"November 12, 2002

Serial Rapist Is Believed Captured in California

By CHARLIE LeDUFF

LONG BEACH, Calif., Nov. 11 � The Long Beach police announced today that they had arrested the so-called Belmont Shore rapist, a man who is believed to have raped or attacked more than 30 women along the West Coast..."

YAY!

Of course, Mommy will always worry about me, but now we can move on to a different reason.

In other news...those of you who are still convinced that the U.S has valid reasons for wanting exemption from the international war crimes court, see this. Yeah, I'd cover my eyes too, Mr. Army-Man in picture number one.

I feel very sad for these young people who join our armed forces, thinking they're doing something good for our country and even for the world at large. They're in for a rude awakening and are so young to be faced with the kinds of things they are faced with. I'm sure there are people who get off on carrying big guns and treating "enemies" like piles of so much poo, but I'm also sure that it truly disturbs just as many of them. My niece's hubby is in the army and was based in Kosovo when the Clinton Administration first sent troups there on a "peace-keeping" mission. He's never been quite the same since. In fact, he won't even talk about what disturbs him so much.

I think most young people join the armed forces as an avenue to get an education they may otherwise be unable to afford. I have no problem with that, nor do I deny that having a military in general is a neccessity, sadly. But...you know...I ain't gonna enlist. Plus, needless to say, I think there are ways to get the job done while still recognizing basic human rights - even if those humans are supposed to be our "enemies" these days (of course, these same people were our allies only a few years ago, but that's another story. And who cares about that, anyway? We Americans evidently pride ourselves on our great ability to ignore history).

And here I find myself on a tangent again. Sorry. My brain is a bit strained in light of the recent developments in Iraq. However, I have a hard time believing that Iraq won't let UN Weapons Inspectors in at all, as members of their so-called "Parliament" were asserting yesterday. I think we're probably in for the same kind of bull shit games we played the last time inspectors were over there.

I watched this show last night. Very good. I would recommend it highly to those of you who admire Jimmy Carter or even just those of you at all interested in history or politics. I'm sure it will repeat numerous times. PBS is like MTV in that sense.

Alternately, I found "Collectors" to be rather disturbing as I watched it over this past weekend on the Sundance Channel. It's a documentary about two "art dealers" who deal in art created by serial killers. Not only do they sell those famous clown paintings done by John Wayne Gacy, they contact like every serial killer they know about and who is alive today. They then develop relationships with these people via mail and visits in order to persuade them to create "works of art" to be sold. They're not rolling in the dough from this line of work, they just do it cuz they're interested. I don't even think they know the tiniest bit about art. They just know that if you have a piece of shit with Richard Ramirez's signature on it, some freak out there is bound to spend $300 on that piece of shit.

I understand the fascination with violent crimes in general and in serial killers more specifically...well, I don't understand it per se, but I know it exists and frankly I am not immune. Most of the movie didn't bother me much, although these "art dealers" aren't exactly dudes I'd like to have over to the pad for cocktails. However, one of the guys in the movie was just insensitive to the max. There's a scene toward the end of the film in which a relative of someone who was killed by Elmer Wayne Henley Jr. buys one of his paintings and then lights it on fire in the street. It was a drawing of a naked young person from behind. Seeing as how Elmer worked in a candy store across the street from an elementary school in order to attract young boys and then raped and butchered dozens of them, I can see where this would be extremely offensive, especially to one of the victim's relatives. His point in burning the work was that nobody should get any sort of enjoyment from this man's perversions.

One of the "art dealers" went to the street and gathered up the ashes as a souvenir. As odd as that may seem to most of us, what was truly offensive was the things he was saying about the "idiot" who "wasted 600 bucks" by buying the drawing and burning it. He said that when he looks over and sees the jar containing his little souvenir he'll think of that "idiot" and laugh.

Nice. He won't think of the kids his evil pen-pal killed, he'll think of the idiot who "wasted 600 bucks".

And I'll spare you any additional rants by ending this now. I really am in a good mood today!

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