Dance, dance, dance all night long …
I have never been to a rave, but I have been to hundreds of concerts over the years. So while the legislation being fast-tracked through the Senate doesn’t immediately effect me, it still concerns me for a number of reasons.
The basic gist of the proposed law is that, in order to stop people from ingesting ecstasy at these all-night dance parties, promoters of the events will be held liable for the acts of the people attending the raves. The Senate bill, so cutely-named the Reducing Americans’ Vulnerability to Ecstasy (RAVE) Act, and introduced by Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.), is based on the federal “crack house” laws which make it a felony to provide space for the purpose of illegal drug use.
However, while a crack house has only one purpose—to provide a place to smoke crack—raves are places where people go to dance, listen to music and meet with friends. They are essentially just big parties. No one goes to a crack house for the atmosphere; and by the same token, not everyone who goes to a rave does so to get high.
As Graham Boyd, Director of the ACLU’s Drug Policy Litigation Project, said regarding a similar case in Louisiana in 2001, “[h]olding club owners and promoters of raves criminally liable for what some people may do at these events is no different from arresting the stadium owners and promoters of a Rolling Stones concert or a rap show because some concertgoers may be smoking or selling marijuana.”
There is a similar—and harsher—law pending in the House of Representatives that would hold promoters in violation if they “reasonably ought to know” that someone will use an illegal drug during the event. This small, but significant difference in the bills is very scary from the point of view of civil liberties. Imagine if such rules were applied to other things… like a party in your own home.
But, Virginia, they didn’t give you quite enough information …
I was raised Catholic. And honestly, I have no complaints about my religious up-bringing. I fondly recall listening to Bob Dylan songs sung by long-haired hippies at “folk” Masses held in the local middle school’s gymnasium while our local Parish was being built. My mother deciding we should attend the gym Masses rather than continuing to attend St. Patrick’s for the three years it would eventually take to complete our new church. Besides, she wanted to get to meet the other families and, being a kind-hearted generous woman, she also wanted to help however she could. So I became an altar boy, attended CCD, and played CYO basketball while she helped with white elephants and bake sales.
I even liked the chain-smoking Parish priest, Father Stack, who would have his pre-Mass cigarette outside the church wearing his leather bomber jacket over his black cassock. Father Stack was an avid Redskins fan who would occasionally skip Sunday’s homily so he wouldn’t miss the kick-off. I recall one time, when the Redskins were in the play-offs, where he skipped the homily and there was a soft, but audible, cheer from the men in the pews. Immediately followed by choruses of shushes by wives and mothers. The only “abuse” Father Stack ever bestowed upon me was an occasional play-slap to the back of my head when he would find me kneeling in prayer in a back pew. He always followed up his slaps by saying things like “you look so holy when you’re praying, Ricky-babe” in a voice I now hear in my head as though he sounded like Humphrey Bogart.
I eventually made the decision to leave the Catholic church. (I guess more accurately I stopped paying dues and attending meetings. It’s not like I sent a letter to the the CEO and turned in my rosary.) But not because of any abuse. The church and I had simply grown apart and didn’t see eye-to-eye anymore.
However, despite my fond recollections of Father Stack, there are still many things about the crimes being committed by Catholic priests against children that disturb me. And I am angry by the blame being assigned homosexuals as the church continues to point fingers at everyone but themselves.
One last thing has me confused: Why is this being discussed as though it is an American problem? Why were the U.S. cardinals called to Rome to discuss “the problems in the church in the United States in the wake of scandals connected with pedophilia?” Why the emphasis on American priests? Is there more of a problem in the United States? Or it because there is more media attention provided to the issue here?
Related:
- BBC: “Pope Condemns US Church Sex Abuse”
- CNN: Factfile: Church Rocked by Sex Scandals
- Washington Post: Pope Addresses U.S. Cardinals
- CNN: “Pope Says Bishops’ Decisions ‘Wrong’”
- Time: Catholicism in Crisis
Is he alive or is he dead or hexed? …
With the announcement of yet another video starring the fanatic we all love to hate, comes the subsequent babble over whether or not the anointed Evil One has passed on to meet his share of the virgins. Included is the usual speculation about where he might be; how he got away; what subliminal messages is he sending to his followers; or what he might wear to next year’s Oscars.
However, tonight’s Nightly News with Tom Brokaw story on the video’s authenticity was a brilliant piece of reverse propaganda posing as satire. In the segment the reporter demonstrated how green screening is used in television by showing how weather maps are displayed behind weather casters. Then humorously employing the technology to place himself in front of various world landmarks. He finished the piece with examples of using personal computers to accomplish the same effects.
And it got me thinking. There is a lot of footage of this guy floating around. Perhaps the United States should start producing its own videos of Dr. Heckle in various locations—strip clubs and the Statue of Liberty coming immediately to mind. They could even make him appear to call his followers stupid for thinking he would be caught dead in a Tora Bora cave at this time of year. Then they could drop the videos disguised as food parcels, sit back and wait. It’s not like his followers paid much attention to previous digital manipulations they encountered.
Besides, this might be a good way for Hollywood to help Henry Hyde with his patriotic interest in America’s image problem. But if they are too busy, maybe we should put crookDIMWIT’s inquisitive Abbie on the case.
On a somewhat related note, I want to extend my condolences to the people of Canada as well as my sympathies to the family’s of the soldiers killed today. These soldiers were the first casualties of war for Canada since the Korean War. Let’s hope they are the last.