Frankly, there's no shortage of evil in the world, and I'm not sure where this one ranks in the Top 40 of Evil. Yeah, chemical attacks on an unarmed, unprepared, civilian population are evil. It's just that if a nation could only address one evil in the world, what should they attack?
I very rarely talk about this, but I support an organization called Operation Underground Railroad that was formed to free children from sex slavery and fight human trafficking. It's a small organization, and they recently celebrated saving their 1000th child. There are estimates that 40 million people are enslaved today; that means more people are in slavery now than the entire period we think of as the peak of the slave trade - the 1700s and early 1800s. No, it's not all Islamic countries: Haiti, Thailand, countries in South America and even the US are in the mix.
But the Mideast is a hotbed of slavery today. ISIS has spent the last several years capturing Christian and Yazidi women and selling them into slavery - sex slaves for their Jihadis. The Yazidi faith combines elements of Islam, Christianity and Zoroastrianism, an ancient Persian religion. ISIS views the Yazidis or Christians as barely human - they are there for Islamic men to rape.
Stopping this slavery is hard. Throwing missiles or smart bombs at some buildings is comparatively very easy. To stop sex slavery, you have to fight on dozens of fronts. For one example, you have to fight from the bars in Bangkok, Thailand to the Americans that go there on vacation to use the children. The very best thing we could have done for these ISIS slaves was destroy ISIS and Sec Def Mattis has done a good job at that, from what I can tell. There are still pockets of ISIS over there, and in new countries they've moved to; those need to be hunted down and killed off, too.
Because while slavery and sex slavery may be evil, that's just the warmup act for ISIS. They've moved on to harvesting organs from slaves to sell on the black market. OUR had partnered with the Nazarene fund; the two have run rescue operations and gotten children out literally minutes before they were going to be killed. If the subject isn't human, they don't see any need to anesthetize the
Hats off to the military planners and all the people spread around the world who made last night's mission work. I just think this sort of evil is at least on a par with what the strike was all about, and I think it deserves the attention of world, too.
http://ourrescue.org/blog/vanformexicoaftercare/
ReplyDeleteI am deeply suspicious of such things, I read them as bipartisan efforts by puritans and liberals to criminalize adulthood. The sales pitches appear to want you to conclude median age 8, but the picture shows median age old enough to carry a pregnancy to term. One woman is holding a baby, presumably hers. Biology calls this level of maturity "adulthood". I don't see ourrescue advocating these young adults being legally allowed to rent, buy, mortgage, or build a house; live in that house; have paying retail customers visit that house for home-based work the young mothers can quickly pick up the skills to perform, like tailoring or accounting or small engine repair.Instead we must spend lots of tax money to force them into centrally planned liberal strongholds like public schools and welfare. Let's ban them from carrying handguns, too, so when the abuser comes to collect his runaway slave they can't fight him.
onsite vocational trainings such as culinary arts, gardening, and jewelry making
Can a young mother of lower-than-average aptitude and no experience earn a living from culinary arts, gardening, or jewelry making? Can she do this work at home while tending her baby? If there is commercial viability then where are the links to the buy-my-jewelry/seeds/plant starts/microgreens/hot sauce ebay/etsy/amazon vendor pages?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/slavery/modern/modern_1.shtml / a return of 800 percent is not at all uncommon for holders of sex slaves
Mostly due to government banning sex work, which functions as price supports just like it does for illegal recreational drugs.
Modern forms of slavery
Bonded labour or debt bondage
-- This is when a person's work is the security for a debt - effectively the person has not been sold, but they are on 'a long lease' which they cannot bring to an end, and so cannot leave their 'employer'
-- The conditions of employment can be such that the labourer can't pay off their debt and is stuck for life, because of low wages, deductions for food and lodging, and high interest rates
-- The debt may be inherited by other family members who are then themselves forced into bonded labour
Serfdom
-- This is when a person has to live and work for another on the other's land
Yes, that is how the USA national debt synergizes with minimum housing cost/size for USA occupancy permits and other fake costs of living.
The UN Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery put the total number of people in debt bondage around the world at about 20 million in 1998
Plus 300 million more debt slaves in the USA alone. In conclusion, I am deeply suspicious of rescuing children with big government. I read it as bipartisan efforts by puritans and liberals to criminalize adulthood.
I can't recall ever reading something so clearly meant to be ignored as the ravings of a damaged mind, possibly through indoctrination at a younger age, but damaged nonetheless.
DeleteThis might be the most absurd comment I've ever read. You have so much hate for "liberals and puritans" you're thinking this slavery is OK?
ReplyDeleteThe sales pitches appear to want you to conclude median age 8, but the picture shows median age old enough to carry a pregnancy to term.
So you're saying it's OK to have slaves if they're adults: 15, 25, 35, whatever? You're saying if an 11 year old is raped and bears the child that means they were an adult so the fact they were kidnapped and then sold out to be raped doesn't matter?
I suppose I should be encouraged because you didn't justify organ harvesting and killing subjects. Or did you just miss that?
Can a young mother of lower-than-average aptitude and no experience earn a living from culinary arts, gardening, or jewelry making?
So if those people are rescued from slavery, the proper thing to do is abandon them and not provide any sort of support at all?
I'm sorry, this is just so absurd, so out of touch with the situation that I can't take the whole thing seriously.
300 million more debt slaves in the USA alone Seriously?
This is like fourth grade level thinking. A debt slave in the US is a metaphorical term. You should look up metaphors. It's not real bonded servitude. It's someone who made chronic bad choices or had bad luck like a car crapping out when they had no money, and has to go through rough times to pay back their debts. They don't get chained to benches to work and not get bathroom breaks, like in Mexico and most of the rest of the world. It's someone who has to eat rice and beans, and work a second or third job to pay off their debt. Or declare bankruptcy and go through a court-ordered program. It's not bonded servitude. Heck, a fair number of people simply walk away from debt, leave the lenders on the hook, and apparently nothing happens to them.
Here's a shocker to you: having a full time job doesn't actually make one a wage slave. That's another metaphor. One can quit their job and get a better one, or downsize their life and feel less stress about working. There's really no such thing as being a wage slave.
Look, I never thought I had a whole lot in common with "liberals and puritans", but if it's their value system vs. yours, I'll side with them any day.
You're saying if an 11 year old is raped and bears the child that means they were an adult
ReplyDeleteAny human who fathers or gives birth to a baby is an adult, that is the biology word we apply to all other animals who have matured into the capability of reproduction. Now let's talk about potential brain development at that age. I read an account from a man aged 70, who at age 7 was sent out alone into the forest with a gun to shoot small game animals for the evening meal. The loss in everyday life capabilities between an 11 year old 200 years ago and an 11 year old today is not because human genetics have changed, or because "modern civilization is more complicated", it's because government infantalizes. I think it was Fred Reed who said something like 'without vast social tinkering humans will fall in love, pair up and start families at age 16, almost like God intended them to'. The government perversion of human development is so strong that some states have recently passed 'free range child' laws, to make it slightly less illegal for parents to help their children grow up.
so the fact they were kidnapped and then sold out to be raped doesn't matter?
I didn't say it doesn't matter. I think the victim has a valid case to shoot their rapist, and they similarly have a case against all the various people who will try to prevent them from doing that, who are accessories after the fact. Consider what a just result would be, then list all the people who knowingly force themselves in the way of getting that.
So if those people are rescued from slavery, the proper thing to do is abandon them and not provide any sort of support at all?
Training in culinary arts, gardening, and jewelry making for young mothers of low aptitude is not support, it is anti-support. Any time spent doing those activities makes them worse off. They are capable of doing housekeeping, receptionist, or some retail work immediately, but they won't be allowed to work, live independently, set up a group home with similar mothers to care for their children in shifts without an impossible daycare bill, or otherwise act as a legal adult. Any time spent in the custody of a slaveowner driving a "rescue" van makes them worse off. Humans younger than age 18 are chattel slaves. The handcuffs are not metaphorical. Runaway slave bounty hunters named truant officers hunt down and capture escaped slaves and return them to their owners, the public schools/DCF. The DCF slaveowner is better than the pimp slaveowner, yes, it's a whole step up on a log scale, yes, but it's still chattel slavery.
or downsize their life and feel less stress about working
No they can't. Whole bunch of veterans with PTSD and addiction type problems would be delighted to set up RV's in a trailer park situation, but there is a minimum occupancy permit cost which prevents anyone from checking out of the rat race. Debt slave is not a metaphor, the handcuffs applied to damaged people who try to live within their means are real.
Speaking about young welfare mothers, see the movie _The Florida Project_ which is set next door to Disney. Talk to a social worker about the monthly budget these mothers face vs. qualifying for welfare. Make too much because you're growing in your job and you lose welfare, but your income doesn't get better than welfare until you make $50K. Trapped in an underclass by government. Debt slave is not metaphorical, there are real police with handcuffs who prosecute the welfare "fraud" of undeclared income. Getting welfare permanently means behaving to qualify for welfare permanently, which has cost of living like daycare. Become a single mother of low skill, by whatever path, and they are trapped. As above, it's even worse if they're younger than 18.
Different "anon" here.
ReplyDeleteI cannot honestly tell if you have a valid point/argument or not. My impression is that you are trying to justify/explain a very strange conspiracy theory "like" argument which in your gut you know that if you talked clearly and unambiguously about would make you appear like a strange conspiracy theorist so instead you speak in generalities and associations not "quite" saying what you mean but implying something that could be interpreted as legitimate and meaningful. But it isn't! After reading it all the reader is left with the belief that something is missing and what did I just read. I do not understand your point and it appears that you are intentionally making your point unclear. Simply state what you mean even if it does expose your argument as specious it would at least be understood by your audience.
Signed a happy debt slave about to buy a new house and incur a $160,000 mortgage. A happy slave to the state, 20 years in the military and another 28 working for the man for less than I thought I was worth but enough to have a good life. And someone who took exactly one week of unemployment and zero welfare in 75 years of life on earth.
Your view of debt slavery is not uncommon and some people go all out on this theory while others just bemoan it. I simply don't agree that it is so bad. You could select any single issue around this greater subject and examine it and try to decide how to do it better. But almost without exception sane minds would do it the same way or with minor changes. Debt/mortgage for example. You could wait and save until you could afford to buy a home for cash but you will be a renter for a very long time. I own two rental homes and the rent on each of them is 10% more than the mortgage payment. It is often cheaper to buy than to rent.
DeleteYou expressed unhappiness with real estate taxes. Sadly the government MUST tax and they do it where the money is. Home owners, usually, can afford to pay the taxes and the politician can make the case to tax them. So like it or not that is our system. I do not know of any government that does not tax in some way.
Would I like absolute freedom? Well maybe but it might be like the wild West and I just might not live long as others used their freedoms perhaps infringing on mine and without the rule of law we might have to fight to the end. Civilization came about so that we didn't all have to squat in the dust with a spear protecting our families. It fees use to do other things. There is a cost, taxes, laws that we agree to pass and obey, politeness or at least law abiding. There is no free lunch.
You aren't addressing my points, so I don't think I've been understood yet. I don't have a problem with buying a building to live in over time with a loan. A mortgage is not debt slavery. I DO have a problem with government-mandated building minimums raised to the level where you can never get out of debt. Those minimums ARE debt slavery.
DeleteQuestion: There are about 3,000 counties in the USA. How come ten of them can't be made liberty counties, so the libertarians can live out their fantasy and serve as a cautionary example for everyone else? Answer: actual liberty can't be allowed to be seen. It's not as negative as the scare stories make it, and many will prefer it. Then the politicians lose their phony-baloney parasitic "jobs".
Just imagine if someone in a liberty county opened up a big, shiny, new hospital, thousands of beds, and charged 10X, 20X, 30X less than the going rate because their overhead was lower? And then sold major medical insurance For $50/month to anyone on the planet. Put a big airport next door with no TSA. https://surgerycenterok.com is already several times cheaper because they don't employ the paper-shufflers. "Surgery financing now available"??
The problem has always been how to prevent organized crime from muscling in and then successfully selling itself as "legitimate authority". To date there has been no successful defense against this. But, arguing against liberty today is like arguing in 1960 that man will never walk on the moon. There seem to be some awfully concrete plans and they're hitting their milestones.