Bare Facts and Naked Truths

From My Perspective - - -

What did Nero allegedly do while Rome was burning? What does an American President do while Washington, DC is faltering and in turmoil? What do the minions in Government do when oversight is their task? Do they fiddle? Do they play another round of Golf? Or – is there some other diversion to keep one from focusing on the immediate and to defer his thought processes and energies in other directions?

In a Byline of the Daily News on April 23rd, Leo Standora wrote: “While Economy Crumbled, Top Financial Watchdogs at SEC Surfed for Porn on Internet.” In particular, what were the Senior Staffers at the Security and Exchange Commission doing while the economy was in a free fall? Standora continues: “The country's top financial watchdogs…spent hours gawking at porn Web sites as the economy teetered on the brink, according to a memo released Thursday night. The shocking findings include Securities and Exchange Commission senior staffers using government computers to browse…and an accountant who tried to access the raunchy sites 16,000 times in one month. Their…pastime was discovered during 33 probes of employees looking at explicit images in the past five years, said the memo obtained by The Associated Press. Among the startling findings: (1) A senior attorney at the SEC's Washington headquarters spent up to eight hours a day looking at and downloading pornography. When his government computer ran out of hard drive space, he burned the files to CDs or DVDs. He later agreed to resign. (2) An accountant was blocked more than 16,000 times in a single month from visiting…pornography" sites, but still managed to amass a collection of very graphic material by using Google to bypass the SEC's internal filter. He wound up with a 2-week suspension. (3) Seventeen of the employees were at a senior level earning salaries of up to $222,418…” The Washington Post contained the same information received from the Associated Press.

A similar report in the Washington Times from 2009 indicated: “Porn Surfing Rampant at U.S. Science Foundation…Number of Cases Overwhelms Watchdog, Costs Taxpayers” By Jim McElhatton. He wrote: “Employee misconduct investigations, often involving workers accessing pornography from their government computers, grew six-fold last year…The problems at the National Science Foundation (NSF) were so pervasive they swamped the agency's Inspector General and forced the internal watchdog to cut back on its primary mission of investigating grant fraud and recovering misspent tax dollars. To manage this dramatic increase without an increase in staff required us to significantly reduce our efforts to investigate grant fraud, the Inspector General recently told Congress in a budget request. We anticipate a significant decline in investigative recoveries and prosecutions in coming years as a direct result…One senior executive spent at least 331 days looking at pornography on his government computer and chatting online with nude or partially clad women…the records show. When finally caught, the NSF official retired. He even offered, among other explanations, a humanitarian defense, suggesting that he frequented the porn sites to provide a living to the poor overseas women…He explained that these young women are from poor countries and need to make money to help their parents and this site helps them do that," investigators wrote in a memo.

Lamont Cranston was a crime-fighting vigilante with psychic powers who appeared as The Shadow in a 1930s radio drama. The program began with a question: “Who Knows What Evil Lurks In The Hearts of Men…?” With a crackling voice, he would respond: “The Shadow Knows….!” It is more important to know and realize that Almighty God knows. In Matthew 15:16-18, Jesus was explaining a parable to His Disciples and stated:” the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man unclean. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what make a man unclean.” The instruction in Proverbs 4:23-27 should be heeded: “23 Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life. Avoid all perverse talk; stay away from corrupt speech. Look straight ahead, and fix your eyes on what lies before you. Mark out a straight path for your feet; stay on the safe path. Don’t get sidetracked; keep your feet from following evil.” Consider these things with me!