ISRAEL THIS & THAT

 

Missed Tributes By Ben Stein Published 3/6/2006 2:08:21 AM   Now for a few humble thoughts about the Oscars. I did not see every second of it, but my wife did, and she joins me in noting that there was not one word of tribute, not one breath, to our fighting men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan or to their families or their widows or orphans. There were pitifully dishonest calls for peace -- as if the people we are fighting were interested in any peace for us but the peace of the grave. But not one word for the hundreds of thousands who have served and are serving, not one prayer or moment of silence for the dead and maimed. Basically, the sad truth is that Hollywood does not think of itself as part of America, and so, to Hollywood, the war to save freedom from Islamic terrorists is happening to someone else. It does not concern them except insofar as it offers occasion to mock or criticize George Bush. They live in dreamland and cannot be gracious enough to thank the men and women who pay with their lives for the stars' ability to live in dreamland. This is shameful. The idea that it is brave to stand up for gays in Hollywood, to stand up against Joe McCarthy in Hollywood (fifty years after his death), to say that rich white people are bad, that oil companies are evil -- this is nonsense. All of these are mainstream ideas in Hollywood, always have been, always will be. For the people who made movies denouncing Big Oil, worshiping gays, mocking the rich to think of themselves as brave -- this is pathetic, childish narcissism. The brave guy in Hollywood will be the one who says that this is a fabulously great country where we treat gays, blacks, and everyone else as equal. The courageous writer in Hollywood will be the one who says the oil companies do their best in a very hostile world to bring us energy cheaply and efficiently and with a minimum of corruption. The producer who really has guts will be the one who says that Wall Street, despite its flaws, has done the best job of democratizing wealth ever in the history of mankind. No doubt the men and women who came to the Oscars in gowns that cost more than an Army Sergeant makes in a year, in limousines with champagne in the back seat, think they are working class heroes to attack America -- which has made it all possible for them. They are not. They would be heroes if they said that Moslem extremists are the worst threat to human decency since Hitler and Stalin. But someone might yell at them or even attack them with a knife if they sad that, so they never will. Hollywood is above all about self: self-congratulation, self-promotion, and above all, self-protection. This is human and basic, but let's not kid ourselves. There is no greatness there in the Kodak theater. The greatness is on patrol in Kirkuk. The greatness lies unable to sleep worrying about her man in Mosul. The greatness sleeps at Arlington National Cemetery and lies waiting for death in VA Hospitals. Help us that we have sunk so low as to confuse foolish and petty boasting with the real courage that keeps this nation and the many fools in it alive and flourishing on national TV.

http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060324 /REPOSITORY/603240340/103 1" title="http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060324 /REPOSITORY/603240340/103 1" target="_blank"http://www.concordmonitor.com... Record of assaulting women
Released inmate unsettles police
By ANNMARIE TIMMINS Monitor staff	Woodard Zoom The Concord police are alerting the local community and other police about the release of inmate Lawrence Woodard, who has spent the past 33 years in state custody for repeated violent sexual assaults against women. But they are doing it with some uneasiness. The police have no authority to supervise or monitor Woodard because he "maxed out" of his last sentence and isn't on parole. But those who know Woodard's history, which includes periods of insanity and random violent attacks on women in their homes, fear he is too dangerous to ignore. During a 1976 escape from state hospital grounds, Woodard fled to Glens Falls, N.Y., and raped and knifed a woman in her home. A year later, during a furlough from the hospital, Woodard confronted a Concord woman in her home with a gun. He has spent the past 26 years in the state prison for stabbing a female caseworker at the state hospital 19 times with a letter opener after threatening to rape her. "Very seldom in my entire career was there someone I had fear of," said Thomas Winn, who served 29 years with the state police and investigated Woodard. "Rarely do you get a case where everybody who has dealt with a man knows he is dangerous." Woodard was released from the state prison last Thursday and spent his first several days in Concord. But he may have left Concord yesterday for Glens Falls, N.Y., where he has family, police there said. Woodard could not be reached. Since Woodard's release, Concord police Detective Todd Flanagan has kept tabs on him and shared old press accounts of Woodard's offenses with local shelters and other social service providers. Flanagan also contacted the Glens Falls police, who have shared Woodard's history with media there. Flanagan said he has tried to balance Woodard's rights with the public's safety. Some of the shelters that have taken in Woodard have limited security and house men near women. Given that Woodard was released in Concord without supervision or a job and far from family after 26 years behind bars, Flanagan feared Woodard could feel desperate. "He's a free man, and we are pretty limited on what we can do,"Flanagan said. "But we had a certain duty to the community to make sure they were protected." Two weeks free Woodard is now about 50. He's spent the past 33 years in the state but only two weeks as a free man. They were his first two weeks. Woodard was 19 when he arrived in the Claremont area from Glens Falls in 1973. He was arrested two weeks later after knocking on doors and forcing his way into women's homes. The first homeowner wouldn't open her door, but the next two did in response to Woodard's request for directions, according to press accounts from the time. The police charged Woodard with attempted rape and assault, but he was found not guilty by reason of insanity. State laws and criminal procedure at the time made it much easier to win an insanity defense than today. Woodard was sentenced to the state psychiatric hospital in a secure unit for life unless the court okayed his discharge, release or transfer. But "life" wasn't life, and the court could discharge Woodard as soon as the hospital could prove he was no longer dangerous. And secure wasn't so secure. Woodard escaped seven times over the next four years. Press accounts from that period show that Woodward wasn't unique. The hospital experienced several escapes every month, including arsonists, rapists and murderers. More than a few reoffended. The first time Woodard escaped, in March 1975, he was charged with burglary for taking a radio from a North Spring Street home, press reports said. Three months later, he escaped a second time and pulled a knife on a woman who'd picked him up hitchhiking. Woodard talked about sex with her but did not sexually assault her. Woodward was charged with assault and robbery for that incident and sent back to the hospital on court orders that he not be allowed "outside of maximum security during (his) confinement," according to stories from the time. But "maximum security" was a relative term. The forensic unit that housed Woodard is now at the prison, under watch of corrections officers. Then, it was in the hospital's oldest building and staffed by medical workers and aides. Major Wheelock, superintendent of the hospital in the 1970s, said inmates could escape by waiting at the door for the shift change armed with a wooden coat hanger. He said the hospital's old building and limited budget made it impossible to provide the security needed and expected. In addition, Wheelock and his medical staff had a practice of giving all patients, including those with criminal convictions, increasing amounts of freedom to test their responsibility and trustworthiness. Eventually the inmates and patients could earn the right to leave the grounds for hours at a time. Sometimes, those experiments failed and inmates like Woodard didn't return. Wheelock defended the practice yesterday, saying it was the only way to assess if and when an inmate or patient was safe enough to be released. But Wheelock paid for it in the Union Leader, which once ran a caricature of Wheelock saying, "We keep letting (patients) go and the police keep bringing them back." Woodard was the kind of inmate who earned Wheelock bad press. Woodard escaped in 1976 and fled to Glens Falls, N.Y., where his parents lived. He was found after he raped and knifed a young mother in her home while her daughter was in a nearby room. Woodard hid in a trailer until the woman came home and then attacked her, press reports said. Charges were never pursued because Woodward was returned to the state hospital, according to the police. Back in Concord, Woodard escaped three more times in the next year. The last escape earned Woodard a second "life sentence." Woodward was on a three-hour furlough to look for a job when he walked into a South End home in August 1977, and pulled a gun on a woman he'd never met, according to press accounts. The woman was wallpapering her kitchen and thought her sister had stopped by when she heard the door open and her dog bark. She screamed when Woodard grabbed her from behind, causing him to run. Two neighbors responded to the screams and caught Woodard. Woodard was charged with burglary and intent to commit assault with a deadly weapon. A judge found him not guilty by reason of insanity in 1978 and gave him another "life" sentence. The next year, Woodward was released from his first "life" sentence, the one given in response to the Claremont attacks. Inmates were reviewed every two years to determine whether they were still mentally ill and dangerous. State prosecutors tried to fight Woodard's efforts to end the sentence, but they could not prove he was still dangerous. Woodward still had his second sentence, however, and was essentially paroled into that. Woodward, then about 25, was to be given a second review hearing the next year, in 1980. If the state again failed to show he was still dangerous, Woodward would be released from the hospital. The state gave up its chance. Woodard answered that question himself a few months later. Decision to challenge In May 1980, a 25-year-old case worker was a few hours from the long Memorial Day weekend when Woodard came into her office with a letter opener and stabbed her 19 times in the chest, abdomen and legs. He also threatened to rape her. She spent a week in the hospital, some of it in intensive care. The woman didn't know Woodard. Winn, the state police detective who handled the investigation, said there was no explanation for Woodard's attack. Winn was spending a lot of time at the state hospital because it was on his patrol beat, and he was skeptical of the number of people who claimed insanity, were found not guilty and served their time under limited security at the hospital. He decided to challenge Woodard's insanity claim and asked to have Woodard's competency and mental health reevaluated. "It was my opinion that he should be looked at again to see if he was competent to stand trial and be punished appropriately,"Winn said yesterday. Around the same time, Woodard's second review hearing was approaching. It would determine whether he could be released from his second "life" sentence for the South End attack. County prosecutors, aware that Winn was pursuing Woodard in the criminal courts, waived that hearing, thereby letting Woodard out of that sentence, according to press accounts. That meant if Woodard was acquitted of stabbing the case worker, he would have been free to leave the hospital. A doctor ruled Woodard competent to stand trial for the stabbing, and a jury convicted him in November 1980, after three hours of deliberation. Woodard's efforts to use an insanity defense failed, and Woodard was given 10 to 30 years in prison. Woodard could have left prison on parole nearly 20 years ago, but he refused to participate in the prison's treatment programs, according to Winn, who is now chairman of the prison's parole board. Woodard maintained during his time in prison that he was being denied access to treatment in an effort to keep him in prison, according to court records. Very few inmates, not more than 5 percent Winn said, "max out" as Woodard has. When Winn realized Woodard was headed for release with no treatment, he tried to intervene and require Woodard to accept help or serve more time. Winn failed on both fronts. Suddenly, the 10 to 30 year sentence that seemed like a lifetime back in 1980 felt woefully short, Winn said. "I was hoping in that time he'd get some treatment," Winn said. "One thing we do not like to have is a person with Larry's problem max out, to go without help." ------ End of article By ANNMARIE TIMMINS Monitor staff

Record of assaulting women Released inmate unsettles police By ANNMARIE TIMMINS Monitor staff March 24. 2006 Woodard Zoom The Concord police are alerting the local community and other police about the release of inmate Lawrence Woodard, who has spent the past 33 years in state custody for repeated violent sexual assaults against women. But they are doing it with some uneasiness. The police have no authority to supervise or monitor Woodard because he "maxed out" of his last sentence and isn't on parole. But those who know Woodard's history, which includes periods of insanity and random violent attacks on women in their homes, fear he is too dangerous to ignore. During a 1976 escape from state hospital grounds, Woodard fled to Glens Falls, N.Y., and raped and knifed a woman in her home. A year later, during a furlough from the hospital, Woodard confronted a Concord woman in her home with a gun. He has spent the past 26 years in the state prison for stabbing a female caseworker at the state hospital 19 times with a letter opener after threatening to rape her. "Very seldom in my entire career was there someone I had fear of," said Thomas Winn, who served 29 years with the state police and investigated Woodard. "Rarely do you get a case where everybody who has dealt with a man knows he is dangerous." Woodard was released from the state prison last Thursday and spent his first several days in Concord. But he may have left Concord yesterday for Glens Falls, N.Y., where he has family, police there said. Woodard could not be reached. Since Woodard's release, Concord police Detective Todd Flanagan has kept tabs on him and shared old press accounts of Woodard's offenses with local shelters and other social service providers. Flanagan also contacted the Glens Falls police, who have shared Woodard's history with media there. Flanagan said he has tried to balance Woodard's rights with the public's safety. Some of the shelters that have taken in Woodard have limited security and house men near women. Given that Woodard was released in Concord without supervision or a job and far from family after 26 years behind bars, Flanagan feared Woodard could feel desperate. "He's a free man, and we are pretty limited on what we can do,"Flanagan said. "But we had a certain duty to the community to make sure they were protected." Two weeks free Woodard is now about 50. He's spent the past 33 years in the state but only two weeks as a free man. They were his first two weeks. Woodard was 19 when he arrived in the Claremont area from Glens Falls in 1973. He was arrested two weeks later after knocking on doors and forcing his way into women's homes. The first homeowner wouldn't open her door, but the next two did in response to Woodard's request for directions, according to press accounts from the time. The police charged Woodard with attempted rape and assault, but he was found not guilty by reason of insanity. State laws and criminal procedure at the time made it much easier to win an insanity defense than today. Woodard was sentenced to the state psychiatric hospital in a secure unit for life unless the court okayed his discharge, release or transfer. But "life" wasn't life, and the court could discharge Woodard as soon as the hospital could prove he was no longer dangerous. And secure wasn't so secure. Woodard escaped seven times over the next four years. Press accounts from that period show that Woodward wasn't unique. The hospital experienced several escapes every month, including arsonists, rapists and murderers. More than a few reoffended. The first time Woodard escaped, in March 1975, he was charged with burglary for taking a radio from a North Spring Street home, press reports said. Three months later, he escaped a second time and pulled a knife on a woman who'd picked him up hitchhiking. Woodard talked about sex with her but did not sexually assault her. Woodward was charged with assault and robbery for that incident and sent back to the hospital on court orders that he not be allowed "outside of maximum security during (his) confinement," according to stories from the time. But "maximum security" was a relative term. The forensic unit that housed Woodard is now at the prison, under watch of corrections officers. Then, it was in the hospital's oldest building and staffed by medical workers and aides. Major Wheelock, superintendent of the hospital in the 1970s, said inmates could escape by waiting at the door for the shift change armed with a wooden coat hanger. He said the hospital's old building and limited budget made it impossible to provide the security needed and expected. In addition, Wheelock and his medical staff had a practice of giving all patients, including those with criminal convictions, increasing amounts of freedom to test their responsibility and trustworthiness. Eventually the inmates and patients could earn the right to leave the grounds for hours at a time. Sometimes, those experiments failed and inmates like Woodard didn't return. Wheelock defended the practice yesterday, saying it was the only way to assess if and when an inmate or patient was safe enough to be released. But Wheelock paid for it in the Union Leader, which once ran a caricature of Wheelock saying, "We keep letting (patients) go and the police keep bringing them back." Woodard was the kind of inmate who earned Wheelock bad press. Woodard escaped in 1976 and fled to Glens Falls, N.Y., where his parents lived. He was found after he raped and knifed a young mother in her home while her daughter was in a nearby room. Woodard hid in a trailer until the woman came home and then attacked her, press reports said. Charges were never pursued because Woodward was returned to the state hospital, according to the police. Back in Concord, Woodard escaped three more times in the next year. The last escape earned Woodard a second "life sentence." Woodward was on a three-hour furlough to look for a job when he walked into a South End home in August 1977, and pulled a gun on a woman he'd never met, according to press accounts. The woman was wallpapering her kitchen and thought her sister had stopped by when she heard the door open and her dog bark. She screamed when Woodard grabbed her from behind, causing him to run. Two neighbors responded to the screams and caught Woodard. Woodard was charged with burglary and intent to commit assault with a deadly weapon. A judge found him not guilty by reason of insanity in 1978 and gave him another "life" sentence. The next year, Woodward was released from his first "life" sentence, the one given in response to the Claremont attacks. Inmates were reviewed every two years to determine whether they were still mentally ill and dangerous. State prosecutors tried to fight Woodard's efforts to end the sentence, but they could not prove he was still dangerous. Woodward still had his second sentence, however, and was essentially paroled into that. Woodward, then about 25, was to be given a second review hearing the next year, in 1980. If the state again failed to show he was still dangerous, Woodward would be released from the hospital. The state gave up its chance. Woodard answered that question himself a few months later. Decision to challenge In May 1980, a 25-year-old case worker was a few hours from the long Memorial Day weekend when Woodard came into her office with a letter opener and stabbed her 19 times in the chest, abdomen and legs. He also threatened to rape her. She spent a week in the hospital, some of it in intensive care. The woman didn't know Woodard. Winn, the state police detective who handled the investigation, said there was no explanation for Woodard's attack. Winn was spending a lot of time at the state hospital because it was on his patrol beat, and he was skeptical of the number of people who claimed insanity, were found not guilty and served their time under limited security at the hospital. He decided to challenge Woodard's insanity claim and asked to have Woodard's competency and mental health reevaluated. "It was my opinion that he should be looked at again to see if he was competent to stand trial and be punished appropriately,"Winn said yesterday. Around the same time, Woodard's second review hearing was approaching. It would determine whether he could be released from his second "life" sentence for the South End attack. County prosecutors, aware that Winn was pursuing Woodard in the criminal courts, waived that hearing, thereby letting Woodard out of that sentence, according to press accounts. That meant if Woodard was acquitted of stabbing the case worker, he would have been free to leave the hospital. A doctor ruled Woodard competent to stand trial for the stabbing, and a jury convicted him in November 1980, after three hours of deliberation. Woodard's efforts to use an insanity defense failed, and Woodard was given 10 to 30 years in prison. Woodard could have left prison on parole nearly 20 years ago, but he refused to participate in the prison's treatment programs, according to Winn, who is now chairman of the prison's parole board. Woodard maintained during his time in prison that he was being denied access to treatment in an effort to keep him in prison, according to court records. Very few inmates, not more than 5 percent Winn said, "max out" as Woodard has. When Winn realized Woodard was headed for release with no treatment, he tried to intervene and require Woodard to accept help or serve more time. Winn failed on both fronts. Suddenly, the 10 to 30 year sentence that seemed like a lifetime back in 1980 felt woefully short, Winn said. "I was hoping in that time he'd get some treatment," Winn said. "One thing we do not like to have is a person with Larry's problem max out, to go without help." ------ End of article By ANNMARIE TIMMINS Monitor staff

Hi all, the reason I have been away is that I haven't been well enough to cope with this blog and the controversial items.  So I think from now on it will not be so controversial,  not know how to reply to comments make to me also at times.  But I do believe in what I put in for why should I put them in in the first place.   Having to battle with Bi Polar Disorder, and now Hypothyroidism too, tiredness and fatigue, so things may get a bit behind at times.  Just a few words for now.  Byeeee.

Jen