Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Lawsuit threatens Free Speech on the Internet



A couple of days ago, someone commented on my previous article, that one of the people mentioned in that article, Eric Pepin, was suing the owners of an alternative news site. So the last couple of days I have been looking at what this suit was about and to my horror I discovered that it was in regards to a public forum and what people had commented on.

It caught my attention as this could have wide ramifications for the freedom of speech and the ability to discuss things on forums on the internet. It also could place severe restrictions on alternative news sites and bloggers such as yours truly, to question and bring to light the behaviours, policies or actions of organisations, corporations and our "elected" officials.

The suit is aimed at the owners of Sott.net for discussing publicly available articles that are available in newspapers and on the internet. Yes, for discussing publicly available articles! The implications are staggering as it could put thousands of bloggers and alternative news sites out of business. Bloggers and sites, some of whom do a great job at investigative journalism, which is pretty much a thing of the past in the bought corporate media.

Without these bloggers, alternative news sites and forums where will you go to find out about what is happening? Where will you go to find like minded people and others to discuss things that matters or are of concern to you?

The thing that Eric Pepin is suing Sott for is for damage to his reputation! Yes, a man who confesses to have sex with most of his staff of 11 young males and whom the judge of the court case called manipulative and controlling, is suing for damage to his reputation. The question naturally arises what reputation is this man talking about? The reputation of being manipulative and controlling, in which case he should sue the judge or is he concerned about the reputation of having sex with most of his male staff? In the latter case he should sue himself. If he feels that damage is done to his own institute, which he calls "Higher Balance Institute", then his own behaviour would be the key source for this damage.

It has made me wonder why he is suing Sott and not the newspapers or the internet search engines, where everything can be found out about this man, if you care to search. And it is not as though he has hired a backyard lawyer keen on trying his or her luck. No, he has hired one of the biggest law firms on the West Coast: Bullivant, Houser, Bailey PC. Now the question that comes to my inquisitive mind is, whether he is acting alone or whether some other force representing the ‘matrix control system’, is supporting this from behind the scenes.

In looking further at the site in question, Sott I discovered that they are also being heavily censored by Google. What is it about Sott that causes the system to try and close them down? I don't know, but from what I have seen and read there over the last few days, it is a site that sincerely tries to get to the truth of things and does a lot of research on a wide range of topics.

Asking questions is what should be encouraged and any attempt to clamper down on the freedom of speech should be vehemently fought by all who cherish it. We have seen quite a bit of noise from the powers that be, that they wish to control the flow of information. Of course under the excuse of national security. I could easily say about this case that it doesn’t concern me, as I am not the one being sued, but if that is the attitude we as bloggers and internet sleuths have, then there will be no one to stand up for us when they try to close us down.

As pastor Martin Niemoeller said in 1943:

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I wasn't a Jew.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.


So I close this post with the press release of the law suit that came out yesterday, and a rallying cry for every blogger and person who loves free speech to spread this news release and to support the accused in this case. This is one case where we need to stand together, shoulder to shoulder with those who are being targeted, sott.net and make our voices heard!


Free Speech On Internet Under Threat
International lawsuit filed in Oregon threatens Internet forums and bloggers.
SOTT.net - March 11, 2008



(PRNewsChannel) / Toulouse, France - First Amendment rights and free speech on the Internet are under threat as Internet news web site Signs of the Times (SOTT.net) today announced that its founder, Laura Knight-Jadczyk, a resident of France, is being sued in an Oregon court by 'Higher Balance Institute' (HBI), owned by Eric Pepin and based in Oregon.

HBI markets metaphysical products and claims to sell "the world's most advanced sixth sense meditation" program and a dietary supplement, "Magneurol6-S," that is guaranteed to make the consumer an "instant telepath." Pepin claims that users of his "psychic pill" find that "extended wireless phone use can cause discomfort." Consequently, they suggest "limiting the use of cell phones."

SOTT.net is an international, user driven alternative news site with volunteer editorial staffing around the globe. Quantum Future Group, Inc.(QFG), a California non-profit created by mathematician-physicist, Arkadiusz Jadczyk and Laura Knight-Jadczyk to fund independent researchers engaged in collecting social and historical data for mathematical systems analysis, is also named in the suit as defendant despite the fact that QFG does not own SOTT.net, nor does it have any controlling interest in the site.

HBI alleges in the suit filed by Bullivant Houser Bailey, PC, Portland, that the operators of SOTT.net "published false and defamatory statements" regarding HBI and Eric Pepin on the SOTT Web site forum. Pepin is seeking approximately $4.5 million in damages.

The suit stems from information posted on the SOTT.net forums [1] where globally based forum participants uncovered and reposted public-domain information and newspaper records showing that Pepin had recently faced numerous sexual abuse charges in an Oregon court involving a child and former employee of HBI. A grand jury found enough evidence to indict Pepin who admitted in court to having sexual relations with his employees. According to The Oregonian newspaper[2] Judge Steven L. Price, who presided over the case, stated that it was "probable that the conduct alleged in all counts occurred," but that the absence of a date stamp on a video proving that the events occurred while the complainant was still a minor meant that the allegations could not be proven 'beyond a reasonable doubt'. Judge Price was therefore obligated to acquit.

In response to the HBI suit, Laura Knight-Jadczyk, founder of SOTT.net and named as a defendant, said "This is an attack on freedom of speech, plain and simple. The issues SOTT.net are concerned with - the pathology of power and conspiracies among those in power - are specifically targeted in the suit. A victory for Pepin, considering the international nature of this suit, would therefore set a dangerous precedent in US courts and carry serious implications for Internet freedom of speech and ultimately civil liberties everywhere."

SOTT.net is requesting that all those with an interest in safeguarding Internet freedom of speech make an effort to ensure that this information reaches the widest audience possible.

For more information visit SOTT.net:

[1] http://www.sott.net/signs/forum/viewtopic.php?id=1360&p=1

[2] http://blog.oregonlive.com/breakingnews/2007/05/leader_of_washington_county_in.html

About SOTT.net: Founded in 2002, Signs of The Times (SOTT.net) is an alternative news research resource and news analysis site.

Media contact: sott@sott.net http://www.sott.net

This press release was issued by PRNewsChannel.com. For more information, please visit http://www.prnewschannel.com

Source: SOTT.net

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

The Homeopathic Money System

You might well ask what on earth does homeopathy have to do with the monetary system. Though it is tongue in cheek, there is something that is very similar as I will show and which caught my attention as I read an article of yet another financial institution that was collapsing. But first it might be appropriate to define what homeopathy is.

Though homeopathy comes from the two Greek words which means similar suffering, it is not this aspect that is of interest, but rather the idea behind homeopathy, which rests on the premise of treating sick persons with extremely diluted agents that - in undiluted doses - are deemed to produce similar symptoms in a healthy individual.



The banking system long time ago caught on to the benefit of diluting substances and the enormous profits that could be made by diluting the real value of money. They created the fractional reserve system, whereby they only have to have 10% of the deposited money in safe keeping at any one time. This means that they can lend out the 90% of the money and charge interest on it. But it doesn't stop there as bank A can lend the 90% to bank B, who can lend out 90% of 90% or 81% of the original amount and so on and so on until there is hardly anything left of the original. This is all good in times when confidence in the system is high(apart from the fact that it is still stealing as the bank earns money from money it doesn't have), but a sudden jolt to the system causing people to go to the bank to withdraw their savings all at once can quickly cause previously financial giants to collapse. (This little animation video explains it well and in simple terms.)

A couple of weeks ago one could read in the Guardian:
UK: Panic selling shuts £2bn fund

One of Britain's biggest property funds was forced to shut its doors to withdrawals yesterday after the slump in commercial prices triggered panic selling by small investors.

The move prompted fears of a Northern Rock-style run on billions of pounds invested in once high-flying funds which many savers have seen as a safe haven for their pensions.

Scottish Equitable said yesterday that 129,000 small investors in its £2bn property fund will not be able to access their money for up to a year, although payments relating to regular income already being paid, retirements and death claims will not be affected.

It said the fund, invested in London office blocks and shopping centres across Britain, no longer had sufficient cash reserves to meet demands from investors wanting to withdraw their money. Its "buffer fund" was down to 1% of its total assets, instead of the usual 10-15%.


Yes, the "buffer fund had only 1% in it instead of the required amount of 10%, as it is so tempting for the sharks in the more aggressive investment funds to increase the risks as the profit and the glory is so tantalizing. On top of it the fund managers themselves don't actually risk anything as recent obscene bonus payments have demonstrated:
Wall St execs collect $US33b bonuses

The Wall Street gurus who presided over the subprime mortgage crisis currently shredding global sharemarkets have awarded themselves bonuses totalling $US33.2 billion ($38 billion).


For anyone who have followed the news the above example is not an isolated incident. It is the standard practice of doing banking and high finance and goes to show that no checks and balances were put in place after the Enron collapse. The psychopathic minded people employed in Enron just moved elsewhere in the monetary system, that attracts such people. Predators who like to be where the action is and where psychopathic qualities such as high risk taking and impulsiveness, comes to the fore especially when said individuals operate without conscience and thus feel nothing for the victims if it all turns ugly. This is not to say that all the leading people in the finance sector are psychopaths, but as Hare and Babiak show in their book "Snakes in suits", the lure of glory, power and prestige which is abundant in this area attracts a disproportionate number of them.

Just the other day a French person with money in the French bank Society Generale told me that she felt assured as she believed that her money in the bank was backed by gold. But no, that is not so and hasn't been for a long time. The last gold standard collapsed in the 1971, when Nixon stopped the ability to convert dollars to gold.

In recent times there has been a greater and greater demand for gold, but what do the bankers do when the demand is greater than actual gold available and when the wish is to keep gold prices down? Well, they create ETF (Exchanged Traded Funds) gold. This means that instead of getting physical gold in your hand, you get a piece of paper saying that you have that much gold in the "bank". It is virtual gold and you will only realise that when crunch time comes and everybody goes with their pieces of paper to demand it be exchanged for real physical gold. That is when the scam will be exposed, but by then it will be too late.

Richard Greene explains it in this article:

The gold and silver ETFs were created by such financial giants as JP Morgan and Barclay's Bank that also serve as custodians and sub-custodians. These are the very firms that have been involved in the process of short selling gold and silver in huge quantities. That they would be involved in creating the ETFs had to be considered as most unlikely unless they had nefarious purposes.

What I mean by that is that when the gold and silver ETFs first came out the investment demand for gold and silver was just in the initial phases of taking off. The bullion banks and financial powers that have been involved in suppressing the prices of gold and silver needed an outlet to satisfy this additional demand for gold and silver when there was clearly no actual gold and silver to fulfill this additional demand.

Most do not like to recognize that the business model of the US is fast approaching what could be called Fascism, particularly since that word is immediately associated with World War II Italy and all the ugliness of the Axis powers. However, when one looks at the definition of what fascism is, it becomes clear that many of our Government's decisions benefit the large corporations more than the people the government is supposed to be serving. In return, these corporations return all their support in both monetary contributions and affirmations of policy through such means as the media which is largely controlled by the same money powers. Look no further for evidence in some of the examples that have arisen with the outbreak of the unconstitutionally un-declared war on Iraq. Instead of the military providing services by use of its own personnel for things such as laundry and meals, big corporation's line up for their part of the money pile. A perfect example is Halliburton which handles laundry for the soldiers at an outrageous fee of $99 per bundle, and this in a country where such a service would be a tiny fraction of such a fee.

Based on the surrounding circumstances you would have to be naïve if you believe that the gold and silver ETFs were created so that investors would have an easy way to get exposure to gold and silver without the burdens of taking delivery and finding a secure and safe location to store it.


The system of homeopathy of treating people for diseases works well, but when this system of dilution is carried over to the financial system it is a recipe for disaster. The virtual world of money is in the process of meeting reality, and it ain't looking good!

Saturday, January 26, 2008

Sexual predators in the religious scene



A story in the news a few days ago brought an ugly reality to show its face again. It was yet another story of a sexual predator, who walked free from court with just a token sentence. This time it was the story of archbishop Earl Paulk from an Atlanta megachurch:

Archbishop pleads guilty to perjury
ATLANTA (AP) - Court officials say the 80-year-old leader of a suburban Atlanta megachurch pleaded guilty Wednesday to a charge he lied under oath. Cobb County Superior Court Judge Frank Cox said Archbishop Earl Paulk of the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit at Chapel Hill Harvester Church was sentenced to 10 years probation and a $1,000 fine for the felony charge.

Paulk turned himself in to authorities Tuesday night after a warrant was issued for his arrest the previous day. The charges stem from a deposition Paulk gave as part of a civil lawsuit against him, his brother Don and the church by a former church employee who says she was coerced into an affair.

In a 2006 deposition for the lawsuit, the archbishop said under oath that the only woman he had ever had sex with outside of his marriage was former church worker Mona Brewer.

But the results of a court-ordered paternity test revealed in October that Paulk is the biological father of his brother's son, D.E. Paulk, who is now head pastor at the church. As part of Brewer's lawsuit, eight women have given sworn depositions that they were coerced into sexual relationships with Earl Paulk.

Paulk's attorney, Joel Pugh, said he had been working with Cobb County District Attorney Pat Head for weeks on negotiating a deal.

"It was a fair and just resolution of the case for a man who has lived his whole life and done wonderful things but made a mistake," Pugh said. "He's ready to move on."

Pugh had said earlier the warrant came as a surprise to the Paulk family.
The warrant was the result of a months-long probe by Head and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

Head called the sentence "certainly adequate" for Paulk, who had never been charged criminally before.

"There are a lot of allegations about things he has done over the past 15 or 20 years," Head said. "In trying to determine what is a fair sentence, I can't look at what he's been alleged to have done in other counties."

Paulk's home and church are in DeKalb County, but the deposition he gave was in an attorney's office in Cobb County.

Cox said the sentence was not unusual for someone like Paulk, who has no prior record and whose health is "frail."

Paulk has been in bad health for the last couple of years after a battle with cancer, limiting his activity with the independent charismatic church he and his brother founded in 1960.

At its peak in the early 1990s, the Cathedral at Chapel Hill claimed about 10,000 members and 24 pastors and was a media powerhouse. The church was able to build a Bible college, two schools, a worldwide TV ministry and a $12 million sanctuary the size of a fortress in Decatur outside Atlanta.

Today membership is down to about 1,500, the church has 18 pastors, most of them volunteers, and the Bible College and TV ministry have shuttered — a downturn blamed largely on complaints about the sexual scandals.

Anne Simpkinson writes in an article named Soul Betrayal - Sexual abuse by spiritual leaders from 1996:
Sometimes what psychologists call a personality disorder compels a person to exploit, manipulate, and hurt those in their spiritual care. While publicly charming, ebullient, devoted, hard-working, and inspiring, this leader proves himself cunning, slick, seductive, and cruel in private. Involved in multiple, simultaneous relationships, he can sweet-talk his victims into compliance -- "Our love is special and holy" -- or bully them into submission.

Sounds very much like the description of the common psychopath.
Robert Hare is the foremost expert today on psychopathy and the author of several books on the subject. He defines psychopathy as follows:
Psychopathy is a personality disorder described by the personality traits and behaviors that form the basis of this book [Snakes in Suit]. Psychopaths are without conscience and incapable of empathy, guilt, or loyalty to anyone but themselves.

These are some of the common traits of psychopathy:
lack of remorse or empathy
shallow emotions
manipulativeness
lying
egocentricity
glibness
low frustration tolerance
episodic relationships
parasitic lifestyle
persistent violation of social norms

Simkinson continues:
United Church of Christ minister Marie Fortune, in her book Is Nothing Sacred?, details the havoc and pain wreaked on individual women and the congregation by the sexual misconduct of one of the church's pastors. Fortune notes that sexual predators go to great lengths to choose women whose current circumstances might make them vulnerable: for instance, the death of a parent, a divorce, problems with children, or an illness. The situation that sends Fortune "over the edge" is one in which a congregant approaches a minister for help in dealing with childhood sexual abuse. Often that confidence is seen by the minister as a "green light" to seduce the person. One clergyman whom Fortune heard about told his victim that the way to heal from childhood sexual abuse was to re-enact the experiences with him. "I am amazed at the creativity that perpetrators have," Fortune says, "the manipulation of theology and scripture and ritual, the moral rationalization they bring to bear: `No, there is nothing wrong with this because God's love for you is flowing through me, and this is a holy kiss.'"

Because of the innocence and vulnerability of the victims, perhaps the most heinous crime perpetrated by sexual predators is the abuse of children. Trust, innocence, and sense of self all shatter, leaving behind shards of fear, shame, distrust, and self-loathing.


The spiritual scene provides a fertile ground for sexual predators to prey, as trust and complete faith is often given to if not demanded by the various religions leaders. A cartoon on the internet illustrates this well:




This idea is being supported and promoted widely amongst the followers of the various religions, namely that the priest, guru, satsang giver or “enlightened” leader is God’s representative, a divine incarnation or god himself here on earth and who is often seen as the means to get closer to god, or get enlightened or healed. But this idea is also what makes people vulnerable to predators who have seen this to be a fertile feeding ground for their parasitic life style. One of the problems lies in the issue of belief, as it is a poor substitute for knowledge. Anna Salter writes in her book Predators, pedophiles, rapists and other sex offenders:

One molester, who was himself a minister, said:
"I considered church people easy to fool…they have a trust that comes from being Christians…They tend to be better folks all around. And they seem to want to believe in the good that exists in all people. ..I think they want to believe in people. And because of that, you can easily convince, with or without convincing words."

…The growing crisis in the Catholic Church just underlines the fact that offenders can recognize ideal settings for child molesters even if the rest of us can’t. In truth, a deeply religious and trusting group of people, plus the requirement of celibacy (an ideal cover for any man who has no sexual interest in adults), plus a hierarchy that doesn’t report complaints to the police and simply moves the offender on to new and fresh territory with new potential victims, is the ideal setting for pedophiles. Even without such extreme conditions, however interviews with offenders have convinced me that people in general are just plain easy to fool. What makes fooling us so easy is not the worst in us, it is often the best. As one rapist said:

”Because people want to believe in something. They want to hope. And they want to believe. They want to , there’s something inside of people that makes them want to believe the best in things and the best in others. Because the alternative is not very nice.”

True enough. The alternative is not very nice.(emphasis added)


A quick browse through google will show that this is by no means limited to the Christian faith:

Sogyal Rinpoche:
Best-selling Buddhist author accused of sexual abuse
Sathya Sai Baba:
Major exposure of alleged sexual abuses by Sathya Sai Baba
Swami Rama:
Sexual predator at the Himalayan International Institute
Jewish Survivors of Spiritual Abuse
Bail set for Rabbi in sex abuse case
Baltimore roiled by abuse charge against late Rabbi
Midwood Rabbi faces kiddie sex charges
Archbishop Robert Sanchez shielded pedophile priests
Abused alterboys sue church for millions
Sexual abuse and manipulation

In the New Age movement, the situation is no different. Here the movement with seekers desperate for enlightenment is a fertile ground for sexual predators, who are keen on bestowing special initiations to innocent followers all in the name of destroying the ego, fast tracking the goal of enlightenment or any other paramoralistic reason to force themselves on their followers.

A recent case (original link) comes to mind, that has disturbing signs of fitting this description, but where the accused person is acquitted:

Institute leader acquitted of sex charges
HOLLY DANKS - HILLSBORO -- A Washington County Circuit judge called the leader of a metaphysical Internet sales company manipulative and controlling and his testimony unbelievable, even as he acquitted him Wednesday of charges that he had sex with an underage boy.

Judge Steven L. Price, after a five-day trial without a jury, found Eric James Pepin, 40, not guilty of two counts of second-degree sexual abuse, four counts of third-degree sexual abuse and one count of using a child in a display of sexually explicit conduct.

Also acquitted of third-degree sexual abuse and using a child in a pornographic display was Jamison Dwight Priebe, 21, who has worked for Pepin's Higher Balance Institute since he was 18.

"Everybody has stood by me who knows me," Pepin said Wednesday after hugging supporters. "They had faith in me, prayed for me. I told them I wouldn't let them down. I did nothing of what was alleged. I've been nothing but honorable and impeccable."

However, Price said it was "probable that the conduct alleged in all counts occurred," but he wasn't convinced beyond a reasonable doubt. "There's a lack of strong corroboration," such as a date-stamp on a videotape of the sexual encounter, the judge said.

The accuser testified Pepin had him take off his shirt the first day they met at Pepin's Beaverton home in April 2004.

"He was going to try and fix my energy and he needed me to trust him," the accuser said. Pepin touched the teen's "chakra points" on his heart, head and lower abdomen.

"Eric asked me to tell him everything I had done in my life that I was ashamed about," the teen added.


Asking the person to tell everything they have done, which they are ashamed about, gives the perpetrator the upper hand in knowing all the vulnerable spots to then mine for personal use later. Hare and Babiak write in “Snakes in Suits” about what they call the assessment phase:

The chance to con or manipulate others is a primary motivator for someone with a psychopathic personality disorder; psychopaths like to play games with people. They often are on the lookout for individuals to swindle or scam, and this first phase of the psychopathic approach involves identifying and assessing targets or prey. Some psychopaths are opportunistic, aggressive predators who will take advantage of almost anyone they meet, while others are more patient, waiting for the perfect, innocent victim to cross their path. In each case, the psychopath is constantly sizing up the potential usefulness of an individual as a source of money, power, sex, or influence.


Back to the article:

The accuser said Pepin asked him how old he was the first day they met and that he told him the truth.

"He said students had to be 18 because he didn't like parents fussing around," the accuser said.

Maybe the reason was that he didn’t like parents, who being more streetwise would be able to see through the manipulations and the sexual predation that was going on.

But within days the two were having sex, including a three-way encounter with Priebe, the youth testified. Pepin called it "crossing the abyss," the accuser said, "surrendering yourself to your teacher, your master."


All in the name of spiritual advancement and dropping the ego.

Pepin testified he is gay and has had sexual relationships with most of his 11 employees, but not before they were 18. Pepin said he gave his accuser a job, even though the teen was a poor worker, and continued to be intimate with him and give him money after he was fired, to help him out.

Though the court case was principally about whether the person was 18 years of age, it seems evident that the accused used his position to prey on young and innocent people for personal sexual satisfaction. By accusing the victim, the accused cleverly turns it around, so that the reader will start to doubt his own reason and will start to think that maybe the victim was in the wrong all along. Even if he was a poor worker, that does not make it legitimate to force sex on the young man. The facts on the ground, namely of having had sex with most of his staff, who by the sounds are mostly just over 18 years of age, does not add credibility to the alleged perpetrator. Even if the victim was 18 years of age, it has disturbing signs of predation.

Stephen A. Houze, Pepin's private defense attorney, called the accuser a liar more than 100 times in his closing argument and noted that Pepin was "the perfect patsy" because society wants to believe the worst of a gay man. Houze said the accuser brought the charges because he wanted to shake down Pepin.


Calling a young victim a liar is a common way to discredit accusations, especially as the perpetrators and their defending lawyers often are respected people of the community.
This has been seen time and again and Anna Salter in her book Predators, pedophiles, rapists and other sex offenders gives many examples to illustrate this point.

Pepin's Higher Balance Institute, now on Northwest Saltzman Road in Cedar Mill, reached an annual high of $2 million in Internet sales of meditation CDs, tapes and books before his arrest in July.

Pepin touts himself as a psychic and "remote viewer" who has found lost submarines and missing people, and says he created the "psychic pill" Magneurol6-S that enhances brain function, heals nerve damage, heightens paranormal experiences and relieves stress for $79 a bottle.

Unfortunately too many people fall over backwards in awe of someone claiming to be a psychic or to be able to remote view.

Andrew Erwin, deputy district attorney, called Higher Balance nothing more than a sex cult run by a "snake oil" salesman who preys on the troubled.

The accuser had nothing to gain by going to police and turned down $250,000 from Pepin to drop the sex charges, Erwin said.

"I'm disappointed," Erwin said of the verdicts. "The judge wants proof beyond all doubt and that's too high a standard."

To be willing to pay $250,000 in order for the victim to drop the charges shows just how keen the accused was in not getting to court.

In most cases the perpetrator gets away with it due to lack of evidence or because they are trusted more than a young victim. In this case the judge said that he found Eric Pepin “manipulative and controlling and his testimony unbelievable”, but “he wasn't convinced beyond a reasonable doubt.” And thus he was acquitted.

It is rare to hear a judge say such strong words about an acquitted, and though he was acquitted of underage sex which was the charge, his behavior does appear to be parasitic and manipulative and one of preying on young gullible men, as he didn’t dispute the fact of having sex with the young man, but only that he was 18 years of age at the time.

So what does one do?
Well, thinking that it is not happening where we live is not supported by the facts. Gavin de Becker, the author of The Gift of Fear sites statistics that show that in the US there is one child molester per square mile. Robert Hare says that the prevalence of psychopaths are such "that most of us will come across at least one psychopath during a typical day." So it is a reality that we would do well to understand and come to terms with as it is unlikely to go away.

In the introduction to her book mentioned above Anna Salter gives this sound advice:
This is not a book with a complete and comfortable answers. It will not finish with a checklist for identifying a sex offender: Just add up the points, and you too can spot your neighborhood pedophile or rapist. But if I do my job right, reading this book will make it harder for sex offenders to get access to you or your children. It will make it harder because knowing how they think and act and operate is the best protection that we have. Indeed, it is the only protection that is possible.


Yes, it is necessary to take the pink colored glasses off and stare reality in the face. It might not be pretty what we see, but it is real and acknowledging and understanding the reality in which we live is the best protection we can have. Ignorance is not bliss despite it appearing to be a dominant feature of Western society.