Journal Archives from theDreamworld ... October 2007

October 2007

October 31, 2007

Now if we can just get Westboro Baptist Church fined this much for each and every funeral they have cruelly picketed - then we might begin to find some measure of justice.

Church Ordered to Pay $10.9 Million for Funeral Protest

(CNN) -- A federal jury in Baltimore, Maryland, Wednesday awarded $10.9 million to a father of a Marine whose funeral was picketed by members of a fundamentalist church carrying signs blaming soldiers' deaths on America's tolerance of homosexuals.

A member of Westboro Baptist Church protests outside a veteran's hospital in Maywood, Illinois, in April 2006.

The family of Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder -- who was killed in a vehicle accident in Iraq's Anbar province in 2006 -- sued the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, and its leaders for defamation, invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Church members showed up at Snyder's funeral chanting derogatory slogans and holding picket signs with messages including "God Hates Fags."

They've picketed the funerals of dozens of troops killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, claiming that God is punishing the United States because of its tolerance for homosexuality.

Al Snyder, father of the slain Marine, said he considered filing the lawsuit for a long time before going forward and that he hoped the judgment would make it harder for the church to continue such protests.

"It's hard enough burying a 20-year-old son, much less having to deal with something like this," he said, recalling that some of the other signs at the funeral included "Thank God for dead soldiers" and "Thank God for IEDs." Watch the fallen Marine's father describe his reaction »

"As far as their picketing goes, they want to do it in front of a courthouse, they want to do it in a public park, I could care less. But I couldn't let them get away with doing this to our military," Al Snyder said.

"Every day in court I would just think of Matt and have him on my mind and know that he was watching out for me."

Snyder's attorney told jurors to pick an amount "that says don't do this in Maryland again. Do not bring your circus of hate to Maryland again," according to The Associated Press.

The award includes $2.9 million in compensatory damages and $8 million in punitive damages, a clerk in the judge's chambers said.

Lawyers for the church members argued Matthew Snyder's funeral was public and the First Amendment protects all points of view, even offensive ones, the AP reported.

Church founder Fred Phelps said the church would appeal the decision, adding it would "take about five minutes to reverse that thing." Watch Phelps laugh at the people trying to silence him »

"This will elevate me to something important," Phelps told reporters. "This was an act of futility."

Later, Phelps said the case was about "putting a preacher on trial for what he preaches."

"All it was, was a protestation by the government of the United States against the word of God. They don't want me preaching that God is punishing the country by killing their servicemen." Watch Phelps say freedom of speech is under fire »

The church had made a new sign to carry after the jury's decision, said his daughter, Margie Phelps.

"Our message is 'Thank God for 10.9 [million dollars],' " she said.

"By that mechanism [the award], the entire world will look over and see that America is doomed and that in doomed America there is no such thing as religious liberty."

The judgment would not change the message the group was carrying, said another of Phelps' daughters, church attorney Shirley Phelps-Roper.

"It's going nowhere," she said of the jury's decision. "This is a nothing. God is not going to stop killing your soldiers. He's not going to stop pouring his wrath out on this nation. America is doomed."

Church members were persecuted for their teachings and the court "mocked and scoffed at our religious beliefs," she said.

Phelps-Roper added that protests were planned later this week in Boston and Acton, Massachusetts, and in Norton, Kansas.

The group plans to protest a Veterans Day rally in Washington, she said.

Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church -- which has no connections with any mainstream Baptist organizations -- are longtime anti-gay protesters.

Before launching their protests at the funerals of American troops killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, they routinely picketed the funerals of gay people and those who died of AIDS.

Phelps and his followers also picketed the February 2006 funeral of Coretta Scott King, widow of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., because of her support for gay rights.

Several states have implemented laws about funeral protests and Congress has passed a law barring protests at federal cemeteries.

Posted at 11:36 PM

October 30, 2007

Burn, baby, burn.

Posted at 10:54 PM

October 29, 2007

The Night Has A Thousand Eyes

The night has a thousand eyes,
And the day but one;
Yet the light of a bright world dies
When day is done.

The mind has a thousand eyes,
And the heart but one;
Yet the light of a whole life dies
When love is done.

- Francis William Bourdillon

Posted at 8:47 PM

October 28, 2007

I made a big pot of the best chili I've ever concocted and have been eating it for the last few days on mini slices of Asiago Cheese Bread (my chili is always phenomenally thick as well as spicy and rich). I ran out at dinner today, but I'm going to keep this recipe in mind for the next time and see if I can recreate things again another time. This was seriously yummy food for the last few days.

I still have a bit of a craving for ice cream sandwiches (which is odd considering it's been getting quite cold during the day and almost down to freezing at night), but I haven't been so overpowered by the craving (yet!) that I've made a grocery run (maybe tomorrow ...).

I also have had a mild craving for a good Stilton cheese for a while now, but I can't find any anywhere - that's one of the curses of living in a backwater little vanilla town like this, among other things. The Asiago cheese bread was fantastic, and the Colby Jack I used in the chili was good, but I want that harsh bite from a good Stilton, and nothing else will do.

Posted at 10:35 PM

October 27, 2007

My neck aches. So does my head, although with a different kind of ache. I'm tired, too.

Is this from the newly cold climate outside or is it my aging body showing its weakening state or is it this depression wreaking psychosomatic havoc? And does it matter which one or which combination of things it is?

Probably not.

Posted at 8:55 PM

October 26, 2007

I am shocked and pleased. Justice actually does come about, albeit belatedly.

Wilson Released after Two Years Behind Bars for Teen Sex Conviction

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Genarlow Wilson was released from prison Friday, after spending more than two years behind bars for a teen sex conviction.

"At times I dealt with adversity ... my family and myself, we finally get to deal with happiness now," Wilson said, with his mother and sister at his side.

The Georgia Supreme Court earlier Friday ordered that he be released, ruling 4-3 that his sentence was cruel and unusual punishment.

Wilson, 21, was convicted in 2005 of having oral sex with a consenting 15-year-old girl when he was 17.

Wilson said he first heard about the possibility he'd be freed Friday when someone told him word was out on the radio.

"I'd seen it coming, but I didn't exactly know when," he said. "I'd just stopped trying to figure the courts out and stopped trying to put a date on it." Watch Wilson describe his journey to justice »

Wilson said he was looking forward to spending time with his family and plans to enroll in college to study sociology.

"You will not be disappointed," he told his supporters. "I plan on succeeding in life."

Wilson also said he doesn't regret rejecting a plea offer that could have freed him from prison months ago -- but would have required him to register as a sex offender.

"I'm glad I stayed down for my cause," he said. "I accepted the situation that I got myself into, but I never accepted that label."

Wilson's attorney, B.J. Bernstein, said earlier Friday she was working to gain his quick release.

She said Wilson's mother, Juannessa Bennett, was "overjoyed" at the court's decision.

A spokesman for Georgia Attorney General Thurbert E. Baker said there will be no further appeals.

Friday's decision came after a protracted legal battle that has galvanized international attention and drawn the involvement of civil rights leaders. Partly as a result of Wilson's conviction, state legislators changed the law to make such consensual conduct between minors a misdemeanor, rather than a felony.

"The release of Genarlow Wilson by the Georgia Supreme Court is a significant victory in redressing the reckless and biased behavior of the criminal justice system that now operates in many states across the union," the Rev. Al Sharpton said.

"The bad news is that his young life was so unfairly interrupted with time that no state court can recover for him," Sharpton added. "This is why the Justice Department and federal government must review state courts that willfully and almost without pause violate the civil rights of people, particularly young black men around this country."

Wilson was an honor student, a football star and his high school's homecoming king before his conviction.

At the time of Wilson's conviction, Georgia law made the crime punishable by 10 years in prison. Changes in the law made such conduct "punishable by no more than a year in prison and no sex offender registration," the Georgia high court noted.

But those changes were not made retroactive, so they did not apply to Wilson.

The high court upheld the decision of a Monroe County judge. In a 48-page opinion, the court said the "severe" punishment Wilson received and his mandated sex offender registration make "no measurable contribution to acceptable goals of punishment."

The case revolves around a 2003 New Year's Eve party outside Atlanta when Wilson engaged in the sex act with the girl.

Under the now-changed Georgia law, Wilson was convicted of felony aggravated child molestation. He was acquitted on a second charge of raping a 17-year-old girl -- who prosecutors maintained was too intoxicated at the party to consent.

The 10-year sentence was mandatory under the law.

In the decision, Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears wrote that changes in the law "represent a seismic shift in the legislature's view of the gravity of oral sex between two willing teenage participants."

"Although society has a significant interest in protecting children from premature sexual activity, we must acknowledge that Wilson's crime does not rise to the level of culpability of adults who prey on children," the court's majority found.

"For the law to punish Wilson as it would an adult, with the extraordinarily harsh punishment of 10 years in prison without the possibility of probation or parole, appears to be grossly disproportionate to his crime," the majority opinion concluded.

The dissent noted that the Georgia Legislature had made clear that the changes in the law were not to be applied retroactively.

Writing for the dissenting justices, Justice George Carley said, "The General Assembly made the express decision that he cannot benefit from the subsequent legislative determination to reduce the sentence for commission of that crime from felony to misdemeanor status."

The majority countered that it was not applying the 2006 amendment retroactively, but instead factoring that "into its determination that Wilson's punishment is cruel and unusual," the court said in a news release.

The court said this kind of decision is unusual: "The majority opinion points out that this court rarely overturns a sentence on cruel and unusual grounds. But twice before, it did so following a legislative change."

The Monroe County Superior Court judge also ruled that Wilson's punishment was cruel and unusual and voided it on constitutional grounds.

The judge reduced the sentence to one year and said Wilson should not be put on Georgia's sex offender registry, as the old law required.

Wilson's jubilant attorneys had hoped that ruling would free him from state prison. But shortly after it was handed down, Georgia's attorney general announced he would appeal that decision, a move that kept Wilson behind bars.

The Georgia high court said unanimously that the decision to deny Wilson bail was correct.

Wilson's plight drew pleas for his release, including from former President Carter, himself an ex-Georgia governor, and even some jurors who convicted him.

Legislation that would make the change in Georgia's child molestation law retroactive to free Wilson failed to win approval earlier this year.

Posted at 8:17 PM

October 25, 2007

Autumn Leaves

The falling leaves
Drift by the window.
The autumn leaves
Of red and gold.

I see your lips,
The summer kisses,
The sunburned hands
I used to hold.

Since you went away
The days grow long,
And soon I'll hear
Old winter's song.

But I miss you most of all,
My darling,
When autumn leaves
Start to fall.

Posted at 11:03 PM

October 24, 2007

How do you keep people who are cryogenically frozen from getting freezer burn?

Posted at 11:35 PM

October 23, 2007

Sigh.

Posted at 11:21 PM

October 22, 2007

"In our sleep, pain which cannot forget, falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God"

- Aeschylus

Posted at 8:49 PM

October 21, 2007

D sounded like nothing at all had happened to him recently when I spoke to him today. In a way that was nice, knowing that he's feeling normal and that he's able to laugh, but I'm worried that he's burying his problems deep inside rather than trying to face them head on so that he can get past things. Pushing him won't do any good, though, and the best thing I can do for him is to make sure that he knows very clearly that I'm his friend and I'm always here when he needs a friend for support.

I should have probably headed out and spent some time with his today, taking him to a movie or something, but I didn't want to push him. I may make plans with him for next weekend to get together, though. One way or another I want to talk to him later this week to keep in touch, so I'll talk to him more then about getting him out of the house to do something fun.

The whole thing still makes me feel odd, having thought about suicide a lot myself and looking at the whole thing from the other side. I've got mixed feelings about the whole thing, knowing how bad I'd feel if he was gone but knowing what it feels like to want the pain to end forever. For now, though, I need to just get past me and my feelings and focus on being there for D. That, at least, I know I can do.

Posted at 11:22 PM

October 20, 2007

I just found out that a young friend of mine (we'll call him D) tried to commit suicide and made a very good attempt of it (meaning that if his dad hadn't found him as fast as he did, it would likely have been too late). The whole things very upsetting, and I want to drive out to where he is and just hug him tight until he promises he won't ever do anything like that again.

Having been suicidal myself plenty of times, particularly as a teen, I have some idea of how suicide can seem like a solution. Heck, I still have times that I feel that way. In my case I've never had the courage to go through with it, and while I'm not surprised that D did have the courage, I'm so glad he didn't succeed.

If he could just see how great he is, how funny and intelligent and personable. He's got a whole life ahead of him, and I look at him and see somebody who can do anything, and he has such great potential.

Once I can visit him I intend to make sure he knows I'm here when he needs me. I feel very helpless about the whole thing, but I'm not going to just let it lie. He needs to know I care, and I'm not going to wait to let him know.

Posted at 11:21 PM

October 19, 2007

I need to get out more. The winds are blowing strong - my favorite thing of just about all things - and I should be out letting the wind push against me like an old friend play-wrestling. I need the peace that the autumn gusts bring to me.

Posted at 11:25 PM

October 18, 2007

The nights are the loneliest.

Posted at 11:28 PM

October 17, 2007

He danced around seductively, stripping one piece of clothing after another, until finally only one thing remained. With a smile and a half-spin, he made one final move and removed his animated shorts.

... and this was just what was inspired by two words from a commercial during an Invader Zim marathon. Imagine how fucked my mind is to come up with this sort of thing just out of the blue ...

Posted at 11:24 PM

October 16, 2007

These journal entries feel like I'm running out of lead.

Posted at 8:19 PM

October 15, 2007

"I wanna be a mongoose!"

Posted at 10:06 PM

October 14, 2007

Homosexuality documented in 1500 species and the fundie freaks still want to claim that being gay "isn't natural." Right. Fuck you, you religious nutjobs.

Gay Animals Out of the Closet?
First-ever museum display shows 51 species exhibiting homosexuality

From male killer whales that ride the dorsal fin of another male to female bonobos that rub their genitals together, the animal kingdom tolerates all kinds of lifestyles.

A first-ever museum display, "Against Nature?," which opened last month at the University of Oslo's Natural History Museum in Norway, presents 51 species of animals exhibiting homosexuality.

"Homosexuality has been observed in more than 1,500 species, and the phenomenon has been well described for 500 of them," said Petter Bockman, project coordinator of the exhibition.

The idea, however, is rarely discussed in the scientific community and is often dismissed as unnatural because it doesn't appear to benefit the larger cause of species continuation.

"I think to some extent people don't think it's important because we went through all this time period in sociobiology where everything had to be tied to reproduction and reproductive success," said Linda Wolfe, who heads the Department of Anthropology at East Carolina University. "If it doesn't have [something to do] with reproduction it's not important."

However, species continuation may not always be the ultimate goal, as many animals, including humans, engage in sexual activities more than is necessary for reproduction.

"You can make up all kinds of stories: Oh it's for dominance, it's for this, it's for that, but when it comes down to the bottom I think it's just for sexual pleasure," Wolfe told LiveScience.

Conversely, some argue that homosexual sex could have a bigger natural cause than just pure pleasure: namely evolutionary benefits.

Posted at 10:12 PM

October 13, 2007

I am very upset to find out that a jury acquittedthese boot camp ~~murderers~~ counselors in the death of a young boy. The video evidence itself is incontrovertible even if you don't take any of the rest of the evidence into account. The fact that the boy had a medical condition is irrelevant considering these beasts continued to beat the boy after he was already comatose.

These 'boot camps' are invariably brutal and unconscionable programs designed to beat children into submission by breaking their will and abusing them with psychological and physical abuse and the threat of psychological and physical abuse. Nothing about these 'programs' is therapeutic or helpful, certainly not in the long run and rarely in the short run. It's bad enough that parents who send their kids to these things are convicted of child abuse, but the people who run these things should be locked away forever in the deepest darkest prisons available.

There is no excuse for this. None. No child deserves to go through the trauma of one of these camps. No child deserves to die because he is seen as 'difficult'. No group of adults who gang up on a child and beat him, under any circumstances, should get a free pass. There is no excuse for this. No whatsoever.

Federal Officials to Review Boot Camp Death Case

PANAMA CITY, Florida (AP) -- Seven former juvenile boot camp guards and a nurse had barely processed an all-white jury's decision to acquit them in a black teenager's death before federal authorities announced they would review the case.

Since jurors on Friday acquitted them of manslaughter charges, federal prosecutors likely would have to try another tactic, such as seeking an indictment alleging obstruction of justice, legal experts said.

"It's too early to say that the final chapter has been written with respect to the criminal justice system in this case," said Kendall Coffey, a former U.S. attorney in Miami.

Florida civil rights leaders called for federal charges hours after a jury took 90 minutes to exonerate the eight in state court in the death of Martin Lee Anderson, 14. Watch reaction to the verdict »

By Friday evening, officials from the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington and the U.S. Attorney's Office in Tallahassee announced they were reviewing the state's prosecution.

Anderson died January 6, 2006, a day after being hit and kicked by the guards as the nurse watched after he collapsed while running laps. The 30-minute confrontation was videotaped.

The altercation drew protests in the state capital and marked the end of Florida's system of juvenile boot camps.

Coffey said state prosecutors might have laid a foundation for their federal counterparts to seek an obstruction charge by grilling the eight about inconsistencies and omissions in their written accounts of the last conscious moments of Anderson's life when they testified last week.

But lawyer Bob Sombathy, who represented ex-guard Patrick Garrett, said he doubted a federal prosecution would be successful. Sombathy said the state trial showed the medical findings are on the side of the defendants.

"With a 90-minute verdict after a three-week trial (in the state case), it would be the same result," he said.

Ashley Benedik, defense attorney for nurse Kristin Schmidt, said the federal government might not bring charges.

"To a certain extent there was more at stake for the state, there was more of a public outcry," she said.

At a vigil in the impoverished neighborhood where Anderson grew up, community leaders appealed for calm in the wake of the verdict, which they said was affected by Circuit Judge Michael Overstreet's decision to hold the trial in Panama City, where the boot camp was located.

"This is not the end of it. We can take it to a higher court and I hope it will be taken to a higher court," said Panama City Commissioner Jonathan Wilson.

Laurie Levenson, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, said she was not surprised the guards were acquitted by a "hometown jury." Nor would it surprise her if the federal government stepped in, she said.

"This is the very type of case you would expect the Justice Department to take a very close look at, just like the Rodney King case," Levenson said.

King was pulled over for speeding in Los Angeles' eastern San Fernando Valley, where police officers who said he acted menacingly and refused to follow their orders were videotaped kicking him, pummeling him with their nightsticks and shooting him with stun-gun darts.

After a jury acquitted the officers in 1992, riots broke out across Los Angeles and lasted four days, leaving 55 people dead and more than 2,000 injured.

Federal prosecutors in the King case presented new evidence during their trial of the officers, including testimony that the officers had lied and had laughed about the incident, Levenson said.

In the federal trial, two officers were convicted of violating King's civil rights.

Posted at 10:22 PM

October 12, 2007

Why are vampires always portrayed with long, dirty, yellowed, ugly fingernails? The teeth I get, but why long, nasty fingernails?

Posted at 10:59 PM

October 11, 2007

I've often fancied that I'm somewhat more of a right-brained person than left-brained (using the right side of my brain more than the left, the right side being the more creative side of the brain and the left the more logical), but I've never been as openly passionate and inspired (or talented) as people I've seen to be fully right-brained. I realize that, due to my childhood and certain other life experiences, I have built walls around myself and locked off my emotions as a defense mechanism, but I never credited how much that wall was hiding my true nature.

In the last ten years I've seen more and more of the true depth of my emotions and the true depth of my right-braininess, yet this test has completely taken me by surprise. I can readily see the dancer spinning clockwise, but try as I might - no matter how long I look or how much I concentrate - I simply can't see how she's can be moving counterclockwise at all. I have come back to look at it all day, and all I can see is a smooth clockwise spin, nothing more.

Does this mean I'm even more right-brained than I've given myself credit for? Maybe. Certainly the 'functions' of the right-brain describe me incredibly well.

RIGHT BRAIN FUNCTIONS
- uses feeling
- "big picture" oriented
- imagination rules
- symbols and images
- present and future
- philosophy & religion
- can "get it" (i.e. meaning)
- believes
- appreciates
- spatial perception
- knows object function
- fantasy based
- presents possibilities
- impetuous
- risk taking

In an odd way I am extremely pleased with the idea that I am more dominantly right-brained than I had thought. It's certainly nothing of any significance, I suppose, but it still pleases me. What can I say?

Posted at 11:11 PM

October 10, 2007

LIfe is darkening my soul.

Posted at 10:18 PM

October 9, 2007

Too much death.
Too much loneliness.
Too little love.
Too little.

Posted at 8:32 PM

October 8, 2007

A life without meaning is no life at all.

Posted at 11:17 PM

October 6, 2007

I've realized that this is possibly the most noisy place I've ever lived. The constant buzz of low airplanes from the nearby county airport, the sound of trains from less than a mile away, the sound of incessant remodeling by one neighbor or another, the buzz of one or more lawnmowers at the earliest hours of morning, the slamming of car doors or house doors by my idiot neighbors at all hours right next to my bedroom window, some idiot or another honking their horn repeatedly for someone to answer rather than going and ringing their doorbell, the roar of the television from downstairs because my grandma can remember how to crank the volume button on the remote by not remember to put in her hearing aids, the bark of one of the myriad of yapping dogs that seemingly every neighbor has one or more of, and even road noise from larger (or faster) vehicles moving down the street. It screws up my sleep all the time, wakes me early most every day, and makes it impossible to have quiet moments of reflection ever at any time. It's simply unbelievable.

Posted at 10:09 PM

October 5, 2007

I need a hug.

Posted at 11:42 PM

October 4, 2007

10-4 good buddy.

Posted at 9:53 PM

October 3, 2007

It's all crap. Crap I say! Crap!!

Posted at 10:55 PM

October 2, 2007

Where's the love? Huh?

Posted at 11:58 PM

October 1, 2007

I didn't get much sleep last night. Yesterday's get-together in Perrysburg ended with frustration and the likelihood that we may never get together again, at least not in the fashion we have and with the usual guest list.

Part of me is disappointed that it has come to this, but another part - the larger part in fact - is relieved that it is over, at least for a while. The stress and arguments and undercurrent of tension had been making these gatherings honestly quite unpleasant for me (and clearly for Mark as well), and things had to come to a head sooner or later.

Now that we have reached that point the big question is where things will go from here. I honestly don't know. In a way I look forward to a few weeks away from things, but I don't know if it's possible to ever get things going again - in any fashion - because the only way to make things right is to be open and honest and also to take some personal responsibility for some of the problems that have been cropping up. I have seen my own culpability and the problems caused by others, b and I think Steve has been open to trying to s accept and admit his faults as well (when the issues have come up). Steffen, however, seems unwilling to accept any responsibility for problems that have developed (recently and in past situations), and he seems very quick to blame others for being childish or being the root of all problems. Until everyone in the group is willing to see things from a perspective other than their own and until everyone is willing to face radical change, I don't think we'll be able to get past this, and it its seriously disappointing. It's disappointing because I really don't see - particularly with comments made last night - that admissions of guilt or any degree of change at all are likely to come from the largest sources of problems, and that means that this group, as it has been, will likely never meet again.

So anyhow, replaying all of those events just would not stop last night when I was trying to go to sleep, and I had the same problem in the early hours this morning when I was trying to go back to sleep after going to the bathroom. So I'm quite tired - and of course still quite frustrated. After a full day at least now I can get my mind to think about other things, and hopefully I'll sleep better tonight and begin to put all of this behind me.

Why, I constantly have to wonder lately, is there all of this drama in life? It really is simply outrageous.

Posted at 10:40 PM