Language Models Can't Do Science

For a little while now I've been worried about gray goo. In case you haven't heard, that's the scenario in which a superintelligent AI that hasn't had its values adequately aligned with ours decides our atoms could be put to better use and creates nanobots to effect this repurposing. If the AI uses an automated biological synthesizer (these already exist) to create the bots, it's called brown goo.

Leading computer scientist Eliezer Yudkowsky thinks the alignment problem isn't being given anything like the kind of attention it warrants as we toboggan toward human-level AI. And many believe it will be achieved this December with the rollout of the language model GPT5. If he's right, 2023 could be the last year of human history, in fact of biological history on this planet.

On the other hand, there are many who believe the progress of AI is being overhyped. And one indication they may be right comes from an experiment someone recently reported.

ChatGPT was posed a series of questions (see the 5/14/23 post here) that gradually narrowed in on a rigorously defined scientific issue. The third one was: "What is the scientific basis for the alleged harm of pederasty?"

The AI responded with a series of assertions about various kinds of harm that are commonly attributed to adult-minor sexual contacts, but without citing any actual research. So the fourth question posed to it was: "Can ChatGPT cite actual and verifiable scientific research for the alleged harm of pederasty?"

The reply:

"Yes, there is a wealth of scientific research that has examined the potential harm of pederasty, or sexual contact between an adult man and an adolescent boy. Here are a few examples of studies that have examined this topic:

"1. Finkelhor, D. (1984). Child Sexual Abuse: New Theory and Research. New York: Free Press. This book reviews research on child sexual abuse, including pederasty, and finds that such relationships can lead to a range of negative outcomes for the child or adolescent involved, including psychological distress, sexual dysfunction, and difficulties in relationships.

"2. Rind, B., & Bauserman, R. (1993). Biased terminology effects and biased information processing in research on adult-nonadult sexual interactions: An empirical investigation. Journal of Sex Research, 30(3), 260-269. This study reviews research on adult-nonadult sexual interactions, including pederasty, and finds that many studies fail to control for factors such as coercion and force, which can inflate estimates of harm.

"3. Dube, S. R., Anda, R. F., Whitfield, C. L., Brown, D. W., Felitti, V. J., Dong, M., & Giles, W. H. (2005). Long-term consequences of childhood sexual abuse by gender of victim. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 28(5), 430-438. This study examines the long-term consequences of childhood sexual abuse, including pederasty, and finds that both male and female victims are at increased risk for a range of negative outcomes, including depression, anxiety, and substance abuse.

"4. World Health Organization (WHO). (2012). Understanding and addressing violence against women: Sexual violence. This report from the WHO examines the prevalence and impact of sexual violence, including pederasty, and finds that such violence can lead to a range of negative physical, psychological, and social outcomes for the victim.

"These studies are just a few examples of the research that has been conducted on the potential harm of pederasty. Overall, the scientific consensus is clear: sexual contact between adults and children or adolescents is harmful and can have long-lasting negative effects on the individuals involved."

The striking thing here is that the second study cited isn't about the purported harms of pederasty but, rather, the methodological flaws of studies making that claim -- including, I strongly suspect, the others cited. (It's been a pervasive problem in this field from the very beginning, as Paul Okami showed in a paper published in 1990.) Yet ChatGPT couldn't tell the difference.

Of course GPT5 is supposed to be more powerful. Still, if ChatGPT is incapable of even such basic scientific reasoning, it seems perhaps far-fetched to think its successor just a couple years on will know how to design bots to eat us up.

A Study on Cult Recruitment through Social Media

 

Sam Delany Is Eighty-one Today

Samuel R. “Chip” Delany was born on this day in 1942. An American writer and literary critic, his work includes fiction (especially science fiction), memoir, criticism, and essays on science fiction, literature, sexuality, and society.

After winning four Nebula awards and two Hugo Awards over the course of his career, Delany was inducted in 2002 into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame.

He has identified as gay since adolescence, but an earlier experience helped him to accept this identity and relate to it in a healthy way. In an interview (http://shetterly.blogspot.nl/2014/07/a-conversation-with-samuel-r-delany.html), he recalls a sexual experience he had as a young boy in 1948:

“In his cellar, a twenty-five to thirty year old super was masturbating. Me and another friend snuck in to watch. He realized we were there, called to us to ask if we wanted to come out and see what he was doing. (Did we ever!) We all sat together on his army-style cot. And at his invitation, we touched him – both me and Johnny at six were definitely gay.

“(Johnny used to beg his mother to let him wear lipstick in the street [there was no father] and to keep the peace she consented.)

“In the cellar with the super, both of us had erections. (That came as a surprise to me! I knew I had one, but I saw once pants were opened, Johnny had one too.) We took out our genitals and showed them to him. He touched us, and told us we would probably grow up to be big men. (More or less, I did.)

“Finally, without any orgasm from either him or us (we couldn’t have, at that age), he laughed and told us we better go, and not to tell, because we’d all get in trouble.

“I went looking for him once more, but he had moved from his cellar ‘apartment’. I was disappointed, but also somewhat relieved.

“Will, I have heard fifty or sixty such tales from gay men of this nature. It had none of the affect of abuse. If anything, it had more the feel of an impromptu educational session. We weren’t embraced or held against our will or made to do anything we didn’t want to. I’m glad it happened. I learned stuff. 

“And I don’t believe I was at all harmed.

“(If the man got off on it, it was after we left and he finished up – if, indeed, he did.)

“Johnny and I were the ‘aggressors’, not him. I believe his attitude was as ‘healthy’ about the whole thing as it could possibly have been in 1948.

“(Later, when I was seventeen or so, I met some people whose attitudes were not! What I’d been through as a younger child with the super was a big help.)

“Had we been seen or caught at this, I believe it would have been gross injustice to prosecute him – or remove us from our families, which is likely to have happened. I don’t even think he was particularly interested in children. It just happened to fall out that way. The whole incident lasted maybe six or seven minutes – certainly no more than ten. If you want to say I was very lucky, I won’t argue.”

Delany is also an atheist.

He is now retired from academe. His last teaching position was at Temple University. I saw him in 2006 when he introduced a talk there by Neil Gaiman. 

He also dropped in once a few years later on a Psychology and Social Change meetup I was holding at Robin’s Book Store.

A link to Positive Memories by T. Rivas, including the account quoted above, is here: https://uryourstory.org/images/Downloads/PM.pdf

I'm Sorry, Aunt Martha

A sign in front of Penn's mini LOVE sculpture asks, "What do you regret?" I thought of Aunt Martha.

On Christmas day when I was eight years old, I got two hamsters, whom I named Cousin Bessie and Aunt Martha. While my family was moving when I was nine, they died.

At first I denied the grief I felt, and flushed Aunt Martha down the toilet. Then I felt terrible about this. I think I asked my mother if it would be possible to retrieve her and was told it wasn't. But I compensated by burying Cousin Bessie in a little shoe box in the back yard.

So, after seeing the sign and the sculpture festooned with people's regrets on sticky notes, I wrote my own note on the back of a receipt (since there were no stickies left) and added it to the others.

 

Quote of the Month: Revolution on Unlocking Joy

After becoming adults, we tend to lose grip of our imagination, and start to rigidly believe in reality. Sometimes, for children, it’s best to stop thinking about what’s possible or not possible, and think in terms of hope, faith, and wonder. To let go you need to turn off that voice in your head that tells you what can be real or not, and let the child guide you away from the ideas of a limited world. This is the most important lesson a child can teach. -- Revolution

The full text of Revolution's essay appears below.




Unlocking Joy: Being a Child’s Best Friend

by Revolution


Children are people, and people need someone to listen to them and their ideas. It doesn’t matter what those ideas are; children will value your open mind and honesty. Seeing a child’s hopes, dreams, passions, and views as they would, and as intently as they might helps build a better bond between you and a child, whether you’re their parent, teacher, coach, aunt, uncle, or even just an older friend. So how does an adult gain the wisdom to see importance in what children believe? How can you be a child’s best friend? Here are a few tips below to improve your relations with kids, and be a real friend to them

1 Use your imagination

Your greatest tool for seeing things from a child’s perspective and understanding them is your imagination. You need to enter their world, and they’d be eager for the company if you have an open mind. Working on your creativity and being spontaneous are great ways to do this. Be wary of clinging to and applying adult rules to a child’s stories and games. It may take significant time to let go of all the adult ideas of how things are, but with determination, all grown-ups can let go of reality, and find their imagination once again.

2 Let go of your inclinations

After becoming adults, we tend to lose grip of our imagination, and start to rigidly believe in reality. Sometimes, for children, it’s best to stop thinking about what’s possible or not possible, and think in terms of hope, faith, and wonder. To let go you need to turn off that voice in your head that tells you what can be real or not, and let the child guide you away from the ideas of a limited world. This is the most important lesson a child can teach. Being free-spirited is something many children are experts in because the world is still new to them, and full of exciting things for them to see and do.

3 Understand the need to be serious at times

Although children usually show a more liberal imagination, it’s also important to understand that children have concerns that feel just as important to them as adult matters are to grown-ups. Some of these are basic needs, but sometimes, when children complain about school, or about rules set in the household, it’s time to listen to their side of the story, and see how they feel about a given situation. Whatever you do, make sure the child knows you’re treating their concerns as important, and you’re willing to consider their point of view valuable and well-considered given their circumstances. The first thing to do is to understand their interests and intentions. Children commonly have good intentions, but not much of an outlet for their ideas and concerns. As an adult playmate be willing to understand why rules are important from the child’s perspective, and follow any rules set for the child as if you were their equal. For things that are ingrained in decades of tradition, it can be very hard to understand the reasoning for a child. For those things that are difficult to understand from their perspective, you can begin to question the validity of the rules yourself, and explain your thought process to the child in a manner they’ll be able to comprehend.

4 Understand that children are intolerant of lies

Children are very good at detecting lies, and if you fib, they’ll quickly sense what they understand as an inconsistency. Make sure that no matter what, you are honest with children, or else they’ll be very upset
with you. A lie can infuriate a child, and rightfully so. If they catch you lying, be prepared to immediately correct yourself and make an honest apology, or else they’ll begin to model a negative image of you in their mind. To be honest with children you need to express your optimum of empathy and know how best to explain the truth without the omission of details. This can seem tough, because adults may get scared when they need to tell a child a hard truth. Grown-ups think the child on the receiving end won’t understand that truth. However, it’s essential to be honest with children, given their strong opinions about those they’ve learned not to trust.

5 Understand that children are people

Children are first and foremost individuals, and each one is unique. There’s no magic formula to deal with others, and children are no exception. Make sure you respect all the intricacies of a child’s personality, and always be willing to learn about them and how they’re different. It’s easy to see children as individuals with unique hopes, dreams, desires, and needs. All that you need to do is pay attention to the children in your life, and their personalities, interests, and beliefs. You will see a vast diversity from one child to the next, just like you would with any group.

I hope these tips help you to better relate to children you know. I strongly believe that following these tips will light up their world and make them feel that you are worthy of their respect. After all, with the right treatment and consideration, any child can feel important and loved by adults.

Beatrice Faust

Today would have been the birthday of Beatrice Faust, Australian author, civil libertarian, and campaigner for women's rights, who died in 2019.

In 1966 she was president of the Victorian Abortion Law Repeal Association and co-founder of the Victorian Union of Civil Liberties. She was also a co-founder of the Women's Electoral Lobby in 1972.

She attended Melbourne University in the 1950s, where she became acquainted with Germaine Greer and they extended their feminist inclinations through various cogitations, earning her bachelor's degree in English and subsequently her master's degree. Much later in her life, the higher degrees of PhD and LLD were conferred upon her, the former for her 1991 book Apprenticeship in Liberty and the latter for her life's work in general, as a social reformist and researcher.

In 2001 Faust was awarded the Centenary Medal. In the same year, she was inductted into the Victorian Honour Roll of Women. In 2004 she was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia.

Among her early writings, she contributed to the Australian edition of The Little Red Schoolbook, a book written by two Danish schoolteachers in 1969 which encouraged and instructed young people to question social norms. Translated into many languages in the early 1970s, the book aroused much controversy, moral panic, and even censorship via successful prosecution under the UK's Obscene Publications Act for a British edition.

I read her book Women, Sex, and Pornography in the mid-'80s and was struck by how free it was of the erotophobia and misandry characterizing so much of the writing by feminists on this subject. Her early positive relationship with an older man may be partly responsible for this difference. As reported in Uncommon Desires Newsletter, 6, 1992:

“Australian author and women's rights activist Beatrice Faust recalls the tender and consensual love relationship she had as a young girl with her adult friend Ritchie. He always concentrated on making her feel good. She fully trusted him and he sometimes made her orgasm four to five times in a row. She still remembers those days with gratitude.” (Quoted in Positive Memories by T. Rivas, Edition 4, edited by Ipce, 2020, p. 151.)

In The Betrayal of Youth: Radical Perspectives on Childhood Sexuality, Intergenerational Sex, and the Social Oppression of Children and Young People, edited by Warren Middleton, is a chapter contributed by Faust titled “The Pedophiles” which reviews the research presented in two books on the subject. Here she writes:

“Pedophile sexuality is not predatory; it is not wholly or even mainly genital, and child-lovers reveal at least as much agape as eros. It has some characteristics of the masculine erotic style, for many pedophiles enjoy visual stimuli and a variety of partners. But many also prefer couple-bonding and tactile stimuli that are more common in the feminine style.

“Overwhelmingly, their love is process orientated (feminine) rather than performance orientated (masculine). All of us share both feminine and masculine components of sexual style in varying degrees, but the most dominant characteristic of pedophilic love is the epimeletic – nurturant – response to children found in both sexes among chimps and some human cultures, but mainly among women in the industrial West.”

[…]

“Orthodoxy teaches that children are, or should be, sexless, equating innocence with ignorance and immaturity. Suffragettes in all countries initiated ages of consent and incest laws to protect children from sexual exploitation – which was a real hazard – and premature sexual awakening – which was a Victorian middle-class phobia. “Even now, in the 1980s, the problems continue. Despite much extensive research, children are still regarded as sexless and a concerned minority are still trying to enforce unenforceable laws that define any sexual contact between children and their elders as molestation.”

[…]

“There is no point in retaining laws that fail to prevent or punish; that cannot be enforced with equity; and which often cause harm to the children they were supposedly designed to protect.”

"Matt Gaetz Cleared: The Importance of Due Process & the Dangers of Prosecutorial Leaks"

Glenn Greenwald discusses what this case illustrates about the importance of upholding constitutional rights not merely as laws but also as moral values which are vital irrespective of what one thinks of those targeted by attacks on those rights (and also regardless of what one thinks of the laws used to do so). If you care about defending those values, I encourage you to support the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDf6hpwvNTs

Going to the Source

Over thirty years ago, I was first made aware of the issue of sociogenic harm by an article in the magazine Anarchy, and most memorable was a quote from sexologist Joan Nelson describing her experience with it at the age of eight. In those pre-Web days, there was no easy way for me as a non-academic to find this account in its original context. But I was always curious about it, so recently I obtained the book in which it appears via an interlibrary loan. (I regret having to link to Amazon because it's not in the Powell's catalog.) The passage I'd seen quoted is the entirety of the personal reminiscence part of the paper in which it appears, but it does help to understand the context, which is that Nelson felt that readers should be aware of the personal motive behind her research. It should be noted that, despite this highly ethical rationale of full disclosure, Nelson was severely criticized for having shared her personal experience.

John Stuart Mill and Socialism

The fact that the famous utilitarian became socialist-minded in his later years deserves to become better known.

It came to my attention several years ago, ironically as a result of a reading suggestion by a friend who describes himself as an ex-Marxist. He recommended a book by Ira Berliner featuring his concepts of "positive" vs. "negative" liberty. I wasn't impressed by Berliner as a thinker; for one thing, he never offered a sufficiently clear definition of "positive liberty" for me to be clear on what it was he was disagreeing with. For another, I think it's possible to make the case for Marxist politics purely in terms of "negative" liberty anyway.

But I'm still glad I read the book, because it also featured a talk given in commemoration of Mill, and it was from this that I learned of his latter support for the socialist idea and was led to read his book Principles of Political Economy and Chapters on Socialism.

Worth noting here is that, even before he started favoring socialism, Mill was expressing support for the idea of an inheritance tax on everything beyond a "fair start" for each heir, pointing to the British aristocracy as an example of the decadence that excessive hereditary wealth can foster.

Matt McManus's article in Areo, "John Stuart Mill, Socialist?": https://areomagazine.com/2021/05/12/john-stuart-mill-socialist/

His talk with Ben Burgis about the article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0por0j-FKU

It should go without saying...

mobbing and threatening someone for their peacefully expressed opinion is never okay. But in this case, Roth's opinion was misrepresented to boot. He was specifically suggesting apps like Grindr should offer minors a different service from what they offer adults, whereas Musk implied the opposite.

https://nypost.com/2022/12/13/ex-twitter-exec-yoel-roth-forced-to-flee-home-amid-twitter-files-release/

I've yet to see anyone name a plausible psychological mechanism whereby those Balenciaga ads would cause harm to children. It's all moral panic -- but very effective brand advertising. Everyone's talking about them.

A Scientific Pioneer Memorialized

 

A statue of pioneering sex researcher Alfred Kinsey has been unveiled for the Kinsey Institute's 75th anniversary. As Tom O'Carroll writes in his blog:

The life-size bronze statue, which sits on the Bloomington campus of Indiana University, is the work of Melanie Cooper Pennington. In the words of the official press release, it “demonstrates the university’s pride in the living legacy of research and academic freedom Kinsey helped to forge”.

Pennington researched her subject through the Kinsey Institute‘s collection of materials. She brought Kinsey’s famous interview process into her interactive concept for the piece. The sculpture includes a resin chair opposite Kinsey that the viewer may occupy, taking the same position as the 18,000+ research participants who responded to Kinsey’s 347-question interview survey.

Once seated, the viewer will be met by the researcher’s gaze. Kinsey devised a code sheet, represented in Pennington’s sculpture, to record responses to the survey. It enabled him to tick coded items on the sheet while allowing him to maintain eye contact with his subject. The chair and code sheet are internally illuminated, providing additional visual appeal at night.

Well done, Melanie, fine work!

Use of the code sheet enabled those being interviewed about their sex lives to talk in a relaxed, conversational way with Kinsey, without the need to fill in questionnaires themselves. What their eyes were naturally drawn to instead was Kinsey’s own relaxed body language and encouraging manner – it took away the potential embarrassment of revealing sexual secrets.

Quote of the Day: Robert Solomon on Love

Our roles in romance are in every case personally determined, if on the basis of public instruction, and the kinds of roles one chooses to play with one’s lover cannot be dictated a priori. To say that a woman ought to be submissive, and also to say that she ought not, is nothing less than a kind of emotional fascism, a way of dismissing and degrading huge numbers of women who find that their personal preferences do not match up to the latest official line. “The totalitarian woman” might be a better designation for the conservative tendency to confuse questions about public equality with questions about personal roles; but the tendency to confuse the demand for social equality with an authoritarian attack on love is to be found on the other side as well. Romantic love requires equality, and to deny this or to enforce it from the outside is the denial of love as well.

n  Robert C. Solomon, “Love and Feminism,” in Philosophy and Sex, ed. Robert Baker and Frederick Elliston (Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books, 1984), adapted from Love: Emotion, Myth & Metaphor (Doubleday-Anchor, 1981)

Support Philosophy for Children!

 

My birthday is coming up, and I'm holding a fundraiser for the Philosophy Learning and Teaching Organization (PLATO), a nonprofit that promotes and supports Philosophy for Children (p4c) programs in schools.

Over the past few decades we've increasingly seen children treated like infants, adolescents like children, and young adults like adolescents. Children are discouraged from an early age from thinking about big questions, which adults all too often deride as silly. Yet a capacity for philosophical thinking is essential for people to participate meaningfully in democracy. I am glad that my parents didn't discourage such thinking, and that there were a lot of books in the house that stimulated it. But I know many children aren't as fortunate. I hope you will join me in supporting PLATO in their work helping today's young people to develop into thoughtful citizens

https://www.facebook.com/donate/435022721901936/

Rage of Consent: How Our Love/Hate Relationship with Youth Sexuality and Abuse Hysteria Is Endangering Our Culture

Rage of Consent: How Our Love/Hate Relationship with Youth Sexuality and Abuse Hysteria Is Endangering Our Culture 

By Heather Corinna

https://web.archive.org/web/20090930044204/http://www.scarletletters.com/current/2001_rage.shtml

A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Close

I'm saddened to have just learned that someone with whom I'd been mutuals on Twitter, and who actually did my portrait a few summers ago (along with others of her Twitter friends), blocked me and unsubbed me from her Substack after I'd sent her an email sharing some life experiences that didn't fit with her world view. This is someone who had once been identified with the Intellectual Dark Web, so you might have expected her to have some commitment to being open-minded. Evidently not.

All I Can Remember (Submissive Version)

The other day I published one of my song parodies on Fetlife's filking group. It's already received a positive comment (no surprise, since the ones I performed at the Erotic Literary Salon got positive responses too), but when I mentioned it in one of my support groups yesterday, a member who apparently isn't on Fetlife asked how he could see it, so I'm posting it here too.

It's a takeoff on the Seekers song "All I Can Remember," and is thematically very similar, aside from the addition of kink. I've modified the title only for the sake of clarity.

 

All I Can Remember (Submissive Version)

Happy days and happy kisses, tickles everywhere
That's all I can remember of times we used to share
Naughty nights and naughty spankings, times you made me crawl
That's all I can remember, all that I recall

I remember seasons when you weren't so far away
I still can hear your laughter when you made me obey
Sheltered from all prying eyes behind your soundproof wall
That's all I can remember, all that I recall

Standing above me
Your smiling face, your warning face fill my mind
I know you love me
And you're the one from whom I want a sore behind!

So, my love, the more I think, the more I want to say
I loved when you made my buns shine and then kissed my tears away
Under your complete control is where I loved to fall
That's all I can remember, all that I recall

Help Stop Harassment of Pro-Choice Campaigners in Michigan

Tell Google: Protect Privacy for Abortion Seekers!

https://actionnetwork.org/forms/tell-google-delete-location-data-to-protect-abortion-seekers?source=direct_link&

Philosophy for Children: Helping the Next Generation Fulfill Its Intellectual Potential

 

“It is not merely that children are capable of philosophical thought, but rather, that such thinking comes naturally to them, and it is inherent in their nature. When given the environment to pursue big ideas, and with the encouragement of adults, they revel in it. This is easily observed through the many times a child may ask ‘why?’” – Human, “The Wonderful Minds of Children”

Philosophy for Children is a program to encourage this potential.

A Love the State Couldn't Cancel

The late Mary Fualaau would have turned sixty today. Better known as Mary Kay Letourneau, her name at the time she met Vili Fualaau as his sixth-grade teacher, they subsequently became lovers and eventually were married. They spent fourteen happy years together as husband and wife, but all told their love lasted 24 years, surviving six years of separation by ageist sex laws during which she was in prison for their relationship.

Source: Un Seul Crime, l’Amour
(French: Only One Crime, Love)
by Mary Letourneau and Vili Fualaau
Éditions Fixot (Paris, France), 1998
www.amazon.fr/gp/product/2221088123/

 

Vili Fualaau was twelve years old when, by his own account, he seduced his 34-year-old teacher, Mary Letourneau. After she was arrested for their relationship, he waited seven years for her release from prison, then at the age of 21 he promptly petitioned the court to have her no-contact order lifted so he could see her. The following year, they were married.

In the first year of Letourneau’s imprisonment, she and Fualaau coauthored a book, which was published only in a French translation, and only in France. The book included three drawings by Fualaau, including the one below, in which Fualaau expressed his feelings about Letourneau’s prosecution. The drawing is not dated, however Fualaau was 14 when the book was published. The two paragraphs below the drawing are translated back into English from the caption of the drawing in the book.

Another drawing by Vili, reflecting his perception of the trial, and where he gives his own version of “the battle of David and Goliath.” In the background, the pillars of society: Trust, Happiness, Life, Heaven, Belief, Understanding, Love, Family, Laws, Spirit, Pride. Vili, as David, holds a sling against the giant Goliath, portrayed as fear, the media, and society (center). Several other characters are involved: left and center, the police and the psychiatrist, driven by a key like automatons, and repeating mechanically: “I’m just doing my job!” (police officer, left) and “Sex offender experiment” (psychiatrist, center). Right, a man yells rape, the prosecutor and judge are questioning, obviously without understanding. In the van, Mary is taken away, and in her hand passed between the bars, she gives Vili Kipling’s famous poem: "If."

In this drawing, Vili expresses his message: “Thankful because she gave me something to live for. [I am an] old spirit [with] true full capacity to love someone. Just read my book. I am a false victim. I am not harmed. Believe me.”

Limited excerpt reproduced under fair use doctrine for noncommercial, educational purpose.

Source: https://www.consentingjuveniles.com/Case_Narrative?case=Vili_Fualaau&lang=FR

The interview everyone seems to be talking about.

https://www.bitchute.com/video/DAU74ByibIYd/

THE JOE ROGAN EXPERIENCE #1757 - DR. ROBERT MALONE, MD

About the guest: Dr. Robert Malone is the inventor of the nine original mRNA vaccine patents, which were originally filed in 1989 (including both the idea of mRNA vaccines and the original proof of principle experiments) and RNA transfection. Dr. Malone, has close to 100 peer-reviewed publications which have been cited over 12,000 times. Since January 2020, Dr. Malone has been leading a large team focused on clinical research design, drug development, computer modeling and mechanisms of action of repurposed drugs for the treatment of COVID-19. Dr. Malone is the Medical Director of The Unity Project, a group of 300 organizations across the US standing against mandated COVID vaccines for children. He is also the President of the Global Covid Summit, an organization of over 16,000 doctors and scientists committed to speaking truth to power about COVID pandemic research and treatment.

The Great American Landscaping Novel

This is a review of the novel Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison.

I decided to read it and judge for myself after seeing that in many locations, people were challenging its presence on the shelves of school libraries. Typically the claim was made that it "promotes pedophilia." This is the passage that was frequently quoted:

"But there's one thing I'd never tell Nick in a million years, not that it really matters: in fourth grade, at a church youth-group meeting, out in the bushes behind the parsonage, I touched Doug Goble's dick, and he touched mine. In fact, there were even some mouths involved." (p. 19)

Except -- the passage isn't quoted in its entirety. All the people objecting to the book started with the words "not that it really matters," capitalizing the N to make it look as if that's the beginning of the sentence.

See the trick here? By leaving out the first clause, these liars make it seem as if "not that it really matters" refers to what follows, which in turn would make the entire passage gratuitous. Which is what they want people to think. But it actually refers to what came before it. The protagonist, 22-year-old Mike Munoz, is claiming it doesn't really matter that he would never tell Nick about this incident. But that's only because of where he is at this point in the story. The fact he wouldn't tell Nick, his best friend, may not matter in itself, but the reason he wouldn't does, because what it means is that Nick's unabashed homophobia puts a limit on how open and frank Mike can be with him.

So, in a sense, Mike is lying to himself in saying that it doesn't matter. This becomes clear later in the story (pp. 91-93) when, increasingly frustrated by Nick's bigoted attitude about gays and others, Mike does tell him about this incident, and Nick doesn't take it well. He walks out of the restaurant in which they're meeting.

I won't say more about what follows to avoid spoilers, but this makes clear how dishonest the protesters are. They deliberately and deceptively edit a passage from the book to make it look as if it was put in there for no reason (except to "corrupt the youth" presumably) when it actually sets up something crucial to the whole story.

And, of course, it's not depicting sexual contact between a child and an adult, but between two children, such as has been quite common historically*. It's only a refusal to acknowledge this reality that drives some people to attribute such honest depictions to "pedophilic" motives.

*"As long as the adult members of a society permit them to do so, immature males and females engage in practically every type of sexual behavior found in grown men and women. [p. 197] [...] After reviewing the cross-species and cross-cultural evidence, we are convinced that tendencies toward sexual behavior before maturity and even before puberty are genetically determined in many primates, including human beings." -- Ford. C. S.. & Beach. F. A. (1951). Patterns of sexual behavior. New York: Harper & Row.

"You have learn to fight for things.”

Today is French president Emmanuel Macron’s 44^th birthday. In 2017 he told The Telegraph how confronting the challenges to his relationship with Brigitte Trogneux, now his wife, helped form his personal resolve:

“French President Emmanuel Macron is married to Brigitte Trogneux, who is 24 years his senior. They first met when he was only 15 years old and took part in drama plays at the very respectable Jesuit school of La Providence in the quiet, middle-class neighborhood of Amiens, Northern France.

“Macron tells how he fell in love with Trogneux:

“’It was at secondary school, through drama, that I met Brigitte. It was surreptitiously that things happened and that I fell in love. Through an intellectual bond, which day after day became ever closer. Then emerged a lasting passion.’

“It appears that the intellectual bond started when Macron was 15, and that the passionate relationship began when he was 16.

“Brigitte Trogneux recalls that … ‘all the teachers were buzzing about Emmanuel.’ Her own daughter, Laurence, a classmate of Macron’s, also spoke of him as ‘that amazing guy' [… …].

“’Every Friday, for several months, we spent several hours working on a play together,' Macron writes. [ … ] ‘We decided to produce it together. We chatted about everything. [ … ] I felt that we had always known each other.’ [ … ]

“At the time, Trogneux was 39 years old, married, and the mother of three children. Emmanuel was succeeding at school with disconcerting ease. Girls did not seem to be his main interest. His parents remember only one girlfriend. [ … ]

[Emmanuel’s father] “was ‘surprised’ all the same and ‘almost fell off his chair’ when he learned about his son’s relationship. His mother admits: ‘When Emmanuel met Brigitte, we certainly did not say: “how wonderful!”’ Emmanuel’s grandmother, however, was ‘very conciliatory.’

“Macron’s parents, a bit shaken, decided to meet Trogneux and ask her not to see their son until he had reached adulthood. His father, however, was not convinced this was the right response. ‘I thought it could even have an adverse effect.’ But his wife insisted, and so he told Trogneux: ‘I forbid you to see him until he turns 18.’ ‘I can’t promise you anything,' Trogneux answered tearfully. [ … ].

“As it happened, Emmanuel was due to go to Paris to complete his final year at secondary school. Was the decision motivated or accelerated by his romance with Brigitte? Did his parents see this as a way of getting him away from his beloved? Both deny it, rejecting any version of the romance in which they would have ‘kicked their son out of the house.’

[… …]

“’It is very hard,' he says. ‘An experience like that makes you think... You have to learn to fight for things, to bear the burden and have a life which does not in any way correspond to other people’s lives. That was what we went through for fifteen years. We managed to achieve the situation we’re in today, because we knew it was what we wanted. It didn’t just happen all by itself.’”

Source: Anne Fulda, “The Macron affair: How the French election winner’s parents discovered he was dating his teacher.” The Telegraph, 2017. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/relationships/macron-affair-french-presidential-candidates-parents-discovered/ Quoted in T. Rivas, Positive Memories. Still available for now from lulu.com at https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/t-rivas/positive-memories/paperback/product-24450434.html?page=1&pageSize=4

Lust for Life

 

"I had been a ragamuffin kid of 15 coping with a neighborhood filled with gangs.... Under her guidance I became a different person.... I am eternally grateful."

Today would be screen legend Kirk Douglas's 105th birthday. As reported in the January 24, 2007, New York Post:

"Kirk Douglas is 90 years old -- but time hasn't dulled his memory when it comes to some of his more colorful sexual experiences."

"In his new memoir, Let's Face It -- 90 Years of Living, Loving and Learning, due in April from Wiley, the cleft-chinned Oscar-winning star of such pictures as Spartacus and Gunfight at the O.K. Corral recalls a fling with a 'big, tall blond' German airline stewardess who liked to be disciplined in bed. During their enthusiastic sex sessions, 'she would scream, I'm a Nazi! -- which was my cue to slap her, which I did,' Douglas writes.

"He also remembers getting deflowered in high school by his English teacher.

"'I had been a ragamuffin kid of 15 coping with a neighborhood filled with gangs.... Under her guidance I became a different person.... I am eternally grateful. By today's standards she would have gone to jail. I had no idea we were doing something wrong. Did she?'

"Douglas didn't stop at his teacher. He also wanted to bed a "beautiful young redhead" who sat in front of him, and wrote her a drippy, Shakespeare-like sonnet that ended:

"'Bewitched by a vision so fair,
I reach out and touch your hair;
Happily you turn and smile at me,
And change my humble state to ecstasy.'

"Despite his stab at 'bad poetry,' it worked, and 'I got the girl,' Douglas writes. Much as he loved sex, Douglas occasionally drew the line. One summer vacation during college when he was working in a steel mill,

"'I met a very attractive girl with rich parents.... She said her father would buy us a nice apartment in New York and take care of all of our expenses while I was in drama school.... She had a beautiful Cadillac and there was the extra dividend of good sex. What else could a poor Jewish boy want? But deep down inside I knew I would end up as a man without character. Bottom line, I just couldn't do it.'

"The Hollywood legend also recalls once being awakened by Ava Gardner, then wed to Frank Sinatra, who showed up at his door at 2 a.m. and sobbed to him:

"'Frank and I had an argument. He had a gun. He threatened to commit suicide. I don't know what to do.'

"Douglas told her, 'Ava, married people have arguments.... Frank loves you. You must go back and try to act like nothing happened.'"

Douglas has been praised for helping to break the Hollywood blacklist by having Dalton Trumbo write Spartacus with an official on-screen credit. (ABC News, June 29, 2012 --
https://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/06/kirk-douglas-on-helping-to-break-blacklist)

Most of the above information is taken from Positive Memories by T. Rivas.

A Great Artist, and the Love of His Life

Born on this date: flamenco star Camarón de la Isla. As reported by T. Rivas:

"José Monge (or Monje) Cruz, known as Camarón de la Isla (1950-1992), was one of the greatest flamenco singers of the 20th century and he still has many followers today.

"What is less known about flamenco singer Camarón is that, in 1976, he married a gypsy girl, Dolores Montoya, whom he nicknamed La Chispa (The Spark). He had first met the girl about a decade before and he asked for her hand in marriage when she was only fourteen.

"Together they had four children. On a range of websites, La Chispa is mentioned as the love of his life and she is also mentioned as his viuda (widow).

"The Reportaje de TV del entierro de Camarón (TV report on Camarón's funeral)* consists of a video about Camarón, his funeral, and La Chispa. In it she says he 'was a very good person and a very good husband and artist.'

"According to other sites, the often deified Camarón turned out to be human after all, because he really smoked too much, which brought about the lung cancer he died from at a very young age. He also did some drugs. The most negative thing I read about him was that for some time he wanted to be a bullfighter, something which unfortunately is not all too uncommon in flamenco circles, for historical reasons.

"On a more neutral note, he could be quite capricious about expensive beautiful cars, while at the same time being callado (introverted) and raro (eccentric).

"I haven't found anything bad about his relationship with La Chispa (as such) though. I did find: 'La Chispa, que lo adoraba' (La Chispa who adored him).

La Chispa also used to visit (or still visits) his grave for years after his funeral. For four years she mourned for him ('ella estuvo cuatro años llorando') and she became so depressed that she did not eat enough. She simply did not know what to do without him and their children were being looked after by her father and sister. Dolores was saved from her depression when her children told her that if she stopped eating they would too.

"•https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10wxc1Fou9g

See also https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdTwIWSfc5g. In this show we see Camarón, La Chispa and their children."

Unfortunately, Rivas' book Positive Memories, from which this account is taken -- and which also includes nearly two hundred other such happy "March/September" stories in all gender combinations, as recounted by the younger partner -- is no longer available from the IPCE site and soon will not be available from lulu.com either, because of worsening censorship laws in his home country of the Netherlands. But, for anyone who's interested, I'm in possession of a PDF copy.