what a difference 200 years makes

according to a PBS documentary about the life of john marshall of u.s. supreme court fame, he first met the 'girl' who was to become his wife of about 1/2 a century when she was 'almost 14' and he, a revolutionary war veteran, was about 12 years older. according to his wikipedia article, he very quickly began courting her, and they married less than 2 years later when she was 15,  he 27. they had 10 children in all, only 6 of whom lived to adulthood, and his wife polly also had at least 2 miscarriages, which together with losing some infants while she was in her 20s adversely affected her health for the rest of her life. according to the doc., when she died, marshall was very bereft, strongly suggesting their union had been very happy and fulfilling while it lasted.

they weren't 'white trash' virginians. from prominent families, she was the daughter of the state treasurer, he, the first cousin of future president and famous author of the declaration of independence, thomas jefferson. so apparently it was considered perfectly ok for ladies as young as 13 to be seriously pursued or courted by a considerably older man, and to marry very young.

my, how attitudes have changed regarding the propriety of 'adults' courting and even marrying 'children'. nowadays a prince can be dethroned for the apparent transgression of having had sex with an underage 'girl' of 17 when he was considerably older. these bare boned facts form the basis for the public outrage / scandal that has at times been headline news in recent years regarding prince andrew, which forced his older brother the king to very recently basically disown him. granted, there were other aggravating circumstances involving the young lady who alleged she was his victim, that she had been 'trafficked' into becoming an under age escort to a very prominent clientele of alleged intelligence agent jeffrey epstein, andrew's fellow 'pedophile'. 

u may have noticed that i've placed quote marks around certain words above, indicating my disagreement or questioning of their propriety. for example, i think the same thinking that scientists use to distinguish adults from juveniles in the so called animal kingdom should also apply to us humans. i think the fact that 'laws' have been made which arbitrarily choose some age past puberty as the time when children become adults is simply reflective of the way modern governments, while claiming to uphold freedom and virtue, are in fact becoming more oppressive and orwellian in their control.

i think it is perfectly natural and healthy and that it should be perfectly legal for post pubescent 'children' to be viewed and treated like young adults, including in matters of eros. 

nature doesn't play games. none of us know if we'll live to see tomorro. to live as though it's guaranteed is foolish. to deny youth the rights and expectations of adulthood, including in intimate matters, is to demand of them they postpone such pursuits for years beyond the time nature has determined it's time to be and act like an adult. to have kids and marry (maybe not in that order) if they wish. to seize the day, carpe diem. to suppress that is to steal something precious and irreplaceable, as we only get one life, one youth, and it must/ should never be forgotten that tomorro isn't guaranteed.

of course, not only youth are adversely affected by overbearing laws and attitudes which rob them of erotic autonomy, among other things. had john marshall been born 200 years later he couldn't have courted and married a 'girl' in her middle teens when he was 12 years older. to try to do so would invite the full wrath and heavy hand of not only the almighty government but of a public brainwashed to regard such a thing as an abomination and marshall as a disgusting predatory pervert pedophile!

of course, marshall would have known better than to try such a thing had he been born in 1955, instead of 1755. it's prohibition saturated pop culture, like in the lyrics of this hit song from 1968:

Young girl, get out of my mind
My love for you is way out of line
Better run, girl
You're much too young, girl

Gary Puckett & The Union Gap - Young Girl - HQ

How I View the US After 13 Years Living in Europe

quite an interesting video below. as one of the top comments below it succinctly states:

'Happiness isn't about what you have. It's about what you don't have to worry about.'

How I View the US After 13 Years Living in Europe

leonard peltier is free! (sort of)

 there's very little justice in this oft cruel dystopia, so we must cherish every little bit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBvNsS0CeBA

resigned?

just started smoking a new batch of cannabis from a new source. supposed to be good, 24% thc. so far i'm not pleased. i'm buzzed but not euphoric. not feeling happy and privileged to be alive. i'm disappointed.

it's possible that this is at least in part due to living in this dystopian and doomed world. particularly as of late i'm feeling about totally resigned to this being fate. this includes my shersonal experience, which has also been overall disappointing, and continues to be so. lack of friends, no potential lovers in sight. profoundly alienated from my species. i'm especially disappointed in god, if it exists. as carlin quipped, if this is the best the almighty can do, i am not impressed.

my alienation includes a fear factor, knowing the hostility that exists towards my vision of utopia, or at least the best world imaginable for flawed, limited, vulnerable mortals like us. it's a vision which collides head on with the vision of dogmatic erotophobes. it's a vision of a reasonable world without dogmas, or dogmatism.

it doesn't matter what i want or dream. 

this is a bad place mentally, but as krishnamurti said, 'it is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society'.

it's hard being alone without hope. cannabis in the past has alleviated much of the pain and despair. if this new batch can't lift my spirit, i'm going to have to seek a batch that will do the trick. if i must be a flawed being in a dystopian world, i need something to make it bearable.

Iraq: the crime of the century, 20 years on

 max blumenthal tells it like it is in this video exposing the neocon political agenda and the complicity of lamestream media, 20 years after the trumped up invasion of iraq post 9-11.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2WCC9pkZzE

sick n evil: a different angle

 one particular issue perhaps estranges me from my fellow american radical progressives and perhaps from humanity in general more than any other. u see, apparently according to most if not a great great majority of them, i'm a disgusting or sick pedophile because i admittedly am very attracted to underage 'girls'.

i find it hard to believe that it's unusual or unnatural for heterosexual men to be very attracted to teenagers.

i suspect this particular aspect of sexuality is particularly demonized because it demonizes virtually everyone. it makes us hide our authentic selves and authentic desires. it makes us liars, hypocrites, neurotics, ashamed, fearful, confused, and thus effectively spiritually sabotaged.

i think this demonization is what's sick n evil and am so disheartened by it's apparent ubiquity across the whole political spectrum. it tells me i have no political home, no group that will have me. i've already found this to be the case with the green party, and they're about as radically far to the left as any american political party.

this is a no win situation. it makes me sick to not share it, to keep it bottled up out of fear, and it makes me sick to share it, and to fear the consequences of doing so. it's sickening to be so alienated and alone.

i wrote more extensively on this topic 5 years ago:

https://dystopiananddoomed.blogspot.com/2020/07/mary-kay-letourneau-age-of-consent.html

in science i trust

71 years ago ike decreed that the u.s. adopt the saying 'in god we trust' as a national motto. it now appears on u.s. money and in the 'pledge of allegiance'.

i don't trust in god. i don't believe in god. if there is a god, it doesn't strike me as trustworthy. it's a shady character. it doesn't want to be known or understood. and judging by this world it may have created, it strikes me as insane. not to mention cruel or at least utterly indifferent to suffering.

i believe in science. the answers it provides may not always be satisfying, but they're honest, evidence based, and logical, at least to the extent that logic can be applied to this manifestly illogical world.

i wish i had never been born. i was given no choice in the matter. now that i'm here, i've also been given no choice in the matter of my biological nature. i wish to survive and thrive.

but this world is not conducive to this desire. i will die, and until then, i will not thrive. i do not fit in with my fellow species. i'm not dogmatic and i'm not puritanical. i hate war and violence and i love sex. i wish to fit in but i can't. i feel as though i'm an alien in this world.