Read Arthur Silber's Post.

I'm swamped in rl right now.

But read my fellow Alice Miller fan, Arthur Silber,
here.


(and please send Arthur some really nice thing like, well, money.)

Your Tax Dollars at Work: Pushing Fundie Sexist Christ-ist Propaganda Instead of Treating PTSD

This is infuriating.

I don't have time to address it fully now, but it's so wrong across so many dimensions . . . feh.

Brainwashing "Purpose-Driven Airmen."

GOP Pushes Random Parenthood, Government-Forced Maternity

GOP slags evil Dem plan to help plan pregnancies; promotes virtuous GOP plan to fill world with more unwanted children, thus helpfully providing fodder for abuse, neglect, and (of course) cannons.

Dems waffle. Dems caving. Dems cave.

Red China Brown-Noses Dirty Bush!!

Do Not Undo Bubble Boy's Glorious Legacy!!, China begs.

Supporting the Right to Random Parenthood

Here's a cheery link: Economy Goes Down, Abortion Goes Up.

Oh golly.

What a surprise.

But get this: besides being for government-forced maternity, some rightwingers are militating against contraception! (Yes, let's return to the last century, shall we?) No really, they are.

Why would we ever want to plan our families?

Who cares if we can't care for the kids we breed? We're helping the economy by birthing more consumers who'll, you know, consume!

It's like an email I got today from constant reader Muffy:

louk, look NBFH when I cooke sundae dinnner i dont plan ahead do i. i just grab random stuff from th shelf and slap it all in a bowell & mebbe bakke it orr miccrowaqvve or evn iron it.

its just like whateverrr arises, thats kewl, u nko?

whuts rong witth thatt anyhow all yu smartypantsis wi/ yr pansy "recipp es." faugh. jusst get overr it.

Hat-tip to Muffy's Blog for Random Parenthood.

I Don't Know What to Call This Post. Oh, how about: We Can't Care for the Children We Already Have, part 2

Colorado Springs: Father arrested for causing traumatic brain injury to his 14-month-old child.

"The fiancee said she saw the 6-foot-5, 285-pound Terry hit the child more than 50 times since October, the affidavit said, and squeeze the child's head, causing the couple to fear she had a concussion."

North Carolina: Babysitter shakes 10 month old baby; infant in critical condition. Later, baby dies.

Stockton, California: Bio Dad's GF booked on suspicion of torture, child abuse, child abuse resulting in death of a 3 year old girl.

Utah: Man shakes GF's 1 year old son, causing brain injury and permanent partial blindness; judge gives perp one year.

Redding, CA: Father & Mother Arrested For Physical Abuse of their Seven Children.

Maryland: Man charged with murder, abuse in death of 2 year old.

All I have to do to find these cases is Google: "child abuse" "news." Every day there are more stories.

This is what is out there. This is what actual people are doing to their actual kids, their significant others' kids, the kids they're babysitting. Social awareness & adequate preventive infrastructure? Nah. Not so much.

Anyhow, here's the pick of the day:

American Fork, Utah: Father faces murder trial in death of his 4 month old infant daughter

The medical examiner's report [on the child] details numerous skull fractures, blood on the brain, a lacerated kidney and blood in the lining of the abdomen, with the ultimate cause of death being blunt force injuries to the head, Utah County Attorney Jeff Buhman said.

Provo police detective Mark Petersen testified that during an interview with Gardea, he confessed to punching Jasmin in the head and torso, hard enough that had he been hit that hard, it would have knocked him unconscious, said Buhman.

Sorry about all this. I'll try to write something perky next time.

Send Arthur Silber, Fine Blogger, Some Dough

Here.

And Now for Something Completely Like Other Disturbing True Storiez

Daddy chains daughter to bed.

"She was indeed chained to her bed and shackled by her right ankle," the report states, noting that she was found "emotionally distraught and crying uncontrollably."

Clark County District Attorney David Roger said the accusations against the 53-year-old father are some of the most egregious he's seen in child abuse cases.

"While I've seen terrible things done to children, this tops most," Roger said Tuesday.

Mommy's boyfriend breaks one-year old's leg.

Mommy gets probation for failure to stop child abuse of her child by her boyfriend involving bite marks, bruises, burns, and broken ribs.

Parents on trial for for reckless endangerment in death of 11 year old daughter because their religious beliefs prevented them from taking her to a doctor.

Mommy's BF beats 5th grader to death; child protective services had been warned, but deemed the child "not at imminent risk." Well, oopsie.

While we're talking about restoring the US physical infrastructure, let's put some energy into social infrastructure, eh? For a change. Oh, except that in my state, a blue state with a Democratic governor, they've just fired (oh 'laid off') case management support for people who are psychotic and actively suicidal. Well, that's a good idea. And they're cutting dwon session auths for outpatient services -- while behavioral symptoms (child abuse & neglect, domestic violence, substance abuse, crime) are going UP. Oh, and child protective service workers are seeing twice the recommended caseload. No biggie.

Hey, it's hard times. People just need to deal with their feeeeeelings, no?

O Frabjous Day!!

"O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!" he chortled in his joy.

Now remember, boys and girls: if you don't put aside your negative future projections just for the day, then the Bushist fascist terrorists win!

No no. Just kidding.

No threats.

But a little positive outlook just for the hell of it wouldn't come amiss.


Please click on, listen to, and most of all, enjoy Steely Dan's "Change of the Guard."

And if you're not going to an actual Inaugural Ball, you are cordially invited to attend the virtual Inaugural Ball in Second Life. It's carbon-footprint free. There are celebratory events going on all day. Just need a computer with a graphics card.) See "Celebrating the Inauguration on Your Computer" at The General's.

Na na na na, Na na na na, Hey hey hey --- Good-BYE!!

The Original Version. Well worth a listen.

Na na na na, Na na na na, Hey hey hey --- Good-BYE!! Parrty in SL. Inauguration Party Coming Right Up

More info at Jesus' General's "Celebrating the Inauguration on Your Computer.".

"What's In a Name? A Rose By Any Other Name Would Smell --- " Um, like Torture?

No, Mikey, let's SO not call a spade a spade.

Let's keep throwing obfuscatory Orwellian propaganda-spin-chaff-labels around and see if anyone will notice.

Or if anyone will even mind.

So far so good, after all. The real problem is -- gay marriage! And a horrid failure to fill the universe with more and more unwanted children!

MukaseyCites Risk in Using Term 'Torture'.

(At this, NBFH, in a very unladylike manner, spits.).

No, no risk in torturing.

Truth-telling? Whoa, now that's risky business!


Question from non-media-whore media Foreign Press: Uh, Meester Mukasey, Meester Bush, Meester Rumsfeld, Colonel Geoffrey Meeller, een your Eenglish language, how you say "consciousness of guilt"?

.

.

What Was That the Bushist Fascists Were Saying About How Every Kid Needs a Mommy & a Daddy?

Not when Mommy and Daddy's parenting style comes right from Abu Ghraib.

Who Would Mormon Jesus Gay-Bash? Um, Gays. Well, Super-Funding CA's Prop 8 Doesn't Count As Gay-bashing, Does It? Oh Wait. Sure It Does.

Bush: Never Having to Say He's Sorry

Sydney morning Herald: Bush admits mistakes but is unapologetic.

No really. He's not?

Down With The Pussy Christ!

Seattle preacherboy Mark Driscoll: pls. deeply enjoy NY Times story of testosterone-deficient loudmouth sexist fascist self-described Calvinist dude (with big-time personal castration issues) pimping way kewl ever so un-girly-manly Sexist Fascist Jesus.

"What really grates [on Driscoll] is the portrayal of Jesus as a wimp, or worse.

Paintings depict a gentle man embracing children and cuddling lambs.

Hymns celebrate his patience and tenderness.

The mainstream church, Driscoll has written, has transformed Jesus into 'a Richard Simmons, hippie, queer Christ,' a 'neutered and limp-wristed popular Sky Fairy of pop culture.'"

Sarah Palin: Waaay Terrored by Blogtopia!!

Sarah Palin is angry. And Sarah Palin is scared. Apparently Sarah Palin was assassinated by the media and blogtopia, and now, she's LASHING OUT!

Now I thought it was Hillary Clinton who got assassinated by the media and blogtopia, but hey, I could be wrong.

Poor thing. Poor poor Palin.

One does feel Palin's pain.

One feels her moose's pain, too. Ok her caribou. Moose, caribou, what-everrr.

Its dead now.


------------
Skippy coined it.

Bushist Fascists to Vets: It's All In Your Heads, Suckers!

No purple hearts fer vets with post-traumatic stress disorder.

No wounds. No actual wounds, you see. It's sort of like waterboarding. No wounds there, either. No biggie.

Oh, except there are wounds generally speaking after one shoots oneself in the head in the process of committing suicide. So wouldn't that count? Wouldn't count if you just take pills, though. And what about wounds inflicted on other people by people with PTSD? Would those wounds count as wounds, ya think?

Suicide Attempts Jump for Vets by 500% In Five Years and Government Ignores It.

Bush
Vets with PTSD
Vets and suicide

US Child Abuse du Jour

Here's a Texas couple who managed to break the bones of their 8 week old infant.

Rudy Arismendez and Olga Arteaga were charged with Injury to a Child after doctors discovered numerous fractures on the child's body, according to police.

Police got involved when Arteaga took her daughter to Scott and White Hospital in Temple where doctors called police and Child Protective Services.

Temple Police say Arismendez abused the girl a number of times, causing severe damage to her body.

"It's very hard to break the bones of a newborn," said Temple Police Sergeant Brad Hunt. "They're very limber. They're bones are not developed in any way so it takes a lot of trauma, a lot of force to do damage."

And another very special present from Preznit Toad-Exploder: As Economy Worsens, Child Abuse Cases on the Rise.

Panetta: Anti-Torture American

Why are we even having this discussion?

What is wrong with the pro-torture crowd, anyhow?

Screws loose? Child abuse?

"Obama Picks Anti-Torture Chief for CIA" at Mother Jones.

More Hubris: Of the "Let's Ram Our Mistaken Views About Reality Down the Throats of Those Who Don't Adhere to Our Mistaken Views" Variety

I know, I know, I'm running out of patience.

So sue me.

In the meantime, the Random Parenthood crowd continues to support the notion that having a kid is just no biggie, it's just like picking up an extra carton of milk at Seven/Eleven.

So let's hear it for Government-Forced Maternity!

After all, it's not as if Unwanted Children grow up to be abused and neglected, is it?

oh well right they do. ummm.

And it's not as if Unwanted Children who are abused and neglected go on to endanger themselves and others by becoming drug addicts, violent criminals, murderers, and serial killers, is it?

oh well right they do. ummm.

oh well.

ummmm. yeah ok so abortion lowers the crime rate. lets ram our mistaken views about reality down the throats of everyone else because we just are selfish arrogant pigses?

Lots of Blood for Lots of Hubris

"With this level of self-regard, it’s no wonder that Bush could remain undeterred as he drove the country off a cliff. The smugness is reinforced not just by his history as the entitled scion of one of America’s aristocratic dynasties but also by his conviction that his every action is blessed from on high. Asked last month by an interviewer what he has learned from his time in office, he replied: “I’ve learned that God is good. All the time.”

Once again he is shifting the blame. This presidency was not about Him. Bush failed because in the end it was all about him."

Frank Rich.

$4K Deadbeat Dad Kills His 2 y.o. Kid

"I'm sorry about killing my baby. I had a whole bunch of reasons," Danny Platt said.

"Do Southern Baptists Set Women Up for Abuse?"

In a word, yes.

Poetry Corner: Charles Flint

Something from my old friend Charles Flint who I so far cannot re-find even with the help of the internets tubeses. ; (

THE FURIOUS AND SAD OLD SURREALIST MASTER DISOWNING HIS ESTABLISHMENT DAUGHTER

When you leave the darkness of learning
and find snow
I will not be at the window.
When the cement fist of money
which has killed all the animal images
approaches you
do not turn to me.
I will not know what to do.
When the table guarding the door
tries to keep you from hearing sound
do not ask me for help.
I will have gone mad.

When I have reached the end
and have no strength to turn
toward the field where the found
is hiding the stone of hope
and when I have only one wish left
it will be telling you to go away
to where the snow has been covered
with dust and noise.

Only then will the windowlocks unfreeze
in the night which shows no light or darkness.
And the horses galloping toward afternoon
will shake the easiest victories
into your opened hands.


.

That Ol' Black Magic Called Power & Control: The Beat Goes On . . . . ..

And on . . ..

"She was 17 when she met her boyfriend, and 20 when she died at his hands. In between, Heather Norris tried several times to leave the relationship, which was fraught with control and abuse, before she was killed — stabbed, dismembered and discarded in trash bags.

Her death in 2007 in Indianapolis is one of several stemming from abuse in teenage dating relationships that have spurred states and communities to search for new ways to impress on adolescents — and their parents and teachers — the warning signs of dangerous dating behavior and what actions are not acceptable or healthy . . .

Although there are no definitive national studies on the prevalence of abuse in adolescent relationships . . . [e]xperts say the abuse appears to be increasing as more harassment, name-calling and ridicule takes place among teenagers on the Internet and by cellphone.

“We are identifying teen dating abuse and violence more than ever,” said Dr. Elizabeth Miller, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the School of Medicine at the University of California, Davis . .. .

“Few adolescents understand what a healthy relationship looks like,” Dr. Miller said.. Adolescents often mistake . . . excessive attention . . . as an expression of love, she said.

Kayla Brown, 18, was among them. At first, her high school boyfriend made a great impression last year when he “called my mother to introduce himself,” said Ms. Brown, a senior at an Indianapolis charter school.

Then he began “calling me every hour to see where I was and what I was doing,” she said. Finally, during an argument he slammed a chair into a cafeteria table and raised his fist.

She confided in her mother, who has suffered domestic violence, and followed her advice to break off the relationship. But it was not easy. For months, she had friends accompany her in the school hallways, even to the bathroom, to make sure she was not alone with him. . .

Deborah Norris, Heather Norris’s mother, said her daughter’s relationship with Joshua Bean also began innocuously but rapidly became threatening.

“When he would call or text her, she had to answer right away or there was trouble,” Ms. Norris said. “She became quiet and withdrawn around him, and that wasn’t like her.”

“She hadn’t seen him in four months,” she added, “and was getting ready to go to court because she had filed battery charges against him.”

Mr. Bean was convicted in Heather’s killing last September.

Ms. Norris, an accident investigator for the police, said, “What happened to Heather really opened the eyes of police, the people I work with, who used to look at domestic violence differently,” seeing it as a family matter.

What happened to Heather before she was killed is common in abusive relationships, said Stephanie Berry, the manager of community health at Clarian Health, a network of Indiana hospitals, which is leading the program being financed by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Many teenagers, Ms. Berry said, “see the jealousy and protectiveness as ‘Oh, he loves me so much.’ Girls make excuses for it and don’t realize it’s not about love, but it’s about controlling you as [their] possession.”

And it's not only girls who are on the receiving end.

From Heather's Voice:

Controlling behavior includes:

* Frequently checking up on you to know where you are or who you're with
* Deciding what you wear or who you hang out with
* Limiting your normal activities so you can be with him/her more often

From Love Is Respect:

Are You Being Abused?

Does your boyfriend/girlfriend:

* Look at you or act in ways that scare you?
* Act jealous or possessive?
* Put you down or criticize you?
* Try to control where you go, what you wear or what you do?
* Text or IM you excessively?
* Blame you for the hurtful things they say and do?
* Threaten to kill or hurt you or themselves if you leave them?
* Try to stop you from seeing or talking to friends and family?
* Try to force you to have sex before you're ready?
* Do they hit, slap, push or kick you?

If you said yes to even one, you may be in an abusive relationship. Call us if you need to talk. We're here 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. All calls and chats are anonymous and confidential. Contact us by phone at 1-866-331-9474 (1-866-331-8453 TTY) or chat online from 4pm - 2am CST.

Why Don't They Just Get James Dobson To Beat the Crap Out of This Boy? That'll Teach the Damn Kid Not To Murder Grown-ups!!

Arizona Judge has issues with providing a 9 year old child in custody (accused of murdering 2 adults way back when he was 8) with a psychotherapist.

Rick Warren = Not Just A Talibangelical Kinda Guy, But a Dominionist Talibangelical Kinda Guy

OMG.