Poor Mojo's Newswire

Eight states send troubled children to the school, where "high functioning" kids are "educated" by being sat in front of computers all day, running through automated tutorial programs. Talking, fidgeting, or acting out during this "school" time is punished with shocks. Some kids' shock apparatus misfires, shocking them without any provocation. The staff are instructed to activate the shock apparatus out of sight of the children, so that they can't mentally or physically prepare for it.

The Rotenberg process lacks any kind of scientific basis, and the school uses a 20-year-old film of its "successes" to convince parents to send their children to the program -- however, some of the success stories in the film are still institutionalized at Rotenberg 20 years after their "cure," wheelchair bound and in terrible shape.

CARLSON: I went back with someone I knew and grabbed the guy by the -- you know, and grabbed him, and -- and --

ABRAMS: And did what?

CARLSON: Hit him against the stall with his head, actually!

[laughter]

CARLSON: And then the cops came and arrested him. But let me say that I'm the least anti-gay right-winger you'll ever meet --

Margaret Marabe, who spent five months working on an HIV/Aids awareness programme in the remote Southern Highlands, said she had seen five people being buried alive by relatives, who feared becoming infected. One boy called out "Mama, Mama" as soil was shovelled on his head, said Ms Marabe, who works for a volunteer organisation called Igat Hope, pidgin English for "I've got hope".

Women in PNG, where many people retain ancient beliefs in the supernatural, have reportedly been blamed for causing the disease. Mobs have attacked women believed to be witches, and tortured or murdered them. According to some reports, 500 such attacks have been carried out in the past year.

Ms Marabe told Agence France-Presse that one of the five people whom she saw being buried alive was her cousin. "I said, 'Why are they doing that?' And they said, 'If we let them live, stay in the same house, eat together and use or share utensils, we will contract the disease and we too might die'."

But this morning may have taken the cake. Mofo is milling around the desk, obviously up to something. He kept stopping and looking at books that I know he had no real interest in. He would go sit at a table for a few seconds, walk around the computers, then run to the restroom. Finally he comes up to the desk and says “Y’all don’t have condoms in the bathroom?” I tried not to laugh, but I told him that no, we do not have condoms, “but you may want to try Walgreen’s up the street.” Seriously... condoms? At the library? At 9:30 in the morning? Ughhhhhhhh.