Update 2 yr old missing in Orlando

The news did a report a few minutes ago that a new concrete pad had been put down recently at the house where Casey was staying - they determined it was around the time the Caylee went missing.  It did not say if they were digging it up but I would assume that they are already in the process of doing so.

This whole story has continued to draw interest because there can be no closure until the little girl’s body is found.  It also continues to haunt millions of us who look at that sweet child’s face wondering how this mother could hurt such a beautiful child.  No matter what a person is going through, there are always options available and killing should never be one of them.

It brings tears to my eyes every time I hear or read an update.  I wish I could hold this little girl in my arms and protect her from the evil that befell her.  Again I find myself wishing that there was some tell tall signs of evilness so that we could identify them and keep the innocent safe.

Latest update on missing FL girl

I just finished reading an update on the missing child in FL.  I am more disturbed now then I was before because police found possible decomposition smells, dirt and hair in the defendant’s car that match the child.

Casey lied to her own parents about having a job, about the babysitter, and where she was staying.  Maybe part of the key to finding the daughter will be to figure out where they had been staying the past month prior to the report of the missing child.

Now, I have a big problem with the fact that her mother, Cindy, seems so willing to believe her.  Could this blind way of acting be one of the reason’s Casey felt the need to lie to her parents to begin with?  Children who feel a lot of pressure to always be perfect and exceed often lie to parents rather then risk disappointing them or asking them for help.

I don’t believe the child is alive.  I believe Casey killed her and buried her somewhere that makes sense to her - someplace accessible by her car and not far from a roadway.  Maybe she’d bury her in a favorite place of the child.  Maybe the mother fell on hard times and reached the end of her rope - killing the child rather then trying to continue to support her.  I’ve read stories of people who lock their children in cages, closets and basements because they can’t afford to pay a babysitter when they go to work.  Maybe this is something like that which ended up getting out of control causing the child’s death.  Maybe Casey didn’t want to admit to her mother that she couldn’t take care of the little girl - after all, she lied to her about having a job.

Unable to face her parents or the consequences of the death, Casey may have thought she could just get rid of the child’s body and no one would be the wiser.  She might have gotten away with it if family hadn’t started asking about her.

Maybe she drove around with the body in the car until the parents started pressuring her - that would account for the smell of decomp.  At this point, I think Casey really needs to come clean about what happened, tell the police where the body is, and deal with the consequences.  The longer it drags on, the guiltier she looks and the more sane because she is working so hard to cover it up…which would blow her chance at an insanity plea.

I don’t think her mother is helping her any by declaring the girl’s innocence.  She should be demanding her daughter tell the truth rather then making excuses for her to lie.  Quit telling her what a good mother she was - instead tell her that she needs to tell them what happened and that, whatever it is, as her mother she would forgive her.  That would give Casey the emotional and mental support she needed to tell the truth and get it all off her chest.

Of course, that is all my opinion which doesn’t count for much in this day and age.

Missing 2 yr old in Florida

I don’t know how many people are following this story, but I continue to be infuriated over how this mother, Casey Anthony, can be so distant and uncaring about where her daughter is.  If she knows who has her daughter, as her mother contends she does, then why isn’t she telling authorities so they can follow up on the child?

Why is Casey’s mother, Cindy Anthony, so ridiculously blind when it comes to her daughter’s lies? And, as one of my reader’s asked, where is the father of this child?

I read tonight that Casey borrowed a shovel around the time the child went missing.  Now, sure, she could have been planting flowers but why wouldn’t she just admit where the child is so she wouldn’t be suspected in her disappearance? An innocent person does not act this way.

It makes me wonder how much Cindy Anthony knows about the disappearance.  Does she know her daughter killed the little girl and now, in a desperate attempt to save her daughter (since her grand daughter is beyond help) she is covering for her? Parents can turn blind eyes to their children but murder? I suppose Casey could have told her mother it was a terrible accident but that she is afraid she wouldn’t receive a fair trail so Cindy is trying to protect her child.  I don’t know but Cindy’s vehement defending of Casey and professing her innocence, it makes them both look all the more guilty.

I hope they do find this child alive and well but I would say that, with all the lies Casey has been spouting, it is getting pretty evident that the child met with foul play.

Deforestation of Brazil

According to May figures, deforestation in the Amazon of Brazil has seen a slight decrease over the month of April.  The government places the slow down on the boom of other agribusiness such as soybeans, beef and sugar.  Brazil desires to position itself as an agriculture powerhouse capable of solving not only the food crisis but the energy crisis as well through the production of different crops.  So much so that he has made no qualms about the crops being more important to the government then the deforestation of the Amazon.

However, the point here is that the deforestation did decrease in May.  So what are the figures, you may ask?  In May, roughly 420 miles of the forest disappeared due to logging…for perspective, that is slightly smaller then the city of Los Angeles.  That is only slightly less then  in April which saw roughly 433 miles deforested.

I find this rate of deforestation extremely alarming.  The Amazon happens to be the world’s most diverse biospere with 1 in 10 known species can be found in this tract.  That is 1 in 10 known species of plants, animals and reptiles.

Wikipedia reports that: The region is home to about 2.5 million insect species, tens of thousands of plants, and some 2000 birds and mammals. To date, at least 40,000 plant species, 3,000 fish, 1,294 birds, 427 mammals, 428 amphibians, and 378 reptiles have been scientifically classified in the region. Scientists have described between 96,660 and 128,843 invertebrate species in Brazil alone.

Between 1991 and 2000, the total area of forest lost in the Amazon rose from 415,000 to 587,000 km², an area more than six times the size of Portugal, with most of the lost forest becoming pasture for cattle. In February, 2008, the Brazilian government announced that the rate at which the Amazon rainforest is being cut down has increased significantly over the past few months. During the last five months of 2007, more than 3,200 sq. kilometers (an area equivalent to the size of the state of Rhode Island) was deforested during a time when deforestation would normally drop.

People, I could go on for quite awhile about how important the rainforest’s around the world are and how, once again, we are hell bent on destroying our environment but if you are reading my blog it means you have access to the information for yourself.  It is just so disheartening to me how we abuse our environment and our Mother Earth.

Second Four

The second four have started out with a bang - just what I wasn’t hoping for.  First there was an alarm at one of our facilities, then a vehicle accident with injuries, and trying to scramble to get all the paperwork finished for the evening shift.

The night shift guys are much more patient and more laid back - most of them are veterans though whereas the evening shift has newer people.  We just hired three new officers so don’t know what shift they’ll get going on.  One of the new officer’s is one of our dispatchers so here we are short again.  That really is going to stink once students come back full time and football starts.

Hopefully the rain will keep it quieter then last night - the guards are pretty much finding buildings to wait out the rain so they shouldn’t be calling in every five minutes.

It’s Friday Night in Iowa City

Ohmygod! What a night so far!  We have had traffic stops, a couple of fights, several drunks, a naked man running through downtown, a man who was hit in the head who had a concussion, two people struck while in the crosswalks right outside our building, and a suspicious guy hanging out down by the river.  City has called us several times to back them up because they were so busy that they couldn’t handle it all either.  What a mess!

I really don’t know what the city is coming too.  I guess it is a sign that things are returning to normal after being so repressed by the flooding.  Students are out in force living it up on a Friday night but if they could use a little common sense, that would be nice.

It is after 3am now and the bars should be getting the last of their customers out.  The streets have cleared, the rain has stopped, and one would hope it means things will slow down now.  Our campus has become a non-smoking campus - meaning people can’t even smoke outside anymore.  It isn’t overly enforced and we haven’t had time tonight to even think about dealing with people violating the policy.  The City has also gone smoke free but they are not writing citations for people who still want to smoke.  Guess most people feel about it the way I do, if the smokers are outside, who cares?  I get tired of “big brother” always out there trying to dictate our civil liberties.

No, I don’t smoke either - never have.  The policy makes me angry because, as I said, it is just one more thing government thinks they can force on us as if we are not capable of making decisions for ourselves.  It is reminiscent of Sarasota trying to enforce a “no cussing in public” ruling.  If I want to cuss in public, then damn it, I’m going to.  It is ridiculous.  I feel like lighting a cigarette and walking around just to rebel against the idiots who think they have the right to dictate my rights.

Whew, I’ll climb down off my soap box.  Just irritates me.

Assisted Colonization

Well, we knew it would all come down to this eventually. Afterall, we humans are the smartest of all God’s creatures and thus, colonizing the animal world in our own way should be how it was meant to be right?

Not only should we colonize the creatures how we see fit, we should also decide in an animal kingdom triage sort of way, what species we should let become extinct in favor of keeping other species around in this world of shortening animal habitats. Doesn’t that seem normal to everyone?

Scientists have advised that the species of Sky Island in Arizona is basically “toast” because they don’t know where they would move them so might as well let them go extinct. Who needs them anyway?

“When deciding which species to save and which to watch die, Root said one key is uniqueness. That’s why she said she’d save the odd-looking Tuatara of New Zealand, a lizard-like creature with almost no living relatives, over the common sparrow.”

“The risk of extinction has to be balanced by the potential hazard to the community where a species is relocated as well as the time and cost of making the move, Parmesan says.”

“Ultimately, the decision about whether to actively assist the movement of a species into new territories will rest on ethical and aesthetic grounds as much as on hard science,” she said in a statement.

“Passively assisting coral reef migration may be acceptable, but transplanting polar bears to Antarctica, where they would likely drive native penguins to extinction, would not be acceptable,” she said.

“Conservation has never been an exact science, but preserving biodiversity in the face of climate change is likely to require a fundamental rethinking of what it means to preserve biodiversity,” Parmesan said.

Wow, doesn’t it just make you proud to be a human? And, by the way, whose to say penguins are more unique then the polar bears? I think that is subjective and totally unfair. Let’s relocate the penguins to Alaska or Canada - let the bears have the Antarctica.

Somewhere I’m sure someone has a nice little chart with nice little diagrams of how every thing would benefit if we took over nature. Let’s make the world one big zoo. Does it irk anyone else as much as it does me??

I understand that some species are endanger of becoming extinct but is moving species around a good idea? Shouldn’t we let Mother Nature handle, well, Mother Nature? Have we done much good when we have “accidentally” relocated things in the past? Fire ants spring to mind - they came over from Africa or some such place - now look at how they’ve become an epidemic in the south.

Pretty soon I won’t have to watch the Sci-Fi channel to get my “b” movie horror fix - the reality of what we’ve done to our world will far out due what they can come up with on TV.

Feeling Better

I started out this night not feeling well at all.  Twice at work that exceptionally gross process of throw-up coming up into a person’s mouth happened to me and I wondered why I had dared to come into work.

When I got here, several other people were also complaining about not feeling well and vomiting - guess I know where I got it from huh? I kept wondering why I was sick when I hadn’t eaten anything or taken any medication combinations that are prone to making my stomach upset.  I woke up at 1:30pm vomiting and it seemed I was going downhilll from there.  About 8:30 pm, I swore I had a temperature but tried to ignore it.

I don’t know who brought the stuff to work but for several of us from the same shift to come down with the same thing is too big of a coincidence.  One of the evening people last night must have started it somehow before they left at 11pm - I think this because a couple of the evening people also became ill.

Whatever it was, I’m glad I’m starting to feel better though I’m still looking forward to getting off work and going to bed.

At Work

I have been at work for 2 1/2 hours now.  I have 1 1/2 hours to go before I can go back to my sister’s house.  They did not need me to be here from 3am-7am so I don’t know what the scheduler was thinking.  I know she thought I needed to get an additional 4 hours in somewhere but really…3- 7 am? How crazy is that???

I spent the first hour reading other people’s blogs - something I don’t seem to have time for these days.  I always read my family’s blogs but often don’t get to check out the blogs of those people I have links to on my blogroll.  So tonight I checked out everyone’s and made a few comments.

Then, having read those, I decided to write a note to my friends down in Florida.  Took me pretty much of the next hour to write them a two page letter.  This last half hour I spent reading my junk mail.  Such an exciting time.

I am going to have to be more inventive to come up with something for the remainder of the time.  I did get my uniforms when I came in to work today - they are too long in the legs.  I told her a 32″ length but they must be 34″ as I keep falling over them.  The rest of the stuff fits fine.  It was good to get the jacket because I had forgotten to bring one and it is chilly in here tonight.

It is starting to get light outside - it is my favorite time at work, watching the city awaken.  Hope to be in bed here shortly. 

I did check out fares to Florida earlier.  It would cost $560 or so to fly two people there.  I don’t have the money to buy tickets now so am hoping the price doesn’t skyrocket between now and when I do.  I might just have to go down by myself.

Almost FRIDAY!

It is almost Friday, I have to tell you…I didn’t think I’d make it through this week but here I am.  It actually wasn’t that bad and I have to take back a lot of the complaints I had about the trainer I didn’t want to work with.  I can appreciate, after watching her the past two weeks, just how difficult her job is and how well she does it.  She took me out for a margarita tonight after work which was nice.  She wanted to say “thanks” for all my help this week.

My vacation starts Saturday and I grieve not being able to go to Wyoming.  I was so looking forward to it but when it was decided not to go, I figured it was for the best.  Now that the time is here, I so wish we were going.  It would have fulfilled a lifelong dream of mine to stay out in the wilderness with minimal amenities of the civilized world.  It was to be a test of my character and endurance.  {Sigh}.  Granted, I can’t afford to go so it is good that we aren’t but it just seems like one more failed dream, you know?

We seem to make plans a lot but little grows to fruition.  It gets a bit sad that we can’t pull it together enough to make some of our dreams come true.  But, of course, when times get tough then vacations are the first thing to be sacrificed on the alter of financial wellness.  Now I have no plans for a vacation in the coming months or years.  Sure we said we’d go next year but why should I believe we can get it together enough to do so when we couldn’t this year? It is disheartening.

Tonight we watched the last hour of “Legends of the Fall”.  Yes, most of you automatically think of the hunky Brad Pitt but I actually saw the movie for Aidan Quinn whom I think is quite good looking.  I like the characters he plays - usually men of dignified repose.  Brad was a sight for sore eyes but really, the story is so tragic.  I do like the ending when the old indian says that Tristan was the rock everyone else broke themselves upon.  It had little to do with his life but more with what people expected or wanted from him.  However, I liked Aidan Quinn’s line about how he did everything right - followed the laws of man and God - yet everyone loved Tristan more.  It shows, of course, how people always go for the rebel.  Don’t know if women think they can tame him or if others just find a rebel more daring then they have the courage to be, but it still seems true today - everyone loves the bad boy more.