When Ronald and Jill Losoya sent their 11-year-old son to Michigan's Camp Michawana, they expected the boy's summer stay would be a "positive, Christian-based experience." In fact, the camp itself notes that "Christ is first" and that it operates as "an arm of the local church in which a Bible-centered programŠis used to develop camper spirituality." However, according to the below federal lawsuit, things didn't work out that way for young Ezekiel Losoya. Instead, the boy's parents allege in their August 8 complaint, he was subjected to an assortment of "inhumane, degrading, and criminal conduct" during a one-week stay in the summer of 2003. Among 19 separate indignities cited in the Losoyas's complaint, Ezekiel had to endure wedgies, was "kicked in the privates," had his camera smashed, got dunked headfirst in a toilet, and was tied to a tether ball pole. The lawsuit, which does not specify monetary damages beyond $75,000, contends that Ezekiel was tormented by fellow campers and Michawana counselors. As a result of the camp's negligence, the Losoyas charge, Ezekiel has suffered hurt feelings, mental anguish, and "disruption of his faith in Christ and loss of his camera."
"America was never innocent. We popped our cherry on the boat over and looked back with no regrets. You can't ascribe our fall from grace to any single event or set of circumstances. You can't lose what you lacked at conception.
"Mass-market nostalgia gets you hopped up for a past that never existed. Hagiography sanctifies shuck-and-jive politicians and reinvents their expedient gestures as moments of great moral weight. Our continuing narrative line is blurred past truth and hindsight. Only a reckless verisimilitude can set that line straight."
--James Ellroy, American Tabloid
Ensure a Free and Fair Election (Ban Paperless Voting Machines
"The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words."
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