MedPundit offers some common sense.
Medpundit - Obesity CostsObesity Costs: I posted this as an update to the orignal post below, but the study that purports to show that obesity is costing billions of tax dollars may be statistical hype.
Check out the whole post.
Looks like we've got some people dedicated to wiping out the freedom to have a few drinks and they're not doing it the straight forward way.
Back Door to Prohibition: The New War on Social Drinking by Radley BalkoThe year 2003 marked the 70th anniversary of the Twenty-First Amendment, which repealed alcohol prohibition in the United States. The 13 years between the passage of the Eighteenth and Twenty-First Amendments saw the alcohol trade go underground, bringing with it all the ancillary crime that comes with a black market. Alcohol abuse in the United States went up, not down, and civil liberties and tax dollars were sacrificed to what amounted to a grand, failed experiment in state-enforced morality.
One would think that, given the failure of Prohibition, Americans wouldn't need to worry about its return. That may not be the case. A well-funded movement of neoprohibitionists is afoot, with advocates in media, academia, and government. The movement sponsors a variety of research organizations, which publish dozens of studies each year alleging the corruptive effects of alcohol. Those studies are taken at face value by well-intentioned policymakers at the local, state, and federal level. New laws are enacted that curb Americans' access to alcohol.
News from NASA:
Spooky Atomic Clocks.January 23, 2004: Einstein called it "spooky action at a distance." Now NASA-funded researchers are using an astonishing property of quantum mechanics called "entanglement" to improve atomic clocks--humanity's most precise way to measure time. Entangled clocks could be as much as 1000 times more stable than their non-entangled counterparts.
Tyler Cowen has a post about the current state of affairs in Haiti. He paints a pretty grim picture.
Some years back when I lived in Beaverton, Oregon and my landlord was Sang Soon Kim, there was a woman who lived upstairs. She was skinny, always dressed in expensive clothes that made her look ridiculous, and she had a son that was about six to eight months old. She also had a black BMW.
Whenever I talked to her she would always say she had a black BMW. If you tried to talk to her about the weather or politics or any subject she would always change the subject back to her BMW. She loved that BMW. She also loved drinking bourbon. Just from counting the empty bourbon bottles she left near the garbage, I would assume she was drinking a bottle a day.
She also had a boyfriend who drove a red Trans Am or Camaro. He would come over, she would scream at him and he would leave. This woman had a mother who would also come over. The mother was an ugly old hag with short hair who dressed expensively. The woman's mother looked ridiculous in her expensive clothes. I guess that means some people just have no taste when it comes to expensive clothes. The mother would come over, scream at her daughter and then leave.
The woman who lived upstairs would get drunk and then decide to drive her black BMW. Many times I saw her get in her car and then drive away and, as she was driving away, she would swerve back and forth. A couple of times she hit a couple of the garbage cans that the neighbors would put out by the street.
I always wondered what she did with her son when she was out driving around drunk. Maybe she took the kid with her.
She once told me she had a restraining order against her boyfriend. I don't know if she was even capable of sobering up enough to be able to get one, but she said there was a senile old judge down at the courthouse that would give a restraining order to anybody. She made some jokes about this senile old judge and that he had a quota of restraining orders to give out each week and so he was asking everybody who came to his courtroom if they wanted a restraining order.
She said you could get a restraining order, then get money from the person the restraining order was against, drop the restraining order, then get it again and again and continue bilking the sucker out of money for quite awhile. Imagine that, turning restraining orders into money making ventures.
I wonder what's bugging Cobb. He's usually so.....sedate and sagacious???.... He has a post and he's pissed. I'm not really sure what he's pissed about because once I saw that the "pissed off" post was by Cobb, I immediately went to the next post....even though I knew the probabilities of the next post being authored by Cobb were great, indeed, because I had noticed, with my keen "notice" superanuater sensor, that maybe Cobb was behind the whole website.
If only I could prove it. That's my dream.
Crimlaw has a post that sort of leaves me and the leaves speechless, but.........if you gotta go somewhere, then go to San Mateo County.
I'm trying to start a rock and roll band and we need a singer. We decided we want a singer who sounds like Robert Plant. Hmmmm......Howard Dean?????...Howard Dean.....yeah, let's hear that speech from Iowa again.
I wonder how easy it would be to convince Howard Dean that being a rock star with lots of young groupies is better than being a doctor or an elected official, or...maybe...even a candidate who's going downhill fast.
American Samizdat has a post about genocide in Ethiopa. It's definitely a must read.
According to the The Volokh Conspiracy we should boycott A AAAdvantage Auto Transport, and National Auto Transport. Eugene, despite his boy jeanius reputation, seems to be a pretty honest person and he gives some pretty good reasons for a boycott so I think I'll try to publicize his boycott a little.
Over the years for various reasons I have boycotted certain businesses. For some reason I can't fathom, me boycotting the companies didn't drive them into bankruptcy, but when I joined with others in boycotting a company, sometimes the company actually changed some of its practices. The following shoe companies I have boycotted at various times in my life, but now buy from them because I've been led to believe they are better corporate citizens than before. I'm probably wrong, though. In any event, the following are footware companies that I once boycotted but feel comfortable today saying that they make good products at ridiculous prices.
I now buy in cycles. One time I'll buy Adidas when they're on sale, then Nike when they have a sale, then Reebok and then Avia. Since I do a lot of walking, running, and yard work I go through athletic shoes like Howard Dean goes through Iowa voters. I prefer the cross country styles because they seem to be better suited to all kinds of activities.
United Farm Workers Union also boycotts some companies and I almost always don't buy from companies the United Farm Workers are boycotting.
TalkLeft has a post about Informants Who Set Up Fake Drug Busts Get a Sentence Break.
Three police informants who set up fake drug busts in Texas were sentenced to between 33 and 41 months in federal prison Thursday. As a result of their actions, dozens of immigrants were falsely charged with crimes.
Jeralyn Merritt also has another post about the detective that was Too Cute. Apparently, this detective utilized his cutsiness to entrap gays into buying illicit drugs. This is a "shame, shame" moment for the sleazy detective.
One of the new types of criminals are the serial false accusers. Click on the preceding link and you can register a serial false accuser.
"I'm innocent, I'm innocent I tell you. I'm not beaming mind control radio waves into anybody's brains. I'm not a member of the secret new world order conspiracy to take over the world!!!"
It all began when my ex-in-laws and their brilliant legal advisor called my sister, Chris Andrea Hays, and told her I was secretly beaming mind control radio waves into her brain. This caused my gullible sister to go into a frenzy. She called my mother, Neta Hays, who also got all tizzied up. They then went to my father, John McClelland Hays, who called up one of his cult buddies and told him to come over to where I live and demand I quit beaming mind control radio waves into my sister's brain. By this time I was beginning to believe these people didn't have any brains to beam mind control radio waves into.
In the meantime, my sister and mother were notifying their friends, fellow church members, and my other relatives that I was a part of the evil new world order conspiracy and beaming mind control radio waves into people's brains with my cool, ultra-modern, mind control radio wave master blaster.
Soon people, including some of my neighbors and some of the people who work up at Thriftway in Aloha, Oregon, were up in arms. Jim Spinden and Dr. Ron Turco were notified and Jim Spinden immediately decided that they needed to send undercover cops over to where I live in order to confiscate my ultra-modern, technologically advanced, mind control radio wave master blaster.
But since Jim Spinden was retired the local DA's office nixed the undercover cop idea and by now, very few people believed in any of Dr. Ron Turco's conspiracy theories, although Dr. Ron and Jim Spinden believe Washington County, Oregon is still having a Satanic Ritual Abuse epidemic.
On a related note:
Back when credulous Jim Spinden was sheriff of Washington County, he had my sister, her son, my mother, and my father become snitches in order to gather evidence that I was a homosexual doing super-natural crimes.
Part of my relatives' duties as snitches was the wearing of body wires to record conversations I had with them. For some reason, whenever my relatives wore body wires they would start walking funny and talking funny. Maybe the body wires made them itch.
They would also say bizarre things like, "Why don't you admit you're a homosexual and that you lied to get into the Navy," or "Where did you hide the corpses after the satanic rituals?" or "Come back to the family, quit being a satanic homosexual and confess to all the evil you've done," or "Bonnie Oekerman is spying on you because she loves you." editors note: crazy Bonnie is the mother of the woman I divorced in 1980. She never recognized the divorce and for years pretended I was still married to her daughter.
On another related note:
Was it Jim Spinden who contacted Cathy Winters and convinced her I was a satanic homosexual bad guy? We know that Roger Weidner, using his prestige as an ex-prosecutor, conned somebody into attempting to tamper with my military records. When the postal inspectors and a couple of FBI agents checked out my military records because they received anonymous phone tips that I was AWOL and doing all sorts of crimes, including bank robbery, forgery, eating corpses, etc., the postal inspectors and FBI agents noticed there was something wrong with my military records. When I first became employed with the U.S. Postal Service after leaving the Navy, I had a background check that included checking out my military records and health records.
After the postal inspectors and FBI agents checked out the records with the state veterans department office, my own originals of my military records, and the federal veterans department, they came to the conclusion that someone had attempted to tamper with my military records. They didn't try to find out though because after their investigations of me turned up nothing, they called it quits. Apparently, checking out people who might tamper with military records is outside their area of jurisdiction.
It's been a while since I posted about 2nd amendment stuff. I'm neither pro-gun nor anti-gun, I'm just pro-2nd amendment. The second amendment is:
A well-regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed."
Oregon has something similar in its constitution:
Section 27. Right to bear arms; military subordinate to civil power. The people shall have the right to bear arms for the defence (sic) of themselves, and the State, but the Military shall be kept in strict subordination to the civil power[.]
Oregon even has the Oregon Gun Owners.
While I'm on the subject, I would like to say that there are crazies, homophobes, racists and all sorts of lunatics who try to leech themselves to honest activitists for the preservation of the 2nd amendment. One of these white supremacist organizations in Oregon is the "Constitution Party".
It's a damn shame the loonies are always trying to infiltrate honest organizations. They're using the communist trick of "infiltrate and then control". Anyway, the link below is what got me on this subject.
damnum absque injuria: Your Home Is Your Castle - Unless It's In Illinois
MilitaryCorruption.com has a story about a female Master Sargeant MP, Lisa Marie Girman, who got busted for brutality against Iraqi prisoners of war. We are not a nation of thugs, communists, or Nazi's (although we do have some thugs, communists and Nazi's) and for this to have happened is a disgrace.
Insight Mag has an article entitled "Why Bush Won Iowa".
The article says in part:
The Iowa caucuses make the early emergence of a single Democratic challenger a whole lot less likely. The Democrats now head into New Hampshire with four strong and viable candidates all battling for the lead: Kerry, Edwards, Dean and former Gen. Wesley Clark, who ducked the Iowa contest to save his ammunition for New Hampshire.Kerry has the momentum after the Iowa win. But Dean still has the money, that $50 million war chest raised through the Internet and his host of dedicated supporters. Clark has the heavy investment of time, organization and much of the old Clinton network in New Hampshire. And Edwards has the prospect of the South Carolina primary on Feb. 3, where his local Southern roots should give his the advantage.
For all the glow of Iowa's victory, Kerry has a problem. He is broke. He mortgaged his Boston house (for $6.4 million) and plunged almost all of it into Iowa. To make a strong TV showing in New Hampshire (let alone in South Carolina and the costly media markets of New York, Texas, Ohio and California), Kerry has to raise a lot of money fast. That means hours and days on the phone, pleading to potential donors -- time he needs to spend on the stump in New Hampshire.
I suppose if Kerry wins in New Hampshire then he would be a clear front runner who needs money to continue and Dean might be searching for a new shrieking place. I don't think Clark will do so hot and as for the others, only Edwards looks like he might make out ok. However, I'm not a campaign strategist and I'm not one of those brilliant political pundits who saw Dean tripping up the victory aisle in Iowa, so ignore my prognostications and read the Insight article.
Looks like Dr Peter Maguire, deputy chairman of the BMA's board of science is on some sort of hallucinogenic drugs. He says in part:
"Cannabis is a drug that can kill," Dr Peter Maguire, deputy chairman of the BMA's board of science told Reuters. "People are making the conclusion that it is safe where in fact it is actually more dangerous than tobacco....."
Maybe we shouldn't tell Art Garfunkel.
Singer Garfunkel Charged with Marijuana PossessionGarfunkel, the only passenger, was due to appear next Wednesday at the Town of Hurley Court charged with unlawful possession of marijuana. He faces a $100 fine.
Looks like Art is on a crime wave.
What the hell is going on? Kids aren't supposed to have a "boot camp" lunch. Al brings up an interesting subject at the following link: Poynter Online - Thursday Edition: School Lunch Rush.
I think I've read almost everything Clive Cussler has written. One of the characters he created, Dirk Pitt, is one of my favorites. According to The Southern California Law Blog: Author Clive Cussler Sues Filmakers for Changing Sahara Script Over Cussler's Objections.
Good. I hope Clive Cussler wins his lawsuit.
Rick Ross has an interesting post about a cult who uses its influence to bilk the taxpayers out of money and he asks a good question, "Why should taxpayers keep picking up the tab for these polygamists?"
Chief David Brame was the Tacoma Washington police chief who shot himself and his wife in 2003. There was a bunch of Marxist feminist propaganda about the shooting which, of course, was false and was spewed out in order to further the crazy Marxist feminist agenda. Believe it or not, some gullible people fell for the mindless propaganda.
The Chief, in fact, was married to the psycho wife from hell. To her kids she must have been the mother from hell.
The following is the true story of how an extremely mentally ill woman drove her husband to do a terrible thing.
© 2003 The New York TimesReproduced under the Fair Use exception of 17 USC § 107 for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use.
Tacoma, Washington, April 27, 2003 — The wife of the Tacoma police chief was in critical condition today, a day after her husband shot her in the head in a mall parking lot and then fatally shot himself, the authorities said [she died on May 3, 2003].
The shootings occurred at the Olympic Plaza shopping center in Gig Harbor, a maritime suburb across the Tacoma Narrows, a day after abuse accusations in the couple's divorce case appeared in local papers.
Chief David Brame, 44, was pronounced dead at St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma, Detective Ed Troyer of the Pierce County sheriff's office said. Crystal Brame, 35, remained in critical condition at Harborview Medical Center, according to news reports. Hospital officials would not comment on her condition.
Tacoma's city manager, Ray Corpuz, issued a statement today expressing shock at the shootings, which were witnessed by the couple's children, Haley, 8, and David Jr., 5.
"Right now I'd ask that everyone pray for Crystal Brame and for the future of Haley and David Jr.," Mr. Corpuz said. "More than anything, their welfare is on my mind."
The chief and his wife arrived in the parking lot in separate cars, with the couple's children riding with their mother. At one point, the chief took the children to his car, then went back to his wife's car, where the pair engaged in a heated conversation, witnesses told the authorities.
Witnesses reported hearing two quick shots from the parking lot, Detective Troyer said. The children ran toward their mother's car after hearing the shots, he said.
One witness, Dana Mossman, told the The News Tribune of Tacoma, "I heard them say: `Daddy shot Mommy. Daddy hurt Mommy.' "
The children are now in the care of Ms. Brame's mother.
In their divorce case, Crystal Brame had accused her husband of choking her and threatening to kill her, while Chief Brame said that his wife had physically and verbally abused him, according to court records cited by The News Tribune.
Until then, most city officials had been unaware of Chief Brame's conflicts at home, Mayor Bill Baarsma of Tacoma said in an interview today. He recalled how Chief Brame was "beaming" when his wife pinned a star to his chest at his installation ceremony in January 2002 as one of this city's youngest chiefs of police.
Chief Brame "just seemed to be the absolute perfect choice" for the job, Mr. Baarsma said.
The chief had been in the midst of a wrenching departmental audit, Mr. Baarsma said, but his demeanor betrayed little evidence of any deeper problems.
The mayor, who is also chairman of the city's public safety committee, often worked closely with Mr. Brame. He was also Mr. Brame's faculty adviser while a professor at the nearby University of Puget Sound. He remembered the chief as a serious student and one set on advancing himself.
"He rose through the ranks, always finishing at the top," Mr. Baarsma said. Most people in law enforcement in Tacoma knew Mr. Brame. He was a Tacoma native and a graduate of Lincoln High School in the city's working class East Side neighborhood. Once a uniformed officer, he took pleasure policing the streets where he grew up, Mr. Baarsma said.
Catherine Woodard, an assistant chief, is now acting chief, Mr. Corpuz said. The Gig Harbor Police Department is investigating the shooting, with the help of the Pierce County sheriff's office.
Sister tells of long years of abuse David Brame suffered from his wife
October 20, 2003 — I have put together the story of my brother, deceased Tacoma Police Chief David Brame, before the fatal shootings on Saturday, April 26, 2003.David was hired as a rookie for the Tacoma Police Department in December of 1981 at 23 years of age. He worked diligently to move up in the ranks reading and studying books for months to test for promotions. David proudly, but humbly became the police chief in January 2002. He thoroughly enjoyed his police career and worked with the officers to better the department. He was a very trustful, honest person and was well liked by everyone who knew him and worked for him. What you saw with David, was what you got. He would work long hours, go home for awhile, and return at shift change in order to meet with the officers and to be a part of their meetings. He also would ride along with the patrol men and women to get to know them individually, which he felt was important. David took pride in his work and also his home life and children.
David met his wife, Crystal, when she was 20 years old and working for the Tacoma Police Department as a prostitute decoy. She later found an office job working for the courts in Tacoma. David and Crystal were married in August of 1991 and Crystal worked for the first three years of their marriage prior to their daughter Haley's birth.
David had concerns about marrying Crystal from the very beginning but went through with it anyway. One incident that was a red flag for David, and our family, was soon after they met she told him of an old boyfriend who had beaten her so badly she had to be hospitalized. That was where the victim role started in their relationship.
Due to continuing conflicts in their eleven year marriage, David and Crystal separated at the end of February 2003, and their divorce was pending. They had marital discord for about eight years that seemed to start after the birth of their daughter, Haley, in December 1994. The up and down mood swings Crystal had were very wearing on their family. David was always the one on an even keel, quiet, calm and very stable. He always said, "I feel like I'm raising three kids."
Crystal frequently would lash out, scream and yell enough that she would keep David up till after 1:00 AM, not caring that he had to go to work in the morning. He would sometimes go to bed before her and then, in a rage, she would enter the bedroom, turn on the lights and start ranting and raving, keeping him awake for hours. David was not a fighter and never was even as a boy.
David left their home one night to go to our parent's house to get some rest. After he left that night, Crystal called the Gig Harbor police and they came out and took a report. They apparently asked if he had threatened her and she told them no. A report was written but nothing was done. My point is she would take inappropriate steps like that when it was uncalled for, and so minor. Yet she claimed she never told anyone about the "death threats" she accused him of later. I don't think there is any way she would have kept quiet about such threats if they were real, especially since she was so close to her parents.
She practically lived on the telephone. And she told the neighbors, and whoever would listen to her, all kinds of "poor me" stories. When she talked to me on the phone I knew it was going to be an hour conversation, with her controlling it and not giving you a chance to even try to get off the phone. She repeated herself over and over, rambling on and on. It was quite annoying and our whole family went through this experience with her. When we talked, everything she did was a big chore to her, nothing was easy. She made a big deal out of just ordinary daily chores that all mothers do. I often thought she never appreciated being able to be at home with the children and not work.
One time when David was asleep she came into the bedroom and turned the lights on and she held her hands behind her back and then stuck her arms straight out as if she had a gun and pointed it at David. He thought that was very strange. Another time, in the middle of the night when she was pregnant with David Jr., she was crying and upset, sitting in the middle of the bed looking up abortion doctors saying she didn't want to be pregnant. David talked to her about her mental state, but to no avail. This would make her angry and upset, not facing the truth. She was very peculiar and acted as though she never noticed her outbursts.
David owned one gun (not two) and kept it in a locked holster at home. When he got this gun he demonstrated to Crystal the use of it and how careful they had to be because accidents can happen. She transposed what he said to make it look like he was threatening her. She would also pick up stories that David told her regarding his police job and twist them around so as to put herself as the victim somehow and imply that David was the perpetrator.
During their marriage David felt like he never knew what he was going to come home to. He had said when the relationship was "good, it was real good, when it was bad, it was real bad." Crystal was very extreme, seeming to be obsessed in her actions, checking over and over in Haley's crib when she was a baby, as if looking for something that was not there. It was as though she suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder. She was a very stressed, anxious-type person who had a difficult time relaxing. David would try to encourage her to get involved in activities outside of the home, make friends, get a job if she wanted, but there was no way he was going to make her happy. Confronting her and trying to give her options to enable happiness just did not work.
David Jr. was born in 1997 and her bizarre behavior continued. David had told me that when David Jr. was a toddler, and was sick with a fever, he had vomited on the family room carpet. Crystal stood over the baby, screaming, and swearing at him. Unfortunately, this was something she did on a regular basis when the baby was in his crib and would wake up crying from what we were told by David.
In July of 1998, Crystal was on a tangent and started slugging David. She bruised him badly and he had pictures taken of this. He said he stood and did not touch her, which was the way my brother would have been.
It was said that little Crystal couldn't hurt him. Well, she did and the hitting continued several times thereafter. She was also continually badgering him and complaining. Her excuse as to how he got the bruises was that she claimed David hurt himself while lifting weights with barbells, but they didn't own barbells then. After their deaths, we also read where he performed ritualistic self-mutilation on a regular basis. Now how odd is that? She went to great lengths to cover herself.
When Crystal got angry with David two or three years ago she told him that she was going to ruin his career. And she also stated at another time that she could be a good actress. David was always an honest man and it hurt him to think he was married to someone who would lie at the drop of a hat and could be so vengeful.
David came home from work early one day and heard Crystal screaming at the kids. Another time he came home and changed David Jr.'s diaper and his bare bottom was beet red with hand prints on it. She told David that she "almost lost it." He had real concerns and expressed this to our family and their family physician. David thought maybe it was a hormone imbalance. The doctor was told then about her hitting him and how out of control she was.
She had a hysterectomy a couple of years ago, but her moods never changed. She was in need of serious help for her mental instability. It wasn't just David that was being abused, their little kids went through a lot emotionally and physically. David listened to Crystal last fall (2002) tell Haley, who was almost 8 years old, that the kids were going to laugh at her school pictures because they didn't turn out good. Of course, she had Haley crying and upset. David had to intervene so many times during these outbursts and stop her from being cruel to their kids.
Haley lost a baby tooth last fall and accidentally dropped it and it couldn't be found. Crystal screamed and yelled at little Haley until she was in tears. One night when David tucked David Jr. in bed when he was about three or four, David Jr. said, "good night asshole." He would call his little cousin a "bastard." David did not swear, but the kids were being sworn at by their mother. It saddened David to see his two little children being raised by an abusive mother. These are just a few horrible incidents the kids and David had to endure.
At Christmas Crystal would buy expensive suits, shirts, ties, and such for David and he would tell her, "These things don't mean anything to me, Crystal. All I ask is for you to be nice to me and you can have the world." She didn't get it. Material things were the most important...looking good on the outside. She didn't want to fix what was going on in her head. Birthdays and Christmas' were so out of whack with her and the gift giving. It would take the kids 45 minutes to open their birthday presents. It was so ridiculous it was sickening. Why would a little 5 year old girl need 35 Barbie dolls? David wanted his kids to have everything nice, but not to that extent. Everything was overboard. The normalcy was not there with Crystal.
Crystal also made over 50 long distance phone calls in a two month period up to Canada calling a couple they met in Palm Springs at a resort a couple of years ago. She ran their phone bills up to $400 to $500 for two months. Why would she call a couple that she "barely" knew? She spent a couple of hours roller blading with a man she just met, leaving David at the pool alone. She also spent a couple of hours in the couple's room with them late one night without David. I wonder what she was looking for?
David and I would talk on the telephone on weekends. If Crystal was out of the house at the time, he would tell me if he had to get off the phone real quick it was because Crystal drove up. She would literally feel the phone to see if it was warm to tell if David was using it or not. I thought it was a horrible way for my brother to live. She was very jealous and insecure.
When David went to Quantico, VA last January 2003 for 7 to 10 days, Crystal gave him a card in his suitcase that was very loving. She told him to have a great time, to go sightseeing, say "hi" to George and Barbara Bush, and told him how much her and the kids loved him and were going to miss him. An abused woman does this? I don't think so!
The allegations in the news that when David moved out of the house he'd left a fortune cookie, a newspaper opened to the obituaries, and a book about a wife being murdered by her husband is ludicrous. Crystal was seemingly determined to ruin him one way or another. She was out of control and doomed for trouble. This whole little scenario fits Crystal to a "T."
We read in the paper that, while David and Crystal were separated, for sixty-one days she never was without one of her family members when out and about until April 26th, the day of the shooting. David and Crystal were together at Haley's school one morning and after leaving Haley in the building, they went to David's car and sat and talked for quite awhile. Why would she sit and talk to him if she was so deathly afraid?
The lies about David threatening to kill Crystal and choke her started after David told her that he was telling his attorney about how abusive she was to the kids. So it was pay back time and she was going to get him good. In retaliation, she started the stories of David choking her three or four times and the supposed death threats. David told us that never occurred, which we believe because she would have had him arrested in a flash. David was not a game player like her. She was so angry with him she was adding more stories to the already strained divorce. The reason no one knew of the threats in the past, is because they didn't happen. David said to me, "She's delusional." What I questioned was if Crystal had been abused wouldn't she have told her attorney when she filed for divorce in February rather than wait until April when David told of her abuse?
Crystal did not have anything to lose making all of the false accusations and David had everything to lose. It was as though she was driving herself to the grave. I do not understand how someone can be so devious and cruel and think they can get away with it. Eventually, liars get caught. And why would she go this far with the stories? Because David never did anything to her in the past except for the shooting on April 26th!
Crystal played yet another victim role of not having any money and being physically abused by David. She had called the police and attorney over minor, made-up stories. So why didn't she call them when she claimed he attempted to choke her? This woman could have had him arrested, moved in with her parents, and been protected if all of this was true. It doesn't take much to see through this.
In David's divorce decree, there are copies of credit card charges that total over $10,000 in the past year, all signed by Crystal from her shopping sprees ($300 here, $500 there, etc.). She went tanning on a regular basis, helped out at the school occasionally, had a beautifully-decorated $300,000 home with custom draperies, Thomas Kincaid paintings, and two new cars. They were all very well dressed in name-brand clothes and they were not purchased at the thrift store either. They had the best money could buy, but it still was not enough. She shopped at Nordstrom's, but tried to portray herself as almost penniless. In December 2002 she bought a beautifully decorated $1,100 Christmas tree. They also had three themed Christmas trees, one for the family room with a ton of snowmen on it, and the other two in the kids' bedrooms with expensive Disney ornaments on them.
She would take pictures of the snowman tree before she took it down after Christmas so she could decorate it in the exact same fashion the following year. This was another "odd, obsessive way" she had. She bought a $900 comforter set for a king size bed that they didn't have and stored it in the closet for the future. Per the TNT she tried to convince storekeepers of her penniless state. Well, why would she shop in a specialty shop in Gig Harbor that was too expensive for her? Someone should have taken pity on her and suggested to her maybe it would be at her best interest not to shop there. There are lots of thrift stores around after all.
Crystal was not only divorcing David, she was brainwashing their kids to think of him as a bad father, gradually pulling them further and further away from him, and was working on bringing down his career. It was very apparent she was coaching Haley and telling her all kinds of lies. That was a very heavy burden David carried and he was backed into a corner by his very own wife. When there are continual lies being made and a person is under the stress of going through a divorce, a man feels devastated losing everything he has worked for and loves.
David talked to her on the phone once while they were separated and she said to him, "Remember when you tried to choke me?" And he replied, "Crystal, you know you're lying." I believe her family was right there listening and she was playing the poor little victim part again. David also told me after they separated she said to him, "Now I can start wearing fingernail polish again." David said to me, "I don't know where that came from." I remember her always wearing bright fingernail polish and lipstick and thick, dark eye shadow. She would even put the dark nail polish on Haley, which was so inappropriate for a little girl.
David was a very good father and his kids were his life. Haley and David Jr. both attended a Christian pre-school and David taught Haley to say grace at mealtime. He tried to provide them with a secure and happy home, taking the time out to read bedtime stories to the kids every night.Crystal never wanted to be a part of that even when the kids were really little. David was the one that would tuck them in at night. He said the kids and him had a ritual of running down the hall each night racing to their bedrooms. He was so proud of Haley's reading abilities and had looked forward to David Jr. starting T-ball this past spring. Of course, this was squashed by Crystal telling him there was no way he was going to participate in any of David Jr.'s T-ball practices and games. She even went so far as to change dentists where David Jr. went because David would always take him and be there for him. So she took it upon herself to take another enjoyment out of David's life. He always encouraged Haley to read and do well in school. The kids were the light of his life and loved them more than anything. It hurt him terribly to see their relationships being ruined due to her insecurities.
When he had the kids on the weekends during the separation, he always made sure they had bubble baths because they never got to do that when the four of them lived together. They were used to Crystal jerking their little arms, pulling them into the shower with her everyday. David would talk to her about the way she would grab Haley's arm. Everything had to be hurry, hurry with her. He wanted it to be relaxing for them and let them be ordinary kids. He would fold out the hide-a-bed and the three of them would camp out and watch TV, which was another treat. If the kids wanted to jump on the bed, he would let them. He wanted them to have a fun, relaxed life like he had as a child. He was a very loyal father with a great sense of humor and enjoyed his family immensely.
When I was with David in April when he had the kids for the weekend, he called her to tell her what time he was bringing the kids to her parents and told her that I was coming along also (this was because he needed someone for a witness due to past problems). I listened to David talk to her on the phone and when he mentioned me going with him she said, " No, I'm going to call my attorney. I'm going to call my attorney." David said, "Crystal, it's my sister." So when he got off the phone with her he told me, "Don't be surprised if the Pierce County Deputies are over there." And I just said, "This I have to see." Crystal and I had never had words with each other in the past and we were always cordial even though there were many times I wanted to sit down and have a talk with her and find out where she was coming from. When we arrived at the Security Gate to the housing community Cyrstal's parent's live in, the parents came along with her in two cars, but there were no deputies. All went fairly well though the kids were definitely not happy. David Jr. walked right past Crystal without a hug after not seeing her for four days, and after getting in her car, jumped back out and ran to his dad and said he wanted to go with him. This was pitiful to witness.
Last year my parents went to their home to babysit the kids for awhile. David Jr. was 4 1/2 years old then and for some reason he hit my mom in the chest. She gave him a little swat on the bottom. When David and Crystal returned, Haley told Crystal that my mom spanked David. After this happened and the divorce had started a year later, Crystal was telling everyone (attorney, psychologist, etc.) that my mom had been abusing the kids for years and also, that they went a year without seeing her. There was no truth to that whatsoever. She and the kids were at the family functions during the holidays throughout the years. She told David during the divorce that my mom was never going to see the kids again. He told me that he told her, "We can get the divorce, but I want my mom to see the kids." This was another problem she started. Of course, I could go into great detail what kind of a mother and grandmother my mom has been, but the best way to describe her is being loyal, loving, and very dedicated to family in the same manner as my father is. They have eight grandchildren and two great grandchildren and there have never been any problems with either of my parents with the grandchildren. Unfortunately to this day, our family has not seen the kids since the tragedy occurred. We have seen the psychologist report (TNT let the world see it as well) and Crystal lied her way through that also and was working on the kids big time to turn them against their grandmother, whom they had always been crazy about. So this is another battle we are dealing with besides grieving the loss of David.
Crystal had such an exaggerated mind. There was another bizarre story she told everyone. David and she went to a gathering of some sort with other police officers and their wives in December 2002. David said she was going around telling everyone that she was being stalked by a man. The story I heard from David was that a family friend of Crystal's apparently came to visit her parents in Gig Harbor about a year or so ago. He had had problems with drugs and had bouts with the law. He had asked about Crystal because he remembered her as a young person and always liked her. Well, come to find out, after this visit he had with her parents, he was put in the Pierce County jail for several months, apparently on drug charges. He was released months later and Crystal was out of control about that. She was bound and determined he was stalking her. Crystal talked to me about it also and I just thought, "How strange. Here we go again with another fabricated story." She was paranoid and going on and on about this to everyone. David said she going off about nothing. It was really quite embarrassing for him. The victim role was in the works again.
My husband and I would give her a birthday card with $20 in it and she would say, "Oh, now I can buy myself some new tennis shoes. I've had this pair forever." I would think, "who are you trying to kid?" They had more money than most people I knew.
She was always sick with something. She played the hypochondriac for years. I thought that was strange for being so young. And who went over and helped her when she was sick and the kids were babies? My parents!
About two years ago there was a Tacoma rapist loose. She knew the description of him and his truck, and she called David at work and told him she saw the guy driving in their neighborhood. I thought that was a bit much also. She either was looking for attention all the time or she really believed what she said. Our family recognized her as seeming to have bipolar symptoms, obsessive-compulsive tendencies, lying, very self-centered, and downright unbalanced. We would catch her in lies time and time again.
After the tragedy the Tacoma News Tribune stated that David made Crystal weigh herself everyday and would watch her use the bathroom. I don't believe David had time to deal with such oddness. David did tell us how she would get on the scale almost every day and lean her hands against the wall in order to weigh a little lighter. She was obsessed with her weight and was so concerned about getting fat. She was a very miserable young person who simply did not like herself or her life.
The day of the shootings David had his kids for the weekend and was shopping for bath toys and groceries. Crystal followed his car when she spotted it in the Gig Harbor Shopping Center. I think something was said to him that put him over the edge and both of their lives were taken. She was not afraid of him in anyway or she would never have gotten near him. There was not an ounce of fear in this woman. David was living in the family home for a couple of months alone and Crystal and the kids were living with her parents a few miles away. She would come over with her mother and badger David until finally David contacted his attorney to put a stop to it. She was contacting him, he was not contacting her. She would put their daughter up to calling him and harassing him with questions until it was ridiculous. A woman that is afraid of her estranged husband does not tell him to cut the lawn before he moves out. But that's what Crystal did and, unfortunately, David did it. She also told him that she deserved to be married to a millionaire and live in Canterwood (a prestigious Gig Harbor neighborhood where her parent's live).
The day David moved out of the house, his neighbor came over and talked to him. He told David, "Just between us guys, we know Crystal is loosely wrapped." When David told me that I said, "Doesn't it make you feel a little better knowing that the neighbors recognize her for what she is?" And he said, "Yes."
We have an explanation regarding the flowers David sent to Crystal after the alleged choking incidents. David did send her flowers on holidays, but she managed to say he sent them the day after the supposed abuse. Why would she wait until after the separation to go to the florist to find out who sent them to her? Since David sent them to her and they were on their credit card, did she not get the bill in the mail? She was a stay-at-home mom that was home while David was working 10-12 hours a day. Who would get the mail first? H'mmm...I wonder? And would David set himself up to do such a foolish move? Never, he was far too intelligent for that.
We were never surprised when David would tell us some of the odd games she played. It was typical Crystal...we all knew her too well.
I listened to the tape of the phone call Crystal made to her psychologist at 4:35 PM on April 25 th . She claimed she was afraid for her life. I was at David's apartment with my daughter, her husband, David and the kids that evening. Crystal called the kids about 8:30 to tell them goodnight and of course, she had to talk at great lengths to Haley and then had to call back ten minutes later. She sure wasn't afraid to call over there and talk to David to ask to talk to the kids.
I will never be convinced that this woman was afraid of David. There is no way an abused woman would do all the vicious acts that she did. She never thought it would come to this. There are such things as boundaries and I am a firm believer in not pushing people. I was always raised that if you hit someone you might as well expect that person to hit you back. When a person is in an abusive relationship you leave as quickly and cleanly as you can, especially if someone is threatening your life. She had 10 to 12 hours a day alone where she could pack up her things and move out of the house and David would never have known. She had protection all around her, but we know she was exaggerating more absurd stories. She was an actress playing the victim. When this woman wanted to speak up, believe me she could tell anyone off!
David was someone that was dependable in every aspect of his life. My family is terribly hurt and saddened over this tragedy. We have not only lost a son, brother, father, uncle, nephew, and cousin, but the city of Tacoma has lost someone who really cared about our community and had big plans for the Tacoma Police Department. And we have lost the little family that we truly loved. We wish Crystal would have sought treatment for her seemingly out of control serious emotional problems.
Women can be just as vicious as men, if not more so in marital conflicts, and men need the same support regarding domestic violence as women and children receive. David was a strong supporter of domestic violence prevention, yet he was in the middle of his very own abusive marriage. I do not defend the acts that were made on April 26 th , but I do defend David after hearing his agonizing stories throughout their marriage.
Thank you very much.
Sincerely,
Jane Brazell nee Brame
I notice that the kids are in the care of their maternal grandmother. If the grandmother was responsible for making her daughter a psycho, then those kids are going to face a difficult life.
DB's Medical Rants has an interesting post about Health Savings Accounts and some info on why health care costs so much.
I watched GB's State of the Union Address. It was ok. State of the Union addresses are interesting but I don't usually expect great eloquence. I did like the part about not asking anybody for permission to defend ourselves.
Since I disagree with many of the President's domestic polices, especially his apparent embrace of the paranoid Christian fundamentalists' delusion that we need a constitutional amendment to save marriage, I can't really say it was the greatest speech GB has ever given. If the paranoid Christian fundamentalists want to save marriage they should work to get crazy Marxist feminists out of family court and positions of authority in various academic environments.
The link below will take you to some history about the State of the Union Address and to some State of the Union Addresses from our history.
State of the Union Messages Since Washington
Well, it's time to study for the states quiz. Now let's see, where is that exciting geography lesson by Howard Dean? Maybe we can get a copy of that tape from John Kerry.
Rosemary says she's done and it's a shame some idiots decided to send a bunch of mindless, hatefilled drivel to her. While I disagreed with her on many issues I still liked reading a lot of what she wrote. The blogosphere may be many things, but it is not important enough for anybody to try to harass out, insult out, threaten out or force a person out of blogging with sleazy shenanigans.
This post shows why I hope she comes back to the blogosphere.
My four drunk readers in Joe's Saloon in the Virgin Islands sent me a communique saying that while most of the time they didn't quite understand her posts they liked some of them and they would like to tell her that if she's ever in Joe's Saloon they would be proud to have her buy them drinks.
On an unrelated note: My four drunk readers also told me they didn't understand most of the stuff I wrote but when they sobered up and they read my posts they understood why my site is sometimes called "Sleazeball's Ruminations". Then they told me blogs (especially mine) weren't important enough to sober up for just in order to read them.
This is my reply to them: It's not "Sleazeball's Ruminations". It's "Sleaze Report Ruminations"...........Uuuhhhhhh......I mean it used to be "Sleaze Report Ruminations" but I thought that that was such a stupid name that I renamed to.......to.........hmmmm.......let's see......what did I rename it to? Oh, yeah, I renamed it "JohnHays.net".
My four drunk readers have sent me another email. In it they say, "We don't care what you call your blog, it will always be known as 'Slimeball's Ruminations' to us. We still can't figure out why when the bartender reads your blog he throws the computer out the window."
I wish I could tell the barkeep to cut them off, but they never cut anybody off in Joe's Saloon in the Virgin Islands.
Because of the ridiculous way loony Oregon decides which services deserve funding and which services don't when it comes to money crunch time (which is most of the time in loony Oregon), one of Oregon's most important services, the Oregon State Crime Lab, can be expected to cut employees if measure 30 doesn't pass. Of course, even if Measure 30 passes the Oregon State Crime Lab is still way short of the people needed to do its job properly.
In two of my previous posts I've written about crime labs, their problems, their lack of funding and other issues that seem to plague crime labs. The posts follow:
Post number one:
Inside the DNA Labs - Rocked by allegations of deceit, misconduct and incompetence, DNA crime labs across the nation increasingly are finding themselves under both federal and state criminal investigations. Even the FBI's DNA crime lab is under scrutiny by Justice Department Inspector General (IG) Glenn Fine, who ordered a sweeping audit of the bureau's forensic laboratory. But Fine didn't stop there. He was so incensed by the bad science infecting crime labs nationwide that he expanded his probe to review several local police DNA crime labs where errors may have jeopardized thousands of cases and sent innocent people to death row.
Post number two:
According to the news report Caseload Crunch, the laboratory that conducts tests for all of Kentucky's criminal courts is struggling with a record backlog of 10,000 cases.Sounds like the laboratory employees are way overworked, under appreciated, and not given enough resources by the state of Kentucky to do the job the way it should be done.
Of course, in most states public defenders also have the same problems.
Apparently crime labs and public defenders are not seen as important parts of the justice system. Too bad, because when crime labs and public defenders are not given the resources to do the job, there really is no "justice" in the justice system.
One of the reasons I'm bringing up the crime lab situation in Oregon is because of an amazing case that was solved by some very good detectives who actually believe in gathering evidence, the Oregon State Crime Lab, the help of some federal agencies, and Norm Frink of the Multnomah County DA's Office actually not being given a chance to blow this case with his usual inept prosecutorial blunders.
Here in loony, homophobic, racist Washington County, Oregon there is also a team of forensics experts but I don't know their status mostly because retired sheriff Jim Spinden spent a lot of his time running around trying to solve non-existent crimes committed by the "international homosexual Satanic Ritual Abuse gang", the "Illuminati gang", the "International Jewish Conspiracy gang", the Conspiracy's many allies, and the "intergalactic space aliens who abduct innocent bystanding Washington County residents". All these horrible non-existent crimes were pointed out to Jim Spinden by his super duper, master Aryan race buddy and intrepid ex-Multnomah County Prosecutor, Roger Weidner.
Emma at the Oregon blog has her opinion about spending and budgets and how Oregon might pay for needed services.
As Jack Bog's Blog: Measure 30 explains so well, the tax code is nuts no matter where you live, but if you live in Multnomah County, then it becomes really nuts. Corporations pay very little, percentage wise, in income tax and since Oregon doesn't have a sales tax, but a hodgepodge of property taxes and incomes taxes, most of the funding responsibilities for vital public services and non-vital public services falls on the individual.
Oregon has one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation, which means less taxes are being collected. During boom times the incompetent legislature spends foolishly and during bad times the legislature spends foolishly
Maybe we should do away with the personal income tax, up the corporate income tax slightly, put a cap on property taxes at 1.5 percent, quit giving tax breaks to certain expensive condos and houses built on specially tax exempt property, quit giving tax breaks to urban renewal projects, and (this will never happen because this is loony Oregon) simplify the state tax code. Oh, year, I forgot, initiate a sales tax that exempts food, drugs, medical necessities, and related items and make sure the sales tax cannot go above a limit without a statewide election.
One thing is for certain. The legislatures have shown an inability over the last twenty five years or so to solve the problem of high taxes and foolish spending, so I really don't know how Oregon is qoing to quit being one of the looniest states in the nation.
Transterrestrial Musings has a great post about some of the ridiculous talk being bandied about in opposition to Bush's recent proposals concerning NASA and what we should be doing in space. I agree with Rand Simberg.
I also think NASA needs to come out of the nineteen seventies and into the twenty first century. NASA has been screwing off for years and has behaved like a seventh grader who keeps going through the seventh grade year after year.
I figured I would ask a few questions of my relatives, John McClelland Hays, Neta Hays, and Chris Andrea Hays. The questions are as follows:
1. Don't you think that the twenty year stalking of me, my friends, and any woman the Victor Oekerman clan perceives I'm going out with is a sign of mental illness? (Note: My relatives know about the stalking because a few of them helped the clan stalk me.)
2. Don't you think the fanatical hate the clan developed for me and that has lasted for twenty years is a sign of mental illness?
3. Don't you think the twenty year obsession of the clan to either destroy me or get me back into the clan is a sign of mental illness?
4. Don't you think the clan's obsession with controlling every aspect of my life and my two daughters' lives even now is a sign of mental illness?
5. Don't you think the bizarre behavior of the clan's disgraced, disbarred ex-attorney and still legal advisor, Roger Weidner, is a sign of mental illness? (Note: Roger Weidner was committed to the Oregon State Hospital's program for the criminally insane and the general consensus among the Oregon legal community and the law enforcement community, with the exception of Jim Spinden, is that Roger Weidner is quite mentally ill and dangerous.)
It seems my relatives won't, or can't, or are forbidden to, or are afraid to answer the preceding questions or even to express opinions about many other subjects.
Well, so much for freedom of speech in loony, homophobic, racist, paranoid Washington County, Oregon.
Questions of the week
Who would have the authority to be able to order people on probation and parole in Washington County, Oregon to assault me over a period of several years?
Why, when living in a certain geographical area of Washington County, Oregon have I been unable to get anybody to investigate any of the assaults against me or the breakins to my various residences or the vandalism done to my various vehicles?
Who would have the authority and why would this person use trickery on me in order to get me to live within certain geographical boundaries within Washington County, Oregon for a period of several years? According to Postal Inspectors and FBI agents whoever this person was, this person did it with it the intent of slandering me and framing me for the benefit of Roger Weidner and the cult family.
Who tried to tamper with my military records?
Well, my youngest daughter just woke up. The first thing she did was insult me in much the same way the pig family has been insulting me for twenty years. Then she told me how much she hates me. Just now she flipped me off and went outside.
It's amazing how much hatred the pig family can direct towards me and how much effort they make to get other people to hate me as much as they do.
My youngest daughter probably will never feel any love for me considering how well she's been brainwashed into hating me.
I almost hate having her around because all she does is disrespect me and insult me. I've heard these insults ever since I met the pig family twenty years ago.
Sometimes I become convinced that Washington County, Oregon is probably the craziest place I've ever lived. Only in Washington County have I ever been accused of ridiculous crimes, been stalked by a whole family and cult, heard so many Christians threaten people, call them names, brag about being super white, and use so much profanity.
Only in Washington County have I heard the following question asked by so many stupid white people.
"Why are all these Mexicans coming to our Cinco de Mayo celebration?"
Washington County is also the only place I've heard the remarks, "I've hated you since before I met you," and, "I'm just using you" and "You must quit being a homosexual Satanist and come back to the family."
I've never lived in a place before where I've been tricked into living in a certain geographical area just to make it easier for crazy cultists to stalk me.
I've never lived in a place before where so much effort is made to make kids hate their parents like the effort to make my two daughters hate me.
I've never lived in a place before where a person or persons can make false accusations about another person being gay and having the AID's virus and cause such hysteria, like the false accusations made against me at one of my places of employment.
I get a lot of hate emails and threatening emails from people who write, usually in the first paragraph, something like, "I'm a fine upstanding Christian," or, "I'm a fine upstanding white Christian. " Then the writers of the emails go on to threaten me and call me all sorts of names while using mass quantities of profanity.
It seems many of these fine upstanding Christians, especially from the Washington County, Oregon, area have a great belief in repressed memories of "Satanic Ritual Abuse and being abducted by space aliens".
I wrote an earlier post concerning a CBS news story exposing the fallacy of repressed memories of Satanic Ritual Abuse and other delusions.
Loony Bonnie Oekerman and Faye Marie Oekerman convinced a couple of my relatives, Neta Hays and Chris Andrea Hays, that they had repressed memories of Satanic Ritual Abuse and of being abducted by space aliens. My relatives got so caught up in this nonsensical paranoia that my relatives gave themselves life histories filled with delusions, demons, space aliens and all manner of outlandish falsehoods. My relatives and others must have been in a generous mood because they gave me a crazy life history much like theirs, except I was the supernatural victimizer and not the victim. When I first began hearing about these fantastic repressed memories I thought, "Who would believe this nonsense?" Man, you might be suprised at who believes this nonsense. Many members of a loony Church of Christ in Washington County, the cult from hell, Cathy Winters and many others, including loony Jim Spinden. There are still people who come over to where I live who are convinced they were the victims of Satanic Ritual Abuse and of being abducted by space aliens and these people are also convinced what they've been told about me being the leader of the local Satanic Ritual Abuser gang. Some of the really witless people who come over to where I live actually believe I help space aliens kidnap innocent, bystanding earthlings.
As most experts will tell you, when a person becomes convinced they have repressed memories of various delusions many of these delusional people become filled with paranoia, hatred, a need for vengeance and really become downright evil. The change in my two relatives from being relaxed humans into being humans filled with absolute total hatred for everything is amazing. For all practical reasons you could characterize my two relatives as being criminally insane.
When these various delusional females, many of them in bizarre white supremacist cults, go to the various police chiefs and sheriffs in Oregon in order to try to get the law enforcement guys to arrest whoever the delusional females identify as Satanic ritual abusers or helping space aliens abduct innocent, bystanding earthlings, most police chiefs and sheriffs aren't conned into making snap judgements and going on wild goose chases.
However, there's always one bad apple in any barrel and here in loony, racist homophobic Washington County, Oregon, that bad apple was Jim Spinden, retired Sheriff of Washington County, Oregon. When the delusional females would get together and put the slightest pressure on Jim Spinden, he would fold faster than a poker player without a pair.
I've written in a previous post about a crazy cult here in Oregon who often go cop shopping in order to find a cop that will help members of the cult arrest millionaires, judges, sheriffs, police chiefs, the governor, the Oregon Supreme court, me, and others the cult is convinced is doing Satanic Ritual Abuse, helping space aliens, sacrificing mass quantities of pets and babies, and eating all sorts of corpses.
I figured that my relatives and others in the crazy cult must have found another cop to investigate me because last summer while I was waiting at a bus stop in Beaverton, Oregon a couple of people came up to me and asked me how many neighborhood pets and babies I had sacrificed in bizarre Satanic rituals, how many corpses I've eaten, and if I buried any corpses under any cement anywhere. Oh yeah, just for good measure, I was also asked about space aliens.