Sorries All Around

OK, so I've been sick, Mr. NBFH has been sick (I gave what I had to him, unhappy sharing), doggie NBFH has been sick, work is sick as in oy vey, and I just have too f* much on my plate, thus this blog too is suffering, alas alas.

[Sighs, shrugs.]

As they say in Nepali -- "ke garne?"

Which they really do.

Poetrymind: Year of the Iron Tiger

Poetrymind: Year of the Iron Tiger

Department of Coakley As Collateral Damage (Not to Mention Menino Throwing Coakley to the Wolves, Which I Won't Mention, As I've Mentioned It Before)

Just found this diary by peterboy.

"Scott Brown got the same vote total as McCain, but Coakley got 900k
fewer votes.

Dem turnout and independent turnout just disappeared.

MA Election results
2010 election

1,168,000 brown
1,059,000 coakley
20,000 others
2,247,000 total

2008 election

1,109,000 mccain
1,904,000 obama
100,000 others
3,113,000 total


Brown wins with about the same vote as McCain got.

Where were the 900k or so voters that didnt show up at all and who just a year ago gave Obama the win?

Brown ran identical numbers to McCain, but Coakley drew 900k fewer.

Dems and independents just didn't turn out. It is as Howard Dean tried to say but then didnt have the data to support it--Progressives are mad at Obama for talking tough on Corporations, HMOs, Big Rx, and Wall Street. But then playing kissy face with them.

Too bad progressives failed to notice that actual progressive Martha Coakley don't play that kinda kissy face. But they did not. Scott Brown attracted lots of late money from Wall Streeters wanting Brown to kissyface them.

In her bid to become the first woman elected to the United States Senate from Massachusetts, Ms. Coakley has thrown her support behind the proposed health care overhaul, the issue that has given this special election a national focus. She has said, though, that she supports a public option to encourage competition and reduce costs.

As attorney general, Ms. Coakley investigated subprime lending practices and helped provide relief for Massachusetts homeowners beset by foreclosures. In 2009, Goldman Sachs agreed to pay up to $60 million to end an inquiry by her office into whether the firm helped promote unfair home loans in the state.

Ms. Coakley supports President Obama’s proposal to tax financial institutions to recoup taxpayers’ investments and would vote to end tax cuts that favor wealthy Americans.

However, Ms. Coakley has said she does not support Mr. Obama’s decision to send 30,000 troops to Afghanistan, saying instead that Afghan leadership must be strengthened.

On civil liberties issues, Ms. Coakley was the first state attorney general to sue the federal government to overturn a section of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as being between a man and woman. She also opposes the death penalty and advocates civilian trials for terrorism suspects.

Elections have consequences.

Department of Remind Me Again Why Wingers Think Kids Need a Mommy and a Daddy?

Because they sure don't need a Daddy like this.

Daddy waterboards his 4 year old daughter as punishment for her failure to recite the alphabet on command. No, really, I am not making this up. I don't have to. I never have to.

Hat-tip to Bookem/Seattle Tammy.

The Bush/Cheney Depression: A Gift That Keeps On Giving, Domestic Violence/Murder Edition

Sudden rise in domestic violence homicides in Massachusetts linked to economic stressors.

Rising economic stress cited in domestic violence increase

The Westford man who shot his wife Monday, critically wounding her, before fatally shooting his daughter and himself is the second to allegedly kill a family member in this suburb in less than a month, and the fatal shootings are the latest in a rash of domestic killings in Massachusetts this year.

Since Jan. 9, at least five women have been killed in domestic violence. Two others were severely wounded in the total of six different incidents.

The violence has alarmed authorities and advocates for women, who point out that women’s groups are reporting dramatic increases in domestic abuse in Massachusetts and across the country.

“I haven’t seen this level of violence - and it’s not just the homicides, it’s the assaults and attempted murders - and I’ve been doing this for over 30 years.’’ said Joanne Tulonen, director of the YWCA/Battered Women’s Resources organization in Leominster, where a domestic dispute led to a knife attack on two women Sunday morning.

There seem to be few common threads in the deadly domestic violence that began Jan. 9 in Westford, where a man allegedly shot his 43-year-old wife before turning the gun on himself. In Spencer the following week, a man facing a foreclosure auction took his own life after shooting and killing his sick wife and their horse, setting fire to their home, and torching his pickup truck.

On Jan. 16, a Fall River man allegedly shot his wife at a Westport restaurant before killing himself. His wife survived. The next day, a 23-year-old Seekonk man and a 20-year-old woman died in an apparent murder-suicide at a motel in North Attleborough after police tried to arrest the man on an outstanding warrant.

A Fitchburg State College freshman, Allison Myrick, 19, of Groton, was stabbed to death Jan. 23, allegedly by her 19-year-old boyfriend, Robert Gulla of Shirley. Gulla stabbed and shot himself, but survived, police said. In Leominster on Sunday morning, a 23-year-old man allegedly slashed the throat of his girlfriend

Women’s advocates said they believe that despite the varying circumstances, at least one underlying cause is an unforgiving economy that has intensified family disputes, inflamed some men’s abusive tendencies, and left some women more reluctant to leave violent relationships.

“The story behind the story is the economy,’’ said Suzanne Dubus, executive director of the Jeanne Geiger Crisis Center, a domestic violence organization in Newburyport. “Bad economic times do not create batterers, but they do exacerbate problems. And women who are lying in the dark at night, thinking about leaving, they have no idea how they’ll support themselves and their kids on their own.’’

Black Box Voting: Rage Against the (Diebold) Machine(s)?

So Coakley won the hand count?


I didn't know that.

A little something from Black Box voting re: Coakley vs Brown in MA.

This article is about our right to know, not about Martha Coakley or Scott Brown. And lest you think something here favors a Democrat, just you wait, I'm still working on anomalies in the NY-23 election that are just plain hard to 'splain. As Richard Hayes Phillips says when people tell him to forget it, "I'm a historian, I've got all the time in the world." NY-23 still has history to be written. My public records are starting to arrive. But that's another story.

Back to Massachusetts, I think you have a right to know that Coakley won the hand counts there.

That's right.

According to preliminary media results by municipality, Democrat Martha Coakley won Massachusetts overall in its hand counted locations,* with 51.12% of the vote (32,247 hand counted votes) to Brown's 30,136, which garnered him 47.77% of hand counted votes. Margin: 3.35% lead for Coakley.

Massachusetts has 71 hand count locations, 91 ES&S locations, and 187 Diebold locations, with two I call the mystery municipalities (Northbridge and Milton) apparently using optical scanners, not sure what kind.

ES&S RESULTS

The greatest margin between the candidates was with ES&S machines -- 53.64% for Brown, 45.31% for Coakley, a margin for Brown of 8.33%. It looks like ES&S counted a total of 620,388 votes, with 332,812 going to Brown and 281,118 going to Coakley. Taken overall, the difference -- 8.33% Brown (ES&S) added to 3.35% Coakley (Hand Count) shows an 11.68% difference between the ES&S and the Hand Counts. Of course, as Mark Twain used to say, there are three kinds of lies: Lies, damned lies, and statistics. These statistics don't prove anything, and probably shouldn't be discussed without a grain of salt handy before examining more detailed demographics.

As a point of reference, however, in the Maine gay marriage issue recently there was no significant overall difference between machine count and hand count locations.

DIEBOLD RESULTS

Diebold's results are 51.42% for Brown, with 791,272 Republican votes counted by Diebold, vs. 47.61% for Coakley, with 732,633 Democratic votes counted by Diebold, for a spread of 3.81% favoring Brown.

LATE-REPORTED RESULTS

It's always interesting to watch hand counts beat machine count results to the newspaper.

In the Massachusetts special senate election, results from six of 71 hand count locations were reported about 2 1/2 hours after the polls closed, with the remaining 65 hand count locations in right away. The slower hand count results represent 8.45% of all hand count locations.

These latecoming hand-counted results favored Coakley very heavily (she got 55.68% of these, earning 4,610 votes to Brown's 42.9%, representing 3,552, a 12.78% margin) Whether the reports came to the media late or the media posted them late is unclear.

ES&S SLOWPOKE VOTES

ES&S had 12 of its 91 locations reported at least 2 1/2 hours after polls closed, a total of 13.2% of all its locations (as compared with just 8.45% of slower reporting hand count locations). So ES&S certainly wasn't faster than hand counts, overall!

These slow-arriving votes represented 88,288 of ES&S's 620,388 votes. Overall Brown got 46,257, for 52.39% of the late-arriving ES&S votes, and Coakley got 41,238, for 46.71%, yielding a margin of 5.68% of the late-arriving votes going to Brown, for a net gain of 5,019 votes to Brown.

North Attleboro and Paxton appear to be the last locations in the state to be reported, and they are both ES&S. North Attleboro brought in 10,881
very late votes, 71.48% of them going to Brown; Paxton brought in 2,036 votes, 65.37% going to Brown.

THE SLOW BOAT FROM DIEBOLD

Yes, I know they're supposed to be called Premier machines now, and ES&S bought the company so it's now all one big monopoly family, and then the whole kit and kaboodle in New England -- Premier and ES&S -- is programmed by the juicy little LHS Associates guys. But I like to just call them Diebold, that familiar name which we all know and love.

Twenty-four of Diebold's 187 locations wandered in late, smoking cigarettes and wearing a bathrobe. That's 12.83% of all its locations. Apparently it was faster to hand count 8,497 ballots, as they did promptly in Newburyport, or 7,339 ballots, as they hand counted in public for all to see in Milton, than to push a button and wait five minutes for the machine to spit out a Diebold results report in Pelham where they had 725 votes. East Brookfield's 899 Diebold votes must have run out of gas somewhere; they weren't reported for hours.

All in all, a total of 170,594 Diebold votes took a long time to stumble in the door, These votes -- surprise! -- favored Coakley. She got 86,214 of them, for 50.54%, and Brown got 82,911 tardy Diebold votes, for 48.60%, putting Coakley on the plus side of the late arrivers by a 1.94% margin, for a net gain of 3,303 slow-moving votes.

They'd called the election by the time the 170,594 tardy Diebold votes showed up. Coakley had conceded. And of course, there are many ways to look at this if you don't trust voting machines, and why should you? It's hard to know who was fooling around, or if anybody was.

2L4O? Plus--Rage Against the Old Boy Machine

Progressive Martha Coakley caught between 2L4O rock and Old Boy "Dem" Machine hard place?

Looks like the Old Boy "Dem" machine failed to turn out for Coakley.

From a Kos diarist:

. . . after the primary, everyone usually comes together. The coming together just didn't happen this time. . . . [this long-time Democratic Party worker] . . .didn't get called to campaign like she does for every other local, statewide, or national campaign. The machine volunteers did not deploy from Boston.

Yeah, let's all lather/rinse/repeat the hypnotic "she's weeeeak, she's weeak, she's weeaak" theme again. Cui bono? Coakley too liberal for the Old Boy Machine? Or does Capuano have ambitions that will be best served by trying to knock out Coakley (who beat him in the primary, and was not supposed to) at this point, so he can face Brown in 2012? Dunno.

All politics is local, turns out. Cause the Old Boys did not turn out for Martha.

The Old Boy Dems, even across blogtopia, continue to spin Martha's really excellent demonstration of good personal boundaries setting aside time to spend with her family as "lazy" because no one will notice what a sexist spin that is, since family time is just silly gurrl stuff and real men oops candidates work round the clock and ignore their families because that's how they stay big and strong.

[insert chest-pounding here.]


That uppity, uppity Coakley.

Really, who does she think she is?

MASen: First Battle In the 2L4O Rebellion

Five thirty eight has the stats, but they think their eyes deceive them!

Which is really rather amusing.

By a 68-27 margin, voters in last Tuesday's election supported the universal health care law in Massachusetts; this included a majority of Scott Brown voters! But these same voters opposed the Democratic health care plan, which is quite similar to the Massacuhsetts law, by a 43-48 margin.

What accounts for the discrepancy?

I know. But they don't.

Here are stats for "Brown" voters:

QUESTION: Would you favor or oppose the national government offering everyone the choice of a government administered health insurance plan -- something like the Medicare coverage that people 65 and older get -- that would compete with private health insurance plans?
FAVOR OPPOSE NOT SURE
ALL 86% 7% 7%
MEN 84% 8% 8%
WOMEN 88% 6% 6%
DEMOCRATS 88% 6% 6%
REPUBLICANS 63% 22% 15%
INDEPENDENTS 78% 14% 8%

"Brown" was "elected" by Medicare for All/Public Option/single payer people.

And that, boys and girls, its what is now known as the first battle in The 2L4O Rebellion.

Progressive Martha Coakley: Collateral Damage in the Public-Option Rebellion

The numbers are in; the truth comes out.

This turns the MA election upside down: MA was not a victory for GOP, not at all. In fact, it was the exact opposite.

It was a defeat for conservatives, and a triumph for liberals: the Public-Option Rebellion.

From RJ Eskow:

Here are the first results from after-vote polling in Massachusetts: By a 3 to 2 margin, Obama voters who voted for Brown thought that Obama's reform bill "doesn't go far enough." And those Obama voters who didn't bother voting felt that way by a 6 to 1 margin. 82% of Obama voters who went for Brown (and 86% of those who stayed home) support a public option. And 57% of Brown voters said that Obama is "not delivering enough" on change.

In this stunning victory for progressives that sent a sudden shocking a wake-up call to timid Dems in Washington, it's ironic that talented, passionate progressive Dem Martha Coakley wound up being sacrificed as collateral damage.

Dean Poll: pro-public option voters defeated pro-public option Coakley

This is a black swan game-changer, and really worth viewing.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Dean says his polls show pro-public option Martha Coakley's loss in MA as protest against Obama centrism by pro-public option Dems and independents.

2L4O: Too Liberal for Obama

Are you too liberal for Obama?

Get your 2L4O t-shirts now!

Bayh, Lieberman: Brown Loss Means We Must Take a Right Turn

Yes, it is time to turn right, right into the arms of big pharma, big banksters, and the rest of them, because it wouldn't have been good for an actual progressive to get into power, would it? Because Martha Coakley has an actual record for actually doing that.

The powers that be really dodged a bullet on Tuesday, and Lieberman knows it.

Democratic Senator Evan Bayh echoed Lieberman's sentiments yesterday, telling ABC News, "The only we are able to govern successfully in this country is by liberals and progressives making common cause with independents and moderates. Whenever you have just the furthest left elements of the Dem party attempting to impose their will on the rest of the country -- that's not going to work too well."

Thanks for nothing, MA

Really.

So (expletive deleted) stupid.

And so (expletive deleted) wrong.

Vote for Progressive Democrat Martha Coakley

On the merits of her record.

1. Opposes sending more troops to Afghanistan.

2. Supports a woman's right to choose.

3. Supports health care coverage for all.

4. Achieved record settlements in enforcement actions against Big Pharma.

5. Supports civil and reproductive rights: filed constitutional challenge to DOMA.

6. Supporting the environment; supporting consumers by litigating ratepayer protection to the tune of $100 million dollars

7. Strong record on domestic violence, survivors of abuse, crime victims, preventing human trafficking.


I don't have time to review everything, it's on on her website, in detail. This election is about electing a superb candidate from MA to the US Senate, MA Attorney General Martha Coakley.

More on the Amirault Cases

A reader gave me a link to materia on the Amirault child sexual abuse convictions, a case that had passed through the hands of 3 MA Attorneys General, O'Reilly, Harshbarger, and Coakley, a case Republican governor Jane Swift refused to commute.

Witness praises Amirault decision

By John Ellement, Globe Staff, 2/23/2002

CAMBRIDGE - Jen Bennett wants to give Acting Governor Jane Swift a bear hug in appreciation, and she wants Gerald Amirault to admit he sexually abused her when she attended the Fells Acres Day Care Center in Malden in the 1980s.

Bennett was one of nine children who testified against Amirault during his three-month trial in 1986, which ended with his conviction on multiple rape and molestation charges. He was sentenced to 30 to 40 years in prison.

Bennett spoke out yesterday about Swift's refusal this week to commute Amirault's prison sentence, a decision denounced by Amirault supporters as politically motivated and unjust. They contend that no one was sexually abused at the day care center and that Gerald Amirault is a wrongly convicted man.

''I just want to give her a great, big hear hug,'' Bennett said of Swift.

As for Amirault, ''I want to say to Mr. Amirault: Admit your guilt, you did this. He is where he is supposed to be. I will fight against you to the end. He destroyed my childhood.''

Harriett Dell'Anno, whose daughter was one of the victims, echoed Bennett's insistence that children were sexually violated and also thanked Swift for keeping Amirault in prison. Had she coached her daughter to falsely accuse Amirault, or had she allowed investigators to coerce her daughter into making false claims, Dell'Anno said she would deserve to be in prison.

Of the sexual abuse, she said simply, ''It happened.''

Laurence Hardoon, who was the trial prosecutor, said yesterday the preschool age of the witnesses did inject some inaccurate information into the inquiry. But, he said, mistaken memories by some of the children accounted for at most 5 percent of the information against the Amiraults.

Hardoon also said the quality of the investigation and the actions of prosecutors, police, and social workers working with the children were all scrutinized intensely during Gerald Amirault's trial - and still the jury convicted.

He said Amirault supporters are focusing on 2 percent of the children's claims that ''seem inexplicable and they are conveniently ignoring the 98 percent of the case that was overwhelming'' against Amirault.

Amirault's sister, Cheryl Amirault LeFave, and their late mother, Violet Amirault, were convicted in a separate trial. Both women were later released on appeal.

Middlesex District Attorney Martha Coakley, who inherited the case from former district attorneys Scott Harshbarger and Thomas F. Reilly, said Amirault's insistence that he is innocent does not make it true.

She drew a parallel between John Geoghan, the former Catholic priest sentenced to 9 to 10 years in prison Thursday for molesting a child. Like Amirault, Geoghan insisted that he, too, was innocent, she said.

''Admitting to child abuse is a very difficult and often, a never-seen thing,'' she said. Coakley said it was time for Amirault and his supporters to end their pursuit of an early release from prison so that the victims can finally begin to fully heal from the trauma he caused them as children.

A spokeswoman for Swift, Sarah Magazine, repeated that the acting governor made her decision knowing that ''there are strong feelings on both sides of this issue.

Full story here.


And from the Chief Prosecutor of both Amirault trials, Larry Hardoon:


Letters to the Editor: The Real Darkness Is Child Abuse



WALL STREET JOURNAL (J) 02/24/95

Copyright (c) 1995

As the chief prosecutor of both of the Amirault cases I am writing to prevent the public from being misled into believing that an injustice occurred as Dorothy Rabinowitz alleges in her Jan. 30 editorial-page piece "A Darkness in Massachusetts."

Her suggestion that the convictions were based on "some of the most fantastic claims ever presented" presumptuously ignores the reality of the cases. The three Amiraults -- Gerald, Violet and Cheryl – were convicted after two trials before different judges and juries almost one year apart. They were represented by able and well-known defense counsel. The convictions were upheld after review by state and federal appellate courts. The McMartin case in California was the result of a botched legal system and Kelly Michaels's conviction was overturned because of legal errors. Contrary to Ms. Rabinowitz's implication, the Amirault convictions were neither of these.

The first trial involving Gerald Amirault lasted a record three and a half months. Nine children and their parents testified and were subject to extensive cross-examination. The second trial of Violet and Cheryl Amirault involved five children. The entire proceedings were public and extensively covered by the media.

The children testified to being photographed and molested by acts that included penetration by objects. To the average person unfamiliar with the gruesome-ness of child pornography, the allegations of penetration by objects seem bizarre. The testimony of a postal inspector experienced in child pornography was properly admitted to educate the jury regarding the plausibility of the children's testimony.

The overturned order of the trial judge changing Violet and Cheryl Amirault's sentences five years after they were imposed was nothing more than a political squabble between the judge and the parole board over who dictates the appropriate release time for convicts. Violet Amirault was convicted of threats to commit a crime and Cheryl Amirault was convicted of assault and battery for acts committed while in prison. These subsequent convictions may have played a role in the decision of the parole board to deny parole.

Amirault was handled differently from cases in other parts of the country. The initial investigation and interviewing of the children was divided among different investigators, contrary to the assertion in the story that the allegations were developed through one pediatric nurse. Uniquely similar disclosures came from children with no connection of any kind to each other who were handled by different teams of investigators. Many children involved in the prosecution were from families who were initially hostile or skeptical toward the prosecution. Only after these children made unexpected disclosures directly to parents did they join the prosecution effort. The implication in the article that the children's allegations of abuse were tainted by improper interviewing is groundless and not true.

Studies show, as did testimony from a nationally recognized pediatric gynecologist, that most sexually molested young children have absolutely normal physical examinations. However, in Amirault, the majority of the female children who testified had some relevant physical findings, as did several female children involved in the investigation who did not participate in the trial. The findings included labial adhesions and hymenal scarring of the sort present in a very small percentage of non-sexually abused children.

The defendants had a full and fair opportunity to present any evidence they wanted the jury to consider. Although it has no significance in a court of law due to the presumption of innocence and the right against self-incrimination, the choice by Violet and Cheryl Amirault not to testify in their own behalf at trial can certainly be the subject of conjecture by the public at large. They passed up the single most important opportunity they had to tell their story. Isn't this fact, unmentioned by Ms. Rabinowitz, something the public ought to know?

The investigation and handling of these cases was not flawless. In 1984, when the Amirault case began, law enforcement was just beginning to cope with the explosion of sexual abuse into the criminal-justice system. Improvements have been implemented since then, many of which had their inception in that case. Today, there are still more innovations that can be implemented by the judicial system to make the process fairer to both the children and the defendants in these cases.

Ms. Rabinowitz's article is a superficial, one-sided look at a case handled extensively and carefully by the legal system. The victims and their families in these cases have been irrevocably harmed by what was done to them by the Amiraults. Every argument raised by Ms. Rabinowitz was ably presented by the defense at the trials. The juries, by their verdicts, rejected these arguments. Justice was done.

Laurence E. Hardoon

Boston

Source, here.

Teabaggers versus Coakley

"All things are ready if our minds be so."

Send Arthur Silber Money

I just sent Arthur Silber money because he is ill and could use some help. Not a lot just what I could afford. I invite you to do likewise if you can. I am sending him money even though I have um, issues, in that aspect of life myself, because I believe he has more issues than I do, and because I think it is important to support the thinking of thinkers. I agree with much, though not all, of Arthur's thinking, and even though I utterly disagree with him about some important things such as the MA senate race -- and think that in this respect he totally has his head up his *ss and just couldn't be any more f*cking wrong about progressive Coakley versus waterboading enthusiast Brown, I am still sending him money because of the other 98% of his stuff which I think is brilliant. So it is ok with me that he is 2% completely batshit crazy wrong wrong rong. Though I wish he weren't.

So, whatever. I wish someone would go out there and find him and bring him to a warm cheap climate, perhaps Costa Rica?

Progressive Dem Coakley versus waterboarding enthusiast Brown

Pro-torture candidate for Senate in MA, Scott Brown, is rising in the polls against progressive Dem Martha Coakley. You'd think a Republican would be easy to beat in MA, but apparently the teabaggers are all riled up about beating Coakley.

Brown on waterboarding:

Brown . . .took a hard line against the coming terrorism trials in New York City, lambasting Attorney General Eric Holder by saying, "It's time we stopped acting like lawyers and started acting like patriots." He also defended the use of waterboarding, disagreeing with Sen. John McCain (who endorsed him recently): "I do not believe it is torture.

Here's a link John Cole of Balloon Juice put up at ActBlue, for fundraising.

If you can't donate, and you think it's important that MA's senator be anti-torture, write a letter, blog a blog, if you can.

If America Recovers, The Terrorists Have Won

Is That Egg On Brit Hume's Face Or Is He Just Happy to . . .

Hey, kids!

Remember--it's never too late for a loudmouth "Christian" talking head to slam a major world religion he knows absolutely nothing about!

Have an auspicious Western New Year, everyone!




Kvatch's take, here.

Buddhist Jihad, here.

Matthieu Ricard: Habits of happiness

Happy New Year.

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.

.

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.

Negative Future Projection and Medicare Equality for All

How we look at things matters.

How we choose to look at things matters.

How we think about things matters.

If we assume, as our fearless unelected leaders in the occult cabal clique-who-must-be-obeyed have, that outcome A is hopeless, we will clearly be unable to take steps to achieve outcome A.

This is negative future projection, and it is a cognitive style with behavioral implications.

Weirdly enough, this aberrant cognitive style has gone viral, and has nearly wiped out Medicare Equality for All, as an outcome.

It's like one of those dog-torture scenarios: delivering electric shocks that are unavoidable, so the dog sinks deeper and deeper into hopelessness, then goes belly-up, and submits and dies.

This self-appointed Steering Committee uses classic social pressure to shame and blame those who have not given in to the --[we can't achieve Medicare Equality for All] -- Cabal Core Belief with hopes that the rest of us will submit and STFU.

Besides all this narcissistic bullying, the greater problem is -- they're dead wrong.


Choosing the goal defines the plan, and the outcome.

Goal: man on moon.

Outcome: man on moon.


Goal: to fly

Outcome: flying


Goal: Medicare Equality for All

Outcome: take steps along path to goal

But unless you set the goal, it is impossible to achieve it.

Cognitive frame: flying is impossible

Outcome: none


Cognitive frame: man on moon is impossible

Outcome: none


Similarly:


Cognitive frame: Medicare Equality for All/ Single=pay is impossible

Outcome: na ga happen

Duh.


Negative future projection about universal health care is a choice, and it is the wrong choice. It's viral social hypnosis. It's groupthink. It's cabalthink. It's bullshit.

We need to wake the f*ck up.




More:

Arthur Silber on the Fuck You Act

VastLeft on shit sausage.

Ian Welsh on the Democratic majority.

All Life is Problem-Solving

More Billionaires for WealthCare Teabag Goodness

Join the Billionaires for WealthCare!

What's so bad about an apple a day, eh?

The Illness Industry: Sometimes Less Is More, Sometimes More is More. Profitable.

From: the Heart Scan blog.

Shut up, about Stupak, ladies. There are way more important things to work on such as -- [fill in blank].

Thanks to Corrente, I've discovered a new blog, Historiann.



Where I found this comment:

Emma on 22 Nov 2009 at 11:09 am #

The one time the left pulled the pin, it voted for Nader in 2000. And look how that worked out.

You misunderstand. I’m not talking about the left. I’m talking about the fake “left” that propagated misogyny and CDS and elected Obama. That “left” will never oppose Obama or even attempt to hold him accountable.

No, what I’m talking about is WOMEN needing to play madwoman political bargaining with the Dems. Because when it comes to women’s rights, the Democrats and the Republicans are identical. Women’s rights, including abortion, are nothing more than political bargaining chips.

Let me put it this way: After the Democrats — led by Democrat Bart Stupak — passed the Stupak/Pitts amendment I got all these “call to action” emails from Democrats to save abortion rights by appealing to more Democrats and sending money to more Democrats. It’s deeply, deeply screwed up. And there’s nary a Republican to blame for it.

I’m done. Nothing, not one thing, not a “public option” health insurance plan, not universal health care, not single payer health care, not the success of the historic Obama presidency, not poor people’s rights, not people of color’s rights, not a jobs plan that actually works, not the wars in Afghanistan or Iraq, not the Guantanamo detainees — nothing is worth accepting, putting up with, or losing the battle on this steady erosion of women’s equality. Nothing. My “allies” are on notice. Nothing matters to me but winning this fight on women’s equality. Nobody gets anything from me on any other issue — not money not votes not feet on the street. Nothing.

And voting “yes” or “no” isn’t enough anymore, either. There has to be solid work toward building a coalition that will have the ability and the power to stand firm and pass legislation that will advance women’s equality and thus protect abortion and reproductive rights. And I mean a Constitutional Amendment or a statute that kills the Hyde Amendment, the Global Gag Rule, and Stupak dead for the foreseeable future. That’s all I will accept.

And beyond lack of support, I will oppose every effort that further enshrines or advances women’s inequality. I don’t care what gets scuttled. If you have to suffer until I get my rights, that’s too bad for you. Because nobody gets ahead while I wait. Never again...

Click onthrough.

Give Arthur Silber Money, Please

Arthur Silber says what I think, only better.

And says what I feel about the normalization of violence, only better.

He's right. He deserves our support.

Jeff Zeig on Milton H. Erickson

And now for something completely different. Again.

Department of Why How We Look at Things Matters

Once a year, in the weeks before Thanksgiving, I go to the local knife-sharpener to get my knives sharpened. The knife-sharpener is a vet with PTSD, and he knows I'm a therapist. He remembers my first name, every year. He remembers that I see children. Sometimes he remembers that I see both children and adults. He often doesn't remember that my clinical specialty is treating complex PTSD. He didn't remember that today.

In the course of today's conversation, I mentioned that one of the worst misconceptions that people in the military had/have about how to treat PTSD was and is the belief that no one can treat combat PTSD unless they have been in combat. Which is dead wrong. Brain surgeons treat brain problems without having to have those problems themselves. Clinicians don't need to have PTSD (or to have had) successfully to treat people who have PTSD.

My point here is not about PTSD, it's about the weight of thoughts.

How stubborn clinging to beliefs in itself is enough to alter our behavior. In this case, this thought, this single thought stuck inside this person's head, is enough to keep him -- and so many others like him -- from receiving the assistance toward healing they say they wish for.

Remarkable instance of cause and effect.

So, in honor of the knife-sharpener's lost-lasting pre-conceptions, and acknowledging the causal power of immaterial thought to successfully produce effects in the material world, I toast to increased awareness and flexibility of mind.

What's Wrong With This Picture?

Simmer down, Stupak haters.

Ok, this is a test. This is not only a test.

It is a Rorschach.

1. What am I testing for?

2. How many instances can you find in that post at Kos I linked to?

3. What does it all mean?

Stupak Is As Stupak Does

Periodically, when I'm feeling down, I launch attacks against the government-forced maternity crowd. And I launch attacks against the separation-of-church-and-state-is-for-pussies crowd, those arrogant guys in those churches that want meddle in the lives of people who don't even GO to their churches.

And, you know, like, I still have my panties in a twist about all that, you know, primary sexism stuff from all those kewl libruls who really have no problem throwing, you know, broads under the bus.

So when I heard about the Stupak thing, I just thought: hey! Broads under the bus 2009? No biggie. It's deja vu all over again.

And, you know -- it is!

I know it's just because I'm so emotional, just that time of the month, prolly, but see, there's another little tiny voice inside my head that is saying:

hel-lo.
fuck this. really.

you really don't have to be physically hit to be abused, do you?

Dept. of Just How Stupid Can You Get?

Army doctors worried that Hasan was psychotic.

"Army doctors worried that Hasan was psychotic"?

Psychotic = he's hearing voices, voices commenting, maybe voices that tell him to do stuff. You know, as in auditory command hallucinations: "Go. Kill. Infidels. Hasan. Right. Now."

No, I am not making this stuff up. This is what psychosis sounds like, is like.

They're worried that he's psychotic. Oh? Are you f*cking kidding me?

And they not only let him keep on practicing, they promoted him?

Who is running the Army asylum?

If someone thinks someone is a danger to themselves or others, one gets to hospitalize them, even against his or her will. At least for a couple of days. Who was Hasan's clinical supervisor? Who was Hasan's therapist? If he didn't have one, why didn't he? This is how they run their psychiatry services? Pretending psychosis will just go away? Would you like a little numbing and avoidance with your homicidal ideation and command hallucinations with a cherry on top?

Cripes.

Something for Veterans' Day

Dulce et Decorum Est

Bent double, like of old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind:
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.

Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!- An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime…
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in sonic smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,-
My friend, you would not talk with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.


Wilfrid Owen (1917)

Vicarious Trauma, Media Frames, Numbing and Avoidance

Article on vicarious traumatization. With commentary.

As an army psychiatrist treating soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, Major Nidal Malik Hasan had a front row seat on the brutal toll of war. It is too early to know exactly what may have triggered his murderous shooting rampage Thursday at Fort Hood - Hasan is accused of killing 12 people and wounding 32 others before he was wounded by a police officer - but it is not uncommon for therapists treating soldiers with Post Trumatic Stress Disorder (P.T.S.D.) to be swept up in a patient's displays of war-related paranoia, helplessness and fury. .

In medical parlance it is known as "secondary trauma", [vicarious trauma] and it can afflict the families of soldiers suffering from P.T.S.D. along with the health workers who are trying to cure them. Dr. Antonette Zeiss, Deputy Chief of Mental Health Services for Veteran Affairs, while not wishing to talk about the specific case of the Fort Hood slayings, explained to TIME that: "Anyone who works with P.T.S.D. clients and hears their stories will be profoundly affected."

It's entirely possible that other factors may have acted as a trigger for Hasan . . [who] . .had developed strong objections to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But he was also due to be shipped out to Afghanistan, drawing him closer to the terrible scenes described in detail by his patients. At army hospitals dealing with P.T.S.D. patients, the staff is required to periodically fill out a 'resiliency' questionnaire that is supposed to gauge how well they are coping with the burden of their patients' emotional and psychological demands. [filling out a questionnaire? Wow, what a profound therapeutic intervention!] "It takes its toll on people," says one officer at a Colorado military hospital. "You cannot be un-affected by the terrible things these soldiers have undergone."

Most army psychiatrists now have a full caseload of men and women returning from combat zones with P.T.S.D.. A survey by the Rand Corp. last April revealed that one in five service men and women are coming back with post-traumatic stress and mental depression. Previously known as "combat fatigue" or being "shell-shocked", P.T.S.D was only diagnosed as an illness in the 1980s, but it has been around for as long as men have been killing one another and undergoing fearful experiences. It can lead to outbursts of rage, emotional numbness, severe depression, nightmares, and the abuse of alcohol and pain-killers. In extreme cases, P.T.S.D. sufferers have committed suicide and murder. Since the late 1980s, doctors have also learned that over time, along with drugs and therapy, P.T.S.D. is curable.

As part of their therapy, PTSD sufferers are typically asked to dredge up their worst wartime memories. [this is crap. it is also not standard of care. Note the "dredge up' frame, too.]Hearing these nightmarish experiences can stir up powerful reactions in even the most seasoned therapists [note how writer demonizes empathy]. One Colorado sergeant, diagnosed with P.T.S.D., who had served as a dog-handler in Iraq, told me how his psychiatric counselor had broke down sobbing after the soldier described how he had been sent out to find the remains of his close friend, a helicopter pilot, shot down in southern Iraq. "I looked up, and there she was crying," the sergeant says. "I didn't want that from a shrink." [well, that's crap, sergeant.]

But there is a major difference, says Veteran Affairs' Zeiss, between a therapist being moved by combat horror stories and being traumatized by them - though it can happen. "Psychiatrists are trained to notice their own reactions and emotions, and if there's something hard to deal with, they should turn to their peers," she says. [This is incorrect. One should not turn to one's peers. One should go get oneself a competent therapist] But according to some news reports, Hasan's unprofessional conduct was red-flagged early on; at Walter Reed he was given a poor performance report, but that did not hinder his transfer to Fort Hood.

And for even the most hardened army psychiatrist, that would be a grueling assignment. [note how sentence equates "hardness" with competence. Besides being a sexist frame, "hardening" is more like "numbing," a symptom of PTSD] Fort Hood has the highest suicide rate of any army base in the country, largely because so many service men and women stationed there have undergone severe trauma while deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. At Fort Hood, in other words, there was no shortage of horrific tales that could have set loose the demons in Hasan's mind.

IOU

Ok, I'm back from DC. Almost off to work.

This is a blogging IOU.

Will write about Americans United for the Separation of Church and State's blogger meet-up in DC. Great fun, lots of laughter.

Thinking about writing at more length on sexist smears against Martha Coakley, sample here.

Putting the pieces together re Ft. Hood shooter. Sounding more Islamic than traumatic right now. When will they start trying to waterboard him?

Later.

Al-Jazeera on Fort Hood Shootings

Deaths in US army base shooting

. . . Lieutenant-General Bob Cone, the base's commanding officer, said the shooting took place at about 1:30pm local time (1930 GMT) on Thursday at a Soldier Readiness Facility.

The suspect has been named as Major Nidal Malik Hasan, a 39-year-old army psychiatrist.

"There was a single shooter that was shot multiple times at the scene. He was not killed as previously reported. He is currently in custody and in stable condition," Cone said.

Hasan was born in the US to Muslim Palestinian parents who had emigrated from a small town near Jerusalem, US media said. . .

Josh Rushing, Al Jazeera's correspondent at Fort Hood, Texas, said: "[Hasan] is a first-generation American. He joined the army after high school and went to the Virginia Tech university to get a psychiatry degree through a military programme.

"He became a psychiatrist at the Walter Reed Army Medical Centre in Washington ... where he counselled soldiers coming back from war.

"Every day, he heard how horrible those stories were and he really started to question the wars, according to what his cousin and sources who knew him said.

"Hasan became more devout in his religion and started arguing with soldiers about whether the wars were right or not, to the point where he received disciplinary action and negative work reviews.

"He was transferred to the medical facility here at Fort Hood, where apparently these feelings continued.

"It raises a major question - how can a person responsible for the mental health of soldiers returning [from war] be allowed to continue in this profession when he has these kinds of questions himself?"

The rampage occurs at a time of stress for the US armed services burdened by two wars, with commanders struggling to ease the effect of repeated combat tours on troops and their families.

Repeated deployments

Suicides in the army hit a record level last year, with at least 128 taking their lives, and are on track to set a new high this year - surpassing the rate among the wider civilian population.

US commanders believe repeated deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan have played a role in the spike in suicides, as well a surge in post-traumatic stress and depression.

Hasan faced his own imminent deployment for military service, officials said.

Nader Hasan, a cousin, said Hasan was "mortified by the idea of having to deploy" and that he had been harassed by other soldiers for being a Muslim.

He told the New York Times newspaper that Hasan had retained a lawyer and sought to get out of the army before the end of his contract.

Full story here.

No Sense in the Madness of Crowds

The Fort Hood shootings continue to whip up that ol' mob mentality. You can't tell facts from mere foamings at the mouth.

Yesterday, media said the psychiatrist was someone who had just been promoted to Major. Today, media swears he'd been interviewed by the FBI, and had been given a poor job performance evaluation at work.

Hunh?

Desperate to cook up a more-or-less sensible mythic framework, much?

Fort Hood Shooter Said to Be Army Psychiatrist

.

Army Major said to be psychiatrist treating traumatic stress who was about to be deployed to Iraq.
He had worked at Walter Reed. Just promoted to Major.


[Interlude]

PTSD symptoms, short form:


1. Numbing and avoidance


2. Intrusive thoughts

flashbacks,
nightmares


3. Hyperarousal

anxiety,
insomnia,
hypervigilance,
irritability,
panic attacks,
angry outbusts,
aggression

What Vast-Left Said

The audacity of Plouffe.

Yes, I'm Still Here

Yes, I'm still here, but I can't think of anything to write about. Well, sure I can, I already Googled the child abuse du jour cases, and there were just so many of them, mostly featuring daddies and mommies and boyfriends doing horrible things to 13 month olds and under, and I just couldn't handle picking up the links. I mean, ugh. You, too, can Google "child abuse" and then "news" and you will see what I mean.

Another Shameless Sexist Article in HuffPo

Yecch.

"The Original Power Couple Emerges Again With Hillary on Top . . ."


Why not come right out and call her a nappy-headed ho' and get it over with, Bronstein, you um "dickhead"?


And now for something completely different: Arthur Silber, a guy who gets it.

Torture Is as Torture Does (CIA version)

Manacled to the ceiling?

Well, and why not?
They were, like, Teh Enemy! Once they're dubbed Teh Enemy, you get to do anything you want, do you not?

Let Them Eat Cake? No! Let Them Make Tea!!

I work with people (adults and children) who have chronic complex PTSD and dissociative disorders, many of whom self-injure, and many if not most of whom have suicidal ideation, and some of whom are actively suicidal. Meaning that sometimes they act on their thoughts.

When I, as their clinician, think they are a danger to themselves or others, part of a safety plan we've put together includes going for an evaluation at a hospital or crisis center. I don't just send people to the ER on a whim, because that would be, well, idiotic, would it not? Generally, I try to speak with someone there to express my concerns, and my familiarity with my patients' patterns. If they listen to me.

Lately, that hasn't been so much the case. And I am discovering many of my colleagues are having similar experiences. Seems like, more and more, people who should be inpatient are not being admitted, whether it's because of having poor insurance with poor benefits, or I'm not sure what.

It is often very hard for people who are a danger to themselves or others to admit that. So the act of actually going to an ER and saying, yes, I have been having those thoughts, and yes, I am afraid I will act on them, is really quite a step forward, clinically-speaking. For someone to respond to that admission in a trivializing way, as in the "Oh, it's not so bad, why don't you just go home and make a cup of tea" (which actually just happened, I kid you not) gatekeeper incident, is completely unacceptable.

Obama, who is quite ready to spend on physical infrastructure (roads, bridges, etc.) needs to spend money on shoring up our social infrastructure -- mental health and child welfare, doing it from the bottom up, not from the top down. More services, not fewer. More services for the most endangered.

Are we hypnotized, as a nation, by some weird gender-biased kinda frame? Bridges and roads are visible, strong, real and manly and tough? Minds are invisible, weak, fickle, unreal, not truly existent, thus unworthy of making a top priority?

CIA Torture Program Used Classic Torture Skill-Set

CIA torture program: classic bait and switch?

Nah. Classic inflict and revive.

According to human rights lawyer John Sifton, the CIA tortured some of its detainees in the War on Terror so severely that it had to take measures to keep them alive so they could continue being tortured.

Sifton, who is the executive director of One World Research, told an interviewer for Russia Today that there was both a CIA detention program and a military detention program and that "The CIA program was by far the most secretive. ... That's the one that only had a few dozen detainees at any given time -- but it's the one that saw the biggest abuses, the most serious forms of torture."

"In the military, there was actually a larger number of deaths than with the CIA," Sifton continued. "The CIA engaged in some horrendous abuses, but they appear to have taken precautions to have actually prevented people from dying -- which might sound humanitarian, but in fact was kind of sickening."

"Kind of" sickening?

See, the whole point of torture is to create experiences of suffering that are so horrendous that it makes your torturees wish they were dead. And then -- you just don't let them die. Because that would end the torture. So you just keep on doing it. And your torturees keep on wishing they were dead. And if you don't watch out, they'll go ahead and kill themselves. Or, if they're lucky, you'll slip up in your attempts to keep torturing them, and they'll die on you, the swine. And then the torturees win.


It's all so very medieval, is it not?