even if we don’t win it, it will weaken Obama elsewhere and make our task easier.

HAT TIP:  Hot Air

Hey, Guys, How About Another Evolution Thread?

Mark Noonan62 Comments

We always seem to have fun with these – and the set-up asking Perry about evolution is an excellent place to start.

Perry answered the question well – no one knows how old the earth is, kid.  Rather disgusting that you can hear mom trying to prompt the kid to ask gotcha questions.  This is the level of the debate we’re going to have in 2012.

But, that aside, one of the more amusing aspects of the whole debate is the way the other side gets itself tied up in to knots.  Demanding that unless hard, provable science, it just has no place in the debate.  Missing is any understanding – any reasonable thought – about the fact that the person demanding that science be the measure of all things does not even begin to put the marvel of man in to the equation.  As G K Chesterton put it in The Everlasting Man:

It is not natural to see man as a natural product. It is not common sense to call man a common object of the country or the seashore. It is not seeing straight to see him as an animal. It is not sane. It sins against the light; against that broad daylight of proportion which is the principle of all reality. It is reached by stretching a point, by making out a case, by artificially selecting a certain light and shade, by bringing into prominence the lesser or lower things which may happen to be similar. The solid thing standing in the sunlight, the thing we can walk round and see from all sides, is quite different. It is also quite extraordinary, and the more sides we see of it the more extraordinary it seems. It is emphatically not a thing that follows or flows naturally from anything else. If we imagine that an inhuman or impersonal intelligence could have felt from the first the general nature of the non-human world sufficiently to see that things would evolve in whatever way they did evolve, there would have been nothing whatever in all that natural world to prepare such a mind for such an unnatural novelty. To such a mind, man would most certainly not have seemed something like one herd out of a hundred herds finding richer pasture, or one swallow out of a hundred swallows making a summer under a strange sky. It would not be in the same scale and scarcely in the same dimension. We might as truly say that it would not be in the same universe. It would be more like seeing one cow out of a hundred cows suddenly jump over the moon or one pig out of a hundred pigs grow wings in a flash and fly. It would not be a question of the cattle finding their own grazing ground but of their building their own cattle-sheds, not a question of one swallow making a summer but of his making a summer house. For the very fact that birds do build nests is one of those similarities that sharpen the startling difference. The very fact that a bird can get as far as building a nest, and cannot get any farther, proves that he has not a mind as man has a mind; it proves it more completely than if he built nothing at all. If he built nothing at all, he might possibly be a philosopher of the Quietist or Buddhistic school, indifferent to all but the mind within. But when he builds as he does build and is satisfied and sings aloud with satisfaction, then we know there is really an invisible veil like a pane of glass between him and us, like the window on which a bird will beat in vain. But suppose our abstract onlooker saw one of the birds begin to build as men build. Suppose in an incredibly short space of time there were seven styles of architecture for one style of nest. Suppose the bird carefully selected forked twigs and pointed leaves to express the piercing piety of Gothic, but turned to broad foliage and black mud when he sought in a darker mood to call up the heavy columns of Bel and Ashtaroth; making his nest indeed one of the hanging gardens of Babylon. Suppose the bird made little clay statues of birds celebrated in letters or politics and stuck them up in front of the nest. Suppose that one bird out of a thousand birds began to do one of the thousand things that man had already done even in the morning of the world; and we can be quite certain that the onlooker would not regard such a bird as a mere evolutionary variety of the other birds; he would regard it as a very fearful wild-fowl indeed; possibly as a bird of ill-omen, certainly as an omen. That bird would tell the augurs, not of something that would happen, but of some thing that had happened. That something would be the appearance of a mind with a new dimension of depth; a mind like that of man. If there be no God, no other mind could conceivably have foreseen it.

Try as they might, the fundamentalists of evolution cannot get ’round the fact of man being what he is.  We don’t naturally follow from what came before.  We are similar to chimpanzees in a large number of ways except in those ways which make a man a man.  Elsewhere, Chesterton notes that it isn’t a matter of a chimp doing something badly and man doing it better – man does things that no chimp ever did, or ever could do.  Go back a million years and there is nothing in the simian species you can find which indicates that at some future date, quite by accident, one of them will randomly evolve a capability and a desire to decorate his body with paint or clothes…there is nothing in the animal world or the concept of evolution which prepares for the time when a creature will suddenly spend time and energy making art, that indelible signature of Mankind.

And as the evolutionists refuse to consider this – a plain fact – the debate grinds forward in a rather sterile manner, and ever more clearly becomes not a defense of science and truth, but a mere desire to suppress an uncomfortable thought:  perhaps it isn’t all an accident?  Maybe there is a design and a purpose in the universe?  Maybe there is even a Designer who wants something of us?

My thinking on this subject is rapidly leading me to the conclusion that, at bottom, this rigid, hysterical demand that we turn away from what common sense proclaims is, in the end, no more than a fierce desire to defend adherence to a lie.  As it turns out, the lie being adhered to is the first lie of hell – “you will be like gods”.  Beings who evolved by accident from a senseless universe of no purpose owe nothing to anyone…they need not serve, and they are free to rule as far as their own power and inclination leads them.  Introduce even the possibility of God and purpose in to the universe, and all of a sudden you become a debtor who owes someone every last thing you have.  Some of us react with joy to this discovery and eagerly seek to thank our Benefactor…others furiously reject this and demand not only their right to believe differently, but further demand that no one else even bring up a question which casts doubt upon the evolutionist viewpoint.

To me it is a matter of perfect indifference whether the world is 6 billion or 6 thousand years old.  It doesn’t alter in the least the actual facts I have to deal with every day.  I don’t care if someone teaches about a 6 billion year old world and a slow, purely accidental evolutionary development.  I also don’t care if someone teaches that the world sprang directly in to being as it is at the command of God in 6 literal days.  Far more important, to me, than the mechanism of existence is the fact of my existence, and what I shall do with it.  But regardless of what I think, the fact is that those who hold to a rigid, ideologically blinkered view of the creation of the universe are trying to advance a particular agenda – an agenda which doesn’t so much question God but seeks to ban His presence from the public square.  My view is that the fight between Evolution and Design is not about the relative merits of the viewpoints, but about the right of people of different views to engage in the debate.

The gotcha questions to Perry are part of that larger design – that effort to de-legitimize a different view.  The attempt was to try and trip Perry up and hold up Perry and the whole concept of a Divine order to ridicule.  And, so, we have to fight this out – if for no other reason than to defend human reason and liberty.  Reason because people who think can come to widely different views; liberty because if those widely different views cannot be brought in to the public square, then none of us are free.

Obamunism! Goldman Cuts Q3 and Q4 Growth Prediction

Mark Noonan33 Comments

From Zero Hedge:

…From a just released report by recent addition to the Goldman economics team (supposedly Jan was too busy elsewhere) Zach Pandl: “In light of the downshift in the data this week, we are cutting our second-half growth forecasts further. We now expect GDP growth of 1.0% in Q3 and 1.5% in Q4, both down from 2.0% previously. These changes reduce our forecasts for full-year 2011 GDP growth to 1.5% from…

This is very closing the barn door after the horse escaped – people who weren’t Ruling Class/Bankster cheerleaders made this sort of prediction months ago and some weeks ago moved towards figuring we’re already in a recession.  Goldman is just backing and filing and hoping that no one remembers that once upon a time they predicted strong growth in 2011.

The bottom line, though, is that the economy is clearly in a downward spiral.  Those still trying to keep faith in Hope and Change are saying that the recent stock market drop is based on “fear”, implying that rational people know that things aren’t so bad.  But, they are – it is fear moving the market down…fear of being the last fool out of the market.

We can expect, I believe, some gyrations in the market over the next couple months…maybe even as much as 10% swings either direction.  But the writing is on the wall: Obamunist Keynesianism has failed, just as predicted.  All that is left to do is beat Obama next year, and then pick up the economic pieces in 2013.

Poll: 49% of Latinos Support Obama

Mark Noonan5 Comments

From Newsmax:

Hispanic-Americans are souring on the Obama presidency, according to a Gallup poll that shows just 49 percent of them approve of his job performance.

That’s a huge decline since spring of 2009, when Obama registered the 85 percent approval among Latinos…

And now you know why Obama enacted amnesty by decree…he’s trying to shore that up because you can just about bet on it that if Obama only wins 49% of the Latino vote in 2012 he’ll be defeated.

Palin to Announce on the 3rd?

Mark Noonan28 Comments

From the Iowa Republican:

Although they claim to have no inside information, the volunteers that comprise Iowa’s Organize 4 Palin group are convinced the former Alaska Governor is running for President.  They also believe it is very likely she will announce her candidacy at a Tea Party event near Des Moines on September 3rd.

“It certainly makes a lot of sense for her to announce on that date,” said Richard Rogers, the 3rd District Co-Chair for Organize 4 Palin.  “It will be the third anniversary of her speech at the Republican National Convention.  That’s what launched her onto the national scene.  Announcing at that event would certainly be appropriate.  The timing is right.”…

They’ve had to move the event to a large venue because of the large crowd expected…and if she is going to run for President, this would be the place and time to do it.

 

Our Broken Police Forces

Mark Noonan15 Comments

Over at Huffington Post, Radley Balko covers a disturbing story:

Jose Guerena, a 26-year-old Marine and Iraq war veteran, was killed May 5 when a SWAT team broke into his home a little after 9:30 a.m. According to Guerena’s wife, Vanessa (who was home at he time, along with their 4-year-old son), Guerena thought the police were home invaders. He ushered his family into a closet, then grabbed a rifle. When the police battered down the door, they saw Guerena and his rifle, and opened fire. The SWAT team released 70 rounds. Guerena didn’t fire a shot; the safety of his rifle was still on.

Last week, Arizona attorney Chris Scileppi filed notice of a $20 million lawsuit against Pima County, Ariz., on behalf of Guerena’s family. The lawsuit provides a good opportunity to look back at what has happened since since the morning of May 5…

Do read the whole thing – because it does bring to my mind, at least, a question about the utility of “special forces” units in our local police forces.  Indeed, it brings up along with it a question about what the police are for, and how civilian control is to be effected.

This story is extra meaningful to me because we here in Las Vegas also had a case of police officers wantonly gunning down a military veteran of excellent character…and then we watched as the police slandered the dead man, and then used a rigged investigation system to ensure that no officer was called to account for his errors.  If even our military veterans aren’t safe from out of control police actions, whom among us is?  When will the heavy club of law enforcement fall upon us?  Whom among us has the resources to fend it off?

Keep in mind that I am pro-police.  As I stated in my linked article, the police do a job I am not good enough to do.  Those people who are dedicated police officers are better men and women than I could ever hope to be.  But a baleful spirit of careerism, bureaucratic infighting and union corruption has taken over all too many of our local police forces.  The good cops are powerless against these forces…the bad cops get to rule the roost because they have gained control of the levers of power.  And, so, when a SWAT team goes on a stupid raid which results in an innocent death, no one is called to account.  Time and time again we have all seen this.

To me, the reason we have things like SWAT but don’t have a cop on the beat is because of the bad influences which have taken over the police.  Rather than have armored, heavily armed combat forces which can come crashing through my door at 2 am, I’d rather have a patrolman walking my neighborhood at night.  The patrolman will ensure that no one is breaking in to my home, that the teenagers are off the streets at a reasonable hour and that there is thus no need for anyone out there to think that my door should be battered down.  Corrupt and bureaucratic police forces like flashy things like SWAT teams; they make it seem like the cops are doing something good, when all they are donig is wasting time and resources which should be spent on crime prevention.  Police forces made up of people dedicated to law enforcement and keeping the peace have cops on the beat, who know their neighborhoods…who is supposed to be there and when.  It isn’t as sexy as SWAT, but it gets the job done.

My view is that what is most needed is a re-assertion of civil control over the police as this will ensure that the police get back to business.  That is, get back to seeing their primary task as peace keeping…preventing crime, rather than investigating crimes after they have happened.  Making certain the crack house never gets started, rather than raiding a house with machine guns at the ready, even if they’ve got the wrong house.  To that end, in my linked article I suggested the Civil Review Board – a means whereby average citizens can submit complaints about the police without the police being able to stop  or control an investigation.  That, in and of itself, would go a long way towards fixing the police…the next step would be to find political leaders who would be willing to take on the police unions (who really drive the corruption) and force the law enforcement agencies to do what the people need, not what corrupt unions bosses want.

Among the many callings a person can have, being a police officer is one of the most honorable.  Done properly, it is the height of service – the definite willingness to show the greatest love of all: that of being ready to lay down one’s life for another.  The police should never lack for support – monetary and moral.  They do one of the dirtiest jobs in the world and all of us should be wary of second-guessing a police officer in the performance of his duty.  But the police must be what we need them to be – guardians of the peace in our communities, not armed forces using razzle-dazzle, super-cop nonsense to cover up incompetence.

The Necessity of Pushing Egypt Back in the Sinai

Mark Noonan24 Comments

The attack in to Israel which came by way of Gaza terrorists infiltrating from the Sinai indicates the true state of affairs in Egypt – a significant part of Egyptian authority is willing to aid terrorist attacks against Israel.  This new fact by itself nullifies the Israel-Egypt peace treaty – we’re essentially back to 1967.

The proper response by the Israelis would be to push the Egyptians back from the Gaza and Israeli borders – at least 25 miles so as to put southern Israel out of easy rocket/terrorist range.  This would also allow a complete sealing off of Gaza and that would eventually result in the terrorists in Gaza running out of ammunition.

Remember, the Israelis gave up the Sinai in order to have peace with Egypt – unless the southern border of Israel is 100% secure against attack, there is no reason for Israel to stay out of the Sinai.  And it is better to act now than wait for the Egyptian government to move major military forces in to the area.