Very Pathetic

Getting up this morning was one of the saddest moments of my life up to this point.

My least favorite part of that first sentence there was 'up to this point' because I am certain there is worse to come.

For those of you who did not know, any that would be most of you, since why the hell would most of you know, my back is out. I am having a hard time bending and moving and the pain is really bad.

This morning, when I woke up, I scooched (Spell-check is telling me that scooched isn't a word. Fuck you, spell-check.) down to the bottom of the bed and managed to drag my jeans to me with my feet.

I successfully got my feet into them and then yelled for Joia to come help me since bending over and pulling them up really isn't an option. She's been helping me out with this for the past few days. She's what we would call a real trooper. (Side note: since this blog gets imported to FaceBook and that's where a lot of you read it, hop over to Joia's page and tell her what a trooper she is. She has just been awesome. I keep getting off on tangents. Did I mention that the back thing comes with pain pills & muscle relaxers? Wait, am I doing a blog about the death penalty and how horrible Rick Perry is or how much I hate the Pope? Oh, pathetic waking up moment. I went back and read the beginning. I need an end parenthesis at some point. Here.)

New paragraph.

Sitting at the bottom of the bed, jeans around my ankles, calling for Joia. I thought I heard her answer, but faintly. After a couple of minutes, I roll back and kind of shimmy them up and, it takes a while, but success! I am no longer pantsless and (Spell-check is saying that pantsless isn't a word, what the fuck?! Spell-check is a fascist. It is worse than Satan though not as bad as Hitler or Rumsfeld. How many times do I have to tell spell-check to go fuck itself in one post?) and can roam freely about the house because I have pants.

I know that for all the ladies in the world, this is devastating news, but yes, I am currently wearing pants.

Well, the family is all gone. I still don't know where they are. Errands or something.

Anyway, that scooching (Scooching is too a word, spell-check! God, I hate you so much, acting like you're the boss of me! I'll use whatever words I want! Stop stifling me you bastard! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!) Sorry everybody, I know that you hate it when I fight with the computer in front of you.

But seriously, never trust a computer and the cake is a lie.

The shimmying of the pants was a very sad and pathetic 90 seconds and I just thought I'd share it.

Remind me to share another anecdote involving not being able to bend over to lift the toilet seat.

And, if anyone cares, I'm listening to:

For those of you who were disappointed, stick it back in and let it play five or six more times. It is definitely a departure, but this is an amazing record. Trust me, I have never steered you wrong.

Then again, I should remind you that right now, I am lit up like a Christmas tree. I'm going to take another pill now.

Why I Don't Believe Them: A Postscript To My Open Letter To The Community Of Christ

Okay, for those of you who read this on leftofleft, this gets imported automatically to my Facebook page and one of my friends asked a simple question regarding my last post, calling into question the integrity of the Community of Christ, specifically the validity to their claims that they had never been approached with any concerns regarding the behavior of the Mohler family, three of whom were lay-ministers at their church.

Let me repeat that what I am talking about here is not a matter of proof or fact, but my own personal distrust of the leaders of this church.

Why don't I believe the Community of Christ when they say they had never been approached about the behavior of three of their lay-ministers?

I understand that it would be very easy to assume that my skepticism is a knee-jerk reaction to a church's credibility when it comes to covering up sexual abuse and rape. I have to admit that does prejudice one from the outset.

Sadly, western Christendom has a very poor track record of protecting the predators among their ranks than protecting sexual abuse and rape victims.

And no, it's not only the Catholics. Other sects have blood on their hands as well.

(And, in case you were wondering, yes, the picture of Cardinal Mahoney is a reference to a man who ought to be in prison, learning firsthand just what it feels like to have nobody care that you're being raped.)

But that's not all there is to it. The red flag, in my mind, was the ludicrous notion that the church would keep records of every time a member came to them with a problem.

The statement that the Community of Christ released said, "We found no reports of sexual abuse of children (were) given to any Community of Christ leaders about the three lay ministers, suspended November 11."

It just doesn't make sense to me. What "reports" are they talking about?

I find it impossible to believe that any kind of report or record would have been made had they been informed of the abuse and decided to do nothing.

The wording of the statement itself released by the church is beyond suspect. It's ludicrous.

But again, this is no smoking gun and there will never be any kind of proof. What we are talking about here is my own personal disbelief.

I can only hope that the wife, who chose to take this to the church instead of the police ends up doing some actual prison time for her complicity. I don't know what she was expecting from the church, but the fact that she didn't go to the authorities made years of ongoing abuse possible.

And, I'm still listening to:


It seems to have grabbed me like none of their earlier records have. If that makes me a woman, then so be it.

Complicity: An Open Letter To The Community of Christ

Anybody who has been following the story of the Mohler family these past weeks has surely been disturbed at the systematic and familial abuse that went on for years.

Those of us whose exposure wasn’t limited to the filtered and sanitized account of the events given to us by local media outlets, but read the actual probable cause statements probably lost sleep over this.

I know I have.

And yes, elephant in the room, let’s get this out of the way. We’ve all had a great deal of fun with the fact that one of these guys looks ex-fucking-actly like Wilford Brimley.

Then, a couple of weeks ago there was a twist in the case that was troubling, but hardly surprising.

This revelation happened when a search warrant from Columbia stated that the alleged victims told their mother about the abuse, but she did not tell authorities – she told church leaders instead.

The same church where three of the accused are lay-ministers.

But the Community of Christ Church Thursday said a check of their records shows no such complaint.

Let’s set aside the mother’s actions for a moment. I think we can all agree that she is complicit in everything that happened and hopefully, she will be charged at least as an accomplice.

What’s more disturbing, but again sadly not surprising, is the assistance that the church gave these monsters by keeping their mouth shut.

Now, I have to be clear at this point. I am speculating. I am not God and I have no inside knowledge.

I simply don’t believe the Community of Christ Church. They are lying.

Of course, the Community of Christ Church denies any collusion or even awareness of the abuse.

In a short statement, a spokesperson for the church simply said, "We found no reports of sexual abuse of children (were) given to any Community of Christ leaders about the three lay ministers, suspended November 11."

Found no reports? What, you checked your records and verified that this woman never came to you with this? Is that supposed to be funny? Of course, if a member of your church came to you about three of your ministers systematically raping their children, nieces, nephews and grandchildren and you chose to do nothing, you wouldn’t keep a record of it.

I have a hard time believing that after that meeting, the pastor or elder or whomever the woman came to would march straight to the church secretary and ask her to take a note. “One of our members has advised us that three of our lay-ministers have been systematically raping the children in their family. Since I don’t really want any kind of tarnish on our church’s name, I have decided to ignore this and let it continue as if I knew nothing.”

And then, that memo would be filed away so there would be a record of the conversation.

Granted, it’s the church’s word against the mother’s and the mother lacks credibility seeing as how she’s an obvious sociopath who belongs in prison. So, unfortunately, they will most likely never have to pay for their complacency.

I just have to say this and get it out there because somebody needs to call the Community of Christ on this transparent story.

So let me say this.

When you say that you had no idea what was going on, I simply don’t believe you.

Once again, I just don’t fucking believe you.

And if I might pontificate, let’s fight fire with fire.

In Mark 9:42, Christ himself said, “And whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me, it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea.”

And yes, inaction in the face of an atrocity like this qualifies as ‘offending one of these little ones.’

Sadly, most churches would rather take steps to avoid embarrassment than protect those in its care that are being harmed.

It was important for somebody to call the leaders of the Community of Christ liars.

Steve Veazey, fuck you.

It’s shameful that most of the people who claim to follow Jesus Christ are nothing like them at all.

If only there were a special place designed just for people like you to spend all of eternity.

And for the record, I’m listening to:

Oh sky cake. Why are you so delicious?