Crime and punishment

If the Charges Are True, This Man Is a Monster

April 24, 2013 Crime and punishment

I tend to avoid the abortion issue, because it’s a no-win topic. But I’ve been following a murder trial recently that turns my stomach so severely that I can’t keep my mouth shut. Mood music:  BodiesSex PistolsNevermind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols The Catholic Church tends to label anyone who is against Roe v. Wade [...]

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Five Takeaways from Steubenville Rape Case

March 18, 2013 Crime and punishment

After taking in some of the outrage among friends over the seemingly sympathetic coverage CNN gave to two Steubenville, Ohio, teens convicted of raping a young girl, I decided to watch the specific report that generated all the fuss. Mood music:  Dead End JusticeThe RunawaysThe Runaways – The Mercury Albums Anthology People are often conflicted over [...]

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A Little Souvenir From My Trip To Amityville

October 24, 2012 Crime and punishment

Last month, on the way to a security conference in NYC, I made a side trip to Amityville, Long Island, to take pictures of the so-called Amityville Horror house for a work-related slideshow. Today we launched it, and I wanted to share it with you here. Happy Halloween: The Amityville Horror house, then and now [...]

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Sex Change Outrage: Should We Pay for Convict’s Operation?

September 18, 2012 Crime and punishment

There are a lot of good people out there who deal with brutal medical situations that make them outcasts. There’s the depression I’ve covered extensively here. And there are things like being transgender. But if you’re behind bars for murder, should taxpayers be paying for your treatment? Mood music:  SEXMötley CrüeSEX Depression is a simpler example. [...]

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Telling the Tate-LaBianca Story: Truth and Embellishment

August 9, 2012 Crime and punishment

A while back I wrote a post about how, in my opinion, Restless Souls: The Sharon Tate Family’s Account of Stardom, the Manson Murders, and a Crusade for Justice by Alisa Statmen and Brie Tate, was the most important book ever written about the Manson Murders. Since then the book’s accuracy has been thrown into question. [...]

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Tate-LaBianca, 43 Years Later: A Strange Society of Manson Watchers

August 8, 2012 Crime and punishment

This week marks the 43rd anniversary of the Tate-LaBianca murders. I’m marking it first with a prayer for the victims and second by making note of some interesting people I’ve met as a result of this lifelong Manson obsession I have. Mood music:  The BecomingNine Inch NailsThe Downward Spiral It’s been an interesting year for [...]

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Nikki Sixx, Michael Jackson and Pedophiles, Part 2

June 26, 2012 Crime and punishment

Last year, Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx created a Twitter shitstorm when he opined about Michael Jackson being an alleged pedophile. At the time, I wrote a blog post about it being a fascinating case study in human nature. This week marks the third anniversary of Jackson’s death, and the case study has taken an interesting [...]

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It’s Never Too Late to Renegotiate Your Life

June 11, 2012 Crime and punishment

When you have legal problems, mountains of debt, bad relationships and a job that makes you unhappy, it’s easy to feel like there’s a point of no return, that this is how your life turned out and that’s that. I’m here to tell you that’s bullshit. Mood music:  When You Dance, I Can Really Love [...]

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When We Look in the Mirror, We See John Edwards

June 2, 2012 Crime and punishment

I admit feeling some glee over the fall of former U.S. senator and presidential hopeful John Edwards. I always thought the guy was full of himself, and cheating on his cancer-stricken wife was probably one of the shittiest examples of infidelity you could find. Yet I’m going to defend him — a little. Mood music: [...]

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Two Days, Three Shitty Anniversaries And One Bloody Month

April 19, 2012 Crime and punishment

Earlier this month I wrote about two sad anniversaries: the deaths of Kurt Cobain in 1994 and Layne Staley in 2002. But today — April 19, and tomorrow, April 20 — we have a trio of tragedies to remember. Mood music: Full disclosure: I’m about to steal liberally from Wikipedia. April 19, 1993: Waco, Texas [...]

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