They were threatening castration...

Fucking Nazis.

Poland has approved forcible castrations for pedophiles and other sexual assailants.

Honestly, my initial reaction was "why chemical castration? Lets string them up by their sexual organs (internal or otherwise)." I mean we should take all steps necessary to protect people from being trespassed upon in the most private way possible -- especially those that cannot protect themselves. And that's what the bill is aimed at. And laws like this are concurrent with the American government's view on sexual material containing children: one of the reasons for the zero-tolerance approach to fighting child pornography (other than the obvious need to protect children from becoming victims of such heinous things) is because child-pornography (more than any other type of pornography) encourages sexual crimes. What better way to discourage crime than to simply remove the urge to commit the crime?

Sometimes, I'll get poo-poo'd on when I bring up the purpose of our corrections department. However, the original intent in the United States was to rehabilitate criminals. Now, I'll absolutely concede that we have moved away from that, and we now use it as a tool to defer, and more commonly to punish. But if we take the stated view of prison as the reason for sentencing people (that we are to rehabilitate rather than exploit), this type of legislation would fly in the face of our stated goals.

But that's not why I would oppose such legislation here in America. It may just be my jaded view, but I know that we would castrate the wrong people. In America, children can be charged with statutory rape if there is a greater than 2 year difference between those engaging in sex. While I don't think a 17 year old should be sleeping with a 15 year old, I don't think the term rape should apply. I'd say the same thing about an 18 year old sleeping with a 16 or 17 year old.

Now, there's no indication that Poland tends to use the forced castration in this manner, but you couldn't convince me that the American justice system can be trusted to use this option correctly in all circumstances. We have not shown the greatest restraint or reason with extreme punishments in the past.

This news hits the same week that we've been confronted with Mackenzie Phillips' allegations of incest -- the most egregious form of sexual assault and a violation of trust. As sick as sexual assault in all of its forms is to me, incest is one of two crimes that just makes me hate humanity (the other being child-rape). And being forced to confront these evil things does not make my opposition to the Polish legislation any easier...Hell, one of the most egregious crimes from Poland's recent past was committed by the sick and deranged Josef Fritzl. But no matter how rape and incest make us feel, it is important to note the damage that castration (even of the chemical kind) can do. Although we have learned that we can reverse some of the effects of chemical castration, there is no guarantee that a reversal of the procedure can be achieved -- and more importantly, in some rare cases, it is possible to be more physically aroused after being castrated. Does that really fix the problem?

Are we gonna split hairs here?

The Freakin' Deacon

Please rise for the hymn of the day.

What's Happening Now? Dance Party Edition

Not much needs to be said about this video. Watching people dance just generally makes me incredibly happy. We need more dancing, choreographed or not. Although the idea of "spontaneous" public dancing needs to be done more.



Put on your dancing shoes kiddos.