Should There Be A Ronald Reagan Pornography App?

Given that 1980s throwback themes had recently become bestsellers in the burgeoning app industry, would a “Ronald Reagan Pornography App” be the next must have retro app? 

By: Ringo Bones 

With the release of the MacGyver Deadly Descent App back in the second half of May 2014 that had taken the app world by storm – for a 1980s themed retro app that is and based on a hit 1980s TV series nonetheless – many could be asking right now if “there was a pornography detection app based on that notorious then US President Ronald Reagan and then US Attorney General Edwin Meese III’s pornography commission report?” Imagine – for possible comic effect – the app’s pornography detection criterion be based on that Ronald Reagan’s “big blue 1,960-page book on pornography that was published back in July 1986 that almost nobody reads anymore and was labeled a big waste of American taxpayers’ money back then”. Would such a 1980s themed retro app prove to be a “best-seller”? 

Given that July has become the more or less ad hoc “Ronald Reagan Pornography Month” – the release of a “Ronald Reagan Pornography” themed app this July 2014 seems apt – if you’ll excuse the pun – to try out what the hubbub is about on that notorious of American taxpayers’ money Ronald Reagan Pornography Commission Final Report was back in July 1986. Would it also necessitate the addition of a “hypocrisy chip” or “hypocrisy module” on your Android capable smartphone given how the US Republican Party tackles such problems since the days when Ronnie was still president? Or would it be like – as legend has it – act like former US First Lady Nancy Reagan when she first saw an exhibition of the paintings of Old Masters in a museum and exclaimed “pornography”? Maybe somebody is already making and/or designing a US Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart Pornography App right now. 

Did Pornography Started During The Stone Age?

Archeologically dug Paleolithic era figures over the years might have been primarily used for fertility rites – but does their “voluptuously erotic” nature suggest “pornography”?

By: Ringo Bones

This rather “controversial” subject may not have been placed under scrutiny by the Ronald Reagan Pornography Commission that war run by the then US Attorney General Edwin Meese III during the first half of the 1980s, but did the Reagan administration’s “morality watchdogs” ever scrutinized alleged pornographic items that came before Jesus Christ? Not to mention anything that came before and what passed muster as “pornography” during the Roman Empire. Or what about “porn” so old that have been uncovered by tenured archaeologists from leading ivy league institutions?

Paleolithic or Stone Age porn may conjure up images of Fred Flintstone’s hidden antediluvian porn stash but they had been considered over the years since they’ve been uncovered as one of mankind’s finest artistic achievement of all time. Examples of which are the Venus of Laussel, the Venus of Willendorf, the Venus of Vestonice and the Lady of Brassempouy. The clue that first suggests that these are sculptures are more than just intended for Paleolithic fertility rites is that all of them are small enough to be carried around even by a single individual – suggestive of a “secret porn stash” meant to be hidden under the bed of hot blooded Stone Age era men? About as portable and easy to hide as our contemporary pornographic conveyances like porno magazines, computer laptops and even tablet computers.

One Paleolithic artifact discovered by Hallam L. Movius, Jr. – Professor of Anthropology at Harvard – now called the Venus of Abri Pataud which was unearthed in the Dordogne cave region of France. Named after a cave shelter on a farm formerly owned by a family named Pataud, the Venus of Abri Pataud was made some 20,000 years ago. Given that some contemporary “prudes” still consider some erotic Old Masters exhibited in the various major metropolitan museums around the world as pornography, it is safe to assume that probably all of these modern day prudes consider Paleolithic depictions of voluptuous women as “pornography”. Sometimes I too wonder what these “morality watchdogs” would consider as “Stone Age Child Pornography”. 

Remembering the Sino-Vietnamese War of 1979

Even though now it is a over 35 years ago, did a recent anti-Chinese riot in Vietnam brings into discussion that this old conflict is still largely unresolved?

By: Ringo Bones

When Mainland China’s state-owned oil company dispatched an oil rig to a contested area in the South China Sea, it inevitably fuelled a fire on the long smoldering dispute with its communist neighbor Vietnam. Unfortunately, the Beijing government didn’t foresee the need to evacuate thousands of its nationals desperate to escape from the onslaught of Vietnamese protestors back in May 17, 2014 that were protesting on the Mainland Chinese drilling for oil in an area on the South China Sea that the Hanoi government claims as Vietnamese territory that had gone violent.  Unfortunately, Taiwanese, Japanese and Korean nationals working in Vietnam also fall victim to the clashes that seem to remind everyone old enough to remember why The People’s Republic of China and the newly unified Vietnam went to war back in 1979.

Back in January 1979, The People’s Republic of China established diplomatic relations with the United States – a move seen by the international community at the time as a willingness on the part of the Beijing government to engage peacefully with the capitalist West. But a lot of unresolved conflicts between the then Soviet Union and the newly unified Vietnam will trigger a border conflict between Mainland China and Vietnam by the middle of February 1979.

Around that time, antagonism between The People’s Republic of China and the then Soviet Union grew even more heated with Beijing calling for resistance to “Soviet Expansionism” on all fronts. By February 17, 1979, Mainland China’s full scale border conflict with Vietnam amounted to a “proxy war” with the then Soviet Union.

During that period, relations between The People’s Republic of China and Vietnam had been deteriorating since 1978 when the Hanoi government’s harsh treatment of its ethnic Han Chinese minority was followed by Hanoi’s invasion of Cambodia – which at that time – was a very close ally of Beijing. Increasingly frequent border incidents heightened the tension and finally convinced Beijing that Hanoi “must be taught a lesson.” On February 17, 1979, Mainland China launched a major attack along its 500-mile (805-Km) border with Vietnam. Supported by artillery and tanks, Mainland Chinese forces invaded four Vietnamese provinces.

After a pause for supplies, the Mainland Chinese on February 21, 1979 renewed their advance in the direction of Lang Son in North-West Vietnam. By March 2, 1979 the Mainland Chinese had taken Lang Son, Cao Band and Lao Cai, penetrating some 25-miles (40-Km) into Vietnamese territory. Having reached their goal, Beijing announced that its forces were withdrawing back to Mainland Chinese territory.

The withdrawal was completed by March 16, 1979 when Vietnam offered to hold talks to ensure peace along the border and ultimately to normalize relations. The first two sessions, held in Hanoi back in April 18 and April 26, 1979 – were immediately deadlocked Subsequent meetings during the year also served merely as an opportunity to exchange accusations. Back then, the chief difficulty in the negotiations was Hanoi’s refusal to consider Chinese demand that Vietnamese forces be withdrawn completely from Cambodia. Even though everyone back then was expecting Vietnam to be routed since it has just recently came out of a traumatic victory against America back in April 30, 1975, Vietnam managed to valiantly resist the Mainland Chinese invasion unlike what happened to India during the 1962 Sino-Indian War. More like this time, Vietnam’s victory is akin to more like Gene Roddenberry’s Sino-Indian War  

Sino-Vietnamese hostility – which has a history that goes back many centuries, has been stimulated in the late 1970s by Vietnamese nationalism – a newly found nationalism emboldened by its recent booting out American troops and completely taking over the then South Vietnam back in April 30, 1975 – and the Hanoi government’s increasingly close ties with the then USSR which at that time was Beijing’s chief rival in the South East Asian regional geopolitical power play.

Back then, the Beijing government supported Pol Pot in neighboring Cambodia more to contain “Soviet Expansionism” than Vietnamese influence and when Beijing learned in 1978 of Hanoi’s plot to invade Cambodia in order to end the tyrannical and genocidal rule of Pol Pot, Beijing abruptly terminated its aid program in Vietnam which totaled to 10-billion US dollars since the April 30, 1975 reunification of Vietnam.

On Vietnam’s issue on its ethnic Han Chinese population, Hanoi’s requirement that all ethnic Han Chinese living in the now unified Vietnam must become citizens of the country boosted tensions and resulted in a large number of ethnic Han Chinese – most of which are from the former South Vietnam and often ostracized for being “too cozy” with the occupying American troops during the Vietnam War – are now resorting to leave the country of Vietnam A move which the Hanoi government blocked that triggered a further worsening of diplomatic relations with Beijing By the end of 1979 – more than 250,000 displaced ethnic Han Chinese who used to live in Vietnam had fled to The People’s Republic of China. Given that Mainland China’s President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin has been recently negotiating a natural gas deal that could lessen the burden of EU sanctions aimed at Russia after the Kremlin annexed back Crimea only shows how the turbulent relationship of The People’s Republic of China and Russia has now come full circle since the Sino-Vietnamese War of 1979.     

Did the Current Nigerian Government Made Secret Deals With Boko Haram?

Did the current Nigerian government made a secret deal with the Islamist group Boko Haram that if the government draws a hard line on Nigeria’s homosexual community, Boko Haram would leave foreign crude oil workers on Nigerian soil alone? 

By: Ringo Bones 

Given that headline grabbing incidents of foreign crude oil extraction workers on Nigerian workers being kidnapped and held for ransom by local Islamic terror groups like Boko Haram seems to have inexplicably stopped during the past couple of years might seem like god news in the eyes of the rest of the world, while the current Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan’s anti-homosexual policy that began around 2012 might seem to be a step back for the country in terms of human rights, one could wonder if the Nigerian government might be recently kowtowing to Boko Haram’s  increasing military and political might. The recent “rumored” deal currently circulating in the rest of the world’s conspiracy groups might have been if we (current Nigerian government) will draw a hard line on the country’s homosexual community, local Islamist groups like Boko Haram will leave foreign crude oil workers alone. But is there any truth to these circulating rumors? 

With a recent massacre of a boy’s school and more recently the abduction of over 200 schoolgirls and the razing of a girl’s school by Boko Haram in the Nigerian town of Chibok back in April 14, 2014, had both “conspiracy buffs” and anti-terror security analysts are now reaching the conclusion that Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan and his administration might be in over their heads for ever performing a secret deal with Boko Haram reminiscent that of Cold War era double agents hanging around Vienna, Austria facilitating cloak-and-dagger intel exchanges back in the mid 1980s. Sadly, any al-Qaeda affiliated Islamist terror groups like Boko Haram are much, much more ruthless than the Cold War era “godless” Marxist-Leninist socialist Soviet state. 

The recent abduction of over 200 Nigerian schoolgirls by Boko Haram that they are threatening to be sold into sexual slavery into neighboring countries had since raised global concerns over president Goodluck Jonathan’s inability to tackle this problem expediently. Even the U.S. first lady Michelle Obama has lent her influence on the global online campaign - Bring back our Girls – along with girls’ education campaigner Malala Yousafzai. But is the current “complexity” of the present situation in Nigeria the “wildcard” that could derail the eventual success of the Bring back our Girls movement? 

Former U.S. Counter Terrorism Department head of the US DoD, Rudolf Atallah, who now heads the security consulting firm White Mountain Research, LLC, has recently uncovered that local politicians in the northern parts pof Nigeria who are political rivals with current Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan might be actively helping the Islamist terror group Boko Haram to make the April 15 attack on the girl’s school in Chibok in Nigeria's Borno state an unqualified tactical success. Worse still, Amnesty International researchers had recently uncovered that the local police of Chibok had received a warning pertaining to the April 14 terror attack on the Chibok girl’s school and abduction of school girls by Boko Haram 4 hours before it happened. Could the lack of a Boko Haram terror attack on the recent World Economic Forum in Abuja back in May 7 the best news so far that had recently come out of Nigeria? 

Will the 1994 Rwandan Genocide Happen Again?

With the Muslim and Christian conflict in the Central African Republic dubbed as a repeat of the Rwandan Genocide of April 1994 waiting to happen, can the international community prevent a repeat of this tragedy? 

By: Ringo Bones 

Given that half of Rwanda’s population today are born after the tragic April 1994 genocide, it seems as if Rwanda can look forward to a future beyond the tragedy and a reassurance that it will never again be repeated but tragically, it could happen again in nearby Central African Republic where the Christian and Muslim conflict could trigger a genocide rivaling that of the Rwandan genocide of 20 years ago. 

With the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon vowing that such tragedy will never again burden the African continent plagued with more pressing everyday problems like getting enough to eat and clean water on a daily basis. Whatever the international community can do to help should be greeted with open arms. 

Tragically, the great physicist Albert Einstein foresaw such tragedy when asked about a war that came after World War III – i.e. “The Fourth War”. Given that more Rwandans were killed via Mainland Chinese made machetes and other primitive weapons back in April to July 1994 that via the two Atomic Bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it seems like the Rwandan Genocide of 20 years ago was foreshadowed by Einstein’s “Fourth War”.    

“Trouble” in Crimea: A repeat of the 2008 Russian Invasion of Georgia?

Given that the recent “trouble” in Crimea was primarily due to the recent ousting of Ukraine’s Russian leaning Prime Minister Yanukovych, will this be a repeat of the 2008 Russian invasion of Georgia?

By: Ringo Bones

The Western and Eastern parts of the Ukraine had always been politically at odds with each other since the disintegration of the Soviet Union back in 1991. The Western part of Ukraine is mostly populated by pro European Union and pro NATO populace while the Eastern part leans with Russia. Since the recent political unrest that eventually ousted the pro Russian recently ousted Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych that lead to the deaths of at least 80 peaceful unarmed protestors when Yanukovych gave the order to shoot, ethnic Russians and Russian leaning Russians – especially in Crimea, home of the Port of Sevastopol - which has now resulted in the recent trouble that made pro Russian Ukrainians to occupy government buildings and raise the Russian flag in their respective Eastern Ukrainian strongholds. Given that Russian President Vladimir Putin already got the approval of the Russian parliament to send Russian troops to the Crimean port of Sevastopol in order to protect their interest – i.e. the home of the Russian Black Sea Fleet – will this be a repeat of the 2008 Russian invasion of Georgia?

According to the current Ukrainian president Oleksandr Turchynov, there are allegedly 15,000 Russian troops roaming on the streets of Crimea due to the recent military exercise by 150,000 Russian troops and military hardware near the Russian-Ukrainian border. President Putin’s justification for the planned Russian military intervention in the Ukraine is primarily to protect the Russian Navy’s Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol and to insure the safety of ethnic Russians and pro Russian Ukrainians in the Crimea. Ethnic Russians in Crimea – which has been under Ukrainian administration in 1954 despite being more of less autonomous from Kiev – had been afraid of a surge in Ukrainian nationalism that could eventually marginalize their language and culture ever since the breakup of the Soviet Union back in 1991. Strange given that Russia, together with the Ukraine, U.K. and the U.S. were signatories of the December 5, 1994 Budapest Memorandum assuring the territorial integrity of the Ukraine would be violating it by willfully invading Crimea just to protect its own interests of protecting its Black Sea Naval Fleet stationed in Sevastopol. 

As of March 1, 2014, the Ukrainian military has been on its highest state of readiness after the Russian parliament gave president Putin the green light to intervene in Crimea to protect its interest since the ousting of pro Russian Ukrainian PM Viktor Yanukovych. Then President Obama’s National Security Team got in an emergency meeting in the White House at 1 in the afternoon D.C. time. The UN Security Council also held an emergency meeting over the Ukrainian / Crimean crisis as UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon stated that he’s gravely concerned over the escalating situation in Crimea. Whatever the outcome and given that Russia is a permanent member of the UN Security Council – Kremlin’s decision to escalate the crisis in Crimea could affect Russia’s stonewalling the UN’s recent peace efforts to end the  ongoing Syrian civil war, not to mention the Iranian nuclear deal. 

Are Authoritarian Regimes Around The World Cracking Down on the LGBT Community?

Though the big three offenders – Nigeria, Russia, and Uganda - have much more bigger problems than gay people just living out their lives in peace, will their respective crackdown on the LGBT community make their respective countries better?

By: Ringo Bones

It seems a bit odd that given their economies had improved since the first decade of the 21^st Century that the governments of Nigeria and Uganda seems so suddenly decided to legislate draconian laws curbing the rights of their respective local LGBT – as in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender – community. Given that in Nigeria and Uganda, there are much bigger problems than gay people living out their lives in peace – as in the country’s Al Qaeda affiliated Islamist militant terror groups like Al Shabab and Boko Haram – not to mention Uganda’s Joseph Kony and his Lord Resistance Army which has since became the cause célèbre of the United Nations’ campaign against child soldiers, will these governments’ resort to persecuting gays ever solve their much intransigent problems? 

While Russian President Vladimir Putin has recently stated his case that the LGBT community in his country is an “affront to traditional Russian values”, his country is also plagued by Al Qaeda affiliated Islamist militant terror groups that is already entrenched in the Caucasus Region. President Putin posing shirtless for the press will probably not likely to suddenly grab a Soviet era PKM machine gun, hop on a Soviet era BMP armored personnel carrier to storm into the strongholds of Caucasus Islamist strafing them with machine gun fire like a Russian version of Rambo – instead legislates laws to give the LGBT community a really hard time to live out their lives in peace.

Though many international aid agencies are threatening to cut-off aid destined to Uganda and business firms with a strong LGBT customer base are suspending their plans – at the moment to invest in Nigeria, a recent documentary directed by Roger Ross Williams titled God Loves Uganda had shown that radical right-wing Evangelical Christian missionary groups are the primary reason why the anti LGBT sentiment throughout Africa is on the up rise. One could wonder if Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan is too much of a coward to tackle the Al Qaeda affiliated Islamist militant terror groups like Boko Haram and Al Shabab plaguing his country or of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni too cowardly to finally solve the problem of Joseph Kony and his Lord Resistance Army terrorizing the Ugandan countryside – or is persecuting their respective LGBT communities much politically expedient to do?