AP Writer Advocates for Sexual Harassment

Note: Murder is bad, worse than homosexual acts and worse than sexual harassment.

In the Deseret News Sunday:

Gay student’s killing sparks cries for tolerance programs

By Greg Risling
Associated Press
Published: March 30, 2008
OXNARD, Calif. — Larry King was a gay eighth-grader who used to come to school in makeup, high heels and earrings. And when the other boys made fun of him, he would boldly tease them right back by flirting with them.

Emphasis added. Larry King (no, not that one) is now dead. One of his classmates killed him.  From the story: “[p]olice would not discuss [Brandon] McInerney’s motive. But the day before the shooting, King told McInerney he liked him.”

Just in case you were wondering how Mr. Risling felt about the sexual harassment of Brandon, he makes it clear one more time “Students at E.O. Green Junior High said the other kids used to taunt King, call him names and throw wet paper towels at him in the boys’ restroom, and he would bravely fire back by flirting with them and chasing them.”

Sexual Harassment is in part defined as “unwelcome advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature, when [it] . . . creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive working or learning environment.”  If Brandon was contemplating the murder of Larry, it was a hostile or offensive learning environment.  It is hard to argue that Mr. Risling did not have an agenda in writing a news article and he chose his words accordingly.

“The shooting has galvanized Oxnard, a city of nearly 200,000 people about 60 miles northwest of Los Angeles. Several vigils for King have been held, including a march that drew about 1,000 people to this strawberry-growing section of Ventura County.” It sounds as if the most attended event was the march where less than one-half of one percent of the city of nearly 200,000 showed up for it. “Galvanized” indeed.

Mr. Risling also compared the murder to the murders of Matthew Shepard and Brandon Teena.   Matthew Shepard was purposely targeted for a robbery because he was gay.  The perpetrators pretended to be gay and evidence indicates that Matthew did not approach either of his attackers in a sexual way.  The final lethal injuries were administered likely because Matthew was coherent enough to read the license plate on the getaway truck after the severe beating he had already received.  Brandon Teena was a pre-op transsexual woman (wanted to be a man) who was already happy in a relationship (with a woman) and made acquaintances with two ex-cons that learned her secret then raped her and after she filed a police report killed her.  Neither of these situations are much like Larry King’s.  Larry King was an eighth grader who was getting teased for dressing like a girl and one thing eighth grade boys do whether you are gay or not is call each other “fag”.  Larry King was flirting with the boys that teased him and one of them severely overreacted and killed him.  There was nothing brave or heroic about Larry King’s actions prior to his death.

A quote from Ellen DeGeneres was also used in the column “Comic Ellen DeGeneres, who is a lesbian, said on her talk show Feb. 28: ‘Larry was not a second-class citizen. I’m not a second-class citizen. It is OK if you are gay.’” Glad to have that cleared up.

It is sad that Larry King was killed, but matters were not helped by the environment of his school either. It appears that Larry liked to wear women’s accessories with his school uniform such as makeup, high heels, and earrings.  Somehow the administration of the school probably made things even worse. According to Jerry Dannenberg, superintendent of Hueneme School District “‘If girls are wearing jewelry, you can’t stop boys from wearing it, too,’ he said. ‘Each gender has the right to wear what the other does.’” This is lunacy and does nothing to preserve an orderly learning environment. The school has uniforms, but then the boys can wear makeup, high heels, and earrings? It really defeats the purpose of having a uniform if the boys can wear such disruptive things.

It is hard to imagine what Brandon McInerney thought the positive outcome of the shooting would be or why he chose to resolve the problem in this way. Brandon is now facing life in jail with an enhancement for a hate crime. While Brandon was in the wrong, there was nothing heroic or brave about Larry King sexually harassing in retaliation for teasing. It was stupid and wrong. Responding with murder was even worse.

This is a sad event for everyone involved, Brandon will probably go to jail for the murder and Larry is dead.  It was bad for this to happen but why can’t a NEWS agency at least write about it in a more dispassionate way?  Writing the story as advocacy for the gay agenda does two things: 1- it further disparages an accused murderer whose crime is bad enough on its’ own and 2- it tries to make a hero of an immature kid that was sexually harassing his classmates in retaliation for teasing.  As news consumers we definitely deserve better.

Comments Welcome

(Part III) Vaccines and Population Control

Part I is here.

Part II is here.

Are there concerted efforts to control the world population?

Yes there are. The exact measures taken and what actions to be used is not entirely clear, but there are certainly official concerted efforts and plans to control the world population.

In 1974 the United States had a strategic plan drafted to deal with the future population problems the world would face. It is called National Security Study Memorandum 200. There is also a World Population Plan of Action adopted by the U.N. in Bucharest in August of 1974. As recently as 1994 a U.S. Presidential Decision Directive was issued in support of population control measures. Many of these measures are specific about providing for free abortions and education about STD’s and other reproductive topics but as has already been discussed in this series, vaccines causing sterility could well be a part of these efforts when the World Health Organization is in part responsible for some of the vaccination problems.

The hardest part is that we want to believe the best of people and not that there may be a group of individuals who are happy to cause the non-births of millions if not billions of people. Or that some people are perfectly happy to let millions or billions of people die from natural causes via poor health, lack of nutrition, and a lack of food. There is an organized movement afoot to cause and allow the massive depopulation of the earth. Which brings us to one of the most politicized diseases of the ages, AIDS.

AIDS has not been so much of a hot-button issue recently because the mass panic over it has blown over and the number of cases in the United States have decreased and now it is only really growing rapidly in places we don’t live or associate really like Africa and Asia. AIDS has mostly gone off the radar screen for many, many people.

Looking at scientific/emotional issues of the last 20 years or so there have been about three major ones. The Ozone layer (it turned out fine) AIDS (not so fine) and Global Warming (still out for decision). Of the three, AIDS should be the easiest one to have all the answers about. The Ozone layer is so big and massive and out there that it really is difficult to measure, quantify and predict how it works. Global Warming is affected by so many environmental factors that it too is the subject of some scientific debate and it is difficult to truly find a coherent smooth explanation for it. AIDS on the other hand is an infectious disease and there are so many experts on infectious diseases that you would think it would be easy to get some simple answers about the problem, right?

AIDS Overview

An investigative journalist, Celia Farber wrote about AIDS for seven years and ran into several difficulties in trying to simply gain logical information about HIV, AZT and AIDS. In her words “All I ever did was follow and report, with what some may consider excessive attention, the vital debate about whether HIV is the cause of AIDS And whether AZT is a viable therapy for those who are HIV antibody positive. And whether being HIV antibody positive is the same as ‘having’ HIV. And whether ‘having’ HIV necessarily means your immune system is decaying. Etc.” These are all reasonable questions when being HIV positive is supposed to be an automatic death sentence. Especially when a person can get the flu, a common cold, and any other number of viruses and get better and if you were to test their blood it would test positive for antibodies for all of those viruses. That’s actually how the body gets better.

Ms. Farber was not able to have her simple questions answered and there are several scientists that don’t believe the story of how HIV leads to AIDS and where HIV came from either. It is worth thinking about at least.

Just as a brief overview, AIDS means Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. It means your body can’t fight off illnesses like it used to be able to. It is a secondary immune deficiency much like problems people have from radiation treatments, chemotherapy, or even more serious and long lasting conditions such as leukemia and multiple myeloma. For a more thorough, official, and somewhat incomprehensible definition of AIDS, here is a link to the CDC page where the definition has not been updated since 1993.

When AIDS was first discovered, the primary treatment was use of the drug AZT. The first cases were found in the white male homosexual populations in New York City and San Francisco. The primary test for HIV infection was to check for HIV antibodies in a blood test. There was a rapid spike in the number of infected people in the United States and the actual number of people with AIDS as of the end of 2007 is reported to be 1.3 million with 21,000 deaths from HIV/AIDS in 2007, or 1.61% mortality rate of the infected people, or 0.007% of all Americans assuming a total population of 300Million. Worldwide it is reported that around 3Million people have HIV/AIDS with 22.5 Million of them living in Africa.

Africa is a medical cesspit. They have a massive lack of clean water, farm land, food, medicine, vitamins, and nutritious food to meet their needs. There are insufficient medical supplies and sterile needles to care for the people who become sick there. As a humanitarian gesture, vaccines were sent to Africa without sufficient sterile needles so that a specific disease may be prevented while potentially infecting the vaccinated patient with who-knows-what from another possibly ill person. Vaccinating a sick person is not good for that person because it can also further compromise their immune system. It is only natural the way things are that Africa would have the massive amount of HIV infected persons that are already there. The lack of sterile medical supplies and condoms makes a difference. It is sad really.

The Other Side of the AIDS Story

Celia Farber has found it very difficult to find the answers to whether HIV is really the cause of AIDS or not and was often rebuffed and unable to find clear answers to her questions.

Some people believe that HIV is actually a harmless infection that doesn’t cause AIDS. Because AIDS is related to immune system problems and that these problems can have multiple causes there is no reason to just take it for granted that HIV is the cause given the presence of anecdotal and other evidence. Some HIV positive people never got treated and turned out just fine. Other HIV positive people felt just fine and began a full AZT regimen and died in a few months. It should be a more serious debate.

Chemotherapy and radiation treatment for cancer also cause immune deficiency at least for a temporary time while the treatments are ongoing. Another cause of immune deficiency from attacking bone marrow is the drug AZT. AZT as was mentioned above was the first FDA approved drug for HIV and AIDS but it has such a high bone marrow toxicity that there is probably no way to really determine a chemically induced immune deficiency and AIDS. The worst part is that AZT was pushed on so many people who had HIV but not full-blown AIDS that the treatment may have actually been the cause of their death.

Part of the problem with HIV testing is false positives. If a population that is not likely to have HIV is all tested without regard to other indications of infection there will be a huge number of false positives. That is part of the problem with mass testing for illness when there are no specific indications of the illness being tested for. If a person has a false positive test and decides to be on the safe side and take AZT, it may in fact be the cause of their later contracting AIDS and dying.

With the homosexual populations in New York City and San Francisco, prior to the discovery of AIDS there was a great amount of soliciting the need for a Hepatitis B vaccine among the gay population. It is possible that the heightened awareness of STD’s among that population and the CDC putting pressure on the gay population to get tested led to many false positives which led to treatment which led to death.

Now the WHO has issued dosing guidelines for AZT in Africa that is at the toxic levels first prescribed in the U.S. in the 1980’s. It could amount to a chemically perpetrated murder of millions of Africans.

Another Reason for AIDS?

At least one person believes that AIDS does not spontaneously pop up but is cause by chemical means in already susceptible people either mentally or physically. I am not sure what to think of all of this. If you believe in the unmitigated evil of individuals hell bent on controlling the population of the world via abortion and vaccine induced infertility, AIDS is actually another tool for population control.

There are written reports from the United States and the UN advocating for population control. If abortion is one of the prime answers then outright murder is only a little farther along the path.

Here is an article about how things are coming together for population control. The point of AIDS is to divert money and resources away from the real basic needs people have such a clean water, peace, sterile medical supplies, sufficient food and vitamins. Instead, the WHO is vaccinating millions of Africans who already have suppressed immune systems therefore causing additional immune system difficulties. With the increase in HIV cases, AZT will be distributed among the people and really make them sick. With famine, war, stolen farmland, and a fake disease to distract us from the real problems there will potentially be millions of Africans dying for no good reason at all.  If you want to read about even more vaccine hijinks and mayhem and possibly causing death and cancer and dogs and cats sleeping together and mass hysteria, here is another good one to read.

I try not to glom on to any old conspiracy theory that pops up, but I thought this was one worth repeating given the current and past difficulties in medicine and vaccines. Like the doctor said in the interview with Matt Lauer, there is no conspiracy, the FDA, CDC, and your pediatricians all recommend these vaccines so that makes it all OK right? You can go back to sleep now.

Comments Welcome

(Part II) Vaccines and Population Control

Part I is here.

Do vaccines cause sterility in females?  Some of them do.

I don’t know if it is a mere mistake, or if some vaccines were designed for specific areas of the world that may cause sterility and not in others, but there are problems.

The tetanus vaccine in adults should be given approximately every 10 years or so (according to official guidelines) which means that I am probably due for one of them too.  It is one dose, given in the arm to adults.  It is also officially OK for pregnant women to have the tetanus vaccine however, it is absolutely not OK for pregnant men.

There have been several reports of some women receiving a tetanus vaccine and becoming sterile or having spontaneous miscarriages/abortions.   In the 1990’s, a tetanus vaccination program was implemented in several countries including Mexico, Nicaragua, and the Philippines which was found to cause sterilization in women.  The vaccines were only given to women of typical child bearing age with a total of five shots for the regimen and three of them within three months time.  Testing of vaccine samples revealed that the vaccines included a hormone important to pregnancy that would cause the female body to create anti-bodies to this hormone and therefore prevent pregnancy.  In Taiwan, there is an unfavored ethnic group called the Akha.  These people live in Taiwan, China, Laos, Tibet, and Myannmar.  In Taiwan, it is required of pregnant Akha women to receive the tetanus toxoid vaccine.  There are numerous reports of women then having a spontaneous miscarriage/abortion after receiving the vaccine.  If the women refuse, they are threatened that the child will not be given an ID card which will often successfully pressure the women into accepting the vaccine.

The United States is funding sterilization programs in the Philippines today.

Perhaps this history of United Nations World Health Organization vaccines has caused some of the suspicion of the oral polio vaccine in Africa.  Well, that and a Washington Post article about research and testing on an anti-pregnancy vaccine which acted in the same way the tetanus vaccines did in Mexico and the Philippines.  The article was in 1988 and in the early 1990’s the tetanus vaccinations were administered with ill effects on women of child bearing age.  In Nigeria, the oral polio vaccine is being boycotted because of concerns that it will cause sterility in the women of the country.  Without additional testing of the vaccines for problems (maybe they can’t) it may be a wise thing to do.

But what about the new HPV vaccine?  It was developed by Merck who has settled many cases related to heart attacks and strokes caused by Vioxx and is now facing cases regarding Fosamax.  The vaccine is called Gardasil and will be among the vaccines required in Texas for public school students.  New Mexico is on the same path to requiring the vaccine too.  Some countries in Europe are providing the vaccine for free.  About a year ago, Merck announced it would stop lobbying states to mandate the use of the vaccine for school children.  Part of the awful truth is that the vaccine may be completely unnecessary for any woman and most certainly not for any women under the age of 30 according to the FDA who actually also approved the vaccines for young women.  That’s right, the vaccines could not go forward without FDA approval and the FDA admits freely that in young women, any HPV infection is not associated with cervical cancer.

In a press release from the FDA in 2003 regarding an HPV screening test, it states: “The HPV DNA test is not intended to substitute for regular Pap screening. Nor is it intended to screen women under 30 who have normal Pap tests. Although the rate of HPV infection in this group is high, most infections are short-lived and not associated with cervical cancer.”  [Emphasis added].  This is pretty much admitting that the vaccine is completely unnecessary for young women.

There are a number of allegations that the new vaccine may actually harm the patient too and make cancer more likely.  Again there is also the concern that it may also cause sterility in women.

Can all of these people be wrong?  On the one hand, the FDA and the CDC assure us that these  vaccines are perfectly safe but there is a track record of some of the vaccines causing real problems for people.  There are numerous horror stories of bad reactions to the vaccines.  Are there additional problems in the medical community we should know about?

Next up: are there concerted efforts to control the world population?

Comments Welcome

(Part I) Vaccines and Population Control.

The other morning, I woke up and decided to watch some of the Today Show. As I was barely starting to pay attention to it, I caught the last few seconds of an interview with Matt Lauer where the interviewee said something about needing to get vaccinated and there is no conspiracy, you need to follow what the FDA, the CDC, and your Pediatrician recommend and you need to get all of the shot regimen recommended because one of three shots won’t do the job you need all three.

I thought it was interesting that the Doctor for some reason had to tell us that there was no conspiracy. Very interesting. So I looked for the video to watch it and here it is.

First you are told that some parents are sitting out on vaccines because of concerns of safety. Twelve cases of measles have popped up in California. Three of those cases were from children that were vaccinated and the other nine were not. Of the nine that were not, three were too young to be vaccinated and the other six had parents opposed to vaccines so the kids were not vaccinated. So of a small group of twelve, a full 25% of them were supposed to be protected from the disease because they were vaccinated.

In the interview, Matt Lauer asks if enough research is being done to put the matter to rest once and for all that the vaccines are safe and the doctor first dodges the question then comes out and says that the vaccines both work and are safe but that there are maybe one in a hundred cases where there are adverse reactions that make the child worse off but for the benefit of public health all the children should be getting vaccinated. The doctor states that the entire population could be at risk of infection because of the few that are refusing the vaccines. For the good of the country and public health you should vaccinate your children, also because the FDA, CDC, and your Pediatrician recommends it. Oh, and there is no conspiracy.

That kind of reasoning makes my head spin. On the one hand we are told to believe that the vaccines are safe and that they work at preventing and stopping childhood diseases. OK. On the other hand because a few people are refusing to vaccinate their children the whole population is at risk. The only way this works out is if the vaccines don’t work as well as they are supposed to. If the point is that non-vaccinated kids need to be vaccinated to preserve the integrity of the public health, what about all of the illegal immigrants pouring over the border that bring whooping cough, tuberculosis and leprosy with them? That would be a more significant health risk than whether some families are not vaccinating their kids.

A friend of mine pointed out that if a person has a financial stake in whether you accept an idea or a product or not, it will obviously affect their opinion of the same. Specifically this statement referred to a presentation he was hearing about a product that would put about $8,000 in the guy’s pocket if my friend were to buy into the system. For the FDA, the CDC, and Pediatricians there is a similar financial motive.

The FDA just like any other federal agency will seek to preserve its’ own existence and to justify budget increases year after year. It is the natural order of things with federal agencies. Same with the CDC. Pediatricians who like to remain employed must keep to the party line laid down by the FDA and CDC or they may be in trouble with their employers. Also, the FDA and CDC are often the only source of information that Pediatricians find to be reliable and accurate so they stick with the information. It is not as if Pediatricians are doing their own research to verify the claims of the FDA and the CDC so to add them to the reasons about why we should all believe vaccines are safe is a bit silly.

The FDA and CDC have numerous ties with the pharmaceutical industry because that is the business they are in. The FDA is currently not able to screen new drugs for safety and instead they rely on the drug makers to test the drugs for safety. Because drug companies have a major financial stake in the approval of these drugs the studies conducted tend to be highly biased. It is not unlike assigning a fox to take care of the hen house so to speak.

The CDC is also not in the business of verifying the purity, success or safety of vaccines. Why we are supposed to take the word of some official government agencies that do not make it a part of their business to verify the safety of chemical compounds is beyond me.

Next up: are some vaccines causing sterility in women?

Comments Welcome

Nouveau Riche University

Well, I have already written about this group and they are still active and going strong. My uncle has listened to them and may join up for the $75 fee. A friend of mine is having a presentation at his house (with some misgivings already) about the whole thing.

I went with my uncle to a presentation recently and the fee for the “Regent” tuition package went up from $16,000 to $20,000. Wow. Last year the classes were once a year for a month in Phoenix. The problem is that most people can’t really pack up and leave for a month and stay in a hotel in Phoenix. Now they are broken up into six one-week segments, still in Phoenix. It appears that all of the classes are taught each week so that you can go there and get the classes any time the college is open. It appears that the $20,000 tuition will not cover your hotel or travel expenses, even for one trip down to Phoenix. Here is a list of the classes taught. For $20,000 plus travel, lodging, and meals, you can be taught:

Bookkeeping: how to use Quickbooks to track several accounts. There are several free resources on how to do this.

Building your team: assembling professionals to help you in your investing. Maybe an accountant, an attorney, a real estate agent, a title company, and a handyman might be a good place to start. This is not rocket science. There are even several property management companies too if you don’t want to worry about doing it yourself.

The coursework is very thorough, but it is not any kind of bargain for $20,000.   There are many websites that also sell information on real estate investing, and if you can learn pretty well from books, you could buy tons of books on investing and do just as well learning wise and a whole lot better money wise.

Part of the trick of investing in real estate is a touch of luck.  The house next to mine went into foreclosure from a bankruptcy and someone bought the house for an OK price.  The prior owners held over tenancy for a period of several months until an eviction was effected and they moved out.  The house was a mess, but not really damaged.  The new owner spent thousands of dollars in legal wrangling to evict the prior owner and had to pour in money to fix it up some.

That is the rub and part of the angle Nouveau Riche University pushes.  You need to sell their system with the high comissions to have the cash flow to cover the down times.  Either way, you might be better off saving that $20,000 and buying some books instead.

Comments Welcome

The Great American Lemming

It all started with this delightful cartoon.

Lemmings do not really run off a cliff and commit mass suicide. This false idea was perpetuated at least in part by a Disney film, “White Wilderness“. After much investigation it was determined that the lemmings were not jumping, but they were pushed. It was filmed over the space of three years and for some reason the film makers thought it would be a good idea to have them plunge to their doom where they would have to swim until they get too tired and die. “Due to their association with this odd behaviour, [sic] lemming suicide is a frequently-used metaphor in reference to people who go along unquestioningly with popular opinion, with potentially dangerous or fatal consequences.” Lemmings is also a sort of fun game too.

There are too many people who are not paying attention to politics and merely vote along party lines. The problem is that the parties don’t often represent what they say they represent. The Utah Republican Party has a good platform with many principles of freedom and liberty embedded within it. The problem is that too few of the elected officials actually follow the party platform. There are too many elected officials love their elected office more than they love doing the right thing.

The problem with all of this is that the voters still continue to follow the party blindly. It is very disappointing really. There are many Republicans that are not impressed that John McCain will be the nominee. It is sad that of all the talented and capable people who could run for elected office that John McCain is the best the Republican Party can come up with. Same thing goes for Obama and Clinton.

When it comes to election day, there is sometimes a strong urge to hold your nose and vote for your party because at least it is better than the alternative. Some people call it the lesser of two evils, but it is still choosing evil. Maybe another way of looking at it is calling it the evil of two lessers.

People need to quit settling for the choices we are given by our political parties. There is no requirement for people to vote for the two main candidates. There are third parties and other ways to improve the quality of the elected officials. As painful as it may be, people can vote against all of the incumbents on the ticket, or refuse to donate money to the party, or work from inside the party to change the system for the party.

Please don’t just continue to vote for candidates because you think your vote will be wasted, or because the other candidate will win, or because the party tells you to vote for them.  If people quit following the parties, they will lose power and influence.  Vote how you really feel about it.  Things will begin to change.

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Welcome to the new address.

Thanks for following over.

Adultery is not a Federal Crime

About 11 days ago I wrote in defense of a convicted attempted murderer now charged with murder because his victim died forty years later.  Today I am writing in defense of an admitted adulterer.

First of all, adultery is a sin and will land a person in Hell if they don’t repent.   As a member of the LDS faith Adultery will often cost you your membership via ex-communication.  Adultery is a serious and a breach of a very sacred trust in marriage.  It is a crime against marriage and a sin, but not a crime against the state.  There are seven groups responsible for a propely ordered society.  Government, Religion, Family, Community, Education, Media and Business.  It is reasonable to split Government into State, Federal, and Local for this analysis.  The proper actors in handling Gov. Spitzer’s bad acts are the State Government, Family, Community, Media, and Religion.

Former Governor Elliot Spitzer resigned today after details of his use of prostitutes was made public.  Gov. Spitzer was under threat of impeachment and news of his announced resignation last week led to champagne popping in both Albany (by Republican politicians) and on Wall Street in NYC (by stock traders and executives who once faced scrutiny when Gov. Spitzer was Attorney General).

It appears that Gov. Spitzer went to a lot of trouble trying to keep his adultery a secret.  He had the prostitute meet him in Washington D.C., paid money to a shell front corporation for the services, and broke up the transactions into amounts of less than $10,000 to avoid the automatic notice of a large transaction to the IRS called a “currency transaction report”.  These actions violated Federal statutes known as the Mann Act (transporting across state lines for immoral purposes), money laundering (paying to a shall corporation to hide where the money was going) and structuring (by breaking up the transactions into amounts less than $10,000).

It turns out that Gov. Spitzer may have broke open the investigation into himself.  He had the money wired in separate transactions of less than $10,000 and then asked his bank to remove his name from the transactions.  The bank said no and then filed a “Suspicious Activity Report” because of the structured transactions.  The bank was apparently required to do this by law and according to a source for Newsday: “The bank did the right thing[.]“  The bank’s report was then noticed by the IRS and then was forwarded to the FBI for further investigation.  After 5,000 wiretapped phone conversations and 6,000 intercepted emails, it was determined that there was a prostitution ring.  In fairness, it is possible that the FBI may have uncovered corruption, bribery, drug dealing, blackmail, or any other number of activities these laws were designed to catch.  Once it was apparent that they found a guy cheating on his wife, criminal charges should not be filed.

Gov. Spitzer is already in trouble with his wife and family and he will have to handle that.  If he is religious, he will have to face sanctions from that group.  The media has already put pressure on him too.  The State Government has already acted to remove Gov. Spitzer by threatening to impeach him if he did not resign and Gov. Spitzer resigned.  Of course Gov. Spitzer should have resigned because as Governor it was a position of public trust and if he would violate the most important of promises to his wife he is not fit to be Governor of a state.

The party that should be out of the loop is the Federal Government.  Instead of staying out of it, they are currently working to put him in prison for a few years for violating laws that should not be illegal.  “Structuring”?!?  The laws required banks to disclose transactions of more than $10,000 to the IRS and if a person tries to get around that reporting requirement by having smaller transactions, it should not be a crime.  [Banking institutions should not be required to report transactions of $10,000 or more either.]  Money Laundering is generally for drug dealers and terrorists but it also should not be illegal.  There are so many problems with the criminal code in the United States.

The Mann Act is a little different.  There were concerns about possible prostitution rings and slavery related to the prostitutes and the interstate transfer of the women.  The flesh trade so to speak.  This law was designed to combat that.  The law would be greatly improved if the act that is illegal was the unwilling transport of a person across state lines for immoral purposes.  Oh wait, it appears that would already be covered under the Federal Kidnapping Act.  So the Mann Act is also unnecessary.

Gov. Spitzer is a victim too.  Victims can be victimized too.

Comments Welcome

A Stabbing

Yesterday in West Valley City, a 15 year old man was stabbed by an 18 year old man during an argument and fight.  The 15 year old ended up in the hospital with a punctured lung.

The Salt Lake Tribune reported the event as the 18 year old stabbing the 15 year old after an argument also that the 15 year old was there to warn the 18 year old of an impending fight the next day that angered the 18 year old so the 18 year old stabbed the 15 year old.   ABC 4 reported the event as a fight in progress started by the 15 year old which resulted in the stabbing.  The Deseret News reported the event as the 18 year old warning the 15 year old of an impending fight, the 15 year old then began hitting the 18 year old and the 18 year old stabbed the 15 year old.  Fox news Utah reported the story as the 18 year old warning the 15 year old, then the 15 year old started a fight that carried on outside and before the adults could intervene, the 15 year old was stabbed.  The 18 year old waited on the scene for police to arrive.

Who to believe?  These are supposed to be skilled and reputable news sources that can’t even get a simple stabbing story straight.  From what I can tell, it happened that the 18 year old was there to warn the 15 year old, the 15 year old probably was trying to show how tough he was or something and started hitting the 18 year old and in defense the 18 year old pulled a knife.  That is if a person who claims to be the mother of the 18 year old commenting on these stories is the real deal.

Mrs. R:  3/13/2008 6:12:00 PM  

This reporter got it wrong and has misinformed all of you. Brandon was the one warning Dillon that these kids were going to attack him at school the next day. That set Dillon off and he began attacking Brandon. Brandon tried to walk away. He had even called a friend’s mom to come get him and was going out to get in the car when Dillon came after him.

The Deseret News and MyFoxUtah got it right.

Also, Brandon is not a WVC boy, he’s not even from Utah.

Pray for both of these boys, please.

Thank you,

Brandon’s mom

It also seems that “Brandon’s mom” also added a comment after the Deseret News story too.

Mrs. Raney | 5:30 p.m. Mar. 13, 2008
If I have anything to say about it, the “victim” will be charged with assault as well. The police should have charged both of them at the time. He attacked my son several times, while he was trying to get away from him. All the witness said Raney tried to walk away from Damron and Damron kept coming after him. Damron “snapped” and rushed Raney, pummelling his head. The victim always carries at least one knife and Raney knew this.

If these comments are real and reputable it suddenly makes more sense that the 18 year old would pull a knife if he was aware that the 15 year old often carried at least one knife.  Either which way it is bad news and a sad story.

Our news outlets are charged with providing clear and accurate news reporting about events and issues of the day.  This is a fairly straight forward story about a fight that ended in a stabbing but the news reports could not consistently agree on the details of the story.

What are we to think about reporting when there are more complex issues involved?  I tend to think that news is often inaccurate and leaves out very important details on a regular basis.

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Latter-Day Saints and the Constitution

What do you think of the Constitution?  Is it a heaven inspired document or something that is now outdated and is not that  important when compared to the other issues we have to face?  How important is it for Latter Day Saints to try and support the Constitution?

Here are some quotes you may find illuminating.

“You and I have heard all our lives that the time may come when the Constitution may hang by a thread. I do not know whether it is a thread, or a small rope by which it now hangs, but I do know that whether it shall live or die is now in the balance.

I have said to you before, brethren, that to me the Constitution is a part of my religion. In its place it is just as much a part of my religion as any other part. It is a part of my religion because it is one of those institutions which God has set up for His own purposes, and, as one of the brethren said today, set up so that this Church might be established, because under no other government in the world could the Church have been established as it has been established under this Government.

. . .

I suppose you brethren will all know, but I will recall it to your attention, that the Constitution of the United States is the basic law for all of the Americas, or Zion, as it has been defined by the Lord.

You brethren from Canada know that, your great British North America Act, in its fundamental principles, is based upon our Constitution, and you know that in the courts of Canada, the reports of our Supreme Court, and our Federal courts generally, are just as persuasive as the decisions of the courts of England, and even more so, where questions of constitutional law and constitutional interpretation are involved.

You brethren also know that from the Rio Grande down to the Horn there is no constitutional government except those that are rounded primarily upon our own Constitution. In Mexico the revolutionary party which more than a century and a quarter ago rebelled against the king of Spain and established a republic, copied almost verbatim, and practically overnight, our Constitution, and made it their own. Neither Mexico nor the others to the South interpret their Constitutions as we interpret ours. They have different standards and different canons of interpretation, for their fundamental system is the civil law, while ours is the common law. But the great essentials of that document, the Constitution of the United States, which God Himself inspired, is the law of Zion, the Americas.

So, brethren, I wish you to understand that when we begin to tamper with the Constitution we begin to tamper with the law of Zion which God Himself set up, and no one may trifle with the word of God with impunity.”

J. Reuben Clark, Conference Report, October 1942, Evening Meeting pp. 58-59

I have often been taught that the Constitution was heaven inspired, but I have never really heard it taught that it is part of our religion and that it is also the “word of God”.

“President David O. McKay said on more than one occasion that the maintenance of constitutional principles was one of the most important tasks that members of the Church had before them. In an editorial in The Instructor in 1956, he said: ‘Next to being one in worshiping God there is nothing in this world upon which this Church should be more united than in upholding and defending the Constitution of the United States.’”

Gerald N. Lund, The Coming of the Lord [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1971], 59.

The Church is unfortunately so very far from being united in “upholding and defending the Constitution of the United States”.  Perhaps the first thing would be to study it and learn what it means.

“If those who so carefully drafted the checks and balances into our Constitution could have looked into the future and seen what the Supreme Court of the United States would do to their masterpiece, they would have been dismayed. Through the process of supposedly “interpreting” the Constitution, the Court has twisted beyond recognition just about every conceivable clause to justify the transfer of all sovereignty from the states to the federal government, to broaden the powers of the federal government beyond any definable limit, and then to make it possible for all such powers to fall into the hands of the executive branch of government. We may still give lip service to the checks and balances of our constitutional republic, but the phrase is now quite hollow. (An Enemy Hath Done This, pp. 265-67.)

We, the people, have allowed the government to ignore one of the most fundamental stipulations of the Constitution-namely, the separation of powers. In recent years, we have allowed Congress to fund numerous federal agencies. While these agencies may provide some needed services and protection of rights, they also encroach significantly on our constitutional rights. The number of agencies seems to grow continually to regulate and control the lives of millions of citizens.

What many fail to realize is that most of these federal agencies are unconstitutional. Why are they unconstitutional? They are unconstitutional because they concentrate the functions of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches under one head. They have, in other words, power to make rulings, enforce rulings, and adjudicate penalties when rulings are violated. They are unconstitutional because they represent an assumption of power not delegated to the executive branch by the people. They are also unconstitutional because the people have no power to recall administrative agency personnel by their vote. (The Constitution: A Heavenly Banner, pp. 25-26.)”

Ezra Taft Bensen, The Teachings of Ezra Taft Bensen [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1988], 613.

Are you listening?  What should we be doing about this?  The Church very clearly observes political neutrality and encourages people to get involved in the political process.

There are mass meetings on March 25th this year for both the Democratic and Republican parties.  There are other parties as well such as the Constitution Party.

There has been a lot of criticism by members of the Church of one party or another that a “good” member of the church should not be a member of one party or the other.  This is garbage.  The party platform of any party is a collective vote of the party members.  How can you change the direction of any party if you categorically refuse to be involved with it?  If millions of Latter Day Saints or the Christian Coalition or other groups chose to join the Democratic party, it might be possible to change the party’s position on abortion or some other moral issue that people feel strongly about.

The important thing is to get involved and do what you can to uphold the Constitution.

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