The American Taliban Chronicles

[lapsedmodernist]

I am sorry, I am all out of witticisms, I am just...

What the fucking fuck is wrong with fucking Florida?

FLORIDA AGENCY GETS TEEN'S ABORTION BLOCKED

By Jill Barton, Associated Press Writer  |  April 27, 2005

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- The state's social services agency was granted a court order to block an abortion for a pregnant 13-year-old girl living in a state shelter, prompting an emergency appeal Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union.

The ACLU in its appeal on the girl's behalf cited Florida statutes that protect a minor's decision to decide on an abortion.

"No (Department of Children & Families) regulation or state law can override a constitutional right as recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court," said Howard Simon, the organization's executive director for Florida.

"But putting aside the legalisms, forcing a 13-year-old to carry an unwanted pregnancy to term against her wishes not only is illegal and unconstitutional, it's cruel."

The girl learned she was pregnant two weeks ago and planned to have an abortion Tuesday. Her caseworker arranged for transportation and help. But the state Department of Children & Families asked a Palm Beach County juvenile judge Tuesday morning to block the procedure.

The state agency argued the 13 1/2-week pregnant girl -- described as L.G. in court documents -- is too young and immature to make an informed medical decision, according to the ACLU appeal.

She is in PROTECTIVE custody of the state, which means that her parent or parents were not not providing adequate care--i.e. had either abused or neglected her. At age 13 there is a statistically high probability that the father is someone who shouldn't be, like a relative of a family "friend" or a state employee.

Oh, but of course, Florida is the first state to privatize adoption and child welfare, another Jeb Bush Spectacular Initiative.

Do you ever just want to tear your hair out and bang your head against the wall?

Comments

[spawnsong.livejournal.com]

I recently watched that British documentary series called "The Power of Nightmares", and i know it's unrelated to this particular story in Flordia, but every day for longer than i'd care to remember now, i'm comfronted with some new manifestation of the slow metamporphasis of the country into some giant cult of madness and unreason. When i'm sleep deprived, it really does feel like i'm sitting up here watching some monumental dark chapter of history unfolding through my computer, my t.v. screen, and my communications with the people back home.


and i answered your questions. it nearly gave me carpal tunnel.

[theophile.livejournal.com]

the BBC is trying to turn me into a complete paranoid. I watched "Century of the Self" and "Why We Fight" after "the Power of Nightmares," and now I get the mad cult/unreason thing from just about every facet of modern life. those bastards; feeding me propaganda that I can identify with...

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

BBC is screening "Why We Fight"?? I thought it had premiered at Sundance, which, granted, was several months ago, but it still seems too soon to be screened on TV, although I guess the turnover process in the UK is different. I will look for it now, as I really wanted to see it.

As we don't celebrate Christmas, but my parents still get the day off, last year I made them watch "The Trials of Henry Kissinger" on Christmas Eve. And "The Panama Deception" afterwards.

[theophile.livejournal.com]

oh, I'm probably wrong, then. I just assumed "Why We Fight" was a BBC studio production, because it's got exactly the sort of editorial voice as the other two documentaries mentioned. I just download these things; I don't know where they originate. how embarrassing.

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

No, if it's the same one, it's made by the people who made "Trials of Henry Kissinger." But you are not wrong, they seem to have screened it.

Now, how do you download all these things? Is it the same way that you tried explaining some time ago and I still couldn't figure out how to do it?

[theophile.livejournal.com]

both of your links go the same place. I think I remember the entry you meant to link to, though. and, yes'm, I get most of my movie downloads through Bittorrent. I can walk you through it if you ever catch me on AIM, although I'm kind of out of the loop on reliable, safe torrent sites these days.

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

whoops, I meant this one.

I dunno, I did everything you and missmimesis suggested and I still couldn't get it to work, and was so demoralized that I stopped trying.

how are torrent sites unsafe? Just, like, installing spyware or gov't is going to track you down and arrest you to make an example out of you like they did with that 12 yr old kid who was downloading music.

I have a more practical question, though. I have and use Limewire for my music (and, occasionally, The OC)-related purposes. If you had Limewire, would we be able to fileshare?

[theophile.livejournal.com]

unsafe in the "you'll likely get a C&D or a legal threat if you use the popular, public sites"; Bittorrent is open source, which makes spyware not an issue. with very few exceptions, I only use private community trackers these days, which means there's a relatively limited amount of material available to me, but getting in trouble would have to involve the sort of sting operation that I imagine would be more trouble than it was worth for the enforcement people.

I have never used Limewire. I'm actually not at a computer enough during most days to make standard filesharing programs all that useful to me.

[ladycat269.livejournal.com]

"The Panama Deception"- great film. As I recall, there was a clear shot of Dick Cheney's face, although they didn't mention his name... At the time, George Sr. and Reagan were taking all of the flack and Cheney was just an unknown, perhaps not even a politician (?) Another one that I recommend if you haven't already seen it is "Cover up: the Iran/Contra Affair". Really grizzly. Watch Ollie North lie through his teeth.

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

You know, I have seen that film twice and I do not remember Dick Cheney's face...do you remember what part it was in?

I will definitely make a point of seeing Cover Up.

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

Believe me when I say that I know EXACTLY what you mean. All I need is a half an hour on the Democratic Underground forums and a couple of references to peak oil (andhowitisamyth) and I want to howl. And then I go to sleep and have Left Behind-themed dreams.

The other thing is, I have come to expect that the current administration will do the worst possible thing 100% of the time, and I am not exaggerating. And then I watch with a masochistic satisfaction and see that, indeed, I was right over and over again, no exceptions.

[mjmj.livejournal.com]

it's interesting to me that you haven't written about peak oil (or have a missed some previous entry). is there a source for estimates of remaining reserves that you give credence to? i've seen estimates ranging from 1 trillion barrels left (the peak has been reached) to 3 trillion barrels (the peak is forty years away). here's a recent lively discussion:

peak oil is here (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/4/24/83218/0412)

'democracy now' has given the matter very little coverage, also. i think they ran one segment on it a few months ago.

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

I touched on Peak Oil somewhere, I can't remember in which post, but I linked to something about it. I will try to find it because whatever I linked to, I remember liking that as a source. Pnts is well-read on the subject, too, in fact I think I first heard the term from her, so you could ask her.

[mjmj.livejournal.com]

> Pnts is well-read on the subject,

really? i don't recall seeing any pntsian entries on PO, either. i will ask. thank you.

[paracelsus.livejournal.com]

My God. She must be terrified.

[ladycat269.livejournal.com]

Wow, that is discusting. This is a very, very dangerous precedent to be setting.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

The state agency argued the 13 1/2-week pregnant girl -- described as L.G. in court documents -- is too young and immature to make an informed medical decision, according to the ACLU appeal.

Crazy. It would take about five minutes of questioning, cross-referenced, to work out whether she knows what she's doing.

Poor wee lass, this must be seriously fscking with her brain. Can we buy her a bus ticket to go to a more enlightened state?

[lonna.livejournal.com]

liverty and justice for all. except 13 year olds.

[congogirl.livejournal.com]

Amazing -- she is too young and immature to make a medical decision, but she is not too young and immature to be responsible for a child or to decide whether to give the child up for adoption. Or to be 'protected' by the state, which obviously hasn't helped her avoid her current dilemma. I think she's pretty darn mature to recognize early enough that she was pregnant and to make a decision.

[castironskillet.livejournal.com]

This is exatly the observation I was going to share, as well.

[congogirl.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, this is my favorite part:

A judge granted a temporary injunction and ordered a psychological evaluation.

[slit.livejournal.com]

I am ill.

[sissyhips.livejournal.com]

oh my god florida!

Florida statutes protect a minor's decision to decide on an abortion.

...so the solution is to force her to have/raise a child? who protects her from that? good lord.

[slanderous.livejournal.com]

hello, united states of gilead (handmaid's tale)!

would just florida fall off already?!

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

yeah, I've been thinking of Handmaid's Tale more and more recently.

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

I mean, after a while the drinking game of screaming "Orwell!" at your TV screen gets old. You need to diversify your dystopian identifications.

[orpheusinhades.livejournal.com]

re: privatization, I wonder how long it will be until rightwingers start advocating for privatization of the army, police force, and justice system. After all, government is untrustworthy and inefficient, right? Shouldn't we lease out the Department of Justice to Microsoft, the army to Halliburton, and the police to Coca-Cola? After all, that will save the tax-dodgerspayers money, right?

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

the army to Halliburton

Sorry, already happened.

[orpheusinhades.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was sort of joking there. But I want to see policemen with little Coca-Cola armbands. That will make people think.

I need to learn to use Photoshop.

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

Have you seen Dr. Strangelove where Manfred has to make a phone call to warn the president that the world is on the brink of total nuclear annihilation and he makes the soldier who is about to detain him break the Coca-Cola machine for change, and the soldier says "all right, but you know what's going to happen if [the president] does not answer?" "what?" snips Manfred. "You are going to have to answer to the Coca-Cola corporation."

[orpheusinhades.livejournal.com]

Dr. Strangelove is a masterpiece. I'm a Peter Sellers addict, anyhow.

Also funny (and related), in a pulpy read-on-an-airplane kind of way, is Jennifer Government, by Max Barry - where corporations fight a global war against each other. Barry also has an online game called NationStates which is amusing, at least for a few weeks.

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I liked "Jennifer Government" and I found the idea of two giant megacorporation alliances of Microsoft/Nike/American Air vs. Macintosh/Adidas/United (or whatever) a quite plausable one.

[orpheusinhades.livejournal.com]

Yeah, every time I see some company like Frito-Lay doing cross promotions with different products, I have a nervous moment. It's extremely plausible.

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

Frito-Lays...are those the fat free ones that have warnings about "anal leakage" on them?

[nearly-there.livejournal.com]

Do you ever just want to tear your hair out and bang your head against the wall?

Yes. This is one of those times. The poor girl...