Saturday, January 14, 2006
Taming a defiant mind: Lori Farmer's recovery from mental illness opens window on insanity defense - Seattle P-I
... She was sick. The voices weren't real. God would never urge her to hurt someone -- least of all her 4-year-old son ... She believed, with a rigid certainty she can still barely express, that she was saving him. She tried to die with him. Instead, a Pierce County judge ruled her criminally insane.
Now, after a decade at Western State Hospital in Lakewood -- most of it in a locked ward with other mentally ill people sent there instead of prison after committing crimes -- she is free.
She has struggled to get hold of a defiant mind and is trying to rebuild a life.
...
Years ago, Farmer's parents misread the early hints of mental illness as signs of their daughter being a teenager.
She always thought people were looking at her and whispering behind her back. She often seethed with anger. Her father, Deane Farmer, remembers how she sometimes planted herself on the couch and glared at him, inexplicably fuming.
Then one day, she began screaming that demons were coming out of the bathroom mirror at her. She started seeing "shadow people" and feeling evil spirits brushing against her skin, crawling lightly on her arms.
She began talking about things that didn't make sense to her family. That an unseen camera had been clicking pictures of her every move. That Jon Anderson, lead singer of the rock group Yes, was her father in a previous life. That he had brought her to Earth in a spaceship.
...
Farmer knew something was wrong. Other people didn't spend full days sobbing. She would go to church but otherwise isolate herself in her Tacoma apartment. She didn't have any friends. She'd sit alone and play her guitar.
Some days she felt almost normal. Some days she couldn't pull herself out of bed.
"I felt like somebody hit my soul with a Mack truck," she recalled.
...
... She was sick. The voices weren't real. God would never urge her to hurt someone -- least of all her 4-year-old son ... She believed, with a rigid certainty she can still barely express, that she was saving him. She tried to die with him. Instead, a Pierce County judge ruled her criminally insane.
Now, after a decade at Western State Hospital in Lakewood -- most of it in a locked ward with other mentally ill people sent there instead of prison after committing crimes -- she is free.
She has struggled to get hold of a defiant mind and is trying to rebuild a life.
...
Years ago, Farmer's parents misread the early hints of mental illness as signs of their daughter being a teenager.
She always thought people were looking at her and whispering behind her back. She often seethed with anger. Her father, Deane Farmer, remembers how she sometimes planted herself on the couch and glared at him, inexplicably fuming.
Then one day, she began screaming that demons were coming out of the bathroom mirror at her. She started seeing "shadow people" and feeling evil spirits brushing against her skin, crawling lightly on her arms.
She began talking about things that didn't make sense to her family. That an unseen camera had been clicking pictures of her every move. That Jon Anderson, lead singer of the rock group Yes, was her father in a previous life. That he had brought her to Earth in a spaceship.
...
Farmer knew something was wrong. Other people didn't spend full days sobbing. She would go to church but otherwise isolate herself in her Tacoma apartment. She didn't have any friends. She'd sit alone and play her guitar.
Some days she felt almost normal. Some days she couldn't pull herself out of bed.
"I felt like somebody hit my soul with a Mack truck," she recalled.
...
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Blazing mouse sets fire to house - BBC News
A US man who threw a mouse onto a pile of burning leaves could only watch in horror as it ran into his house and set the building ablaze.
...
Though no-one was injured, the house and everything in it was destroyed.
[The fate of the mouse was not known.]
A US man who threw a mouse onto a pile of burning leaves could only watch in horror as it ran into his house and set the building ablaze.
...
Though no-one was injured, the house and everything in it was destroyed.
[The fate of the mouse was not known.]
Many touched by heifer's death-defying adventure - Seattle Times
A spirited cow that jumped a slaughterhouse gate and evaded capture for six hours has drawn clemency pleas and may not be doomed, after all.
Appeals to spare the life of the 1,200-pound heifer came from across the nation — including Seattle — after she fled Mickey's Packing Plant on Thursday. ...
She was nearly struck by road and rail traffic, and almost drowned crossing the Missouri River. Three tranquilizer darts failed to subdue her.
The manager of Mickey's Packing Plant said the animal he dubbed "Molly B." probably will be spared the killing floor.
...
Francis James, of Pig's Peace Animal Sanctuary in Stanwood, said there are "definitely people in Seattle wanting to buy the cow. Hopefully we can find the cow a home here in Seattle."
Another sanctuary in Washington state, Pasado's Safe Haven in Sultan, also is interested in giving Molly B. a home.
"We're just interested in her ending up someplace safe," volunteer Larry Brothers said.
Morris said the owner is willing to sell Molly B., who remained at the packing plant after her capture, but wants more than the estimated $1,140 she is worth slaughtered. ...
A spirited cow that jumped a slaughterhouse gate and evaded capture for six hours has drawn clemency pleas and may not be doomed, after all.
Appeals to spare the life of the 1,200-pound heifer came from across the nation — including Seattle — after she fled Mickey's Packing Plant on Thursday. ...
She was nearly struck by road and rail traffic, and almost drowned crossing the Missouri River. Three tranquilizer darts failed to subdue her.
The manager of Mickey's Packing Plant said the animal he dubbed "Molly B." probably will be spared the killing floor.
...
Francis James, of Pig's Peace Animal Sanctuary in Stanwood, said there are "definitely people in Seattle wanting to buy the cow. Hopefully we can find the cow a home here in Seattle."
Another sanctuary in Washington state, Pasado's Safe Haven in Sultan, also is interested in giving Molly B. a home.
"We're just interested in her ending up someplace safe," volunteer Larry Brothers said.
Morris said the owner is willing to sell Molly B., who remained at the packing plant after her capture, but wants more than the estimated $1,140 she is worth slaughtered. ...
SA girl's electrocution ignites service debate - BBC News
Oprah Rapuleng was due to start school on Wednesday, like other six-year-old South Africans, however she was electrocuted after drinking water from a standpipe near her Soweto home, in a case which has caused outrage among her friends and neighbours. They claim that shoddy work by the company which installed pre-paid water meters affected the electrical system, resulting in her death.
...
"Every time it's raining, the tap will click, then the lightning will strike. We are afraid of using the tap [so] we will close it with a cloth." ...
Oprah Rapuleng was due to start school on Wednesday, like other six-year-old South Africans, however she was electrocuted after drinking water from a standpipe near her Soweto home, in a case which has caused outrage among her friends and neighbours. They claim that shoddy work by the company which installed pre-paid water meters affected the electrical system, resulting in her death.
...
"Every time it's raining, the tap will click, then the lightning will strike. We are afraid of using the tap [so] we will close it with a cloth." ...
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