A couple who had been living together for 16 years had a normal relationship, besides the fact that for the last 2 years, it took place in a bathroom. Pam Babcock, 35 had a phobia about leaving the bathroom and her boyfriend called the police when he found her to be acting groggy one day. The police said she was not stuck by glue, or tied or anything to the toilet, her legs were just physically stuck to the toilet. The police also said that she had to have slept sitting on the toilet. The sheriff of the investigation said that he believes the boyfriend should be charged with neglect because he let her go on living in the bathroom. He fed her and took her water and carried on conversations and a relationship with her instead of doing something about it. The sheriff also stated that when they entered the trailer house, it smelled and the smell was coming from her.
What is wrong with the world? It is obvious that this woman had a mental condition, that according to her, started with some type of abuse when she was little, that caused her to form a phobia of leaving the bathroom. But what kind of person believes it's ok to let her live like that? Like it's normal to have to bring her food and water because she won't leave. And then, even after it's impossible for her to get off of the toilet seat, to think it's all fine,... until she seems groggy!!
This story was just ridiculous to me! First of all, it was really hard for me to believe and second of all I don't know whether to feel more sorry for her because she has issues from her past or because she's living with a moron!
The woman has ended up with an infection on her legs that has damaged her nerves and was taken to a hospital in Wichita, but continues to refuse cooperating with medical providers and law enforcements.
I would hope that if I ever had an issue and thought that I would be better off sitting on a toilet, then someone would love me enough to get me some help and point out the fact that it's not right!!... Before I'm stuck!
Recently by Sabrina Strickler
I am an animal lover and everything but I think it may have been taken a little too far! Tripp Isenhour has been charged with cruelty towards animals for hitting a hawk with a golf ball and killing it. Supposedly he was on the golf course and was being filmed for "Shoot like a Pro" and there was an extremely loud hawk 300 yards away and he tried to scare it off. 300 yards was too far but as soon as it got to around 75 yards away he tried again and got lucky. They found the bird dead with blood coming out of it's nose.
Isenhour said that he never thought he could actually hit it and was just trying to scare it, so that it would fly away and they could tape. He said that it was basically like a joke. He also stated that he is a huge animal lover and his family has adopted three cats in the past. He apologized and stated that he never intended to harm the bird.
So should he be punished? The maximum penalty can be up to 14 months in jail and $1500 in fines. I think that this is going over the limit. I believe there is a big difference in cruelty to animals, in which you torture or abuse helpless animals, and hitting a bird with a golf ball, with quite a bit of luck. I seriously wonder if he ever thought he could hit it in the first place and he obviously stated that he didn't think he could.
Some will feel very strongly about this opinion and believe that if he killed the bird that he should be punished but I personally feel that it's a stretch on animal cruelty. I feel as though, as long as he realizes that what he did was wrong and he won't do it in the future then he should be able to donate money to PITA and move on. People should realize that he wasn't torturing a helpless animal, he was trying to scare it away and instead got a terrible dose of bad luck.
So... one of my friends works at a golf course here in Lawrence and he came over the other day and told us a story. He said that there are a few bald eagles that live around there and he made a comment that his boss wasn't too happy about. He mentioned that he wanted to go around and gather up some eagle feathers and make himself something pretty and his boss told him that it was illegal for anyone other than a Native American to pick up bald eagle's feathers.
What? Maybe some of you are saying duh, but I had no idea about this. It's totally understandable that nobody is allowed to hunt them or anything like that since they were endangered but it's illegal to pick up a feather if you find it on the ground? I looked this information up because I definitely had trouble believing it. When I looked it up on google, there were yahoo question and answers that said there were definitely laws against it. And when I got onto a Paumanauke Pow Wow website http://paumanauke.org/etiquette.htm , It was very apparent that they hold a lot of respect for the eagle feathers.
This last spring/summer two bald eagles lived on my dads farm land and I guess it's just weird to me that if I would have found an eagle feather, on our land, that just happened to fall off of the eagle, that i'm not allowed to pick it up without a Native American card. Hmmm.. Thats weird to me.
I have been waiting quite a while to watch the movie "Rendition" with Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gylenhaal and Tuesday it finally came out. The movie is based on the realism of the term Rendition that is used by the US. According to David Ignatius from the Washingtonpost.com, rendition is the CIA's antiseptic term for its practice of sending captured terrorists suspects to other countries for interrogation.
This is exactly what the movie is about. A terrorist attack (caused by Egyptian terrorists) ocurred in a different country and an American man was killed along with 19 other people. A random egyptian man (Reese's husband) was just entering the US and was taken and flown to another country and tortured for information about something that he had nothing to do with.
This issue is pretty difficult for me. I am probably about 60/40 when it comes to torture. 60 percent against it and 40 percent for it. The thing is that when a person is suspected of terrorism there is generally a good reason why. Part of me feels like it is our countries responsibility to protect it's citizens and if torturing one person to get information that could possibly save thousands is what it takes then what is the problem? But the problem is that according the Washingtonpost, it is obvious that when under that much intense pain, a person is going to admit to actions or give information even if they have nothing to do with any of it, just so the torture will end. That is exactly what happened in the movie, the man made up some information when in reality he had nothing to do with it. But the biggest problem is the fact that innocent people are being tortured, and we have no idea how many because it's such a big secret.
I feel like torture should only be allowed if there is real proof that the person had something to do with terrorist attacks or is involved in something to do with terrorism. I feel like our country has been through a lot because of 9/11 and since then we have taken more measures for our citizens protection. I believe that there should be a limit to the torture and if it doesn't work then it needs to be discontinued. Like I said i go back and forth on this issue because I know for a fact that I coul never torture a person, or even witness it. But personally, if it's going to save my life, my family's life and everybody i know, then i'm all for it.
My friend and I were sitting in the back of the room in Budig 120 and she asked me if I felt safe. I don't know. I haven't even really thought about it. But shouldn't I? I bet students, teachers, and whoever else on the campus at Northern Illinois University though they were safe. I guess none of us should ever really feel safe because anything could happen at any time. But I know I don't want to live in fear so what am I supposed to do? II'm pretty positive that I've never done anything mean enough to piss somebody off that bad, but honestly... do the shooters plan who they are going to kill or do they just go crazy and want to kill anybody they can? The scariest thing about the whole situation is that we don't know who we can trust because we don't know who is going to snap at any second. But also, we have no idea what was going on in the mind of the shooter. How can somebody just shoot people like that? I know I never could but that doesn't mean that 1 out of the 10-20 people that are surrounding you couldn't.
I personally feel safe on the campus at KU. I have no idea why. Maybe I'm just too trusting of a person, or maybe it's because these shootings have never effected me personally. I mean, of course school shootings and 9/11 and everything else we've witnessed has effected me but I haven't personally known anybody and I live in Kansas.
All I'm saying is that I know there are other people like me who feel as though nothing could happen to them. I'm naive. Anything could happen at anytime, we've just been lucky I guess. Our generation has been through a lot and it seems that everytime we start to get over something, another thing happens that shakes us all up. Will we ever be able to be on campus and no that we are absolutely safe or will we have to question our safety not only on campus but everywhere for the rest of our lives? I wish people could grow up and deal with their problems themselves instead of needing to kill people in order to feel better about themselves and take care of their problems.
Right now it seems as though things will stay the way the are. As sad as it is, shootings will continue down the road and honestly... what is there that we can do about it? I guess I will just try to continue to live my life the best I can without the fear and just hope and pray for the best!
They tell you that a full time student is twelve credit hours. So then how come, if you take twelve hours a semester, it can take you five years to graduate? Why are there so many requirements? The load keeps getting heavier and the pressure to graduate increases as the tuition goes up. Am I really going to have to pay back student loans forever? It seems a little ridiculous to me.
If I would not have gone to college, I could have stayed in my home town and worked for my mom as a Farm Bureau Agent and could have been making bank after a while. So why am I spending my money instead of making money? Yes, a college education is important to me, and that's why I'm here. But not only are we paying for all of it but we are being thrown into a win- lose situation. Either you take a ton of hours and work your butt off to graduate on time, or you take time to breathe and take around 12-15 hours a semester and then end up spending more money just so you can graduate in five years, who knows maybe more.
Older adults tell you that these are the best years of your life, but how can you have the time to enjoy them when you are crammed with required homework everynight? If, God forbid, you don't complete it, and do what's expected, then you join quite a bit of people on academic probation and waste either you or your parents money.
I started this semester with seventeen credit hours. I haven't taken spanish in five years and I was thrown into the second spanish class and was told not to get out. Spanish is one of my requirements so I just have to deal with it. But I am definitely no genius and it has been kicking my butt since the first day. I knew right away that if I was going to stick with this class then I was going to end up slacking in other classes, so I dropped a psych 300 class and I now have fourteen hours. Is this going to come back and kick me in the end? Am I going to regret this decision? Am I, along with many other seniors I know, going to have to kill myself with eighteen to twenty-one hours my last semester as a senior just so I don't have to spend all that money the following year?
The requirements are going up every year and the tuition is too. According to http://tuition.ku.edu/ ,over the past 30 years, tuition has increased an average of 9 percent a year. Why does education have to be so expensive? If you have experience in the field, is the education really worth it? In J101, I've listened to a few speakers announce that if they have two people up for a position in their company, they are going to consider a person's personality over their GPA. So maybe I should work on my personality to get that great job and load up the hours, never caring about the grades, and just get school over with.
I decided to write about something that I, along with many others, are very passionate about. Bad drivers. And not just bad drivers, but awful drivers. My inspiration behind this came tonight, when my boyfriend and I were on Highway 10, on our way back from Wal-Mart, and a van pulled right in front of us, causing Eric to slam on the breaks. Keep in mind all of this happened as the heavy snow came down, the roads were slick, and we were going around seventy miles per hour. Not only did this van pull right in front of us and almost cause a wreck but then they preceeded to drive fourty miles per hour. All I can say is Wow! That just made me mad! Why does this happen? I never fail to have a fit of road rage on any given day. Most mornings as I start off on my way to campus, I am calm. But five out of seven mornings, I come home grumpy.
I am not the worlds best driver, I can definitely admit that. I've had my share of bad decisions. But at no point in my life have I just been completely stupid behind the wheel. My 87 year old grandad, who has a handicap license, believes he is capable of driving. Is he? NO! My family knows that. I'm from a small town and there have been a couple times in the past when I have passed him on the road and been frustrated. It is not safe for him, but even more for anybody else in a 100 yrd. radius of him. So guess what? We took his keys! He will no longer drive.
When I become frustrated with a vehicle because, oh I don't know, they try to switch into my lane while I'm right beside them, I try to tell myself that I'm not a perfect driver. But then, if I look and see that they just don't care or didn't even realize what they did, I ask myself "How many people have they almost killed today?" Careless drivers, is maybe a better word for them. I know it's not safe for anybody to text behind the wheel, but there are some people that I would rather have on the road, texting the entire time, then some of the drivers I've come across.
Is there anything that can be done? Probably not. Old people, with keys, are going to drive if they want to, whether I like it or not. And accidents happen at any time to anybody. So maybe I should just get over myself and learn to deal with it, just like everybody else. But I know that at one time or another you have all thought "Who put them behind the wheel?"
