New York Moves to Reform SOLs

View Assemblywoman Margaret M. Markey’s announcement here.

According to the site,

Assemblywoman Markey’s resolution focuses attention on her bill to extend state’s statue of limitations for child sexual abuse crimes and help victims of past instances of child abuse get their day in court.

Chalk up a victory for the civil rights of children!

Vows of Silence: The Cult Within

Highly regarded author Jason Berry has produced a remarkable documentary based on the book, Vows of Silence, which he co-authored with Gerard Renner. This one-hour film tells the story of the Vatican’s treatment of Marcial Maciel, who recently passed away, and his orders, Legionaries of Christ and Regnum Christi.

A Review by Marci Hamilton

At base, though, the subtext of the story is the history of the Vatican’s ineffectual handling of the sexual abuse of children by clergy within the Roman Catholic Church. It is likely to leave the viewer genuinely troubled and even frustrated.

Without giving too much away, this is the story of a charismatic leader, Maciel, who the Church originally refused to ordain. He was kicked out of two seminaries, with no public explanation, before his uncle finally ordained him. He turned out to be a remarkable fundraiser, accruing hundreds of millions of dollars, and a shrewd recruiter of young talent. His family was also well-connected, all of which made him attractive to the hierarchy in Rome.

At the same time, he sexually abused many, many of his seminarians, who are required to take an oath of silence when they join the organization. And a years-long investigation under canon law yielded no justice for the victims; the only result of numerous victims telling their excruciating stories was denial of ministerial duties and a well-cushioned retirement. Sadly, none of the victims documented made it to the secular authorities, so no justice was done whatsoever.

What’s with the Panic Over Russia?

The US sometimes just can’t get Russia. And that’s nothing new. For decades, through propaganda, pressure, and direct religious missionary work, Americans tried to persuade Russians that they could be re-made into “free” people. David Foglesong is an historian of Russia, who just testified to the US “Helsinki Commission” on Security and Cooperation in Europe about our two countries’ past friction, and why we often don’t understand each other.

Below is Dr. Foglesong’s May 8th report.

The American Mission and Today’s Russia

David Foglesong

As a historian of American-Russian relations, I think the most useful contributions I can make to this hearing are: to highlight some of the major causes of American misperceptions of Russia in the past; show how those assumptions and expectations continue to distort perceptions of Russia today; and suggest some ways to move beyond those misunderstandings as we engage with Russia in the future.

As I show in a recent book, American views of tsarist, Soviet, and post-Soviet Russia have been distorted by a number of unrealistic beliefs and unwarranted attitudes, particularly:

• A messianic faith that America could inspire a sweeping, overnight transformation of Russia from autocracy to democracy or from totalitarianism to liberty
• An extreme antipathy to leaders who are blamed for thwarting the natural triumph of the American mission
• Scorn for the ordinary people of Russia when they seem to submit meekly to authoritarian governments

These ideas and emotions continue to skew American views of Russia today. Many Americans who were thrilled by the supposed transformation of Russia from communism to free-market democracy in the early 1990s have now veered to bitter hostility to Russian leaders whom they blame for obstructing the fulfillment of their dreams of a democratic Russia. Confounded by opinion polls that show that the majority of Russians vastly prefer today’s Russia to the Russia of the 1990s, Western observers assert that Russians have been hypnotized by a Kremlin-propagated “myth” or claim that they have been duped by “Kremlin propaganda.”

In reality Russians have quite rational and pragmatic reasons for saying that they would prefer to live in contemporary Russia than in the Yeltsin era. Senior citizens like to receive their pensions on time. Teachers prefer to get paid. People like to have some confidence that their life savings will not be wiped out tomorrow by some government currency reform or financial crisis.

Anchor Brewery Welcomes Bamforth

I love the Anchor Brewing Co.’s beer.

I love it.

I love Anchor Steam, I love their Christmas beer on the less “piney” years, I love Old Foghorn, and I really love the rye and gin they’ve been distilling lately.

When I went to Oakland, CA for a wedding in my fiance’s family, the hotel desk handed me a “care package” basket from the bride and groom. It had some snacks and a couple big bottles of Anchor Steam. They knew.

So when the publication of Grape vs. Grain approached, and I started to think about a launch-event location near Davis, CA, they were on my list from the start. I called the brewery one afternoon and introduced myself. When I mentioned that Charles Bamforth had a new book coming out, the woman who answered the phone said “Oh, Charlie! We know Charlie. Sure, let me get you in touch with John Danerbeck.”

Thus it began, and Anchor has been very hospitable ever since. I understand that last night’s event was a very good one.

So thanks to Anchor, to John Danerbeck (pictured right) and to Charles for his work championing beer.

Also, thanks to Jay, who graciously provided the picture. Read his post about the event here.

Were you there? I wish I was. How was it? Comments are open!

The Story Behind the Story of Polygamy in the West

According to the New York Times front page story today, the Texas raid on the FLDS compound in Eldorado, Texas, “rattles other polygamists.”

Marci Hamilton

Apparently, FLDS members outside Texas are poring over the documents retrieved by the state to learn the whereabouts of their own relatives (including the location of men who have one large polygamous family, say in Arizona, and another in Texas!). The church elders obviously do not feel it is necessary to keep members abreast of where they have directed each individual to live. I won’t be the first to note the extraordinary amount of mental control the FLDS leaders exert over their followers.

The real story behind the New York Times report, though, is the appalling and widespread failure to enforce the anti-polygamy laws. A woman is pictured with the caption, “Polygamy is not the problem.” Well, actually, polygamy would be a legal problem but for the prosecutors who have chosen to make it a dead letter on their own. The Attorney General, Mark Shurtleff, of Utah is so busy working with polygamist groups, he apparently does not have time to read the law books, or perhaps he just does not care about the rule of law. He, especially, cannot ignore the anti-polygamy laws, because it is a condition for Utah’s statehood in plain language in Utah’s constitution.

He and other enforcement officials in the west persist in arguing that the only approach they can take is to prosecute one man at a time, which has done next to nothing to protect the children in these compounds. Is that really how they approach the prosecution of dangerous gangs and drug cartels? This is a willful decision to ignore the mounting evidence in Texas that the compound housed a conspiracy of adults that furthered widespread child rape, sex abuse, and physical abuse. When a community has decided to separate itself from society, lives in shared barracks, dresses identically, brazenly ignores marriage laws, doesn’t bother to get birth certificates, shares religious beliefs in favor of illegal behavior, lies to authorities repeatedly about the identities and ages of their children, and then authorities find mounting evidence of illegal actions against children that mirror those religious beliefs, authorities do not have to pretend they have never seen a criminal conspiracy before.

Great Post on Wine and Beer

I dig this guy’s (well, assuming gender from the moniker Saucyman) writing.

From SAUCYMAN:

My bias leans towards beer; wine has always remained a bit of a mystery to me. Beer is easy, heuristic; wine has always seemed like taking an SAT I am ill-prepared for, where I inevitably fail both the analytical (Zinfandel, Merlot or Cabernet? Provenance of Australian, French or Napa fields?) and the verbal section (buttery, vanilla, barnyard).

Ditto. I couldn’t agree more. Some insist that the initiate research their wine. Now they say “Drink what you like.”

Cool, but it’s not that easy. I have decent taste and all that, but a side effect of this taste (developed by drinking and brewing lots of good beer) is that wine-wise, I don’t always end up liking what I drink, or knowing what I like to drink. Do I know what to pair with a peppercorned ribeye? A Peppery Zin? I dunno, many of my wine instincts fall flat, forcing me to consult manuals that are encyclopedic, odd, and not terribly “drink what you like.” And I do drink a fair amount of wine. My “tastes” are such that I always want something better, but find myself feeling much more welcomed by the beer store owner than the wine store people. I should say that a friendly woman at Astor Wines put together a dynamite, inexpensive case of wine for me a while back.

Eric Asimov’s take is one I can relate to, though it is a nuanced one. At the end of the day, the best answer is perhaps “you could always go deeper.” In other words, with modest to great time and expense, anyone can parse the subtleties of great wine. You don’t have to to enjoy wine, but you may find that you like it!

FDLS Arguments Will Not Hold Up

From today’s Fort Worth Star Telegram

Marci Hamilton

When Texas authorities entered the Yearning for Zion (YFZ) Ranch, one of the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints (FLDS) compounds, on April 3, they did so using a warrant based on calls from a person who alleged that she was an underage girl being subjected to physical and sexual abuse, including rape, at the ranch.

Once the authorities entered, they discovered pregnant underage girls, girls with more than one child, papers indicating that rampant polygamy was occurring at YFZ, and even a document involving cyanide poisoning. The authorities then intelligently decided to remove all of the children from a situation that posed obvious and serious danger to them.

Lawyers for the FLDS members have been arguing in the press that the entry and removal of the children constituted a “massive” violation of due process. Others have argued that the authorities’ actions represent the unfair targeting of one religion.

Each of these arguments is singularly misguided.

Read the rest of the article >>

Listen to Bamforth on A Matter of Taste

Click Here for audio of his latest radio appearance, on A Matter of Taste on San Francisco’s Green 960.

I’m Sorry. No You’re Not!

A great summary of some of my best argumentative skills.

Nick Smith wants a better dialogue than this. 

Flash Fiction reviews I Was Wrong, and gets right at the issues at hand.

Alfred Kinsey’s work elevated the conversation about sex. Timothy Leary’s work elevated the conversation about drugs. Now, the philosopher Nick Smith gives us his thorough study of apologies, a work that promises to elevate the conversation about what it means to say “I’m sorry.”

I Was Wrong: The Meanings of Apologies exposes how contemporary gestures of contrition demand our critical attention. Smith, who teaches Philosophy at the University of New Hampshire, examines the significance of various forms of regret. From collective apologies for the holocaust to a pet owner’s apology for forgetting to fill his dog’s bowl, all remorse receives scrutiny. Smith writes with the learning and patience of a benevolent professor. His message persuades a reader that today’s public and private apologies are playing fast and loose with morality. 

Read the rest of the article at Flash Fiction >>

Beer vs. Wine Friday

And the winner is….

Shawn the Beer Philosopher, with:

“In wine is truth, in beer is strength … in between them both is one happy man!”

Enjoy the book, and keep your tables ring free!

Thanks to all the contributors. Grape vs. Grain is now available nationwide.