7-year-old Lydia Schottz was tortured and beaten for at least 7 hours until she died. Her 11-year-old sister was severely wounded during the same period.
Who perpetrated this horrific crime? Her parents. Why? The parents are fundamentalist Christians who had read a book by a couple named Pearl, To Train Up a Child. The Pearls assert that if it wasn't good to beat our children with, among other options, 1/4 inch plumbing pipe, their god wouldn't have told us to do so in the Bible.
Fortunately for the Schottz's surviving children, their parents have been sentenced to long prison terms. Sadly for the children, they are now in foster care. Hopefully, they will have the opportunity to grow into decent adults, regardless of the terrible moral standards their parents have taught them.
The Pearls, meanwhile, have been "looking into it," to make sure they receive no blame for little Lydia's death at the hands of her parents.
The Pearls instruct parents to remain calm while beating their children with the plumbing pipe, reinforcing the reasons for their punishment in calm voices. Imagine little Lydia, taking the 7-hour torture session administered by her parents with calm voices and demeanors. Imagine being beaten to death for SEVEN HOURS while being very calmly told that it is for your own good, that you have been naughty, and that you will be happier if you submit and accept the punishment.
What god who thinks this is a good thing is worthy of worship? Wake up, Christians! Your god is an evil, murderous, asshole!
When people ask me in the future how I stop myself from raping, pillaging, and murdering without the guidance of the Bible and submission to their barbaric god, I am going to reply that raping, pillaging, and murdering are their god's methods, not mine, and that they need to re-read their Bible. And then throw it away and practice compassion, kindness, and concern instead.
Sad fact: Based on their magic book, the Schottzes likely believe that all they have to do to get to heaven after they tortured and murdered their own child is to ask their invisible and impotent sky-fairy to forgive them. Justice would at least require that they ask their dead daughter's forgiveness somehow. And try to make it up to their surviving abused children somehow. It's so hard to tell the difference between the four gods of Christianity - father/son/holy spirit and satan. Their MO's are so similar.
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Monday, August 8, 2011
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Chiropractors Still Claiming Cures
This just in - Not even 9:00 am yet here in NM, but I just received a phone call from a chiropractic marketing group. The area code is 917, so the call originated in/near NYC.
Her: Would you have time for a chiropractic check up at a local office?
Me: I have a terrific physician, so, no, I don't think I would make time for that.
Her: Have you ever gone to a chiropractor?
Me: Yes, when I was pregnant, I saw a chiropractor for lower back pain, but I can't say it helped much, and she tried to convince me not to vaccinate my kids, so I quit going.
Her: Well, chiropractic has lots of other benefits. Like it can help with sinus and allergy issues.
Me: Mmmm hmmm. I think not. And I don't think you are supposed to say things like that. Shouldn't you first tell me that your claim has not been evaluated by the FDA and chiropractic is not intended to diagnose, treat, or cure any disease? [The Quack Miranda Warning]
Her: *crickets* *hang up*
Her: Would you have time for a chiropractic check up at a local office?
Me: I have a terrific physician, so, no, I don't think I would make time for that.
Her: Have you ever gone to a chiropractor?
Me: Yes, when I was pregnant, I saw a chiropractor for lower back pain, but I can't say it helped much, and she tried to convince me not to vaccinate my kids, so I quit going.
Her: Well, chiropractic has lots of other benefits. Like it can help with sinus and allergy issues.
Me: Mmmm hmmm. I think not. And I don't think you are supposed to say things like that. Shouldn't you first tell me that your claim has not been evaluated by the FDA and chiropractic is not intended to diagnose, treat, or cure any disease? [The Quack Miranda Warning]
Her: *crickets* *hang up*
Friday, July 29, 2011
Richard Wiseman Reads My Mind!
I recently purchased Richard Wiseman's book Paranormality: Why we see what isn't there. Dr. Wiseman was fantastic and funny and educationally entertaining at the TAM9 in Vegas a couple of weeks ago, and I wanted to read his latest.
I started reading yesterday evening, and got only 3% into the book (darned Kindle! Give me page numbers!) before discovering that Dr. Wiseman has obviously read my mind with his paranormal skills. Even more magically, he was able to PREDICT what I would have in my mind this very morning, while writing the book, a year or more ago!
Almost immediately before I started reading, I had done a search to see if wet weather really affects my knee pain like I *think* it does. Each answer I saw gave various reasons why it really does make my pain worse: pressure within the knee joint, etc.
Then I began reading. Dr. Wiseman, very early in the book, cites a study on whether or not weather affects arthritis pain!
"WHAT?" I said, "Get out of my head, Richard Wiseman!"
"I can't," he replied [in my dreams], "It's my JOB!"
At any rate, the study showed that people fool themselves into thinking the weather affects their joint pain because we are good at noticing data that verify our prior beliefs, i.e. noticing our joint pain more when it's rainy because we expect the pain to be more noticible, while discounting or ignoring it when the data don't fit our preconception, i.e. all the days the pain was worse, but there was no rain.
Thank you Dr. Wiseman! If anyone reads this, I highly recommend his blog and his book. He gives a great presentation/talk as well, if anyone has the opportunity to see him in person!
I started reading yesterday evening, and got only 3% into the book (darned Kindle! Give me page numbers!) before discovering that Dr. Wiseman has obviously read my mind with his paranormal skills. Even more magically, he was able to PREDICT what I would have in my mind this very morning, while writing the book, a year or more ago!
Almost immediately before I started reading, I had done a search to see if wet weather really affects my knee pain like I *think* it does. Each answer I saw gave various reasons why it really does make my pain worse: pressure within the knee joint, etc.
Then I began reading. Dr. Wiseman, very early in the book, cites a study on whether or not weather affects arthritis pain!
"WHAT?" I said, "Get out of my head, Richard Wiseman!"
"I can't," he replied [in my dreams], "It's my JOB!"
At any rate, the study showed that people fool themselves into thinking the weather affects their joint pain because we are good at noticing data that verify our prior beliefs, i.e. noticing our joint pain more when it's rainy because we expect the pain to be more noticible, while discounting or ignoring it when the data don't fit our preconception, i.e. all the days the pain was worse, but there was no rain.
Thank you Dr. Wiseman! If anyone reads this, I highly recommend his blog and his book. He gives a great presentation/talk as well, if anyone has the opportunity to see him in person!
Friday, July 22, 2011
A Prostitute Is A Prostitute Is A Prostitute
Recently, a court judge was arrested for rape here. Nigel and I were watching the news and saw the first story in regard to this arrest on July 19. I said to Nigel at the time that it was interesting in a bad way that KOB's anchorman, Tom Joles, in describing the alleged victim of the rape, used "prostitute" four times in two minutes. How many times did he say "alleged victim," "woman," or any other word to describe her? ZERO.
I wrote an e-mail to the news station complaining about this. Haven't heard back.
Today, I searched their website for stories and found several. I watched the videos and read the reports and found that there is some slight improvement in later reports. The reports use the word "woman" four times, and in a video, the judge assigned to the case actually used "victim." So, five in total. However, the alleged victim was called "the prostitute" (one time, they used "escort") twelve times in the same videos/reports!
Let's say that a woman in any other profession besides sex work reported a rape. Would the stories use "the McDonald's employee," "the tax attorney," "the super-model," or similar descriptions to describe the alleged victim? I think not. If those terms were used, they would probably not have been used exclusively.
This feeds into the widely held perception that sex workers cannot be raped, because their choice (or not) of profession implies permanent consent to sex acts. It muddies the waters for the prosecution, whose job will be made more difficult by the use of this inflammatory language to describe the alleged victim.
Some choice quotes from the videos:
How many injuries other than the rape itself do there need to be for her NOT to be "fine?"
I hope KOB News got a nice check from the defendant's attorneys for services rendered.
I wrote an e-mail to the news station complaining about this. Haven't heard back.
Today, I searched their website for stories and found several. I watched the videos and read the reports and found that there is some slight improvement in later reports. The reports use the word "woman" four times, and in a video, the judge assigned to the case actually used "victim." So, five in total. However, the alleged victim was called "the prostitute" (one time, they used "escort") twelve times in the same videos/reports!
Let's say that a woman in any other profession besides sex work reported a rape. Would the stories use "the McDonald's employee," "the tax attorney," "the super-model," or similar descriptions to describe the alleged victim? I think not. If those terms were used, they would probably not have been used exclusively.
This feeds into the widely held perception that sex workers cannot be raped, because their choice (or not) of profession implies permanent consent to sex acts. It muddies the waters for the prosecution, whose job will be made more difficult by the use of this inflammatory language to describe the alleged victim.
Some choice quotes from the videos:
"She is fine. There's no other injuries..."(speaking of the alleged victim)
How many injuries other than the rape itself do there need to be for her NOT to be "fine?"
"She's accused of taping one of those incidents."According to the stories, she had already been forced once to perform oral sex on the defendant, after having said no. Would it be prudent for her to tape future encounters in order to have evidence of rape if it happened again? Would it be prudent for a member of an already suspect profession to make sure her allegations would be believed if it happened again? Probably yes.
"We believe our client is a victim in this case."Wait, what? I suppose it is an attorney's job to say things like that. And I'm sure it will be much easier to portray the defendant as a victim since the news has ensured that the alleged victim is seen as nothing more than a "prostitute" and therefore is not allowed to say no.
I hope KOB News got a nice check from the defendant's attorneys for services rendered.
Friday, May 6, 2011
My Decision Has Been Made, and It Is Final
I did not watch the royal nuptials a week ago today. However, I did watch several of the "Royal Wedding in 2 minutes" videos. Since then, I have been struck with love for this hat! Nigel hates it. My mother hates it. The Princess hates it. I am going on record forever to say that I LOVE THIS HAT! I LOVE IT! THIS HAT IS ABSOLUTELY THE MOST WONDERFUL HAT EVAR! Thank you, Princess Beatrice of York, for wearing this fantastic hat! I love you! That is all. Have a great weekend. Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there, especially my own! Thanks for shoving me out all those years ago! And to my kids, a gift idea. For Mother's Day, no breakfast in bed, please. Just THIS HAT!
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Helpful Hint for the Superstitious
If you want to do it right, like Texas Gov. Rick Perry did when he scheduled a "Pray for Rain" day on April 29th, be sure to check the Texas weekend weather report. It makes taking credit for things you had nothing to do with much easier, and helps keep the Kool-Aid nice and fresh for those who love to drink it!
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