Reflections From a Murky Pond

Here’s a funny one about a US Marine providing an education for an atheist with delusions of grandeur.

A United States Marine was attending some college courses between assignments. He had completed tours in Iraq and Afghanistan . One of the courses had a professor who was an avowed atheist and a member of the ACLU.

One day the professor shocked the class. When he came in the professor looked to the ceiling and flatly stated, “God, if you are real, then I want you to knock me off this platform. I’ll give you exactly 15 minutes.”

The lecture room fell silent. You could hear a pin drop.

Ten minutes went by and the professor proclaimed, “Here I am God. I’m still waiting.”

It was down to the last couple of minutes when the Marine got out of his chair, went up to the professor, and cold-cocked him, knocking him off the platform. The professor was out cold in a heap on the floor.

The Marine calmly went back to his seat and sat there, silently. The other students were shocked, stunned, and sat there looking on in silence.

The professor eventually came to, noticeably shaken, looked at the Marine and asked, “What the hell is the matter with you? Why did you do that?’

The Marine calmly replied, “God was too busy today protecting American soldiers who are protecting your right to say stupid stuff and act like an idiot. So, He sent me.”

My mother – who retired as a Major in the US Marine Corps – always said that we were all God’s hands but that, when God needed to make a fist, he sent in the Marines. God, Corps and Country – Semper Fidelis!

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream in which his four little children would one day live in a nation where they would not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. But that was back in 1963 when Blacks – with some White allies – were putting their very  lives, and the lives of their families, on the line in struggle for Civil Rights and equality in America.

That was then, this is now

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Well all dreams die when we wake up to reality. The nightmarish truth is that MLK’s children grew up in a world where they wouldn’t be be judged by the color of their skin but by the image of their culture that is portrayed by the media. That image is most often based on the worst available individual examples of any cultural group in America – as exemplified by the rapper and ghetto thug,  Lil Wayne, who is depicted in the image above.

On January 14, 2009, at 3:45PM President-elect Barack Obama and Vice President-elect Joseph Biden held a pre-inaugural meeting with Justices of the Supreme Court Of the United States (SCOTUS), including Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., a fellow Harvard law graduate whose confirmation Obama opposed three years ago.

In and of itself this is nothing particularly unusual. Twice in recent history, incoming presidents have paid pre-inaugural visits to the SCOTUS. President Reagan and Vice President George H.W. Bush did so in 1981, and President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore in 1992.

What makes Obama’s and Biden’s visit with the SCOTUS Justices something of interest – and possibly something of a problem – is that both Obama and Biden are named Defendants in multiple lawsuits throughout the country, which are challenging the Constitutional eligibility of Barack Obama’s Presidency. Several of these lawsuits are currently awaiting decisions by the US Supreme Court as to whether or not the court will hear them.

It would be a reasonable assertion, if not a foregone conclusion, that by meeting with Obama and Biden the SCOTUS Justices violated legal professional responsibility rules.

A JUDGE SHALL UPHOLD AND PROMOTE THE INDEPENDENCE, INTEGRITY, AND IMPARTIALITY OF THE JUDICIARY, AND SHALL AVOID IMPROPRIETY AND THE APPEARANCE OF IMPROPRIETY

— American Bar Association
ABA Model Code Of Judicial Conduct – February 2007
Canon 1, Rule 1.2

Biden is a veteran Senator and Obama is a product of the Chicago school of politics. Not to put too fine a point on it, but one would have to be horribly naive to be surprised at impropriety or the appearance of impropriety on their respective parts; skirting the edges of the law, if not outright violating it, are expected behaviors of those sorts of politicians. However, America has always held its judiciary to a higher standard of behavior than it has its Legislature.

Lower court judges have been removed from the bench for meeting privately with defendants in criminal or tort cases. I wonder what standard will be applied to the SCOTUS in this new era.

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?

The MSM has been showing a lot of clips of various protesters of Israel’s attacks on Hamas in Gaza. To listen to them one would believe that the Palestinians are united in the belief that the crisis is Israel’s fault. This is a thought that most of the Left desperately wants to believe.

I think that perhaps somebody should ask the Palestinians though…

It seems that, since the international media wouldn’t ask the Palestinians what they thought of the current war in Gaza, their own media – The Ma’an News Agency – chose to do it themselves. In a series of four (4) polls the Ma’an News Agency (MNA) queries the Palestinian people themselves on their views of the struggle for Gaza. Here are the results:

Who is to blame for the loss of life in Gaza?

• Hamas — 51.82%
• Israel — 44.06%
• Egypt — 1.86%
• Other — 2.27%

How long will the Israeli massacre in Gaza continue?

• One Week — 12.69%
• One  Month — 23.06%
• Several Months — 13.84%
• Until Arab or international forces intervene — 23.39%
• Other — 27.02%

Who bears responsibility for the collapse of the Gaza truce?

• Hamas — 39.25%
• Israel — 34.48%
• Fatah and the Palestinian Authority — 3.52%
• Egypt — 2.38%
• Other armed groups in Gaza — 0.81%
• Other — 1.58%
• All of the above — 17.99%

What is the most appropriate Palestinian response to Israeli settler attacks?

• Calling for an international peacekeeping force — 30.54%
• Preventative armed resistance from citizens — 22.59%
• Stoic non-violence from all parties — 12.97%
• Mobilize Palestinian security to protect civilians — 12.76%
• Defensive protective measures from citizens — 7.74%
• Demanding Israeli forces step-up their role — 6.69%
• Other — 6.69%

It’s not too surprising that the Liberal media, in their ongoing quest to cater to the preconceptions of the Left, doesn’t particularly want to show Ma’an News’ poll results. This is the not sort of thing that they would want people to hear or read. More Palestinians blaming Hamas than blaming Israel and being in favor of an international peacekeeping force over armed resistance to the settlements are things that fly in the face of the belief that Hamas has the support of the Gazan population. That fact alone is cause enough for a media blackout!