Horror Report

Day: October 14, 2014

  • Tuesday terrors: Scary stories to tell on the news

    A smattering and splattering of news of the real, the weird, the fictitiously, and the scandalous .. There are volumes more of daily headlines that can be covered.. but the wrap up would be far too many words .. Here’s the briefs:

    A new report out today says that the pesticides used by farmers is not only deadly for the bugs on the crops, but also the workers who are around the chemicals. Brian Bienkowski writes that the pesticides are linked to depression and suicides, along with very sudden shifts in behavior.

    Nichole Beaudry wrote an exceptionally emotional piece in the ATLANTIC today called “Murder in a time before Google.” It’s a good read, and focuses on the 1973 murder of her father–a man, that she writes, did not exist according to the internet..

    Ebola is on our shores.. but do you want it at your doorstep? It may be, just in time for Halloween. As usual, there is at least one controversial Halloween costume each year. This time, it does not involve breasts hanging out or sexualized cartoon characters, instead it’s the disease that is ravaging a number of countries. Some wonder if the Ebola related Halloween apparel is too soon..

    Another bit related to Halloween: The candy in Denver may contain pot. That dire warning comes from police in the city who are telling parents to brace themselves for the possibility of marijuana in this year’s candy haul..  In the 1970s, we checked apples for knives that never were in there.. is this the latest fear that will not materialize? Dude?

    Sometimes I wish I could go back in time and show people from another generation in time this headline: “Skype Takes on Snapchat with Qik App”..    Quite frankly, I don’t even know if I understand it.

    Kachinga .. Ke$ha is in the news again.. This time, her haunted vagina has taken a backseat to real news. The star says that she was sexually, physically, and verbally abused by her producer.. According to her lawsuit, she would be forced drugs and alcohol and then the abuse would commence.  Even more, she makes the allegation that it almost led to her death..

    Bill Murray says that the desire for an award for acting is like a disease, and argues that winning an Oscar can hurt your career. In the mean time, he has appeared on the cover of VARIETY magazine with the headline “Saint Bill.” And it’s a strange cover, indeed..

    QUICK HITS:

    And finally some food for thought on why people are so curious about the morbid.. a fascinating tale of truth..

  • The kids aren’t alright..

    The kids aren’t alright..

    Quiet communities are becoming shocked in 2014.. Slenderman stabbings, murderous rampages by the youth, PURGE style threats, and cyber stalking..  While crime rates are falling, the crimes that are occurring are garnering headlines around the world for the outrageous nature they posses.

    Enter this story from Pennsylvania, something you have probably already heard about on the news. A 10-year-old boy killed a 90-year-old woman.. He told police that he held her down with her cane and punched her. Some media outlets called it a temper tantrum.. To me, it sounds more like an other-worldy rage that possessed him for the time he was murdering her..

    Sources are calling him ‘the boy.’ He was visiting his grandparents.. the woman the ‘boy’ killed was Helen Novak..

    An autopsy confirmed what ‘the boy’ told the police.. Blunt trauma.

    WNEP in Pennsylvania reported the boy’s name: Tristen Kurilla. 

    Prosecutor are charging ‘boy’ Tristen as an adult.. His image is now being plastered across the web.. Adults who use the internet–the same adults who converge to say cyber bullying is a crime–are calling for horrid treatment of Kurilla. A few posts I saw actually said he should be publicly hanged, or that a firing squad was appropriate..

    This entire debacle is tremendously difficult for the mind to comprehend.

    On a personal note, I was actually waiting for my car to get some work done on it this morning at the garage.. the television was airing the early morning newscast of WNEP, with the report on the 10-year-old’s killing as their top story.. The room went silent, with all of the people looking at the screen in shock. Their speechlessness made me speechless, I actually watched them digest the news instead of watching the news itself.. For me, that was the stunning part.

    Anymore, crimes are tough to shock. Snuff films like what ISIS publishes are all around us.. It is alarming to hear of criminal at such an early age.. But watching the adults try to come to grips with the evil that has seemingly invaded their surroundings chilled me a bit.

    The ‘safety’ is gone.. nothing feels right anymore. Something seems off balance. What’s up is down and vice versa.. And now, children are committing horrible crimes right in the backyard of places that once were deemed civil and secure. . Watching people see that with their own eyes, knowing that they they are defenseless to the tidal wave of evil, is frightening..

  • Going deep into the tunnel

    Going deep into the tunnel

    In the words of Willie Wonka as he took a boat of children through hell in his chocolate factory,

    There’s no earthly way of knowing
    Which direction we are going
    There’s no knowing where we’re rowing
    Or which way the river’s flowing

    Is it raining, is it snowing
    Is a hurricane a-blowing?

    Not a speck of light is showing
    So the danger must be growing
    Are the fires of Hell a-glowing
    Is the grisly reaper mowing?

    Yes, the danger must be growing
    For the rowers keep on rowing
    And they’re certainly not showing
    Any signs that they are slowing!

    It feels a bit like we are moving into uncharted territory for our generation.. A time where disease and pestilence plague the landscape.. a time when the young eat the old, and where the demons inhabit the most innocent people and places on the planet.

    This is the new world..
    A ravaged population..

    The Halloween season upon us again, and yet again there are things taking place in the real world that make the symbols of the season of the witch look tame. Images of Thomas Eric Duncan’s family after his death, and now a new nurse infected–with up to 70 other hospital workers deep in the heart of Texas coming in contact with the dying Duncan before he succumbed to his fate on earth..

    The United States and Europe are attracting the majority of headlines–amazing since they have the vast minority of cases. Nonetheless, they want to keep it that way. Budget cuts over the past few years may make that difficult to do.. Lawmakers are now rushing to fund anything they can throw money at to keep Ebola at bay. At least until the November election passes and it doesn’t turn into a November insurrection.

    But here is the problem: We are a free-flowing population of billions of people. Airfare happens. And with it comes sickness, as we saw from the Duncan case.  The WHO is warning us that air travel may even become more dangerous–even if that is implied. the WHO said that there is strong evidence that the Ebola epidemic in Africa is still spreading. The number of cases in West Africa will exceed 9000 this year.. This plague of the people has gone on for months now, and there are some signs that the hardest hit areas are seeing less cases. On the flipside: There are more prefectures and districts coming in contact with Ebola..

    The other problem may be the underreporting of cases on the African continent.

    The media isn’t helping.
    Their focus has solely been on the spread of Ebola to nations that are not in Africa. That is typical of their journalistic style but not doing anything to address the root cause of the problem or find solutions so future epidemics don’t happen. The ignorance of Africa is appalling. On many levels. Even from me.. I took a quiz on JetPunk days ago and had to take a long look in the mirror. My least strong continent was Africa. We don’t hear about it from our news sources unless there is a ‘strange’ or bizarre story that only reinforces the images that the Western world has of the land.. That has not done anything to help this Ebola situation.

    When the disease began to ravage, instead of completely ignoring information, the media should have been quick to report it.

    I recall the 1990s outbreak.. Ebola always felt like it was ‘there.’  Though I go back in memory and recall old Art Bell shows in which he was worried Ebola would break out here, things were not nearly as close together as now.

    Now.. no screening for Ebola takes place at airports, but hands are quickly down pants of every age to sniff out the shoe bomber .. even though the shoe bomber had a well dressed man helping him on board. I digress…

    Now, as Halloween approaches, we are forced to deal with a potential outbreak. At this point, it appears that the fear is catching on quicker than the actual plague. That could change, though.. especially if 70 people handled the blood, sweat, vomit, and tears of Mr. Duncan. Seventy people can multiply like wildfire.. Breed like rabbits.. and hop from continent to continent.

    EBOLA is not just ‘there’ in one of those countries run by warlords on a continent far away. It’s here. And it could be everywhere..

    Maybe this is a lesson: The next time that a disease breaks out among poor indigenous people someone on the planet, the media should pay attention, report, and realize that we are all connected. Not only by plane, train, and automobile, but in spirit. And for that, the media owes it to other humans just to report their plight–before it takes flight.

    Yes, the danger must be growing
    For the rowers keep on rowing
    And they’re certainly not showing
    Any signs that they are slowing!