Merry Buddhist Part of Christmas

Celebrating the Buddhist part of Christmas:

Peace on earth, good will toward all sentient beings.



May all beings have happiness and the causes of happiness,

May all beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering,

May all beings never be apart from the great happiness free from suffering.

May all beings remain in the great evenness of mind free from passion, aggression and ignorance.

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Taking the Holidays Off

I'm swamped. Best wishes for holidays. Will post when/if. Yes, we got snowed in with two feet of snow, plus drifts. 15K people around us lost power; massive clean-up still in process, but it will be a white Christmas for those who celebrate it. Here, we will celebrate the Buddhist Part of Christmas, as usual -- that would be the peace on earth, good will to all sentient beings part of Christmas.

Re-post from 2006 -- Child Abuse Prevention

April is Child Abuse Prevention Month.

In acknowledgment thereof, we might talk about the Republican Homeland Security pedophile guy, Brian Doyle, who went sex-trolling for adolescent girl children via the internet.

We might talk about all the bruised, beaten, starved and neglected unwanted children, but we've already talked a lot about them (scroll on down).

Or we might talk about Miss America of 1958.

That would be Marilyn Van Derbur, who was the victim of child abuse. The Miss America who was incested by her own pedophile father, and who, at 69, still suffers the consequences.

Americans don't like to talk about child physical abuse, much less child sexual abuse, much less incest. We prefer to be oblivious, like the South Dakotans who support a rapist's right to breed -- even an incestuous rapist's right to breed.

That's why, as part of Child Abuse Prevention Month, I think it's good to bring Miss America's story to the fore.

Her father was a rich and powerful man. His name was Francis S. Van Derbur, but his friends -- and he had many -- just called him "Van." He owned mortuaries and made himself a millionaire.

He was a socialite, a philanthropist, a renaissance man who recited poetry from memory -- and a rapist of children who violated his own daughter hundreds of times.

"Terror was my nightly blanket," Van Derbur writes in her award-winning autobiography, Miss America By Day. . .

When Van Derbur talks about child molestation, her demeanor is fierce, and her turquoise eyes burn with a natural-born warrior's zeal for battle. She rattles off shocking statistics like this: "One in six boys and one in four girls are sexually violated before the age of eighteen in this country; fourteen-year-olds comprise the greatest number of sex offenders of any age group. If those statistics don't frighten you, you are in total denial."

Or sums up the feelings of victims of child molestation like this: "We stay shamed by acting ashamed, when we have nothing to be ashamed of. Together we must say to every violator, 'The child may be mute today, but someday the child will speak her name and your name. The children will speak every single name!'"

More on Ms. Van Derbur here. More on Child Abuse Prevention Month at the National Clearinghouse on Child Abuse and Neglect Information, here.

child abuse
incest
Bushist family values

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

From Noaa, the government agency ex-Senator Rick Santorum wanted to privatize:

A BLIZZARD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 4 PM THIS AFTERNOON TO 1 PM EST SUNDAY.

A CLASSIC WINTERTIME NOREASTER WILL CONTINUE TO DEVELOP OFF THE MID ATLANTIC COAST TODAY. IT WILL MOVE NORTHEAST TONIGHT AND LIKELY BE SITUATED JUST SOUTHEAST OF NANTUCKET EARLY SUNDAY MORNING. SNOW WILL SPREAD NORTHWARD IN ADVANCE OF THIS LOW AND WILL REACH THE WARNING AREA BY THIS EVENING. THE SNOW WILL BECOME HEAVY AT TIMES OVERNIGHT AND CONTINUE SUNDAY MORNING. THE LOW WILL PULL AWAY DURING THE DAY SUNDAY WHICH WILL ALLOW THE SNOW TO TAPER OFF AND END SUNDAY AFTERNOON.

AS THE LOW APPROACHES TONIGHT...NORTHEAST TO NORTH WINDS WILL BECOME QUITE STRONG. SUSTAINED SPEEDS OF 25 TO 35 MPH ARE EXPECTED TONIGHT AND SUNDAY WITH GUSTS POSSIBLY REACHING 60 MPH.

THIS COMBINED WITH HEAVY SNOW WILL CAUSE BLINDING SNOW AT TIMES... WITH VISIBILITIES BEING REDUCED TO UNDER A QUARTER MILE.

SIGNIFICANT BLOWING AND DRIFTING OF THE SNOW IS ALSO EXPECTED.. . STORM TOTAL SNOWFALL AMOUNTS ARE EXPECTED TO BE 7 TO 15 INCHES. . .

TRAVEL IS NOT RECOMMENDED TONIGHT AND SUNDAY AS IT WILL BECOME DIFFICULT AT BEST...AND NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE AT TIMES.

A BLIZZARD WARNING IS ISSUED WHEN SUSTAINED WINDS OR FREQUENT GUSTS OVER 35 MPH ARE EXPECTED WITH CONSIDERABLE FALLING AND/OR BLOWING AND DRIFTING SNOW. VISIBILITIES WILL BECOME POOR WITH WHITEOUT CONDITIONS AT TIMES.

THOSE VENTURING OUTDOORS MAY BECOME LOST OR DISORIENTED...SO PERSONS IN THE WARNING AREA ARE ADVISED TO STAY INDOORS.

I Read the News Today, Oh Boy

Here's a a Kingston, MA, man accused of raping a three-year-old girl in August who got out on $10K bail, now accused of raping the five-year-old daughter of a friend.

On the news last night, it said he'd threatened to kill the victim's father if she told.

Nobody Wants to Talk About Child Sexual Abuse

Let's talk about the statistics of child sexual abuse, here.

Let's talk about the grooming process of child sexual predators, here.

And let's remember that experienced child sexual predators choose their victims wisely -- the younger the better. Because the younger they are, the less likely they are to be believed.

And the weirder the circumstances, the less likely they are to be believed -- recall David Cobb, the English teacher from Phillips Andover Academy whose sideline sexual abuse specialty was donning a pumpkin mask, paying his mentally retarded victims if they would do special things to "Help Pumpkin," such as "lotioning Pumpkin" and "assisting in urination."

Imagine how that might sound -- "Mommy, Mommy, a Pumpkin Man paid me to help him!"

"Oh, did he, dear? That's nice."

Martha Martha Martha

Top lawyer wins nomination for Kennedy's seat.