Holy White Noise

This post has been updated. Scroll to bottom.

I’m supposed to be on a break, and I had wanted the “Echo Taps” post to stay up all weekend. We owe our veterans a lot. But we owe Someone Else so much more.

There’s been a lot of hullabaloo recently on the Greensboro blogs - because of new-Mayor Knight’s recent decision to begin Greensboro City Council meetings with a “non-sectarian” prayer.

This all comes down while I am reading a fascinating book called, “Nightmare Along Pennsylvania Avenue” by Perry Stone. I picked it off a sale-table at Books-A-Million the last time I was home.

Fellow doctor-blogger, Joe Guarino has taken a lot of heat/noise in the blogs from folks I like to call “the usual suspects” for defending the Mayor’s decision to act a little more like Abraham Lincoln and a little less like Karl Marx . . . the Mayor knowing full well that the action might stir some turds.

Now, the “non-sectarian” thing is troublesome for me, and I truly think the U.S. Supremes have long over-reached in their desire to be politically-correct and "protect" religious minorities from being "offended" (in other words, they've gotten it right, but they've also gotten it very wrong). And that’s because I have a very hard time separating the freedom of religion from the freedom of speech.

As anyone in my family could tell you, as a typical black-sheep-now-back-in-the-fold, I’m not a very good public-pray-er (I usually defer to other family members in saying grace), but the Lord's Prayer notwithstanding (the Lord was offering it so He didn't invoke His own Name), if I’m going to offer a prayer in a public venue, it’s not going to be “non-sectarian”, it’s going to be in The Name of Jesus Christ . . . you know, The Man I believe to be The Son of God Who died for my/our sins.

It’s free speech. And it’s not “hate-speech”. So if you don’t like it, grow up, suck it up and deal. Close your eyes tightly and say your own prayer while I'm saying mine. Turn your back or walk out on my prayer if you're so offended. Apply to say your own prayer at the next meeting so I can be "offended" and make a scene (although I don't generally make scenes because I'm from the South and my Baptist Mama taught me that that sort-of-thing is just rude . . . if at all possible, you're supposed to hate the "sin" and love the "sinner" . . .

. . . of course, I am a mere human and it's not always possible;).

But don’t tell me how to pray - in ANY venue.

OBTW (Sue), I've always looked at your (Jewish) God and mine as the SAME God. The difference is in how we perceive Him and His covenants. I know full well that Christians failed the Jews during the Holocaust, but THIS nation . . . and the Christians in it . . . are the reason we're not all speaking German today. And here's a thought from another long ago Housecalls post - speaking to my own feelings of "eternal" sadness & isolation after being driven out of Asheboro for doing the right thing by a dying baby (something you've not given a rat's tail about . . . consigning the story/case to be fodder for cyberstalkers):

I keep going back to the way this nation (greatly blessed) was founded. It wasn't because our Founding Fathers turned the other cheek. Tea in the harbor and all that. Lincoln's generals trounced the enemies of the union at Gettysburg . . . and drove a stake through the heart of the Confederacy during Sherman's march. They weren't "nice" about it. Hitler's ovens were not shut down by Churchill sitting down and shutting up . . . or the Allies staying "positive".

I think God expects good men and women (as individuals and collectively) to speak and to act when faced with great injustice.

I also believe that God acts through nations and governments. His work isn't always easy and we're not always privy to His design/plan.

Meanwhile, well-named, well-connected, knows-what’s-best-for-all-of-us-despite-never-having-lost-any-skin-actually-fighting-for-something-he-believed-in, GSO-journalist-and-blogger-king, Edward Cone . . . of all of us uncivilized-bloggers-that-the politicos-turn-their-noses-up-at, the only one with a "bat(shitcrazy)" phone to the Greensboro News & Record (purveyors of truth that they are) . . . had a column up last Sunday that made me sick . . . mostly because it was clearly designed to denigrate Joe.

You see, as it turns out, the very existence of Joe Guarino's increasingly well-read conservative/Tea-Partyish blog is stepping on some serious Greensboro-establishment/status-quo toes: For we in North Carolina have followed all of Ed’s once-uber-cool, cutting-edge, deep-blue notions of how government "should work". We put his party's candidates in office . . . from Hunt to Sleazely to Cooper to Edwards to Purdue and to Obama . . . yet somehow it’s not working out the way Ed/Roch/Sue/etc. expected/predicted.

It's turning out that you simply cannot blame every problem of our American landscape (or the world for that matter) on born-again, faith-on-his-sleeve George W. Bush. Our Edward Cone is finally feeling the heat.

It’s not always good to be king.

Yesterday, as tens of millions of gallons of oil continued to pour into the Gulf of Mexico . . . because of an oil company’s greed & incompetence - combined with our government’s abject (I love that word) failure to regulate . . . our current President (who called "pastor" a man whose speech spewed hate and damned America) told us that government agencies (the same kinds of agencies he decided could best run healthcare) are seeped in a “culture of corruption”.

Well, yeah, Barry. I kinda knew that already . . . long before you and your buddy, (I smell an impeachment proceeding coming on) Rahm Emanuel, schlepped out of Chicago. So tell me Mr. Hope & Change, before you and your Democratically-controlled Congress wrote several thousand pages of new laws for the Federal government to enforce and me/others-like-me to suck-up/pay for, WHAT did you/your oh-so-enlightened party do to enforce the ones we already have?

In other words, what have you for me lately?

Now, being an educated woman (my liberal-arts education coming from an institution in-the-heart-of-Greensboro no less), I used to be more like Ed Cone. I used to put a lot of faith in the Court system . . . the system whose abject failures and in-your-face inequities (like people-charge-with-the-public-good getting away with swearing out lies under Oath) I'm supposed to just get over. I used to think that Church and state should be kept utterly separate. I used to think that the Big Bang was just an accidental spark in a black-hole without any Intelligent Design. And I used to think that we should live and let live . . . right up to shrugging off/rationalizing abortion as a woman’s absolute right to chose.

But the last twelve years (being battered by just about anyone with a bat who wanted to swing) have changed my mind about a lot of things. I certainly have re-discovered my Faith in a way that I would not have, had I not walked through this fire.

So I don’t think those things anymore. And Mr. Stone's book is right where my head is at these days.

Anyway, last night . . . alone down-East and on-call . . . and a little down-in-the-dumps because I could not be a just-a-little-bit-more down-East with friends who are now acting as the North Carolina coast’s first defense against tar-balls . . . I could not sleep and spent that time aimlessly surfing the Internet. I kept going back to a thread at Joe’s - mostly because Michelle Forrest was there, and she’s a good/deep thinker (albeit easily offended), with a truly Christian heart and an open mind.

I’d actually like to be more like Michelle (all sweet and cuddly), but alas, our Lord in-His-wisdom elected to make me a skeptic and a critic . . . and since He’s allowed my edges and my tongue to be so thoroughly sharpened by life experience, I might as well be the tool (take that any way you want to) He fairly obviously wanted me to be.

Inspired by Stone’s book and weary of some of the sanctimonious clap-trap I was reading (from people who preach truth & justice - and want it for themselves - but have done nothing but sneer & spit at my predicament), I dived in.

And/so, I think, in addition to Echo Taps, my last comment at Joe’s (well, my last comment excepting the one the linking this post) is the thought I’d like to leave my readers with over the holiday weekend. I am speaking directly to Michelle’s earnest comment about the possibility of people-of-other faiths offering prayer before a council meeting.

“I am troubled at the thought of Christians participating in prayers to other gods.”

Here is my response (and it’s a response to Ed as well):

Michelle, while I would stand silently while someone of another faith (say a Wiccan or a Muslim) prayed - out of tolerance and respect for that person, I would not be praying "with" him/her. I would probably actually be silently praying to Someone Else.

In other cases, God might be getting stereo - just with the volume turned down on one side.

As noted before, I've done it before.

If it helps Maynor Knight to say a prayer BEFORE he conducts government business, then let him say the prayer and get on with business.

I am more troubled by Christians acquiescing to silence and passivity every time they are challenged or told to shut up and sit down because a Carpenter from Galilee/his teachings "offends" someone.

I am also troubled by the very clear results of God being thrown out of our schools and His Name slowly & methodically stripped from and/or covered on our government buildings and memorials . . . and His Son's Name never mentioned/invoked in a public forum as if It were something dirty and to be ashamed of.

It seems to me to be a form of denial. And because of what I have been through over the last twelve years . . . at the hands of people-charged-with-the-public-good professing to be Christians - while spitting on every noble/ethical notion I was raised/educated to believe (as Abner noted, that was Hitler's style) . . . it feels like the worst kind of denial (mixed in with a huge dose of hubris).

It may not be politically-correct, but I believe this nation has paid a very high price for taking God out of our equation . . . for watering Him down to the "non-sectarian" . . . and will continue to pay for it.

Now, Cone and Polinsky and Hoggard and the rest can call people like me every ugly name in the book - tell us we're selfish and crazy and stupid and ignorant morons and purveyors of division amongst the common man.

(1) It's just not true. And (2) That was prophesied too.

You-all have a nice Memorial Day weekend.

Comments are closed. I'm done with the noise on this holiday weekend.

May God Bless America. We NEED Him desperately.

Sunday Afternoon Update: I am enjoying my holiday weekend (even though I'm not on holiday), but I have checked in a few more times on Joe's thread.

Meanwhile, still trying to counter the "push-back" from what he apparently thought would be a fairly easy party line to push forward, Ed Cone has a post up quoting an "open letter" to Mayor Knight from Pastor Michael Usey of Greensboro's College Park Baptist Church.

(In the interest of full disclosure, genuinely disturbed by the rationalizations in the letter . . . it seems that so much in this society is driven these days not by right or wrong, but by the fear of lawyers . . . I sent Usey an e-mail yesterday, telling him I disagreed with him, and linking this post.)

Michelle Forrest (bless her cuddly little heart) was once again able to cut through the pseudo-intellectual, apologist clap-trap (see her comments on Ed's thread) by putting the Pastor's opinion in context of the ("progressive", "liberal") political leanings of the congregation he leads . . . moreover, she pointed out that much of the content of Usey's letter was in-your-face plagerized from a website maintained by the "Baptist Joint Committe for Religious Liberty".

(I did my best to cut through the clap-trap too . . . with a question as opposed to a declarative statement.)

And (of course), the Greensboro N&R, ran with Usey's letter as an opinion column today.

So much for checking sources.

Echos

Thank you, Veterans.

Have a safe Memorial Day weekend.

Back By Popular Demand And Appearing For One Turn-Of-The-World Only: The Evil Dr. John Dixon

I've been a CBS soap girl since, well, forever. I was definitely part of an abused minority during my college days and the Luke & Laura craze.

I make no apologies for watching soaps. It's mind candy (hey, at least I don't watch Grey's Anatomy). Alas, CBS killed my favorite opera (Guiding Light) last year.

These days, I'll occasionally catch snippets of The Young & The Restless (Y&R) or As The World Turns (ATWT) on my lunch breaks . . . and I read the recaps online about once a week . . . but a world without Josh & Reva is not just the same.

I mean really, how many times can you watch Victor "You Got That?!?" Newman dump the incredibly/un-naturally well-preserved Nicki for some younger/firmer blond? Or Jack & Carly screw up?

So. Since I ABSOLUTELY HATE The Bold & The Beautiful (B&B), when As The World Turns goes off the air in September, I'll pretty much be done with soaps.

I've been checking the news on Soap Central on an infrequent basis - just to see if any of the old ATWT characters would pop up on the canvas before their world stops turning. It's not happening as much as I expected/would have liked . . . because CBS has an unfortunate habit of treating even their best-loved daytime actors like crap . . . and apparently when some of them said they'd never set foot on the set again, they MEANT it.

But lo & behold if some simply absofrickinglutely wonderful news was not announced this week . . . Larry Bryggman, who was last seen as the deliciously EVIL Dr. John Dixon in late 2004, is coming back for one episode.

It is a wish come true.

Now, apart from the late great Michael Zaslow as Roger Thorpe on GL, Bryggman's Dr. John Dixon was simply the most delightfully, sick, warped, irascible, contemptible, charming, lovable EVIL villain EVER on a soap opera.

The good doctor was just a bad, Bad, BAD man. And I loved him. And I've missed him.

I am so psyched. Given the nature of his sudden/unexplained departure, it would be SWEET to see Dr. John just stroll through Memorial Hospital and interact with characters (especially his ex-wives) as if he'd never left . . . sweeter still to watch Bryggman chew a little scenery and spit it out in the way that only he could.

He was magnificent.

Forgive Me, Ms. Sheehan (May I Call You That)? But Ethics In North Carolina Are NOT Free

It's not a secret. I'm not exactly a fan of N&O columnists Rob Christensen or Ruth Sheehan: Christensen because he pimped John & Elizabeth Edwards for so long that he must be driving a 1980's white Cadillac with tinted windows, fake leopard-fur seats and dice on the mirror (no offense intended to anyone who might own such a fine vehicle), and Ruth because she cannot print a story that's remotely critical of anyone she may have a personal, albeit superficial relationship with.

If you make a hat for her kid, it's a free pass.

And that's what's wrong with journalism in North Carolina. Especially locally.

Ruth has a cutsie column up today on Bev Perdue and ethics. I'm certain Sheehan was going for worldly "tongue-in-cheek", but it reeked of smug fourth-estate-hypocrisy-of-the-worst-kind. I left a comment on the thread:

This column made me sick.

Ethics are NOT "free" in this state Ruth. Ethics are hard and they have cost some of us huge chunks of our lives while people like you have sneered and spit and looked the other way. We've begged for the press's help but the sad fact is that the press was (and for the most part still is) in bed with the very ethically-challenged leaders you now make fun of.

If you want to put ethics back into the equation of North Carolina government, might I suggest that the press (aka "fourth estate) get its head out of the soon-to-be-oil-soaked sand and start reporting on/telling some of the stories you've ignored for so long . . . of ordinary North Carolina citizens pummeled by corruption.

And in that sense, Bev Perdue is just a tiny zit positioned over a carpet of oozing/smelly pustules.

I feel better now and can get on with my day. Blogs can be so theraputic.

Speaking Of The Clueless Media: No, Really, Mr. Wakefield, You NEED To Go Away

I was warned: The disgraced autism "researcher" (I used the term in the very loosest of ways), Andrew Wakefield, just "struck-off" Britain's medical register of licensed physicians for his reign of fraud and terror, appeared on the Today Show this morning and told the world he was not going away!?! I just don't get it. The American MSM needs to get over this guy . . . they were totally bamboozled . . . he's no hero to autistic children . . . moreover, he's had much more than his fifteen minutes of fame, and it was WAY TOO MUCH time. If I had seen the interview, my eyes would have burned out of my head.

No really dude. You've done so much damage and terrified so many so NEEDLESSLY for profit. You really need to GO AWAY (and by that, I mean not come to North Carolina - because our Medical Board is just stupid enough to give you a license).

To the mighty Orac's pit of hellish rage, I now consign you.

The Gulf Oil Spill: Thirty-Five Days And Counting

I had planned to get this post up sooner. But I was waiting to see what happened to my old AHS classmate John Tote in his bid for Director of N.C. Mental Health. Meanwhile, the good Dr. Joe Guarino beat me to it. So forgive me if I repeat myself.

If I had not gotten into medical school all those years ago, "Plan B" was to pursue a doctorate (PhD) of some sort in the biological sciences . . .

. . . I'm quite certain it would have had something to do with chasing large sea creatures in deep blue waters. We all have our secret desires and what-if's. My Pops was a train-man at heart. I am a tree-hugging/animal-loving geek.

I might not have gotten "rich" (yeah, right) chasing whales, but I probably would have been much happier/healthier in the long run.

Happy that is, until now. I can barely stomach news reports on the Gulf Oil spill. It's physically painful for me to look at the pictures of dead sea birds and fish . . . or the mucked-up wetlands and shores.

And this live feed from CNN is just nauseating.

As this man-made-disaster-now-in-its-thirty-fifth-day has unfolded . . . and President Obama has coasted over it like a sufer on a big wave . . . it has been incredible to me that everything that happened immediately before and after Hurricane Katrina (an act of God that everyone on the Gulf Coast knew was inevitable . . . yet somehow no one was prepared to deal with) was, according to the deep-blue rabid left (and an MSM infatuated with youth and vigor as opposed to honor and duty), George Bush's fault.

It actually wasn't.

We-The-People-Of-The-United-States can send a man to the moon and shuttles into orbit, but we cannot stop a gusher on the ocean floor? And if we cannot stop a gusher on the ocean floor, what-in-the-HELL were we doing drilling there in the first place?

Where is the damned fleet? Where are the best-minds and brightest ideas?

Yet until recently, there's been barely a whimper about the Obama administration's stunning/appalling lack-luster response to the ecological disaster that is the Gulf Oil spill-that-is-still-spilling.

It's just a small portion of a big ocean. No big deal.

Our President and his minions-hunkered-down-in-the-West-Wing kept reciting the same mantra: Let BP handle it. They are the experts. Yeah right. Just like BP obviously handled everything leading up to the explosion so well. And the government, of course, offered stellar oversight.

Just like the government offers stellar oversight of "non-profit" healthcare and its own programs.

Speaking of mixed messages, before the disaster, Obama wanted to drill immediately off the North Carolina coast. Even deep-blue Bev Purdue was caught off-guard, and was not real enamoured of that "progressive" idea.

Of course, in the end, for Governor Bev, it came down to profit as opposed to principle.

The Democratic party and ideological left has a collective stroke every time someone so much as mentions drilling in Alaska (where containing a wayward/spewing well would be much easier than stopping an open gusher over a mile below the ocean's surface). Yet, we in North Carolina, with fragile barrier islands that literally move with every hurricane are supposed to suck-it-up.

Make no mistake. This mega-disaster WILL affect us sooner or later. Ocean currents have the potential to make our already-fragile North Carolina coastline a wasteland for wildlife.

In fact, an NCSU professor (one of those PhD's) says we already have good reason to be very worried. And that's not even taking into consideration the wild card of hurricane season.

Meanwhile, you cannot tell me that ideology and media bias are not shaping and minimizing the environmental & economic impact of this story . . . to detract attention away from President Obama's sorry/pitiful excuse for leadership in what I fear will ultimately prove to be a global disaster. And/so there IS (dontcha just love that word?) a "disconnect". Dr. Joe Guarino is spot-on . . .

. . . as Joe is spot-on about a great many other things going on in our community. Ugly things. Insidious things. And for that, he has become a target.

I wouldn't, of course, know anything about that.

Not everyone in this blogosphere is "stupid", Mr. Cone. Or "batshit crazy" or a "booger-eating moron" or a "lunatic" or a "racist" or any of the other nasty/vile things you and your high-minded, enlightened friends-oh-so-concerned-with-civility have flung during any-given-day-in-the-blogosphere.

Moreover, those of us who have been on the wrong end of silence FOREVER (and who think that, in this state seeped in corruption, MORE sincere prayer in public venues might actually be a good thing) are not buying what you are selling.

Among other things, Barack Obama was supposed to be "Mr. Environment". Of course, he was supposed to be a lot of things that he is clearly not.

But I guess we can look on the bright side. The toxic effects of the muck between our toes and the tar flavoring our seafood won't be that big of a deal when Obama's new-improved government healthcare reform bill really kicks in.

Yeah right. And if you believe that, I have an oil rig in the Gulf to sell you.

There's only a wee bit of damage.

John Tote As (Maybe) The Director Of N.C. Mental Health: A Blast From The Past Getting Blasted

5/24: This post has been updated. Scroll to bottom.

As I've blogged before, my thirty-year Asheboro High School reunion is coming up this year. Old friends planning the event have encouraged me to come.

I'm most likely going to take a pass.

One of the reasons I have balked has to do with something that happened at the ten-year high school reunion (at the time, I was in my fourth year of medical school). I'd come home and gotten all dolled-up and made the grand entrance at the Asheboro Country Club, only to watch a number of my old classmates make total drunken fools of themselves at the pseudo-open bar.

At the time, the unavailability of alcohol in every store and on all corners mercifully spared Asheboro's general populace such spectacles. Of course, now we've been "re-vitalized" and can have titty-bars within 500 feet of a church or a elementary school because our oh-so-concerned City Council is scared of rolling up their sleeves and taking on a few lawyers.

That's progress folks!

(Dancing local "celebrity/star" and "right person", Randolph Hospital CEO, Bob Morrison, told the gullible/kept-in-the-dark populace that Asheboro was having trouble recruiting doctors because the town was dry. He left out the part about Asheboro having the well-deserved far-and-wide reputation of being a black-hole for any young medical professional who did not worship at his altar.

And remember all the promises Schmidly's "pro" crowd made about Asheboro's citizenry being able to preserve the history and character of the town through local ordinances and responsible alcoholic beverage control?)

I digress. Looking back to a pseudo-open bar twenty years ago at the Asheboro Country Club, part of the spectacle that night was watching an old childhood friend . . . someone that the locals would kindly call "slow" (or big brave GSO bloggers like Roch Smith, Jr. and Jeff Martin would unkindly call "mentally-impaired" or a "moron") . . . was "courted" by several of those drunken fools. Of course, in her naivete and innocence, she was oblivious to the fact that they were making fun of her . . . and was actually grateful for their attention.

It was nauseating to watch.

(I guess this is the kind of fond reminiscence of my life in wholesome Asheboro that Clark Bell, Asheboro City Council member and noble defender of cyber-stalkers, doesn't like me blogging about "every day". Doesn't' exactly fit in with the new plans to market our town-drenched-in-small-town-values.)

I poured out what was left of my watered-down/country-club drink, left the "party" and swore off high school reunions for good.

In retrospect, I probably should have sworn off Asheboro.

Anyway, last week, I got an e-mail from one of the reunion organizers . . . addressed to the entire class and entitled, "Good News!" . . . congratulating a fellow AHS classmate on his appointment to a really-big-job in Raleigh (director of N.C. Mental Health Services):

Congratulations, Joe Tote!

Now I do not remember John Tote from high school. But I zipped off a response to the sender:

That is not a job I would touch with a ten-foot pole under the current circumstances/administration.

North Carolina kills its patient advocates.

She responded:

Then I guess he is courageous and brave. Eternally optimistic, I am.

Nice to hear from you. Change your mind about the reunion? You are among friends.

My retort:

Courageous and brave - or gullible and naive. I hope the former. I suspect the later.

And, I think it matters not given the way things are in Raleigh right now.

I have not decided.

I am certain there would be friends in the room. But also enemies. I've always had trouble telling the difference. Asheboro is not and will not ever be again for me what it is for others. Eternally sad, I am.

The price of being gullible, naive, brave and courageous.

I've done some thinking since the e-mail exchange. And I'm thinking that oftentimes it's not a matter of being gullible, naive, brave or courageous. Oftentimes it's just about being "right people" (i.e. having lots of lovely money, or a "good" name, or floating around in the "right" orbits).

There is follow-up on the job-offer today from the Raleigh News & Observer that may not be such "good news" for John Tote. It seems that Tote's job offer may not be a lock.

. . . Wednesday, reports surfaced that Tote is leaving behind a big financial mess at the Mental Health Association of North Carolina, a nonprofit advocacy group he helped lead for the past 24 years. The association faces liens on nearly $1.5 million in unpaid payroll taxes going back to 2006, according to records on file at the N.C. Secretary of State's Office.

In short, Governor Perdue is re-considering the offer made to Tote (made by NCDHHS Secretary Lanier Cansler).

God knows Dumpling doesn't need more bad PR.

As the victim of another pair of non-profiteers operating under the cover of the sorry excuse that passes for DHHS (Department of Health & Human Services) "oversight" (not-to-mention North Carolina law enforcement), I'm enjoying the comments on the story . . . like this one:

(This is a) Symptomatic episode of deeper systemic problems in mental health care. What frightens me the most is that after all is known, Tote's Board of Directors at MHA-NC still supports him. What does that say about non-profit board responsibility?

More and more ordinary plebes are not buying what Perdue & company are selling. And while I'm pretty-much on-board with the "Easley is an idiot" rhetoric Tote was spewing in 2007, when it comes to fighting corruption in state government, window-dressing and lip service doesn't cut it anymore . . . especially when a lot of "right people" are turning out to have been made of the wrong stuff.

You cannot say one thing and be/do another.

Alas, our problems are not just confined to mental health care.

And you really don't want "stupid", "crazy" old Dr. Mary to get started on that.

For if what "non-profit" Randolph Hospital did to Dr. Mary Johnson twelve years ago on Sleazley's watch was put under the same microscope her classmate, John Tote, is currently squriming under, Perdue might have to throw a few more of her Asheboro buddies under the bus.

5/24 Afterthought: Oh. And I have decided. About the reunion. As my Daddy used to say, I haven't lost anything at the Asheboro Country Club - or Pinewood - or "the Pig" - or any of the other places where all of the "right people" hang.

I was never part of that scene. No reason to start now.

5/24 Update: Tote has withdrawn his name from consideration.

Tote, whose salary doubled between 2001 and 2007, had this to say about the public scrutiny of his public appointment after serving at the pleasure of a "non-profit": "Nobody should ever have to be put in the position myself and my family have been ever again in this political appointment process."

I know we're ex-classmates and all, but I could not disagree more. As someone who, for twelve years, has been on the wrong end of a "non-profits" double-dealing and outright lies (only to have North Carolina's press corps & law enforcement turn a blind eye and deaf ear), I've got ZERO sympathy for this mind-set.

You see, I am of the opinion that NOBODY should ever have to be put in the position that my family and I were put into because one night twelve years ago I decided to put my Oath and an innocent child/her family first.

We need MORE scrutiny of "non-profits" and their executives, not less.

Shameful Behavior

As per usual, the Greensboro News & Record only skimmed the surface of this story . . . about an N.C. A&T freshman/student athlete killed in a gunfight in downtown Ahoskie in the wee hours of Saturday morning.

Here's the report from the Roanoke-Chowan News Herald. To anyone familiar with the area, it reads like the OK Corral.

And even the News-Herald played it down: Personal from numerous law enforcement agencies rushed to Ahoskie to assist in the aftermath of the shooting.

What happened in the aftermath of the shooting (the way I've heard it, there was talk of calling in the National Guard) . . . particularly in and around the hospital (putting medical personnel trying to save the life of this young man -and other patients trying to access Emergency Services - in danger) was SHAMEFUL in a civilized society.

And it should NOT be over-looked and/or white-washed by the press.

That's just my opinion.

5/20 Update

From an Editorial at the N&R: Details about what exactly happened to this young man remain sketchy. But a crowd impeded responders: " . . . (Ahoskie) police Chief Troy Fitzhugh told the News-Herald"Officers had to literally remove people to protect the victim and preserve evidence."

The comments on the Roanoke-Chowan Herald's original story continue to be "entertaining". I've got no use for the Greensborish black-vs-white mumbo-jumbo. And I'm having a very hard time with the notion that what happened should IN ANY WAY be blamed on local law enforcement.

I'm thinking more that the community (black/white/red/yellow) needs to take a close look at the kind of collective PATHOLOGY that would allow things to get so out-of-control that a young man could be gunned down in the street, and an angry mob could impede access of Emergency personnel to the scene to help him.

There is NO WAY to rationalize that. NONE!

I have news for you, people. Government cannot fix this. But disgusted citizens can . . . by condemning it in their churches and their schools . . . by telling anyone who was there, "We will NOT tolerate this kind of behavior! If you were there and you saw something, then STOP WHINING and man-up/woman-up and come forward with the information!"

Journalistically speaking, the Roanoke-Chowan News Herald should also be commended for acknowledging (albeit vaguely) what happened at the hospital in the after-math of the shooting. Hospital staff went above and beyond in the face of people acting like animals.

Children were in that ED.

And what this mob did is UNACCEPTABLE. There is NO EXCUSE.

Again, just my opinion.

5/23 Update

The "alleged shooter" is arrested.

"Thank You For Saving My Little Girl's Life"

Yesterday, I managed to swing a deal with a colleague, get off early and high-tail it back to Piedmont, North Carolina (through Friday-afternoon traffic on 1-40 that, like the years of cigarettes for smokers, literally scraped time off my life) in time to catch the tail-end of my Mother and my niece's combined birthday parties.

Abigail is two, and Mama says she's a "mini-me" in terms of her fascination with books. She is also an Elmo freak. Last month, I was not sure I would be able to make the party, so we had our own little birthday party before I went back down East. When I arrived at the party, Abby greeted empty-handed-me holding the massive Raggedy Ann I gave her then - as if to say, "I know you already got me a present". It was very sweet.

I was pleased to see that Lexie's Mama was there . . . having taken some time off from literally living at Duke Children's Hospital. I have not seen her since the diagnosis.

While preparing a plate from the left-overs in the kitchen, we found ourselves alone and I asked her how Lexie was doing.

She said to me, "I want to thank you for saving my little girl's life".

I was once of those gulp-in-the-throat moments that bring you up short, is just a little embarrassing and I don't always handle well. I could feel the tears welling up (having always longed for a daughter, I could not imagine being in her shoes) and quickly moved to suppress them.

(Mama had already told me how Abigail had greeted Lexie's Mama when she arrived at the party . . . with big hug and a sad-for-a-two-year-old-and-already-knowing-the-answer, "Where's Lexie"?)

Now, I did not really save Lexie's life. The team of Hematologist-Oncologists and Infectious Disease gurus and most-excellent Surgeons that are battling her cancer are saving Lexie's life. I just provided the prod to get her there.

I was pleased to hear that, among others, Lexie is under the care of Paul Martin . . . a saint-in-sensible-no-doubt-Earth-friendly-shoes who once labored at Brenner's (while I was still a Pediatric resident).

Lexie's Mom, a pharmacist, and I talked about her most recent problems during chemo . . . which include a central line infection (which means the line will need to be replaced before her next round). From antibiotics and super-bugs/evil-fungi to bone-marrow transplants to medical-center politics and personalities, it was enlightening to LISTEN (in a non-clinical setting) to a Mother's perspective.

When transferring patients to large centers, I usually take a moment to warn parents about the deluge of doctors-with-varying-degrees-of-experience-and-authority . . . and that their best advocate in an ICU setting is actually usually their child's primary nurse. My conversation with Lexie's Mom certainly confirms that it's not a bad practice.

As we watched my brother do stupid things with his fearless daughter on silly mechanical toys (without a helmet - despite my protestations), my Mother subsequently joined the conversation . . . and then my sister-in-law (an RN) . . . who offered more praise, "You knew what was wrong as soon as I called you - you just didn't want to tell me."

Yes, I did. And no I didn't.

At one point, the conversation deviated to a newborn whose delivery I had attended back East right before the cyber-stalking case . . . born with a serious surgical problem that few Pediatricians see in "real life", much less manage. I told Lexie's Mom that I was the only person at the small, rural, far-Eastern hospital that day who had ever taken care of a baby life that.

Lexie's Mom, a woman-of-great-faith-despite-being-sorely-tested . . . a woman who appreciates my heartache and sadness and still-white-hot pain over what was done to me in Asheboro . . . smiled and said,

"Well, maybe that's why you were there. You were/are needed. Even if for just that one baby."

Once again, I found myself brought up short by a Mother's wisdom.

It was a lovely evening . . . full of hot-dogs and hamburgers and Mama's homemade "hot" pimento cheese and Elmo cake and sweet tea and wrapping paper and squealing children and my brother's booming voice (he always talks like he's trying to be heard over a jet engine). And I have new pictures of the tiny girl-cousins for my refrigerator door.

I hear it's Relay-For-Life weekend in Asheboro.

My family is in such a relay . . . for the long haul.

And on that thought, it's time to enjoy this weekend. Lots of work to do at home. Not a lot of time to do it.

An Update On Congressman Brad Miller's Ride On The White Horse For Dr. Anna Chacko

I've kept in touch with Michael Volpe in the months since he garnered some blog-love from Joe Guarino for taking local Congressman, Brad Miller to task . . . for his woefully-uninformed, ill-advised advocacy of a Pennsylvania physician named Anna Chacko . . . once employed by the Pittsburgh Veterans Administration . . . who has styled herself as a medical-whistleblower.

(Here's a hint: She's not. And picking up her gauntlet was all politics on Miller's part.)

At the time (and as the real-deal), I had some things to say about Miller taking the plunge for a non-constituent . . . particularly when there are legitimate/real (older) whistle-blower retaliation cases screaming for attention right under Miller's stuck-up, deep-blue nose.

Earlier this week, Volpe, e-mailed me with some "new" information recently published by Dr. Chacko (stuff I could barely make heads or tails of . . . and stuff that did not look remotely new).

Freshly-wounded from the legal farce that was the cyber-stalking case, I declined to bite.

In our e-mail exchange, Michael made some suggestions of people/organizations that he thought I should contact . . . people and grass-roots organizations that might be helpful in seeing justice finally done in my case.

Alas, the suggestions Michael made were avenues I have already travelled (I may practice in Eastern North Carolina now, guys & gals, but it's not a vacuum or a black hole) . . . and/or am resolved to steer clear of . . . because not everyone out there claiming to be a medical-whistle-blower actually is one (and I really don't have the resources, money or time to sort out who is who).

That, and most of these cases ARE very complicated, and you can waste a lot of precious energy and time fighting someone else's battle without getting any help yourself.

Been there, done that. Lots of scrubs.

Today, Michael e-mailed me a link to a new post at the Provocateur today, entitled, "The Deafening Silence of Congressman Miller and General Shinseki".

This gem, from the aforementioned "new information" authored by the freshly-fired Chacko (fired after a thorough investigation - which is a key point and another key difference between she and I), and recently published on the Internet, caught my eye:

"The VA has apparently developed a well-honed and scripted method of dealing with whistleblowers — humiliation, isolation, character and professional assassination."

Chacko's obviously been studying all the moves. And I had to chuckle. Because if you change the name from the VA to Randolph Hospital and the Moses Cone Healthcare System, you would have summarized my beef with both LOCAL institutions fairly well.

The National Health Services Corps and and N.C. Department of Rural Health and North Carolina Medical Board and JCAHO all just sat back and watched . . . each organization doing the equivalent of taking the Fifth when it came to their responsibilities of oversight.

And for their indifference and apathy and gross negligence, I hope to have all of them in Court and squirming by the end of the year.

Of course, just like a host of deep-blues before him, Brad Miller, the people's representative, is not going to upset any local apple carts or do anything that might directly or indirectly take on the mighty/hallowed name of Cone. I'm dog meat to him. But because Chacko's accusations suit his bias/agenda/purpose, he mounted the white horse . . .

. . . and rode off the credibility cliff.

The story gets even better. Chacko's latest "memo" caught the attention of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and was published.

But this time her advocates remain silent.

Hummmmmmm . . . I wonder why?

And that leads me to a post at Word Up today . . . where Edward-Cone-of-the-Cones, with his tongue not-so-firmly-in-his-cheek chides Liberty University for not taking the publications of serious bloggers seriously. The University elected to ignore the buzz-on-the-blogs until local newspapers started making a stink.

For the sad truth is that the path to the general public remains primarily through the mainstream media.

Of course, I'm quite sure that the fact that the University was founded by the uber-conservative, right-of-right, religious zealot Jerry Falwell has nothing to do with Ed's decision to chide.

But the thing is, GSO blogger-king & local journalist, Edward Cone, has ZERO maneuvering room to chide anybody about ignoring corruption stories.

I've sat here, in the "blogging cheap seats" of Randolph County, pleading my case to the deaf ears of local journalists for years . . . this despite being invited here by some of those same journalists.

The Courier Tribune (even new & improved) won't touch the story for obvious reasons (although I am considering diving in on their nascent blogs very shortly - and seeing how long I can go before I get banned).

Meanwhile, for all of its noble prattle about "citizen-journalism", the Greensboro News & Record wouldn't even let me buy an ad publicizing Housecalls.

But Ed Cone, who often writes for the N&R . . . who once offered to interview me (about blogging as opposed to my case) . . . and who often laments blogging's lack of relevancy, has the numbnuts to chide Liberty University?

Puhlease.

I believe Ed's online nemesis, Sam Spagnola (champion of free-speech, but deleter of my comments when they don't worship at his altar), would call it "liberal hypocrisy". That is, if Sam could pull his head out of his butt for more than two seconds and acknowledge that his precious legal system is corrupt and often does not work for those who do not have big bank accounts or big names or law degrees they can use to bully people.

Ed & company will defend to their last breath Congressman Miller's actions with regards to Chacko . . . who is, fairly obviously, a total fraud/wannabe in the medical-whistleblower department.

Meanwhile, they will continue to ignore and/or malign the real medical whistleblower who has been blogging-her-heart-out for five years right under their nose. It's just swell with all of these hign-minded folk that Dr. Mary Johnson has been consistently, deliberately and methodically battered black and blue under the hooves of those jockeying the white horses that are going to save medicine from itself.

But, hey, Jeff Martin says they'd do anything to help "ease my pain".

Yeah right. And that's not liberal hypocrisy, that's just hypocrisy.

And not just a lie, but a damned lie.

Tonya Craft: A Stellar Example Of Why We MUST Be Objective And Careful In Child Abuse Cases (Not-To-Mention How Badly The Courts Can Get It Wrong)

I had wanted to get this post up earlier today. But until a few minutes ago (and after multiple scans/re-boots), it's been as if my computer has been under some kind of hacker-attack all day long. Given recent events, it creeps me out.

A while back, I did a series of posts on the case of Dr. Melvin Levine, the world-renowned child-behaviorist accused of molesting young males during physical examinations he did decades ago. I dived into the controversy because the lawyers-prosecuting-civil-suits-on-behalf-of-the-now-adult-men boldly proclaimed that genital exams were NEVER necessary during the medical evaluation of children for behavioral & psychiatric problems.

That claim could not have been more IRRESPONSIBLE or just plain FALSE (my argument was made in the original post and I don't care to repeat myself here).

Moreover, I thought (and still think) that, when the Levine case came to their attention, the North Carolina Medical Board took a very convenient dive . . . in order to keep the headlines low-key and short-lived . . . and in such a fashion that we will never know the truth. There was no public hearing. The accusers remained anonymous. A "resolution" was reached behind closed doors. Levine, who has publicly always maintained his innocence, and had all but retired from clinical practice anyway, gave up his medical license.

But that's the North Carolina Medical Board's particular specialty. Like the North Carolina State Bar, they've never been very big on real transparency - or the whole truth - especially when it comes to their own inadequacies in both adequately policing and protecting their own.

I took a lot of heat for those posts on Levine - mostly from anonymous young men who alleged abuse on the part of various healthcare professionals scattered all over the nation.

Of course, that's not to say that child-abuse-by-a-trusted-professional does not happen and when it does happen, there should be hell for "the professional" to pay.

But the thing is, I've made the pilgrimage to Salem, Massachusetts and have done quite a bit of reading on their Witch Trials, and I've got ZERO USE for anonymous accusers . . . particularly when the allegation is something so heinous as child abuse.

If you're old enough to understand the procedure/speak . . . and you're going to lodge a whopper like that, you need to be ready/willing/able to take the stand. There's also got to be some kind of proof.

My thinking on the subject was shaped considerably by a turn I did as an expert witness in a "child rape" case in Randolph County several years back . . . as prosecuted by ADA King Dozier. The case (which I was told was won pretty much solely on my testimony - something that bothered me immensely) was ultimately over-turned on appeal . . . mostly because the accused was not afforded the very basic right to face his accuser (courtesy of a few smooth moves by Dozier and a local judge apparently unfamiliar with the Sixth Amendment) . . . and he was convicted of an act that I did not actually testify to.

Me being me, I blogged about the behind-the-scenes machinations (in which I was essentially forced to return to North Carolina - from Virginia - and testify under threat of arrest). I also got paid (the only time in all of the times I testified for DSS/CPS that I ever insisted on reimbursement for my testimony as an expert). It's all in the link. No need to reiterate the sad/sorry story here.

Every time I look back on that case . . . and how my testimony was used/abused in an end-run around the Constitution (Mr. Dozier has since been disciplined by the State Bar in another case) . . . I want to bathe. Indeed, after that experience, I stopped doing child abuse exams (unless confronted with an emergent situation).

Chalk another "kill-the-child-advocate" point up for Garland Yates, of the Randolph County DA's office.

Of course, where Garland is concerned, manipulating witnesses is nothing compared to colluding with Randolph Hospital executives in order to keep a Pediatrician-driven-out-of-town-for-saving-a-baby's-life OUT of town.

And how, as a DA, do you do that, you ask? Well, you keep the physician-that-the-VIP's-who've-bankrolled-your-campaigns want to keep out of town out of Court. You simply refuse to investigate the case (in which the Pediatrician alleges perjury, contempt and fraud) in your own jurisdiction . . . or (in the much preferable alternative) refer the case against said executives where it really needs to go (i.e. the North Carolina Attorney General's office).

It's the reason all of Governor Bev Perdue's wailing and moaning about "ethics" reform and fighting public corruption makes my blood boil. For until very recently, North Carolina has been using a wet noodle to do it.

OBTW, did I mention that North Carolina is number five on the Daily Beast's list of most corrupt states?

I digress and I apologize. Today we have yet another example of why child abuse cases can be so hard to navigate . . . and why I was so reluctant to jump on the bandwagon of self-righteous/angry anons calling for Dr. Levine's head when the allegations against him surfaced: A Georgia kindergarten teacher, falsely accused of child molestation, was exonerated in Court this week after a two-year legal ordeal.

It's classic small-town stuff. It seems adult$-with-agenda$ put the children up to it . . . and coached them as to what to say. Prosecutors-looking-to-make-a-name pounced.

The rest was hell-on-earth for an innocent woman, courtesy of the Courts.

What happened to Tonya Craft is reminiscent of a number of cases in which innocent child-care workers were put through hell by children being manipulated/used by adults. You would think that with all of these cautionary tales out there, prosecutors & child-advocates would be more careful.

Of course, the phenomenon is not limited to child-care workers or teachers or Pediatric healthcare professionals. Or indeed, Catholic priests.

In all cases, the accusations destroy lives - and it often matters not if the accused is ultimately proved innocent.

I know a little something about being falsely maligned (just a little - and certainly not nearly as much or in the same mind-numbing manner as Tonya Craft). Once upon a time, a pair of liars called me a liar. They ran from their despicable lawsuit in the end (the lawyers all said it was "nothing personal"). But not before they had humiliated me in front of my horrified parents, and wasted a lot of my money and time, and totally derailed a career . . . AND (last but not least) lied under Oath/on the record (not that they've ever been held accountable for that in any investigation/proceeding under Garland Yates' jurisdiction).

You will notice, in proving her innocence to a jury-of-her-peers, Tonya Craft (who lost her house and is now $500,000 in debt due to attorney's fees), took the stand and told the truth.

That's what truly innocent folk (as opposed to cowards and bullies) do. They want to fully clear their name. They want to counter every allegation and explain everything.

The guilty tend to let their lawyers do the talking, minimize/exclude damning evidence, and fully exercise the right to remain silent (5/13 Postscript: To answer a question that you posed in a public forum, Jeff, I "turned on" you and pressed charges because "friends" do NOT kick good people when they are down . . . or methodically prey upon the fear and/or "pain" of their "friends". Oh, and when they "screw up", they apologize, they mean it and they don't keep doing it. Hope that clears everything up for you.)

Where Tonya Craft is concerned, in the end, the Court (or more accurately, the jury) got it right. But not before the Courts got it very, Very, VERY wrong.

Addendum: More on the Craft case from William Anderson. As in the Nifong/Duke debacle, Anderson deserves a lot of credit in exposing the travesty of justice that could have deprived an innocent woman of her liberty and forever labeled her a pedophile/deviant.

Tonya Craft still has a long legal road in front of her. She's got to get her children and her life back.

In the process of restoration, which hopefully will be quick, I sincerely hope she kicks some prosecutorial ass.

North Carolina Is Number 5 On The List Of "Most Corrupt States" (Subtitled: I Can See November From My House)

People, calm down! Chill out! YES, I saw it. But (1) I'm supposed to be on a blogging break, and (2) I actually work for a living, and have only just now had time to get to a computer where I could post.

I'm so (ahem) "proud". First, we had Asheboro on Forbes' list of "Top Ten Dying Towns" (Asheboro was #4).

And now we have North Carolina on the Daily Beast's "Top Ten Most Corrupt States".

We're number five. I'm actually disappointed. I thought for sure we'd be #1 or #2 . . . right behind Louisiana (#19) or Illinois (#47). But those two states didn't even make the top ten.

Of course, I suspect a MSM conspiracy . . . especially where Illinois is concerned;) We cannot have too much attention flashed on the home of Barack Obama.

I also suspect that North Carolina only made #5 because our Attorney General's office has been asleep at the wheel for at least the better part of 20 years.

I can see November from my house.

Bev Perdue And Ethics: Talk Is Cheap, Part 3

In an about face, Bev Perdue has decided not to attend the "non-profit" fundraiser on "ethics reform" I railed against Sunday . ... and yesterday.

It seems some of her staff actually read the N&O . . . or probably more specifically, the comments on the threads at the N&O;)

(The "abusive" comment that was removed from this last thread was not so much "abusive" as it was too-hot-to-handle . . . as it invoked the name of Ex-Asheboro City Council member/now NC Commerce Secretary Keith Crisco - and asked him to say Hi to his good buddies, Bob Morrison & Steve Eblin. That, and I used the words, "Oh crap!" - directly quoting the organizer of the fundraiser - from the article.)

Bev, get it through your head. Nobody is buying what you're selling, sister.

Bev Perdue And Ethics: Talk Is Cheap, Part 2

Given my experience thus far in the Randolph County Court system . . . getting screwed-over for doing absolutely the right thing (by Randolph Hospital on behalf of Cone) . . . and sued for telling the truth . . . and swindled . . . and hosed some more . . . this headline at the News & Observer made my blood boil.

Yeah, Bev, why don't you and Roy and Keith and all Rand and Basnight and all of the rest of the useless posers & unconvicted felons who have run this state into the ground all sit around a "non-profit's" table (charging $50 a ticket for the plebes) and talk about ethics.

BECAUSE AFTER TWELVE YEARS OF THIS GARBAGE, IF I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ELSE, I KNOW FOR DAMNED SURE THAT ALL YOU CAN DO IS TALK.

Bev Perdue On Ethics Reform: Talk Is Cheap

This post has been amended and updated. Scroll to bottom.

Officially on break, but there's a story by Andrew Curliss on this fine Mother's Day in the Raleigh N&O . . . on Bev Perdue's mealy-mouthed pursuit of ethics reform in North Carolina . . . that speaks volumes about this state's legal inadequacies in terms of investigating and prosecuting public (which in my book includes "non-profit") corruption.

This state cannot even impanel investigative grand juries (where ordinary citizens can sift through and weigh the evidence . . . and put people under Oath under penalty of perjury . . . not that being under Oath or committing perjury matters in a Randolph County proceeding). And if Bev has anything to do with it, we won't even after we've been "reformed".

You see, the politicians & phat cats funding them are all afraid they'll go to jail.

I left a comment (#9) that speaks to my future plans for various North Carolina & Federal hospital/medical oversight agencies . . . a fire that was only fueled (with nuclear rods) by the Randolph County DA's office totally (and once again) throwing me under the ambulance in the cyber-stalking case against Jeff Martin.

In what amounted to a farcical "show trial", the ADA couldn't even win that case when Martin had confessed to the crime . . . on TV and in the newspaper and online. And that's because the DA's office didn't want to win this case. It might have led to a microscope being cast on other things.

You-all have a nice Mother's Day. I can't spend the day with my sainted Mom because I'm on-call in Eastern North Carolina . . . after being driven out of my hometown for standing up to threats issued by Bob Morrison & Steven Eblin (i.e. refusing to cover-up the incompetence of a Cone-owned neonatology-wannabe), and saving the life of another woman's child.

Of course, Bob is now dancing with my ex-attorney's daughter (I'm wondering - apart from the in-your-face ick factor, does the gross display of mill-town arrogance and cliquishness make anyone else want to throw up?)

Mother's Day always stings. For I'll never have children of my own. And that's because so much precious time was lost to the decrepit black hole of corruption that is OUR legal system in North Carolina.

Yeah, I know. I'm supposed to "get over it".

Afternoon Update: Closer to home, and when it comes to "change", talk is also cheap with ex-Candidate for Guilford County Commissioner, Sam Spagnola. When someone does not shake his hand after trouncing him fair & square in an election - apparently after taking something he said very personally (I wouldn't know anything about that), it's a Federal case . . . a "Season of the Witch" (the original uber-sexist/offensive title of Sam's post has apparently been changed to "A Bit of Nastiness").

Maybe his wife told him he'd gone too far and to chill out. Wish Jody Martin could accomplish the same.

Moreover, when a fellow blogger questions Sam's legal acumen during his campaign (hey, at least the practicing doctor didn't call the practicing attorney "batshit crazy"), she's threatened with a SLAPP-suit. Of course, that stunt flew like a lead balloon.

In short, and with due respect to those who supported him (whose opinions I generally respect and often agree with), by deleting perfectly-revelent comments that poke holes through his high-minded arguments on the effectiveness of "codes of ethics" in any venue in North Carolina (based on the real-life experience of someone who has actually lost skin fighting for them . . . a truth even Edward Cone can see . . . and psst, Sam, my dance through your hallowed/corrupt legal system was NOT "fun"), Sam Spagnola aptly demonstrates (1) he is no champion of free speech, (2) he was not going to "change" anything of import (in order to get anything done, the genus-known-as-political-shark must swim in packs - and can't stomp their feet or call their opponents "witches"), and (3) he does not have the temperament for, and was/is not a suitable candidate for public office.

That and Counselor Spagnola seems to have a problem with the opinions of women who disagree with him (at this point, I wouldn't shake his hand either).

In order for "codes of ethics" or laws to be effective, they must be enforced . . . by cops and lawyers and judges and public officials. Otherwise they're just empty air.

It's true of perjury (which does not have a statute of limitations because lying under Oath undercuts the administration of justice) and it's true of cyber-stalking (which apparently no one in Randolph County takes seriously).

I mean, Dr. Sue Polinsky and I were actually on the same page!?! The earth's mantle had to have cracked somewhere.

I regret that the comments at Sam's were deleted. I thought about them and spent time on them . . . and all are relevant to his topic at hand.

It really is a huge shame that the practicing attorney/blogger does not care that the home-grown Pediatrician-now-working-elsewhere was swindled by perjury, contempt and fraud in that settlement he keeps citing. It's also very telling/typical that the practicing attorney doesn't care that every door of re-dress has been slammed in the good doctor's face. Right and wrong for a doctor wronged do not matter to this lawyer who campaigned on transparency and accountability for everyone.

It's a double-standard - much like the ones Sam rails against at Cone's. But in this case, it's Mary Johnson, so ethics smethics.

It's also called "bad faith", and that CLEARLY does not matter to our oh-so-ethical ex-Candidate (I'll take extra time tonight to thank a merciful God for the "ex" part) Sam.

Evening Postscript: The thread continues at the N&O. Readers want MORE stories like this. I don't know about you, but I am tired of the pay-to-play corruption that permeates every burg and borough of North Carolina - and of seeing people elected to public office who do not care about right and wrong (whether it happened twelve years ago or twelve minutes ago). And I am SICK and tired of bloggers-in-dire-need-of-anger-management-classes telling me that I'm "crazy" or "demonically-possessed" because I DO. If the status quo floats your boat and you don't care about what happened to me, FINE (Sam). But don't you DARE tell me to "shut up about it" (especially if you fancy yourself a champion of anything-much-less-justice or fit for public office) and DO NOT GET IN MY WAY.

Talk is cheap. We need REAL change.

When A Fecund Stench Permeates The Courtroom: What I Really Think About The "Not-Guilty" In The Cyber-Stalking Case

Note to readers: This post has been updated. Scroll to bottom.

Well, I've had some time to sleep on it.

Now, I'm going to say what I really think about what happened yesterday. We've come full circle today, because last night my Mom actually encouraged me to say my peace.

Before I start, I'd like to thank all of the folks who've offered words of kindness, encouragement and support over the last few months.

"Not Guilty" was not the outcome I/we had hoped for, but it's the outcome that deep-down I'd knew I'd get all along.

It is Randolph County, after all.

First, as I've said before, I really don't like the way I was bullied and man-handled by the DA's office and Judge Michael Sabiston in terms of scheduling the case. After granting two continuances to "Mr. Stench" in the case, Michael Sabiston could not grant a Pediatrician on-call far away in rural Eastern North Carolina the same consideration . . . and forced her to drive four hours on a Sunday night to make a Court appearance that barely lasted an hour and seems to have been preordained as to outcome.

I might as well have phoned it in. But we'll get to that.

[I'm gonna pause here for a moment and tell you a little bit about my last Saturday in rural Eastern North Carolina - a Saturday I spent anticipating the delivery and taking care of a premature infant born with a very serious problem that many Pediatricians never ever see or manage in their entire careers. In fact, I was the only doctor on staff at that small/rural hospital who had ever dealt with this particular condition (several times) - and just the fact that I was there quelled a lot of nerves during the wait. It was dumb luck that Judge Sabiston's refusal to work around my call-schedule (and the subsequent scheduling contortions/trade-offs) did not serve to pull me away from the hospital earlier this weekend. What had to be done for this newborn was a tremendous team effort - everybody really pulled together for the child - and I was so very proud of the people I now work with. The wee one was transferred to one of our finer tertiary-care institutions, and at last check (I'm glad/relieved to report) is doing well.

So in terms of some of the bile Jeff Martin has hurled in my direction for the horrible sin of refusing to "let go" of things that were done to me in the name of pure malice and greed, I think we've already established that far from being "stupid" or "crazy" or a "lunatic" or a "booger-eating-moron", I'm pretty damned good at my job, and unfortunately it's the real reason I'm not working at Randolph Hospital in Asheboro, North Carolina.

And no, Asheboro City Councilman Bell, blink your bug-eyes in disbelief all you want, but I've not gotten over what our local "non-profit" hospital did to me (twelve years or fifty years ago, it does not matter), and barring someone holding your good buddies, Bob Morrison and Steven Eblin, accountable for their despicable deeds, I NEVER will "let go". Some things you do not get over.]

Most of all, I think the case was inadequately/very narrowly prosecuted.

Even as Mr. Stench (alternating between his trademark insipid grin and huffing/puffing into his lawyer's ear) was hiding like a little girl behind the art of blogging and what he styled as "friendship" . . . albeit using the "she was a bad friend who deserved it mantra" as his primary defense . . . the Randolph County ADA did not introduce Mr. Stench's own very ugly history/commentary on the blogs (especially not his despicable/vile post on Mike Baron/the Randleman Dam) . . . or the statements he later made at Vie De Malchance about what he did to Mary Johnson and why he did it . . . about "getting mean" and bringing Mary Johnson down.

Mr. Stench's portrayal of himself in Court . . . as some undeserving, defenseless "victim" of the angry lady doctor's irrepressible wrath was both laughable and PATHETIC.

Jeff Martin was nobody's "victim" here. On the blogs, he was simply being served up a very small taste of what he's very liberally dished out to others (as a "hobby") over the years. Indeed what started this mess was when he dished it out to a man with terminal cancer who had just gotten out of the hospital. It was cruel, despicable stuff that was just painful to read. And in terms of leadership our little part of the void, it wasn't GSO blogger-king Ed Cone who told Martin he was beyond out-of-line, it was Dr. Mary Johnson.

But Martin-as-Stench could not take a pale imitation of what he's dished out for even a very short period of time. So the big brave man switched to sending creepy e-mails to a woman. And in doing so, he crossed a line. He KNEW exactly what he was doing . . . and YES it was all about making me feel "vulnerable" . . . but only in the sense that he considered his target emotionally fragile . . . a doctor he thought he could intimidate into silence by telling her that he knew where she lived . . . and when his plan back-fired, he moved right on along to hurling libel online.

Mr. Stench can rationalize/justify it now all he likes. But I'm not buying what he's selling (just like I wasn't playing his head games back in November), and I called him on it.

As someone reminded me yesterday, the Randolph County ADA was not really charged with representing me, the ADA was charged with representing the State. And, as several others-in-the-know have observed, the State's primary interest was served by going through the motions, but then getting rid of this thing as quickly/quietly as possible.

Alas, in addition to failing to illuminate the true nature of Mr Stench's "hobby", the Randolph County ADA didn't think it was relevant to cite Mr. Stench's history/modus operandi of doing the very same kinds of things he'd done to Dr. Johnson to other bloggers (in other words, it wasn't the first time Mr. Stench has crossed this line). But they have Greensboro addresses, and/so the whole truth doesn't matter.

The Randolph County ADA also didn't think the freakish clown-show that Stench put on for the press spoke to motive or intent. The Stench knows he "screwed up" and "probably frightened" his intended victim for the newspapers (and TV). But he wasn't about to own up to that in Court.

Likewise, the Randolph County ADA didn't introduce the brazenly LIBELOUS blog posts Stench put up after sending those 27 e-mails (when he suddenly realized that pummelling someone's Inbox with unsolicited nasty e-mails was illegal in North Carolina - and that for once, the target of his bile was not backing down) . . . those posts intended to compound the online harassment and embarrassment for his chosen victim.

Moreover, the Randolph County ADA did not question investigating Detective, Justin Trogdon, about the menacing anonymous comments (all from the same Greensboro IP address) left at Housecalls - or ask him if he had identified the poster. In fact, I'm still waiting for someone at the Randolph County Sheriff's Department to answer that question.

(Addendum: I expect this "oversight" occured in part because the DA's office seemed to to be ALLERGIC to picking up the phone and calling the Sheriff's Department to exchange information. I was supposed to provide copies of the e-mails, I was supposed to call the Detective and remind him about things. It was ridiculous. At one point during what friends are already calling the "show-trial", Mr. Bell tried made an issue between the difference between the time-stamps on the e-mails read into evidence. There was nothing dishonest or sinister about it. The discrepancy was because the DA was NOT using the e-mails I originally copied the Sheriff's Department back in November, but recent copies I had provided him - after the automatic computer corrections made due to time change.)

Let another one of those comments pop into my Inbox and I can guarantee you that I WILL get an answer. And since they were not a part of the original complaint and (conveniently) did not come up at trial, jeopardy is not attached. And/so the answer is that if it was Mr. Martin, I will have the option of re-filing charges . . . this time perhaps in the much-more favorable jurisdiction where I first opened the e-mail that announced the comments.

In short, I will not be HIS victim any more. Or anyone else's.

Speaking of questions, in order for ANY of these things to come out, I had to be asked the right questions. As a witness for the State, I could not just sit there and lecture the Court.

No. The Randolph County ADA sat there like a lump on a log . . . even as Asheboro City Council Member Clark Bell pelted the State's witness with the "stupids" and "crazies" (and opened doors that a good prosecutor could've driven a truck through) . . . rarely objecting . . . and not asking that anything be clarified or explained on re-direct. I kept waiting for him to DO SOMETHING - to give me something I could run with. But it didn't happen.

I suspect that the real problem for the ADA was that the truck he should have been driving was on a pot-hole-filled road that led back to the reason Dr. Mary Johnson is in the blogosphere in the first place. And that reason is because two VIP "non-profit" hospital executives repeatedly lied under Oath in a civil matter under his boss's jurisdiction, and for six years his boss has pretended it didn't happen and has refused to refer to case to the North Carolina Attorney General for the proper investigation it should have gotten years ago.

What was really frustrating in Court was that the ADA actually had copies of the blog posts that Mr. Bell questioned me about (I gave them to him), but the ADA did not get up out of his chair and offer them to me for reference. Exhausted from the events of the previous weekend - and the road-trip in the night before, I was supposed to answer questions (out-of-context) about a real-time "blog war" (engaged on three "fronts") almost six months ago from memory without having anything in front of me to refer to.

Something was just very wrong - very OFF - in that Courtroom . . . from the moment I arrived only to be told that the case might be dismissed (and jeopardy would be attached) because I opened the e-mails while on-call in a far-Eastern North Carolina County (never mind that I was told by three different magistrates that the jurisdiction was Randolph County, and someone had had almost six months to address that question).

And, after you've sat there, as the victim of the crime . . . being forced to re-live all the UGLY for the umpteenth time (because you've had to print and reprint and send and re-send the e-mails and the blog posts . . . and you've been made to work with a DA's office that's done you nothing but dirty for twelve years) . . . forced to mouth the Stench's threats and accusations in your own voice in open Court . . . then be repeatedly re-called "stupid" and "crazy" by the paid representative of an individual who does not have the intestinal fortitude to take the stand and be cross-examined about his own behavior and the actions for which he is on trial . . . only for the Judge to not even offer the pretense of deliberating before he delivers his verdict of "not guilty" (because in his estimation, all of Mr. Stench's sick/warped behavior somehow "did not rise to the level of cyberstalking") . . . it's just surreal . . . ludicrous . . . beyond absurd.

I mean, I initiated correspondence with the Medical Board the very night the Stench sent his e-mails (correspondence that, INCREDIBLY, the ADA never entered into evidence). Does Judge Sabiston really think that I was not genuinely frightened of what the self-styled "child of a borderline Mother" could do (and clearly was very capable of doing) to complicate my professional life even further than it already has been? Does Sabiston actually think that being investigated by the Medical Board for six to twelve months (which is exactly what would have happened had the Stench carried through on his threats) is a walk in the park?

Sabiston was a lawyer before he was a judge. Does he think it would be fun if the State Bar climbed up his butt on the word of someone who has bragged about having "sociopathic tendencies" that he'd never had as a client?

After all, it's not like it's not a variation on a theme that's played before. Of course, on a primary day, no one wants to talk about that.

Moreover, does Judge Michael Sabiston really think that the harassment and abuse that the Stench dished out in his e-mails and at Vie De Malchance was fun to read . . . or that I spent the last almost six months trying to do something about it simply for sport? Did he really think I was not annoyed/scared as the e-mails flooded my Inbox? That I didn't feel harassed by what happened next (wait, I forgot, Mr. Stench didn't own up to that even as his lawyer tried to blame me for the observations and free speech of others - and it wasn't introduced as evidence)? That I haven't been massively embarrassed?

Oh, and because I'm a woman I cannot be all of these things and ANGRY too?

I got the distinct feeling that because I was not home that night . . . because the Stench was not sitting in my driveway plotting to do to me what I was told he did to one of his ex-tenants (it was crystal clear yesterday that my house-sitter's safety that night was not a consideration to anyone) . . . because I did not feel physically-threatened for more than a very short while . . . Judge Sabiston didn't give the rest of the very clear/very applicable language in the statute any credence at all.

But, of course, what I really think is that the black and white of the cyber-stalking statute did not matter one bit because Judge Sabiston was actually brought in from somewhere else in order to keep the lid tightly shut on a really big can-of-ugly when it comes to the huge pile of CRAP that has been shovelled onto Dr. Mary Johnson's head under Garland Yate's jurisdiction.

In short, I think the fix was in from the get-go.

And, as an aside, I'm just wondering. Why find Mr. Stench "not guilty", but then instruct him never to do it again? Why not find him GUILTY of something he clearly did and admitted to doing and boasted about doing . . . of what you're telling him not to do . . . and at least make him take an anger management class or bump up the meds for his sociopathic tendencies?

Again, I just don't get it.

This is what passes for "justice" in Randolph County.

There is NO DOUBT in my mind that the outcome would have been very different in Guilford or the far-Eastern North Carolina County I currently serve . . . where a number of residents of the former have had enough of Mr. Stench's nasty online antics, uber-ugly temper and potty-mouth (there certainly would have been more victims to testify) . . . and residents of the later really do appreciate the Pediatrician that Asheboro threw out-of-town like so much garbage because she saved a baby's life.

(OBTW, Randolph Hospital's latest edition of HealthLink made me physically-ill. And two of the nurses on that cover know exactly why. And, if you really want to THROW UP, look no further than this website for "Dancing with the Randolph Stars", a veritable Who's Who of Asheboro's "right-people"-who-fancy-themselves-"celebrities".)

The deck was stacked from day one. I knew it was stacked and I told people it was stacked, but everyone told me that I was being silly/paranoid . . . that this case was a slam-dunk application of the statute . . . and to "just trust the system to work".

"Let the locals do their job."

Of course, there was something inherently wrong with the theory that these particular locals would actually do their job. But I did surrender to the process. Again.

And I got hosed. Again.

The Courts in this county and this state are a joke . . . a pathetic mockery of justice. The system does not work. Victims of crime have ZERO rights. The sad thing is that people very rarely talk back (most of the time because by the time they feel they can they are too beaten-down/burned-out by the B.S).

This time I'm really damned mad. And I'm thinking that I need to hook up with more people who are really damned mad, and that together we should channel that anger and insist upon some changes.

I have been advised I can take the way this case was handled and adjudicated up with the Administrative Office of the Courts. To what end, I'm not sure. But I'm thinking why not? You just get tired of being jerked around.

Habitual intemperance gets REAL old.

Meanwhile, beyond disgusted with yesterday's farce, friends and family are encouraging me to sue the fat-pants off Jeff Martin for LIBEL . . . over the uber-nasty/hate-drenched posts he put up when his original e-mails didn't accomplish his goal of putting me into the "fugue state".

I have not yet ruled it out.

But what I'm really thinking is that the Stench is (and always was) a waste of my time . . .

. . . and perhaps I need to shake off the meaningless distractions (most specifically, the useless, do-nothing, mealy-mouthed, well-named "citizen journalists" in the Greensboro blogosphere) and focus on bigger fish (the ones whose apathy and laziness and abject negligence put me in this ether) and other jurisdictions. The last month or so . . . not posting here very often . . . commenting in other medically-oriented forums . . . connecting with other physicians of like mind . . . slowly working on crafting a legal case that hopefully will finally focus the public spotlight on Randolph Hospital and its nasty tactics (which are actually more commonplace than anyone in the general public realizes) . . . has really expanded the horizons.

My passion is that medical whistle-blowers-of-the-future never experience what I have . . . that they have a mechanism to pick up the phone, and like having a "Bat-phone", their call goes right to someone who can and will IMMEDIATELY help them . . . as opposed to being forever mired in the slime of in these penny-anty, backwater jurisdictions filled with two-bit, hustling, good-ole-boy John-Edwards wannabes scratching one-another's backs.

Anyway, that's what I really think. I know some of you were wondering.

In this era of healthcare "reform" mine is a story that deserves far more press attention and respect than it's gotten. Brought to this ether on the invitation of a journalist, I've spent the last five years telling my story on this blog. I've told the truth and I make NO apologies. Until recent events shut comments down, it was an open (albeit moderated) forum, and the people I've accused of wrong-doing have been free to engage/refute those accusations. Yet they've all crawled under rocks to hide. And our local "journalists" (including and especially the ones who enticed me here) have steadfastly refused to look under the rocks.

The most delicious irony in all of this is that, like the "resolution" of my legal battle with Randolph, "Fecund Stench's" "vindication is probably not going to get the MSM air-play or print love that his arrest did. None of the local news outlets want to feed a monster that might risk exposing the real stories behind the smoke . . . be it Dr. Mary Johnson's battle with a hospital whose idea of "care you can trust" is firing a Pediatrician who went above-&-beyond to provide it . . . or the burial of Mike Baron's career as a water conservationist under the tons of concrete composing the Randleman Dam. In short, "Fec" is most likely going to get yet another small taste of what it's like to live in our worlds. Maybe then he can compare notes with his hero and true friend, Edward Cone of the Moses Cone Healthcare System Cones . . . you know, the institution that employed the neonatology-wannabe I rescued on that fateful night so long ago.

Clearly, I was "stupid" then too . . . to believe that right would overcome money and might.

The bigger picture is also a story that deserves an ending worthy of an already-battered woman brave enough to take a cyber-bully to Court in a venue where she's previously been done NOTHING BUT WRONG and where she KNEW she'd just get screwed again. She showed up and stated her case (inasmuch as an ADA on a short leash let her) and took her medicine.

But as bullies do when directly challenged, "Mr. Stench" ducked behind clouds of smoke. And in doing so . . . by lowering the bar of discourse in free speech and muddling/crossing the lines of civility, I think Jeff Martin did real dishonor to the art and practice of blogging.

He's no hero.

I'm not the only one in this ether who thinks so. Let him live with/chew on that.

Working towards the ends I've alluded to above, and barring earth-shattering developments in stories that I am following, I will remain on break.

You-all have a nice summer.

5/5 Update: It's not earth-shattering enough to put a crack in the Randleman Dam, but the Greensboro N&R actually linked my posts on the verdict (???). First, they endorse local lawyer/blogger Sam Spagnola (not exactly crying over that loss) and now they're linking me?

There definitely IS a distrubance in the Force.

It makes you wonder if major advertiser, the Moses Cone Healthcare System, is finally sick and tired enough of the guilt-by-association & cooperative relationships to (like the shareholders of First National Bank) throw the doctor-stomping-lying-cheating-SLAPP-suing tag-team of Bob Morrison and Steven Eblin under the ambulance?

5/6 Update: For anyone who was still wondering if the Randolph County Sheriff's Department and Randolph County District Attorney's office did not throw me under the bus, I just took a call from Justin Trogdon, the "investigative officer" on the cyber-stalking case (after sending him two e-mails).

The IP address (174.98.172.113) of the menacing anonymous comments left on this blog . . . comments which the poster KNEW would be moderated through E-MAILS to my Inbox and would not go up (but would still "get" to me) . . . comments that SCREAMED "I am Fecund Stench and I am geting around all of the big black holes in North Carolina's USELESS cyberstalking law", WAS NEVER EVEN SUBPOENAED!?!

The Sheriff's office had almost six months to do this before the trial - or at least tell me they were NOT going to do it. I met with the DA a week before the trial. He did not say a word!?!

In fact he ENCOURAGED me to contact Detective Trogdon and light a fire. And I did.

IN SHORT, just like ADA King Dozier leaving a message on my phone that my perjury complaint against Randolph Hospital executives, Bob Morrison & Steven Eblin would be forwarded to the SBI for a full investigation - only to find out later that Garland Yates KILLED any investigation before it could start, the Randolph County DA's office once again LIED to me.

"Let the locals do their job." Yeah, right. These locals DID NOT DO their jobs . . . because it was Dr. Mary Johnson and they were not about to do their jobs . . . and I am DONE with all of them!

I will be taking this matter up with somebody else (jeopardy is not attached) . . . perhaps even a Federal jurisdiction. And I've gotta say, it only fuels the fire and makes the case I plan to make against the state/JCAHO/DHHS even more compelling.

In its "White Noise" section, Yes Weekly has a blurb up on the resolution of the case (this after participating in the freakish clown show cited earlier). Once again, Martin admits he should not have sent the e-mails . . . something he (excuse me, his lawyer) did not say in Court.

No Sir. No Ma'am. In Court, poor/pitiful Jeff Martin tried to justify sending the e-mails by throwing out-of-context excerpts from blog threads (i.e "public forums") in my face.

Meanwhile, Martin could dodge anything he said or did in those forums - because he did not have the guts to take the stand.

And in the best bit of journalistic "poetic justice" I've seen yet, Jordan Green aptly sums up my experience thus far with the Randolph County legal system using Jeff Martin's own words:

"The prosecution, in my opinion, acted more like my defense."

Well yeah, DUH, Jeff. No kidding. Now you and the rest of the bad boys in Randolph County can all sit around drinks at the Flying Pig and compare notes.

Really big brave men, you all are.

5/8 Update: Still hearing from locals new to this story (I'm not talking about the cyber-stalking case). After five years hauling water uphill in Edward Cone's blogosphere (where I had to be reminded about the character of the people flinging the "bat-shit crazies"), it's unbelievable to me, just unbelievable, that people can say they had no idea about what the lying thugs running Randolph Hospital had done to me!?!

Just so we're clear on the scope and depth of the Courier Tribune's "news" coverage of what is really going on in Randolph County, as of today, there has not been one peep out of Asheboro's local newspaper about this case . . . not when Mr. Martin's arrest was made . . . and not now.

Just like when the local "non-profit" hospital/it's controlled affiliate (trying to cover the medical butt of a Cone-owned physician) fired me for saving a newborn's life (and reporting what happened to Peer Review) . . . and just like when I sued the "controlled affiliate" a year later.

The Courier Tribune MUST protect the big dawgs . . . excuse me, Randolph County's "stars".

I'm told that, in one of his posts after the verdict, the poor/pitiful "eternal victim" Jeff Martin warned his readers that the news media was not necessarily a friend.

Again, Jeff. Yeah. DUH. Welcome to my world.