"She passed away, but not because I intentionally tried to kill her

Thursday, November 10, 2005
By ROBERT THARP / The Dallas Morning News

The pasty mixture of chili powder and water tasted "gross," but a young Irving mother facing capital murder charges testified Thursday that she didn't think it was dangerous to mold it around her infant daughter's thumb and force her to swallow it to break her thumb-sucking habit.

Speaking in her own defense on the third day of testimony in her capital murder trial, Angela Disabella said she placed the pepper mixture on her daughter's thumb several times over about an hour before the baby began to choke in May 2004

Nearly 6 months old, Kira was not yet ready to eat soft food, but Ms. Disabella, 21, said she was not concerned as the globs of brownish red pepper disappeared in the baby's mouth.

"I thought it was working," she said. "As soon as she'd put her thumb in her mouth she'd take it out. ... She'd make this weird smile."

The powder eventually clogged Kira's throat and lungs entirely, causing her suffocation death, according to court testimony.

Under cross-examination by prosecutor Patricia Hogue, Ms. Disabella denied that she caused the baby's death.

"She passed away, but not because I intentionally tried to kill her," she said.

Ms. Disabella acknowledged having a troubled adolescence and young-adult life. She didn't complete the ninth grade and ran away at age 16. She also said she had been a danger to herself at times, mutilating her arms with knives and trying to kill herself on several occasions.

Although the baby had gained less than a pound in the nearly six months that she lived, Ms. Disabella said she fed her according to what she read in books and magazines. She said she didn't always have formula.

"I went by what the book said. I tried to do my best," she said.

Prosecutors have charged that the baby's suffocation was the culmination of a string of neglect and abuse the baby suffered in her short life.

Besides being malnourished, the baby suffered two fractured ribs about a month before she died.

A medical investigator testified that the rib injuries were likely caused by blunt-force abuse.

If convicted of capital murder, Ms. Disabella will face an automatic life sentence in prison. Jurors will likely also have the option of considering lesser charges of causing serious bodily injury to a child by recklessness or negligence.

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Accompanied by the unmistakable whisperings of the Spirit, I know there are many that would join me in providing aid to Ms. Disabella (above). However, she probably wishes she were a Mexican Citizen right now, ah - bein' the type to run. However, on our part compassion should rule.
What I propose for this young lady is that we help her to care about the quality of her life and the lives around her. The excerpts of testimony available to me are sufficient to end the trial right now. She needs to be placed in a program that will provide her a life changing journey of healing and discovery.
She needs to visit the Institution of Intentional Living. The Institution of Intentional Living is an experimental learning community open to all we have diagnosed as chronically self-focused. Here she will find individuals interested in psychological, spiritual and personal transformation. She will become awakened. We offer many informal seminars and workshops, as well as individual counseling. We recognize in this institution that it is the human connection that is our greatest need. Our lifelong Enrichment Program is found in various locations throughout the United States, where we explore psycho-spiritual trauma in a protected environment, culminating in the process of conscious aging, suffering, and dying. Today will be the first day of the rest of your miserable life, Angela.

Could it be MY LIFE AS A COMPASSIONATE SERVANT by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
Or perhaps MY HISTORIC SUPERBOWL MOMENTS by Dan Marino
Or perhaps AIRPLANE MECHANICS by John Denver
or perhaps FAMOUS MUSLIM INVENTIONS by the Dock
or perhaps MAPS OF THE PACIFIC by Amelia Earhart
or perhaps BRIDGE TRAVEL by Ted Kennedy
or perhaps THE BENEFITS OF IMPULSE CONTROL by Terrell Owens
or perhaps SELF CONTROL AT THE PASTRY TRAY by Orsen Wells

Other Contributions?

The Dock at "It seems to me", a fellow blogger, suggested that I talk about something - someone other than topics surrounding Jesus Christ. I have come to find out Dock and I share the same high school graduation date and sorrowfully, similiar physical appearances. We probably are not the same age due to the misfortune of the Genuine Article having to repeat 1st grade for demonstrating unusual sexual inclinations at that time in my life. The Dock claims to have unusual sexual habits himself, while writing from the Bay area. I'm not sure what that means other than he probably finds reason to install and use autopilot on the antique planes that he flies. Just hope he doesn't pul a John Denver. I am grateful to anyone who has nothing better to do than read the regular monotony of my posts. --------------So, I reward you all with the something else requested----------------------------------------------You really should read his blog topic on north traveling Illegal aliens, The flying Doctor strafes them again and again.....er...those people from that country to the south of us here in America. I personally hesitate to characterize them in providing the name of an ethnic group. For as surely as I do, I will be scolded for not choosing the right one, However, where I am speaking of illegal aliens from Mexico they gotta be Mexicans. Unless they illegally entered Mexico from the south and continued north. It's not difficult understanding they would be proud being citizens from all those counntries below us. After all they were born just south of the greatest country on Earth.-----It used to be greater-------If you are ever looking for a truly unusual time where you can taste the hospitality of these Mexicans that impersonate American Indians travel out to Denver and join the Italian community as they celebrate in their Italian Pride parade (otherwise known as the Columbus Day Parade). Columbus as you may know is not a hero of the American Indian, nor apparently any of the marginal ancestors of the American Indian. The hatred that spews upon these Italian Americans each year in this parade should be a disgrace to any American Indian with dignity. The Genuine Article is not Italian but could be mistaken for one. So, I walked in Denver's first Columbus day parade about a decade ago. More correctly, It was the first parade permitted after a long moratorium because of repeated threats of violance. So, in spite of being warned by the police not to go, I joined the Italians. For all practical purposes, I didn't see too many American Indians on the sidelines. The visciousness came from Mexicans and their descendents. The riot police standing shoulder to shoulder at the gauntlet of the parade route faced the 12 deep horde of hoopleheads. Had I flashed my Washington Redskin NFL cap it would have been the last act of my life. But it wasn't the Italian Americans who were taunting. They just want to celebrate their one day each year. You might wonder why hooples steer their most viscious crowds our way....it's because Colorado was the first state to declare Columbus Day a Holiday. I was proud to be Italian American for that day. These are a people who Love America.

Is Small stuff really small stuff?

When the Syrian king "Syrian Expressed" a letter to Israel asking that Naaman be cured of his leprosy, the prophet Elisha sent his man to direct Naaman to wash in the Jordan river, not once but seven times. 2nd Kings records: "But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper. Are not [the] rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? May I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage. And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? How much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean? Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean" (2 Kings 5:11-14).

Many of us, like Naaman and like myself, openly remark how we would be willing to do great acts for the Lord. Like Naaman, many (I dare say all) quietly murmur and become grieved to do seemingly small things for the Lord. However, are not these small things – daily scripture study, daily family prayer, daily personal prayer, weekly church attendance, observance of the Sabbath Day, etc. – the vital building-blocks of faith? Had Naaman instead have gone to the bath house where the elite military leaders go, would it have been counted to his credit?

We teach that all callings in the LDS Church have equal import. Could this be the justification? Any personal reflections LDS or otherwise?

Dissension, deficit conflict diocese (Excerpts)
By Jean Torkelson, Rocky Mountain News
Please note November 2nd "Latte" post to put this into context. You can repeat this over the majority of 50 states. Please note that revenues will be guiding the outcome of this crisis.

The Episcopal Diocese of Colorado passed its third consecutive deficit budget last weekend as the issue of homosexual rights continued to overshadow the chance of unity between liberals and conservatives.
About 600 delegates met in Grand Junction to pass a $1.7 million budget, which includes a deficit of about $77,000.

Parish donations in Colorado plunged $340,000 in 2004, widely seen as a reaction to resolutions passed the previous year by Episcopal Church USA that approved of an openly gay bishop in New Hampshire and gave the OK for dioceses to develop same-sex blessings.

The Rev. Don Armstrong, of Colorado Springs, from the church's most conservative wing, said he left the state convention discouraged because Bishop Rob O'Neill went on record again saying he personally supports gay rights although that view has been severely criticized by an international church body.

In the so-called Windsor Report, issued in January, the worldwide Anglican Communion, composed of 37 provinces, chastised the American province for causing "deep offense" to other Anglicans. It pointed out that same-sex policies are contrary to a 1998 declaration of the worldwide communion that homosexual acts were "incompatible with Scripture."

However, having a bishop with a "divided mind" makes it hard to raise money and draw people into the Episcopal Church, said Armstrong, pastor of Grace and St. Stephen Episcopal Church in Colorado Springs, one of the largest among the dioceses' 116 parishes.