The vicious attack on Amish school girls this past week is a real heart-breaker. The big news is that the Amish are going to forgive. I consider the extreme pacifism of this religious sect to be a danger to them way more than a more aggressive defense would serve them.
Also, Jonbenet's John Karr is free and already in trouble as I predicted. Thank you John Ramsey.
An update on the Groene murders, Massachusetts' Entwistle tries a cute trick, Melinda Duckett was a nut and Florida authorities missed almost grievously.
Finally, who the heck is the father of Anna Nicole's baby and why do I care?
Pic of the Day
Quote of the DayTHANKS, HUGO |
| Web Site Worth the Visit Get Ready for Halloween A couple of sites to help with such important Halloween details as painting pumpkins and painting faces. Pumpkin Painting Face Painting |
| TIDBITS TIPS.....That May Save Your Pet There are three keys to managing any emergency with your dog: don't panic, protect yourself from injury, and prepare in advance. When faced with an injured or severely ill dog, it is important that you spend a moment to assess the situation. Determine if the dog needs to be moved immediately. Decide if there is a danger of further injury to the dog or to first aid givers. For example, great care must be used before assisting a dog injured on a busy roadway. It may be safest to call for help so that traffic can be diverted before anyone provides first aid. You must insure that you won't be injured yourself – either by the surroundings or by the injured animal. Prepare in advance by knowing the location and numbers of emergency animal care facilities. These guidelines should help. 1. Behavior Knowledge. Understanding how to approach an injured pet safely is critical. Animals may respond to fear and pain instinctively, even if they know you well. You cannot assume that your own pet won't bite you, because pain or fear may provoke even a docile animal to aggression. Preventing a bite to yourself or other assistants must be your first goal. Towels can be used to cover the pet's head to help "blind him" and make him feel safer while you transport him. Hand made muzzles are also very helpful in deterring bites. 2. Veterinary Telephone Number and Address. Keep the name and phone number of your family veterinarian and local veterinary emergency facility handy. This simple guideline can help save the life of your pet. Most veterinarians are open during normal business hours – 8 am to 5 pm. Determine how your veterinarian handles emergency calls. Some have emergency pagers, and in larger metropolitan cities, many contribute to or use an emergency facility for after-hour emergency calls. Calling first can often answer simple questions or prevent a trip in the wrong direction. Even in situations that are not apparently life-threatening, your questions or concerns may be best considered by a professional who can advise you whether or not to come in. 3. Name and Telephone Number of a Friend. If possible, have a friend assist you, especially if your pet needs to be hospitalized. In the car, it is best to have one person keep the pet calm or settled while the other drives to the emergency clinic or veterinary hospital. 4. CPR. Be familiar with animal cardiopulmonary resuscitation. There are classes offered in pet CPR and this knowledge can be important when faced with a life-threatening situation. 5. Heimlich Maneuver. Though not a commonly used or needed skill, knowing how to perform the Heimlich maneuver for your dog can be a life-saving skill. Only perform the Heimlich if you are absolutely certain your pet is choking on a solid object (such as a toy), and you have been properly trained in the technique. Improperly used, the Heimlich can cause injury to your pet. 6. Bandaging. A bandage helps to cover or apply pressure to a wound to protect or control hemorrhage. Bandages can be fabricated from towels, washcloths, paper towels, or just about any piece of fabric. 7. Stopping Bleeding. If there is an obvious source of bleeding, apply pressure to control the hemorrhage. Pressure is best applied with a clean cloth or towel applied directly to the wound. 8. Towels or Blankets. Blankets and towels can aid in picking up an injured pet or to control bleeding. You can use a towel to wrap a frightened pet or cover a wound. Frightened pets are often relieved by the dark calm enclosure of a blanket. 9. Board, Stretcher or Strong Blanket. Strong sturdy instruments are important to help move or transport severely injured pets that are unable to walk. A small board, a sturdy wool blanket, a piece of canvas or a hammock can be used. Gently roll or move the pet onto the device. Typically, two people are needed to pick up and move the pet when using a stretcher. Be careful as this procedure may cause pain to an injured pet, and exposes the helpers to the risk of bite injury. 10. Finances. Probably the last thing people think about during an emergency is how to pay the bill. Emergency clinics and veterinary practices are no different than other small businesses, and they need to pay their own bills to survive. Expect to leave a deposit when admitting a pet and be prepared to pay for services rendered. Veterinary insurance can be most beneficial in these situations; however, often the veterinary clinic will require that you pay the bill and the insurance company will reimburse you after the invoice is submitted. Most veterinary clinics do accept major credit cards, and there are some veterinary clinics that offer other financial alternatives through banks. |
Those School Shootings-What’s Going On In Their Heads?
I’ve often thought that people missing that most basic of human instincts-the will to live-are potentially the most dangerous people on the planet.
Indeed all of nature is based on the premise that while defense of self is often necessary, defense of self is basically useless if said defense inflicts loss of life on the defender. Small dogs generally do not attack very large dogs in that, go with me here, small dogs have some clue that a large dog can kill them. Thus they run the other way. Except in my own case where a tiny dog got it into his little bulldog head that he could ran directly into my own big Belgian Malinois. All witnessed with my own lying eyeballs and indeed, the Malinois nearly tore that little dog apart. Now I have a small dog, a dachshund, who will run, not walk, as far away from larger dogs that he perceives to be a threat. The small dog that attacked my big dog is still alive thanks to my frenzied human intervention but go with me again here, that was a totally DUMB thing to do and is contra-nature. Small dogs that stupidly attack big dogs generally do not live, do not go on to reproduce, and the gene pool is cleaned up.
Evidently the little dog that attacked my big dog had lost its will to continue living or, more likely, was just plain stupid. But that small/big dog fight illustrates the danger of animals who have lost this most basic of instincts either via stupidity or mental problems unknown.
Throughout our history we’ve had plenty of examples of the dangers of suicidal humans and the danger they can inflict. The many Muslim suicide bombers across the planet teach us plenty about humans willing to blow themselves up so that they can also kill many along with the bomb. Before the suicide bombers we had the Japanese Kami-kazi pilots and they were a real menace as well.
If humans want to wage war with each other it’s always an advantage to recruit “soldiers” who are willing, happily and bravely, to give their own lives to vanquish the enemy. Americans do not fight wars in this manner as minimizing our own losses is always primary on the military’s mind.
Seems like suddenly we have this same rather unusual phenomena occurring across the fruited plains and hey, it’s just plain scary.
It began with that homeless Colorado creep, who stormed a school and kept six female students behind. This fellow helped himself to sexual offerings of the female students and the whole experience had to be horrific for those adolescents who survived it.
Soon after an adolescent gets it into his head to shoot the Principal of his school and the Principal is now dead.The most horrific of these recent suicide killers has to be the recent Amish killings.
A gunman stormed a one-room Amish schoolhouse Monday morning, barricaded it, lined up students and shot 10 of them and then himself before police could even start negotiations.
Charles Roberts, obviously copycatting the Colorado killer, woke up one morning, dropped his own children off at the school bus stop, drove to a hardware store and purchased many unusual supplies, including K-1 jelly, flex cuffs, wire ties and supplies for barricading himself inside the school.
While the Colorado shooter, Duane Morrison, was a homeless drifter with somewhat understandable reasons for ending a hapless life, the riddle of Charles Roberts is a little more unclear.
-Charles Carl Roberts IV was married with three children and drove a milk truck.
The son of a police officer, he didn’t attend public schools, instead earning a diploma through a home-school association.
The employee of Northwest Food Products Transportation in East Earl Township shared a vinyl-sided mobile home at 1084 Georgetown Road, Bart Township, with his wife of nine years and three children.
By all outside appearances, Charles Roberts IV had a normal American life and had every reason to live. He had three children of his own and if nothing else, this is generally reason enough to continue on even when life events can overwhelm.
Those Amish girls that Charles Roberts killed in cold blood were known to him.From Timesonline.com:
THERE were no children to greet Charles Roberts the last time he collected milk from the Fisher family farm near the Pennsylvania town of Paradise. It was in the early hours of last Monday and the excited young Amish girls who often ran out to greet his arrival were inside asleep.
As a tanker driver for a Lancaster County dairy, Roberts was well known to farmers as one of the few “Englishers” — the Amish term for outsiders — who were allowed to pay regular visits to the community’s old-fashioned farms.
On his daytime rounds he was routinely besieged by inquisitive children who clamoured for lollipops and stories about an outside world that was rarely mentioned by their stern and protective parents.
With the help of whatever demons occupied his head, Charles Roberts methodically planned the murder of the little girls he’d met while making his milk rounds. The sound bytes on this murder include Roberts’ remorse over a girl child who died at birth almost ten years prior. In a suicide note he left to his wife, Roberts mentioned that he’d once molested two young relatives when he was only twelve.
More likely Charles Roberts was a child molester who probably struggled constantly with his sickness. Evidently despondent about his life and by example from the Colorado shooting, Roberts decided that he too would end his life but first…well why not avail himself of the young girls he’d so lusted for as he delivered his goods to their simple farms?
Which is all no mind because these three shootings are examples of the dangers of human beings with no will to continue living and the damage they can inflict as they end their troubled lives.
There were reports of bravery by the Amish victims, including accounts of two young victims who requested that Roberts shoot them first, the assumption being that perhaps the other victims could somehow escape.
Other reports about the Amish reaction to the violence in their midst trouble me.
Charles Carl Roberts IV, 32, was buried in his wife's family plot behind a small Methodist church, a few miles from the one-room schoolhouse he stormed Monday.
His wife, Marie, and their three small children looked on as Roberts was buried beside the pink, heart-shaped grave of the infant daughter whose death nine years ago apparently haunted him, said Bruce Porter, a fire department chaplain from Colorado who attended the service.
About half of perhaps 75 mourners on hand were Amish.
I grew up in the state of Maryland and for citizens of this state, Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey, a visit to the Amish country of Lancaster, Pa. was a most refreshing getaway without large bother of distance and expense.
I adored the quaint towns of Paradise, Blue Ball, and Bird-in-Hand. I often browsed the local shops with their offerings of handmade Amish quilts. Of course it was always a bit awe-inspiring to see the Amish as they traveled to and fro in their horse-drawn carriages and pondering a life with no modern technology. The Amish area of Pennsylvania embodied peace, tranquility and family happiness .
Yes I admire the way the Amish have dealt with their tragedy. I particularly admire how they kept themselves distant from the Media frenzy. Too often minor players in True Crimes are anxious as all get-out to get their unimportant mug in front of the cameras and act all self-important simply because they knew a victim or criminal involved.
I’m just not at all sure that I’d ever be so noble. Defending yourself against death, protecting the children, hey, it’s a no-brainer. I fear that the Amish have portrayed themselves as willing victims what with their attendance at Roberts’ funeral. I even saw one Amish woman on TV stating, to my complete astonishment, that Charles Roberts was not important, that it was time for these children to die as God hath deemed it.
I’ll never be convinced that God deems when small children should die. The obvious conclusion of this logic is that the Amish must not be at all concerned about safety such as guarded schools as God has a plan and there’s no need to protect.
If God had such a predetermined plan than why on earth did he give us all the instinct of self-preservation? If God had a date when children’s lives should end, why are mothers born with the will to die, if necessary, to save their young?
The entire Amish reaction seems to invite the crazies to come on over here, we don’t care if you kill our children…it’s God’s plan.
Of course this attitude is the embodiment of the Amish life philosophy and they do live their lives in a sparse manner of their belief. That’s admirable.
And this Charles Roberts was a local guy who happened to live in that area of Pennsylvania. It’s not likely that a crazed fellow like Duane Morrison would wend his way to an Amish area to inflict mass murder on the most innocent of innocents.
It still concerns me that the whole thing might be an invitation for those already not possessing their full human instincts to come on over here, we’ll not get mad at you.
Remembering please, that these suicidal killers are simply not right and thankfully, most of us want to continue living as long as we can. Remembering also, that often these things tend to create copycats until it all disappears. I am concerned that the Amish reaction to it all might encourage other suicidal crazies to go where the victims will still attend their funerals and where access to victims is easy and unfettered.
Meanwhile, 155 People Dead in Brazilian Airplane Crash and No One Seems to Notice
An airplane crash involving a mid-air collision of a small plane with a large one that leaves 155 dead as the large plane crashes in the jungle is ordinarily big news. Yet the whole thing flew amazingly under the public radar as the Amish shootings and goodness, the Gay Republican who was trolling for lovers in the congressional Page pool, occupied the headlines.
This crash is intriguing as there’s hints of possible foul play involved.
Google Newsgroup, no attribution:
RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct. 3 — A Brazilian judge has ordered police to confiscate the passports of the two American pilots who were at the controls of the business jet that apparently collided with a commercial airliner last Friday. The airliner crashed, killing all 155 people aboard, but the business jet was able to land safely after the incident.
The judge in Peixoto de Azevedo, the city in the central state of Mato Grosso nearest to the forested area where the airliner crashed, took the step at the request of the local prosecutor, said Célio Wilson de Oliveira, the state secretary for justice and public security, in a telephone interview. Under Brazilian law, prosecutors are responsible for investigating accidental deaths as well as crimes. While the pilots have not been charged with any wrongdoing, Mr. Wilson said, the order was issued as a “preventive measure.”
So far all that is known is that a small plane from Excelaire somehow collided with a big 737 and it wasn’t until three hours after the collision that the passengers in the small Excelaire knew that that bump in mid-air managed to fell the bigger jet.
Brazilian authorities are now studying the 737’s voice and data recorder and the passports of the pilots of that Excelaire plane have been confiscated until the investigation is complete.
I can’t shake the feeling that something is really weird about this crash.
John Karr Released
Not that we’re surprised.
For I’ve ranted and raved about the idiocy of bringing this creep back from Thailand at taxpayer expense. My bigger lament was that once John Karr, suspected killer of Jonbenet Ramsey but cleared by DNA evidence, was released, well our own children would be vulnerable to this guy’s predatory behavior.
I’ve summarized my issues with John Karr and presented my own likely true scenario of how Jonbenet Ramsey lost her life HERE.
The Ramseys, however, are not only satisfied that they got clean away with murder, they absolutely INSIST that we arrest someone else for the accidental death of Jonbenet that was inflicted by Patsy Ramsey herself.
That Colorado idiot prosecutor Mary Lacy, with a little encouragement from John Ramsey not that he wasn’t a suspect in the death of his daughter and not that we should expect prosecutors to have a little common sense, actually brought John Karr home from Thailand.
Karr was freed from Colorado when DNA did NOT tie him to the Jonbenet crime scene. He has now been freed from the state of California where he was wanted for possession of child pornography, a misdemeanor in California at any rate even if they did still have the evidence.
California authorities did NOT have Karr’s computer and the chain of control of the evidence was lost. We do not lock up people in this country with tainted evidence that can no longer be found.
From Yahoo.com:
Sonoma County Superior Court Judge Rene Chouteau ordered Karr released immediately, bringing an end to his two-month odyssey in the U.S. criminal justice system after he was extradited from Thailand on suspicion of killing the 6-year-old beauty queen.
Already John Karr was discovered trying to gain access to a school, of all things. This may have been a publicity stunt in that two producers of a shock type show were with Karr.
Whatever the case, John Karr walks amongst us and we may thank beloved John Ramsey, who KNOWS who the hell killed his daughter Jonbenet, and stupid Colorado prosecutors who should be teaching Sunday school.
Parents Kidnap Daughter to Prevent Her Nuptials
Here’s a True Crime which eventual outcome should be interesting.
Seems a pair of disgruntled parents didn’t want their daughter marrying a fellow who they did not like.
Lemuel and Julia Redd ostensibly were taking their 23-year old-daughter on a pre-wedding shopping spree. Only the parents would not bring their daughter back in time and she missed her wedding!
Julianna Myers did marry husband Perry in Utah but not on the original wedding date. Julianna’s parents face up to 15 years in jail if found guilty.
From AOL.com:
- A pre-wedding shopping trip for a 21-year-old bride ended with felony charges against her parents, who she says kidnapped her and drove her 240 miles to Colorado, trying to talk her out of the nuptials along the way and holding her until she missed the ceremony.
Well I don’t like my son-in-law all that much either. Let this couple get away with this nonsense and look for parents across the land to kidnap their children to prevent nuptials for which they do not approve.
Neil Entwistle’s Attorney Fights Client DNA Sample
Neil Entwistle is the lovely fellow who shot his 9-month-old daughter and 27-year-old wife in cold blood in January of this year. Entwistle then hightailed off to England with, we assume, hopes of avoiding prosecution.
This crime was covered on this Blog HERE- First Entwistle Post and
HERE-Entwistle Timeline
For some odd reason, Entwistle’s attorney are fighting a prosecution move to obtain his DNA.
From CourtTV.com:
BOSTON (AP) - The defense attorney for a British man accused of fatally shooting his wife and baby daughter says he'll oppose a prosecution motion for a DNA sample from his client.
Elliot M. Weinstein said Tuesday he will fight the request at a pretrial hearing for Neil Entwistle today, The Boston Globe reported.
Weinstein declined to say why the state wants the DNA sample, and why he will fight the motion he said was filed last week by the Middlesex District Attorney's office. He has entered pleas of not guilty for Entwistle.
This motion makes no sense other than defense grandstanding. Neil’s wife and baby were murdered in his home after all. I would think that obtaining Neil’s DNA would be small matter. More likely the prosecution wants a fresh sample.
Entwistle’s defense team sure has their job cut out for them. This trial will be interesting to watch.
Child Welfare Authorities Screwed Up in Melinda Duckett
Over and over we find missing and/or murdered children were investigated by various state child welfare agencies and nothing to protect the children occurred.
The state of Florida is notorious for such lackadaisical child protection services. Now we find out that Melinda Duckett, the mother of Trenton Duckett who committed suicide in the wake of the investigation into her son’s sudden and unusual disappearance, was considered a danger to her son by Florida child welfare authorities.
The saga of Melinda Duckett was covered on this Blog HERE and HERE.
From WFTV.com:
-- Two-thousand more pages of child welfare papers were released in the Trenton Duckett case.
The report shows, as recently as January, investigators were worried about Trenton’s welfare.
According to the papers, his mother, Melinda Duckett, threatened Trenton's life repeatedly and that state workers were concerned.
Melinda did not leave any hints to her son’s whereabouts when she took her own life. Perhaps if Florida child welfare people had done their jobs, Trenton would still be alive.
Update on Groene Trial
If ever an individual deserved to die by the needle it would Joseph Edward Duncan III. This fine man broke into the home of Shasta and Dylan Groene’s mother and murdered all inhabitants in cold blood except Shasta and Dylan. Duncan took these young children, 8 and 9, on a cross-country camping trip where he murdered Dylan. Duncan was caught with young Shasta by an alert waitress who spotted this murdering and child-abusing duo in her restaurant. Only Shasta Groene remains alive from her entire family wiped out in that house the day Joseph Duncan thought he’d get himself a couple of kids and get their family out of the way at the same time. Duncan is also charged with the murder of another California child ten years ago.
Below a list of posts on this Blog about this case:
July 2005 post 1
July 2005-post 2
August 2005-post 1
August 2005-post 2
September 2006-Groene updateSHASTA’s TESTIMONY
From CDA Press:
The lawyer representing Shasta Groene said there's no reason for the 9-year-old to testify in a state court now that federal prosecutors have been given the go-ahead to seek the death penalty against Joseph Edward Duncan III.
This case is becoming a confusing mish-mash of state versus federal prosecutions and it all could involve the several testimonies of Shasta Groene. An eventuality that could be a horrific experience for the child as hasn’t the child been through enough? Yet here in America defendants have the right to confront their accuser. It’s no mind Shasta’s young age and the horror she’d have to endure by testifying several times against her tormenter and murderer of her family.
It’s reported that Duncan would plead guilty to the murders IF he did not get the death penalty. This, yon ladies and gems, is NOT a desired outcome. Why even have a death penalty if a guy like Duncan doesn’t get the needle?
Yet the state of Idaho was faced with going after the death penalty for Duncan in the state trial for the deaths of Shasta’s family, which would require Shasta to testify.
Duncan is also on trial by federal authorities for the death of Shasta’s brother Dylan. By taking the children across state lines and killing Dylan Groene in a national forest, Duncan is subject to federal prosecution. Shasta would likely have to testify in this trial but these events are a bit less horrific that Idaho’s case for the murder of Shasta’s entire family.
Federal prosecutors, it has been announced, WILL go after the death penalty for Duncan for his actions in this federal case. Should Duncan get the death penalty for this case then a state case may not be necessary. Sparing Shasta Groene, whose gone through hell already, from testifying on the murders of her mother, her boyfriend and her other brother, all killed by Duncan before he took off with the only survivors of that crime, Shasta and Dylan.
Duncan is also scheduled to be tried by California authorities for the death of 10-year-old Anthony Michael Martinez. They will also be seeking the death penalty.
The ultimate goal here is to get Duncan the death needle he deserves while sparing the already traumatized Shasta the torment of many trials.
Let’s hope puffed up and self-important prosecutors don’t get their day in the sun by demanding trials not needed as hey, you can only kill someone once. Right now the Idaho trial might go ahead as scuttlebutt has it. I’m betting that it won’t IF Duncan gets the death penalty at either the federal or California trials.
Who Is the Father of Anna Nicole’s Baby?
Well her son did die under strange circumstances in her hospital room. She had been in the hospital to give birth to a daughter and until the death of Anna Nicole Smith’s son there seemed to need for Smith to get married, ostensibly to the father of her child.
A Larry Birkhead, a photographer, has been out and about declaring that Anna Nicole told him that the baby was his. Now Anna’s gone and married her always-by-her-side attorney, a Howard K. Stern.
Birkhead is demanding that Anna Nicole respond to his demands for a paternity test. Evidently Anna Nicole doesn’t have to do a damn thing so long as she remains in the Bahamas.
This case is just strange, folks. I have no idea what Birkhead hopes to gain by demanding a paternity test. So okay, if it’s his child then I suppose he has a right to visitation and such. Frankly I believe this fellow as there are plenty of pictures with him and Anna Nicole and Birkhead declares that he was with Anna Nicole during the first ultrasound pics of the unborn and this is not something woman do with just anybody.
So why is Anna Nicole Smith suddenly marrying her attorney? And why won’t she allow Birkhead to at least be assured that the baby is not his?
Weird. Just plain weird.
More True Crime Updates HERE
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