Saturday, October 26, 2013
manessmorrison2@yahoo.com


News Clips from NBC and other sources

“Jose Baez, the lawyer representing the 12-year-old Florida girl accused in the cyber bullying suicide of Rebecca Sedwick, says his client is “just as much a victim” and feels “absolutely horrible for what happened.”

Note: The quotation above summarizes the case of the younger girl. This 12 year old girl appeared on the nightly news Friday in the courtroom shown only from the rear due to her age, but she did, indeed, have her head down and may have been crying. Her mother had her arm around her and seemed to be comforting her. The fourteen year old is another matter, but she comes from an abusive home according to the Sheriff, as did the girl who committed suicide.. See below.


14-year-old Florida girl in cyber-bullying case pleads not guilty

The girl is one of two Polk County students, ages 12 and 14, arrested and charged with aggravated stalking for “maliciously harassing” Rebecca Ann Sedwick, 12, with verbal and physical abuse and cyber-bullying, according to Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd.

The 14-year-old involved in the case was scheduled for an arraignment Friday morning, but defense attorney Andrea DeMichael filed a written plea of not guilty, cancelling the arraignment hearing.
Her next court date is Oct. 29 for a pretrial conference.

Norman’s attorneys said they are investigating other students as well as parents of the alleged bullies for negligence and organizations for their role in the case.

Attorney Mark O'Mara, who represented George Zimmerman in the Trayvon Martin case, also weighed in on the issue and said parents who do not stop their children from cyber-bullying should be held accountable. 
"We want these kids to get to 18 and be good responsible adults, but they're not going to get there if they cyberbully each other to death," O'Mara told WKMG news in Orlando. 

More about the 14 year old who is pleading not guilty:
The Polk County sheriff described these girls as the chief tormenters of the victim, Rebecca Sedwick, and said authorities were spurred to action after the 14-year-old posted a taunting message on Facebook: “’Yes, I bullied Rebecca and she killed herself but I don’t give a ...’ and you can add the last word yourself,” the sheriff said, quoting the post.
The Florida sheriff investigating a girl’s suicide allegedly prompted by online bullying said he’s considering charging the parents of one of the two girls arrested in the case because they’re in “total denial.”
Polk Country Sheriff Grady Judd told Fox News Thursday that if evidence indicates the parents of one of the two girls knowingly allowed the girl to post the bullying comments online, they could be charged with contributing to the dependency or delinquency of a child.
The two girls, ages 12 and 14, were identified by police as the main culprits in the bullying they say led to 12-year-old Rebecca Sedwick’s suicide. Judd said the 14-year-old girl showed a “total disregard for life” and continued to post comments online after the girl’s death.
The family of the 14-year-old girl said her computer account was hacked and that she was not posting anymore. The girl’s mother told ABC News that she checked her daughter’s Facebook status every time she used it.
Judd, however, has questioned that account.
“You tell me that there’s not parents, who instead of taking that device and smashing it into a 1,000 pieces in front of her child, says, ‘Oh, her account was hacked?’ We see where the problem is,” Judd said.

Rebecca Sedwick Case: Bullied girl and her tormentor both grew up in "disturbing" family situations, says sheriff
According to Judd, while the 12-year-old charged in the case has expressed remorse, the 14-year-old and her parents "don't seem to get it." Judd described the family as being "like a Jerry Springer episode" with a "survival of the fittest mentality."
The teen's mother, Vivian Vosburg, was arrested last week on child abuse charges after the sheriff's office became aware of an online video apparently depicting Vosburg punching two young boys.
"The way she treated those kids was horrendous," says Judd. "The family is just kind of out of control. And children live what they learn."
Judd says he has received overwhelmingly positive feedback from his community - and people as far away as Hawaii and Alaska - for his decision to charge the girls for their alleged bullying. He told Crimesider that he hopes lawmakers will consider legislation allowing schools to be more pro-active when it comes to bullying so that we don't have to "criminalize children." Judd says he'd like to see schools able to mandate that a child caught bullying take counseling or anger-management classes, and have their phone taken away until they do.
And while Judd says he is pleased that the Sedwick case seems to have drawn attention to the problem of bullying, he has no love for the attorneys "busting in here" to get involved. Jose Baez, who famously won an acquittal for Casey Anthony, announced Wednesday that he is representing the 12-year-old charged with stalking Sedwick. And according to attorney David Henry, Crist's law firm and Sedwick's mother are considering lawsuits aimed at the two girls who have been charged, their parents, and "as many as 15 other kids" for their roles in bullying Sedwick. Henry says they are also looking at whether the school and the abandoned plant where Sedwick took her own life may also be liable in some way.
"I would much rather see them actively involved in stopping bullying than looking for people to sue," says Judd.

Today's NBC followup about the 14 year old. If I read this conversation correctly, the death was not a suicide. I wonder what the police are making of this conversation. See below:

“But the 14-year-old shows a very different tone in a long chat with another unidentified friend (all spellings and text shorthand are from the original):
Defendant: Cant believe Rebecca is dead , I thought they wouldn't find the body
Friend: What r u talking about u thought they never find the body?
Ik she died but what u mean by that
Defendant: They found her body , I thought they weren't they "think" its sewcide hope it stays that way.
Friend: Y u talking like that? What's wrong with u
Defendant: No reason it was best for everyone that she went to hell , no one with ever know the truth
The 14-year-old girl had been scheduled for an arraignment Friday morning, but her defense attorney filed a written plea of not guilty, canceling the hearing. Her next court appearance is a pretrial conference scheduled for Tuesday.”



This case continues to grow every time I see it reported. Apparently the 14 year old was rearing herself without good parental guidance, just doing whatever she could get away with and learning violence at home. Her mother has been arrested for beating two young boys with her fist, captured on video in her home by one of her own children. The 14 year old girl's Facebook post saying she did bully Rebecca and she didn't give a “f____” about it will go against her when she tries to plead not guilty in court. Of course, her mother is stating now that her Facebook account was hacked, but the girl has continued to post in an incriminating way since that time, so that statement will probably be disproved as well.

I was glad to see that the police are going after another 15 or so students in the case who were also involved. The 12 and 14 year girls were just the worst of the bullies, the sheriff said. I hope this sheriff keeps plugging away at the case and uncovers enough information to convict the 14 year old, at least, in court. I think if there are no real consequences for being a bully, the aggressive kids will keep doing it undeterred. I blame the school system for not punishing school ground bullies, but cyberbullying is hard to detect from the outside. Parents just looking at their kids' computers won't necessarily find the evidence of bullying. Criminalizing it is an important step, I think, because there is no doubt in my mind that it is an assault and not a prank. If they can go to jail for it, maybe they won't risk doing it, and the police can hopefully go into the computer and find proof of the crime.




Taliban: We will boycott elections until US leaves Afghanistan

Afghan Taliban supporter Maulana Abdul Aziz, speaking exclusively to NBC News in Quetta, Pakistan on Friday.

QUETTA, Pakistan - Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Omar issued a fresh appeal to his supporters Friday to turn public opinion against the next year’s presidential elections - another headache for the country as it prepares for the withdrawal of U.S.-led NATO forces.
“We have been tasked by our leadership to urge the public and clerics to boycott the elections next year," senior Taliban leader and cleric Maulana Abdul Aziz told NBC News while on a visit to Quetta, just across the border in neighboring Pakistan.
“An anti-election campaign has been launched,” he said. "I am here to convince the Afghan refugees residing in Quetta not to participate in elections.”

Mullar Omar himself has barely been seen in public since 2001, but messages in his name are regularly issued through his supporters.
"Neither we nor any Jihad forces will participate in any election to be held before the end of the occupation of Afghanistan by the U.S. and its allies," Aziz said.
He said bomb attacks against Muslims and innocent unarmed people were against the teaching of Islam but that "suicide attacks on U.S. and NATO forces" were justified.
"We will fight for hundred years if necessary to free our homeland from the U.S. occupation," Aziz said.
Some American troops will remain in Afghanistan after 2014, but their exact role and status are yet to be agreed upon.
Aziz, 48, is chairman of the 500-member Afghan Ulema Council – a group of Muslim clerics that supports the Afghan Taliban, Hizb Islami and other Jihadi groups. He is from the Zabul province of Afghanistan.
The council was formed in response to the creation of a government-sponsored council of clerics.
President Hamid Karzai is not standing in the April 5 elections because he is not eligible for a third term. Dozens of candidates have begun initial campaigns to replace him, including a mother of two who has been compared to Hillary Clinton.
Aziz said supporters of the Taliban would not take part in any grand council with government-supporting clerics. However, he urged “political reconciliation” to avert a civil war following the withdrawal of U.S. and allies forces from Afghanistan – a move that is due to begin in 2014.

"We fear the breakout of a civil war after the U.S.- led forces withdraw but we clerics will try our best for a political reconciliation to avert such a situation," Aziz said.
Aziz said clerics who opposed the post-2001 U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan had been excluded from talks about the country’s future. "No one contacted us for a peaceful solution of Afghan problem up till now,” he said.


April 5, 2014 is the date, according to this article, for Presidential elections in Afghanistan, and one of the candidates is a woman, which is surprising, but if all our troops aren't out by 2014 Aziz will boycott the elections. Our troops won't all be out by 2014, so the boycott seems to be inevitable. I wonder how many voters will be left without the Taliban ballots? Karzai has been largely cooperative with the US, but will the next President? I doubt it, but I will try to keep an eye on stories about Afghanistan in the future. Aziz is predicting a civil war after the elections. I hope he is wrong, because that will certainly jeopardize our troops further.




Grand jury prepared child abuse indictment against JonBenet Ramsey's parents, newly released documents show

A Colorado court on Friday released a long-sealed 1999 grand jury indictment of JonBenet Ramsey's parents for child abuse resulting in death, but it gave no specifics and did not accuse them of killing her.
Prosecutors declined to act on the indictment and charge John or Patsy Ramsey at the time, and years later they publicly exonerated the couple and suggested an unknown intruder was the culprit.
Yet the Boulder Police Department — which put the Ramseys under an "umbrella of suspicion" soon after the 6-year-old beauty queen's slaying in 1996 — portrayed the belated document release as a vindication of their investigation.
Patricia Ramsey and her husband, John Ramsey, produce a picture of JonBenet during a press conference in Atlanta, where they released the results of an independent lie detector test months after her death in 2000.
"The grand jury of 12 objective jurors ultimately agreed with investigators that probable cause existed for the filing of charges," the department said in a statement.
"Until this release, it was difficult to remain silent in reference to our knowledge of the true bills for so many years," Police Chief Mark Beckner said in a statement.
The Ramseys' lawyer, L. Lin Wood, however, called the unsealing of just four pages of the grand jury record a "miscarriage of justice" and noted that the panel did not have the benefit of DNA evidence that cleared the couple years later.

And he said the most important evidence in the case did not surface until 2008, when prosecutors using new technology found DNA on JonBenet's pajama tops that matched DNA that had previously been found in her underwear.
The DNA did not come from a family member but has never been matched to anyone, but Wood said that John Ramsey still hopes that it will one day lead to the killer.

"The status of the Ramsey investigation today is that of a cold case.  The case is still open, but is not actively being investigated and there are no new leads," it said.
"While we believe at this point it is unlikely there will ever be a prosecution, the Boulder Police Department still holds out some hope that one day the district attorney and the Boulder Police Department will be able to put together a case worthy of presenting to a jury."
The current Boulder district attorney, Stan Garnett, declined to comment on the release, saying he would make a statement in the form of an op-ed piece to be published Sunday in the Daily Camera.


The DNA test tends to prove that the Ramseys were not to blame. I do think, though, that the child beauty pageants that JonBenet participated in tend to “sexualize children” by putting them in adult-like clothing with full face makeup and spike heels. That could make a child more likely to be attractive to a sexual predator. I know there are lots of couples who do that with their children, and I knew one woman personally who had put her child in competition. She said she did it to give the child more confidence. What do some Internet sources think of those competitions? See below.

From Psychology Today:
Child Beauty Pageants: What Are We Teaching Our Girls?
The princess syndrome, self-image and eating disorders
The recent issue of French Vogue has sparked outrage for its photos of a ten-year old model lying in a sea animal print wearing a chest revealing gold dress, stilettos and heavy make up. Cries of "how young is too young" to model, be "sexy" etc. have ignited controversy about early sexualization of children. However, what of the looming concern of programming young children to be ultra conscious about physical appearance and the impact on adult body image and disordered eating?
Today, television is peppered with reality shows that feature pint-sized beauty queens decked out in pricy gowns, full make up and big hair. Pageants aren't the "dress up" play we knew as little girls, they are a multi billion-dollar industry.  And it's not just beauty pageants.  A recent reality dance program showed 9 year olds prancing around in revealing two-piece costumes complemented by thigh high stockings, spackled make up and teased hair. Before hitting the stage the choreographer demanded that they "paint on abs."  Armed with spray bronzer, the moms dutifully "carved" abs into their daughter's bare midriffs just before the young girls performed a provocative dance that causeed audible gasps from the audience.
Many experts agree that participation in activities that focus on physical appearance at an early age can influence teen and/or adult self-esteem, body image and self-worth.  Issues with self-identity after a child "retires" from the pageant scene in her teens are not uncommon.  Struggles with perfection, dieting, eating disorders and body image can take their toll in adulthood.
Not all pageant participants, young dancers or performers will have body issues when they get older, but some do.  For the girls who do develop image obsessions, it appears that the hypercritical environment of their youth produces a drive towards the unattainable goal of physical perfection.  "The Princess Syndrome" as I like to call it, is a fairy tale.  Unrealistic expectations to be thin, physically beautiful, and perfect are at the heart of some disordered eating behaviors and body dissatisfaction. Scant research has been conducted to see if former pint-sized beauty pageant participants are more likely to suffer from eating disorders, but a small study published in 2005 showed that former childhood beauty pageant contestants had higher rates of body dissatisfaction.
In my experience as a dietitian for high-powered entertainment groups, I found that many of the young women with eating disorders were trained at an early age to value physical perfection, thinness, athletic prowess and attractiveness.  When it comes to performing, education takes a backseat. The performer's bodies are their livelihood and less-than-perfect might lead to unemployment. Granted, practice and devotion are required to hone any skill, but when does dedication go to far?
The child pageant and dance circuits are competitive, demanding and stressful.  Watch any reality dance or pageant show and see how children are placed under enormous pressure to perform flawlessly.  Tears, tantrums and fits frequently ensue with some adults mocking crying children. As result, child performers may believe that parental and/or adult love or approval are anchored to how perfectly they look or how well they ignite the stage with their presence. Long practice sessions are the norm and interfere with social activities, sleep and homework.  Just the other day, a popular dance show featured adults candidly admitting that they encourage activity over education. When confronted, devotees said, "My daughter loves it." Or "Ask her if she likes doing it!" Money, ratings and attention fuel the pageant/dance media machine with parents and adults reaping the benefits.
Adults need to be aware of the potential long-term impact super-competitive, beauty-driven pursuits can have on a young girl's psyche.  Intense participation in activities that spotlight physical appearance instills the idea that physical beauty and superficial charm are the keys to success, thus making self-worth and self-esteem inextricably tied to attractiveness. The take home message for society is that natural beauty or brains aren't enough to "make it."  Case in point: At a local "Women in Business" mixer I joined a circle of attractive 50-somethings who were discussing a local child pageant.  All were lamenting the "work that goes in to being beautiful and successful"  Being new to the group, they asked what I did for a living, when I told them I was a scientist I was met with "Oh, you must be smart." In many social circles, looks and appearance trump brains and education. My response: "Looks are fleeting, brains are forever."
Youthful participation in pageants and dance competitions can be a wonderful experience and may lead to a rewarding career. The key is to provide performing children with a balance of activities that involve more than fancy costumes, make-up and the world of make-believe. The feeling of unconditional love from a parent or nurturing adult can do wonders to curb body dissatisfaction, poor self-esteem and body image distress. As an example, a few years ago one of my clients had a dance career cut short by an injury. She said she was one of the few childhood dancers in her peer group that didn't have an eating disorder.  We discussed what made her unlike most of her dancing cohorts and she summed it up like this, "Thankfully my mom made me study in between dance competitions. Dance was important, but so were school and friends.  I went to college on a dance scholarship but minored in business. I can get a job that doesn't depend on my dance prowess or my looks and that fills me with confidence; some of my friends judge themselves based on their looks or dance ability and they can never be perfect enough especially when it comes to diet."
Not all tender-aged models, dancers, entertainers or pageant contestants will be offered a balanced childhood filled with unconditional love.  For these kids, the constant "play acting" may create hyper-competitive, shallow adults who are never satisfied; perhaps making them think,  "Most people love you for who you pretend to be. To keep their love, you keep pretending- performing. You get to love your pretence. It's true, we're locked in an image, an act-" Jim Morrison, lead singer of The Doors. Photo from Susan Anderson "High Glitz"  www.highglitz.com a book about the child pageant scene.


This article pretty much says it all. For myself, had I had children, I would want them to be honest, kind, as well educated as they are capable of being, and have a balanced set of activities and friends who are supportive. Girl Scouts is still a good activity for young girls and church youth groups if the parents are religious --- thorough ethical teaching if they are not. Good mental health and good citizenship are the goals.





Guns in the workplace: A safety issue or a nightmare?

Bring your kid to work? Sure. Bring your dog to work? No problem. Bring your gun to work? In many states, packing heat on the job is a legally protected right.
A spate of state laws, many enacted recently, pit recreational shooters and gun-rights advocates against human resources and labor law professionals.
In more than half of states in the U.S., an employer is legally required to let employees bring their guns to work and keep them in their parked cars.
In Tennessee, where a new guns-at-work law went into effect in July, businesses including FedEx and Volkswagen voiced their opposition in testimony before state lawmakers last year. Similar legislation also kicked in over the summer in Illinois and Alabama, according to Patricia Hill, partner at the law firm of Smith, Gambrell & Russell, LLP. Other states are considering it.
Gun-control advocates say permitting firearms at the workplace gives disgruntled, possibly unhinged employees easy access to a deadly weapon. Gun-rights supporters say the provision protects workers who could be carjacked on a long commute. Business groups say the laws infringe on businesses' right to decide if they want a gun-free workplace. HR experts point out that the presence of guns, even if they're out in the parking lot and not next to the copier or coffee machine, create a liability and workplace security headache.

Workers can feel caught in the middle.
"To me, it just doesn’t make sense, because the only people who are going to follow it are law-abiding people. Criminals aren’t," said Michael Stefansen, an engineer for a manufacturing company in Newton, Conn. 
Stefansen's workplace is only a couple of miles from Sandy Hook Elementary School, where last year's mass shooting occurred. In the chaotic aftermath, erroneous reports of a second gunman prompted a lockdown that included Stefansen's workplace.
"You kind of feel vulnerable,” he said. “I have to say, being that we’re a gun-free company, it was a little uneasy knowing something could have been going on right around the corner."
Hill said the bills are being driven by “a combination of employees who do go hunting [and] employees who do feel unsafe when they leave the workplace,” she said.
Dudley Brown, executive vice president of the National Association for Gun Rights, characterized a gun in the parking lot as a tool for an employee's self-defense. "Why would someone who installs cable be denied the right to have another tool for their job? How about guys who work on a rural basis, where law enforcement is 30 minutes away at best?"

But the resulting laws pose challenges for businesses trying to comply with both the new gun rules and the requirement to keep workers safe on the job. “Employers are trying to identify the parameters of actions they should take or could take... The law is not well defined,” said Marion Walker, a labor and employment lawyer at Fisher & Phillips. “We’re going to see a lot of litigation about it, I would think.”
Legal issues aside, gun-control supporters argue that having firearms on the job erodes safety rather than bolstering it. "Guns kept in vehicles are parking lots are so easy accessible, easily retrievable," said Lindsay Nichols, an attorney at the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.
Workplaces were five times as likely to experience a homicide when they allowed guns compared to those that prohibited all weapons, even after adjusting for other risk factors, according to a 2005 workplace study by the University of North Carolina.
According to January data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, just over 550 people are killed every year, on average, in work-related homicides (which includes guns as well as other weapons). In 2010, more than 10 percent of all workplace fatalities were homicides, 78 percent of which were shootings. That year, the most recent for which the BLS has data, 405 people were shot and killed at work.
“I wasn’t targeted. I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time,” said Nichole Hampton, a human resources professional in Phoenix. She was injured earlier this year when a legal dispute in her office building spilled out into the parking lot. Hampton was shot in the hand and the gunman, who later took his own life, killed his two intended victims.

A slammed door or a child’s shriek echoing in the lobby is still jarring, Hampton said. “It’s been 10 months and it’s still with us… It completely changed my thought process — at any point in time, somebody could become irate or have a gun.”
“There are times you see violent behavior from people you never anticipate,” said Amy Letke, founder of consulting firm Integrity HR. “You can’t anticipate everything.”
Letke said these laws put pressure on supervisors to recognize red flags that could escalate to violence, without infringing on employees’ right to privacy. “The gun laws have created for us and our clients a source of frustration," she said. "You’ve got to balance that right to bear arms with the safety of the workers and the workplace."
"We’re not particularly fond of state or federal mandates, regardless of what the issue is," said Bob Carragher, senior adviser for state affairs at the Society for Human Resource Management. "There is a concern always about guns or access to a gun in or near the workplace, but the real concern we have is an employer’s right to decide what policies to implement in the workplace are infringed by these laws."
“It’s difficult to balance the rights of the business owner, in this case, with the rights of a citizen,” Brown acknowledged. “If you really consider the second amendment as a property right… the property right to own a gun is the same as a property right for a business owner to decide what happens on their property.”
Companies in more states could confront this issue in the future. Legislators in Pennsylvania, South Carolina and West Virginia are considering similar bills.
There’s no guarantee any or all will become law at this point, since the bills are at fairly early stages in their respective states, said Smith, Gambrell & Russell, LLP attorney Nicholas Andrews. He pointed out that pro-gun sentiment is high in West Virginia, where six other gun-related pieces of legislation have been proposed this session.
“I see both sides of the coin even after what happened to me,” Hampton said. “You put the gun into the wrong hands, your whole protectiveness theory is blown out of the water. I’m not on one side or the other. It’s a difficult issue.”


I would just go with the UNC 2005 study showing that homicides were five times more prevalent when guns were allowed. It seems like common sense to me. Guns in the home are all too often used on a friend or family member by accident. If you want to protect your house, get a medium-sized well-controlled dog of a working or hunting breed and train it to be “on guard” at night. Few burglars will keep up their attempt if they are challenged by a sizable dog, and the barking will give you time to call the police. That's just my opinion, but it does seem to me to be a balanced and easy solution.




Maria mystery solved: DNA tests confirm Bulgarian Roma woman is her mother

"I'm happy and I hope that the kid will come home, but nobody knows when," Angel Rusev, the girl’s uncle said. "We're going to take care of her and all the other kids."

“Analysis proved that Sasha Ruseva is the biological mother of the girl named Maria," Bulgarian Interior Ministry Chief Commissioner, Svetlozar Lazarov told reporters. "It also showed Atanas Rusev as the biological father.”

He added that pretrial proceedings had been initiated to discover whether the mother had given her consent for her daughter to be sold abroad.
Back in Greece, a spokesman for the Smile of a Child Charity that is looking after Maria, told NBC News that the youngster was doing “very well” as she had been discharged from hospital and was now living in one of their homes.
“She was released yesterday from the hospital and she was transferred to one of our homes," said Panagiotis Pardalis. "Our people and social workers are taking care of her


The authorities are still wrangling with the issue of whether to charge anyone with a crime, but the child seems to be safe now and in a stable situation. It looks like a good solution to the problem – a happy ending.



Why we like to be scared: The science behind the scream
Halloween is coming near, and that means all the frightening images and costumes are taking center stage. But enjoying these scary situations is a slightly different topic. And as it turns out, many of us do. 
We like being scared and this is not a new phenomenon. As a culture, we seem to be craving these intense panic button experiences more and more. Why do we like being scared so much?
When we have the daylights frightened out of us our heart beats a little faster, we breathe a bit more intensely, perspire more and get butterflies in the pit of our stomachs. Experts know it’s not uncommon for people to want to push the envelope just to see just how much fear they can tolerate. There is a great sense of satisfaction when we can prove to ourselves we actually can handle more anxiety than we ever imagined we could.
There’s also a hormonal component when it comes to fear and enjoyment. The hormonal reaction we get when we are exposed to a threat or crisis can motivate this love of being scared. The moment we feel threatened, we feel increasingly more strong and powerful physically, and more intuitive emotionally. This charge to our physical and mental state is called an “adrenaline rush,” and as humans we are apparently hard-wired to be drawn to this type of feeling.
On a psychological level there’s an appeal to vicariously experience what’s forbidden, bizarre or dark. Horror films in particular allow us to explore the experience of fear in an enjoyable and safe way. They also allow us to identify with the bad guy without getting ourselves into too much trouble. Many of us have a need to expose ourselves to sensations which are different from our daily routine. This helps us to feel more stimulated by life. Identifying with the dark side of human nature can be quite cathartic for us as well.
Creepy stories help us to release strong emotions. Let’s face it, most of us, in our daily lives, don’t have a way to release these types of intense and unimaginable feelings (which is probably a good thing). There are benefits to let go of these pent up fears and let them run their course when we have the chance.
And while one person’s scary might be another person’s enjoyable, some of us are pre-destined from birth to choose a more terrifying life route. Personal pleasure can vary widely. So whether you’re facing your fears by doing something terrifying or by watching a scary movie, remember either one can feel gratifying and rewarding. 


I have to admit I do like to see a scary movie every now and then, though if they are too very bloody or otherwise disgusting I don't like them. One of my favorite movies is a horror film called An American Werewolf In London. He is the scariest werewolf I have ever seen, but he has a very believable and sweet love affair with a hospital nurse who treats him in the beginning of the movie. There are also some older horror films that, instead of being low-grade productions, are good art or have a point to make. Sci-fi is much the same way. Different movies vary widely as to how good they are overall as an art form. The earliest thing of this kind I ever watched was The Twilight Zone, in the 1950's. It was one of the better shows on TV at the time. I also occasionally will read a book by Dean Koontz or some other author of the genre. I sometimes read because the book is a work of art and I expect to learn something from it, but at other times I want something that is merely stimulating. It doesn't make me feel nervous or anything like that, so it's okay.



Stand Your Ground Law feeds injustice
Submitted by Tonyaa Weathersbee on October 25, 2013 -
It’s possible that 17-year-old Jordan Davis and the three black youths he was riding with last November scared Michael Dunn into shooting at them.
It’s possible that Dunn could have thought that their refusal to turn down the loud, thumping music coming from their SUV and the cursing match that ensued between him and Davis was a prelude to hostilities — and that he had no choice but to go for his gun.
It’s possible that such thoughts could have been roiling Dunn, who fatally shot Davis after firing into the vehicle he was riding in as they drove away from a Gate convenience store on Southside Boulevard.
His jailhouse letters reveal that he’s not too fond of black folks.
disturbing letter
One of Dunn’s letters to his grandmother, which was obtained by the Times-Union, reads: “The whites who live in Jacksonville know how the blacks behave, and the blacks want to protect their own ... And of course, daddy of the thug I had to defend myself against raised and immaculent [sic] child who could do no wrong.”
In another letter, he writes that he hopes he can get his trial moved to one of the surrounding counties that are “predominantly white and Republican and supporters of gun rights,” and that he believes he’ll get acquitted unless the jury is stacked with black people.
Such racial resentment often comes spring-loaded with a dose of fear.
And fear can make a man like Dunn imagine a gun where there is none; despite his claims of seeing a gun aimed at him, the police have not found a weapon.
Such fear can cause a man like him to believe that young black males always allow attitude to morph into aggression and that he has the right to shoot them before that happens.
And it’s easy for such fear to lead to tragedy as long as the Stand Your Ground law exists in Florida.
While Dunn’s attorney, Cory Strolla, told a judge last May that he wasn’t ready to file a motion under that law, a month earlier he told Rolling Stone magazine that his case was absolutely a Stand Your Ground case based in the law in Florida.
“I don’t have to prove the threat, just that Mike Dunn believed it,” the defense attorney was quoted as saying.
So this law fuels an atmosphere in which someone like Dunn, a man whose own words reveal deep racial resentments, believes that black youths who argue with him and defy him are threatening enough for him to be let off the hook for firing a gun at them.
On one level, he’s not altogether wrong.
When race is involved
In 2012, the Tampa Bay Times found that those who killed black people using Stand Your Ground went free 73 percent of the time while those who killed white people under that law went free 59 percent of the time.
While the role race plays in who gets acquitted in such cases is complex, some criminologists believe that race may play a subconscious role in how criminal justice authorities value black life, which may, in turn, cause people who decide to shoot first and explain later to believe the law will protect them if they claim that a black person acted in a threatening manner.
That’s probably why Dunn apparently believes that he will be acquitted if the jury is the right color and understands how menacing and depraved black males like Davis really are.
And when people like Dunn despise black people or people of another race or ethnicity in that way, it doesn’t take much for them to act on their paranoia.
But at the same time, we shouldn’t have a law that feeds a perception that they can get away with doing that.
Email: tonyaaweathersbee@yahoo.com


It does seem to me that this case was not one in which the assailant was actually threatened, and I don't believe his story that he thought he saw a gun. No gun was found, and it seems like a convenient excuse to me. I don't like this Stand Your Ground Law. I think most fights should be avoided if possible, no matter how angry we feel about it at the time, and telling someone to stand their ground when it isn't a case of true self-defense (when the other guy has menaced or committed assault already) just causes unnecessary bloodshed. I hope they get these statutes off the books.