Wonder Where that Tax Levy for Schools Went?

To understand where your tax dollars have gone, you need to know that Donny Osmond has panic attacks.

It wasn’t long ago that Marie Osmond also came out with news of her struggle with depression. Each of these “confessions” is attendant with appearances on Larry King and Oprah. Oh, and by the way, there is a new record to be sold at the same time.

Haven’t we been manipulated enough through the past three or four decades of hyper-marketing that we can see through this sort of nonsense? Celebrities generally seem to have a major confession about addiction or a mental illness around about the time they want us to buy something. By the same token, don’t we get it yet that politicians do pretty much the same thing, inventing a crisis so they can sell themselves as the solution?

Apparently the answer is a resounding no. Stretching, twisting, or downright inventing reality seems to be more popular than ever. The latest example is the hysteria around domestic violence. This topic has been covered by Silly Seattle in the past, so you may already understand that the psuedo concern over domestic violence has little to do with helping abused people and everything to do with a ridiculous battle on the imaginary bogyman called “the patriarchy.”

The pathology that domestic violence policy has become has now branched off into all sorts of specialty victim groups. The latest can be seen in the $7.7 million project, the majority of which is paid for by Seattle taxpayers, called “A Place of Our Own.” This “Place” is a domestic violence shelter for deaf women. Yes, for deaf women only. What’s next, DV shelters based on hair color?

Meanwhile, the manufactured hysteria and resulting bad laws have caused police officers to join together to fight for their right to make a living. You see, based on the 1996 Domestic Violence Offender Gun Ban, after nothing more than an allegation of domestic violence you loose your constitutional right to possess a gun. Obviously, that ruins the ability of a police officer to perform his job, so police officers around the country have woken up to the fact that they are just one date away from loosing their career.

How did Seattle taxpayers get duped into paying this much money for a specialty shelter that excludes abused men, while advocates push for police officers to loose their job based on nothing more than an allegation? Take a look at the nonsense from the feminists victim industry that is echoed by the Seattle PI:

Domestic violence rates among the deaf mirror those for the hearing population -- affecting about 25 percent to 30 percent of women in their lifetimes, according to U.S. Census data and crime statistics reported by the National Domestic Violence Hotline.

Advocacy workers estimate that more than 4,000 deaf and hard-of-hearing women in King County will experience domestic violence or sexual assault during their lifetimes.

Can someone please backtrack and cover the definition of domestic violence for us again? Does it mean physical abuse, or just getting an ugly stare? If such a large percentage of women suffer from domestic violence at some point in “their lifetimes,” has anyone stopped to think that the normal difficulties we all suffer in life are now being called domestic violence?

On the other hand, perhaps these statistics are just being made up, because the claim that 4,000 deaf women in King County will experience domestic violence seems to indicate that deaf women actually travel from outside the area just to be abused within Seattle, because there are not 4,000 deaf women living in the city to begin with.

These statistics simply are not believable. It is also not believable that deaf men do not also suffer from domestic violence in the same proportion as deaf women, whatever relatively small numbers actually do.

I’m just waiting for Donny Osmond’s admission that he is a victim of domestic violence, around about the time that he releases a new album. Maybe then, the domestic violence industry will finally be forced to accept the fact that we have been sold a load of crap in order to allow radical, angry feminists to conduct their war on "the patriarchy" with our tax dollars.

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Be Scared If You Hate the "Patriarchy"

Below is a letter from Fathers-4-Justice of Canada to Paul Martin, Prime Minister of Canada, declaring an ultimatum for the Canadian government to begin enforcing laws that protect the rights of fathers and children. These are the same guys that have attracted considerable attention in London, to the point of swaying public opinion in their favor and changing bad laws.

Politicians have long assumed that men and fathers were punching bags that would not fight back. I’d say that has changed. Gender feminists of the US should be getting a little nervous about now.

Coming soon to Washington State?

******
Mr. Martin,

On behalf of Fathers 4 Justice Canada, I hereby serve notice of our intention to step up our campaign of non-violent direct action against Canada's family courts, beginning on Friday, May 6, 2005.

We now have supporters from coast to coast to coast that are prepared to embrace civil disobedience to highlight the epidemic of mass fatherlessness in Canada. To date we have taken steps to minimize the impact of our actions while still demonstrating our resolve to bring about meaningful family law reform, however, it is now apparent that our efforts have been unsuccessful and we will now be forced to intensify our efforts to bring truth, justice and equality to family law.

Every day children in every jurisdiction in Canada lose full or partial contact with their fathers as a direct result of the family courts' failure to reflect the will of Parliament as defined in the Divorce Act, their failure to enforce their own Orders and their failure to conform with the core values embodied in s. 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Our message is clear: enforce the will of Parliament; enforce Court Orders that are continually broken by recalcitrant mothers; enforce the right of children have to a meaningful, loving relationship with both parents as outlined in the Divorce Act or face a dramatic escalation in our campaign.

If our demands are not met within 40 days we will launch an unprecedented campaign against every court in the country that continues to fail to act in the best interests of our children.

We are Fathers 4 Justice, however, if you have any reason to doubt our sincerity I refer you to Tony Blair - he knows who we are.

Sincerely,

Steve Osborne
National Coordinator and Spokesperson
Fathers-4-Justice Canada
www.fathers-4-justice.ca

CC:

Stephen Harper, Leader of the Conservative Party
Jack Layton, Leader of the New Democratic Party
Gilles Duceppe, Leader of the Bloc Quebecois

******

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Screwed Up Priorities

Sen. Jim Kastama of Puyallup has tried again to save fathers the anguish of having their children forcibly separated from them by out-of-control family courts with his bill SB 5350. This bill also would have saved children from being moved automatically from low risk to very high risk status, as having a father involved in their lives is the single largest indicator of whether a child will successfully accomplish the things society wants – like finishing high school, going to college, staying away from drugs, and obeying the law.

Apparently, the wise ones of the political elite that inhabit Olympia like the Politburo once did in Moscow, believe that guaranteeing equal rights for gays is more important than the hearts of fathers and the future for our children. Democrats in Olympia have turned themselves blue in the face screaming about how important it is to pass HB 1515, which supposedly prohibits considering a person’s “sexual orientation” when being evaluated for a job, housing, or a loan. But, in the meantime, Sen. Kastama’s shared parenting bill could not even make it to a committee hearing.

There are two extremely disturbing lessons to learn from Kastama’s experience with his shared parenting bill. First, the utter disregard, in fact disdain, the liberal political elite of our state hold for men and fathers is there for all of us to see. In King County, which is bombastically celebrating women’s history month, a man is guilty of being a violent perpetrator the minute a woman makes an allegation, regardless of the evidence. These men often find themselves in domestic violence re-education boot camp – designed to beat the “patriarchy” out of them – even when the woman involved recants. Worse, false allegations are a favorite tactic in divorce proceedings.

And, forget it if the man is actually the victim, which according to scholarly research (not feminist propaganda from the Women Studies department of UW) is the case at least half the time. He is systematically denied justice and even punished. According to the extremist feminists ideology that seems to be the only voice allowed in state and local politics, he needs to have his supposed male privilege beaten out of him any way.

The second lesson to learn from viewing the relative treatment of HB 1515 vs. that of SB 5350 is the idea, popular among so-called “progressives” these days, that all rights emanate from the state. It would seem to be naturally the case that sexual orientation should not and cannot be used to discriminate against anyone. Even if that were not the case, federal law and constitutional amendments have provided ample protection against any sort of discrimination, even for sexual orientation. But, to pound the point home that only the political elite can define what is a “right” and who gets it, they want to pass this bill.

Unfortunately, the end result will be that every time a business fires an openly gay individual, they will be sued for discrimination. We have already seen this with the abuse of other civil rights “awarded” by legislative fiat. So, while it is not likely that more people will be protected from discrimination, it is likely that law suites will rise and trial lawyers will be ecstatic.

In the meantime, fathers and men will continue to be blatantly discriminated against by government agencies and courts with officially sanctioned and institutionalized bias against men. The myth that 95% of domestic violence victims are women, exacerbated by the myth that 1 in 3 women will “survive” domestic violence in their life time, will continue. Shelters will be built and run by secretive, solipsistic organizations like the Eastside Domestic Violence Program. So-called “advocates” will continue to work to strip men of contact with their children on the bases of false allegations of violence that the advocates themselves persuade women to make regardless of the truth, then these angry advocates will applaud themselves for winning another battle in their war on the fictional patriarchy. Worse still, the same men unwittingly will have made a contribution to the anti-father forces by paying for a marriage license that has a special tax that goes to fund the advocates (see HB 1314, which will pass with plenty of room to spare).

What happens to the children? Large percentages of them grow up fatherless, even learning a disdain for men and fatherhood. They are several times more likely to drop out of high school or break the law. They often grow up not knowing how to function within a family and thus perpetuate the cycle of fatherless homes. This has already become such a problem that the state legislature begins trying to pass a bill that purports to teach family values to teenagers in public schools. That is a scary thought. And, adding to the surrealness of it all, the Seattle Weekly has an editorial lamenting that fact that Seattle has so few children living within its city limits. So few children and those that we do have are increasingly at risk of growing up fatherless. These problems could be solved with much less expense, and more effectively than with bill ESHB 1252, by supporting Kastama's bill. Men would not view marriage and fatherhood as such a risk and the kids that result would learn about family life at home instead of from the WEA.

If Washington were truly as advanced as it likes to present itself to be, legislators on both sides of the aisle would have been falling over themselves to support Kastama’s shared parenting bill. In reality, our state is stuck in the dark ages of feminist anger and is still fighting discredited battles. Our budget suffers for it, because fatherless children are the most expensive kind all the way through to adulthood. While society suffers the consequences, our children suffer the most.

Senator Kastama says he will vote for HB 1515 even though he got the cold shoulder from his party once again. He should vote against it. In fact, no self-respecting member of the legislature should vote for HB 1515 until Kastama gets a committee hearing on SB 5350, at a minimum.

Men in King County have already figured out that they have gotten the shaft, as almost 50% of men in their 30s in the county have refused to become entangled in the twisted institution of government licensed marriage. It’s about time the political elite of Olympia figure it out too.

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New Poll !

Mayor Nickels makes exaggerated claims that Light Rail will mean an economic development boom for South Seattle.

But, South Seattle residents need not worry, because the Mayor says that he will save them from the evils of upward mobility as this supposed economic boom takes hold. He says that through his “Action Plan,” he will keep them from suffering the benefits of economic opportunity. It’s a little difficult to see where in the Mayor’s “Action Plan” he will be able to beat back the evil forces of gentrification. Of course, reality and Seattle politics have never made much of a connection.

So, let’s see what our readers think. Will Light Rail spur gentrification in South Seattle and, if so, is that a good thing or a bad thing?

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Sims Wont Like this Poll Result

OK, so it looks like Silly Seattle will just have to continue.

Our most recent poll asked our readers if Silly Seattle continue publishing or close down shop and seek “good home training.” We decided to run this poll after Ron Sims claimed that blogs were somehow wrong in questioning such things as the botched gubernatorial election of 2004 and Critical Areas Ordinance that has stolen economic value from rural land owners.

Well, we now have the results and I don’t think Ron Sims is going to be happy. 91% of our readers said they would like for Silly Seattle to continue. Only three people want us to shut down and seek “good home training.”

How much do you want to bet those three were Ron Sims, Mayor Nickels, and Christine Gregoire?

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The Mayor Will Save Us from Prosperity!

Wait, did our city just step into the twilight zone?

I mean, look, every day in Seattle politics seems to be this surreal picture of deliberate underachievement. But, I never expected to hear the mayor of a major city, not even Seattle, define “gentrification” as an evil force in quite the way that Mayor Nickels did recently.

Apparently, the status quo, “diversity” obsessed (a buzzword which has nothing to do with diverse use of brain power), Mayor’s office is concerned that light rail will mean more development in South Seattle, particularly along Rainier Valley, through which the new mass transit system will run. Of utmost concern is the possibility that light rail will attract new investment in Rainier Valley. But, for Nickels and the rest of the political aristocracy of Seattle, the possibility of improving neighborhoods and adding new businesses is a bad thing when it threatens to provide upward mobility for their favorite constituents – the perpetually lower economic classes.

The theory that light rail will spur development greatly overstates its potential, of course. It might provide a transportation alternative, albiet an extremely slow and cumbersome one, but light rail is not an economic panacea that people will flock to just so they have an opportunity to ride it every day. It might even make things worse along stretches of Rainier Valley because it will likely make what is already a traffic mess at least somewhat worse. There was a reason that Nordstrom demanded that the city get the street traffic flowing downtown before the company agreed to invest in expanding its store there. Businesses, after all, require shoppers, and shoppers usually arrive in their car. Not many people will be going to a hardware store, for example, on light rail and then carry back several 2x4s on the train.

If you look at the actions planned by Nickels, though, you are left scratching your head as to just how he thinks he is going to stop his new make-believe bogyman, “gentrification.”

Here is the "Action Plan" directly from his office:

Directing approximately $35 million of the Families & Education Levy dollars to build a stronger system of childcare and preschools;

Increasing police presence and community-police relations programs;

Directing approximately $4.4 million of Housing Levy dollars and other City resources to projects in Southeast Seattle to create additional affordable housing;

Spending $2.1 million to create the Chief Sealth Trail for 3.5 miles of walking and biking path;

Buying property to ensure the long term sustainability of the Hillman City P-Patch;

Committing $2.5 million dollars in support of the Ray & Joan Kroc Community Center;

Building a Wi-Fi network for the Columbia City business district;

Providing increased technical and financial assistance to business owners with limited English to utilize environmentally friendly business practices.

If education dollars were going towards actually improving basic education, instead of feeding the WEA beast, that would be a good thing, and it would provide upward mobility for the people of South Seattle. A wifi network also is not a bad idea, but there does not seem to be much reason for government involvement as the private sector can easily handle wifi deployment and operation.

Saving the P-Patch must be a top priority. Since rural land owners are not allowed to plant on their own property, they will need someplace to go to grow their own food. There is nothing better than using the land of the Collective after all for making people more dependent on the state. And, of course, teaching small immigrant owned businesses "environmentally friendly business practices" is virtually guaranteed to ensure their survival. Snicker. This is an "Action Plan"?

Nickel's silliness aside, to the extent that light rail does spur business investment or interest in neighborhoods in the area, how can that be a bad thing? New businesses mean more jobs across the spectrum of employment. Rising real estate values for lower middle class home owners in the area hardly seems like something they need the government to save them from. These are bad things?

Well, when victim status is the basis of your political vision, I guess they are.

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New Poll!

OK, so we have dealt with the sad state of voter disenchantment with Ron Sims.

But, let’s take this a step further in our next poll. Ron Sims said that Silly Seattle, Sound Politics, and many other fine and insightful blogs are “shrill” in their criticism of him and the King County elections office. Perhaps this means that we should all stop writing?

Well, let’s put that to a vote. This poll asks whether or not you believe that Silly Seattle should continue to publish. Or, do you believe that we should shut down and go seek out “good home training.”

You tell us, and we will happily follow the results.

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Stick Needle in Sims [Other] Eye

Silly Seattle’s most recent poll provided, we feel, the saddest results yet of any poll we have hosted.

The poll asked our readers whether they believed that David Irons or Ron Sims would win the upcoming election for King County Executive. As usual, there was a slight twist in this poll, with two options available for selecting Ron Sims: one in which he wins outright and fairly, and another where he wins the election through fraud.

It turns out that 65% of you believe that Ron Sims will win the election. That’s not saying much for David Irons. Of course, he still has some time to build a name for himself and become identified with some issues, but it would appear that he has a long, steep hill to climb.

I suppose it’s not surprising that our readers would believe that Ron Sims has the election pretty much wrapped up. But, the sad thing is that 62% of you believe this is because he will cheat his way to a victory. This is a sad statement about the lingering effects of Gregoire’s stolen election for governor. Her legacy will be one of election fraud and disillusioned voters.

But, here’s the upside and one of the reasons we believe Gregoire is ultimately the black widow for the careers of several politicians associated with her: Disgusted independent voters tend not to vote. This year, political fatigue after a raucous national presidential election, combined with voters who believe that they don’t have a stake in an easily gamed system, just won’t show up at the polls. Sims has counted on his appeal to the average suburban housewife and loosing her vote will hurt his chances.

Plus, King County has shown the way to winning elections. Simply encourage non-residents to register to vote giving a City Hall address; and there are plenty of people living outside King County that are so disgusted with the county’s hegemony over state politics that they might do just that. Meanwhile, rural county residents are angry enough that they will turn out in force to punish Sims.

Geezz, even Joe Connelly of the Seattle PI seems to be jumping ship, as rats are want to do. Heck, Connelly even quoted the Herbert Research poll results that paint a dismal picture for Ron Sims. Sims will, of course, blame blogs like Sound Politics and Silly Seattle, as he already appears to be doing. Perhaps it was this Silly Seattle headline or this comparison that got Sims into such a tizzy.
For the purpose of full disclosure, we would like to clarify that there is a minor statistical potential error in our poll results. Essentially, the error is plus or minus 100%. But, the pluses and minuses cancel each other out, so we believe our numbers are dead on. If you don’t understand that logic, just check with Johns Hopkins University about their methodology used in a study that concluded that 100,000 Iraqi civilians died in the Iraq War. Surely, Silly Seattle's methodology and results are just as sound.

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Mother's Little Helper

Some of you may have been left scratching your head when we contended here that the ultimate goal of the gender feminist cult is to create two different legal systems in the US – one for men and another for women.

This is abundantly evident when one gets into the details of domestic violence laws, VAWA, and the mechanizations of family court (which does not operate much according to law). But, plenty of men ignore this threat hanging over the heads, thinking that they don’t beat their wives so they have nothing to worry about. Unfortunately, you don’t have to be an abuser to get caught in the DV hysteria net and then sent to patriarchy re-education camp. Worse, your wife would have to go to some awful extremes before anyone in law enforcement would take notice.

But, if you still doubt us, check out this article. The ACLU is complaining that women are disproportionately harmed by the “war on drugs.” Now, if you have been reading Silly Seattle regularly, you will have noted that my views on drugs are demonstrably libertarian. The war on drugs is a waste of money. But, if the ACLU and similar gender feminist groups get their way, the war on drugs will have a front against one sex – men.

The arguments the ACLU are the usual dribble: women should not be held responsible for their own decisions and, oh, the children, the children. We find it deplorable that a child could loose either their mother or their father due to a medical problem called addiction. Drug entrepreneurship is another matter, however. The ACLU, it would appear, believes that a wife who is complicit in her husband’s (or boyfriend’s) drug entrepreneurship should be held to a different, lesser standard.

After all, it would seem, a women does not have the capacity to pick up and leave when she finds her guy is a scumbag.

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Is That Leadership I Smell?

Ted Van Dyk has a great opinion column in the Seattle PI. He is one of the few people in Seattle media that is able to clearly articulate just how messed up our transportation situation is. He makes several great points, including (paraphrased):

Light rail is really no better than express buses, but several times more expensive due to higher capital costs.

The silly-rail monorail project is a “solution seeking a problem” and does not fit into any sort of rational transportation planning.

The Viaduct and Evergreen Point Bridge should receive priority, but are lost behind mega-projects that do not do much to serve our transportation needs.

There is a disconnect between the mentality of legislatures and that of the tax payers. Legislators are concerned with increasing taxes to the threshold of our ability to absorb them; tax payers are reluctant to pay any more taxes because they don’t trust the people spending the money.

He makes this statement about the silly-rail:

“It [the monorail] was never more than a faddist notion and should be euthanized before it breaks ground and eats more tax dollars.”

I’d like to add to that very accurate statement that the biggest problem with the monorail is that it crowds out money that could be used for much more important projects. Seattle just doesn’t seem to get it that money needs to be treated as a scarce resource. Bonds issued to pay for the silly-rail would crowd out a potential market for bonds issued to pay for replacing the Viaduct. Municipal bond fund portfolios do not have endless appetite for Seattle and King County issued bonds.

Thankfully, Senate Minority Leader Bill Finkbeiner, R-Kirkland, has introduced a bill that would get some things moving, add some appropriate taxes, and prioritize essential projects. The pound of taxpayer flesh he had to give goes to the light rail, allowing it to expand to Northgate and Sea-Tac airport. Co-sponsor Ken Jacobsen, D-Seattle, seems to be one of the few rational politicians in his party. He added a provision that prevents the silly-rail from issuing bonds until other more important projects are funded.

"My intention is to get these guys [Seattle Monorail Project] stopped before it's too late," Jacobsen said. "They're out of control."

Finally, we have some leadership! We can only hope you succeed Sen. Jacobsen.

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Silly-rail to De-rail

Looks like the monorail circus ride is on its last leg.

The state legislature, finally getting around to something important, as opposed to pushing through education legislation that mandates cultural sensitivity and diversity training for our kids, is looking at options to solve our transportation mess.

As one would expect, every option on the table includes substantial new taxes. The largest of which, and the one most likely to raise the ire of voters, is a car-tab tax. Our politicians just can’t seem to leave that one alone and have been chomping at the bit to raise it ever since a voter initiative that lowered car registration fees to $35. Well, we need to get money from somewhere, and if it’s well spent, I don’t think most people will have a problem with it. Of course, “well spent” is asking for a lot in a state that does not allow performance audits of government.

Another revenue source that is finally being looked at again are tolls. It’s amazing that the legislature is so afraid of tolls, but is happy to turn back just about every voter initiative they come across. Charging tolls for using major highway upgrades seems logical and need not be the daily hassle that it once was.

I quick drive up the Dulles Toll Road that spans through Northern Virginia to Dulles airport should be enough to convince even the most skeptical that paying tolls for a convenient and less crowded highway can occur virtually unnoticed. Virginia provides SmarTags (tiny boxes) you can keep on your dashboard that are read by remote sensors at exits to the highway. You just attach your SmarTag to a credit card or bank account and the debit is automatic. I know our legislators don’t get out much, except for international boondoggles, but they must have heard of this system. People in Northern Virginia pass through the toll stations without slowing down, so clearly tolls could be charged in Washington state without causing inconvenience. I've long suspected that the reason our legislature does not like tolls is because the money would be clearly earmarked for paying bonds, as opposed to going into the general fund and giving them the illusion of having more money to play with.

We could easily pay for most of the tunnel Mayor Nickels wants to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct with tolls. We could also expand the 520 brindge and tear down the stupid Convention Center that blocks expansion of I-5. The tolls wouldn’t last forever and we would pay for our highways as we use them, instead of the cockamamie idea that the Seattle Monorail Project has of leaving debts to our children.

Speaking of which, it’s a pretty sure bet that the legislature will pass some sort of package that includes a car-tab tax of around 0.5%. If the monorail tax in Seattle stays in place, the state car tax would push the annual cost of a vehicle in the city to 2.4%, and that's not including taxes for light rail. That’s a little high even for the silly socialists in Freemont.

But, I think everyone agrees that we can’t have both the circus ride and a good transportation system. So, in a remarkable act of leadership, the legislature might actually decline to bless 40 to 50 year bonds for the monorail. It already declined to allow the monorail to tax newly purchased cars.

It’s hard to see how the SMP will continue to support its unattainable dream of providing a circus ride from nowhere to nowhere at this point. Perhaps, finally, we will start spending money on much needed transportation projects and dispense with some of the silliness.

So, close down shop SMP. It was an interesting idea, certianly better than light rail, but politics is the art of the possible.

Looking forward to that soy mocha, Matt. And, you'll be tipping when you buy it.

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Sims and Ebers, Birds Sharing Feathers

Justice has been served.

Bernie Ebers, the former Chairman and CEO of Worldcom, has been found guilty of cooking the books. He claimed in court that he was ignorant about accounting generally and specifically said he was completely in the dark about what his side-kick, Scott Sullivan, was doing when he misclassified billions of dollars in expenses as capital expenditures. I have to say, even if Ebers where ignorant of Sullivan’s actions, negligence and incompetence on that scale should be enough to put a CEO in jail for a good long time.

The question is, have the screaming “progressives” from the 2004 election noted the fact that white collar crooks really do eventually get their due? More importantly for those of us that live in Washington State, do we believe that crook politicians should eventually also get their due?

Throughout the 2004 election cycle, we heard plenty about how Bush was somehow complicit in the big accounting scandals that fell out of the economic bubble that burst in 2000. It didn’t seem to matter that all of the fraudulent activities occurred during the anything-goes Clinton years. Whining Democrats attempted to link Bush to Ebers and Kenneth Lay of Enron because the crooks involved had not yet been prosecuted.

To make matters worse, the case of Martha Stewart was tried first, resulting in the domestic diva spending 6 months in jail. There were plenty of pundits quick to claim that Martha Stewart was a victim of a culture that does not like strong women. She is out now and playing the victim violin to perfection.

Of course, both of these claims were ludicrous. Bush had nothing to do with the culture of corruption that developed on Wall Street during the 1990s; in fact, he refocused the government on regulating these activities the way the were always supposed to. Meanwhile, Martha’s case was simple and straightforward enough that it could be tried quickly. She was found guilty because it was just a little too obvious that she had traded ImClone on insider information (gotten from one of her close friends, Sam Waxal, former CEO of same company).

Eber’s case, on the other hand, was extremely complex, requiring extensive research and preparation by federal prosecutors. Kenneth Lay’s case is even more complex. That one requires even more time and will be tried in January 2006.

Martha Stewart got her due. Sam Waxal is in prison, even though it turned out that his company really did make a breakthrough in cancer treatment. Ebers will soon be moving into prison for a long, perhaps permanent, stay. There is little doubt that Kenneth Lay will follow. In the end, all of these excesses of the Clinton era are getting their just rewards. You asked for it and you got it. So, have you thanked Bush, Michael Moore?

But, where does that leave us with regard to the corrupt election in King County? Is someone going to pay for that? Are the same people that were busy screaming that fat cat businessmen were not being prosecuted also going to scream that Ron Sims, for example, should be investigated and prosecuted for his role in a fraudulent election?

Sims’ excuses are similar to those used by Ebers. Errors, ignorance, and “no knowledge” are the arguments used by Ron Sims, Dean Logan, and plenty of others involved. Ron Sims even falsified numbers with his famous claim that the election was more accurate than a bank’s accounting (he seemed a little surprised that people could actually do math despite his efforts to refocus education on politically correct propaganda). Just as corporate scandals destroyed the credibility of the stock market, fraud in King County has destroyed Washington State’s belief in democracy. Christine Gregoire is in the governor’s office, but few of us believe she is there legitimately.

Betraying the people’s trust was plenty enough to put Ebers in jail. Why shouldn’t he have a former politician as a cell mate?

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Proof That Seattle Really Is That Silly

There she goes again.

Having Nicole Brodeur lecture you about foreign policy is like having a prostitute lecture you about safe sex. Wait, that’s a bad analogy. At least a prostitute knows something about sex. A door knob knows more about foriegn policy than Brodeur.

Everyone has their opinions and views about these things, and that’s just fine. But, not many have the opportunity to get into the most important newspaper in the region and show their ignorance. The Seattle Times seems to think there is a virtue in having Brodeur do just that.

She is going through conniption fits over Bush’s appointment of John Bolton as our new ambassador to the United Nations. To help get her worked up, she got a few quotes from Jim Compton, a member of the Seattle Silly Council. Now that’s like the blind leading the deaf. Or, should I say leading the stupid.

There really is no sense in dissecting her silly arguments or those of Compton. There really isn’t much logic to anything Brodeur writes as she comes straight out of the Women Studies mindset that emotion is justification in its own right. So, if she feels bad, upset, or PMS-y about something, it seems to make its way into the Seattle Times. The Seattle Times says she wonders about the same things I do. Hardly.

The disappointing thing is not what Brodeur writes her views, but that they are published in the Seattle Times. Seattle likes to boast that its populace is among the most educated in the nation. If so, who is that reads and appreciates Brodeur?

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Was Sims Ever Legitimately Elected?

The results are in.

A majority of you believe that Ron Sims will again be anointed Executive King. However, that does not mean that you all believe he will be elected democratically, which of course would not be fitting of a dictator. Instead, only 10% of you believe he will be re-elected legitimately, while 45% believe he will steal the election. Does that mean that about half of you are skeptical that Ron Sims has in fact had the "good home training" he claims he's had?

Given the abundant evidence of election fraud found in the magical “Big Binder” just released after being withheld from public view for more than 4 months, it would seem that many of you have good reason to believe Sims will steal the election. Bill Huennekens has been busy rationalizing the inability of election officials to reconcile the enormous differences between votes counted and voters credited, but when you see election officials so defiant in the face of obvious problems, you know something is up. If the same crew is in charge for the King County Executive contest, it’s a pretty safe bet that Sims will steal it.

Election fraud notwithstanding, now we have a more precise poll to take. Sound Politics reports that County Council member David Irons will run against Ron Sims for the Executive position. So, that begs the question, who will win. That is the subject of our current poll.

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Demolishing VAWA

Trudy Schuett of the DesertLight Journal has again provided a refreshing perspective on the horrible state of contemporary feminism.

Trudy makes a strong case for our country to scrap the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) debacle that is now up for reathorization in Congress. She clearly articulates the myths underlying VAWA, the ideology that drives those myths, and the implications of institutionalizing hatred of men in support of radical gender feminism.

Trudy’s most recent posting in iFeminists is a must read for anyone interested in fairness, family, and freedom. I discussed a previous column by Trudy here.

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WEA vs. The Bogyman

The teacher’s mafia of Washington once again shows us they have little interest in educating our children.

The Washington Education Association (WEA) has declared Walmart off limits for charitable purchases made for students using its charitable fund. The union has a small fund that teachers can use to purchase items for underprivileged students. The fund is only $50,000 for the entire state, so it’s not like barring WEA union purchases from Walmart is going to bring the giant retail chain down. Nevertheless, this is another silly political statement that clearly displays for everyone in the state where the teacher’s union places its priorities.

Walmart has become the bogyman of socialism leaning America. Union bosses love the Walmart bogyman. They gain their power by having something or someone they can declare to be evil and from whom they will protect the rank and file sheep that are forced to pay union dues. The more benign the bogyman is in reality, the better he serves this purpose. With the hysteria garnered by leftist groups against Walmart, the company provides a perfect “object of evil” for these union bosses. Hence, Walmart is the ultimate bogyman. Of course, there is no relationship between Walmart and the public education system, but that doesn’t matter if your objectives have little to do with education.

After all, the nation’s unions, ever a corrupt group that preys on the ignorance of its members, have a bone to pick with Walmart. Walmart has been diligent about keeping unions out of its workforce, sometimes actually closing stores that are unionized. This is an understandable strategy when one considers the mess union hostility has made out of such industries as the airlines and American auto manufacturers. Because it is the largest single private employer in the United States, Walmart is a prime target for union bosses hoping to expand their dwindling membership. Walmart realizes unionization of its workforce would be the kiss of death because American consumers have long since learned that companies with unionized workforces generally have shoddy product and service quality. (Indeed, the WEA and public education in Washington provide yet another example).

The propaganda side of leftist anger at Walmart focuses on misinformation about Walmart’s treatment of its employees and the impact of Walmart stores on local communities. As a retail chain that focuses on low prices, Walmart is heavily systemized and automated, while also relying on part time workers to fill the sort of unskilled positions found in a retail department store. These part time workers do not receive the benefits, say, a software programmer in Microsoft receives. Meanwhile, city dwellers suddenly concerned about maintaining their idyllic image of small town America when they do their once per year drive through (or perhaps never drive through but look at pictures) claim that Walmart destroys Main Street in this towns.

This is simply the most absurd assertion. It demonstrates the willingness of one side of the cultural debate to fabricate reality in order to suite their purposes. To understand this, think about what these small towns were like before Walmart arrived.

Small town America has never been idyllic for the people that actually live there. Sure, there are places that can be called “small towns” that are taken over by limousine liberals who maintain horse farms and control the town to keep it pretty and quant, and thus give them that small town feel they want on Saturday afternoons after a horseback ride. But, and this may surprise all of you Seattleites - most small towns and rural communities are not and never were so quant.

Before the arrival of Walmart, small towns and rural communities did indeed have a “Main Street,” which they all still have by the way. On this Main Street are (and in some cases were) small geographic monopolies with limited merchandise and outrageous prices. The owners of these stores, who usually have spoiled kids who drive to school in sports cars and belittled the rest of the rural folks for being so bucolic, have never been known for treating their employees all that well. Were they paying medical benefits to their small numbers of employees? Were they paying them more than minimum wage? Rarely.

So, what happens when Walmart comes to town? According to the WEA, the sky seems to fall, people go into poverty, the economy is wrecked, and everyone looses their health insurance.

But, reality, if you bother to look at it, is actually quite different. People in these communities finally can buy pretty much anything, in addition to all of the staples needed for their families, at the best prices available anywhere in the country. People in these communities are no longer held hostage by the mini-monopolies on Main Street that were charging them 2 or 3 times as much for less product selection. Meanwhile, Walmart provides jobs to large numbers of people and they pay a fair wage for the level of skill required in these jobs. Any long term employee that cares to invest their career in Walmart can work their way up into the ranks of people that are paid middle class salaries and who receive a pretty descent package of benefits. Many of the Walmart employed teenagers in these rural communities are able to save something for college by working in Walmart. Overall, life improves dramatically when Walmart comes to town.

Is Main Street wrecked and do people loose their opportunities for employment? Hardly. The old Main Street monopolies are not and have never been economic engines for their communities. The major employers in these communities are not the Main Street monopolies, but rather agriculture and often plants placed in the vicinity by other so-called “evil” corporations. The Main Street monopolies were parasites generally who took more than their fair share of the wages of these workers and returned very little back to the community. Yes, some of these mini-monopoly thieves close down when Walmart moves in, but an enlightened community would encourage Walmart to go downtown instead of fighting them and pushing them out into the hinterlands along a highway. Few residents regret the entrance of Walmart.

Reality does not much matter to the WEA and they are happy to lead their union members to believe in the Walmart bogyman. Meanwhile, the WEA is free to spend its money on whatever it wants. I’d be the last person to suggest otherwise.

But, what we need to remember is that our tax dollars going to the public education system are ultimately what funds the WEA. Those dollars are our money and we are free to spend it how we choose. Since its long been abundantly clear that education of our children is among the lowest priorities of the union bosses of the WEA, and the state’s public education aristocracy is in bed with these same union bosses, we ought to consider creating other education options for our children with our tax dollars. Among those options should be some that do not involve the WEA, but instead have teachers that are focused on education as a priority, not social engineering and socialist propaganda.

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The Violence of VAWA

I am ever more impressed with the women of the Independent Women’s Forum and iFeminists.

Trudy Schuett, of DesertLight Journal, has a great column in iFeminists about the ludicrous assumptions underlying the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). VAWA is a $5 billion boondoggle for gender and victim oriented feminists groups that was pushed through by Hillary Clinton while she was puppeteering Buba in the whitehouse. It is up for reauthorization in this session of Congress and, unfortunately, it will probably pass.

As Trudy so eloquently states, VAWA is for justice and constitutional rights what Saddam Hussein was for democracy:

The reason why men, and only men [according to feminist orthodoxy], beat their wives, is in order to maintain their power and control. It's all part of men's "patriarchal privilege," you see.

Of course, that's sheer hooey.

In my five decades of existence, I have personally known men who were physically violent to their wives or girlfriends. These men were anything but powerful. They were angry, frightened, and yes, they felt powerless. The same applies to the abusive women I've known.

Trudy sites an excellent study done by Psychologist Martin Fiebert, who compiled the results of over 100 studies on domestic violence. The results found by Dr. Fiebert? In his own words, his study demonstrates that “women are as physically aggressive, or more aggressive, than men in their relationships with their spouses or male partners.” In other words, men and women are equally responsible for instigating domestic violence.

But, don’t try saying that to the Eastside Domestic Violence Program. These hysteria mongers, in hyper-exaggerated paranoia, try to hide their offices in Bellevue. This must provide a dramatic backdrop for them when they invite potential donors to their secret hide-out. They are not interested in any study that contradicts the insistence in their literature that 95% of the victims of domestic violence are women. I guess that when your organization is responsible for propagating this sort of horribly damaging myth, it is best to hide its location.

Without their myths, victim oriented and gender feminists would not be able to achieve their ultimate goal of destroying this patriarchy thing they are so convinced is out to get them. In the process, they have hijacked a worthy cause - curtailing domestic violence - in order to further their goal of eliminating the patriarchy. As expressed by Trudy:

By ignoring the male victim, the Violence Against Women Act does a gross disservice to men. That goes without saying. VAWA also violates one of our most cherished Constitutional protections: equal treatment under the law.

Sadly, the fatalities under VAWA are not just limited to demolishing Constitutional protections.

But VAWA also does an enormous disservice to American women.

VAWA has created a veritable dragnet of social workers, counselors, judges, emergency room workers, and others. All are on the lookout for evidence of partner aggression against women. But remember, VAWA contains the ideological message that women are never perpetrators, so soon the female aggressor becomes invisible.

Look at Dena Schlosser, Nathshay Ward, and Kim Tran. These women were mentally deranged. No doubt there were warning signs months and years ago. VAWA has imposed ideological blinders on our society which say, "Ignore the female aggressor, because the problem really lies with patriarchal oppression."

How does that message benefit women?

But, worst of all, VAWA has furthered the continental divide that now exists between the sexes in our country today. Again, Trudy:

In the meantime, an unprecedented chilling effect has begun affecting personal relationships. Many of the behaviors which used to be part of the socially accepted courting ritual are now deemed by the VAWA nannies to be "stalking," and therefore any single man who persistently approaches a woman in hopes of forming a relationship is now at risk of arrest and incarceration. Young girls are constantly bombarded with messages at school, in media, and online about the awful risk of contact with boys.

VAWA has effectively guided society right back into the Victorian era.

Is it any wonder that 46% of men in King County in their thirties have never been married? eHarmony, of course, loves this situation, because they make huge profits targeting lonely women in their 30s and 40s who can’t find a man because, frankly, men just don’t want to put up with the crap.

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Equity vs. Gender Feminism

Let’s get something clear. NOW and women like Hillary Clinton and Christine Gregoire do not speak for all women.

It’s useful, I think, to clarify that there are now at least two major schools of feminist thought. The group that is most often courted by the politically correct media are the gender feminists. This is a particularly humorless group that has no room for open debate. The label gender feminist is appropriate because they are obsessed with three fundamental theories.

First, they believe that there are no real differences between the sexes. This is why they have pushed the term “gender” on us. Gender is actually something that is assigned, not innate. So, according to their theory, society and culture have assigned the male and female “genders”. In other words, if it weren’t for the evils of our culture, we would all be walking around as eunuchs.

The second belief that characterizes gender feminists is their obsession with a nebulas concept called “the patriarchy.” The patriarchy, according to gender feminists, is a conspiracy of all men to victimize women. What’s worse, they believe that all men are innately violent due to their socialization within the patriarchy. Thus, they believe that the patriarchy needs to be destroyed at all costs, even if that means converting our government to a totalitarian form of socialism that rewrites the supposed gender script and throws the Constitution out the window.

Finally, gender feminists believe that the most important characteristic of all women is their shared victimhood. All government policies should therefore be oriented around alleviating the victim status of women. This, of course, is principally achieved through attacking the patriarchy.

The orthodoxy of gender feminism is represented by NOW. At one time, NOW was a legitimate leader in fighting for opportunities for women. In the past couple of decades, however, it has become the center-piece of the feminist victim cult. You will also find this brand of feminism on most college campuses, including the University of Washington.

Gender feminists exist in a solipsistic vacuum in which any suggestion of a world view that contradicts their own is considered heresy. Thankfully, however, there is another school of developing thought among feminists. The women in this group call themselves equity feminists. Their interest is in advancing and protecting the opportunities that women have fought for over the decades since World War II. But, they have a decidedly more optimistic view of the world.

Equity feminists are a more balanced group. They believe that the revolution of opportunities for women has been successful. But, at the same time, family and motherhood are not something to be skeptical about. It is an honorable and fulfilling option for them, not a conspiracy of the patriarchy.

Equity feminists believe in an open debate of ideas. There is no orthodoxy among this group. They believe that our country was founded on important principals that should not be taken lightly. Their view of men is generally positive and they do not subscribe to the idea that there is a patriarchy. Most importantly, they believe that there are innate differences between the sexes and they expressly revel in those differences.

Some great examples of equity feminist organizations include the Independent Women’s Forum and iFeminists. Individual leaders include Tammy Bruce, Wendy McElroy, and Christina Hoff Sommers. Not surprisingly, the gender feminist mob consider these brave and independent women to be traitors.

NOW and their gloomy band of gender feminists like to represent themselves as THE voice for women. But, as you can see, there are other increasingly powerful voices for women as well. I think it is important for Silly Seattle to point this out in order to put some of the columns we post into perspective. We are not anti-feminist, but rather appalled by victim obsessed feminism.

Where is the future of feminism? Plenty of damage has been done by the gender feminists, not the least of which is to women themselves, who are learning how they have been betrayed. But, optimism usually prevails in our country and so I wouldn’t bet against the equity feminists.

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Black Widow Tax Dance

Christine Gregoire, the political black widow, is doing the tax hike dance.

Here is how the dance works. First, Gregoire orchestrates a choir of whining beggars with their hands out, and announce that "all of them are right” in their demands for more public money.

Next, she goes through a lot of histrionics while belting out a song about how committed she is to a no-new-taxes budget. This song, of course, includes a few psuedo battles and disagreements with other members of her party about the budget.

Then, she starts looking for men who "done her wrong" that can be blamed for the state's fiscal mess. This last twangy country one-hit-wonder was released today, as Gregoire blamed the state’s problems on the Bush administration. Blaming Bush is such a transparent and disingenuous target, since everyone in the only place that actually wants Gregoire to be governor – the city-state of Seattle – thinks Bush is responsible for every ill they suffer, including their stubbed toe.

The dance may as well be to an oldie, because we've heard it all before. The question now is, who is going to get hit with the tax increases. The first salvo involves hurting Washington’s retail businesses by charging non-Washington residents who shop in our state the sales taxes.

Along the way, and to pull on our heart strings before the tax increase announcement, Gregoire says that the largest crisis facing the state is healthcare. But, who made that crisis? Well, we can start with trial lawyers, who drive up the cost of malpractice insurance and thus the rates doctors must charge. Then, we can consider the fact that there is a fundamental disconnect between how medical costs are paid for and the purchasing decisions of people who consume medical services. Finally, we can consider the fact that the definition of healthcare continues to expand by goverment edict.

New taxes will not do anything to cure these self-made problems. Speaking of self-made problems, the Democrat controlled legislature is busy creating a host of new problems. One would think that in a legislative session characterized by a $2.2 billion shortfall, the focus would be on solving the states fiscal mess. But, alas, that is such a mundane topic for them to grapple with.

Too little revenue, so many things to spend it on. But, the King County Bar Associate has a proposal that would solve many of the state's revenue problems, while attacking a healthcare issue. The ABA thinks that King County should get into the business of producing and selling hard illegal drugs.

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Looking Bad for The Black Widow

Wow! All I can say is "wow."

No wonder the black widow has been looking awfully insecure in the post of Governor. The Republicans have released a list of 1,135 voters that were felons, double voters, dead people, or otherwise illegal. As expected, the Democrats are trying to spin this, but Gregoire’s stomach must be dragging the floor.

This appears to be just the tip of the iceberg. Stefan Sharkansky of Sound Politics continues to find major irregularities in King County, where voters credited with voting are at least 1,800 less than the actual votes counted. Meanwhile, the Washington Building Association has found compelling evidence that some of those famous second chance signature affidavits in King County (all votes for Gregoire, of course) were forged. Between a system that seems to look the other way when an illegal vote is cast, gives special effort to a particular candidiate, and some apparent ballot box stuffing in King County, it’s become clear to anyone with an objective eye that the wrong person is sitting in the Governor’s office in Olympia.

The extent to which Democrats have rigged the system is evident in their statements regarding the proof required by the Rossi team. Democrats say that it is not enough to show that there are enough illegal votes to maybe have affected the outcome. Instead, they say that Rossi needs to show that the actual illegal votes – in other words, who each illegal vote was cast for – were enough to change the election.

Of course, that is a Catch 22. It is not possible to check to see who received votes from the illegal ballots. It’s like the uncertainty principle in quantum physics. You can only say within a certain range of probability the exact location of particle. So, it’s possible to show that there were enough illegal votes to throw the election. And, it is possible with a sample size of 1,135 of voters that are more likely to vote for a Democrat (e.g., felons) to predict that a large enough percentage was cast for Gregoire to affect the election outcome. But, nobody can say so with absolute certainty.

That reminds me of Napoleonic law, which seems to be a favorite of Democrats. Rossi is forced to prove a negative, as opposed to Gregoire being forced to prove a positive. The question outstanding is the bar of proof Judge John Bridges in Chelan County will use. Will he consider that the “reasonable doubt” about the election outcome is enough, or will he use the bar of proof Democrats suggest is required. I’d be willing to bet that “reasonable doubt” will be enough for Judge Bridges. Then it’s on to the state Supreme Court, though, who are going to be searching for a way to protect their pal Gregoire.

In the end, I am not optimistic about the outcome in the Supreme Court. But, even if I am correct in my assumption about this, Gregoire has clearly been shown to be a completely illegitimate Governor. Really, this casts doubt on every statute that she signs into law, and it has far reaching ramifications for the state. The rule of law can not be said to hold during her tenure.

If the Supreme Court does follow logic and objectivity, throwing out the illegitimate election, the cast of characters who have been bitten by the black widow will be one sorry looking group. Can you imagine what it must feel like to know that your career is ended for naught?

Ron Sims better get used to that idea.

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Eminent Dumbness

If the Seattle Monorail Project cannot work amicably with the Fujii family, who can they work with?

John Fujii has an editorial piece in the Seattle Silly Times explaining his family’s position on SMP’s grab of their land. The Fujii family owns a piece of downtown real estate that SMP has declared eminent domain over. SMP wants all of the property, not just the portion they need for their planned station.

With quotes like the following, it’s hard to believe that the Fujii family would not have been amenable to a fair arrangement.

Today, our family would proudly share the property with the people of Seattle to help the monorail get built and create a plan for Second and Yesler that serves the site's history, as well as the community interest.

We do not wish to thwart progress on the monorail's Green Line. We seek only fairness with respect to our interest in the remaining land, for which no post-construction public use has been defined. We want to work with the Pioneer Square neighborhood to honor the past and secure a rightful role in the future of our property.

This situation strikes me as coming from the same mind-set that has King County stealing the economic value of rural land owners. The so-called “progressives” who have a stranglehold on our region (and hence the entire state) have a fundamental problem with private ownership.

While it appears that you are making progress Mr. Fujii in both the courts and the legislature, the best outcome for everyone concerned will involve killing the Seattle Silly-rail circus ride. The first step in that process will involve limiting the ability of SMP to ruin our credit rating by issuing bonds that extend past the accepted maximum of 30 years.

I am happy to see SB 5534, which finally limits the ability of government apparatchiks to confiscate private property, making its way through the legislature. Perhaps it can be applied to help rural landowners in King County. But, in the end, I don’t think you will need it. This colossal mess the city-state of Seattle has gotten itself into will likely die with a whimper as the immaturity that supports the silly-rail looses interest and becomes fixated on something new.

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Shackles for Every Man

As if we weren’t already living in an Orwellian twilight zone ....

Contemporary leftist feminism took a turn for the worse somewhere in the 1980’s. Equality was replaced with a war on the “patriarchy,” and all women were redefined as victims of the patriarchy. National women’s organizations subscribing to this pathetic view of the world found they could gain traction with virtually no political resistance if they adopted a cloak of victimhood.

To be sure, most political ideologies that ultimately go to extremes possess a kernel of truth or an ideal that is hard to argue with. The Bolsheviks lead by Stalin, for example, certainly had some legitimate gripes. The Russian people were living under a corrupt monarchy well after other parts of the world they viewed as peers had progressed to more enlightened (though often still flawed) forms of government. The resulting mass poverty and starvation provided the spark that fueled revolution. Unfortunately, the revolutionaries embraced a political ideology that, after providing for some of the basics people lacked under Czarist rule, ultimately clashed with human nature and left the Russians lagging behind their peers again.

Such is the case with contemporary victim oriented feminism. Women certainly had legitimate complaints before the women’s movement caught on after World War II. While the role of women had sensible anthropological roots, opportunities for women were indeed limited even after modernism took hold. But demonstrating our tremendous capacity for rapid change, the roadblocks for women were removed. They were removed so quickly, in fact, that an entire generation of women’s rights activists were left with perhaps too little to do.

Groups of women indoctrinated with feminist views but unprepared to actually join the workforce and contribute were in search of a new complaint. So, a hypothesis was formed. This hypothesis was a conspiratorial social model called “the patriarchy.” Women’s groups set out to destroy this supposed social structure through whatever means available. They became increasingly humorless until today their solipsistic thinking does not allow any alternative view, regardless of its intellectual or scientific basis. Just ask their colleagues at Harvard. Sounding a little more like the Bolsheviks?

But, they needed an issue that would sell in the media. Thus was born the bogusly clinical sounding term, domestic violence. Again, a kernel of truth is required for an ideology to gain traction with an issue. Domestic violence provided this kernel of truth. Men, women, and children could be found in abusive situations. As with the Bolsheviks, feminism found a theme to repackage and sell. And, as with the Bolsheviks, feminists have gone too far and left us with an end result that is worse than what we started with.

In fact, our entire criminal justice system has been turned on its head. The principal of “innocent until proven guilty” has been bifurcated into literally two separate criminal justice systems in our country. The first applies to men, which is now fundamentally a Napoleonic system, but worse because men are considered guilty from birth. The second applies to women, which except in the most extreme cases, can only be defined as “always innocent until proven not personally responsible.”

To find evidence of how far astray we have gone, one need only look at HB 2154 currently in committee in the Washington State Legislature. This bill mandates that any man accused of domestic violence be shackled with an electronic surveillance device.

Two basic components of domestic violence laws in Washington were already down right scary. First, mandatory arrest means that regardless of the circumstances the police find when 911 is called in a domestic dispute, someone MUST to go to jail. Because the reality is that men and women play equal roles in domestic discord (and violence) women’s groups found to their horror that women were actually sometimes going to jail. As a result, a major adjustment was made through adopting the myth that 95% of domestic violence is committed by men, with the end result that no matter who calls the police, who is being abused, and regardless of the circumstances the police find when they arrive, the man is going to jail. Second is the mandate that in every domestic violence case a judge immediately issue a “no contact” order, regardless of the wishes of the woman.

HB 2154 carries this to Orwellian levels. If HB 2154 passes, a woman merely needs to make a single telephone call to the police, and from that point on a man will be shackled with an electronic surveillance device that allows the state to monitor his whereabouts 24 hours per day. This is before he is found guilty of anything. But, that’s OK with victim oriented feminists because he was born guilty by membership in the patriarchy. From the feminist ideology point of view this is another weapon in the war on the patriarchy. Unfortunately, it has little to do with domestic violence.

Washington politicians like to brag that they are leaders on women’s issues. With the legal apparatus and philosophies and methods for tricking the Constitution they have put in place, the end result may be that they are really just leaders in the destruction of the criminal justice system as we know it.

Wake up men, mothers of sons, and anyone that cares about them. Fathers in the UK are fighting back; men in the US are claiming ownership of their sperm (sounds funny until you listen to feminist rant about controlling their own body); and even Canada is in on the act. This is not a matter of patriarchy entitlement being taken from you, as feminists would like to trick you into believing.

The freedom our founders bestowed on all future generations is being systematically taken from you. If you care to protect that freedom, you should tell your representative in the state legislature that HB 2154 is not a law that belongs in America.

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