An 11 year old girl tells police her father has been waterboarding her as a bizarre and cruel form of punishment. The accused is pediatrician Melvin Morse, who was featured on CNN's The Larry King Show promoting his book about near-death experiences in children. The local newspaper has more upsetting details. (via Johannes G.)

  • dioptase

    This is child abuse.  Puts not teaching set theory into perspective.

    • yadayada

       No, no, no. He’s just doing research for his new book Even Closer to the Light.

      • http://twitter.com/fossilfuels Funk Daddy

        To be a trilogy when he put out his third offering, Do you see that Mother-fucking Light!? What did I Tell You about Shutting the Fuck Up?

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=557683737 Adam Greenfield

    And what’s wrong with this? It’s not like it is torture or anything…

    • cubby96

      Yeah, at least he didn’t torture her.  It could have been much worse, in the eyes of the same state that says this isn’t torture.

      • Chuck

        It’s perfectly fine, as long as he got some actionable intel out of her.  At least that’s what I heard on Fox News.

    • dawdler

      zing

    • lknope

      Enhanced Interrogation Parenting.

      • thecleaninglady

        Or just Enhanced Parenting. 

        It’s funny watching our language being poisoned by the agendas of the powers to be. It is intentional and it changes how we think.

        For how and why, view this lecture on political language by linguistic professor George Lakoff:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5f9R9MtkpqM

        Should be required viewing for anyone who votes.

  • Durin Gleaves

    Wow.  In high school, I dated one of Melvin Morse’s daughters and his other children were family friends.  This is pretty upsetting.

  • Wreckrob8

    Fucking paedos abusing children! Seriously, how long does it take before a suspension of the right to practice becomes effective? Does this guy believe that near death experiences are transformational for children, bringing them closer to God, or what? I don’t get it.

    • BombBlastLightingWaltz

      Not to argue for the this guy, but your comment; “believe that near death experiences are transformational for children….”, well, regardless the age involved, any near death experience CAN have the effect of bringing someone close to a “Search” for understanding of higher being and self.

      Source: A person who died and came back after an accident. Every minute is bonus time from here on out. 

      Again, I do not suggest this persons parenting skills be tried at home.

  • rozenswag

    Is McNulty trying to pull another wild stunt to draw attention to a broken bureaucratic system?  Has waterboarding jumped the shark? You be the judge.

    • http://twitter.com/bazimmerman Brad Zimmerman

      If I was the judge everyone would literally have a very heavy book shot at them from a cannon.  Twice, if necessary.

  • http://twitter.com/fossilfuels Funk Daddy

    Dude’s crazy. Kids can be loud, tedious, annoying as all hell, but cutting off their air supply is not a solution, not even temporarily. 

    • http://twitter.com/bazimmerman Brad Zimmerman

      You are obviously not a writer for The Simpsons.

      • BombBlastLightingWaltz

        Only because he did not graduate from Harvard.

  • chgoliz

    “Once, she said, her father told her he was ‘going to wrap her in a blanket and do it so that she could not move.’”

    I recognize that one: a heavily-promoted technique for RAD kids….a label put on adoptees who don’t acquiesce quickly enough to their new parents.  There are forums all over the internet with groups of parents teaching each other these forms of abuse.

    There really isn’t a better way to show someone “I control you” than these techniques.

    I wonder which came first: the waterboarding, then the realization that a book could be written from the knowledge gained, or did the book idea come first and then the realization that he had easy access to test subjects without all those pesky rules & regulations needed to use legitimate volunteers?

    • http://www.nothinginside.net mindysan33

       UGH…  just… whats WRONG with people!!!!  Why…

      Sorry, I know this isn’t adding to the conversation, but it’s just so mind boggling to me.  Do they really think of children as property?  Really? 

      • chgoliz

        Yes, they do.  Really.

        • http://www.nothinginside.net mindysan33

           Sickening.  People are just sickening.  :-(

      • eyebeam

         That’s fairly standard thinking, really. Most people DO think of their children as property.

  • http://www.nothinginside.net mindysan33

    BAH!  Dude’s a pediatrician!   What the hell is wrong with him!?!  How can anyone think this is okay?

    • JonS

      “How can anyone think this is okay?”

      Is that rhetorical, because the answer is pretty obvious. Torture has been systematically de-stigmatized over the last decade. There have always been parents who fail, badly, in their primary role, it’s just that now waterboarding is a socially acceptable way to fail.

      • http://www.nothinginside.net mindysan33

        Yeah, I guess it kind of is, but I just find this so egregious.  I mean, it’s a kid.  Seriously.  It’s a kid.  I guess some people are just all kinds of horrible to their kids…  And yeah, I know, our culture tends to reinforce behaviors. 

        Bah.

  • Lexica

    The second link seems to go to a paywalled article.

  • bcsizemo

    I know this is disturbing on all kids of levels, but somehow water boarding seems so mundane compared to torture methods we devised hundreds of years ago.  Pear of anguish anyone?

    • Conan Librarian

      Those are cool, where can I get a pair?

      • bcsizemo

        It is not a pair, the picture just shows it in a closed and open position:

        The Pear of Anguish was used during the Middle Ages as a way to torture women who conducted a miscarriage, liars, blasphemers and homosexuals.

        A pear-shaped instrument was inserted into one of the victim’s orifices: the vagina for women, the anus for homosexuals and the mouth for liars and blasphemers.

        The instrument consisted of four leaves that slowly separated from each other as the torturer turned the screw at the top. It was the torturer’s decision to simply tear the skin or expand the “pear” to its maximum and mutilate the victim.

        Doing a quick search on Google, several people have asked where to purchase, but no answer.  Perhaps vendors are wary about selling a device that has the potential to cause some serious physical damage…but then again we (in America) sell guns by the case load.

        • http://twitter.com/KinkyCuttlefish Sheryl

           Search harder, there’s at least one company in Germany producing them and I’ve seen them for sale at kink events.

  • That_Anonymous_Coward

    Wow he really raised the bar for trying to get on Dr. Phil

  • http://twitter.com/macjohnmcc John McCormick

    Years ago he was my son’s pediatrician when he lived in the Seattle area. He didn’t seem to unhinged. But at some point he left his practice in Renton Washington and went through a divorce. I hadn’t heard what he was up to. Now I know. Sadly.