F16’s Don’t Kill People, 500 Lb. Bombs Kill People

-before, you start writing…or you end up with something that reads like THIS.

I challenge you to read through to the end without your eyes glazing over, or skipping three or four sentences at a time. Someone go buy Jimmy a drink and tell him to lighten-up before all this over-thinking causes him to lose all his hair…oh…well, maybe the drink anyway.

We were driving along this afternoon, telling Danny how we had this great surprise for him. We’d decided to take him over to the Russell Stover store in Omaha for an ice-cream cone (candy and ice cream-what’s not to like?) He’d never been there and as it is expensive, not the sort of thing we’ll do often. The store is fantastic-every imaginable sort of chocolate. I like to give Russell Stover chocolates as gifts to far-flung friends because they’re what I think of as a "Midwestern" brand. Anyway, we filled the kid up with sugar and then took him next door to Office Depot. About the time we were getting in line, the sugar hit. Ever watch a three year old that’s just had an ice cream and generous amounts of coffee fudge (the fudge was not a mummy approved treat, but papa will be papa)?

(Gleefully, and swinging his arms wide as he tells the salesman) "I had ice cream and fudge and I’m three."

(Amused) "That place is great."

"Ice cream, wheeeee!"

Right, so we grabbed our pencils and got him into the car where he sang to us for a good twenty minutes before crashing out. But it was great, and much as we promised, he was really surprised. Then my husband told me a story:

"When we were kids our (he and his sister) parents would tell us we were going somewhere really special that’d we’d like. After hours in the car we’d arrive thinking it was going to be a roller coaster or something fun and we’d be like, "oh a formal garden with a fountain, whoo hoo." *

*(In defense of the in-laws, they lived in Germany and would take my husband and his sister all over the continent to immerse them in history, art, culture etc. I mean, for crying’ out loud, they took them to Denmark to see the Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen (and a small child approached and offered them cigarettes-true story. Seems like he should have offered snuff, being Copenhagen and all). They took them to go see crazy king Ludwig’s castle. They saw the mummified bog man. You know what I saw growing up? I saw a Caribbean nation something like three hours after independence from colonial rule-during a hurricane and a monetary crisis. We weren’t sure the hotel would be standing the next morning or if the money would have any value from day to day. I was, unfortunately too young to drink which might have made it more bearable.

…if I were to post a political endorsement, complete with fancy banner, how long it would take before campaign staffers asked me to un-endorse their candidate? I’m willing to bet, based on my sidebar links that I would be asked ordered to take down my endorsement rather quickly. You really think the Clinton campaign wants an endorsement from someone that links to Jonah House? How about the Guiliani people-think they were expecting to get that all-important Catholic Worker vote? How are the Hucksterbee staff going to deal with an endorsement from someone that links The Monthly Review?

This could almost be an interesting challenge for fellow bloggers out there-see how many campaigns tell you to bugger off.

Anyone game?

THIS story about twins who were separated at birth for a psychiatric research study, and never told until adulthood is pretty awful. What’s worse, the psychiatrist in charge of the study to this day still feels as though he was not only entitled, but has some sort of ownership of their lived experiences.

Just how much power do we really want to permit these ghouls to have? That’s a question that needs serious discussion as states are trying to make it easier to involuntarially send people into psychiatric care. It is suggested that the mother of the twins was a patient-might she have been coerced into giving the children up for adoption to facilitate the study?

The brain industry likes to paint a benevolent image of themselves providing "help" to all these poor suffering individuals. It’s an easy sell, particularly after the VA. Tech shooting and the recent mall shooting in Omaha. But those are rare acts. Statistically, your odds of dying as a victim of a crazed killer are pretty low. The odds of involuntary committment being used against family members (think husbands/wives with nasty divorces and/or custody issues) are pretty good. Have an old aunt whose assets you’d like to seize? Have a misbehaving teen? Oh, the possibilities.

Forcibly drugging and incarcerating someone that hasn’t broken any laws ought to be questioned rather seriously because there’s just too much room for abuse. Assuming that the intentions of the people providing the "treatment" are in the best interests of the patients victims is foolish. Just ask the twin lab rats.

But don’t take my word for it-go read the heartbreaking testimonies of psychiatric survivors. No really, go read them. Read about the husbands that had their wives locked away on the say-so of psychiatrists that never met them. Go read about children who spent their lives in mental hospitals because a social worker thought they asked too many questions. Read on and on and on and then think about what a great idea it would be to just take all the undesireables and lock them away to be research projects.

I was only attempting to purchase a toothbrush. As I stood in the aisle looking for the least expensive option a fifty-something woman and her teenaged daughter proceeded to squeeze in next to me and then physically push me aside without pausing their conversation for a fraction of a second to acknowledge that there was in fact, a person there. I’m pretty sure I’m not invisible, so they must have noticed me standing there. Still, when something that outrageously rude happens, I’m inclined to look for explanations because it seems so unreal that anyone, let alone two people would behave that way.

"Excuse me", (I managed as politely as possible) may I step in and grab a toothbrush?"

Simple enough request, right? I mean, seeing how I’d just been physically moved aside so the mother could instruct he daughter in the best toothbrush to scrub scum off her enamel. Well, you know, life’s funny. The look of hatred that woman shot me was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. What’s more, she made eye contact, then turned back to her daughter, continued the conversation and refused to budge.

I have to admit to being shaken. Intellectually, I’m thinking "What the fuck is her problem?" but emotionally it was really disturbing. Maybe she approaches everyone that way, but from where I was standing (or rather, where I was pushed aside to) it would be impossible not to take it personally. So really, just what is it about my appearance that makes someone feel entitled to treat me as unworthy of a simple, "pardon me." Too fat? Too dark? Too "ethnic" looking? My clothes too outdated? My hair too undyed? Do I smell? Would any of the above justify the pathetic display of poor manners I was on the receiving end of today? I think not. At least in the old days people harboured their contempt, but were polite to your face. They might have burned a cross on your lawn later, but at least publicly, they followed certain behaviour expectations. Part of me wanted to elbow her as I reached for my toothbrush and say:

"Pardon me, bourgeois pig, may I get past your well-fed flanks for a toothbrush?"

I didn’t of course.

I’m told, that this behaviour is becoming more common in Omaha, particularly West Omaha where it happened. I admit, we live rather out in the country and I don’t get into town often so perhaps times have changed and I’m still woefully out of touch. I remember when people began using terribly rude, dismissive conversation enders such as "talk to the hand" and "whatever." I was appalled, but everyone assured me that it didn’t mean anything. Instead, today I was treated to a level of pretension that didn’t think I even deserved a shrug of the shoulders or a waved hand-dehumanised right out of physical existence. That seems far more menacing to me. And stupid. Really stupid. For heaven’s sake-you live in Omaha, Nebraska. How can anyone possibly cop that arrogant an attitude when you’re shopping for a toothbrush in a goddamned Target in Omaha, Nebraska? Um…because you’re so sophisticated and cosmopolitan, albeit lacking the rudiments of etiquette expected in the polite society aspired to?

I don’t know. I really don’t.

I have this routine where I listen to Morning Edition whilst hanging the first load of wash to dry. Danny is usually sitting in the kitchen working on a glass of milk before breakfast, half-listening for the local weather forecast which for some reason he finds fascinating.

So this morning, when news of Bhutto’s assassination breaks, NPR goes into full hysteria mode because like, no one could have possibly imagined something like this happening. I don’t fault NPR for that-a story’s a story and having it break while on-air probably doesn’t happen that often. What got me-at least enough to turn my attention from my clothes-drying rack, was the almost giddy tone of that moron Steve Inskeep. I imagine he was the kid that probably got beat up on the playground-daily. God, what a whiny bastard. Today however, he was just too excited at the prospect of rioting, and as a consequence, kept asking in each interview whether there was a chance of widespread violence. I can just imagine the wheels churning away in Steve’s imagination:

Oooo, brown people burning tires and tossing petrol bombs…ooooo, I love it when the non-Westerners riot."

I might be more sympathetic to Stevie if he could manage to pronounce the name of the country correctly rather than "Pack-e-staan." I realise he’s by no means the only person to favour this pronunciation but good lord; it’s like nails on a blackboard.

I suppose today just drew more attention to how annoying Steve Inskeep is. Most days, I can tune him out between stories, but I admit to a rather long-lived fantasy of forcefully jamming my thumb and index finger up his nose and twisting away with all my might.

"Say it right Steve."

(muffled) "Unh, stop.."

"Say Paw-ki-ston."

(high-pitched whine)"Pack-i…Hey! Ow!"

"Stevie…"

"Unhg"

"Hey Steve, what’s for dinner? I’ll go further up your nose to pick a winner…"

"Paw-ki-ston! Paw-ki-ston! Let go of my nose."

I do hope the coverage gets better by the time All Things Considered hits the air tonight, though I’m not optimistic. Instead of focusing the reports on who did it and why, it would be more interesting to hear people’s take on what this means not only for Pakistan, but the rest of the world that has to live with a nuclear armed country that just had an opposition leader assassinated following a state of emergency where the military seized control of the country. You can’t just shrug this shit off when it comes to Pakistan they way you could if it were a non-nuclear nation.

I think I’m done baking until next November. Oh. My. Goodness. If I never see glaced fruit again it will be too soon.

Actually, until I became a mother, I never really understood the desire to own cookie cutters and food colouring. I’ll have green frosting under my nails until August-but the kid’s happy, so I guess it’s worth it.

If anyone needs me, I’ll be in bed with a bottle of brandy.

Peace on Earth.

And if you’d like to see birthday pictures of a three year old who now pefers to go by the name, "Big Dan"-click HERE.

If you’d like to see the best ever piece of photoshopping, click HERE (but he did look like Sid Vicious as a baby…all right, more of a cross between Hubert Humphrey and Sid Vicious, but who wants to photo-shop Hubert Humphrey?).

And finally, a picture from when Danny was about five months old. I think this really illustrates what so much of the first years are about as a parent-they start crying, and you try to comfort them…without letting them notice you cracking-up with laughter. We did a lot of smiling through colic and dairy/soy allergies. Maybe he was just pissed at how we dressed him.

And now he’s three for heaven’s sake! Before I know it this kid is going to be stealing money out of my purse and hanging out in the pool hall in college.

Happy Birthday, Big Dan. Your parents love you.

Is it just me, or does anyone else find the idea of girls pledging their virginity to their dads just a wee bit creepy?

I remember getting the lecture about not wearing ripped dungarees coming back to "As long as you live in my house, I tell you what to wear on your body." That was bad enough, but the idea of trying to actually control the daughter’s body in terms of what she does with it…I don’t know, it has a bit too much of an "I own you" vibe (or her reproductive organs, anyway).

This has been going on for a decade? Sheesh.

Remember the hoax where disabled kids were being given electrical shocks at a group home? It gets WORSE.

77 shocks in a row. Second degree burns. Hours of screaming in pain. Seems there was some question as to the validity of the order, but they went ahead and did it anyway.

-Just following orders…

Here’s yet another story about the schools and police being out of their minds. THIS student’s mindless scribbling and vitamin pills got him arrested. Seems the scribbles in his day planner resembled a swastika, and the nutritional supplements tested positive for meth. Tested, by a cop that hadn’t had any training on field-testing for drugs since 1984. Hmm. No word on whether the kit dated to 1984 as well.

This kid was lucky, that his parents had enough money to hire him an attorney. I can almost guarantee if he’d been assigned a public defender he’d have been forced into a plea bargain. There would have been no further questioning of the drug analysis.

Meanwhile, even if they do win in court, is five million really enough compensation for ruining this kid’s life? Every time he applies for a job, rents a car, an apartment-anything really-he’s going to have to explain having been arrested for drugs and a hate crime. Seeing how so many people feel that the police are never wrong, only that people beat the court system, it’s not impossible to see where this arrest record might cost him down the road.

But eh, who cares-they got to make an arrest.

-Tourists from Iceland.

Still, I wonder if she’d been from Saudi Arabia, or Mexico if we’d even be reading about it.

I just don’t understand what it is that we think is gained from treating foreign tourists this way. You know, contrary to the view of many Americans, there are many other interesting places around the world to visit where foreigners can spend their more valuable money. They don’t need to send their students here for education, they don’t need our crappy shopping malls, and they certainly don’t need to be treated as potential enemies for simple clerical mistakes on their visas-ten years prior. Come on, they shackled the woman, denied her access to a phone, no food, water, the whole bit-and then dumped in a cell in Jersey.

I suppose she’s lucky we didn’t send her off to one of our Gulag black sites to be shut away in a coffin-sized box for a year (in-between beatings, of course) to cough up some vital information about the Reykjavik Terror Cell that hides in volcanoes plotting their evil deeds in lines from Bjork songs translated into Old Norse.

Seems police brutality is on the rise in the United States. Gosh, suppose it has anything to do with all the paramilitary gear and tactics that make them think they’re Special Ops soldiers instead of local cops? Giving people the authority to kick down doors in the dead of night in SWAT raids probably doesn’t help much either.

The article cites poor training and standards for hiring, but I don’t believe it. I think this sort of behaviour is actually encouraged. So few police ever face prosecution for these brutality cases that it’s a pretty safe bet they can get away with almost anything. People are so conditioned to believe a person wearing a uniform couldn’t possibly, ever be guilty of abusing their power. You’d think, given recent headlines that people would be a bit more aware of how things work, but incredibly they’re not.

I’m pretty sure I’ve written about the school in Massachusetts for the mentally disabled where they employ routine use of electrical shocks as behaviour modification. How that’s not a human rights abuse, I’ll never know, but apparently the place is still being permitted to operate. As far as the authorities that oversee these places are concerned, administering electrical shocks to the retarded is a-ok. Unless of course, someone else calls in the order-then it’s assault.

It seems a former student, posing as a staff member called in a series of "treatments" involving the use of shocks for a few current residents. And because this place is so very meticulous in procedures and oversight, they went ahead and did it. Dr’s orders-or so they thought.

Interesting that they believe it was a former student calling in the hoax. How’s that saying go about children "live what they learn?" Exactly.

An update to the story below. What an awful, awful precedent. Well, for the kid’s sake I sure hope he stops chewing gum and keeps his pencil handy because you just know he’s going to be targeted more than he already was. This is just great, institutionalised bullying. There you go kiddo-hope you’re learning what they have to teach.

I feel so terrible for the parents.

There’s an interesting case being heard in the Massachusetts courts over a parent’s right to pull their child from a public school’s special education programme. Typically, the courts are asked to intervene when parents are unable to have their children placed in special education, so this is somewhat unusual. The school district is asserting that the child is a behaviour problem and as such needs constant monitoring for his "communication problem" (their term, not mine). The parents claim that all their son is getting from the programme is continual harassment, and punitive punishments for things as minor as forgetting a pencil. They’ve decided to seek outside academic tutoring for their child-yet the school will not permit it. Instead, the district has asked a judge to keep the child in special education until it can be resolved in the courts. I’m actually a little surprised the school didn’t try to assert child abuse by the parents for trying to pull him from programme.

It’s pretty alarming that a school district can get a judge to force unwanted special education on a child against the parents’ wishes. I guess it shouldn’t be-they can force unwanted psychiatric care on children against the parents’ wishes as w (and if you live in New Jersey, flu shots). In some ways, that’s not too far off from what this looks like. According to the parents, the "special education" the child is receiving is focused on behavioural modification-not academics.

What this sounds like (and really, I don’t know this and I’m probably viewing this through my own experience of having been labeled "learning disabled") is the child has a bit of a mouthing-off problem. Maybe there’s an academic philosophy that argues disruptive students will do better academically when hounded and micro-managed to the point where they feel they are always at fault. Perhaps the child eventually gives up and they can call it another successful case of beating them so far down emotionally that they submit to whatever it is their supposed to do. This sort of tactic is by no means limited to special education programmes-it’s popular at boot camp schools, in-patient psychiatric programmes and just about anywhere else that there’s an unequal position of power waiting to be misused. I have personally witnessed four people jump on a twelve-year-old boy for what really was little more than a smart-ass remark. The fact that I can remember it all these years later isn’t that remarkable as it was the first time I really understood that people with power would abuse it. Whether the boss that has you work 70 hours a week to cover his mistakes, the teacher that calls security and has a child tackled because he called her a name, the cop that Tasers the motorist who won’t sign his ticket-all of these people are taking advantage of their position to harm another individual-because they can. Am I saying the school is harming the child in the court case? Maybe. Maybe he’s not being physically beaten down, but he is being taught that his daily survival relies on being able to avoid the notice of those who are looking for any reason to harass him. Forgetting a pencil? That’s pretty damn punitive. If the parents are correct in their assertion that their child’s day is spent in this sort of game playing where the instructors are more concerned with finding him out of compliance than academics, the school certainly is failing in their ability to provide the child with an education. Of course, from what I hear that’s pretty much the goal of public education these days. Sit still and obey. Like dogs.

-You’d think the website would be enough.

Let me explain. My son was playing with his trucks at the dining room table and he had a small book riding on the back.

"So, whatcha doing there Dan?"

"Making a book truck."

"Oh. Like the Bookmobile."

"No! (very irritated with mummy’s inability to grasp the simplest things) I made an Unknown News truck. For the news. Unknown News."

So there you have it-they have so much news it needs to be hauled in a truck. I suggest you get over there promptly and start reading.