January 18

Events

• Current events

• 1778 - Sailing into paradise - On this date British Captain James Cook and his crew became the first Europeans to sight a group of islands in the Pacific. Cook named them "the Sandwich Islands" in honor of England's Earl of Sandwich, the first lord of the British Admiralty. The locals called the islands "Hawaii," their present name. Cook and crew were astounded to find that the people there were quite open to childhood sexuality. Young children were openly involved in sexual activity, and Cooks men were invited to join in. Children were socialized in the arts of love and sexual technique. Young chiefs were sexually initiated by older women. And all this, of course, was celebrated not only in the flesh, but in the dance, poetry and song. Cook was forced to put guards on his boats to keep the men from running off and enjoying the delights that awaited them on the islands.

• 1995 - You say "tomato" and I say "D'Amato" - Senator Alfonse M. D'Amato of New York entered a bill to Congress called "Prevention of Sexual Exploitation of Children Act" on this date. The bill said: "The information superhighway has become a safe haven for pedophile to entice children into acts of sexual depravity with little chance of exposure...Now, through the use of bulletin boards, major Online services such a Prodigy, American Online, CompuServe, INTERNET, and a host of other computer conduits, these individuals can ply their trade with much less exposure to parental supervision or law enforcement...The use of the computer conduits allow for the defendants to cross State, local and even international boundaries with impunity." D'Amato's bill proposed stiffer penalties for offenders, up to 20 years and more.

• 1999 - Hot Ped-tato on SNL? - Twenty-one year old James Van Der Beek hosted Saturday Night Live on this date. One segment of the show had a voice-over of a person declaring his deep love for the young Van Der Beek. Originally, the voice-over was to be done by Lorne Michaels, the 54 year old producer of the show, but he backed out for fear that it would make him look like a pedo. So the job was given to 81 year old announcer Don Pardo. But Pardo called in sick that week, so 38 year old cast member Darrell Hammond did it instead. But for added insulation against pedo controversies for him, he did the voice-over with an impression of Pardo's voice. The skit was only marginally funny and went mostly unnoticed by the world, like most of their recent stuff has.

• 1999 - These "code" names need a bit of work, dontcha think? - You have heard, probably, of Operation "Ore." Maybe you know of Operation "Snowball." You have, no doubt, heard of "Candyman" and "Wonderland." But before all that, there was Operation "Cathedral." On this date experts from 40 countries gathered in Paris to co-ordinate an international offensive against child pornography on the Internet. There they heard of Operation "Cathedral," a British operation that saw 100 people in 12 countries arrested in a major international operation against pedos selling child porn on the Net. Police officers leading the investigation code named allegedly discovered more than 100,000 indecent images of children as young as two from a US-based pedo club on the Internet.

• 2002 - Come over to my crib for some action ... if you know what I'm sayin' - It was reported on this date that a study of urban youth in America in the mid 90s showed the following: 31% of 12 year old males reported having had sexual intercourse and 60% of all 15 year olds reported having had sexual intercourse. The study said nothing about the age or the sex of the partners that these people had, but only 8% of 12 year old girls reported having had sex, so those boys either found a few very loose girls or they were having sex with older females or older males. And to think some people still think that "children" at 12 are not sexual beings....