Foul Mouthed Trick-Or-Treaters

“I love profanity, but I think if it’s used too much, it just sounds a little trashy. I think it’s more effective when it’s dropped intelligently. I like intelligent profanity.”~ Katie Aselton

Never in my life did I think I would come across this situation. But I did. And it was less than an hour from when this blog post was started to be composed.

I live in a gated community. Which means anyone going door to door is a solicitor, and that’s just a big no-no.

This would also mean that neighborhood children who are out on Halloween night are not permitted to come on to the property to start knocking on doors.

Halloween is for all intents and purposes, closed down and forbidden on this property.

However, it is NOT against the rules here that residents and neighbors who have grandchildren and the like, that families can’t come visit their grandparents to show off their Halloween costumes. What IS against the rules is going door to door, begging for candy.

So then about an hour ago, as I sat here in the dark, trying to get myself into the spirit by watching old horror films on television and newer horror films on the Internet, was a knock on the door.

Not really believing that anyone would dare attempt to solicit sweets out of me, I opened the door to find myself in a big ole steamy pile of WRONGNESS.

There stood a tiny Red Power Ranger, begging for candy.

Of which I have absolutely NONE.

And so in a scramble to find something decent to give, because I had no candy. I grabbed a fistful of quarters and threw them into this beggar’s bag.

The clinking of quarters caught this little one’s attention and he reached into the bag to see what I put in. And found a bunch of change.

At this point was when HELL broke loose. 

This bratty punk then said the following (and I quote verbatum) “Not money, its supposed to be candy, motherfucker!”

INCREDIBLE!! Who or where gave him this kind of knowledge of language??

I became unglued.

I went outside, feeling quite confident that I could have overpowered him and slam dunked him into a tree or a dumpster or something. But then an adult came along.

I asked if the child belonged to them and they said that the child was in fact theirs.

I told them about the conversation that JUST happened moments ago. Only to find the parent or guardian or whomever it was, lay into the child like a wicked stepmother.

Where are the children finding the ways to grow a pair to be like that and talk like that? Adults are bad enough as it is, and I’m tired of dealing with nasty and mean adults.

But now, children????

Mother Steals; Then Receives

“Charity is no substitute for justice withheld.”~ Saint Augustine

So here’s a story for you about a lot of things. Charity being one of them.

In Florida, Jessica Robles realized that she had no food in the house to feed herself or her small children. Her boyfriend just lost his job, and due to some kind of error, she had been receiving food assistance but had lost it because of the glitch.

What does Jessica do in her time of absolute desperation? She went to the local grocery store and filled her grocery cart with about $300 of groceries and attempted to simply walk out without paying for it.

But she did not get away with it. Seasoned Miami-Dade police officer Vicki Thomas busted Jessica for shoplifting.

And this is where the tale turns into an unusual twist. Instead of taking Jessica to jail, Vicki went inside the grocery store and with HER OWN MONEY, purchased $100 worth of groceries.

When Vicki asked Jessica why she had committed the crime, the answer unsettled Vicki to her core: “My children are hungry.”

Apparently, Jessica did not have any history of habitual shoplifting. Instead of going to jail and allowing the children to go on being hungry, she was given a misdemeanor and told to show up in court. And then received the $100 in groceries. The officer making Jessica promise that once she was able to get back on her feet that she give the  same kind of help to someone else that she received.

And that’s where the bulk of the story splits off into differently wild directions. None of which I can track and verify to be the truth. But everything up to this point, is the truth.

Speculation suggests that when the news of this heart-warming story of charity by the law officer was spread around, that people donated to help out Jessica. And from that general donation, she received an additional $700 in groceries. Another story claims that she was picked up for an interview based on this wild crime story, and ended up landing a job in customer service.

As much as this story is loving and gives people the gooey inside feeling of warmth. I look at this situation and feel for Jessica. However, stealing/shoplifting would probably not be the direction that I would go in, in order to feed my children. But I do not know exactly her situation. Perhaps she did try other things to keep afloat and it fell apart or whatever.

And should the other stories be true about how the community came together to help her out and gave her so many groceries…. I hope that for her own sake and for the sake of her children, that she does the right thing and fights her way to get back on her feet, rather than hope that someone will bail her out again when all that goes away. However, as I stated, I do not know if the uber-generosity story is true or not.

http://www.wsvn.com/news/articles/local/21012009392020/cop-helps-admitted-shoplifter-with-groceries/
http://www.baynews9.com/content/news/baynews9/news/article.html/content/news/articles/bn9/2013/10/22/miami_dade_officer_b.html

No Wheelchairs In Heaven

“I’ll walk upon a street of gold
Glorious beauty I will share
In a place called HEAVEN
Where I’ll need no wheelchair.”~ excerpt from a poem written by J. Morse

The image was sent to me by the most moist, wonderful, and beautiful Mrs. Froth today. And it really struck big with me.

But I wanted to know more about where this idea and photograph had come from and/or by specifically.

Sadly, there was not a lot that could be found about the monumental grave stone or the person who is laid to rest there.

Here is what I did find out about the grave site:

The person who is laid to rest is Matthew Stanford Robinson. Born, died, and buried in Salt Lake City, Utah.

He was born with an entire slate of disabilities, and doctors honestly expected him to live for only a few hours.

But Matthew Stanford Robinson would prove everyone wrong with his strength, courage, and his faith. Matthew Stanford Robinson approximately seven months before his eleventh birthday.

I honestly believe, personally speaking, that I would want some kind of monument similar to this when the time comes that I will leave this planet. I also believe that this grave raises the APPROPRIATE questions and awareness, and is a lasting marker of this child’s short and sweet legacy.

I have nothing against, nor do I think that there’s anything wrong with asking what one person’s disability is all about. But what I DO feel is wrong, is to be so bold as to ask me what my disability is, and then have a closed mind about it and just go off believing in your own theories.

 

Pathetic Parenting

You have no idea.

http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/family-photo-session-not-average-day-beach-193509461–abc-news-parenting.html

At the end, they laughed and thought it was hilarious.

I’m not sure that dropping your child on the beach as they land, is “funny” necessarily. But hey, whatever floats your boat. Here’s to hoping CPS doesn’t knock on your door any time soon.  I am not saying that what happened, happened on purpose…. but geez!!!!

 

Sicko

A Middlesbrough man who pretended to be pop singer Justin Bieber to trick children into sending him sex act videos has been jailed for 14 years.

Robert Hunter, 35, was caught after a girl called police.

Officers found 800 videos from all over the world – some from boys as young as nine years old in his home. Hunter pleaded guilty to 15 charges of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity and 14 of making indecent photos at Teesside Crown Court.

The court heard Hunter spent years targeting hundreds of girls and boys across the UK, France, Spain, Italy, Serbia, Asia and Canada.

Girls, believing he was the pop star, stripped off in front of their computer cameras after he said he would be their boyfriend, the court heard. Schoolboys also became his victims when he posed as a teenage girl and persuaded them to perform sex acts on camera which he used to lure more girls, said prosecutor Richard Bennett. But when they tried to back out he blackmailed them with threats.

A 12-year-old girl slashed her arms after he posted indecent photos of her on Facebook along with her address and phone number. Hunter pretended to be the singer to get children to make sex videos.

Police officers spoke to forces around the world and used Interpol to trace his victims. Hunter was arrested in December 2011. He was able to persuade some of them that he was the music artist Justin Bieber and he encouraged them to perform sex acts on camera and he recorded many of them.

Detective Sgt Paul Higgins, of Cleveland Police, said: “Robert Hunter was a calculating and malicious predator who set out to coerce and bully young girls into exposing themselves over the internet.”

When I heard about this story online today, I literally got sick to my stomach. Regardless of the fact that this is tied in with Justin Bieber. It doesn’t really matter. What this guy has done, is totally wrong.

Now he’s going to be someone’s sock puppet in prison……. if you know what I mean. And I just have no sympathy for him or his actions. And none for his future demise either.

In fact, I believe that throwing him to the fates of Frothtonomy would serve him a lot better than anything that I could come up with.

And I felt I needed to get this story out because this is by far one of the worst cases of child exploitation and abuse that I have heard. There is just NO tolerance in me for that.

What do you think should happen to him? Leave your remarks in the comment section.

 

Bad Uncle

“If you live a life of make-believe, your life isn’t worth anything until you do something that does challenge your reality. And to me, sailing the open ocean is a real challenge, because it’s life or death.”~ Morgan Freeman

Even I believe that this story is too good and too funny to pass up to pass around. 

My sister had come by with her children. My nephew and niece. My nephew had noticed that no lights were on in my home. The sun was shining and still sufficient natural light was there, so I didn’t feel the need to use the electricity.

My nephew wanted to know why it was so dark. And his mother literally looked him in the eye, and said that I was a vampire.

I looked up and saw that she had said it with a straight face. She was a wall of all sincerity explaining to her child why the lights were out.

My nephew actually fell for it, it had seemed. But I was so intrigued that my sister said it without cracking up and laughing.

Later on, I would be told that my nephew said to his mother that he did NOT really think that I was a vampire.

Darn!!!!! I wanted to see how long that I could make that one go.

It’s interesting how parents throughout generations have said certain things existed just to get their children to behave. The monster of the bed, the thing in the closet, and the threats of misbehaving children to be taken away by demons and devils forever.

But then we also have things like Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. Some of the things we are told as children are told to put the fear into us, so that we would end up being good children. At least children that will do what our parents want.

The other side of it, we’re told as children that our good behavior will be rewarded.

As adults, we don’t really have that kind of thing that will curb our behavior. We’re not exactly rewarded for doing good things in our lives. But then again, we’re not threatened by evil for when we do bad things.

Maybe we should come up with something?? A huge group of people from all nations should combine their children’s myths to tie it into adulthood and for those able to talk about it with a straight face, let these adults know that there’s rewards for good behavior and punishment for bad behavior.

Nonetheless, I think that I could have curbed my nephew’s behavior… had he still believed that I was in fact, a vampire!!!

Damning The Deaf

http://gawker.com/5938542/deaf-three+year+old-not-allowed-to-sign-his-name-because-it-violates-preschools-weapons-policy

Okay. Now you’ve done it society. You’ve REALLY done it!!

What kind of butt head in charge believes that a three year old child, who is deaf, is going to be a VIOLENT threat by using a name sign?

It is not like he’s tossing up gang signs that his parents taught him at an early age. He is not going around to other children, promising to bust a cap in their ass. He is simply attempting to communicate in the hearing world because he is deaf.

The child uses something called “Signed Exact English”. Or “SEE”.

SEE is an artificial system that was devised in 1972 that has been proven to function as the first language of children with hearing loss. It is based on the more well known system of ASL, or “American Sign Language”.

Based on the studies that I had years ago in Sign Language, everyone has their own “name sign”. It distinguishes an individual. For example: In a classroom setting, there may be more than one student with a common first name, such as “Michael” or “Jennifer”. Each individual name sign helps tell one from the other.

But because of the “Zero Tolerance” policy that this school system has in place, it is essentially taking away this child’s identity. This is complete garbage!

It really is sad to read about this story. It just feels like a shot to the nuts for me. And to those who have lifelong ADA issues. I have my hearing. And at one point, I had been studying to be a Sign Language interpreter. And so there is a part of me that is crushed to read that this innocent three year old child who is at a disadvantage in the world is being shut down and pushed back. All because of his own name sign might look like a friggin’ weapon?!?!?!?!???

C’mon!!

This child is there to learn and interact in a world that is very scary. He’s not there to be pushed aside, just because some pompous legislation.

I am all for safety in schools and for the safety of our children. But this “Zero Tolerance” stuff is seriously abused, outdated, and quite honestly… ridiculous.

I hope, I REALLY HOPE that the school system changes its tune. Because how much further back can you push those who are supposed to be protected by the ADA? Especially those who cannot defend themselves.

 

Into The Kingdom Of The Ice Children

It is always best when you have a good day doing what you enjoy.

For the first time since last May, I was able to get on the ice and I didn’t play any hockey, but I got to skate.

My sister came by and picked me up and took me to the one and only remaining ice skating rink left. It was during public skating hours and many people were there to get out of this atrocious heat and cool off for a while.

What was probably more fun than anything was the thought of being able to skate along side my 7 year old nephew as he has been learning over the summer how to skate and also how to play hockey.

But once I got there and I was ready to go, I jumped into my sled and got dragged onto the ice. Once I hit, I took off like a jet!! I didn’t even see my nephew until after I had been on the ice for a while. And because I’m really out of practice, I was a little tired by the time he did show that it was getting to the point where I could not keep up. Okay, okay…. A LOT tired.

I was lost in time though. I had so much fun on the ice. But it didn’t come without its dangers and perils and close calls.

Because of the fact that it was a public skate session, there were a lot of bodies on the ice. Some skating, some doing spins, others just standing on the ice, and even more others hugging the walls for dear life!

There were no hockey pucks involved. The hockey nets were removed. So all I could do was skate, skate, skate.

It was just a little bit challenging to have gone in and out of lines of people, three or four deep, only to try and get around them somehow without plowing into them or into someone else with my sled.

As I did lap after lap after lap, I began to notice a group of young children who were curious. They skating along side of me for a while. Some of them asking questions about why I was in a sled. Others asked how I moved around on the ice, and some were asking me if my legs were broken. Over and over again.

After doing this for a short amount of time, I decided to skate over towards the wall and take a nice little break and give my arms a rest. When I turned around that last orange cone, the children who had been following me didn’t notice that I had broken away from the path and was up against the wall.

Children came flooding over to me. They stood there all around me, asking all sorts of questions. They wanted to see the skate blades underneath the sled. They wanted to see what kinds of sticks I was using to move across the ice. Some even asked if I played hockey.

When the questions had died down and I was rested up a little bit, I blasted off again and went back into the routine of doing laps around cones.

I heard behind me, “THERE HE GOES!!” and as I went around that first cone I noticed that all of the children who had been hanging around me were actually chasing after me and trying to catch up.

These children had to be between the ages of 7 and 10 years old. Certainly no older than 12 years of age.

I heard a few other comments like “LOOK AT THAT!” and “WATCH HIM!” and the like. There was one little girl who had for the most part hung out with me on the ice for as long as I was still on it. When I took a break, she took a break. Then some boys did the same thing.

But as time went by, things got a little crowded on the ice. There were a lot of times where I would narrowly skate right by someone’s leg as I was trying to pass them because they were either standing still or going slower than I was.

No matter where I went or where I had stopped to take a break, I had that one little girl and at least one or two more children that would be there wherever I went. And when I started up again, they wouldn’t notice that I had started skating again and they would run like mad to catch up.

Some of these older kids (I want to say probably in high school) stood there in their little herds and would never get out of the way.

I ended up taking out one little kid as I tried to stop myself from running him over. I saw that he was going to fall on top of me and I threw my arm out and broke his fall. Once he bounced off of my arm, he gracefully came down upon his knees and was not hurt. All of this had to happen because these older kids weren’t moving and I tried to go to the outside of their little pack and I nailed the poor child.

The skate guards clearly were not doing their job. Not cool.

Random question: Why couldn’t the ice be filled with good looking women? I could take them out, having them land on my lap and then they can tell me what they want for Christmas. Just saying. Don’t you think that is a really cool way to “pick up chicks”?

Once I got off the ice, I took off my gloves and helmet and got back into my wheelchair. And then the cold, harsh reality of the innocence and ignorance of children were apparent. They saw me sitting there in the wheelchair, even though they were talking with me and having fun skating. Once they got a glimpse of me sitting there, they avoided me and just stared.

Oh well. Children can’t be blamed for something like that.

And I must give props to my nephew for cutting in front of me once. It had stopped me from going forward and I simply fell over to one side. What a goober!!! I got him back good though when he was misbehaving in store afterwards and when his mother attempted to give him a swat on the backside, he defied it all by saying “That didn’t hurt.”  So I flicked him on the ear.

Yeah, I’m a mean uncle. Whatever. Shut up.

Nonetheless, I had told my sister that I was going to show some of her old co-workers something that they had never seen before. And it turned out that I had educated a lot of small children about what I do and how I can skate on the ice… just in a different way than they do it.

It was fun. Lots of fun. And yes, I am sore. But I am sure that come tomorrow, that soreness will be a lot worse than it is right at the moment. That’s just the way it is.

I’m supposed to do it all over again this Friday with the other assistant captain of the sledge hockey team. Just get out and skate and probably have to dodge people some more. Then he and I are going to talk some business about what he and I think the team should work on for the 2012-13 hockey season.

Fun times indeed!!

 

Fundraising Fury Part I

Money does not grow on trees. Even though it grows on trees since it comes paper which comes from trees. 

Fundraising is increasingly more and more difficult in current times. And right now, that is what I am having to do for my sledge hockey team. The team has gone through a lot of super highs and super lows. Especially through last season.

Last week, I set up an account on a fundraising website. The funds raised are going towards getting myself some brand new equipment (Sled, sticks, etc.) since most of these things are loaned to me. And I feel that if something should happen to the team that the program is gone, I would not be able to keep up with the sport on my own. And to be honest, with all the things that happened last season- it was a real fear for me that it would happen. After we lost our ice, the only time we ever got back on it was when we hit the road.

The site began off with a surprising BANG. It received four donations within the first 24 hours. But since that time it has not received another donation. And I believe that’s just the way it goes. I was totally shocked of learning that I had what I had in the first place. I didn’t think that I would receive the first donation for a month. And in reality, I received the first in one hour!

Fundraising is all about who you know. And with that, brings me to the meat and potatoes of this blog post.

In 2009, the whole world was introduced to a woman who later would be known as “Octomom”. This woman from southern California was pregnant with octuplets. It was truly a wonder to behold that someone was carrying that many children in her womb. People reached out and she nearly became an overnight sensation.

She now has a total of 14 children. All of them were born through IVF.

Last night, as I was looking at the website in general, I saw a fundraising campaign that had the name of “Octomom” with it. I took a look at it and what did my eyes behold…. a fundraising campaign for her to pay for a new house for her children. Her goal is $150,000.

It stumped me. I was completely floored.

What happened to her? What happened to all of the fortune and fame that she has been receiving in the past three years?? What’s been going on with the children???

At first, I thought that this was a scam. But as I investigated further I would realize that there was a chance that this was for real.

This morning, I received that confirmation as I went and searched for her. At the top of the search results were articles about how she posted on a fundraising site to get money for a new home. It’s REAL!

I became more baffled as I would also find that she filed for bankruptcy because she owes nearly $1 MILLION in debt. And part of that is $30,000 in back rent on the house that she was living in. NOW, that that house has been foreclosed on.

How in the world does a woman who receives overnight celebrity status suddenly owe that much money? And what in the world has she been doing with all that fortune and fame over the past several years?

The last bit of news that I actually paid attention to, she was stripping in clubs. She’s put out a music single. And she got paid to do a semi-nude photo shoot to go along with an interview for a British magazine. Although she did decline a million dollar offer to do a porn film. However, Wicked Productions has worked with her on a solo/masturbatory film, which has yet to be released.

What happened to all of that money? Why aren’t the bills being paid??

And is there anyone in the world that is thinking the same thing that I am at this point… that she rode the celebrity party train until it derailed, rather than doing the right thing for her children?

I will say this: I do not put ANY of this on her children. She had eight children at once, which is a bit of a fascinating medical miracle. They are the first set of octuplets to have survived their infancy in history. And yes, I believed that at the time of their births, she was going to need all the help she could get. She went from six children to 14.

What drives me batty is the fact that she went through IVF treatments in Beverly Hills, California. She’s a single mother of all these children, and the fact that she remains a recipient of food stamps and Social Security disability. Even through all of the things that she received from strangers worldwide, the different deals she was given to make money…. now you are trying to tell me that she is broke and thrown out of her house and begging for money on a fundraising website?

These children didn’t ask for this!

And so the conniption fit ensues.

My opinion is that she became this well-known mother of many children, was in our faces for days and weeks back in 2009, and yes- thankfully, these children survived. But through all of the things that she was given or offered which gave her fortune and fame, she’s broke. Filed bankruptcy. And my opinion is that she totally couldn’t handle it and pissed it all away.

Let me repeat that fundraising is all about who you know. EVERYONE knows “Octomom”. But not everyone knows ME.

And that is the difference that she has received (at last check) $1,787 out of her $150,000 goal in the first 3 days. Meanwhile, I am still steady with the four donations that I have received in six days. And those four people who did donate have been personally given my words of appreciation.

I do not know what kind of mother she is to her 14 children. Neither do I know the full extent of her situation. I do not know what it is like for her behind closed doors. It just appears on the surface that she is back in the news because she’s experiencing rough times because of her own decisions and receiving the consequences. And quite possibly, biting into the vein of charity because of it. So yeah, I am admitting that there is a chance that I am 100% wrong about all of this.

And ending on a personal note: Thank you to my wonderful friend Lisa, who allowed me to get out the initial venting and frustration about all of this very late last night. The conniption fit here in this blog post probably would have been a lot worse if I had not got some of this out. I do apologize for drawing first blood on the F-bomb.

 

 

 

 

 

Prostitution Stings

Lately, I have been reading these articles about what has been going on nationwide between state and law enforcement and the FBI to crack down on child prostitution in this country. 

It was an effort that took as much as three days in 57 cities.

The exact numbers of the results in arrests vary. But it appears as if over 100 people have been arrested and over 70 teenagers taken off of the streets. This coming from nearly 2,000 law enforcement and FBI officials to take this operation and put it into action.

But again, the actual numbers vary from article to article. So I honestly don’t know how many were arrested in all, and how many teenagers were taken away from the streets.

When I first started reading about it, I was outraged. But as I kept reading other articles, I was becoming more and more disenchanted with the vocabulary.

A majority of the articles were using the term that they “rescued these children”. And yes, these child prostitutes are no longer out on the streets. They are no longer exposed to the dangers of criminal society. But are they truly rescued?

For some of these children, they have been abused and forced to work in the streets. In other cases, these children have run away from home and just are looking for a quick way to earn some money so that they have a place to stay and something to eat. And that too, is also sad.

After hearing some stories from other people… adults now… who have suffered sexual abuse as a child, I can tell that the scars are still with them. And it is a constant struggle for them to carry on day to day. And I stop to think about these children who were involved in this operation, and the abuse and scars that they carry and will carry for the rest of their lives. And that is why the term “rescued” bothers me. 

There are two topics (or subjects) that we as a functioning society get so angry when we hear that they have been abused. And that is children and animals.

I feel so bad for these children who have been involved in all of this. And whether or not it was because of their own choice or that they have been forced into the lifestyle or put into sex slavery, its still wrong!

The scary thing is that even that this operation is beginning to celebrate its efforts and their hard work, the question remains of the teenagers that were taken into custody- what will law enforcement do with them?

Will they be arrested or will they just be sent off to live under someone else’s custody? And the scariest question of all: Will they only go back to the streets and continue on with their lives of prostitution?

I certainly do not have the answers to all of this. I cannot even say that I have much of an idea or opinion of how I feel this situation now should be handled when it comes to the health and welfare of these children.

The other thing about this operation that caught my attention is that it was referred to as “Operation Cross Country VI”. That means, this operation has happened six times! And I do not know what the results of the previous five investigations were. It is however, sad that this kind of thing seems to be one of those ugly crimes that will never go away, no matter how many people are arrested and put into jail.

Just before I began to write this post, I read commentary from someone that their opinion to fight this crime against children was to legalize prostitution. It is already legal in the states of Nevada and Rhode Island (with some circumstances surrounding it), but their opinion was to go across the board. And if that was done, then there would no longer be a need to prey on the innocent and young because sex could happen between two adults and those who become more or less “customers” won’t feel the need to search out these children. I do not know how that entirely works however.

But our children are out there. Those who are actual missing children & runaways. I can only hope that we as adults and parents can take care of our children to do the best that we can to protect them. Because honestly, if we were to find out that OUR children were involved in such a lifestyle- we would be pissed off!