Child Abuse - (5)

Quote of The Week: - 'Do Not Pass by My Epitaph, Traveller'

From an ancient Roman tombstone:

"Do not pass by my epitaph, traveller.
But having stopped, listen and learn, then go your way.
There is no boat in Hades, no ferryman Charon,
no caretaker Aiakos, no dog Cerberus.
All we who are dead below
have become bones and ashes, but nothing else.
I have spoken to you honestly, go on, traveler,
lest even while dead I seem loquacious to you."

Texas execution looms after jury consult Bible - Amnesty USA

If you want to know how some humans are completely unintelligent then read the story below.
Bear in mind the jurors are alleged to have consulted a book of fiction to determine the man's fate.
A book of fiction!
Please let me know what you think:

"A Texas man who faces execution after jurors at his trial consulted the Bible when deliberating his fate should have his death sentence commuted, Amnesty International said on Friday.

Khristian Oliver, 32, is set to be killed on 5 November after jurors used Biblical passages supporting the death penalty to help them decide whether he should live or die.

Amnesty International is calling on the Texas authorities to commute Khristian Oliver's death sentence. The organization considers that the jurors' use of the Bible during their sentencing deliberations raises serious questions about their impartiality.

A US federal appeals court acknowledged last year that the jurors' use of the Bible amounted to an "external influence" prohibited under the US Constitution, but nonetheless upheld the death sentence.

Khristian Oliver was sentenced to death in 1999 for a murder committed during a burglary. According to accomplice testimony at the trial, 20-year-old Oliver shot the victim before striking him on the head with a rifle butt.

After the trial, evidence emerged that jurors had consulted the Bible during their sentencing deliberations. At a hearing in June 1999, four of the jurors recalled that several Bibles had been present and highlighted passages had been passed around.

One juror had read aloud from the Bible to a group of fellow jurors, including the passage, "And if he smite him with an instrument of iron, so that he die, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death".

The judge ruled that the jury had not acted improperly and this was upheld by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

In 2002, a Danish journalist interviewed a fifth juror. The latter said that "about 80 per cent" of the jurors had "brought scripture into the deliberation", and that the jurors had consulted the Bible "long before we ever reached a verdict".

He told the journalist he believed "the Bible is truth from page 1 to the last page", and that if civil law and biblical law were in conflict, the latter should prevail. He said that if he had been told he could not consult the Bible, "I would have left the courtroom". He described himself as a death penalty supporter, saying life imprisonment was a "burden" on the taxpayer.

In 2008, the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit found that the jurors had "crossed an important line" by consulting specific passages in the Bible that described the very facts at issue in the case. This amounted to an "external influence" on the jury prohibited under the US Constitution.

However, it concluded that under the "highly deferential standard" by which federal courts should review state court decisions, Oliver had failed to prove that he had been prejudiced by this unconstitutional juror conduct. In April 2009, the US Supreme Court refused to take the case, despite being urged to take it by nearly 50 former US federal and state prosecutors."

Amnesty USA.org

Black Hair Documentary

Black women spend an unbelieveable amount of money on our hair and this documentary (thank you for bringing it to my attention Mama Asid), although focused on black hair and the African-American community, could be about Jamaica, England, Nigeria, Kenya or anywhere else. The principle point is that black women spend a lot of money on our hair and don't seem to care who has control of an industry making billions each week. Made me think.

A Little Girl called me a 'Nigger' Today...

As I walked past a house a young child, probably 7 or 8 years old, white with blonde ringlets, jumped around near the front gate and then stopped. And looked at me with a fierce expression. I half smiled and as I walked past her I heard her say, 'Nigger!'
It stopped me in my tracks as I thought of how much poison had probably been poured into this child for her to see me, a black woman, as nothing more than 'a nigger'.
In that split second my mind raced around for me to decide on some proper response, be that to walk away and say nothing as this child is a product of her environment; or say something to the child, but what exactly? Was it offensive to me and if so why? What could I say to the child that would be age appropriate?
What did I do? I walked back to the gate and said, 'I'm sorry but I heard that.' She said, 'Heard what?' and then it hit me that I was doing the wrong thing, talking to the child about it was not correct. It didn't feel right.
I almost called out to the shadowy adult who could be seen through the multi-coloured strips hanging at the open front door. Then I walked away. As I walked on she shouted, 'I never called you that word!' She knew and I knew and I felt sad. 

Is there a 'right thing to do' in this situation?

Neil Young - 'Harvest Moon'

I was introduced to this song and I love it. It is simple and beautiful.What do you think?

Looking at the Bible in Detail...

Since I am focusing on the Bible for the moment I thought you might be interested in looking at the actual meaning on some of the teachings of the 'Holy Book'.
I am strongly of the opinion that not many Christians have actually read the book. By reading I mean sat and studied it with the same amount of scrutiny as you would any historical account on any other subject. SO why do so many people believe it?
It is a laughable collection of ignorance and horror, in the main. To think people are being murdered, raped, tortured, disenfranchised, enslaved, abused, mis-educated, starved, are self-harming, being ignored, discriminated against all based on the written words of a book!
We need sites like The Skeptics Annotated Bible. I recommend it, especially if you are someone who has been indoctrinated to believe the inerrancy of the Bible. Please let me know what you think.

Quote from the Bible (1) - How to Treat a Slave

"When a man strikes his male or female slave with a rod so hard that the slave dies under his hand, he shall be punished. If, however, the slave survives for a day or two, he is not to be punished, since the slave is his own property."
~ Exodus 21:20-21