Prince Valiant

I found out yesterday that a(nother) very dear friend of mine has died. He was a lieutenant with LAPD. He was on his way home from work and his SUV hit a minivan that had just struck the median. The van was disabled but not completely out of the traffic (fast)lane and that's when my friend's vehicle smashed into it, flipped a few times, ejected him and then landed on him. He died instantly, as did a person from the minivan.

Gilbert L. Valderrama, Val to all who knew him, was a 19 year veteran of LAPD. He was my friend, my teacher, my mentor, my partner and my champion.

We met in 1985 when I started working in Bel Air as a dispatcher on swing shift. Val was the patrol supervisor (Lincoln-30). We clicked immediately because we both had a wise-ass sense of humor. We became instant friends and I felt as though I had always known him. I think he was like that with a lot of people. He invited me to go on ride-alongs on my days off, telling me that I could get to know the patrol areas a lot better than by sitting in the office looking at maps of West Hollywood, Westwood, Beverly Hills, Bel Air, Brentwood, Santa Monica and Pacific Palisades. The patrol supervisor was the only car authorized to respond to any and every area, so I would come in at least once a week to physically learn the areas I dispatched patrols to. I learned from Val how to be a good cop, how to be a good partner. He was level-headed and charming and could diffuse situations easily. He was tough and authoritative and never backed down from a situation if it turned dicey. He was proud and dedicated and loyal. He was everything you expect a cop to be and everything you want a cop to be. I looked up to him. I grew to love him very quickly. I don't know anyone who met Val who (in their own way) didn't fall just a little bit in love with him. He was just that kind of guy.

The first month or so that I worked in Bel Air at the central station, I didn't have a car, so I had to take the bus to and from Whittier every day. That was a two hour trip there and a two hour trip back. When Val found out that I had to wait 45 minutes in downtown LA at 1:15 in the morning to get my connection to Whittier (I was staying with a friend until I found an apartment), he went out of his way to drive me home every night that he was on duty.

When I got an apartment on Sunset, only five miles from the station, he still insisted that patrols pick me up and bring me home at night. He took me under his wing and became protective and nurturing, even though I really didn't need a protector or nurturer. I was basically in LA alone so he always made sure I had at least one decent meal a day and that nobody bugged me. The place I lived was a residential hotel on Sunset across the street from the Roxy and the Rainbow Room and the drug traffic was pretty prevalent - until I moved in and there were constantly uniformed officers stopping by. The landlord loved it.
Val worked two full-time jobs at that time because he was supporting several family members. He would work from 6 AM to 2 PM at one job and then be at Bel Air by 3:30 PM to run his shift until 11:30 PM. He never complained and he never missed work. Sometimes after a rough night, the swing shift crew would have a wind-down "choir practice" (as in the photo with me with blonde hair and Val in the green jacket). On those nights, Val sometimes stayed at my place instead of driving home to East LA. Some nights, he had to stay and fill out paperwork until 3 AM. On those nights, he would stay at my place. Of course this started rumors that Val and I were sleeping together (since all the patrol guys knew where I lived and knew Val's car, they all knew when he didn't go home). We never confirmed nor denied any of the rumors and all that did was drive our co-workers crazy(er).

Our friendship/relationship seemed to be beyond all that nonsense. We had fun when it was appropriate and we were serious and all-business when it was necessary. We both had a similar code of ethics and I think that's why we worked so well together.

In early 1986, I went back to Vermont to deal with a family issue. Four months later, prompted by Val, the central station lieutenant called me and offered me the job of central station supervisor. I called Val and talked over the pros and cons with him. There was a lot of silly game-playing when I left and I didn't want to come back to that. Val convinced me that I could stop it with the right supervision. So, I packed up Spanky (my cat) and drove the five days back to CA. The night I got back, I was exhausted but he met me at the station and we went to a friend's for a few beers and it was like I'd never left.

I supervised all activities out of the central station for about 18 months until I had a showdown with the "Big Boss" (Val used to refer to this guy as a 'WC Fields-looking motherf***er' and he was) who I discovered was paying certain probationary patrolmen more than he was paying me and I was a staff sergeant/supervisor. The Big Boss said I shouldn't complain because women in that profession shouldn't make as much as men and I should be grateful he was paying me as much as he was. ??? I diplomatically tried to reason with him, reminding him of my company loyalty, my experience, my time in with the company, the fact that I was Employee of the Month twice, that I had improved morale and attitude at the central station and he defied me to find a job that would treat me and pay me better. I quit on the spot and called him 4 days later after securing a job at Warner Bros. Studios in their protective services division. Even starting at the bottom of the WB ladder, I was making more an hour than I made as a supervisor in Bel Air.

In the meantime, Val had begun courting LAPD and attended their part-time academy. They knew a good candidate when they saw one and he also left Bel Air to start at the bottom of the LAPD ladder. We saw each other only rarely after that because we were each on different shifts in different sections of the county. Every once in a while, I would get a call from WB Gate #2 and they'd tell me that there was an LAPD officer there to see me. I'd clear him to drive on the lot and there'd be Val, on his lunch, ready to catch up.

I was always happy to see him and we always had things to talk about. The visits and phone calls became less and less with the more responsibility we took on with our respective jobs. We pretty much lost touch when I moved back east again in the 90's. There was an occasional surprise phone call or Christmas card exchanged but time got the better of us both.

He was never more than a thought away and every couple of months, I would try to track him down online to see if I could find him so we could catch up but I could never get much information. I figured that, because he was a cop, he was probably trying to keep his personal information protected. So, I think it was fate that I found Tod, a mutual friend and co-worker from Bel Air, and I friended him on FaceBook. The first thing I asked him was if he had heard from Val. It was Tod who delivered the devastating news to me.

So Prince Valiant (to the women, he was Prince Violent to the men, lol), I wish I had been able to tell you how much you meant to me, especially in the late 80s. You taught me so much. I loved working for you and working with you, and, most of all, being your friend. I understand you left behind a wife, four sons and three grandchildren who you were raising. Always the responsible one. No surprise there.

My head is bowed and my glass is raised in honor of you my friend. You have always and will continue to have a special place in my heart.

RIP, Val.

Oooooo...Drums!

I got an electronic drum set for Christmas! I know some people might say "Big Whoop" but anyone who really knows me, knows what a great gift it was. I have always drummed, even if I had to use two pencils on a notepad or desk. I'd mastered "Wipe Out" by the time I was 10. Drums have been my passion since, well, forever.

Fortunately, for the neighbors, I have earphones and they won't have to listen to my pounding.

If nothing else, playing drums is a wonderful stress reliever.

Maybe, once I get back up to speed, I'll post a short video. Maybe.

Permission To Recover

I have a new fic up at the usual sites. If you click on the title of this blog post (and the title of the story), it will take you right to Permission To Recover.

This is the description of the story: "Two military undercover agents infiltrate the first male/female integrated basic training/law enforcement school program in hope of finding a murderer in a race against time. The two women unveil a lot more than is intended during their stint as 'trainees', encountering blatant sexism, harassment, discrimination, dead-ends, betrayals and love as the boundaries of friendship, obligation, loyalty and honor are tested to the limit."

This is the tag line: "In 1977, women thought they joined the peacetime Army. They were dead wrong."

The story has two Copyrights: 1989 and 2008. For clarification, it did not take me that long to write it; 1989 is when it was originally completed and 2008 is when I made a few changes and decided to protect it again.

I also wrote a screenplay based on the novel that I registered with with the Writers Guild of America in 1994 and that is why I also noted the WGA registration number. At one time a few production companies (like Brillstein-Grey) showed an interest in the story...but they wanted it to become more of a parody with gratuitous T&A...so I said "Thanks but No Thanks."

Anyway, The Athenaeum shows that, complete, PTR has 582 pages. Typewritten, on paper, it comes out to 676 pages...I call it the Hernia Edition.

Permission To Recover is very special to me for many reasons and I am thrilled that deciding to put it online forced me to finish transferring it from paper to disk. Not to mention the phenomenally positive feedback I have been getting on this story from people other than friends and relatives.

I know PTR as is, is not up to a publishable standard. I wrote it long before I had a novel professionally edited so there are some glaring errors in grammar and sentence structure. I just hope that, because it's a free read, people just enjoy the story and ignore the passive voice and the 'tell' instead of 'show' narrative.

PTR chronicles trouble at a One Station Unit Training company that slowly bubbles until it boils over and when it does, it happens very quickly, just like things happen sometimes in real life. However, just in case anyone is curious, it is not autobiographical (well...some parts are but not the good parts). There is no Averill, Alabama, there is no Fort McCullough and there is no Unites States Army Law Enforcement School. The characters are figments of my imagination; except for the ones who are composites of a few real people I know and I'll never tell which characters those are. ;-)

This is also not an Uber. Try as you may, it will be most difficult to fit X/G or the images of LL/ROC into any of the "coupling" characters (because it was written 6 years before the premiere of the dynamic duo).

There is swearing and vulgarity. There is violence. There is (frequent) mention of heterosexual sex. There is mention of sex between consenting adult women. And somewhere amongst all that is a plot. Promise.

So if you want a long read that is as much about the Army and basic training/AIT (in the late 70s, that is) as it is about the main characters, this might be the story for you. Regardless of whether you love it or hate it, I'd really love for you to let me know what you think and why.

Now, shoo! Go read!

The Shame of it All

We've had another attempted terrorist attack. A man hoping to blow up an American passenger jet over U.S. soil. A plot that started out of the United States but for safety reasons, our airport security will tighten and our citizens will feel the brunt of it. Passengers will bitch and complain about the security measures that must be taken to keep them safe and then when the next incident happens, will want to point fingers at the TSA and wonder who didn't do their job.

And here's the shame of it all: the people who are supposed to keep us safe while we fly are over worked and underpaid. I applied for a TSA job in 2005 and was astounded that even after all the hoops one has to jump through, regardless of one's previous law enforcement experience, to get hired, the starting pay was only $12 an hour. Now, $12 an hour might sound like a lot to someone who is making minimum wage but not when you consider the enormous responsibility of a TSA agent. Theirs is a thankless job and I am surprised the TSA can get anyone to work for them but in this time of overwhelming unemployment, people will take anything they can get. It wasn't the pay grade that made me not look any further into the job, it was that the hiring process took over three months and even then I couldn't be guaranteed the location I was applying for (and they won't pay for relocation of new hires).

This is not a rant about the TSA; this is a(nother) rant about how we treat and how much we expect from our security forces in general. A couple years ago I posted about what security officers make to protect the CIA headquarters in DC:

http://cheynecurry.blogspot.com/2006/04/outrageous.html

This is a reiteration of that post and more.

We pay our Wall Street executives, Bank executives, Pharmaceutical Companies, Car companies, "Security" Contractors (formerly connected to an ex-warmongering vice president) and others along that line billions of dollars (trillions, in some cases) but we won't pay our security forces squat in comparison, yet we expect them to give us everything and, for the most part, treat them like shit. I've been there. I know.

We pay secretaries, file clerks, receptionists and janitors more an hour, a year, than we pay that person who is supposed to - bottom line - put his/her life on the line to protect whoever works in that particular building. Let's face it, the above mentioned positions are important jobs to keep a business running smoothly but in today's world, when people waltz into any building for any reason and open fire, doesn't it make sense that the companies are protected by a highly skilled, well paid security team? Because when something goes wrong, the first question is always, "Where was the security person?"

I have been on security jobs where the business hires one person to protect and patrol several floors of employees and executives, yet pay them minimum wage, and get upset if, heaven forbid, they take breaks (you know...like, to eat lunch). A security guard is so disrespected, it's laughable. How they are portrayed in the movies and on TV is how we, as a majority, feel about our security people. Until we hear about people like Officer Stephen Johns who died at the Washington, D.C., Holocaust Museum protecting employees and visitors from a gunman and we say, "Why aren't there more like him?"

There are. But it gets awfully hard to feel loyalty to employers who want the promise of giving up your life for $8 an hour and call you on the carpet for not doing your job and/or doing your job to the wrong people (i.e., "important" people who feel that the rules don't apply to "them").

This is what our security forces deal with on a daily basis from the "lowest" of security levels, to sometimes the highest, depending on whom the employer is.

If we paid our security forces more, our higher expectations of them might be warranted. More money and better compensation usually means better experience and more qualified applicants. I don't understand why corporations can find the plentiful wages to pay every department but the one allotted to protect them. When is it ever cost effective to risk the safety of employees and the public?

This also goes for our military. Our government treats our military like robots, sending them to tour after tour of combat, expecting them to behave mechanically, using their "patriotism" almost as a weapon against them. After all, they enlisted, right? This is a volunteer military. This is what the military does - fight to protect our country. Except they aren't protecting our country. Our country was attacked by a mastermind in Tora Bora, where in 2001, we put on a good show, temporarily reined in the Taliban and yet denied the CIA and Delta Forces permission to continue to pursue Bin Laden in the mountain structure. Instead we've overworked and over extended our troops by invading territories we had no business being in. Our government has driven our armed forces to the max fighting out of control wars under false pretenses, sent them home damaged and reward them by fighting tooth and nail to avoid treating them.

Our National Guard are no longer national. Our "reserve" forces are now full active duty. We can no longer use patriotism to entice people to enlist. We pay our military poverty wages and expect them to be super troops like we see in the movies. While they are "defending" our freedom, they lose their freedom, their families, their friends and themselves.

We have turned our security forces into lower class citizens, pay them barely enough to survive, expect them to leap tall buildings in a single bound, assume they should protect us no matter what, all the while treating them like they are dirt under our feet and not with the respect they deserve for putting his/her life before our own.

That is the shame of it all.

A Little Holiday Cheer For Y'all.

If clicking on the title doesn't work, you can copy and paste this:

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/0pT4wQmvjElHCL0TodN3

Here's hoping everyone has a happy and safe holiday season.

Keeping A Place Secure

With all the recent news about the White House Party Crashers, it makes me stop and think (with the rest of the world) about how this could have happened. The White House is supposed to be the most secure house on the planet. I guess 'supposed to be' is the operative phrase. Just what are our tax dollars paying for if not to keep the President of the Unites States secure?

I guess I look at it from the perspective of a former security officer/manager who used to have to protect some of the highest profile people in the news: celebrities. My home (sometimes literally, or so it felt) used to be Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank. The above photo is of Gate 2 off Olive Avenue. The building on the left is Stage 1 and the building on the right is the property building/security offices. When I worked there the first time, the security offices used to be in Stage 15. That was pretty cool except for the days whatever production was filming at the time did explosions. Thankfully, they always warned us before we heard a loud bang that rocked the whole building. Now the security offices are on the first half of the first floor shared with the property department. The Prop Dep't is a scary place at night but that's another story for another time.

I left WB in 1993, as a manager and returned in 2001 for a year as a supervisor. The differences in the department were amazing, although not necessarily better. I found the upper management of the Protective Services Division caring much more about politics than promoting "team morale" and weeding out the bad officers from the good ones. That whole issue is still a thorn in my side and, again, a rant for another time.

There really is a point I'm trying to make with this post and I'll (hopefully) stop rambling and get to it now. On a daily basis, WB had consistent security. For example, if you were a visitor trying to get on the property, you had to have a legitimate pass (and be able to identify yourself as that individual) or a employee photo ID to gain access to the lot. Sometimes mistakes were made and people who were expected had to be held up at the gate because the proper information or authority was not available. In a case like that, several procedures took place on the part of the security officer. The pass was searched for as possibly being misplace, a phone call was made to the individual who allegedly called in the pass for verification, the pass had to be called in again to the main security office where a designated pass writer would then write the pass and it would get sent to the gate. Only then (or with the authorization of a supervisor) would a visitor be allowed to enter the lot. And that wasn't even for an event, that was an every day procedure.

For an event, there was always extra security and always checkpoints. The first checkpoint was parking. The second checkpoint was whichever gate was closest to the building where the event was being held. The next checkpoint was the entrance to the actual event. In my experience there, we never had an event crasher (and that included the very crafty press). If someone got to the gate and they were not on a list, we didn't care who they were or how much they yelled and hollered and told us they'd have our jobs (that one always killed me - they could never afford the drastic cut in pay and they would never tolerate dealing with assholes like they were being) or said, "Don't you know who I am???" (if I had a penny for all the times that line was thrown in my face, I'd be richer than Oprah), they did not get past that gate until they were cleared by an authorized person. We've held up some pretty important people at the gates or the doors because their names weren't found on the guest list. And, no one ever got fired for it as long as we all did our designated jobs. That's how WB security used to do it. I can't say whether or not they still do it that way because I haven't been there in 7 years.

That's just one example. Now, if security officers, who get paid much less than secret service agents, can get it done, why can't the people protecting the White House and the President get it done? We used to deal with some pretty aggressive people at times (think people who visit movie lots aren't dangerous? I can't remember how many delusional, armed stalkers we caught, handcuffed and turned over to the Burbank PD and that was before there were metal detectors placed at every gate). So, when I hear that the Salahis got into an event they were allegedly on no list for and then actually got to shake hands with President Obama, I scratch my head and wonder how and why from a security POV. I can see - maybe - a miscommunication at one checkpoint but at all of them?

Maybe the secret service shouldn't spend so much money putting their agents through school and training and just hire studio security instead. :-/

Veteran's Day and Other Mumblings

I'd like to wish a belated Happy Veteran's Day to all my 'fellow' vets. Once again, I will say that I am proud to have served my country and I wholeheartedly support our troops as they risk their lives to fight two wars, regardless of how unnecessary one of them may have been. I still say the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld Asses of Evil should be tried for war crimes for sending our soldiers to needless death and harm. Their punishment? Send them to the front lines of Afghanistan and give them the same inadequate equipment they doomed our GIs with in Iraq. I may love my country but as far as the last administration's "leadership"? Not so much.

***

Speaking of the military, why are they still kicking out honored, medaled, exemplary soldiers, most of who have never even had so much as a write-up, just because of who they love yet looking the other way for extremist religious fanatics who have been reported and under investigation regarding their negativity to the mission and their detriment to morale?

***

The Stupak-Pitts Amendment. Sigh. Why are we allowing well-off white men, who never have to be confronted with the decision on whether to terminate a pregnancy or not, to make law for ALL American women's reproductive rights? Again, read my last post. They demand rights for the fetus but not for the child after it is born. Do you think that either of these men would waste a second hesitating if their daughters were consensually impregnated by a poor, drug-addicted, abusive, non-white male? Their little girls would be flown to another country for a safe abortion before the world was any wiser and don't think they wouldn't. I don't even know if they have daughters but if they do and their daughters were in the above mentioned circumstances, you don't think those babies would be allowed past the fetus stage, do you?

I think if the Stupak-Pitts Amendment is allowed to go through, then I think every woman who, because of this insertion, is no longer able to terminate her pregnancy, should be legally allowed to sue Misters Stupak and Pitts for child support until the child turns 18.

***

I think if the Pro-life people think it's God's will for all pregnant women to have to carry their children to term, regardless of their circumstances, then shouldn't they be protesting all of the 'male sexual performance' drugs out there? After all, isn't it God's will that a penis can't function anymore other than to void?

There are pharmacists who won't sell birth control or morning after pills because of their 'religious beliefs' but that doesn't stop them from selling male enhancement or sexual performance drugs to men.

Don't let them fool you about the 'religious beliefs' excuse, it's more about exercising control over women than it is anything else. These 'religious men' want to be able to tell women what they can and can't do with their bodies but don't want to stick around and be responsible for the consequences. Yeah...that's very Christ-like.

They love their neighbors as they love themselves but only if their neighbors look and act just like them.

***

Once again, the Mormon Church and the Catholic Church waged their campaign in Maine and funded the war against gay marriage. Because, you know, the Mormon Church and the Catholic Church are who we all should be listening to when it comes to morals.

So because straight marriages are pristine and should be the guideline to 'normal,' I agree with a national moratorium on any and all divorces. The Bible says 'Til Death Do Us Part' (and not in the OJ Simpson/Robert Blake way) so because the Bible is always used in the fight against gay marriage, then the bible should be honored in straight marriages. Until gay marriage is legalized in every state, I think no married couples should be allowed to get divorced and no divorcees (male or female) should be allowed to remarry. I mean...it's in the Bible and if the Bible is the catalyst in the debate over gay marriage, the people screaming the loudest shouldn't be allowed to pick and chose which verses to follow and which to ignore.

***

Why is the media extending Carrie Prejean's 15 minutes of fame? The last straw of her hypocrisy should have been the sex tape. Please. I am so sick of these people who propel their own downward spiral yet it's always everyone else's fault but their own. And why would Larry King book a guest that didn't want to talk about any of the controversy (unless it was just her side of things) and wouldn't take any phone calls? Would somebody just call her a WAHmbulance?

***

That's all for now.

:-)

Oklahoma's Unequality: Wake Up And Smell The Misogyny

A new law has been passed in Oklahoma that will legally force women who have had an abortion to reveal the following:

1) Date of abortion

2) County in which the abortion is performed

3) Age of mother

4) Marital status of mother

5) Race of mother

6) Years of education of mother

7) State or foreign country of residence of mother

8) Total number of previous pregnancies of the mother

Anybody notice anything missing in these eight required statements? That's right; the male factor.

Their argument is that they don't use names or personal information so the women's privacy won't be invaded. Huh???

Not only are they treating women as though they don't have a brain in their heads, they are also throwing equality back into the stone ages.

Let's be fair. A woman cannot get pregnant without sperm. And if a woman has decided to abort the fetus, chances are she did not choose to impregnate herself through expensive medical procedures or a turkey baster.

So maybe the law needs to include a few more "facts." How about #9) Reason for abortion.

1) Pregnancy unplanned - mother's health is in danger

2) Fetus will be born without brainstem (or some other issue that will not allow the child to sustain life once outside the mother's womb)

3) Mother was raped by stranger

4) Mother was raped by distant family member

5) Mother was raped by immediate family member

6) Mother just reached puberty.

7) Mother just realized fetus father is pedophile.

8) Mother's baby daddy is physically abusive to children, does not want to bring one more into the fold

9) Mother will produce drug-addicted baby/baby with fetal alcohol syndrome

10) Mother's baby daddy has refused to take any responsibility and mother cannot afford to raise child on own or even pre-natal medical care to insure having a healthy baby for someone to adopt.

11) Baby daddy is a prominent, married, 'upstanding' member of the community (who probably fights against abortion rights) and can't have a "dirty little secret" growing up to expose him.

12) Too many mouths to feed already and no money to feed them.

I don't think I need to go on in this category. We can all come up with reasons why a woman should not have to provide to anyone why she does or doesn't want to follow through with a pregnancy.

But this law focuses on the mother and, as usual, leaves the father off the hook. If the statistics have to be on record about the mother, I say they should be on record about the father, too, such as:

1) Age of father

2) Marital status of father

3) Father's marital/partner status as it relates to mother

4) Race of father

5) Education level of father

6) Where father took off to after finding out mother was pregnant

7) Total children father has and by how many mothers

8) Father's previous criminal record and for what offenses

It's only fair, right? If the mother is going to be stigmatized, what about the father? It's my guess that at least 50% of the time the mother makes the decision to abort based on the father.

Women should have the right to decide what to do with their own reproductive systems. Do you think for one second the men in this country would stand for laws that forced them get vasectomies so that there would be fewer unwanted pregnancies? Do you think they would stand for laws that put ANY restrictions on the sacred, almighty penis? Of course not!

Why are we women standing for this?

Look...the anti-abortion associations and same-minded politicians are out of control. They call themselves "family" oriented and pro-life but they are the furthest thing from it. They worship the fetus but not ONE of them gives a hang about what happens to that fetus or mother once they've done their job of stopping the abortion.

They don't care if the mother has proper pre-natal care to birth a child healthy enough to be adopted if the mother doesn't want/cannot afford the baby. They don't care.

They don't care if the mother is drug or alcohol addicted or if the baby is born damaged because of it. Because these mostly white bread, holier than thou, hypocrites who scream about the rights of the unborn would never adopt a non-white newborn that was crack-addicted or had FAS. They don't care.

They don't care if the mother/parents find out the child will have multiple health issues that will keep the mother/parents in medical debt for the rest of their lives. It isn't their problem because they don't care.

They don't care what happens to that baby or mother after they've stopped the abortion because their job is done.

Why can't these organizations (mostly male-dominated), these politicians, these judges and the like be held RESPONSIBLE all the way? If they are going to prevent or make it illegal for a woman to have an abortion, then they should have to be financially responsible for that child until it turns 18. It is only fair. Do you think they'll care then?

I say again, a child cannot be made without sperm and it is the penises that rule the world. If they want the power they should also have the responsibility that goes with it. They should not be allowed to have it both ways, they've been getting away with that for too long as it is.

They scream they don't want a government health bill to pay for abortions. Do they think they aren't paying ten times more by paying for welfare and jail terms (where a good portion of kids who should have been aborted end up. I know that sounds harsh but think about it; how many kids neglected by (single) parents who didn't want them in the first place, turn to crime to get their attention and way of life)? Oh, that's right...they don't care.

They don't care because saving the fetus didn't cost them anything. I say, start hitting these misogynist, sanctimonious frauds in the wallet and make them responsible for "their women," the way they feel it should be and we'll all get wind burns from how fast they'll turn around and change their tune.

If the women have to pay with their privacy and dignity, then the men should be made to pay in ways that will hit them where it hurts, too.

Just my two cents.

BTW, I know it sounds like I hate men, I don't. I hate misogynists, whom of whom can be women.