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The end is near ... the end of the year
Kansas City, 4th of November - Some unsorted thoughts
2013 is slowly approaching its end and, going ahead of the big wave, I feel, it's time to have a look back. What did this year change? Well, Obama is still President, the number of people in the food lines climbed from a historical high at the beginning of the year to a new historical high near to the end of the year. Obamacare, oh yes, this cat is now finally out of the bag. The rollout was and is still, a mess. Badly prepared and haunted by bad organisatorical mistakes. So, in fact, the infamous website is like the law, a good attempt but not thought through to the end, hampered by favors done to cronies, extremely pricey and ineffective. Lets face it, Obamacare and this website is really a signature piece of Obama, a memorial of ineptness and arrogance at once. Quite fitting.
What else comes to mind when I think about 2013? Oh well, Syria of course. Obama didn't get the war, he wanted so badly, he sent even his Kerry lying for it. So the only thing really remaining from this are thousands and thousands of Obama followers who actually believe, Assad gased 1400 Syrians, including 500 kids, while most reliable sources number the total of victims of the gas attacks in the 500s. But then, who follows mindless a sacrosanct leader beyond any reason bothers to look up reliable sources? And by all means, while the liberal mainstream media tried to raise public outcry over some hundred gased people, some hundred-thousand were killed in Syria by use of conventional methods. Since Al-Qaeda affiliates are involved there, conservative methods also include beheading, strangulation, stoning and other methods taken from the Shariah laws.
What else? Egypt, of course. Morsi went to trial now and denied the legal jurisdiction, the court would have over him. He claimed, he was at this court against his will. Well, that was funny. Newsflash, Mr. Morsi, most criminals are not volunatirly in court. But then, there is this talk about coup and no coup and whether an elected President can be ousted by the military. Fine, lets go down that rabbit hole. Point is, soldiers are more often than not citizens of their respective countries. The Egypt Army is no exception. Which means, every unrest in the general population is carried also into the military. There are two problems with that: First, it is a way to overturn election results. Which is a good thing, if the results of the elections are faked due to the fact, that a certain foreign administration poured money in one party and pressed for a short timeplan to prevent opposition from organizing in the first place. So, at the time, the Muslim Brotherhood won elections, there was effectively a one-party system and a lot of the money used to win those elections were an involuntary courtesy of the American taxpayer. A curtesy obviously not meant by the adminsitration for the country Egypt but only the Muslim Brotherhood because now, as Morsi is ousted, the support stopped.
But there is a second problem with military and political power. There is always the possibility, the leading commanding officer goes all the way and becomes the next dictator. Happend in Argentine, in Chile, why not in Egypt? Actually, it happened already once in 1952 there. Currently, the military strength is about 468,000 men. The military wouldn't be able to draft more without taking the risk to draw the oppsition into the own forces. On the other side, there is a population of about 84 million people and this population is fired up. They are not united, but if the Army wouldn't hang on to the time table and give them fair elections at some point, they will, at least as far as the fight against such a military dicatorship would go. Once a population woke up, it takes a while to fall asleep again. So, chances that Egypt will fall really for a long term under military rule are slim. So, as it
is, Egypt is a factor, that makes mostly those leaders uneasy, who are afraid, their population wakes up.


System down ... in more than one aspect

To state an example, those leaders are even ready to support a known terror organization like the Muslim Brotherhood. And that is, why Egypt is quite relevant nowadays. But whatever will happen, it will not happen anymore in 2013.
Back to the US, we have the usual issues. Some cases of school shooting, a cinema shooting and a Navy facility became stage as well. Subconsequently, the usual calls for weapon bans were made, political parties blamed each other and the real problem was as usual ignored. Because in all cases, not guns per se but the ignorance of mental issues in the perpetrators led to disaster. And yes, the more I think about it, subcultural influences as such that enabled the Boston Bombings or gang criminality fall under that label too. We, as a society, have to look at the facts, the patterns and think, think hard about what is really going on there instead of following again the next pied piper who bubbles out some political lines, knowing, this won't change a thing. Guns aren't the only thing used to kill people. Banning guns will only make other methods more popular. Given how many instructions to build bombs can be found in the internet, I fear, what comes next.
Which brings us to the state of law enforcement agencies. Well, West Mesa in Albuquerque is still blamed on a guy who by all means couldn't have done it. The Long Island Serial Killer celebreated this year the third anniversirary since his dump site was found, but still, everyone is hunting for a white drunk dude living in mommy's basement ... and still without success. 2013 brought new low points especially to the famous BAU. Once the craddle of mordern offender profiling, they produce nowadays one failure after the other. Which makes me think, something has to be done there, but hey, who am I? And the moment, I mention, that Long Island is probably an African-American offender because victimology, dump site, modus operandi and employed counter measures all fit in that profile (aka all details of the case, as far as the details were made public), any discussion ends and I am called a racist. Newsflash, there are occasionally black serial killers. Franklin, Watts, Sowell, Smith, Carlton, just to name some. If wrong understood political correctness prevents investigations from looking in the right direction, they do, what serial killers do and kill on and on till they die from old age, get caught for something unrelated or find something more interesting. But then, all of this is also so 2013. Nobody cares about the victims, everything is about racial more than fair treatment of offenders.
Which brings us to Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman. The political motivated show trial is over, Zimmerman got acquitted. Given, that Martin doubled back and started an ambush out of hiding with lethal intent, everything else would have been a travesty, but then, the whole trial was a travesty in the first place. However, as bad as all of this was, there was something positive, even most people didn't notice it. Not many riots, the plundering of businesses remained in a very moderate frame and despite all attempts of left-liberal rabble-rousers, not much happened. Maybe Reverend Sharpton was too
busy with his little tax problems or Reverend Jackson had other worries (his son was just caught, right?). But be it as it be, despite all attempts to raise new race riots, most black protesters behaved decent and civilized. Which shows, ther grip, the old slave-holders have on them is not completely firm anymore. And that, if the tendency holds, is a good thing.
And then, there was the government shutdown. Just because everybody expects that there is talk about it. For a few weeks, the government was blocked. Not entirely, of course. The parties were in a stand-off, but in the end, the Republicans gave in and Obama got his total victory, at least for a time. More debt, more spending, more debt, more spending. I admit, I'm tired of this. Mathematics tells us what will happen. It told us so a long time ago. Debt costs interest and as soon as the running costs of the government plus those interests are bigger than the revenue, there is no way but the way down left. End of the story. The shutdown was theater thunder, it changed nothing, in the final analysis, it made things worse because the Republicans caved in and left Obama with the possibility to make more debt. So, the tracks are set. We have still a little time, but it runs out. At the end of Obama's reign, we will be beyond $22 trillion in debt and that is definitively beyond the point, where running costs plus interest is bigger than the revenue. So, prepare for tax hikes in the next years.
The economy limps along and more and more it becomes visible despite all attempts of the administration to talk the numbers nicer. The value of the dollar degraded and since we import a lot, this made energy, gas and food more expensive. Jobs are still rare and despite all "success message" from the left, fact is, we didn't make the 196,000 net jobs we need to compensate for population growth. Actually, we didn't make it even one month since Obama entered the White House. Even with tricks like not counting some million people without jobs, we didn't. In the meantime, every sixth family relies on food lines, the highest number since the great depression of 1929. Every sixth kid is under- or malnourished. Obama followers, when asked about that, tend to break out in mindless insults, thumbs down on boards or just plain old aggressive behavior. But nothing of that solves the problem and their sacrosanct leader stays sacrosanct for them.
The real problem with that is, that societies behave like pendulums. After being held in the extreme on one side, they tend to swing to the other extreme. The change doesn't stop in the middle, it goes right to the other side. On one side, we have inept wannabe socialists and when they let lose that pendulum, it goes to the other side where religious fundamentalists try to make economy on mysterious formulas they think, they found in the Bible. So, please, excuse me, I go vomiting at this outlook. Our best, in fact our only chance to get out of this mess, is to go the politics of the many little steps. We have to make sure, this pendulum doesn't swing through and we have to make sure it goes out of the extreme left, where it is now. We need solutions, not just ideology. And "we", that means "we, the people". Politicians have other interests, they profit from the mess. We, the people, are the ones who have to live with the result. But for that to happen, just like in Egypt, the population has to wake up, to become aware of its own power. The real question, at the end of 2013 is, can this happen, with almost a third of the population sedated by welfare measures and another third either following the pied piper or hoping to profit from the downfall of a once great nation?
... back
Tue, May 17, 2016
12:00 AM CT

Daniel Lee Siebert
Daniel Lee Siebert is now also in our serial killer collection. A more or less garden variety strangler type who got away longer than necessary bacause some big PDs dropped the ball ... and left it to smaller ones, to get the job done.

Fri, Dec 18, 2015
12:00 AM CT

Christman Genipperteinga
THe legendary robber along the wine road Trier-Cologne made it finally into our collection. With a total of 970 victim, including six of them his own children, he is currently the most prolific serial killer in the Collection.

Thu, Oct 22, 2015
12:00 AM CT

Gerard John Schaefer
The allegedly most prolific Florida Serial Killer, "Killer Cop" Gerard Schaefer, finally also made his way into out collection.

Thu, Sep 24, 2015
12:00 AM CT

Royal Russel Long
Long was quite messed up in the investigation of the Wyoming Rodeo Murders, but details show, he was another kind of animal, y typeless pedophile serial killer. Now his file is in our collection.

Mon, Aug 17, 2015
12:00 AM CT

The Wyoming Rodeo Murders
A story of misperceptions and midnless cabinet cleaning by police authorities that ended up with someone getting away with at least two murders on young women. Now in our collection.

Wed, Jul 15, 2015
12:00 AM CT

Joseph Vacher, the French Ripper
Now new in our collection: Joseph Vacher, the French Ripper. The first case, blood spatter analysis was used in a court trial world wide!

Sat, Jun 20, 2015
12:00 AM CST

No new addition in June
Usually, we try to bring another case up in our serial killer collection every month, but this month, we simply had no time. Between working open cases and other activities, it was just not possible. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Sat, May 16, 2015
12:00 AM CT

The Beauty Queen Killer
New in the serial killer collection: Christopher Wilder, the Beauty Queen Killer. A case that shows how nonsensical the disctinction between serial and spree killers really is.

Thu, Apr 16, 2015
12:00 AM CT

Burton W. Abbott
Abbott killed only one victim, a case that caused some public attention in 1955. But he showed all hallmarks of a fledgling serial killer and thus, we added him to our collection.

Mon, Mar 16, 2015
12:00 AM CT

Darren Deon Vann
Ha is basically the usual garden variety strangler case if it wouldn't be for the early warnings statistical data cretated about serial killer activity in Gary/Indiana. Now he is in our collection.

Wed, Mar 4, 2015
12:00 AM CT

Apologies!
Due to technical problems, the March article was up late. Take my apologies for this glitch.

Mon, Feb 16, 2015
12:00 AM CT

Affaire of the Poisons
We have added the infamous Affaire of the Poisons to our collection. With more than 80 offenders, it breaks a little the format, but well, it's one of the biggest cases of "organized" crime ever, so how can we let it out?

Mon, Dec 8, 2014
12:00 AM CT

Joseph Bryan
Once he made the FBI Ten Most Wanted list, now nobody remembers the case anymore. Nevertheless, the father of all allegedly schizophrenic serial killers has entered our collection.

Fri, Nov 7, 2014
12:00 AM CT

The Trailside Killer
David Joseph Carpenter has now become also part of the Serial Killer Collection ... complete with profile.

Tue, Oct 7, 2014
12:00 AM CT

The Vampire of Duesseldorf
Peter Kuerten aka The Vampire of Duesseldorf roamed the city at the River Rhine for more than two years and left behind a trail of bodies-

Fri, Sep 12, 2014
12:00 AM CT

The Grim Sleeper
Lonnie Franklin aka The Grim Sleeper has been added to our serial killer collection

Thu, Aug 14, 2014
12:00 AM CT

Michael Lee Lockhart
... and with a little delay, another serial made it into the serial killer collection. Michael Lee Lockhart, not so much interesting for his "achievements" but because his case appears as if he became a psychopath only after a serious head injury.

Tue, Aug 12, 2014
12:00 AM CT

A Game of Daggers
Diane's new novel A GAME OF DAGGERS is now available at Amazon for Kindle. A story of murder, mayhem and political intrigue set up in the year of the Lord 1096.
Pope Urban II has called for a crusade, but this news has yet to reach Cornwall. And people there have anyway to deal with other problems from storms to wreckers on their coast and when some murdered men are discovered on the beach, nobody guesses, this is only the prelude to much greater events coming to the so remote shores ...

Sat, Jul 5, 2014
12:00 AM CT

Ivan Hill
Ivan Hill, as the first of the many serial killers, who haunted Los Angeles in the 80s and 90s, is now added to our serial killer collection.

Sun, Jun 8, 2014
12:00 AM CT

Raya and Sakina
The famous Egyptian serial killers have become part of our collection. And as so often, things are not as simple as the urban legend tries to tell us.

Thu, May 1, 2014
12:00 AM CT

Dagmar Overbye
The infamous Danish baby farmer has been added to our Serial Killer Collection.

Thu, May 1, 2014
12:00 AM CT

Pharaoh Djoser added to the Egyptian Collection
I finally came around to add a new pharaoh to our collection: Djoser, 1st Pharoh of the 3rd Dynasty.

Fri, Apr 4, 2014
12:00 AM CT

The Green River Killer
This month, we added Gary Ridgway to our serial killer collection, a case, not so much interesting for the profiling but for the lessons about case organization to be learned from it.

Tue, Mar 4, 2014
12:00 AM CT

Manson Family
The "Manson Family&quo; has been added to our serial killer collection. Especially interesting for those who think, brain washing isn't possible.

Fri, Feb 7, 2014
12:00 AM CT

Hans van Zon
Dutch serial killer Hans van Zon joined our serial killer collection. Not entirely voluntarily though.

Mon, Jan 6, 2014
12:00 AM CT

The Syracuse Dungeon Master
John T. Jamelske aka the Syracuse Dungeon Master has been added to our Serial Killer Collection. While not a seria killer but a serial rapist, Jamelske represents a similar psychopathology as some OCD type serial killers, for example Dahmer and therefore is some valuable object for studies.

Thu, Jan 2, 2014
12:00 AM CT

Khasekhemwy
The last of the 2nd dynasty pharaohs, the man who re-united Egypt, is now also in the Egyptian collection.

Thu, Dec 12, 2013
12:00 AM CT

Pharaoh Sekhemib added to the Egyptian Collection
I finally came around to add Pharaoh Sekhemib to the collection, the sixth of the 2nd Dynasty. So, with some luck, I can finish this year the 2nd dynsty, only one, Khasekhemwy is left.

Tue, Dec 10, 2013
12:00 AM CT

The Riha disappearance
In 1969, Dr. Thomas Riha disappeared and in the subconsequent series of events, Gloria Tannenbaum was arrested for forgery and under suspicion of two other homicides. She plead not guilty by reason of insanity and got away with it. The case has now been added to our serial killer collection.

Mon, Nov 4, 2013
12:00 AM CT

Richard N. Clarey jr.
Clarey is one of the lesser known serial killers, skirting the definition a little. Still, for some reasons an interesting case.

Wed, Oct 2, 2013
12:00 AM CT

Now in the collection: William E. Cosden
A garden variety sexual predator, notable only because his existence shows, how wrong the idea of 1 monster at 1 time in 1 area is.

Copyright if not otherwise mentioned Peter and Diane Brendt 2010-. All copies, also in parts, demand the written consent of the copyright holders