Monsters And Maniacs, Could You Be One?

Does evil hold your attention?

Do you find yourself drawn to watching graphic movies and documentaries that you know will create a problem with your sleeping habits?

Why do you watch them?

Do you want to be frightened?  Do you seek to experience the adrenalin rush that fear and evil provides?  Or, is it that your curiosity pulls you towards the morbid, or dark side of life?

You know, the type of evil violence your parents always warned you
might happen if you didn't get home before dark!

I'm not talking of stories of werewolves and vampires ripping the throats out of their victims. 

I leave those to Kristen Stewart!

Instead, real blood, gore, and mayhem that real life crazies provide.  True life tales of surviving the maniacal assaults of desperate madmen who kill for either the twisted, psychological thrill of holding the power of death in their hands, or because they think it necessary for them to escape possible imprisonment.

U.S. Army Sniper.
Public Domain Photo

Sound like someone you know?

Since the dawn of time, people have been killed for many reasons.  Wealth, power and religion have ended the lives of millions.  Wars have been fought to justify the insane greed of rulers who wanted to own it all.  Of course, most of the rulers had armies do the majority of the killing for them.  Does that make it right?

If so, how big does the army 
have to be?

CHARLES MANSON
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:
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Charles Manson had an army of sorts.  They called it the "family".  We all know the story.   His reason wasn't money ... it was power.  

How far would you go

 to become Top Dog?

Is there an internal desire inside of you that lingers ... holding a deep grudge for someone that inflicted either tremendous physical or mental injury to you in times passed?  Would you like to see them suffer under the hands of a professional torture expert?  Would their screams of agony satisfy your desires, or would you want them to suffer the affects of a razor slicing layer after layer of skin off of every limb of their body, with death as a final result?

No, I'm not advertising for business.  
That's not my line of work.

I'm only curious how far you would really go? (It's always nice to know one's friends, lol.) Would anger and desperation allow you to proceed beyond the realm of social conditioning, or would you recognize your actions and allow guilt to cease them prior to completion?

I’d prefer you not answer that question.  One never knows who may be watching.  

Especially with tags like this blog is going to have.  (lol)

Sunbathing in the Bahamas ...

could you do what it takes to get there?

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Could you kill for money?

Not the convenience store clerk for $36 type of money, but the huge amounts we only dream of.  Five, ten, twenty million dollar type of amounts.   Could you do it?  Would you do it?   How desperate would you have to be?

Just think ... life in the Bahamas ... daily sunbathing on the beautiful white sand beaches ... tropical drinks in hand ... living the life of luxury.  Why, there's even cabana boys and girls to service your personal needs exactly the way you like them serviced.   

I sense your breathing is getting shallow and faster just thinking about it.  

Easy now!  Slow down!

Could you do it?  

Would you be able to plan it out like the Colorado assassin did in the theater last year?  Could you simply burst inside and start shooting like he did?  Something like 22 people were killed.  Now, because of his careful, advance planning, an insanity plea has been filed on behalf of the accused.  

Yet, in the actions of a sane person, he:

1. intricately planned out the crime, 
2. ordered and purchased all the weapons, 
3. preceded the act by requesting mind doctor assistance (minimally, I might add), 
4. meticulously set complicated booby traps in his apartment, 
5. costumed himself to project an image of insanity,
6. hid his insanity so well that his "mind doctor" mother couldn't detect it, and
7. timed his entrance perfectly for the first action scene in the movie.  

However, we're now supposed to believe that this person was insane.  Many still believe this intelligent young man did it to simply prove he could beat the system.  And, he just might!

Could you do it as well?

Could you play the Norman Bates role as convincingly as Anthony Perkins?

Or, will you become the Janet Leigh character in the next hotel you stay?

Many that would like to be on the jury in this person's trial.  Most feel as though he planned this act as a personal power challenge to see if he could outsmart the system and get away with it.  Many have stated they would love to give him the death penalty.  

In a way, isn't that killing?   

Or, is it the religious philosophy of an eye for an eye?

Nothing like religion to bring about 

a peaceful solution, is there?

So, how about you?  What would it take to get you to kill?  Think about it for a second.  Don't think you could do it?  

Well, what if:

1. your children were being attacked?
2. you were experiencing a violent home invasion?
3. you were walking home and were attacked by a maniac or a gang?
4. you were bullied without mercy for years?
5. you were watching a shooter fire round after round at a playground?

 Still don't think you do it?  

Maybe you ought to think about it.

Given the right circumstances, we all could.  

That’s right ... the lady in the grocery store that keeps stopping in front of you could be ready to snap and attack you with a can of creamed corn. Or, how about the convenience store clerk that has gone off the deep end and is ready to drown you in artificial coffee creamer?    Maybe, that guy tailgating you the black Honda CR-Z has a vendetta against Prius drivers and is searching for his next victim.  Perhaps, even the school principal is awaiting the next parent / teachers conference to get back at all the idiots that can't raise children properly! (I might join them if that were the case, lol.)

Are you getting closer to going over the edge, too?  

Do you even know how close you really are?

Could the fear you feel while watching the movies and documentaries be tempting you to become one of the players instead of the watchers?   Could your quest for adrenalin drive you closer and closer to the edge?  Is the video game you're playing be the conditioning tool you need to see life only as a 500 point score?  Could you be the next one we’re watching the documentary about?  

What would it take?

*** Disclaimer:  This is a post to simply make you think a little.  I had originally intended to make this blog post much more humorous.  However, in attempting to do so, I found it either not fitting well, sounding somewhat too lighthearted, and less meaningful.  The sarcasm added is to allow some of the tension a chance to escape, but still, the final question, "What would it take?" is one that does require much internal soul searching.  The answer isn't easy, nor one that we wish to find.  Yet, in today's world, may be a necessary evil to discover.  Peace!

Another Life Has Passed

We all lose friends over the years.  Family Members, whether
adopted or natural, tend to hit us a little harder.

Everyone and everything has its time on Earth.    

And then it's over.

Losing a loved one this time of year is not easy.  A family member is especially tough.

Adopted family members are almost as difficult.

In 2003, I adopted a friend.  This friend would live under my roof, be fed on a constant basis, and bask in the warmth of the care I could provide him.  

I awoke this morning to a strange smell in the room.  This smell was similar to a decaying mouse.

No, I've never had a mouse as a household pet.  I don't like mice.  They bite, they crap, they piss in their water bowls, and they don't even display any type of beauty.  Sorry Mickey, even Stuart Little couldn't spend a night in my house, unless he wanted to play with my cats, Faletame and Gabriela all night!  That would be something to watch!

I slide the glass back, carefully lifted up the hide rock, and underneath found my adopted household friend in a somewhat still position.  No prodding would create movement.  Indeed, my friend was stiff as a board.

As life would have it, all era’s must come to an end.  

There's no reason to shed tears!
Life must continue for the living.

In the mid 60’s, I was playing Army in my grandfather’s back forest with a friend of mine.  As I was running across a clearing (and being shot in the back with BB’s) I jumped over a fallen tree.  As I landed, I felt something hit the back of my leg.  Thinking I’d flipped thorns up (and still being shot with BB’s) I ran another step before stopping.  I’d felt something flop against the back of my leg, and needed to investigate.  

Just as I looked down, I saw a copperhead remove itself from the back of my leg and strike again ... and again.   I could only imagine my leg starting forward as it first struck and being carried by the motion of my leg once the fangs entered my calf.  

I spent a couple of days in the hospital that time.    While there, relatives would come by and make statements that I’d never go back in the woods again as I would develop a fear of these animals.  Instead, I developed the need to face my fears and learn all I could about these creatures.

In the late 70’s, a friend of mine, in South Africa, was raising venomous reptiles for research.  I opened a container that held some Cape Cobra (naja Nivea) eggs.  One of the eggs was pushing against another in an attempt of the occupant to hatch.  So, I reached down and adjusted the egg’s position to allow this to happen much easier.

I didn’t know that one had already hatched from the bottom of one of the eggs and was underneath the substrate.

The neonate cobra attached itself to the side of my right hand, little finger and wouldn’t let go.  Such is the life of a feeding response.  It pumped every bit of venom it had into that finger until I could manage to remove it.

After a stay in a South African hospital (and three days on life support), I found that finger to never be the same.  The internal necrosis had eaten away cartilage and tissue which would forever give me the “tea drinker’s” pinkie appearance.

Since that time, I’ve owned upwards of fifty types of venomous reptiles.  My collection has included some of the most venomous species in the world at times.  I’ve had a couple of more bites from slightly venomous species, but never returned to the hospital.  

Then the laws started changing.  

Suddenly it was illegal in the state of Kentucky to own these.  In addition, the city had created its own laws that were even more strict about the keeping of exotics.   My landlord even started including a clause in the lease about them.  So, I either sold or gave away my collection.

I never took a picture of my friend for some reason.
This is one identical to my specimen.

All except one.

The Western Hognose snake has been declared slightly venomous in the last few years.  It won’t kill you, but you can sustain major swelling and possible muscle damage from it’s bite.  However, none of the city or state regulations lists it as venomous as yet. 

It was my last specimen.  My last reminder of the era I’d spent getting pure adrenaline rushes from dealing with death on the end of a snake hook, or in extracting venom days, in my hands.  They provided me a reason to travel many countries of the world I would have never done otherwise, as I hunted them in their natural habitat to supply venom labs with specimens for extractions necessary for the making of antivenins.  

Imagine, being able to hold a living creature that has the ability to kill you with one bite in the flash of a micro second, and surviving!  Oh, I’ve dealt with gators, venomous lizards, and other creatures that could kill you, but there was something so sinister, yet, beautiful in the patterns they wore, as venomous snakes.

Today, my hognose snake died.

The burial was a garbage bag in the trash.  No, I’m not that sentimental about it.

But, for me, the era of venomous snakes is over ... completely.  

My years in dealing with them taught me to always face my fears and never allow fear to rule my life.  That followed me through my times of sky diving, skin diving, stand-up comedy, marriage, and even two years ago when I took a high performance driving class and raced around a sports car track at speeds exceeding 150 mph.   Fear will only hold one back.   Only when you face and overcome these fears will you have an experience to talk about that many others only wish they'd enjoyed.   Healthy respect is always recommended, but fear is nothing more than a hindrance to success and feeling the rush life can truly offer.

I have decided to no longer replace my reptiles, as my wife would be lost in tending for them should I pass on, too.  

It’s another phase of my life that has passed.  Sad, in a way, as it was one that provided many challenges and experiences that I can recall with enthusiasm and cherish for the rest of my life, as my years pass by all to quickly, 

So, now I must find something to replace it.

Time to check out bridge bungee jumping!