Last week, an amber alert was issued for a 9-month old baby stolen from a Seattle area hospital, who had a serious kidney problem and needed dialysis. Unbeknownst to the general public, all roads tied the abduction to the baby’s mother, who stole him because she believes his serious illness can be treated with alternative methods and herbs (basically voodoo medicine) and the state (and people who have a PhD in this field) believe otherwise.

God, I hate Seattle.

I was born and raised there, so I have first-hand experience in the ways of this alternative and natural methods cure-all. I also know it’s nothing more than snake oil and utter defiance of science. I’ll always remember living in Seattle as a small child when my sister suddenly became seriously ill. A hippy from the neighborhood insisted he would work his magic on my sister and that he would miraculously cure her. Part of his natural cure included chiropractic medicine that he wasn’t licensed in. In fact, the only thing to my knowledge that he was licensed in was incense and pot. My sister moaned at the thought and pleaded for my mother to say no who was always such a pushover. This hippy dippy dope kept pressing my mother and trying to convince her to throw out my sisters medicine (you know, the evil medical empire that doles out medicine to make people sicker so they can become richer). My mom stood firm, but this man eventually snuck into our house and grabbed my sister and on our livingroom floor, proceeded to stretch her arms and legs into positions that were probably so painful, it caused her to pass out. My mother screamed, he couldn’t understand this as he was saying, “Man, I am just trying to save the child from the pharmaceutical industry who is trying to kill her.”

My mom took her to the hospital and as it turned out that she had mono. The amateur chiropractic session probably made the virus spread more quickly and further compromise her immune system. She was out of school for 3 months.

God, I hate Seattle. Did I already mention that?

Anyway, back to the snake-oil:

A seriously ill 9-month-old boy taken from Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center was resting comfortably at Children’s Hospital across town on Saturday, authorities said.

A statewide Amber Alert was canceled after police recovered little Riley Rogers when they pulled over a vehicle around 12:20 a.m. Saturday in Yelm, southeast of Olympia.

Police said his mother, Tina Carlsen, hid the boy in a diaper bag and took him from Harborview on Thursday morning. She was ordered held on $500,000 bail.

Children’s Hospital confirmed Saturday morning that Rogers was in satisfactory condition after being admitted around 3 a.m.

The boy had been scheduled for surgery at Harborview to treat what relatives described as a kidney ailment. It was not immediately known if the surgery had been rescheduled.

In a statement released late Saturday morning, Children’s Hospital referred all other inquiries to the Child Protective Services division of the state Department of Social and Health Services. A call to a DSHS spokeswoman was not immediately returned.

The child became a ward of the state June 9, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported, after months of back-and-forth between medical professionals, who had insisted that he get dialysis, and his parents, who favor herbs, vitamins and other alternative treatments.

DSHS spokeswoman Kathy Spears confirmed Friday that the child was in the agency’s protective custody.

Todd Rogers, the boy’s father, told the P-I that his wife believed she was doing the right thing. “She honestly believes that if Riley has that surgery, he’ll die. I don’t share that belief — we’ve argued about it — but she is his mother and that’s her gut instinct,” he said.

For a picture of the baby and the mother, click here.

Where and what were the signs? A 13 year old doesn’t just issue a blow to a two-year olds head, causing enough trama to kill her, without there being some sign of psychosis. Who and what failed this child and what was he exposed to at home that made him into a monster? Or was it just a chemical imbalance? If it was, why wasn’t it recognized? It wouldn’t surprise me to find out more about this vicious 13 year old down the road, perhaps some previous animal torture or bullying. A sweet child doesn’t kill a toddler unless he is mentally challenged or deranged.

FERGUS FALLS, Minn. — A day after the Johnson family laid to rest their 2-year-old daughter, Emily, with nursery rhymes, two blankies and her treasured stuffed “lambie,” this rural Minnesota community struggles to understand a death that has wrenched hearts and raised troubling questions.

Emily Lynn Johnson died June 17, a day after prosecutors say a 13-year-old boy assaulted her at Deborah Koenig’s home day care just outside the Fergus Falls city limits. Community members have identified the 13-year-old as Koenig’s son, Zebulun. He is accused of administering a fatal blow to the girl’s head and awaits trial in juvenile court on charges of second-degree manslaughter.

Many in Fergus Falls share a connection with one or both families and expressed grief and anguish over what prosecutors describe as Emily’s violent death at the hands of another child. Violent youth crime is so sporadic in these parts that there isn’t even a juvenile detention facility in Otter Tail County. Zebulun Koenig is in Moorhead’s juvenile lockup 50 miles away.

 From the Twin Cities Pioneer Press, here is a photo tribute to little Emily:

Many of my posts are an effort to bring attention to the injustices of child abuse and neglect and how society avenges it. I have often raised my hands and cursed at the stupidity of the judicial system and sometimes the American public in how they view the rights of sexual preditors and heinous acts of violence against children, however, in this story, it is not about abuse or selfish or malicious intent and maybe that’s what makes it so painful to read. My heart aches for this woman. This is a sad, sad story:

A 14-month old boy died Friday morning, less than 24 hours after his mother left him in her vehicle at Cossatot Community College of the University of Arkansas in De Queen.

Zachary Bowden was pronounced dead at 4: 16 a. m. at Arkansas Children’s Hospital, according to information from the Pulaski County coroner’s office.

The boy’s mother, Kristin Bowden, the vice chancellor and dean of academic services at the community college, reportedly left the baby in her car for about four hours — from 8 a. m., when she arrived on campus for a summer-school program, to noon, when she went back to her car, said Frank Adams, president of the college.

“We are running a program for high-school students which we call Extreme Academy. And, as a matter of fact, we were dealing with ambulances and helicopters and all of that related to health care,” Adams said in a telephone interview. “When the program was over, [Bowden ] went to her car and found that her child was there.”

The temperature in De Queen ranged from 77 degrees at 8 a. m. to 89 degrees at noon, according to the National Weather Service.

Bowden immediately took her son to the college’s health building, where a student in the licensed practical nurse program performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation, Adams said. Paramedics then transported the child to De Queen hospital, from where he was airlifted by Angel Flight to Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock, where he died.

The reason the mother won’t be charged, and this is a tough thing to imagine when you hear about the circumstances, it truly is a tragedy of magnificant proportions. I can’t even imagine what this mother is going through.

Prosecuting Attorney Tom Cooper of Ashdown said in an interview that it was unlikely that charges will be filed against the mother.

He cited several mitigating factors, including the mother’s recent brain surgery; the child’s disability, which limited his ability to cry, and the fact that the boy’s grandmother usually dropped the boy off at preschool.

“We believe at this point it was a horrible accident,” Cooper said.

7 babies, toddlers and children have died this summer from being cooked alive in hot cars. Most of these as a result of criminal behavior.

I was just checking the logs, and I noticed in the search keywords that some disturbed individual came to our site by typing the following words into Google:

“Star Jones toppless [sic]”

I just threw up a little….