[Image: Three photos featuring young people from Indonesia. The first shows a group of punks being watched over by armed guards. In the second, a person is crying while having their hair cut/combed. The last photo shows several shirtless people with shaved heads crouching down in a small body of water.]

AFP - Indonesian sharia police are “morally rehabilitating” more than 60 young punk rock fans in Aceh province on Sumatra island, saying the youths are tarnishing the province’s image.

Since being arrested at a punk rock concert in the provincial capital Banda Aceh on Saturday night, 59 male and five female punk rock fans have been forced to have their hair cut, bathe in a lake, change clothes and pray.

To make matters worse, the show at which the youths were arrested was organized to raise money for the regions’ orphans. Charming.

This is a country where children as young as five years old can buy cigarettes and legally smoke them, but you can’t be a punk because it morally corrupts you. AWESOME LOGIC, INDONESIA. GO FUCK YOURSELF.

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So earlier today, Tonya Craft was found Not Guilty on all 22 counts of Child Molestation she was accused of. In other words, she’s a free woman again.

Yellow is Tonya Craft’s favorite color and there was a sea of spectators in yellow outside the Catoosa County courthouse when the verdict was announced. The color yellow will never, ever have the same meaning in the Chattanooga area again. Even though the jury found Craft innocent, anything yellow will remind local citizens of the trial that once again put Chattanooga in the national spotlight for something negative.

I made this picture last Friday to symbolize my feelings. Everything is in yellow and red, obviously. Three red scars represent the three little girls whose lives were ruined by this case. Even if they weren’t sexually abused by Craft or anyone else, the emotional damage cause by their parents, the psychologists, and the trial itself will last a lifetime. That’s three scars left on a small-town community in North Georgia that will never fade.

In my heart I’m still not 100% decided on whether or not Tonya Craft is really innocent of those crimes, but one thing is for certain - you’ll be seeing a lot of her in the future. Tonight, Bill O’Reilly is shining his ratings-hungry spotlight on the trial. Following O’Reilly’s lead, there will be primetime news specials (60 Minutes or likely an E! News Investigates special) that despinse facts and even more sensational speculations.

After that, I predict that Craft will made a few dozen stops on both local and national talk shows. A book about the case (either an autobiography, a crime study, or both) will be made. This will be followed by a Lifetime movie, without a doubt. If Craft is a fame-seeker, a reality show or Dancing with the Stars is in order. My mom even jokingly suggested she pose for Playboy. The opportunities offered to former teacher who gained fame from being an alleged child molester is limitless.

Unless, of course, she gets arrested again on more charges. Then the circus will start all over again.

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This is a serious post. No shit, please.

I seldom feel the need to talk about local (Chattanooga/North Georgia news) on my blog simply because most of it’s the same old shit over and over - gang shootings, meth labs, sex offenders, and the like. However, there’s one case that I don’t want to keep my mouth shut on.

Tonya Craft, AKA the PedoBear of Catoosa County, GA, is currenly on trial for molesting little girls at the elementary school she taught at. I had very little interest in the case at first but every night on the news it was there in my face, so I started paying attention. First off, I can say that the whole trial is solidly clusterfucked. There’s a lot of evidence both for and against Craft, but that’s not even the main point - so many of the “witnesses” either seem rehearsed or overly defensive that it’s hard to tell fact from fiction.

Here’s what’s been said so far - Craft sexually abused little girls in her home and also got these girls to sexually abuse each other as well. One of the victims is some child actor that was caught masturbating in a classroom by another teacher, and the girl claimed that Craft taught her how to do it. There’s other details as well but it’s a little too disturbing/gross for me to write here. After a while the whole thing started making me nauseous.

America as a whole hardly flinches any more at teacher/student sex abuse scandals, not even the ones involving female teachers. Remember all the jokes made about Debra LaFave? Teacher has sex with a 14-year-old boy! HAHAHAHA SO FUNNY. Not. He’s still a child and he still got hurt. So have many other adolescent boys, no matter how the media spins it into a case of “it’s every boy’s dream”. After sex abuse occurs, it quickly turns into “every boy’s nightmare” (Check the Tapp trial from New Jersey).

This case is a little more extreme in the sense that it’s a female teacher sexually abusing kindergarten-aged girls. There are no girls out there at that age who willingly want to have sex with a teacher. That’s just sick and hideously wrong. I can’t make up my mind if Tonya Craft is innocent or guilty, but nevertheless the whole case and what’s getting reported is reminiscent of a Lifetime movie written by John Waters.

And here’s where things get really crazy. Perhaps this is a product of a trial in the Bible Belt, but suddenly Ms. Craft’s sexuality has become a grounds to further damn her in the trial. A few days ago, the judge allowed for a witness to testify that Craft was bisexual and was previously in sexual relationships with adult women, and that Craft enjoyed lesbian porn. Now somehow this makes her a child molester. Don’t get me wrong, if Craft really did molest these girls and show them inappropriate things, her ass needs to be locked up forever. But with that said, someone’s sexual orientation DOES NOT constitute whether or not they’re more likely to abuse children. Gay =/= child molester.

The NAMBLA-like organizations of the world are only a tiny fraction of the LGBT community. If Craft is in fact innocent of all charges but winds up getting conviced solely on the basis of bisexuality, that’s bullshit. It also says a lot about rural Southern communities using LGBT issues to “sensationalize” a legal case (Constance McMillen, anyone?). If Craft wants to go home and fap away to lezzie porn all night, that’s her business, just as long as the kids aren’t being forced to watch it.

Aaaaannnnddd Another Issue. Whether or not anyone would be willing to admit it, children are naturally curious about sex. Every child has sexual thoughts from time to time, but most are either too young to remember them or too ashamed to share them. And, oh yes, some children masturbate on their own without ever being “taught” by anyone. Male fetuses touch themselves in the womb. Things like this are perfectly natural and shouldn’t be used as a tool to scare the crap out of kids. I’ve wondered from time to time if some of the children Craft allegedly molested might have been coached by their parents to fabricate or exaggerate some details of what happened. Not saying Craft didn’t act inappropriately, but the parents might have personal vendettas for other reasons not brought to the court’s attention.

As mentioned, I’m still polarized. I can’t make up my mind if I belive Tonya Craft is innocent or guilty. Is she really a child molester or just a scapegoat in a society that isn’t too entirely tolerant of differences? Who knows. Until a verdict is reached, there’s going to be a lot of long, painful nights ahead filled with tears, confusion, and “why me?” moments for Craft, the victims, and the victims’ families.

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(via scoop16)

HOLY SHIT.

I used to be into Type O Negative in High School. This sucks :(

RIP dude…

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