"never again" and when the constitution doesn’t count...

we have heard it for years - it became the rallying cry of the UN, even as the world repeatedly turned a blind eye - "never again. never again. never again." the leaders of the "free" world promise us they will "never again" idly sit by as people are slaughtered and genocide rears its ugly head. and yet, time and time again, the "leaders" of the "free" world sit idly by and watch as people are slaughtered and genocide rears its ugly head - afterward there are plenty of apologies, and blame shifting, and "we should have acted sooner" and renewed calls of "never again." but what do they really mean when they say "never again"? well, here in the united states the meaning is clear, never again will the united states allow jewish peoples to be threatened...as for muslims, africans, southeast asians, etc. - well, you are on your own (which really is not surprising considering "never again" only ever refers to the jewish holocaust of WWII, ignoring the horrors of the pacific in the same war and the suffering of the armenian people). see, that "never" has some serious qualifying asterisks - and it is a sad indictment of the "free" world's failure to practice what it preaches.

and so it has become a predictable, and sadly effective, political tactic - roll out the "never again" slogan to try and drum up support, especially when you are speaking to a jewish community, and really especially if you happen to be in israel. which is why the boy king pulled the despicable political trick when he was speaking to the israelis - claim "never again" as long as you are referring only to jewish peoples, compare some fool to hitler and say the magic word - "appeasement." and so here we are once again, the horrors of the jewish holocaust again cheapened for political gain, the horrors of other holocausts brushed under the carpet. and the complexity of global politics ignored by a simpleton so that he may throw out "hitler" and "appeasement" - thereby obviously discrediting anyone that disagrees with him. only we forget that stalin was twice the horror that hitler was - only he was more of an equal opportunity genocidal maniac...and boy did we ever appease him, good ol' uncle joe was our most important friend until the war was over. good thing our leaders refused to sit down and speak with the crazed communist leaders in china too...oh that's right, we celebrated it. if only the world were as simplistic as it is in the boy king's head...

the supreme court again reminded us of the reality of prosecuting crimes that involve allegations of children and sex - something that anyone involved in the criminal justice system is all too aware of - when the charges in any way involve sex and underage persons, the constitution is inapplicable. although the supremes did the right thing a few years ago and struck down a law that would make it illegal to possess fake kiddie porn (and really, wouldn't this mean 90 percent of anime is out?)...this time they upheld a law that makes it illegal to peddle in fake kiddie porn. and we all say "of course, kiddie porn is grotesque and should not be allowed because it harms children." but then we remember that fake kiddie porn did not involve harm to an actual child, and is protected by the first amendment, which is why possessing fake kiddie porn is legal. it's a pattern that has emerged in all cases involving kids and sex. you get charged for rape of an 18 year old and the government is required to give you a general idea of when it occured and the circumstances surrounding it so that you can adequately defend. you get charged with rape of a minor - and the courts tell the government they don't have to do shit because its a kid making the allegations - and so you wind up being charged with one of the crimes our society considers the most heinous, and told it happened at some point during this 4 year period, but we have no idea when and it is up to you to now prove it didn't happen.

and at first, again, we all think - well you raped a kid, who cares? lock 'em up and throw away the key. and then we see men being released from prison after decades when DNA evidence cleared them of charges of raping an adult - who can actually give an account of the incident and tell us when, where and who. and we realize "my god...if wrong convictions are happening under those circumstances, how many arise out of cases when the alleged victim cannot tell us when, where, who and many times even what?" and we are horrified to realize that the old maxim of "better to let ten guilty men go free than condemn one innocent man" was long ago declared inapplicable to any crime involving children and sex.

innocent until proven guilty...unless its a kid, then you're fucked. remember that next time you are left alone with a child...even your own.

last night I dreamt that somebody loved me...no hope, no harm...just another false alarm...