Former CBS News president Richard Salant (1961 - 64 and 1966 - 79) explained the major media's role: "Our job is to give people not what they want, but what we decide they ought to have." ...and to this very day most Americans haven't noticed they're being brained washed! ~ N. Hooben
Monday, September 6, 2010
The ..."perverse interpretation of Islamic law" bacha baz
From: SFGate.com
Afghanistan's dirty little secret
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Afghanistan's dirty little secret
"How can you fall in love if you can't see her face," 29-year-old Mohammed Daud told reporters. "We can see the boys, so we can tell which are beautiful."
Credit: Yuri Cortez / AFP / Getty Images
Western forces fighting in southern Afghanistan had a problem. Too often, soldiers on patrol passed an older man walking hand-in-hand with a pretty young boy. Their behavior suggested he was not the boy's father. Then, British soldiers found that young Afghan men were actually trying to "touch and fondle them," military investigator AnnaMaria Cardinalli told me. "The soldiers didn't understand."
All of this was so disconcerting that the Defense Department hired Cardinalli, a social scientist, to examine this mystery. Her report, "Pashtun Sexuality," startled not even one Afghan. But Western forces were shocked - and repulsed.
For centuries, Afghan men have taken boys, roughly 9 to 15 years old, as lovers. Some research suggests that half the Pashtun tribal members in Kandahar and other southern towns are bacha baz, the term for an older man with a boy lover. Literally it means "boy player." The men like to boast about it.
All of this was so disconcerting that the Defense Department hired Cardinalli, a social scientist, to examine this mystery. Her report, "Pashtun Sexuality," startled not even one Afghan. But Western forces were shocked - and repulsed.
For centuries, Afghan men have taken boys, roughly 9 to 15 years old, as lovers. Some research suggests that half the Pashtun tribal members in Kandahar and other southern towns are bacha baz, the term for an older man with a boy lover. Literally it means "boy player." The men like to boast about it.
"Having a boy has become a custom for us," Enayatullah, a 42-year-old in Baghlan province, told a Reuters reporter. "Whoever wants to show off should have a boy."
Baghlan province is in the northeast, but Afghans say pedophilia is most prevalent among Pashtun men in the south. The Pashtun are Afghanistan's most important tribe. For centuries, the nation's leaders have been Pashtun.
President Hamid Karzai is Pashtun, from a village near Kandahar, and he has six brothers. So the natural question arises: Has anyone in the Karzai family been bacha baz? Two Afghans with close connections to the Karzai family told me they know that at least one family member and perhaps two were bacha baz. Afraid of retribution, both declined to be identified and would not be more specific for publication.
As for Karzai, an American who worked in and around his palace in an official capacity for many months told me that homosexual behavior "was rampant" among "soldiers and guys on the security detail. They talked about boys all the time."
He added, "I didn't see Karzai with anyone. He was in his palace most of the time." He, too, declined to be identified.
In Kandahar, population about 500,000, and other towns, dance parties are a popular, often weekly, pastime. Young boys dress up as girls, wearing makeup and bells on their feet, and dance for a dozen or more leering middle-aged men who throw money at them and then take them home. A recent State Department report called "dancing boys" a "widespread, culturally sanctioned form of male rape."
So, why are American and NATO forces fighting and dying to defend tens of thousands of proud pedophiles, certainly more per capita than any other place on Earth? And how did Afghanistan become the pedophilia capital of Asia?
Sociologists and anthropologists say the problem results from perverse interpretation of Islamic law. Women are simply unapproachable. Afghan men cannot talk to an unrelated woman until after proposing marriage. Before then, they can't even look at a woman, except perhaps her feet. Otherwise she is covered, head to ankle.
"How can you fall in love if you can't see her face," 29-year-old Mohammed Daud told reporters. "We can see the boys, so we can tell which are beautiful."
Even after marriage, many men keep their boys, suggesting a loveless life at home. A favored Afghan expression goes: "Women are for children, boys are for pleasure." Fundamentalist imams, exaggerating a biblical passage on menstruation, teach that women are "unclean" and therefore distasteful. One married man even asked Cardinalli's team "how his wife could become pregnant," her report said. When that was explained, he "reacted with disgust" and asked, "How could one feel desire to be with a woman, who God has made unclean?"
That helps explain why women are hidden away - and stoned to death if they are perceived to have misbehaved. Islamic law also forbids homosexuality. But the pedophiles explain that away. It's not homosexuality, they aver, because they aren't in love with their boys.
Addressing the loathsome mistreatment of Afghan women remains a primary goal for coalition governments, as it should be.
But what about the boys, thousands upon thousands of little boys who are victims of serial rape over many years, destroying their lives - and Afghan society.
"There's no issue more horrifying and more deserving of our attention than this," Cardinalli said. "I'm continually haunted by what I saw."
As one boy, in tow of a man he called "my lord," told the Reuters reporter: "Once I grow up, I will be an owner, and I will have my own boys."
© 2010 Joel Brinkley
Baghlan province is in the northeast, but Afghans say pedophilia is most prevalent among Pashtun men in the south. The Pashtun are Afghanistan's most important tribe. For centuries, the nation's leaders have been Pashtun.
President Hamid Karzai is Pashtun, from a village near Kandahar, and he has six brothers. So the natural question arises: Has anyone in the Karzai family been bacha baz? Two Afghans with close connections to the Karzai family told me they know that at least one family member and perhaps two were bacha baz. Afraid of retribution, both declined to be identified and would not be more specific for publication.
As for Karzai, an American who worked in and around his palace in an official capacity for many months told me that homosexual behavior "was rampant" among "soldiers and guys on the security detail. They talked about boys all the time."
He added, "I didn't see Karzai with anyone. He was in his palace most of the time." He, too, declined to be identified.
In Kandahar, population about 500,000, and other towns, dance parties are a popular, often weekly, pastime. Young boys dress up as girls, wearing makeup and bells on their feet, and dance for a dozen or more leering middle-aged men who throw money at them and then take them home. A recent State Department report called "dancing boys" a "widespread, culturally sanctioned form of male rape."
So, why are American and NATO forces fighting and dying to defend tens of thousands of proud pedophiles, certainly more per capita than any other place on Earth? And how did Afghanistan become the pedophilia capital of Asia?
Sociologists and anthropologists say the problem results from perverse interpretation of Islamic law. Women are simply unapproachable. Afghan men cannot talk to an unrelated woman until after proposing marriage. Before then, they can't even look at a woman, except perhaps her feet. Otherwise she is covered, head to ankle.
"How can you fall in love if you can't see her face," 29-year-old Mohammed Daud told reporters. "We can see the boys, so we can tell which are beautiful."
Even after marriage, many men keep their boys, suggesting a loveless life at home. A favored Afghan expression goes: "Women are for children, boys are for pleasure." Fundamentalist imams, exaggerating a biblical passage on menstruation, teach that women are "unclean" and therefore distasteful. One married man even asked Cardinalli's team "how his wife could become pregnant," her report said. When that was explained, he "reacted with disgust" and asked, "How could one feel desire to be with a woman, who God has made unclean?"
That helps explain why women are hidden away - and stoned to death if they are perceived to have misbehaved. Islamic law also forbids homosexuality. But the pedophiles explain that away. It's not homosexuality, they aver, because they aren't in love with their boys.
Addressing the loathsome mistreatment of Afghan women remains a primary goal for coalition governments, as it should be.
But what about the boys, thousands upon thousands of little boys who are victims of serial rape over many years, destroying their lives - and Afghan society.
"There's no issue more horrifying and more deserving of our attention than this," Cardinalli said. "I'm continually haunted by what I saw."
As one boy, in tow of a man he called "my lord," told the Reuters reporter: "Once I grow up, I will be an owner, and I will have my own boys."
© 2010 Joel Brinkley
Joel Brinkley is a professor of journalism at Stanford University and is a former Pulitzer Prize-winning foreign correspondent for the New York Times. Contact The Chronicle via our online form: sfgate.com/chronicle/submissions/#1.
(C) San Francisco Chronicle 2010
Christchurch, New Zealand... the earthquake...in case you missed it
Feb 22, 2011 Update: Go here for latest earthquake...incredible video!
From New Zeal
Images of the Christchurch Quake
From New Zeal
Images of the Christchurch Quake
Our family escaped completely unscathed, but much of Christchurch and surrounding areas was not so lucky.
Up to 20% of the homes in the city may be rendered uninhabitable. Damage is at least $2 billion in a city of 340,000 people.
The University is closed, as will be many schools.
Aftershocks are continuing, with one of 6.0 on the Richter Scale expected anytime.
The original quake was 7.1
We're also expecting gale force winds later today. Sheeeeeesh.
Most of Christchurch looks normal, but some suburbs are flooded and the roads almost impassable. Hundreds of homes have been condemned and many central city businesses are closed.
Many personal landmarks were affected by the quake. A swingbridge I used to cross as a kid in Kaiapoi was wrecked, a place I used to work at in Merivale was demolished.
I used to visit friends in the flat to the right above.
I used to live in this bedroom back in the '80s.
Amazingly, no one was killed.
The damage is huge, but people love this town and we'll be back up and running pretty quickly.
There is a lot of pride in this city. We won't stay down for long.
Up to 20% of the homes in the city may be rendered uninhabitable. Damage is at least $2 billion in a city of 340,000 people.
The University is closed, as will be many schools.
Aftershocks are continuing, with one of 6.0 on the Richter Scale expected anytime.
The original quake was 7.1
We're also expecting gale force winds later today. Sheeeeeesh.
Most of Christchurch looks normal, but some suburbs are flooded and the roads almost impassable. Hundreds of homes have been condemned and many central city businesses are closed.
Many personal landmarks were affected by the quake. A swingbridge I used to cross as a kid in Kaiapoi was wrecked, a place I used to work at in Merivale was demolished.
I used to visit friends in the flat to the right above.
I used to live in this bedroom back in the '80s.
Amazingly, no one was killed.
The damage is huge, but people love this town and we'll be back up and running pretty quickly.
There is a lot of pride in this city. We won't stay down for long.
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Department Of Justice ??? Can we dare call it, "Justice"? (Looks more like some kind of personal revenge tactic.)
by Norman E. Hooben
There's a huge problem (in case you haven't noticed) with the United States Justice Department. Can we dare call it, "Justice"? And since when does the federal government sue sovereign states (i.e. Arizona) that are simply enforceing an already established federal law... Shouldn't it be the other way around? Arizona should be suing the federal government for not doing its job. (These are not just words. The abuses of power and failure to perform the job they were elected to do is so overwhelming that the case against Obama and company (from Holder to Pelosi and everyone in between) should warrant at a minimum life behind bars for the lot of them. (If that's the minimum punishment, what should be the mazimum? How 'bout a good ole Saturday morning mass hanging on the Washington Mall somewhere between the Capitol and the Lincoln Memorial. I'm sure we could draw a huge crowd.)
Meanwhile back at the office...the Justice Department that is...they continue to take the hints from Obama that the more anti-American rhetoric (in this case their website banner) they display the more popular they think that they are... Get a load of this...(from iowntheworld.com)
I’m not as upset with the design as I am with something else that Cunningham points out. After all, prior to October 6th of 2005, the DOJ banner didn’t have the flag on it. It was a crappy blue.
What is disconcerting is the quote that they’ve chosen -
From AT -
!snip!
Obama has to be aware that the perception people have of this administration is that they are angling to make America just another land mass occupying the larger, greater collective globe. And then he goes ahead and does this?
Folks, it’s not a perception. Obama is a danger to America.
HT/ Snowball the Sourpuss.
There's a huge problem (in case you haven't noticed) with the United States Justice Department. Can we dare call it, "Justice"? And since when does the federal government sue sovereign states (i.e. Arizona) that are simply enforceing an already established federal law... Shouldn't it be the other way around? Arizona should be suing the federal government for not doing its job. (These are not just words. The abuses of power and failure to perform the job they were elected to do is so overwhelming that the case against Obama and company (from Holder to Pelosi and everyone in between) should warrant at a minimum life behind bars for the lot of them. (If that's the minimum punishment, what should be the mazimum? How 'bout a good ole Saturday morning mass hanging on the Washington Mall somewhere between the Capitol and the Lincoln Memorial. I'm sure we could draw a huge crowd.)
Meanwhile back at the office...the Justice Department that is...they continue to take the hints from Obama that the more anti-American rhetoric (in this case their website banner) they display the more popular they think that they are... Get a load of this...(from iowntheworld.com)
Department of Justice Website Gets A Facelift
Bruce Cunningham, writing for American Thinker, reports that the DOJ has changed their website banner from Old Glory to basic black. See below.I’m not as upset with the design as I am with something else that Cunningham points out. After all, prior to October 6th of 2005, the DOJ banner didn’t have the flag on it. It was a crappy blue.
What is disconcerting is the quote that they’ve chosen -
From AT -
“The common law is the will of mankind, issuing from the life of the people.”
Catchy, huh? Just one tiny little (too small to be relevant obviously) point — the quote is from C. Wilfred Jenks, who in the 1930’s was a leading proponent of the “international law” movement, which had as its goal to impose a global common law and which backed ‘global workers’ rights.’
Call it Marxism, call it Progressivism, call it Socialism — under any of those names it definitely makes the DOJ look corrupt in their sleek, new black website with Marxist accessories to match.
See for yourself:http://www.justice.gov/
How very interesting that ‘they’ couldn’t find a nice quote from one of our Founders. People, we have lost our Republic. We need to get it back ASAP.See for yourself:http://www.justice.gov/
!snip!
Obama has to be aware that the perception people have of this administration is that they are angling to make America just another land mass occupying the larger, greater collective globe. And then he goes ahead and does this?
Folks, it’s not a perception. Obama is a danger to America.
HT/ Snowball the Sourpuss.
____________________________
Then we have this... (In the old days Holder would have been hung for this. NEH)
(cross posted from Pat Dollard )
Holder Sues Arizona Colleges For Asking To See Green Cards
Reporting from Washington — Employers who hire illegal immigrants can be fined, but the Obama administration warned this week that they also can be fined for asking legal immigrants to show their green cards before hiring them.
The Justice Department’s civil rights division sued the Maricopa County Community Colleges in Arizona, seeking damages from schools for having “intentionally committed document abuse discrimination.”
Prior to this year, the local colleges in the Phoenix area asked job applicants who were not U.S. citizens to show a driver’s license, a Social Security card and their permanent resident card, commonly called a green card.
The Justice Department said a valid driver’s license and a Social Security card are usually sufficient to show that a person is authorized to work. Requesting a green card amounts to “immigration-related employment discrimination,” said Thomas E. Perez, the assistant attorney general for civil rights.
Federal law forbids treating “authorized workers differently during the hiring process based on their citizenship status,” Perez said. He said the department’s Office of Special Counsel would bring legal actions against employers who impose “unnecessary and discriminatory hurdles to employment for work-authorized noncitizens.”
Amid the fierce controversy over immigration, the Obama administration has launched three lawsuits this summer to protect the rights of Latinos and legal immigrants — all three targeting Arizona.
In July, the administration successfully blocked Arizona’s law that authorized state and local police to check the immigration status of persons who were arrested. On Thursday, it sued Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio seeking documents that could show he has illegally targeted Latinos in the course of his immigration sweeps.
The suit against the Maricopa community colleges, announced Monday, and could affect employers across the nation.
“Employers are getting very mixed messages from the government,” said Jessica Vaughan, a policy analyst with the Center for Immigration Studies.
On one hand, employers have been told they need to do more to verify that their workers are legal and authorized to work in the United States. Federal immigration law says hiring “an unauthorized alien” can result in fines of up to $3,000 per worker. However, another provision of the same law bars employers from requesting “more or different documents” than are needed to prove a noncitizen’s legal status.
In the Maricopa college case, the Justice Department said it wanted “full remedial relief” for 247 noncitizens who applied for jobs with the community college district between August 2008 and January of this year, plus a civil penalty of $1,100 for each of them.
“We are extremely disappointed by the Justice Department’s action. We had no intent to discriminate against any foreign national, and we feel we have been singled out for the maximum penalty under the law,” said Charles Reinebold, a spokesman for the community colleges. “There was no actual harm here. This was a paperwork error, and we revised it after it was brought to our attention.”
Vaughan said she was “very surprised the administration would resort to a lawsuit. In the past, the emphasis has been on mediation to resolve these issues.”
But others applauded the administration’s move to enforce the anti-discrimination parts of the immigration law.
Gening Liao, a lawyer for the National Immigration Law Center in Los Angeles, said the law itself is clear.
“If you bring in a driver’s license and a Social Security card, those documents are sufficient. Employers are prohibited from asking for extra documents or different documents,” she said. “This is blatant discrimination, and we get calls about it all the time. We hope to see more lawsuits like this.”
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