I have been promising this post for ever!

Pimping. Pimping is a time-honoured tradition in medicine. Not exclusive to the healthcare field, this practice has been shaping young clinical clerks and residents, or their ancestors, since the time of Socrates. There are many perspectives on what pimping really is, but to me it is a simple concept. Basically, the smarter, older doctor asks you about some medical fact; usually it’s a series of questions, designed to test the bounds of your knowledge. Rarely will they ask a trainee’s opinion of something, though I’ve found universally that ER doctors do, and I thank them for it! Seeking an opinion is not an act of “pimping” but if they do so without being genuine, it can easily turn into a pimpfest.

It’s probably healthy to have one’s ego knocked-down a peg or two, especially in the “I’m going to be a doctor, ohhh yeahhhh” stage. Some attending physicians take pleasure in this, but others believe it is essential to identify knowledge gaps so that learning can begin.

It is a fine art, meant to encourage growth and to keep students on their toes. Shame-based learning is at the heart of medicine. It happens to everyone, and even if you know your stuff, you will be made to feel like an idiot; Vitum Medicinus – a senior medical student and fellow blogger – was not immune. No one is safe.

Sometimes it is straightforward fact recall. If your brain is a little fuzzy that day, or it’s been ages since you dissected a cadavre, have fear:

The worst time ever was standing in the orthopedic operating room, holding a retractor while we explored an ankle. The orthopod asked me which structures ran behind the medial malleolous (that lumpy bone on the inside of your foot). I blanked. I feebly tried “well, there’s a mnemonic for them.” He encouraged me, patronizingly. It probably took me 20 minutes before it popped back into my head: “Tom, Dick, And Not Harry.” “Uh hunh,” he said, “and what are those structures?” I paused again. Shit!

It came back to me a few minutes later. “Tibialis Posterior, Flexor Digitorum Longus, Posterior Tibial Artery, Posterior Tibial Nerve, Flexor Hallicus Longus.”

Frick. It was like pulling teeth. He was the dentist and I the poor patient with no analgesia.

More often, the question is “tell me what I’m thinking?”

Super Smart Old School Neurosurgeon: “Jessica, what are the three main principles of surgery?”

Me on my first day on a surgical rotation, happens to be in Neurosurgery of all things: Frig. “Uh…. hemostasis?”

Surgeon: “Yes! What else?”

Me: “Visualization?”

Surgeon: “Okay, yep, and the last?”

Me, growing worried: “Er, I, uh, I umh… sterile technique?”

Him: “No no no! It’s Anatomical Dissection” (you fool!)

Me (please with myself, actually): “Oh. Right.” (holy crap, I can’t believe I got two out of three right!)

Sometimes it is totally irrelevant medical history crap; history is important, and all those cells and organs and findings and whatnot are named after old dudes for a reason. However, knowing how something was discovered doesn’t often help the clinical picture. Lots of old guys still think historical pimping is important. I’ve had the history-pimp many a time.

And there are things that doctors LOVE to pimp on. They come up time and time again, so we know the answers:

It was my first ER shift as a resident. It seemed like my preceptor was a pretty nice guy, so I felt I’d ease in well. He asked me to look at an x-ray, see the patient (who he’d already assessed), and tell him the diagnosis. Okay, I’ve gotta prove myself on this challenge! I looked at the x-ray. Hmmm. Something a little funny in the mid-foot, I think. I went to see the patient, introduced myself and my purpose – to learn from her interesting foot. Ah. It’s tender where I expect.

Back to the ER doctor. “Uhm, I think it’s a Lis Franc’s. She needs to see the orthopod.”

He praised my ability to see that on the x-ray. I was surprised too, because I’m no radiologist or even ER doctor and it was probably just a fluke that I noticed it. Oh well, I feel good. I’ll take it!

“So, tell me about that fracture”

Normally, I’d be freaking out quietly inside. I don’t know a lot about fractures but somehow, I knew this. I had been ‘pimped’ before on this. “Well, blah blah blah (describing the fracture) and it was named after Napoleon’s surgeon; his soldiers kept getting these kinds of fractures because they got their feet stuck in the stirrups when they were knocked off of their horses.”

*ding ding ding!*

The most difficult for me is the “this is so easy, but is it really that easy?” pimp. I experienced that in the OR the other day. The OBGYN had a cystoscope in hand, in the middle of a Burch repair (a surgery for urinary incontinence). During this surgery, some monkeying around happens in the pelvis, and then the result of this monkeying around must be checked by looking inside the bladder:

OBGYN, pointing to what look like round ligaments connecting to the uterus: “So, which ligaments are these?”
Me: (in my head… “round ligaments! wait! no! it’s a trick!) “uhhhhhhhhh”
OBGYN: “round ligaments. okay.”
OBGYN now holding a cystoscope (camera) in the bladder: “Hmm, what’s this here?”
Me: (in my head… “I don’t see anything weird, that’s just a bubble”) “Uhhhhhh”
OBGYN: “A bubble!” (nurses laughing)
OBGYN: “okay, how about this?” (pointing out a sort of indentation in the bladder, something that isn’t normally there)
Me: (in my head, “well, it’s just sort of dented in where someone’s sponge and hand are pushing in the pelvis on the outside wall of the bladder”) “Uhh, it looks like uhhh normal, I mean, there’s nothing wrong, it’s just . . .”
OBGYN: “it’s our sponge!”

I was feeling mentally deficient even though I knew exactly what he was talking about the whole time. I just didn’t have the confidence not to second-guess myself. Usually, the pimpers are a little harder on us than this, and I suppose I was expecting the worst. Not an Obs keener, and not really meant to be in the OR during my OBS rotation (except if the perinatal unit is slow) I wasn’t that read-up on my Burch procedures or surgical gyne anatomy. It didn’t matter, since that’s wasn’t what I was being asked about. Sigh.

Developing a comprehensive strategy for handling pimping is not that important, so long as you come out knowing that the feeling of uselessness won’t last; unless you are a hardcore academic, vying for top spot in some super subspecialty, no one will even remember that you got that question wrong. Just don’t cry.

And for the pimpers, Medschool Hell has one golden rule for you: Don’t be a jerk.

There are papers in legitimate medical journals on the subject, but only three that I could find (and one letter response):

1. The Art of Pimping by Brancati FL in JAMA. 1989;262(1):89. THE seminal paper; this paper defined it;
2. The Art of Pimping by Detsky AS in JAMA. 2009;301(13):1379-1381. This hilariously details some strategies for “pimpees” and “pimpers” alike; I don’t think any of the listed avoidance strategies are really effective, but they might give you a laugh;
3. Pimping: perspectives of 4th year medical students. Wear D, Kokinova M, Keck-McNulty C, and Aultman J in Teach Learn Med. 2005 Spring;17(2):184-91. These folks say that “understanding how students define and experience the pimping phenomenon prepares medical educators to scrutinize pimping as a pedagogical tool and to provide the most effective and encouraging environment for students.” Ha ha ha;
4. A response to #3, Pimping perspectives: response to Wear. Teach Learn Med 2005 Spring;17(2):184-91. “These questions encourage students to think and not just regurgitate factoids; that is, achieving higher levels on Bloom’s taxonomy.” Not necessarily!

Have you been pimped? What was your worst experience?

I’m giving away THREE FABULOUS PRIZES to those readers who are visitor numbers 99,999, 100,000, and 100,001. I’ll post the giveaway as a sticky when I get around to it. Just send me a screen shot via e-mail with one of those visitor numbers (stats can be found on the right hand frame, scroll to the bottom), and your snail-mail address. I’ll send you a gift in the mail for being such a loyal reader! The way I figure, the 100,000 visitor mark will hit sometime within the next month.

———-

Oz is driving me BATSHIT this morning. I’ve had to chase him around the house three times (so far) with the spray bottle. He keeps attacking Zoe, she keeps making that noise, and I am getting more and more pissed. He soaking wet and highly offended and I couldn’t give two shits.

Yeah. Bad mood today. This is going to be a short one today, folks. FML.

Este no es uno de esos relojes que puedes llevar a una reunion seria. pero en funcionalidad, Vence cualquier reloj ya que este es reloj puedes llamar por telefono y meter dos Sims y asi tener, por ejemplo, un chip Claro y uno Tigo.

Posee un teclado fisico numerico, ademas una pantalla touch 1,3 pulgadas y una camara de 1.3Megapixeles, bluetooth , Radio FM, y lector de memoria SD aunque no se si el precio vale la pena 395 $ o LPS.7500 al cambio asi que si la crisis economica no te ha golpeado duro ya sabes que poner en tu pulsera

Well people once again the US proves itself as being one of the most ignorant countries on this earth. Over 2,000 children under the age of 18 are in jail serving life sentences while the rest of the world combine provides 12.

>>DISGUSTED<<

One story really gets me upset because the girl fights back for her freedom only to have it taken away again, but this time its for life. She is being prostituted at the age of 13, but kills her pimp at 16, but the judge decides her murder was too "well planned" so he throughs the book at her. He strips her of her freedom, dignity, pride, and most importantly her FUTURE!! This is a little girl who wanted a way out and I'm pretty sure murder was not her first instinct when trying to configure ways to get away from this guy.

Watch the video for yourselves and email or comment with your opinions. This is something I am very passionate about, getting 2nd chances. I truly believe 'No Crime is Unforgivable' as long as the violator is truly, honest to God sorry and regrets that bad decision.

I couldn't get the video to feed str8 n2 my this one guys so sorry. But I do have a link: 16 Year Old Gets Life Sentence

Live Beyond. Never Be Basic

Chants broke out on Las Vegas Boulevard late Saturday as community members gathered to raise awareness and money to help stop child prostitution.

Stop Child Trafficking Now organizers walked through residential areas carrying signs with slogans like “Real Men Don’t Buy Sex” and “Stop Buying Our Girls.”

Joseph South, local community organizer for Stop Child Trafficking Now, said the goal of the walk was to raise awareness and thank investigators working to save children from trafficking operations. Stop Child Trafficking Now is a national group that has organized walks in other major cities.

Andrea Pitcher, who walked with the group, said the “24/7″ atmosphere of Las Vegas means teenagers can go unsupervised. She said parents work late hours and aren’t always around their children — a factor that can push them in the direction of prostitution, she said.

“This is a very fast economy,” she said of prostitution. “It’s also very money-driven.”

She said lack of supervision allows children to get on the Internet and look for modeling jobs that aren’t always as they appear. Terri Miller, who walked with the group Saturday, said she lost her niece after she responded to a fake modeling job.

“My niece was trafficked from here to Japan,” Miller said. “Luckily, her family made contact with her and got her back home.”

According to Regulated Management, a Las Vegas-based group that says its mission is to “evaluate the problems and effects of the criminal enterprise of illegal prostitution on Las Vegas society,” about 1,500 children from 40 states were victims of sex trafficking in Las Vegas over a 13-year period.

“Las Vegas has a reason why it’s called Sin City,” said Bob Fischer, communications director of Regulated Management. “There are all different forms of prostitution, and there’s a great deal of apathy in this city.”

Jackie Capasso, of Christians Against Sexual Slavery, said while child and adult prostitution are separate issues, many women got into prostitution a young age.

UNLV researcher and assistant professor Alexis Kennedy said homeless children exposed to prostitution are taken to jail instead of receiving counseling.

“We’ve drawn them here with our bright lights and now we have to take care of them,” she said. “An 11-year-old is a child, and we had a 13-year-old arrested last weekend.”

Kennedy urged residents to speak to their legislators about the need for a safe house in Las Vegas.

For now, Las Vegas has Safe Place, a nationwide project that helps children who have been sexually or domestically abused get back on their feet. Safe Place spokesman Larry Lovelett said Safe Place, which has a drop-off center, is a service open around the clock for young people when they need help.

Lovelett said children need counselors who can talk to them about their victimization.

“Pimps have PhDs in human nature,” Lovelett said. “They are playing a psychological game with these kids.”

For more information about Stop Child Trafficking Now, visit www.sctnow.org.

source: http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/sep/27/group-rallies-bring-attention-child-prostitution/

Both face up to 10 years in jail when they are sentenced

SAN DIEGO —- Two men accused of helping to run a prostitution ring that served migrant camps in North County pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court.

The men, Eduardo Aguila-Tecuapacho and Carlos Tzompantzi-Serrano, stood expressionless in a federal courtroom as Judge Louisa Porter read the charge back to them. Both men said in Spanish that they were guilty of harboring illegal immigrants for the purposes of prostitution.

Each man faces up to 10 years in prison. They are expected to be sentenced in January. Both are illegal immigrants from Mexico and will likely be deported once they have completed their sentences, Porter said.

A third man involved in the case, Adrian Zitlalpopoca-Hernandez, is facing several charges that he brought women across the U.S.-Mexico border to use them in the sex trade. His trial is set to begin next month.

Aguila-Tecuapacho helped Zitlalpopoca-Hernandez by renting an apartment in Vista where one of the prostitutes lived, according to court documents. Aguila-Tecuapacho also allowed Zitlalpopoca-Hernandez, who is his cousin, to use his name for cell phone accounts and vehicle registrations for cars that were used to transport the women.

Tzompantzi-Serrano acted as a driver taking the women to various North County spots where the women allegedly worked in outdoor brothels, according to federal prosecutors.

Zitlalpopoca-Hernandez allegedly befriended at least two women and then forced them into lives of prostitution.

In May 2008, Zitlalpopoca-Hernandez allegedly paid a smuggler to bring Anabel de la Cruz-Ramirez, one of the prostitutes, illegally into the U.S. His relatives sheltered her in an apartment on West Los Angeles Drive in Vista. She later relocated to a nearby home at 311 Weston Circle.

Once in North County, Zitlalpopoca-Hernandez allegedly took de la Cruz-Ramirez to meet clients in ranches, canyons and apartments, according to court records. He paid her rent, cell phone bills and bought her supplies, such as condoms.

Zitlalpopoca-Hernandez, de la Cruz-Ramirez and another woman were arrested on Nov. 20, 2008, when sheriff’s deputies stopped the vehicle they were in, in a rural area of Valley Center known as Couzer Canyon, a place authorities say is often used by sex traffickers to set up makeshift prostitution camps.

Activists say prostitution is common in North County’s migrant camps, where men live in makeshift shanties while working as farm hands and day laborers throughout the region.

In recent years, authorities have busted several prostitution rings in the area, but officials say the cases are often difficult to prosecute because the women are often too scared to testify against their pimps.

source: http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/sdcounty/article_d7aebe4f-7af5-54e5-a257-f999be1002ae.html

AS CHILDREN and their parents walked past crowded restaurants on Roosevelt Ave. in Jackson Heights recently, men yelled “Chicas!” and handed out cards with phone numbers and pictures of busty, scantily clad women.

For Kika Cerpa, a woman in her mid-30s, those cards bring back memories of her harrowing ordeal as one of those “chicas.”

Cerpa’s hellish tale began in 1993, when she was lured from her native Venezuela by a boyfriend who had moved to the U.S.

“I was forced,” Cerpa said of her coercion into prostitution.

She escaped that life after a friend was killed by a drunken client, said Cerpa, an alias given to her by an advocacy group that gave her refuge.

She lobbied for passage of a state law against human trafficking in 2007. The measure passed. But citywide, there were only eight arrests for sex trafficking in 2008, state records show.

And sex trafficking remains all too common along Roosevelt Ave. and in the vicinity, advocates and local leaders said.

When Cerpa arrived in the U.S. at age 20, her boyfriend’s cousin – a brothel madame – took her passport and her life savings of almost $2,000 and told her she had to pay off her beau’s debt. She was taken to a brothel on Roosevelt Ave.

It’s been 13 years since Cerpa worked there. But her tale of horror has received international attention, including from the United Nations secretary general.

Before she told her story to a recent UN forum on human trafficking, she told Queens News that for three years she was often forced to serve 40 johns a day.

Young women, many of them undocumented immigrants, are being intimidated and blackmailed to work for prostitution rings operating near restaurants, bars and clubs in the neighborhood, community leaders said.

“Once they get here, they are enslaved,” said Arnaldo Salinas, a member of the Guardian Angels, which patrols the neighborhood. “I’ve seen scars…from women beat upon by their pimp.”

Out of the 3,260 prostitution-related arrests last year in New York City, about 38% occurred in Queens, more than in any other borough, state Division of Criminal Justice Services statistics show.

There’s less street prostitution, but more “deliveries” to locations all over Queens, advocates said.

Sonia Ossorio, of the National Organization for Women’s New York City chapter, said one reason there are so few arrests for sex trafficking is that local law enforcement officials are not trained to detect it as a crime.

When asked whether sex trafficking is treated as a crime, an NYPD spokesman said it would be considered a “derivative of prostitution.”

The Queens district attorney’s office declined to comment when asked how sex trafficking offenses are prosecuted.

Assemblyman Jose Peralta (D-Jackson Heights) said another issue is that many brothels operate on the border between the 110th and 115th Precincts. He called for a new precinct that would encompass the border area.

Peralta said he and Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-Queens) are planning a meeting with Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly to seek federal stimulus money under Homeland Security to fund extra patrols.

source: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/queens/2009/11/24/2009-11-24_she_survived_the_horror_exchica_takes_aim_at_trafficking.html#ixzz0XpWEptPB

Pero no la saco ni del cuarto!!!

Huy talvez si ves esta imagen te de un paro cardiaco seguido de un derrame, pero es mi deber informarte de que este tipo de sacrilegios existen. Crystal Roc ha tenido la brillante idea de recubrir a la preciosa E-P1 de Olympus con una capa de relucientes cristales Swarovski para lanzarla en una edición especial. El pack, que incluye además dos lentes, podrá adquirirse únicamente en la sección Micro Anvika de los almacenes Harrods (en Londres) a un precio de 1999,99 libras algo asi como L.75,000.00 y es que esta que salio es la version Barata. En fin, está claro que ni las pobres se escapan de los dichosos cristalitos de moda. Je! como si un pobre se compraria una!.

pimp a ride - затюнить тачку (настроить, усовершенствовать автомобиль)

Ce weekend c’était kewl, resto colombien avec mon pimp et son crew. On a mangé trois tonnes de bonne viande, bananes flambées, galette de maïs. Kewl quoi. Qui dit bonne bouffe dit bonne conversation, à l’ancienne, avec débats animés entre deux bouchées de riz sauce épicée. Mon pimp avait en plus décidé de foutre la merde en mettant le sujet de l’identité nationale sur la table. Vous savez, le débat à la con qui occupe l’espace médiatique pour rien. Parce qu’en vrai, c’est quoi être Français ? Pas de bol pour moi, j’étais en face d’un dur à cuire, le genre à te mordre jusqu’au sang tant qu’il a pas gagné. Forcément, déjà que je parle fort, c’est parti complètement en live. Pas au point de se gifler avec les côtes de porc, mais léger stress quand même. Le pire dans tout ça, c’est que ce débat, l’identité nationale, je m’en contrefous comme c’est pas permis.

A force de débattre du truc avec tout le monde dans toutes les situations, je crois que j’ai fini par mettre le doigt sur pourquoi ça m’insupporte. C’est quoi l’intérêt de définir l’identité nationale ? Le seul intérêt ? C’est de pouvoir déterminer qui est hors des clous. Une fois qu’on aura délimité la petite boîte, on distinguera tous ceux qui n’y sont pas. Ce débat est une vaste entreprise négative, dans le seul but de savoir sur qui taper, à qui demander des comptes, contre qui diriger ses insécurités et problèmes. A partir de là, pourquoi j’irai m’emmerder la vie à participer à cette vaste entreprise du côté obscur. Sérieux, le jour où on fait un grand débat sur comment faire pour que les gens kiffent mieux le pays, c’est-à-dire la même question posée de manière positive, sonnez moi, je serai le premier à débarquer. En l’état ça me fait mal de gâcher un bon steak de bœuf argentin pour satisfaire les relents racistes de frustrés.

C’était pas tant la faute de mon contradicteur que celle de mon pimp, trop content de nous regarder lutter. En fait faudrait juste que j’arrête de discuter idées ou politique. Je ne sais plus si je vous avais raconté l’anecdote qui a fait que j’ai presque cessé de participer à tout débat. M’enfin, y’a eu un jour et une heure précise où j’en ai eu marre, où j’ai préféré fermer ma gueule pour qu’on arrête tout simplement de m’emmerder. Le débat sur l’identité nationale, c’est un peu ça. J’ai dis ce que j’en pensais un paragraphe plus haut et je pense que je vais m’en tenir à ça la prochaine fois que ça tombera, entre deux tasses de thé, au fond d’un canapé ou dans un coin de soirée. Se prendre la tronche sur des conneries déconstructives qui occupent l’espace médiatique pour rien, aux dépens des vrais problèmes. Putain mais quelle tristesse.

Je crois que je préfère occuper mon temps libre à lire un bon bouquin ou à mater un DVD indé chopé sur un petit site. Ca tombe bien, on parlera de ces deux trucs demain.

MINORITY STAGE !!!

Les immigrés, une fois de plus, c’est Cartman qui en parle/lole le mieux.

She ran away from her group home in Medford, Ore., and spent weeks sleeping in parks and under bridges. Finally, Nicole Clark, 14 years old, grew so desperate that she accepted a young man’s offer of a place to stay. The price would come later.

They had sex, and he soon became her boyfriend. Then one day he threatened to kick her out if she did not have sex with several of his friends in exchange for money.

She agreed, fearing she had no choice. “Where was I going to go?” said Nicole, now 17 and living here, just down the Interstate from Medford. That first exchange of money for sex led to a downward spiral of prostitution that lasted for 14 months, until she escaped last year from a pimp who she said often locked her in his garage apartment for months.

“I didn’t know the town, and the police would just send me back to the group home,” Nicole said, explaining why she did not cut off the relationship once her first boyfriend became a pimp and why she did not flee prostitution when she had the chance. “I’d also fallen for the guy. I felt trapped in a way I can’t really explain.”

Most of the estimated 1.6 million children who run away each year return home within a week. But for those who do not, the desperate struggle to survive often means selling their bodies.

Nearly a third of the children who flee or are kicked out of their homes each year engage in sex for food, drugs or a place to stay, according to a variety of studies published in academic and public health journals. But this kind of dangerous barter system can quickly escalate into more formalized prostitution, when money changes hands. And then, child welfare workers and police officials say, it becomes extremely difficult to help runaways escape the streets. Many become more entangled in abusive relationships, and the law begins to view them more as teenage criminals than under-age victims.

Antoin Thurman-who-was-sentenced-in-2006-recalled-that-as-a-pimp-he-would-work-to-win-a-girls-trust-get-her-nails-done-take-her-to-buy-an-outfit-take-her-out-to-eat-make-her-feel wanted. Antoin Thurman, who was sentenced in 2006, recalled that as a pimp, he would work to win a girls trust get her nails done, take her to buy an outfit, take her out to eat, make her feel wanted.

Estimates of how many children are involved in prostitution vary wildly — ranging from thousands to tens of thousands. More solid numbers do not exist, in part because the Department of Justice has yet to study the matter even though Congress authorized it to do so in 2005 as part of a nationwide study of the illegal commercial sex industry.

But many child welfare advocates and officials in government and law enforcement say that while the data is scarce, they believe that the problem of prostituted children has grown, especially as the Internet has made finding clients easier.

“It’s definitely worsening,” said Sgt. Kelley O’Connell, a detective who until this year ran the Boston Police Department’s human-trafficking unit, echoing a sentiment conveyed in interviews with law enforcement officials from more than two dozen cities. “Gangs used to sell drugs,” she said. “Now many of them have shifted to selling girls because it’s just as lucrative but far less risky.”

Atlanta, which is one of the only cities where local officials have tried to keep data on the problem, has seen the number of teenage prostitutes working in the city grow to 334 in February from 251 in August 2007.

The barriers to rescuing these children are steep: state cuts to mental heath services, child welfare agencies incapable of preventing them from running away, a dearth of residential programs where the children can receive counseling.

After years of abuse, trauma and neglect, the children also tend to trust no one. The longer they are on the streets, experts say, the more likely they are to become involved in crime and uncooperative with the authorities.

“These kids enter prostitution and they literally disappear,” said Bradley Myles, deputy director of the Polaris Project, a nonprofit organization based in Washington that directly serves children involved in prostitution and other trafficking victims. “And in those rare moments that they reappear, it’s in these revolving-door situations where they’re handled by people who have no idea or training in how to help them. So the kids end up right back on the street.”

The Flip Interview

That revolving door is what an F.B.I. agent, Dan Garrabrant, desperately hoped to stop in Interview Room One at the Atlantic City Police Department on Sept. 5, 2006.

Conducting what the police call a “flip” interview, Mr. Garrabrant was trying every tactic he knew to persuade a petite 16-year-old girl named Roxanne L. from Queens, N.Y., to stop being a prostitute and to inform, or flip, on her pimp.

Sending the girl home was not the answer. Home was where her mentally ill, crack-addicted mother lived. Home was where the problems had started.

But Mr. Garrabrant also knew that she would flee if he sent her to a youth shelter. And with her would go his best chance at prosecuting the real criminal, her pimp.

A social worker for six years before joining the F.B.I. almost two decades ago, Mr. Garrabrant has been honored by anti-trafficking experts, prosecutors and the police as one of the best flip interviewers in the country.

On this day, however, he was getting nowhere, according to a recording of the interview and his notes.

While Roxanne had all the signs of being controlled by a pimp — a tattoo with initials on her neck, a rehearsed script about how she was new to the work — she adamantly denied working for anyone.

Mr. Garrabrant had only an hour before the local police would take Roxanne to a shelter. Trying to ease the mood, he started by asking her why she had run away from home. She told him she had been raped by a relative when she was 12 years old. At 14, she left home because her mother’s boyfriend had become abusive.

Soon, running out of time, he zeroed in.

“What’s the worst part about working the streets?” he asked.

“Honestly,” Roxanne said, giving him a cold stare, “having to look at the tricks and tell if they are cops or not.”

“So a pimp never approached you and tried to turn you out?” Mr. Garrabrant asked.

“Yeah, they tried, but I ran,” she said, maintaining that she was “renegading,” or working without a pimp.

Mr. Garrabrant’s task was to get Roxanne to consider leaving her pimp without forcing her to admit she had one. He needed to push hard enough to break her from her rehearsed script, without descending into a frustrating game of wits, a contest in liar’s poker. And he had to do all this at exactly the wrong time and place — at the police station after an arrest for solicitation, when the girl felt most panicked and most angry about being treated like a criminal.

“Look, I want to help you,” he said, after several failed attempts to get her to acknowledge her pimp. He told her that he might be able to enter her into a residential program in California that offered counseling and classes to girls leaving prostitution.

“Yeah, I know,” she said, as she looked down and pensively picked at her nails.

“Give me some time,” Mr. Garrabrant pleaded as he handed her a card and asked her to keep it handy. With no time left, he released Roxanne back to the local police, who took her to the youth shelter.

Four hours later, she disappeared. Seventeen days after that, according to the F.B.I, she was found stabbed to death by the pimp she had so adamantly denied existed.

In one of her pockets she had Mr. Garrabrant’s card.

“Two days, that’s all I needed to get her to stay away from her pimp and I think things would’ve ended up differently,” said Mr. Garrabrant, shaking his head in frustration. “I still don’t understand how these guys loop these girls in so far.”

A Dangerous Dependency

A runaway’s relationship with a pimp does not occur by accident. It takes work.

After using court records to compile a database of over a hundred convicted pimps and where each is incarcerated, The New York Times wrote letters to each more than two years ago. In the ensuing interviews by phone and in letters, more than two dozen convicted and still incarcerated pimps described the complicated roles they played as father figure, landlord, boss and boyfriend to the girls who worked for them. They said they went after girls with low self-esteem, prior sexual experience and a lack of options.

“With the young girls, you promise them heaven, they’ll follow you to hell,” said Harvey Washington, a pimp who began serving a four-year sentence in Arizona in 2005 for pandering a 17-year-old and three adult prostitutes. “It all depends on her being so love-drunk off of me that she will do anything for me.”

While most of the pimps said they prefer adult women because teenage runaways involve more legal risks, they added that juveniles fetch higher prices from clients and are far easier to manipulate.

Virtually all the juveniles who become involved in prostitution are runaways and become pimp-controlled, according to law enforcement officials and social workers. Built of desperation and fear, the bonds they form with their pimps are difficult to break. Some girls continue working for pimps even after the pimps are incarcerated.

“The problem is that there is no methadone for a bad relationship,” said Rachel Lloyd, a former child prostitute and the director of Girls Educational and Mentoring Services, a program in New York that helps girls escape and stay away from prostitution.

The pimps view themselves as talent managers, not exploiters.

“My job is to make sure she has what she needs, personal hygiene, get her nails done, take her to buy an outfit, take her out to eat, make her feel wanted,” said another pimp, Antoin Thurman, who was sentenced in 2006 to three years for pandering and related charges in Buckeye, Ariz. “But I keep the money.”

Wayne Banks Jr., a pimp serving at least 40 years in Hazelton, W. Va., for the sex trafficking of a minor and related charges, wrote that the girls have to be convinced that the pimp is best equipped to handle their clients and finances.

“Seems more despicable to me to give something so valuable away as opposed to selling it,” he wrote, describing his pitch to persuade girls that prostitution was a smart business decision.

When recruiting, some pimps said they prowled homeless shelters, bus stations and shopping malls or posed in newspaper advertisements as photographers and talent scouts. Others said they worked Internet chat rooms and phone-sex lines.

“I’ll look for a younger female with a backpack,” said Mr. Thurman, describing how he used to drive near schools after hours. “I’m thinking she’s leaving home, she’s leaving for a reason, she had a fight with her parents or she just wants to leave home.”

Mr. Banks wrote that he preferred using “finders’ fees”: $100 to anyone who sent a prospect his way. His only condition was that the girl had to be told up front that he was a pimp.

Runaways are especially attractive recruits because most are already engaging in survival sex for a place to stay, said Evelyn Diaz, who is serving a nine-year sentence in a federal prison in Connecticut for three counts of sex trafficking of minors.

“Some become very loyal to you since you take them under your wing,” she wrote.

Controlling girls through beatings or threats was common, but coercion was not an effective basis for a lasting relationship, most pimps emphasized.

“Everything about the game is by choice, not by force,” said Bryant Bell, who is serving a four-and-a-half-year sentence in Georgia after pleading guilty in 2002 to helping run a prostitution ring that involved girls as young as 10 years old.

For those girls not already engaged in survival sex, the grooming process was gradual and calculated. At first, the sex is consensual. Before long, the girl is asked to turn occasional tricks to help pay bills.

“I might start by asking her to help me by sleeping with a friend,” Mr. Washington said in a telephone interview. “Then I push her from there.”

A Better System

Ten years ago, the Dallas Police Department found an average of fewer than 10 minors working as prostitutes every year, along with one pimp working with them. In 2007, the department found 119 girls involved in prostitution and arrested 44 pimps.

The city’s child prostitution problem has grown over time. But the bigger reason for the change is how the department handles the cases, using a special unit and some unusual techniques.

Previously, said Sgt. Byron A. Fassett, who leads the department’s effort, girls working as prostitutes were handled as perpetrators rather than sexual assault victims. If a 45-year-old man had sex with a 14-year-old girl and no money changed hands, she was likely to get counseling and he was likely to get jail time for statutory rape, Sergeant Fassett said. If the same man left $80 on the table after having sex with her, she would probably be locked up for prostitution and he would probably go home with a fine as a john.

The department’s flip interviews almost always failed, and even if they worked, there was no place to put the girls to receive treatment. Officers resisted investigating what they viewed as a nuisance, not a crime. Prosecutors regularly refused the cases against pimps because the girls made for shaky witnesses and unsympathetic plaintiffs.

Frustrated with this system, Sergeant Fassett started combing through old case files, looking for patterns. One stuck out: 80 percent of the prostituted children the department had handled had run away from home at least four or more times a year.

“It dawned on me, if you want to effectively deal with teen prostitutes, you need to look for repeat runaways,” he said.

In 2005, Sergeant Fassett created the “High Risk Victim” unit in the Dallas Police Department, which flags any juvenile in the city who runs away from home four or more times in a given year. About 200 juveniles per year fit that description. If one of those children is picked up by the police anywhere in the country, the child is directed back to Sergeant Fassett’s unit, which immediately begins investigating the juvenile’s background.

The unit’s strength is timing. If the girls are arrested for prostitution, they are at their least cooperative. So the unit instead targets them for such minor offenses as truancy or picks them up as high-risk victims, speaking to them when their guard is down. Only later, as trust builds, do officers and social workers move into discussions of prostitution.

Repeat runaways are not put in juvenile detention but in a special city shelter for up to a month, receiving counseling.

Three quarters of the girls who get treatment do not return to prostitution.

The results of the Dallas system are clear: in the past five years, the Dallas County district attorney’s office has on average indicted and convicted or won guilty pleas from over 90 percent of the pimps arrested. In virtually all of those cases, the children involved in the prostitution testified against their pimps, according to the prosecutor’s office. Over half of those convictions started as cases involving girls who were picked up by the police not for prostitution but simply as repeat runaways.

In 2007, Congress nearly approved a proposal to spend more than $55 million for cities to create pilot programs across the country modeled on the Dallas system. But after a dispute with President George W. Bush over the larger federal budget, the plan was dropped and Congress never appropriated the money.

source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/27/us/27runaways.html?sq=child%20sex%20trafficking&st=cse&adxnnl=1&scp=4&adxnnlx=1258977630-dky9yyJIGUdUfzgiOPdQlA&pagewanted=all

We are lucky to have David taking pictures for us.  Y’all have no idea what he goes through to get the pictures you see that he takes to me.

Not computer savvy, David will spend hours at Walgreens editing his photos before he gets disc upon disc made so we can upload them and share with the GMG community.

So next time you see Mr Wonderful give him a pat on the back and thank him for sharing.

Here’s David all dressed up for the Banana Glam O Rama event at City Hall.  He cleans up pretty good wouldn’t you say?

Yes ladies he is available.  I’m thinking about pimping him out to  a select clientele of Cape Ann women.  Just leave a note and I’ll make all the proper arrangements to have our boy show you a good time. 

]]> http://cjaye57.wordpress.com/2009/11/22/young-victims-of-sex-trafficking-need-safe-house/ Sun, 22 Nov 2009 11:20:45 +0000 cjaye57 http://cjaye57.wordpress.com/2009/11/22/young-victims-of-sex-trafficking-need-safe-house/

The seedy world of prostitution is not on TV, it’s in our own backyards. From Southwest Houston to Houston’s Third Ward, females clad in short skirts and stilettos wander the streets, waiting for the next John. Unfortunately, something even more sinister is happening out there. Innocence is being sold. Girls as young as 12 and 13 are working the streets.

According to the non-profit agency Children at Risk, as many as 600 young girls are forced into prostitution in Houston nightly, most all of them through a pimp. This makes Houston one of the biggest hubs for child-sex trafficking. What’s more disturbing, these girls have no place to go for help. If they are arrested, they are either taken into CPS custody, or sent home to the same, often unstable homes from which they ran away. Eventually, most return to their pimps and their lives as child prostitutes.

However, in cities such as New York and Atlanta, girls are signing up for something else. They are turning to safe houses, or long-term residential facilities for child-sex-trafficking victims. In Atlanta, Angela’s House provides education and counseling services, and girls stay between four to six months, or longer if they need to. In New York City, Girls Education and Mentoring Services (G.E.M.S.) is a shelter that provides direct services to victims between 12 and 21 years old. While some girls are referred to the programs by their parents or a local social service agency, others are court mandated. Whichever the case, Angela’s House and G.E.M.S. are programs from which Houston can model.

It’s time local leaders take action to protect these children. We desperately need a safe house so these girls can finally get the real help and services they need. Arresting young girls for prostitution and locking them up in juvenile detention until they are released criminalizes them for acts they are too young to choose on their own. Keeping them on the streets is unconscionable. Advocates say it would cost $5,000 per child per month to run such a shelter. We suggest that’s a paltry price tag to save a child’s life.

State lawmakers did their part by recently passing several new laws aimed at combating the child-sex-trafficking business. We now have a statewide anti-trafficking task force headed by the Office of the Attorney General. This task force will allow increased awareness and communication among multiple state agencies. Pimps often operate as part of a larger network. Operation Total Exposure netted the arrests of five people accused of running a prostitution ring. Their victims came to work in Houston from other states, and some were as young as 16 and 17. Investigators described the girls as “indentured slaves.”

Pimps convicted of sex trafficking charges will now automatically face harsher penalties if their victims are minors. What’s more, prosecutors will no longer have to prove these pimps knew their girls were minors. Finally, victims can sue for monetary damages in civil court on grounds of physical and emotional abuse.

Recent FBI reports show since 2004, more than 100 child victims have been found in Houston. This year alone, 30 have been identified. Still, it’s unlikely they left the life of sex trafficking for good. It’s time our local leaders step in. Young girls have no place being on the streets. They deserve a chance at a normal life. Protect them by providing a safe house.

source: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/outlook/6733288.html

Na 5a posição do ranking Rap Songs da Billboard, “Baby by Me”, faixa do álbum “Before I Self Destruct”, do so called gangsta 50 Cent, com a participação do Ne-Yo faz uma combinação do ritmo do R&B com o flow e a letra sempre PIMP do rapper. A dupla é de peso, a batida de qualidade, e a música é boa, mesmo com o refrão idiota repetindo incansavelmente a letra: “Have a baby by me, be a millionaire”. Enjoy it! Letra da música.

Following my videos on Give me the Truth Part 1 and Part 2 and my post on ‘Did God actually say that?‘ I realise that the things mentioned in these posts happen predominantly in charismatic circles where I came from. Now let me say from the very start that not everything in charismatic churches is bad as there is bad in every church and I would agree with John Macarthur when he says:

I’m very much aware of the fact that not everyone who is associated with the Charismatic movement is engaged in the kind of extreme error that we will be, from time to time, referring to.  There are people who are more moderate.  There are people within the Charismatic movement who, themselves, are very, very concerned about the heresies and the aberrations that exist within that movement

However, there are so many things in there which is error that we cannot ignore it.

Here are some classic examples

Now there may be somethings below that you may not agree with but on the whole, I think that John Macarthur hits it right on the head. You can listen to each sermon by clicking on the appropriate link or download it by right clicking on the link and saving the files. 

Does God Still Give Revelation?

Does God Still Give Prophecies?

Proper Biblical Interpretation

Does God Do Miracles Today?

The Third Wave

How Do Spiritual Gifts Operate?

What Was Happening in the Early Church?

Does God Still Heal?

Speaking in Tongues

What Is True Spirituality?

Does God Promise Health and Wealth? Part 1

Does God Promise Health and Wealth? Part 2

Does Experience Determine Truth?

I know that I rant and rave about the mass media today and the terrible state it is in. I know that many of you might find my commentary on the 2010 gubernatorial election for Governor in California as bias and crudely thrown together. You might find that my commentary on the social implications that both the media and politics have today are tightly bound by a generally accepted social contract, for good or ill. It is a rare occasion that I get an opportunity to speak on a subject as this one. As few of you know, I am sure, a personal aide to State Att. Gen. Jerry Brown recently ‘resigned’ after a bit of an unfortunate situation with a journalist, recordings, and a lack of candor that proved to be too much for him to overcome, leading to his resignation from his position. What you may not know is the unfortunate timing of this overblown situation of ‘illegal’ tapings and the Att. Gen.’s possible action against the ‘pimp n ho’ ACORN tapes that were released a while back as being illegal and possible entrapment. This all sounds very complicated I am sure to those of you not in the know and not as obsessed and quite possibly addicted to the little ins and outs of the emerging candidates and campaigns in the 2010 election for governor of the most populous state in the union. What has transpired here, and what may transpire is nothing short of a wonderful moment for me to connect Nixon to Reagan to Brown, and I will do so in the most eloquent and demonstrative way possible.

A few weeks back an aide to Jerry Brown named Scott Gerber made a call to the San Francisco Chronicle pleading for changes to a story they did on Brown citing some very extensive quotes from the interview reporter Carla Marinnuci did with Brown. The red flag went up when he was able to quote to an almost impossible length contextual quotations from the interview and what was said. He was present at the interview with Brown, as were others, and it became clear that he could only have recalled such minute details if the conversation had been recorded and he were reading from a transcript. Turns out the conversation was recorded by Gerber without the consent of the reporter, or as they claim, even Brown. Gerber had apparently taken it upon himself to record the interview for posterity and for the express purpose he used it for, to refute inconsistencies or falsehoods in the ensuing article.

Jerry Brown, as any good unofficial candidate would do, claimed no part in the event, claiming no knowledge of the taping at the event. Jerry Brown pulled a classic Reagan and Nixon-esque move with complete deniability in the situation. He had no idea what his aides and subordinates were doing and did not approve the tapings. Just like Iran/Contra incident under Reagan, Brown claimed that he did not have anything to do with the event, and I’m sure, would not have approved such an action without the express consent of the reporter. Just as with Nixon during Watergate, Brown did not know what was going on, and holds Gerber in the highest regard and respect and that the actions taken were taken in the best interest of Brown and the parties involved, though the judgement of Gerber was questionable, his intentions were not.

Old Gerber stepped down under what has turned out to be a bit of an overblown situation calling the taping ‘illegal’ being the state of a very ambiguous statute in California legislation stating that you cannot secretly tape confidential conversations and meeting, without the express consent of all parties involved. The salacious media is picking up on the vague nature of the phrase ‘confidential conversations’ and blowing it out of proportion, as Peter Scheer of the Huffington Post illustrates. This was a conversation with a journalist for the express purpose of providing information that was expressly going to be used in the public sector. This interview was not a confidential conversation, there rarely, if ever, is such a thing as a confidential conversation with a reporter or journalist. Where this incident falls is somewhere under the guise of a broken social contract that reporters don’t secretly tape interviews and vice versa. It is not really ethical and not something done today; reporters are generally very open, honest, and frank in asking permission to record a conversation for accuracy and posterity sake. The real issue was the Gerber did not disclose that it was being recorded, and then he made the mistake of quoting way too much from the conversation for it to just be from memory; poor judgement clearly, but illegal, not at all.

I think the reason that this has become an issue, and it was necessary for Gerber to distance himself is two fold: One is that with a burgeoning campaign and still running unopposed as Brown is for the Democrats in the 2010 election, this kind of ‘scandal’ (which it isn’t) cannot be associated with his current position as the lawman looking to protect the people. Secondly, it is really poor timing as the Att. Gen. is making plans to prosecute the ‘pimp n ho’ filmmakers that ran the sting on ACORN earlier this year, for illegally taping and entrapping the offices that they visited in the state of California.

With this campaign getting seriously close to needing to become official the Jerry Brown camp knew, that if this situation continued is could become an issue to come out officially under this scandal growing, so they needed to nip it in the bud. Jerry Brown didn’t file any charges against Gerber as the internal investigation was scrapped, to the chagrin of proponents and the elation of those critics trying to get anything on Brown. In response Brown has called for n outside investigation in to the situation to cover his ass. This thing needs to disappear quickly if he plans on announcing his candidacy by the end of the year. Brown is currently enjoying great approval numbers and simple name recognition right now without having done a damn thing to campaign, so if this situation festered it would get this team on the defensive the moment they stepped on to the field.

The other issue is his possible prosecution of the whistle blowers that secretly taped meetings with ACORN employees to find a way for the pimp to do his taxes and the prostitute to do hers so as to make their income sound legitimate in the eyes of the government. Now this is a much more slippery slope these filmmakers treaded. They went in to confidential meetings, under assumed identities without disclosing the recording they were doing and lured the ACORN employees under false pretenses to give them legal advice for fake occupations. In essence they could be accused of illegally taping confidential meeting, entrapment, and possibly other charges Brown can drudge up on them. This case, though similar to the Gerber incident lends itself much better to a judicial proceeding in that the meetings, on tax information, are assumed confidential, and the use of those recordings were for public use without the express knowledge of all parties involved; the key word is ‘all’. There is also arguing the entrapment since the parties posed as fake personas and illicitly asked for the advice they wanted, not that they were approached, they asked for specific advice of an illegal kind, under illegal pretenses. I would go as far as to argue that those tapes are not legal evidence in a court case that may try and prosecute ACORN because the means by which they were obtained is on shaky ground to say the least.

The situation and the timing of these two events is cause for a little bit of questioning. Could it be that a secret taping scandal just pops up at the same time Brown is getting ready to attack the filmmakers of the ACORN tapes? I find it a little odd, but I am no conspiracy theorist so I won’t go there, but I do find it interesting that these two issues are coming to bear at a pivotal time in the Brown campaign. With Whitman on the GOP side spending enough money to match the GDP of a small country, and getting some poll numbers to show it is working, a little, Brown is in a precarious spot to either go official or continue to stay out of the limelight to some extent. Is it better for him to get in the ring and start campaigning, getting the fallout of the Nixon-esque recording scandal through Reagan-esque deniability out of the way, dealing with it now and letting the short term memory of the public relegate it to the past as his campaign chugs along? Or should he stay out of the limelight, let this thing go away, never directly addressing it to the public and instead letting it disappear until it comes up in a smear-campaign TV spot put together by Whitman, or possibly his not-yet-decided possible opponent? I think the latter is the way to do it because I think it is going to come up in some debate in the future and it will look fishy to the voting public if it is the first they are hearing about it, as if Brown was trying to hide from it and then looks cornered as a non-secret appears to the public as an all out scandal that we are so far removed from the fact sifting will take to long and cost more to the campaign than getting out ahead of the issue.

The resignation of Scott Gerber was the first, and most important step in letting the Brown campaign distance itself from this little hiccup and in turn gives Brown the option of still going after the ACORN filmmakers all the while giving him deniability, and even the ‘appearance’ of an outside investigation insulates him from allegations of a double standard and hypocrisy, not to mention what may be phrased as an ‘abuse of his power’ and ‘doing favors for his friends’. Now, what the public will hear is ‘secret recordings’, ‘allegedly illegal’, and other terms used to further vilify the actions taken by a single man, and Brown will claim ignorance and be able to say that an outside panel was assembled to investigate and that Gerber resigned after ‘a lapse in judgement’. The fact of the matter is what Brown’s aide did, with or without the consent and knowledge of Brown, was NOT illegal specifically, it is in a gray area at worst, and just a bad call in reality.

The Brown ‘campaign’ should be up and running by the end of the year, it really should, so that it can get out ahead in the democratic voter’s eyes so that they can deter any possible opponents from running. If Brown can get a head of steam now, or at least soon, anyone that might have thought of running would not be able to afford the kind of fight it would take to gain ground AND overtake a man so solidly planted in the state of California. Brown has made a good decision by not running officially yet; he has been able to skirt criticism and early campaign fighting, letting one man, Newsom, defeat himself already. His campaign could use one Republican dropping out though, before he jumps in. How nice it would be for Brown to see Poizner drop out before he got in the race, or Campbell, but I doubt Poizner with all his money is willing to roll over just yet, and Campbell is enjoying some numbers close to or equal to Whitman’s by spending next to nothing, so he will probably stay in for a while, if not to the primaries, though it depends greatly on his funding. Whatever happens one thing is certain, Brown has done a great job with this first ‘scandal’ by copying the best plays from Presidents across the aisle; He sacrificed his close aide as Nixon did with many of his men, and he has total deniability to insulate him from too much criticism as Reagan did. Brown just seems to have done it better than both of those Republicans, and that puts him right up there with one of the great Democrats, ol’ Bill Clinton, a scandalous hall of famer.

The Flushing Pimp. Probably the most recognizable figures where I live. Over the years, this guy had the strut, the clothing, the cane, the whole pimp attitude. I remember when I was in HS seeing this dude walking the streets of Flushing always muttering something, always seemed pissed off. You know there was always hookers near the theater, I’m sure they were incognito with the caped legend. I think this video was conducted by HS students, but they did a fairly good job on answering questions on the Flushing Pimp’s whereabouts and such.

Huh. Somehow I managed to forget that I’m on vacation next week. I work from home on Monday, but then the rest of the week is mine to do with what I will. Well, except for Thursday, when I cook Thanksgiving dinner. But other than that, the week is mine.

As long as I get all of the writing that is due next week done over this coming weekend.

THEN the week is mine.

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Heather forwarded me a link that is so damned adorable I thought I was going to die of the cute.

Go see.

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Snerkology Media, the website that I will use to advertise my professional photography services, is up and running. It has my real name all over it, and indirect connections between my “real” life and my “on-line” life. This means that my crazy ex could find the website, and make the connection between it and “Laura Charon of Snerkology”, if he put forth a bit of effort. I’m not too terribly concerned about it, really. He already knows where I live (since it’s the same house he and I lived in), and I haven’t put out my personal phone number (though he knows my work number), so the only real damage he could do is send nasty-grams to my Snerkology e-mail (again, he already has my work e-mail addy) or leave troll-like comments on this humble website.

At which point my loyal minions (that’s you guys) would rise up and smite him. Verily, I am well protected.

I’m still toying with the idea of just “coming out” here. It’s confusing enough to have to keep writing under “Laura Charon” at BMP and UpTake (that’s how I started there, so that’s how I should continue). Meh. It’s not a decision of overwhelming importance. Unless you guys have an opinion about it? Do you care, one way or another?

Oh, and FYI, you guys will start seeing my “real” name associated with snerkology@gmail.com, if I e-mail you or respond to e-mails sent to that address. Just to keep everyone confused and on their toes!

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Jen posted an update about Oliver – he’s not out of the woods yet, but he is improving gradually. She wanted me to thank you for all of your kind thoughts and prayers. Keep ‘em coming! I’ll keep everyone updated on what’s going on, here and on Twitter.

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Finally, Devlin turned five on the 12th. I wish Lilly had stayed in touch with us, I’d love to still be able to have a relationship with our grandsons.

Happy Birthday, Devlin, wherever you are!