Monday, May 21, 2012

George Tierny of Greenville South Carolina-Golf Caddy, Insufferable Woman-hating Fuckwit, help make him famous!

From normboyd40 at Daily Kos

A bullying,ignorant misogynist name George Tierney, a golf caddy living in Greenville, South Carolina, has been reduced to begging and threatening to get removed from Google. It seems Mr. Tierney, who calls himself a former golf professional, (Player? Caddy? pro-shop clerk?) decided to do the Limbaugh by attacking Sandra Fluke (fixed spelling) as a "dick sucker" and a "cunt" on his Twitter page. Now he finds that the whole damn world can read what he wrote and he is threatening legal action to get everything covered up. I suppose it's getting real hard to get a date there in Greenville, or maybe his mommy read the page and was displeased. In any event, this diary has no purpose but to call attention to the T-Blogg story and make Mr. Tierney famous. Who knows? Maybe he'll sue Daily Kos too.

http://tbogg.firedoglake.com/2012/05/20/internet-man-does-not-want-to-be-on-the-google-anymore/?fwcc=1&fwcl=1&fwl

Here are the Tweets in question:








More than happy to do my part! Words have consequences, jackass.


Sunday, May 13, 2012

Mitt Romney's "Mothers Day" Ad reveals the height of republican hypocrisy

Mothers Day-a time when we all stop to honor the women in our lives for all of the hard work and sacrifices they make raising our future generations.

Or, if you are Mitt Romney, a perfect opportunity to exploit your wife's health problems and make her into a mommy martyr to pander for donations:
Ann Romney raised 5 boys. She successfully battled breast cancer and multiple sclerosis. But what does White House insider Hilary Rosen say about Ann Romney? "Guess what, his wife has actually never worked a day in her life." And Bill Maher, who gave $1 million supporting Obama, attacks: "Ann Romney has never gotten her ass out of the house." Happy Mother's Day from Barack Obama's Team!
Interesting attack, considering the source. More below the fold.


Friday, May 11, 2012

Books That Changed My Life-"Trauma & Recovery" by Judith Herman, M.D.

Photobucket (Originally posted on Daily Kos)

I will open this with both a warning, and a bit of an apology-As the title of the book suggests, Judith Herman writes about Trauma. I am a survivor of sexual abuse. The importance of this book simply cannot be discussed without also touching upon some of my experiences with that. I realize this can be an uncomfortable topic, and is not really typical for this series-however, when I was approached about doing an installment for this I couldn’t think of any book that has changed my life more than this one. I also think this book (and hopefully-my review of it too!) is an important read both for trauma survivors and non-survivors alike. For survivors, there are simply no words to explain how much this book helps-it's truly a life-changing read. And non-survivors will come away with a richer understanding and greater empathy for those who have lived through experiences that seem completely foreign and unimaginable. This book forges a robust connection between public and private lives, and does it in a way that can be understood even by those with no background in trauma psychology. Indeed, this is what I found most powerful about Herman's book-it made me feel like I could reconnect with the outside world again.


Thursday, May 10, 2012

Fox News Flip Flops, Calls off War on Marriage

Well, that didn't take long!

Yesterday's headline:

 Photobucket



Todays Headline:
 Photobucket

Once again, the republican party shows us that they love starting wars-but when it comes to actually fighting them, they are a bunch of chickenhawks.

(From the comments at Daily Kos) Third Version: Photobucket

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Well, Duh!

The Junior Jewfish was a bit perplexed this afternoon when mom started randomly jumping up and down, screaming and hollering in the middle of making her a sandwich.

"What are you so happy about?" she asked.

 I sat her down and told her "President Obama just said that a man should be able to marry a man, and a woman should be able to marry a woman if they love each other, just like everyone else"

 She gave me her most withering 5-year old look and said

 "Well, duh!"

Two simple words-but as far as I'm concerned they say it all:

 1. My kindergartener is smarter than 2 out of 3 North Carolinians

 2. Our hope for the future is not found in the pundits who are greeting the news of Obama's endorsement of marriage equality by calling it "groundbreaking" and "historic"-but in a generation of kids who will grow up knowing the only reasonable response to such an endorsement is...

photo-5

Monday, May 7, 2012

The Oppressor's Language Sometimes Sounds Beautiful: Let us move on.

I will not say again I sat on his lap. 
No. He had me on his lap. 
You were not raped; he raped you.
Memory moves as it can, 
freedom is yours to place the verb.
and yes, the oppressor's language 
sometimes sounds beautiful, 
always dies hard. 
Let us move on. — Margaret Randall

 The journey that began on January 22nd, 2012 started as personal outcry. The diary I wrote on that day was an impulsive act of defiance against a culture of denial and ignorance about the reality of Child Sexual Abuse. It was also an act of public testimony to a private trauma. I never envisioned it would become anything more than that. Ultimately it did-not because of me, but because of the hundreds of people who responded and said “it happened to me too”. Or their mothers, their sisters, their brothers and their friends. The testimony of survivors, as well as those from the grave. Ghosts of the past emerged. Keep talking, they said. Don’t stop.


 So over the past months, that's what I've been doing. Not just me, but several other people who have become involved. We have been working, day and night, on creating something from the ashes of tragedy-working on it long before we even knew what it would look like, continuing to work without the benefit of knowing what it will become-yet knowing somehow that it is absolutely necessary. That it is worth the sleepless nights, the triggers, the setbacks-it's necessary. It's not a choice-it's a calling. It's an obligation. You may have seen examples of some of the work we have been doing-In the diary Introducing TREE Climbers, I spoke about the journey we have taken so far, and what our vision was. I talked about my lost friend "Rosa", a girl who was abused in ways that defy the imagination, but still held her head high. Who still could smile and see the capacity for good, and wrote poems so beautiful that they made me cry even though she was considered illiterate and borderline mentally retarded.

 I also said I was going to be rolling out a 5 part series on the history of child sexual abuse as a political issue. At the time, I had all but finished this series-and my plan was to put out one installment every few days. To build interest, momentum, and ultimately transform TREE Climbers into what we have envisioned- not just a support group, not simply a non-profit, but the beginning of a social movement to end the sexual abuse and exploitation of children.

 But I only published Part 1-and then I stopped. And I haven't been able to bring myself to post the rest of it. People keep asking me why, so I'll do my best to explain.

I'm afraid. It's that simple, really. I've poured my heart and soul into this series for months. And more importantly, I'm not telling my own story here-I'm telling the story of others. People who have all been forgotten by history. And I'm afraid that I'm not going to do them justice. And more than anything I'm afraid that people won't care. Because I'm talking about events long past, involving something that you cannot even see.

And as history has shown us-being forced to see what has been kept hidden is often the only true catalyst for social change. For the civil rights movement, it was the murder of Emmitt Till. Emmitt Till was not the first boy to be given a death sentence for the crime of looking at a white woman. Nearly 3,500 African Americans were lynched in the United States between 1882 and 1968. Many of these victims, like Emmitt Till, were children. When Emmitt Till was kidnapped, tortured, shot in the head at point blank range and then thrown into the Tallahatchie River with a cotton fan tied around his neck, he could have easily become another sad statistic. But his mother, Mamie Till Bradley, refused to let her son’s death go unnoticed. And more importantly, she refused to hide the truth about what was done to him. She held a public memorial service, and took the unprecedented step of showing his body in an open casket, in the same condition she found him. When asked why, her answer was simple: “I wanted the world to see what they did to my baby." Photobucket

For the Vietnam Anti-War movement, it was the Mei Lei massacre. Hundreds of thousands of innocent Vietnam civilians, many of them children, had been slaughtered before the horrors of Mei Lei came to light. Returning veterans, in an act that was also unprecedented, joined the anti-war movement. They turned in the medals they were awareded for bravery and valor and gave public testimony of the atrocities of war, including their own war crimes. Despite the attempts of the Johnson and Nixon administrations to downplay the casualties and the human toll, with the advent of photojournalism the cruel and devastating reality of warfare was, for the first time in history, undeniable. And never was it more evident than when the photographs from Mei Lei were finally
published.
 Photobucket

 These are horrible images. Many decades later, they are still difficult to look at. But they served a purpose-they forced the public to confront atrocity, and the anger and outrage these images inspired became the catalyst for both the peace movement and the civil rights movement to reach their tipping point. By forcing the public to confront that which has been hidden, images serve as living testimonies for those who cannot speak for themselves. But what do you do when the atrocity is one that you cannot see? The sexual abuse of children is devastating and prevalent. But it is also very well hidden. The crime itself almost always takes place in isolation. There are often few, if any, physical signs of abuse. And unlike Emmitt Till, or the Mei Lei massacre, there are no images. The only photo documentation of child sexual abuse is child pornography, and to show it publicly would be a grotesque form of re-victimization. And even professionals who have to view child pornography as part of the investigative process often report being disturbed by seeing children giggling and smiling as they are being abused. Sexual offenders turn abuse into a game, and go to great lengths to get their victims to see it the same way. They point to the involuntary physical responses to stimulation as proof that their victims are enjoying the experience, and then use this as a way to keep them silent. This is especially effective with male victims, who are often afraid of being seen as gay. As Judith Herman writes in “Trauma & Recovery”:
“Participation in forbidden sexual activity […] confirms the abused child’s sense of badness. Any gratification that the child is able to glean from the exploitative situation becomes proof in her mind that she instigated and bears full responsibility for the abuse. If she ever experienced sexual pleasure, enjoyed the abuser’s special attention, bargained for favors, or used the sexual relationship to gain privileges, these sins are adduced as evidence of her innate wickedness. The child entrapped in this kind of horror develops the belief that she is somehow responsible for the crimes of her abusers. Simply by virtue of her existence on earth, she believes that she has driven the most powerful people in her world to do terrible things. Surely, then, her nature must be thoroughly evil. The language of the self becomes a language of abomination. Survivors routinely describe themselves as outside the com-pact of ordinary human relations, as supernatural creatures or nonhuman life forms. They think of themselves as witches, vampires, whores, dogs, rats, or snakes. Some use the imagery of excrement or filth to describe their inner sense of self. In the words of an incest survivor: “I am filled with black slime. If I open my mouth it will pour out. I think of myself as the sewer silt that a snake would breed upon” […}The profound sense of inner badness becomes the core around which the abused child’s identity is formed, and it persists into adult life"
And this is the gravest injury that many abused children are left with. Physical wounds heal over time. That sense of “inner badness”, the feelings of being “contaminated” and “different” remain persistent and pernicious. Depression, feelings of worthlessness, self-injury, and despair can continue into adulthood. Ultimately, they can become lethal. Below the fold is my attempt to help you see those hidden injuries-and maybe help those of you who still don't get it to finally understand what we are fighting against.

Sunday, May 6, 2012

Jerry Sandusky Was Running An Overnight Football Camp For Kids On Penn State Campus in 2009



Oops, my bad...this actually isn't "breaking" news at all. It was reported by the website Deadspin on November 6th, 2011 and for whatever reason it never got picked up. I just happened to run across this story in the process of researching something else-even my friends who live in PA and have been following this story closely had no idea.

But yes, it appears that after learning that Jerry Sandusky was raping children in their locker rooms, Penn State officials did what any reasonable institution would do-they asked Jerry to hand over his keys and please kindly take his forcible sodomy to a more discreet location. Like, say, their satellite campus in Erie PA:

According to the organizations now defunct website:

The goal of the camp is to learn as much about the game of football while having an enjoyable experience. Jerry Sandusky's personal experience and his excellent staff will cater to each individual camper helping them to reach their personal potential. With a variety of individual drills for every position team drills, and games, the participants will be able to build a solid fundamental background for which they can carry the rest of their lives. They will walk away with many of the ideas and concepts Jerry Sandusky has used during his brilliant career. A career that included two national championships and 28 bowl appearances! Lessons on life discipline, teamwork, trust, and loyalty will be stressed in motivational speeches by great guest speakers and selected video presentations. Regular camp instructors will include members of Jerry's family, other college and high school coaches, and former Penn State players.

Included in the brochure for the sleepover camp is this legal disclaimer:

"It is understood that Penn State Behrend, the directors, or anyone connected with the college will not assume any responsibility for accident (medical or dental) or any other expenses incurred as a result of accidents. The college is not responsible for lost equipment."

And apparently, not responsible for lost childhoods either.

It is worth noting that Deadspin, which describes itself as "Sports News without Access, Favor, or Discretion" PSU hired it's elite Public Relations team to handle media coverage, among other things.

It is safe to say that the Public Relations campaign worked-something that PSU president Rodney Erickson seemed positively giddy about mere days after Jerry Sandusky was charged with multiple counts of child rape-he triumphantly stated "We are taking control of our narrative"

He might not have control over that narrative for much longer, though.

Indeed, as the Sandusky trial gears up we are learning more and more about the other players in this horrific saga. In March,Federal Authorities began their own investigation into Penn State Cover-ups, bribes, fraud, misuse of government funds appear to be the focus of their investigation.

At the center of all of this is the often overlapping interests of Penn State and Second Mile, Jerry Sandusky's charity, and their ties to the big name donors and politicians who sat on their respective boards. At the top of this sordid totem pole is Governor Tom Corbett who was both acting Attorney General AND receiving generous campaign donations from both institutions and their alumni while his office was conducting the Sandusky investigation. Something doesn't smell right there, to put it mildly.

But priorities, people. Priorities.As Roxine diaried about earlier, PSU has just elected 2 new members to their board of trustees, and they know that some things just take precedence over figuring out how a serial pedophile was able to use their campuses as his personal playground for over 2 decades and maybe, ya know, doing something about it:


"I don't think we can get the alumni behind any of the other issues until we get the Paterno issue resolved," [newly elected board member Anthony Lubrano] said after today's meeting. "That's really the elephant in the room."

[SNIP]

"Let's just admit that we made a mistake, apologize, and then we can move on," Lubrano said. "Because if the alumni are happy they're going to give and they're going to help us bridge the obvious budget gaps we're going to have because the state is going to cut appropriations."

Yes, must make the alum happy so they start opening up those wallets again! That's what's it's all about, isn't it.

That apology he speaks of, by the way, is not for the victims.

It's for Joe Paterno.

Meet Jane Doe: An "Infamous" Rape Victim Reclaims Her Dignity

[Massive Trigger Warning for this entire post] I first "met" Jane Doe about 8 years ago. I was lying on the couch with my boyfriend at the time, watching TV. One of those hour-long primetime crime specials was on. I love these shows normally- murder mysteries fascinate me. But this one was different. This was not about a murder, it was about a rape.

Or was it? That was left up to the viewer to decide.

My knee-jerk reaction was to change the channel. It hits too close to home, and I hadn't told my boyfriend what happened to me. But then, it occurs to me that to change the channel would provoke questions-and may even be seen as a form of admission. I also wanted to gauge his reaction-to see if it was safe to finally tell him the truth.

 As the program went on I could sense him getting restless. He started shaking his head and muttering under his breath. Angry, I presumed. Men get angry when they hear about rape. It was, I thought, a good sign. And then he said, out loud, the two words that rocked me to my core:  

Stupid Bitch.

"What did you say?" I asked, incredulous.

That bitch, he said, is stupid as hell. And then he continued- She knew what she was in for when she went to that house What kind of hoe goes to a house with a bunch of dudes? Listen to that, she fucked them the night before! She got fucked up and let them run a train on her, and now she wants to cry rape.

I don't remember too well what happened next- other than it ended in me throwing the remote in a straight shot at his head and running out of the room in tears.


Saturday, May 5, 2012

To Those Who Have Gone Home Tired


After the streets fall silent
After the bruises and the tear-gassed eyes are healed
After the concensus has returned
After the memories of Kent and My Lai and Hiroshima
lose their power
and their connections with each other
and the sweaters labeled Made in Taiwan
After the last American dies in Canada
and the last Korean in prison
and the last Indian at Pine Ridge
After the last whale is emptied from the sea
and the last leopard emptied from its skin
and the last drop of blood refined by Exxon

After the last iron door clangs shut
behind the last conscience
and the last loaf of bread is hammered into bullets
and the bullets
scattered among the hungry

What answers will you find
What armor will protect you
when your children ask you

Why?


Copyright © 1977 by W. D. Ehrhart
Rootless, Samisdat, 1977