JurassicPork Going Down, Down

It ain't right, people.

Pass it on.


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"How Is This Poem by Nobel Laureate in Literature Czeslaw Milosz Relevant to The Democratic Party As It Currently Exists?" (originally posted May '08)

for Vast Left



A Task


In fear and trembling, I think I would fulfill my life

Only if I brought myself to make a public confession

Revealing a sham, my own and of my epoch:


We were permitted to shriek in the tongue of dwarfs and demons


But pure and generous words were forbidden

Under so stiff a penalty that whoever dared to pronounce one


Considered himself as a lost man.


. --Czeslaw Milosz

It's All About Me. No Really. It Is.

So I've belatedly discovered that the bushist fascists with their dreadful profit-driven health-insurance-healthcare-denial-serf/slavery system have contaminated my mind, and left me vicariously traumatized. Which had been too traumatized to notice until the day before yesterday. No, really.

Here were (are?) my symptoms: irritability, anxiety, panic, angry outbursts (NOT a usual behavior for me), insomnia, hypervigilance. Occasional upsurges of wanting to kick something sentient (REALLY not a usual discursive thought-stream for me.)

So, in the tiny sliver of co-consciousness that miraculously accompanied these behaviors/subjective experiences, I'm like, where is this all coming from?

Which it took me a while to figure out.

It is not my anxiety. (Although I have every possible reason to worry about what I worry about). It isn't mine -- it's theirs. The people I work with at work. I am bringing my work home. And I have been sharing worry about suicidal clients whose insurance providers, in order to save pennies on meds, are dumping people off the latest anti-psychotic drugs and replacing them with cheaper generics or with really old drugs left over from the 1950's. Thus de-stabilizing the previously stable.

I mean, how stupid is that?

And I can't do anything about it. There is no way for me to intervene in this system. I can watch them go from ok on an outpatient basis, to needing to be inpatient, but inpatient is too expensive, so they re-do their meds and spit them out on the streets again, still unstable.

And what is my part in this? Like watching a plane headed into a tall building.

"Oh. Look."

That plane -- is going to -- hit -- that building."

Boom!


Hmm.

So what am I, what are we, supposed to do?

Rape: Another "Pre-Existing Condition"

Collecting all these stories of "health?" insurance company denial abuse is rilly, rilly getting fun!

Here's one about a rape survivor getting in wicked trouble because she took a drug after being raped so she might not get AIDS! W00t!

Let me highlight another juicy bit:

. . . patients and therapists wrote in with allegations that insurers are routinely denying long-term mental health care to women who have been sexually assaulted.

Yes, boys and girls, it takes a "health?" insurance denial abuse panel to take power and control over your mental health care, denying care because it is actually needed. Wow! Double bind much?

And now for something completely different because I am just having well one of those days

Roscoe Holcomb -- I am a man of constant sorrow.

Father Knows Best

Nothing like an honor killing to start out the week with a bang: Dad Kills Daughter For Being Pregnant, Unwed.

A Jordanian man was charged on Sunday with premeditated murder after allegedly stabbing to death his 22-year-old daughter because she became pregnant outside wedlock, police said.

"The father and his brother took the girl on Saturday to a doctor because she suffered stomach pains, and everybody was surprised to learn that she was six months pregnant," a police spokesman said.

"On their way home, the father stabbed the girl with a sword 25 times in her stomach, killing her immediately as well as her unborn baby boy."

The source said the suspect had confessed to the crime, which took place in the Jordan Valley.

"His brother was also charged with premeditated murder, while the victim's boyfriend is being held in custody for his own protection," he added.

Murder is punishable by the death penalty in Jordan but in such cases of the so-called "honour killings" a court usually commutes or reduces sentences, particularly if the victim's family urges leniency.

Honor killings = leniency? Really?

Call to Action: Events Saturday in Boston, on Cape Cod, All Across the Land!

Here's an opportunity in Boston to show the teabaggers how appreciative we are of all their efforts to prevent socialist healthcare from spreading promiscuously. Morrisey Blvd, two ish.

And on the Cape, shameless Democrat Martha Coakley needs some kind of counter-demonstration, really.

Support the Teabaggers this Saturday!


Be a Billionaire! Let your needs and wants eclipse everyone else's!

Billionaires for WealthCare: Fight Socialism: End Medicare NOW!

Food Fight:: And Now for Something Completely Different

Long, thoughtful, passionate thread on food, US culture, obesity, at Corrente. I didn't want to clog it up with a video, so I am posting an offering here. Gary Taubes' book, Good Calories/Bad Calories, turns conventional wisdom inside out; noted wellness doc Andrew Weil, M.D. gives Taubes' insights a solid thumbs up.

Obama's Not-Bush Nobel Win Results in Massive Mob-GOP Head Explosion

One must work really really hard to feel compassion for so very many Mob-GOP exploded heads.




Not to mention how hard it would be to feel compassion toward the shamelessly sexist exploded heads of the idiotic faux-left.

[Hat-tip to actual liberal blog, Corrente.]

4 year old in criticl condition: 5 adults charged with felony child abuse

Hattiesburg, Mississippi

Nothing to see here; move along.

Neighbors who lived near the home where five adults were arrested for abusing a 4-year-old boy described a horrific scene on Friday - detailing the insides of the Hattiesburg home where the abuse took place.

They told of a vacant home with blood stains, a dog cage that may have been used to confine the child and rooms cluttered with trash and debris surrounded by graffiti-covered walls.

"There's stacks and stacks of clothes and little mats on the floor. It has the smell of feces," said the landlord, who didn't want his name publicized, of the home at 215 N. 25th Ave.

Among the suspects charged with one felony count of child abuse are: Sue Miller, 53; Nancy Miller, 34; Patricia Aguilar, 30; Francys Albertson, 20; and Christopher Lee, 37, all of Hattiesburg.

The landlord, who lives near the house, said all five suspects lived in the home, but only Sue Miller and her daughter, Nancy Miller, and Albertson were listed on the lease of the home, he said.

The suspects were arrested Tuesday after police received an anonymous tip from someone concerned about the welfare of the child inside the residence. Police said the child was in Sue Miller's care.

The 4-year-old boy was one of 10 children taken from the home by Forrest County Department of Human Services officials, police spokesman Synarus Green said. Green said investigators have not determined the relationship between the other nine children and the adults arrested.

The 4-year-old remains in critical condition at a Jackson hospital, police said.

The other nine children are in the custody of the Department of Human Services.

"The child's body was covered with new and old bruises, marks, cuts and abrasions," Green said in a prepared statement. "A lot of them were old injuries. He didn't receive them in one day," he said.

Investigators don't know how long the abuse had been going on, Green said.

A preliminary medical exam showed that the child had cuts on his head and body, broken teeth with damaged gums and internal abdominal injuries caused by blunt-force trauma. . . ."

But really, let's concentrate on the innocent unborn, not the guilty post-born. Oh, and really, let's save them widdle snowfwakes, mm-'kay?

Polanski Got Off Lightly, Lawyers Say

Polanski would face tougher prosecution today

By GILLIAN FLACCUS (AP) – 3 hours ago

LOS ANGELES — If Roman Polanski were charged with child rape today, DNA evidence, stiffer penalties, outcry over childhood sexual abuse and tougher scrutiny of celebrity justice would make prosecutors much less willing to cut the plea deal the director received more than 30 years ago, legal experts say.

For one thing, changes in state law since the 1970s would give prosecutors other options in pursuing charges, including a law that includes a mandatory 15 years to life in state prison for rape, sodomy or a lewd act with a child coupled with certain circumstances, such as the use of a controlled substance, said Robin Sax, a former sex crimes prosecutor with the district attorney's office.

"He should be shutting up and thanking goodness for his sentence," said Sax, who is also a victim's advocate. "There's one part of me that says, 'Bring it on, you want your trial? Let's let everyone here see what the evidence really is.'"

Polanski was accused of plying a 13-year-old girl with champagne and part of a Quaalude during a modeling shoot in 1977 and raping her. He was initially indicted on six felony counts, including rape by use of drugs, child molesting and sodomy.

The director pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of unlawful sexual intercourse; in exchange, the remaining charges were dropped, and the judge agreed to send Polanski to prison for a 90-day psychiatric evaluation. But Polanski was released after 42 days and fled the country on the eve of his Feb. 1, 1978 sentencing after the judge reportedly told lawyers he planned to add more prison time.

"I intended that he at least serve a full 90 days in state prison," Superior Court Judge Laurence Rittenband said in an AP story from the time.

Rittenband also called the prison psychiatric report on Polanski "a complete whitewash" and told reporters he believed it didn't adequately explore Polanski's reasons for committing the sex offense.

Victims of clergy sexual abuse staged a protest outside the district attorney's office Wednesday to protest celebrities who have publicly supported Polanski since his arrest in Zurich, Switzerland over the weekend.

"It is very, very similar to the allegations against the priests ... and no one says that we should just ignore the priest pedophilia," said Katie Buckland, executive director of the California Women's Law Center and former Los Angeles city attorney, who was not affiliated with the protesters.

An HBO documentary released last year suggested judicial misconduct surrounding Polanski's plea deal. The victim, who didn't want to testify against him at the time, has joined in Polanski's bid for dismissal, which is currently before a California appellate court.

Chad Hummel, Polanski's attorney, declined to comment Wednesday.

Experts watching the case unfold on two continents say in today's climate, Polanski would have very little chance of getting the sort of plea deal he got in 1977 — judicial misconduct or not.

"I think we treat sex and sex with minor cases now much more severely than we did then," said Stan Goldman, a law professor at Loyola Law School of Los Angeles. "I think Polanski or anybody today would be looking at massive amounts of time in jail ... in light of the allegation, as originally charged, that this was forcible, and that he fed her drugs."

Yo, Whoopi: That's What "Rape" Rape IS

Has this country run entirely out of adults?

Here's a link to story about Whoopi Goldberg, who, along with some others, seems to find the act of drugging, raping and sodomizing a child something other than utterly repellent and unacceptable. She thinks it was rape, but not "rape" rape.

[Whoopi-Polanski]

Splashed all over HuffPo you'll find Polanski apologists. It's remarkable. I see Polanski apologists everywhere.
They don't even know that they're dead wrong.

Polanski apologists could feast their eyes on Polanski's victim's testimony at The Smoking Gun, here. Where, you know, the child victim testified to being all alone with Polanski, given champagne, and more champagne, and then qaaludes. Then, having been all softened up, she testifies to being raped and sodomized by Polanski. It's all right there in black and white.

But, hey, there's a big pro-torture crowd, too, in the ol' U-S-A, so what's not so funny about peace, love and understanding child date-rape,-rape-rape,-and-sodomy?

Dept. of Kids So Need Mommies and/or Daddies

Because no one could have predicted Mommy would lock her son in a closet for four and a half years.

OKLAHOMA CITY – A woman was arrested after her 14-year-son told authorities he escaped from a home where he'd been kept for 4 1/2 years, spending most of his time locked in a bedroom closet, police said Monday.

A security guard at a National Guard facility in Oklahoma City called police on Friday after the teen showed up malnourished and with numerous scars and other signs of abuse, police Sgt. Gary Knight said.

"He was hungry. He was dirty. He had numerous scars on his body," Knight said. "It was very sad."

The boy was taken to a hospital to be examined and then turned over to the custody of the Department of Human Services, Knight said.

After police interviews, officers on Saturday arrested the boy's mother, 37-year-old LaRhonda Marie McCall, and a friend, 38-year-old Steve Vern Hamilton, on 20 complaints each of child abuse and child neglect. Formal charges have not been filed, and both were being held on $400,000 bond, according to jail records.

Jail officials were not sure if either had retained an attorney, and no one answered the phone at McCall's home.

The teen, wearing only a pair of oversized shorts held up by a belt, walked up to a security guard at the Guard facility around 5 p.m. Friday and asked where a police station was located so he could report being abused, according to a police report.

He told police that scars on his stomach and torso were from where alcohol had been poured on him and set on fire. Other scars were from being tied up, hit with an extension cord and choked, the boy told police.

"He had scars covering most of his body," Knight said. "They were basically from head to foot."

The teen told police he moved to the Oklahoma City area from New Jersey about 4 1/2 years ago after his mother was released from jail. Since arriving in Oklahoma, he said, he had never been to school and spent most of his time locked in a bedroom closet.

Champagne, Qaaludes, & Child Rape: It's Roman Polanski Oh, My! Oh My!

The curious case of Oscar-winning child rapist Roman Polanski continues on its curious way, remarkable for shining a light on public acceptance/denial/numbing/avoidance of certain sexual crimes. Like, um, you know, vaginal rape and anal rape (and oral as well, if memory serves) of a 13 year old child [having softened her up first, as it were, with mind-altering substances, in this case alcohol and pills, the classic date-rape drug combo of choice].

Polanski pleads all the way down next to nothing -- unlawful sex with a minor -- but still, it's just not down far enough for him. How he finds sympathizers is beyond me. It's all about poor persecuted Roman. Who has never had the balls to stand up and say, yes, I drugged and raped that little girl, every which way, and I am one really sick f*ck. I mean, how hard is that?

There Is No Plague Of Child Abuse Even Though It Takes Me Maybe Three Minutes on Google to Find a Juicy Case

Jessica Baxter, 65, gets a life term for child abuse.

Jessica Banks, 65 was the pastor of a small church in Riverside County, California and adopted five girls about five years ago. She was convicted in July of 16 felonies for child abuse, and this week was sentenced to 36 years and 8 months in prison, along with two consecutive terms of 15 years to life.

Jessica Banks kept the girls locked in an unheated garage, and kicked and beat them daily with cords and sticks, high heeled shoes, extension cords and belts. The five girls were between 4-11 of age at the time, and were forced to wear two layers of diapers and long black dresses, according to authorities. Jessica Banks also fed the girls spoiled food and made them take sleeping pills, and sexually abused them with paint sticks.

Librul Is As Librul Does. Or, Like, Doesn't.

The divine Anglachel on Teh Southern Strategery.

Why Do Kids Need Mommies and Daddies?

I dunno.

That's what the Mob-GOPS want us to think.

But why?

Kids don't need Mommies and Daddies, per se.

They need a caretaking adult or caretaking adult(s) who actually will take care of them. I mean, how hard is that, really?

Consider Denver Daddy Benjamin Koller.

He bit and beat his infant son, who, we learned in court just now, is not expected to survive.

Hitler Learns Kanye West Disses Taylor Swift at VMA

Million Moran March

It's at The Woodshed.

If Your Spouse Beats the Crap Out of You = It's All Your Fault! Thus, It's a Pre-Existing Condition!!

So, really, haha, boyz and girlz.

Just suck it up. Whatever happens, suck it up!!

Billionaires for WealthCare at The Million Moran March

Be a Billionaire!

Save the status quo!

Because our dear Denial Death Panels really make a killing!

Stay Classy, Mob-GOPS

September 11 in Samsara

Rabid Right Mommy Scared Timid Centrist Prez Is Really Tulku of Mao-Tse Tung

How can people be so f*cking stupid?

Really.

Hey, Boys and Girls! It's Time to Mercenary-Up the Army! Privatize Cooks at Twice the Price, at Taxpayers' Expense!

You see, the military is a non-profit organization. Although the military-industrial complex so feared by that commie, Eisenhower, isn't.

So, if you don't want to seem like you're adding more troops in Afghanistan, you can outsource support staff to profit-making outfits, who charges twice the price, and can also do whateverthef*ck they want.

It's WIN-WIN-WIN!


(Which party won the election?)

Crappy "Christian' Prays Prez Dies of Brain Cancer

What would Jesus do?

You know, I'm Buddhist, but I had actually thought that the whole Golden Rule teachings of Jesus were not optional.

Call to Action: Billionaires for WealthCare, Not HealthCare

RECRUITING BILLIONAIRES NOW!

Start you own chapter, or join one!

Print out signs, don tiara or tux, and make a beeline for your nearest teabagger party. Let your Billionaire voice be heard! w00t!

Bloggers Call Out WaPo for Pro-Sadist Pro-Cheney Propaganda

Washington Post: Official Stenographer for the Pro-Torture Crowd

RIP Teddy Kennedy -- Teddy Jr.'s Eulogy Part Two

RIP Teddy Kennedy -- Teddy Jr.'s Eulogy Part One

RIP Teddy Kennedy

Beautiful, beautiful piece on Teddy Kennedy by RJ Eskow, at HuffPo.


Obama's speech at Teddy Kennedy's funeral, here.



And here's some nasty business from the so-called "pro-life" crowd, criticizing Cardinal Sean O'Malley.

Compassion-Free Con Coburn: No Help for You and Your Suffering Hubby, Lady

So, lady, you say you can't get health care for your husband who has a traumatic brain injury?

Stop whining. Go hold a bake sale.

Bio Mom Dumps Newborn in Porta-potty Tank

Let's guilt-trip more moms into having kids they don't want.

Ted Kennedy Dies at 77

Great senator, great sailor.

Department of I Feel Sure I Warned You About the Timid Centrist Thing, Did I Not?

At Corrente, thrill to Vast-Wing Conspiracy's miraculous take on Teh New Miracle of Matt Taibbi.

Department of I Believe in Miracles: Calley Apologizes for My Lai Massacre

Better late than never.

No, really.

"There is not a day that goes by that I do not feel remorse for what happened that day in My Lai," Calley told members of the Kiwanis Club of Greater Columbus on Wednesday. His voice started to break when he added, "I feel remorse for the Vietnamese who were killed, for their families, for the American soldiers involved and their families. I am very sorry."

News for Fetal Sentimentalists: Mom's BF Tortures Five Year Old in Dryer (Among Other Things)

One is working long hours at the trauma industry factory, and is hard-pressed to blog thoughtfully and depth-fully these days. So if one has any blogging time at all, a sure-fire hit is to Google "child abuse" and "news" because there are always lots and lots of grownups torturing the postborn!

I heard this story last night on the local news. And the funny thing was -- when I Googled "child abuse" and "news" this morning, the story didn't come up. Nor when I Googled "child abuse" and "news" and "New Hampshire."

It finally came up when I Googled "New Hampshire" and "dryer."

Manchester – A man is accused of choking and punching his girlfriend’s 5-year-old daughter and putting her in a clothes dryer . . . In court, police prosecutor Lt. Robert Cunha sought to maintain the high bail set following Zawadzki’s arrest, saying the photos of the child’s injuries showed “an egregious assault on a 5-year-old girl."

The affidavit supporting Zawadzki’s arrest said the child’s mother had left her in the care of her boyfriend Monday night and the boyfriend’s explanation for the child’s injuries were that he had to slap her for being fresh and that the child had fallen in the shower when reaching for a shampoo bottle.

According to the affidavit, police spoke with the child after her mother reported the assault yesterday. The girl said Zawadzki became angry with her and choked her with his hands around her neck, lifting her from the floor as he did so. She said he hit her in the face and head and punched her in the legs before putting her in the clothes dryer and spinning the tub with his hands.

In court today, Cunha said the physician who examined the child said the injuries were the worst she’d seen. Police described the injuries as bruising to the child’s face, shoulder, legs, buttocks and vaginal area, as well as a swollen upper lip.

But still, let's save our compassion for the preborn, shall we? Because, you know, there's never enough compassion to go around.

Barney Frank Slam's Rabid Rightists' "Vile, Contemptible Nonsense"

Barney Frank says arguing with wingnut "like arguing with a dining room table."



Great job.

Dump Glenn Beck -- It's About Time

It's about time people objected to the vitriol-speech of Glenn Beck, one of the many loudmouth fire-in-a-theater screamers that Reagan's Un-Fairness Doctrine produced. He's losing more advertisers. May he lose more. He's like Fred Phelps, but using the public airwaves.

HuffPo Sexism Spree Rages On: Today's Derision Target -- Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg

I am sure HuffPo will be running a poll on John Roberts' silly old eccentric wardrobe any day now. Clarence Thomas' too.

The Third-Worlding of America: GOP Runs Death Panels for the Working Poor

RAM usually goes to help the poor in Africa.

But, after 8 years of Bushist fascism, America is the new Africa.

The new third world is here at home.

Oh lookee! Working adults with no access to health care, weeping because they find, having waited in line for days to receive charity health care, that they have high blood pressure.

But they can't afford a doctor. And they can't afford the pills.

In the wealthiest country in the world.

Ain't that a shame?

Hey, Joe -- can you play a few bars of "Serfin' U-S-A"?

Sec'y Clinton Tells It Like It Is Re: Bush v. Gore' Puts Pundits' Panties in Big Fat Twist

Yes, it's a funny funny thing about our Secretary of State: when she tells the truth, or sets limits with questioners, some blowhards find it really upsetting.

And when the other Clinton tells the truth, some so-called libruls get their panties in a twist. Why is that? Is it Bush = Gore all over again?

Like T.S. Eliot Said, "Hurry up, please. It's Time" --- for --- NETROOTS NATION IN SECOND LIFE

Now's your chance, you proud Luddites. Hey, look. You can stay proud. You can stay Luddite. You can, as buddhists do, regard your coming to SL so very lightly -- as being like a dream, a flash of lightning, a bubble in water, a magician's appartion.

Impermanent. Not truly existent. Like a rainbow, like the disappearing dew on grass, like mist, yes, I could go on all day, but don't you really want me to stop?

Yes, it's true, time is passing, and now it's time for Carpe Diem time. Yes, I am now actively actually recruiting people to Teh Second Life lifestyle. No, srsly. This means *you.*

It's free. It's Green. It offers tangos. It transcends space. It's so durn super-progressive it would make Orrin Hatch weep,well, it would if he *had*tears.

What's not to love, eh?



Here's your portal to the portal to: NETROOTS NATION IN SECOND LIFE

Main Blames Cat For Kiddier Porn

A thousand images of child sexual abuse were downloaded into Keith R. Jensen's computer. Jensen, a Florida resident, claims his kitty did it.

No, really.

Family Friend Babysitter Causes "Severe Internal Injuries" to 4 Year Old

PORTSMOUTH - Police are seeking a man who is accused of causing severe internal injuries to a four-year-old boy.

It was determined that the juvenile suffered severe internal injuries and minor external injuries. . ," Doyle said.

Lorenzo R. Clark, Sr., 26, of Channing Avenue in Portsmouth, VA, is wanted on a charge of felony child abuse, Doyle said.

"Mr. Clark was a family friend and watching the child when the injuries occurred," Doyle said.

It's just a crime, not a scandal when a caregiving adult causes "severe internal injuries" to an actual 4 year old.

While millions prefer to weep for the notborn.

Alabama Mom Drags Kid By Leash Through Store

Yes, sure, it's cruelty to children.

But America's compassion begins with preborns. And ends there.

Found Art: From the The Other America

Question:

One can never start instilling the concept of "winners" and "losers" too soon, can one?

Answer:

Nope.

Tremonton City Days: Royal Babies

Not to mention instilling the serial notion, 1, 2, 3, and so on. An early appreciation of one's place in the hierarchy is crucial to child development and misplaced parental sense of self.



Hat-tip to Jesus' General' and his hometown paper.

Child Abuse Du Jour: Say More About How Kids Need Mommies & Daddies, K?

This five year old kid's mommy punished him by locking him up alone in a sweltering attic, naked, covered in feces. Did his mommy like being a mommy, you think?

The worst part was listening to the TV talking heads interviewing two adult males, the mommy's own daddy and her uncle, who seemed to think that mommy was doing a swell job of mommying, and that this tortured kid really was a handful who just needed some control.

The police report said that when officers unlocked a door at the top of the stairs leading to the attic they found the boy "completely naked, covered in feces from head-to-toe crying to "go downstairs.''

The room was covered in human feces and there were several children's finger markings along the wall, made with feces, that appeared to have been there for a considerable amount of time, the report said.

When interviewed on TV, the kid's grandfather and uncle were complaining about all this negative attention, insisting that this treatment is not child abuse, and that the mommy had been trying to get help, but nobody would help her, boo hoo, which is patently false. This happened in Lowell, MA, home of MassHealth, and home of child protective services that are available on a voluntary basis--overwhelmed parents need only pick up the phone.

But you know, so much for the postborn, let's save our worry for the feti, shall we?

Child Abuse Du Jour: List Incomplete

1. How about a little boy beaten to death in California, where they just cut funding for child protective services?

Really, screw the damn six-year-old tattletales. Kids should fend for themselves.

2. How about a daddy belt-beating his two-year old (with the metal end of the belt -- I always ask 'which end?') so hard the kid had a seizure?

3. How about a 23-year-old Omaha man charged with beating a 4 month old infant till she was critically injured?

It takes me about one google to come up with a passel of cases. But, you know, once the innocent preborns turn into postborns, who gives a shit?