Wednesday

TV-The 2007 Kennedy Center Honors-Politicians,Celebrities and Honorees; Book Review-"Unspeakable Acts" by Jan Hollingsworth

Here's a TV review of the 2007 Kennedy Center honors.

Still we have pics and video you'll find nowhere else on the Internet.

Also, a True Crime Book Review of "Unspeakable Acts". This book is more accurately a tome. Half of it could have been deleted. For this tale of two hippie doctors eliciting tales of abuse in a daycare center in the hysteria of the mid-80's is almost entirely fiction.

This is a great study of how the Lamestream Media creates a story from thin air.


Quote of the Day
Billy Crystal on sex



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"Unspeakable Acts" by Jan Hollingsworth

Pic of book Unspeakable Acts


Good Lord I don't even know where to begin to review this, em, tome. Because the thing is huge and half of it could have been thrown away. Sheesh. And my editors tell me I write too much.

Let us begin with this brief excerpt of a reader's review from Amazon.com:
I read this book years ago, before the wave of ritual-abuse-debunking. Even then, it made me uneasy. The charges seemed too numerous and too baroque, and the passion of those investigating and prosecuting verged on religious mania, in no way admitting of doubt, conflict, or exculpatory evidence. I fear a miscarriage of justice has been done.

Read the book as a social document of our culture's obsession at that time and how it played out, but don't expect to finish it feeling you know the truth of what really happened.

First, I am not at all sure what the reviewer means with that reference to "ritual-abuse-debunking" although I think it's referring to a plethora of alleged child abuse that sprung up in the early to mid-80's but virtually stopped when several accused child care providers were proved innocent.

Second, I don't totally agree with this reviewer's fear that a miscarriage of justice has been done. I totally agree with the reviewer's comment that one should not expect to finish this book knowing what really happened at the Country Walk Daycare Center.

Frank Fuster was married to a very young woman, Iliana. Iliana babysat children in her home. Frank allegedly ran some sort of construction business and was not involved with the babysitting business. Frank had a son, Jaime.

The Fusters were accused of sexually molesting many, if not most or all, of the children placed in the care of their babysitting business. No wait! They were charged with "ritually" sexually abusing the children to such an extent that the tale boggles the mind.

For according to the charges, the Fusters regularly relieved themselves, both by urinating and defecating on the children. This besides the other alleged sexual abuse which involved oral contact with childrens' genitalia. There was no record of any sexual contact at all, much less the ridiculous excretement story, via any medical examinations of the children who alleged they were molested. Except for Frank's son Jaime, more on this later.

So a bunch of entirely too wealthy Floridians got it into their heads that their children were being horrifically abused and the story, written by Jan Hollingsworth, who should be ashamed of herself for her too wordy and mostly baseless story, is very confusing. In fact, the book begins with a story of a woman who took her child to the Fuster daycare center for the very FIRST time. Later, after picking up her child, the woman was SURE, SURE I tell you, that her child had been drugged. No proof of any drugs given to the children was presented and/or proved yet Hollingsworth, a lovely liberal lass, spent many pages on the subject. If the mother was so damn sure her child had been drugged on that one afternoon at the Fusters, why didn't she get a test done on the child? Hollingsworth explains this away like she does so much of the book, with a bunch of words that may, or may not, make sense. In this case too much time had passed for a drug test to prove anything as Hollingsworth explained to the idiot reader. Well, duh, yeah, we get this. But why spend a couple of chapters on a woman who THINKS her child was drugged? This with absolutely no other proof?

Another interesting tidbit in this tale of mass hysteria is the fact that it was none other than Janet Reno who was Florida's Attorney General at the time of this mess and it was Janet Reno, who was later one of the most lackluster federal Attorney Generals this country has ever known, (remember Waco?), who encouraged these bunch of goofballs to continue their crazy crusade.

Which is not to say that everything was kosher in this Fuster house. First, Jaime Fuster, Frank's then 6-year-old son, was diagnosed with Gonorrhea of the throat. A 6 year old boy does not get gonorrhea of the throat from eating lollypops. Although Frank Fuster was tested for gonorrhea and was found negative, Hollingsworth asserts that the government used a blood test as a method for testing and this was an error. Hollingsworth never tells the reader what is the RIGHT way to test for gonorrhea or gives any explanation in her tome with all the pages of other nonsense, why the government did it wrong or why a correct test was never done on Frank Fuster. Another child in this story also tested for gonorrhea of the throat but that child was NOT part of the Country Walk Daycare group. I don't know why Hollingsworth mentioned this child except, as I speculate, to confuse the reader.

So it's never really been proved that Frank Fuster was the source of his son's gonorrhea of the throat or even was there a mention that maybe the method of testing the child was wrong. I mean if they wrongly tested Frank why not the child?

Best of all, we have the Bragas. Gotta love these two. Somewhere in the book this pair of pathetic hippies were referred to as the "Doctors Pollyannas". A good term for them.

It was based on the interviews of the children in the Fuster daycare service by the Bragas which caused all the hysteria. The Bragas, so far as anyone on the planet knew, received no money from anywhere for their services and were pure altruists who lived their lives to "help the children". The female Dr. Braga never shaved her legs and her hair was worn down to the middle of her calf. Well hell, I think that's odd.

In fact, when one prosecutor went hunting for information about this duo, the information provided was that Joseph Braga was dead.

Heh.

Hollingsworth writes about one hundred pages "explaining" just why Joseph Braga was allegedly dead according to his medical school records and this reader didn't understand a word of the explanation. I can, however, read very well between the lines. Hollingsworth, a Lamestream reporter who evidently loved this story of ritual child abuse that was all the rage in the mid-80's, offered the fact that well hey, Dr. Joseph Braga is right here, alive, so he can't be dead. Beyond that there's no explanation given for why Joseph Braga had a death certificate. Well I'll say it...it's because the guy was a fake, a charlatan, a liar. Is that clear enough?

In fact, as Hollingsworth belatedly tells the reader, Gary Trudeau, creator of the famous "Doonesbury" cartoon, had once been a financial supporter of the Bragas. Once news of Joseph's "death" reached him, Trudeau stopped contributing the proceeds of his cartoon to the Bragas' cause. Gary Trudeau is known far and wide as a liberal of the highest order. If HE pulled the plug on this dubious duo than something ain't right. Hollingsworth just opines that Trudeau was wrong for pulling his support for the lovely Bragas.

Ilyana Fuster finally confessed to the crime of child molestation but go on. To read that young woman's account of events, it was mostly husband Frank who was the pervert. And most of Ilyana's stories involved Frank and Ilyana's sex life and had nothing to do with the children. Ilyana says she never touched the children inappropriately and I believe her. Goodness, she was only 18, she was considered an excellent babysitter...God knows those rich women of Country Walk used her often enough, and kept a pristinely clean house.

Which brings up another point...how on earth could Ilyana keep a house so pristinely clean what with all that peeing and pooping going on all over the place? For as the good doctors Braga discovered in their "impartial" interviewing of these young children, the children regularly eliminated on either Frank or each other and the same was done to them.

The oldest child interviewed by the Bragas was 4 years old. The rest were younger. Children this age are obsessed with such as poop and pee. And I don't care how much a person cleans, all this urine and feces being dropped around the Fuster house would definitely leave some odor. Anyone who ever had a cat litter pan knows that such odors tend to linger. Yet even those hysterical parents so artfully manipulated by the Doctors Pollyannas admit that the Fuster house was notably clean and pristine.

Yes, it's possible, but I've got doubts.

Of course I have the advantage of reading this book some 20 years after all the hysteria. For this story of Country Walk was not the only tale of daycare child abuse being screamed about by the gullible Lamestream media. There was an epidemic of this sort of thing and the good Doctors Braga were often right in the midst of it all. Now, oddly, we hear little of this type of thing. Of course the hippie doctors from hell are no longer able to gain credibility so that might be why.

Since Jaime Fuster was diagnosed with gonorrhea of the throat, I'm inclined to believe that something untoward was going on in that house in Florida. Frank Fuster had been convicted for prior child molestation and I daresay he probably molested at least some of those innocents in that Frank Fuster did tend to hang around that house when he should have been out working.

I’ll simply never believe all those tales uttered by such young children whilst being coached by the good Doctors Braga, both HE who is dead and SHE who does not shave her legs. My logic is that if the children had spoken of sex acts of some kind, and some did refer to instances of oral sex, then I’d find their stories much more believable than the many stories of peeing and pooping. Young children don’t know about such as “69”, intercourse and other sorts of sexual activity. Young children do know a lot about peeing and pooping for at that stage in their lives these biological acts are pretty much center stage of their existence.

There WAS a TV movie on this subject, HERE , for reference.

By all means read this big-assed book by the very naïve Jan Hollingsworth. Just be prepared for lots of smoke and mirrors in the tale and read it with an eye towards learning how the Media tends to create stories they like to write about.

OTHER TRUE CRIME BOOK REVIEWS
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Review Ann Rule's "Every Breath You Take"
Ann Rule's "Evidence of Love"
Ann Rule's "Heart Full of Lies" and "Bitter Harvest"
Amber Frey's story.
"Tainted Roses"
Thomas Capano Book Reviews


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Kennedy Center Awards for 2007

This year’s Kennedy Center Awards for 2007 aired on Wednesday evening, 12/26/07. Which does not mean this was when the awarding actually took place as this is always a film of the event. This year was the 30th anniversary of this tradition and I always like to tune in just to keep my finger on the pulse of pop culture.

For I remember, at the tender age of 27, the debut of the Kennedy Center for the Arts and go on, it was just all the rage in D.C. Nowadays the whole thing is almost prehistoric and some of the people getting awards…well the mind is boggled. Still, this is Caroline Kennedy’s pet project and it is tradition for the current President and First Lady to attend the award ceremony.

This year the Kennedy Center awards were given to Leon Fleischer, a pianist I never heard of, Diana Ross, who I heard of but talk about ancient history, Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, heh…this guy needs to learn how to smile, Steve Martin, a big zero whose humor eludes me, and Martin Scorcese, the director of the Godfather and other mafia type movies.

Whenever the Kennedy Center has an awards ceremony they go out of their way to get big and famous choirs in to sing. But the Beach Boys? Sung by a choir?

I understand they get the choirs to fill the formerly fabulous Kennedy Center with the sound of choral voices. By me it’s a bit of a stretch.

Still I was entertained by the singers, particularly the songs made famous by Diana Ross. Diana and the Supremes were singers of my era.

Steve Martin was a comedian of my era but I never liked the guy and after watching the mindless adulation the evening of the broadcast I continue to not like the guy. His “wild and crazy guy” shtick struck me as very stupid.

At any rate, below some picture montages of the broadcast. Below the pics, a video remix of the event, featuring some of the Beach Boys and the Diana Ross songs.

Montage of 2007 Kennedy Center Honorees


Montage of 2007 Kennedy Center political figures in audience


Montage of 2007 Kennedy Center Celebrities in audience




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Focus on TV Posts of Fame

Those Wacky TV Chefs. Includes Rachel Ray and the sexiest chef of them all.

TV News Pundits including Russert, spitting Matthews and the one I adore.

"Dancing with the Stars" of 2007, reviews, pics and videos.

American Idol 2007 and The Bachelor. One night's review with links to all the others.
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