Our National Treasure: Children, Detroit, and Dickens

"Our children are our future"--our most precious national resource.
So it is written--but why then, do we treat them so badly!? In every village, in each city, in all countries, the children are magical little us -es. Why do they get such short shrift?

Through a very ingenious, Mystical, fabulously bizzare design, we get together with our two invisible cells and a little us appears! Strange and I wonder who first figured that one out...
In the field of working with abused children, our heads are constantly exploding. We are unable to fathom the desire, let alone the ability some have to deliberately hurt children--physically and psychologically.

I onced worked
 on a project in Florida involving "crack babies"--infants born with addiction to cocaine, due to mommies' inability to shake the habit during pregnancy. (The babies must be held with as little touching as possible, facing away from the caregiver, in order to lessen the stimulus to the child, which is painful.) This example of child abuse shows the range/layers of problems- personal, family, community, and country--that can be involved.
Then there is the pure evil of deliberate abuse. And the selfish desires that lead to neglect. And the national priorities that leave children with table scraps.
You don't need to hear me whine. (Or if you do, i will put some links at the bottom of the post.:-)
I saw a PBS newhour clip about the detroit schools last night.
it struck me, how embarrassing and insane it is that we have stunning new stadiums in our cities, and Exquisite Performing Arts Centers, and new computers every year in our universities--but cannot take our tiny little offspring and give them all they need.
Good Classrooms. Good teachers. Safe places to be. Free parenting classes. Before the fact!

So, in the Kansas City Star today is a book review i want to share (Andrea Warren's Charles Dickens and the Street Children of London). I had a phase, recently, of reading Charles Dickens. He was a child with a very very hard childhood, but was moved by pity by the children who were even worse off than he.

 excerpt from E M Eveld's story in

"A Local Author Salutes Dickens"--

[quoting Warren: ] “It was a cold, blustery London day, but I bundled up and went, and I’m glad I did,” she said. “In nearly every sentence the guide mentioned the name of Charles Dickens. I have a master’s degree in British literature, so I thought I knew something about Dickens.
When I asked about that, she said, ‘Well, you know he’s our greatest reformer. He changed everything for the poor.’ ”
The guide didn’t say greatest writer or novelist. She said reformer. It was Dickens’ choice to write about England’s abandoned children, its debtors’ prisons and workhouses, its pollution and slums. And it was his writing that fueled reforms when few at the height of industrialization seemed to care, Warren said.
...
Warren learned that while Dickens wasn’t born into society’s lowest classes, his family was plunged there by his father’s indebtedness. When Dickens’ father was sent to debtors’ prison, the family became homeless and finally went to live with him at the prison — except for Dickens. At age 12, he was sent to work 10 hours a day, six days a week at a bootblack factory and to live in a run-down boarding house.
“Walking about the city, when he detoured down narrow, twisty streets where the poor lived, he came face-to-face with London’s underworld,” Warren writes about the young Dickens. “The filth and odors of the slums were overwhelming. Wherever he turned, he saw painfully thin children dressed in rags, with hopeless eyes.

“Though despairing of his own situation, he was moved by what he saw and wondered why no one helped the children.... “Whenever he’s writing about the street children, air pollution, foul water, he never lets the reader off the hook,” she said. “Children suffer in his books. His writing is very powerful.
“And reforms followed. When he wrote about the national disgrace of the abuses at the Yorkshire boarding schools in ‘Nicholas Nickleby,’ within a year of publication they were closed.”
...Warren hopes that besides a renewed appreciation for Dickens, young readers will be inspired to use their talents to help others and will recognize that today’s street children are in poorer countries around the globe — some 100 million homeless children. Warren devotes the last section of the book to their plight.
“People who travel in Africa, in Central and South America and Asia, usually aren’t ready for what greets them there, hordes of homeless children,” Warren said. “These are not problems of the past.”

read the entire story and more HERE

I admire the filthy rich who know you can't take it with you,

and spend their wealth on the chillin's. like, oprah, and  bill gates, --

and  Charity Watch also rates/lists top notch charities that get A ratings in directly helping children and families, like Children's Defense Fund and  catholic charities,  and  (surprise) salvation army

and  Pearl S. Buck international and Big Brothers Sisters, and catholic relief fund and  MAZON and many others --

 and what better to spend it on than our "national treasure"?

http://marysbeagooddogblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/train-your-brain-with-pornography-to-be.html

http://marysbeagooddogblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/penn-state-men-in-power-sexually-and.html

http://marysbeagooddogblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/i-suppose-you-mourn-all-children-like.html

http://marysbeagooddogblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/it-is-about-to-begin-children-come-to.html

http://marysbeagooddogblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/somalia-norway-sudan-and-football.html
http://marysbeagooddogblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/hurting-your-own-species.html
http://marysbeagooddogblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/sexual-physical-and-emotional-child.html

The Ugly File: The CDC, Violence Against Teenage Girls. and the Sexualization of Your Child by the Music Industry

A journalist was in Afghanistan some years back and noticed that the women walked several paces behind the men, not alongside as equal partners.
When the journalist returned to the country more recently, the women were actually walking several paces ahead of the men. The journalist asked the locals about the sudden cultural advancement—Why the change? The simple reply — “Land mines.”

For whatever reasons, there is a tendency to treat women poorly in many cultures, throughout history.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,

• about 1 in 5 high school girls have been physically or sexually abused by a dating partner
• 1 in 3 teens report knowing a friend who has been hit, punched, kicked, slapped, choked, or otherwise hurt by his or her partner
• 80% of girls who have been physically abused in their dating relationships continue to date the abuser
• 1 in 5 teenage girls who have been in a relationship said that a boyfriend had threatened violence or self -harm if she threatened to break up with him
• www.unm.edu/-women

more HERE

This is of course, appalling.
 However, we are reaping what we sow.
Music videos, video games, motion pictures, and other media continually show violence against women as a rewarded event, both for the man or boy and the woman or girl.

Our current culture is teaching young boys and girls that girls are a commodity, a thing to be used.

At   the   risk   of   sounding   like   my   father  (!)

here is one column which addresses one piece of this problem.
(to see the column
with its many LINKS and citations at its original site, click HERE.)

Music Industry Sexualizes Your Children  By Rebecca Hagelin (Archive) · Tuesday, August 17, 2010 Culture Challenge of the Week: Music Porn
Every twelve-year-old knows Rihanna. And Katy Perry and Lady Gaga. Do you?

The music industry today is huge, racking up over 1.5 billion in sales in the U.S. alone—and kids are their target audience. It’s an industry that’s no longer primarily about music. It’s become another avenue for selling porn and sexualizing younger and younger children in the process.
Last week, Mike Stock, one of Britain’s top songwriters and producers, denounced his own industry for marketing music that is “99% soft pornography.” The “music industry has gone too far,” he says. Stock, whose own music portfolio in years past included some very explicit lyrics, has changed his tune. He’s a parent now. In Stock’s view, “Kids are being forced to grow up too young” because music videos expose them to explicit images and “sexualize” even young children.”

Gone are the days when parents could protect their children from raunchy music by checking CDs for Tipper Gore-inspired advisories. Much of the music’s not just raunchy anymore--it’s explicitly sexual. And it’s only a download away from limitless play on your child’s iPod.
And the industry excels at promoting across every platform available, especially video. Nearly every major pop star produces pornographic music videos and pushes them to your children through Facebook fan pages (new videos generate tens of thousands of hits in just hours) and YouTube videos, plus MTV.
Live concerts are often worse, like Rihanna’s recent New York appearance, which simulated sex and masturbation before an audience full of pre-teen and adolescent girls.

The stars often reach down into the children’s market to cultivate new fans, creating brand awareness among even the youngest children, ensuring future success and million dollar revenues.

Take, for example, pop star Katy Perry. Wildly popular with the pre-teen set, she has long left her Christian roots behind. In her latest album, “Teenage Dream,” her nearly naked, pornographic romp flashes between beach flirtations and sex in a hotel room. She boasts about resisting record company efforts to tone down her song Peacock, baldly sexual in its connotation, because she spells success “s-e-x.” The same Katy Perry was just featured on Nickolodeon’s “Kid’s Choice” music awards, guests on Sesame Street this fall, and appears in the 2011 kids’ movie, The Smurfs. [The fourth grade girls in my neighborhood love her.]

It’s the kind of purposeful, deliberate, crossover marketing that the music industry has perfected.
How to save your family by monitoring your child’s music.
First, understand the problem. Research shows that exposure to sex on TV dramatically increases the risk that children will become sexually active. Music videos multiply the effect, imprinting pornographic images in our children’s minds that replay every time they hear the song. Even with “neutral” lyrics, the stored images continue to do their damage.
Second, monitor. Unplug the iPod from your child’s ears and check song lists. Don’t recognize the songs? Try Pluggedin.com for the latest music reviews.
Take the time to become familiar with the latest artists, celebrities, and songs so you don’t rely on vague assurances of older siblings or neighbors that “it’s all right.” Use TV parental controls to block channels that feature music videos or music celebrities.
Third, don’t facilitate bad choices. Pop singers perform to sell-out crowds across the country, even in today’s recession. As one observer noted after Rihanna’s lewd performance, “The children attending these shows must have gotten there somehow.”
Fourth, provide alternatives. We can’t simply say “no”—we need to spend time promoting the good too. There are many artists who still have high standards and are actually true musicians. Help support them by introducing your children to them too.
Finally, be consistent. Don’t let battle fatigue wear you down. Our children need to know that we protect them because we love them. And even when we’re tired or worn down, that will never change.

Human Trafficking in Kansas and the USA: Statistics and Links

Our own human trafficking story Click HERE  and MORE Global  STATS click HERE 
The Break your heart site: love 146 HERE

There is good news, and there is bad news.

It is to me a thing most curious, that within our species,

among our own families,
power, strength, should be used to hurt..
Relational violence is mind-bending,
as this Power to Hurt and Control others is used to temporarily take the edge off of feelings of inferiority.

What a loss;

how sad for us, that our culture has so many who will hurt those not only of their own species, but their very mates, their children.



Let me tell you a story.
Several years ago, an email came to my mailbox. It was addressed to the uNiversity president and several coaches who are gone now. This person was desperate to be heard.

The subject line said, One Mother's Plea

I'm writing this letter to you in regard to a STUDENT at your school. His name is Eddie.
On September 1st, I received a late night telephone call from my daughter. She was sobbing uncontrollably, she informed me that EDDIE has been beating/abusing her, for the past three months. Can you imagine receiving such a telephone call from your child?
My daughter's name is CC. She lives off campus. When she was telling me about it over the telephone, I was silent for 10-15 minutes, because I was in complete shock.
Apparently, that night around 9:00 pm, he had beaten her again, causing her mouth to bleed.
One of CC's roommates, Jim, had to pull EDDIE off of her. The police were called and had arrived, but EDDIE had already left the house.
The police told my daughter that it is a slim chance that he will be arrested, because there is no evidence. He has beat her up on numerous occasions.
He has punched her in the face,
kicked her in the stomach,
choked her to point that she can't breathe,
He has spit on her,
Bruised and bloodied her face and neck,
Punched her in the mouth.
He verbally assaults her, calling her names likes bitch.
He has the gall to give her an ice pack after he has beat her up.
EDDIE took it upon himself to take my daughter's spare keyring with her car & her housekey on it. He won't give that back to her.
He has threatened to slash her tires. This arrogant bully is an abuser. He has no right to beat up on my daughter or any other woman.

President W, do you have any children? Do you have a daughter? If so, hopefully, you haven't had to deal with your daughter being abused by a man. I'm so afraid that I'll get a telephone call with news that he has killed her. He has chipped away at her spirit. There is no excuse for this behavior.
The woman got assistance and graduated with honors.

I have Bad News.

Three women died to day at the hands of their husbands or boyfriends.
Tomorrow, three women will die at the hands of their husbands or boyfriends. Friday and Saturday, across America, 3 women will die at the hands of their husbands or boyfriends.
Each day, 4 women die as the eventual result of abuse.
One in three high school students will be involved in an abusive relationship.
60% of young women, ages 15 to 24, are currently involved in an ongoing abusive relationship.
According to the U.S. Surgeon General, domestic violence is the leading cause of injury to women in the United States. That is, the one we love are who is husrting us!
Each day, 3 children die as a result of abuse
Male partners assault 2 million American women each year
95% of the victims of domestic violence are women

We cannot weigh our sorrowful feelings when we consider all those lost to violence, through violence committed by the ones who should have loved them most.
BTW, When someone says,

"WHY DOESN'T SHE JUST LEAVE HIM?" please tell them that women DO leave, and may be beaten and killed, along with their children, when they do.

Rather ask, Why does he do this; how can we help stop it?

To be a survivor–first you must bleed. You bleed all that was inside of you: the pain, the memories, the fear, the wounds fusing together, the ties to what was, in all its forms. You bleed not once but several times.. And when you are empty, you either fade into a shadow or find the strength, and courage to live. When you stand up again, you are for a time, hollow–empty, like a bottle of beer lying on the street, cracked and reeking of its bitter contents. Then you fill yourself up with the new, you recreate yourself–you reform. You don’t have the same heart or mind. The way you see the world is forever changed. Written by Lynn Mari
This Bad News:

The problem of violence, violence among those who are intimate with each other –This is an epidemic.

Now, the research tells us that a third of the children who witness or experience one parent hitting another, who are raised in a forest of uncertainty, pain, sadness, unmet need for justice—little children who put their heads on the pillow at night, wondering, where is the police, where is the judge, where is God, where is Justice!?

One third will grow up with personal problems of depression, anxiety, of mistrustfulness. They may live a faily productive life, but they will not be filled with the joy of life. They carry a weight of sorrow.

Another third will grow into individuals who mistreat their own spouse, their own partner, their own children. They will pass along the malignant traits of cruelty, of control and manipulation as a way to feel good for a minute.
But a third of those little children will grow into fine, loving, strong, giving, peaceful people. A third of those who have been wounded and scared will become strong and brave.

Who here, when you were in grade school, had a teacher who had you grow some beans? And some of those beans were not given enough water, and some were given too much light, and some were in the dark?

And those new little plants suffered because of that injury. But did you know that if you give some plants what they need, if you provide for them the succor they need, the fruit they produce can be richer, sweeter, than that fruit from an unwounded plant? Like a bone is strongest at the broken place, a child who moves through pain can be the strongest most loving and peaceful parent and partner later in life.

Now, That is the good news.
But the bad news gets worse:

I’m sorry to say, this violence committed by those of our own species, Does not limit itself to one on one, or one on three, or one on five.
It Gets worse. I have to tell you some sorrowful information.
Some of our very own species
have chosen to hurt not just families, but entire populations, cultures, races, and now today we speak of this diabolical system of enslaving an entire gender, our own women, and the children, our own children!
The US department of Health and Human Services states that of the 16,000 people trafficked into us each year, half are children!

We are asking people to understand that slavery still exists today; in fact, according to a recent New York Times article, if you count the number of women and children in bonded labor, domestic slavery or sexual slavery today, there are more slaves in the world than at any other time in history.”

– Charlotte Bunch

In the Ukrain, for example, 400,000 women were trafficked in the past ten years
There is a huge market for
• trafficking in children, sale of babies, and illegal adoptions
• kidnapping of children for
• child pornography
• sex tourism in certain countries
• trading in body parts
• smuggling of immigrants
• street prostitution
• serial murder of prostitutes
• domestic trafficking for forced labor
• juvenile runaways who are drawn into prostitution
• domestic abuse of mail order brides
• homeless citizens who are trafficked for forced
labor

The U.S. State Department estimates that between 600,000 and 800,000

persons were trafficked across national borders worldwide
in one year (2004).

Eighty percent of these were female,
70 percent of whom were trafficked
for sexual exploitation.

Of those trafficked into the US, most originate in poorer countries, where human trafficking has
become a significant source of income. Income for who?
Besides trafficking, there is the constant abuse on a large scale of women and children throughout the globe.

One reporter wrote of Congo---“The United Nations report that government troops—even UN so called peacekeepers! are also among those raping and killing women in remote villages in the Congo. Isn’t anyone in power angry and disgusted enough to act?

One of the women who had been raped in the Congo said: “a dead rat is worth more than the body of a woman.” The repeated violations, carried out with impunity, are staggering and should shame all humanity.
Congo: 5 million dead!
This is the sadness around us.

Ask your self, why is there such a market?

Why is there such a market for killing, for sexual trafficking, for child abuse?
Why is there a giant market for child pornography?
Who is driving this abomination?
This is a spiritual wasteland!


In this spiritual wasteland, are you going to stand, are you going to allow your light to illuminate those around you? Now is the time. Now one must choose. Will you help in forcing the media to address this, to make it our national priority or will fear lead you to lose your self?

This is the time to draw the line. It isn’t hard to understand- one must treat the other as oneself. Why I even gotta say it!
It is not time to call those who can hear to act uprightly, and to fight for those who cannot?
I know, the battle has been being waged, it never seems to end—

But here is the reassuring part: I know that justice will come. I have no doubt that all is well in the end.  The Mills of God Grind exceedingly slow, but they grind exceedingly fine. Everything is alright in the end; if everything is not alright, it is not the end.
Here are some thoughts from others I’d like to share with you:

While you SCREAM at your woman, there’s someone wanting to whisper softly in her ear… While you HUMILIATE, OFFEND and INSULT her, there’s someone wanting to please her and remind her how wonderful she is. While you HURT your woman, there’s someone wanting to love her. While you make your woman CRY there’s someone wanting to make her smile…
None who have always been free can understand the terrible fascinating power of the hope of freedom to those who are not free. – Pearl S. Buck

“What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world remains and is immortal.” -Albert Pine

Seasons

are for wisdom and pain,

seasons

are for love and bitterness.

The passing seasons are the walls

that the wounded bounce against,

buttressed,

corralled in the mask of sanity

kept alive and standing

until the searing part of the pain is gone.

Our Souls need the seasons like our Bodies need gravity.

The seasons

are a strange nourishing organic blanket

teaching us the Grace of Time

Until one might stand again

by oneself.

Mary Todd

well, you and i know that we need to educate, spread the word,

encourage the media to cover these topics instead of Charlie sheen, Michael Jackson's Doctor, and LadyFreakinGaga!

Global Human Trafficking issues and stats HERE

please tell me, why the GIGANTIC market for slaves?

who is driving it??

http://marysbeagooddogblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/april-sexual-assault-awareness-month.html

http://www.k-state.edu/womenscenter/GlobalWomen/childabuse.htm

Luncheon and Lecture: Clogged Artery in the Heart of America: An Analysis of Human Trafficking in Kansas. Noon to 2 p.m., Town Hall Room, School of Leadership Studies. Come listen to a Kansas City FBI employee, Wichita immigration attorney, and student researcher talk about human trafficking in Kansas. Part of the Stop Slavery Summit 2011. Sponsored by K-Staters that Care in partnership with the Union Program Council and the School of Leadership Studies.

Human  trafficking stats global

Invisible Children -- Coming to K-State (large Poster)

click on pic to enlarge

Update on Joseph Kony 2012 HERE

Details on SUDAN HERE.

            Details on Somalia HERE

                               Details on Famine HERE.

Invisible Children is an international organization working for peace in Northern Uganda. As stated on their website, "Invisible Children uses film, creativity, and social action to end the use of child soldiers in Joseph  Kony's rebel war and restore peace to Northern Uganda to peace and prosperity."

Invisible Children is coming to K-State. The event will take place on Monday, November 15th from 8:00 pm-9:30 pm in Forum Hall in the Union. They will be showing an extremely insightful, educational video detailing the struggles and hardships that the citizens of Northern Uganda face. In addition to this, they will be bringing a student from Uganda who is now part of the Legacy Scholarship Program to share her personal experiences with our student body. She will also be highlighting what Invisible Children is doing to help rebuild education in Northern Uganda. This is a unique and enriching opportunity that your students will not want to miss out on!

WHEN: Monday November 15th 8:00 pm
WHERE: K-State Union Forum Hall
Thank you so much for your support of this amazing cause! If you would like more information about Invisible Children, their website is: http://www.invisiblechildren.com/home

--- The above was sent to me by K-Stater Erin White, the president of The Coalition,
the group that is hosting Invisible Children next week. Thank you,  for this.

The worst depiction  i have ever seen of the effect of "child soldiers"

The most horror,and deepening of my understanding of the psychological aspects of this unbearable crime --occured  when i watched the Movie, Blood Diamonds.

 I am still traumatized whenever i think of it. I honor those who work to end this deepest most vile sin. kt.

invisible children comes to K-State November 2010

http://blog.invisiblechildren.com/2010/09/face-to-face-is-here/

Here is a beautiful story and some really nice advice for Children and all of us: HERE

Here is a link about Human Trafficking: HERE

Sexual, Physical, and Emotional Child Abuse in America a Frightening Epidemic

In this country, we have passed laws to keep our children growing up healthy-and we do research to put the icing on the cake, finding what works well to grow curious, creative, NICE kids.
So what is wrong? Why are there so many abused children? I worked in Florida "in the system"-- including research on cocaine-addicted mothers, the instability of foster care, the sociopathic abusing fathers.
It will break your heart. When you see a sexually abused child given to her abuser, because he is a clever little devil who has hoodwinked the system into custody, you and all concerned who have been on the front lines and know the truth, must bury the insane feelings of frustration, violence, depression that follow.
The media like to focus
on abuse in the Catholic Church. That is an issue so low in the trench of putrefaction I will not discuss it now. The data show that there is no more abuse in the church than anywhere else, rather a somewhat lower incidence. It is more horrifying, true, to read of those who we were to trust turning out to be monsters.
But
what of our society? Every day, read a paper from a different city and you will find an arrest of a pedophile with THOUSANDS of pictures of children being sexually abused.
Yet we continue on. From time to time i post "the Ugly File"- or "any given day" --a collection of disgusting evil crimes reported in the paper on any random day. Then, have lunch, throw a frisbee, and act as though the world has not ended for another family.


CASA-Click to enlarge

 Here is a letter to the KC Star from a CASA worker, stating that 10,000 children are in foster care in Missouri. TEN THOUSAND? I pray that the many wonderful foster homes outnumber those which are not. We have hundreds of children being served in Kansas for abuse each year. One is too many, there are HUNDREDS.

Pressure needs to be put on politicians to address this issue from every angle.
Here is an article in the paper from the Catholic Pope about the abuse: (on the same day)

Pope Reflects on Abuse

click HERE for a research article about this problem. (Characteristics of the Adult Abuser)

We give people less credit than dogs. Dogs can learn very fast. There is reward, and there is punishment. If a person does not do right out of a sense of goodness, perhaps they will not do wrong out of a sense of fear, if need be.

Here is a story of an elderly woman putting her would-be rapist in the hospital through creative use of a frying pan. It may be the only punishment he gets.

I want to train college and highschool women to stop being afraid, to stand up for themselves, to have the courage to fight against those who are being raised to take what they want.

Frying pan as weapon-
click to enlarge

But-- one cannot change 10 or 20 years of poor instruction. Our family units and our communities MUST begin a change in how the culture teaches our children. I admit, i have small hope it will happen. We are on a slippery downslide.

I had a surreal moment last night: all the things the politicians are "working on" seemed so silly compared to real lives of children. It was the politics game in washington and elsewhere.
It is a Giant Whitewashing.
We need to Make our "leaders" focus on the actual issues that affect children and all of us.
More later.

French Lingerie for Tots (Is Four Years Old Sexy?) and: Minor-Attracted Persons

Yeah. Cuz we don't have a PEDOPHILE PROBLEM do we?? (Wendy Murphy's gonna be ticked)

 see HERE and HERE and (below)

More about sexy children HERE and HERE

The French Company:  dailymail./article-French-label-Jours-Apr-s-Lunes-launches toddler -lingerie-for girls-young-FOUR.html

this pic and article HERE

 and:

Journal of New Media and Culture article

warning adult content

The Sexualization of Children

"According to Scott and Sarracino, the twins Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, known popularly as the ‘Olsen twins’, “became the fuel for an online porn engine that combined paedophilia and kiddie porn with twin and sister porn” (2008, p. 24). The Olsen twins are not the only teenage stars which have cultivated an erotically appealing image. Singer Bill Kaulitz from the German band Tokio Hotel has been a sex symbol since he was fifteen years old (he is now rumoured to have anorexia), and Britney Spears (see poster, below) was just sixteen years old when she débuted as a sexy school girl in her video “Baby One More Time” (1998). More recently, Miley Cyrus (born November 1992), a former Disney star like Britney, incorporated some pole dancing routines into her performance at the 2009 Teen Choice Awards...."

"In a recent content analysis of three leading girls’ magazines, aimed at girls aged

5-12, approximately half the content was considered sexualized in two of the magazines. In the case of the third magazine, 75% of content was considered sexualized, whilst merely one fifth of that magazine was “developmentally appropriate for the target audience” (Rush & La Nauze, 2006, p. 16). With regards to advertisements, Rush and La Nauze differentiate between ‘Child-selling-to-child’ advertisements (CC ads) and ‘Child-selling-to-adult’ advertisements (CA ads), “the implicitly paedophilic connotations” of which seem “even more disturbing” (Rush & La Nauze, 2006, p. 11). However, it is the premature sexualization of children that is the major concern here, not just sexualised advertising. It is feared that children are being ‘groomed’ for paedophiles: (see also Singer et al., 2007, p. 35). In the case of girls’ magazines, girls of primary school age are actively encouraged to have crushes on adult male celebrities. The risk is that when these girls fantasize “about dating adult men, they will be more inclined to see adult sexual advances as flattering” (Rush & La Nauze, 2006, p.21)."

books-- marketing sex and violence to americas children.

"Conference Speakers Lobby APA to Change Language on Pedophilia "

 by Karla Dial

"A symposium taking place in Baltimore today aims to help pedophiles write their own definition of the term for the next version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), set for publication in 2013. One suggestion: “minor-attracted persons.”

The DSM — the American Psychiatric Association’s blue book of mental disorders — is on its fourth version.

“Incrementally, they have achieved a great deal, the pedophile movement,...

Reisman noted the scientific defense of pedophiles dates back to 1948, when Alfred Kinsey published Sexual Behavior of The Human Male, describing “the rapes of infants and children … as ‘orgasmic.’ ”

The APA is taking no part in the symposium, presented by B4U-ACT — an eight-year-old Maryland nonprofit group dedicated to helping “individuals who are sexually attracted to children and desire such assistance,” according to its website...“The small group responsible for revising the DSM entry on pedophilia … bases its work almost exclusively on assumptions about, and research on, sex offenders, who do not represent minor-attracted people in the general population,” he said in an email Tuesday.

Symposium panelists include researchers from Harvard University, as well as the Universities of Louisville and Illinois. The keynote speaker at the symposium is Dr. Fred Berlin, director of the Sexual Behavior Consultation Unit at the Johns Hopkins University. In 1990, The Baltimore Sun reported that Berlin refused to comply with state law requiring him to notify authorities about child molesters under his care..."

condoms for kids

porn where's your head

can we at least have some cigars??

Wendy Murphy's take on Tom Brady's privacy violation:

http://www.patriotledger.com/opinions/x1510867697/WENDY-J-MURPHY-DA-needs-to-prosecute-man-who-posted-photo-of-Brady-s-son

"...A guy whose name I refuse to mention, who works for a website I will not reward with free advertising, recently posted a nude photograph of Tom Brady’s son at an online site that purports to be about sports but has long been described as a “sports/smut” site.
The 2-year-old child was photographed on a beach with his parents where the family was trying to enjoy some private time. Someone who was long on lens, but who is short on decency, and greedy as all get out, thought it was a good idea to

Fu'cryin' out loud.

Why do we try to say Rape is not Rape

Try something on both sides if you want to see if it fits. If Rush Limbaugh or Al Franken or Sarah Palin's husband  had Drugged and raped a 13 year-old-girl 20 years ago, would we care?
Let's all stop "defending" this crime!

(because he was my boyfriend) : http://marysbeagooddogblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/because-he-was-my-boyfriend.html


AN OPEN LETTER TO WHOOPI GOLDBERG FROM WENDY MURPHY
Dear Whoopi;
Yesterday on "The View", you said Roman Polanski pleaded guilty to "unlawful sex with a minor", but it wasn't "rape rape". So I've been wondering -
What the hell is "rape rape"?

I know you said your point was to articulate the nature of the crime to which he pleaded guilty - which is entitled "unlawful sex with a minor" - but you said it was somehow DIFFERENT from "rape".
It isnt.
"Unlawful sex with a minor" IS the crime of child rape in California.
So again - I ask you - how is "rape rape" different from "rape"?
Regular folks understand "rape" to mean "sexual penetration without consent" - and of course, consent is irrelevant when the victim is a child.
The law says "rape" means: "sexual penetration".
The dictionary says "rape" is: "forced sexual intercourse".
No matter which definitional source you use, Whoopi, Polanski "raped" his victim.

So I'm trying to understand what you meant when you say it wasn't "rape rape".
Did you mean to say it wasn't "real rape"?

What wasn't "real" enough about the crime for you, Whoopi?

A 45 year old man forced his penis into a 13 year-old child's vagina - and then he forced his penis into her anus. Is this "rape" but not "rape rape"?

The victim was not only a child, she was also intoxicated because Polanski gave her booze and drugs before the crime. The child protested - told him to stop - but he continued. She was incapacitated to a point where she could barely walk, much less defend herself against her 45 year-old attacker. Is that enough for "rape rape", Whoopi?
What would have done it for you? If he'd used a knife? If he'd jumped on her in a dark alley instead of a bed? If it had happened at a homeless shelter instead of the mansion of a famous Hollywood actor? If he'd had to remove a trenchcoat before committing the crime, rather than silk underwear from a fancy shop on Rodeo Drive?

What if the victim had been a little black girl he grabbed from a triple decker in the poorest part of Los Angeles? Would that have been "rape rape", Whoopi? Or would you have still offered the same lame excuse you came up with on The View - that "people in other countries see things differently" when middle-aged men force themselves on children.

If it's true that 13 year-old kids in France are so disrespected they can anticipate being attacked by men - you can and should condemn the practice - not chalk it up to a "cultural difference" - as if to suggest that the United States might evolve one day to a period of enlightenment when we will be "liberated" enough to celebrate the sexual abuse of children.
Your audience is filed with women who need and deserve the empowerment that is possible in a show like yours. Cultural values are created, in part, through the dissemination of ideas. You had a chance to explain to millions of people why the personal autonomy, bodily integrity and liberty of all women and children is at stake when even one rapist is not held accountable for his actions. At a minimum, you could have explained how backward we really are in this country - and how the epidemic of rape and child sex abuse serves as a kind of domestic terrorism that interferes with the freedom of millions of people who are affected by the disproportionate failure of our legal system to redress sexual violence. According to a study submitted to Congress in support of the Violence Against Women Act in the 1990s, by then Senator Joseph Biden, only 2% of rapists spend even one day behind bars. Violence against women and children is grossly underreported and unde rprosecuted, and the data consistently shows that crimes against property are punished much more harshly than crimes against female bodies.

Rather than highlight this profound and pervasive injustice, you bemoaned the fact that Mr. Polanski was compelled to flee the United States after pleading guilty to child rape, but before being sentenced, because he was about to be go to jail for "a hundred years".
Although many people would argue he deserved such a sentence (and under California law today, but not back then, drugging and raping a child would expose Mr. Polanski to a mandatory minimum term of 25 years behind bars) because he was allowed to plead guilty to only one of six felonies with which he was originally charged - he faced no more than four years behind bars, and some reports say the judge intended to impose a sentence of only a few weeks of incarceration.

Mr. Polanski arrogantly decided that he shouldn't spend any time in jail, and he fled this country spinelessly for a nation he knew would not extradite him for his crime. If it's true, as has been reported, that he took off because he thought it was unfair that he should go to jail after his lawyer worked out a "no jail" deal with the prosecutor, he had a right to withdraw his guilty plea and go to TRIAL - not FRANCE.

That Mr. Polanski would show such disrespect for this country's legal system is a reason to punish him MORE, not less, for his crime. It may be a decades-old case, but it bears stating the obvious that the law should not reward fugitives for their successful efforts to evade justice.

Nonetheless, Mr. Polanski is a man of wealth and influence, and child victims of violence don't vote or have any money. Which is why people like you, Whoopi, are so quick to say things that degrade children. Admit it Whoopi, you'd be talking out of the other side of your mouth if filmmaker Polanski were garbageman Polanski. Next time, try reading the Constitution BEFORE speaking on this topic. There's nothing in there that says people of power and influence should not be held accountable for their crimes. In fact, try focusing on the 14th Amendment for a few minutes - especially the part about how all citizens are entitled to the "equal protection" of the laws. Then try reading some of our most basic court decisions that discuss how the law is supposed to protect the weak, and deter the cunning.

You have a 13 year-old granddaughter, Whoopi. What does she call you? "Nana"? "Grandma"?. What if she told you that she had been "raped" by a 45 year-old man who stripped her naked and then penetrated her private parts even as she cried "no". Would you correct her for using the word "rape"? Would you say, "sorry sweetheart - what happened to you was not a 'rape rape'".

No matter how hard some people try to make the crime seem harmless - - it really is quite simple if you think about it the way someone famous once did: "rape is to sex what a punch in the mouth is to a kiss". It's true that not all punches knock teeth out - but nobody ever says "it wasn't a 'punch punch'".

I will say one thing, Whoopi - in your defense. Maybe we SHOULD give up the term "rape" altogether, and start calling it "bodily enslavement". We could put it in the Constitution instead of the statute books as a violation of fundamental civil rights.

I'm thinking if we had initially codified the crime in law where it truly belongs - under the umbrella of civil rights - you might have stopped yourself before saying "it wasn't a violation of civil rights civil rights".

Can you see how dumb that sounds, Whoopi?
I hope so - because you are an important voice for women and children and I want you to sound smart.

Yours truly,

Wendy Murphy

Then after Whoopi talked about this on the view, Wendy had this follow up:

Dear Whoopi;
I tried to be clear in my first letter in the hope you would simply apologize for saying Roman Polanski didn't plead guilty to "rape rape". But in an awkward attempt to put out the flames of outrage, you made things worse by trying to "explain" yourself. You said that what you MEANT was that because Polanski admitted to the charge of "unlawful sex with a minor" - he didn't admit to "rape" because the word "rape" doesn't appear in the title of that particular crime.

I hope someone at ABC tells you to just fall on your sword at this point. It's your only hope.
You see Whoopi, saying "unlawful sex with a minor" isn't "rape" because the word "rape" isn't in the title is like saying sodomy isn't "rape". I dare you to tell that to the thousands of male victims of priest abuse.

Here's some basic legal information you might find enlightening.

In 50 states, there are 33 DIFFERENT phrases in the law that define the act of child rape. Only four include the actual term "rape". But all 33 make it clear that the conduct forbidden by law IS, indeed, rape of a child.

Maybe you made a dumb statement because you felt pressure from your Hollywood friends. That's your business. But you hold yourself out as an advocate for children. You even appear in ads for ToysRus - suggesting you care about kids - and speak for "differently abled" children.

Damn it, Whoopi. What are you thinking?!
Roman Polanski has enough apologists. Kids have nothing. Until recently, they thought they had you.

Have you heard what your buddy Polanski thinks about little girls, Whoopi?

From an interview Roman Polanski gave in 1979 to novelist Martin Amis:


If I had killed somebody, it wouldn’t have had
so much appeal to the press, you see? But… f..king, you see, and the young girls. Judges want to f..k young girls. Juries want to f..k younggirls. Everyone wants to f..k young girls!


If this doesn't make your skin crawl and your blood boil - and you continue to try and "explain" your comments about how a grown man forcing himself inside the body of a child he plied with booze and drugs before he attacked her isn't "rape rape", you need to stop calling yourself an advocate for children. Keep doing whatever makes you happy - and enjoy all the red carpet nonsense because your seat at the club will be safe - but please, let someone else speak for the children.
Yours truly,

Wendy Murphy
New England Law Boston

Murderer/Rapist Guilty: California Passes Tougher Sentencing Honoring Chelsea King

"The first responsibility of government is public safety and if we can't protect our children from violent sexual predators then nothing else matters. This has to be our priority." ...assemblyman Fletcher
 full story below (or CNN REPORTS HERE  )
See/hear this man confronted
in court by family. HERE
Full text of law HERE.
JUST NOW SIGNED INTO LAW

HOW does a parent talk to the rapist?

                 father speaks HERE   excerpt:

"Brent King says it still "takes my breath away"

to talk about his daughter in the same sentence as the man who killed her.

But he takes comfort in the knowledge that new

California legislation named after his daughter, Chelsea King,

will help protect other people's children from sex crimes.

"If this legislation would've been in place before,

Chelsea would still be with us," King said, speaking Tuesday about

Chelsea's Law, which he and his wife, Kelly, worked on with state Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher.

Chelsea's Law is awaiting Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's

signature after unanimously passing the Senate and Assembly in a rare display of bipartisanship.

Formally known as AB 1844,

 the bill creates mandatory sentences of life without parole

 for violent sexual offenses against children.

Another major provision of the 62-page bill is

 lifetime parole for people who commit certain sex crimes against minors.

It's not the only proposed legislation to arise

out of the heinous acts of registered sex offender John Gardner III,

who admitted in March to killing 17-year-old Chelsea King.

A few days after her body was found, he led authorities to the remains

of 14-year-old Amber Dubois,

who had been missing for more than a year.

Gardner was sentenced to three consecutive

terms of life without parole for the murders and an attack on a jogger.

People Magazine article/photo HERE

California Senate passes tougher sentencing laws for sex offenders
By Emanuella Grinberg

· Bill calls for life without parole, lifetime GPS monitoring for certain crimes against minors
· Chelsea's Law named after high school student who was murdered by sex offender
· Bill goes to State Assembly next week for a vote
· Critics say bill puts burden on taxpayers, takes blanket approach to sex offender treatment

(CNN) -- A bill that seeks to increase prison sentences and extend parole terms in California for certain sex crimes against minors was passed in a unanimous vote by the state Senate on Tuesday.

"Chelsea's Law" -- named after 17-year-old Chelsea King, who was raped and murdered by a convicted sex offender this year -- will go to the State Assembly next week for a vote. If it passes, it will go to the desk of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has already lent support to the legislation formally know as AB 1844.

King disappeared February 25 during a jog in a suburban San Diego park, sparking a massive search that ended a few days later with the discovery of her body. Registered sex offender John Gardner pleaded guilty in April to killing her and another San Diego-area teen, Amber Dubois, in a deal that spared him the death penalty.

The case set off a firestorm of debate over the management of sex offenders in California, with King's parents lending their voices to legislative efforts.

The heartbreaking loss of Chelsea earlier this year revealed a broken public safety system, and it called our entire community and our entire state to action. With the King family's unwavering dedication and with the good faith of many who contributed to shaping this measure, we've built a solution that will protect children and spare other families from tragedy," Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher, the bill's sponsor, said in a statement.

But Chelsea's Law also has its detractors. They argue it advocates a one-size-fits-all approach to punishing sexual offenses and that its fiscal implications are too much for the cash-strapped state to bear.
Supporters of Chelsea's Law, which include California Attorney General Jerry Brown and U.S. Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, say it targets the worst of the worst with provisions such as one-strike life without parole sentencing and lifetime parole for certain sex offenses against children younger than 14.
Among the crimes that could carry potential sentences of life without parole under the proposed legislation: rape, lewd and lascivious acts on a minor, continuous sexual abuse of a child that were committed during a kidnapping, first-degree burglary or that resulted in great bodily injury. Offenders could also face a true life sentence for inflicting "aggravated mayhem or torture on the victim" in the commission of the offense.

The bill also requires lifetime parole and GPS supervision with no possibility of discharge for crimes including continuous sexual abuse of a child and certain sex crimes on children younger than 14.
The proposed legislation also would make it a misdemeanor for a registered sex offender who committed a felony offense to enter any park where children regularly gather without written permission from a parole official or chief park official. It also calls for a revision of the California mentally disordered offender laws to provide for continued detention of offenders where evaluation and assessment deem such to be necessary.
Critics of the bill call it a blanket approach that pushes sex offenders further to the fringes of society without addressing the root causes of sexual offenses.
"We need to seek solutions to this one shoe size fits all policy and target those who are of high risk to re-offend after being assessed by professionals in the field, as well focus our money and resources into prevention and awareness programs on sexual abuse, and preventing the first crime," said Mary Duval, CEO of the Sex Offender Solutions and Education Network, a nonprofit resource center on sex offender issues and a support network for registered sex offenders.

A preliminary analysis of the bill by the state Legislative Analyst's Office completed earlier this year estimated it would increase state prison operating costs by "at least a few tens of millions of dollars annually" as a result of certain offenders remaining in prison for longer periods of time, resulting in a larger prison population. Parole operations might also be stretched to their limits, the study said.

The analysis, noted, however, that a number of variables made the findings inconclusive, such as how often district attorneys would choose to prosecute crimes under Chelsea's Law or the possibility that the law could deter future criminal activity.
"The long-term nature of the fiscal impacts of some of the provisions of AB 1844 further means that our forecasts may not fully account for significant potential changes in prison operating costs and in the size of the population of sex offenders that could occur over time," the LAO said in a letter to Assemblyman Fletcher dated May 12.
In an interview with CNN in May, Fletcher said the projected costs of the bill were relatively small compared with the the expense of maintaining a system that does not seem to be working.
"We've tried to create a narrowly focused bill that goes after the worst of the worst by improving upon sentencing laws and guidelines that already exist," he said.

"The first responsibility of government is public safetyand if we can't protect our children from violent sexual predators then nothing else matters. This has to be our priority."