<^>^<^>^<^>^<^>^<^>^<^>^<^>^<^>^<^>^<^>^<^>^<^>^<^>^<^>^<^>^<^>^<^>^<^>^<^> .....................Catt's Claws # 88 December 17 , 1995...................... ..................... A Feminist Newsletter by Irene Stuber...................... ................................................................................ To subscribe: email >listserv@Netcom.com< and in the body of the note type >subscribe Catts-Claws and your full name< -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- When I was a young woman in Cleveland, Ohio, oh, so many years ago, the young boy 7-9 next door was brutally raped by his uncle and suffered nightmares, as well as severe physical trauma.. When I was a reporter in South Florida a young girl child, less than three was brutally raped, her body torn from the attack, her insides ripped and punctured with no possibility (although they saved her life) that her life could ever be normal. But this week, this week ... My GAWD, my fingers on the keyboard go numb. If you have a weak stomach or you still believe that the way we allow our men to grow up isn't sick, then skip the next couple of paragraphs. This week, a 27 year-old-man who lives in the vicinity of Huntsville, Alabama raped (sodomized) his 19-day-old daughter. Yes, 19 DAYS ... He is said to have confessed. The baby was taken from a Huntsville hospital to one in Birmingham. Sharon B. who sent us the basic information and will keep us informed, is sick with shock. "I cry tears for this little girl because I know the road for her in this life is going to be very long. Less than three weeks in this world and" ....(CC has censored her remarks and will pause here for the readers to substitute their own thoughts; mine leave me shaking with tears streaming down my face) .... "Please write of this child in your Catt's Claws newsletters and pray for her tonight. GAWD knows she needs a mother to hold and comfort her." Let every mother and every mother's daughter reading Catt's Claws hold this child and comfort her. And you decent men - and that's most of you - the only way this deviant behavior can be stopped is for you to draw a line of behavior in the sand and say that the history of men abusing children and women is ended. You guys know where the magazines are, the skin flicks, the rape-snuff films, the kind of filth, violence talk in locker rooms, bars, truck stops, water coolers. Only YOU can stop it by saying it's wrong. It's damned wrong. If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem. Hold this child and keep her safe ... from her father. ....................... * ........................ Donna Jean Fleming, 24, was sentenced to 17 years in prison for the drowning death of her 22-month-old son she threw into a river before jumping in herself. Fleming and her other son were rescued but the toddler died. She will get psychiatric care in prison and could be paroled after 10 years. Her attorney said she suffers torment from imaginary people. The Alabama man who killed his twin daughters for insurance money only got 25 years. ....................... * ........................ Kenneth Acremant, of Stockton, said he believes his son who murdered a lesbian couple in Oregon succumbed to the pressures of failing in a computer software venture and breaking up with his girlfriend. {CC-->> Knew women would be blamed !} Friends of the couple remain skeptical of Robert James Acremant's claim that he wanted to rob the couple when he killed them since money and the women's checkbook was found in the truck where their bodies were found. There are fears that the murders were because both women were activists in the gay rights movement in Oregon. ....................... * ........................ Hosanna on the highest! Hallelujah! The JOHNS, the customers of children forced into prostitution will be prosecuted in Canada. Authorities were quick to point out that buying sex was not illegal in our northern neighbors but it is illegal to have sex with anyone under 14. Pimps who force anyone under 18 into prostitution could face five years in jail under proposed new legislation. Wonder if that fat kid and his elderly Grinch buddy could get together and do something like that here? If we could figure a way to give the rich a tax break on it, it'd race through Congress. ....................... * ........................ Indecency is defined in the new Congressional agreement supposedly to limit the access of porno to children (but is actually the first step in trying to institute censorship in the U.S. contrary to the First Amendment of the constitution) as "any comment, request, suggestion, proposal, image or other communications, that, in context, depicts or describes, in terms patently offensive as measured by contemporary community standards, sexual or excretory activities or organs." How good is it? Well, the Family Research Council and the Christian Coalition back it. Nuff said? Opponents of the measure who vow to fight it in court said it would restrict free speech and the transmission of novels such as "Catcher in the Rye" and rap lyrics. {CC-->> couldn't they come up with some better examples?} BUT - and WE MEAN BUT and another place where our great, well-paid feminist leaders of NOW and the Feminist Majority have bumbled (whose side are they on, anyway?) The new bill would BAN THE TRANSMISSION OF BIRTH CONTROL AND ABORTION INFORMATION on Internet. In other words, Catt's Claws which regularly transmits birth control and abortion updates would be ruled OBSCENE and the author could be prosecuted. Well, we've heard federal prisons ain't too bad ... ....................... * ........................ C. Delores Tucker, chairwoman of the National Congress of Black Women who is fighting against gangsta rap music in now blaming the record companies rather than the young black men who speak/sing of dismembering women, killing and raping them. {CC->> Come on Delores, those kids have to take some responsibility for their actions. Rights and responsibilities go hand in hand. Where are their daddies so they can spank those brats?} ....................... * ........................ Overweight women and those with a history of blood clots are being warned by the BRITISH government not to take the newer birth control pills. An estimated three or four cases of blood clots in deep veins are to be expected each year among 100,000 women of reproductive age who do not use oral contraceptives but recent findings indicate this would rise to 10 cases a year for women taking the old types of pill and 20 cases a year among those using the new types of pill. Enter stage left: The U.S. FDA. Houselights dim and rise again. The audience hushes as the star appears - and does a prat fall in silence. ....................... * ........................ An appeal by former Roman Catholic Bishop Hubert O'Connor, who was ordered to stand trial for a second time on four sex-related charges by the British Columbia Court of Appeal has opened the door for confidential therapy and psychology records of rape victims to be subpoenaed and used in the trials. The Canadian Supreme Court ordered the records to be turned over to the alleged rapist as necessary to his defense. {CC-->> One wonders if a criminal's previous criminal record has no bearing on the incident that is under a trial what a victim's CONSEQUENTIAL thoughts have to do with the perps guilt or innocence.} ....................... * ........................ It is with pleasure that we saw a news item that Molissa Fenley beginning to dance again. She was injured for the first time in her 20-year career as a solo performer and choreographer during a performance last January. The injury to her knee was remarked on by a doctor:`"You're 40. Aren't you at the end of your career anyway?" She said no. And she meant it. ....................... * ........................ By the way, have you heard about the propaganda campaign that is putting Susan Smith's raping stepfather back into the good graces of the Republican Party and the Religious Right hierarchy? (Please send me more barf bags - the holy rapists and child molesters are straining the local sanitary plumbing.) ....................... * ........................ Someone took Catt's Claws to task for its unabashed support of President Clinton in face of his stand for ecological responsibleness in foreign countries and then his turnabout support of logging interests in northwestern U.S. This contradiction of Clinton is what drives me bonkers ... just like everyone else. The only thing I know is that Clinton will be the Democratic nominee for the presidency in 1996 and if the Republicans win, the changes in our nation can't bear thinking about. The Reps will control Congress, will control the Presidency, and within a year would control the U.S. Supreme Court - and nothing, nothing would be able to stop Newtie and his merry band ... and anti-abortion amendment, the end of medicare and medicaid, the end of this nation as a democracy ... and the blossoming of the strict legal constructionist's dream: the revocation of the voting rights of American women. Yes, I support Clinton for his many, many marvelous acts as President, and excuse a lot of his wrongs, because kids, he's the only game in 1996. And on the whole, it's a pretty good game. ....................... * ........................ While the Reactionary, Religious Right wingers in Congress as trying to do away with any and all services for children in their eagerness to balance a budget while giving the rich and corporations huge tax breaks, Canada is still behaving in a civilized manner. The Canadian federal government will invest up to $720 million for new child-care programs over the next three to five years. $72 million will go to create 4,300 day-care space for natives and $630 that will be used by the provinces for child care. ....................... * ........................ "The circle of unappealing men who surround Prince Charles may dismiss her as 'barmy' because in their world, it is simply insane to be so emotional. They do not see that what Diana does, that what she embodies, in a way that Charles never can, is modernity itself. Diana is a modern woman, with the aspirations and problems that face many women today." -- Suzanne Moore writing in _The Guardian_, England, November, 1995. ....................... * ........................ The Citrus Memorial Hospital in Inverness, FL will pay $5 million to 40 women who were probably raped or molested by a former nurse in the recovery room after they had surgery. Thirty-four women had sued and six were considering it. Bruce Alan Young had pleaded guilty in February, 1995 to raping seven women that he had drugged and received a 17 year sentence, which may allow him to be free in less than three years. Young was caught when another nurse saw him raping a sedated 15-year-old girl on a gurney. Women had complained about Young previously but the hospital did nothing. ....................... * ........................ The dangers of heterosexuals in the military ! An HIV-infected male soldier has been charged with assault for having unprotected sex with a female soldier whom he did not inform he had HIV. Spc. Kevin L. Barros of the 10th Mountain Division, 41st Engineer Battalion could face a court-martial. Of course the report doesn't say if the woman contracted the virus. Regardless, why isn't Spc. Barros being prosecuted for attempted murder? ....................... * ........................ U.S. District Judge Walter Rice extended a ban against enforcement of a new Ohio state law restricting late term abortions and said the law is probably unconstitutional because it is vague. At issue is the "dilation and extraction" abortion procedure in which the fetus' skull is collapsed to ease passage through the vagina. ....................... * ........................ Ah, these medical studies ... one that showed women die twice as often in heart surgery was taken to mean that bypass operations, etc., were not as effective for women as men. HOWEVER, a NEW study shows that it's just that women who are operated on are MUCH SICKER than the men who face the complex surgery and in reality, women recover at the same or better rate. Stay tuned. The next report, in keeping with the growing anti-woman sentiment in this country, may confirm that women don't have hearts - at least as far as family doctors are concerned who failed MISERABLY to diagnose heart ailments in their women patients. If you are over 50 and your doctor doesn't insist on a complete heart checkup yearly, you're asking to be murdered by your medical man. Two of the reasons given for the failure of prompt attention to women's heart problems is that men complain more about lesser pain and - oh, grab thy seat and hang on - doctors are reluctant to operate because women's heart surgery is more difficult, those breasts, you know (I guess.) ....................... * ........................ A new technique is being developed to remove and freeze the ovaries of women and then replant them. Although seemingly developed to enable women who have faced cancer radiation become fertile again after their cancer is "cured," the process could also be used to make women fertile for a lifetime, i.e., silver-haired brood mares in the Brave New World. Thanks, but this one will pass. Menopause isn't bad. In fact, it's wonderful. Only about 5% of the women of this world suffer from anything more than temporary mild discomfort from menopause if they keep themselves busy, active physically, and stop listening to the drug company conspiracies to sell expensive, cancer-causing drugs. ....................... * ........................ President Bill Clinton who was declared superfluous by House Speaker Newt Gingrich only a few months ago was acknowledged by BiG TimE Republican Senator Orin Hatch to have been responsible for stopping the steam-roller proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would have trampled our First Amendment rights. Clinton said he was be open to a a federal law banning desecration of the flag, but opposed and would veto a proposed constitutional amendment that would alter the Bill of Rights. "The guys in the powdered wigs had it about right in 1792," press secretary Mike McCurry said. ....................... * ........................ Ah the miracles of science ... A white Dutch woman who gave birth to one white and one black baby after in-vitro fertilization said after the birth that she felt as if she had been raped but now accepts the black child who is half hers. The mixup came when a lab technician evidentally used a pipette that had not been sterilized and still contained the sperm of a black man. The black man has been traced to Aruba. The white baby's father says he accepts both children as does the entire family, but it always conscious that it is not his. ....................... * ........................ The News & Observer, Raleigh NC, 12/2/95 editorial: "A racist e-mail message apparently sent out through a UNC-CH computer account has produced outrage on campus and throughout the country. Officials at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are investigating and say they'll punish the author of the letter. The message -- titled `Why all blacks SHOULD GO BACK TO AFRICA!" -- was posted on several Internet news groups. It has drawn angry responses from throughout the country. The college is pursuing the charge of misuse of university property and if it is a student, prosecution in the student honor court for racial harassment. -------------- A similar message put out by four Cornell male students against women was defended by Cornell under the First Amendment and said that it was a private communication by the four to their friends (of an unspecified number). -------------- And the same occurred when a UNC fraternity rush letter advertised the possibility of sex with sorority girls `as they stumble around the dance floor in a drunken stupor, bordering on the brink of alcohol poisoning. The Phi Gamma Delta's charter remains indefinitely revoked and the fraternity is under investigation by its own alumni members. The UNC student court is also investigating the incident. Phi Gamma Delta has issued written apologies to the two sororities and members will perform community service at a Rape Crisis Center..... (CC-->>who the hell wants these monsters around women who have been raped. How insensitive can you be????) The flames were fanned recently when one of the PDG brothers was elected treasurer of the Inter-Fraternity Council. "I will not comment on the idiotic behavior of the Inter-Fraternity Council," Chancellor Michael Hooker told trustees .... who did nothing about it. ....................... * ........................ Dr. Joyce Stratton, 61, worked for New York City Department for the Aging for 21 years, helping elderly people apply for food stamps and other benefits. She was dismissed in 1991 ... for being too old. A jury deliberated only one hour before awarding her $1 million. Her lawyer called Dr. Stratton's dismissal "an awful irony. In the one place in this city where you would expect that old people would be treated with dignity, they are not," Slade said. Stratton who has a doctorate in social welfare not only lost her $51,000 a year job but it cost her a $14,000-a-year pensions and hundreds of sick time hours she never took. She was replaced "by a person who is substantially younger," Stratton's complaint read. The city will probably appeal and historically appeals courts have reduced awards in women's sex discrimination cases. ....................... * ........................ Do explore the needle method of biopsies for breast cancer instead of the lengthy, painful, and much more expensive surgical method favored by our wonderful medical establishment in the U.S. First reported in Italy some time ago, the needle method is less painful, quicker, and just as accurate, but for $ome reason American doctors are resisting it. Those not involved in research cautioned against the needle biopsies which cost only $1,484 against $4,625 for the old fashioned surgical method - plus more time and strain and pain for the woman. ....................... * ........................ _More Life's Hard Questions_ If you are driving at the speed of light and turn on your headlights, what happens? Why do they put Braille dots on the keypad of the drive-up ATM? Why do we park on driveways and drive on parkways? Why is it that when you transport something by a car it is called a shipment, and when you transport something by ship it is called cargo? Why don't they make the whole airplane out of the same substance as the indestructible black box? Why is it that when you are driving and looking for an address, you turn the radio down? Why don't sheep shrink when it rains? Why are they called apartments when they are all stuck together? If olive oil comes from olives, where does baby oil come from? When a Governor is in a gubernatorial race, shouldn't that make him a Gubernor? Why is brassiere singular and panties plural? If con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of progress? (We get sent all sorts of things like this but often the source is missing. Congrats to the wit who thought these up. I'd sure like to spend an evening with you.) ....................... * ........................ Women's rights are young and tender and we must protect them from the plagues of holy hypocrisy and newts. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- >>> Send your ideas, comments, and news to istuber@cswnet.com for inclusion in the Catt's Claws feminist newsletter which will be emailed three times a week: Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. This is NOT an interactive discussion net but an exchange of information and is NOT sponsored by any organization. We are accepting *limited* donations (only what can be spared) to help offset the online costs of posting Catt's Claws. Irene Stuber. PO Box 6185, Hot Springs, AR 71902.<<<<