Austrian woman says father kept her in cellar for 24 years

In Austria, police found a woman who went missing in 1984, over the weekend. She was missing for 24 years and nobody knew where she is, except her father. The victim said that her father had held her in a basement, where she was repeatedly raped and gave birth to six children!! The father lied to the realities, and family friends saying that she left her family and joined the cult. Big dilemma for the police is to determine who else was involved.

It is impossible to keep a person in a cellar for 24 years without others not knowing about it, especially his wife. In my opinion the proof for that is when the police said that the father, Josef, and his wife had been raising three of their daughter’s children, but the problem is that the victim said that the mother was not involved! Her father “took care” of her by giving her clothes and food. The other three kids grew up in the cellar. My question is, how can you not hear a babies cry when they get born or when they are hungry?? If the mother was not involved, and apparently she was not, she is either unintelligent or cannot hear.  The case unfolded after a seriously ill teenager, named Kristen, was taken around April 19 to a hospital in the town of Amstetten, where she was found unconscious in the building where her grandparents live, police said. After few days in a hospital she said to the police that she was a hostage for over a two decades with her mother and two brothers. Kristen’s mother was held by her father in a basement. Her father had sedated her, handcuffed her and locked her in a room in the cellar of the family’s house. The room and the door were hidden and very hard to find, said the police. Only person that knew the way and the code was Josef, the owner and the father of the poor women. The room is very small and narrow, without any windows. 

“Everything is very, very narrow and the victim herself … told us that this was being continually enlarged over the years,” the police said.  

Three kids that were raised by the victim’s parents were present like their own and had a proper education and life, but the other three were locked up in the cellar. Elizabeth, the victim, taught them how to speak.  After everything came out Josef told his wife the truth, and then apparently removed the corpse from the cellar and burned it. Wait, what? Elizabeth had twins, back in 1996, but one of them died. It was not immediately clear if the twins are included in the police total of six children. The police is still waiting for the DNA tests.  

“The entire nation must ask itself just what is fundamentally going wrong,” the newspaper Der Standard said Monday in a soul-searching commentary.

Maryland expands definition of rape

“The explanation of rape just expanded in Maryland, where the highest state court ruled yesterday that a man could be charged with raping a woman who withdraws consent after they started having sex. He was convicted of first-degree rape in December 2004 after jurors heard testimony that the 16-year-old continued having sex with an 18-year-old woman for “about five or so seconds” after she told him to stop. “Rape is a terrible, coward, and weak thing to do. It is, in my opinion, the worst crime (next to the murder). Sometimes there are no doubts or questions, but what should the court do in this case. This kid was sentenced to 15 years in prison!! I think that is little to harsh. He made a terrible mistake, but I do not think that he should spend 15 years in prison because he was “late” 5 seconds. I cannot judge that girl, because I do not know her, but if he was already in her bed and she said yes, how is that a rape. 7 other states have adopted the same law. Courts are concern that many false accusations are going to be made. The other problem is how can you determine if he stopped on time or if he was late. Are 2 minutes same as 5 seconds? This is what same court ruled back in 1980:“Given the fact that consent must precede penetration, it follows in our view that although a woman may have consented to a sexual encounter, even to intercourse, if that consent is withdrawn prior to the act of penetration, then it cannot be said that she has consented to sexual intercourse. On the other hand, ordinarily if she consents prior to penetration and withdraws the consent following penetration, there is no rape.”Definition of rape: Rape is a form of assault where one individual forces another to have sexual intercourse against that person’s will. It may be defined as forcing a person to submit to any sex act, and is generally considered one of the most serious sex crimes, as well as sometimes very difficult to prosecute.Rape can be very traumatic and upsetting for a victim. It takes years to recover. Sometimes victims do not recover. They are scared that is going to happen again. Are 5 seconds going to be traumatic for a victim? We do not know that, but this decision potentially means that all sex is rape. This case is not going to be a last one, because it happened before. Even though I feel sorry for that girl, I think that 15 years is too much!  Video: http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2008/04/22/mg.morrow.eiglarsh.int.cnn Trial: http://www.courts.state.md.us/opinions/cosa/2006/225s05.pdf 

You Tube

You Tube is a video sharing website where users can upload, view and share video clips. You Tube has become part of our society. Every big story, event or just a stupid prank is on youtube and they are all available to us, “average and common” people. Official statistic says that more than 100 million videos were being watched every day, and 2.5 billion videos were watched in June 2006. 50,000 videos were being added per day in May 2006, and this increased to 65,000 by July. In January 2008 alone, nearly 79 million users watched over 3 billion videos on You Tube. I believe that is completely insane. I am a user too. I check NBA Highlights and several other events or sports games every day, occasionally more than once a day. Are we too much depended on Internet and You Tube as a product of the Internet? How is You Tube affecting people? I love to read comments after every video I watched. I read some of the most evil and malicious comments. There are racists, gay-hatred, and other comments everywhere by common people all around the world. The other day I was stunned by the comment that a KID from FINLAND made: “I hate all black people and they should all go back to Africa!!!” Not to mention that comment is absolutely repulsive, but also, he is from Finland!!! How is he connected to slavery and issues that are troubling America. Moving on… Politicians have their own pages on You Tube. You could check Obama’s speech or you could also check the video Obama sucks. I counted seven different videos but same titles. Well, we do live in democracy, so it is OK to express yourself. What about videos that are inviting to aggression and destruction? What about the video that was released on You Tube just the other day about 6 girls and 2 boys beating up a girl in Florida. They were furious at her because she was “talking trash” on Myspace (which could be another topic for a blog), and they decided to revenge. It was not enough that the girl was brutally injured but they had to put the video on You Tube for everyone to see it. They are now in prison, but the girl will have that day in her memory for the rest of her life.  Do not get me wrong. You Tube has some good parts too. Like when a video “Leave Britney Alone” came out. That video right now has 17 million views!! It is about a guy who is crying for like 3 minutes about Britney Spears and how media should let her alone, as the title says! That video is entertaining the world for the last few months. It is funny, but come on people. Is that how our future is going to look like. We are going to have all these “celebrities” from You Tube that are not making any money. The reason for that is that You Tube does not give you any money for the video!! So now we have Chris Crocker, a guy who sings “Numa Numa”, Dax Flame and many others.  The reason I decided to write this blog is because I know I cannot change You Tube or their viewers but I will feel better because I tried to make a change. You Tube is destroying our society and something should change, and fast!

JV Lacrosse

Definition of lacrosse:played using a stick with a net on the end, called a crosse, which consists of usually a separate metal or wooden shaft, connected to the “head” of the crosse. The object of the game is to toss a rubber ball into the goal.  Before the Spring break started I had a big dilemma. Should I do Track, like I did the year before, or should I try lacrosse, something totally fresh and terrifying to me. The decision would not be that complicated if I was bad at track, but I was good. I was ranked number 7 in New England last year for shoot-put! My only problem was that I hated it and I wanted to change…and I did! I switched to lacrosse. I did not tryout for varsity because I knew I had no ability to make it. JV Lacrosse was my next stop. I had to get all the pads and a long stick to play defense. I spent couple of hours one weekend watching videos of lacrosse on YouTube, and learning the rules. First week was tough. I could not pass the ball or even catch it. Fist game was just under a week. After a short conversation Mr. DaSilva informed me that I am not playing the first game of the season. I was disappointed because I though I deserved the place on the team. The same day I went to the athletic department to switch back to track. Even though I wanted to change, Mr. Muther did not let me! I had no choice but to give lacrosse another shoot. Before the second game, three players dropped out because they had other things to do so I was in. I was energized and afraid but at the same time confident. We won 10 to 1. The team did great. Mr. DaSilva, Mr. Howland and Mr. Waters helped me a lot. They are great coaches. The team is full of new players so I do not know how the rest of the season is going to look like but the team has a lot of potential and great leaders, our coachesLacrosse is a sport that does not exist in Europe. There are many other sports that are not popular in Europe like baseball, football, or squash. At the other side water polo, handball, and soccer are not popular in America. It is up to us to introduce those sports to other countries. If I had a chance to practice lacrosse few years back, maybe I would now be a lacrosse player and not a basketball player. To be honest I am enjoying lacrosse much more than basketball right now.  Well, it is too late now but I know I will remember this spring for the rest of my life, because I tried something new and exciting.