Garrido Not Supposed to be Out of Prison During Kidnap

‘A furious cop has blasted the legal system for “dropping the ball” on Jaycee Dugard’s accused kidnapper Phillip Garrido, who served only a fraction of a 50-year conviction for a previous kidnap-rape. “How he got out after 10 years, I’ll never know,” Nevada Police Officer Clifford Conrad told the New York Daily News.

‘Conrad busted Garrido in 1976 after he handcuffed and raped a woman he had kidnapped across the border in California. “He didn’t seem nervous or anything,” said Conrad, who nailed Garrido emerging from a warehouse. “He just said they were boyfriend and girlfriend, and they were just having consensual sex.” Garrido kidnapped the woman in South Lake Tahoe, the same place police say he snatched Dugard.’ —Mary Papenfuss SOURCE: New York Daily News

Reality: America is Drying-up

I hope this news shocks everyone into the reality mode. More than 30 American states are now fighting with their neighbors over water:

‘You may receive a water bill every month, but you’re not actually paying for water. You’re paying for the cost of service, and this free-rider problem is contributing to the worsening water crisis that threatens to dehydrate the US, author and law professor Robert Glennon argues in the Washington Post. Last year, metro Atlanta—home to 5 million people—came within 90 days of watching its principal water reserves dry up, and one Tennessee hamlet ran out of water entirely.

‘More than 30 states are now fighting with their neighbors over water, Glennon notes, and a surging US population means increasingly less to go around. Proposed solutions range from the expensive’ (desalination of ocean water) to the just plain icky (reuse of municipal waste). Some may find the idea of charging for water itself immoral, but Glennon counters, “Precisely because water is a public—and exhaustible—resource, the government has an obligation to manage it wisely.”’  —Wesley Oliver SOURCE: Washington Post

Credit Cards and Private Browsing

Those who are fond of using credit cards in restaurants should be careful. They are among the most common targets for hackers, experts say, because they often fail to update their antivirus software and other computer security systems.

And do you know that even the ‘Private Browsing’ mode recently added to most browsers such as Internet Explorer 8 and Firefox 3 still allows Flash cookies to operate fully and track the user.
Just shows that being security paranoid isn’t enough.

Dangerous Psychology

Psychology is a double edged tool– it can help or harm ourselves. Here are some myths according to Cracked:

Let Your Anger Out, You’ll Feel Better: Actually, you’ll just want to be more angry. “Lashing out to control your anger is like drinking to control your urge to drink.”
Believe In Yourself, and You’ll Succeed!:Kids should have self-esteem because they’ve succeeded; studies show that kids with inflated self-esteem get aggressive when challenged.
That Homophobe’s Probably Secretly Gay:Roughly half the population thinks homosexuality is morally wrong, and they ain’t all gay. See Cracked.com for complete list

This is a comment from Gryphon which message I myself was planning to include to the post:

‘I love these when you do them. As simple statements these are all incomplete.

“Letting your anger out will make you feel better” should be qualified. Anger needs expression but it must be healthy expression. Letting your anger out by going on a killing spree is certainly not going to help in the long run. But speaking to the object of your anger, working out in the gym, or just taking it to the diety of your choice in prayer are all ways of letting your anger out in a productive way.

“Believe in yourself, and you will succeed” is a case of the second half of the conjunction being made dependent on the the first half. Success is not a necessary consequence of believing in yourself as there are other factors involved, BUT lack of self confidence and esteem will certainly prevent success even if other factors are in play. “You must believe in yourself to succeed,” should be the phrasing. There are no guarantees implied in that phrasing.

“The Homophobe’s probably secretly gay.” “Homophobia” is used way too loosely. It is used as an insult. You do not have to be homophobic to believe that homosexuality is wrong. Phobia is a recognized neurotic disorder having to do with unreasonable fears that are manifested in conspicuous ways. and etc.’

Simple Female Intuition Saved JC Dugard -updated

If you think only covert criminals are idiots, read this one:

‘Worst idea of the day (year?) so far: A horror-porn director plans to make a film about kidnap victim Jaycee Dugard and her relationship with accused abductor—and rapist—Phillip Garrido. A spokesperson for Dugard called the idea “exploitive, hurtful, and breathtakingly unkind” after filmmaker Shane Ryan told a Sacramento TV station he plans to start work on Abducted Girl, An American Sex Slave next month.

‘Ryan, whom the Huffington Post calls a “pornographer” and the AP refers to as a “director of low-budget horror movies,” has previously made Amateur Porn Star Killer and Romance Road Killers, among others.’ -AP

SF Chronicles suspects JC suffered from Stockholm Syndrome:

‘Kidnap victim Jaycee Dugard lied to a suspicious parole officer in a desperate bid to protect her abductor when she was discovered, according to just-released report of her questioning. Jaycee, kidnapped when she was 11 in her northern California town, called herself Alyssa and presented herself as Phillip Garrido’s wife. She laughingly explained that she was often mistaken as someone young enough to be the sister of her daughters, fathered by Garrido.

‘She became angry under repeated questioning and insisted Garrido was a “great person” and “good” father, despite his previous arrests for rape and kidnapping. She then switched her story, first explaining that she was an abused wife on the run, then finally admitting her real identity as the girl missing for 18 years. The exchange is a chilling revelation of the likely effects of Stockholm syndrome, notes the San Francisco Chronicle.’

After 18 years of hell:

‘KIDNAP girl Jaycee Lee Dugard shows she can smile again after her 18 years of hell.
With mum Terry Probyn by her side, she’s making strides just two months after her release.
A family pal said: “You’d never guess the nightmare she’s been through.
“She’s a sweet girl and kind. She has real innocence in her eyes.”
In our exclusive snaps, Jaycee, 29, and Terry, 50, are seen walking hand-in-hand and leafing through photos.
She is also shown with half-sister Shayna, 19, and with Angel, 15, and Starlite, 11 – her daughters by her alleged captor Phillip Garrido.

‘The girls’ backs are to camera to preserve their identity. Jaycee, now living at a secret location, was held in a compound at convicted rapist Garrido’s home in Antioch, California after disappearing when she was 11.
Garrido, 58, and his wife Nancy, 54, deny kidnap, rape and false imprisonment.’ -Thesun.co

Jaycee’s daughters now know that she’s not their sister but their mom:

Hello! magazine offers another glimpse at kidnap victim Jaycee Dugard as an adult, riding horseback and posing with mother Terry Probyn. Sources close to the family say Dugard is bonding with her mother and 19-year-old half-sister, and that Dugard’s two “smart, playful” daughters—who were always told she was their sister—now know she is their mother, the Telegraph reports.

“Meeting her, if you didn’t know what happened, you would never guess in a million years,” one friend says. “She’s friendly, she jokes, she’s a sweet girl and very kind. She also has a real innocence in her eyes.” Another says of her daughters, “Because of the unconditional, protective love she showed them when they thought she was their big sister, it’s more a case of switching titles—the love is still there.”
—Evann Gastaldo Sources: Daily Telegraph (UK), Hello!

Meanwhile, these might be the first words from JC after she was freed from Garrido:
She wants her pets back. That includes two dogs, five cats and several birds.

So it was simple female intuition again that led to the Duggard case solution:

‘Two UC Berkeley police officers broke the Jaycee Duggard case open this week after her alleged captor visited the campus, People reports. “He was clearly unstable,” UC officer Lisa Campbell said of Phillip Garrido. Campbell had a background check run on him and discovered he was a sex offender. When she met with Garrido and his daughters the next day, Campbell’s colleague Ally Jacobs joined in.

‘Jacobs didn’t buy it when Garrido said his “life had changed” after doing time for rape and kidnapping years before—especially because his two girls “sat there with no emotion.” Her suspicions appeared confirmed when Garrido’s parole officer told her he didn’t have any daughters. Garrido then met with his parole officer and admitted to kidnapping Jaycee Duggard and having two daughters with her. “I’m glad the horrible ordeal is over,” says Jacobs, “but there’s a long road ahead.”‘ Wesley Oliver Source: People

P.S. I have an updated version post of this.

Euthanasia During Hurricane Katrina Confessed

Although this is a very beautiful story, it’s also dramatically heavy so I warn those with weak hearts:

‘In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the staff at one New Orleans hospital faced a torturous dilemma: For critically ill patients who would have to be carried down as many as 8 flights of stairs and back up to the roof of a garage, evacuation seemed impossible. With rumors of rioters preparing to attack and police ordering everyone who could go into boats, the remaining staff decided euthanasia was more humane than abandonment, writes Sheri Fink for ProPublica, in a piece reconstructing the sequence of events and the decision-making.
‘Evidence indicates that Memorial Medical Center staff, led by Dr. Anna Pou, injected at least 17 of the sickest, least mobile patients with fatal doses of morphine and midazolam. Pou has not admitted purposely administering fatal doses, but other doctors are frank with Fink about their decision to end DNR and other hopeless patients’ lives rather than abandon them. From documents, Fink reconstructs the stories of many patients—from frail elderly women to a 380-pound man nowhere near death—and how they met their ends.’ —Nick McMaster SOURCE: ProPublica

I admire Dr. Anna Pou and her Memorial Medical Center staff for making brave decisions. Bravo.

Day After M. Jackson’s Death- details

It seems after all that the Police did a good job by hiding suspicion of foul play on MJ.
It’s now revealed that a family member alerted the Bel Air police of suspicious drugs in MJ’s mansion day after he died. The investigators then found pot, generic Valium, and other sedatives. That means that the
police suspected foul play in Jackson’s death much earlier than previously reported.
It was also reported that detectives asked Dr. Murray not to leave his hospital but the dcctor did.– Associated Press

Windows7sins.org

Would you believe there’s now a website called windows7sins.org? Here is their ad:

‘You can get more information about each of the sins and how to escape them at windows7sins.org. Please sign up there for campaign news and action alerts to help raise awareness about Microsoft’s abuses, the problems with Windows 7, and the importance of free software!’

Predicting Death

If you’re interested in a death guessing-game, read on. It’s a bit like horoscope:

‘Feeling morbid? A new website will give you your odds of dying in the next year, LiveScience reports. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon came up with DeathRiskRanking.com. Input some basic info—age, gender, place of residence—and the site spits out when and of what you’re likely to die. “Most Americans don’t have a particularly good understanding of their own mortality risks,” a professor says.
‘The risk of death goes up exponentially each year, according the the site. A 20-year-old woman in the US has a 0.05% chance of dying in the next year, but by age 40 the odds are three times greater. By 80, the risk is 5%. Other notable findings: Men of all ages are more likely to die than women, and American blacks are more likely than whites to die of heart disease and cancer.’ Matt Cantor Source: LiveScience

Beyond Moronic

I like Megan McArdle of the Atlantic when she hits back. For her, it’s ‘beyond moronic’ when a protester decides someone they don’t like (referred to Obama) is a fascist. “The Bush administration did many bad things. But to call his administration fascist is both to completely abuse the term, and to belittle the millions of victims of fascism”, she explained.