Reflections From a Murky Pond

The picture below perfectly sums up a large part of the fear and resultant rage against the politicians in the federal government that is being expressed by the American people in the form of the Tea Party movement.

I’m Already In Debt $38,375 And I Only Own A Dollhouse.

No; it’s not about the POTUS’ race, despite the Leftists and their minority tenants near-constant mendacious screeds to that effect. It’s about President Obama and his cabal Liberals bankrupting America and stealing the future from our children and our children’s children.

Remember that our progeny must live and die in the world we create for them, and that it is a parents holy duty to protect their children from any and all who would prey upon them.

The American people, by and large, love their children and wish for them to have betters lives than we have had. Only a relative few groups – mostly exilic groups sunk in crime, drug addiction, family dissolution, nihilism, and the resultant multi-generational poverty – try to indoctrinate and/or coerce their children to live in the same circumstances as they have rather than to move out, move on, and better themselves.

The source of the American people’s fear and rage is not racism; it’s a human parent’s natural response to anything or anyone who threatens their children or the children’s future.

Only two questions remain: how far will Americans have to go to protect our children and how far President Obama, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and their coterie of Liberals will go to continue preying upon our children and robbing them of their future liberty and opportunity to succeed by their own efforts, will, and ability?

~*~

Keep your eyes open. Travel light but load heavy, and always put another round in the enemy after they’re down.

Childhood ends, and with it normally ends many of our flights of fancy, our whimsy, and wonder at the world. So too end the lives we created for our imaginary playmates, if we had any. For the most part we grow up, put “childish things” behind us, and start the long – often dreary and tedious – process of making some accommodation with the world at large.

Indeed, if Calvin & Hobbes were to mimic reality, it was foredoomed that someday Calvin would outgrow his tigerish playmate and Hobbes would cease to exist except as occasionally dredged up memory of Calvin’s lost childhood.

The Last Calvin & Hobbes Cartoon?

There is a certain sadness that this happens at all. There is a far greater sadness in how young many children are these days when it happens.

That it happens, however, all too often because parents and teachers find the often unfocused energies and fantasies of their children to be too difficult or too inconvenient to deal with causes me far more anger than sadness – both at the proximate perpetrators and at our society, which makes their actions seemingly logical and for the children’s benefit.

~*~

NOTE: The above cartoon wasn’t actually the last Calvin & Hobbes cartoon. Bill Watterson ended the series on December 31, 1995, on a much more hopeful and upbeat note. It ended with Calvin and Hobbes hopping on a sled and going exploring.

According to a survey released by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy approximately 20% all teens – 21% of teen girls and 18% of teen boys – have sent or posted a nude photo of themselves to someone else electronically. It seems that the teens refer to this as “sexting.”

While some people may see no problem with sexting and others may be shocked and outraged by such adolescent sexualization, the immediate issue is that teen sexting is illegal. It’s a felony! The teenagers can be charged with possessing and distributing child pornography – even when it’s images of themselves.

Recently Police in Greensburg, PA arrested six teenagers, three girls for trafficking of child pornography and three boys for possession of child pornography. Police in Greensburg said a 14-year-old girl and two 15-year-old girls at Greensburg Salem High School sent the pictures to their teenage boyfriends, who are 15, 16 and 17 years old respectively. All six are currently facing felony charges.

From WTAE-TV:

It’s very dangerous. Once it’s on a cell phone, it can be put on the Internet where everybody in the world can get access to that picture. You don’t realize what you’re doing until it’s already done.

If these do get on the Internet, anybody can get a hold of them, and who knows what they are going to do with them. That’s the biggest thing. Taking nude pictures of yourself — nothing good can come out of it. The best thing to do is to use a phone for what a phone is made for — talking to people. If you’re taking pictures, make sure the picture is of something that isn’t illegal

– Capt. George Seranko
Greensburg Police Department

Greensburg police said that they’re concerned the nude or semi-nude pictures of the teenage girls have circulated beyond their boyfriends, meaning that even more students could be arrested and charged with possession of child pornography, a Class 3 felony under Pennsylvania laws.

The Greensburg police’s response to the teenagers’ sexting is not a lone incident.  Police departments and Prosecutors across America have taken a stern and punitive stance against sexting.

• In Ohio, a 19-year-old cheerleading coach was convicted of indecency charges after taking a topless photo of herself and a 15-year-old girl
• In Texas, a 13-year-old boy was arrested on child pornography charges, after receiving a nude photo of a fellow student on his cellular phone.
• In Wisconsin, a 17-year-old was charged with child pornography after posting naked pictures of his 16-year-old girlfriend on the internet.
• In New York, 16-year-old boy faces seven years in jail for circulating an image of a girlfriend to friends.

Child pornography or “kiddie porn” is fairly close to being the lowest, vilest, and most reprehensible crimes misborn out of the evil of men’s minds and America need strong laws in order to combat such disgusting, abhorrent and depraved behavior – but this is ridiculous! I cannot believe that charging teenagers with disseminating and/or possessing child pornography for sharing nude or semi-nude pictures of themselves with their friends was ever the intent of the laws in question.

What possible beneficial societal purpose can be achieved by arresting teens for sexting nude pictures of themselves? Does it seem sensible to burden them with a felony record and to force them to spend the rest of their lives on the Sexual Offender Registry?