A story for Halloween.

A few weeks or so ago, as I am often to be found doing, I was reading an article in the New York Times Magazine. This particular article was about Damien Echols, one of the men known as the West Memphis Three, subject of the documentaries titled Paradise Lost, and erstwhile denizen of Arkansas's Death Row.

A bit of background, if you need it. Back in 1993, three 8 year-old boys were found horribly murdered in West Memphis, Arkansas. Three teenage boys were accused, tried, and convicted of the killings. Unfortunately, there was approximately zero to negative evidence that they actually did it. Instead of, say, evidence tying them to the crime, the prosecution relied on the following rubric: they wore black clothes, had long hair, and listened to music like Metallica. Therefore, they worshipped Satan. Therefore, they killed the children as part of a Satan-worshipping cult ritual.

This August, the State of Arkansas arranged a plea deal and the three men were set free after 18 years in prison.

Reading the article took me back to when I had first seen the documentary and it made a big impact on me. I am, or was, the same age as the boys who were murdered, but when I watched the film I was closer in age to its teenage subjects. It's a story I've kept up on over the years, though I hadn't thought about it in some time when I heard about the Three's release. With the increase in news stories, it's to be expected, I guess, that I've spent some time thinking about it now.

What I wasn't prepared for was the shock of realization and revelation that came to me about that period of time. You guys, do you remember back in the 80s and 90s when everybody was obsessed with devil worshipping? Do you remember that shit? I had kind of forgotten. But there was this case. There was the McMartin preschool case. I'm pretty sure at some point my sister insisted I watch Oprah have a very special episode talking about Satanism. I remember when my cousin was taking classes for her confirmation, and the priests told her class that the woods of South Jersey were crawling with crazy devil worshippers ready and waiting to snatch us up. She came home from one late-night meeting crying. Nevermind that among her friends were the very black-clad weirdos the clergy were probably envisioning.

At the time, I don't think I knew that there was anything wrong with this. When you're a kid, these things are always real. We rented way too many scary movies. I remember creeping down my staircase at night thinking, "It's not real. It's not real." about some malevolent force or another. I was convinced that some presence lived in my closet. When I saw this documentary, I had the definite sense that these kids were innocent. They were weird. I was weird. It was all a misunderstanding. But it never occurred to me that the premise of their prosecution, ritual Satanic murder, was unsound. They may not have done it, but such things were done. Everybody knew it was real.

Looking back at it now, I am horrified to the point of laughter. I can't believe that we all lived in a world where the mere suggestion was not the most batshit thing you'd ever heard. Not a child's world where this stuff was real anyway, but the actual adult world in which people believed this with a straight face.

I'm not sure when things changed. By the time I was in high school, the kids in black trench coats were suspected of plotting school shootings, not devil worship. I read that it might have to do with the religious right turning their attention on The Gays who, of course, aren't out to kill your children, just corrupt them and warp their minds. We are still lamenting society's turpitude, with reality tv and what have you, it's just that these now these degradations are characterized as the innate failings of individuals rather than the influence of external evil spirits.

I guess if you look at it solely in this context, that's almost progress.

Not on the docket:

Hangin' with Moammar Gadhafi.

You may or may not have heard about how the Leader and Guide of the Revolution is coming to speak at the UN, and about how he wanted to camp out in a tent in Central Park, and how the City of New York was like, "lol no." And then you may have heard about how he decided to do what countless others before him have had to do: settle for Jersey.

Any not just any place in Jersey! A place in Jersey where I just happen to be a significant amount of the time! I'm sure it's popped up on Pat's IP locator, even though at the time I probably wasn't anywhere near there. I totally could have gotten a picture of his tent with my cell phone camera, you guys.

And, you may be thinking, "Amy, why would you want to?" But the real question is: why wouldn't I? You see my point.

But then the town in question was also like, "lol no." Such is life.

In conclusion, Libya is a land of contrasts, thank you.

Ha ha, very funny, Twitter.

I've done very little in the past few days besides watching the situation in Iran.

Well, that's true in a sense, but in another sense I've also been demolishing my bedroom, writing a novel, and having food poisoning. But none of those things involve being too far away from the computer, so.

There's so much information. I've heard terrible things, and recently I've heard some very good things, but it's hard to know what's real and what isn't. I also feel anxious and sad because there's not much I can do. I did send an email to His Excellency the Ayatollah Khamenei today. So, there's that.

I don't see a lot of people talking about this, and I don't know what you know, but here's a bunch of links:

Good ol' Wikipedia
Why you should care
A flyer about what's going on
A coup in three steps
5 reasons to doubt the election results
The Huffington Post
Andrew Sullivan
I don't know what hashtags are, but maybe you do
ontd_political
Why We Protest
Flickr

If you use Twitter: a very simple thing you can do to help is change your Twitter location to Iran, and your time zone to GMT +3:30. This makes it harder to figure out who is and is not tweeting from Iran, which makes the users who are doing so less vulnerable to the government agencies trying to shut them down.

If you're feeling especially charitable, you can set up a proxy for Iranian users.

Worldwide Protests this Saturday

BUT.

What the fuck, California?

What the fuck?

omg omg omg omg omg omg omg,

OMG.

please please please please please please please.

ugh.


ETA:

Sarah Palin needs to stop winking at me.

You know the part where she started talking about plans to increase the VP's power in the legislative branch so that the VP can more effectively carry out the President's will?

I nearly had a heart attack.

Seriously, you guys, if John McCain wins, we are so fucked. So, so fucked.

Results of election leaked early?

I know I don't usually talk about politics, but I wanted to share this. I get my Latest Primary Results news from AOL.com, because it's easiest because that's where my email lives. I haven't checked any other news sources, so I don't know if this is an isolated incident - but I doubt it.

Today, Nebraska and West Virginia are holding their primaries. Clinton and Obama are battling it out in West Virginia! But it seems, when I checked at 7:15 this morning (don't ask), Obama had already been declared the winner in Nebraska, with 0% of precincts reporting.

The polls in Nebraska, incidentally, close at 9PM, CT.

Look, it's not that I doubt that Obama will win Nebraska. If that's what the indications are, fine. However, call me old-fashioned if you must, isn't it customary to actually hold the election before you tell the people who won it?

Oh dear.

88% Dennis Kucinich
86% Mike Gravel
74% Chris Dodd
71% Joe Biden
70% Hillary Clinton
70% John Edwards
68% Barack Obama
64% Bill Richardson
37% Ron Paul
37% Rudy Giuliani
29% John McCain
21% Mike Huckabee
21% Mitt Romney
19% Tom Tancredo
11% Fred Thompson

2008 Presidential Candidate Matching Quiz