Head In The Sand

You know, I just don’t know what’s what anymore. To be truthful, I have always been sort of clueless. I think I know what is going on, but when push comes to shove, it turns out I wouldn’t know my asshole from a hole in the ground.

The incident that has started me thinking abut this is the recent Tom Flanagan comment about child porn. I talked about it last night and if I had any doubt about the hole in the ground and an asshole, I just have to look to Tom to see what an asshole is. I thought that I knew what child porn was, and for me it is pretty basic, an adult has his or her way (sexually) with an under aged person. Like everything on the planet, there are many shades to this issue.

I was watching my grandson Hurricane swimming a couple of years ago, and taking pictures when the security guy came up to me and told me that cameras aren’t allowed. I explained that I was the grandpa of one of the kids, and he told me that it didn’t matter. Of course I put the camera away, but I just don’t really know how taking photos from 30 meters away constitutes child porn. I suppose that someone with deviant tastes could take pictures of kids and look at them in his home. Taken to the extreme, I suppose that a person could follow and target a kid using a camera. I guess that I just don’t live in a world where that happens.

I know it does happen, but in my mind it couldn’t happen very often. That’s me putting my head in the sand by the way. Yes, it is sick. I thought about how some men (not me of course) will look at pictures of naked women and even movies of naked women and men having sex. This is condoned by our society more or less and I don’t think most people feel that it encourages the average guy to go out and kidnap and rape a woman. This might be me with my head in the sand again.

This is starting to sound like I don’t think this practice is wrong. I do think it is wrong, certainly about kids and even to some degree about women. I have never personally seen a stripper other than on TV (the Sopranos) and will more than likely go to my grave in this state of grace. I don’t think it is evil, I just don’t see the point of it. I would sit there wondering what turns a life would have to take for a young woman to strip for a living, and if they are cold up on the stage with no clothes on. Mind you, I would prefer to see a young woman stripping than calling me at suppertime to see if I were interested in having my ducts cleaned.

I was raised middle class. I became middle class and I remain middle class. Not just middle class, but suburban, North American middle class where we are insulated from the ugly parts and things in the world. Somehow, if something bad happens, it must be the fault of the person it happened to. I guess the middle class (me) is getting a lesson on how life really is in the world after all of this time.

I am truly saddened that some people can’t tell what is right and what is wrong. This just goes to prove what I have always believed; there are far too many people in the world. 

We Get What We Deserve

I am one of those people that like to believe the people in authority actually know what they are doing. You are happy that the teachers are smarter than the students they teach for the most part. One exception was Mr. Stapley’s English class, but to be fair the class was one of readers. We had all read the course list of books by the second week and for a few of us it wasn’t our first time reading some of the books. He didn’t have a chance. We were fuelled by youth, a belief that we couldn’t be wrong and liberal amounts of free thinking. That was a fun year. He would get all upset when one of us would correct him on aspects of the books and even his interpretations of the author’s meanings.

 

You want to think that the vast majority of police officers are honest and trust worthy. I believe that if a cop gives you a ticket for speeding, then you were more than likely speeding and he wasn’t attempting to fill a quota. When you see a couple of cops sitting in a squad car, they are doing so with the purpose of catching someone that is committing a crime. When you call the police and they don’t show up, it is better to think that they are involved in some ongoing investigation, not waiting in line at Tim’s for a chocolate glazed and a double, double in a roll-up-the-rim cup.

I’d like to think that our religious leaders would set a high moral standard. When a Cardinal that is a runner ups for Pope has to resign due to allegations of questional morality, that is kind of depressing. I’m not too surprised that the Pope himself is retiring and unlike some people, I believe that he is one of the few over the centuries that realize age and infirmity are good reasons to step down. Part of the reason I don’t think it is a hidden scandal is what could be big enough to force a man that is God’s representative on earth to retire. If there were some kind of situation that big, then his personal army would “take care” of the whistle blower. Certainly not pedophilia, that has almost become common place in the church.

 

I don’t want to leave out the other religious leaders that have encouraged terrorists and bombing of innocent peoples throughout the world in the name of God. Some of our fundamentalist church leaders have in the past been members of the KKK and preached segregation to keep the races pure. I think that under all of the bigotry and greed they actually believe they are clean living, devout men and women of God.

I want to believe that the people who run our corporations have the greater good in mind when making decisions that affect all of us. Further down the corporate ladder it would be nice to think the supervisors got their jobs due to knowledge and good people skills. That hasn’t been my experience, it seems that a lot of promotions come due to seniority or the ability to swallow the bosses shit and kiss his ass at the same time. There are far too many that are promoted beyond their capabilities and the people who promoted them keep them in place because they don’t want to admit a mistake. The Post Office is going through with a billion dollar upgrade which will more or less keep the service at or below where it is now. Shrewd!

I used to think that our politicians despite the partisan politics had our best interests at heart. Of course I can’t believe that any more. Politicians are in the business of getting re-elected, not governing. I want to think that they are much smarter than I am and have the ability to organize and plan for our needs far into the future. Turns out they are just a bunch of greedy pricks!

One guy in Alberta yesterday was quoted as saying “I certainly have no sympathy for child molesters, but I do have some grave doubts about putting people in jail because of their taste in pictures”. This guy, Tom Flanagan, was once the advisor to our Prime Minister Steven Harper, managed the Wild Rose party’s campaign last year, and is a regular political commentator on TV. I don’t care what his core beliefs are, what I care about is that this guy managed to get in a position where he was helping to decide policy in our country.

This is not the first political scandal and I am sure it won’t be the last. More than likely in a week or so we will all be more concerned with the next movie that Brad Pitt will be staring in. 

We get what we deserve.