
Voices From the Black Sites.
Hat-tip to Anonymous Source.
entertaining POPULAR exclusive FREESTYLE MINDFUL CUTTING-EDGE SOCIO-POLITICAL BLOG AVEC a dollop of SNARK now showing the POPular hilarious samizdat "DONALD TRUMP IS MY (frickin'') GURU"
A senior Vatican cleric has defended the excommunication of the mother and doctors of a nine-year-old girl who had an abortion in Brazil after being raped.
Lashkar-e-Taiba has an extensive network in southern and Southeast Asia. A senior US military intelligence official described the group as "al Qaeda junior," as it has vast resources, an extensive network, and is able to carry out complex attacks throughout its area of operations. "If by some stroke of luck al Qaeda collapsed, LeT (Lashkar-e-Taiba) could step in and essentially take its place," the official told The Long War Journal in November 2008.
The relationship between al Qaeda and Lashkar-e-Taiba is complex, the official noted. "While Lashkar-e-Taiba is definitely subordinate to al Qaeda in many ways, it runs its own network and has its own command structure. The groups often train in each others' camps, and fight side by side in Afghanistan."
"Residents of 27 states that passed laws banning gay marriages boasted 11% more porn subscribers than states that don't explicitly restrict gay marriage."
"States where a majority of residents agreed with the statement "I have old-fashioned values about family and marriage," bought 3.6 more [online porn] subscriptions per thousand people than states where a majority disagreed."
" . . the fundamentalist view of humanity is such that humans are viewed as sinful and hell-bound by nature. This rebellion must be addressed. The best way to save one’s child from hell is by “beating the hell out of him or her.”
In Grevens’ Spare the Rod: The Religious Roots of Punishment and the Psychological Impact of Physical Abuse (1991) the notion of using physical abuse to “break the child’s will” is explored. It is the parental responsibility to break the will so that the child will conform to the parent’s wishes, thereby learning obedience to God.
How much force must be applied?
Most fundamentalist commentators state that the parent must remain fairly emotionless and turn a deaf ear to the protests of the child.
[Thus engendering numbing and avoidance in the the parents, btw, a classic symptom of PTSD.]
The child must be struck repeatedly until s/he begins crying profusely, for that is the sign of a broken will—the objective of striking the child in the first place.
Grevens demonstrates through much anecdotal evidence that the whole notion is fraught with difficulties. . . .Citing examples of well-known Christians reflecting on their childhood, a picture emerges of children waiting during the “cooling off” period, making deals with God, and pleading with God that they would not be beaten again.
As for the love part, Ruth Wilkerson Harris (sister of evangelist David Wilkerson) in her book, It was Good Enough for the Father: The Story of the Wilkerson Family (1969), recounts how the Wilkerson children, had to face the “humbling” of embracing their father after a beating and saying, “I love you Daddy. Forgive me for disobeying.”
[Thus teaching the important lesson that people who love you get to hit you and hurt you.]
Capps, in Religion and Child Abuse: Perfect Together (JSSR, 1992), points out that this mixture of anger, pain, beating, and love is very confusing to children.
[No, really?]
They likely come to view the ritual as a pain filled affair necessary to gain the parent’s love. They must surely long for a love that might, someday, be unconditional, with no beatings attached.
[or -- they might go the way of -- Vitter?]
They plead for God to deliver them. God doesn’t. As much anecdotal evidence indicates, as adults, such children do not thank God that they had a parent willing to inflict physical punishment on them and many grow up with a very confused image of God. They have been taught that God is all-powerful, yet God did not rescue them when they pleaded with God for mercy."
Deputies say the report alleged that Joseph P. Gariano had shoved a juvenile victim to the ground and held her face in a puddle of urine as punishment for urinating on the floor.
There are also allegations that Gariano submerged another juvenile victim underwater in a bath tub because he was angry that the child was crying.
Police say they have charged the girl's father, Scott Archbold, 41, (above left) with causing the injuries including multiple bone fractures, internal bleeding and signs of prior abuse. Christina Benjamin, (above right) the infant's mother, has been charged with child endangerment for allegedly failing to get the child medical attention after the infant's grandmother suspected the abuse.(What was that the Bushist fascists were saying about how every kid needs a mommy and a daddy?)
"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.'"
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."