Cold People

The lawyer for the suspect in the Norway twin attacks says his client is a "very cold" person who took drugs before the rampage to be "strong, efficient, awake."

The lawyer, Geir Lippestad, spoke to reporters today about his client, Anders Behring Breivik, who is accused for killing more than 70 people in a bombing on government buildings in Oslo and a shooting spree at a [Labor Party] youth camp last week, the Associated Press reports.

Breivik, 32, faces terror-related charges carrying a maximum 21-year sentence. But prosecutor Christian Hatlo tells the newspaper Aftenposten that he might also be charged with crimes against humanity, which would carry a longer sentence.

Breivik's father, Jens Breivik, a retired Norwegian diplomat now living in France, tells Norway's TV2 that he has not seen his son for about 15 years and is shocked by the killings.

"I will never have more contact with him," he tells TV2. "In my darkest moments, I think that rather than killing all those people he should have taken his own life."

Breivik said both parents supported Norway's centre-left Labor Party, which he viewed as infiltrated by Marxists.

His mother won a custody battle, but Breivik said he regularly visited his father and his new wife in France, where they lived, until his father cut off contact when Breivik was 15. The father told Norwegian newspaper VG that they lost touch in 1995, but that it was his son who wanted to cut off contact.

Another article states that "Former diplomat Jens Breivik, 76, said he was ‘completely bereft’ and would never speak to his son again. And that "Despite being Anders's step-mother, Mrs. Breivik has never met him, while Mr. Breivik only had a 'short, bland' telephone call with him 10 years ago."

----------- Anders did not commit mass murder for a political cause, that's his excuse. This is more like an adolescent school shooting - societal hatred, a search for fame, and revenge against those he didn't have the courage to confront (mom and dad?). Passing it off as a political killing or "revolution" is how he romanticizes his hatred. Homegrown terrorist - product of his environment? Some appear shocked such a thing could happen in Norway.

So, I'll reiterate once again for those Americans who believe Michael Moore's Norway (pop. 4.6 million) is a model of successful redistribution since the 1970s oil wealth - it's not. Norway is experiencing the same problems as the US - aging population, unstable families, marriage becoming obsolete, physical and sexual abuse of children, drugs, immigration problems, racism (though most of their immigrants are Euro whites), inflation and poor selection of goods, rise in "treatment errors" in healthcare, and using "stimulus" cash to keep jobs afloat, etc. etc. Just don't deplete the oil too soon.

Contrary to popular belief Norway's prison recidivism rate was 50% in the 1990s after which time they changed their method of keeping or sharing crime statistics and crime/recidivism appears low now. Juvenile and drug related crimes doubled 2008-2009. A woman shouldn't walk alone in Oslo at night anymore than she would in Chicago or Detroit.

Bottom line, no matter what American backpackers or the "left" says, there's really not much difference in countries like Norway and the US. Both breeding cold people.

Name Your Poison

Disparities in health tend to fall along income lines everywhere: the poor generally get sicker and die sooner than the rich. But in the United States, the gap between the rich and the poor is far wider than in most other developed democracies, and it is getting wider. That is true both before and after taxes: the United States also does less than most other rich democracies to redistribute income from the rich to the poor.

------- I knew before I read the above third paragraph in the article that I would not agree with the premise - that money/wealth means you live longer. A decade of serious genealogy research has proven many of my ancestors, mostly poor, lived to ripe old ages of 80s, 90s, and my great grandmother to 100. They knew how to live, love, laugh. They knew how to make choices.

Assuming one is born without health problems, and to parents who provide a child with adequate love and care, it is lifestyle that determines longevity. Barring major accidents or disease, personal choices go a long way in determining how long we live.

Obesity, drugs, alcohol, promiscuity, etc. are choices. Genes are a minute part of our destiny. There is no gene that makes a person fat, doped, a drunkard, a "sex addict." Although every couple of years junk medicine/science tries to claim there is a "gene" for every bad act or choice. Or some fame seeking expert claims a brain image can predict a criminal. All humans have the capacity for addiction and criminality - just depends on the yes/no decision made in every moment, until good or bad becomes a habit. If poor judgement and bad choices were genetic the human race would have died out long ago.

There is what I call a "justify gap" though. Not a wide one, as most folks can apologize and seek treatment to justify and hide the fact that they're pretty much self-absorbed egos operating on whim and pity parties, or the worst - empty vessels stalking among us.

Probably can thank the likes of Betty Ford for outing herself as the first bored housewife fueled on pills and martinis. I've nothing against Betty - I just wish folks would keep their dirty laundry in the hamper. Her "addictions" didn't seem to effect her longevity so I gotta wonder how severe was her addiction. I believe it began with a 1962 pain pill prescription and ended with a family intervention in 1976. Had she not been in the White House, would she have remained an embarrassingly buzzed housewife on the D.C. cocktail circuit? (By the way, I'm going to D.C. next week for a "vacation.")

I know more than a couple of women, who found themselves entangled in legal problems and/or moral dilemmas after wild partying, and used addiction as excuse, becoming lifelong spokespersons for having "overcome" their addiction. Sorry, but the occasional drunken screwup does not an addict make. I think they were just scared from a close call and tired of partying - hangovers get damned harder after age 25 or so, just ask the revolving door at treatment centers. And Betty, being high on pain meds is at least as old as the Dilaudid deluded housewives of 2 centuries ago.

I have a family member, almost 80. She was in good health until about 20 years ago. She stopped working and very quickly gained weight, developed diabetes, high cholesterol, hypertension. Before she became completely housebound, about 10 years ago, her hobbies were bingo, which she couldn't afford, and eating. No gardening, no mall walking, no road trips, no walking the dog, who also got fat. She has a daughter who is in her 50s, she too no longer works, is housebound, heavily medicated (high), slowly dying in front of a television. She had the usual trendy "diseases" of the 1980s, carpal tunnel syndrome, bad back, bad knees - had surgeries on all of them more than once, thanks to government healthcare. By age 50 she was stiff, overweight, diabetic, and on disability, major organs deteriorating - she will not live anywhere near her mother's age of 80. These are their choices. Not their genes, not their level of wealth. They and millions of other "poor" shorten their own life span.

At one time I tried to convince the family members above to eat healthier to reverse their health problems. They claimed healthy food was too expensive, an excuse I've heard from many syndrome-lovin' folks. But, which costs more - a couple of pieces of fresh fruit or half of a cheesecake? A piece of broiled fish with lemon or those crispy deep fried fatty pork steaks and butter loaded mashed potatoes?

Their grandchildren will be (and are) dying much, much younger than 80 - completely unrelated to "income gap" and solely related to gluttony, sloth, envy, and "cool" stuff like promiscuity, drugs, alcohol. (Ask an honest gynecologist what "free love" is doing to health and quality of life). The same choices kill the wealthy the same way (i.e. Elvis, Mama Cass, Belushi, Farley, Monroe, nouveau riche).

"Studies" also show the gap between wealth and obesity is closing. So, on the fairness side, the wealthy will also get sicker and die sooner - their big fat choice.

What makes a life long - diet, exercise, work, rest, and wanting what you have - available to all Americans regardless of what the income gap babblers constantly babble.

Note too that the same ideology/folks who push redistribution/mo' money as a cure all also excuse and/or encourage the behavior that creates many of the ills in the first place, in the name of freedom and your right to do, use, eat, drink, screw, take, try, whatever you want, even if it kills you. (Sometimes with "in moderation" in the fine print.)

Bella Vita

I was trying to detox from this story but so many people, particularly talking heads, seem completely off the mark regarding the dynamics of the Anthony family.

First of all, to those who think Casey Anthony was sexually molested by her father and/or brother. Not true. George Anthony is a distasteful man, a liar, a boor, a phony, a philanderer, and somewhat of a deadbeat as his "retired cop" career was 4 years as a deputy in Ohio and 6 years in the police department as what no one has ever said. He's a ne're-do-well, former used car salesman, security guard, now on disability. His wife earned the money for this family for most of the marriage.

Brother Lee, also a liar, though not to the extent of mom, dad, and sister. Lee grew up keeping his head down and his mouth shut while the lies, pretense, and family rants hurricaned around him. The storms became very ugly when Casey hit puberty. Lee is still a simpering frightened 30-year-old little boy with his head down.

The Anthony family worked with the defense put on by Baez and his dream team. That is how the defense had the photos of little Caylee with her hand on the sliding door, the photos of Caylee climbing up the pool ladder with grandma. Collusion explains the act put on by George as a witness - his calculated hesitation before answering the sexual abuse question, his feigned combativeness toward Baez, his obvious lying on the stand about a mistress. Collusion explains Lee's act regarding Caylee's birth - his sobbing how hurt he was that he was not included in the pregnancy. The fact Lee was tested for Caylee's paternity. Insinuation that Lee too was an incestuous pervert who some thought might be Caylee's father.

Lee was simply ashamed of his sister's promiscuity and pregnancy as only a big brother would be. But weeping about it on the witness stand gave him the role of potentially creepy, sister groping Chester the molester.

George and Cindy knew Caylee was dead the day they picked up the car with the smell of decomposition. It's why some of the jailhouse taped conversations between Casey and her parents sound as if they're talking in code. I.e. Cindy: "Are we going to be able to find her?" Casey: "I hope we can, Mom." Cindy was really asking if the body was disposed of so it would never be found. The Anthony's could then for eternity continue the "missing" or kidnapped saga.

I don't believe Casey made chloroform, not successfully anyway. Too many other knock-out drugs available, prescription or over-the-counter. She lacked the patience and intelligence to whip up of a batch of usable chloroform. She may have attempted it and put the mess she made in the trunk to dispose of elsewhere and that caused the high forensic reading for chloroform in the trunk. Or just as likely pappa George or Cindy tried to wet vac the car with calcium hypochlorite or other pool chemical they had in the garage, to remove the stench, creating detectable chloroform.

Casey Anthony, like Megan Hogg and dozens of others, smothered her child with duct tape. Having to hook up with Tony she didn't have time to dispose of the body and was quite busy for a few days until the odor forced her desperate dump in the swamp down the street. After a couple of months with no discovery of the body she likely thought animals and the elements had saved her from it ever being discovered. Her first few months in jail gave her plenty of time to hear other inmate gossip and tales, choosing which ones might work for her - accidental drowning, incest, abuse.

Not to say the grandparents didn't grieve over their loss - but their grief was secondary to the need to save face because in such a family, who believe they are superior to everyone in the world, only they have the right to judge, punish, or kill, their own. The deed was done, the family switched into "save face" mode. It's all they know how to do. Leave people wondering who is lying about what until no one knows which Anthony and which lie is to blame. They mastered the method with friends, neighbors, coworkers, family members - and now the judicial system.

The family's entire act was to aid Baez in casting doubt, confusion, and conspiracy on the case - and they succeeded better than even they or Baez expected. Baez, his love of the camera may only be outmatched by his client's love for the Bella Vita.

Throw in accusations or innuendo of tainted evidence and shoddy police work ... the prosecution thought they would dazzle the jurors with forensics, unaware that the defense would baffle them with bullshit.

I was watching an interview with Jesse Grund, Casey's one time fiancé, who said this is not the Casey he knew. That she did not lie to him, etc. Yet, 2 questions later he comments that a few months after their breakup she texted him that she was pregnant and he was the father. He did the math and doubted it, and had paternity testing which proved he was not the father. Yep, she didn't lie to him.

Grund seems like a decent guy, willing to step up to the plate and be a husband and father - but nice guys finish last with a gal like Casey. Five months after Casey agreed to marry Jesse, she ended the engagement. "She claimed I loved Caylee more than I loved her," Grund said. When asked if he thought Casey killed Caylee, Grund says "Honestly, I don't know … The Casey that I knew was incapable of hurting a hair on Caylee's head … But this person, this dark, selfish, remorseless individual that sits in jail right now, I'm not sure what she's capable of." Maybe it's hard admitting we didn't really know someone when we thought we did. What do we often hear in some of the most heinous cases - he/she was such a nice person. Such foolery is partly due to most folks having instinct and intuition culturally bred out of them by kindergarten. Play along to get along.

Casey tired of competing with her mom for Caylee's affection. Then tired of competing with Caylee for the attention of the men in her life - dad, bubba, lover.

The Anthony's successful "not guilty" was also directly related to a majority of the jury being lazy, mentally deficient, conspiracy minded, and a few perhaps corrupt. Lazy because they did not spend the time necessary to connect the dots, did not review the evidence, did not deliberate. A couple of straw votes and filling out the verdict forms was not deliberation. Mentally deficient because they did not understand their charge and were too narcissistic to ask for elucidation - i.e. they wanted a motive and the prosecution does not have to prove motive. Although competition for affection and attention is more than enough for some murders.

One juror has said that Casey was seen by her dad as she left the home that day but doesn't show up again until hours later renting a movie with her boyfriend - so she asks did Casey kill Caylee at the mall or at a public place? Duh, in evidence was the cell phone pings for Casey that day showing that she hung around her neighborhood for hours after she supposedly left for work. Most likely returning to the house after George went to work, where she murdered the child, double bagged, stuffed her in the laundry bag, tossed her in the trunk, then went to meet boyfriend Tony.

A juror has said they didn't like George Anthony's shifty behavior on the stand - but said Casey's 31 days of partying behavior as her daughter was rotting down the street wasn't a factor in their decision. Tell me that's not deficient thinking.

The jury expected CSI style proof - found with tweezers and a Q-tip and presented by analysts with cleavage and/or good looks wearing sunglasses. Within hours of the verdict some jurors were offering to sell their interviews to the highest bidders. Interviews less valuable had the verdict been guilty as charged.

The television gasbags now ask is it possible for Casey to ever have a relationship with her parents again? Of course she will, the relationship was never broken. Her parents did what they have always done for her - lie, connive, cover up, placate, kid gloves and sweethearts. But you can bet that Cindy will never again try to force Casey to behave as a responsible adult.

Now numerous states are passing Caylee laws - making it a felony to not report a missing or dead child within xx amount of hours. Shame on us for needing the State to force caregivers to do to the right thing. As if child killers are going to obey the law anyway.

Oddly, it seems those who are outraged when someone is wrongfully convicted are the first to tell us when a murderer is freed that it's the way our judicial system works and we have to respect the verdict. I can accept that it is what it is, but I don't have to respect the players or the outcome.

I'll keep rubbernecking to see how the karma comes back around to the main players, who are guided not by conscience and common sense, but greed and narcissism.

MJ Interprets For the Herd

Bachmann Signs Pledge with Questionable Slavery Reference. Rep. Michele Bachmann is the first Republican presidential candidate to sign the Family Leader pledge disavowing gay marriage, premarital sex, and porn. But perhaps the most outrageous part of the pledge is the section that implies that maybe slavery wasn't all that bad for black families.

Declaring that "[u]nmistakably, the Institution of Marriage in America is in great crisis," the document states:

Slavery had a disastrous impact on African-American families, yet sadly a child born into slavery in 1860 was more likely to be raised by his mother and father in a two-parent household than was an African-American baby born after the election of the USA’s first African-American President.

Maybe they should get a bit of credit for acknowledging that slavery was "disastrous" for black Americans. But that passage seems to suggest that maybe things actually were better for black Americans then. Yes, being kept as property, forced into marriages arranged by slave masters, and raped by those masters was great for black people. As Jack & Jill Politics also points out, breaking up families to sell off slaves was hardly pro-family values. It's an insensitive comparison that ignores history.

------- Bachmann is not to my liking if for no other reason than she's dull as dishwater. And although I wouldn't call her a bimbo as some do - one would think she knows that politicians cannot voice an honest opinion about gays, free love, porn, or minorities - unless it's endorsement. She gives her opposition so much to work with here. Homophobe, racist, bible thumping gun clinging prude, prig ... gosh, whatever is she thinking ...everybody knows gays are normal and premarital sex is hunky dory, especially for teens, porn is just adult entertainment (ask Ted Bundy) and it's mass incarceration that takes away baby daddies.

Bachmann's "pledge" does not imply "that maybe slavery wasn't all that bad for black families." Before the day is over someone will say her remarks are "code" for racist white folks, if they haven't already. Bachmann is right about black children and two-parent households.

The marriage rate for black Americans has been dropping since the 1960s, and today, has the lowest marriage rate of any racial group in the United States. In the 2001 census 43 percent of black men and 42 percent of black women in America had never been married, whites were 28 and 21 percent. Black females are the least likely to marry in America. " ... a black child was more likely to grow up living with both parents during slavery days than he or she is today" according to sociologist Andrew J. Cherlin.

Why buy the cow when the milk is free - and more often than not "the Man" is paying for the stable and feed, and vet bill. Isn't freedumb wonderful...