Nutbag Family: Grandma Made Me Do It

BEDFORD, New Hampshire -- A woman turned herself in to police Wednesday after a store surveillance video captured footage of two children sneaking behind display cases to steal thousands of dollars worth of jewelry, allegedly on instructions from their mother and grandmother.

The woman said she lives in the area and has four children, one age 14 and three younger than 10, Bailey said. All are suspected to have been involved, he said.

The video, taken August 2 at a store called the Consignment Gallery, shows one woman, possibly the children's mother, directing them to pocket certain items. An older woman, believed to be the grandmother, stuffs items down her shirt.

A woman who identified herself as the older woman on the video talked with WMUR-TV on Wednesday and denied stuffing merchandise down her shirt, saying that is where she carries her cell phone, money and other belongings.

Margaret Ryan said she was shopping for a bed with her daughter when her grandchildren began to misbehave. She said her daughter was not stealing jewelry but rather trying to get her children to put back items they had taken.

"I was browsing around the store and the children were wild in the store," Ryan said. "My granddaughter did take a ring, but we didn't realize it until we saw the news."

Detective Matt Fleming said more than $2,000 in jewelry was stolen from the store.

"It's pretty upsetting," Fleming said. "Watching the children methodically move through that jewelry area and take the items out for the mother is just astonishing."


Thanks to stupid criminal file, who always keeps me up-to-date on nutbags who break the law.

Who Is the Nutbag in Your Neighborhood?

Judge To Decide If Teen's Meows Harassed Neighbor


A Jeannette woman. Alexandria Carasia (78), filed suit against a 14-year-old boy who she claims 'meows' whenever he sees her.

A district judge in Jeannette must decide whether the alleged 'meowing' is a harmless taunt or grounds for misdemeanor harassment.

The boy, whose family chose to get rid of their cat after Carasia complained that it used her flower garden as a litter box, says he's only meowed twice at the woman.

But Carasia says the boy makes sound every time she sees her and that an incident last month was the last straw.

District Judge Joseph DeMarchis heard from both parties yesterday. He is waiting 90 days before ruling, saying he'll decide what to do after seeing how the boy and his neighbor get along in the meantime.
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Am I alone in this....am I the only person who is thinking, "You actually think someone MEOWING at you is freaking harassment?!?!?"

Everybody and their Uncle Sherman thinks they are being "harassed" these days. But actually FILING SUIT against a 14-year-old boy for MEOWING?

Great balls of fire, I hope this lady can at least blame this bit of stupidity on senility.

Nutbag Foot Kisser Indicted

My comments are in red:


Alleged Library Foot Kisser Indicted



YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (AP) -- A grand jury has accused a man of sucking on a woman's toe at the public library in nearby Boardman after he asked to kiss her feet to see her reaction as part of a sociology project. (What professor assigned THIS?!?!?!?)

A Mahoning County grand jury has charged Joseph Colella, 28, on a charge of gross sexual imposition. If convicted, he could be face up to 1 1/2 years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

A 27-year-old woman told police that on July 11 Colella asked to kiss her feet. She turned him down but said she relented when he repeatedly insisted, and he began kissing her foot and then sucked on a toe.

She pulled her foot away and the man asked her reaction, to which she replied she was freaked out.

The woman left to clean her foot and he was gone when she returned. She called police and picked him out of a photo lineup.

Detective Michelle DiMartino said Colella also was a suspect in a similar case in 2000. (Another "sociology project?")

Colella could not be reached for comment. (maybe for once, HIS foot was in
his mouth?)

Second Eye Blind, and Yet Another Prescription Mess

For the past few weeks, I have been experiencing what I refer to as a "Super Attack." All my symptoms seem amplified 100 times or more. It's annoying, but it usually tapers off in a few weeks and I've learned to just rest and ride it out.

On the 28th of July, I began trying to call in my prescription for Oxycodone with the prescription coordinator. I say "trying," because her voice mail was completely full until the 1st. On Thursday evening, I get a voice mail from someone named "Carl," telling me that I can't have my prescription, as the Well-Accessoried Doctor is no longer with the clinic. I must see a new doctor before I can have my pills.

Uh oh, someone didn't read the chart! I DID see a new doctor, on the 17th!

So I call them back last Friday, and finally was able to speak to this Carl. After explaining that I had already seen the doctor, he told me he'd put the prescription request back in to the new doctor and call me when it was done.

On Sunday night, I noticed I was having blurry vision. I've read about this in MS books, but never actually experienced it myself. My eyes would "cloud up," as if I were looking through fog....and then as quickly as it came, it would disappear. After consulting a few of my books, I decided to just rest some more and hope for th best.

On Monday afternoon, I woke up from a nap...and could barely see anything. I put on my glasses...no change. My first thought was that it reminded me of summers when I was a kid, when my sister and I went to our neighborhood swimming pool nearly every day (it was 50 cents admission, and for another $1.50 you could get a hot dog, soda and a bag of chips or box of Cracker Jack). One summer, for a few short weeks, the pool guy kept putting in too much chlorine. When you'd swim underwater, it was so murky, and it kind of burned your eyes to look through it. That was the same sensations, the same kind of murky vision and eyeball pain I was going through on Monday, some twenty years later. Isn't it odd what will be our first reaction to stress sometimes?

My next thought was, "Holy crap, I can't see." The pleasant reminder of my childhood swimming hole was replaced by sheer terror. Intellectually, I understood that optic neuritis can happen to anyone with MS, at any time. Emotionally, all I could feel was frightened at my loss of vision.

After some experimentation, I realized that the bulk of my eye problems was centered in my right eye (my right side is my "problem" side). It was, however, throwing off my vision entirely. It was almost like trying to see through a dense fog. I kept compulsively rubbing my eyes and blinking.

So I called the doctor, and first spoke to a nurse, "Bob," who then relayed my message to an attending and got back to me. The advice: rest, and come into the office on Wed. morning. I also found out that the new doctor wasn't in the office AT ALL this week! What about my prescription?!?!?

I spent most of Tuesday, bored as bored could be. I couldn't concentrate on anything for more than a few minutes at a time. I couldn't read, use the computer or watch TV. It was like listening to Donald Rumsfeld sing: pure torture.

So finally, I get into the doctor's office yesterday morning, and see an attending, "Dr. Wink" (thus named because he looks eerily like a game show host). He basically told me I needed a referral to a new neurologist, and they couldn't do anything for me. He also suggested I see an eye doctor, and was very perturbed about the fact that I haven't seen one in two years, despite the fact that my insurance only pays for eye exams every other year and that I did give birth in 2003! He also didn't seem to notice the fact that I've spent the last year or so working on dental issues and then recovering from the intense attacks of trigeminal neuralgia that even a dental cleaning will cause. But, I wasn't in the mood to argue....especially as Dr. Wink gave me my prescription! Hallelujah.

My vision has mostly cleared up now. Every now and again, the blurriness comes back, but it only lasts a few minutes. The pain is mostly gone.

But it's a fine mess I've gotten myself into this time, Laurel....

Soldier's Religious Memorial Denied

No Wiccan symbol for soldier's memorial
Monday, July 10, 2006
WASHINGTON POST NEWS SERVICE


WASHINGTON -- At the Veterans Memorial Cemetery in the small town of Fernley, Nev., there is a wall of brass plaques for local heroes. But one space is blank. There is no memorial for Sgt. Patrick Stewart.

That's because Stewart was a Wiccan, and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has refused to allow a symbol of the Wicca religion -- a five-pointed star within a circle, called a pentacle -- to be inscribed on U.S. military memorials or grave markers.

The department has approved the symbols of 38 other faiths, about half of them versions of the Christian cross. It also allows the Jewish Star of David, the Muslim crescent, the Buddhist wheel, the Mormon angel, the nine-pointed star of Bahai and something that looks like an atomic symbol for atheists.

Stewart, 34, is believed to be the first Wiccan killed in combat. He was serving in the Nevada National Guard when the helicopter in which he was riding was shot down in Afghanistan in September. He previously had served in the Army in Korea and in Operation Desert Storm. He was posthumously awarded a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star.

His widow, Roberta Stewart, scattered his ashes in the hills above Reno, Nev., and would like him to have a permanent memorial.

She said the veterans cemetery in Fernley offered to install a plaque with his name and no religious symbol. She refused.

"Once they do that, they'll forget me," she said. "I feel very strongly that my husband fought for the Constitution of the United States, he was proud of his spirituality and of being a Wiccan, and he was proud of being an American."

Wicca is one of the fastest-growing faiths in the country. Its adherents have increased almost 17-fold from 8,000 in 1990 to 134,000 in 2001, according to the American Religious Identification Survey. The Pentagon says that more than 1,800 Wiccans are on active duty in the armed forces.

Federal courts have recognized Wicca as a religion since 1986. Prisons across the country treat it as a legitimate faith, as do the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. military, which allows Wiccan ceremonies on its bases.

"My husband's dog tags said 'Wiccan' on them," Stewart noted.

But applications from Wiccan groups and individuals to the VA for use of the pentacle on grave markers have been pending for nine years, during which time the symbols of 11 other faiths have been approved.

"I really have no idea why it has taken so long" for the Wiccan symbol to gain approval, Veterans Affairs spokeswoman Josephine Schuda said.

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Nine years, it has taken, for the pentacle to be approved. Even for the slow-as-molasses government, that is about 8 years and 6 months too long.

I find it disgusting, that in this country where religious freedoms are heralded as one of our greatest achievements, that a person's religious symbols can still be denied him or her.

I hope those in the military take heed: Sgt. Stewart died for this country. He fought and died for those ideals we take such pride in. To deny this hero his own religious freedom, after fighting hard for the freedoms of others, is a travesty.