An anonymous blogger is given up by Google for libeling a former model. An 18-year-old woman is jailed in Britain for posting death threats to another young woman on her Facebook page. And a 17-year-old girl is found guilty of aiding and abetting the death of a young man for filming her friend delivering the fatal beating. Cyber-geeks are crying "censorship." But Andrew Vachss responded to that outcry back in 1994.
(Updated 09-01-10)

In a 2006 interview with Protect, Andrew Vachss said, "Why do I feel 'simple possession' [of child pornography] is so critical? ... [C]rime chases dollars. Although the huge networks grab all the headlines, without individual customers ... the networks are out of business. They run continuing criminal enterprises which are rooted in the desire of individuals to possess certain images. If those individuals were facing felony convictions, with actual prison time, and were forced to register as sex offenders, some deterrence would immediately ensue. For every 'collector' deterred, less money goes to the syndicates. If we don't stop the buyers, there will always be sellers." One of those buyers—Gerald Aumais—has been stopped. In October 2009, he was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Gary L. Sharpe to ten years prison. Then, in August 2010, U.S. Magistrate Judge David R. Homer ordered Aumais to pay $48,483 to one of the victims photographed in several of the thousands of images he collected.
(Updated 08-25-10)

If you want the limited edition of Heart Transplant—with a tipped-in art plate signed by Andrew Vachss, Frank Caurso, and Zak Mucha—you'll want to get your order in tomorrow. Because this book is limited to 100 copies, we cannot guarantee any orders placed after August 26. We'll be fulfilling orders on a first-come, first-served basis, so ... order today!
(Updated 08-25-10)

In answer to the emails we've received at The Zero, Ten Angry Pitbulls will again be making available signed copies of Andrew Vachss' latest books: Heart Transplant and The Weight. Orders for these books must be received by 5:00 pm Central on Monday, November 15, 2010. Click here to place your order. Also being offered is the limited edition of Heart Transplant, with a tipped-in art plate signed by Andrew Vachss, Frank Caurso, and Zak Mucha. Because this book is limited to 100 copies, we cannot guarantee any orders placed after August 26. We'll be fulfilling orders on a first-come, first-served basis, so ... order early!
(Updated 08-18-10)

Vintage's trade-paperback edition of Haiku will go on sale November 2, 2010. Click here to go to the Haiku page and see the cover of the trade paperback—and click on that cover if you want to see how it looks front and back.
(Updated 08-18-10)

Our mission at The Zero is to change behavior that threatens our species. One of the ways we try to do that is by changing the language people use. That can be like planting a firecracker and waiting for it to grow to a bomb. Well, one of those bombs was just harvested. Check out our "Sick vs. Evil" page, and be sure to scroll down to the bottom, to read about how this bomb blew up all over a child rapist named William Irey and U.S. District Judge Gregory A. Presnell.
(Updated 08-11-10)

Remember "noir verite," from Andrew Vachss' 2002 novel, Only Child ? Then you won't be surprised by this article from last week: "Three NJ Teens Charged in Immigrant's Videotaped Death."
(Updated 08-04-10)

One of Italy's major newspapers, Il Giornale, interviewed Andrew Vachss on that country's publication of The Getaway Man. If you read Italian—or just want to see the illustration they made of Mr. Vachss—click here!
(Updated 08-04-10)

"Kiddie porn on the Internet serves the same two major purposes it serves in any other forum ... and one unique to the medium. First, kiddie porn tells the child molester viewing it that he or she is not a freak, not alone in his degeneracy. ... Second, kiddie porn is used to desensitize potential victims." That's what Andrew Vachss said in 1998, in his testimony before the U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science. Now compare that to this, from a New York Times article published this week: "[Stacey] Springer [a vice president at Caleris, a firm that is hired by social networking sites to review photographs for inappropriate content] says she believes that content moderators tend to become desensitized to the imagery, making it easier to cope. But she is called on to review the worst material, like sexual images involving children, and says that she finds some of it 'hard to walk away from.' "
(Updated 07-28-10)

Back in May, we dissected the article "2nd Circuit Faults Pornography Enhancements, Vacates Sentence" (Mark Hamblett, New York Law Journal, May 14, 2010). It wasn't a one-shot deal for that Second Circuit Court. Read "2nd Circuit Vacates Enhanced 14-Year Sentence for Child Pornography" by clicking here.
(Updated 07-28-10)

"If you choose to share child pornography and victimize our children in the Bay Area, we are coming after you." That's a quote from San Jose police chief Rob Davis, at a press conference announcing the arrest of 11 suspects for possession of child pornography. How'd they find the suspects? The Web. Click here to read the full story by Trey Bundy, published July 19, 2010, by The Bay Citizen. Then click here to see how you can be part of a movement that will have every police chief echoing Chief Davis.
(Updated 07-21-10)

Diana and Jack from Rome checked in to share with us their piece of art: "The Getaway Man in 300 Words." Thanks, Diana and Jack!
(Updated 07-21-10)

Yes, we heard the Swiss have refused to extradite Roman Polanski. And here's what we wrote back in September: "You think Polanski went to Zurich by mistake? Come on! If you had to pick one country on the entire planet where money talks, where would you go? Switzerland, remember, is "neutral" ... they are equally willing to take money from anyone, whether it's drug cartels or Nazi-looted artworks. The whole thing feels very engineered to us, set up way in advance."
(Updated 07-14-10)

Here's an update on the Death of Journalism: John Conroy has been on the story of police torture in Chicago since 1990. His articles are credited as sparking the Police Dept. Review Board investigation that led to the 1993 firing of Jon Burge as Commander of Chicago's Area 2 police force. But Mr. Conroy didn't close his file there; he saw more to the story. He continued writing, and the revelation that so many people had been convicted based on confessions obtained through torture resulted in former-Governor George Ryan declaring a moratorium on the death penalty in Illinois. That was 2003, and Mr. Conroy kept writing. Just over two weeks ago, on June 29, Burge was convicted. Not of the torture itself—the statute of limitations expired decades ago for those crimes. He was convicted of perjury—lying about not torturing suspects, in testimony during civil cases. More than twenty years after Mr. Conroy's articles began seeing print. And, again, all of it credited to those articles. So ... how is this about the death of journalism? Mr. Conroy was laid off as a reporter in 2007. Even without the regular paycheck that should come with this kind of work, Mr. Conroy has continued reporting on police torture, on his blog at vocalo.com. That's a Journalist, following a story to its end. And when someone like that is replaced by AP wires and interns who just print press releases, we should all be worried. Mr. Conroy has our deepest respect and admiration.
(Updated 07-14-10)

In his 2007 interview with PulpPusher.com, Andrew Vachss said, "How come the same people who demand the government stay out of their personal business when it comes to gun ownership are so silent about the government telling people what they can do with their own bodies?" Now check out "Basis of Ruling on Gay Unions Stirs Debate," from the July 10, 2010, edition of the New York Times.
(Updated 07-14-10)

Can a tongue be registered as a lethal weapon? Join us in welcoming Maggie Estep's Mickey the Pit Bull to the Zero Pack!
(Updated 07-14-10)

Speaking of Maggie Estep ... her audio performance of Andrew Vachss' short story "Reaching Back" is the latest offering from MPformance. Joining Maggie is longtime Zero visitor Dan Boice with his performance of "Dead Game." At less than $1 each, you can't ask for a better MP3 value!
(Updated 07-14-10)

In False Allegations, Andrew Vachss wrote, "[T]he whisper–stream vacuums up everything, gold to garbage." Sometimes, it can be a bit of both. Read Lynda Edwards' article, "Myths Over Miami," from the June 5, 1997, edition of the Miami New Times.
(Updated 07-07-10)

Now you've got one place to go to get updated on Andrew Vachss' forthcoming projects.
(Updated 06-30-10)

We've got two treats today for our Italian visitors: an interview between Andrew Vachss and Thriller Cafe, and ... the release of The Getaway Man in Italian.
(Updated 06-30-10)

From the June 29 edition of the Daily News comes this great example of a protective parent ... and a lousy judge: "Judge frees mom [he] jailed for keeping son from rapist dad."
(Updated 06-30-10)

Andrew Vachss, Frank Caruso, and Zak Mucha collaborated on an antidote to bullying: it's called Heart Transplant. We announced the project back in April. But since then, we've been sending preview copies around and getting back some endorsements that demonstrate that leaders in the fields of psychiatry, child development, child protection, education, social work, journalism, self-defense, and community policing agree with the solution. Click here to read the endorsements, a description of Heart Transplant, and an excerpt from the book.
(Updated 06-23-10)

Heart Transplant is all about helping, and there's always ways that you can help. If you bought this book and donated it to a library, that would be huge. If you bought it and gave it to a kid who is being bullied, that would be fantastic. If you simply buy it, that would be a great help. But if you can't do any of that, here's something you can do that won't cost a dime: go to Amazon.com and "tag" the book (in the section immediately beneath Andrew Vachss' picture) as "bullying," "school bullying," "parenting," "young adult," "bullies," "bullied," "emotional abuse," and "bully." This will help put the book in the top rankings when someone searches these various tags. An antidote doesn't mean anything if it doesn't get to the person who needs it—your tags will help ensure it does.
(Updated 06-23-10)

Here are Andrew Vachss' words from 1983: "This is the type of kid who will kill three people on separate occasions for no apparent reason, commit a subway robbery, do a push-in mugging, blow somebody away because they 'looked at him wrong.' He will show no remorse, and then come into the office of an institution just enraged, veins bulging out of his neck, sweat pouring off his forehead, eyes wild, incoherent almost to the point of tears . . . all because someone broke his portable radio. And he'll see no contradiction whatsoever. He simply does not feel anyone's pain but his own. . . . To this kid, life is a lottery. Everyone rolls the dice, but not everyone pays the price." Compare those words to this June 3, 2010, story from The Washington Post: "The Southeast Washington drive-by shootings: Prelude to a tragedy."
(Updated 06-16-10)

You probably know Alison Arngrim as Nellie Oleson, once voted the meanest child star ever for her infamous nastiness on one of the most beloved shows in TV history: "Little House on the Prairie." We know her as a truly valiant warrior for PROTECT. And now you can know all about her—and see the reality behind the glitz of TV hits—because her take-no-prisoners memoir, Confessions of a Prairie Bitch, is about to hit bookstores. And we do mean hit!
(Updated 06-09-10)

Federal Judge Jack B. Weinstein thinks the law is too harsh on kiddie-porn collectors. New York Times reporter A.G. Sulzberger portrays Weinstein as a hero. And Dr. Joel Dvoskin summarily takes them both to task in "Poor Judgement and Bad Journalism," a Guest Dispatch to The Zero.
(Updated 06-09-10)

Chet Williamson's performance of Andrew Vachss' "Hit Man" has just been added to MPformance.com. If you're an audiobook fan looking for some quick hits, check out these less-than-a-dollar shorts. And if you haven't submitted your performance ... what are you waiting for?
(Updated 06-02-10)

Anyone who has read the books of Andrew Vachss knows how we feel about journalism: it's our only real form of protection. But journalism has been sadly degenerating in the last couple decades. So we're really glad to see that Trey Bundy—as serious a journalist as we've ever read—not only has a new regular, weekly column in The Bay Citizen, but that its focus is child welfare. Click here to read the first column, "The 'System' and its Discontents," and check in every week for the latest!
(Updated 06-01-10)

For years we've been saying that the sex-offender registries are useless—and, in fact, are downright dangerous. The latest story of the damage these registries can do hits close to home: frequent Zero visitors may recall the story of Kamau Marcharia. If not, you can read his story by clicking here ... and you can read how these registries are inhibiting his ability to represent his community by clicking here.
(Updated 05-26-10)

"When police fired off a flash grenade and stormed into an east-side flat, film was rolling. Now some are questioning whether that influenced the events that led to the death of a 7-year-old girl. The killing of Aiyana Jones during a police raid being filmed by a camera crew for the show 'The First 48' raises concerns for some over the relationship between police departments and reality television shows, a relationship that trades exciting video for the promise of positive publicity and improved morale." Read the whole story, from the May 18, 2010, Detroit News, by clicking here. Then go read Andrew Vachss' 2002 warning: Only Child.
(Updated 05-26-10)

We've been hearing from a lot of people who are celebrating the Supreme Court's ruling that 'sexually dangerous' inmates can be imprisoned indefinitely. Well, we're here to tell you: stop the celebration. The ruling has made matters worse. The poison pill is that the inmate can only be detained if s/he "suffers from a serious mental illness, abnormality, or disorder." This means we don't win; they do. Because the Court has not ratified the concept that one can "suffer" from a "mental illness." GUARANTEED: this will become the new defense strategy. If the U.S. Supreme Court says that the "disease" exists, no lower court can refuse when the same conduct is offered as an INSANITY DEFENSE! The perfect irony: what keeps some freaks in will let many more off the hook. Too bad the Justices never read "The Difference Between 'Sick' and 'Evil,' " huh?
(Updated 05-26-10)

Two Trains Running, when you boil it down, is about the importance of journalism. Same case with the Underground short stories. So when we see articles like "Pornland, Oregon: Child Prostitution in Portland" (Dan Rather, Huffington Post, May 18, 2010), it makes us angry. Why? Well, we can forgive Rather for not reading Pain Management (2001), in which Andrew Vachss writes about Portland's trade in child sex. But as a "journalist," you'd expect Rather to at least have read Vachss' article "Watch Your Language," which appeared in every major newspaper in America (including The Oregonian) via Parade in 2005. Here's part of what he would have learned:

"Years ago, I participated in the rescue of a child from bondage. Destiny (not her real name) was 13. She had been repeatedly raped by a pair of predators to 'educate' her. Then, along with several other young girls, she was forced to sell herself to strangers. ... What was wrong with calling Destiny a 'child prostitute'? After all, she was a child, and she was engaged in prostitution. First, the word itself implies a judgment of character. Don't we call people who sell out their moral convictions in exchange for personal gain 'whores'? More important, prostitution implies a willing exchange. Ultimately, the term 'child prostitution' implies that little children are 'seductive,' that they 'volunteer' to have sex with adults in exchange for cash (which, of course, the children never see).

"The difference between calling Destiny a 'child prostitute' and a 'prostituted child' is not purely semantic. It is more than the difference between a hard truth and a pernicious lie. It not only injures the victims; it actively gives aid and comfort to the enemy."

So Rather writes, "We all [emphasis ours] are ... in denial [about sex trafficking in children in America]," and that he "ran across [this story] late last year." Well ... thank goodness Dan Rather is on the job. And he proceeds to contribute to the problem by using the term "child prostitute" and using salacious images with his "story." Rather isn't a journalist—he's a guy selling advertising. And selling advertising isn't a crime. But posing as a journalist and (further) prostituting children for the purposes of ad sales ought to be.
(Updated 05-19-10)

Every so often, a news story strikes us as so wrong that we have to dissect it. That's what we've done with "2nd Circuit Faults Pornography Enhancements, Vacates Sentence" (Mark Hamblett, New York Law Journal, May 14, 2010). The emphasis throughout the story is that "mere possession" of child pornography could result in a higher sentence than the actual sexual assault of a child (for pleasure and/or profit). But the emphasis should be on why the latter are not eligible for much longer sentences. Click here to read our view of what this story misses.
(Updated 05-19-10)

Maybe you read Andrew Vachss' 2007 novel, Terminal? If so, it won't surprise you to read this quote from the April 12, 2010, Connecticut Law Tribune: " 'Tony' Bryant ... a private school classmate of [15-year-old Martha] Moxley and [the person convicted of killing her, Michael] Skakel ... said his friends told him a few days after the murder that they assaulted Moxley. Defense attorney Sherman did not introduce Bryant’s statements during the 2002 trial." Click here to read the rest of the article ... or click here to read the end before it's written.
(Updated 05-12-10)

"Forgiveness is not a substitute for justice." If we told you that quote came from Andrew Vachss, you'd believe us, right? But it comes from the Pope, in response to the latest wave of news about predatory priests. Here's an actual quote from Vachss that frames the Pope's quote: "[P]eople's reality lies way south of their rhetoric. And if I had to sum up the most important lesson of my life, it would be that behavior is the truth."
(Updated 05-12-10)

When we talk about people who are homeless, we tend to talk about them like they are a singular population: they came to be homeless the same way, and there's a single solution to resolve their homelessness. That's what Haiku is about—and that's what this story from WPIX.com demonstrates. Until we start talking about the different ways people come to be homeless—and until we stop juxtaposing "homeless person" with "good samaritan"—we won't be able to talk about real solutions.
(Updated 05-05-10)

And speaking of Haiku, click here to check out Vintage's cover to the trade-paperback edition of that book, scheduled for release on November 2, 2010.
(Updated 05-05-10)

Two more audio performances of Andrew Vachss' short stories have been added to MPformance.com: "Witch Hunt," performed by Zak Mucha, LCSW, and "Dress-Up Day," performed by Chet Williamson. That brings the 99-cent offerings to five. If you haven't checked them out, now's your chance—and if you haven't submitted your performance ... what are you waiting for?
(Updated 04-28-10)

The Supreme Court says it's legal to make movies of animals being tortured. That was their ruling yesterday, by a count of 8 to 1. So what we want to know is, if we make a film of ourselves killing a couple people who are making a film of themselves torturing an animal, is that legal? Because those torturers are lower than animals.

Our regards to Samuel Alito for being the only judge to vote humanely. As for the rest of them ... our motto is Replace All Eight.
(Updated 04-21-10)

Last week, as a response to the latest wave of news about predatory priests, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone said "[T]here is a relation between homosexuality and pedophilia. That is true. ... That is the problem." We've been saying our piece for years—and have interlineated some of it into the Daily News article from April 13. Click here to read the whole deal.
(Updated 04-21-10)

For over a decade, Dr. Frank Ascione has been writing about the connection between animal abuse and child abuse, and we've been honored to publish some of that writing here on The Zero. But we weren't the only ones paying attention. Click here to read about the passage of Senate Bill 80 in Colorado, which will allow people to get orders of protection for animals. And to sweeten the pot, we're also proud to offer Dr. Ascione's latest article: "The Human-Animal Connection: Exploring Our Complex Relationships with Animals," as published by the University of Denver's Graduate School of Social Work, where Dr. Ascione is the American Humane Endowed Chair and the Executive Director of the Institute for Human-Animal Connection.
(Updated 04-14-10)

If you like to consume your Andrew Vachss stories via audiobooks, we've got a bunch of good news for you. First, Brilliance has announced that, by the end of 2010, they'll have adapted all but two of the Burke novels. Check out most of the covers and listen to excerpts from half of them here. Secondly, Ten Angry Pitbulls has added two new audio adaptations to MPformance.com. For less than a dollar each, you can download Maggie Estep's audio performance of "Sure Thing" and Chet Williamson's performance of "Cain." And they promise there's more to come.
(Updated 04-07-10)

"Just weeks after Chris Goehner, an Iraq war veteran, got a dog, he was able to cut in half the dose of anxiety and sleep medications he took for post-traumatic stress disorder. The night terrors and suicidal thoughts that kept him awake for days on end ceased. Aaron Ellis, another Iraq veteran with the stress disorder, scrapped his medications entirely soon after getting a dog — and set foot in a grocery store for the first time in three years. The dogs to whom they credit their improved health are not just pets. Rather, they are psychiatric service dogs specially trained to help traumatized veterans leave the battlefield behind as they reintegrate into society." Click here to read the rest of Janie Lorber's story "For the Battle-Scarred, Comfort at Leash's End," as published April 2, 2010, by the New York Times.
(Updated 04-07-10)

Andrew Vachss' next novel, The Weight, isn't coming out until November. But since Amazon is already listing it, we thought we'd better give you a more complete first look. Click here to read an excerpt from The Weight.
(Updated 03-31-10)

Amazon is also now listing Vintage's trade-paperback edition of Haiku, due to ship November 02, 2010. A large-print edition of that book was published March 02 of this year by Thorndike Press. And ... there's another book by Andrew Vachss due out in October 2010, and that's not listed on Amazon. Head back here next week for a first look at that book, a collaboration with cartoonist Frank Caruso. The target: bullying.
(Updated 03-31-10)

Did you read Andrew Vachss' 2005 novel Two Trains Running? You can bet Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood wishes he had. Check out "Ex-Klansman convicted in '64 slayings sues FBI," published February 25, 2010, by the San Francisco Chronicle.
(Updated 03-31-10)

"Andrew Vachss writes with compelling immediacy about the darker side of human behavior. His narratives have a streetwise sensibility about them that bring into sharp relief societal issues that most people don't consider. He makes visible what many people would just as soon stay invisible." Click here to read Robert Moyer's entire review of Haiku, titled "Sensei sums life in a few phrases," as published March 21, 2010, by the Winston-Salem Journal.
(Updated 03-24-10)

In her article "Another girl's death, another law" (Los Angeles Times, March 14, 2010), Cathleen Decker quotes a January 2010 report by California's Sexual Offender Management Board: "The hypothesis that sex offenders who live in close proximity to schools, parks and other places children congregate have an increased likelihood of sexually re-offending remains unsupported by research. On the contrary . . . there is almost no correlation between sex offenders living near restricted areas and where they commit their offenses." Ms. Decker writes, "California spends an estimated $80 million annually on ankle-bracelet monitoring of high-risk offenders, but the report suggested that there is no indication that the public is safer from felons monitored by global positioning systems than from those unmonitored. 'The law was passed with little information about how it would be implemented or evidence of whether GPS technology would protect Californians from sex offenders,' the report said."

If you caught the Family of Choice webcast back in January 2009, you would have heard Andrew Vachss say the former; if you missed it, watch that clip by clicking here. As for the latter, here's what appeared in the 2007 Burke novel, Terminal: "Some other geniuses are pushing GPS cuffs for the freaks. Won’t stop them from doing what they do, but it’ll save a lot of money on cadaver dogs."
(Updated 03-17-10)

"As sex abuse scandals rock the Vatican, the results of an investigation into a rich, ultra-conservative and secretive Roman Catholic order founded by a priest accused of pedophilia and incest are due to be filed in Rome on Monday." That's from an AOL news story published March 14, 2010. And if it sounds familiar, go grab your copy of Andrew Vachss' 1996 novel, False Allegations, and read about "the Gospel of Job's Song," beginning on page 150.
(Updated 03-17-10)

"The school board held one of their little coffee-klatches and decided they're going to ban what they call 'bullying' at the high school. Maybe if they spent a few hours in the real world, they'd understand that what they're all hyperventilating about is nothing more than Darwinism. The strong are always going to assert themselves over the weak—that's what keeps a species viable. Look at a wolf pack. If one of them's too weak to pull his weight, it's better the rest find out while he's still a cub."Click here to read more of Roger's pontifications in "Choice of Weapons," an original short story by Andrew Vachss.
(Updated 03-10-10)

"A former Ohio emergency room physician was convicted of aggravated murder Friday in the 2005 poisoning death of his wife. .. One female juror noted that throughout the trial, Essa did not display any emotion, not even when a picture of his wife and children was shown in court. 'When your kids ain't there, you're gonna miss them. You're gonna cry. [But he had] no expression at all. He hadn't seen these kids in five years, no expression, no tears, no nothing,' she said." That's from CNN from March 5, 2010. This is from Andrew Vachss' 2007 novel, Terminal:

Jurors were being interviewed. Must have been some kind of major case. They all agreed it was just disgusting that the killer hadn’t shown the slightest trace of remorse. “He never shed a tear for her, not once,” one blobby woman in a blue dress with a white Peter Pan collar said. Her own piggy eyes dutifully welled up as she reached for her personal Oprah moment.

I didn’t know if the guy they were talking about was guilty or not, but I felt a wave of disgust for that jury, anyway. TV trials have turned jury service into a media opportunity, and the slugs know their lines by heart: If the poor bastard says he’s innocent, they want to fry him because he’s not “sorry.” And if he blows any chance of appeal by admitting he did it, any tears that come out of his eyes are dismissed as phony.

Language is a tool: one that predators use to weaken their victims, and that we use to fight predators. Like many other tools, the more you use it, the more effective it is. Back in 1996, Andrew Vachss wrote, "If we allow the term 'child prostitution' to gain a sufficient foothold in our language, we surrender precious, hard-won ground to the enemy. There is no such thing as 'child prostitution.' That term contradicts itself, 'proving' a lie. Trafficking in prostituted children ... is slavery—any other description is a grotesque euphemism or an outright lie." In 2005, he wrote, "The difference between calling Destiny a 'child prostitute' and a 'prostituted child' is not purely semantic. It is more than the difference between a hard truth and a pernicious lie. It not only injures the victims; it actively gives aid and comfort to the enemy." This past October, in The New York Times, reporter Ian Urbina wrote, "[M]any child welfare advocates and officials in government and law enforcement say that while the data is scarce, they believe that the problem of prostituted children has grown, especially as the Internet has made finding clients easier." Add to that a headline from the February 27, 2010, edition of The Washington Post: "Two charged ... with prostituting girl." The cultural software is being recoded....
(Updated 03-10-10)

For decades, Andrew Vachss has been asked: "Who would you like to play Burke on the screen?" His answer has never varied: "I'd want an open casting call, because I know there are better 'undiscovered' (meaning 'unconnected') actors out there than you've ever heard of. Me, I'd want the best. And I know I'd have the best chance of finding the perfect dog in a shelter than I would at an AKC show." We've now set up that "open casting call." Ten Angry Pitbulls is selling mp3 audiofiles of performances— not "readings"—of short stories by actors who may not be household names ... yet. For openers, they present Andrew Vachss' "Step on a Crack," as performed by Ean Sheehy (Law & Order: Criminal Intent). It's a 99-cent commitment for you to check out this first one. And if you want to participate in the open casting call, click here to get details.
(Updated 03-03-10)

In a story last week about the military coup in Niger, the BBC reports, "[Under overthrown President Tjanda] ... China National Petroleum Corporation signed a $5bn deal in 2008 to pump oil within three years." A year earlier, in his 2007 novel, Terminal, Andrew Vachss wrote, "The teleprompter-reader announced that Nigeria and China had just signed some sort of treaty, the centerpiece of which was cooperation between their governments. Nigeria announced it was irrevocably committed to a 'one-China' policy, meaning, the day the Chinese decide to attack Taiwan, they could count on Nigerian oil to keep flowing to their war machine. Nice two-way street: if Biafra—or any other separatist movement—ever tries to rise again, and the Nigerian generals go back to their genocide program, China’s going to veto any UN Security Council vote to intervene."
(Updated 02-17-10)

"A patient at the Bronx Psychiatric Center claims he was molested by an employee who was a registered sex offender in Florida when he was hired." That's the first line from a February 5, 2010, article published by The (New York) Daily News—click here to read the whole piece. And then compare it to Lou Bank's guest dispatch, "Are Children Safe in Our Hospitals?," originally published on The Zero back in 2000, which begins, " 'Volunteer accused of molesting children at Doernbecher!' That headline has not yet run on the front page of The Oregonian, but it will. It's just a matter of time." Nobody uses these sex-offender registries in a way that truly protects the public. Unless and until we make institutions, agencies, and organizations strictly liable for any crimes committed by those they hire (or allow to volunteer), nobody will.
(Updated 02-17-10)

In his February 2006 Parade article, Andrew Vachss wrote, "[W]e must begin to treat so-called 'simple possession' of child pornography as the heinous crime it is. Every purchase of child pornography encourages further growth of this evil business: from 'custom' child pornography—the sale of images of child rape created to order for the consumer—to 'real-time' child pornography, where subscribers pay to watch the streamed online rape of children as it occurs." He clarified that statement in an interview with Protect, saying, "I specifically want the federal government to be able to sue, because it has both the resources and the mandate. I am not advocating 'class action' suits on behalf of unidentified victims. The goal is not enrichment of individual lawyers. The goal is to benefit child pornography victims, penalize the profiteers, and add assets to the agencies charged with enforcing the law." Now, four years later, someone is doing exactly that. Read "Child Pornography, and an Issue of Restitution," from the February 2, 2010, edition of the New York Times, by clicking here.
(Updated 02-10-10)

"MSNBC is reporting child abuse rates in the U.S. have dropped sharply. ... [A]buser-apologist group the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform wants to use the reduction as an excuse to gut investigation and prosecution of abusers." To read the rest of Roland Murphy's guest dispatch, click here.
(Updated 02-10-10)

This Sunday is Valentine's Day, a day that's all about love. And anyone who understands that love is behavior will also understand why this day is ruled by Honey Pit Bull. Click here for your Honey Valentine!
(Updated 02-10-10)

Last week's update took a square shot at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (see second update below this one). This week, the National Association to Protect Children steps into the ring. Click here to read their piece on the matter.
(Updated 02-03-10)