If you want to give your kids a good time, driving with them on the roof of the car is not the way to do it. Sometimes I seriously wonder, what in the world are people thinking? A grandmother in Florida was arrested for driving with her 3-year-old granddaughter on the roof of the car.

…the woman told police she was giving the child some air and letting her have fun.

Source: Yahoo News/AP

There were a few bizarre things in the news this past week, but this was by far the most bizarre. I not only find the whole incident of a Greyhound bus passenger decapitating another passenger on the bus, but the video news report seems a bit “off” to me too.

Susan Atkins, one of the members of the Charles Manson “family,” convicted for the 1969 murders of actress Sharon Tate and four others, has been denied a compassionate release from prison. She was originally sentenced to death but that sentence was changed to life in prison in 1972 when the death penalty was ruled unconstitutional in California. She is the longest-serving female inmate in California—in prison since 1971 and denied parole 11 times. Atkins is now terminally ill. To me, life in prison means life in prison.  I’m sorry if that seems cold-hearted, but Atkins had no mercy for Tate, her unborn baby, or the others who were brutally killed on August 9, 1969.

Excerpted from cnn.com…
According to historical accounts of the murder, Atkins stabbed Tate, who was eight months pregnant, and scrawled the word “pig” in blood on the door of the home the actress shared with director Roman Polanski.

By her own admission, Atkins held Tate down and rejected her pleas for mercy, stabbing the pregnant woman 16 times.

Atkins’ request roused long-dormant memories of the two-day killing spree that terrorized Los Angeles and left seven people dead. It polarized those who were involved in the case — and even those who weren’t — over whether she should die behind bars.

Atkins told a 1993 parole board that Tate pleaded for her unborn child’s life as she held her down.

“She asked me to let her baby live,” Atkins said. “… I told her I didn’t have any mercy on her.”

…Vincent Bugliosi, who prosecuted Atkins and other members of the Manson Family, said he supported her release, if only to save the state money. Through Monday, the cost for Atkins’ medical care since she was hospitalized March 18 totaled more than $1.15 million, and the costs for guarding her hospital room are more than $308,000, said California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokeswoman Terry Thornton.

Terminally ill inmates rarely are allowed compassionate release, records show. In 2007, 60 such requests were made to the department, Thornton has said. Ten were approved.

I was 10-years-old when this happened and I remember being afraid when I read the story in the newspaper—even though I didn’t live in L.A. Years later when I was an adult, I read the book, Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry, the story still scared the hell outta me. The cold way that Susan Aktins described the killings is just unbelievable. I understand that releasing her now will save the state of California some money, but life in prison means life in prison.

Just when I thought I’d heard or seen the most bizarre thing ever, something else comes along. This story made the news today in NYC—it was caught on tape. It seems that a woman in the emergency room of the psych ward of a hospital, was left to die. People—even guards, and a doctor—her laid out on the floor, but no one did anything. Of course the hospital is being sued. It makes you wonder…

Then to top it off, someone sent this link to me about the level-three sex offender who was arrested for drinking the urine of young boys—claims it’s like drinking their youth. He would approach them in public restrooms and convince them to urinate in a cup. He would go so far as to turn off the urinals.

A few nights ago I came across a movie on cable that caught me attention. The movie, “An American Crime,” is based on a true story. It is about one of the most heinous cases of child abuse I have heard of. It is the story of a sixteen-year-old girl and her younger sister who are left in the care of this woman while their parents go on the road. The father agrees to pay the woman $20 a week—oh, I forgot to mention that this takes place in 1965 in Indiana. Ok, so the woman agrees because she already has a lot of children and no husband to help her. She takes in ironing, but that doesn’t help much. Now, my first thought was, why would these parents leave their daughters with someone they had just met and know nothing about? Who would do that?

Anyway, when the check does not come on time the woman, Gerty, takes out her frustrations on the two girls by beating them. As time goes on, she tortures the older of the two, who is a little more outspoken. Gerty burns the girl with her cigarettes, beats her, and ties her up in the cellar. Eventually, now this is the real crazy part, other children from the neighborhood join her children in beating, kicking, burning and torturing this child. All of this takes place during a time span of about three months. Gerty carves the words, “I’m a prostitute and proud of it,” into the girl’s stomach. This she does with the help of one of the boys from the neighborhood.

I don’t usually watch movies about abuse, but I kept thinking these two girls would eventually get away or get rescued, but that was not the case. I was amazed that all these children participated—even teenagers who were old enough to know better. All this was going on and no one did anything. Even the sister didn’t tell anyone—she was too afraid. Because the actions depicted in the movie were so incredible, I had to do a search to find out if this really happened. Well, I found out it was true. Here is the story I found.

Ladies how many of you have had this happen? You date a guy and then you decide to have sex with him—just that once. Then the unthinkable happens. He never calls. So what do you do? Do you blow up his phone with calls and text messages? Do you just chalk it up to bad judgment on your part and move on? Or do you decide to get even? Well, one young lady opted to get even. With the help of a new boyfriend, she branded a big “R” on the dude who got her goods and then didn’t call. I guess she has trouble handling rejection. Kristina Caban, age 23, branded Samir Sara’s “body with a scalding piece of metal as payback for never calling her after they had sex.” When people do things like this, I always wonder—why? Is it really worth going to jail over? She was sentenced to five years in prison. The judge was really nice; he let her graduate from college, where she majored in photography, before hauling her ass off to prison.

Source: cnn.com

After waiting six years for a trial, R. Kelly was acquitted of all 14 counts of child porn. Somehow I am not surprised. That is some messed up crap.

Source: cnn.com