Some Weird Things People Do
Baby Pepper-Sprayed In Family Feud
A woman doused a 2-month-old girl with pepper spray while feuding with the infant’s family in a Wal-Mart, police said.Lorlie M. Gantenbein, 36, of Sagle, was charged Tuesday with felony injury to a child. She was released on $5,000 bail and ordered to have no contact with the baby’s family.
Kansas debate over evolution becomes a war of words
Eighty years after the first famed “Monkey Trial,” a second one of sorts opened Thursday, but this time with evolution in the dock.A State Board of Education subcommittee began four days of trial-like hearings that give evolution’s critics, many of them advocates of intelligent design, a public forum to attack the theory attributed to 19th Century British scientist Charles Darwin.
Some science groups and many scientists contend the board is being pushed to adopt language that would enshrine tenets of intelligent design in the standards - even if that concept isn’t mentioned by name. National and state organizations are boycotting the hearings, viewing them as rigged against evolution.
Abu Ghraib - Judge halts woman’s trial over plea on jail abuse
A MILITARY judge threw out yesterday the guilty plea of Lynndie England, the most visible figure in the Abu Ghraib scandal, bringing her trial to an abrupt end.Colonel James Pohl said he was not convinced that she knew her actions in the Baghdad jail were wrong at the time.
His ruling left her fate uncertain and cancels the plea bargain Specialist England worked out with prosecutors in which she would have faced little more than two years in jail.
March of Living marks Holocaust
More than 18,000 people have taken part in the annual March of the Living between the notorious Auschwitz and Birkenau death camps in Poland.It comes 60 years after the camps were liberated by Soviet troops.
More than one million people, most of them European Jews, were murdered by Nazi Germany in the two camps. [...]
From the photo caption:
Construction began in 1940 on site which grew to 40 sq km (15 sq mile)
Of 7,000 Nazi guards, 750 were prosecuted and punished after the war
...and it only took them 30 years to acknowledge that homosexuals were the victims of the holocaust and another 25 years to acknowledge that they didn’t deserve the treatment and eventual death they received. When the “allies” finally did free the prisoners, the homosexuals were continued to be mistreated by the allied forces, but until recently, no one seemed to care.
Still, it’s a good sign that they made mention of those unpopular men who died so long ago. Imagine being killed in such a brutal manner and no one caring. Maybe things are improving.
On the pepper spray story... Why would anyone spray a defenseless child with pepper spray? Astonishing how unbalanced some people are.
On evolution... Kent can speak of that. We talk about it often. It gets him all fired up.
As for Abu Ghraib, I think what has happened at that prison is very unfortunate, for the people it happened to, as well as the stain it placed upon our nation. The soldiers that did these deeds are guilty and are being punished, but the real culprits are much higher up in the chain of command. I’m not going to hold my breath that any of this will roll down on them.
There’s quite a battle being waged on this website over in the photo gallery of the Abu Ghraib abuses, if you care to read the comments. Be warned though, the language is harsh and the photos are very graphic, and much of it filled with extreme hatred. With that warning, you can see a sample here if you wish. It seems that the Arab world has discovered the photos along with our military, and the war of words continues. I have stayed out of the fight. It’s valuable to have the dialog I suppose, although, when each side is saying the other side should die, it’s hard to believe that any good will come from it. I’ve debated on whether to pull the album from the gallery because of that.
I posted the photos long ago to show that at least some Americans are willing to show an injustice and acknowledge it as an injustice. Unfortunately, our government doesn’t seem to think that the Geneva Convention applies to the United States.
People have told me that I don’t understand what war is and that “these things happen in time of war”. They are right. I don’t understand war, but shouldn’t we TRY at least to be better? Shouldn’t we aim for a higher standard?
Just my feelings.
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Jack,
I believe that we are "programmed" to be a certain way, aside from what we are inborn with. By nature, I don't know if we are really social animals at all. I do know that when it comes to socialization, the old saying, "...there's a place for everything, and everything in it's place...", is true.
In other words, when you are a gay man, you are told in certain terms, your place in society. In recent history, gay men have had to hide what we are. Society has been told that we are loathsome creatures that do not, or cannot, have the same high ideals as "normal" people. In other words, we are "queers" - different from the rest of society. This is the way it has always been for the last few generations, and certainly, my lifetime.
With this in mind, it is totally understandable that many of us may have issues with socialization. I'm not going to criticize gay men for not always being able to be monogamous, because I understand why it happens. We have been told all our lives (at least, I have), that we are "not capable" of having long-term relationships and that long-term relationships are not something that we can aspire too, like normal heterosexuals.
From the gay community, in the past, there was a resistance to not be like straight society - to be free of their baggage and do pretty much what we wanted too. This resulted in many being very promiscuous, thus adding fuel to the stereotypes from straight society. On our side, we simply said, "too bad. We are doing this because we think your standards for people are crap." It was all to build community and "pride" in ourselves for being "liberated".
It wasn't to last. When AIDS came along, straight society was very eager to wash their hands of us and to basically say, "Let the faggots die of AIDS. It's what they deserve." We all know all the hateful things that were said.
I keep talking about "straight society" vs "gay society", because, in the past, they have been very different things. But over time, "gay society" has obviously changed. "Straight society" is slowly changing to be more accepting of us. At least, it was, before the marriage issue came along. We want more to be part of society. We want our long term relationships to mean as much as our straight counterparts. In other words, we want what they have.
I don't think this is a bad thing. In the end, gay or straight or bi or transgendered, we are all... just people. We all hurt and cry and feel joy and love. We are not all that different.
The fact that society takes such as small thing as sexual orientation and uses it to totally define a person is what is most damaging. I'm much more than a gay man. I don't want to be remembered that way, but as you can see, I'm posting this to a website that is most obviously gay. I'm still bound by that label. Perhaps I always will be. The label itself is not bad - what society does with it is not always very good.
Finally, you say, "This is neat, as it has opened a new perspectives into the lifestlye we have chosen."
Do you honestly feel that our lifestyle is "chosen"? I didn't choose mine.
I believe we are somewhat of an anomaly! We are called and treated as gentlemen wherever we travel and by whomever we meet. We are not social animals (by choice) as many of the local men in the gay scene, although professing to be in committed relationships, are, as we have observed, promiscuous. I also suspect that many men locally are not out, so our efforts through our website have only permitted us to meet men out of the area. This is neat, as it has opened a new perspectives into the lifestlye we have chosen.
I was half asleep when iwas reading the story it was her 16 year old daughter that sparyed the ladys holding the baby,then the mother sprayed the baby,what wonderful role models the 16 year old has.
I am a firm beleiver thatthere needs to be tougher laws for children who commit adult crimes,this young man who srayed pepper spray on this baby was 16 years old,things today are alot diffrent than when i was a child,and children mature faster now,they have more to get into,and less parental control,the courts have taken the rights of parents away,and replaced it with parents who are afraid to disapline there children,so now children get by with murder,and more and more in the news we see what the results are,I hope the poor little baby is okay.
I once went with a friend of mine to visit his brother. The brother had recently remarried, and his new wife came complete with a four-year-old little boy.
That evening I was sitting right by the front door, and all night you could tell there was trouble brewin’ between the brother and his wife. At first they just traded a few rude comments as she went from their bedroom, through the living room where we were, and on to the laundry room outside some place.
I guess he hit a nerve with one of his barbs because at one point she came storming back from the laundry room, went straight into the bedroom of her sleeping little boy, and came back out dragging the kid by his hair towards the front door! I watched in absolute horror as she dragged this poor, screaming kid across the living room floor, flung open the front door I was sitting next to, and literally tossed the kid out onto the front porch. She then turned and faced her husband, folded her arms, and said quite coolly, “That’s what you think of me and my son.” as the boy screamed out side, “Momma! What did I do?”
I couldn’t believe what I saw. The police couldn’t believe it either, and carted dear old ma off to the hoosegow.
That was 22 years ago. I can only imagine how that kid must have turned out.