December 14, 2005 by s.z.

Stuff You Probably Didn't Know

1.  The Judicial System Favors the Rich and Famous

Ben Shapiro, ace law student, has just figured out that justice isn't blind, and so he calls for the end of executive clemency.

A brief look at historic clemencies demonstrates that granting executives the power to overrule juries and the criminal justice system means spitting in the eye of the American people:

President Gerald Ford pardons former President Richard Nixon. On Sept. 8, 1974, just one month after Nixon's resignation from the presidency, Ford proclaimed that a trial would "cause prolonged and divisive debate over the propriety of exposing to further punishment and degradation a man who has already paid the unprecedented penalty of relinquishing the highest elective office of the United States." Would Nixon have received a pardon had he not been president? Would President Jimmy Carter have considered granting Nixon a pardon? To answer no means admitting an inherent inequity in our justice system.

He's got us there -- I guess our judicial system is inherently unequal. 

But the answer is not granting one person -- one very politically motivated person -- the power to abrogate the law.

I agree.  We shouldn't let Gerald Ford pardon any more people.

2.  Back in the 1950's, People Used to Eat DDT Instead of Ice-Cream

That's what John Stossel seems to be saying.

Fifty years ago, Americans sprayed tons of DDT everywhere. Farmers used it to repel bugs, and health officials to fight mosquitoes that carry malaria. Nobody worried much about chemicals then. People really did just sit there and eat in clouds of DDT. When the trucks came to spray, people often acted as if the ice cream truck had come. They were so happy to have mosquitoes repelled. Huge amounts of DDT were sprayed on food and people, who just breathed it in.

 Did they all get cancer and die?

 Nope.

Only half of them did. 

And that's why the government should buy DDT for poor countries.

This message brought to you by the Dow Chemical Company, which wants to remind you that it's just looking out for the people of the Third World -- oh, and that the Bhopal thing could have happened to anyone.

3.  The Pope Thinks That Harry Potter is Part of a Global Plot to Corrupt Children

Agape Press tells us about a Catholic sociologist and her book Harry Potter: Good or Evil?  (Hint: he's EEEEVIL!)

A Catholic sociologist and writer from Bavaria believes Harry Potter is a "global long-term project to change the culture" by destroying children's inhibitions against cursing, magic, and occult practices.

When I was a child, I loved to read fairy tales -- and as a result, I had no inhibitions against magic, which I would often use to make myself coaches out of pumpkins, and such.  (However, I still had inhibitions against cursing, and would never say anything than "darn" when I wanted to express strong emotion.)  But back then, the plan to change the culture through fiction was on a local scale, so it was okay. 

Gabriele Kuby, author of the book Harry Potter: Good or Evil, believes the Potter books and the four subsequent movies are "evil" -- and that parents should avoid exposing their children to them.

[...]

Kuby is convinced the Potter phenomenon is a "mockery of Judeo-Christian truth" and says subjecting young students to Harry Potter books in schools is "intolerant."

It's intolerant to mock Judeo-Christian truths by not mentioning them.

"Any kind of witchcraft, cursing, and so on, is the normal, everyday life in Hogwarts, which is the place Harry and his friends love to be," she says.

Oh, I get it now!  The kind of cursing that Gabriele is worried about is the magic spell kind, not potty language!  And she's right to believe magic spell curses pose a serious threat to our society, since we could face blighted crops and sickened livestock if the kids get good at it.

In 2003, Kuby received a letter from Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger -- now Pope Benedict XVI -- in which he endorsed her book and said the Harry Potter phenomenon is "corrupt[ing] the Christian faith and souls."

We won't be mean and ask who has corrupted the Christian faith of more kids, Harry Potter or pedophile priests.  Instead we'll just share some information about her book, Harry Potter: Well or Bad, as translated from the German by Google:

10 ARGUMENTS AGAINST HARRY POTTER

1.  Harry Potter is a global long-term project for the change of the culture. The restraining threshold in relation to magic is destroyed in the recent generation. Thus the forces penetrate into the society, which overcame the Christianity once.

2.  Hogwarts, the school for Zauberei and Hexerei, is a closed world of the force and having a horror, the verfluchung and the Verhexung, the race ideology and the blood victim, the disgust and the obsession.

Okay, you get the gist of her arguments.  So, let's move on to what the Cardinal said to her in his letter:

Very honoured, dear Mrs. Kuby!

Thank you for your friendly letter from 20 February and for the instructive book, which you attached. It is good the fact that you clear Harry up Potter in things, because these are subtle seductions, which work imperceptibly and straight thereby deeply and which decomposes Christianity in the soul, before it could grow at all quite.

And while there seem to be some questions as to the authenticity of the letter, it sounds legit to me.  So, kids, no more Harry Potter for you, because it might decompose the Christianity in your soul!

4.  Hollywood Purposely Annoys and Alienates Movie-Going Americans by Showing Gay Cowboys, as Part of Its War on Morality

At least, that's what Concerned Women for America's professional gay basher says.

“Brokeback [Mountain] is the ‘Perfect Storm’ of Hollywood’s war on morality,” said Robert Knight, director of Concerned Women for America’s (CWA’s) Culture & Family Institute (CFI). “It combines high production values with a lowdown attack on morality. It’s a mockery of the Western genre embodied by every movie cowboy from John Wayne to Gene Autry to Kevin Costner. I can’t think of a more effective way to annoy and alienate most movie-going Americans than to show two cowboys lusting after each other and even smooching.

“Although the film reportedly portrays some problems with adultery, it comes down on the side of ‘being who you are,’ which means having whatever perverse and unfaithful relationship you want. Homosexual activists have openly boasted that they hope this film ‘will change minds.’ I think I’d put it differently. If it encourages even one confused boy to engage in sex with another male, that makes it an instrument of corruption, not one of enlightenment.”

See, Hollywood made Brokeback in order to attack morality (because nothing tempts -- and then corrupts -- people more than showing two cowboys smooching), and to alienate audiences (because nothing annoys people more than showing two cowboys smooching).  However, Hollywood made The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe because it wanted to share a Christian message with the world -- and that's LW&W will make "zillions."

“The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, in contrast to Brokeback Mountain, is not only a ripping good story, but its heart is the basic Christian theme of Divine sacrifice and redemption,” Knight said. “That’s why it will make zillions while Brokeback will impress the critics and some fringe audiences in urban centers, but that’s about it.

And if an arty movie playing in limited release doesn't make as much money as a heavily-publicized Disney film playing everywhere, then it means that American movie-goers hate gays, but love heterosexual Jesus-figure lions.  It also proves that Hollywood is trying to overthrow decency and goodness, except when it's trying to bring people to Christ through fantasy flicks.

1:15:05 AM