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annelixa · 5 years ago

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Trust Chapter 14

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Can also be read on AO3

Summary: Cassandra seeks Varian shortly after she stole the Moonstone so that she can use his intellectual gifts. Lucky for her, no one seems to be telling him what happened at the Dark Kingdom and he still sees her as the wise and trusted person he always knew. Utilizing that image of herself, she takes him for herself while under the guise of protection.

Fandom: Tangled the Series

The letter she had received from Varian had given Rapunzel momentary relief. It told her that he was safe somewhere, he was still alive somewhere. However, it disappeared when she read the contents of the letter.

Dear Rapunzel,

I appreciate the letters you’ve sent me.

What letters? She hadn’t written him any letters. Who was he receiving letters from that claimed to be from her?

I know you said not to reply but I had to. I also know it’s been hard to get them to me with everything going on.

What was going on? Things seemed calm at the moment, only somewhat tense since no one had heard anything about Cassandra in months.

Cass tells me how difficult it’s been to get those supplies to you but I’m glad they’re helping!

Cass?! Varian was with Cassandra?! And he was fine with it?! Didn’t he know what she had done? A wave of guilt washed over her. Of course he didn’t. She had never told him and Cassandra must be lying. And what supplies was he talking about? She hadn’t received any supplies from him.

I wish I could be there to help in person but Cass explained how you wanted me to be safe. This location is great! So secluded, the Saporians will never find me here.

Of course she wanted him to be safe but she didn’t want him safe with Cassandra! That was not a safe place to be! Also, what did the Saporians have to do with anything? They had only broken out of jail recently while he had been missing for over two months at that point.

Since I’m stuck here until this all blows over, please tell me everything that happened when I’m back! I want to hear how the Saporians were defeated! Cass tells me how bad the damage the war is causing Corona. When I return, I’ll help you all rebuild! It’ll only be fair since you hid me and I can’t fight with you all directly.

Varian

War.

Varian wrote about a war.

He thought the Saporians were attacking Corona.

What was Cassandra feeding him?

She had to get him back.

Sighing quietly, she looked out the doors onto her balcony and noticed something new. The tip of something large and black was just visible. She thought it was made from the black rocks Cassandra could use but what was it? She had to find out.

* * *

The sound of something moving woke Varian and he looked around to see the rocks concealing the entrance to his room disappearing into the floor. It took him a moment to remember why the rocks were even there in the first place but the memory of confronting Cass slowly resurfaced. His attempts to shove his proof in her face, the way she had suddenly turned on him, being dragged back to the room and left in the dark. Fear ran down his spine and he was not eager to see the woman on the other side of the wall.

“Good morning, Varian,” she called as she strolled in as if she owned the place. Well, technically she did, he reasoned. “There is a slight problem that I need your help with. You see, I noticed a certain friend of yours approaching the tower.”

“Ruddiger!” he cried, looking around for the almost constant animal.

“No, not him. I removed him for the time being. You acted inappropriately last night and he was taken away as punishment. You can have him back if you behave.” She clicked her tongue, somewhat frustrated. “No, a princess has come to pay us a visit.”

Hope rose in the alchemist’s chest.

“Rapunzel!”

Cassandra rolled her eyes.

“Yes, her.” She walked toward him. “Now stay still.” Before he could ask what she was doing, rocks burst from the floor and formed a cage around him. “That should keep you until she’s gone.” Behind him the outside wall fell away and he felt the ground shift under him as he was moved. A long platform slowly pushed his cage to rest hundreds of yards above the ground.

“Say hi to your friend, Varian,” the warrior called as she walked away.

“Rapunzel! Help!” he shrieked, trying to force his way out of the cage surrounding him.

At his voice, the princess looked up and gasped when she saw him.

“Varian! I’m going to get you out of there!”

Cassandra joined her at the base of the tower and smiled at her uninvited guest.

“Nice to see you again.”

“Let him go, Cass!” Rapunzel yelled, facing her old friend.

“Not even a hello first?” the warrior teased.

“Now!”

“If you say so, your highness.”

With a snap, the platform holding Varian in the cage crumbled and he dropped through the air. His terrified screams easily reached the pair.

“No! That’s not what I meant!”

“It isn’t?” A new platform burst from the wall and caught the cage, holding it steady. Above them, they could hear Varian’s frantic breathing. He was gasping for air as he tried to calm himself. “My apologies.”

Furious, Rapunzel demanded, “Release him!”

“If that’s what you really want.”

The bars around the cage melted away and Varian threw himself down, wrapping his body around the platform to avoid falling again.

“Stop that!” Rapunzel cried, eyes blazing.

“You really need to be more careful choosing your words, Princess,” Cass sneered, instantly reforming the cage around the alchemist.

“I came here for him and I refuse to go until you give him back!”

“Is that so? Just how are you going to get him? I’m not through with him yet.” The point of a sharp rock burst from the ground, stopping centimeters from Varian’s neck. Backing away, he scooted until he hit the wall which only allowed him a breath more space. He gulped quickly, trying to breathe steadily and not cut himself on the tip. “If you keep trying to get him back, I’m afraid he might get hurt.”

Rapunzel glanced quickly back and forth between the woman in front of her and the boy hanging far too high above her. She didn’t want to leave him but she didn’t want any harm to come to him either. Realizing the battle was lost, she called an apology up to Varian. She turned away quickly, not wanting either to see the tears in her eyes.

Once the princess was out of sight, Cassandra re-entered her tower. Walking up to the level Varian was dangling from, she focused on pulling the cage back into the tower. The alchemist’s terrified eyes met hers, trying to figure out what she was going to do to him now.

The moment he was safely inside, the walls crumbled once more and she helped him to his feet. Confused by her contradictory actions, he allowed the help while watching her warily.

“Are you alright?” she asked, looking him over carefully.

“Why do you care?” he replied without thinking. When his own words hit him, he flinched.

Meeting his gaze, she simply said, “I don’t want you to get hurt.” He started to question her words, compare them to her actions, but she started leading him back to his room. “Come on. You need to rest.”

They walked in silence, both trying to process the actions of the last half an hour.

Varian couldn’t understand what she was trying to do with him. She would threaten his life in front of Rapunzel but once she was gone, she was worried about him? Was it more emotional manipulation? Did she just want to make sure he was fit to complete his work? There had to be more to her plan that she wasn’t revealing to him. He would have to stay on his toes for his own protection.

Beside him, Cassandra wondered if she had gone too far. She honestly didn’t want to hurt the alchemist. Even though she had declared to herself that Varian would only be a pawn for her use, she wouldn’t hurt him if she could help it. No matter what she did, she couldn’t stop herself from caring about the boy and wanting to protect him while using his talents to help her reach her goals. She was being torn in two but she could manage it, she had to. Either way, she had to keep him in line and he had crossed it when he questioned his place. He would have to be punished once more. After all, kids need rules and a parent’s job was to enforce them.

#tangled tv show #rapunzels tangled adventure #varian #cassandra #rapunzel #tts #tts varian #tts cassandra #tts rapunzel

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theashofwkm · 5 years ago

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Burning Ire

Summary: In which Abe is reborn to shed his lawful role and hunt for revenge instead of justice.

Prompt: Goretober, Rebirth

Warnings: cursing, anger, smoking, murder mention, jail mention, gunshot mention, blood mention, brief mention of Abe wishing to kill/torture William and Mark but no details, Abe trying to solve a case with little luck

Note: in regards to the prompt this kinda sucks, but, I tried. enjoy. day one of Goretober is a go, but how long will I be able to keep it up for? also I’m sorry for the lack of a read more, it’s not working and i don’t know how to fix it.

———

Abe is angry, burning.

His heart throbs and his hands shake and he bleeds betrayal. The bullet sits in his chest, crafted from false pretenses and forged in a tower of lies.

William had betrayed him, had betrayed them. He’d pulled the trigger, not one or twice, but thrice. Three shots, three bullets, three distinct bodies that didn’t simply fall dead.

Mark had died, but wasn’t dead. A docile threat for the moment, off licking his wounds. You— The DA, was gone. They had disappeared, vanished. Poof, a bullet to your gut and suddenly you live only in memory with no body and no corpse. And him — Abe. Alive, bleeding, angry.

Angry and starving for revenge, justice. None of this would have happened if William wasn’t so fucking goddamned trigger happy.

But it’s okay.

Abe was a detective, a policeman. This is what he did. Search for justice, carry it out, and return home to sleep soundly in his bed. This case was a little different, but still the same. Find William, pull his own trigger, and get a good nights rest.

He drags himself to his feet, groaning and stumbling as he clenches his hand to his chest. Blood slips between his fingers, soaking his shirt, dripping to the floor. He’d better get patched up first.

He stops by his office, not his home, or his workplace, but the small space he rents out to work in peace, away from noisy coworkers and pointless gossip. He stitches himself shut, fishes out the bullet himself and gets to work. Putting in a call to his coworkers, he orders them to come to him with any possible information on William.

Other then what he already has, of course. It turns out to be useful, that Mark had hired him to look over the attendance list before the party. He just needed to sort through it. The tower of files sits on his desk, off centered and messy.

Time to get started.

Hours drag, Abe peering at black words on white paper and marking down anything that comes to mind. He scribbles notes in the margins of the paper and scratches anything important onto the chalkboard, pinning essential bits onto the cork board and tying them together with string, framing the photo pinned to the center.

‘’

Fist slammed against the wall, Abe curses, “damn it.” The bricks don’t relent, standing tall and useless as he idles in an intersection of back streets. Turning on his heel, he slinks back to his office, pulling his vape from his pocket and huffing it in disappointment. He was so close to catching him.

Angrily, he crosses out a name on the board, ‘Waldorf Juniper’. He’d caught him, chased him and lost him. He’d get him next time.

‘’

He’s angry with himself. Furious.

Mark had hired him to do a lesser job, one beneath him in every way and because he was his friend, he’d done it. Part of him itches to find Mark, hunt him down like a rabid animal and get his fingers on his throat. Part of him wants Mark dead, for if he didn’t do that job, he wouldn’t be on a case he still hasn’t solved.

Hell, it wasn’t even a case. He was a detective, he was supposed to be ordered by his superiors, handed a file with a dead body and he was supposed to hunt its killer. That was his job and what he was doing now wasn’t.

It was just a stupid play for revenge.

If his superiors could see him now, he’d be fired. Disgraced. All because of William J. Barnum and his fucking trigger finger.

He has things he’d like to do to that finger, things that would land him in a jail cell. In that way, it’s good that he hasn’t found William yet. He was going to tear him apart, rip out his insides and torture the reasons out of him.

It was unethical, but he couldn’t care less about ethics and laws. He cared about finding William, making him pay, and then making him dead. Very, very dead.

He wonders when he became alright with murder — he puts people who think so away, he doesn’t become one of them. Then he remembers.

Uniformed photo of William on the wall, Abe remembers why. He’d killed their friends. He was alone now. A shut-in obsessed with work. William— hunting him was all he had now. He owed it to Mark and he owed it to Damien and Celine and you. Everyone at that damned party was innocent and if Abe has to break a few laws and become a criminal to enact his justice, then so be it.

‘’

He drives, car rumbling beneath him and cigarette dangling delicately from his fingers. The road stretches endlessly, passing beneath him and offering the same sights.

William is out there somewhere, giddily happy and partying. Enjoying his life, the music, the partygoers. Enjoying everything he shouldn’t have anymore.

He should be rotting. Dressed drably behind bars and paying for his sins. He was a murder and a liar and a heartless backstabber. He’d known Mark since they were children and that hadn’t stopped him from pulling the trigger.

If it was the last thing he did, he was going to make William pay.

‘’

“What?” Abe bites the word into the phone receiver harshly, teeth clenched and breath bated.

“Drop the investigation,” his boss says drolly, though with a measure of force. “We need you on more relevant cases.”

Abe stands, chair bashing against the wall. “More relevant cases? Barnum killed two people and shot me!”

“And where,” his boss’ voice comes out hard now, demanding respect, “has that gotten you?”

He flounders, gazing at the folders strewed across his desk, the filing cabinet stuffed with even more, the names and locations scrawled across the chalkboard. “I just ran into him,” he says, eyes pinched as he struggles for details. “He was hiding out in a cabin, I almost got him, but...” He trails off, brows together as he searches through his memory, cramming the phone into his ear via his shoulder to allow him to flip through a folder frantically.

“But what, Abraham?”

“He was in... Morocco,” he says, trailing over the word, photo of William perched in the corner, grinning stupidly, mockingly.

“There aren’t cabins in Morocco.”

“He was going under a new name. Uhh,” he scans the chalkboard. “Lord Waldo. No. Wally Jibbles? Butterfield? Wendy Jewel?” These names, he’s written them down, but when? In his handwriting, unfamiliar names are scrawled.

“Which was it?”

“I... I had him,” Abe says, “he was right there and I was close to actually catching him this time. I swear!”

His boss sighs. “Do you know how many times you’ve said that now?”

Abe ticks the fingers on his hands, mouthing them silently and struggling to remember each encounter before he’s cut off.

“Too damn many. Pick up another case or don’t bother coming in.” Abe closes his eyes, frustration bubbling to the surface.

A sigh, fabric ruffling. “Look, you’re a good detective, Abe, but we need you solving cases.”

The click and static prompts him to shove the phone back into the receiver. “Damn it,” he curses, fist slammed against his desk.

‘’

He was a weekend away from losing his job.

It’s unfair. He’d spent months, years, building up respect and getting the best solve rate in his department. Then Mark had asked for a favor — one that was far beneath his station, he’d stopped doing the grunt work of background checks after he was promoted. But Mark was his friend, and he was asking nicely, so he did it anyways and it ended horribly.

With bodies dropped and no killer behind bars or in the ground. A killer walking free, and him being ordered to stop chasing it’s fleeting scent. Like he was a dog chasing nothing more than a damn squirrel.

He was a detective, for crying out loud, the best one in the city. He wasn’t going to drop a case because of a few dead ends and false leads. William wouldn’t get away with this.

Even if he had to throw away years worth of work. William wasn’t special, he didn’t get a pardon just because he was a slippery bastard. No. He’d get caught and he’d be punished and then Abe will finally be able to get a night of sleep.

Until then, he just had to keep working. Researching and chasing and hunting. Eventually, he’d have to catch up. God have mercy when he did.

———

Masterlist

Well dang. This feels like a part one, where part two is just Wilford Motherlovin Warfstache, doesn’t it? Hope you liked it! I had literally no idea what to title it.

TAGGING: @pleaseletthisjimbetaken @electricprincess888 @berrie-b @mackenziplier @gerardwayslips @risiskifi @cawestad @theinvisiblespoon @californiakxng @just-another-starfish @superawesomeamazingname @moonstonefox12 @bones-and-tomes @am-i-heaven-or-am-i-hell @itsbumblebunnybee @noisyfreakpersonlover @nightmarejim @schuyleryette @withjust-a-bite @statictay @muraae @harmonyofstars @cosmic-frapuccino @jmweezy (tags are open)

#theashwrites #my writing #theashangst #wkm fic #writeblr #wkm angst #wkm abe #wkm detective #abe is an angry boy #wkm william #wkm mark #fruitless pursuit #i had no idea what to title this #tw gunshot #tw blood #tw smoking

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morethanaprincess-a · 5 years ago

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3, 4, 7, 20

Character Solidifying (accepting)

3. Brothers, sisters? Who do they like? Why? What do they despise about their siblings?

Sonia is an only child, actually! Considering how much her parents despise each other, they couldn’t even be prevailed upon to make both an heir and a spare. To that end, she’s always been overprotected as she is the King’s sole heir, and is why she’s been kidnapped so many times. However, Sonia does have extended family on both sides. If she dies and does not produce an heir before that time, her uncle (her father’s brother) is next in line for the throne, followed by her two younger male cousins.

4. What type of discipline was your character subjected to at home? Strict? Lenient?

Sonia was subjected to being very well looked after as a child, with the future monarch of Novoselic needing the utmost protection. However, things that Sonia was disciplined for aren’t quite what I think most children are punished for. For example, children (especially children of the upper class and aristocracy) are raised to drink wine from a young age and alcohol abuse is rather common, as are drugs and extravagant spending. If you’re familiar with Mean Girls, the line Regina’s mother says “If you’re going to drink, I’d rather you do it in the house?” That’s Sonia’s upbringing. Drink, engage in drugs and sex (At least in a non-historical AU. Her virginity is far more prized in those!), and so forth...as long as it’s done out of the public eye and does not reflect poorly on the family, her parents were and are far too preoccupied with their own duties (and affairs) to care.

Unless, of course, it’s leaked to the press/public and will cast a negative light on the family. This is why the knowledge of the princess’ interest in the occult is so frowned upon by her parents, especially her mother, to the point that most of her memorabilia is relegated to one of the former jail cells-turned-recreation room in the castle’s underground secret passages, so it’s well out of the way of the staff and any guests they may have. Sonia tries to set out things like her tarot cards and runes whenever she’s home but they tend to get hidden in various places as a punishment for interests that aren’t appropriate for a princess to have.

She’s able to get away with a lot, as long as it’s kept quiet. Otherwise it’s usually the removal of her personal interests from her living space (as grounding her and keeping her confined to her room and the library to read and watch movies? That’s not really a punishment for Sonia, that’s more like her normal life before she attended Hope’s Peak).

Sonia, like many of her aristocratic peers, had to grow up far too fast. It’s only her very big heart and compassion for others that tends to keep her grounded.

7. What was the economic status of their family?

Hoo boy. Yes, the Novoselic Royal Family are Rich with a capital R. As absolute monarchs, they are permitted to have their own business ventures and investments, not to mention inherited properties and priceless heirlooms, taxes, and various other forms of revenue. Most importantly, the Royal Family are the biggest stakeholders in all of the country’s exports, including the wine and chocolate favored worldwide. Novoselic’s secured borders and neutrality in most international disputes make it a great place to keep money and other valuables, and so the Royal Family also owns the banks throughout the country as well. However, it should be said that Novoselic will not sell military-grade weapons outside of its borders (no matter how much some members of the Royal Family believe they should. Luckily those people are not the monarch).

That said, the King of Novoselic’s net worth (and Sonia’s eventual net worth in a non-despair AU) is about $4 billion USD (I’m American so I think in USD, easier to wrap my mind around). Not the richest royals in the world, especially those that sell in oil, but nothing to sneeze at. To put it in perspective. Byakuya Togami has made that much on his own, regardless of the various companies he’ll inherit from his family. So Sonia is not the wealthiest student at Hope’s Peak, but she’s probably in second place on that front. And really, once your net worth (or family/future net worth) is in the billions and you can afford whatever you wish, does it matter too much?

Of course, post-despair that net worth has gone down some, but Sonia is still solvent enough to be necessary in order to help rebuild the country and start adding to both the country’s wealth and her personal wealth once more.

20. What were the most deeply impressive political or social, national or international, events that they experienced?

So, this is a bit difficult to answer as Sonia hasn’t really lived through a war or any major threat to herself or her country, barring when she was a Remnant of Despair. So in a canon storyline, it’s definitely becoming a remnant and then having to fix her wrongdoings after the Neo World program. I don’t think anything else could make an impression on Sonia quite to that degree (and frankly, most of the world too. That’s pretty much the equivalent of a world war on an even more massive scale).

That said, meeting those who have survived or are struggling to survive despite dire circumstances leave a lasting impression on her. Victims of human trafficking, those succumbing and surviving from horrible diseases, visiting orphanages and hospitals, visiting sanctuaries that protect Novoselic’s unique animals...all of those things leave a very lasting impression on Sonia and can often be a haunting reminder of how she wants to improve access to healthcare services, protect animals, create opportunities and assist the underprivileged, etc.

She won’t bring it up in conversation unless prompted, but at home she makes it a point to visit the ICUs and mental health wards of hospitals across the country, especially for children and young adults, to meet them and listen to what they’ve endured. While she’ll usually bring gifts, it’s her time that’s the most important. She also tries to keep in touch with any of those patients who wish for a pen pal, complete with handwritten letters. She gets a lot of hand cramps writing them all out, but they’ve made a difference in the lives of many just to know that someone is listening and they care. She can’t save everyone, which hurts her, but she feels like she’s making a difference just by giving her time as well as her influence to make a greater impact on helping those suffering from such conditions in the future.

#more-than-a-princess answered #(Character Solidifying meme)#(Thanks for the ask!)#koagema

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aion-rsa · 4 years ago

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The Simpsons Season 32 Episode 14 Review: Yokel Hero

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This The Simpsons review contains spoilers.

The Simpsons Season 32 Episode 14

The Simpsons season 32, episode 14, “Yokel Hero,” is an alternate take on the “small-town talent goes nowhere” trope. Cletus Delroy Montfort Bigglesworth Spuckler, voiced by Hank Azaria, picks and grins his way to the edge of country music stardom, prodded by true believer, Homer Simpson. Yes, this isn’t the first time Homer’s discovered a country singer, which is addressed in the episode. But he was drunk then, and had to drive miles off the beaten path. In “Yokel Hero,” he is also drunk, but this time he is walking.

The episode opens auspiciously. The gang is assembled at Moe’s Bar celebrating Carl’s birthday, which leads to an inspired melodic addition of “and Lenny more” to the greetings. It’s a special day, like Canadian Thanksgiving or Jewish Arbor Day, and Moe does things right. He even oils the barstools. Marge doesn’t appreciate it when she calls asking for Homer, which sets up the groundwork for the subplot. What price is freedom? Homer has someone at home angry that he might crash his car and die before dinner. But single guys, like Carl, Lenny and especially Moe, can drive off a cliff free as a bird. In a way, this is a foreshadowing to Cletus’s impending dilemma, which makes it something to sing about.

The episode is filled with songs, as this season has been generous with. It opens with Homer’s homage to “Singing in the Rain.” He dances like a tipsy Gene Kelly, while singing lines like “peeing in the drain … what a glorious feeling I’m blotto again,” and even finds a rhyme to bond him in friendship with Kirk Van Houten. The scene is ample evidence never to try and dance your way out of a public intoxication stop.

Homer first realizes the depth of Cletus’ music while in the drunk tank. The off-the-grid Hillbilly from Rural Route 9 is locked up for moonshining, and has deep blues. Of course, every small-town jail has a guitar, so Cletus gets not only a chance to countrify his emotional turmoil, but turn down a chance to electrify it. His simple melodies and lyrics which both rhyme and apple blossoms with tasty possums resonate with Homer, who vows to turn his life around, or at least take a detour.

This all happens very quickly, even the opening theme and couch gag are skipped, and the episode begins closing credits before the opening ones. We get a lot of information about Cletus’ family. Some it is contradictory to what we’ve thought we knew. He says still loves the gal he got pregnant when “they was 16.” In “Yokel Hero,” Cletus says Brandine Spuckler is his cousin, but in earlier episodes he’s said “of all the cousins I could’ve married, you was my sister.”

You might think Cletus is from a family of Goobers, but that’s his wife’s side. Cletus comes from a long line of no-accounts. He may not be able to resist a good pyramid scheme, but he knows BTS’s Jungkook. Cletus is the character who points out there are still two more acts to follow, and specially whittled credits to boot. Cletus is much more astute than the surface shows. There is a deep knowledge underneath his wisdom that has nothing to do with information.

He is, of course, a graduate of the Mississippi Institute of Trailer Trash. He also got a cultural education while squatting inside a closed Blockbuster, where he conceived his kids Be Kind and Rewind. Cletus knows the Andy Griffith-starring vehicle A Face in the Crowd is far closer than Homer’s insistence he is living A Star is Born, whichever version. Cletus is, however, of the opinion the 1932 film, What Price Hollywood?, which all four A Star Is Borns were based on, is the better movie.

The country singer in A Face in the Crowd was also found in a drunk tank, and had an inordinate amount of clout when it came to what his fans would do for him. The scene where Wiggum’s car is overturned by Cletus fans mirrors a scene where Griffith’s character tells a whole bunch of people who are listening to him on the radio to go down for a swim at a wealthy local household.

It is amusing how, in his management notebook, one of Homer’s first revelations is “people like good songs.” For an audience which has jars for both tips and teeth, songs about kids and a bellyful of ribs are as golden as Cletus’s first true love. This guy is the real Yokel Ono. Of course, his songs reach the audience. They are simple, painful and forged on generations of moonshine swilling. Cletus is immediately the cover boy on “Washboard,” “Backwoods” and “Entremanure” magazines. The show makes commentary on the country music industry only obliquely. Cletus now considers his family to be the Taylor Swifts, Carrie Underwood, all of them Mumfords.

Cletus is right about being afraid of success. He’s heard the celebrity stories. Even though Lurleen Lumpkin (Beverly D’Angelo), the country singer Homer managed before nationwide fame, sold 12 gold records, she spent the end of her career headlining a series of famous rehab centers. The Simpsons has never been above a little name dropping, but they really score big on Mr. Ed. Repurposing Saturday Night Live’s “the horse is a corpse” wordplay, we learn the beloved TV legend was a heroin addict. “This horse was on horse? Of course, of course” is a classically twisted line.

Even though Cletus notices, in person, “Elin” looks nothing like she did in the Nemo movie, we learn the actor/standup/talk show host is exactly as she seems. When she’s not dancing alone in her dressing room, she’s making the audience dance in punishment for not applauding loud enough. God forbid you look her billboard in the eye.

The story rises and falls so quickly, it might appear rushed, but it does play out fully, and was probably arranged this way so Albert Brooks could take over the final act. There really is no one who talks like A. Brooks. When he says he loves you, you feel loved. When he tells you you’re going to be bigger than Campbell’s Soup, you can believe Tomato Soup is an unreachable pinnacle. His spiel about how there are so many Netflix specials they should call them “Netflix normals,” and riffing on the Obamas is standup sitting down. He pitches a dinosaur animated musical to his basketball client because he could jump out of a tree and sing a song like a small dinosaur. Part of this tells us what a bullet Cletus dodged, but most of it was just to let a veteran guest mouth off. The Simpsons love Brooks, and usually reserve this kind of off-course riffery for Dan Castellaneta. This is the reason there is no couch gag or opening, this may have been tagged on but it had to be.

Moe continues his sad sack journeys. He makes two sets of keys for Homer’s car, which he is holding until Homer isn’t drunk. The unspoken punch line to this is that it could be years before Homer is sober. Two more seasons have been added to The Simpsons, and that’s enough to drive anyone to drink. Moe turns that around by taking Homer’s car to be washed because it makes him “feel like a man who owns a car.” A very sad comment on an already sad life.

Both Cletus and Homer grow in this episode. Brandine shows Cletus how he was seduced by “promises of short underwear and professional haircuts.” Homer learns not to pause too long when Marge asks if he wants to disregard his wishes. Even Chief Wiggum learns you just might have the next national superstar locked up in a holding cell. As long as the evidence room is filled with cellos and hacksaws, he is a captive audience.

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The Simpsons delivers an extremely nuanced take on several well-worn themes. We know “Yokel Hero” will come to a predetermined end, because Cletus is a series regular and forever stuck in his local role. He will never see his dream of an all-American family moonshine distillery with not a single American employed come to fruition. But the concluding factors are unique. Homer makes a great point when he says he wasn’t playing god. This is an original character. Even though it is a role he played before, he learned nothing from it. This makes the episode fresh. Homer continues to hold on to the emotional purity which bonded him with the message and messenger of the music. Cletus’ final advice, “What happens in jail stays in jail, unless you’re breaking out of jail,” is classic down-home, common sense comedy.

The post The Simpsons Season 32 Episode 14 Review: Yokel Hero appeared first on Den of Geek.

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frankmwilliams25 · 4 years ago

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How to Live a Better Life After Sexual Abuse

Humans are complex beings who don’t fully understand themselves. All of us are good from some point of view and evil from others. However, there is one thing that has remained the same throughout the last few centuries. People who make other people’s life difficult or hurt them are bad, and people who make others’ lives easier are good people. One of the worst things found in our society of humans is sexual abuse. It is normal to have sexual desires, but it can never be accepted to hurt others for it.

One should find a partner if he/she has needs, but never force others for your pleasure. Besides, abuse is not satisfying your sexual needs. It’s about feeling powerful and making others feel bad about themselves. These predators don’t realize how they are destroying one’s life by abusing him/her. Many people are scarred for life when something like this happens. We should consider the feelings of all beings and never do anything that could hurt them.

Unfortunately, this is the world we live in. There are laws to catch such people and put them behind bars, but you can’t know the reality of a person until he/she commits an act. The best solution is to educate such people, fight against this evil, and protect ourselves. We all need to understand that we must fight them for the sake of our own and our family’s safety.

If you have become a victim of such a vile act, you might be having trouble going forwards with life. This might have left a trauma that has become difficult to deal with. This article is for all such people who are in this phase and don’t what they need to do next. I have shared how sexual abuse has become a shameful part of all our lives and what we must do to get rid of it and live a happier life.

Where People Face Such Abuse

This is not something you can expect to be found in only certain places. This evil is all around us. They just hide like normal people and take a shot whenever they find the opportunity. Here are some of the most shocking places where many sexual abuse cases are found.

Schools and College

Schools and colleges are, in theory, a place where educated people are found. Students go there to learn and become a better person and teachers are highly educated professionals who prepare them. However, there have been many cases where one wasn’t expecting either to do something like this. In many cases, teachers use their authority and influence to abuse young minds. Some teachers even blackmailed students for sexual favors. On the other hand, the same has happened when students became too smart for their own good. They forced or blackmailed teachers into doing such things.

Elderly Homes

This is one place where one would never expect any sexual abuse to occur. After all, what kind of sick person would do such things to an old person who can’t even take care of themselves? The question probably answers itself. Guests at elderly homes are weak and vulnerable, which makes them an easy target without many consequences.

The staff of such facilities is supposed to be professional and educated that loves old people. One day we all are going to be in their place. They deserve our respect and love for raising us and developing this world. But, predators don’t think that way. All they want is a weakness, and they exploit it.

Religious Institutes

All religions preach peace. They say never to hurt anyone in any way and call it a sin for which the sinner will be punished. Teachings of all religions even say that you will be rewarded for staying a good person that helps others. We expect to find the most religious person in religious institutes who would strictly follow these teachings. Unfortunately, the world has thousands of sexual abuse cases even from such institutes. This tells us how hypocritical the world is. Most of the time, it’s our kids that become victim to this animal behavior.

In Public

Everyone tries to keep a good image in front of the world and stays careful. Some predators are so shameless that they don’t even see the public. They do it in a way so no one sees it, but it’s a big risk. The victim is usually left confused about what just happened.

Home

Home is one place where we are supposed to feel the safest. But there have been many instances where the protector themselves turned to animals and abused their own family. Many sexually abuse their wives and some extremely sick people don’t even leave their kids and siblings.

Accept What Has Happened

Most people are left confused, not understanding what has happened. It is almost always the case when it’s the first time you have been sexually abused or harassed. It can be difficult to accept that it has, in fact, happened to you. Many of us stay in denial because the reality is too harsh to digest. You know it deep down if what happened was abuse. Instead of trying to hide your pain, you should accept it and take the next steps to deal with it.

Take a Stand for All Victims

You should muster up your courage and stand for your right. It’s not just for you but for everyone around the world who was sexually abused. Not everyone may be strong enough to face their predators, and they may be hiding behind their fears. If you stand up, it will give them the encouragement they need to fight for their right. By taking a stand, you are creating a better future for your kids. Your silence can cause the same fate to many others.

Consult a Lawyer to Help You

It would be best if you first consulted a professional before you do anything. Even if you are innocent and victim, the law is blind and only understands evidence. By hiring a sexual abuse lawyer, you can prepare yourself for the difficult hearings of court. The lawyer knows how these cases go and what you need to win the case. It wouldn’t be the first time if an innocent didn’t get justice, which makes the assistance of a lawyer crucial for your case.

The lawyer will start by asking you questions. He will understand the entire case before he will make any promise. He will also guide you if your case is weak. This will ensure that you don’t get yourself in more trouble by doing or saying things that you don’t mean. The poor choice of words can make meanings that you didn’t intend and sabotage your case. That’s the kind of game people play in courts and your lawyer will make sure you don’t fall in such traps.

Look for Evidence

Once you have decided to take the matter in front of the law, you should start collecting evidence to strengthen your case. See if there was any camera that recorded the incident or was there any other people who could support your claim. Anything that could help prove your truth should be properly recorded and brought into the record.

The lawyer will also suggest you the same and you should follow his instructions. There have been many cases where people were actually blamed for something that they didn’t commit. Those people file cases just to get back someone or to blackmail them into doing something. This is the reason why the law must follow proper procedures and look for evidence before making a decision. Otherwise, an innocent might be put to jail. Try to see this case from the point of view of the judge and answer every query with proof to build a strong attack.

You Might Not be the First Person

If a person has abused you, this was probably not the first time. There may be other people who might have suffered the same fate and were too afraid to come forward. See if there was someone at your place before you and find them. Discuss your issue with them and ask if any such thing happened to them.

It will significantly strengthen your case if another victim comes forward with the same abuser. If you work at an office and your boss has sexually abused you, discuss it with his assistant or someone who at your seat before you and get them to join you.

Get Closure

Fighting for your right and bringing the person to justice that abused you will bring peace of mind. It is just like what they say partners break up or someone leaves a job: you need closure. This thing is way more serious than them and it will keep eating you from inside until you take it out. By confronting the person that made you feel weak and worthless, you will face your fears and defeat them.

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michaelgmoore35 · 4 years ago

Text

How to Live a Better Life After Sexual Abuse

Where People Face Such Abuse

Schools and College

Elderly Homes

Religious Institutes

In Public

Home

Accept What Has Happened

Take a Stand for All Victims

Consult a Lawyer to Help You

Look for Evidence

You Might Not be the First Person

Get Closure

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chojimaru · 7 years ago

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@officer--dimples

First thing first. Making a new post because of how insanely long the other one is. I apologize for not replying sooner. I will attempt to be civil with you here because you obviously put a lot of work writing this.I also won’t reply to every single topic but I will try to cover what the main points are.

First we must define Assault Rifle. An Assault rifle is capable of automatic fire, uses detachable magazines, uses an intermediate cartridge, and is used in the act of assault. Assault is a verb. A comb can be an assault comb if you attack someone with it. Intermediate cartridges are rather low powered. The rounds themselves are pretty bad at killing Human sized animals because of this. The M16 when first used in the Vietnam was hated by soldiers because it would poke holes in the enemy while the M14(which used a much stronger, heavier bullet) would kill a man in 1 or 2 shots(more on this later). Automatic weapons are extremely regulated in America. More regulated than all guns in Australia and Britain and most countries you are likely to see cited for their gun crime rates. Unpaid parking tickets, unpaid child support, a pending trial, a divorce, and even being put on trial and found innocent are all possible ways to be kept from owning an Automatic weapon. Many things can result in your weapon being taken away. You must always have the physical license from the ATF with the gun at all times. You can’t have it in the car in the parking lot when you are at the gun range. The ATF can inspect your house and take it away for no reason. You must have an approved gun dealer in your will who will take possession and usually destroy the gun when you die. You must destroy the gun under certain circumstances. An AR 15 is not an assault rifle. An M4 or M16 used in combat is.

Let me explain why the AR 15 is one of the best guns for self defense.

This is 5.45 bullet that has been cut in half. It’s not the bullet commonly used in AR 15s but it operates in the same manner. It has a hollow cavity in the tip. The basic function is that this bullet travels very quickly and the tip breaks as soon as it makes contact with anything. Whether it be a wall, an animal, a human, or a tree branch that tip caves in when it makes contact and the bullets flips like a kicked American football. This decreases the energy of the projectile by a lot. This means that a 5.56 or 5.45 are the best rounds to use in neighborhoods, apartment buildings, or in homes with children around. This bullet will hit drywall and be less deadly. A 9mm pistol bullet can go through an entire house. a .30-30 bullet commonly used to hunt deer can go through multiple apartments. You could hit a home intruder and a shotgun slug can go through him and into the neighbors house.

On the topic of hunting. AR 15s chambered in .300 Blackout are the premier way to dispatch our wild boar invasion in farm lands. Pigs can destroy millions of dollars in property, crops, and livestock damage. They are an enormous problem. AR15s are needed because they are light, quick, and not too bulky so a farmer can have one in his truck and use it as soon as he sees boars. AR15s in 5.56 are great for hunting other animals like skunks, raccoons, wolves, coyotes, and rabbits to name a few.

Moving on to the topic of fear. Fear is an emotion and is therefore relative. Right now I am feeling cold. If someone in a colder area like Alaska or Norway is standing in front of a warm fire place covered in thick blankets while a blizzard rages outside does it mean it is warmer in Alaska than in Texas? Of course not, it just means I need to put some socks on. You feel safe, good for you. I do too, good for me. I am not living in fear, I am hoping for the best and preparing for the worst. I have canned goods because I once went with limited food for weeks during and after a hurricane. I drive a car with lots of safety features because I know people who died in car crashes. I brush my teeth because I know people in their 30s with dentures. I have a gun because my people were unarmed when they were murdered by their government. It’s one of the reasons my family came to this country and it’s one of the reasons those problems did not.

Regulations are great. I used the regulation that says food products need to be labeled with expiration dates today. I would have had some bad milk and been sick for hours without that. I don’t mind a government, but I do mind a lot of government. The police do not prevent crime, they arrest criminals after they have committed crimes. Look up what the average length of time it takes for police to arrive on scene in your area. The answer, no matter, what is too long. In the time it takes you for to pull out your phone, dial, the operator to respond, and the police to drive is less than it takes for a human to be beaten, kidnapped, murdered. 5 minutes may be ok if you call them because someone was spray painting a wall, but that is not ok if your friend is bleeding out. Literally in this recent case that no doubt inspired OPs post, an armed policeman stood outside of the school mere feet from the shooter and did nothing as people died. Your government does not care about you and they do not protect you. They try, but they fail too.

“Please educate me, if I get this wrong: you want to defend yourself with a gun. Why is that? Because you fear that one could attack you with the gun they are allowed to carry, right? You want a gun bc others have a gun”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUk3HEqjf8c

This is Dutch MMA fighter Alistair Overeem. He is 6′3 and in his prime was 3% body fat and weighed 280 pounds. He is famous for his ability to get knocked out in devastating fashion. He’s a good fighter despite this, but hitting him in the right spot just puts him to sleep. Him and his brother(a less skilled, less fit mma fighter who has more knockout losses than some UFC champs have fights) once beat the living shit out 5 security guards armed with clubs. The five guards needed emergency care, Allistair hurt his hand because he punched a guy in the face and cut himself with his victims teeth. In a different incident he pushed a lady and with one hand sent her flying and she was injured after hitting some poles. Would you fight this man? I know it’s a extreme, he’s bigger and more well trained than 99.99% of the world but a guy even half as big and half as skilled and with twice the ability to make a punch would you say with confidence you could fight him off? Let’s think of someone else. Do you have an elderly person in your life or a very young person? A 5 year old nephew, a 70 year old grandparent? Not to mention any disabled people in your life. Maybe even people who are currently sick with the common cold or have a stubbed toe or pregnant or dealing with period cramps right now. Do you think you could beat Allistair Overeem in a 1 to 1 fight? Do you think every single person you care about could beat him at any given moment? If a man that big and even a fraction as skilled came into your home would you be ok? Would the police respond in time? The answer is no because even if you managed to call the police before he was face to face with you he has choked people until they fainted or knocked them out in less than a minute despite them being his size, strength, nearly his level of skill, and fully prepared to fight him. On the opposite end of the spectrum, do you think you, barring any personal thoughts and restraints could stop him if he attacked you and you had a weapon whether it be a gun or a taser or pepper spray? Which would you pick? Should training martial arts, taking steroids, and lifting weights become illegal?

“Let me tell you a secret: if the other isn’t allowed to own a gun, you don’t need a gun” Allowed is the keyword. Allowed is very different than has or owns or uses. In America we are a free people. My government doesn’t allow me to do things. We allow the government to do things. We allow the government to tax us, we allow the government to operate, and we allow the government to arrest and punish people who do certain actions. You have defined what freedom means to you. That is not freedom but you are free to think that way and to desire your life be that way.

On the topic of race and countries of origin and all that let me just go on a little tangent here. My Dad’s side is white, Norwegian mostly but I have a great grandma who’s ancestors were in the original US Navy under the great John Paul Jones. The cannons on said ship were privately owned as were all the small arms. They even had a gun that shot multiple bullets in a row. It wasn’t as advanced as an M60 machine gun but it was considerably faster than a musket. These people knew inventions were coming that would do things more effectively. Whether it be better ships, better guns, or better way of communication. You believe the change of technology should effect the right to bear arms. Do you believe the government should restrict speech? Do you believe people should be incarcerate for speech? If so, what kind of speech? Do you think it would be ok if in 20 years you holding that opinion became illegal and that put you in jail?

Finally let’s talk about guns and swimming pools and cars. Swimming is a recreational activity, exercise, sport, and therapy. Cars are transportation, sport, and hobbies. Guns are also used in sports, hobbies, exercise, recreational activities, and therapy. Earlier this month a friend told me a child in her neighborhood(a three year old) fell into a swimming pool and drowned. Last year a guy in a truck ran over and killed a lot of people in London. Last week a guy with a gun killed a lot of students at a school and at that same event a policeman with a gun stood outside without confronting him. Should we attach floaties to every child? Should we outlaw trucks? Should we outlaw guns? Sorry for any spelling errors.

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newstfionline · 7 years ago

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11-Year-Old Has Spent Her Life in Jail, a Serial Killer as a Cellmate

By Rod Nordland, NY Times, Dec. 3, 2017

JALALABAD, Afghanistan--Meena got chickenpox, measles and the mumps in prison. She was born there, nursed there and weaned there. Now 11 years old, she has spent her entire life in prison and will probably spend the rest of her childhood there as well.

The girl has never committed a crime, but her mother, Shirin Gul, is a convicted serial killer serving a life sentence, and under Afghan prison policy she can keep her daughter with her until she turns 18.

Meena was even conceived in prison, and has never been out, not even for a brief visit. She has never seen a television set, she said, and has no idea what the world outside the walls looks like.

Her plight is extreme, but not unique. In the women’s wing of the Nangarhar provincial prison here, she is one of 36 children jailed with their mothers, among 42 women in all. But none of the other children have spent such a long time in custody; most of their mothers’ sentences are much shorter.

Locking up small children with their mothers is a common practice in Afghanistan, especially when there are no other close relatives, or fathers are absent or estranged. Child advocates estimate that there are hundreds of imprisoned Afghan children whose only crime is having a convicted mother.

There is a program that runs orphanages for children whose mothers are imprisoned, but the women have to agree to let their sons and daughters be taken, and the program does not cover many areas of Afghanistan, including Jalalabad.

At Meena’s prison, the women’s cells are arranged around a spacious courtyard, shaded by mulberry trees, and the children have free rein of it. There is a set of rusting, homemade swings, monkey bars and slides that end in muddy puddles.

A schoolroom is in one of the cells, with a white board and a mixture of benches and chairs, seating 16 children at eight desks. A single teacher looks after three grades, first through third, an hour a day for each grade; at age 11, Meena has reached only the second grade.

When I met with Meena, she sat down, clutching a yellow plastic bag under her shawl. “My whole life has passed in this prison,” she said, during a tense interview in the women’s wing last month. “Yes, I wish I could go out. I want to leave here and live outside with my mother, but I won’t leave here without her.”

Meena was soft-spoken, composed and well-mannered, with a cherubic round face framed by a modestly drawn hijab. Her mother was chain-smoking, brash and outspoken, tattooed in a country where tattoos are considered irreligious, her head scarf askew to reveal henna-streaked hair.

“How do you think she feels?” Ms. Gul said, impatient at what she derided as stupid questions. “It’s a prison, how should she feel? A prison is a prison, even if it’s heaven.”

A question about why Ms. Gul would not let her daughter leave infuriated the mother even more. She launched into a diatribe against the Afghan president. “You, Mr. America, tell that blind man Ashraf Ghani, your puppet, your slave, tell him to get me out of here,” she said. “I didn’t commit any crime. My only fault is that I cooked food for my husband who committed a crime.”

The man she calls her husband, Rahmatullah (they were never legally married), was convicted along with her son, her brother-in-law, an uncle and a nephew for their role in the murders and robberies of 27 Afghan men in 2001 to 2004. Afghan prosecutors said Ms. Gul was the ringleader.

Working as a prostitute, Ms. Gul brought home her customers, many of them taxi drivers, and served them drugged kebabs, after which her family members robbed, killed and then buried them in the yards of two family homes.

All six were sentenced to death, and the five men were hanged. Ms. Gul, however, got pregnant while on death row, so her own hanging was delayed. After she gave birth to Meena, her sentence was commuted to life in prison by the president at the time, Hamid Karzai, according to Lt. Col. Mohammad Asif, the head of the women’s cellblock here.

Ms. Gul first claimed that she had never confessed to the crimes, then said she had been tortured into confessing to them. Frustrated, she made clawing gestures across a table and hissed, “I’ll kill you. I’m going to come over there and take out your eyes.”

Meena touched her lightly on the shoulder to try to calm her down, put a forefinger to her lips and said, “Shh.” Her mother subsided, briefly.

The girl was still holding the yellow plastic bag; inside was a bundle wrapped in a carefully folded red and white kitchen towel.

“What’s in there, Meena?” I asked.

“Pictures of my father.”

She proudly unwrapped them to show them off. Meena and her mother rarely get visits, and never from family members or friends, all of whom are either dead or estranged. Part of the reason Meena is still behind bars is that she has no surviving relatives who would take her, even if her mother allowed it.

Or as Ms. Gul explained it: “I have many enemies. I wouldn’t trust anyone to take Meena outside.”

The photos were of Rahmatullah, whom Meena calls her father: portraits, snapshots on holiday, pictures of him with Ms. Gul.

Rahmatullah (who like many Afghans had only one name) was also convicted of killing Ms. Gul’s legal husband, a police colonel, when Ms. Gul and Rahmatullah were having an affair. The colonel’s body was among those found buried in the yards of the family homes in 2004. Rahmatullah was also a convicted pedophile and thief and reputedly a former Taliban commander.

What he almost certainly was not, however, was Meena’s biological father; the dates do not fit. He was already in jail when he implicated Ms. Gul in the murders, and they were in different prisons in different cities at the time of Meena’s conception. Afghan officials said that an unknown prison officer was Meena’s birth father, and officials accused Ms. Gul of deliberately getting pregnant to avoid the gallows.

Meena went through the photographs one after another, lingering over some, including two of Rahmatullah dead, after his hanging, in a burial shroud but with his face visible; it was not a pretty sight.

In a 2015 interview with The New York Times, Ms. Gul admitted that she and Rahmatullah had killed her husband together.

She denied it when I spoke to her. “It was all Rahmatullah’s fault,” Ms. Gul said. “I would not be here if it wasn’t for him. They should execute me, then Meena would have cried for one day, and it would be over. Instead I am crying every day; it’s a slow death, dying all the time.”

In her calmer moments, Ms. Gul had a simple, chilling message to convey: Meena deserves her freedom. But she won’t get it unless her mother does, too.

“Tell Ashraf Ghani that!” she demanded.

Children in jail is a scandal without an easy solution, advocates say. “When you didn’t commit a crime, you shouldn’t be punished for it, and those children did not commit any crimes,” said Bashir Ahmad Basharat, the director of the Child Protection Action Network, a quasi-governmental agency.

Keeping the children in prison is against both international norms and Afghan law, Mr. Basharat said, despite the practice being so widespread. “But it’s something where we don’t have other alternatives.”

The country’s approximately 30 women’s prisons have several hundred children accompanying their mothers, he said. The women’s wing at the Pul-e-Charkhi prison in Kabul now has 41 children who are younger than 5.

As Afghan prisons go, Nangarhar’s women’s facility appeared to be comparatively uncrowded and well maintained. The 36 children there on the day I visited ranged in age from three days to 11 years; Meena was the oldest.

The women and their children share 10 relatively large cells, with two double bunk beds each, so many of them sleep on mattresses on the floor. Only the compound as a whole was locked up, not the individual cells, so it did not appear prisonlike, aside from the huge steel gates to the outside and the coils of barbed wire atop two rows of surrounding double walls.

Meena sat through her mother’s tirades impassively, sometimes with a thin, sweet smile. She became more animated talking about her best friend, Salma, 10. She said their favorite pastime was playing with their dolls.

Meena said she and Salma created their own dolls, named Mursal and Shakila, out of bits of cloth and string. “Both of them are girls,” she said.

When it was time to say farewell, Meena shook hands with everyone politely, then went to the other end of the courtyard with Salma, arm in arm, still carrying her yellow plastic bag.

#Afghanistan #children with women prisoners #women prisoners with children #Meena

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viralhottopics · 8 years ago

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Abortion pill online sales ‘increasing in Britain’ – BBC News

Image copyright Thinkstock

The number of abortion pills being bought online in Britain is increasing, data shown to the Victoria Derbyshire programme suggests.

Government figures show 375 doses, sent to addresses in England, Wales, and Scotland, were seized in 2016, compared with just five in 2013.

Taking the pills while pregnant without medical approval is illegal in the UK.

The British Pregnancy Advisory Service said as awareness of the online pills increased, more women were using them.

The figures, from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) – which regulates medicines in the UK – show there were 375 pills seized last year, up from 270 in 2015 and 180 in 2014.

The seizures were made during the MHRA’s annual week-long raids, known as Operation Pangea, at places like postal hubs where foreign post is kept before being distributed to local post offices.

Prison punishments

NHS abortion treatment is free and widely available in Britain, but remains mostly illegal in Northern Ireland.

However, the UK currently has the harshest punishment for self-induced abortion of any country in Europe, bar the Republic of Ireland.

Under the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, anyone taking the pills could, in theory, be punished with a life sentence – no matter what the gestational period.

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Two women have been jailed for using the abortion pill bought online in the UK.

In 2012, 40-year-old Sarah Catt was jailed for eight years for terminating her pregnancy with pills she had bought online when she was 39 weeks pregnant.

Natalie Towers, 26, was sentenced to two-and-a half-years in 2015 after using the pill to terminate her pregnancy while she was between 32 and 34 weeks pregnant.

Bpas and other women’s groups are supporting a bill, proposed by Labour MP Diana Johnson, to be debated in the House of Commons next month, which seeks to decriminalise abortion.

‘Without judgmental eyes’

Some women have revealed why they were driven to using abortion pills purchased online.

“I was hoping to have a termination in the comfort of my own home without judgmental eyes and without worrying about my husband knowing. I fear what would happen if he did,” one woman said.

“I have three children and my third is 11 months old. I considered an abortion when he was conceived and had a terrible pregnancy and [I am] still suffering from post natal depression.”

Another, a foreign student living in the UK, said she felt “desperate”.

“I cannot afford this country’s prices of procedure, and the place in line for supported abortions is just too long and not guaranteed.

“I feel absolutely horrible and desperate.”

‘Blood clots’

Clara Watson, education officer for the charity Life, said the promotion of buying abortion pills online was dangerous.

“Some women aren’t suitable for the abortion pill and may suffer from blood clots, there may be other underlying health issues, they may not know how far along they are. It’s too risky,” she said.

Ann Furedi, Bpas chief executive, said women who bought the pills were often “desperate” and in “difficult circumstances”.

“At Bpas, we do all that we can to make abortion services as accessible as possible. However, it is clear that for some women the barriers to clinic-based treatment feel insurmountable,” she said.

Image copyright Thinkstock

Image caption Northern Ireland women are not entitled to to free NHS abortions in England

“They are not criminals deserving of life imprisonment. Evidence suggests that as awareness of online abortion pills is increasing, so too are the numbers of women using these methods.”

She said women should not face criminal punishment.

“Fifty years after the 1967 Act was passed, it is time to bring women’s reproductive healthcare into the 21st Century and remove abortion from the criminal law,” she added.

“By doing so we would remove the clinically unnecessary legal barriers to treatment.”

She also urged women in need of advice or help to contact Bpas.

Abortion and the law

The 1967 Abortion Act permits abortions to be legally performed under certain conditions in England, Wales and Scotland

They are usually available free-of-charge on the NHS and can only be carried out in an NHS hospital or a licensed clinic

Most abortions are carried out before 24 weeks of pregnancy

They can be carried out after 24 weeks in certain circumstances, for example, if the mother’s life is at risk

Abortion is a criminal offence in Northern Ireland. The only exceptions are to save a woman’s life, or if there is a risk to her health

Taking drugs to bring on a miscarriage without doctors’ consent is still an offence in the UK

Source: NHS choices

On 13 March, Labour MP Ms Johnson is proposing a Ten Minute Rule Bill that would repeal the relevant sections of the Offences Against the Person Act and decriminalise abortion.

This is the first piece of pro-choice legislation to be debated in the House of Commons since the 1967 Abortion Act and if it became law, it would protect women who use online abortion pills from criminal sanction.

The Victoria Derbyshire programme is broadcast on weekdays between 09:00 and 11:00 GMT on BBC Two and the BBC News channel.