Stossel must be insane to tell the truth.

John Stossel must be mad. Only insanity of the most severe kind can explain his compulsion to tell the truth. I have long argued that the one thing the public will never forgive is the truth.

Normally the media plays into every panique du’jour since they are good for ratings and sell copies of papers and magazines. Politicians love these panics, especially the bogus ones, because they earn political capital by appearing “concerned” and “doing something”. It is much easier to “do something” about bogus problems than real ones. With real problems your solution might not work. With fake problems your solution is guaranteed to work -- at the very least the problem can’t get worse.

Stossel took on a topic that this blog has regularly tackled -- I never said I was sane. You can’t be sane and right anymore, not in modern America. I prefer the latter.

Stossel basically looked at sex laws and sex offender laws. What he exposed was a viper’s nest of stupd laws supported by individuals, who in my opinion, came across as either irrational, stupid or just malicious. One woman in particular, seemed borderline demented to me. I also got the impression she was doing nothing more than trying to further her “career” as a second-rate singer. Stossel eventually told her that he thought she was “bully”. I thought he was being kind.

Unfortunately television news shows like this are not well geared for in-depth looks at the issues that they raise. But what Stossel did discuss seemed on target to me. These sex offender laws, like most government programs, have done nothing more than create injustice on a massive scale and, where there is a real criminal problem, only make the situation worse. They are bad laws inspired by fear-mongering that were passed in a panic without any consideration to their consequences. That, to me, is pretty typical of how politics works. These laws bring to mind what David Mamet said: “I am hard-pressed to see an instance where the intervention of the govenment led to much beyond sorrow.”

I salute John Stossel for having the courage to tackle a topic that is surrounded by fear and loathing and very little reason and logic. This is one reason why the real scum of politics love these laws. Once they throw out accusations revolving around these issues they know the rational faculties of the minds of many people are shut down and that a totally irrationl fear take overs. They count on precisely that happening in order to pursue their other agendas.

This blog has dealt with such topics in the following posts:

The “sex offender” madness continues.

Is breast feeding pornogaphic?

The grand inquisition: destroying teens to save them.

Sex offender lists make reoffending more likely.

Sex offeder status leads to murder.

The face of paranoia.

High school streaker faces jail and sex offenders status.

Outraged public making sex abuse DA rethink his strategy.

How a district attorney can legally abuse children.

Sex offender laws create more victims