Sick Transit

There’s an e-mail forward going around, as follows:

Did you see in the news last week where the supreme court doesn’t want any crosses on Federal property?

Crosses on Federal Property?

Well duh………

Let them try and remove these. 

What are these people thinking?

At what point do we say, enough is enough?

Of course, the funny part of this is that US military grave markers aren’t always crosses. In fact, while it’s not on the officially approved list yet, one solider (after a protracted fight) even had a Wiccan pentacle on his headstone.

So I’m sure that the people promoting the placement of crosses in public spaces will, by the same logic, be ready to support the Star of David, the Sufism reoriented symbol, the Muslim crescent, and perhaps even the Wiccan pentacle, right?

There are some culinary areas in which Seattle shines. For example, it has one of the widest selections of Japanese and Chinese food in the country, probably second only to San Francisco and New York. Caribbean food, OTOH… not so much. So I’ve been anxious to try Waid’s Place ever since I heard it had opened.

If you live in the Seattle area, I’d definitely recommend you try it; and quickly too, since based on this blog post and the fact that we were the only diners there at 7:30 on a Sunday evening, I’m not sure how much longer it will be around.

Meia and I both started with a pumpkin broth and a complimentary spicy pork dip, both of which were excellent. The entrees were served with a huge array of sides, among which a small bit of okra was the stand-out; they were all good, however. My goat was fair to good; it had a bit too much of a barbeque flavor for my taste, and had a lot of fat and bone, but was tender and flavorful overall. Meia loved her curried shrimp. The only available dessert was fried bananas with whipped cream, which were light and tasty.

All in all, I can’t say I’d recommend it against the stiff competition in cities with large Caribbean immigrant communities, like New York or Miami. But for Seattle, this is a major step up, and I hope that Waid makes it.

Via BPS Research Digest, Scientific American Mind has an interesting article about efforts to cure pedophilia.

One fact often missing from public discussion is that, from the beginning of research in this area in the late 19th century, psychologists have distinguished between two different types of pedophiles:

Krafft-Ebing also pioneered a distinction between hard-core pedophiles–those whose predilection came to the fore at puberty–and other forms of child abuse in which children are used as substitutes for adults. These pedophiles turn to children later, after an adult relationship has failed or they realize that the possibility of one is remote.

Among the latter class are “situational molesters.” These people are usually incapable of having relationships with an equal–perhaps because of a mental disability–or may turn to children after experiencing frustration or humiliation in an adult relationship.

This distinction seems fairly critical for public policy discussions–e.g. whether pedophilic acts can be deterred, or the recidivism rate of pedophiles–but is not something you’ll generally hear much about.

The other key distinction is between pedophilia as a psychological condition–sexual attraction to children–and the actual act of molestation. There are likely additional factors that play into the transition from thought to deed:

A general lack of inhibition rounds out the picture: pedophiles may suffer from psychosis, poor impulse control or alcoholism. Supporting the notion of pedophiles as impulsive, a research team led by psychologist Ronald Langevin of the University of Toronto discovered differences in an area of the frontal lobe in men who molest children as compared with normal men. This region of the brain is critical for impulse control among its other, higher-level reasoning functions.

How many pedophiles are there out there who don’t molest, because they have sufficient inhibition control? And what could we learn from them for the treatment of sexual offenders? We’re unlikely to find out anytime soon, since individuals in that condition are unlikely to come forward and identify themselves.

The second group above–the ’situational molesters’–are more treatable and less of a danger to society than the hard-wired pedophiles; OTOH, the latter are more deserving of our pity, because innate sexual orientation is a nearly impossible thing to change. That in no way excuses the acts of offenders, of course; but the need to protect children from the manifestation of this disease should not blind us to the misery of those who have it.