Mark’s Soap Box

Fidel Castro Communist Dictator of Cuba

Castro to step down,, internet predators not as bad as media proclaims, the French Legation in Austin Celebrates. Just another day on the internet

Liberals are crowing that Castro stepping down is a victory for them. Obama is pretending to be rational, McCain is sounding hawkish; and the HuffPosters are all wet with glee. See middle headline.

The French Legation in Austin is celebrating. Vive le Texas. See last headline.

Seems Dateline NBC and MSNBC have been shown to be liars about internet child predators. They have over-hyped the story, and now there is proof they were wrong. See first Heading.

More proof that liberals are wrong

Fears of Internet Predators Unfounded says study. Suppose all that Dateline NBC was just fear mongering. Where is the outrage? I thought fear mongering was bad? Or is that only for Republicans who are trying to protect the country?

WASHINGTON — A lot of parental worries about Internet sex predators are unjustified, according to new research by a leading center that studies crimes against children.

“There’s been some overreaction to the new technology, especially when it comes to the danger that strangers represent,” said Janis Wolak, a sociologist at the Crimes against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire in Durham.

“Actually, Internet-related sex crimes are a pretty small proportion of sex crimes that adolescents suffer,” Wolak added, based on three nationwide surveys conducted by the center.

Could it be the Dateline NBC, MSNBC, and even America’s Most Wanted were using hyperbolic rhetoric to drive ratings? Here are some myths and their realities.

In an article titled “Online ‘Predators’ and Their Victims,” which appears Tuesday in American Psychologist, the journal of the American Psychological Association, Wolak and co-researchers examined several fears that they concluded are myths:

• Internet predators are driving up child sex crime rates.

  Finding: Sex assaults on teens fell 52 percent from 1993 to 2005, according to the Justice Department’s National Crime Victimization Survey, the best measure of U.S. crime trends. “The Internet may not be as risky as a lot of other things that parents do without concern, such as driving kids to the mall and leaving them there for two hours,” Wolak said.

• Internet predators are pedophiles.

  Finding: Internet predators don’t hit on the prepubescent children whom pedophiles target. They target adolescents, who have more access to computers, more privacy and more interest in sex and romance, Wolak’s team determined from interviews with investigators.

• Internet predators represent a new dimension of child sexual abuse.

  Finding: The means of communication is new, according to Wolak, but most Internet-linked offenses are essentially statutory rape: nonforcible sex crimes against minors too young to consent to sexual relationships with adults.

• Internet predators trick or abduct their victims.

  Finding: Most victims meet online offenders face-to-face and go to those meetings expecting to engage in sex. Nearly three-quarters have sex with partners they met on the Internet more than once.

• Internet predators meet their victims by posing online as other teens.

  Finding: Only 5 percent of predators did that, according to the survey of investigators.

• Online interactions with strangers are risky.

  Finding: Many teens interact online all the time with people they don’t know. What’s risky, according to Wolak, is giving out names, phone numbers and pictures to strangers and talking online with them about sex.

• Internet predators go after any child.

  Finding: Usually their targets are adolescent girls or adolescent boys of uncertain sexual orientation, according to Wolak. Youths with histories of sexual abuse, sexual orientation concerns and patterns of off- and online risk-taking are especially at risk.

So the family is what is important. I think we can say that the break down of the family which is the goal of most media outlets, and the Democrats is a prime cause of this type of crime.

Speaking of Predators

Fidel Castro Zombie Doll courtesy
Babulu blog.

Our buddy Castro is stepping down. We however will continue to embago the Communist Dictatorship. It’s rocking in Little Havanna in Miami.

HAVANA (AP) - An ailing, 81-year-old Fidel Castro resigned as Cuba’s president Tuesday after nearly a half-century in power, saying he will not accept a new term when parliament meets Sunday.

The end of Castro’s rule - the longest in the world for a head of government - frees his 76-year-old brother Raul to implement reforms he has hinted at since taking over as acting president when Fidel Castro fell ill in July 2006. President Bush said he hopes the resignation signals the beginning of a democratic transition.

“Reforms”, yea right.

President Bush, asked about the news in a public appearance during his trip to Africa, said “the question really should be what does this mean for the people in Cuba. They are the ones who suffered under Fidel Castro.”

Amen! Where is the reporting of the suffering? The only thing you will hear is how great Cuba is, from the lefties.

Obama says:

“Today should mark the end of a dark era in Cuba’s history. Fidel Castro’s stepping down is an essential first step, but it is sadly insufficient in bringing freedom to Cuba.

“Cuba’s future should be determined by the Cuban people and not by an anti-democratic successor regime. The prompt release of all prisoners of conscience wrongly jailed for standing up for the basic freedoms too long denied to the Cuban people would mark an important break with the past. It’s time for these heroes to be released.

“If the Cuban leadership begins opening Cuba to meaningful democratic change, the United States must be prepared to begin taking steps to normalize relations and to ease the embargo of the last five decades. The freedom of the Cuban people is a cause that should bring the Americans together.”

Wonder who he stole those lines from.

McCain sounding almost sane:

“Today’s resignation of Fidel Castro is nearly half a century overdue. For decades, Castro oversaw an apparatus of repression that denied liberty to the people who suffered under his dictatorship.

“Yet freedom for the Cuban people is not yet at hand, and the Castro brothers clearly intend to maintain their grip on power. That is why we must press the Cuban regime to release all political prisoners unconditionally, to legalize all political parties, labor unions and free media, and to schedule internationally monitored elections.

“Cuba’s transition to democracy is inevitable; it is a matter of when — not if. With the resignation of Fidel Castro, the Cuban people have an opportunity to move forward and continue pushing for the moment that they will truly be free. America can and should help hasten the sparking of freedom in Cuba. The Cuban people have waited long enough.”

The HuffPo huffs and puffs about it, blaming America. What a shock!

This is the event that fifty years of U.S. policy was designed to stop.

No, the policy was to get him to resign. Problem is that people like you keep propping him up.

Now that Fidel Castro has announced his retirement, it’s time to retire our Cold War era Cuba policy. It failed.

Wait, sanctions don’t work? I thought all you liberals loved sanctions?

For years, the U.S. embargo has been rebuked in lop-sided votes in the U.N. General Assembly.

Well big deal. The UN hating America, oh the horror. You act like that is unusual. Why is that liberals can never be honest? The UN is nothing but an Anti-American Communist front.

As the Cuba embargo sullies our image around the world, it undermines the national interest and our highest values here at home.

Bad news honey, the Cubans here in this country and abroad disagree. Anyone else tired of people more concerned with what the “rest of the world thinks” and not about what is right? I am.

Oh and who is this Sarah Stevens?

Sarah Stephens is Director of the Freedom to Travel Campaign, which fights for the rights of all U.S. citizens to travel to Cuba

First you don’t have a right to travel to ANY foreign country. Liberals are such dumb-asses. They love using the word “right” except when it actually applies. Here group is nothing more than a subversive front for Castro support. Unreal. If you read her stuff, she gives no alternative to what we have done other than giving more money to Castro — through travel to Cuba — thus making it easier for him to be richer than he is already. Just another communist with her head the clouds, and no clue about anything.

She sides with the Communists who want to execute a true revolutionary. She even goes so far as equate freedom-fighters for terrorists. Typical liberal.

Here she claims that all Republicans are stooges and dupes, and that anyone who works for the Bush Admin is stupid. Ironically she is suddenly for free trade, if only with Cuba. Seem odd for liberal to want free trade.

And she loves it when the US is attacked by the nuts and whack jobs at the UN. Anyone remember a time the UN did something right? Me, neither.

Here she claims to be a researcher visiting Cuba, that’s like Bill Clinton saying he was “studying” in Russia in the 60s.

At no time does she ever explain how Castro became wealthy in a Communist country whilst his people remain poor. It’s called Communism, and it means that only the liberals err Vanguard get rich and everyone else serves them.

The Cuban people in exile don’t agree with her or anyone on the left.

Most exiles view Castro as a ruthless dictator who forced them, their parents or grandparents from their home after he seized power in a revolution in 1959.

Here is some of the people that the left loves, talking about Castro.

“Fidel Castro is a man of the masses… The Cuban revolution has been a source of inspiration to all freedom-loving people.” —Nelson Mandela

“Fidel has his own special way of fusing himself with the people… At the great public mass meetings one can observe something like the dialog of two tuning forks whose vibrations interact, producing new sounds. Fidel and the mass begin to vibrate together in a dialog of growing intensity until they reach a climax in an abrupt conclusion crowned by our cry of struggle and victory.” —Che Guevara, 1965

Both Nelson Mandela and Che Guevara were terrorists. Fidel Castro is belived to have kill Che to keep power for himself.

The French in Texas

Austin’s oldest building (still standing presumably) is the French Legation. Sitting on it’s original site, it is now a museum. It was the Republic of Texas’ only foreign outpost. (Today their are several, ironically).

Feb 23: A Glorious Opportunity: The French Legation in the Republic of Texas screening—this thirty-minute documentary about the museum’s founding makes its debut; guests are encouraged to bring a blanket and a picnic dinner to the outdoor viewing as well as take a candlelit tour of the home, complete with historical reenactors and live music. (From 6:30 to 9:15; $4.) Open Tue–Sun 1–5 (last tour at 4). Gen adm $5, senior citizens $3, students & teachers $2.

The building is maintained by the Daughters of the Republic of Texas. Just so you know; Texian is a citizen of the Republic of Texas, Texan is citizen of the State of Texas. Vive le Texas!

Politics never seems to change.

By this time, the Texians were siding with Bullock. Persistent stories of Dubois de Saligny’s paying a teamster with counterfeit money upon his arrival in Austin and of his plans to profit enormously from the Franco-Texian Bill, added to his demands that Bullock be punished without due process of law, finally led Secretary Mayfield to write a letter to George McIntosh, the Texas charg&ampeacute; d’affaires in Paris, ordering him to ask for the recall of Dubois de Saligny. The letter was written on April 8, 1841. On April 29, Dubois de Saligny left Austin, never to return.

Things never change.

Tags: castro, cuba, fidel castro, austin, texas, france, child molestor, msnbc, dateline