Category Archives: Sex

Updated: The Shakedown of the Catholic Church

Christianity, Criminal Injustice, Law, Pseudoscience, Psychiatry, Psychology & Pop-Psychology, Sex

On the occasion of Pope Benedict being forced to publicly capitulate to the sexual abuse industry, I’m reposting a BAB post titled “Sex, God & Greed.”

Ever wonder why the epidemic of allegations that has almost bankrupted the Catholic Church has not caught on in the UK and Europe? I venture that this is because the pop-psychology that undergirds the lion share of the allegation, and the attendant class-action law suits that ensued, is American through-and-through.

The repressed memory mythology is an American invention. As I reminded readers in my “Defense of Hierarchy & the Catholic Church,” “this victim movement has done a great deal more than try and bankrupt the Church.”

‘SEX, GOD & GREED’

In 2003, Daniel Lyons, in Forbes, hashed out all there is to say about the sexual-abuse shakedown to which the Catholic Church has been subjected. It’s worth revisiting this exceptional exposé, now that the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, lamentably, has decided to capitulate, rather than fight a racket facilitated by courts that are conduits to theft. Writes Lyons:

“….The focal point of this tort battle is the Catholic Church. The Church’s legal problems are worse even than most people realize: $1 billion in damages already paid out for the victims of pedophile priests, indications that the total will approach $5 billion before the crisis is over… The lawyers are lobbying states to lift the statute of limitations on sex abuse cases, letting them dredge up complaints that date back decades. Last year California, responding to the outcry over the rash of priest cases, suspended its statute of limitations on child sex abuse crimes for one year, opening the way for a deluge of new claims. A dozen other states are being pushed to loosen their laws.”

“’There is an absolute explosion of sexual abuse litigation, and there will continue to be. This is going to be a huge business,’ MacLeish, age 50, says. A Boston-based partner of the Miami law firm of GREENBERG TRAURIG (2002 billings: $465 million)…”

Lyons and Dorothy Rabinowitz of the Wall Street Journal are the only writers I know of to have pointed out how many of these class-action claims are, if not bogus, backed by the discredited excavation of false memories. (See my “Repressed Memory Ruse”):

The repressed memory hoax “…relies on a controversial theory that has split the world of psychology into bitterly opposing camps for more than a decade: the notion that people can wipe out memories of severe trauma, then recover these repressed memories years later… Richard McNally, a Harvard psychology professor…. thinks recovered memories of trauma are questionable. He has conducted numerous studies on memory, particularly with sexual abuse victims. He says people don’t forget a trauma like anal rape. They might forget something like being fondled as a child, but that’s because the fondling was not traumatic, he argues. ‘It might be disgusting, upsetting—but not terrifying, not traumatic.’”

“McNally’s take on this subject has set off a hometown feud with Daniel Brown, an assistant clinical professor at Harvard Medical School who is a leading proponent of recovered memory. The two archrivals have never met, engaging instead in a ‘battle of the books.’
In 1998, when Brown won an award for his 786-page tome, Memory, Trauma Treatment & the Law, McNally wrote a scathing review that criticized Brown’s methodology. In March of this year McNally published his own book, Remembering Trauma, in which he bashes repressed-memory theory and criticizes Brown’s work yet again.”

Update (April 20): To the extent that there was sexual abuse in the Church—and it was never as rampant as the $2 billion-worth of lawsuits suggests—it was mostly homosexually oriented. So sanctioning marriage would not have mitigated the abuse of small boys. I can’t imagine, moreover, that by sanctioning marriage, our reader recommends that the Catholic Church bless gay marriage.

All in all, lowering moral standards in response to a moral crisis is surely not a very elevated solution. The church, therefore, need not change its tradition of celibacy.

Skank in the Skies

Aesthetics, Etiquette, Private Property, Sex, The Zeitgeist

The moron media is celebrating the saucy skank, who stood up to Southwest Airlines in her skimpy ensemble. Kyla Ebbert is being dragged onto every cable network set to parade the porn get-up in which she boarded the airline, only to be asked to cover up, or purchase more appropriate attire in which to travel.

Ebbert’s offending skirt is so short that hot pans would have been more modest. She sports one of those cropped wrap-around tops on top of a tank top, the purpose of which is to obscenely emphasize her huge bosom, so obviously augmented.

Mother was there to support her vacuous offspring’s “rights” and perfectly appropriate dress code. What amazes is how the tele-twits interviewing this woman (one was Matt Lauer, but women stood up for Ebbert too) kept gushing, “Wow, I can’t believe they did this to you; this outfit is just great.” Had she uncrossed her tightly wound legs, as she sat opposite her interviewers, Ebbert’s undies would be plain for all to see.

One “argument” made in support of the porn apparel (besides the heat) was that all young people Ebbert’s age dress like that. Need I dignify that?

Southwest Airlines personnel are in their right, of course, to enforce minimal dress codes on their airline, if they so wish.

That this has been developed into a news story is more revealing than the outfit.

Update: A comment below indicates how deeply misunderstood property rights are in contemporary America, a country founded on private property rights. Who owns the property onto which the Skank Ebbert set foot? The airline does!! The comment writer below has no right to deliver a speech—i.e., exercise her free-speech rights—in my living room without my permission, because, guess what? My living room is MINE.
Similarly, the airline owns the plane (although, nominally, due to government regulation). On their property, the airline owners have the right to determine how they wish people to behave and dress. I’ve explained this vis-à-vis airline security in “Who’s Property Is It Anyway?” The writer can read this column (and this one) to familiarize herself with what private property rights mean—and this does not pertain to libertarianism only. The definition of property isn’t changeable or negotiable. What’s yours is yours to do with what you may.

The writer also complained about my stooping to dignify the topic. Once again, she evinces yet another misunderstanding as to what my mandate is. In case anyone has failed to notice, I’m a commentator. I comment on the Zeitgeist. This vignette, in particular, is meta-commentary: commentary about commentary. The commentary that cuts it these days as commentary is, in itself, an important area for analysis for what it reveals about the culture we inhabit. I offer insights about the culture.

Finally, aesthetics. I understand that what I’ve termed the “porn aesthetic” is appealing to men. I don’t blame them; I blame women, who generally tend to be far more narcissistic and exhibitionist than males. A woman, moreover, can dress both provocatively and attractively. Provocative dress is more appropriate for evening wear than for daytime travel or work. That women constantly ho-up for travel and work gives us a glimpse into the “Silly Sex.”

Furthermore, there is sexy and there is skanky. Ebbert is skanky. With her genitals and mammary glands threatening to pop out of her stretched-to-the-limits garments, Ebbert’s entire demeanor screams, “Do me!”

In Defense of Hierarchy & the Catholic Church

Christianity, Conservatism, Left-Liberalism And Progressivisim, Paleoconservatism, Paleolibertarianism, Psychology & Pop-Psychology, Religion, Sex

In the Comments Section on “the Pope’s Noble-Savage Catechism,” Ms. Grant condemns the Catholic Church for lifting the pope above the flock. I’m not religious, and am certainly no authority on Catholicism, but, in my limited understanding, this is something of a misrepresentation. From the fact that the Church has a hierarchical structure it doesn’t follow that the Church believes the Pope is better than the flock in the eyes of the Almighty. Catholicism simply puts in place a much-needed hierarchy.

In my thinking, the breakdown of boundaries in society is one of the main sources of all the rot we see around us. The Church in its wisdom appeared to recognize that not all people are equal, and that populism is evil.

The rubble seeking to overturn the structure is mainly of the left, in my understanding. My impression is that the movement to change the structure of the Church gained momentum during the child sex abuse witch hunt, where very many innocent priests were targeted. It goes hand-in-hand with females demanding to be priests. This victim movement has done a great deal more than try and bankrupt the Church.

In Defense of Hierarchy & the Catholic Church

Christianity, Left-Liberalism And Progressivisim, Psychology & Pop-Psychology, Religion, Sex

In the Comments Section on “the Pope’s Noble-Savage Catechism,” Ms. Grant condemns the Catholic Church for lifting the pope above the flock. I’m not religious, and am certainly no authority on Catholicism, but, in my limited understanding, this is something of a misrepresentation. From the fact that the Church has a hierarchical structure it doesn’t follow that the Church believes the Pope is better than the flock in the eyes of the Almighty. Catholicism simply puts in place a much-needed hierarchy.

In my thinking, the breakdown of boundaries in society is one of the main sources of all the rot we see around us. The Church in its wisdom appeared to recognize that not all people are equal, and that populism is evil.

The rubble seeking to overturn the structure is mainly of the left, in my understanding. My impression is that the movement to change the structure of the Church gained momentum during the child sex abuse witch hunt, where very many innocent priests were targeted. It goes hand-in-hand with females demanding to be priests. This victim movement has done a great deal more than try and bankrupt the Church.