Don't Get Me Started with Linda Sharp

And We Throw Stones At Islam?

Indoctrination. 

That big scary word was bandied about by the right wing when President Obama was going to give his first address to the nation's schools (LIKE SO MANY PRESIDENTS BEFORE HIM) about the importance of working hard, staying in school, doing your best - you know, liberal, socialist, Marxist, Communist ideas.

Glenn Beck made sure to add it to the Word O' The Day verbal toilet paper he unrolled for his mASSES each day.  Filling his audience with the fear of indoctrination camps being set up across the nation.

Rick Santorum loved the word, too.  He used it to describe colleges.  You know, those places where a young person's mind is polluted with liberal things like FACTS and INFORMATION.  (Let's not even get started on old Frothy attending 3 colleges himself.  They failed miserably at filling him with anything but beer and pomposity.)

And the fearmongers of the nation love to point their chewed nailed, stubby fingers across the globe at the MIddle East and drone on about how they - you know, brown people who aren't Christian - indoctrinate their children to hate America, to believe in Islam, to want to kill everything with a pulse.

THEY.

It's always THEY.

The elusive, scary, morally bankrupt and bereft of values THEY.

And none of them realize THEY live a lot closer.  In fact, THEY live right in THEIR mirrors.

Today's example of the Christian Taliban:

You explain to me how THIS is not indoctrination?  This tiny child singing with conviction about homos not getting into heaven. 

This child did not come into this world knowing the word "homo," let alone some bullshit, manmade requirements to obtain a Fastpass for the Golden Gate and St. Peter's Wild Ride.

Your children came to you as blank slates.  Empty vessels. 

Take a good look. What have you written on them?  What hatred have you filled them, INDOCTRINATED them with?  It is abuse just as much as if you shot them up with heroin or stuffed a case of Marlboros in their mouth and lit it with a flamethrower.

If they are hating another group of people, then you have failed.  Utterly, completely, and you are as far from the ideas of Jesus as is humanly possible.

WWJD?

Kick you in your sorry, hating, ignorant ass.

Let's Celebrate Ronnie!

I Simply Do NOT Understand

Abuse.  Abduction.  Rape.  Murder.

All are part and parcel of sharing oxygen on this orb with other people.  We know that.  We, for the most part, are vigilant about our safety.  We lock our doors, check our cars, carry Mace, stay in well lit areas, and background check our potential datemates.  We do what we can to get from AM to PM, from PM back to AM, from point A to point B without mishap.

As adults we have the intellect, the resources, the awareness to do these things.

But what about the most defenseless among us?  The children.

Not a day goes by without a story about a child percolating to the top of the news pot.  And they are heartbreaking.  Some days, the stories are many - the heartbreak continuous.

- Isabel Celis, missing since April, supposedly abducted from her home.  Authorities are now releasing reports of bloodstains on her bedroom carpet and in a car parked outside.

- Koralynn Fister, 2, systematically raped, tortured before dying at the hands of her mother's boyfriend.  TWO. YEARS. OLD.  Neighbors now report hearing the child screaming on many occasions - makes sense as the boyfriend asked to be allowed to babysit repeatedly. 

'I was tempted, so tempted to call the sheriff's office and tell them about it because it was awful,' said neighbor Ella Morgan.

'I'm so sorry I didn't call somebody. A kid don't cry all the time, and this kid cried all the time. I mean, [she] cried into a big scream.'

Look, I realize not everyone is a parent.  And in today's tech savvy society we are all more connected than ever before , yet more disconnected than ever, too.  But come on.  There is a huge difference between a tantrum cry and an I-am-in-serious-pain-please-help-me-cry.

- A 4 year old girl repeatedly tied up so her father could play his bullshit video games...

Babies "disappear" only later to be found dead at the hands of the parent(s) who reported them missing.  Toddlers are neglected.  Children are used as sex toys and then casually dumped like garbage.

I simply do not understand. 

A child is a gift.  An innocent, trusting GIFT.

If you get pregnant and deliver a child, that does not make you a mother or father - that makes you a life giver.  If you are not prepared to step up, GROW UP, sacrifice, and live unselfishly - then give that baby away.  The child is not yours to torture, treat worse than an animal, or fuck for your pleasure.

A child is an empty vessel into which we can pour the best of ourselves. As a society we need to do better, be better, protect them better.

I am liberal - I make no secret about that.  But when it comes to abused/neglected/murdered children - I am as conservative as they come.  I do not want my tax dollars paying for anything but a 35 cent remedy to the problem.

Maybe with enough publicized lead aversion therapy, those who would reach for a child in a violent way may begin to think twice and act not at all.

It's Robin's Big Day!