I don't claim to be the best at writing, spelling and getting my point across in a clear manner, but after visiting The Lost Art of Proofreading I feel better about myself.
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Let me begin by saying that I have been following this story from the very beginning. This little girl, Shaniya, has a place in my heart forever. Something about her smile really tore at me, and I sat by my computer constantly checking for updates on her whereabouts and safety. For some reason, this specific story made me stop whatever I was doing at the time and pay attention.
For those who haven't been keeping up with this story in the news, let me get you up to speed...
This beautiful little girl, Shaniya Davis, was five years old when she was raped and murdered (allegedly) by Mario Andrette McNeill.
Shaniya spent most of her childhood living with her father, Bradley Lockhart, and his relatives. While it's clear that neither of Shaniya's parents were picture perfect, you can tell that Mr. Lockhart loved his little girl very much.
Shaniya was the result of a one night stand, and Shaniya's mother, Antoinette Nicole Davis, had drug problems and run-ins with the law. It seems as though Mr. Lockhart thought Antoinette had begun to get her life together, and he allowed his daughter to stay with her Mom for a period of time.He said his daughter had lived with him for the past three or four years. He let her live with her mother, Antoinette Davis, about three weeks ago because she had found a place to live and had held a job for six months, he said.
"I just wanted her to be a mother," he said. "She was never part of her life."
He would never see her again.
Shaniya's mother, Antoinette, called 911 from her mobile home in North Carolina :
While working in Utah in the construction field, Bradley Lockhart found out that his daughter had been reported missing. Abducted from her mother's mobile home. He flew back home to speak with investigators and help locate Shaniya. He was desperate, making television plea after television plea begging for help from the public in locating his precious little girl.
Shaniya's father and his family.The television pleas were helping with leads. People were calling in with possible sightings, ideas, theories... you name it. The scariest of which were those who knew Antoinette and thought that she might have been prostituting her 5 year old daughter in a back room of the home she disappeared from.
Police arrested their first suspect, Clarence Darriel Coe (30) who just happens to be Antoinette's boyfriend. They quickly realized they had the wrong man and released him when a tipster called in from a hotel in Sanford after witnessing the little girl and a man identified by Mario AndretteMcNeill. Investigators quickly looked through surveillance tape and passed out photos like this to the press to try to locate Shaniya.
Later, McNeill was arrested.
Turns out he bragged to a couple buddies that he killed the girl and then buried her in an area that had deer carcases.
Cold blooded bastard.
There she is, folks. In the arms of the man who is now accused of raping and then murdering her.
No shoes. Not sure why that bothers me.
I wish I was able to reach into the computer screen and grab her.
Antoinette Davis was arrested for selling her daughter for sex. Many people on the Internet are assuming she might have given up her little girl because of a drug debt of some kind. She is pregnant with another child, and one reporter made comments that it seemed as though she was going through withdrawls during her first court appearance. What was she taking while pregnant? It's clear Ms. Davis doesn't care about anyone but herself.
I wish someone, somewhere could have done something.
This is where my crime post turns into something else...
Where was God when this little girl was being raped?
Where was God when she was being murdered?
Why didn't God help her?
You see, I used to really believe that our loving creator was watching out for us and helping us when we needed it. Sure, bad things happened... but you can't expect God to be everywhere... right? At least, that is what I told myself to make my beliefs make sense.
I remember listening to my teachers in church tell of the wonderful miracles God performed. Every once in a while, on the news, I would hear an amazing story in which people claimed their survival or the birth of a premature baby was nothing short of one of these miracles. Their stories were like proof to me. They enabled my belief.
You would also hear horror stories on the news. The wars, the abuse, the murders, the accidents that killed people that had promising lives ahead of them. What did I say to make myself feel better about these?
God has a reason for everything.
I have to ask you guys, the believers out there, one question.
What is the reason that God didn't help Shaniya? If God performs all of these miracles, saves lives, heals people, and works in mysterious ways, why didn't He help her?
He certainly had the time.
He could have stopped her father from allowing her to spend time at her mothers.
He could have performed some miracle that would stop the cold blooded murderer from first raping her and then taking her life.
He just didn't?
Did she not deserve God's help?
It's certainly not because people were not praying for her to come home safely. People all over the WORLD were holding their breath and pleading with God to intervene.
Why didn't he?
If God really exists, which I clearly doubt, he made the choice to *not* help Shaniya. After all, He sees and hears everything. God is supposedly everywhere, right?
Why would a loving God sit back and let this happen to a young child?
Why does he let this happen every single day to thousands of other children?
Why doesn't he heal childhood cancer?
If you claim he can, why doesn't he?
Where was God when this girl needed him?
Now I am at a crossroads. Usually I would take comfort in the fact that this little girl was up in heaven with the angels. Not feeling pain, not being afraid.
I don't have that anymore.
Andee
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EdwardCurrent has got to have one of the best YouTube Channels in existence.
As a matter of fact, it's proof God exists.
Graphic Pictures on this one...
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I watched the entire documentary last year, and it made me sick.
These poor kids.
Wow.
Right?
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There are so many things wrong with this video, I don't even know where to start...
Okay...
First, we have a grown ass man driving around a neighborhood and stopping random children who are riding their bicycles.
Stranger danger, kids. Really.
Anyway, he immediately asks them if they live in the area, and then if they go to church in the area. Then he gets the idea that he has the RIGHT to ask these complete strangers, someone else's children, where they would go after they die. Not only this, but he is an utter asswipe about it and tells the kids who gets to answer first.
Look at the kids in the video. They are clearly uncomfortable, shifting on their bikes and taking glances at one another thinking, "What the fuck, dude?" They don't want to be rude, so they answer the guys questions. I wish they would have flipped him off, mooned him and then flattened his tires.
He then tells them what they need to do in order to save their souls according to the Bible. He then has them repeat after him a prayer to God.
Not only is this out of line, it creepy and disturbing.
Do religious people even realize this is extremely out of line?
No.
They are right and we are wrong.
They are only trying to save our souls.
How would they feel if atheists stopped their children as they were out riding their bicycles? Telling them that a belief in God is stupid and then explaining why. Giving out copies of "God is not Great" or "The God Delusion?"
How would they like it if we had them repeat chants like, "Adults with imaginary friends are stupid."
They would be freaking the fuck out, wouldn't they?
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Examples of intolerance from the bible...
This is only a small sampling of intolerance in the Bible. The reason I am posting this is because I received an email from someone who said that not believing in the Bible and not following the examples in the Bible I am sure to rot in Hell forever.
Do you expect me to worship this God?
An uncircumcised boy is to be abandoned by his parents and community. Genesis 17:14Yeah, God is great.
After Judah pays Tamar for her services, he is told that she "played the harlot" and "is with child by whoredom." When Judah hears this, he says, "Bring her forth, and let her be burnt." Genesis 38:24
God decides to kill Moses because his son had not yet been circumcised. Exodus 4:24-26
Do not allow others to worship a different god. Conquer them and destroy their religious property. Exodus 23:24
Those who break the Sabbath are to be executed. Exodus 31:14
Whoever works, or even kindles a fire, on the Sabbath "shall be put to death." Exodus 35:2-3
Moses tells Aaron's cousins to drag the burned bodies out of the camp, and he warns Aaron not to mourn the death of his sons or God will kill him too, along with everyone else. Leviticus 10:4-6
Handicapped people cannot approach the altar of God. They would "profane" it. Leviticus 21:16-23
A man curses and blasphemes while disputing with another man. Moses asks God what to do about it. God says that the whole community must stone him to death. "And the children of Israel did as the Lord and Moses commanded."Leviticus 24:10-23
God tells the people to expel from camp "every leper, every one that hath an issue, and whoever is defiled by the dead." So by God's instructions, the sick are abandoned and left to suffer and die alone. Numbers 5:1-4
After the people "commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab," Moses has them all killed. Then God tells Moses to hang their dead bodies up in front of him; God says that this will satisfy him. Numbers 25:1-5
For impaling the interracial couple, God rewards Phinehas and his sons with the everlasting priesthood. Numbers 25:10-13
Under God's direction, Moses' army defeats the Midianites. They kill all the adult males, but take the women and children captive. When Moses learns that they left some live, he angrily says: "Have you saved all the women alive? Kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him. But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves." So they went back and did as Moses (and presumably God) instructed, killing everyone except for the virgins. In this way they got 32,000 virgins -- Wow! (Even God gets some of the booty -- including the virgins.) Numbers 31:1-54
Kill everyone who has religious beliefs that are different from your own. Deuteronomy 17:2-7
False prophets are to be (you guessed it) executed. How do you know who is a false prophet? By whether or not their predictions come true. Deuteronomy 18:20
God won't let bastards attend church. Neither can the sons or daughters of bastards "even to the tenth generation." So if you plan to attend church next Sunday be ready to prove that your genitals are intact and don't forget your birth certificate and genealogical records for at least the last ten generations. Don't laugh. This stuff is important to God. Deuteronomy 23:2
God orders Saul to kill all of the Amalekites: men, women, infants, sucklings, ox, sheep, camels, and asses. Why? Because God remembers what Amalek did hundreds of years ago. 1 Samuel 15:2-3
Elijah shows that he is "a man of God" by burning 102 men to death for worshipping the wrong god. 2 Kings 1:9-12
Andee
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She kept me up all night long.
Meowing.
Scratching my door.
Meowing again.
More scratching.
Is she trying to warn me of an upcoming natural disaster? Does she really really want kitty-cat treats?
Why?
WHY????????
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My Mom dropped off the paper this morning at my apartment.
Front page? All emphasis is mine:
Lawsuits filed Against LDS Church.Forgive any minor errors in that. I had to type it all out from the newspaper because the online edition of the Herald Journal doesn't have the article.
Men allege church ignored sex abuse by scout leaders.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- The LDS Church and Boy Scouts of America were named as defendants in lawsuits Monday claiming childhood sexual abuse by youth leaders decades ago.
Alleged victims filed suits against both organizations in San Francisco and Seattle, and against the church alone in Portland, Ore.
The plaintiffs are all represented by Portland attorney Kelly Clark who has brought similar suits against the Boy Scouts in the past.
In the suit filed in San Francisco superior court, three brothers claim the church ignored their complaints about being molested by their Silicon Valley Boy Scout and Latter-day Saint youth leader in the 1970's and 1980's.
"These are men who believe in the best of these institutions and believe that this kind of lawsuit can help improve these institutions and prevent child abuse," Clark said. "The is not a lawsuit they brought lightly, but it is one they intend to see through."
The plaintiffs, identified only as John Does, claim they were molested hundreds of times by 65-year-old William Eugene Knox, who married their mother while the abuse was taking place in Sunnyvale, Calif.
A law firm in Canton, Ga., contacted by the Associated Press said it was no longer representing Knox, a Georgia resident. His phone number could not be located.
Clark said the suit was filed weeks ago, but the defendants were only named Monday after a San Francisco judge certified evidence allowing them to be identified publicly. He said a jury would determine the specific amount of any possible damages.
One of the plaintiffs was still a devout member of the church, and two have served as Scoutmasters. Clark said one was a former FBI agent.
San Jose attorney Allen Ruby, representing the church in Northern California, said he was not aware of a case in which courts have found a church liable for abuse committed by a family member.
"The allegations in this case are the plaintiffs were abused by their stepfather," Ruby said. The church will defend itself against the suit, he said.
Kent Downing, chief executive of the Boy Scouts' Pacific Skyline Council, said he could not comment because he had not seen the lawsuit.
In the Seattle case, a man now in his early 40's claims he and other boys were abused in the late 1970's by Dustin Hall, an assistant Scoutmaster chosen by the church's Shelton Ward near Olympia.
The plaintiff said in a statement released through his lawyer that the abuse- and his failure to protect the others- haunts him.
Hall could not immediately be reached for comment. It was not clear if he still lives in the area or whether he has an attorney. The Pacific Harbors Council of the Boy Scouts did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
Chuck Gordon, a Seattle-based lawyer for the church, said it would investigate the complaint and act accordingly.
"While we do sympathize with all victims of abuse, the church will defend itself against any accusation it deems to be false," Gordon said.
The lawsuit filed in Portland on behalf of a man who is now 46 claims a Latter-day Saint youth leader abused him between 1974 and 1977. The suit claims the abuse was reported to a church bishop but was never communicated to law enforcement.
A lawyer for the church, Steve English, said the church "Absolutely and unequivocally" condemns sex abuse and will investigate.
The lawsuit identified the youth leader as Michael Simms and seeks nearly $5 million in damages. Efforts to locate Simms were not successful.
Clark said the plaintiffs were filing civil lawsuits in part because the statute of limitations for bringing criminal charges had expired.
I find that interesting.
First, let me say that this isn't the first time lawsuits like this have been filed against the church and it certainly won't be the last. What makes these cases unique is that the Mormon Church claims all men chosen for callings are done so by God.
Why would God call these abusers to lead boy scout troops?
This comment, made by one of the church's attorneys really pissed me off:
"...not aware of a case in which courts have found a church liable for abuse committed by a family member.Guess what?
"The allegations in this case are the plaintiffs were abused by their stepfather," Ruby said. The church will defend itself against the suit, he said.
The reason these men are now suing is because they went to their bishops and complained about the abuse. They went to those in charge asking for help!
The church didn't contact authorities.
They didn't do the right thing.
Instead, they covered up for one of their fellow priesthood members and let everything continue. I can't even begin to tell you how many personal accounts I have read of members going to the bishop for one kind of abuse or another and nothing coming of it. Here are a couple examples:
January 23, 2007More...
Two brothers filed a $6.5 million lawsuit against The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Boy Scouts of America on Monday, alleging they were sexually abused as children in the 1980s by a Mormon "home teacher" who was also a Boy Scout leader.
The lawsuit filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court alleges the church and the Boy Scouts were responsible because Timur Dykes was an authorized representative of the groups. It also claims the church failed to report an abuse allegation against a third brother that could have led authorities to other victims -- a claim the church denied.
Feb. 28, 2008BOISE, Idaho (AP) - A man has filed a $5 million lawsuit against the Boy Scouts and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, claiming the two entities didn't do enough to stop the sexual abuse of children by troop leaders.
The lawsuit was filed in Oregon State Court in eastern Oregon's Malheur County on Thursday by a man identified only as Tom Doe.
Doe alleges that the leader of his Nampa, Idaho Boy Scout troop sexually abused him for about three years, starting in 1967, and that the abuse left him with debilitating physical, emotional and mental injuries.
I could keep posting these articles and links but it would take all day.
Really.
All fucking day.
The lawyer who handles these cases against the Mormon Church, Kelly Clark, has his own website called MormonAbuse.com.
If you have a few moments, go to the website and count the number of similar lawsuits brought up against the Mormon Church for not going to the proper authorities when told of abuse.
Not only is it ridiculous to assume that all men in the church are called by God to certain positions, it's ridiculous to not hold the church accountable for the decisions to not contact authorities in these cases.
It's not just the Boy Scouts, either...
Young women have gone to their bishops asking for help after being sexually abused, wives have gone to bishops for sexual and physical abuse help. Little kids have told their leaders that Mommy or Daddy hits them.
Not going to the proper authorities and getting these children out of harms way is inexcusable.
Instead of helping the people who reported this abuse to their bishops or other leaders, the church abused them all over again. They sat back and pretended not to know. People who survive abuse like this go through so much mental and emotional pain to begin with... it changes who they are and all of their relationships for the rest of their lives. They can get help, they can get counseling, but it's always there.
I hope these men get millions. They deserve it.
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While getting my daily fix for crime news I came upon an ad on MSNBC.com for some mortgage refinancing company. I have no idea if the link will show the ad if you click it, sometimes internet ads are different depending on location and what the person seems to be searching for. That is why I get so many damned Mormon ads when I'm searching the net.
Problem is, the image that went with the ad made zero sense to me... and it was kind of scary:
It scares me just like police sketches sometimes scare me.
Yeah, I know I'm weird.
Andee
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I'm not a huge fan of Octomom or beauty pageants, but I am glad I watched this video anyway.
It's a clip from the Jimmy Kimmel show, and I laughed out watching it.
Watch it. You won't be sorry!
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