Why are HETEROSEXUALS Allowed to Raise Children?

Just another example of how children are harmed when we allow heterosexual parents to raise them.


Kids Survive Alleged 5-Year Imprisonment

By MARTIN GRIFFITH, Associated Press Writer

Carson City Sheriff Ken Furlong says he's amazed by the survival of two emaciated children who say they were locked in an apartment bathroom and starved for the past five years.

When the siblings were found Thursday, the 16-year-old girl weighed about 40 pounds, and her 11-year-old brother weighed about 30 pounds. The pair were in stable condition Sunday at a hospital, while their grandmother, mother and the mother's boyfriend were in jail.

"The little girl appeared to be a Holocaust victim," Furlong told The Associated Press. "There's no meat or muscle whatsoever. We're talking absolute starvation. It was the same thing for the little boy."

Deputies were led to the home after someone reported seeing an 8-year-old girl pushing a shopping cart full of food within a block of the sheriff's office. It turned out to be the 16-year-old girl, who told deputies she was running away because she had been locked in a bathroom at night or when adults left the apartment.

"Right now, there doesn't seem to be anything that conflicts with anything the girl has said," Furlong said, adding the bathroom door appeared damaged as if someone had broken out.

Detectives now plan to focus on the suspects' background after combing the apartment for clues.

Their grandmother, Esther Rios, 56; mother, Regina Rios, 33; and the mother's boyfriend, Tomas Granados, 33, were jailed on suspicion of child abuse or neglect and false imprisonment in lieu of $100,000 bail.

Investigators said the girl had not attended school since her family moved to Carson City from Los Angeles about 2000. It was uncertain whether her brother attended school, but he had not been enrolled recently.

Three other children in the home, ages 9 to 17, attended school in Carson City. They were placed in the custody of social services workers and appeared to be healthy.

Furlong said it's one of the worst cases he's seen in nearly 30 years of law enforcement.

"I don't know how the girl or her brother survived," he said.

Copyright © 2006 The Associated Press.
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Ongoing Discrimination Against LGBT in Military, Other Society

By Kenji Yoshino

The recent scandal over military surveillance of gay student groups reflects a broader shift in American attitudes toward homosexuality.

As we learned a few weeks ago, the military has been monitoring meetings of student groups at the University of California, Santa Cruz, the State University of New York at Albany and New Jersey's William Patterson University. These groups oppose the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, which excludes openly gay individuals from serving in uniform.

When the military said the surveillance was needed to preserve national security, the gay media immediately cried McCarthyism. During the Cold War, the government used the same justification to engage in widespread surveillance of individuals known or suspected of being gay.

But there's a difference. "As far as is known," the Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military states, "the current surveillance does not target homosexuality itself, but rather gay groups which have voiced opposition to the 'don't ask, don't tell' policy barring openly gay service." In other words, it's not all gays who are vulnerable to surveillance, but only the subset of gays who choose to be activists.

This change reflects the seismic shift that's occurring in this country's attitudes toward homosexuality. It used to be that no open homosexual could escape anti-gay discrimination. Now some can, as long as they "cover" -- sociologist Erving Goffman's term for how individuals downplay their stigmatized identities. The gay person who covers by not joining a pro-gay group may well escape surveillance. It is the gay person who "flaunts" his identity by resisting anti-gay policies who is more likely to be punished.

We can see this shift across the board. Take public employment. It used to be that homosexuality was deemed per se incompatible with most state employment. Now governmental employers will often hire gay people, but routinely refuse to hire gay people who "flaunt." When Michael Bowers, then the attorney general of Georgia, terminated lesbian attorney Robin Shahar, he insisted that he was not doing so because of her homosexuality. Rather, he said, he revoked her employment contract because she had engaged in a religious same-sex commitment ceremony. In 1998, the court that upheld her termination emphasized this distinction, stating that Bowers had fired her not for her status as a gay person, but for her behavior.

Or take child custody. It used to be that gays were categorically banned from getting custody of children. So if a married woman came out, divorced her husband, and then sued for custody of her child, she would lose. Now the lesbian mother will sometimes prevail, so long as she covers. A Missouri court granted custody in 1998 to a lesbian mother after finding that she "never engaged in any sexual or affectionate behavior in the presence of the children." But a lesbian mother will generally not succeed if she flaunts. In denying a mother custody in 1990, a Louisiana appellate court cited her "open, indiscreet displays of affection beyond mere friendship" with a same-sex partner.

This shift represents an advance. Social attitudes toward gays have softened such that we are no longer treated as an undifferentiated, pathologized mass. Yet the demand to cover still exacts terrible dues. Many of the activities for which gays are punished -- speaking out on political issues, having a commitment ceremony, or engaging in a display of affection in the home -- are fundamental to human flourishing. When the state conditions our privacy, employment or parental rights on the surrender of those goods, it condones enduring second-class citizenship for gays.

The shift from the demand not to be gay to the demand to cover may be progress. But it is not equality.

Kenji Yoshino is professor of law and deputy dean of intellectual life at Yale Law School. He is a graduate of Harvard (1991), Oxford (1993), and Yale Law School (1996). He specializes in antidiscrimination law and constitutional law. His book, "Covering: The Hidden Assault on Our Civil Rights," was recently published by Random House. Look for more information on www.kenjiyoshino.com.

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The Return of Raymond Minix

Well, it _would appear_ that Raymond is coming back here to live with me, sort pf against my better judgment, but Christianity, as I understand it, says to forgive and keep on forgiving as much as is humanly possible. Raymond has gone through two roomates in about a month's time, neither of them working out very well for him. He _has_ been on better behavior the last two times I saw him since then, and what is most important to me is my own health and well-being.

First he stayed with Vernon, down the street, for two or three days, until his cat Sassy got badly mistreated by Vern. I agree that situation was not good for him or the cat. Then Raymond moved over on Eighth Street to an apartment above the 'Custom Grill and Bar' with a woman he described as a 'fag-hag' and we all thought that would work out well for him. It turns out _she_ ate up all his food stamps (food via money) for the month and wasn't a very good housekeeper to boot. The cat seemed to enjoy sitting on her perch in the window looking out, and the lady was good to the cat, but according to Raymond, her landlord demanded more money having Raymond live there and would not wait until Raymond's welfare check arrived at the first of February. He was going to compensate the lady (regards the rent) with his food stamps but then the fag-hag, (whom he described as a 'fat pig' with whatever that disease is called [where one eats far too much food then throws up] ate up all the food stamp allowance for the month) made it an undesirable situation for him. Furthermore, according to Raymond, she refused to clean up their apartment. I said to Raymond, it sounds a lot like when you were living here with me, doesn't it?

He had been coming around every day or two to get messages left for him on the phone and hint at how much he missed being here with me. Finally he came out and asked yesterday could he return? I told him I would 'give it a lot of thought' which I have been doing but that if he was permitted to return here, he would have to commit to at least one hour of housework daily, which is more than ample; after all, I have a housekeeper from Windsor Place (our local housekeeping service) who comes around every Wednesday for a couple hours and her work plus what Raymond could do if he would help would be quite adequate.

I sort of remember Ira Jones, an older guy who helped me out a lot now about forty years ago; Ira was gay and also an Episcopalian (not that either of those two conditions _should matter_ although I guess they do) and I did not treat Ira as nicely as I should have either, but he was kind to me and forgiving; the very least I can do is return what he gave me. Ira died several years ago from a heart attack.

Well, Raymond is my chance to pay back the kindnesses Ira showed me over the years. I only hope Raymond continues to 'pay it forward' as he gets older, and hopefully less screwed up in his thinking, etc.

PAT

Another Small Girl Victimized, Murdered by Heterosexual Couple

How long will these idiot social workers continue to allow straight people to raise children when so many of them abuse and even murder the kids in their custody, all the while claiming that homosexuals cannot be allowed to adopt children because it would be a bad influence?

By VERENA DOBNIK, Associated Press Writer


Friends, family and strangers said a tearful goodbye to a 7-year-old girl allegedly beaten to death by an abusive stepfather, with a priest assuring that the young victim was now "beyond the touch of evil."

The sounds of weeping filled St. Mary Church as the body of Nixzmary Brown lay inside a coffin before an altar still decorated with Christmas poinsettias.

"We have a reminder by the death of this child that the violence continues," said the Rev. Robert O'Neil, the church pastor. "She is a witness for us."

Nixzmary's stepfather, Cesar Rodriguez, allegedly beat the 7-year-old on Jan. 10 for taking a yogurt from the family's refrigerator.

According to Brooklyn District Attorney Charles J. Hynes, Rodriguez banished the girl to a rodent-infested room with a litter box filled with feces, a wooden chair tied to a radiator and dirty mattresses, then later beat her and dunked her head into a bathtub. Nixzmary was dead the next morning.

Rodriguez and the girl's mother, Nixzaliz Santiago, were indicted Tuesday on charges of second-degree murder, child endangerment and assault. The mother allegedly ignored her daughter's cries for help.

The family had been monitored by the city's Administration for Children's Services, and the agency launched a review of thousands of other cases after Nixzmary's death.

In Nixzmary's case, there had been warning signs, but ACS officials said the family was uncooperative. School employees last year reported the girl had been absent for weeks, but caseworkers found no conclusive evidence of abuse, authorities said. Neighbors also said they had noticed unexplained injuries.

Lucy Rivera, 60, had never met Nixzmary or her family but felt obliged to attend the service in her Manhattan neighborhood. Rivera blamed the little girl's mother for failing to protect the child.

"The first person who should have defended her was the mother," she said. "She was the first person who failed her."

O'Neil told the mourners that the little girl had moved on to a better place: "Nixzmary is now surrounded by love, beyond the touch of evil."


Copyright © 2006 The Associated Press.


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8th Grader Shot by SWAT Police Dies

Fla. Eighth-Grader Shot by Deputies Dies By KELLI KENNEDY, Associated Press Writer


A reportedly suicidal teenager who was shot by police while brandishing a toy pellet gun in his middle school has died of his injuries, his family's spokeswoman said Saturday.

Kelly Swofford, a neighbor who had been with the family all morning, stood outside their home and confirmed that 15-year-old Christopher Penley had died.

"They want to donate his organs because that is what Chris would want," Swofford said. "The family is devastated, just devastated."

Penley, of Winter Springs, was accused of pulling the pellet gun in a classroom Friday and pointing it at other students before forcing one into a closet, then leading deputies and SWAT team members on a chase that ended in a school bathroom.

When he raised the gun at a deputy, a SWAT team member shot him, authorities said.

Officers who had responded to the 1,100-student school in suburban Orlando believed the gun was a Beretta 9mm, and didn't learn until after the shooting that it was a harmless toy pellet gun.

Police had said Friday night that the boy was on "advanced life support." The hospital refused to release any information Saturday.

"Everybody in the whole neighborhood is really upset," Paul Cavallini, who lives across the street from the Penleys, said Saturday. "He was a quiet kid — polite and everything. He was just a normal teenager."

However, friends and investigators say he was also bullied and emotionally distraught, and went to school that day expecting to die.

Patrick Lafferty, a 15-year-old neighbor who has known Penley about six years, said he wasn't surprised by what happened. He said Penley was a loner who "told me he wanted to kill himself dozens of times."

"He would put his headphones on and walk up and down the street and he would work out a lot," preferring to keep to himself, Lafferty said.

Swofford said the boy had run away from home several times. Her 11-year-old son, Jeffery Swofford, said Penley had said he had something planned.

"He said `I hope I die today because I don't really like my life,'" Jeffery Swofford said.

At a news conference following the shooting Friday at suburban Orlando's Milwee Middle School, authorities put the pellet gun side-by-side with a Beretta. It appeared to have black paint covering the red or pink markings on the muzzle that may have indicated to officers that it was a nonlethal weapon.

"As you can see, it doesn't take a professional to see how close this looks to the real thing. I would not be able to tell the difference," said Joyce Dawley, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement special agent in charge of the investigation.

Seminole County Sheriff Don Eslinger said the incident began about 9:38 a.m., when another student saw Penley with the weapon and struggled with him for it. Pointing the gun at the other student's back, Penley directed him to a closet, dimmed the lights and left the classroom, Eslinger said.

The school went into lockdown.

From there, the sheriff said, Penley traversed the school campus before ending up in a bathroom. By then, more than 40 officers, including SWAT and negotiators, were on scene. He refused to drop the firearm, Eslinger said, and was shot after pointing it at a SWAT deputy.

"The student said he was going to kill himself or die," Eslinger said.

Jeffery Swofford said Penley had been in a disagreement with someone, allegedly over a girl. There was going to be a fight Friday, he said. "I heard a rumor that he had a BB gun, but I didn't think he really had one," he added.

At the school Friday, Marie Hargis, whose son and daughter attend Milwee, held a sign that read "Stop the violence."

"My youngest daughter is just very emotionally messed up," she said. "She started crying and said, `Mommy, I don't want to go back.' They should not fear having to go to school."


Copyright © 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.


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[I wonder if it is too much to ask that the police officer (a SWAT team person trained to kill first and ask questions later) at least be closely questioned about his role in this; why he ignored the fact that it was a non-lethal BB gun instead of the 'real thing'? PAT]

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Gay Cannibal Sentenced After Eating a Guy He Met on Internet

German court retries man in cannibal case
Gay.com U.K.
Friday, January 13, 2006 / 10:07 AM
SUMMARY: The cannibal who ate a lover he met on the Internet was back in court Thursday, after his original sentence of eight years was deemed too lenient.

The cannibal who ate a lover he met on the Internet was back in court Thursday in a retrial, after his original sentence of eight years was deemed too lenient.

German man Armin Meiwes, 44, was sentenced in 2004 after a grisly trial that had grabbed headlines around the world.

He admitted advertising for a lover that would allow him to kill and eat him as part of a sexual game, then following through the fantasy with Bernd Jurgen Brandes, 42. However, he argued against a murder charge, saying that Brandes was a willing participant who gained his own sexual gratification by being killed.

The original court ruled against murder, since it could not prove that Brandes was not a willing participant in the act. It was shown a video that detailed the whole process, including how Meiwes cut off Brandes' penis and ate it while his victim was still alive.

He also stored body parts in his freezer before consuming them over the course of a few months.

The appeals court in Germany says that Meiwes should be in jail for murder, claiming he had killed purely for sexual gratification and had duped the courts.

Prosecutors told the retrial Thursday in its opening session that Meiwes should be imprisoned for life.

The accused is expected to reject the claims and maintain that he was only conducting something similar to euthanasia, press reports suggest.
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Readers may recall we had our very own gay cannibal here in the USA several years ago in the persona of Jeff Dahmer late, of Milwaukee, WI fame. Mr. Dahmer used to commute back and forth between Milwaukee and Chicago, where he came to select from the 'buffet' at the various gay bars along north Halstead Street, and the 'take out' menu. He would then take his meal home to Milwaukee and enjoy it there. He got away with this atrocious behavior for a couple years and even though the neighbors in Milwaukee called police on him a few times, they (the neighbors) were told to shut up and mind their own business. It seems Milwaukee police were too busy raiding the gay bars and hassling the gay men and women of their town to get involved with someone actually killing and eating the gay guys. A woman who called police several times to report that Dahmer had picked up a teenage boy and taken him to his home, drugged the boy and was setting about preparing his dinner was told by police if she called any further on the topic she would wind up getting arrested instead.

When Milwaukee Police finally responded to the commotions and found this young boy naked and in handcuffs, they accepted Dahmer's bullshit line about it being just a 'lovers quarrel' and were about to release the boy back into Dahmer's custody when one of the officers smelled a funny odor around the apartment and went to investigate. In the bedroom he found a hundred gallon drum filled with body parts, and in the kitchen next to it, in the refrigerator three or four human heads and human penises. The police officer understandably opened the back door, went on the back porch and vomited.

And, the really sad part, back in Chicago no one had even reported the half dozen or so guys Dahmer had eaten over the past two years missing. No one thought that at all strange, or if they did, they knew good and well police would ignore them. I think a mother or father of one of the young gay guys who showed up missing (and unknown to anyone killed and eaten) did complain to police who chose to humor and ignore them as often as not. But, its the police for you. What would you expect?

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SWAT Team Shoots 8th Grade Boy in School

SWAT Team Shoots Armed Fla. 8th-Grader By KELLI KENNEDY, Associated Press Writer

A suicidal eighth grader who pulled a handgun in class and forced another child into a closet was shot by a sheriff's SWAT team member Friday when he later threatened deputies, Seminole County officials said.

Sheriff Don Eslinger said the 15-year-old boy brought the gun to Milwee Middle School in his backpack. Eslinger said two students saw it and one persuaded the other to report it, causing a scuffle.

The alleged gunman told one of the students to go into a closet, ran from the classroom and "traveled with this firearm throughout the campus," Eslinger said. Deputies eventually isolated him in a restroom, and the school was evacuated.

"At one time he held the gun to his neck. As the deputies attempted to establish dialogue, he raised the firearm and lethal force was used by the sheriff's office," Eslinger said.

The boy was taken to the hospital. His condition was unknown.

"He was suicidal," Eslinger said. "During this standoff, and during the chase, the student said he was going to kill himself or die."

No one else was injured. Officials with the sheriff's office said they had not confirmed whether the gun the boy had was real or a toy.

Classes were canceled for the rest of the day, and frantic parents arrived to pick up their children.

"When I saw the news, I just couldn't believe this was my daughter's school. I came right away," said Anil Santos, whose daughter, Aleister, is in eighth grade.

Sarah Tivy, 12, said some students were frightened, but she appeared calm.

"I just figured that if someone is going to bring a gun to school, then they need to be taken out of school," she said.

Copyright © 2006 The Associated Press.


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[But you'd think regular police officers -- as opposed to a SWAT Team -- might have been able to resolve this peacefully, instead of shooting the kid. at least, you would think so. PAT]

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School Shooters Elude Easy Profiling

School shooters elude profiling, easy answers

RUBÉN ROSARIO

The scenario is chillingly familiar: A troubled youth walks into his school, dressed in black and well armed with weapons and a pent-up rage thirsting for a violent release.

Deliberately stepping across the same line of morality and conscience that keeps most of us in check, he guns down two fellow students. A third victim is one of his teachers, the same one who weeks earlier wrote "a pleasure to have in class'' on his A-filled report card.

At least eight students knew — as far back as a year — of the shooter's intentions. Some were even consulted on where to obtain ammunition. None told an adult or authority. The boy complained to school officials of being teased, and he wrote poems filled with thoughts about death and violence.

This was not Jeffrey Weise, the 16-year-old Red Lake, Minn., youth who gunned down five students, a teacher and a security guard at his high school before taking his own life March 21.

The shooter was Barry Loukaitis, 14, a boy from Moses Lake, Wash., whose 1996 school shooting spree is among 37 school shootings since 1974 studied in a 2-year-old report conducted by the U.S. Secret Service and the U.S. Education Department.

It's a must read, given recent events, for law enforcement officials, school educators, parents, students and the knee-jerkers who want to arm teachers and turn schools into armed campuses.

The report confirms some perceptions and shatters others, including that virtually all were planned and not random or impulsive acts:

• Prior to most incidents, other people knew about the attacker's idea or plan to attack.

• Most shooters did not threaten their targets directly prior to the event.

• There is no accurate or useful "profile" of students who engage in targeted school violence.

• Most attackers gave out warning signs in some behavior prior to the incident that caused others concern or indicated a need for help.

• Most shooters had difficulty coping with significant losses or personal failures. Moreover, many considered or attempted suicide.

• Many attackers felt bullied, persecuted or injured by others prior to the attack.

• Most attackers had access to and had used weapons before the incident.

• In many cases, as is suspected in the Red Lake shootings, other students were involved in some capacity.

• Despite prompt police responses, most shooting incidents were stopped by means other than law enforcement intervention.

Also, most shooters were doing well in school at the time of the attack, generally receiving As and Bs in their courses, and two-thirds of the attackers came from two-parent families.

Although the report points out that stopping a determined shooter is nearly impossible, it offers suggestions to reduce the likelihood of such events. None advocates arming schools, still statistically a far safer place for a child to be than either the streets or even a home. In the first half of the 1997-98 school year, 2,500 children in the United States were murdered or committed suicide. Less than 1 percent of those deaths, including those from multiple-victim homicides, occurred at school.

Improved communication between children and adults — not arming teachers or turning campuses into armed camps — is perhaps the key solution cited by the study's researchers. Another is encouraging students who know of a fellow student's expressed intent to report their suspicions to authorities.

Other recommendations include:

• Adopting a "strong but caring'' stance against the code of silence.

• Prevention of, and intervention in, bullying.

• Involvement of all members of the school community in planning, creating and sustaining a school culture of safety and respect.

• Development of trusting relationships between each student and at least one adult at school.

Study researcher William Pollack, a Harvard assistant clinical psychology professor and a consultant to the U.S. Secret Service, notes that all the school shooters studied were male.

He advocates more attempts at listening to and communicating with boys that are not shame-based.

"It's not that females can't be violent, and we did have one female shooter who was outside our time frame of study," said Pollack. "But there's clearly a male code at work here. Females are more likely to come out, to break that code of silence, to seek help."

"It's about communication, not about firearms, or armed guards or security surveillance cameras,'' says Richard Lawrence, a criminal justice professor at St. Cloud State University and author of "School Crime and Juvenile Justice'' (Oxford University Press).

"If the students, the teachers and the parents get involved and might know what's going on in a kid's life, then perhaps we can begin to better detect students at risk and those at risk for violence. We need more mental detectors, not metal detectors, in schools.''

ONLINE

To read the U.S. Secret Service's study and guide on school shootings, go to www.secretservice.gov.

This report includes information from the Chicago Sun-Times. Rubén Rosario can be reached at rrosario@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-5454.

© 2005 St. Paul Pioneer Press and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
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Police Officer Makes a Truthful Movie, Finally

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Officer's New Video Stirs More Ire in San Francisco
By CAROLYN MARSHALL

But, at least it is a truthful account of police officers everywhere!


SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 8 - The police officer whose amateur video raised concerns among city officials about racism, sexism and homophobia within the San Francisco Police Department is hoping his filmmaking skills can help undo the damage and refocus the debate. But critics suggest he is making matters worse.

The officer, Andrew Cohen, was temporarily suspended last month along with 23 other officers connected to the video, which depicted uniformed and plainclothes officers in skits that mocked the homeless, gay men and lesbians, African-Americans and others.

Though reinstated, the police officers remain under investigation in the making of the videotape, and Officer Cohen and some others have been reassigned.

Now Officer Cohen has embarked on a one-man public relations effort to promote a 28-minute video - which he started working on two years ago and calls a serious documentary - that shows the difficulties of police work in some of the city's most crime-ridden and violent neighborhoods.

"This will show you what I'm all about and what the department is about," Officer Cohen said at a screening of the video on Wednesday. "The officers that were suspended are nothing like the accusations."

Peter Ragone, a spokesman for Mayor Gavin Newsom, said that Officer Cohen was "acting unilaterally" in publicizing his new video and that the mayor and Police Chief Heather Fong had no part in the effort. Mr. Ragone said many people, including fellow officers, had asked Officer Cohen to "stop trying to promote himself."

"I honestly do not know, nor do I care to speculate, about what Mr. Cohen and his lawyer are up to," Mr. Ragone said.

Whatever the intent, Mr. Ragone added: "It doesn't change the fact that we have videos that make fun of Chief Fong's Asian heritage and segments that have a white officer running over a black homeless woman. There is simply nothing funny about it."

Before screening the new video at the 4-Star Theater, Officer Cohen urged members of the public in the overflow crowd to focus on his serious filmmaking efforts, which have included the production of at least eight educational videos for and about the Police Department.

"Forget about the comedy video," he said during the free screening, which was viewed by several hundred people. "It's got to go away."

Many in the audience, though, said afterward that the film's promotion had led them to expect that they were going to see the controversial video.

"Everybody feels lied to," said Damien Ross, 25. "We all came to see something, and it wasn't shown."

Jeff Simmons, 45, described the video that was shown as "a half-hour infomercial."

"I know it's tough to be a cop in the Bayview," Mr. Simmons said. "The question is: Were the clips a glimpse into what the cops really think about the people they serve?"

Mr. Simmons, echoing others, said he had wanted to see the skits to make up his own mind about the controversy they have generated.

"I know the mayor's spin; I know the police spin," he said. "Where can I actually see the video?"

Called "Inside the S.F.P.D.: The Bayview," the new video being promoted by Officer Cohen depicts officers from the city's Bayview station, where he worked when he shot it, in dicey confrontations, arresting suspects, rescuing bloodied victims and rounding up drug dealers in a troubled neighborhood. Woven through the scenes are interviews with the officers, who speak about the dangers of police work.

Parts of the movie were also used to produce the controversial "comedy video." That video spliced together tape, much of it shot while Officer Cohen and the other officers were on duty, that parodied the life of police officers. Sexually explicit skits spoofed the television series "Charlie's Angels," and some segments showed officers ignoring crime dispatches. Officer Cohen said the video was intended as a gag for the station's annual Christmas party.

Clips from the Christmas video first appeared on Officer Cohen's personal Web site but were more widely distributed at a news conference on Dec. 7 held by Mayor Newsom and Chief Fong, who said they were outraged about the contents. There was also a strong reaction among many Asian-American, African-American and gay and lesbian residents, resuscitating accusations of racism and sexism in the Police Department.

In an open letter to the San Francisco Police Commission, Asian community leaders called for disciplinary action against the 24 officers.

"This video vividly illustrates disrespect towards the disenfranchised communities of San Francisco and represents a fundamental breach in the promise of the city's police officers to protect and serve our communities," the letter said.

Mr. Ragone, the mayor's spokesman, said the Police Department's investigation could last several months. In cases of wrongdoing, he said, discipline could include a formal reprimand or dismissal.

Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company


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[Editor's Note: But, it is great to see a police officer be truthful about his true feelings for a change. What he shows in the movie is not good -- its the usual piss and shit all over 'prisoners' and 'scum' routine; the way police officers tend to deal with anyone they don't like, which is most of the world. One good attribute this man has is being honest about his feelings. The main reason most police feel their job is 'dangerous' is because of their own arrogance toward main stream society, and their expectation that they are something special and so much different. ]

More About Raymond Minix and His Cat, Sassy

Last week in this blog I mentioned my former roomate, Raymond Minix and how much (to be really honest) I miss having him around. I found out he had been staying with a friend of his,a guy named Vernon a few doors away; that is he had been staying there. He came back over here Sunday evening to pick up a few things he had left behind and told me an interesting story about the loyalty and love a person can have for their animal creatures:

It seems two nights earlier, Friday night, this Vern person had come home from somewhere and was drunk. In the meantime, Sassy the cat had been inspecting an air mattress in one of the rooms, and as cats will do, had clawed the mattress and gotten a tiny, slow-leaking -- but none the less leaking -- hole in the thing which allowed the air to escape.

Vern found the tiny hole made by the cat's claws, and got into a raging battle with Raymond about it, and announced "now that the mattress is ruined, you have to sleep on it, I will use yours instead." And with that, Vern picked up the cat and swung the cat overhead by its tail and threw it out the door. The cat, flying through the air landed against the side of a tree nearby, screamed in pain and ran off. Poor Raymond was flabbergasted that anyone would torture a small animal like that. Frankly, so was I when he told me about it.

It took Raymond about an hour to locate the cat (it was late at night, and coax the cat to come out from where it was hiding,)and when he tried to take the cat back in the house, the cat (as would seem obvious) was too frightened to go back inside, so Raymond locked the little cat up in the garage behind their house. He took the cat's food bowl amd water dish in the garage, turned on the heat back there a little, and left the animal there overnight to try and get itself calmed down. Saturday morning, Raymond immediatly decided he had to move away; no one -- but no one was going to abuse his friend like that.

He threw away a month's rent he had paid this Vern person; went out Saturday morning and looked for a new apartment, and found one on Eighth Street downtown right over a tavern, moving in with a friend of his, a lady he described as a 'fag hag' who agreed to let him stay there; came back to Vern, got all his clothes and other possessions and split. When he came over here to my place to see me later in the day on Sunday, he related all this to me and it frankly floored me also. He had Sassy in his arms, carrying her along. Such a sad case, such a sad guy. I offered him a chance to leave Sassy in a safe place (here) until all the moving commotions were finished, but he insisted she (the cat) would be 'too frightened' to stay here without him, and I am sorry to say, I still cannot see my way clear to having Raymond live here until/unless he receives the mental health counseling he needs.

I hope sometime soon, something _good_ happens in Raymond's life.

Poor Raymond Minix, my former roomate

For many years here in Independence, I lived mostly alone, except for the occasional overnight visitor, etc. Six months ago, back in July, I 'inherited' Raymond Minix. What I mean by that is, this younger guy, in his middle thirties, came to church one Sunday, like a lost puppy, and latched onto me. Raymond is gay, like myself but he has _many_ problems. For one, he is a lifelong epileptic; he has the occassional grand mal seizure, and he has a very hard time finding employment.

Raymond is a _great hairdresser_, and he is a kind and very loving person, most of the time. He has a cat, 'Sassy' which is the love of his life. Raymond has been attempting to get Social Security Disability for about a year, without success. He also receives a very small stipend each month from SRS, and food stamps. But Raymond has other problems, not the least of which are psychological in nature. He is very bummed out by his Epilepsy, and his inability to obtain and hold a job. He obtains a job, tells his employer about his seizures, and they let him go, or maybe he has a seizure at work and they let him go, politely and making excuses for it but attempting to stay within the law pertaining to disabled Americans. He has requested assistance from the National Epilepsy Foundation, and it is coming, but very slowly.

Raymond has wanted a 'lover' for many years, and seems very disappointed by not being able to find one on a steady long-term basis. When he first came here to stay with me after he fell behind in his rent where he was living, he assumed that he and I would be lovers. And he _is_ a nice looking fellow if that was my criteria. But I thought I was trying to help him and counsel him and that it would not be appropriate to have him as a lover under those conditions. In essence, I think I wound up 'enabling' his psychological illness. He was very abusive from the first day I met him, would frequently have a panic attack when he thought he was going to be evicted, etc. I tried very hard to show him as much kindness as I am capable of -- even though I could not _love_ him, and just dealt with him as politely as I could. When he now and then has a very _lucid_ thinking period, I have encouraged him to get into counseling at our local mental health center and he started doing that. His birthday was December 26, the day after Christmas, and he was particularly moody that day. He smokes marijuana -- and claims he has a medical mark on his records allowing him to do so. Anyway, on December 26 in the late evening he had one of his panic attacks and became impossible to live with; I had to ask him to leave, after some argument he did so, as we had earlier set a date of 'the end of the year' for him to on his feet and independent. I have felt very bad since that time; have considered asking him to return here to live as he had been doing, but as I think about it, I feel I have to first look out for myself and my own ill health. I do miss him a lot as a friend, and find the past several months on the one hand to have been a distasteful period in my life, but on the other side my own religious upbringing says to try to help those less fortunate than myself, which I did try to do. This experience has made a miserable failure of myself as well, I am sorry to say. Raymond was fond of saying to me that "God brought us together for a reason" and that may be so ... I have to wonder if Raymond is still around town, with his cat Sassy ...

Southern Baptist Minister Arrested For Gay Prostitution and Soliciting

Southern Baptist leader arrested for soliticing policeman
Minister says he was in the area ministering to people

An executive committee member of the Southern Baptist Convention was arrested on a lewdness charge for propositioning a plainclothes policeman outside a hotel, police said.

Pastor Lonnie Latham has spoken out against gay marriage and urged gays to reject their 'sinful, destructive lifestyle.'
Lonnie Latham, senior pastor at South Tulsa Baptist Church, was booked into Oklahoma County Jail Tuesday night on a misdemeanor charge of offering to engage in an act of lewdness, police Capt. Jeffrey Becker said. Latham was released on $500 bail Wednesday afternoon.

Latham, who has spoken out against homosexuality, asked the officer to join him in his hotel room for oral sex. Latham was arrested and his 2005 Mercedes automobile was impounded, Becker said.

Calls to Latham at his church were not immediately returned Wednesday.

The arrest took place in the parking lot of the Habana Inn, which is in an area where the public has complained about male prostitutes flagging down cars, Becker said. The plainclothes officers was investigating these complaints.

The lewdness charge carries a penalty of up to one year in jail and a $2,500 fine.

After posting bond, Latham told KFOR-TV in Oklahoma City that he was set up, and was in the area ministering to people.

Latham is one of four Southern Baptist Convention executive committee members from Oklahoma.

He spoke out last year against a measure, ultimately approved by voters, to expand tribal gaming.

He has also spoken out against same-sex marriage and in support of a Southern Baptist Convention directive urging its 42,000 churches to befriend gays and lesbians and try to convince them that they can become heterosexual "if they accept Jesus Christ as their savior and reject their 'sinful, destructive lifestyle."

The Southern Baptist Convention is the nation's largest Protestant denomination.

To discuss this further, please to to our IRC chat room Social Issues Forum

Still Another Case of a Heterosexual Woman Having a Baby

Here is still a third example just today of a heterosexual (straight) lady having a baby and abusing it to the point of its death later the same day. How long is the government going to continue to allow straight people to have babies and abuse them? We are told homosexuals should not be allowed to adopt children, since they are 'likely to' wind up molesting them. Well, a 'maybe molestation possible' is better than an actual child murder, a child torture and keeping a child locked up in a cage, all three instances of same we have seen in this forum today. Yet, we hear nothing about restrictions under the law regards straight people having kids, its only us homosexuals who have to be watched out for. Sounds like someone is a little screwy, wouldn't you say.

PAT

S.D. Woman Admits Putting Baby in Landfill
By CARSON WALKER, Associated Press Writer


Saying she was afraid of how her boyfriend would react, a woman admitted Wednesday to throwing away her newborn, whose body was found in a garbage bag at a Nebraska landfill.

Lori Schultz, 21, pleaded guilty in Union County court to second-degree manslaughter, in an agreement with prosecutors. She could receive up to 10 years in prison at sentencing, set for Feb. 28.

Prosecutors first plan to have Schultz testify under oath before a grand jury to see if charges are warranted against Paul Alan Lundberg, her boyfriend at the time and the baby's father.

Schultz told Judge Steven Jensen that the Air Force discharged her for being pregnant, but she didn't tell her parents or friends why she was kicked out.

"I knew I would have the baby. I figured I would go to the hospital and figure out what to do. I was scared and embarrassed," Schultz said tearfully.

The night before Feb. 2, 2004, she was in a lot of pain, didn't sleep well and concluded she was in labor, she said.

She then had the baby and cut the cord.

"I got scared and I put him on the bathroom rug and put towels around him. I saw that he was a boy. I didn't know what Paul would do and I panicked so I wrapped him (the baby) in towels and put him in garbage bags."

Schultz said she put the bundle in a trash can, saw the baby move and wanted to bring him inside but was afraid of Lundberg's response.

She said when Lundberg came in and asked where all the blood had come from, told him she was menstruating.

When he went to the store for her, she wheeled the garbage can to the end of the driveway, Schultz said.

Then she heard the baby whimper.

"I wanted to bring him back inside but I didn't know what Paul would do," she said.

A volunteer searcher at a Jackson, Neb., landfill found the body April 5, 2004.
(About two months later).



Copyright © 2006 The Associated Press.

To discuss this or other topics about heterosexual bigotry (particularly in the Bush administration) toward gay people please go to: Social Issues Forum"

More About Allowing Heterosexuals to be Parents

[Note Just a bit more about what happens when heteroexuals are allowed to be parents or adopt children. PAT]

Parents Accused of Abuse Say They'll Change Wed Jan 4, 9:33 AM ET

A couple accused of abusing their 11 adopted special-needs children by making them sleep in cages defended their actions but said they'd be willing to give up the enclosures to get the children back.

Michael and Sharen Gravelle said they would be more lenient and would send the home-schooled children, who have a host of health and behavioral problems, to public school.

"I will do whatever is necessary to get our children home," Michael Gravelle told The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer in Tuesday's editions.

A judge ruled Dec. 22 during a custody hearing that making the children sleep in wooden cages without pillows or mattresses constituted abuse. The judge also decided to keep the children, ages 1 to 15, in foster care.

The Gravelles defended their initial decision to make some of the children sleep in the cages. They said the enclosures were necessary to keep the children from harming themselves or one another.

"We did it for their safety," Michael Gravelle said. "Those were the final products of everything we did."

The children have problems such as fetal alcohol syndrome and a disorder that involves eating dirt.

The Gravelles have not been charged with a crime. Prosecutor Russ Leffler said he plans to go to a grand jury to pursue criminal charges this month.

The Gravelles could regain custody, with some restrictions, after a Jan. 18 hearing.

"I use my faith," the father said. "We have been knocked down, not destroyed."

Copyright © 2006 The Associated Press.



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understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance, Associated Press.

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Gee, and They Claim We Gay Guys Cannot be Good Parents

How interesting ... the little guy had an accident and his heterosexual mother winds up killing him by scalding him in hot water. It really makes you want to cry, doesn't it? And yet, we gay people should not be allowed to get married, or have children because, well, you know ... we may be pedophiles or otherwise a 'bad influence' on little folks. Wouldn't it make more sense to take all the 'regular women' and detirmine if they are mentally stable enough to be allowed to give birth before entrusting them with a precious little life?

Happy New Year, all you idiot social workers! PAT]

----------------------------------

Burned Boy's Mother Was Accused of Abuse

A woman charged with killing her 3-year-old son on Christmas Day by scalding him with hot water as punishment for soiling his diaper has been investigated at least six times for abuse allegations since 1997, records show.

Valerie Love Kennedy, 30, was accused Oct. 12 of using drugs in front of two of her other children, a 10-month-old and a 2-year-old, according to a report from ChildNet, the private agency supervising state child placements in Broward County.


[PAT Note: Yeah, tell me all about the ignorant and incompetent 'social workers' in Florida! My late sister, hardly an angel herself, gave birth to a baby girl in 1983. She was not married, just 'living with a guy' and the social worker from the Family Services in Broward County took one look around and decided to remove the baby from the home, and place the baby in state custody. Within about two weeks, the baby had been sexually molested by the family she had been placed with. Social worker gets all apologetic that it happened, but oh, well, just remember that when the government gets involved in those things,time and again whatever they touch turns into shit! PAT]

Both of the children showed signs of physical abuse when a doctor examined them this week, prosecutor Phillippa Hitchins said Tuesday in court. Kennedy has had 10 children, with two dying at birth. It was unclear if any children remained in her custody before her arrest.

In 2001, "medical neglect and physical abuse" led the state to remove five children from Kennedy's house, authorities said. That case led the state to remove Jaquez Mason from Kennedy two months after his premature birth in 2002, according to ChildNet and Broward County sheriff's investigators.

Jaquez was placed with his maternal grandmother, Annie Love Williams, with a court ruling that Kennedy could have no contact with him. But Kennedy had the child at her home on Christmas Day, when she allegedly burned the boy, sheriff's officials said.

Williams then didn't get him proper medical care for his third-degree burns, keeping him at her home for a week before he died on New Year's Day, officials said.

Sheriff's officials said that preliminary reports from medical examiners showed that Jaquez "probably would have survived" had he received proper medical care.

Kennedy is in jail without bail on a murder charge. Williams, 51, was charged with aggravated manslaughter and is free on $10,000 bail.

Abuse allegations had also been made against Williams before the boy's death.

In December 2003, a call to an abuse hot line alleged that Williams had ignored a child who had tied a string so tightly around her finger that it cut off circulation. Eventually the tip of her finger was amputated, ChildNet reported. Williams later said the girl never mentioned any pain.

Copyright © 2006 The Associated Press.


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For more information go to:
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To discuss this topic further, please go to our chat area: Social Issues Forum

Guys Who Need to Build Up Courage

A message I recieved today in email worth passing along:
_____

From: OutAtWork@aol.com [mailto:OutAtWork@aol.com]
Sent: Monday, January 02, 2006 2:12 PM
To: ICT-GLBT-PoliticalForum-owner@yahoogroups.com
Subject: "Out at Work" Documentary for LOGO

Dear ICT-GLBT Yahoo Group,

We are currently casting for an important new documentary to be aired on
LOGO, the LGBT network. We are eager to speak to Americans from around the
country with varying experiences, and wondered if you would be willing to
post this casting call to your group message board?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Sincerely,
The Team at LOGO


Do you want your coming out at work story to be told?
Award-winning documentary filmmakers seek dynamic subjects for a
sensitive, smart documentary called "Out at Work". This one-hour
documentary will air on LOGO, the LGBT network from Viacom and MTV
Networks, and will profile Americans who are planning to come out at
work within the next few months, or are currently faced with challenges
because they are out at work.

If you are...

Coming Out: Planning on coming out at work, but worried about
the repercussions

Starting something new: Starting a new job or position where you
have to come out all over again

Making a statement: Challenging traditional ideas of gender and
sexuality by doing a job most people wouldn't expect you to do

Experiencing unfair treatment: Working in an environment that
you feel is hostile to LGBT employees

Continuing the coming out process: Only partially out at work,
but planning to take a bigger step

.then we want to hear from you!

Please email your story to OutAtWork@aol.com and include:
Your name
Where you live
Your phone number and email
A photo, if possible

You may just become an inspiration for others embarking on this journey.

+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=
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America Kidnapped Me

From Michael Moore.com and originally the Los Angeles Times. Read it and weep. This is what your president thinks is completely legal to do.

MichaelMoore.com
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=5222

December 19th, 2005 4:40 pm
America kidnapped me

By Khaled El-Masri for the Los Angeles Times

KHALED EL-MASRI, a German citizen born in Lebanon, was a car salesman before he was detained in December 2003.

THE U.S. POLICY of "extraordinary rendition" has a human face, and it is mine.

I am still recovering from an experience that was completely beyond the pale, outside the bounds of any legal framework and unacceptable in any civilized society. Because I believe in the American system of justice, I sued George Tenet, the former CIA director, last week. What happened to me should never be allowed to happen again.

I was born in Kuwait and raised in Lebanon. In 1985, when Lebanon was being torn apart by civil war, I fled to Germany in search of a better life. There I became a citizen and started my own family. I have five children.

On Dec. 31, 2003, I took a bus from Germany to Macedonia. When we arrived, my nightmare began. Macedonian agents confiscated my passport and detained me for 23 days. I was not allowed to contact anyone, including my wife.

At the end of that time, I was forced to record a video saying I had been treated well. Then I was handcuffed, blindfolded and taken to a building where I was severely beaten. My clothes were sliced from my body with a knife or scissors, and my underwear was forcibly removed. I was thrown to the floor, my hands pulled behind me, a boot placed on my back. I was humiliated.

Eventually my blindfold was removed, and I saw men dressed in black, wearing black ski masks. I did not know their nationality. I was put in a diaper, a belt with chains to my wrists and ankles, earmuffs, eye pads, a blindfold and a hood. I was thrown into a plane, and my legs and arms were spread-eagled and secured to the floor. I felt two injections and became nearly unconscious. I felt the plane take off, land and take off. I learned later that I had been taken to Afghanistan.

There, I was beaten again and left in a small, dirty, cold concrete cell. I was extremely thirsty, but there was only a bottle of putrid water in the cell. I was refused fresh water.

That first night I was taken to an interrogation room where I saw men dressed in the same black clothing and ski masks as before. They stripped and photographed me, and took blood and urine samples. I was returned to the cell, where I would remain in solitary confinement for more than four months.

The following night my interrogations began. They asked me if I knew why I had been detained. I said I did not. They told me that I was now in a country with no laws, and did I understand what that meant?

They asked me many times whether I knew the men who were responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks, if I had traveled to Afghanistan to train in camps and if I associated with certain people in my town of Ulm, Germany. I told the truth: that I had no connection to any terrorists, had never been in Afghanistan and had never been involved in any extremism. I asked repeatedly to meet with a representative of the German government, or a lawyer, or to be brought before a court. Always, my requests were ignored.

In desperation, I began a hunger strike. After 27 days without food, I was taken to meet with two Americans — the prison director and another man, referred to as "the Boss." I pleaded with them to release me or bring me before a court, but the prison director replied that he could not release me without permission from Washington. He also said that he believed I should not be detained in the prison.

After 37 days without food, I was dragged to the interrogation room, where a feeding tube was forced through my nose into my stomach. I became extremely ill, suffering the worst pain of my life.

After three months, I was taken to meet an American who said he had traveled from Washington, D.C., and who promised I would soon be released. I was also visited by a German-speaking man who explained that I would be allowed to return home but warned that I was never to mention what had happened because the Americans were determined to keep the affair a secret.

On May 28, 2004, almost five months after I was first kidnapped, I was blindfolded, handcuffed and chained to an airplane seat. I was told we would land in a country other than Germany, because the Americans did not want to leave traces of their involvement, but that I would eventually get to Germany.

After we landed I was driven into the mountains, still blindfolded. My captors removed my handcuffs and blindfold and told me to walk down a dark, deserted path and not to look back. I was afraid I would be shot in the back.

I turned a bend and encountered three men who asked why I was illegally in Albania. They took me to the airport, where I bought a ticket home (my wallet had been returned to me). Only after the plane took off did I believe I was actually going home. I had long hair, a beard and had lost 60 pounds. My wife and children had gone to Lebanon, believing I had abandoned them. Thankfully, now we are together again in Germany.

I still do not know why this happened to me. I have been told that the American secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, confirmed in a meeting with the German chancellor that my case was a "mistake" — and that American officials later denied that she said this. I was not present at this meeting. No one from the American government has ever contacted me or offered me any explanation or apology for the pain they caused me.

Secretary Rice has stated publicly, during a discussion of my case, that "any policy will sometimes result in errors." But that is exactly why extraordinary rendition is so dangerous. As my interrogators made clear when they told me I was being held in a country with no laws, the very purpose of extraordinary rendition is to deny a person the protection of the law.

I begged my captors many times to bring me before a court, where I could explain to a judge that a mistake had been made. Every time, they refused. In this way, a "mistake" that could have been quickly corrected led to several months of cruel treatment and meaningless suffering, for me and my entire family.

My captors would not bring me to court, so last week I brought them to court. Helped by the American Civil Liberties Union, I sued the U.S. government because I believe what happened to me was illegal and should not be done to others. And I believe the American people, when they hear my story, will agree.


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