Sometimes something flashes across your computer screen and you instantly become so livid that whatever was in the hopper for today’s blog post gets flushed down the toilet.

This is one of those times.

“Feckless Friday” is getting preempted this week. Say hello to “Fucking Rage” instead.

I’ve always said that there is a certain kind of person who should never have children. Those people are called, of course: Parents.

You have to take a test and obtain a license to operate a motor vehicle. Or to be a hairdresser (in most states). But want to pump out offspring? No problem. Have at it. Any idiot is allowed to do so. And that is the problem.

What the hell is going on in the world lately? Let’s recap.

Yes, children sometimes get murdered. Sometimes even by their parents. Sadly this sort of thing is not that uncommon. But there is something else that has been popping up on the radar more that its fair share recently. And that is the death of children at the hands of people who are attempting to “punish” a child.

People deciding upon strange and bizarre punishments who have absolutely no parenting skills or common sense? Lovely.

Back in July 2011 a 10-year-old girl was found dead in a trunk. Police believe she was punished by the family members that were her caretakers for taking a popsicle without permission. Police believe that she was locked in the truck as punishment by her grandmother, aunt and two cousins. Police also believe that prior to her death she was routinely subjected to abuse based on witness statements including being forced to eat dog feces. (Source.)

When I used Google to research this story, I was amazed to discover it wasn’t the only story about eating dog feces as punishment out there.

Witnesses reported to the Police that Holloway used to tie the two girls to a bed without food or water, forcing them to eat toilet tissue with dog feces on it, and making the youngest sleep in a in a portable dog carrier.

Then there was the Alaska mom who forced her son to eat hot sauce and take a cold shower because he lied about an incident at school. Can you feel the love? She was convicted of misdemeanor child abuse, fined $2,500, a suspended 180-day sentence, and three years of probation. (Source.) She tried for a year to get on the Dr. Phil show, and producers responded by asking her to video tape the abuse. Why aren’t they in jail, too?

And, last but not least, let’s bring the Bible into it, shall we?

In this story, a husband and wife beat a seven-year-old to death with plastic tubing over a period of several hours. Over what? Mispronouncing a word. The couple told police they were following the teachings of a book put out by a Christian fundamentalist group that promotes corporal punishment as a method of training children to be obedient. (Source.)

If you don’t know the names, Kevin and Elizabeth Schatz, Lydia Schatz, or Michael Pearl’s book, To Train Up A Child,  you should. Kevin and Elizabeth are the names of two parents convicted, respectively, of murder and manslaughter in the case of their 7 year-old daughter Lydia. Pearl is the self-proclaimed minister/author of a book which teaches the biblical foundation and moral virtue of hitting kids. We need to know their names because they are part of real problem – the problem of sacralizing child abuse, of beating children as a religious act. (Source.)

This is another case where attempting to research in Google resulted in finding several other cases. This sort of thing apparently is more common.

Dog feces, hot sauce, beatings, locked in cages, chained to beds, withholding water, and much much more, I’m sure. And never do the perpetrators face punishment equal to the crime. I guess this is just a bit more evidence why I don’t believe that bullshit about children choosing their parents.