St. Blah’s Day.

Day two of the cold was no better. The first Sudafed I took had little effect, so I popped another at bedtime, only to learn anew why pseudo ephedrine is a base ingredient of crystal meth — if there’s anything more miserable than having a cold, it’s having a sleepless cold. Tonight it’s a double shot of Nyquil, plus melatonin.

Maybe some whiskey, too. My own little St. Patrick’s Day celebration.

How was yours? I spent part of it reading about Aaron Schock, whose existence hadn’t really hit my radar screen yet. What a train wreck. The mad redecorating had to be a giveaway of something seriously wrong. Downton Abbey? That show is so OVER.

Cathy Cambridge does her duchess-y duty in a spectacular coat. I was buying a coat for Kate last winter, and thought I’d found the perfect one, at Nordstrom. It was well-cut, buttoned up well, even showed off her figure a little. I was ready to order it wrapped up when I thought to grope for the tag: $900. Um, no. Cathy Cambridge’s coat is way more than $900.

Privatization means rodent cake for prisoners. Eh, they just nibbled one side — the rest of the cake is perfectly fine.

Back to bed.

Posted at 12:20 am in Same ol' same ol' |
 

63 responses to “St. Blah’s Day.”

  1. Dexter said on March 18, 2015 at 12:51 am

    Once years ago I struggled with a bad cold through a night of hard factory work and my friend who was filling in for the absent foreman noticed my honking and sweating and gave me his sure-fire cold recipe: 1) drive to liquor store, buy half-pint (200 ml) bottle of peppermint schnapps. 2) Go home, not letting your head hit the pillow until the bottle was a dead soldier.
    Well, I tried, but I modified the recipe. I mixed the schnapps with a half-pint of Wild Turkey bourbon , and drank half of the blend. Slept like a baby.
    If you are not ill, but need a little help sleeping and can drink booze, an ages-old remedy is simply a double shot of good scotch in a half-glass of milk. Trust me, this works.

    Since I moved away from all alcohol, I just make a small cup of black tea, leaving the tea bag in for just one minute. The caffeine doesn’t bother me and I zzzzzzz off quickly.

    The Toledo VA clinic called and wanted me to get to the lab today for blood draws as the doctor forgot to write the order a couple weeks ago, so my scone baking did not happen, but I stopped for a plate of corned beef and cabbage and I had a little treat, a glass bottle of Dad’s Old Fashion Root Beer, with a sticker, “made with real cane sugar”. Took me back.
    Home, I listened to a few Irish tunes and such on YouTube.

    The New York guys I listen to on XM said the sanitation crews had set out hundreds of barrels along the parade route. The sole purpose: vomitorii.

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  2. Sherri said on March 18, 2015 at 2:37 am

    I know this may sound a little funny coming from someone who’s 13 years sober, but I’ve found that Vicodin does wonders for a cough. I don’t do whiskey anymore, but the cough that came with this cold has been killing me. I had some Vicodin left over from one of my surgeries, popped one of those, and those coughing fits settled right down. After all, if I called the doctor complaining with this cough, she’d prescribe me cough syrup with codeine.

    Sudafed makes me feel more stoned than Vicodin does, anyway, and I don’t find Nyquil very effective for a cough.

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  3. Deborah said on March 18, 2015 at 3:56 am

    Camomile tea with honey added helps me when I have a cough. Almost all cold medicines keep me awake and NyQuil just dries my throat out, which during this last cold just made my throat tickle and I coughed more.

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  4. Linda said on March 18, 2015 at 4:39 am

    Aramark’s whole journey into prison privatization has been one scandal after another, and here in Ohio, too. But when you have governors who are ideologically committed to fiving away the goods to private companies, you jist pay the fines, pinkie swear to do better,and keep trucking.

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  5. adrianne said on March 18, 2015 at 6:05 am

    After work, treated a couple of reporters to pints of Guinness at the Old Town Bar, opened in 1892 on East 18th St., former haunt of Frank McConnell and a host of Irish writers. It felt appropriate.

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  6. Jolene said on March 18, 2015 at 6:13 am

    That is a great coat that the Duchess is wearing. Perfectly tailored to skim her prenant body perfectly. Wonder if she’ll have it remade somehow after the baby is born. Also impressive that, at approximately eight months pregnant, she can still move easily in those high heels.

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  7. David C. said on March 18, 2015 at 7:09 am

    I’m sure the RWNJs are up in arms about the Aramark story too. Prisoners get cake – an outrage.

    For colds, nothing works for me. I can’t take Sudafed, because of high blood pressure. Nyquil gives me nausea. I should try sleeping face down on a massage table. One of the ones with the cutout for you face. Put a bucket under the hole and let gravity work its magic.

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  8. brian stouder said on March 18, 2015 at 7:28 am

    ewwwww!

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  9. beb said on March 18, 2015 at 8:05 am

    An amen to Linda @4.

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  10. alex said on March 18, 2015 at 8:20 am

    My gawd, the Duchess is wearing otherwise drab shoes with porno heels. Those have to be, what, six-inchers? Surprised Aaron Schock’s Instagram account didn’t have a selfie wearing a pair like that but with open toes.

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  11. brian stouder said on March 18, 2015 at 9:13 am

    I’m thinkin’ Alex’s link is the thread winner today, if only for the term “free ballin'”

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  12. Julie Robinson said on March 18, 2015 at 9:20 am

    The fully leaded version of Nyquil, the one you have to go to the pharmacy window for, contains pseudoephedrine. It helps me fall asleep but wakes me up a couple hours later, so it’s not worth it. The unleaded PE version is ineffective.

    Like Deborah, tea (lemon) and honey, gargling with warm salt water, and the dreaded sinus rinse are what help me.

    Kate always wears super high heels and my calves ache just looking at them. But aren’t her coats divine? No need for fur to be stunning.

    Netanyahu won. Crap.

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  13. nancy said on March 18, 2015 at 9:24 am

    David, the very first comment on one of the dailies’ stories about #rodentcake made that very point: They’re getting cake? Way to have your finger on the pulse of the people!

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  14. LAMary said on March 18, 2015 at 9:49 am

    Not only does Cathy Cambridge wear six inch heels, she’s about 5’11” in flats. She’s got no fear of heights.

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  15. Jeff Borden said on March 18, 2015 at 9:53 am

    We’ve enjoyed the spectacle of Aaron Schock, the peacock of Peoria, because, of course, he is a tough-talking fiscal conservative and prodigious fund-raiser for the GOP who nonetheless felt it his due to tap campaign funds and taxpayer dollars to fund his extravagant lifestyle. He’s been the very definition of narcissism and has a $70,000 per year personal photographer to follow him around, snapping exciting photos of Aaron doing the tango in Buenos Aries or surfing in Hawaii.

    He’s long been rumored to be gay, despite being a vehement opponent of any kind of LBGT friendly legislation. If you look for some photos of him on line, you’ll see him dressed in ways that would attract the attention of Tom and Lorenzo. This is a guy who showed up at county fairs wearing Prada loafers and owned a turquoise leather belt he paired with tight white jeans and a red checked shirt open to the middle button. Whatever his fashion sense, he isn’t cool. He spent thousands on Katy Perry tickets for his office staff — effing Katy Perry????

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  16. Wim said on March 18, 2015 at 9:59 am

    It can’t be the bad press getting to Schock. Is it just the inflated mileage that has him running scared? Or is there a lot more to this story?

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  17. Dorothy said on March 18, 2015 at 10:09 am

    Those ain’t 6″ heels Cath is wearing. Four inch, maybe three. Here’s what 6 inch shoes look like: http://www.heelsforless.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=1_6 Tom and Lorenzo have many other pictures of ladies wearing stilettos and they hurt just to look at, I swear. Since my knee replacement I just can’t feel comfortable in anything higher than 1.5″ or 2″ heels. Higher ones throw off my center of balance and make me feel like I’m falling forward.

    When I needed a winter coat in 1982 to cover my expanding belly (due date was 3/1/83), I found a nice black coat at JC Penney that had one button at the top, just over my left side clavicle. It was not a maternity coat and I wore it for several years after that. It draped very nicely and I always felt so comfortable in it. Came in handy two years after I bought it when I was carrying my second baby, due in early April.

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  18. Jeff Borden said on March 18, 2015 at 10:13 am

    There’s a lot more to the story, Wim. His resignation will not stop the probes and investigations into his ethics, his financial dealings, etc. He’s going to be roasting on the spit for a long time. He has more than $3 million in his campaign fund, but that will be going to the very well remunerated lawyers defending his well-dressed ass. Meanwhile, I’m guessing the investigations into his travels are going to start turning up portions of his lifestyle he’d rather leave in the shadows.

    None of this would have happened if (a) a Washington Post reporter hadn’t stumbled into his garish Downtown Abbey style office and (b) if Schock had avoided posting every damned thing he does to his Instagram account. His narcissism truly did bring him down.

    It’s no gain for Democrats. The district is reliably red and another Republican will replace him. But it does deprive the GOP of a youthful face to draw younger voters and a very powerful fundraiser, so it’s still a win for progressives.

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  19. Bitter Scribe said on March 18, 2015 at 10:24 am

    I just hate how every pill out there for sinus congestion is guaranteed to leave you sleepless. What’s the effing point?

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  20. Deborah said on March 18, 2015 at 10:42 am

    The weird thing about the sleepless sinus congestion meds is they still give you medicine head. Medicine head to me feels like my head is floating about 3′ above where it should be.

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  21. Sue said on March 18, 2015 at 10:43 am

    Don’t know if this will copy, but here’s an example of royalty in 6″ heels:
    http://www.eonline.com/eol_images/Entire_Site/2014113/rs_1024x759-141203120128-1024-the-royals.ls.12314_copy.jpg

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  22. Deborah said on March 18, 2015 at 10:45 am

    Little Bird was invited out to a bar last night to celebrate St Pats. Of course the bar was packed and somebody bumped into her when she first got there while she was on her iPhone trying to find her friend. The phone fell to the concrete floor and smashed, so an expensive night.

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  23. adrianne said on March 18, 2015 at 10:46 am

    The most hilarious detail on the Aaron Schock coverage is that the WaPo reporter literally stumbled into it while doing a fluff piece on the congressman’s redecorated chambers, a la Downton Abbey. “Congressman, about those red walls.”

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  24. Dorothy said on March 18, 2015 at 11:11 am

    Deborah does she carry insurance on the phone? If so replacing it might just cost her $50. This is why we carry the insurance on our phones.

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  25. Jeff Borden said on March 18, 2015 at 11:15 am

    There’s been some speculation around here that the “personal photographer” on Mr. Schock’s payroll is actually his significant other. If so, this means that while Aaron was voting against every single gay rights issue –he supports the Defense of Marriage Act and has voiced support for a Constitutional amendment declaring marriage solely man and woman– taxpayers were paying for his boyfriend.

    Not just a narcissist of the highest order, but a champion hypocrite, too, if this turns out to be correct.

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  26. Charlotte said on March 18, 2015 at 11:16 am

    The Old Town! That’s where I hung out when I was young and broke in NYC in the mid-1980s. I loved the Old Town (also, I lived on 21st & 2nd, so it was close).

    My cold-and-flu tipple is bourbon and lemon juice, with a shot of cayenne, a little maple syrup, then topped up with hot water. Makes you sweat out the cooties and sleep. Tried the Nyquil caps last week when I was under the weather and jeez oh pete — knocked me out all right but I had a hangover from the meds until the middle of the next day.

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  27. adrianne said on March 18, 2015 at 11:21 am

    Charlotte, happy to report that the Old Town still does a roaring business, not just on St. Patrick’s Day. And I have to amend my earlier comment – it was Frank McCourt who used to frequent the joint, just down the street from where he taught high school.

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  28. beb said on March 18, 2015 at 12:38 pm

    For colds and flu I use Sudafed, Motrin and Hall’s cough drops. Obviously your mileage will vary but I find Sudafed pretty good about knocking me out.

    Schrock’s mileage scandal seems pretty solid. He billed his campaign for more miles then were on his car when he sold it. Of course he’ll skate on that like Gen Petraus — probation and a fine, while if the likes of you or I were to inflate our expense account like that it would be 5 years in the pokey …. and no cake!

    Actually prisoners ought to be allowed to smoke as much weed as they want since it mostly makes people mellow. You want mellow prisoners!

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  29. Deborah said on March 18, 2015 at 1:09 pm

    Dorothy, no insurance but this will be a lesson to us both. Between the 2 of us we’ve dropped and smashed 5 phones, 3 for her, 2 for me. Ridiculous that we didn’t get insurance.

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  30. A. Riley said on March 18, 2015 at 1:12 pm

    Cold remedy? Hot toddy. Ginger ale (Goose Island makes some *really good* ginger ale, although Vernor’s is canonical) and a generous dollop of brandy, heated up and served with a slice of lemon floating on top.

    Now *that’s* good for what ails you.

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  31. Jolene said on March 18, 2015 at 1:52 pm

    Might be worth checking to see whether the phone can be repaired, Deborah. Google “iPhone repair” to see whether you can find someone nearby. I don’t know much about the constraints or costs, but, especially if the phone us relatively new, a bit of investigating may pay off.

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  32. Jolene said on March 18, 2015 at 1:56 pm

    When I bought my last phone, the insurance I was offered had a huge deductible. If you replace the phone, be sure to find out the parameters of the insurance before signing up. Given how often new phones become available, replacing a damaged phone under a high-deductible policy may not be what you want.

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  33. Scout said on March 18, 2015 at 1:57 pm

    Let them eat rodent cake.

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  34. Sherri said on March 18, 2015 at 2:00 pm

    I just got a new iPhone and looked at various insurance options. The insurance from my carrier (AT&T) was quite a bit more expensive than getting AppleCare. AppleCare doesn’t cover theft, but does cover drops. SquareTrade is another option for aftermarket insurance that was comparable in price to AppleCare.

    I ended up going with AppleCare, and a case. I’ve had good luck with Speck cases, which don’t add too much bulk. With the new iPhone 6, it’s so slick that my husband even got a case, and he has never put a phone in a case before.

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  35. Jolene said on March 18, 2015 at 2:13 pm

    From the Annals of Urban Assholes: http://dcist.com/2014/03/tree_vandal_damaged_more_than_750_t.php

    What a jerk!

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  36. Jolene said on March 18, 2015 at 2:25 pm

    The District of Columbia schools appear to need a Jeff(tmmo)–or several such people. I had no idea the graduation rates were so far below national averages. Some ammunition here for your opposition to charter schools, which outperformed public schools only by a bit, which you’d expect given greater selectivity.

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  37. susan said on March 18, 2015 at 3:39 pm

    Jolene @35 –

    Here’s another anus from the urban assholes of the Seattle area. This anus killed 123 trees with pounds of salt each, on another property, so his development property would get better views. He doesn’t even live there. I would like to abrade his body and cover it with salt. That would be sharia, right? Or maybe even the Biblical thing to do. Same thing.

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  38. Deborah said on March 18, 2015 at 4:09 pm

    Good news and bad news regarding LB’s iPhone. We’re going through the hell of getting a new one at BestBuy. Fortunately we have upgrades available so it’s practically free. The bad news is the cost of insurance doesn’t seem worth it so we’re getting an invisible shield and a case so hopefully that will give it enough protection to last longer. She has a new rule, no texting on the iPhone while entering a very crowded bar.

    Also this is taking forever to get the data switched from her old phone to the new one. I think we’ve been here at least an hour.

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  39. MaryRC said on March 18, 2015 at 4:17 pm

    Adrianne, what makes the WashPo story even funnier is that even the red walls wouldn’t have given it any traction if the interior designer hadn’t happened to have been present and eager to show off her work. She was the one who uttered the magic phrase “Downton Abbey”(I’m not sure the reporter would have made the connection on his own) and gave him a tour of the inner office which was even more elaborately decorated than the reception area (the pheasant feathers, gilded wall sconces and eagle-legged table were in the inner office). And of course the frantic reaction of the PR guy (“Are you taking photos? Who said you could take photos?”) tipped it over the edge.

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  40. Deborah said on March 18, 2015 at 6:11 pm

    We were at BestBuy for 2 hours. Geez.

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  41. Andrea said on March 18, 2015 at 8:03 pm

    A friend and a good writer recently posted his tried and true cold remedy — a receipe for a hot toddy. Here is the link. Sorry I don’t know how to make it shorter.

    http://daveintheshack.blogspot.com/2015/02/hot-toddy.html

    Hope you feel better soon, Nancy.

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  42. Dexter said on March 19, 2015 at 1:19 am

    My grandfather kept a fifth of Philadelphia Blended Whisky around solely for the medicinal purpose of hot toddies. God only knows how many years that bottle had been in that hutch before I saw it through the glass as a small lad.
    Mom told me his recipe, which he gave to coughing children.
    A little whisky in a tumbler, add two spoons of sugar , add about six ounces of boiling hot water and stir.

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  43. Little Bird said on March 19, 2015 at 1:19 am

    And my phone is still not right. Grrrrrrrr.

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  44. alex said on March 19, 2015 at 7:42 am

    I had a killer cold back in the fall, and while hot toddies were nice, nothing was better than wasabi in soy sauce mixed strong. Went out for sushi a lot at the time, and drank my wasabi/soy when I was done dipping (and, I hope, no one was looking). I seldom get colds and hope not to get another one for a long time. That one was particularly nasty and the symptoms remained intense for several weeks.

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  45. Deborah said on March 19, 2015 at 9:17 am

    I have a friend who said that orgasms cleared her stopped up nose for a time whenever she had a bad cold.

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  46. brian stouder said on March 19, 2015 at 9:24 am

    I think I’d be coming home with the sniffles…!

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  47. Judybusy said on March 19, 2015 at 9:32 am

    Years ago, I began to eat really spicy food when I have a cold, and still do. However, I’m lucky in that Nyquil day and night formulas work for me. After years of resistance (why? why?) I began taking it. I still stay home at the hint of a cold and sleep. I’m lucky to have a job where I can do that most of the time. And now, thanks to Deborah, I have even more incentive!

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  48. Julie Robinson said on March 19, 2015 at 10:15 am

    Thread win for Deborah! I just spit out my tea laughing.

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  49. Jolene said on March 19, 2015 at 10:23 am

    Busyjudy, the PBS NewsHour had a nice feature re the Twin Cities last night. Thought you and others might like to see it. Has an interesting discussion of the tax strategies that have enabled the metro area to achieve growth while, relative to other cities, maintaining affordability. Also talks about challenges that lie ahead as the population becomes more diverse.

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  50. Deborah said on March 19, 2015 at 10:28 am

    Jolene, I can’t seem to click on your link.

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  51. Jolene said on March 19, 2015 at 10:38 am

    Must have done something wrong. Try this: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/american-dream-alive-twin-cities-everyone/

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  52. john not mccain said on March 19, 2015 at 11:25 am

    I can testify that the orgasm cure also works for men, but also only for a little while. Sweet, blissful moments, though.

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  53. Joe K said on March 19, 2015 at 1:07 pm

    Hope I can catch a cold soon.
    Pilot Joe

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  54. Joe K said on March 19, 2015 at 1:19 pm

    Brian,
    Sounds like a bit of a scandal out at Wayne.
    Pilot Joe

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  55. brian stouder said on March 19, 2015 at 2:53 pm

    Joe – indeed.

    The principal there is a very fine man, who has been in charge for a year, and who I trust absolutely.

    Reading the stories (especially today’s Journal-Gazette story) leaves me flatly amazed (and repulsed) at the actions of the male teacher involved…..

    and another shoe is yet to drop (two teachers were removed, and today’s news is all about just one).

    Damn the torpedoes, etc

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  56. brian stouder said on March 19, 2015 at 3:03 pm

    http://www.journalgazette.net/news/local/courts/Teacher-accused-of-having-sex-with-students-5638284

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  57. Dave said on March 19, 2015 at 3:12 pm

    There’s an even worse story, forgive me, I wonder how that is possible, in Delaware County, Ohio, north of Columbus. I can hardly get my mind around how one can do this.
    http://tinyurl.com/lgv63w9

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  58. brian stouder said on March 19, 2015 at 3:15 pm

    Dave – yours is worse, indeed.

    This passage, was particularly striking (and sickening)

    Prosecutors say two girls, ages 8 and 10, were sexually abused in the teacher’s classroom between 2006 and 2010. Court records also show the teacher videotaped one of the incidents on his cell phone. Investigators say a teenager came forward with the accusations that stunned the school and terrified parents.

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  59. Deborah said on March 19, 2015 at 7:36 pm

    Creepy, creepy, creepy about sexual predator teachers. It’s a sad, sad world when we have to start questioning our kid’s teachers like this. The world is sinking deeper and deeper into a depressing abyss. Oy.

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  60. coozledad said on March 19, 2015 at 7:53 pm

    Deborah: Sadly, childfuckers have always been around.
    During the gilded age, when prostitution was one of the few ways women could have access to money, the entry age was about ten to eleven years old.

    The same people fucking the kids were preening moral do-gooders who preached the poor needed more Jesus and bootstrap pulling, Henry Ward Beecher and Horatio Alger(although Horatio preferred male children) among them.

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  61. Jolene said on March 19, 2015 at 9:14 pm

    Stories of child molestation are disturbing, indeed, but, by almost any measure, children are better off today than at any previous time in history. Less subject to infant mortality, more likely to be vaccinated and, thus, avoid infectious disease, less likely to be laborers, more likely to be educated. That’s not to say there aren’t huge problems or huge disparities in child welfare, but the trend is clearly upward across the globe.

    It’s unlikely there are reliable data about rates of victimization over time, but it’s also improbable that, as these other macro level indicators of well-being have improved, there hasn’t been at least some improvement in levels of sexual abuse as well.

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  62. Jolene said on March 19, 2015 at 10:05 pm

    Hank gives us a review of a new Netflix series called Bloodline. Sounds promising.

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  63. Deborah said on March 19, 2015 at 11:20 pm

    I finally watched the movie “Wild” tonight. I read the book a couple of months ago and had a hard time imagining it being made into a movie, it’s such an interior journey. But I thought they did a good job. Lara Dern was a much better actress than Reese, but it was still good.

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