A puritan is a person who pours righteous indignation into the wrong things. – G.K. Chesterton
Welcome to the second installment of my new weekly feature (introduced yesterday); once I catch up, all the stories appearing in “That Was the Week That Was” columns will be ones I discovered within the previous week. But for now, let’s look at a few items from week 2 of 2012:
I’ve often stated that humans have a distressing tendency to elevate the least-evolved among us – those who desire control over others – to positions of power, but it’s rare that a politician gives such a clear and graphic demonstration of that truth as the one thoughtfully provided by Tennessee state representative Richard Floyd on January 12th:
…Richard Floyd…[is] the sponsor of [a] bill (HB 2279), which [would institute a $50 fine for anybody who does not use the public restroom or dressing room that matches the sex on his birth certificate; since Tennessee law does not allow for the sex to be changed on birth certificates, this would make it illegal for transgender people to utilize public accommodations that match their gender. Floyd said]…“I believe if I was standing at a dressing room and my wife or one of my daughters was in the dressing room and a man tried to go in there — I don’t care if he thinks he’s a woman and tries on clothes with them in there — I’d just try to stomp a mudhole in him and then stomp him dry. Don’t ask me to adjust to their perverted way of thinking and put my family at risk. We cannot continue to let these people dominate how society acts and reacts. Now if somebody thinks he’s a woman and he’s a man and wants to try on women’s clothes, let him take them into the men’s bathroom or dressing room”…This bill is nothing short of an outright attack on transgender people…Even individuals passing through one of Tennessee’s airports or bus stops could be targeted for these fines, just for being transgender.
The bill was introduced January 9th and withdrawn by its co-sponsor on the 12th, effectively killing it and deeply upsetting Floyd. In an interview on WTVF in Nashville, Floyd explains that his bill “protects everybody”:
“I’m just sick and tired of society having to adjust to every little alternate lifestyle or little whim of someone who thinks they’re different,” Floyd says. “We’ve got the tail wagging the dog. If things go in the future like Washington wants them to go, people will be marrying their dogs and cats and horses. We can’t continue to let society go down a slippery slope of depravity and survive as a society. We can’t do it.”
Well, that’s different! And here you thought he was just a bigoted ignoramus, when in reality he was using the Scalia argument.
Update to “A Moral Cancer” (March 6th, 2011)
The article described in this column intended to create panic over a minor increase in a rare form of cancer caused by HPV spread through oral sex. I described those who write such articles as “crypto-moralists”, people who…
…avoid words like “sin” and eschew religious rhetoric, and may not recognize their own moralism even if confronted with it. Such people are always (perhaps unconsciously) looking for ways to prove that vices really are objectively “bad”; they delight in cirrhosis and emphysema, secretly love syphilis and AIDS and pore over each new “discovery” about the deleterious health effects of good-tasting foods with the same rapt attention as a normal person might read a letter from his accountant informing him that his taxes had decreased.
Here’s the latest exercise in crypto-moralism, courtesy of the Guardian of January 13th:
…Eating 50g of processed meat every day – the equivalent to one sausage or two rashers of bacon – increases the risk [of pancreatic cancer] by 19%, compared to people who do not eat processed meat at all. For people consuming double this amount…the increased risk jumps to 38%, and is 57% for those eating 150g a day. But experts cautioned that the [lifetime] risk of pancreatic cancer was relatively low…one in 77 for men and one in 79 for women. Nevertheless, the disease is deadly – it is frequently diagnosed at an advanced stage and kills 80% of people in under a year. Only 5% of patients are still alive five years after diagnosis. The latest study, published in the British Journal of Cancer…found inconclusive evidence on the risks of eating red meat overall, compared to eating no red meat…
The article goes on to say that smoking causes a third of all cases of pancreatic cancer, and that obesity is a major cause as well. Now, let’s look at the math; what they’re actually saying is that if you eat a serving of bacon every single day for your entire adult life, your chance of contracting pancreatic cancer “jumps” from about 1 in 78 to 1 in 65…slightly less than the likelihood of terminal flu and a tiny fraction of the odds of perishing by heart disease, cancer or stroke. So by all means, give up foods you enjoy in order to reduce your already-minuscule chance of croaking from a rare illness, but don’t imagine these “warnings” are anything other than disguised Puritanism.
Update to “Sales Pitch” (May 22nd, 2011)
The Swedes claim that criminalizing the clients of prostitutes has almost wiped out prostitution in Sweden and Norway; they claim that it’s “impossible to run a brothel in Sweden”, that sex workers have not been harmed in any way, and that the vast majority of Swedes “enthusiastically support” the ban. All in all they claim a lot of things, none of them true; on January 15th Wendy Lyon reported the results of an official Norwegian government study:
…Norway’s 2010 Progress Report to UNAIDS…states that since the sex purchase ban was introduced…“it has become more difficult to…gain admittance to prostitution circles…sex workers no longer want to carry condoms and lubricants out of fear that they will be used by the police as [evidence]…support and health services for sex workers…argue that due to increased competition and greater stress on the market, sex workers are forced to offer clients [more] unprotected sex…[and] sex workers in escort services are forced to sell sex at the customer’s arena, which makes them more vulnerable to violence and abuse.”
…More detail appears in [an] appended…survey…with data compiled by the Norwegian Directorate of Health in conjunction with other government departments and NGOs…Part B…was answered by six NGOs…On the issue of obstacles [to effective HIV prevention, treatment, care and support, they]…state: “…police enforcement has affected the sex workers’ relation to other services, such as harm reduction services, as many refuse to associate with anything or anyone that may give the police a suspicion of sex work. Condoms are used as evidence, hence the sex workers position for negotiation with the client about safe sex [has] been weakened…”
…But has the ban achieved its aim of reducing the amount of prostitution and trafficking? …“[A harm reduction centre]…estimated that the number of sex workers…in Oslo is reduced by 16%…However, [because] these estimates…are based on those who have had contact with support services or placed advertisements, researchers maintain that these data are unreliable because not all prostitutes get counted…there has been a significant reduction in registered sex workers from Nigeria and Central and Eastern Europe residing temporarily in Norway…Reports from Denmark and Luxembourg indicated [that] many Nigerians have moved [there]…The number of registered Thai sex workers on the other hand, has increased…” I’m unclear as to why the number (as opposed to the proportion) of Thai sex workers should have increased since the ban, but this otherwise seems to validate a few points that I’ve made…first, that criminal laws are a poor method for getting people out of prostitution; second, that the effect of prostitution laws cannot be viewed in isolation from the effect of migration policies; and third, that what may seem to be a “reduction” in prostitution is all too often merely a diversion…If those Nigerians and CEE sex workers had been trafficked or otherwise exploited in Norway, and undoubtedly some of them were, they’re still being exploited in Denmark or Luxembourg or wherever. Norway’s law hasn’t done a thing to help them, it just made them someone else’s problem…
Of course, this is exactly what sex workers have been saying for years, but now that one of their own government bureaus has said it maybe someone will listen (not that I’m not going to hold my breath or anything).
One Year Ago Today
“Between the Ears” presents evidence that “most women’s sexual problems derive not from [low testosterone levels], but from what’s going on in their heads.”
First of all – THANKS for drilling into that “bacon and sausage pancreatic cancer” mess. I saw this being parroted by the “doctors” on Fox News and it really angered me. I don’t live off bacon and sausage, but in a pinch when I need fats and proteins I’ll take them if there’s nothing else really available.
Regarding the transgender thing … I’m torn.
On the one hand … personally I’ve had a couple of “experiences” that creep me out. There’s two gay guys in they gym with me every morning and I don’t use the gym showers any more after my workout because these guys aren’t the least bit discreet about staring. I think this is kind of the situation that might arise if I were allowed to use the women’s locker room – I’d probably be unable to keep from staring – but fortunately, for the women – I’m not allowed to use that locker room.
At work … we’re in a building that encompasses other organizations (that I have nothing to do with). While using the urinal one day – a guy in drag sally’s up to the urinal next to me. He looked ridiculous in a dress. I believe the guy was BIGGER than I am – and I’m very big myself. He had a short blonde wig on … a yellow flowery dress – and he had hair on his legs with feet plugged into yellow high heels.
Dude – please.
I was informed that he was “kicked out” of the women’s head after he attempted to use it. Good for them.
Look – okay – I’ll deal with it but I’ll say this … if they’re going to put this into my face – then I will assert my right to publicly ridicule them for being idiots and expecting me to just look the other way. No I don’t want the government to pass laws against them – but the law better not come after me for laughing at their silly asses.
I’m wary of passing laws against transsexuals and crossdressers too, but it too often seems if you don’t then when they enter your space and ridicule them without physically harming nor threatening them in any way, then the transsexuals and crossdressers get protected from hate speach while the heterosexuals, non transsexuals and non crossdressers. do not. It works the same for the races: Whites are not protected and it’s open season on them like heterosexuals, non transexxuals and non crossdressers. You could say the same about religion too: Christians are not protected, and it’s open season on them, but God forbid you say anything against Jews, Muslims etc. You could say the same thing about men and women, men are wrong and women are right. It may be a bit of an overgeneralization, but not by much to say these things. The hypocracy is appalling. The sheeple tolerate it even though they are the majority in all of these groups and could end it if they wanted to do so, and probably peacefully. Men who are not the majority tolerate it even though even a large commited minority of men could make life hell on Earth in our civilization, and men are always potentially more physically dangerous than women. Men could end it too probably peacefully if they weren’t such sheeple too. That’s how it is in the USA, and our leaders don’t respect us. Whores are truly maligned like the other groups I mentioned but are by far the most vulnerable group and get too little support by far too. Our leaders don’t respect us. The certainly don’t respect the majority nor the potentially most dangerous. I vote to show my protest against the status quo as much as possible. Our leaders don’t respect the vote or majority either, and it doesn’t seem to matter whether you vote or not. I vote, I protest. You don’t vote, they don’t care. We as a people let them be this way.
The core problem with ‘hate crime’ laws is that they give the State the authority to punish Wrong Thought. Anybody who thinks this is a good idea obviously cannot imagine a time when their own minority (whatever it may be) might be scapegoated. I frankly thought that Gays and Transgenderds knew their history better than that.
Apparently not! The pendulum always swings. Nothing and noone remain in power forever. Krulac said it before. The best thing to do is take power away from the government so they can’t punish anyone for nonsense like this. You should never look to say if we had our people in charge we would right the world. Just leave everyone alone unless they truly cause harm. Unfortuneately too many today say you hurt my feelings or sensiblities. The liberals seem to get upset over nothing more often, but the conservatives are more than bad enough in my opinion. I say too bad, and deal with it.
One day, probably sooner than we might think, it will be possible to literally change one’s sex. Right now, however, I have the liveliest doubts about the entire transgender spectrum. Not about the people themselves so much as about that portion of the medical profession that calls mutilating one set of organs and replacing them with non-functioning fakes ‘sex change’. I think that this practice taints public understanding of the whole range, from cross-dressers to the true hermaphrodites. And I frankly don’t see what to do about it.
It gives bigots like this fool Floyd a fulcrum on which to rest the lever of their petty power.
I suppose that it is barely possible that some pervert might use the term Transgendered as a cover for entering into the bathrooms of the sex he(she) targets and committing some nasty offence. I suspect that the odds are low, and I hope that if it ever comes up he(she) gets mobbed and kicked to death by every Gay, Lesbian, Cross-dresser, or Transgendered individual in a three state radius.
Maybe I’m just another bigot (maybe, hell. Probably.) But beyond a certain point all body modification strikes me as self-mutilation. You want soup plates in your earlobes? Fine. You are an adult. But I think you a tad strange, and I resent efforts to re-educate me on that point. You wish you had been born with a different body? I can understand that. What I have trouble understanding is going under the knife for a bad fake at a change. It makes me feel sorry for YOU, and want to beat your surgeon to death.
*grumble*
The nanotech and biotech boys need to get off the dime. Real, full sex changes would be SUCH a boon.
Recently Ferdinand Bardamu skewered the transsexuals on his blog at http://www.inmalafide.com/ with the 04 February 2012 article, “The Tranny Who Slept with a Thousand Men”. He’s right that it doesn’t change your XX chromosome if you are a woman nor your XY chromosome if you are a man. Our current technology can not change this. Mutilating and maiming youself does not help. Your sexuality is encompassed by your entire being with or without your penis and testes. Maggie McNeill would agree with him that shaming men as sex addicts is ridiculous because men if not for the constraints of social mores and biology would constantly have sex if they could. I mostly agreed with him, and although I ‘d prefer not stop people from doing this, I reserve the right to ridicule them. Here’s the article.
http://www.inmalafide.com/blog/2012/04/the-tranny-who-slept-with-a-thousand-men/
I’m not surprised that whore’s lives are getting worse in Sweden, Norway and Iceland under the Swedish model for prostitution. All they have are lies and Potempkin villages. They become indignant and lie some more when you see through their lies and tell them the truth. It’s really not surprising. To the johns, what’s a few crimes more or a few more stupid acts even if not criminal whaen you persecute the johns with arrest, prosecution, conviction and punishment. The same could be said of whores when they are persecuted in the same way. Prostitution is not a true crime, but is a true vice. Learn the difference and realize it’s almost always a bad idea to outlaw vice. It’s always a bad idea to outlaw prostitution.
I’m not surprised Thai women whores are moving in to Norway and Sweden and other women are moving out. Gorbachev stated a long time ago on another blog that East Asian women be they amatuers or whores are the best at baffling men as to what they are thinking, have done or going to do. Actually they are excellent at even fooling their female friends and female relatives too. They will confuse Westerners especially the women even more while simultaneously raking in greater proffits for greater risks. East Asian women are masters about getting around obstacles, surviving and thriving. Many White men when they want an exotic beauty go for East Asian ladies. I speak from personal experience that it’s usually more pleasant to have sexual intercourse with East Asian ladies because on average their bodies are smaller and so their vaginas are on average smaller. Back in my English teaching in Korea as well as U.S. Army tour of duty in Korea, I knew men of all races who insisted that not only were the amatuer East Asian ladies vaginas tighter but the whore East Asian ladies vaginas were tighter than women back home in the USA, Canada, Austrailia, New Zealand, Britain, Ireland, South Africa etc. I predict the Thai whores will profit greatly in Norway and Sweden as a result.
I predict the Thai whores will profit greatly in Norway and Sweden
I predict Asian prostitutes will continue their expansion throughout the entire world. They are becoming more common in many markets that the average person might not expect; Madagascar, Afghanistan, Ghana, Angola, Romania, Congo, South Africa….
In East Asia, the proportion of men that visit prostitutes is higher than in the West, and in China their skewed demographics (ie. female shortage due to selective abortion and infanticide) is creating a boom in prostitution.
Please read my commets and reply below.
Prostitution is big over in Asia. I’d rather it be the leading vice than narcotics. as you get less trouble and more happiness overall(for men, women and children) that way. Most Americans don’t know it, but most Asians do. Vice is not good, but it seems impossible to entirely eradicate. It seems prostitution is the least harmful and most beneficial vice there is. Vice is not usually true crime. Prostitution therefore as a a vice is not a true crime. I’ve known men who have changed their mind about prostitution when they went to Germany, China, South Korea like men or other countries too. W.F. Price changed his mind about prostitution when he went to China. Here’s the link.
http://www.the-spearhead.com/2012/02/04/time-to-reopen-debate-on-prostitution/#comments
I hope Maggie McNeill and others read it too.
Doclove, I read through the article you linked to, and noticed that the comments are quite mixed. Some favor prostitution and some don’t.
What proportion of MRAs do you think would support decriminalization?
I think most MRA’s would. It’s an open site and some anti-MRA’s comment there from time to time. I’m not an MRA myself because I don’t do anything for it except write responses to blogs like this site, The Spearhead etc., but I am an MRA supporter. Most of us MRA’s and MRA supporters have fun verbally skwering the anti-MRA’s and their supporters because their ideas are usually idiotic, harmful and wrong. The real question is: How many men in the West in general and the USA in particular support MRA ideas and/or support ending prostitution prohibition? The answer is not many. I keep telling these men that you may be able beat me to a pulp up and down the line, but your mind is pussy-whooped. A great fighter or a physically strong man is not the best man, but a man who has a sane wise strong mind is the best man.
>sex workers no longer want to carry condoms and lubricants out of fear that they will be used by the police as [evidence]…
This is not something to be proud over. These are important tools in sex work today. Depriving sex workers of them only leads to disease.
As for the whole transgenders in the toilets thing, have I ever been in a public toilet with a transgender person? I’m sure I have. And so what? I’ve also been in toilets in lesbian bars with very butch women, although I’m not sure they would classify themselves as transgender.
My understanding of the whole thing (And I’ve known someone who went from female to male) is that the person’s mental mapping, and brain structure fits the target sex. That they think like a man or woman despite the body they may be in. I would think that a situation that forces transgender people to use a public toilet different from the sex they present as would put them in more danger than anyone else. In fact, I remember hearing something on the news recently about a state, Maryland, where there’s a law like this pending, and even the police chief admits that there’s been 0 cases of transgender people attacking anyone in public toilets.
>There’s two gay guys in they gym with me every morning and I don’t use the gym showers any more after my workout because these guys aren’t the least bit discreet about staring.
Hah. Welcome to what women experience from you straight men all the time. You stare very openly at us. Oh, but that’s different, right? “natural”? Well, it probably feels natural to the gay men, too.
Gay, lesbian, transgender, all part of the wonderful spectrum of human behaviour. You straight guys in particular need to stop being so damn rigid and frightened all the time.
You deal with MEN staring at you in the shower in the locker room at the gym? Don’t think so.
Not all of the spectrum is “wonderful” – I’m sorry but I don’t have agree that it is. The only thing I have to agree with is the fact that, when it doesn’t impact me or MY rights – then you should be allowed to engage in whatever creepy behavior you wish to. I don’t see “scat” as “wonderful” – sorry. I don’t see “Golden Showers” as “wonderful”. I don’t take kindly to GUYS meat gazing me in the locker room – I don’t see that as “wonderful”. Now – the first two in the last sentence – have fun with ’em if you wish – it’s none of my business. But when someone encroaches on my space in an offensive way – I’m big enough to do something about it – if they are stupid enough to do it. No, I do not want the government to get involved to “protect” me – but I also don’t think the government should get involved to protect their right to be stupid.
I agree with you Krulac that a naked heterosexual man getting stared at by a homosexual man is not the same as even a bikini wearing heterosexual woman getting stared at by heterosexual men. I’d like to add that not every man is big and strong enough to defend himself from another man. Some homosexual men are big, strong and violent plus could beat the ever living daylights out of the smaller, weaker and less violent heterosexual men. Violent homosexual prison rape happens all the time for both men and women. We had a few males, both fellow U.S. soldiers and local nationals, who were arrested for violently raping U.S. male soldiers and male local nationals while I was in Iraq and Afghanistan too. Homosexuals have just as many rapists amongst them as heterosexuals, and no sane sensible and wise heterosexual wants to hand opportunity to violent homosexual rapists to rape or sexually assault.
Most Western women have no idea of how much men protect them from harm from other men and sometimes other women. Almost all men worldwide seem to protect women and children to the best of their ability who are innocent and following the cultural norms when preyed upon. Few do this for innocent men who are preyed upon. Men are more typically left to fend for themselves even against difficult or impossible odds much more often. There’s a reason men don’t walk around like Eloi in H.G. Wells science fiction novel, “The Time Machine” , as much as women especially Western women in my opinion. It is because we men have a better and greater sense that there are Morlock who will be happy to figuratively or literally destroy us and eat us just like in Well’s novel on average. There are exceptions and degrees of course, but the exception proves the rule, not the opposite.
That’s a good column Maggie. My wife has gone through menopause and has experienced a greatly reduced sex drive. HRT was not really an option because her doctor was under the impression that HRT actually elevated a woman’s chances of experiencing certain kinds of cancers. I thought this was pretty much bunk – but anyway, my wife got a rare form of thyroid cancer which required her thyroid to be removed. Now the doc’s excuse that HRT may be too risky for her. Whatever …
Regarding men and testosterone. I think scientists and researchers often forget to point out the importance of 5-alpha dihydrotestosterone (DHT). Its synthesized from testosterone by the 5-alpha reductase enzyme. Some researchers claim that DHT has an androgenic effect that is ten times stronger than testosterone. I think DHT is more important to sex drive than testosterone is – however, since DHT is derived from testosterone – it’s likely that higher test levels lead to higher DHT levels. But – unlike test, DHT cannot convert to estrogen – and conversion of test to estrogen is a problem – especially in older men.
I like DHT … it’s the “naughty hormone” that the politically correct wish to eliminate. DHT is a key factor in male aggression and confidence. If you want to see DHT walking around on two feet – look at any successful mixed martial arts fighter – they are LOADED with it!
Regarding the bacon thing: I think the increase risk would concern people because pancreatic cancer is nearly always fatal, unlike more common cancers like colon, skin or breast. What’s more telling to me is that they are doing a post-facto analysis of cancer patients, not a longitudinal study of a sample population. These studies are almost always heavily biased because sick people are more likely to remember “bad” behavior and more likely to have combined that “bad” behavior with other factors that may be more important. In principle, I don’t understand why bacon would cause pancreatic cancer since bacon contains fat and protein, not sugar, which is what the pancreas works on. I suspect that, assuming their analysis isn’t complete bullshit (always likely with these studies), bacon is a secondary indicator of a more significant factor like sugar consumption.
Swedish connection to this bacon thing too?
http://www.meattradenewsdaily.co.uk/news/140112/sweden___ogus_claims_over_cancer_financed_by_animal_rights_groups.aspx
Ah, thank you! That’s going into TW3 #6! 🙂
Norwegian clients have ARENAS for sex? Wow! And it’s so damn cold there!
As I understand it, the Norwegians adopted the Swedish mess as an over-reaction to the arrival of African sex workers in Oslo, despite clear and well-stated misgivings by the Norwegian authorities, who pointed out major discrepencies in the Swedish figures for numbers of street sex workers, their police having totally different figures from their social services for the same streets and times.
But the Scandinavians always like to unite – take a look at their Eurovision Song Contest voting.
I don’t see an announcement that “studies show that food X increases the risk of cancer” to be some usurpation of freedom. Now, I’d rather they were honest about it, and not overstate the dangers or make them up because of personal or monetary reasons. But I don’t assume that “you know, that really isn’t good for you” will automatically be followed by “therefore you’re not allowed to eat it.”
I base this on the fact that after more than a half century of knowing that fats, white sugar, etc. can be unhealthy, they’re still around, and as legal as anybody could like. Even cigarettes are still legal.
Bacon is bad? I feel an “Edgar Friendly” speech coming along. 😈
When they ban bacon, or Chantillyicing, I’ll be worried. Until then, it’s just like the claim, that I’ve been hearing for the last thirty-five years or more, that the FDA is going to take our vitamins away. Any day now. For over three decades, any day now.