A former babysitter in the Chesterfield County recently petitioned the court to allow her to serve the rest of her jail term at home…under House Arrest.

A young child died in this woman’s custody.

She put the child in his crib/playpen. She didn’t want him standing up (I guess she thought he’d hurt himself trying to get out of the crib when she wasn’t watching) so…

She then placed a board of some kind across the top of the crib/playpen.

She then placed a thiry-pound dog crate on top of the board which was across the top of the crib/playpen.

The child somehow got his head/neck caught under all of that crap and he suffocated.

*Sigh*

The babysitter, convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the death of the 16-month old child, received a 12 month jail sentence. TWELVE months.

*S-I-G-H*

Elizabeth Noakes, the babysitter, says she wants to serve out the rest of her sentence from home because “JAIL IS TAKING A TOLL ON HER HEALTH”.

Somebody smack the “shiggidity” outta that woman and tell her this: IMAGINE THE TOLL THAT DEATH HAS TAKEN ON THIS CHILD.
Ugh!

Well, at least she didn’t ask to have the sentence overturned.

Idjit.

Seriously.

Stuff like this? Makes my teeth ITCH.

I gotta tell you, there are some goings-on in the world that truly leave me “confuzzled”. I think I’m done giving them an ounce of my brain cells but for a moment, they do make me wonder,”WIDH?!” (translation: what-in-da-hell) Lemme lay them out and then you tell me.

1. Star Jones is still “losing weight”. Yesterday, she announced that she filed for divorce back in March. Not that it matters, but many people were expecting it…based on conjecture. Why does this situation have me confuzzled? In her statement, Jones says, “Three years ago I made a huge error in judgment by inviting the media into one of the most intimate areas of my life…”Really? THAT was your biggest error in judgment? What? I’m just saying.

2. Prophetess Juanita Bynum is appearing on “Divorce Court” with Judge Lynn Toler. Why? Seriously. If every there was a call for the church mother to say, “Baby…Sistah…Saint, you need to sit cho’ be-hind d-o-w-n quick, fast & in a hurry!”, it’s now. Bynum is going to share with the audience the fact that her marriage is over. Um. Ok. Cause we were really waiting to hear that. Again. I know Bynum said she was going to be the “new face of domestic violence” but something about THIS appearance and other recent appearances feel more like she’s trying to be “the face” period.

When asked, Bynum had this to say about thoughts of suicide: “Suicide crossed my mind…You know, I felt hopeless. I didn’t because the name Bynum represents a legacy of people that have gone before me and had I done that I would have given too much power to an individual to not just wipe me out but to wipe out the integrity of the legacy I was born in.”

I’m thankful that she pulled herself back from the edge of those thoughts. I truly am. And I continue to lift her up in prayer. And I pray that she slows down long enough to truly take a look at what’s happened – lift it up, look underneath it – because her words about “given too much power to an individual” says that she still hasn’t owned her part in her own pain. Own your pain Sistah…fuel your purpose.

3. What was the deal with actor Orlando Brown? (You know, Raven’s sidekick “Eddie” from the “That’s So Raven” show) Yesterday we get word that he’s been missing for a couple of days, that he just disappeared despite having appointments and whatnot schedule. That he apparently left his manager’s house to swing by the 7-11 before some meeting and he disappeared. Not long after that story broke, we get word that he’s been “found”. He says he had a rough few days and just needed some time to regroup. Ok. Understood. But next time, could you just TELL somebody that in THOSE words?!

4. What the heck is up with Bill Clinton? That man has come completely undone as of late. I’m surprised – given who he is and the battles he’s had on his hands during his political career. That whole interview where he accused the Obama campaign of trying to “play the race card” with him? Maaaan! It’s in reference to the comments Clinton made after Obama won South Carolina, how he basically said “So what? Jesse Jackson won South Carolina back in the day too. And?”

What really got me about the interview is Clinton saying, “you really have to go some to play the race card with me.” His reasons include the fact that his office is in Harlem, Harlem voted for his wife and that he’s brought drugs for AIDS to over 1.4 million people – mostly people of color.

Hmmm…is this were we’re supposed to convene the next “All-Black-People meeting” and sing songs of praise to him? “Thank ya mighty kindly Suh. We’s mighty beholden to you Suh.” Ugh. Just…U-G-H. Nothing makes my teeth itch like folks who do things supposedly “for” other people and then turn around and say “After all I’ve done for you” when in actuality it was all about them from the giddy-up.

Bill, Bill, Bill. That artificial “blackness” that some folk heaped upon you is starting to wear thin. And after the way you’ve attacked Obama, you best believe ain’t nary a person willing to stand up and freshen that for you.

If I were a DJ, I’d remix Clinton’s diatribe with snippets of the Dr. Ian/Tocarra meltdown where Dr. is “encouraging” her to show some class. I’d even include the part where, clearly believing himself to be off-air, Clinton said, “I don’t think I should have to take any &^% off anybody about that, do you?”

5. Kwame Kilpatrick. Kwame, Kwame, Kwame. *sigh* Brother. *smh*
Kilpatrick told a recent gathering that he was “being punished by his God”. God is probably sitting on His throne, scratching His head, saying, “Huh? Oh now since you busted beyond repair, NOW you wanna bring me into it? Playa Please!”

6. Alicia Keys and Fiddy Cent. Riddle me this Batman: let’s say for sake of argument that Alicia Keys really DID say what Blender magazine printed, you know – the whole gangsta rap being created by the government as a way for our people to kill each other. Let’s say she did say it (I’m really curious as to what she *thinks* she said and how it got so twisted. Seriously.). Why is Fiddy Cent ticked with her, talking about how he doesn’t like her anymore? If that’s what she believes, why does it matter to him one way or the other? Allegedly, she says gangsta rap didn’t exist. Ok. At some point, it didn’t. At some point, NOTHING that we know of in the world existed. And? Me no get it. But it’s cool: me don’t need to. LOL

7. Actor Wesley Snipes has been sentenced to 3 years in prison for his reportedly tax-evading behavior. Is anybody really surprised? What puzzles me is him bringing the court letters regarding his character from his celebrity friends. Um…huh? Why? What’s the point of that? Your friends know what you show them about you. Heck, we have folks who live together and then get blindsided by each other’s behaviors so why would your friends’ thoughts necessary hold water? You know if that had worked, Ron “Mr. Big” Isley would’ve been up in his cell cussing up a storm!

1. I just saw a news clip where a man was trying to snatch a woman’s purse and she was holding on for dear life. They struggled for a few minutes. The lady saws the guy had a knife to cut the strap but couldn’t get it to work. Um. Let me see if I can get this right. The man had a knife. And she was still hanging on to the purse? She is so very blessed to have walked away and tell that story.

2. So, on the tail end of all the brouhaha about the voting issues in Chesterfield County during the primary elections, there’s more. Some hearing impaired voters are complaining that the audio voice pronounced the names so badly, they didn’t know who they voted for. Here’s my question: why not use the recorded voice of the actual candidate? Wow. Now THAT is a novel concept.

3. Geraldine Ferraro. Wow. Ok, I’m not going to call her a racist. I’m not. BUT…in trying to explain herself, Gerry said what she was trying to do is “celebrate” the fact that the Black community has come out in force during this election. Um, Gerry? I won’t call you a racist…but I am gonna say you’re foolish if you think ANYBODY ANYWHERE is going to read your statement about Obama being “lucky” as reason to queue up the Electric Slide.

4. Ladies…what is up with the OTC butt injections? I shouldn’t even say “OTC” because some folks are just going to peoples’ apartments and bending over for shots from someone who is NOT a physician and without knowing what the ramifications (pardon the pun) of said shots might be. Now they’re finding out that they might not have “rock-hard abs”….but they do have a “rock-hard a**”.

5. How ’bout Obama? Love, love, love the question posed to Sen. Clinton: “How is the person in second place gonna offer a VP spot to the person in FIRST place?” Bwwwaaaaahhhhhaaaaa!

6. Eliot Spitzer. ID-DE-YET. No two ways about it. STOOOPID. His wife. *sigh*
I’m all for supporting my partner but Baby…ooooweeeeee! It would be on and popping on national TV. Mmph mmph mmph! I can’t say that I get THIS particular brand of “stand-by-your-man” mentality (or that I need to…or even want to). Forget the “public face”. How about I deal with my “private pain” first? And no one who has seen Mrs. Spitzer is buying her “standing by her man”. That woman is obviously in pain – in a deep way. She can’t even make it look any other way. And to that end, I say give up the façade and save yourself. He’s clearly all about screwing…the call girl, the State of NY…and his wife…but not in a pleasurable manner. What are they telling their daughters? Wow….

7. Now, the woman who sat on the toilet for so long, when they pried her off, her skin had fused with the toilet seat. Seriously. FOR TWO YEARS!! Her live-in boyfriend says she has some kind of phobia stemming from her childhood and she just choose not to come of out the restroom. According to him, he’d take her food, they’d talk…and stuff….I suppose he thought she was moving around in the bathroom or going in/out when he wasn’t at home. But…how long did it take for him to realize she was stuck???? Literally?? What? You don’t believe me? Trust me – not even little old me with the vivid imagination could make this up. Check it out for yourself.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/03/13/woman.in.bathroom.ap/index.html”/

8. Last week when folks were calling for Obama to “take off the gloves” and deal with the Clintons, someone called a radio show and suggested Obama go back to his Hawaiian roots and try this, “Senator Clinton, how about a nice Hawaiian punch?!” ROFL

9. Did ya’ll hear Prez. Bush say if he were younger, he’d go work in Afghanistan? How ‘bout J. Anthony Brown said “Well, he’s old enough to go to hell. We keep telling him to go but he won’t!” Bwwwwaaaahhhhhaaaaa

Enjoy your weekend!

Live DELICIOUSLY!

~ J ~