Category Archives: violence

In Honor of Mothers…

by

This Mother’s Day was a tough one.  Tears as we listened to “You’ll Never Walk Alone”….

So…I thought instead of the usual syrupy “Happy Mother’s Day” stuff, I’d do things a little differently~~

In Honor of the Mothers of the kidnapping victims of Cleveland….the two mothers who never gave up…God Bless.  I can’t wrap my brain around this case–clearly, there were people sounding the alarm about something going on at that house.  The police even showed up once–only to knock and then walk away when no one answered.  The message this case is sending:  women don’t matter–or worse, they wanted to be there.  I’m just waiting for them to start pointing the finger at the victims–some already have started the “if they hadn’t done this, that wouldn’t have happened…”  While ignoring that domestic violence happens every day in the U.S. in blue collar households and professional households.  People with money.  People without money.  Those with college educations, and those with high school diplomas.  Makes no difference.

In this case and I suspect the Boston Bombers’ case, domestic violence played a key role. …and yet, it’s never singled out as the cause of violence.  And I also caution against making broad generalizations that the psychiatric profession is noted for–just because one comes from a home of domestic violence does not mean they will repeat it.  Another mystery to be solved is why some go on to perpetuate the violence, and others rise above it.

Related to this, I’ve been reading blog after blog of mothers who have lost custody of their children. It is heartbreaking.  And it’s damning of the U.S. court system that use Guardian Ad Litem’s testimony as golden, without ever examining their motives nor the actual qualifications, personal biases,  and time spent with the children whose lives they are about to destroy.  On top of all of this, parents are now charged a fee to see their children!!  This is outrageous.

Phyllis Chesler has written a book, Mothers on Trial that blows away the myth that mothers *always* get custody of children.  This is only true, she says, if the father doesn’t fight for custody.  If he does take the mother to court, he will win custody in most of the cases.  (I think I read 70% of the cases).   It’s especially true if the woman is uppity.  In five cases I had reviewed, the Guardian Ad Litem had awarded custody to the father in all five cases….even though there was undisputed abuse in two of the cases and as far as I could tell, no abuse nor neglect of care of the children on the mother’s part.  As with the blogs I read…even in cases of  a father molesting the kids, the mother was treated as the criminal and the father was awarded custody.

This has to stop.

Fox guarding hen house attacks hen

by

…news at 11:00.  Seriously?? 

Cue the “outrage” that such action occurred….then quietly continue with status quo….

This is more than a military issue.  This is a culture issue.

Yeah, rape is hilarious. It’s just so freaking funny to listen to a woman scream “no, no, no” over and over again.  And hey, it’s great fun to force yourself on someone who is asleep and unable to fight you off.  /snark

Elizabeth Smart and why she didn’t run away--her self esteem was so low she felt like a “chewed up piece of gum”….because the way she was raised, if one lost their virginity, one was worthless.  The ever important hymen must be intact (Gah, can someone say Al-Queda?) in order for her to be worthy….it is so sad that she felt so awful about herself instead of putting the behavior onto her captor.  It should also be noted that when feminists began working to uplift women’s self esteem, the evangelicals put a stop to it (Gloria Steinem, Revolution from Within).

And the lovely gun manufacturers’ target, “The Ex”. …they included a woman, dripped in blood, because they didn’t want to be sexist…?!  I’m surprised they didn’t also say that they wanted to include a black man because they didn’t want to appear racist….and he just *happened* to look like President Obama…just like the “devil” on the Mark Burnett / Roma Downey “Bible” series…these things just happen, dontcha know?

See my blog here on the Steubenville case and rape culture around the world.

 

Syria

by

A really good piece here  on Syria and the general Middle East.  I like how it addresses the entire problem, not just the problem du jour.  Just in the last few days, have I heard of the Hezbollah connection to Assad’s side.  This is major news.  And helps one to understand why Israel suddenly starts launching an attack.  They can say what they want, but it would appear that Israel is in it for the entire conflict, not a specific target, as they claim.

On CSPAN this morning, a writer for daily beast/Newsweek (sorry, forgot the name) was addressing Syria and Benghazi.  A caller calls in with a foreign accent and speaks of how many in Syria have been against Assad, but are now so afraid.  He asserts (and I agree) that most Muslim people do not condone what Al Queda has done–they are aghast at the violence and will not participate in it.  But they are cornered–they are in fear for themselves and their families and they have to be able to get food and water and shelter.  The CSPAN host asks where he is from?  Answer:  Syria.  Do you still have family there?  Answer:  Yes.  How are they doing?  Answer:  They are afraid and want Assad out.  I believe he said they wanted democracy, too.

Another caller had said that we are broke.  We can’t afford to get into another war.  We need a war tax if we’re going to go in.

I have to admit I’ve been torn about Syria.  I feel strongly against letting some creep murder people.  At the same time, like the guy said, we’re broke.  We cannot afford to go in again to a country and wage war.  Only if they tax the rich can we afford to go in….because the middle class and the working poor can’t do it–they can barely put food on the table for their own families.

 

Living History

by

Henry Ettinger was a “Monuments Men” who helped rescue stolen art work by the Nazis and spoke of his experience recently.

The article mentions that Hitler was into natural art and resented the turn towards impressionism and interpretative art, and instead of accepting that, he decided to destroy the art.  But that sentence doesn’t make sense, because they put the art into the mines to preserve them and protect them from bombs instead of outright destroying them.   Yeah, I know that some could be sold on the black market to raise money for the war….but they also had an “exhibition” of the artworks, which also makes no sense–why put them on display at all if they were disgusting to Hitler?  Why go to all of the trouble to transport them through a tour in Germany and Austria?

In addition to the Monuments Men, Ettinger’s family history is also very intriguing.  As the story goes, his family lived in Germany before being forced out by the Nazis in 1938.  The part that leaps out at me was  this simple passage:

“My family dated back 600 years in Germany,” Ettlinger said. “My father had an elegant women’s fashion store, with 40 employees. But when the Nazis came to power in 1933, it was immediately boycotted.”

The Nazis, said Ettlinger, didn’t immediately start killing the Jews. Instead they made it impossible for them to make a living.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Am I entirely too cynical or conspiracy theorist to look at how our jobs have been shipped overseas and the ones left are poverty-level wages, making it impossible to put any money away for savings/retirement/vacations/emergencies….and that the union jobs are being replaced with low wage workers…?  Yeah, I suppose it is too conspiracy theorist…but the effect is still the same–making it impossible to earn a living…

 

 

 

Fort Wayne is on Fire

by

Another police shooting—the fourth in four months–of a Fort Wayne citizen:        indianasnewscenter.com/news/local/Mayor-Henry-on-205796441.html

This isn’t even counting the ones shooting each other.  You know it’s bad when California sits up and takes notice….as they did with the third shooting just a few days ago…

The news reported that the latest shooter “should not have had access to a gun with his prior history…”  It left out the details about why this person should not have had a gun….but since he claimed to be Jesus and just randomly started shooting people (rather than a specific target), I would guess mental issues.  And yes, I would wonder about the chem trails and the toxic environment of FW–they had terrible air quality last year on many, many days.  And this shows air quality is once again questionable.  All I can say is that I notice a change in people’s behavior when there has been heavy chem trail spraying and when the air quality is already bad.  I know that when I tried jogging in the A.M. on bad air quality days, I started wheezing afterwards.  Not good.

Here’s another map showing particulate matter as being moderately high.  This is not good, either, as particulate is known to be the cause for health conditions–scientists just don’t know how it affects health, only that it does affect heart, lungs, and brain health.

The strength of women

by

This story is refreshing in that it paints a woman as empowered.  She fought back:  http://www.commondreams.org/further/2013/04/26-1

I have a quibble with it, however, because then the question from the minds of those who wish to blame women for being raped:  why didn’t they fight back…?

First, this woman is trained in defense.  Most women are not….which begs the question of why not…??  Why aren’t self defense classes for women offered in high school? (on that note, why aren’t they taught how to change the oil in a car…but that’s another subject for another post.)

Secondly, this woman apparently has enough upper and lower body strength to put on a good defense.  What if she did not?  If she was unable to fend off her attacker and was raped, would she be considered complacent?

And lastly, if this were another scenario, where she were out on a date and was raped, but not violently….she would have a much more difficult time of proving it was raped….and this would be only after her sex life and, well, her entire life were examined to *know* that she was telling the truth and not a slut…