German group points out website blocking is wholly ineffective.

When dealing with child porn at least which is the wedge strategy being used across the western world to make such censorship seem acceptable. The key point they make is so obvious as to be a "why didn't I think of that" moment. Simply put by blocking child porn sites the authorities are not dealing with them and shutting them down. In contrast simply contacting webhosts caused all the child porn sites they found to be shut down within hours.

The summary and report can be found here and is worth looking at. They destroy pretty much every excuse for site blocking that exists with short to the point arguments.


thanks jonny

Super special Papal visit prelude summary!

With the imminent arrival of the absolute monarch of a European microstate (as Stephen Fry would describe him) in the UK that is costing Britain £12m + policing costs (so a lot more than £12m) theres been a fair bit of mention of Catholic stuff lately such as:

The Catholic Church in Britain said they'd kick out any priest found guilty of abusing children. But they didn't obviously it takes more than raping a few kids to stop being a messenger of God's word to the laity.

One of the Pope's aides has sadly gotten a rapid onset case of gout and can't come to Britain. The Papacy would once again like to assure you the Cardinal's recent comments to the press that Britain is a third world country has absolutely nothing to do with his decision to withdraw (which of course every good Catholic should) from the visit.

Curious about what a Papal head of state visit will entail? Well the Guardian have done a "tongue in cheek" guide that holds some decent information if it all does feel a bit forced.

If you are a British worshipper of Cathol do be aware there are still plenty of tickets still available.

However in a bit of positive news for the Catholic Church one of the worst men alive Ian Paisely is vehemently opposed to the Pope's visit so at least there will be someone more despicable than the Pope around as a nice distraction.

The practice of Simony by the early modern Catholic Church was one of the key causes of the reformation. Happily the Catholic Church has stated this isn't simony. Good news for all those Catholics who love tat and are on the verge of becoming protestants I suppose.

And to round us out we travel a few dozen miles across the North Sea to Belgium where their Catholic Church has recently become the latest to admit to large scale systematic abuse of children by Catholic Clergy.

The wheezings of a Behemoth

A narrowly focused look at a couple of, admittedly major, problems facing the Catholic church with a bit of analysis. This sounds dismissive but unless the article was a several inch thick book with 8pt writing it would not be able to achieve even a shallow overview of the state of an organisation as large as the Catholic church and its' context in nearly every country on earth. Still though the article is good, it just is what it is. Most interesting is Benedict's belief that smaller congregations could be useful for the catholic church, this is an odd aspiration for an organisation that has dominated western christendom for millenia, was the inheritor of the influence of the Roman Empire and has been accurately described as the world's first corporation. A bit like Steve Ballmer hoping MS's waning power will allow them to focus on making the best possible iPhone apps. then again...

A nice accompaniment to this piece is something jonny linked me, showing that aside from the big problems that are causing Western European congregations to wither away Catholicism also faces the problem of its' consistent dickishness.

Top tip: Don't be a children's author.

Starts off as a review of a new biography of Roald Dahl but goes on to list how several children's authors were awful people with shitty lives. So yeah don't be a children's author and it'd probably be a bad idea to associate with them either.

Just in case things were too upbeat...

...it turns out a paedophile ring existed among some of Portugal's elite and plenty of other powerful people looked the other way to let them keep abusing children for several decades. The trial has concluded successfully but those convicted seem to be getting sentences of only around a decade, with the chance they wont go to prison until after they appeal, something which may take years just as the original trial did.

In a world of billionaires and cliquey groups of international elites one has to wonder what other horrors lurk unknown, or at least unreported and uninvestigated.

A detailed narrative of how US Troops raped a 14 y/o girl and killed her family

The title says it all really, the article, an extract from a book about a platoon stationed in a dangerous part of Iraq early on in the occupation, details how four soldiers carried out the act and to an extent examines why they did it.

The usual defence of a few bad apples will likely be applied and it certainly has more merit as an argument than it did in defence of the top down tolerated abuse of prisoners in detention centres in Iraq such as Abu Ghraib (though it is noteworthy some of those who did not commit the crime didn't feel compelled to report their later knowledge of the incident to superiors) rape and cold blooded murder are not official US tactics in Iraq or Afghanistan (JSOC notwithstanding), this ain't Vietnam kids.

That to me is irrelevant, the reality of war is that horrifically unpleasant events combine with periods of complete boredom to adversely affect people. In addition those who are awful people to begin with can take advantage of the confusion and their relative power within a conflict zone to do awful things. The deification of Troops means neither appropriate questions are asked nor appropriate oversight is given to the activities of these young, often disturbed young men in unstable and chaotic parts of the world. Maybe most soldiers are nice people (well nice trained killers) but the fact remains that when you inflict armed conflict and invasion upon a country, no matter how noble your rhetoric, you are opening the door to this kind of event. As a civilian majority we need to be much more aware of this and much more cautious to endorse military intervention given the amount of suffering this will inflict upon the civilian population of the countries we choose to invade.

Details of Pentagon's new anti-child soldier initiative leaked.

Combat paedophiles have been discovered at the pentagon.

Well at least thats the only interpretation I can put on the revelation a number of people have been downloading child porn while at the pentagon. Still the US Military's principal concern seems not to be the horrific sexual abuse of children child porn entails but instead how it affects national security. Heck some of the kids in that porn might not even have been American so n great shakes.

This throws up two pretty obvious problems. Firstly it brings up serious questions about vetting procedures at the Pentagon, as the article mentions the people convicted had been accessing overseas child porn sites. If they can access illegal sites of that nature pretty sure sites that threaten US national security could've been accessed without the vetting procedure realising either. In addition some of the people charged had been using government computers to do it but an investigation was required to catch them suggesting they weren't initially caught doing that on government computers.

Secondly it raises an ugly spectre of what people with lots of security clearance and influence at an organisation that controls troops all over the world, often in warzones with lots of vulnerable people in them. The potential for abduction for child prostitution or porn creation is worryingly strong in such positions. Enhanced by the fact any questionable behaviour can be dismissed as classified, for national security or whatever. In light of the fact the intelligence industry alone is now nearly a million strong the potential for misuse of this power to abuse children and commit all sorts of other crimes is overwhelming.

Catholic Church keeps on acquitting itself well amidst controversy.

It has been confirmed by Belgian police that witnesses, victims and magistrates investigating allegations of paedophilia by Belgian Bishops have been receiving death threats. I think its fair to say when "wrongly accused" the best bet is to give death threats to the investigators so your innocence will be found much quicker and be seen as plausible to the general public.

Ideologically pure fat children.

The new Health Secretary has informed the nation that there will be no more "Jaime Oliver style hectoring". This is in spite of near universal acclaim for improving children's eating habits and evidence it even exam results. But we must give children freedom of choice, we can't have the government tell people what to do!

However, my mother pointed out to me that other than ideological purity it might just be that some Tory campaign backers are wholesalers of unhealthy food and by reintroducing "pupil choice" their mates get back into the lucrative school dinners market. Certainly seems plausible.

British firm deliberately poisons Iraqi Children

A British chemical firm bribed Iraqi officials so as to keep them buying a lead based petrol additive which has been banned since the 70s in the west. The consequence of inhaling lead fumes to for children is decreased intelligence and increased hyperactivity. Truly the people of Iraq should be grateful for us freeing them.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/jun/30/octel-petrol-iraq-lead

Fucking kids and... uh.. oh yeah that Jesus fella.

Belgium has become the latest country to investigate a major child abuse scandal involving the Catholic Church. Its pretty mind blowing how nearly every western country at this point has investigated and convicted Paedo priests, this isn't a few bad apples or even one branch of the church being lead by someone who let paedos get away with abusing kids, it seems a root and branch problem. I'm sure at this point priests in the developing are also abusing kids but the power of the church and religion in general is precluding investigation.

I don't think the Catholic church is all bad, Liberation theology is an unquestionably good thing and I am certain there are many catholics who are truly decent people who want to help their fellow humans. It seems the clergy are letting them down and major independent investigations into all aspects of the church and especially how the vatican operates need to be carried out. As much as I like to rag on corporations and governments niether would have gotten away with such widespread abuse of western children (Child slavery in the 3rd world is a-ok of coursE) so the low key reaction to such widespread problems in the Catholic Church is disturbing to say the least.

Furthermore if they're allowing this in the rich nations lord knows what could be happening to children from poor countries.