March 15th, 2010

The 6 and ½ hour drive to the Lone Pine Film History Museum was breathtaking. The tops of the mountains around the location were filled with snow and voices of the actors who filmed some of the greatest westerns of all time echoed throughout the valley below. I was proud to have been asked to visit the museum and give a lecture about reel women of the Old West versus real women of the Old West. The group that assembled there to hear the talk were kind and attentive and enthusiastic about the history of women on the wild frontier. The museum staff couldn’t haven’t been more cooperative and decent. I can’t wait to go back. It would be great to be invited to return during their October film festival. The museum always has a host of famous Old West actors gathered for the event. I’ll be traveling to Long Beach to see my brother in a couple of months. He’s been away more than five years and I still miss him terribly. I read a book recently about the subject of false accusation of child molestation and the twisted mothers involved in extra-marital affairs who help shape such claims. Barbara C. Johnson’s is the author of the book, “Behind the Black Robes: Failed Justice” She says we are living in the Age of Feminist Hysteria and Feminine Rebellion. Here are some excerpts from her book, at pages 128-29: “?But as bad as rape is, and whatever the cause, it is not as bad as an innocent man being sent to jail for 20 years for a crime he did not commit. Unfortunately, false accusations of rape are not uncommon?.Despite these high false-accusation rate figures, men are often assumed to be guilty on the basis of a simple accusation of a woman or a coached child. A man who attempts to defend himself is often prevented from doing so by rape shield laws, which prevent him from presenting exculpatory evidence. Even worse, as some well-publicized cases have shown, women who knowingly make such false accusations are not prosecuted. Essentially, they are given a free pass for committing a crime?.The result is that the credibility of real rape victims is destroyed. Since the rate of false rape accusations is so high, and since false accusations are not prosecuted, women are essentially encouraged to make false accusations of rape for political reasons, and the public has no way of knowing whether a rape accusation is real or not?. Court reform should include the following two initiatives with regard to rape: Additional protections for men, to allow an adequate defense against false charges of rape. Prosecution of women who, knowingly and maliciously, make false charges of rape” I agree with Ms. Johnson – something has to be done.