Politics: Torturing Your Children

This is what making war does to us, people. This is what it's done historically, except we just can't seem to learn, can we?

What's "this," you ask? Yeah, I know, nobody wants to click a link anymore because you just don't know what kind of malware or spam or really depressing shite is on the other end.

See, what we have here, in today's story of the military and war and chickens coming home to roost is, we have a 27-year-old soldier admitting to the cops that he pushed his four-fucking-year-old daughter's face into a kitchen sink filled with hot water and held her under because "she could not recite her alphabet," and didn't know her colours and numbers.

The child had "severe bruising on her entire back," "scratch marks on her back made in a downward motion" and "bruising on both of her arms, her legs and her buttocks," the police report said.

Jesus fucking J.H. Christ. A fucking four-year-old. Oh, and, he

allegedly told police he'd chosen a water-based technique because his daughter was terrified of water.

I wonder why. He did it three or four times. He has sole custody of his daughter.

Now, why would a man do this to his own kid? I don't know. Lots of parents abuse their kids, and the things they do to them are often so horrible as to make you wish for the immediate destruction of the entire human race because, by god, what the fuck happens to a kid who has to live through something like that, can they ever trust in the goodness of any human being again? Do they all turn into malevolent little psychopaths themselves, lighting their little classmates on fire, or raping men or women at random or breeding their own little next generation of victims?

It is enough to choke a person with the bitter taste of despair.

But why I bring this story to your attention, dear ones, is: what he did to his kid, rather than why. Which is, something very close to waterboarding.

Technically, there are a few differences. The kid was not tied to a flat surface, did not have fabric covering mouth and nose, did not have water poured on those until it experienced a simulated drowning. I'm not sure, though, that it's a hella improvement. I am pretty sure that poor child really would not care to dispute the finer points of the difference.

This is why we, as a nation, should eschew torture: because we risk finding it used against ourselves, not just by "bad guys in black hats." Not just by terrorists. Not just by those who capture our troops on the battlefield, and, having heard of our despicable actions in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, want vengeance for our rape and sodomizing and beating and blinding of their brothers and sisters, whether biological or religious or cultural.

But because, worse yet, when we stand up and say that what we are doing is not wrong, we are giving permission to all those people that we train in these methods, or who hear about or read about these things, to practice them on us. On the civilians to whose supportive embrace they return after getting their heads well and truly fucked up out there, wherever they've been simulating drowning anybody they identify as "bad guys," regardless of whether those are defenseless women like Aafia Siddiqui or teenage boys. Or their own four-year-old daughters.

Who knows why this little girl is in her father's sole custody? I see many people blaming the mother, speculating about how much "worse" she might be than the father. We don't know. The mother might be terminally ill. Or mentally unstable. She might be a drug addict. She might have lost her job, or her home, or have no source of income. She might be so afraid of the child's father that she did not contest custody.

He was, after all, arrested for threatening to break his neighbours' windows with his Kevlar helmet.

Maybe he's psychotic. Maybe that resulted from his deployment. Maybe PTSD has finally broken him and made it impossible for him to distinguish anymore between the four-year-old child of his own body and the last guy he waterboarded.

According to his estranged wife, the guy has "anger management issues." Yeah, I'll just fucking bet he does. His current girlfriend agrees. When the police showed up at his home at 2 am, they had to coax the little girl out of the bathroom, where she had locked herself for fear of her father.

The child is now in the custody of her maternal grandparents, and has said she never wants to leave. Her mother flew in from Kansas to get the child, but the maternal grandmother apparently filed to assert custody. The father is out on bail, but restricted to base (Fort Lewis).

Somebody please get the father some help now. And the mother, too, if she needs it.

Stumble It!

Human Rights: Why Reproduction Should Be

a licensed activity

Otty Sanchez and her baby

This is Otty Sanchez, a 33-year-old woman from San Antonio, Texas. Otty is in the news today because she killed her only child, a 3.5-week-old boy named Scott Wesley Sanchez Buchholz. Ms. Sanchez then proceeded to skin, gut, and decapitate the infant, and then, according to one or more news reports, eat parts of its body.

This last fact is disputed by Ms. Sanchez' family. Understandably. While the specter of your sister or daughter killing her kid is bad enough, the idea of said person actually cannibalizing the defenseless sprog has to make the toughest stomach churn.

Also understandably, the tabloid press, or gutter press, or yellow press, whatever you call it, is going hog wild with cries of "Cannibal Mom!" while a large number of Ms. Sanchez' fellow-Texans and fellow-Americans, most likely Republicans from the tone of their comments, are calling for her death, accompanied, preferably, by prolonged suffering.

La Casa de Los Gatos has only this to say to this last pack of hyenas: Shut the fuckety-fucking-fuck UP! You fucking morons. You fucking-fuckety-fucked-up fucking morons. Exclamation points, multiple. Do you seriously think a human being who has been trying to have a baby for something like five fucking years is going to kill and mutilate it just for fun? Do you people have any idea what pregnancy does to a woman's body and mind? No, of course not, or you couldn't make your moronic pronouncements. All you want to do is cannibalize the tragedy, and it is a tragedy, you worthless fucking fucks.

La Casa de Los Gatos is also using this tragedy, but for a different purpose: to point out that procreation is indulged in way too casually by all and sundry, with never a thought to the consequences. To argue for contraception as a basic human right (and, yes, that includes abortion, adoption, birth control, chemical or mechanical, sterilization, and anything else in our population control armory). To call attention to the incredible hypocrisy with which our society yawps about the sacredness of sprog and human life and procreation while ignoring the real needs of children, mothers, mentally ill people, poor people without resources.

This issue is our favourite (if one can grace it with such a description) bugbear.

Otty Sanchez was diagnosed as a schizophrenic approximately a year ago. The father of the baby, Scott Buchholz, is also a schizophrenic. Otty and Scott met at a local college where they were both training for careers as dental or medical techs. It is not clear whether either of them has a job. What is clear is that both of them are seriously mentally ill with an illness that requires them to remain on medication for the rest of their lives, and that, absent regular medication, they are or could be a danger to themselves or others.



So riddle me this, children. What are two seriously mentally ill people doing having a fucking baby? Srsly. We don't know if schizophrenia is hereditary, but the NIMH (National Institutes of Mental Health) has this to say on the topic:

If you have a close relative (parent or sibling) with schizophrenia, you have a 10 percent chance of also developing schizophrenia. In identical twins, the chances are much higher, at 40 to 65 percent.

Theories/Speculation

In July of 2008, a study came out looking at the genetic causes of schizophrenia. So far, it looks as if there are three kinds of genetic material (microdeletions) present in non-schizophrenics and lacking in schizophrenics, and it's thought that this factor can make a person more prone to developing schizophrenia, but may not be the actual cause. These microdeletions do seem to run in families. Other factors thought to combine together with these genes include problems with brain chemistry, injuries to the brain during birth that leave the brain smaller than normal, and traumatic or very stressful events.

NIMH states that one per cent of the planetary population is schizophrenic. That would be some sixty million people who suffer from this mental disease. Most mentally ill people pose no danger to others. However, symptoms of schizophrenia include hallucinations, auditory and visual, and disorders of thought. Schizophrenics might not understand the nature of the thoughts they are having and might not understand cause and effect when in the grip of their personal, let's call them, demons.

This would explain why a woman who wanted and loved her child might pick up a knife and inflict fatal damage on the child and near-fatal damage on herself.

Otty Sanchez was also diagnosed with post-partum psychosis. Post-partum psychosis (PPP) is a rare mental illness that affects one out of 1,000 women who have borne a child. Unlike the more common PPD (post-partum depression), PPP, which results from the same causes as PPD, can cause a new mother to suffer hallucinations, lose contact with reality, and become a danger to herself, her child, and possibly, others.

Ms. Sanchez has been institutionalized in the past for mental illness. And, to the credit of her poor, disordered mind, she tried to get help shortly before she killed her child. Surprisingly, the hospital to which she went released her. Or perhaps it's not so surprising. She went to the emergency room for treatment (let me guess — no health insurance). And, as everyone knows, emergency rooms are not staffed with mental health workers, in addition to being horribly overcrowded, overused, and understaffed. So they sent her home to her baby. FTA:

Had deputies been called to the home, they might have been able to intervene, said Deputy Chief Dale Bennett of the Bexar County Sheriff's Office.

"Most of our officers have been trained in mental health awareness, so they had a strong probability of recognizing what was going on," Bennett said.

Many of the people involuntarily committed for psychiatric evaluation initially are arrested by law enforcement officers investigating domestic disturbances, said Kevin McManus, a public defender who works with Bexar County clerk's Mental Health Office.

State law doesn't permit health care providers or authorities to detain a mentally ill patient against his their will unless that person is considered an immediate threat to himself or others.

"A lot of times, the officer is the best person to tell if someone appears to be a threat," McManus said.

Ironic, innit? Would you call the cops on your sister/cousin/kid? Otty Sanchez' family does not appear to be wealthy. In addition, they're Latina, and if a renowned scholar like Dr. Gates gets hassled by the cops in an upscale University town, just imagine the relationships between poor Latinos and the cops in Texas.

I'm guessing the family figured if they called the cops, Otty would be manhandled, thrown in jail, and further traumatized, not to mention the issue of what it would do to her already fragile mental health. So they didn't call the cops. They figured, she had a therapist appointment on Monday, they'd tell the shrink she was "hearing voices," and try to figure out how to handle the whole thing then. Except right before that, she killed the baby.

I know it sounds harsh to say that people like Otty Sanchez and Scott Buchholz have no business having a baby. And it sounds like eugenics to ask for population control measures that prevent people who have inheritable diseases that will permanently and negatively affect a child's health or life from having a child. But how do you propose to protect children from danger otherwise? Implementing such a scheme would undoubtedly raise cries of racism, discrimination, class warfare, undemocratic actions not consistent with human rights and civil liberties, et cetera, ad infinitum, ad nauseam.

But I am so fucking heartily sick of seeing the most defenseless of victims fall prey to the needs and wishes of others. How could this tragedy — like Andrea Yates' tragedy, and countless others — have been prevented? Anybody have an idea? All I can come up with is reversible sterilization the minute people's gonads become active, followed by a reversal only when an individual has shown that they are ready, willing, and ABLE to provide the kind of care a helpless sprog needs. Otherwise, what we're saying to ourselves and each other is that the wishes of individuals to procreate outweigh the basic right to safety of the result of the procreation. If we're not willing to do this, then we should just come out and bag the whole "human life is sacred" crap and start using fetii or even children as food material. Yaknow, Soylent Green, and all that.

For the record, I think abortion is far more humane than killing a child after it's born.

And this is how much the issue of PPD is finally affecting the collective consciousness of this country: none other than Rupert Murdoch catbox litter, aka Faux Noise, is actually calling for mandatory pre- and post-partum screening for new mothers. Good idea, Fox, but won't we need to finance this, as in, have some kind of single-payer health plan in order for this to happen? Otherwise, what's the solution? Screen them and turn them loose? So they can kill their kids?

Stumble It!

No Shortage of Teh Stupid

in this world. Oy vey. An Australian woman apparently decided to set her husband's penis on fire because she suspected him of sleeping with another woman.


Hello? Thanks to Lorena Bobbit, most of us are well aware that women from Third World countries are nowhere near as demure and easily dominated as Western men in search of mail-order brides think they are, but girlfriend? Was this necessary?

Sure, if you think your schweetie is schtupping someone else you can get kinda crazy, but seriously. That's the time to take a long walk until the fire in your brain goes out and you can think without "KILL!" appearing in big red letters in front of your eyes every ten seconds. If nothing else, think about your children. You made the mistake of marrying a serial schtupper, figure out how to fix the mistake without causing unnecessary grief and pain for your children.

I mean, seriously. If it's wrong for a man to break his girfriend's jaw because she's schtupping his best friend, it's just as wrong for a woman to set her boyfriend's dick on fire because he's schtupping her, I dunno, hairdresser. Or sister, even.

Plus, like, you killed him, yaknow? What's that about, ya dimbulb? She's got three kids with the guy and she kills him because he's screwing around? Listen, sister, if yer old man is screwing around, divorce the sonofabitch and keep the house and a big chunk of his income. You know, like Robin Williams says, divorce is "from the Latin word meaning to rip out a man's genitals through his wallet." Between child support and alimony, he won't be able to keep the girlfriend happy.

Better yet, have an amicable divorce and walk away. Let him have his girlfriend. You find yourself someone else. Everybody's happy, most importantly the goddamn kids, because you know, this way, their daddy's kacked, YOU're the one who kacked him, and you'll probably spend a lot of time in jail. How's this helping the children?

But no, you, you rocket scientist, you had to pour methylated spirit all over his dick while he slept, and then set fire to him. The poor bastard suffered burns to 85 per cent of his body and died slowly and painfully in hospital 20 days later.

That's bad enough, but what does Mrs. Dim Bulb then do? She tells her neighbours that she only wanted to burn her husband's penis

"so it belongs to me and no one else," prosecutors claimed.

[...]

"It's just his penis I wanted to burn, I didn't mean this to happen," the Adelaide Advertiser quoted her as saying.

Jumpin' Jehosophat, woman, his penis belongs to him, not you, and not his goddamned girlfriend. And if you'd kept your mouth shut, at least some lawyer could have done something for your kids. Even if you don't care about anyone else, could you show some interest in your kids here?

And they say arranged marriages are the best. Whaddya wanna bet Mrs. Dim Bulb's marriage to Mr. Dim Bulb was arranged by their parents?

Oh, and hey, Mr. Dim Bulb, you're dead, and all, so I reckon I should refrain from thwapping you upside teh head with the Casa de Los Gatos Trademarked Golden Bat o'Clue, but you sure as hell were stupid fella. You're not some Western bride-buyer, you know damn well you should not be messing around on your wife or she will cut your nuts off. Why, it's practically a family tradition in some parts of the world. Fuck around on wife? Get your nuts removed.


So which head were you thinking with, that you actually closed your eyes and slept in the marital bed and the marital house? Like any sensible Indian man should do, if you're screwing around on the wifey-poo, for Christ's sake, sleep in the girlfriend's house, dammit. Or in a separate bedroom from wifey-poo. Preferably one with a strong door and a good lock that you keep firmly locked and bolted. And if you weren't schtupping someone else, then a pox upon ye for not sorting that out with your woman.

What kind of man creates this kind of golmal with three children in the house? You don't love your wife, divorce her. Hella lot better than ending up dead with the wife in jail and the kids being raised by relatives. Not to mention some furious neighbours who lost their house too in the ensuing inferno. Idiot.

In additional proof that Teh Cup of Teh Stupid Runneth Over, the Newport News is reporting that the recent drop in fuel prices is going to have an effect on truck and SUV sales — they will outsell cars for the first time since February. Manufacturers are, apparently, offering huge discounts, and teh stupid are rushing to buy. Listen, idiots: First off, please publicly identify yourselves with, I dunno, a BIG RED "S" for Stupid carved into your forehead. Then line up for a good thwack with the Trademarked Bat o'Clue. Because those gas prices will stay low only as long as consumption of gasoline stays low.

Once y'all start driving your Stupidmobiles, aka Suburban Assault Vehicles, in any number, you'll increase the rate of gasoline consumption, at which point, obeying the Laws of Supply and Demand, producers will raise the prices once more while you sit your fat ass in your latest metal behemoth of Stupid and yawp about how high gas prices are and it ain't right and there oughta be a LAAAAW!

There sure as fuck oughta — against Teh Stupid, and moreover, against self-replication by Teh Stupid.


Least, and also last, Gee Dumbya's Daddums, Gee Hell Dumbya, is actually flapping his gums about how his other worthless lump of flesh (or progeny if you prefer) deserves a shot at the Presidency.

Say fucking WHAT? Hello, are we talking about the dickhead who made all that fuss and bother about Terri Schiavo that caused thousands of otherwise ignorant apathetic and plain flat-out inattentive Americans to rush to get DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) provisions inserted in their Living Wills? The same fuckwit who is tied in to the belly-up death of Lehman Bros? Brother of the current Idiot 'n Thief and also of the other two criminals bearing the same last name? Let's see, one of those was tied to the death of Silverado S&L and the other was flogging some bogoid cheap-shit software that purported to "help kids learn" but in reality got a toehold in the public school system at enormous cost to us taxpayers through the "No Child's Bankbook Left Behind" act?

Is Shrub the Elder totally senile or only half in the toilet? Because, Daddums, your upper story is Gone, Baby, Gone if you think the natives will put up with any more of your vile and corrupt descendants in close proximity to the Treasury. Shit, it's gonna take at least a decade to clean up the crap your last cumwad got us in to.

Geez, is this whole family fucking delusional, or what?

From the article:

"I'd like to see him run. I'd like to see him be president some day," Bush the elder said.

The 41st president admitted, however, that there have probably been too many Bushes in the White House lately.

No shit, Sherlock. One was already one too many. Take the rest of your evil spawn to Paraguay and rot quietly in the jungle somewhere, why don't you? Yeesh. The thought of Jeb, who looks like he just stepped off the set of Deliverance, anywhere near the white house is enough to make me puke. Isn't he already in his sixties? In eight years' time, hopefully, he'll suffer from the same senile dementia now affecting both of his revolting parents.

In the meantime? People, please, P L E E Z don't forget who this SpoogeCustard is, and what he's done to the state of Florida, and what his brother and father have done to the US. If you can find it in your heart to elect that worthless wad of hair'nfat, well, hey. It's SO over.

Stumble It!

2008 Elections: Women and Palin/McCain

Do you have a mother? A sister? A daughter? A lover or girlfriend or fiance of the female persuasion? Any female relative or friend that you care about?

Because if you do, you'll want to know the following about Sarah Palin and John McCain:



The idea that a rape victim should have to pay for forensic testing in uncovering a crime against public order is simply outrageous. Do we bill the estates of homicide victims for the forensic testing done? Do we bill victims of assault and battery or white collar crimes for the work done to uncover such crimes? We do not. What makes rape victims more appropriate targets for such revictimization?

Until Palin became the mayor of Wasilla, the Alaskan authorities paid for rape testing forensic kits. Only after she became mayor did the police begin charging victims.

Bonus fact: Sarah Palin charged the government the per diem cost they were required to pay her when she was traveling on the government's business — for staying home. That's called fraud, or theft, and if you pull that crap on your corporate employers, not only will they fire you but they will recover that money, whether by withholding from your wages or suing you as needed.

Her husband and children also charged for their travels — from their home in Wasilla to Juneau, where the governor worked. Total amount charged by family? Approximately $44,000.00. Add to that the approximately $17,000.00 charged by Palin, for a total of roughly $50,000.00.

For someone who earns a salary of $125K per year, owns five properties, and has a husband who makes a pretty decent wage himself, it seems Mrs. Palin could have kept her grubby hands out of the state's moneypots. It's not like she needed the money so badly, after all. Perhaps all those hair dye jobs and many pairs of rimless glasses (at $375 or more a pop) are burning a hole in her bank account.

And, after all, her per diem charges alone would have covered the cost of all the rape kits used during her stint as mayor.

No wonder McCain loves her. Neither one of them has a feminist molecule in their bodies.

Stumble It!

Human Rights: Children

La Casa de Los Gatos generally skirts children's issues because they're so upsetting. We do not believe reproduction is a right. It is, or ought to be, a privilege. Because if you do not want children with all your body, heart, and mind, you really shouldn't have them.

As we said recently, our Mummy's popped her clogs, which means we're free to state a few things that we couldn't risk saying while she was alive. For what it's worth, she had a terrible relationship with all her children, two of whom haven't spoken to her in decades. She had children because "that's what you do when you're married." Surely, condoms and birth control, even of a rudimentary sort, were available even back in the dark ages when she was born. She liked babies in the simpering way that some women affect. Babies, after all, are like flesh-and-blood dolls, to be dressed and cooed at. They're not ambulatory so you can dump them when they bore you. If you have enough money you can hire other people to deal with their screams and tears.

Of course, when you're getting paid to look after someone else's child, you are under no obligation (except a general, moral one) to treat it well. Basically, you can get away with pretty much anything, and no matter what people say only their own children are attractive, everyone else's children are a royal pain in the arse. So it comes as no surprise that people, whether biologically related to a child or not, often abuse children. They're a lot of work, kids. From the day they're born till the day they leave home, they require cleaning, feeding, amusing, managing. You have to plan their activities for them, take them to school or to the doctor or to camp or daycare. You have to make sure they're clean, fed, and healthy regardless of your own condition.

And they're yours for life. If your 50-year-old kid has to move home because they've lost their job and their home, well, what do you do? You take them in, of course. So, if you're not ready to devote a substantial part of your life to putting someone else first, for mercy's sake, get your reproductive bits snipped or removed. Because from the day your sprog is conceived to the day it dies, that sprog must come first. Sure, once it's an adult, you get part of your life back. But that takes at least two decades of love and dedication. It's a tremendous sacrifice.

The downside is, if you fuck up the job of raising your kids, you're not the only person affected. Your kid gets their hands on your gun collection and goes all Columbine on their high school; or grows up to be Ted Bundy or Jeffrey Dahmer, and countless other people and their families and the taxpayer as well gets stuck with the cost of your kid's mental and emotional health, or lack thereof.

Today's collection of stories for your edification about raising your kids right should suffice to make you sufficiently gloomy about the whole business. Maybe you'll even decide to send money to Planned Parenthood or NARAL or any of the fine organizations that deal with health issues for women. Yes, the consequences of reproduction can be pretty bad. It should be a privilege that you have to get licensed for, or work towards, or something. For your delectation:

• When your kid prefers prison to home or school, we gotta wonder what the hell kinda useless parents and teachers/administrators they had;
  
  
• How on earth do you justify locking your kid up and starving them to death without a drink of water?
  
  
• This is a big reason why children should not have children. Not that age improves things.
  
  
• Nixzmary Brown — the poster child for horrendous child abuse cases. Prosecutors are adding a charge to the long list her mother will face, in the hope that it will increase their chances of a conviction.
  
  
• Who the hell raised these creatures to believe you can force love with a gun?
  
  
• The parents of this princess should have been spayed
  
  
• Negligent parenting can have fatal consequences
  
  
• Your children are your responsibility and yours alone. You can't hand them off to your druggie sister or anyone else just because you need a break.

So, why are we raising this issue today? Because the Bushies have just launched a sneak attack on women's reproductive freedom — and men's as well. Pertinent snippet:

Last week, the Department of Health and Human Services proposed a new rule that would force hospitals and clinics to hire people who refuse to provide the full range of reproductive options to women, denying women important health care information and access to basic forms of contraception.

Bush's new rule would deny federal funding to health care institutions that refuse to follow the new rule, limiting health care access when more Americans are struggling with rising health care costs. Further, this rule could allow health care providers, driven by their own personal ideology, to deny emergency contraception to sexual assault victims.

By redefining abortion to include the most common and effective methods of birth control, including oral contraceptives and emergency contraception, the Bush Administration is attempting to deprive basic contraceptive services to women around the country.

Unwanted children are at a much greater risk of abuse. This increases if the mother has a difficult pregnancy or delivery, or if the child has physical or developmental disabilities. Additional risk factors include poverty, premature delivery, lack of societal support, mental health problems in either parent, domestic violence, a history of child abuse for either parent, and poor coping skills.

Given that middle-class and upper-class women tend to be (a) educated; (b) able to procure contraception or abortion; (c) not at risk of poverty, lack of societal support, or poor coping skills, it is not unreasonable to assume that the impact of Emperor Jor Jee's law will fall on the already burdened working class and lower-middle-class women. So, if you have a shred of human decency or feeling, consider the plight of all those unwanted children Emperor Jor Jee is about to create for his puppet masters; and consider the plight of the women who will have to bear the consequences of caring, or failing to care, for such children. And do something.

Stumble It!

A Good Sex Life

Sex is a very important part of an adult's life, don't you think? Intimacy, closeness, love, affection, warmth, appreciation, those things are all important too. But there's something about fucking someone else, preferably someone you love but in a pinch, anyone who wants to make like a bunny with you, that really gets the old happy juices (and other juices) flowing.

And if you've had the pleasure of getting it on with someone, maybe a partner, maybe a spouse, maybe just a Friend With Benefits, it's hard to accept that that part of your life may not exist any more. Or may be changed forever.

What about injured veterans? Raw Story carries an interesting article today about badly-injured veterans and their sex lives.

You (hell, all of us, except the vets) probably never thought about what injuries might do to a body's sex life. Because, let's face it, most of us go through life not expecting to get so severely injured that we can no longer get it on with our sweet patootie. Right? Who walks around thinking, "Hell, wonder what I'll do if I lose my leg/arm/half my face?" Nobody, that's who. Nobody in their right mind, anyway.

Of all the grievous harms that have come to the people who signed up thinking they would be defending their country, thanks to the lies of a small group of wealthy, powerful, manipulative motherfuckers, this has to be the worst. And you don't even have to lose an arm or a leg to be affected. You could be one of the 600,000 or so vets suffering from TBI (traumatic brain injury) or PTSD, and still find that your sex life might be fucked (so to speak) for a long time.

Psychological and neurological disorders can interfere with behaviors necessary for successful intimacy, such as experiencing and expressing emotion and understanding someone else's needs, the study noted. And anger and aggression, including domestic violence, have been associated with mental disorders.

According to the Veterans Affairs Department's National Center for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, sexual dysfunction tends to be higher in combat veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder than in those without.

How do we evaluate that kind of stress and pain and suffering and loss? All we can say is, if our sex life got put on hold for reasons not within our control, we'd be one crabby motherfucker, and wherever we lived, they'd better have some damn good gun control laws.


Meanwhile, in other news, that miserable draft-dodging "I had other priorities" POS chickenshit chickenhawk Dick "They call me Dick for a reason" Cheney had the gall to tell Coast Guard graduates today, about the war into which he and his millionaire buddies dragged us:

"The war on terror is a lengthy enterprise, but it does not have to go on forever [,..]".

[...]

"More than that, quitting would be an act of betrayal and dishonor. And it's not going to happen on our watch."

Do these fuckwits have even the first notion of shame?

Crossposted over at Out of Iraq Bloggers Caucus

Stumble It!

Politics: McNasty

Readers of this blog know quite well that we swear like a longshoreman. That's just us, people. We try not to do it too much in real life around children, old folks, and the religiously observant, but we is wot we is and we talks how we talks.

We draw the line at using profanity in anger at our nearest and dearest. We might mutter under our breath a "Holy quacking duckshit, wouldja leave me alone, awreddy" or "Jeez, do we have to go through this again?" but we never call our dear friends &mdash or even our exasperating and saints'-patience-trying cats nasty names.

So when we read this morning that John McNasty, current senile, doddering Republican nominee for President, once addressed his wife thus:

Three reporters from Arizona, on the condition of anonymity, also let me in on another incident involving McCain’s intemperateness. In his 1992 Senate bid, McCain was joined on the campaign trail by his wife, Cindy, as well as campaign aide Doug Cole and consultant Wes Gullett. At one point, Cindy playfully twirled McCain’s hair and said, “You’re getting a little thin up there.” McCain’s face reddened, and he responded, “At least I don’t plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you cunt.” McCain’s excuse was that it had been a long day. If elected president of the United States, McCain would have many long days.

&mdash we were shocked. WHAT? You talk to your wife like that? The woman whose money has paid for your political career for decades now? Even if you don't owe love and kindness and respect to your life-partner, you sure as hell owe them if you're living off their money!

Calling your wife a cunt in public in front of strangers and minions is pretty damned low in our book. Responsible adults who are furious at each other over inappropriate comments or public putdowns or even jokes that hurt, don't go all ballistic on each other and start calling each other names and making vicious remarks. Trollop? You call your wife a trollop?


Sheesh. If we tried that on our partner, we'd be nursing a very bald head right quick.

The combination of extreme age, vicious temper, and lack of self-control are not exactly inspiring us with confidence right now. This man is aspiring to be president? Haven't we already had close to eight years of a nasty bully holding that job? We need a cool-headed reflective individual who neither "misspeaks" nor lies nor reacts inappropriately.

The book in which that, and many similar, incidents are detailed is titled The Real McCain by Cliff Schecter. It arrives in bookstores next month. Cliff blogs over at The Agonist. He says he wrote the book because:

"The public certainly has to know what this guy might do as president," Schecter says. Examples like the ones in his book "should worry people, quite frankly."

There actually was a time back in 1990 when we liked John McCain. We lost a lot of respect for him when he failed to protect his adopted daughter, Bridget, from the nasty smears of Karl Rove. Incidentally, where the hell is Bridget these days? Meghan McCain is all up in teh news alla time, but Bridget is invisible. Wonder why.


We lost more respect for the man when he publicly embraced all those people who had walked jackbooted over him and his family. We can't wait to read Cliff Schecter's book. This election is a pivotal point for the country, and we need to know as much about each candidate as we possibly can.

Stumble It!

Crime: Nixzmary Brown Gets Justice?

Photo from Newsday

Cesar Rodriguez, the stepfather of Nixzmary Brown has been sentenced to 26 years in jail for his role in her death. Was justice done?

We blogged this case extensively when the trial began. Abdurrahman Mian, Nixzmary Brown's biological father, apparently abandoned the little girl to the tender mercies of her mother. In his defense, he probably had no idea that her mother and stepfather would kill her.

But — doesn't every man who has unprotected sex with a fertile woman have a responsibility to ensure that the resulting child, if any, be raised properly? He might not have been able to ensure that the child had an ideal upbringing, but he could at least have contributed financially to ensure that she was not starved and hungry and beaten to death.

Reproduction is the responsibility of those who engage in reproductive activities. In other words, if you're gonna play, you're gonna pay. If you don't want children, or don't want to have them with your current partner, have a vasectomy (it's reversible and your nutz won't turn green and fall off) or wear a condom AT ALL TIMES. Don't rely on your lover to use contraception. Regardless of whether your partner is a sex worker or a saint or if you love her forever, make sure you use protection. And if you don't, get ready to pay for the next eighteen or twenty years. Kids ain't cheap.

And there's no reason why the taxpayer should pay for your pecadilloes. And absolutely no reason why the kid, who never asked to be here in the first place, and wouldn't be if you hadn't been doing the horizontal samba with their other parent, should have to pay — especially when the cost is so steep.

From the article, a particularly heartbreaking quote:

At one point, the prosector also relayed a story. She said that Nixzmary's brother, Javier, when told of his stepfather's conviction, said, "I hope that he is frail and weak when he gets out of prison so that he can't hurt any other children."

Javier's biological father is taking custody of his child. He claims that he would have taken him from the start, but Javier's (and Nixzmary's) mother, Nixzaliz Santiago, who will be tried later this year for the killing of Nixzmary Brown, kept his son from him.

Regrettably, Abdurrahman Mian, Nixzmary's father, wants control of her "estate," which could be a sum of several million dollars, based on lawsuits filed against the city of New York for its failure to protect Nixzmary Brown from her mother and stepfather.

We believe Cesar Rodriguez should be jailed for life. Based on his current sentence, he will be young enough to be a danger to other children when released. Especially if he gets time off for good behaviour. Also, we believe that the kind of person who would beat a child to death is a danger to society, because they lack the normal internal inhibitions against disproportionate force against the helpless.

Most people who kill direct their aggression towards a single individual. This is why serial killers and mass murderers fascinate people — because they are so uncommon. (Although mass murderers are certainly becoming more common.)

And, despite the travails of raising children, most people do not abuse their children. Many people don't know how to parent their children. But only in recent times has childbearing been an option. And where women and their families have access to contraception and sex education, most children are wanted children, and their parents do their best to raise them with love and care.

Which is why stories like Nixzmary Brown's are so heartrending. How do we keep this sort of thing from happening? Society can never sufficiently police abusive parents.

Stumble It!

Crime: The Trial of Reginald Potts

As we might have mentioned before, the D.A. is seeking the death penalty for Reginald Potts for the murder of Nailah Franklin. So said the assistant state's attorney Maria McCarthy, in her appearance before the current judge assigned to try the case, Judge Thomas Gainer.

This case is likely to be politically sensitive and to remain in the public eye throughout the trial, for various reasons. The defendant, Reginald Michael Potts, Jr., has a nontrivial criminal record, mostly involving violence against women. Various women of his acquaintance have sought restraining orders against Mr. Potts, and he has violated several of them.

Mr. Potts is what is known as a "jailhouse lawyer," that is, a criminal offender who has a pretty good understanding of the justice system and knows how to work it, and is intelligent enough to manoeuvre the system to suit his needs.

Then there's the victim in the case. Nailah O. Franklin was an attractive, intelligent, ambitious, and successful middle-class woman. Although, as a rule, the media prefers stories of murdered white women, in Franklin's case an exception has, clearly, been made, leading us to believe that the interest in victims is slightly more inclined to be a matter of class than race, these days. Many, many pretty young black women go missing every day. As do many pretty young Latinas, and Asian women, and white women. Violence against women, and crimes against women, are pretty much par for the course in our world today.

Yet it's the Lacey Petersons (she was Latina) and Natalee Holloways who get all the attention. We're not necessarily complaining that Nailah Franklin's murder is attracting so much attention. We would like to see her murderer pay for his crimes. However, we hope you will spare a thought for the girls and women who do not have Ms. Franklin's undeniable advantages.

The prosecution is using the Felony Murder Rule to justify the death penalty &mdash because the murder was committed during the commission of another felony, the intent to kill or cause grievous bodily harm that is required for a finding of murder may be inferred from the intent to commit the associated felony.

We agree that Mr. Potts is a scumbag. He's a vile, mean, nasty little bully who apparently lied and cheated and weaseled his way into power over various women, and then used violence to intimidate them. But we're not sure that he deserves the death penalty. The state probably has a fairly clear-cut case and can meet its burden of proving that he committed the murder and other criminal acts associated therewith beyond a reasonable doubt. And he probably should be sequestered away from potential innocent victims until he can be rehabilitated. But does he deserve to die? To be killed? To lose his life?

What do you think?

This is one post in an ongoing series of coverage of this crime.

To find all posts about Nailah Franklin, type "Nailah Franklin" in the box at the top left corner of this page and hit RETURN. To find all posts about Reginald Potts, type "Reginald Potts" and do not include his middle initial or honorifics. Thanks.

Stumble It!

Crime: The Trial of Reginald Potts

To anyone who is visiting to find out what is going on with the trial of Reginald Potts in the matter of the murder of Nailah O. Franklin: the case has been postponed yet again, and we do not know for how long. As soon as we know more we will update this site.

Rest assured that we are keeping an eye on things. In the meantime, you can find information about Nailah Franklin and Reginald Potts by typing their names into the Search box at the top left corner of this page. Do not use quotes or honorifics such as Miss, Ms. or Mr.

Thank you.

Stumble It!

LGBTQ: The Murder of Lawrence King

Lawrence King

Time magazine ran a piece this week about the murder of gay teenager Lawrence King of Oxnard, California that deserves an award of some sort. Possibly for being the most duplicitous piece of shit ever written on LGBTQ issues.

Police have charged a sweet-faced boy called Brandon McInerney, 14, with first-degree murder and with a hate crime [....]

says the writer, one John Cloud.

We here at La Casa de Los Gatos cannot question Mr. McCloud's bona fides because we don't really know a lot about him. We can, however, question that statement, and many others that Mr. Cloud makes throughout the article. What's McInerney's "sweet" face got to do with anything? Does it make the dead boy any less dead? Would Mr. Cloud prefer a "sweet-faced" killer to a regular-looking, or even, by gum, an ugly lad?

That "sweet-faced" fourteen-year old somehow managed to get his hands on a gun, took it to school, walked up to Lawrence King, and shot him in the head, killing him. All because he didn't like the fact that Lawrence King wore makeup, or girls' clothes, or boots, or some combination of the bleeding lot. Not a very "sweet" thing to do, is it? An execution-style shooting? It is, in fact, no doubt to Mr. Cloud's great surprise, murder. Premeditated, cold-blooded, malice aforethought murder.

This is the kind of killing that is most dangerous and unacceptable in a civilized society. Society accepts that people are not always in control of their feelings. Sometimes, their emotions overcome their good sense and reason, and they strike out, killing someone. Killing your spouse or partner, and even your children, often falls into this category of murder, and courts, judges, and juries are reluctant to punish spouses, parents, partners, or kin who act in the heat of passion.

McInerney did not act in the heat of passion. He had plenty of time to cool off before committing murder. And the dead boy had done nothing to incite the murder. Society tends to punish murder less harshly when the victim provokes the murderer. Had Lawrence King beaten up Brandon McInerney or raped McInerney's sister, or even shit on McInerney's lawn, the law would probably cut him a little slack.

But &mdash once again, we repeat &mdash without any provocation, and in a cold, calculating, manner, Brandon McInerney, together with a group of his friends, attacked Lawrence King because Lawrence dressed and acted in a manner that made McInerney and his little friends "uncomfortable." According to King's classmates, King had revealed (to whom?) that he had a crush on McInerney, shortly before McInerney murdered him.

And please don't tell us that the "uncomfortable" Brandon McInerney gets a free pass because of the "gay panic" defense. Because if that's the case, every single girl and woman who kills the next stupid motherfucker who makes her "uncomfortable" should get a free pass too. And that's gonna be a lot of girls and women.

Mr. Cloud states, in part, in his article:

[...] the task force is exaggerating the frequency of assaults on gay kids, the vast majority of whom make it through school safe and happy.

We have to wonder to which gay kids Mr. Cloud is referring. Only those who did not come out had a chance to make it through school safe and happy. We distinctly remember the savage attacks against those who failed to hide their differentness. Even those het kids who happened to "look gay" were targeted &mdash hell, het adults who, in the teeny warped and twisted minds of homophobes, appear insufficiently het are often targeted for violence verbal and physical. Mr. Cloud must be living in a parallel universe.

Mr. Cloud blithely goes on to assert:

[...] fully 78% of gay and transgender kids say they feel safe at school, according to a 2005 GLSEN report.

Let's see, does that mean that 22% of gay and transgender kids do not feel safe at school? Doesn't that work out to one out of every five LGBTQ kids feeling unsafe in an environment where they spend the better part of each day?

Mr. Cloud then adds to the asininity of his remarks:

According to another GLSEN survey released in 2006, only 18% of gay and transgender students said they had been assaulted in 2005 because of their sexual orientation

That's still nearly one out of every five LGBTQ kids getting their ass kicked by their homophobic little classmates, Mr. Cloud. We're guessing you were never the recipient of one of those asskickings, because we can assure you that one feels very differently about these things depending on whether one is the kicker, the kickee, or some random purportedly innocent bystander.

Mr. Cloud then opens his mouth again, swiftly changing feet:

True, 66% of gay and transgender kids said they had heard homophobic remarks. But roughly the same proportion — 62% — had heard sexist remarks.

So what are you saying, Mr. Cloud, that makes it OK? If not, why even bother mentioning it? Homophobia and misogyny are rife in our society, Mr. Cloud. Homophobia, in fact, owes a lot to misogyny. Gay men are targeted for being too much like women. Just look at the epithets thrown at them: sissy, pussy, girlie-man (courtesy of Ahnold "nonuts left 'cos I took steroids" Teh Terminator).

And lesbians are targeted for being insufficiently wussy, pussy, and sissy.

Relishing the peppermint flavour of his soles, Mr. Cloud quickly repeats the foot-changing feat:

Some 16% of gay and transgender kids said they had been harassed because of their sexual orientation, but 18% said they had been harassed because of "the way you look or your body size." (Teachers reported they heard sexist comments more often than homophobic ones, and they also saw more harassment based on appearance and weight than on sexual orientation.)

Mr. Cloud, you appear to be ignoring the fact that Lawrence King was being harrassed based on his appearance. The harrassment occurred because King was wearing "cute" boots and makeup. We would also like to point out to Mr. (Hedina) Cloud that the number of people who get killed for being overweight or unfashionably dressed is, to our knowledge, vanishingly small. However, violence against people of colour, women, and LGBTQ people is endemic.

But if you can control yourself long enough to complete reading the article, it becomes clear what Mr. Cloud is saying: he doesn't approve of hate-crime legislation because it "criminaliz[es] people's thoughts."

Pardon us while we call bullshit, Mr. Cloud. Hate-crime legislation does not address the thoughts of the person committing the crime, but their actions. By targeting an individual for murder because of their gender, sexuality, skin-color, race, ethnic group, language, you are not just murdering an individual; you are sending a message to every other individual who shares that common trait with your target that they, too, are in danger from lunatics like yourself. That is what hate-crime legislation is intended to fight, Mr. Cloud. Not the suppositions that you are pulling out of your rear end. Why are idiots like this paid good money to write for our media? And why is Time publishing such scurrilous opinion pieces and attempting to pass them off as journalism?

If you have the patience to read to the end of the cited article, you will find this disclaimer:

The original version of this story has been amended. It now makes clear that the conclusions of the two cited GLSEN reports are at variance with the writer's own conclusions from studying the same statistics. Also, the story originally described the second GLSEN report as "released the same year," that is, in 2005, but GLSEN says it was released in 2006. Lastly, the story originally reported that 22% of gay and transgender students who claimed that they had been assaulted because of their sexual orientation said the incident wasn't serious enough to report; the actual figure is 13%.

Another one of those things that makes us go Hmmm.

"Sweet-faced" Brandon McInerney

Frankly, the kid looks like a bully and a psychopath to us, but we're prejudiced. According to Pensito Review:

Brandon McInerney’s father has a police record that includes several run-ins with the law, including disturbing the peace, drunk driving and one count of domestic abuse.

Monkey see, monkey do. Ladies, if you're in a relationship with an abusive man, for the love of your children, dump the motherfucker but quick. Because if you don't, your kids are going to learn from his behaviours and, assuming he hasn't already killed you, you may be the sad mother who waits fifty years for her son to serve his term for a crime that has its roots in his father's sins.

A memorial was held for Lawrence King on Friday, February 23rd, at the Westminster Presbyterian Church in Port Hueneme. Some 500 people attended. The L.A.Times is reporting that a march was held on Saturday, February 24th, and approximately 1,000 people attended that event.

A site has been created to memorialize Lawrence King. You can find information about other memorial events there.

La Casa de Los Gatos would like to take this opportunity to register our disgust at this murder, and at the disingenuous Cloud-like characters who profit off their puffery about such incidents.

Stumble It!

Crime: Mark Dixie Gets Life in Prison

This depraved wretch is Mark Dixie. He has repeatedly been convicted of sexual assault and harrassment of women in two continents at least, that police know of.

Most recently, he stabbed a teenager to death and then had sex with her corpse, or soon-to-be corpse as she lay in a pool of her own blood. This wretch is only 35 years old.

Today, a court sentenced this recidivist piece of walking waste to life in prison.

La Casa de Los Gatos, having blogged some truly horrific stories over the past week, was not interested in diving back into the sewers of human depravity. However, we have been reflecting on an ugly and disturbing trend of violence against the female of the species, of late. We refer you to the case of Alexis Goggins, a child who was shot by her mother's ex-boyfriend. Nailah Franklin, whose only crime was to be an attractive woman who briefly dated, and was murdered by, a jerk with a history of domestic violence. Hope Steffey, whose only crime appears to have been calling the police for assistance after an assault. Angela Gabarino, arrested for driving drunk, videotaped in reasonably good condition shortly after her arrest, then taken to a hospital with horrific injuries that the police claimed occurred when she "fell."

All of these cases are horrific in their own way. However, we want to point out our support of the death penalty in some cases, and not others, and Mark Dixie is a perfect illustration for our argument.

There are many people in the world who are sick, or twisted, or deeply damaged in one way or another. And many of these people hurt, maim, or kill other people. Sometimes they hurt other people because they, like Calvin Tillie who shot little Alexis Goggins, are very flawed and damaged human beings. Sometimes, like ex-police officer Wiley Willis of Shreveport, LA, or the police officers who stripped a screaming distraught Hope Steffey of Stark County, OH, or Reginald Potts of Chicago, Ill. who is on trial for the murder of Nailah Franklin, they are bullies who are used to getting their own way and lack any empathy with others. If they cannot bully their victims into compliance, they kill them.

And then there is Mark Dixie.

For the record, we don't have a whole lot of compassion or understanding for any of the other criminals mentioned above. We feel they all deserve some sort of punishment. However, they are not beyond redemption and rehabilitation.

Mark Dixie, however, is in a different class. Here, in the words of Auntie Beeb:

Police said Dixie enjoyed hearing details of his crimes being re-told in court by his victims.

Det Supt Stuart Cundy said: "Dixie has made his victims re-live horrific ordeals. He made Sally Anne's family sit through horrific evidence."

[...]

It was only after British police made inquiries following Dixie's arrest during a minor scuffle in a pub in Surrey that his DNA was matched to an unsolved attempted murder and rape of a student in Perth.

This man is a repeat sex offender who has attacked many many women and has yet to pay the price for a single one of his crimes. He has exhibited no remorse whatsoever. Worst of all, he seems to have enjoyed the suffering of his many victims. It is the element of enjoyment that causes us to espouse the death penalty for people such as Mr. Dixie.

How any human being can be so lacking in the basic human qualities as to enjoy the suffering of another living creature is beyond us. That is not something that can be fixed with drugs or therapy or anything else. This man is lacking in a quality so basic that he can never be repaired or made whole again. And as long as he lives, he is a danger to all other living creatures, because the source of his enjoyment is another creature's suffering. Because we do not relish any other creature's suffering, we would prefer that he be put out of his misery immediately and by painless means. Barring that, we sincerely hope that until he draws his last breath he is never again in a position to cause pain and suffering to a single other creature, not man or beast.

Stumble It!

Domestic Violence: What Else Is War Good For?

The accused, Kirk Coleman

This is why we should not be sending the young of our nation off to fight meaningless and unneeded wars to prop up the egos of some pathetic old men and the financial fortunes of their friends. This is why we need to make sure that if we send our children or siblings or neighbours or friends to get fucked up in the head, we need to ensure that they have mental health services for as long as they need them.

Deity alone knows what he did to that poor child. The article says that, among her injuries:

The girl sustained brain damage and 17 broken bones and is undergoing therapy. [...].

Coleman allegedly told investigators he blacked out after drinking heavily and taking pain killers and awoke to find the injured baby in her crib, The Jackson Citizen Patriot reported.

Prosecutors and Blackman Township investigators allege Coleman, 27, assaulted the baby on several occasions in September while his wife, Ashley Rogers, was away from their apartment. So this was not a one-time incident. He's been bound over for trial.

On whose authority was this man released to his wife and family? Didn't his superiors &mdash didn't the Army &mdash notice that there was something grievously wrong with him? Did he do something similar in Iraq, perhaps?

This is the end of his life, which is sad enough. Because he will be proved to be a sex offender, regardless of whether he is convicted of this particular crime. Sadder still, it is the end of the life of a three-month-old girl, who suffered bleeding on the brain because her own father assaulted her. Her mental capacity will always be affected. Who knows what these assaults have done to her emotional development. That her physical well-being is no more is a given.

What about her mother? This child was probably conceived when this couple had a reasonably happy relationship and a life to look forward to as partners and co-parents. Can this woman ever trust a man around her damaged child again? Can she ever find a relationship again? She is going to be saddled with the care and feeding of a brain-damaged child for the rest of the child's natural life.

If you have never had to look after a disabled person, you can be forgiven, possibly, for thinking that it's not such a big deal. But we can tell you, it is a big deal. A very big deal. For 24 hours a day, seven days a week, as long as this girl lives &mdash which may or may not be a normal lifespan of sixty to eighty years more &mdash someone will probably have to feed her, change her, turn her over in bed every X hours so she doesn't develop bedsores, clean her, bathe her, amuse and entertain her, and take her everywhere she needs to go.

Depending on the extent of her brain damage, she may never be able to fend for herself. Thus she may be a burden not just to her mother, but to her mother's family, and her community and ultimately society at large. She may be unable to speak, or read and write, or possibly even to swallow without assistance. MichiganLive notes that the baby's mother, according to testimony

[...] admitted she was depressed and drank alcohol excessively after the baby was born June 11.

The couple, who met in North Carolina where Coleman was stationed at Fort Bragg, married two weeks after the birth. She filed divorce papers in late September.

The now 8-month-old girl lives with Rogers' mother, a North Carolina resident who moved here temporarily. Rogers (the child's mother) is allowed court-ordered visits, and is working toward eventually moving back to North Carolina with her mother and child.

This is what we are laying up for ourselves as a society. We are bringing home our children from the charnel-house and letting them loose upon ourselves and our other children, and they will be worse than wild beasts to them.

Stumble It!

Children: Parental Abuse

Nixzmary Brown photo from The Gothamist

If you live in or around New York, you've probably heard the story of Nixzmary Brown, whose parents are currently on trial for her murder. Well, her mother and stepfather, to be more accurate.

If you're a sensitive soul, please don't read any further. Nixzmary's story is the best argument in the world for mandatory reversible sterilization of people under the age of 30.

Nixzmary Brown was seven years old when she died. She weighed 36lb at her death. According to an article in the New York Times (login required), that is the average weight of a child half Nixzmary's age. She lived with her mother, Nixzaliz Santiago, her mother's current partner, her stepfather Cesar Rodriguez, and her five siblings in an apartment in Bedford-Stuyvesant. She was beaten, starved, tied up in a room by herself, forced to use a litterbox as a toilet.

Finally, on or around 10 or 11 January 2006, she took a container of pudding which her stepfather said she had no right to take. So he hit her in the head, causing a blood clot on her brain. He then stripped her naked, held her head under a running cold water faucet (in midwinter!). Then he dragged the wet, injured child to her lockup and threw her violently on the floor as she moaned in pain.

We are sympathetic to the plight of people with young children. We understand quite well that children can be really really annoying when a parent is tired, overworked, poor, stressed out. We understand that there are times when a parent contemplates violence towards their own child (and any parent who says they never have is lying through their teeth or rich enough to afford a nanny and doesn't spend enough time with the kid to get annoyed).

But we have no sympathy for the man who beat this child to death. And no sympathy for her mother who stood by and watched and did not try to protect her child.

And here's why we favour mandatory reversible sterilization for women and men under the age of 30: The mother and stepfather of this child are both 27 years old. They had six children under the age of 10 years; and the mother had been recently pregnant (again??!!) and suffered a miscarriage for which she blamed her now-dead daughter.

It's difficult enough for two adults to deal with a single child. When they outnumber you, the chances of a stressed-out parent losing control increase with each additional child. Add to the mix a lack of education, poverty, ignorance, the worst aspects of religion, a history of domestic violence and abuse in both parents' background, lack of a family or community support network, and the fact that some of the children are not biologically related to the father, and you have nothing short of a toxic stew.

Add to that a mother recently pregnant who has suffered a miscarriage, and whose body is flooded with the hormones that can make a woman crazy. And throw in the loss of the sole breadwinner's job:

[...] three days before Christmas, Mr. Rodriguez said, he was fired from his job as a security guard and could not buy the children presents. Broke, and with bills piling up, he would stay home with the children.

"I just felt like everything was closing in," he said.

Detective Joseph Bello, assigned to the case, describes the child's body:

"She was severely bruised, a purple tint covered almost her whole body."

The Gothamist goes on to describe her:

Her half-opened eyes were blackened." Her body also had "ugly cuts."

Note: Although one article claims Santiago and Rodriguez each had two children from a previous marriage, another claims that Ms. Santiago had four children by four different men. Which would make Mr. Rodriguez the father of only two of her children, the 18-month old and the 6-month-old boys. Although many alarm bells preceded Nixzmary Brown's death, few of them could be answered by a city overwhelmed by budget cuts, shortages of trained staff, overburdened caseworkers, and many victims needing help.

After their first visit, caseworkers decided that Ms. Santiago was overwhelmed by her six children. They believed they had persuaded her to return Nixzmary to school and closed the case[,...].

And where is the girl's biological father in all this? According to the Times, Nixzmary Brown's father is a Pakistani-American who gives his name as Mian. The mother, Nixzaliz Santiago, apparently does not know Mian's last name. According to the Village Voice, Nixzmary's biological father is one Abdurrahman Mian.

Last month, Mian, who had not seen Nixzmary when she was alive, stepped forward to announce that he will seek control of the little girl's estate, which could be worth millions of dollars thanks to lawsuits charging the city of New York with negligence. Revelations in the case prompted Mayor Mike Bloomberg to shake up the city's Administration for Children's Services.

My god, this is disgusting. What a vulture.

Carlos Batista, the father of Javier [last name unknown], Nixzaliz Santiago's 9-year-old son and Nixzmary Brown's older brother, has come forward to demand custody of his son and compensation from the agency charged with protecting the child and his siblings (the ACS, or Administration for Children's Services). Batista, who, like Nixzaliz Santiago, is a native of Puerto Rico, is a firefighter and says he is capable of giving his son a good home. He attributes his failure to stay in touch with his son over the past years to Ms. Santiago's attempts to keep him from his child.

Meanwhile the man who helped raise Nixzmary Brown and gave her his last name spoke to reporters yesterday. Edward Brown, who is the father of two of Nixzaliz Santiago's children, is seeking custody of his children. He, like many others who have heard or read this story, would like to kill Cesar Rodriguez. Unfortunately, killing Rodriguez will have no effect whatsoever on the next Nixzmary.

Note: Nixzaliz Santiago and Cesar Rodriguez are not being charged with first-degree murder in Nixzmary's death because

[...] the prosecution would have to prove both torture and that the defendants were enjoying the torture -- a nearly impossible legal standard that [the Brooklyn Assistant D.A.] believes should be changed.

If you can bear to look at it, some of the evidence presented in the trial of Cesar Rodriguez is available here. Nixzaliz Santiago, Nixzmary's mother, has a trial scheduled later this year.

Stumble It!

Overpopulation, Reproduction, And The Preponderance of Stupid

This is why it's a really really bad idea not to use birth control.

We here at La Casa de Los Gatos are convinced that the only way to save women from the fate of Amelia Sookdeo, whose boyfriend set her on fire when she said she was pregnant with his child, is to give them access to birth control, information, education, jobs, and plenty of reason to establish their independence. Hopefully this will curtail their desire to breed thoughtlessly, a desire that is killing our planet.

We can understand people wanting to have a child. We can even understand people wanting to have two children. But when, like Tom Lantos' two daughters, you have 8-9 children each, you have, as The Old Man says, fucked yourself out of the right to sit at the dinner table.

And when you don't give young women access to birth control and information to teach them why they need to use it judiciously, you have a Nixzmary Brown case.

And when you don't teach young girls and women that their value is not primarily derived from their reproductive capacity, you have an Amelia Sookdeo.

The most horrible thing about this is, she wasn't pregnant. She lied to her boyfriend and convinced him that she was. So he set her on fire and burned her to death. He's on trial for his life now, the schmuck. She was only seventeen years old.

Girls? Telling your boyfriend that you think you're pregnant and he's the daddy is not always the best option. If you're seventeen, you can't afford to have a baby. Especially if the babydaddy decides he wants no part of it. You can't work a fulltime job (which you'll need to do because at that age, your skills will only get you low-paid work) and raise a child. Why? Because the cost of childcare will eat up your entire salary.

You can't count on anyone else to raise your child for you. You have no idea whether your parents (however willing they may be) have the physical and mental capacity to raise a young child. Besides, they already served their time raising you. Why the hell should you expect them to provide free childcare to your kid? You have no idea whether the babydaddy will want to pay one penny towards child support. And if he doesn't, he might want to kill you rather than have his wages garnisheed for the next 18 years.

You have no idea whether your childcare provider, if you can find and afford one, is a child sexual predator or has a child sexual predator sharing their home.

And finally, you can't afford to give your kid a decent environment - reasonably affordable yet safe housing, nutritious meals, decent clothes, good schools - hell, these days you can't even gamble on the air, water, food, and baby products you use.

So if you can't keep your legs together (and realistically, who wants to?) be sure to use birth control. Use two or three methods. Go for redundancy. Be extra careful.

And finally, be sure the guy is NOT a psycho before you commit to him. No matter how "in luv" you are, you'll get over it if you need to.

Stumble It!

Update: Alexis Goggins, Hero

The Detroit News is reporting that some $30K was donated to help little Alexis Goggins, who was shot while defending her mother.

That's encouraging. We could wish it had been more, but Alexis is undoubtedly grateful that so many kind people opened up their hearts and wallets for and to her. Alexis continues to receive medical care at Children's Hospital, where she has been since she was shot. She is expected to have a lengthy stay there. So far, she's had five surgeries.

One thing that bothers us, here at Casa de Los Gatos: most of the money will be used to reimburse the hospital for her medical care, not for Alexis herself. This is when we wish most fervently that we had UniversalMedicalCare, which would be free to Alexis. After all, the child is guilty of nothing but bravery, love, and heroism. Qualities we, as a society, would do well to inculcate in all our children.

Another thing, relating to these quotes from the article:

Wayne County Probate Judge Freddie G. Burton Jr. on Tuesday ordered the creation of the Alexis Goggins Hero Fund, a special needs trust account for the girl.

If anything happens to Alexis, money donated to the fund will go to charity, not the girl's parents as proposed by a lawyer for the girl's mother, Burton ruled.

There seems to be an undue emphasis on how the court and lawyers are working to ensure that the parents not receive a penny from the trust fund. While we do not think parents should profit from their children's deaths, the degree of emphasis placed on this issue suggests something else at work.

We noted it when the story was first reported in the media. Many people who commented on the story were more interested in blaming Alexis' mother, Selietha Parker, for her poor choice of partner (it was the mother's ex-boyfriend who shot the little girl), for her single status, for her single motherhood, for her weight, and for her failure to be killed instead of having her child injured.

The overall tone was that she was a fat, black, single mother who was poor due to her own bad choices and she should have protected her little girl, even dying if necessary, rather than allowing her child to come to harm, which only showed what a useless, fat, lazy, slut of a single mother she was.

All of which detracted from the facts of the story: Alexis is a child with many impairments, but her heart, her courage, and her love are unimpaired. She threw herself in the gunman's way. Her mother may be a saint or she may be a whore, but that is beside the point. We really do not know what Ms. Parker's story is. But we are sick and tired of hearing women blamed for the violence of men. Of hearing single mothers blamed for their singlehood. Of hearing the subtext, whenever a black woman is spoken of, that she is somehow an irresponsible lazy welfare slut if she happens to have a child and be single. After all, Dick Cheney's daughter is a single mother - horrors! she's a LESBIAN single mother - and we don't hear anyone getting their knickers in a knot about THAT.

We find the tone of the commenters, the lawyers, and the court unpalatable. We are left with the distinct sense that they are all more interested in blaming the child's mother than recognizing that this little child possessed more courage in her tiny body than most adults. Certainly more than the bunch of lying crooks, cowards, and shills who, never having served in the line of fire, continue to throw other people's children into the meatgrinder called the Iraq War.

So lay off Ms. Parker already. We get the message. She's not getting a penny of the money. Do you really think it would make her happy to get $30 million if she had to lose her daughter to get that money?


If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die?

Stumble It!