[schiff]

So I saw this Law & Order SVU episode the other day and I was really disturbed by the subject matter that it dealt with. The antagonists were wealthy individuals traveling down to South America, bringing children back to the states and forging false adoption papers so that they could keep the children in their home to use them as sexual objects. They were part of the organization (and much to my horror this really exists) called NAMBLA. I don't think I need to go into detail to explain the acronym; regardless, I couldn't finish watching the episode because I was too freaked out by it. Although I did retain a very important point from one of the detectives: members of the NAMBLA organization are allowed to distribute literature glorifying this behavior with children because of their first amendment right. And I must say I am thankful that we have such a just system such as this in the United States, for better or for worse, but I'm kind of scared that the first amendment right has been manipulated more and more as time has gone by. Have you all heard about the fact that employers have the right to deny a person employment if the applicant's sexual orientation or cultural background is in contradiction to the employer's personal beliefs? I mean this might seem like a shocking analogy, but how is that any different than sexually abusing a boy barely even 13 years old? Think about it: I consider it Americans denying other Americans opportunities and experiences to live life happily and prosperously while being healthy in terms of body, heart and mind. What the applicant is denied is the opportunity to work hard and make money like every other self-sufficient adult in a first-world economy and denied the experience of being accepted as a rational-thinking human being that shares so much more similarities to those who want to judge and degrade that person in size of their brain rubicon than culture. What the child is denied is the opportunity to grow up being instilled with values and is denied the experience of learning how disenchating the world becomes the older you get at a time that's appropriate for that child just because of a selfish sexual fantasy that men like the antagonists in the episode impose on them. Why do people believe that this kind of manipulation of the first amendment is just??? The fundamental difference is what is seen when you compare humans to our ancestors: humans have the advantage over apes because not only can we hide the banana behind our back, but we can lie about it. Such could be considered the difference between freedom of speech and freedom to do dumb human bullshit. Freedom of speech is saying: I'm part of an ancient religion stuck in eternal neotony and I believe that abortion is wrong. Dumb human bullshit is different: I'm too insecure and afraid of the world to be able to deal with diversity so I'm going to kill and abortion doctor. The former is lying about the banana while the latter is trying to hide it. And that's my Sunday musing!