INSANITY FILES!
I completed 83% of the core classes for a B.S. in psychology by 1997.
Insanity has always been an interesting topic of study, however I decided I didn't want a 4 year degree in astronomy, NOR in psychology and pursue pro sports.
Let's do insanity here at the forum.
Here's the kickoff post, about a drunken asshole who decided to drive on with a dead, dismembered pedestrian's corpse in the passenger seat. He headed to a beer garden, did not get served and was arrested promptly. What a douche.
Now you, go.
Texas man drove with 'mangled corpse' in passenger seat after running it over, police say
AUSTIN – A driver has been accused of drunkenly hitting a pedestrian with his vehicle in South Austin over the weekend, traveling at least a half-mile with the body before stopping at a beer garden, according to court documents.
Austin police officers responded to the 10000 block of Menchaca Road, just south of West Slaughter Lane, on Saturday at 10:36 p.m.
Witnesses told officers they saw a 2014 white Ford Focus hit a person walking near Slaughter Lane and then drive south on Menchaca Road, an arrest affidavit says.
The body of the pedestrian, who has not been identified, went through the Ford’s windshield and was found in the passenger seat of the vehicle a half-mile south from where the crash happened, the affidavit says.
The pedestrian had extreme, traumatic injuries to their head and some body parts had been detached, the affidavit says.
Garcia, police said, walked into South Austin Beer Garden at 10700 Menchaca Rd. barefoot and “in a manner that caught the attention of the other patrons,” the affidavit says.
Garcia was not served alcohol at the beer garden and officers detained him for further investigation.
Officers found Garcia with blood evidence and other debris on him, which matched “the blood and body tissue found coated in the interior of the vehicle,” the affidavit says.
Police conducted sobriety tests on Garcia and placed him under arrest for driving while intoxicated.
From Arizona:Former Waymo contractor accused of causing crash with self-driving vehicle
Florida man charged:Van hits GOP voter sign-up tent
Debris, including car parts and body parts, lined the road for a half-mile from where the pedestrian was hit, the affidavit says.
The evidence in the road, including the lack of brake marks, were consistent with a pedestrian being hit in the right lane of southbound Menchaca Road, the affidavit says.
The pedestrian was pushing a shopping cart in the road when the crash happened, police said.
“The impact with the vehicle pushed the cart into a cluster of mailboxes with enough force to bend a two-inch diameter, galvanized steel post that supported mailboxes,” the affidavit says.
Witnesses reported seeing the Ford without headlights on and being driven recklessly at a high speed.
Police said Garcia was charged with intoxication manslaughter because he was driving without regard for the safety of others, including “continuing to drive for one-half miles with a mangled corpse in the vehicle,” the affidavit says.
Garcia is in the Travis County Correctional Complex and has been charged with intoxication manslaughter with a vehicle and accident involving injury, according to online Travis County records.
He has a combined bail amount of $110,000, the records say.
Follow Kelsey Bradshaw on Twitter: @KBrad5
source: usatoday.com
Face facts, Bernie Sanders is electable
It’s well past time to bury the 'Bernie is unelectable' trope. He has a better shot than moderate Bloomberg.
There has been a mass freak-out among the Democratic establishment as Bernie Sanders’ continues to surge in the polls. In two surveys released Tuesday, the Vermont Senator has opened up a double-digit lead over his closest competitors in the Democratic primary.
The desperation has caused many Democrats to set their sights on former New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg as the man who will save us all from Donald Trump. But first he’ll have to save us from Bernie Sanders. The billionaire businessman has paid a pretty penny for every point he has risen in the national polls to overtake the prior moderate savior, Joe Biden.
For most of the primary season, politicos, commentators and journalists have dismissed the Sanders candidacy at best or attacked and misrepresented it at worst with the New York Times editorial board myopically comparing Sanders to Trump and calling his policy prescriptions “overly rigid, untested and divisive.” How often do we hear it claimed with soothsayer certainty, “A Democratic Socialist will never be elected president in the United States?”
You know who else will “never” be elected president of the United States? A former reality TV star with zero governing or policy experience who attacks war heroes, the parents of war heroes, brags on tape about grabbing women by the p___y, and…well, you get my point.
This is not to say that because Donald Trump became president — after improbably winning a Republican primary praising single payer health care, attacking the Bush family, the Iraq War and challenging other previously sacred cows on the right — that anyone can become president. It’s to point out how the ground has shifted in terms of what is possible in politics. The old rules simply do not apply, so we should stop using them.
It’s true that at one point calling yourself a “Democratic socialist” would be a bridge too far for many voters, including Democrats. But that was before people began to realize how unmoored the American capitalist system is from any sense of ethics or morality. The level of economic inequality and suffering from lack of affordable health care, crushing debt, and a discriminatory and racist for-profit incarceration system in one of the world’s wealthiest countries is astonishing. People are exhausted from working non-stop trying to just survive financially in a system that dangles the carrot of financial stability or wealth always slightly out of reach except for a favored few. Nothing about this is normal and that is fundamentally Bernie Sanders’ so-called “radical” argument.
Bloomberg's 'moderate lane'
As Bernie’s new foil, Bloomberg is waving the “moderate lane” banner of electability and claiming that Bernie’s kooky notions (which are just considered normal behavior in many industrialized countries) go too far for American voters. These are the same voters who would cut off your hand if you reached for their socialist Medicare or Social Security. Still, the premise of Bloomberg as electable slipped seamlessly into the public debate. Of course, Bernie fares just as well, and sometimes better, than Bloomberg in hypothetical matchups against Trump but the electable moniker has mysteriously eluded him.
What ultimately will make the Democratic standard bearer electable is his or her ability to excite and turn out voters. This is why the most pertinent issue for Bernie’s electability argument has been his weak history attracting African American support. While he made significant inroads since 2016, much of that critical voting bloc has been locked up with Joe Biden. But that is shifting. Tuesday’s NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist found that Bernie has narrowed that gap to just three points, and he tops Bloomberg by 12 points.
Either way, it’s hard to believe that the mayor who expanded “stop and frisk” in New York City and defended it all the way up to a month before he announced his candidacy is going to excite black voters, particularly young black voters who have made their preference for Bernie manifest. For that matter, why would any Democratic voter, regardless of their race, be excited about a candidate who lacked the imagination to grasp that being treated like a criminal just for existing would be a traumatizing experience for black and brown people?
Moreover, Bloomberg’s performance in his first Democratic primary debate last night was imperious and underwhelming. He absurdly claimed that the NDA’s women at his company signed were “consensual” and refused to agree to let them speak openly about their experiences working for his company. He stumbled through an explanation of stop-and-frisk claiming, “it got out of control,” when he was the one who had total control over it. Responding to Bernie’s contention that billionaires should not exist, Bloomberg claimed he is giving all his money away. But trying to buy your way into the presidency is not charity. He came out of the gate attacking Sanders, claiming he had no chance to beat Trump, because he’ll scare moderate voters.
Biden voters back Bernie
But a Buzzfeed reporter surveyed moderate Democratic voters at a Biden Iowa event last month and one after another said despite their concerns about Sanders, they’d pull the lever for him if he won the nomination.
There’s no doubt that if Bernie is the nominee Republicans will continue to conflate Democratic socialism with communism and pretend that Venezuela is Sanders’ ideal society even though Bernie has said he is a Democratic Socialist in the vein of the Scandinavian countries, home to the world’s happiest people. Republicans will lie about what Bernie believes the same way they will lie about whoever becomes the Democratic nominee.
Democrats should have learned by now to not let Republicans pick their candidates for them. Remember when conventional wisdom in 2016 said Nancy Pelosi should be replaced because Republicans used her as a proxy to attack all Democrats as too liberal and out of touch? “After Democrats’ Losses Nancy Pelosi Becomes a Symbol of What Went Wrong,” a New York Times headline blared following the 2016 election. Pelosi managed to cling to her power and Republicans made the San Francisco pol the star of many of their 2018 campaign ads against Democrats in swing districts. Yet, the Democrats took back the House with the largest midterms margin in history. Then Pelosi emerged as one of the only Democratic leaders able to effectively stand up against Trump.
Ultimately, there’s no reason to believe that voters are being motivated in any meaningful way by ideology this cycle. People who are more afraid of a single payer health care system and free college than they are of Donald Trump and his creeping authoritarianism are probably not Democratic voters or even Democratic leaning independents.
Bernie's socialism isn't communism
Bloomberg derided Bernie’s views as “communism” in last night’s debate, echoing Republican talking points. On the campaign trail last year, Sanders explained his vision of how Democratic socialism would work: it’s “an economy in which you have wealth being created by the private sector, but you have a fair distribution of that wealth, and you make sure the most vulnerable people in this country are doing well.”
Whatever people’s fears about Bernie’s democratic socialism, the fact remains he’s running for president, not king, of the United States. Some of his solutions are dead on and others less so. But he cannot enact any of them without the support of Congress. This means he will have to use his bully pulpit to bring the country around to his point of view if he wants to enact change. American voters are capable of grasping this this.
It’s well past time to bury the “Bernie is unelectable” trope.
Kirsten Powers, a CNN news analyst, is a member of USA TODAY's Board of Contributors. Follow her on Twitter: @KirstenPowers
NFL free agent Greg Robinson jailed in Texas on pot charge
EL PASO, Texas (AP) — NFL offensive tackle Greg Robinson remained in a West Texas jail without bond Wednesday after federal agents said they found 157 pounds (71.21 kilograms) of marijuana in a rented vehicle in which he and two other people were riding.
Robinson, 27, of Thibodeaux, Louisiana, and Jaquan Tyreke Bray, 26, of La Grange, Georgia, were in the El Paso County Detention Center after federal authorities charged them with conspiracy to possess marijuana with intent to distribute it. Both were held without bond pending an initial appearance before a U.S. magistrate judge.
If convicted, both could be sentenced to up to 20 years in federal prison.It was unclear from jail and federal court records if they had attorneys.
According to a criminal complaint filed Wednesday by the Drug Enforcement Administration, Robinson, Bray and an unidentified third person were driving from Los Angeles to Louisiana in a rented sport utility vehicle on Interstate 10 through a remote section of West Texas. When they passed a Border Patrol agent with a drug-sniffing dog, the dog detected the scent of marijuana. The agent radioed ahead to the patrol's checkpoint in near Sierra Blanca, Texas, 83 miles (134 kilometers) southeast of El Paso.
There, the patrol stopped and inspected the vehicle, finding several large duffel bags containing vacuum-sealed black bags containing what tested positive as marijuana, the complaint stated. Also found were glass jars and packaging equipment, along with $3,100 in cash.
Agents said the unidentified passenger was an Uber driver who also drove and ran errands for Robinson and his family and friends. The passenger showed agents cellphone texts that showed Robinson had offered to pay the passenger to claim ownership of the marijuana, according to the complaint. The texts showed the passenger, who is a legally resident immigrant but not a U.S. citizen, refused and would not have made the trip if aware of the drugs in the vehicle. The person was not charged.
The former Auburn University standout was drafted second overall in 2014, by the St. Louis Rams. He signed with the Cleveland Browns in 2018. The Browns recently informed Robinson’s representatives they did not intend to re-sign him as a free agent.
Robinson battled inconsistency while starting 14 games last season for the Browns, who had a disappointing 6-10 season. He was benched for one game and missed another with a concussion.
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This story has been corrected to show Greg Robinson is an offensive tackle, not a lineman.
oh well yeah this is right up my alley! Lol Insanity is perplexing..
the human mind a fragile biological machine.
we had a recent Insane event happen leaving Australia dumbfounded.
A man took his ex partner and children, doused them with fuel drove down a suburban street and when the car was engulfed in flames he stabbed himself int he heart... wtf..??? OH YAAY not 😐 another perfect Headline comes up on a new search....
maybe sports and insanity go hand in hand?
whaddaya recon Dan?
Another day, another Australian woman killed: Woman, 49, is stabbed to death before a 40-year-old is charged with murder - just days after murder-suicide shocked the nation
- Woman stabbed to death at a unit block in Townsville, Queensland, overnight
- A Mount Isa man, 40, has been charged with the alleged murder of the woman
- The alleged murder comes days after a father burnt his family to death
- Australia confronts its domestic violence problem as people seek help to stop
A 49-year-old woman has been stabbed to death in Townsville just days after a killer dad burnt his family to death as Australia confronts its domestic violence problem.
Police were called to a bloodstained unit on Granville St, Pimlico, at about 1am on Saturday, where they found the woman and pronounced her dead at the scene.
A 40-year-old man from the mining town of Mount Isa has been arrested and charged with one count of murder (domestic violence), Queensland Police said.
He is scheduled to appear in the Townsville Magistrates Court on Monday.
The scene in Townsville, Queensland, where a woman was stabbed to death overnight in an alleged domestic violence killing
A sign showing growing anger about domestic violence at the scene in Brisbane where Hannah Clarke and her three kids were doused in petrol and burnt alive on February 19
'The relationship between the man and woman is under investigation, however, it has been confirmed they were known to one another,' police said.
A neighbour who had lived next door to the unit for 19 years told the Townsville Bulletin that police had been called to the complex a number of times before.
'I've called the police on one occasion when we heard really loud banging and banging because I was concerned for their welfare,' the neighbour said.
The killing comes just days after Australia confronted the horror of domestic violence when a former star NRL football player burnt his family to death.
Rowan Baxter killed Hannah Clarke, Aaliyah, 6, Laianah, 4, and Trey, 3, when he doused them in petrol and set their car alight in a Brisbane street on Wednesday morning.
- 40-year-old Mount Isa man will appear in Townsville Magistrates Court (pictured) on Monday
He died shortly after stabbing himself in the abdomen with a knife.
The shocking attack has seen more people turn to domestic violence services for help, Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence Minister Di Farmer says.
'I've spoken with many people who work in the DFV sector and everyone has been absolutely devastated by the deaths of Hannah and her little babies,' Ms Farmer told AAP.
'But they've also said that in the past few days, they've seen an incredible surge in calls from people asking for help - and importantly, from people asking for help to stop being violent.'
How awful, I was looking for the where the older man was stabbed for his pension, (not sure that is what it is called.)
Shooter at Milwaukee Molson Coors had a long-running dispute with a co-worker
Anthony N. Ferrill, 51, had worked as an electrician for more than 20 years, about 17 of them at Molson Coors, according to multiple sources and online employment records.
A co-worker who asked not to be identified for fear of being disciplined said that Ferrill believed he was being discriminated against because he was African-American and that he frequently argued with at least one of the victims, a fellow electrician.
The co-worker said Ferrill often watched movies on his phone during the day, which the other electrician took issue with, and that the two accused each other of going into each others' offices and stealing tools or tampering with computer equipment.
What we know: Hours before Molson Coors shooting, Wisconsin lawmakers said state's gun laws won't change
About a year ago, the employee said, Ferrill started saying he believed brewery workers were coming into his home, bugging his computer and moving chairs around.
"I was, are you serious, Anthony? What? We all kind of joked about it, saying we should maybe get him an aluminum hat. Things just started getting weird. But he was dead serious about it," the co-worker said.
But another co-worker, Keith Giese, said Ferrill seemed fine when he saw him earlier this week.
"I never had a clue. I talked to him a couple of days ago and he seemed fine to me," Giese said. "I had no idea that there was a problem, that somebody could snap like that."
As word spread Thursday that Ferrill was the shooter, co-workers and neighbors echoed that surprise.
"He was a very good electrician, a very good worker and I couldn’t say anything bad about the guy," said Phillip Rauch Sr., who retired in April after working with Ferrill for 15 years. "Every time I worked with him, he was always in a good mood."
Ferrill was a licensed industrial journeyman electrician and a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers in Milwaukee. He served in the U.S. Coast Guard from 1987 to 1991 and was honorably discharged, according to Rick Flowers of Milwaukee County Veterans’ Services.
Neighbors shocked
Police continued to occupy Ferrill’s home Thursday; detectives and officers occasionally emerged with items.
Police tape still surrounded the house, which has a play set in the backyard, as neighbors struggled to reconcile the helpful man they knew with the heinous act authorities say Ferrill committed.
Neighbor Erna Roenspies said Ferrill sometimes helped her around the house, especially after her husband of 60 years died three years ago. She last saw Ferrill about a week ago when he came to help her with a faulty hot water heater.
“He was like my son,” Roenspies said Thursday. “He was a person who would help anyone in the neighborhood. This, it’s a shocker. I still don’t believe it.”
She said Ferrill was a gun collector, putting them together in his home. He told her it was his hobby.
“I said, ‘I hate guns. I don’t want to see them,'” she said. And she said she never did.
Elizabeth LaPine has lived in the neighborhood for 11 years. She said she once saw what she believed to be a gun safe delivered to the home.
“I knew he was interested in guns,” LaPine said.
She said it was hard to believe Ferrill was the shooter.
“I would never believe it ... that he could do something like that,” LaPine said. “He didn’t give me the impression that there was anything wrong. It didn’t seem like there was anything different.”
Ferrill had a Doberman pinscher named Lucas, LaPine said.
Like others who live in the neighborhood, LaPine said Ferrill looked out for his home and his neighbors.
Contributing: Ashley Luthern, Mark Johnson, Rory Linnane, Talis Shelbourne, Mary Spicuzza, Maria Perez, Raquel Rutledge, Ricardo Torres, Bruce Vielmetti and Cary Spivak of the Journal Sentinel; Nick Penzenstadler of USA TODAY
Originally Published 2:01 p.m. EST Feb. 27, 2020
She isn't Worth it :
10 stab wounds, lumber attack punctuate fight involving ex-girlfriend in the Poconos, police say
A Monroe County woman suffered 10 stab wounds at the hands of her ex-boyfriend’s new girlfriend during a fight Tuesday afternoon at a dollar store, police said.
Stabbing victim Stephanie Joseph was among four people facing charges for participating in the fight about 3:15 p.m. Tuesday at the Dollar General in Mount Pocono, according to a news release from the Pocono Mountain Regional Police Department.
Joseph was shopping at the store with her mother, Victoria Dunne, when they came across Joseph’s ex-boyfriend, Chris Johnson, and his new girlfriend, Tammie Green, according to police.
An argument between Joseph and Johnson turned into a fistfight between Joseph, Johnson and Green, police said.
Police say Joseph then attacked the pair with a 2-by-2 piece of lumber. Green then got a knife from her car to stab Joseph, police said.
As Green and Johnson tried to flee the store, Dunne opened the passenger door of their car and kicked Green, police said. Police pulled Green and Johnson over on Route 940 in Pocono Summit and arrested them, according to police.
Police said they planned to file charges of aggravated assault, riot, simple assault and disorderly conduct against:
- Stephanie Joseph, 25, of Tobyhanna.
- Chris Johnson, 24, of Tobyhanna.
- Tammie Green, 28, of Gouldsboro.
- Victoria Dunne, 45, of Tobyhanna.
Rudy Miller may be reached at rmiller@lehighvalleylive.com. If there’s anything about this story that needs attention, please email him. Follow him on Twitter @RudyMillerLV. Find Easton area news on Facebook.
source: lehighvalleylive.com
Pro Driving tip :
FLEEING AN INJURY ACCIDENT IS A FELONY.
Woman hit, killed by multiple cars on Pa. highway; none stopped, dragging her remains for miles
Police now believe human remains found miles away from the fatal hit-and-run are from the female hit-and-run victim, identified as 29-year-old Alexandra Ridgway. Motorists fleeing from the Bucks County scene dragged the remains as far away as Philadelphia. (6ABC Philadelphia)
A fatal hit-and-run involving a pedestrian and multiple cars during Monday morning rush hour became even more gruesome as fleeing motorists dragged some of the woman’s remains for miles.
As 6ABC reports, it happened Monday morning on Route 1 in Bucks County, as multiple cars struck and killed the woman but did not stop.
But when human remains were found later in the day miles away from the scene in Philadelphia, the story became more gruesome and inhuman.
This as 6ABC now reports police believe those human remains are from the female hit-and-run victim, identified as 29-year-old Alexandra Ridgway.
Details from 6ABC:
Police say Ridgway was struck by multiple cars and ultimately killed while either walking on or attempting to cross the southbound lanes of Route 1 in Bucks County early Monday morning. The incident closed all lanes of US 1 near Neshaminy High School in Middletown Township.
"We had traffic from 5:30 on, we heard a lot of backing up, beeping trucks, things like that," said homeowner Stacy Allen. "I thought it was an accident because it's usually very good, the (traffic) flow is good, I love living here so I knew it had to be something crazy."
"I don't know what she was doing at 3:30 in the morning unfortunately, and I can't believe anybody didn't stop," said homeowner Tanya Berndt of Middletown Township. "That's ridiculous."
Philadelphia police say they discovered human remains along the 8800 block of Pine Road in the Fox Chase section of Philadelphia shortly after 8:30 Monday morning.
Middletown Township police say their investigation now spans across multiple regions, including Philadelphia and Montgomery County.
None of the hit-and-run drivers have been identified as of yet.
'Volcano Live!' Daredevil Nik Wallenda defies gravity, lava with wirewalk over volcano
SARASOTA, Fla. – Nik Wallenda, and his wife Erendira, turned in another aerial classic Wednesday night. Only, this time, they had to wear gas masks because there was a volcano below them seething with corrosive fog and updrafts that felt "like a hurricane."
National audiences tuned in to ABC’s "Volcano Live! With Nik Wallenda" and watched Sarasota’s most famous wirewalker emerge from the surrealistic spectacle in Nicaragua drenched in sweat and praising Jesus.
With a battery of airborne and ground cameras tracking his every move above Masaya volcano’s liver-shaped lake of red magma 1,800 feet below, Wallenda took just over 31 nail-biting minutes to follow 1,800 feet of steel cable to deliver an unprecedented performance.
Eyes protected by goggles, breathing filtered air to protect his lungs, the 40-year-old multiple Guinness World Record holder vanished into clouds of noxious fumes and watery heat, his progress monitored on a split-screen thermal camera. The wire took a 60-foot dip on the front end and required a 60-foot climb on the other side. And for the fifth time in eight years, a global audience breathed a sigh of collective relief when he cleared the wire.
'Volcano Live!'Daredevil Nik Wallenda to wirewalk over Nicaraguan volcano
In an opening act, Erendira performed graceful yoga in mid-air above the caldera, pulling upside down toe hangs from her aerial hoop, or lyra. She removed her mask in order to suspend her weight with her teeth.
Claiming to have been "freaked out" when his father Terry Troffer told him weeks ago that Masaya’s fumes were leaving slippery deposits on the equipment, Wallenda was as sure-footed Wednesday evening as he was during his nationally televised debut in 2012.
More: Nik Wallenda's wife hangs by her teeth from helicopter over Niagara Falls
Two-inch thick steel cable and all-weather jacket drenched by roiling mists from Niagara Falls, the eighth-generation acrobat now renowned for panoramic theater took 25 minutes to cross into Canada from New York and scampered over the last few yards into Ontario.
One year later, the challenge was heat, not water. Working around a ban on stunting in Grand Canyon National Park, where Arizona’s summer highs average 106 degrees, Wallenda turned to nearby Navajo Nation to activate Plan B.
He hired a helicopter to lay cable across a 1,500-foot deep gorge walled by a shear butte, a target covering roughly the same distance as his rim-to-rim on Masaya. More than halfway through that 23-minute journey, a sudden hard gust forced Wallenda into a crouch and a prayer. “Calm these winds in the name of Jesus,” he implored into his microphone. “Help me to relax, Lord.”
A snowstorm raked Chicago two days before his November 2014 double-wirewalk spectacle in the Windy City; by showtime, the temperatures had stabilized in the mid-40s. One of those excursions involved climbing a 19-degree incline over nearly 500 feet; the other was a 94-foot blindfolded quickie that took a scant 1 minute, 17 seconds, to complete.
But the illusion that all Wallenda wirewalks are routine literally crashed to the ground in February 2017. That’s when, during rehearsals for Circus Sarasota, Wallenda’s dangerous eight-person pyramid fell apart. Five performers — including sister Lijana and aunt Rietta, who fell the farthest, from 40 feet — hit the ground.
More:Flying Wallendas safely cross Times Square on high wire 25 stories above the pavement
The accident drew immediate comparisons to a similar 1962 disaster, when Wallenda’s legendary great grandfather Karl watched his own 7-person pyramid disintegrate during a live performance in Detroit. Karl’s son-in-law and nephew died, and son Mario spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair.
Karl would fall 200 feet to his death in 1978, at age 73, during an unscheduled exhibition over the streets of San Juan, Puerto Rico.
No one was killed or paralyzed during the Sarasota accident, but Nik Wallenda briefly considered retirement.
In 2019, however, he and Lijana, who needed reconstructive facial surgery as a result of the spill, reunited on the wire once more, this time above New York’s Times Square. It was Nik Wallenda’s fourth live network special.
Wallenda has long said “lots of people can do what I do” and has credited other family members for being “better wirewalkers than me.” Qualitative assessments aside, however, what seems clear is that when it comes to self-promotion and sheer willpower, Wallenda is peerless.
The late Canadian wirewalker Jay Cochran, for instance, tried for 30 years to secure permits to perform over Niagara Falls. Wallenda cut through the red tape in two years. “Nik,” conceded Cochrane, “has an opportunity before him like none other in history.”
Famed French aerialist Philippe Petit, who performed a 45-minute wirewalk between the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers in 1974 with neither a shoulder harness nor a permit, tried unsuccessfully for 25 years to get permission to cross the Grand Canyon — in the exact same location Wallenda did in 2013.
Wallenda is under contract to ABC for one more special. Competitive family members have wanted to replicate Karl Wallenda’s double-headstand performance above Georgia’s Tallulah Gorge in 1970, but no word on that project has been forthcoming.
Maybe the only thing keeping Wallenda from becoming a victim of his own success is a creative answer to the obvious question: What does a circus performer who conquered a volcano do for an encore?
source: usatoday.com
Man Dressed As The Joker Charged For Live Streaming Terror Threats
Authorities in St. Louis, Missouri, arrested a man dressed as the iconic Batman villain The Joker for making terroristic threats on Facebook Live. Police said that Jeremy J. Garnier began filming the hour-long video from his bedroom as he got into costume.
Once Garnier was dressed, he got into his car and tried to visit the St. Louis Galleria. He was asked to leave by security and then headed to the Delmar Loop, a popular area filled with bars, restaurants, and shops. While driving, he started threatening to kill people.
"Yes, I'm doing this for attention, but the attention I seek is to take over the world," he said, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "I'm going to start killing people until this reaches 1,000 [viewers], and once it reaches 1,000, I'm going to go out in public, and I'm going to kill more. We're not going to go to any movie theaters. We're going to go totally unarmed because we don't want to alert the authorities into thinking we might be on an actual rampage."
Garnier then parked his car and went to a Blueberry Hill restaurant. The host asked him for identification, which he said he did not have. He was eventually seated and asked the server for a Sprite.
"Yeah, I can't be inebriated when I'm planning on, you know, killing a bunch of people," he said. "It's not something you can do. I'm live on Facebook right now. I've got like nearly 2,000 people watching me."
Later in the video, he says that he is not armed, but suggested he had planted bombs.
"I'm not armed, and I weigh 150 pounds," he said. "I don't have no weapons on me. I'm not going to do nothing. You've got me messed up. Except all these bombs."
Somebody in the restaurant became concerned about his comments and called the police.
"I think they're looking for me, but it's OK," Garnier said when he saw a police car pulling into the parking lot.
Officers came into the restaurant and took him into custody without incident. A judge ordered Garnier held without bail. He is facing felony charges of making a terrorist threat. Garnier has a lengthy criminal history, which includes multiple burglary convictions.
Photo: St. Louis Police Department
