A Click Off
Dead babies can't take care of themselves
Dead babies can't take things off the shelf
Well we didn't want you anyway
Lalala-la, lalala-la, la la la
--Dead Babies, Alice Cooper
My possessions are causing me suspicion
but there's no proof
in the paper today
tales of war and of waste
but you turn right over to the T.V. page
--Don't Dream it's Over, Crowded House
You’re missing that one final screw
You’re simply not in the pink my dear
To be honest you haven’t got a clue
--I'm Going Slightly Mad, Queen
They only hit until you cry
And after that you don't ask why
You just don't argue anymore
--Luka, Suzanne Vega
_____________________
Dead babies can't take things off the shelf
Well we didn't want you anyway
Lalala-la, lalala-la, la la la
--Dead Babies, Alice Cooper
My possessions are causing me suspicion
but there's no proof
in the paper today
tales of war and of waste
but you turn right over to the T.V. page
--Don't Dream it's Over, Crowded House
You’re missing that one final screw
You’re simply not in the pink my dear
To be honest you haven’t got a clue
--I'm Going Slightly Mad, Queen
They only hit until you cry
And after that you don't ask why
You just don't argue anymore
--Luka, Suzanne Vega
_____________________
Over the past several days Lisa has had the misfortune to be exposed to what passes for news today -- Caylee mania.
People she did not know implored her on the day of the not guilty verdict, "Did you hear?", as though this decision were something that would jostle the sun and the moon (Casey Anthony and the Court of Public Opinion). For three years Caylee's sad story has provided fodder for those who would declaim against the forces of dissolution in the U.S.: Justice must be served for little Caylee, and that means mother Casey must go down.
Yet justice worked as it must; the prosecution did not present an airtight case. The whole lot of the Anthony's are defectives -- misfits and liars -- and it is very hard to disentangle a bag of snakes. CNN promises 24-hour coverage Sunday, July 17th, when Casey Anthony is released, just so we may release a bit more bile.
Observers gathered outside of the Orlando courthouse daily to score one of the 50 tickets in. A psychologist was on air to minister to the viewer's grief ("over time, the sadness and anger will fade"); it is reported that a lightning strike at Caylee memorial "could be a sign from the angels", and there is a Broward County resto who won't serve the bad Caylee jurors. All of this was gotten in 20 minutes of CNN "news". We really are a fried chicken short of a church picnic.
More to the point: Why is the nation transfixed by tales of blond babies murders? Remember the Jon Benet Ramsey furore in the 1990's? Jon Benet was the six-year-old blond beauty pageant "star" who riveted the nation in her death. How about Madeleine McCann, blond British child reportedly kidnapped in Portugal? But what about the other 2,000 kids killed annually in the U.S.? Well, they don't meet the photogenic bar for one reason or another.
Poor children fall through the cracks of supervising agencies with appalling regularity, but they don't permeate our collective mindset; just more statistics. Welfare workers are swamped with bloated caseloads, but no new taxes (the lesson of GHWB has not been lost.)
Do we care about the black toddler baked in an oven this March in Mississippi (that's how they do in Mississippi), or the Asian baby fried in a microwave that month in L.A.? How about Alexis (Lexie) Glover, found dead in a frigid D.C. creek, repeatedly failed by the child services system? Or Banita Jacks, who killed her four daughters because they were "demon-possessed"? Or 7-year-old with cystic fibrosis Charles Poertner, found dead last December in horrific circumstances, or Danieal Kelley, and so many, many more.
The answer is, No, because they are not pretty little blond babies. We are hypocritical dunderheads.
[cross-posted @ BigBrassBlog]
Labels: casey anthony, caylee, child abuse, child welfare
8 Comments:
Lisa,
There can be no justice for Caylin, no matter how you cut it.
SHE'S DEAD.
Justice can only servr the living.
Dead is dead and beyond human care or caring.
imo.
You failed to mention the dead burned baby in Quincy Fl born and discarded/burned by a teenage mother.
And of course she wasn't even charged with murder, much less felony disposal of a body.
Felony disposal was definitely a charge that could've been used in Orlando.
But hey- wtf?
jim
Jim,
The name is "Caylee", not "lynn".
If there is no justice, then why do we have a judicial system?
Forasmuch as thou art a well-spring of tenderness, O Theotokos, make us worthy of compassion; Look upon a sinful people; Manifest thy power as ever, for hoping on thee we cry aloud unto thee: Hail I as once did Gabriel, Chief Captain of the Bodiless Powers.
If there was ever proof of the existence of a benevolent God, it would be the existence of Nancy Grace, and the need to balance Newton's 'equal and opposite' equation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Grace
Lisa: The judicial system is here to prevent those of us with an exaggerated sense of our own intelligence from taking revenge and calling it "justice".
As you point out; the verdict has nothing to do with whether or not this misdirected sperm bank deposit of a woman killed her kid but whether the state could prove it. They couldn't, and the way our system works the woman HAS to walk.
This is where I repost the Paul Scofield piece where he talks about giving he Devil benefit of law. Those idiots you ran into - who knew every detail about the case but who (as you cartoon deftly skewers) probably couldn't tell you to within an order of magnitude how many soldiers her taxes have stationed in Iraq, or what "Obamacare" really is or how it works - are the ones we're really protected from by the law. It forces them to try us in a court instead of under a tree, and makes them free us if they cannot prove out guilt outside their own skulls.
The bulk of people are fucking idiots. We all know that. The genius of the English system of law was that it starts from that, too.
FDC says:
The bulk of people are fucking idiots . . . The genius of the English system of law was that it starts from that, too.
Spot-on.
G.D.,
I've always liked St. Nick, in that he patronizes so many different people.
Cholo,
For regularity, I believe in Newton's laws, not benevolence.
bobby vinton
G.D.,
Bobby Vinton ... what can I say :) I love the breadth of your musicality.
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