The map below is constantly updated with new or suspected cases. It's the best I've found yet that makes the info easily obtainable.
View Swine Flu 2009 in a larger map
Swine flu at present is confirmed or suspected in the following places:
17 Mexican states including:
Mexico City
Veracruz - origin of current swine flu strain
Oaxaca
Baja California
San Luis Potosi
Mexico State
Mexicali
United States:
San Diego County, CA
Imperial County, CA
Cibolo, TX
San Antonio, TX
Queens, NY
Nassau, NY
Kansas
Lorain County, OH
Livingston County, MI
Newberry, SC
Internationally:
Auckland, NZ
Netanya, Israel
Bilbao, Spain
Albacete, Spain
Valencia, Spain
Nova Scotia
British Columbia
Lanarkshire, Scotland
France
Brazil
The general consensus of news items I've read seem to say that the lethal strain hasn't reached the United States yet, but that it will. The director of the CDC says that people will die with swine flu in the United States, and there's no way to contain it.
We'll continue to post updates here as there are significant developments.
UPDATE: Number and severity of Swine Flu cases in US to increase. Federal government will issue a travel advisory today declaring that Americans avoid non-essential travel to Mexico. Mercury News
4.26.2009
An enemy of my enemy is not my friend.
William Murtaugh for some reason thought that the revelations about Josh Melton meant that he had been exonerated for all the shit he's done in the past several years.
Not so fast, Murdiot.
Murt and monoxide are two peas in the same pod. Monoxide could learn a lot from Murt, as Murt has perfected his scam to the point that he doesn't have to work, and his pity stories always seem to result in women funneling the money to him.
From what I'm getting in my email in-box, Murt's most recent solicitation has something to do with shipping a server by freight. I don't understand the whole story, so anyone who knows what's going on feel free to comment.
I hadn't thought about Murt until he started appearing on my blog, commenting in his usual retarded way. Then I got several e-mails telling me that Murt is stealing my content and posting it as his own at his retardoblog.
One thing that pissed off a lot of people who used to follow Murt is that he let his chat room be used by a sex offender's sister to call the child witnesses liars. He let Tinker Bell go on a rant about the childre
n who testified about her sister's inappropriate sexual conduct. For those of you who don't know about this, Tinker Bell is or was a mod at Murt's chat room. A couple months ago, her sister Wind Chime, a slovenly mod at Websleuths, was outted as having a criminal record for sexually abusing children. The case records state that she crawled her obese self up on a table, lay on her back, and spread her fat labia for the children to see. She also had sex in front of the kids. She pleaded GUILTY to these charges! In Murt's chat, Tinker Bell defended Wind Chime at the expense of the children who were victimized by Wind Chime. Murt, who supposedly cares about children, sure didn't care about them when he let the sex offender's sister call those kids liars in his chat room. Anyone who stayed in Murt's chat after that happened can't even pretend to care about children.
Murt's always given me the creepy vibe, though. So it's not surprising that sex offenders and their kin gravitate toward his chat room.
Honestly, he's yesterday's news. But it looks like he's still up to the same monkey business.
Anyone know of any cons that old Murt's been up to lately? Tell us about them here.
Not so fast, Murdiot.
Murt and monoxide are two peas in the same pod. Monoxide could learn a lot from Murt, as Murt has perfected his scam to the point that he doesn't have to work, and his pity stories always seem to result in women funneling the money to him.
From what I'm getting in my email in-box, Murt's most recent solicitation has something to do with shipping a server by freight. I don't understand the whole story, so anyone who knows what's going on feel free to comment.
I hadn't thought about Murt until he started appearing on my blog, commenting in his usual retarded way. Then I got several e-mails telling me that Murt is stealing my content and posting it as his own at his retardoblog.
One thing that pissed off a lot of people who used to follow Murt is that he let his chat room be used by a sex offender's sister to call the child witnesses liars. He let Tinker Bell go on a rant about the childre
n who testified about her sister's inappropriate sexual conduct. For those of you who don't know about this, Tinker Bell is or was a mod at Murt's chat room. A couple months ago, her sister Wind Chime, a slovenly mod at Websleuths, was outted as having a criminal record for sexually abusing children. The case records state that she crawled her obese self up on a table, lay on her back, and spread her fat labia for the children to see. She also had sex in front of the kids. She pleaded GUILTY to these charges! In Murt's chat, Tinker Bell defended Wind Chime at the expense of the children who were victimized by Wind Chime. Murt, who supposedly cares about children, sure didn't care about them when he let the sex offender's sister call those kids liars in his chat room. Anyone who stayed in Murt's chat after that happened can't even pretend to care about children.Murt's always given me the creepy vibe, though. So it's not surprising that sex offenders and their kin gravitate toward his chat room.
Honestly, he's yesterday's news. But it looks like he's still up to the same monkey business.
Anyone know of any cons that old Murt's been up to lately? Tell us about them here.
World readies for deadly Swine Flu pandemic.
If you haven't been reading about this and keeping up-to-date on it, you really should. The Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918 only killed 3% of those it infected. So far, the current strain of Swine Flu is killing close to 10% of people reported infected with it.
What is particularly worrisome about the current strain of Swine Flu is that it's a combination of hog, avian, and human virii never seen before.
It's fast acting, too. On April 16th, President Barack Obama visited a museum in Mexico. The archaeologist who hosted him died the next day from a pneumonia-like illness now suspected to be the flu.
As of 2:30 AM, April 26, the flu is spreading throughout Mexico, and has been identified in the United States in four states: California, Kansas, New York, and Texas. It has also been identified in New Zealand and the UK.
World Health Officials believe it could reach pandemic status, and they also say that there's no way to contain it, because it's already spread so far. At least one author is saying that the outbreak is related to bioterrorism. That seems unlikely though, until proven othewise.
Fortunately, the flu responds well to Tamiflu and Relenza.
The map below shows the locations of current or suspected Swine Flu cases. This blog will have at least one update daily on this topic.
View Swine Flu 2009 in a larger map
What is particularly worrisome about the current strain of Swine Flu is that it's a combination of hog, avian, and human virii never seen before.
It's fast acting, too. On April 16th, President Barack Obama visited a museum in Mexico. The archaeologist who hosted him died the next day from a pneumonia-like illness now suspected to be the flu.
As of 2:30 AM, April 26, the flu is spreading throughout Mexico, and has been identified in the United States in four states: California, Kansas, New York, and Texas. It has also been identified in New Zealand and the UK.
World Health Officials believe it could reach pandemic status, and they also say that there's no way to contain it, because it's already spread so far. At least one author is saying that the outbreak is related to bioterrorism. That seems unlikely though, until proven othewise.
Fortunately, the flu responds well to Tamiflu and Relenza.
The map below shows the locations of current or suspected Swine Flu cases. This blog will have at least one update daily on this topic.
View Swine Flu 2009 in a larger map
4.24.2009
Tricia Griffith pretends she didn't know about the email campaign to the victims conference.
Here's her post scolding her members.
Yesterday, 12:00 AM
Tricia
Administrator Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Under that huge "house of cards" falling on me. Wow!
Posts: 6,007
To those who wish to vilify the Melanie Rieger Conference
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I received a call from Marc Klaas today. It seems members of Websleuths have been sending some angry emails to a wonderful organization based on what Marc said on Nancy the other night. I asked Marc to put his concerns in writing for me to post. Below is from Marc to us.
What bothers me is it seems some members took it upon themselves to use Websleuths to organize an actual email campaign against Sam and Wanda Rieger.
First, any email campaign, any petition, any sort of organized anything, has to be approved by me. That has always been a hard and fast rule here.
Of course what you do off the forum is none of my business but when an organization like the Melanie Rieger Conference receives emails from people saying they are from Websleuths then it becomes my business.
If the people who did this would have followed the rules and contacted me we could have avoided this embarrassing situation.
This is a totally different situation that (sic) Oprah. Even so, when someone posted about an "email campaign" Jbean pulled that thread until I approved it. I made the mistake of not posting a reminder about organizing email campaigns.
Websleuths is a very different forum in that it is privately owned by one person. I take a very active role in setting the rules for Websleuths. I am blessed with a great team of moderators who share my goals and make sure the forum runs smoothly.
I will be sending a letter to everyone involved in the Melanie Rieger Conference explaining that this was not endorsed by Websleuths in any way.
I don't know how many people were involved in this but apparently it was enough people from Websleuths writing some very angry and unfair emails to prompt Marc to contact me.
What I have found is Websleuths is a very respected forum. That has everything to do with you as the poster. With posters like you who post within reason and without name calling. When something like this happens it hurts all of us.
I'll leave the thread open if anyone has any questions or would like to comment.
Tricia
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Wait. Did readers catch that? It was ok for her readers to send harassing emails to Oprah, but not ok for them to do it to others? Anyone who was ever a member of Websleuths knows that these kind of email campaigns happen all the time. And they are organized openly at Websleuths.
I think that the only reason Tricia admonished her members is because Mark Klaas called her and bitched her out about it.
Websleuths has been on the decline for a year at least. Tricia Griffith was in no way qualified to own such a web site. Her own blog reveals an unintelligent, nutty (in a bad way) person who can't even string two sentences together, much less admin a web site.
At one time Websleuths mattered. The Caylee case dropped a huge opportunity into Tricia's huge lap. She blew it through bad decision after bad decision. The Klaas letter will, we hope, deter reasonable people from joining the forum.
Of course, anyone with any sense of integrity has already left Websleuths. The fact that the forum was being co-admined by a woman who was convicted for showing her nether regions to innocent children was enough justification for any reasonable person to leave.
We wonder what is wrong with the people who stay. Obviously - as indicated by the Klaas bitchslap - there's not much of substance left there.
The emperess of Websleuths has no clothes and the few people who are left there don't have the cajones to tell her that.
Yesterday, 12:00 AM
Tricia
Administrator Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Under that huge "house of cards" falling on me. Wow!
Posts: 6,007
To those who wish to vilify the Melanie Rieger Conference
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I received a call from Marc Klaas today. It seems members of Websleuths have been sending some angry emails to a wonderful organization based on what Marc said on Nancy the other night. I asked Marc to put his concerns in writing for me to post. Below is from Marc to us.
What bothers me is it seems some members took it upon themselves to use Websleuths to organize an actual email campaign against Sam and Wanda Rieger.
First, any email campaign, any petition, any sort of organized anything, has to be approved by me. That has always been a hard and fast rule here.
Of course what you do off the forum is none of my business but when an organization like the Melanie Rieger Conference receives emails from people saying they are from Websleuths then it becomes my business.
If the people who did this would have followed the rules and contacted me we could have avoided this embarrassing situation.
This is a totally different situation that (sic) Oprah. Even so, when someone posted about an "email campaign" Jbean pulled that thread until I approved it. I made the mistake of not posting a reminder about organizing email campaigns.
Websleuths is a very different forum in that it is privately owned by one person. I take a very active role in setting the rules for Websleuths. I am blessed with a great team of moderators who share my goals and make sure the forum runs smoothly.
I will be sending a letter to everyone involved in the Melanie Rieger Conference explaining that this was not endorsed by Websleuths in any way.
I don't know how many people were involved in this but apparently it was enough people from Websleuths writing some very angry and unfair emails to prompt Marc to contact me.
What I have found is Websleuths is a very respected forum. That has everything to do with you as the poster. With posters like you who post within reason and without name calling. When something like this happens it hurts all of us.
I'll leave the thread open if anyone has any questions or would like to comment.
Tricia
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Wait. Did readers catch that? It was ok for her readers to send harassing emails to Oprah, but not ok for them to do it to others? Anyone who was ever a member of Websleuths knows that these kind of email campaigns happen all the time. And they are organized openly at Websleuths.
I think that the only reason Tricia admonished her members is because Mark Klaas called her and bitched her out about it.
Websleuths has been on the decline for a year at least. Tricia Griffith was in no way qualified to own such a web site. Her own blog reveals an unintelligent, nutty (in a bad way) person who can't even string two sentences together, much less admin a web site.
At one time Websleuths mattered. The Caylee case dropped a huge opportunity into Tricia's huge lap. She blew it through bad decision after bad decision. The Klaas letter will, we hope, deter reasonable people from joining the forum.
Of course, anyone with any sense of integrity has already left Websleuths. The fact that the forum was being co-admined by a woman who was convicted for showing her nether regions to innocent children was enough justification for any reasonable person to leave.
We wonder what is wrong with the people who stay. Obviously - as indicated by the Klaas bitchslap - there's not much of substance left there.
The emperess of Websleuths has no clothes and the few people who are left there don't have the cajones to tell her that.
Mark Klaas disassociates himself from Websleuths
Recently Mark Klaas had become a friend to the website Websleuths, but he's disassociated himself from them with this letter.
The Anthonys were set to attend a homicide victims conference in Connecticut. Websleuths heard about this, and they made all kinds of irrational speculations about the conference's integrity. This pissed off Klaas enough to write an open letter to Websleuths.
Mark, we commend you. Websleuths at one point in time was a good site. Since Tricia Griffith became the owner, the place has declined terribly. The recent revelation that Tricia's chief moderator/co-admin Wind Chime has a criminal record for improper sexual behavior with children (she laid on a table, spread her cooch for children to see, and then had sex in front of those children according to the case records) was for many the death knell of the website. We are glad to see reputable people like Mark Klaas break his association with the site.
http://www.melanieriegerconference.com/pressrelease.php
Here is Mark's letter to Tricia and Websleuths:
The Anthonys were set to attend a homicide victims conference in Connecticut. Websleuths heard about this, and they made all kinds of irrational speculations about the conference's integrity. This pissed off Klaas enough to write an open letter to Websleuths.
Mark, we commend you. Websleuths at one point in time was a good site. Since Tricia Griffith became the owner, the place has declined terribly. The recent revelation that Tricia's chief moderator/co-admin Wind Chime has a criminal record for improper sexual behavior with children (she laid on a table, spread her cooch for children to see, and then had sex in front of those children according to the case records) was for many the death knell of the website. We are glad to see reputable people like Mark Klaas break his association with the site.
http://www.melanieriegerconference.com/pressrelease.php
Here is Mark's letter to Tricia and Websleuths:
Marc Klaas' Letter Sent to Websleuths
The other night you apparently heard, or somebody told you about, comments that I made on the Nancy Grace Show about George and Cindy Anthony’s scheduled appearance at the upcoming Melanie Ilene Rieger Memorial Conference. From those comments much has been imagined, speculated upon, and regurgitated in unfortunate ways. I would like to provide some context in hopes that you will modify your opinion and re-direct your anger.
Melanie Ilene Rieger, a college student, was murdered by her boyfriend on May 24, 1994. The conference was established by her parents Sam and Wanda, in her memory with the hope that others would avoid such tragedy. This year will mark my eleventh appearance at the conference. Not only am I honored and humbled by each and every invitation, but I consider my attendance as one of the high points of my year.
You see, the Melanie Rieger Conference is a serious forum that gathers amazing people with diverse perspectives about violent crime. Victims, service providers, law enforcement representatives, politicians and other advocates gather to find commonality, to discuss issues and to provide solutions to the myriad problems faced by crime victims. Over the course of my attendance I have met a diverse population of individuals who have educated and enlightened me, who have contributed to the body of literature and understanding, and have eased the burden of victimization. To malign these people and this conference based upon a few words or a single reference is unfair.
Anyone who has ever attended the Melanie Rieger Conference understands that it is a respectful forum that refuses to promote itself in an undignified way. The first mention that George and Cindy Anthony had been invited to attend was when I mentioned that fact on the Nancy Grace Show on April 20. Therefore, it is disingenuous to suggest that they are appearing as a way to drum up publicity for the conference. Anyone who would do so speaks from a lack of knowledge.
No single individual establishes the agenda or the guest list for the Melanie Rieger Conference, nor are these considerations made in a vacuum. The Conference Committee invites individual presenters months in advance, without foreknowledge of how events will affect those choices. Everyone invited to present at the Melanie Rieger Conference is considered carefully and chosen because they are either a member of the victim’s community or they are in a position to impact the community of victims. They are not chosen based on popularity or their contribution to pop culture.
I have known Sam and Wanda Rieger for more than a decade. They founded the Melanie Ilene Rieger Memorial Conference as a way to give meaning to their daughter’s murder. They are two of the finest people that I have ever met and two of the most steadfast and dedicated victim’s advocates in the United States.
Sincerely,
Marc Klaas
KlaasKids Foundation
P.O. Box 925
Sausalito, CA 94966
www.klaaskids.org
4.22.2009
A War of Identities
People who left MMAC are now being threatened by monoxide's posse. These sycophants of monoxides are claiming that they're going to post names, addresses, phone numbers, and photos of those people on 4chan and other sites.ChloroformCasey, McDidit, Mamamook, Pom - are you sure that you want "Dutch" to go there? You realize of course that you're not the only people armed with information about the other party right? You're not the only people with the capabilities to post at 4chan. What a dumb move that would be on your part.
People have been begging me to out ChloroformCasey on 411. They have been emailing me info about her. And she actually provided enough info about herself that she was easy to find. I could have outed her if I wanted to, but I had no reason to. She has wisely removed herself from the battle and has been mostly quiet about it. But should her friend carry through on his threat, she will see herself here as will others.
Pom and others - you betray the trust of people who once trusted you and considered you friends by giving this information to people who want to hurt your former friends. Are you so stupid not to realize that you exchanged info with your former friends? That you gave out your real names, phone numbers, addresses, and additional information that made sleuthing you quite easy? Rose Abate? Did you think that that fake name would hide your real identity?
Information about people who stayed on the sidelines has not appeared in this blog because I have had no impulse or reason to use it. But should your pal "Dutch" decide to carry through on his threats, then each of you - and others - can expect to see your photos and information here and elsewhere.
And, as for you, "Dutch," you had your own daughter and wife on your ustream cam. And you want to threaten others with outing them?
Do you really want to go there? Your decision. If you make good on your threats, then you can expect to be confronted by the backlash your rash decision provokes.
(So much for this blog moving in a new direction. Thank you to the readers who appreciated that new direction. Hopefully we can drop this idiot stuff and move back to exploring true crime and other topics that we had intended to discuss here.)
4.21.2009
How Common is Child Abduction by Strangers?
Both these articles were published yesterday, but their messages are quite different on the topic of child abduction.
According to this Blogger News Network article, children in America are under seige:
What’s going on with the kids in this country? It seems to be open season on them, especially young girls. It’s difficult to surf the cable news channels or talk radio programs these days and not come across a show or two about a missing or dead child.
The sad case of two-year-old Florida girl Caylee Anthony has held our attention for over nine months. Another case out of Florida involves the bizarre disappearance of five-year-old Haleigh Cummings. She vanished from her home on February 10 and hasn’t been seen since. And the body of eight-year-old Sandra Cantu was found on April 6, ten days after she went missing in Tracy, California.
I became interested in this topic earlier this year when I did a Blog Talk Radio show about Hanna Mack, the six-year-old Texas girl raped and murdered in 2007. My guest on that program was Heather Steele of the Innocent Justice Foundation. The stats Heather provided about sexual predators and the child porn business both astounded and disgusted me. After doing Hanna’s show I became determined to do whatever I can to bring this horrible problem to the attention of the public.
But HOLD ON A SECOND.
The statistics doe not bear out Denny Griffin's and Heather Steele's assertion that stranger child-abduction and murder in America is as rampant a problem as they'd like you to believe. Another instance of media pushing the sensational for ratings? Dunno.
Here's actual data presented in an article by the Gainesville Sun:
Crime wasn't an issue in tiny Benton, the southern Illinois town where Regina Freeman grew up.
"Two murders in 20 years," Freeman says wistfully, and one of them was the result of a drunken brawl.
The other, she says, was committed by the unlikeliest of suspects: a friendly young man
who lived near the local middle school and handed out candy to boys and girls passing by on their way home.
The man, Rodney Barnhill, sexually assaulted and strangled a 12-year-old girl from Freeman's school and left her body in an abandoned home. Barnhill was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
As awful as it was, the incident didn't deter Freeman and her friends from exploring their small town. They continued to venture far from home to visit friends or the corner store, out of sight of parents.
Now 39 and a mother of two preschoolers in Gainesville, Freeman ponders the dangers her children face and doubts they'll have the same freedom to roam that she did as they get older.
There is no doubt in her mind that the world in 2009 is a more dangerous place to be a child.
For her, incidents like the disappearance of Haleigh Cummings from her home near Palatka and the abductions of Jessica Lunsford in Citrus County and Carlie Brucia in Sarasota are sobering reminders that predators lurk everywhere.
"It was nothing for me to walk five or six blocks to the store," she says. "Nowadays, I say there's no way my child is walking five or six blocks anywhere."
But Freeman's fear belies two important facts that experts have known for years.
First, violent crimes against children have declined steadily over the past generation. The U.S. Department of Justice reports that 81 out of every 1,000 children between the ages of 12 and 15 were victims of violent crime in 1973, compared with 44 out of 1,000 in 2005.
And, second, the worst of those crimes - kidnappings, rapes and murders - are being committed not by strangers hunting innocents but by family members, neighbors or trusted adults the family knows.
In fact, the kidnappings of Carlie and Jessica by complete strangers, while terrifyingly sinister, are fairly rare events, representing only about one in every 2,900 abduction cases.
The most recent survey of kidnapping data conducted in 2002 for the U.S. Justice Department revealed that of the roughly 261,000 children who are abducted each year, the vast majority (203,900) are taken by a family member - often in a custody dispute - and just 90 to 115 are victims of "stereotypical kidnappings" like Carlie and Jessica.
A stereotypical kidnapping, according to the survey, known as the National Incidence Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway and Thrownaway Children (NISMART), is committed by a stranger or slight acquaintance. In these cases, the child is kept overnight, transported at least 50 miles, held for ransom, abducted with the intention of keeping the child permanently, or killed.
The remaining 58,000 or so abductions that occur annually are known as "nonfamily abductions," which occur when someone other than the child's family detains the child for a short period of time.
To many law enforcement agencies, these don't even qualify as abductions because the act of detaining the child is incidental to the primary crime, usually sexual abuse.
Often, the perpetrators of nonfamily abductions are people in a position of trust: neighbors, Scout leaders, friends of the family or even clergy.
That was the case with 13-year-old Sarah Lunde of Tampa, who was abducted and murdered in April 2005 by David Lee Onstott.
Onstott had been in a relationship with the girl's mother.
Yet the idea of a child being dragged off to be tortured, raped and murdered by a stranger is so terrifying and so well reported in the news media that parents, educators, even law enforcement officers and politicians, have accepted as fact that stranger abductions are
more commonplace than they actually are.
"Those are the ones that capture the public's imagination, and they should because they're awful" says Jim Beasley, supervisory special agent for the FBI and a specialist in crimes against children. "But because they hear the story told over and over, people tend to forget that this is the same incident."
Read more of this article at the link above.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I'm well aware that there are stranger abductions every year in the United States. Polly Klaas, Samantha Runnion. And others that the media tell us about. But stranger abductions are much more rare than the media would have us believe.
In the overwhelming number of child abduction cases the problem isn't strangers. It's family members and social contacts. We would shun a pleasant person at Publix for fear of that person wishing to do harm to our children, while without a thought we drop off our kids to the care of trusted associates at Boy Scouts meetings or at sleepovers or at Sunday School, where they come in contact with people who are much more likely to do them harm than some stranger who says Hi at Sam's Club, according to statistics.
Anyway, I thought that the Gainesville Sun article was an important piece of objective journalism, especially in stark contrast with the Blogger News Network article's sensationalistic alarmism.
Looking forward to reading your opinions on this.
According to this Blogger News Network article, children in America are under seige:
What’s going on with the kids in this country? It seems to be open season on them, especially young girls. It’s difficult to surf the cable news channels or talk radio programs these days and not come across a show or two about a missing or dead child.
The sad case of two-year-old Florida girl Caylee Anthony has held our attention for over nine months. Another case out of Florida involves the bizarre disappearance of five-year-old Haleigh Cummings. She vanished from her home on February 10 and hasn’t been seen since. And the body of eight-year-old Sandra Cantu was found on April 6, ten days after she went missing in Tracy, California.
I became interested in this topic earlier this year when I did a Blog Talk Radio show about Hanna Mack, the six-year-old Texas girl raped and murdered in 2007. My guest on that program was Heather Steele of the Innocent Justice Foundation. The stats Heather provided about sexual predators and the child porn business both astounded and disgusted me. After doing Hanna’s show I became determined to do whatever I can to bring this horrible problem to the attention of the public.
But HOLD ON A SECOND.
The statistics doe not bear out Denny Griffin's and Heather Steele's assertion that stranger child-abduction and murder in America is as rampant a problem as they'd like you to believe. Another instance of media pushing the sensational for ratings? Dunno.
Here's actual data presented in an article by the Gainesville Sun:
Crime wasn't an issue in tiny Benton, the southern Illinois town where Regina Freeman grew up.
"Two murders in 20 years," Freeman says wistfully, and one of them was the result of a drunken brawl.
The other, she says, was committed by the unlikeliest of suspects: a friendly young man
who lived near the local middle school and handed out candy to boys and girls passing by on their way home.The man, Rodney Barnhill, sexually assaulted and strangled a 12-year-old girl from Freeman's school and left her body in an abandoned home. Barnhill was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
As awful as it was, the incident didn't deter Freeman and her friends from exploring their small town. They continued to venture far from home to visit friends or the corner store, out of sight of parents.
Now 39 and a mother of two preschoolers in Gainesville, Freeman ponders the dangers her children face and doubts they'll have the same freedom to roam that she did as they get older.
There is no doubt in her mind that the world in 2009 is a more dangerous place to be a child.
For her, incidents like the disappearance of Haleigh Cummings from her home near Palatka and the abductions of Jessica Lunsford in Citrus County and Carlie Brucia in Sarasota are sobering reminders that predators lurk everywhere.
"It was nothing for me to walk five or six blocks to the store," she says. "Nowadays, I say there's no way my child is walking five or six blocks anywhere."
But Freeman's fear belies two important facts that experts have known for years.
First, violent crimes against children have declined steadily over the past generation. The U.S. Department of Justice reports that 81 out of every 1,000 children between the ages of 12 and 15 were victims of violent crime in 1973, compared with 44 out of 1,000 in 2005.
And, second, the worst of those crimes - kidnappings, rapes and murders - are being committed not by strangers hunting innocents but by family members, neighbors or trusted adults the family knows.
In fact, the kidnappings of Carlie and Jessica by complete strangers, while terrifyingly sinister, are fairly rare events, representing only about one in every 2,900 abduction cases.
The most recent survey of kidnapping data conducted in 2002 for the U.S. Justice Department revealed that of the roughly 261,000 children who are abducted each year, the vast majority (203,900) are taken by a family member - often in a custody dispute - and just 90 to 115 are victims of "stereotypical kidnappings" like Carlie and Jessica.
A stereotypical kidnapping, according to the survey, known as the National Incidence Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway and Thrownaway Children (NISMART), is committed by a stranger or slight acquaintance. In these cases, the child is kept overnight, transported at least 50 miles, held for ransom, abducted with the intention of keeping the child permanently, or killed.
The remaining 58,000 or so abductions that occur annually are known as "nonfamily abductions," which occur when someone other than the child's family detains the child for a short period of time.
To many law enforcement agencies, these don't even qualify as abductions because the act of detaining the child is incidental to the primary crime, usually sexual abuse.
Often, the perpetrators of nonfamily abductions are people in a position of trust: neighbors, Scout leaders, friends of the family or even clergy.
That was the case with 13-year-old Sarah Lunde of Tampa, who was abducted and murdered in April 2005 by David Lee Onstott.
Onstott had been in a relationship with the girl's mother.
Yet the idea of a child being dragged off to be tortured, raped and murdered by a stranger is so terrifying and so well reported in the news media that parents, educators, even law enforcement officers and politicians, have accepted as fact that stranger abductions are
more commonplace than they actually are."Those are the ones that capture the public's imagination, and they should because they're awful" says Jim Beasley, supervisory special agent for the FBI and a specialist in crimes against children. "But because they hear the story told over and over, people tend to forget that this is the same incident."
Read more of this article at the link above.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I'm well aware that there are stranger abductions every year in the United States. Polly Klaas, Samantha Runnion. And others that the media tell us about. But stranger abductions are much more rare than the media would have us believe.
In the overwhelming number of child abduction cases the problem isn't strangers. It's family members and social contacts. We would shun a pleasant person at Publix for fear of that person wishing to do harm to our children, while without a thought we drop off our kids to the care of trusted associates at Boy Scouts meetings or at sleepovers or at Sunday School, where they come in contact with people who are much more likely to do them harm than some stranger who says Hi at Sam's Club, according to statistics.
Anyway, I thought that the Gainesville Sun article was an important piece of objective journalism, especially in stark contrast with the Blogger News Network article's sensationalistic alarmism.
Looking forward to reading your opinions on this.
4.20.2009
Is it possible for racists to truly care about justice?
.
,
Over the past month or 2, a new trend has developed in true crime internet circles in which people are basically outing themselves as being racially prejudiced. I figure it's a new trend. Maybe I just wasn't paying attention before. Maybe they didn't stand so prominently on the soapbox as they do now. Maybe they're emboldened by like company.
These people won't tell you that they're racists - they declare quite the opposite.
But when they pass universal judgments about entire peoples from the position of their own white privilege then they're racists.
Obama is a "nigger" who only won the election because he's black.
Black people should quit bitching about slavery.
Japs deserved to be forced into internment camps. Slant eyed bastards.
Mexicans are filthy and lazy and sponge off the system.
Jews are greedy and evil and only care about money and the holocaust.
Brown desert people are innately violent and want to kill everyone.
Indigenous Americans are too sensitive about sports caricatures.
And on and on and on. And on. I guess some of these people think that they live in a post-racial world and that their racists opinions aren't racists at all, but are "informed" and "evolved." How little they know about history, to hold such views.
It's ironic to me that the very people who possess such bigoted attitudes about other races are so involved in true crime forums, blogs, chatrooms. Most of these people will say that the main reason they follow true crime cases is because they want to see the guilty face justice. They care about justice. But what is justice?
The most fundamental aspect of justice in the United States system is that all people are the same under the eyes of the law. Regardless or race, creed, sex, they shall be treated equally in the court of law. Unfortunately, that ideal is not always met in criminal cases in the U.S. (I feel that that's as much a class thing as a race thing - we can discuss that later; even by comparing the media treatment of Caylee and Haleigh the class differentiations are evident in disparities in media attention given to the two cases).
So back on topic, my question is this. How can someone who claims to care about justice be so unjust in their views of other races? Bigotry is grounded in unequal treatment. (And ignorance.)
Look at forums around the true crime net. Forums for Caylee, and Haleigh (though attention to her case is quickly dissipating), and Jon Benet. But hardly any mention of black children who are missing. Is that because that's supposed to happen in poor black communities, but when it happens in middle-class white suburbia, it's a freak occurrence and therefore newsworthy?
I think I'm rambling so let me get back to the main reason I wrote this today. My question.
Can racists care about justice? Do racists gravitate towards each other, even in the e-world? Blog guests, what are your opinions on this topic?
.
,
Over the past month or 2, a new trend has developed in true crime internet circles in which people are basically outing themselves as being racially prejudiced. I figure it's a new trend. Maybe I just wasn't paying attention before. Maybe they didn't stand so prominently on the soapbox as they do now. Maybe they're emboldened by like company.
These people won't tell you that they're racists - they declare quite the opposite.
But when they pass universal judgments about entire peoples from the position of their own white privilege then they're racists.
Obama is a "nigger" who only won the election because he's black.
Black people should quit bitching about slavery.
Japs deserved to be forced into internment camps. Slant eyed bastards.
Mexicans are filthy and lazy and sponge off the system.
Jews are greedy and evil and only care about money and the holocaust.
Brown desert people are innately violent and want to kill everyone.
Indigenous Americans are too sensitive about sports caricatures.
And on and on and on. And on. I guess some of these people think that they live in a post-racial world and that their racists opinions aren't racists at all, but are "informed" and "evolved." How little they know about history, to hold such views.
It's ironic to me that the very people who possess such bigoted attitudes about other races are so involved in true crime forums, blogs, chatrooms. Most of these people will say that the main reason they follow true crime cases is because they want to see the guilty face justice. They care about justice. But what is justice?
The most fundamental aspect of justice in the United States system is that all people are the same under the eyes of the law. Regardless or race, creed, sex, they shall be treated equally in the court of law. Unfortunately, that ideal is not always met in criminal cases in the U.S. (I feel that that's as much a class thing as a race thing - we can discuss that later; even by comparing the media treatment of Caylee and Haleigh the class differentiations are evident in disparities in media attention given to the two cases).
So back on topic, my question is this. How can someone who claims to care about justice be so unjust in their views of other races? Bigotry is grounded in unequal treatment. (And ignorance.)
Look at forums around the true crime net. Forums for Caylee, and Haleigh (though attention to her case is quickly dissipating), and Jon Benet. But hardly any mention of black children who are missing. Is that because that's supposed to happen in poor black communities, but when it happens in middle-class white suburbia, it's a freak occurrence and therefore newsworthy?
I think I'm rambling so let me get back to the main reason I wrote this today. My question.
Can racists care about justice? Do racists gravitate towards each other, even in the e-world? Blog guests, what are your opinions on this topic?
.
4.18.2009
No Sodomy Saturday
Ewwwww! Ewwwww! Ewwwww!!
Would someone remove monoxide from grandmamamooks grasp RAHT NOW before I blow grits?
Its lucky we caught them in time or else they may have tried to make some Kenfuckied-up butt babies or shit, given how Monoxide likes to raep and gaep anooses. (Latent hom ....... urgh, nevermind.)
Open topic...talk about whatever you want.
Would someone remove monoxide from grandmamamooks grasp RAHT NOW before I blow grits?
Its lucky we caught them in time or else they may have tried to make some Kenfuckied-up butt babies or shit, given how Monoxide likes to raep and gaep anooses. (Latent hom ....... urgh, nevermind.)
Open topic...talk about whatever you want.
4.17.2009
Geeky still says that he is not the purse snatcher.
Shall we review?
Purse snatcher Bradley N. Mullins mug shot:
Geeky and Gobble:
Denial. It aint just a river in Egypt.
Kentucky Fried Friday
Update. Membership at MMAC has dwindled to maybe six people. Monoxide is showing his sensitive side, discussing his mother's history of dating wife-beating losers.
I still think that there are some Oedipal problems there though. Who writes stories about fucking their mother?
Even though monoxide posted about child rape and threatened to knock a 14-year-old girl's teeth out to make oral sex better, women there are praising him for being such a good guy, a friend to women.
Some people never learn, I guess.
I still think that there are some Oedipal problems there though. Who writes stories about fucking their mother?
Even though monoxide posted about child rape and threatened to knock a 14-year-old girl's teeth out to make oral sex better, women there are praising him for being such a good guy, a friend to women.
Some people never learn, I guess.
4.16.2009
4.14.2009
Screwsday Tuesday
We'll start this Tuesday with the following Public Service Announcement:
This is your brain in its safe styro carton:
This is your double-yolked brain before posting at MMAC:
This is a retarded hillbilly contemplating the mysteries of the natural world as exhibited by your double-yolked brain, which this retard in her 25 years of life has never seen and must blog about:
This is the same retard's fat paw, pointing at your brain before she puts the whisk to it.
This is your hard-scrambled brain while posting at MMAC, before it ends up in the belly of a hongry retard.
This is all that's left of your MMAC-riddled brain. Only a husk of its former self.
Any questions?
Bobble's "ZOMG A Dbl Yolk Egg blog" here.
(Sorry for my feeble attempt to satirize, metaphorize, and allegorize Bobble's inane blog and the 1970s "your brain on drugs" PSA commercial. I thought it was funny anyway.)
This is your brain in its safe styro carton:
This is your double-yolked brain before posting at MMAC:
This is a retarded hillbilly contemplating the mysteries of the natural world as exhibited by your double-yolked brain, which this retard in her 25 years of life has never seen and must blog about:
This is the same retard's fat paw, pointing at your brain before she puts the whisk to it.
This is your hard-scrambled brain while posting at MMAC, before it ends up in the belly of a hongry retard.
This is all that's left of your MMAC-riddled brain. Only a husk of its former self.
Any questions?
Bobble's "ZOMG A Dbl Yolk Egg blog" here.
(Sorry for my feeble attempt to satirize, metaphorize, and allegorize Bobble's inane blog and the 1970s "your brain on drugs" PSA commercial. I thought it was funny anyway.)
MMAC being watched by the feds?
Considering the comment I had in my in-box this morning, I'd wager "yes". I've heard that it isn't just the feds watching MMAC, too. Evidently some people filed complaints with the proper authorities about the child rape thread and other content at MMAC. From what I've heard and read, HostGator is cooperating with authorities.
From ShortBusDude:
I wanted to stop by to let all of you know that I think you are doing a wonderful thing here and these people, ALL OF THEM, need to be exposed for the fucktards that they are. Just so you know, today at noon I have an appointment with an agent at the FBI office in St.Pete to discuss the complaint that I filed last week when my family was threatened and all the harassing phone calls started. Now I am not sure how this will go but from what I was told, it is not illegal to post ones personal information online but what is illegal is when one uses that information to do harm to another as in my case and many others, this is what the FBI has told me that they label as "Terrorist Threats" and believe me when I say that whatever I can do to help you shut this group down, I WILL DO! This has gone on long enough and it is time to stop once and for all. Just a word to those of you who post here that are MMAC for life as you say.... GET OUT WHILE YOU STILL CAN! Ok I'm done but I will let you know how this turns out later today. Have a wonderful day and I look forward to the next post.
Thanks, SBD. You know how to find me. Keep us updated.
So close, bobble.
You know the old saying? Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades? It doesn't count in this deal I offered you. You deleted 2 blogs. You have 2 more to go. Take those down and then I hold up my end of the deal.
At least you started. I have to give you credit for that. As soon as you finish taking down the 2 blogs you haven't deleted, I do my part.
Keep them down. Don't put up any new ones about people who have left MMAC. If you ever put them back up, I'll find a clever new way to use the photos I have.
Now, for the readers - here's a funny for you:
At least you started. I have to give you credit for that. As soon as you finish taking down the 2 blogs you haven't deleted, I do my part.
Keep them down. Don't put up any new ones about people who have left MMAC. If you ever put them back up, I'll find a clever new way to use the photos I have.
Now, for the readers - here's a funny for you:
4.13.2009
US Humane Society and The 411 unite for Save Our Squirrels campaign!
The US Humane Society and Monoxide411 announced today that they have come together together for the SOS campaign. Save Our Squirrels. The campaign headquarters will be located in Hueysville Kentucky, as this is where it seems a great many squirrels are going missing, leaving no trace but a few empty acorn husks in their wake.
The USHS and M411 plan to provide each little furry tailed rodent in Floyd County with a suit of armor that will repel most shotgun and rifle ammo.
If you'd like to help in this campaign, please send checks or money orders to:
Save Our Squirrels
93 Bum Fuck Road
Middleofnowhere, KY 83342
Donors of over $100 will receive our campaign tee shirt. Hurry! Supplies are limited!
The USHS and M411 plan to provide each little furry tailed rodent in Floyd County with a suit of armor that will repel most shotgun and rifle ammo.
If you'd like to help in this campaign, please send checks or money orders to:
Save Our Squirrels
93 Bum Fuck Road
Middleofnowhere, KY 83342
Donors of over $100 will receive our campaign tee shirt. Hurry! Supplies are limited!
Breaking News - Prosecutors announce plans to seek death penalty against Casey Anthony
Orlando -- In a change of heart, the state attorney's office has filed a letter of intent Monday to seek the dealth penalty for Casey Anthony.
The court and Casey Anthony's attorney, Jose Baez, are being notified.
Previously, the state said they would not seek the death penalty for Anthony, who is in the Orange County Jail charged with first-degree murder in connection with the death of her daughter, Caylee.
The state attorney's office is citing "sufficient aggarvating circumstances" as the reason for Monday's decision.
Meanwhile, the latest legal maneuver of the attorney for Casey Anthony, Jose Baez, may reveal where he plans to go with his client's defense.
Baez is asking a judge to let him subpoena cell phone records from a dozen people -- and some of the names on the list are surprising.
Casey Anthony's own family -- George, Cindy and Lee Anthony -- are on the list that Baez submitted to Judge Stan Strickland. Several of Casey Anthony's friends and Roy Kronk are also on the list.
Kronk is the meter reader who found the remains of Caylee Anthony in a wooded area off of Suburban Drive last December.
A criminal defense lawyer WESH 2 News spoke with said Baez can use these phone records to find out who Kronk spoke with and whether he told those people the same things he told investigators about what he saw and when.
"The state puts on their case first; suddenly all these things that seemed so incriminating, you lose focus when the defense is raising issues that affect the credibility of the prosecution," criminal defense attorney Richard Hornsby said.
The court and Casey Anthony's attorney, Jose Baez, are being notified.
Previously, the state said they would not seek the death penalty for Anthony, who is in the Orange County Jail charged with first-degree murder in connection with the death of her daughter, Caylee.
The state attorney's office is citing "sufficient aggarvating circumstances" as the reason for Monday's decision.
Meanwhile, the latest legal maneuver of the attorney for Casey Anthony, Jose Baez, may reveal where he plans to go with his client's defense.
Baez is asking a judge to let him subpoena cell phone records from a dozen people -- and some of the names on the list are surprising.
Casey Anthony's own family -- George, Cindy and Lee Anthony -- are on the list that Baez submitted to Judge Stan Strickland. Several of Casey Anthony's friends and Roy Kronk are also on the list.
Kronk is the meter reader who found the remains of Caylee Anthony in a wooded area off of Suburban Drive last December.
A criminal defense lawyer WESH 2 News spoke with said Baez can use these phone records to find out who Kronk spoke with and whether he told those people the same things he told investigators about what he saw and when.
"The state puts on their case first; suddenly all these things that seemed so incriminating, you lose focus when the defense is raising issues that affect the credibility of the prosecution," criminal defense attorney Richard Hornsby said.
4.12.2009
From the mailbag
I need a favor from my blog guests.
Are any of you fluent in Hillbilly? Can someone translate what it is that this illiterate ditchpig is trying to say to me?
Shame she wasted half a day writing all that when 1. it makes no sense and 2. she could have "took" her baby to the park for some much needed exercise instead.
Read on:
Hm, don't know what to say to help you there, yeastiegirl. Thanks for the link to the wiki article about cyberstalking - that's about all I understood in your comment above. I'll be glad to forward that wiki link to bayterrace, missbrooklyn, and quickattack, although I'm pretty sure that they're already well aquainted with cyberstalking laws in their respective states. I know that they have screen shots of your multiple failblog threats as well as proof that you lobbed the first turdbomb. You never would have been a topic of this blog had you not brought this upon yourself by threatening and harassed my friends and encouraging others to join you in those dumbass activities.
So, gutterhick, you really should go take care of you lil chitlin and leave the thinkin' and writin' to the adults.
Are any of you fluent in Hillbilly? Can someone translate what it is that this illiterate ditchpig is trying to say to me?
Shame she wasted half a day writing all that when 1. it makes no sense and 2. she could have "took" her baby to the park for some much needed exercise instead.
Read on:
Hm, don't know what to say to help you there, yeastiegirl. Thanks for the link to the wiki article about cyberstalking - that's about all I understood in your comment above. I'll be glad to forward that wiki link to bayterrace, missbrooklyn, and quickattack, although I'm pretty sure that they're already well aquainted with cyberstalking laws in their respective states. I know that they have screen shots of your multiple failblog threats as well as proof that you lobbed the first turdbomb. You never would have been a topic of this blog had you not brought this upon yourself by threatening and harassed my friends and encouraging others to join you in those dumbass activities.
So, gutterhick, you really should go take care of you lil chitlin and leave the thinkin' and writin' to the adults.
4.11.2009
Happy Bunny Day
I'll be back late tomorrow night or
Monday morning. Have a great day
with your family. And for christsake
dont shoot the easter bunny tonight.
Other kids are counting on him.
Monday morning. Have a great day
with your family. And for christsake
dont shoot the easter bunny tonight.
Other kids are counting on him.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
