The American Slaughter

Here we go again, America. It happened again, just yesterday:

Las Vegas Shooting Kills 2 Metro Police Officers Total 5 Dead

So 20 children--innocent, grade school children--were slaughtered, assassinated, in mere moments all that long ago and what did we do? What did America do?

Not a damn thing.

Changed nothing. Zip. Zilch.

In the meantime, between then and now, more shootings, more killings, more assassinations of innocents. College campuses, more children, all kinds. Heck, even a member of the House of Representatives.

And while so many think this is either okay apparently or just not that bad or wrong or repugnant, let's never lose sight of this:

No other civilized, industrialized, educated, First World nation in the world lives or has incidents like this, let alone repeated ones, the way we in our country, here in the US does.

It is shameful.  It is irresponsible. It is, in fact, repugnant.

And that we have done nothing, to date, and that we continue to do nothing whatever about this is an obscenity and additional tragedy.

Face it, gun freaks, we're never taking your guns.

We know that. You should know that but the fear helps you whip up more frenzy and gun purchases, doesn't it?

But losing more and more of your fellow Americans--innocents, in this case, police officers--concerns you not a whit?

Work with us, for Christ's sake, for anything and everything that's good, work with us. For the good of America and for the safety of most Americans, let's reign in the weapons just a bit. There's only three things we really need to do. They are:

1) Do a background check on ALL for-profit purchases, including gun shows, for criminal history;

2) Do the same for mental stability and finally,

3) Put a top limit, per clip of 10 shots to any and all weapons, nationwide, starting now. You'd still have your weapons and we'd have a smidgen of restraint.

It's not complicated. It's very possible. They'd be effective, they'd be helpful and they'd be productive.

They'd be for the good of the nation and for the people.


Lots of data here:  Homicide | Harvard Injury Control Research Center

Missouri, Kansas rankings on annual "KIds Count" survey

Here's where you stand to date, Missouri and Kansas on the things that are important, overall, for the children of our respective states (click on picture for easier reading):

Missouri, number 27, overall and Kansas 16.

We have work to do, folks.  It's for our children.

There is a TON of great, hard data here, too. Here's a Yahoo! News article on it, with links:

Best—and worst—states to be a kid

Here's a link to the actual organization that compiles the data:

Kids Count

and this:

KIDS COUNT - Annie E. Casey Foundation

And their Facebook page, since I'm kind of supporting them here:

KIDS COUNT | Facebook

Finally, information on the group as to who they are and what they do:

Annie E. Casey Foundation - Wikipedia

Quote of the day--on kids, children, and sanity

The chutzpah of the Catholic hierarchy

The further these situations go on for and with the Catholic Church, the more stunningly stupid they seem to be.

Did you see this, latest one? It's a beauty:

Catholic Church Lobbies Against Allowing More Sex Abuse Suits

"Reports this week that decades-old sexual abuse allegations at the Horace Mann School probably can't be prosecuted because of New York's statute of limitations raised new questions about why the state only gives victims up to five years after their 18th birthday to report childhood abuse. While lawmakers in Albany have tried many times to relax laws on filing abuse complaints, the Roman Catholic Church has been quietly fighting efforts to change the statute of limitations in New York and throughout the country. They say it's a matter of principle, but it could also have something to do with the ensuing lawsuits potentially costing the church billions.

More than 30 states have already managed to ease laws on reporting child abuse, but the New York Times reports today that religious officials are pushing against similar efforts in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts. The church has even hired lobbying and public relations firms to help their cause in New York and Colorado. In the latter, parishes have actually handed out postcards to parishioners and asked them to contact their representatives on the church's behalf.

The church argues that the statutes of limitations exist to prevent unfair cases in which many of the witnesses are dead and evidence is hard to come by. Religious leaders are pushing hardest against "window" laws, in which victims are given a year or two to file suits no matter how long ago the alleged crime occurred. It's likely they're afraid of a repeat of what happened when California passed such a law in 2003. In just one year, 550 sexual abuse lawsuits were filed."

It's just shameful.

Once again, here's a case of the Catholic Church hierarchy--men--trying their best to protect that same hierarchy instead of putting the children and their protection and best interests--their safety--first.

It's just disgusting.

Once again, I call on Catholics, for what it's worth, to stand up against this effort by their church to protect the leaders instead of the students and children.

Link: http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/06/church-lobbies-against-allowing-more-abuse-suits.html?mid=382834&rid=422702124

Congratulations to Bishop Finn and the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese

Yes, many congratulations! Bishop Finn's getting charged with crimes for not obeying Missouri law is the number 3 big religion news story of 2011, according to leading religion journalists. The Religion Newswriters Association (RNA) poll their members each year and this is what they came up with: "3. Catholic Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City, Mo., is charged with failure to report the suspected abuse of a child, becoming the first active bishop in the country to face criminal prosecution in such a case." I'd like to take a moment here to congratulate Bishop Finn, the local Diocese and the entire Catholic Church for this award. Without your repeatedly allowing children to be exploited, whether with pictures or sexually, you wouldn't have gotten this notoreity. Now, for 2012, here's hoping Bishop Finn's being found guilty and sent to jail (prison) will be the number one story of the upcoming year. That way, maybe, just maybe, one day this abuse will one day soon cease. Here's hoping. Links: http://www.rna.org/news/79176/2011-Top-10-Religion-Stories-of-the-Year.htm;http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/bin-ladens-death-rated-top-religion-news-story/2011/12/14/gIQA4C6OuO_story.html

Bible verse for the day

Most specifically for Bishop Finn and Shawn Ratigan: "It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones." --Luke 17:2

In keeping with the Baby Irwin case

The BBC just showed a very timely program on child abuse---in America. It seemed to fit in right now with the baby Lisa Irwin problem we have going on in Kansas City at this moment. Besides having the most expensive health care in the world and being ranked at least 37th worst in mortality rate for all Americans, according to their show, "America has the worst child abuse record in the industrialized world." Wow. I had no idea. How horrible. Add that to the fact that we're the most war-mongering people on the planet and we're letting our fatcats get fatter while the middle- and lower-class falls apart and it surely doesn't paint a very pretty picture of us, does it? Facts, folks, merely facts, statistics and hard data. We should be far, far better than all this. I think we all thought we were, didn't we? Links: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-15288865; http://www.huffingtonpost.com/teresa-huizar/child-abuse-america_b_1025890.html

Quote of the day

"And whosoever shall offend one of [these] little ones that believe in me, it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea."

Let's see... who said that?

What it's finally come to for this pope and his Catholic Church

Finally, finally--though it's far too little and far too late--this pope has come around to doing what he, his predecessors and the Catholic Church have told their followers to do for centuries. That is, he and they have finally a) humbled themselves and b) asked for forgiveness for all their child molestation scandals. Wow. Let's see, it's only centuries and thousands of cases, at least, overdue. From NPR today: Pope Benedict XVI met Saturday with five people who were molested by priests as children and apologized to them, even as abuse survivors and thousands of people opposed to his visit marched in central London in the biggest protest of his five-year papacy. Benedict met for about 30-40 minutes with the victims at the Vatican's apostolic nunciature in Wimbledon, according to the Vatican and Bill Kilgallon, chairman of the National Catholic Safeguarding Commission — a church group that organized the encounter. Benedict "expressed his deep sorrow and shame over what victims and their families had suffered," according to a Vatican statement. Well, to this pope and his Catholic Church I'd have to say thanks. But I also have to add, again, that it is far too little. And it is far too late. Sinead O'Connor, I'll also repeat, has been vindicated, sadly, many, many times over. Link to original story: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129953080

China---wth??

News out this morning:

5 preschoolers hit with hammer in new China attack

BEIJING – A farmer attacked kindergarten students with a hammer, injuring five, before burning himself to death Friday in China's third such assault in as many days and prompting the government to demand stricter school security nationwide.


More:

The hammer attack follows a rampage Thursday by a 47-year-old unemployed man armed with an eight-inch (20-centimeter) knife at a kindergarten. Some 29 students, aged 4 or 5 years old, were wounded, five of them seriously at the school in Taixing city in neighboring Jiangsu province.

And on Wednesday, a 33-year-old former teacher broke into a primary school in the city of Leizhou in southern Guangdong province and wounded 15 students and a teacher with a knife. The attacker had been on sick leave from another school since 2006 for mental health problems.

Really. What the heck?

What would cause anyone, especially any adult, to attack children like this?

What is it about the Chinese culture, it would seem, that would cause grown adult men to attack virtually totally defenseless children with knives, as in the first two attacks, and now, here, with a hammer?

I would love to have some psychologist and/or sociologist who knows the Chinese either explain this or study it and get back to us as to why these people acted out like this.

There is this from the article:

Most of the recent school attacks have been blamed on people with personal grudges or mental illness — seen as a growing problem because of feelings of social injustice and alienation in the fast-changing country.

But children? Attacking children?

To save my life I can't figure it out. Mental illness would have to be the closest I could come to 'splainin' this one.

Link to original story here:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100430/ap_on_re_as/as_china_students_attacked