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Shawna

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I read about stuff like this and I wonder why I was unable to (naturally) have a baby, and why I had to submit to a background investigation, a home inspection - and a pelvic exam - to adopt, when idiots like this can have as many babies as they want and subsequently torture them.

So my question is this: to those of you who believe in the existence of God, how would you explain his reasoning behind this?

RENO, Nev. (July 15) - A couple who authorities say were so obsessed with the Internet and video games that they left their babies starving and suffering other health problems have pleaded guilty to child neglect.

The children of Michael and Iana Straw, a boy age 22 months and a girl age 11 months, were severely malnourished and near death last month when doctors saw them after social workers took them to a hospital, authorities said. Both children are doing well and gaining weight in foster care, prosecutor Kelli Ann Viloria told the Reno Gazette-Journal.

Michael Straw, 25, and Iana Straw, 23, pleaded guilty Friday to two counts each of child neglect. Each faces a maximum 12-year prison sentence.

Viloria said the Reno couple were too distracted by online video games, mainly the fantasy role-playing "Dungeons & Dragons" series, to give their children proper care.

"They had food; they just chose not to give it to their kids because they were too busy playing video games," Viloria told the Reno Gazette-Journal.

Police said hospital staff had to shave the head of the girl because her hair was matted with cat urine. The 10-pound girl also had a mouth infection, dry skin and severe dehydration.

Her brother had to be treated for starvation and a genital infection. His lack of muscle development caused him difficulty in walking, investigators said.

The Straws have been given public defenders. Jeremy Bosler, head of the county public defender's office, declined to comment to The Associated Press on Saturday.

Michael Straw is an unemployed cashier, and his wife worked for a temporary staffing agency doing warehouse work, according to court records. He received a $50,000 inheritance that he spent on computer equipment and a large plasma television, authorities said.

While child abuse because of drug addiction is common, abuse rooted in video game addiction is rare, Viloria said.

Last month, experts at an American Medical Association meeting backed away from a proposal to designate video game addiction as a mental disorder, saying it had to be studied further. Some said the issue is like alcoholism, while others said there was no concrete evidence it's a psychological disease.

Patrick Killen, spokesman for Nevada Child Abuse Prevention, said video game addiction's correlation to child abuse is "a new spin on an old problem."

"As we become more technologically advanced, there's more distractions," Killen said. "It's easy for someone to get addicted to something and neglect their children. Whether it's video games or meth, it's a serious issue, and (we) need to become more aware of it."

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Some women should get a license and go through all kind of exams to have their own babies... :P They just have them and throw them into this world as if they were toys, or some curse from above... they never heard about ways not to be pregnant or they´re so sick and irresponsible that they just don´t care about it.

We´re a generation who grew up with he pill, I never understood why people accept to have babies when they really don´t want them. And when we can chose to have them or not...

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I'll bet the parents were big fat cows. Yet the kids didn't get anything to eat? I don't, for one second, believe that it was video games that caused the neglect of the children. That's just an excuse for the courts. Those parents are just scum and shouldn't be allowed to have children. Feeding the kids should be the #1 priority in a parents' life. Those b*stards shouldn't be taking care of cats, either.

:afro: :afro: :afro: :thumbsdown: :thumbsdown:

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Shawna, I'm sorry but I'm still hung up on the "pelvic exam" required for adoption.

??????????????????????????????????????????

are you wondering what a pelvic exam is? Or why I had to have one? If it's the latter, I can't tell you. I was pretty flummoxed when they threw that one at me. I guess it went along with all the blood tests they did and the physical, etc.

If it's the former, well.... accompany your wife to her gynecologist someday and you'll find out. :crazy:

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are you wondering what a pelvic exam is? Or why I had to have one? If it's the latter, I can't tell you. I was pretty flummoxed when they threw that one at me. I guess it went along with all the blood tests they did and the physical, etc.

If it's the former, well.... accompany your wife to her gynecologist someday and you'll find out. :crazy:

No, it's not the former. I've conducted many pelvic exams over the years.

But...flummoxed? Did you challenge them on that one? Was this a doctor or a lawyer?

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it's all part of the laws for adopting a child. Every potential adoptive parent is put through the ringer. The potential adoptive mothers go through more, and I'm guessing it's because they have more to go through.

The upshot is, they want to make sure you're "healthy enough" for them to feel good about handing over a child to. The unfair part, to me, is that women who can get pregnant naturally and bear children have to go through NONE of the stuff I went through. And nobody's going to question things when those mothers are handed their newborns in the hospitals to go home with.

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It's rare that two total idiots get married. Sometimes there is one total idiot and one partial idiot. The partial idiot might have the sense to try to take care of the kids while the total idiot ignored all and played on the internet. Sometimes there are two partial idiots. There are even cases of one total idiot and one non-idiot who is just stupid for marrying a total idiot. In both of these scenarios, somehow the kids are looked after. But to find two married total idiots who are addicted to the internet is a real find. I hope anthropologists are available to study this rare phenomenon.

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That's just plain sickening. These people should be subject to some form of ancient torture for several years. Sitting in prison watching cable TV and getting 3 square meals a day seems to be too good for them. :thumbsdown:

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it's the "getting 3 square meals a day" that I strenuously object to. I think they should be placed behind bars and fresh trays of food brought to them daily, and set outside the bars just far enough that they can smell the food but not touch it.

And oh yeah... a full-time deputy can be sitting in the room with his computer on playing video games all day and blatantly ignoring them.

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Getting born in the state of Mississippi

Papa was a copper and Mama was a hippie

In Alabama, she would swing a hammer

Price you gotta pay when you break the panorama

She never knew that there was

Anything more than poor

What in the world does your

Company take me for?

Black bandana, sweet Louisiana

Robbin' a bank in the state of Indiana

She's a runner, rebel and a stunner

On her merry way, sayin' baby watcha gonna

Looking down the barrel of a hot metal 45

Just another way to survive

California rest in peace

Simultaneous release

California show your teeth

She's my priestess; I'm your priest

She's a lover baby and a fighter

Shoulda seen it comin' when it got a little brighter

With a name like Dani California

The day was gonna come when I was gonna mourn ya

A little loaded, she was stealin' another breath

I love my baby to death

California rest in peace

Simultaneous release

California show your teeth

She's my priestess; I'm your priest

Who knew the other side of you

Who knew what others died to prove

Too true to say goodbye to you

Too true to say, say, say

Push the fader, gifted animator

One for the now and eleven for the later

Never made it up to Minnesota

North Dakota man was a gunnin' for the quota

Down in the Badlands she was savin' the best for last

It only hurts when I laugh

Gone too fast

California rest in peace

Simultaneous release

California show your teeth

She's my priestess; I'm your priest

California rest in peace

Simultaneous release

California show your teeth

She's my priestess; I'm your priest

This sort of reminded me of the song...and it was playing at the time.

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