# Beyond words............Four boys starved.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beyond-words-four-boys-starved/209852>\
**Category:** The BBQ Pit\
**Created:** [October 27, 2003, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beyond-words-four-boys-starved/209852 "2003-10-27T16:05:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Siege](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dbc845/32.png) [@Siege](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siege)\
**Post date:** [November 1, 2003, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beyond-words-four-boys-starved/209852/41 "2003-11-01T11:15:43Z")

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I should also add that some of the kindest, most decent people I know include atheists and agnostics, not to mention the odd Wiccan or three.

CJ

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**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\
**Post date:** [November 1, 2003, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beyond-words-four-boys-starved/209852/42 "2003-11-01T14:09:22Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Biggirl \*  
> \*\*More details in today’s paper.
> 
> This house was visited 38 times by city social workers. \*\*

No, what we know is that the agency CLAIMS to have visited the house 38 times. That’s what their logs say.

Believe me; the fact that they claim to have visited 38 times should in no way be taken to constitute proof they were there 38 times.

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**Author:** ![Dignan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f07891/32.png) [@Dignan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dignan)\
**Post date:** [November 1, 2003, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beyond-words-four-boys-starved/209852/43 "2003-11-01T19:55:01Z")

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This really is a strange case. There was a picture of the “family” on the front page of the New York Times, everyone smiling and looking happy. Of course, the four boys that were not biological children looked awful. Bruce, the 19 year-old, doesn’t look much different from the 5 year-old. The article mentioned that one of the punishments Bruce received because he liked television earlier in life. As punishment he was forced to sit in front of the TV, with it off, for hours.

I hope that this will not fade out of awareness. This is something that needs attention.

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**Author:** ![Tortuga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c4cdca/32.png) [@Tortuga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tortuga)\
**Post date:** [November 1, 2003, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beyond-words-four-boys-starved/209852/44 "2003-11-01T22:22:32Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by zuma \*  
> \*\*That these four men were almost killed is sickening. Hopefully these guys can go on to lead reasonable lives. The bitch who did this to them should be hung \*\*

Am I the only person disturbed by the language of this reaction? Yes, one of the victims was a “man,” but the others were boys, and it was a “man” who was also an accomplice in their torture, not just a lone sadistic emasculating “bitch.”  
I dunno, it just made my psycho-meter ping.

As to the events of the OP, some people are just evil. So evil I can’t find much more to say than that, except that in these cases I guess I hope there is a such thing as hell and that all things really do even out in the end. My mother, a former social worker, told me about a case she had where a father inflicted permanent brain damage on his infant son because he was jealous of the attention he was getting–he went into a rage watching his son being breastfed, tore him away from the mother, and began slamming him into various kitchen surfaces. And apparently, that type of behaviour (jealousy of the new baby, attempting to destroy the “other man”) isn’t that uncommon. Horrific.

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