Brutal Killing Galvanizes Foes of Domestic Violence

Tracey Helms, young mother of two, was trying to shelter a friend from an abusive husband when, the police say, he showed up at Ms. Helms’s house and beat her to death with a steel shovel.

“As she crawled away across the front lawn, he hit her again,” said Bobby Haulk, the Monroe police chief. “And again and again.”

Ms. Helms’s husband and children were sleeping inside. Her husband found her body that morning, after he looked out a window and saw an apron lying on the grass.

Totally disturbing. But here’s the clincher:

Janice Smyrl, Ms. Helms’s aunt, spoke next. She quoted the Bible:

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friend.”

What a way to disconnect, detach, and “justify” the whole thing. Yep, looks like Janice is just another fucking xian moron. When you embrace God and xianity, just leave your brain at the door…

Yeah, God really made us in the best way possible: New Jersey Couple Held in Abuse

COLLINGSWOOD, N.J., Oct. 26 οΏ½ The parents of four boys adopted from New Jersey’s troubled foster care system were arrested Friday, two weeks after the police found that the children, ages 9 to 19, had been starved to the point that none of them weighed more than 50 pounds, according to the Camden County prosecutor.

The boys were so badly malnourished that their shriveled bodies gave no hint of their ages, investigators said. At 19, the oldest was 4 feet tall and weighed 45 pounds. The police initially thought he was just 10 years old. […]

The boys had been locked out of the kitchen of the house in this blue-collar Philadelphia suburb and were fed a diet of pancake batter, peanut butter and breakfast cereal. They ate wallboard and insulation to sate their hunger, investigators said.

(Glenn passed me this one.) Some religious nuts held a little protest Long Island’s Mepham High School yesterday. Mepham is the school with the well-publicized footbal hazing incident recently that included sodomizing some new players.

The picketers - eight family members from a church in Topeka, Kan., gathered on the sidewalk in front of the Bellmore school at 7 a.m. waving anti-gay signs, including one that read “God Hates Fags.” “When you teach children that it’s okay to indulge in any kind of sex act that they like … that it’s okay to be gay, it is inevitable that they will end up being violent and doing things that they shouldn’t,” said Margie Phelps, who protested with a handful of relatives.

OK, mostly your typical absurd gay-bashing Xian bullshit. But the picture is priceless:

A little diddy in the USAToday on the content of a book by the Smarts, the couple that had their daughter abducted and sexually abused by Brian David Mitchell, a fellow Mormon. The Smarts avoid giving details of daughter’s ordeal: Book focuses instead on faith

And then there is the Smarts’ assertion that Elizabeth’s return ‘’is ultimate proof that God answers prayers.'’ But what of the parents whose children were not found alive who prayed just as fervently?

Frankly, the book feels like padded-out magazine article for a Mormon-only audience.

Just an update on those California Wildfires

The 15 people killed were the most since the devastating Oakland Hills fire that killed 25 people and destroyed more than 3,000 homes in October 1991.

Scores of people were also injured by this week’s fires, including eight people treated for burns and smoke inhalation at the University of California, San Diego, Medical Center, on Monday. Two were in serious to critical condition with burns over more than 55 percent of their bodies, spokeswoman Eileen Callahan said.

Swansea man held in death of boy, 4

A preliminary autopsy showed the boy died of ‘’blunt trauma,'’ said Denise Monteiro, a spokeswoman for the Department of Social Services. The district attorney said Camara was ‘’severely beaten'’ at the home where he and his twin brother were living with their mother, Laura Bowden. Bowden was not home at the time. Camara later died at Charlton Memorial Hospital in Fall River after emergency crews found the boy in cardiac arrest. Durand is expected to be arraigned Monday in Fall River District Court, Bristol County prosecutors said.

Yep, it’s all about free will, folks. Let’s all just stand by while some 4-year old kid gets beaten to death. Funny how any human allowing this to happen would be brought up on charges — which is a point that explains just how poetic The Onion is about all this…

Ah, the scope of divine messages: Church wants to build senior-housing facility

“God didn’t give us this land just so we could mow it all summer long,” said the Rev. John Morris of the church’s 19-acre site and 500 feet of river frontage in Lakeland.

The church has been offered more than $2 million for the parcel, but “God wanted us to do something different with this land,” said Gary Mau, government liaison for the 400-member congregation. “Well, what it is that he’s telling us to do? We decided that he wanted us to build senior housing.”

I believe the same logic here can be used to justify masturbation, don’tcha think? I mean, come on, why do ya think your hands are right there, anyway?…

It’s Sunday, so it’s time for a new bible verse. Today, rather than giving you one of the endless stream of absurdities, cruelties, and horrors of the goot book, I’ll share a favorite of a different sort: Clear and decent advice from J-boy which is blantantly rejected by the Xian theocrats of our day in their attempts to insert prayer into the school day, government proceedings, football games, and every other public venue they can:

And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men… But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret… (Matthew 6: 5-6)