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After the arrest of a man accused of abusing a daughter who had not been in school in five years, Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano said she plans to examine the state’s laws on homeschooling. The Tucson man, who’s name has been withheld to protect the daughter’s identity, was arrested Tuesday and accused of sexually abusing his 14-year-old daughter while holding her captive in his home for more than a year.

KGUN-TV in Tucson, an ABC affiliate, notes the popularity of homeschooling in Arizona, which legally requires only filling out a simple affadavit “With no accountability and irresponsible parents, it’s easy to see how children can get ‘lost,'” said a report by the station. Napolitano said of the case: “The homeschooling aspect is really one of the many aspects I think we need to go back … how could this happen in our town? How could this happen in our state?”

County School Superintendent Kim Fields acknowledged there are states with far stricter rules on homeschooling, with some requiring proof of curriculum, annual testing and professional evaluation. But Fields pointed out there are children in public schools being abused. “You can’t stop abuse by changing an education setting,” Fields said.

The suspect signed the required affadavit in 1999, according to KGUN, but the 14-year-old told police she never was homeschooled.

It’s interesting how stories such as this are covered. The children are, by their own statement, NOT homeschooled, and yet the media inevitably calls them homeschoolers. The truth is that any parent who decides to abuse his child is going to be able to do it and get away with it for a while. Unless and until every child is handed over to robots to be raised in automated creches, abuse of children at the hands of adults will happen.

But as I’ve written in the past, if one divides the number of abuse cases by the amount of time the abusing adult has access to the child, teachers and school employees are far more likely to abuse a child than a parent, especially if one considers how much more private time the parents have with them.

Meanwhile, similar stories from the same Fox News site don’t seem to generate any gubernatorial calls for banning public schools, even when one of the teachers involved had molested more than sixteen students. It sort of puts a different spin on “this one time, at band camp….” And the only reason most of these are being reported is the man bites dog aspect, so you know there’s a lot more male teacher-female student abuse going on.

This week alone, two cases have hit the news: Cops say one Texas teacher, Kathy Denise White had sex with a 17-year-old, and Tennessee teacher Pamela Rogers Turner had sex with a 13-year-old boy.

They join at least three other recent cases: Florida teacher Debra LaFave, 24, is expected to plead insanity to charges she had sex with a 14-year-old student, according to her lawyer; California teacher Sarah Bench-Salorio, 28, allegedly molested two boys when they were 12 and 14; and 33-year-old California teacher Rebecca Boicelli was arrested last month on statutory rape and related charges after DNA tests confirmed that a former student fathered her 2-year-old baby when he was 16.

Tonya is wearing out the Duran Duran reunion CD, Astronaut:

i was just wondering if you ever got the new album and if so, what do you think of it? maybe you should post a full review just to tee off nate! 🙂 my own thoughts, since you asked, are that it’s pretty good. that it definitely grows on you. that they are best when doing wonderful, catchy pop and that they tend to sound like morons when pontificating about “deeper things.” and that when simon sings the line “.. so FRESH! from your lips is born the melodeeee… melodeee…” from the song Taste the Summer, that he can’t really, actually be serious. oh, and that whoever thought Bedroom Toys was a good idea should be thrown into the ocean. still, it hasn’t left the CD changer in awhile. all in all, i think i’d give it a B+.

Space Bunny gave it to me for Christmas – I reciprocated with Robbie Williams Greatest Hits, which are about as well-crafted as modern pop songs can be – and while I’d give Astronaut a B myself, I have to seriously disagree on two counts. First, Bedroom Toys is my favorite song on the CD and perfectly captures Duran Duran’s unusual ability (almost unique in a world of pompous pop stars such as Bono and Sting), to lampoon their own image. Not only is the bass easily the best on the CD, but the image the song conjurse of a jaded, self-important eurosophisticate nonchalantly strolling into the boudoir of his soon-to-be latest conquest and bursting out with an English-accented “Oh my God, what’s this” not only cracked me up, but had the Perfect Aryan Male and the Potential Aryan Female in hysterics the first time they heard that followed by the chorus.

I saw your bedroom toys, now I’m stalling
I can’t believe my eyes

It’s just not meant to be taken seriously; even LeBon’s sing-song, glottal-stopping delivery indicates this. I liked it stylistically too, as it reminded me of something off the Notorious album.

As for the rest, I actually thought that the music and lyrics showed a band that has grown comfortable with their maturity and past-it status, unlike, for example, U2. Certainly the shift from the voracious predation of Hungry Like the Wolf – still one of my all-time favorite songs – to the themes of protectiveness, love and affection that permeate the CD is significant.

The one element missing is the song structure. This is very apparent when switching from the virtuoso songwriting of the Williams CD, where the verse flows flawlessly into the bridge and on into a big climactic chorus. They are very good musicians, (Tommy Lee, of all people, speaks highly of them), and decent pop songwriters and one can often feel the potential lurking about inside the song, but it never comes fully together and clicks on all cylinders. Ordinary World aside, I think Duran Duran has always been at their best when they attack a song, leading with the bass, and they just don’t seem to have the energy for that anymore.

In summary, Astronaut is good, it’s solid and it’s enjoyable if you like their style, but it isn’t great. It’s more So Red the Rose than Rio.

Maybe Paul really is dead…. Courtesy of the thankfully inimitable Bane. Being born after the “Paul is dead” hooplah, I’d never given the matter a moment’s thought, but speaking as someone who has written a few songs professionally, I have wondered about the qualitative difference between the melodies flowing through the early Beatles music and the rather leaden tunes of post-Beatles McCartney-written songs. When Douglas Adams referred to Paul McCartney as a phenomenal songwriter* – I was first reading Hitchhikers when the Wings were still active and I really didn’t know much Beatles’ music – I had no idea how on Earth he could possibly write that.

*in describing the sweetly xenophobic songs sung by the people of Krikkit

The Farmer combines ideology with theology:

As a Christian I am subject to all three systems of law, the family, the natural law and the church. The arguments today are over who enforces the natural law. If God sets up human governments, and he clearly does. Then how will those governments enforce the natural law…. Some of you seem to be saying that no law or system would be preferable to what we have here in the US of A now. God did not create that kind of a system and some distorted kind of government would naturally form to fill the void

I’m curious to know if Farmer Tom supports the war on Iraq. After all, if God is setting up human governments, then there’s no more reason for the American people to wage war on the God-given Iraqi government of Saddam Hussein than there is for libertarian Americans to disdain their current federal government in favor of one that respects individual rights.

A major flaw in this submission-to-the-state argument is that it applies as equally to the murderous Khmer Rouge regime as to our former Constitutional Republic. I further note that it was in Satan’s power to give all the kingdoms of Man to Jesus. Either Christians have the authority – and the responsibility – to act in ALL circumstances or we lack it in every one. Most Christians lionize men of faith such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer; shall we criticize him instead for violating the laws of God-given Nazi Germany?

A better idea would be to fix the now corrupted system that the founders established . They set up a triune system of government. A constitutional representative republic. All three are necessary for the system to work. Both the people and the representatives must obey the law. The law cannot be changed with out consent of the governed.

What Farmer Tom appears to be missing is that most libertarians would be quite happy with a genuine constitutional republic. What we have today is the form without the substance; given the failure of the previous model, libertarians are focused on devising conceptual schemes to ensure that Leviathan is sufficiently crippled so as not to escape his bonds the next time around. What must be kept in mind is that the leaders of the Republican and Democratic parties do not believe the system is corrupted as they are quite happy with their bifactional ruling party.

Libertarianism is, sopratutto, a reaction to government corruption and tyranny. Libertarians will support almost ANY system that genuinely reduces the power of the central state. The primary difference between libertarians and fraudulent advocates of “small government” is that libertarians do not covet control over other individuals. This is not inherent to libertarianism per se, but it is the essence of the libertarian spirit and dates back, I would argue, not only to Cincinnatus, but to the stayed hand of the Almighty.

Bill shows an astounding ability to miss the point:

I can’t believe this. For years now Vox has been bellyaching about how Bush won’t close the borders. Of course, in order to do this he has to convince Congress that it must be done, many of whose members have an ideological interest in America falling.

So, Bush is finally working on a bill that says “seal this hole in the borders – and damn the nit-picking wackos that get in the way.” And this is somehow a bad thing? Isn’t the EXACTLY what Vox has been advocating for years?

No, instituting an above-the-law Gestapo unanswerable to anyone but the Executive is not something that I have ever advocated for anything. I wouldn’t support instituting such a monstrosity for the express purpose of supplying me with daily cocaine, coffee, chocolate and Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders, much less establishing de facto national borders.

It seems Bill has a problem differentiating ends and means. I presume that although he’d like to see Republicans win the next election, he wouldn’t like to see them do so by executing every registered Democrat on October 31st, 2008.

It is Bush’s own administration that has declared it has no intention of tracking down and expelling the millions of illegal aliens in the country. To argue that he has suddenly transformed himself into a damn-the-torpedos champion of the borders defies credibility.

From WND:

Environmental laws have been the project’s chief roadblock, but the bill’s language appears to provide an unlimited scope, reading, “Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall have the authority to waive, and shall waive, all laws such Secretary, in such Secretary’s sole discretion, determines necessary to ensure expeditious construction of the barriers and roads under this section.”

Significantly, it also says courts are prohibited from reviewing the secretary’s decision.

Notice how Congress can’t be bothered to prohibit little things such as homogamy and abortion from the purview of the courts, but when it comes to something it deems sufficiently important, such as providing for total executive branch tyranny, it has no problem doing so.

It’s bad enough that the government doesn’t obey the law, but it’s really an ominous sign when they come right out and declare that they’re not going to bother even pretending anymore. At this point, I’m just wondering when the Department of Homeland Security is going to announce that its new anthem is Amerika, Our Fatherland.

Amerika, mein Amerika

Dear Leader smiles on thee

Implanting kids with sweet RFIDS

Their sinful ways to see

The bill’s language is just an oversight, of course. Of course. Now, I very much support immigration control, but not if it comes as part of a package including a legally totalitarian Geheimene Staatspolizei.

Stanley Kurtz of NRO wonders about libertarian religion:

To what extent are contemporary libertarians religious? What proportion of folks who read, say, Reason Magazine belong to a church or synagogue and attend services either regularly, or even with moderate regularity? What proportion of libertarians are self-consciously atheist or agnostic and/or attend church seldom or never? Does the answer differ for intellectual types and folks who may have broadly libertarian sensibilities but don’t keep up with Reason or all the libertarian blogs? Is it even theoretically possible to be a libertarian today and adhere to a traditional religion–as opposed to being “spiritual,” or belonging to a very liberal church? I don’t know the answer to these questions, but here’s my guess. Theoretically, you can be a libertarian and also be traditionally religious. In fact, this combination was probably found fairly frequently prior to the sixties and seventies, before “the social issues” moved to the political forefront. But nowadays, the vast majority of libertarians are probably either self-consciously secular, or are religious only in some thin, non-institutional, or highly qualified sense. Again, this is just my guess.

I don’t know about that. I’m a reasonably hard-core libertarian who only takes strong exception to the Libertarian Party on the issue of abortion and national borders – both on libertarian grounds, I should add – and I’m also an evangelical Christian who regularly attends an evangelical church. (Although I have to admit that we’ve only made it one out of the last four weeks, since our recent house visitors seem to insist on flying in and out on Sunday mornings.)

Anyhow, I believe that one can derive a libertarian philosophy from God’s attitude towards the human race. It is worth mentioning that while He did give Israel a king, the warnings He gave them certainly indicate that He appears to harbor more than a little skepticism towards the benefits of a strong central government.

I previously addressed this subject in a 2003 column entitled Christian and Libertarian, in case anyone else is interested.

Mediacitizen outs a White House reporter:

His crime had nothing to do with politics and everything to do with misrepresenting himself as a journalist in order to push an agenda friendly to the administration. Journalists, as the Fourth Estate, serve the public interest by challenging those in power with hard questions and thorough reporting, Gannon — or whatever his name is — did neither. He shilled for the president’s programs and presented White House press releases, verbatum, as news without giving attribution. This is not journalism it’s flacking for the party in power.

I don’t think Mediacitizen understands that shilling for the increased expansion of centralized government power and acting as a publicist for the federal government is exactly what almost every member of the ABCNNBCBS cabal does on a daily basis. Journalistic ethics are as mythical as the liver-devouring Promethean eagle and the idea that the Fourth Estate challenges those in power is thoroughly outmoded.

By Mediatoken’s definition, there are no journalists in the legacy media today. In fact, more than a few of them – Stephanopolous and Gergen come first to mind – ARE former government publicists.

Chris Naron asks a reasonable question:

Which is it? They hate us because we’re over there or because Islam is an inherently aggressive religion. Like I said in the other thread, if you want to critcize Bush for being PC about why we’re fighting the war, I’m with you. I’ll even respect the opinion that nation-building never works. But that’s not what started this whole thing. You agreed with Patty Patty Buch Buch’s assertion that they hate us for reasons all our own doing and not for ideology.

That’s simple enough. They hate us because we’re over there. If we would leave them alone, they would focus their energies in places such as India, Indonesia, the Phillipines, the former Soviet Union and Europe – in other words, what they’d been doing since the 1950s. This would arguably be more dangerous in the long term, but since the Dear Leader insists – repeatedly – that he is not leading a nation dominated by its secular elite into a religious war, it is a reality that is extraneous to the current discussion.

That’s assuming he can be taken at his word. If George Delano is lying, as I believe he has been since the beginning of the present conflict, he is going about this War on Islam in an incredibly ineffective way. This is mostly because he is following the lead of Harry Truman and LBJ in attempting to fight a war without a national consensus. As I pointed out in my article referencing Clausewitz, an attack on the heart of the Wahhabist jihad is the only way that this war can be brought to an end. Hedging it about with Shiite-run nations cobbled together by American military might will work no better than a ring of Communist nations surrounding Nazi Germany would have sufficed 60 years ago.

The important thing about the expansionist aspect of Islam is that an individual does not need to hate anyone to wage jihad against them anymore than a Christian needs to hate someone in order to assert that he is going to Hell. Most of the expansion-era Caliphs were not full of hatred like the modern terrorist leaders, they were simply fulfilling their version of manifest destiny. These two factors should not be confused.

“Nick.. exactly how long have you been reading Vox? Live and Let Live? When exactly has he, or any of us, said that? The fact that we do not support occupation and nation building, has nothing to do with peacenik tendencies.

We’ve advocated going in… killing everyone, and breaking everything, and leaving.

That creates a power vacuum that the remaining primitives must battle to fill. In a few years… when one finally rises to power, we go back, and do it all again. Ya see.. if our enemies are constantly fighting each other, then they aren’t fighting us.

I’ve never had a problem with the theoretical war on radical expansionist Islam that the Dear Leader constantly swears up and down that he is not fighting, as much as his strongest supporters would like to pretend he is. I have been and will continue to be a virulent critic of nation-building, which I note that many of the Dear Leader’s strongest supporters condemned when it was Bill Clinton leading the charge for it in Bosnia and Somalia.

Very little of what is happening in Iraq indicates a war on the jihad. A Shiite Iraq where the most extreme elements are on the leash of the government mullahs is not going to reign in the jihad over time, it is simply the establishment of a second Saudi Arabia. Nick B is very concerned about Wahhabism; strange that he does not note that the Dear Leader is Very Good Friends with the sect’s chief defenders, the Saudi royal family.

Remember Rule Number One. The official story is never the true one.