April Reign

Speak your mind even if your voice shakes

health care

8 years for torture

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For nothing is fixed, forever and forever and forever, it is not fixed; the earth is always shifting, the light is always changing, the sea does not cease to grind down rock. Generations do not cease to be born, and we are responsible to them because we are the only witnesses they have. The sea rises, the light fails, lovers cling to each other, and children cling to us. The moment we cease to hold each other, the sea engulfs us and the light goes out. James Baldwin

8 years for the torture of a 4 year old hardly seems appropriate. The abuser showed no remorse, no understanding of the heinous nature of his activities and I predict will re-offend in the future.

Bannert showed no emotion as the judge read his sentence, which was reduced to five years and eight months in prison because of the 14 months he spent in pre-trial custody. The Crown was seeking a much harsher sentence of 15 years.

The court heard she was denied liquids to a point where she had to drink urine from the toilet and plant water. Graphic details of her sexual abuse also emerged from the trial. She described how sex in a bathtub with “daddy” was a common occurrence.

A victim impact statement written by a social worker said the girl is so traumatized she cannot learn or form normal emotional relationships. About to turn six next month, the girl is on medication for post-traumatic stress syndrome. She now lives in a foster home.

Her mother was earlier convicted and sentenced for her part in this crime.

Apparently the defense tried to argue this off as discipline. Locking a four year old in the basement, handcuffing her, denying her water, forcing her to watch pornography and dance in a suggestive fashion, raping her in the bathtub…..what part of that could in anyone’s twisted mind be considered discipline?

I wish you peace sweet daughter.



news sources:

CTV
CBC

The game blame

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Very sad story about serious neglect and abuse of two children, a 22 month old boy and an 11 month old girl.

Police said hospital staff had to shave the head of the girl because her hair was matted with cat urine. The 10-pound girl also had a mouth infection, dry skin and severe dehydration.

Her brother had to be treated for starvation and a genital infection. His lack of muscle development caused him difficulty in walking, investigators said.

Not content to let the story stand on it’s own as an example of the horrors humans commit on one another and that not everyone is equipped to be a parent, both the media and the authorities are spinning this as a “game addiction”.

Viloria said the Reno couple were too distracted by online video games, mainly the fantasy role-playing “Dungeons & Dragons” series, to give their children proper care.

“They had food; they just chose not to give it to their kids because they were too busy playing video games,” Viloria told the Reno Gazette-Journal.

Gaming is the excuse, not the cause. Video games are blamed from everything from obesity to murder. It is as if none of these things ever existed before.

It would be much more helpful for us a society to focus on what drives people to obsess, what drives people to neglect their children, what signs of trouble are being missed.

Domestic abuse, road rage, gaming addiction, these are all silly labels put on big problems that allow media and authorities to easily file cases rather than have anyone actually find out the underlying causes of the initial behaviors.

“Working Girls” and the Media

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One might have hoped that after the Ipswich murders the media would have learned a thing or two about treating sex workers as different, disposable, and authors of their own misfortune.

Sadly reading the CTV report on the death of an Edmonton sex worker it would seem no lesson has been learned at all.

We begin by reading;

Police have identified a missing woman as a dead Edmonton sex trade worker and have launched a homicide investigation.

Really?! So if we were all to get together and purchase a head stone it should say dead Edmonton sex trade worker?

At least in the next paragraph they deign to identify Leanne Lori Benwell, by name. [Read more…] about “Working Girls” and the Media

Infallable? Well…..maybe not..

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I wonder if Benny looks back fondly on the days when a pope had real authority. Now, just like the Queen, there is more pomp than power.

Why these days a pope can’t even threaten the church members without some spin doctor coming along to say, “Look Benny doesn’t always mean what he says. Smile, nod make him feel good but don’t take him too seriously.” [Read more…] about Infallable? Well…..maybe not..

Get violence off the streets and back in children’s organizations

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james cartmanDon’t let your kid learn about guns from just any gang, have them learn from one which is well established and has lots of street cred.

From The Star;

Cale Northey went to a Scouts Canada camp to learn about gun safety. He came back with a “licence to kill.”

That’s how his parents view the badge the 11-year-old brought home from a target shooting event in Oshawa last weekend.

The badge features an Agent 007-type figure pointing a gun with a red target over his heart.

“I think it’s terrible,” said Cale’s mother, Jane Northey. “We’ve got kids shooting up everyone these days. What kind of message are we sending them? This badge is a licence to kill sponsored by Scouts Canada.”

The event for Whitby Scouts involved a target-shooting competition using pellet guns and included instruction on safety.

“It was exciting because my mom never lets me use guns,” said Cale, who’s been a Cub for three years. “We learned you have to be really safe with them and not point them anywhere else besides the target, and that they’re very dangerous.”

Northey, a teacher, said she wrestled with the decision to let Cale attend but relented so he could learn “just how dangerous these weapons really are.” She was shocked when she saw the badge.

When she complained to Debra Yeomans, Whitby-area commissioner for Scouts Canada’s White Pine Council, she was told the badge was voted on by leaders who perceived it as something “cool” the youngsters would love.

The national office has asked for the badges to be returned, however, the gun training is still part of the program. The good news is they will have already received some training to go fight America’s wars!

Mothers

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An interesting article at Women’s Enews on mothering and the value placed on it. While much lip service is given to the undertaking, little is done to actually support those choosing to have children.

(WOMENSENEWS)–The news media loves stories about highly educated mothers opting out of rewarding careers to stay at home with their young children.

Anecdotal evidence unsupported by serious research is also constantly drumming home the idea that women consider themselves the best providers of child care. For example, a 2006 Salary.com survey of what mothers do “on the job” leads with the headline “Dream Job: Stay at Home Mom.” Although the survey claims that equal numbers of working and stay-at-home mothers participated, quotes from the happy, at-home mothers dominate the report.

For instance, working mothers are “horrified” at the thought of hiring strangers to care for their children, they believe that mother’s care is “priceless” and that motherhood is the “greatest job in the world.” It’s easy to stay on message: Women must choose between work and family.

But the opposite message is sent to low-income mothers.

The recent debate over the welfare-to-work provisions of Temporary Assistance to Needy Families–or welfare–captures this difference. Congress did not debate the best means to provide even minimally adequate day care to the children of single parents. Instead they wondered whether or not the required hours of paid work should be increased!

Why does popular sentiment portray some mothers as virtuous when they drop out of the labor force to care for their families, while others are responsible only if they work for pay outside the home?

With Mothers Day coming up and the usual platitudes running rampant trying to get you to spend spend spend to show mom how much you love her, and with the forced pregnancy folks all creamed up about Bushie and company and their anti choice stance, I thought it might be interesting to see just how much mothers are valued once those sacred womb contents are born. [Read more…] about Mothers