Words fail me

This was the first thing I read this morning. The sheer brutality and kindess embodied in this story leaves me speechless.

From horror to hope: Boy's miracle recovery from brutal attack

You cannot die! You cannot die!" the father mumbles to the bloodied, mutilated boy who lies unconscious on his lap.

His hands press down on the boy's slashed-open stomach to keep the insides from spilling out. He sobs convulsively.

"Listen to me! You cannot die!" he repeats his morbid mantra. "If for nothing else, to exact justice."

The two are on a rickshaw headed to a hospital in Dhaka. It's not the most effective way to transport a dying child through the cramped, congested streets of the Bangladeshi capital. But it's all that the impoverished father can afford.

Hours earlier, four men had surrounded the 7-year-old boy, bound his hands and feet and cracked open his head with a brick. They held him down and took a switchblade to his throat. They sliced his chest and belly in an upside down cross.

And in a final brutal act, they hacked him sideways, chopping off his penis and his right testicle.

"It's amazing that he lived," a doctor would later say. "I'm really surprised he didn't bleed to death prior to getting to the hospital."

He was only seven years old at the time. Read the article. Educate yourself on the brutality of forced begging. See what a concerted effort by a team of individuals can do to help the situation. And see what you can do to help other children like this boy at CNN's Operation Freedom Project: Ending Modern-Day Slavery page.

I have a suggestion for how he can prevent future fatherhood

Unfortunately I don't think the courts can mandate that...

Pregnant woman set on fire, shot by ex-boyfriend gives birth

The pregnant Detroit woman who was kidnapped, set on fire, and shot early Saturday morning has successfully given birth to a baby boy. The woman, who Detroit NBC affiliate WDIV has identified as 22-year-old LaTonya Bowman, was due to deliver in three weeks, but went into labor at about 4:30 p.m. Monday afternoon and gave birth at 4:15 a.m. Tuesday morning via an emergency C-section at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak.

“She has to be one of the most courageous women I have ever encountered,” said Warren Police Deputy Commissioner Louis Galasso. “She had the will and instinct to live.”

Apparently the ex-boyfriend, who had two children by two different women already, didn't want this child born and plotted with another man to kill Bowman and her unborn baby. Both men are in custody.

This guy sounds like a real winner, with a criminal record, living with his mom, his new girlfriend, and the roommate who was part of the attack. At the very least, I think the man should maybe be educated in the use of a condom or learn about a vasectomy. But there's another word or two that would fit this situation, too, as far as I'm concerned, in terms of what should happen to lowlifes who try to get out of fatherhood through kidnapping and murder.

They are crazy AND can't spell

Okla. man: Attackers tattooed "RAPEST" on forehead

Two men and two women are accused of pinning down a man who has learning disabilities, tattooing the word "RAPEST" on his forehead and shocking his genitals with a stun gun before beating him unconscious with a baseball bat, police said Wednesday.

The accused told police they attacked Stetson Johnson, 18, because he tried to have sex with one of them, according to a police spokesman. Detectives found no evidence to support their claims, he said.

They very nearly killed him, and now, because he couldn't afford to have the tattoo removed, he's had one of a bar code put over it to hide the letters, and suffers from anxiety and fear to the point where he and his mother are moving away from the area.

Obviously the beating was worst, and it infuriates me that anyone would do that to another person, but of the tattoing, I don't know which would be worst--the word itself or the fact that it was misspelled. For me, it would be the latter. It would gnaw at me every day.

This is what happens when stupid people take the law into their own hands. Even if there was grounds for him to be punished, it should have gone through the legal system. Since there does not appear to be evidence of an assault against the woman, and there is definitely evidence of the assault against him, I'm willing to believe him. Or perhaps there was a misunderstanding, given his learning disabilities. I don't know. But they shouldn't have done that, and by God, if they did, they should have at least learned to spell the word they were going to etch onto an 18-year-old's head for the rest of his life.

Update

Remember the woman I mentioned who had acid thrown in her face? Turns out she did it herself, then blamed a black woman for doing so. One thing they didn't mention in the original news story that tipped off the police? She was apparently wearing sunglasses at night.

Woman admits acid attack was self-inflicted: Vancouver, Wash., police say discrepancies led to story's unraveling

How bizarre

I hope they catch the woman who did this, and that the young woman who was attacked heals well. Thank God she had sunglasses on; it may have saved her sight.


Acid attacker: 'Hey pretty girl, do you want to drink this?': Wash. woman in serious condition after unprovoked attack in Vancouver

A 28-year-old woman severely burned when a stranger threw an acid-like liquid in her face was listed in serious condition in a Oregon hospital.

Bethany Storro, of Vancouver, Wash., was getting something out of her car in downtown Vancouver when the attack happened Monday evening, her mother Nancy Neuwelt told The Oregonian.

Neuwelt said a young woman walked up to her daughter, said: "Hey pretty girl, do you want to drink this?" and tossed a cup of liquid in Storro's face.

Police are looking for the attacker, but the description's awfully vague: 'a black woman between 25 and 35, who wore a green shirt and khaki shorts, The Columbian reported. She had medium-length black hair that was pulled back.' It's a shame it didn't get caught on some sort of video. I think it's weird how camera-wired Britain is, but they can catch someone who puts a cat in a garbage bin, but this is a whole other form of senseless act, and the assailant may never be caught.

UPDATE:

Woman admits acid attack was self-inflicted: Vancouver, Wash., police say discrepancies led to story's unraveling


Hmmm...apparently she was wearing the sunglasses at night, and the story didn't gel with the cops. Why is it that people like this always blame some black person?

Odd Kentucky story of the week: rampaging psychiatrist with sword!

A psychiatrist and doctor of internal medicine, Dr Douglas Rank, attacked a woman with a sword, stabbing her in the chest, in northern Kentucky Sunday. Dr Rank had previously practiced in Lexington, but his licence was suspended for a time over sex with a female patient. Apparently he's also been in trouble over his prescribing practices. The Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure found that Rank had given a patient 57 prescriptions, including narcotics, over a 14 month period. According to the police report, Rank had drunk a fifth of brandy and taken two Clonezapams before stabbing the woman. Neighbours heard the woman scream (his office is downstairs, his apartment upstairs) and were able to distract him enough for the woman to get away. The attack took place upstairs and it was unclear whether the woman was a patient or not. I would make a crack about how she shouldn't be billed if she were a patient, but it was pretty serious and she could have died. Fortunately, she's listed as recovering.

(Shakes head.) There are some real looneys out there, and some of them have medical degrees.