“There is an old song which asserts ‘the best things in life are free.’ Not true! Utterly false! This was the tragic fallacy which brought on the decadence and collapse of the democracies of the twentieth century; those noble experiments failed because the people had been led to believe that they could simply vote for whatever they wanted . . . and get it, without toil, without sweat, without tears.”
– Robert A. Heinlein, Starship Troopers
h/t Survival Blog
A Haitian immigrant is being accused of pouring brandy on her child and setting the little girl on fire in a rite that authorities are claiming was called “Loa.” I’m no expert but the Loa are, in Haitian Voodoo, God’s intermediaries on Earth. Usually a Loa is a being that Voodoo practitioners interact with for religious or magical purposes. In other words this report is either incomplete, or there’s something we’re not getting:
Determined to drive evil spirits out of her daughter, a Queens mom performed a bizarre voodoo fire ritual that left the 6-year-old girl scarred for life, prosecutors say.
While young Frantzcia Saintil was “engulfed in flames,” Marie Lauradin let the screaming girl burn, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said Thursday.
The girl told cops “the flames crawled up her body and burned her,” the criminal complaint said.
Eventually, Frantzcia’s grandmother doused the flames with cold water, but the women then put the girl to bed instead of getting her help, Brown said.
Frantzcia suffered for a whole day before a relative begged them to take her to a hospital.
When doctors finally saw her, Frantzcia had second- and third-degree burns covering 25% of her body, including her face, torso and legs, court papers state.
Lauradin, a 29-year-old Haitian immigrant, was charged with assault and endangering the welfare of a child. She faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted.
This seems more like abuse with a religious covering. Here’s the part where the rite is described:
Lauradin, her mother and her daughter lived in the basement of a two-family home in Queens Village, where neighbors said they were not surprised.
“They weren’t into conversation,” neighbor Henry St. Jean said. “I used to hear them scream at [Frantzcia]. They would tell her to get on her knees for a couple of hours.”
Lauradin allegedly burned her daughter while performing a ritual that Brown called “Loa.” She sprayed a circle of rum on the floor around her daughter – poured some on her head – and ignited it, police said.
A “friend” named Sketch helped set up the ritual but hasn’t been charged, leading me to think that the child’s mother and grandmother were “winging it” and maybe decided mid exorcism to hurt the child, as the neighbors reports on the child’s treatment indicates they family enjoyed tormenting the girl for some time. Sounds to me like the mother was the one possessed.
But the authorities and papers may just be misunderstanding. Though most practitioners of Voodoo and its relatives are no more likely than anyone else to commit a crime, especially one involving their religion, there are instances of rites and rituals that are criminal coming to light. The murders by Adolfo de Jesus Constanzo and his cult are said to have occurred so he could “feed” his Nganaga, a kind of familiar spirit created by Palo Mayombe practitioners that resides in a cauldron through a magical process that involves Necromancy, Sorcery and religious devotion.
The cult of Santa Muerte (Saint Death) that is so popular with criminals in Mexico is likely responsible for human sacrifices and I believe there is a connection between Constanzo and the spread of the Santa Muerte cult.
But this crime happened in New York and Palo, Sante Muerte worship, Voodoo and all the other Afro-Caribbean traditions are similar to the scholar like myself, but as different from one another as Islam, Christianity and Judaism are. What’s more, practices in these religions often vary from region to region, so New Orleans Voodoo will be different than New York Voodoo. Because the mother in this case is from Haiti it’s likely she at least thought she was practicing good old fashioned Haitian Voodoo, although I think it’s possible she was practicing what we might call “Spiritual Christianity” where Voodoo is completely subsumed into Protestantism, which puts a special emphasis on casting out devils. I’d still be curious as to what the rite they were practicing actually was intended to do. It is a common practice to use fire to “cleanse” people (as in passing a hand quickly through a candle flame) but I’ve never heard of someone being set alight for a ritual.
Having lived in New York I’ve come across stories of children being injured in makeshift exorcisms with alarming, and tiresome, regularity however. Religious aspect or not, abuse is abuse and the adults here should be locked up for what they’ve done and I’m sure readers will keep the poor child in their prayers.
Here’s a great essay on Voodoo that’s informative if a bit “undergrad” in its barely hidden moralizing. The unfortunately hard to find Divine Horseman by Maya Deren is a good place for the dilettante to start if voodoo peaks your interest.
It’s no wonder the left is scrambling to make supporting the Iranian protests look like “warmongering” or imperialism. Their favorite terrorists, sorry I mean occupation resistance fighters, are square in the middle of things beating, raping and pillaging for the theocracy leftists want you to believe can be reasoned with. From JPost:
Palestinian Hamas members are helping the Iranian authorities crush street protests in support of reformist presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, two protesters told The Jerusalem Post On Tuesday.
They made their allegations as rioting on a scale unseen in Iran for nearly a decade continued in the wake of the elections and the allegations that the results were falsified. The protests have now spread from Teheran to other major cities.
Mousavi insisted on Tuesday that he would “protect” his supporters’ votes “at all cost, even if I am at risk.”
Shouting from a car roof to a roaring crowd of supporters, he declared: “The pillars of the revolution have been shaken… We must not be silent.”
Hamas formally welcomed incumbent Ahmadinejad’s ostensible reelection victory on Saturday. The Palestinian Islamist movement receives arms and funding from Iran, and its members have often received training there, including in terror tactics and weapons manufacture.
Despite a massive crackdown on dissent, thousands of protesters rallied again in Teheran on Tuesday night in support of Mousavi, following reports that up to 20 people had been killed by security forces at rallies across Iran against the disputed results of last week’s presidential elections.
Pro-government gunmen, reportedly opening fire on protesters, killed at least seven people on Monday night and others have been wounded.
State radio reports claimed that the victims were trying to loot weapons and to vandalize public property, and were shot by unidentified gunmen.
People claiming to have witnessed the shootings, however, insist that the victims were peaceful demonstrators, including students from Teheran university. “There are so many crimes, beatings and killings that have yet to be reported. When we fight back, it is for our own protection,” said a young man passing out flyers with the names of those he said were murdered Teheran University students.
The Iranians are tired of the Palestinian terrorists and are asking the world to deal with them:
“The most important thing that I believe people outside of Iran should be aware of,” the young man went on, “is the participation of Palestinian forces in these riots.”
Another protester, who spoke as he carried a kitchen knife in one hand and a stone in the other, also cited the presence of Hamas in Teheran.
On Monday, he said, “my brother had his ribs beaten in by those Palestinian animals. Taking our people’s money is not enough, they are thirsty for our blood too.”
It was ironic, this man said, that the victorious Ahmadinejad “tells us to pray for the young Palestinians, suffering at the hands of Israel.” His hope, he added, was that Israel would “come to its senses” and ruthlessly deal with the Palestinians.
When asked if these militia fighters could have been mistaken for Lebanese Shi’ites, sent by Hizbullah, he rejected the idea. “Ask anyone, they will tell you the same thing. They [Palestinian extremists] are out beating Iranians in the streets… The more we gave this arrogant race, the more they want… [But] we will not let them push us around in our own country.”
But I guess it would be racist or Islamiphobic for me to agree. But this is the true face of Hamas, those “freedom fighters” the left wants you to support. Hamas is nothing more than a paramilitary criminal enterprise that should be wiped off the face of this earth.
Gateway Pundit has more, including photos.
Aren’t all Neo-Nazis? White nationalist “intellectual” Kevin Strom is a known pervert caught red handed with child pornography. When British Neo-Nazi bomb plotter Martyn Paul Gilleard was arrested last year police found almost 40,000 child porn images on his computer and controversial White nationalist act Prussian Blue was little more than a degenerate mother’s attempt to provide Nazi lowlifes with spank material.
Here’s the video for their unlistenable Neo-Nazi fantasy “Victory Day” that you need not be acquainted with the pedophilic “teen modeling” scam to be uncomfortable with … if you’re not a disgusting pervert:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjbDvSuVx78[/youtube]
I could spend all week listing examples of the intersection of White Supremacism and the sexual exploitation of children (something they share with radical lefties) so it came as no surprise to me when Noam Chomsky loving anti-Semitie James Von Brunn was found to have child porn on his computer:
WASHINGTON — Child pornography was found on a computer belonging to the white supremacist charged with shooting and killing a security guard at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, the FBI said in court documents.
Agents found the material on a desktop computer seized from the apartment in nearby Maryland where 88-year-old James von Brunn lived with his son and son’s fiancee, FBI Special Agent Ronald Farnsworth said in an affidavit filed Wednesday to support a search warrant. Investigators searched the home last Thursday, taking more than 30 items, including ammunition, computers, thumb drives, CDs, memory cards, cell phones and videos.
Shocking? Not so much. Neo-Nazism and sexual degeneracy go together like Progressives and racially-tinged misogyny. A Neo-Nazi is someone who has already decided they will not respect societal boundaries or common decency, which is exactly the attitude those who exploit children sexually adopt. Why should it shock anyone that there would be a crossover in the two groups’ memberships?
There have been two attacks by Mountain Lions on humans in Squamish B.C. which most people seemed shocked by, even though any old timer or even better any book written when Cougars roamed wild will show you that while uncommon it is not unusual for America’s big cat to attack humans, specifically children or people who look either injured or disabled. From CBCNews:
Conservation officers in Squamish, B.C., continue to hunt for two more cougars after a rash of attacks, including one in which a mother fought off an attack on her daughter, 3, who couldn’t understand why the big kitty didn’t want to “play nice.”
Five conservation officers aided by two dogs and their handlers eventually tracked the cat through several yards and eventually shot it just off Depot Road in the Brackendale neighbourhood, about 60 kilometres north of Vancouver, four hours after the attack Tuesday evening.
DNA samples taken from the cougar will be used to determine whether it was the one that attacked the child, they said.
The cougar is the second killed by conservation officers since Saturday. The other was shot after two dogs were attacked on a popular hiking trail on Friday and Saturday.
That’s nature. It’s why you take a gun in the woods, or nowadays with people who have never been in the wild making the rules for state land why you need a walking stick, a good knife and a first aid kit when hiking. Animals sometime attack humans, humans must protect themselves and their families. Like this brave mother:
In the attack on Tuesday, the cougar pounced on Maya Espinosa from behind as she and her mother were walking their dog and picking berries in Fisherman’s Park near the Squamish River.
Maureen Lee told CBC News she was turning away to pick a berry when she thought she saw another dog approaching out of the corner of her eye, but it was the cougar coming to attack her daughter, Maya.
“All of a sudden it just flew on her, rolled her a couple of times and grabbed her under its belly on the ground like in the fetal position,” Lee recalled.
“She [Maya] was on her back and he had his paws in her head, and I just knew I had to react quick, so I just jumped in there and wedged myself between the cougar and her on the ground, and I just got up and threw it off my back and grabbed her and booked it,” she said.
The toddler suffered puncture wounds to her left arm and head, but was recovering well, her mother said.
Neighbour Wade Rowland said it appeared the young girl didn’t entirely understand what had happened.
“Everyone’s taking it well, they’re in good spirits,” he said. “The little girl, her big comment was, I guess, ‘Why didn’t the kitty play nice?’ ”
Pablo Espinosa, Maya’s father, told CBC News his daughter thought the cat was playing. She was eager to return to kindergarten to tell her classmate what happened, Lee said.
Astute readers will suspect a theme in the attacks. Dogs and children were involved, and though we can’t be sure I assume most of the dogs were medium sized or smaller. In other words Cougars are attacking meal sized animals, even human ones. What is worrisome is that adult humans are not scaring the big cats off.
Scary stuff, unless you’re some left-wing environmentalist for whom children and people walking their dogs have less “natural rights” than predatory animals who might eat them. Here’s a sample of the kind of comments I saw on this story:
Get this straight: no particular cougar near Squamish ate any human flesh. This makes much of what people are saying, in over 300 posts off topic. Cougars that are in this particular prime real estate area are a huge problem because they are also in Olympic Territory. The “world”, meaning more and more ignorant people are arriving for the “games”. Ignorant wandering around wilderness “parks” during berry picking season are a danger to large animals–they are killed. Unless the B.C. government has already decided to kill off all cougars in that area they should stop killing and start relocating these huge cats and other the other large animals such as bear to areas where deer and rabbits are in abundance. One advantage Canada has is her vast mountainous regions that are sparsely populated by humans. Or…the government should just be truthful and admit that they will do nothing and deal with consequences as they happen.
MOM admits, on the video, that she was irresponsible. I am glad, for her sake and her daughter’s, that she was also courageous. It seems that ignorance rules though–most people writing here have “war mentality”.
Their advice is to kill the cougars so they will be safe. Get this: wars do not create peace; they create hatred. Wilderness trails are NOT SAFE and cannot be made safe by killing. Especially during berry picking season.
Or this gem from PaulStacey:
With 7 billion of us. close as dammit, on this earth, why are we so vicious to those animals that would try to redress the balance?
Or this comment from Bubblebum:
looks like people are all for the killing of innocent wildlife.
yes, innocent. They were walking through a forest, where do you think these creatures live?maybe i should go wanter through your home, then later one have someone shoot you because you wanted me out of your house?
This is where they live, and that is BC shouldn’t you be careful what woods you wander in to? plus they don’t even know if they shot the cougar that attacked. they randomly killed an animal because they thought it might have been it.
You get the idea. Lefty “nature lovers” are completely separated from the nature they love and fantasize about animals in pre-teen anthropomorphic terms. No animal is “innocent” certainly not when they begin hunting humans or the pets of humans. Humans culling dangerous game isn’t “war” against nature, it is nature. The woods aren’t a cougar’s “living room” or house. Most importantly, humans have a right to follow their nature and make their territory safe.
To these armchair naturalists, a child being eaten is “redressing the balance” by some avenging hand of nature. This is nihilism not nature. The anti-social cheering on death and mayhem (much of it avoidable if liberals would allow people to interact with nature armed as we are meant to) because they simply hate other people. Powerless but angry, wallowing in the imagined misery that gives them their perceived moral licenses to be misanthropic, the commenters above live vicariously through reports of their fellow humans being killed by animals because the animals are doing what they lack the courage to do.
Cheering on a child’s death is almost as repellent as killing one, the difference is not in the character of those who do either, but the degree in which they act out their most evil inclinations.