MONDAY, FEBRUARY 7 As if to punish us for ignoring everything in the world except Michael Jackson last week, today Last Days was confronted by the type of news story we are physically incapable of ignoring. The headline says it all: "Whatcom County baby beaten to death." Still, the details are worth reporting: Yesterday in Bellingham, WA, the 20-month-old son of Mike Commissaris and Danielle Seymour died after enduring what doctors called torture, with young Zachary subjected to beating, shaking, and strangulation before being killed by a blow to the head. Authorities learned of Zachary when doctors at Bellingham's St. Joseph Hospital reported their receipt of the fatally battered boy, who'd been delivered to the hospital by his alleged caretaker--29-year-old Jason Bunger, a family friend who'd been caring for Zach for four days while his parents--recovering drug addicts who'd suffered a recent eviction--searched for new housing. Unfortunately, as KING 5 reports, Jason Bunger is dealing with a drug problem of his own, which is perhaps why he disappeared from the hospital before police arrived. Since then, police have located and interviewed Bunger, classifying him as a "person of interest" but as yet refraining from filing any charges. Meanwhile, for every kid beaten to death while in the care of a drug-troubled family friend, evidently two kids get to live, with the donation of Zach's vital organs helping to save the lives of two other children.

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 8 Exactly one day after gunmen killed an Iraqi chef employed by U.S. forces at Baghdad International Airport and two Kurdish politicians in Mosul, today brought another flood of bloodshed to Iraq. First came the suicide bomber who blew himself up in a crowd of Iraqis outside an army recruitment center in Baghdad, killing 21 other people and injuring 27 more. Then came the clashes that killed three Iraqi police officers in Baghdad's Ghazaliya neighborhood, and the assassination attempt on the Nation Party's presidential candidate, Mithal al-Alusi, whose car was sprayed with bullets that killed two of his sons but left him unhurt. Finally, a militant group claimed to have executed journalist Giuliana Sgrena, a 56-year-old Italian reporter kidnapped by gunmen in Baghdad for spying on "holy fighters."

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 9 In less deadly news: Today the Associated Press reported the sphincter-clinching tale of Marianne Dahle, the 26-year-old Idaho woman charged with aggravated battery after allegedly scalping a fellow member of her "punk clique." Dahle is accused of tying up a 16-year-old girl with a mohawk hairdo, then using a 4-inch knife to cut away a 6-by-8-inch section of her scalp. Witnesses told police the motive for the alleged scalping was retaliation for the victim's behavior, construed by the alleged scalper as being denigrating to women. What's more, the victim's mohawk may have played a role in the assault. "According to their creed, if you disrespect women, you are not allowed to wear a mohawk," said a Boise cop to the AP. "But I don't think the victim had any idea in the world she was going to be scalped." The scalping victim survived and is recovering, while Marianne Dahle awaits her trial on charges that could land her behind bars for 14 years.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 10 In addition to Last Days' duties reviewing the spew of mass media for this column, we're also the recipient/ editor of I, Anonymous, The Stranger's ever-popular open forum for incognito rants. Today we received an I, Anonymous submission about slain actress Nicole duFresne (see left) that leapt off our desk to ignite a full-staff debate: Do we run it or burn it? The "burn it" argument was defended most eloquently by performance editor Annie Wagner: "Women are constantly being told what to do to ward off attackers--if someone tries to rape you, you're supposed to fight, because rapists are cowards and most women who fight get away. But if someone mugs you, you're supposed to forget your assertiveness training and hand over your purse. Never mind that it's 3:00 a.m. and you're tired and drunk and you don't see that this 19-year-old kid has a gun. Anyone in that situation would have to make that fight-or-flight decision, and if duFresne misjudged the risks, it doesn't mean she was wrong, and it definitely doesn't mean she was stupid." The "run it" side was well explicated by news writer Sandeep Kaushik: "The whole point of I, Anonymous is to allow people to use the cloak of anonymity to express transgressive views that they would not ordinarily express publicly. If we want to do away with I, Anonymous entirely--and I think there may be good arguments for doing so--that's one thing. But whether we agree with the view expressed strikes me as an almost irrelevant consideration." Eventually, the debate spun off into emotional territory (How would you feel? What if she were your sister?) before being put into ferocious perspective by associate editor Charles Mudede: "If my sister said something stupid that got her shot, then my sister said something stupid that got her shot. I have little sympathy for the dead, and even less for those who survive them. There is nothing special about being dead or knowing a dead person." As for our position: Maybe sometimes free speech is supposed to make you sick. See you in Hell.

•• Speaking of deceased theater-makers: RIP Arthur Miller, the great American playwright who expired tonight at age 89, leaving behind a handful of key works--Death of a Salesman, The Crucible--that will survive us all.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 11 Today brought news of the re-incarceration of troubled actor Tom Sizemore, who was sent back to jail after violating his probation by attempting to use a trick penis to fake a drug-test. According to Reuters, Sizemore was nabbed after his court-ordered urine sample proved too cool to have come from his body. Ordering Sizemore to strip, cops found the culprit: a faux wang sewed into Sizemore's boxers, filled with a clean urine sample and warmed by a heating pack. As Sizemore has failed at least five previous drug tests--including a prior failed attempt with the Whizzinator--he's been ordered to remain behind bars until a hearing on February 24.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 12 Nothing happened today, unless you count the pair of sightings from out-of-state Hot Tippers, including New Yorker Amanda (who was riding the subway in the Bronx when she witnessed a professional-looking older woman using a razor blade to scrape dry skin off her shins and forehead) and Floridian Margit, whose job as a temp receptionist at an Orlando Buick dealership took a turn for the yucky when an older male salesman instructed her to cut the two-inch white hair growing out of his otherwise hairless forearm with the company scissors. Thanks to both ladies.

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 13 The week ends with an election-results wrap-up. Following yesterday's election of beloved screamer Howard Dean to the post of party chairman of the Democratic National Committee, today Shiite Muslims were crowned the top vote-getters in the January 30 national elections in Iraq. Meanwhile, following his election as the creator of the best album of the year in the Village Voice's national Pazz & Jop critics' poll, tonight the brilliant and hilarious Kanye West won a bunch of Grammys. When critical favor and mainstream love alight on the same art, things can't be all bad.

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