Jaycee Dugard Kidnapper Wants ‘his family’

Jaycee Dugard was kidnapped at age 11 by Phillip Garrido.  He kept her prisoner for 18 years and fathered two children:  one when she was 14, the other when she was 17.

Now in court proceedings, Garrido  (I can’t even call him ‘Mister’)  says he wants to be in contact with ‘his family’.

Garrido and his wife Nancy have pleased not guilty.  A simple DNA test would confirm his link to the children.

Religious fanaticism plays a great part here. He claims he’s turned his life around since the kidnapping, but evidence suggests he’s one of these poor souls who fell into religious fervor.  He’s so pathetic – believing thousands of people are going to ‘come out of the woodwork’ to testify about some seemingly religious event.

This man was a registered sex offender and had been imprisoned Leavenworth for federal  kidnapping charges  in 1977 for the rape of a 25 year-old,  Katie Hall.  He took her across state lines from California to Nevada where he raped her. After serving 10 years he was transferred to Carson City, then paroled in 1988.

He managed to stay under the radar for many years after his release and finally moved to California.  In 2006 he was required to wear a GPS tracking device because he was a sex offender.  Two 911 calls to local sheriff’s office from his neighbors failed to unearth the fact that he was keeping a woman and two children prisoners in has back yard.  Deputies didn’t check his background; a lack of communication between jurisdictions can be blamed for this.

Oh yeah — the GPS worked alright!  He never went near schools or where children were likely to be.  He was being good as gold.  Why would he have to go in search of children?  His own home was his perverted  playground!

Jaycee and her children were imprisoned at his home in Antioch, California.  They went without medical care, didn’t go to school and were instructed to ‘hide’ if someone came to the door.

Now, he wants contact with his ‘family’.   He’s clearly a nutcase, a fanatical one at that.  He’s also a sex offender and kidnapper.  In all — he NEEDS to be KEPT in prison for the rest of his life, never paroled,  because of his 18 year imprisonment and continuous rape of Jaycee Dugard.

No… buddy — you CAN’T have ‘your family’ back.

NAIS Scrapped By USDA… but….

NAIS, for the meantime, has been shelved by the USDA. This sounds good, but…. and I say this with a capital “B”… that we should not reduce our vigilance where any sort of government intrusion into our food system is concerned.

Says USDA Secretary Vilsack, “We are committed to working in partnership with States, Tribal Nations and industry in the coming months to address many of the details of this framework, and giving ample opportunity for farmers and ranchers and the public to provide us with continued input through this process.” Let’s make sure this happens; that we who are committed to local food &  preserving our small farms stay on the ball and not get complacent. We are not to let our guard down, not even for a minute.

I am bothered by this:  These steps will include accelerating actions to lessen the risk from diseases–such as tuberculosis–posed by imported animals, and WHY do we have to IMPORT animals for our food? … improving response capabilities, and focusing on greater collaboration and analyses with States and industry on potential disease risk overall. Keeping in mind, here, that small farmers’ livestock has never contributed to the beef industry food recalls.

One of USDA’s  first steps will be to convene a forum with animal health leaders for the States and Tribal Nations to initiate a dialogue about the possible ways of achieving the flexible, coordinated approach to animal disease traceability Flexible should take into consideration the small farmers and consumers who own livestock.  They should not be lumped in with the massive feed lots, (CAFOS) and withor compared to facilities which breed disease.

ALL of us need to be more aware of where our food comes from and what’s in it.  Read this Organic Consumer’s article for a quick briefing.  It’s written by a farmer.

We CANNOT RELAX on this issue!  Special interest groups like Monsanto, Cargill, ADM and Tyson and major food retailers like Wal-Mart are NOT out to protect consumers!  Wal-Mart is aggressively raising the level of food imports as reported in Supermarket News.  U.S. food imports are staggering.  WHY should we allow the government to use us as Guinea pigs so that retailers can save money? Imports are on the rise, even since this 2004  article.

Across this land people are starting to wake up regarding our food:  what’s in it, where it comes from and how its produced.  Everyone who is concerned needs to voice their opinion.  The thousands of letters, e-mails and phone calls made obviously reached someone in the government.  The 100 organizations who opposed NAIS and millions of consumers who called, faxed or signed online petitions – accomplished something.

Now is NOT the time to quit!