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Caito Potato ([info]caito) wrote in [info]unfunnybusiness,
@ 2009-05-19 00:45:00


Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend!  Next Entry
Street Preacher, Internet Shitshow
This is some serious unfunny. (And the mouse who posted it to [info]wank_report   thought it was appropriate for [info]otf_wank  . Ergh.)

Brace yourself, there's whole piles of major fail to go around.

Yeah, this one is definitely a doozy. And before we go any further, I should tell you that there's some things that might squick you about this, particularly in the medical details about the baby and some people's lack of sensitivity about it. Be aware of that before reading on, and think twice before clicking on certain links. That includes Wikipedia!

Myah Walker is a Born Again Christian and single mother to Faith Hope, now twelve weeks old, and born without a brain (and a significant portion of skull).

Before Faith's birth, Walker was seriously dubious of medical professionals' opinions on Faith's condition.
I said to him, "Look... I know this is the current 'body of knowledge' and this is what's in your text books, but I do not believe it. I just don't buy it." ...I knew the neonatologist would probably try to impress me with his textbook knowledge and I knew he would probably offer Faith nothing."
She exhorts her blog readers,
You can read all the text books and medical journals you want, but the truth is revealed in babies like Faith. This is real life, not a text book. When you see the pictures and watch the videos, you can't deny that this life is precious and worth protecting.
As for baby Faith, she seems to have settled into a daily routine.
Apart from a sterile dressing on her head that needs to be changed once a day, Faith lives a completely normal life. She isn't suffering or sickly, like you would expect. With no tubes and no machines supporting her life, she continues to thrive. She seems to function at the same level as any "normal" baby. In fact, she may be a little more advanced for her age. How many babies smile before they are born, start cooeing at one day old, and can sit up by 5 days old? I'm just saying!
Something Awful finds out about the whole deal, and wonders, who is the father and where is he? And so they find out:

Dan Lirette is a married preacher associated with a Baptist church in Moncton, Canada, where Walker had gotten involved in youth ministry and was eventually hired on as staff. He took her under his wing and along for the ride with "open air preaching." At some point, their relationship became intimate (some sources allege Lirette got Walker drunk in order to take advantage of her). According to Encyclopedia Dramatica (bastion of journalistic integrity that it is), Dan Lirette admitted:
I became involved in an adulterous affair with a summer student staff member at our church and she became pregnant.
Supposedly he had posted about this all over the internet (like maybe here), but started deleting things when he realized people were actually paying attention and putting two and two together. (I guess this was actually originally discovered by SA folks and posted in their thread there, but I can't see it.)

For his part, Lirette thinks SA is clearly possessed by demons:
There have been individuals from a vile secular site from the USA who have exploited my testimony and have spoken vile evils against myself and others; I have been harassed and maligned falsely by these unknown individuals and have felt the need to remove all posts online in an effort to at least stop, partially, their postings of outright lies.

Please do pray for these people; they operate on a site called "Something Awful" and exploit individuals worldwide for reasons unknown, saying such things as cannot be posted here as they are far too vile. (Please do not visit such a vile site; it was given for reference only)

These individuals are, for the most part, demon possessed, as their words on that site are filthy and clearly demonically inspired; may God have mercy on them.
While one hand prays, the other one threatens. Lowtax of Something Awful received this email:
Hi guys.

You may want to have your goons take down the dan lirette thread.

Your home address is being posted all over youtube, blogspot and forums.

Not me mind you, but I'm not stopping it.
Presumably, Lowtax responded with what amounted to, "Who the fuck are you and why should I give a shit?" Lirette wrote again:
You're about to find out rick. you see, your goons thought I was someone to laugh at. Now, there are some locals who are stirring up debate and two individuals in the USA who'd like to meet you. Your home addy is going up all over the place rick and I'm making sure of it. Try getting yuor SA pals to delete the thread located here: http://encyclopediadramatica.com/Myah_Walker and here http://encyclopediadramatica.com/Dan_Lirette

The links at the bottom show the SA forum thread.


I'm not an internet tough guy. I'm in canada but two USA residents are coming for you rick. To talk. Call (XXX) XXX-XXXX sometime. Someone is looking for you rick. Not for violence. Just to talk. I promise.

Thankfully it's not a crime to post addresses online or to have another individual closer to you than I am pay you a visit.

I'm 32 years old Rick, and own a small business. If your forum posts are not down by Tuesday, I'm never writing you again. I'm coming for you, Rick.
After that, Lirette (or a friend? I'm not sure) created Youtube accounts (now deleted) seemingly for the purpose of intimidating Something Awful users. Simultaneously, the forums of moncton.net were overrun with what seem to be sockpuppet accounts "locals" decrying Something Awful "stirring up debate":
Something Awful is a cult that supports drug use, rape, racism, illegal use of firearms, harassment, piracy and child pornography. We exist to expose the cult that is Something Awful and the mastermind behind it Richard Kyanka.
Sources assume Lirette was behind this, especially considering the next few emails he sent to Lowtax claiming that he wasn't. Lowtax didn't feel compelled to take him very seriously at all.

For more on that particular aspect of the situation, you can visit Autoaim to view screencaps and mirrored videos of the stuff Lirette has taken down. There's also an ED article on Myah Walker (warning: some images may be disturbing).

Walker says she has been getting hate* email for her decisions regarding her baby, and she has received both publicity and criticism as well. There's also an extensive thread on Reddit.

*Image warning: sidebar ad depicts an aborted fetus.

For the record, the longest-lived anencephalic person I can find is Baby K, who died at two and a half years.

ETA 1: Walker did give a testimony at at least one right-to-life conference,
Myah Walker gave an eloquent testimony about choosing life for her unborn baby
whom she has named Hope. Six months pregnant, Myah has been told by doctors
that Hope is handicapped. She has had to resist repeated pressure to abort. She hopes
her story can inspire others about the God-given dignity of every child's life.
Sort of feels like they're leaving some things out.

ETA 2
: Myah Walker now says, on Facebook
Myah Walker doesn't understand how people can be so disgusting and cruel. There is a gang of people out there (known as the SA goons) who literally spend all their free time creating malicious websites about Faith and I. Please don't visit these sites because the more hits they get, the more popular they become. Just pray that God will either draw them near to him or kill them somehow. Seriously.
ETA: Baby Faith Hope has died at 93 days old.


(Read comments) - (Post a new comment)


[info]cat_mcdougall
2009-05-18 04:31 pm UTC (link)
Psst! Phone number!

Other than that, I've heard about this condition and... yeah. I'd have to chose to abort. That's not quality of life.

(Reply to this)(Thread)


[info]dejla
2009-05-18 05:48 pm UTC (link)
I'd have to agree with you on that one.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]risha
2009-05-18 05:54 pm UTC (link)
Yeah, me too. There are disabilities, and there is "not actually capable of being a person".

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]cat_mcdougall
2009-05-18 06:29 pm UTC (link)
Exactly. And I have a disabled son. If I'd known before, I still wouldn't have aborted, but this... is different. This is a child that will never grow past an infant. Ever.

I understand the mother loving the baby, but... this is just too much. Mom needs help.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]risha
2009-05-18 06:56 pm UTC (link)
Yes, absolutely.

I don't have any children, so I'm not 100% sure how I'd react to bad news while pregnant, but I'd like to think that I'd keep them with just about any disability.

But I'm not sure that this situation even counts as a "disability" per se - even if her body were capable of living to adulthood (which it isn't), she's not capable of ever being anything more than the shell she is now. Which is amazingly horrible, and makes me sick to even think about when I don't know her or her family, and I don't know that I could cope. But someone needs to help that poor mother to somehow face the truth.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]caito
2009-05-18 09:20 pm UTC (link)
Turned numbers into X's. I really shouldn't write posts at one in the morning, but I was tossing and turning and couldn't get this out of my mind.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]honorh
2009-05-19 02:03 am UTC (link)
It all depends. My mom was a labor & delivery nurse for a long time, and she knew mothers whose babies wouldn't survive outside the womb. A lot of them chose to go through with the pregnancies and give birth, simply because while they were pregnant, they had the baby to love. They saw completing the pregnancy and giving birth as the only gifts they could give their babies. Afterward, they'd hold their babies, whether already dead or just dying, and begin the grieving process.

I honestly don't know what I'd do in that situation. Having an abortion might be easier in the short run, but I think I'd always wonder what it felt like to hold that baby.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]caito
2009-05-19 02:11 am UTC (link)
When I was really little, my mother had a friend who found out the day before she gave birth that her baby was anencephalic. It survived birth (I never knew its gender), and when asked whether she wanted to hold it, she declined. Later on she alway said this was the biggest regret of her life, and if she could change just one thing she ever did, she would hold that baby.

(Then again, his lady was always a little crazy anyway. She eventually died of a terminal illness, knowing full well that her husband would remarry relatively soon afterwards - whole houseful of kids still and she knew he couldn't manage things by himself. But she couldn't stand the thought of another woman taking her place, so she glued all the pictures to wall and nailed lamps to table and tables to floors, etc., so that she couldn't just be easily erased from memory too quickly. I always thought that was funny.)

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]caito
2009-05-19 02:15 am UTC (link)
*this, not his, in the second paragraph

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]caito
2009-05-19 02:19 am UTC (link)
By the way, I think I would probably choose to abort, because I don't think I could cope with taking it to term, and things like strangers asking you excitedly, "Oh! When are you due? Is it a boy or a girl? Do you have a name picked out?"

More than anything, something like this proves to me that abortion needs to be an option, because there is no single solution that will work for every woman, every couple, every family. No one should be forced to abort in a case like this, and no one should be forced to carry to term, either. Each woman deserves to be able to decide what is best for herself and her baby, depending on her own morals, values, and priorities.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]solesakuma
2009-05-20 02:22 am UTC (link)
One of the things that make this even more horrible (if that's possible) for me is knowing that women in my country don't get that choice* and are legally forced to goon with the pregnancies.

* Abortion is illegal, except in a handful of cases that doctors and judged choose to interpret in the narrowest way possible.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]erototoxin
2009-05-19 02:21 am UTC (link)
This is probably a sick thing to say, but at least if the baby was carried to term, she could be an organ donor.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]wtf
2009-05-19 03:07 am UTC (link)
That's a really interesting (and oddly generous, IMO) thing to say.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]trollprincess
2009-05-19 03:58 am UTC (link)
You know, that would actually convince me not to get an abortion in this case. As much as it might pain me to lose a child, if it could help some other newborn live longer, I'd take the hit.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

(no subject) - [info]caito, 2009-05-19 04:00 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]trollprincess, 2009-05-19 04:03 am UTC

[info]risha
2009-05-19 04:17 am UTC (link)
Actually, I think that would help some parents feel somewhat better, at least in the long term.

Now that you say that, I would at least consider it if I were within the last couple of weeks of pregnancy when I found out. But I don't think I could bare to continue on longer than that. :(

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]finchbird
2009-05-19 04:43 am UTC (link)
I don't believe it's a sick thing to say. In fact, this is making me consider not to have an abortion if something like this happens to me. Not that I'd want it to but it's something to think about.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]thoms
2009-05-19 03:23 pm UTC (link)
Looking through Myah's blog though, she apparently refused to do that. D:

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]issendai
2009-05-19 08:20 pm UTC (link)
There was at least one case in which the parents decided to do just that. They found out early enough to abort, and went through with the pregnancy because infant organ donors are rare, and they could give other children life.

...and then the state stepped in and it all turned horrifying. But up to that point, it was a truly generous gesture on the parents' part.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

(no subject) - [info]miss_padfoot, 2009-05-19 11:59 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]issendai, 2009-05-20 12:08 am UTC

[info]jujubee
2009-05-19 03:35 am UTC (link)
There's a blog I read where the author found out that her baby had arthrogryposis and she decided to terminate. You can read the reasoning here but basically she didn't want her son to suffer at all, and any time he lived outside the womb would be suffering. I can see your reasoning, but it sort of seems like those women do that for themselves rather than for their babies, and I don't think I could do choose my feelings over the suffering of my child. (Sorry if this sounds judgmental. I'm trying to find a way to put it that's not, but it's not coming out right.)

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]caito
2009-05-19 03:37 am UTC (link)
The generally held medical opinion is that anencephalic babies do not feel pain, though, so even then it's a whole different ball field.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

(no subject) - [info]moljn, 2009-05-19 05:08 am UTC

[info]honorh
2009-05-19 05:33 am UTC (link)
Well, babies in utero can feel pain, and abortion's not exactly a comfortable procedure for them, especially late-term. Past a certain point, suffering would be a given. Not saying you're right, not saying you're wrong, but there are multiple ways of looking at it.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

(no subject) - [info]sandglass, 2009-05-19 05:41 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]kita0610, 2009-05-21 10:08 pm UTC

[info]snarkhunter
2009-05-19 12:12 pm UTC (link)
I respect women who make that choice, but yeah, I have no idea what I'd do.

I read a heartbreaking story about a (Catholic) woman whose desperately-wanted child had anencephaly, and she and her doctor decided to induce early labor (in her 7th month, I believe) so that she wouldn't have to have an abortion OR endure the last few months with a doomed child inside of her. Unfortunately, something went wrong during birth (the umblical cord was too short, I think) and the doctors had to cut the cord before the child was born, which falls loosely under the definition of partial-birth abortion.

The woman's priest sold her out to anti-abortion activists, who confronted her after she left her church. Horrifying all around.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]hallidae
2009-05-19 02:20 pm UTC (link)
You wouldn't happen to know where I could find that story, would you?

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

(no subject) - [info]snarkhunter, 2009-05-19 04:17 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]hallidae, 2009-05-19 04:21 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]braidedbaka, 2009-05-19 09:17 pm UTC

[info]pipssister
2009-05-19 11:48 pm UTC (link)
The woman's priest sold her out to anti-abortion activists, who confronted her after she left her church.

HATE. PEOPLE. SERIOUSLY.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]pariforma
2009-05-19 03:42 pm UTC (link)
I respect that so much--to go through the whole process, hold the baby, acknowledge its reality, begin to grieve.

And that is so far distant from the denial that Myah Walker is living in that it's in another galaxy, or maybe a parallel universe....

(Reply to this)(Parent)


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