A priest, a rabbi and a leprechaun walk into a bar. The leprechaun looks around and says, “Begorrah, I’m in the wrong joke!”
The prefix “meta” means “after” or “beyond”, sometimes in the sense of a recursive function; for example, “metacognition” means “thinking about thinking” and a “meta-joke” is a joke about jokes. A “metaupdate” is therefore an update of another update, in this case items which have appeared in previous update columns. I’m going to organize these in chronological order of the updates, rather than the order of the original columns the updates reference.
Think of the Children! in Further Developments (November 18th, 2011)
Child Cultists apparently believe that sexually-active adults emit invisible “sex rays”, and that if any of that sex wasn’t entirely vanilla the intensity of those “sex rays” increases exponentially and never, ever fades away. Therefore no such person, no matter how long ago she committed these dreaded acts, can ever again be allowed with 10 meters of children lest her pervy emanations induce the dreaded “premature sexualization”, which might {Gasp!} cause innocent children to have sexual thoughts or feelings at some point before the magical Advent of Shazam at exactly midnight on their 18th birthdays.
That was in reference to outcry over former porn star Sasha Grey’s presuming to actually read to children in a volunteer program. Though she was initially accepted by administrators, they now seem to believe that sex rays can even contaminate the money handled by harlots, and magically seep from bank accounts into educational programs, thence to schools and into the brains of poor, innocent little soap-bubble urchins:
…being deep in the red isn’t deterring one [educational] group from publicly rejecting money [from]…former adult film star Sasha Grey…Although she retired…last April, one of Grey’s scenes is featured [apparently without Grey’s consent] in adult film “Anal Artists,” set to debut this week…In support of her “recent efforts to expose children to the world of literature,” Assence Films will donate a portion of the film’s proceeds to the National Education Association’s Read Across America program…But…NEA officials said…”Sasha Grey is not affiliated with the…program nor has she been invited or endorsed…to read at any…events, and NEA will not accept any proceeds from…any of her films”…Howard Levine of Exile Distribution …[said this] is discriminatory. “Anyone that’s supporting reading and helping kids and donating money to their cause should be accepted…they’re trying to be politically correct”…
I’ve got news for the NEA; if money which has paid for sex work is “contaminated” then every child in the country is already affected, because the money earned by sex workers of all types flows into local economies just like everyone else’s does. It is virtually a statistical certainty that some of the money you’ve given your kids this month as allowance or whatever was paid to a sex worker at some point between leaving the mint and ending up in your hands. If our money is “dirty”, then every church and school in the world is hopelessly polluted by our “sin” because they’re all supported by money we’ve handled or even directly contributed.
A Moral Cancer in That Was the Week That Was (#2) (February 5th, 2012)
Actually, this is a double meta-update; remember the “bacon causes cancer” scare story? Well, it turns out that it was not only inconclusive, but promoted by a radical animal rights group of the same ilk as the PCRM, which I discussed in That Was the Week That Was (#3):
Link between eating processed meat [such as bacon or sausages] and pancreatic cancer in Swedish research is bogus and paid for by animal rights groups…But the…World Cancer Research Fund suggested the link may be down to obesity…Prof Susanna Larsson, who conducted the study at the Karolinska Institute, [said] links to…cancers [other than bowel cancer] were “quite controversial”…
As JunkScience.com pointed out, “This is a meta-analysis of 11 studies, none of which…link processed meat-eating with pancreatic cancer. So 11 x 0 = zero.”
The Camel’s Nose in That Was the Week That Was (#5) (February 18th, 2012)
The disgusting saga of Mark Berndt, the third-grade teacher who fed his semen to children for years and documented it with photos, just keeps getting worse. The original story broke on January 11th, then on February 3rd a second teacher from the same school was arrested:
…The arrest of Miramonte Elementary School [second-grade] teacher Martin Bernard Springer, 49, came three days after L.A. prosecutors accused former teacher Mark Berndt of bizarre acts in his classroom …The allegations against Springer…come from two students he allegedly touched improperly within the last three years…Springer was ordered out of his classroom Thursday morning…Authorities are looking for other potential victims in both cases as well as past episodes of possible misconduct…Supt. John Deasy said he wants to fire Springer as soon as next Tuesday, when the Board of Education will discuss the case in closed session…At the same meeting, Deasy said, he also will urge the board to fire Hamilton High music teacher Vance Miller…[after] two former students, now adults…accused Miller of having sexual relationships with them…
By Monday, the district had decided on a scorched-earth policy instead:
…Los Angeles school officials said they will temporarily replace the entire staff of an elementary school…where two teachers have been accused of lewd acts…Supt. John Deasy announced the action at a tense public meeting…in which…parents chanted “cover-up!” and accused the school system of failing to protect their children…More than a quarter of the students enrolled at Miramonte didn’t show up Monday as parents kept them home…Officials emphasized that no other educators at the school are under suspicion but that a bold act was needed…Many, maybe all, of the current Miramonte staff will be returned to the school eventually…In the interim, their places will be filled by teachers and other workers on a rehiring list. The Miramonte staff will continue to be paid…Once students return, each will be interviewed by the district, and a psychiatric social worker will be present in every classroom, Deasy said…
So much for not traumatizing the kids. I can’t even begin to imagine how much a social worker in every classroom will cost, but obviously the district has plenty of money:
The Los Angeles Unified School District paid Mark Berndt…$40,000 to drop the challenge to his dismissal last year. The payout consisted of four months of back salary plus reimbursement for the cost of health benefits. Berndt was fired by the Board of Education in February 2011…but…fought to keep his job…until he settled with the school system and resigned in June…counsel David Holmquist [said]…”We were told we could not do any investigation” to avoid interfering with a law enforcement probe…”We didn’t have any evidence, and we couldn’t put on any witnesses. We didn’t have anything to successfully defend a challenge.”
The cops are still being proprietary about the whole thing, and on the 18th told the parents to butt out:
The investigation into a former third-grade teacher…could be hampered by the flood of civil cases related to the scandal and public statements made by alleged victims, according to Los Angeles County sheriff’s detectives…Since the charges were announced, civil attorneys say they are representing more than 60 victims…Earlier this week two alleged victims appeared with their attorney on the “Dr. Phil” television show. “The lawyers are making it that much more difficult,” [said] William McSweeney, chief of detectives…”It is going to raise issues of credibility.” The civil attorneys have made claims about Berndt that are not contained in the original charges, including some accusations…that Berndt fed the alleged victims cookies with his semen on them…Detectives are still investigating and are urging families to contact the Sheriff’s Department before seeking private counsel.
I’m glad the cops get to see how it feels to have outsiders interfering with their work for a change.
One Year Ago Today (Meta-edition)
“Thinking with the Wrong Head” discussed Chris Lee, the congressman who stupidly documented his indiscretions with photos. Well, here’s another example of the same syndrome, this time from Arizona:
…well-known border hawk Sheriff Paul Babeu, who’s now running for Congress in Arizona, was…[accused by] a Mexican immigrant who said he dated the sheriff for years and was threatened with deportation if he ever told anyone about their romance. The Phoenix New Times…broke the story on its website…complete with text messages…[and] compromising photos…reminiscent of recent sex scandals that ended the careers of Congressmen Anthony Weiner and Chris Lee…The New Times identified the accuser only by his first name, José…he met Babeu through the dating website gay.com in 2006…Babeu was a police officer in the Phoenix suburb of Chandler at the time and was elected as sheriff of Pinal County in late 2008… José volunteered for Babeu’s campaign, maintaining his websites and social media accounts…They were apparently together during Babeu’s fast rise to becoming a national figure in the fight against illegal immigration…[but] their relationship went sour…when [José] began to suspect that Babeu was using a website for casual hookups…
Martin Bernard Springer – yeah see, this guy is one that I’d like to see the government go “medieval” on. I know it won’t happen though, because we have to have priorities and we really need to keep focus on eliminating prostitution and other prohibited consensual behaviors – since we are so close to “victory” in that war. /sarcasm
I will say – there was a day in this nation where old Martin would have had more to fear from a few fathers than the cops. Unfortunately, those days are long passed.
But I mean, I’m serious here. What he did, is not only “molestation”, but he’s just set back the cause of male elementary school teachers a hundred years. Every male elementary school teacher is going to now be suspect, and – in fact – they already kind of were anyway. Also – I can see all kinds of ridiculous prohibitions coming in now preventing teachers from giving any student anything to ingest – including water.
It would be so much simpler to just electrocute the guy, to send a message to anyone else out there contemplating going down this road but I know most people don’t agree with me on that. 🙁
Also … wrt Sheriff Paul Babeu, he is (erm, WAS) Mitt Romney’s campaign chairman in Arizona. I’ve seen him on the news many times. Pretty clean cut guy … and he wore his uniform in immaculate fashion. No homo here … my military training instilled a keen eye for a sharp uniform – and an untidy one as well. Well, his career is down the tubes. When will these guys ever learn? LOL – lover was an illegal alien. You can’t make this stuff up!
One thing I find very heartening about the Babeu thing is that very few people seem to care that the relationship was homosexual; it’s Babeu’s hypocrisy and the fact that he threatened José that has people upset, and rightly so.
I agree with you on that and, if I’m not mistaken, then Babeu at least had the sense to not compound his hyprocrisy by attempting to deny the relationship. Hell, for all I know – he could have been out of the closet even before this – at least unofficially that is.
Wall Street exec pays his hooker. Hooker buys tampons from the local grocery and deli. Grocery and deli pays local sales tax. Local sales tax pays teacher at local elementary school. Teacher donates some of her salary for classroom school-books. Kids read a great book courtesy of the hooker.
Pass this on to the National Education Association. Give ’em good education in economics.
They’d probably say something to the effect that once money changes hands, you only get whatever contamination the person who gave or paid it to you had. IOW, the eee-vile hooker money became decontaminated by its contact with the store and the teacher.
Which is basically stupid, but there you go.
Sasha Grey’s situation reminds me of the time Pete Guither — a vocal opponent of the war on drugs — endorsed and contributed to the campaign of a local candidate. His opponent used Pete’s support against him, and the guy Pete supported returned the contribution. It’s more than a little disconcerting to discover that the folks with political power regard you as an unperson.
That LA school district disgusting saga:
I commend those parents who kept their kids at home, and hope they continue to do so. But at the same time, many of the parents of the kids who continued to send them there are probably wage-earners, so they have no choice.
What would I do is start the homeschooling.
As Krulac said, this is only going to reinforce the suspicion with which people automatically view any man who works with kids.
Maggie, you’ve said before that male sexuality is innately different from female sexuality. I think you might have even used the word “predatory” (I might be mistaken). I’d be interested in your opinion on how that affects men’s interactions with kids. I believe the vast majority of men would never, ever abuse a child, but it does seem like most abusers are men (I have no numbers to back me up here, only a general impression). What do you think is going on here?
Male sexuality is predatory, in a way; it’s a game of hunt and chase, of collecting trophies, and we still sometimes see a man’s sexual partners referred to as “conquests”. There’s nothing evil or bad about that; it’s the nature of the beast. What’s evil is when that natural instinct is perverted to an improper sex object, in this case children, or when a man allows that drive to override his judgment and morality.
I do feel compelled to point out that situations like the one at Miramonte develop in part from our insistence on conditioning children to blindly obey authority, and in part from our love of entrenched bureaucracies which will do anything to ensure their own continuance.
At my last command in the Navy (prior to the hurricane) … I had a conversation with a female FBI agent in New Orleans who investigated online child predators. Her modus operandi was that she would pose online as a minor and attempt to attract pedophiles.
She informed me that almost all of the online child predators were MEN – and overwhelmingly, almost every single one – WHITE MEN.
Is that accurate? I cannot say but that is what she told me. Intrestingly, she also told me that White Male FBI agents burned out very quickly in her job … because they were decent men and could not cope long term with others, like them, doing these kinds of things to kids.
Pedophilia – and these kinds of sicknesses – are not a part of male sexuality. They are, rather – a cancerous off-growth of it.
I can be one of the biggest “pervos” on this planet … swear to God every adult woman I meet I’m having sexual thoughts about her – even those that aren’t that good looking. “PREDATORY” is a good way to describe it. You don’t want to spend five minutes in my head. When I lift weights in the gym I’m thinking about sex to push me through the painful reps. My wife is hot and she’s the best sex I’ll ever have on this planet but yet, I still look around for others. I used to try to fight it but now I just go with it – because it’s never harmed anyone. Now, I can go into greater detail on this … and by the end of all that you’d be like “WTF IS WRONG WITH THIS GUY!” but I think you get the picture! 🙂
But not once in my life, even for a millisecond – have I had a sexual thought about a child.
Not once, have I thought about “raping” any woman. The thought is repulsive to me. I have been with women and engaged in hours of foreplay that melted the paint off the walls in the room we were in – and then when the moment of truth came, she got “cold feet” and said “no”. This has actually happened to me several times. In every case I just smiled at her and said … “It’s okay”. Never got mad … never even thought … “well I can just force myself on her”. I just went home and took a cold shower – and blamed myself for not being effective in closing the sale! LOL.
So no – preying on children is not a part of male sexuality – it’s actually some kind of strange wiring that attaches to that part of us in some men.
My own personal feeling? I’m a happy-go-lucky guy and I don’t have any self-esteem issues. I know my strengths and weaknesses and I’m good with them. No one ever abused me growing up. I had two very strict, but loving parents who are still married today. There were no “weirdos” anywhere in my family or my extended family. I had an alcoholic uncle – ONE … and I didn’t see him very much. My Mom’s side were all WASPS and my Dad’s side were all French Catholic. I got exposed to both. I did not grow up in the church though – because my Dad kind of didn’t like the church so he never encouraged us.
I think there are a lot of “angry white men” out there – but I’m not one of them. Sure, there’s reasons to be angry – but … HELLO … this is planet Earth – and as the Hindus say … “life is about suffering”. I expect the bad stuff and I expect that there will be idiots who don’t like me because of the way I look – or because I’m a man and they’ve had issues in their own life with other “men”.
But – I don’t think all men are as fortunate as I have been – and maybe that makes them more susceptible to this gross pedophilic wiring?
I don’t know – I scratch my head. I’m not a psychologist and I’m not even very smart … but, if pressed – I’d say it has something to do with background.
Is it too late for me to add to the above that … another reason that guys like myself aren’t interested in kids might be BECAUSE of our predatory sexual nature?
I just read Maggie’s response above concerning “conquests” … YES! This is certainly a big part of it. I wish there were another name for it besides “conquest” though – because that suggests something like … “Aha! I have CONQUERED YOU! YOU WINCH! BOW TO ME!!”
And – it’s really nothing like that. I mean … I do like sexually submissive women and I do like it when my wife plays the part of a little “slave girl” and all – and I’m her master, but I don’t see myself as being superior to her in any way. And – I don’t even try to boss her around outside the bedroom.
“Predatory” suggests “hunting” … and that is more like what it is. Hunters have certain rules – you’re out hunting for a certain species of game. You’re not interested in the immature game – because that is grinding seed corn and results in reduced prospects for hunting long-term.
And – you’re interested in the more CHALLENGING game.
And that is the way it is, for me, at least. I’m not even really attracted to young women (in their early 20’s) – because they seem so easy to me, besides also seeming very “empty” of experiences. I know not all of them are – and some very astute ones post to this blog from time to time. But as a general rule, I’m going to be “attracted” to anything that looks half-way decent. But what really drives me crazy is an intelligent woman (one that’s smarter than me – which isn’t hard! :P) … who LOOKS like a hard nut to crack.
See, here is the thing … I once dated a BEAUTIFUL Hawaiian girl when I was stationed at Pearl Harbor. All my buddies were jealous of me … but the thing was, she wasn’t too smart or interesting … and she didn’t think really deep thoughts. In the bedroom – she was like a hunk of plywood. Who would have thought?
And then … I have dated rather plain-looking Librarians, or Secretaries, or whatever – and you’d look at them and not think too much was there. But DAMN! When you pull the shell (and the dress) away – THERE’S A PRIZE THERE! I’m talking serious smoking-hot fire, and a brain to talk to when you’re tired of having sex (which is a point that takes a long time to reach with such a woman!).
So there’s the “predatory sexual nature” for me … it’s more like hunting … or “mining for gold” … and finding something that no one else has noticed! 🙂
I certainly understand the attraction to smart women. There was, some years back, this astronomer who was always showing up on TV to talk about something that was going on in space exploration at the time. She was cute, but no hawt babe by normal standards. But her enthusiasm when she would talk about orbits and leading the target and light-minutes and such, and the fact that she WAS talking about orbits and leading the target and light-minutes and such… damn I wanted that woman.
You want to talk about being attracted to a child? Dottie, of Clue Club. Officially thirteen but she looked younger. Now, in my defense I should say that I was ten. But the little prodigy seemed like she’d make a good girlfriend, cooties or no.
And by the way: Laura is a pretty girl, but she’s got a big ol’ brain on her, and that helps. Helps a lot, like when we want to, I don’t know, talk.
Funny thing, but the only time I ever get the slightest inclination to have a look at pedo porn is when I read an article about a group of rich powerful people being busted for it by a super special task force.
I mean, with all that fuss, and given the people concerned, you suddenly get the nagging suspicion that there just has to be something worth looking at.
Never found any though. Not even a sexy FBI lady offering me some. Drat.
As for “sex rays”, it sounds like a business opportunity. Build a device that will cleanse money of “sex rays”, containing a UV lamp and a roller that has been rubbed on the body of the last eunuch of the Ching Dynasty. Protect your children! Stop your husband from being infected and straying!
Don’t pervert male teachers put out sex rays? Shouldn’t the school be razed to the ground and sown with salt?
I agree. And just for good measure, they should divert a river to flow over its site, then burn all the maps on which it’s marked and kill everyone who knows where it was.
Steve Milloy’s junkscience.com is not the best source for skeptical science reporting, and this is a good example of why. He says: “This is a meta-analysis of 11 studies, none of which on their own link processed meat-eating with pancreatic cancer. So 11 x 0 = zero.” That shows a misunderstanding (or deliberate misstatement) of how meta-studies work. The individual studies may have found little of statistical significance — results that could be described as “near zero” — but when you combine them all mathematically, the results could be meaningful.
Think of it like a shop owner trying to figure out if his cashier is stealing. A single day’s register balance may not tell him anything: Cashiers will make random mistakes; it could be slightly under one day, and slightly over the next. But if, as the days build up, he finds that he’s losing more money than he’s making, then it can’t be random chance. It may not be a thieving cashier either, but something is surely going on, and it merits more investigation.
I don’t know enough about the subject to tell if this meta-study or the underlying studies are any good — and it’s likely that opponents of meat eating are overstating the case — but if it’s bad, it’s not bad because “11 x 0 = zero.”
Thanks for pointing that out, Windy! I think Milloy was trying to be pithy there and instead ended up making a fallacious statement.
do they actually beleive that children dont think of sex before 18 and that a pornstar can pollute their innocent little minds,by reading to them?let them go to any high school at any western country and ask who sasha grey is,most ”innocent”kids will be able to answer.not to mention that many do things like sasha does,without getting paid anyway.i dont know what was going on when they went to high school or if they have conviniently forgotten what was going on,but most teenagers have had sex before 18,many have smoked pot or even taken pills,and we had some gangbangs as well.and this is without having any pornstar come and read to us,we dont have any sex ed either for that matter in schools here.before they get worried with their children being within close distance to a pornstar i recommend them to search through their ”innocent” childrens stuff,they might even find sasha grey to be more innocent.
Yes, teens have been having sex from time immemorial, but adults who really should know better are always on the lookout for a scapegoat to blame. OMG, it must be Sasha Grey’s fault! Or maybe sex education is the problem. Ah, availability of birth control is definitely the culprit.. blah, blah, blah.
“Ever since we started trading with the Sumerians the kids have picking up on this ‘writing’ crap, and it’s rotting their minds! Why back in my day we MEMORIZED sagas! And we knew how to keep our legs together, too! We weren’t running around like a bunch sex-crazed animals like the kids today, no siree. Well OK there was always some kid, but…”
Here’s a news flash that’s sure to upset the busybodies- Lots of sex workers, including porn actors, have children. Or somewhere, they have children in their lives. And they love and value those children just as much as any other parent. You want to see rage, just tell some sex worker that just because she’s a whore her children are less worthy.
If one uses their brain, rather than emotion, it’s pretty easy to deal with. Most kids, when young, know that their parents have some kind of job. Porn, or any other kind of sex work is just another kind of job. The problem comes in when the kids get a bit older and begin hearing the attitudes of the moralists towards what their Mum does for a living. There’s where the real damage to the kids comes in.
Also, although I agree with Maggie, that male sexuality is different, and predatory. I strongly disagree with the idea often floated by some people that all men are, at their core, rapists or molesters. It’s simply not true. If it were, there would be a lot more rape and molestation.
People know what behaviour is acceptable. Back when I was working, I was one of the few in my town who did “rough sex” work. I’d take on the guys who liked that. I could do it, it never bothered me, and gave me a specialty. I saw a certain man weekly who craved that sort of thing. Now to look at him, you’d never have suspected. He had a very responsible job, a high position, wore $500 suits. In his normal life, he was quite the sophisticated gentleman. He didn’t go around getting rough with women, except within the limited boundaries of our sessions. Even then he respected the limits. This was what got him off, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with it.
So what kept him from running amok, and attacking women right and left? He was a responsible adult, and in control of his behaviour. The same thing that keeps anyone else from acting out their animal instincts. We all control ourselves. The trouble begins when there’s someone who, from illness or whatever cause, can’t, or who attains so much power that they feel no need to.
Extremely well-said! I agree 100%! 🙂
One more thing, and Maggie, you might well agree.
I hear and read all sorts of crap about sex workers, all the time. From what’s said, you’d think we were some sort of bizarre alien species, in-human demon sex machines from beyond, with a plan.
And when I hear or read this stuff, I think of the people I’ve known, worked with, associated with over the years, and think how off base all that is.
We were just people. People with all sorts of personalities, and ways.
Not only do I agree, it’s the central unifying theme of this blog and something I try to get across in every interview I do: There is NO simple way to differentiate sex workers from anyone else, period. No personality test, no telltale mode of dress, no single way of looking at things…not even what we do for a living, because there are a number of other ways of making a living (acting, dancing, massage and being kept, for example) which overlap one branch of sex work or another so completely they can’t be separated by some arbitrary rule cops and prosecutors might employ.