I am not a parent, so perhaps I have no right to comment on the way others raise their kids. It's not unusual for parents to disagree on what's good or bad for their children.

But every so often...well, very often it seems, parents go that extra mile to do something totally stupid, dangerous, irresponsible, and oft all of the above.

Some might say that people this dumb shouldn't have children anyway. Others might just be saddened knowing that all the years of evolution we've gone through still allows for members of our own species to be this pathetic.

Anyway, without further adu, here's the link to the latest award nominee
Tape and Pacifiers DO NOT Mix!

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I'm like one of those idiot savants...well, except for the savant part.

"A long time ago, yet somehow in the future"

At least you can find humor in the Darwin Awards, since they did it to themselves. This just makes me want to smack the hell out of somebody.

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"If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction."
Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
Illuminati's Razor-The most complicatedly evil answer is usually the most correct answer. - Fazor
"Every book is a children's book if the kid can read." - Mitch Hedberg
"Distance doesn’t matter much in space, where if you just start a thing off with the right kind of shove, sooner or later it will get where you want it to go." -Frederik Pohl, Mining the Oort

Weren't we talking about people that shouldn't be allowed to have kids in another thread?

That and not being allowed to name them.

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TIME Man of the Year

Here's another one from todays news.
I'm convinced when "cruel and unusual" punishment was barred from the US legal system, they weren't thinking about crimes against children.

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I'm like one of those idiot savants...well, except for the savant part.

"A long time ago, yet somehow in the future"

[expletive]! If you want enough inspiration to crush someone's skull with your bare hands, take a look at the pictures of those girls' arms...

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I'm not completely heartless, the doctor who removed it told me he'd never be able to get it all.

Not to diminish the horrible act perpetrated on those girls, but I'd like to smack the photographer's head against a wall until he learns how to focus.

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SeanF

"Ask to understand, but don't challenge unless you have the knowledge."--NEOWatcher

The contents of this post are ©2008 by SeanF and may not be copied or retransmitted in any form without the express written consent of SeanF

Skeptical me says that was intentional... Have the pictures so you can hype the fact that you have pictures of this horrific act. But leave them enough out of focus so you don't get people complaining that you are detailing images of violence.

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Numbers are not case sensitive. (me)

That could be what they were thinking, but focussed pictures would be much more useful when it goes to trial.

Of course, it may be that the newspeople took focussed pictures and blurred them after-the-fact for their reporting...

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SeanF

"Ask to understand, but don't challenge unless you have the knowledge."--NEOWatcher

The contents of this post are ©2008 by SeanF and may not be copied or retransmitted in any form without the express written consent of SeanF

And I'm sure there are a heck of a lot more than 3 or 4 pictures...

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Numbers are not case sensitive. (me)

I am not either, so I usually don't get involved in the details of child-rearing. But these two cases aren't a question of good parenting, like do you give your kids too many sweets or let them watch too much TV. These are criminal acts committed on children.

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At night the stars put on a show for free (Carole King)

Heh, yeah I was being a little sarcastic with that line. These two cases go well beyond the "I'm not a parent so I can't comment on what it's like" point.(sadly, the later case is extreemely common; to the point that I'm suprised it was on CNN national news). I have never considered myself to be a kid person. I don't like kids. I'm awkward around them. They annoy me. Of course I absolutely love my neice (she's 3) and I want kids some day, but like I said, I don't consider myself a kid person. But I would NEVER EVER want to hurt a child. They're the embodiment of innocence. They are trusting and helpless and...well, they're children. How can you abuse them like that?

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I'm like one of those idiot savants...well, except for the savant part.

"A long time ago, yet somehow in the future"

Is the camera out of focus, or is it Brownian motion in the subject being photographed? Also, you have a hand near the lense and a relatively larger body beyond, the camera autofocus could have been a little confused.

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I'm not completely heartless, the doctor who removed it told me he'd never be able to get it all.

Jeeze, well here's the hat-trick for the day, although it's an older story with the newer development of charges.

Mothers of 5 Children Killed in House Fire to be Charged

Originally there was allegedly a 15 year old girl watching the kids. But she couldn't be found. That was because, as they authorities had suspected, she didn't exist.

This, unfortunately, isn't very uncommon either. One horrifying thing I learned in police academy during the domestic violence unit was a trend that started in the Chicago area.

They noticed admission of children to hospitals on Friday nights would increase steeply. It turned out, parents would slip dish washing detergent into their kids food on Friday so they could be admitted under Uncle Sam's dollar to the hospital (fever, diarrhea, nausea, etc). The kids would remain in hospital care for the weekend allowing the parents to go out to the clubs and parties, then they'd pick their kids up on Sunday "good as new" (if you can be after being poisoned). If I ever caught someone doing that to their kid, the next time anyone saw them they'd be a sun-bleached skeleton in the Nevada desert.

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I'm like one of those idiot savants...well, except for the savant part.

"A long time ago, yet somehow in the future"

Oh man! I'm pretty easy-going but I could easily beat the holy crap out of parents like that.

That's just disgusting. I'd be right there with you holding the shovel.

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"If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction."
Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
Illuminati's Razor-The most complicatedly evil answer is usually the most correct answer. - Fazor
"Every book is a children's book if the kid can read." - Mitch Hedberg
"Distance doesn’t matter much in space, where if you just start a thing off with the right kind of shove, sooner or later it will get where you want it to go." -Frederik Pohl, Mining the Oort

I'd be in the van scraping the bones clean...

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I'm not completely heartless, the doctor who removed it told me he'd never be able to get it all.

Well, you got me started. In 2001 a baby -- a mere 6 months old -- was beaten, BITTEN, thrown into the air, RAPED by her father and uncle. This horrible abuse only came to light because the mother finally took Brianna to the ER when she was nearly lifeless. Brianna died from multiple internal injuries as you can imagine. Up until that time, mother and grandmother and another uncle did NOTHING to stop the abuse. >:-(

Another bad case I knew of 10 years ago: Family of 5 little boys. Dad enjoyed picking them up and throwing them against the wall, beating them with a belt. He tried shoving their mother out of a moving car, to kill her -- in front of them, screaming and crying for her safety. Finally he went to prison. By this time the eldest children were 11 and 13, very violent and angry -- as to be expected. Mother couldn't cope with it, despite offers of help; she ran off, abandoning all 5 boys, the youngest of whom was only 4.

::shakes head:: I've often wondered what became of those boys. The eldest had some sort of affinity for me; he'd come right over to me and stand close, as if knowing I'd protect him. This, despite our being of different races [nothing wrong with that of course!] I still say a prayer for them when they come to mind.

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“I shall always be convinced that a watch proves a watchmaker, and that a universe proves a God” ~Voltaire

And people often talk about "vicious" and "dumb" animals. I don't think you could find an instance in nature (outside of Homo sapiens) where the mother would do something as depraved as that.

EDIT: I purposely left out "father" because there are many species where the father will kill infants.