More on Abused Children Who Become Abusers Themselves

In my most recent post I wrote about the abused child who became an abuser. When my wife and I decided to become foster parents, we opened our home to children of any age. Now we take only babies. Why? Because the odds are much higher that abused children older than a few months will themselves be abusers. We will no longer expose our own children to abuse.

Let me tell you about one of our experiences. We took in a sibling group which included a six-year-old girl, a five-year-old boy, and a three-year-old girl. The six-year-old girl molested our four-year-old son and her own sister. We filed a report, in hopes that we could get appropriate treatment for the little molestor. The caseworker assigned to investigate called us on her cell phone to get directions to our house, and oh, by the way, informed us that we were the focus of her investigation, and if she did not like what she saw, she would close us down as foster parents! We survived that investigation, and the girl never got treatment specific to her offense. All she got was a naive graduate student therapist who spent the entire time trying to get this little manipulator to like her!

The boy was the angriest little human being I think I have ever known. The mother was an alcoholic, who was utterly undependable. The fathers finally got custody of the children.

A Sad Story

Today I got a phone call from a wonderful woman who, with her husband, adopted a ten-year-old child when I was a child protection worker. This particular child had been repeatedly raped in her first six years by her father, who is serving a sixteen year sentence in prison. When they adopted her they knew she had a history of molesting other children, but they thought they could tough love her into making good choices.

Unfortunately, the child's identity is so mixed up with the twisted sexual components, that she has never progressed beyond that in her own life. She also has became a sex addict, a molestor of little children, a chronic liar, and a constant and skillful manipulator.

The adoptive parents are now trying to gain custody of this girl's two-year-old son, whom they have raised since his birth. The girl is now a twenty-two-year-old woman. She abducted her child last weekend, and the police returned the child to her adoptive parents, who have never given up on her, but also have never been able to save her from herself. She now lives with two men who are here illegally from Mexico, and is threatening to take her child to Mexico. She has also made threats to do harm to the adoptive parents, who have endured incredible suffering financially and emotionally. She has been fired from twelve jobs, almost always because of stealing from her employers. Welfare set her and her son up in a beautiful two bedroom apartment, free day care, and financial assistance, all of which she blew on cocaine, marijuana, and meth. She will probably get free legal assistance in this custody fight, even though the adoptive parents have to pay big bucks for their attorney, because they are not yet indigent.

The Incurious Old Media

Again today Anchoress is writing about a subject that I have been thinking about. This morning on Peter Boyles' radio talk show, the guest was award-winning television investigative news reporter John Ferrugia. Peter was congratulating Mr. Ferrugia on his "pit bull" questioning of Boulder D.A. Mary Lacy in yesterday's "news" conference. However, when Peter tried to hand-feed Ferrugia some relevant internet sources about University of Colorado journalism professor Michael Tracy, Mr. Ferrugia became upset. There is a real prejudice on the part of many in main stream media toward internet sources. As a result, someone like Mr. Boyles, who will go anywhere to find truth, is far ahead of others in the media in his knowledge of the Jon Benet Ramsey murder case. A closed mind is a terrible waste!

More Wisdom From The Anchoress

The Anchoress has posted an important piece challenging both the left and the right to guard against fascistic tendencies in their group think. "The irony is this: fascism can only live in a group, and it can only be defeated by the individual. In order to shrivel the first buds of fascism in our social and political institutions, we need to look inward - each of us, alone - and strike at its roots within ourselves."

How Do We Get Out Of This? I've Got It: We'll Portray Ourselves As Victims!

Peter Boyles speculates that the Boulder D.A. must now be trying to figure out how to get herself out of this mess she has created. Same for Michael Tracey. But Boyles believes they will both try the "I'm a victim" route. Tracey will say, Gee, all I did was turn over some emails to the Rocky Mountain News! The D.A. will say, I am a victim of the media!

By the way, Mr. Boyles revealed that Sonoma, California authorities notified Boulder authorities five years ago about Mr. Karr. Boulder showed no interest then. Why now?

The New Ward Churchill!

For those of you who are interested in the Jon Benet Ramsey mystery, I strongly recommend you listen on line to the Peter Boyles talk radio show, which airs from 5 a.m. to 9 a.m. Mountain time Monday through Friday at www.khow.com. Today Peter had a guest who is a participant in an internet group called Forums For Justice. They can be reached here.

University of Colorado journalism professor Michael Tracey seems to be the person who is driving this latest Jon Benet Ramsey hoopla, by feeding his version of the story to a local television station, KUSA. Mr. Boyles believes Tracey has been "grooming" John Mark Karr to become a suspect in the murder. Tracey has been corresponding with Karr for the last four years via emails. In 2004 Tracy produced a documentary alleging to nail another suspect. This is where the Forum For Justice group comes in. A blogger in Scotland got her camera and took a picture of a police report used in Tracey's documentary. The report listed a case number, which identified the suspect Tracey was alleging to be the killer of Jon Benet. Within a few minutes another member of the forum was able to contact the man, who then called Chief Investigator Tom Bennett at the D.A.'s office in Boulder, who assured the man that he is not a suspect. Like Mr. Karr, the man was not in Colorado at the time of the murder of Jon Benet! Tracey was exposed as a fraud. Another local journalist, Patty Calhoun of Westword, has dubbed Tracey the new Ward Churchill.

The concept of "grooming" is an important one to those of us who have worked in the field of child protection. Sex offenders groom their intended victims in various ways in order to set them up for victimization. I think it is interesting that Mr. Boyles is using the word to describe the manipulation of Mr. Karr by Mr. Tracey. Boyles also believes that Tracey, the Boulder D.A. Mary Lacy, and KUSA have all been manipulated ("groomed") by the Ramseys.

Back To School!

In addition to caring for our two ten-month-old foster babies and our two-and-one-half-year-old, we are homeschooling our other five children. This year we have a junior in high school, an eighth-grader, a seventh-grader, a first-grader, and one in kindergarten. Never a dull moment!

Why Does The World Hate The U.S.?

Recently Michael Medved gave a talk in Aurora Colorado which my wife and I attended. His focus was the title of this blog post. He proposed four possibilities for why the world hates the U.S.

The first is envy. People hate what they cannot have and cannot replicate. Here in America individuals have more choice about their own destiny than anywhere else on earth. The American Dream is to strive to be whatever we want to be. Medved cited the example of Arnold Schwarzenager, who had a dream and came to America to begin his life anew. In his new book Right Turns Mr. Medved told about his grandmother who lost five children to starvation in Russia, then, at age 49 gave birth to Michael's father, who came to America and lived his dream as a scientist/astronaut.

The second is the legacy of communism. The majority of the world has been raised under the tyranny of communism. The communists drilled anti-America hatred into the heads of two billion people, from childhood on. Although many of these regimes have fallen, there seems to be something of a renaissance of communist states, especially in Latin American countries such as Venezuela, Brazil, and Bolivia.

The third is popular culture. The world sees us in the images packaged by Hollywood: corruption, violence, failed marriages, sexual promiscuity. Medved points out that many people in the world, including in America, are actually quite conservative in the way they live their lives. But, that is not the image of America packaged by Hollywood.

The fourth is American exceptionalism. The Pilgrims and Puritans came to America not so much to escape religious oppression as to build Christian communities here in America. The A.C.L.U. may deny it, but this country has always been different because of profound faith, mostly Christian. Most Americans believe that God has His hand on this country, and most Americans are committed to living in such a way as to honor God. America is a country based on ideas. One idea is that government should have a limited role in human affairs. We believe that if we take individual responsibility we can shape our own destiny.

More Desperation From Old Media Hacks

More vicious work today by old media cartoonist Mike Keefe. The cartoon above is a remarkable likeness of radio talk show host Peter Boyles. The cartoonist wants readers to think that for Boyles it is all about his shows' ratings, and that Boyles could not care less about justice for Jon Benet Ramsey. This is another example of the old media desperately trying to salvage their reputations by unfairly characterizing the hard work and due diligence done by a new media vigorous seeker of the truth, Peter Boyles.

"We're In A New World!"

The publisher of the Rocky Mountain News, John Temple, writes today that there is one big difference in the Jon Benet story today as compared to the original story ten years ago. It is now an internet story, and it moves much more quickly than 1996. He also notes that he now realizes that a local newspaper like the Rocky "can now speak to a global audience in real time, once the province only of major broadcasters." Furthermore, he notes that their reporters no longer write for the paper; they write for the web, where their stories can be noticed immediately by sites such as the one run by Matt Drudge.

Read the whole thing.

We Could Do A Better Job, "If We Felt Like It!"

Ace of Spades has a post today that I think is right on target: "I know the media, which loves to voice its not-so-secret belief that they are smarter than everyone in the world and could do everyone else's job better, if they felt like it, is going to play the "Mary Lacy is a dumb duped dummy" meme constantly if this goes south, but they really ought to get over themselves, and stop pandering to an audience that also needs a "villain" or at least an incompetent somewhere in the "story."

Right now the people who are being blasted in the media are the people who dug the deepest and worked the hardest to find the truth in the murder of Jon Benet. I am reminded of the Rathergate incident, in which CBS for weeks attacked those who had found the truth in the obviously forged documents concerning President Bush's National Guard service. Those bloggers were attacked unmercifully by CBS, who later quietly got rid of Rather and his producer when the truth became widely known.

Currently the villain is Peter Boyles, who doggedly sought the truth in the Jon Benet Ramsey murder case. Doggedly? Now I know the derivation of that word! Peter reminds me of my two male dogs who refuse to let go when in a fight. Peter was attacked by Vincent Carroll, the editor of the Rocky Mountain News yesterday, but then when Peter had him on his radio talk show the Rocky editor could only say, "I don't know this case as well as you!" Then give the man some respect! I know of no one in the media who knows this case better than Peter Boyles. But the media elites always believe they could do a better job if they were as "obsessed" as Peter. By using the word "obsessed," the Rocky editor cleverly put down Peter, and for what? For taking the time and energy to dig deep and do the hard work to try to ascertain the truth in the story.

Who Will Be The Next To Apologize?

The American teaching second grade in Thailand has given his bizarre confession of the killing of Jon Benet Ramsey. Local and national media are attacking people like Peter Boyles of KHOW radio in Denver, who closely followed the evidence as it was unveiled, and strongly suspected an inside job, rather than an intruder. So, if and when the teacher's confession is proven to be bogus, will all those self righteous critics who are now attacking Boyles rush front and center with their apologies to him?

Traveling The World On Behalf of Children?

Crisismesh today posted the resume of John Mark Karr, who has confessed in Thailand to the 1996 murder of Jon Benet Ramsey. It seems Mr. Karr has been quite a world traveler, although there is no mention of Boulder, Colorado being one of his stops.

"I Got Questions"

Well, it is time for me to apologize for my own cynicism. I said "not a chance," when I asked if those who had gained national prominence in their coverage of the Jon Benet Ramsey case would apologize if Mr. Karr is the killer. Two of the local guys who did attain national prominence, Craig Silverman and Peter Boyles, have both said they would apologize if there is corroboration. Peter Boyles took a lot of heat from callers and emailers this morning, but hung in there and signed off by saying, "I got questions." Indeed.

Update: Karr's Ex-Wife Says He was with Her In Alabama at the Time of the Killing of Jon Benet

Fox News is reporting: "A Petaluma woman who said she was Karr's ex-wife told KGO-TV in San Francisco that they got divorced after his arrest.

Laura Karr said her ex-husband spent a lot of time reading up on the cases of Ramsey and Polly Klaas, who was abducted from her Petaluma home and slain in 1993. She said she does not believe her former husband was involved in JonBenet's killing and said she was with him in Alabama at the time of the Christmas 1996 homicide."

As Dan Caplis theorized on the Caplis and Silverman radio program this afternoon, maybe Mr. Karr is making this confession in order to be brought back to Boulder, instead of doing time in a jail in Thailand! Peter Boyles' skepticism is appearing justified. If the guy was not in Colorado on the night Jon Benet was murdered, then he could not have been her killer.

Update: One apology

Craig Silverman, a local attorney and radio talk show host, said he was one who had been on local radio hundreds of times and national televison hundreds of times analyzing the Ramsey case. Mr. Silverman apologized twice on air this afternoon for anything he might have said that led to the huge local and national suspicion that the Ramseys killed Jon Benet. He said that if Mr. Karr is indeed the killer of Jon Benet, then Patsy and John Ramsey are the victims of the most unfair avalanche of suspicion in American history.

Peter Boyles, a nominee for a coveted Marconi national award for excellence in radio broadcasting, did not apologize. In fact, he chastised and angrily confronted Silverman. I was one who was glued to Mr. Boyles' coverage of the Ramsey case in the nineties. He filled the airwaves with his contempt of both John and Patsy Ramsey, just like he now fills the airwaves with his barely containable contempt for George W. Bush. Later in the afternoon Boyles called Silverman back and was calmer. In response to a question from either Silverman or his radio partner Dan Caplis, Boyles said that if the man's DNA is found on Jon Benet, he would accept that the man's confession is valid.

Jon Benet Ramsey's Alleged Killer Arrested in Thailand

News is just breaking that authorities have arrested a second grade teacher, 41-year-old John Mark Karr, in Bangkok Thailand. Law enforcement officers say that the man has confessed to the murder of Jon Benet, and that he has given details that only could have been known by the killer.

If this is true, I am drawn back to Dr. Sanity's discussion today about denial and displacement, especially displacement. The same people who today are filling the airwaves with their hatred and utter contempt for President Bush, were filling the airwaves back in 1996 with their hatred and utter contempt for Jon Benet's parents. These media stars got themselves on national television, and increased their local listening audience significantly. Mrs. Ramsey died recently from ovarian cancer. Do you suppose they will now apologize to Mr. Ramsey? Not a chance.

More On Denial

Dr. Sanity has a new post today on the huge problem of denial and displacement so prevalent in today's world.

Denial

Both Denver papers today have stories about a woman who lives in a trailer park near Strasburg Colorado on the plains east of Denver. Allegedly this woman gave birth to a baby last October, then put the child in the back of her boyfriend's pick-up truck. The truck was not being used, so it and the baby sat in front of her trailer through the winter, spring, and summer until the boyfriend recently sold the truck for $100.00. The purchaser of the truck found the remains of the baby and called police. The woman is now in police custody.

One Cosmos has a different example of denial: those who deny 9-11-2001. His piece is entitled "Your Psychodollars at Work and the Tax on Liberal Fantasy." Dr. Sanity says, "At the risk of getting repetitious, the denial and displacement are becoming so obvious that even a Democrat should be able to see them.

I guess they will only open their eyes when they achieve their primary purpose for existing: getting back control of the oval office."

One Cosmos Under God

Dr. Sanity writes today about the writings of Dr. Robert Godwin, who has written a book with the same title as this post. His blog at One Cosmos is a daily must read for me. He has a wonderful humor, makes me think about things I need to think about, and regularly pulverizes the left with just a few well chosen words. (It takes him a little longer to explain One Cosmos Under God).

A Hunger For Beauty

The Anchoress has a post today in which she confesses that she has a hunger for beauty. Then she says that is proof that she is even weirder than we thought. On the contrary, I share her hunger for beauty, and I don't think it is one bit weird. She mentions her enjoyment of looking at beautiful fabric, which I also share.

I also have a dozen gardens surrounding our home. Every other day I cut flowers so we always have at least two vases of fresh cut flowers in the house. I also enjoy buying clothes for my wife and for the kids.

A Night On The Town

Last night Colleen and I headed to downtown Denver for a rare night on the town. We planned to go to the historic Mayan Theater to see a satirical movie about a dysfunctional family ("Little Miss Sunshine"). The Mayan has three theaters, but only one ticket window, so one of the expectations is a long line outside the theater. Colleen offered to get out of the car and stand in line while I looked for a parking space.

Fifteen minutes later I arrived at the theater, and noticed that there had been an auto accident right next to the theater. A man had attempted to jaywalk or run across the street instead of at the appropriate crosswalk, where he would have had to wait for the light to turn green! The car he was trying to beat did not see him, and hit him head on, the result of which was the shattering of the car windshield and several of the man's major bones. A doctor was in line at the theater, and he went over and checked the man briefly, and immediately came back to the line and announced, "He has a pulse." I am pretty sure the doctor was waiting in line to see Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth," so obviously that would take precedence over spending more than a few seconds with the unsuccessful jayrunner.

The driver of the car was a very tall twenty-something blonde guy with braided hair. His passenger was a younger black woman. It was the passenger side window that was shattered. Colleen noticed that the young black woman seemed to be distressed and perhaps traumatized (her companion was ignoring her completely while talking on a cell phone), so she went over to comfort her. The young woman was sure that she and her companion would be deemed at fault. Over and over she said,"We didn't do anything wrong," or "We weren't speeding." Colleen comforted her and talked with her, reassuring her that there were many witnesses. Nevertheless, the woman continued to be certain that she and her companion would be held responsible. A black woman came over to the car. Colleen met her, then introduced her to the woman. The woman then broke down and let out a torrent of sobs, feeling safer now with the black woman to express her fears that she would somehow be held responsible for the behavior of the idiot jayrunner.

The first responders came and took the guy to the hospital. No one from the ambulance paid any attention to the young woman. The police arrived and talked with the two people who had been in the car. The officer, to his credit, saw that the woman was traumatized, and called for an ambulance for her. As a matter of fact, she had just been released from a hospital emergency room, where she had gone to get treatment for a very sore throat. She was taken away in the second ambulance just as the theater posted a sign announcing that our movie was "Sold Out."

I remembered that Al Gore was in Denver signing copies of his book with the same title as the movie, and said to Colleen, "Let's go listen to him speak: I can write about it in the blog!" We hurried over to the wonderful Tattered Cover bookstore, but were too late to hear the inventor of the internet.

So, we ended the evening by going to our favorite Denver restaurant, The Wynkoop, which is one of several Denver resturants owned by Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper.

The Recomposed Self

Shelby Steele wrote an excellent book about sixteen years ago entitled The Content of Our Character. In it he wrote a chapter about what he called The Recomposed Self. It is an amazing concept that is very much alive today, and not just with blacks. Steele shows how in order not to face one's fears and perceived vulnerabilities, one denies those feelings, then distorts reality to some other theme, most commonly that of victimization. When we choose to think of ourselves as victims, we are released from responsibility to face our difficulty rationally, spared some guilt and accountability, and our innocence is restored. Anybody think this applies to today's world? How about to each of us as individuals?

On Second Thought...

Kudos to the Rocky Mountain News for digging deeper into the life of alleged serial killer Robert Charles Browne. In their first report they could only find people who said he was polite and respectful. Now they have talked to one of his six ex-wives, who told of his brutal temper and savage physical abuse. If the powers that be in the newspaper business allowed for in-depth reporting such as in this case, maybe their financial situation would not be in such a horrendous decline. I am still curious to hear something about his relationship with his parents.