After startled cry, UND senior vanishes (Dru Sjodin)

Your talking points aren't anything new. Here's an excerpt that sums them up pretty well, except note here the author specifies porno images as not being speech, not all images.

This latest court decision is part of the increasingly hard-to-digest fiction that pornographic images are speech. It is also a direct affirmation of the increasingly naked proposition driving our society: that the sexual interests of adults are more important than children and their needs. Such an utter reversal of moral priorities ought to (and in most places does) provoke disgust on the part of decent adults.

True, however the 'for the children' infantilization of society is something up with which I no longer put. If not outright Hillarity itself, it's social conservatives doing to us in one sphere what socialists attempt in others. As to the matter at hand, I'll leave you an excerpt resplendent in the flowery language of the aggrieved.

On May 31, 2002, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia "legalized the ‘right’ of library patrons to assault children and other non-consenting folks by viewing, and then leaving on the computer screen, pathological acts of bestiality and sexual torture of adults and children-paid for with our tax dollars." That is the conclusion of Dr. Judith Reisman, a strong opponent of pornography. The judges in the case decided that pornographic pictures are "speech" and, therefore, entitled to protection under the law.

I normally suspect the boyfriend, husband, ex, whatever in these cases these days too. We have seen that be the case too often.

As for her words being suspect, I think if I were in that situation, they are exactly what I would say myself.

Reisman ... she's wonderful.

If anyone can attest to the FACT the Federal Government understands only too well the connection between sexual liberation and political control, it's she.

Fourth time's a charm in this case ... several key distinctions among the sexual revolutions of Sadean France, Weimar Germany, Kollantai's Russia, and Kinsey's "Sex Sells" America.

Chief among them being the implementing of measures to control births, provide for abortion and infanticide and even artificial conception. (No less than the GOP finding in 1970 that parents had a right to pre-determine the sex of their children.) They had their ducks in a row this time, baby. Heterosexuality's been aping homosexuality LOOOOONNNNG before this marriage thing came up.

For anyone's who's studied any of this like I have, it's almost breathtaking century of real progress, the Sadean having taken almost 100 years to flower, as it were ...

... watching Cardinal Spellman give his blessing to his buddy Roosevelt (where the sterilizing and pharmaceutical birth control of blacks and browns is concerned, anyway),
... seeing 60's liberals (who, through the Civil Rights period, understood as well as the Last Poets that birth control and abortion were genocidal) but once the GOP kicked open the door to abortion with a dollar bill in 1970, became the party for whom sterility and abortion were the litmus test of empowerment in the age of Sexual Revolution.
... having the Supreme Court of our "for the children" Justice Department actually rule that "faked" cyber kiddie porn was due the same special protections all porn or elements of the sexual revolution get from the Feds.

I think it's positively brilliant what they've done.

Unfortunately, it's hard to tell the story or make my points in pictures ... the way pornographers speak of love between Persons or those who believe a picture of a 9/11 jumper is sufficient rebuttal to the least criticism of the War on Terror ... so very few ever are going to "get" what I'm saying.

No one like you, anyway, gcruse. I know you and I'm fond of you but you've made all the necessary leaps of faith ... like a little beastie jumping hoops and ever circling his ring at the circus-circus.

It's always possible but very doubtful folks ever learn once again to stand erect on their feet with their heads in the clouds once they've discovered and begin to play with their tails.

BUMP

This thread has gotten way off topic. I'd be nice to keep it relevant.

I assume, in all that somewhere, you are acknowledging that images are speech.
This, though...

those who believe a picture of a 9/11 jumper is sufficient rebuttal to the least criticism of the War on Terror

...is a tack I don't think I'd take. Finally, although I live in the area of DisneyWorld, I have no desire to live in Disney world. It's not all about the children.

Well, that's my point. I don't like the tack either. I find it not only abhorrent but a real indication of the caliber of mind ... not only those which rely on flashing such images but--clearly--the mental pygmies whom they think to yank into shape with images rather than substantive argument.

You know I'm a "rabid" pro-lifer. With the exceptions of a few rare instances, I'm also generally opposed to the use of images of dead unborn children in order to make the argument FOR life.

I don't think shock value instructs so much as it desensitizes.

Much like we become desensitized to both images and words. I suppose I could still get downgraded on Liberty Forum or edited out here if I went around peppering every post with the word "fuck" ... but it would be rather odd in light of the FCC's finding that it's lost its shock value somehow.

(Probably hard to get too many of the lyrics to which "the kids" listen these days without it.)

Absent any objective standards -- such as those on which the distinctions between word and image would be based -- we're doomed to follow this "lowest common denominator" vector to its bitter end ... somewhere after infinity I imagine.

Turns out, it's an ever-expanding universe after all when you try to find the point at which the lowest common denominator limbo stick's gonna stop.

Well, as long as it's an adjective, it's okay. No nouns, please, we're sensitive. That did crack me up. An essay could probably be written on the objectivity, the concreteness of nouns and their capacity to hurt, pinpoint, and judge. However, adjectives are subjective, open to dispute, and ultimately are generated, filtered through the perceptions, hence without real meaning, harmless. Yes, there's an essay in there. :)

A few answers to the cellphone questions on this thread:

Posted on Wed, Nov. 26, 2003

DRU SJODIN SEARCH: Cell phone tracking: Not an exact science
Companies can pinpoint only 911 calls
By Xiao Zhang
Herald Staff Writer

New technology eventually will enable law enforcement to pinpoint the location of 911 calls made from cellular telephones, but that probably would not have helped in the case of Dru Sjodin, the UND student who disappeared Saturday.

A cell phone tower near Fisher, Minn., was picking up a signal from Sjodin's cell phone for 24 hours after she went missing early Saturday evening, but searchers couldn't pinpoint the signal any closer than a 3- to 5-mile radius.

Al Morken, director of Grand Forks' 911 dispatch center, asked the Grand Forks City Council on Monday to approve an upgrade to the center's equipment. The $93,000 upgrade will allow the center to trace specific locations of emergency cell phone calls, he said.

"Once we get that equipment, then, on a 911 call, we'll pinpoint the longitude and latitude," he said.

Currently, only two North Dakota counties Stark and Dunn can get the exact location information on 911 calls from cell phones. The rest of the state, including Grand Forks County, can get no location information on 911 calls.

In Sjodin's case, police contacted Sprint to get the cell phone tower information.

Pinpoint locations are made possible by cell phones equipped with global positioning systems, Morken said. Federal Communications Communication requires the precision of the information to be within 165 feet to 330 feet of the phone call.

But Morken said his conversations with cell phone companies lead him to believe that precise locations of nonemergency calls won't be available. For instance, at Sprint, the GPS information is sent to the company only when a 911 call is made, he was told.

Representatives at Verizon and Western Wireless, a company that owns and operates wireless phone systems marketed primarily under the Cellular One brand name, confirmed that the location would be shown only on 911 calls.

Update?

Thanks.

At the Grand Forks Police Dept., Family members gathered around Dru's mother, Linda Walker as she announced the reward has been raised to $100,000. Police announced a new search would be started tomorrow (Sunday) by 200 volunteers.

Dru's website:

http://www.finddru.com/

City of Grand Forks new releases:

http://grandforksgov.com/

As search continues for Dru, another young woman fights off an attack
Chuck Haga, Star Tribune

Published November 30, 2003 MISS30

http://startribune.com/stories/462/4239954.html

FERTILE, MINN. -- The teenage clerk locked up at Al and Laura's Foods at 7:13 p.m. Friday, four minutes after a co-worker had clocked out. Another employee had left at 7:02, but neither of the girl's friends was still in the store parking lot as she walked to her car.

Someone else was.

According to what she later told police and friends, a man waiting in the lot approached the 17-year-old high school senior, hit her in the head, forced her into his car and drove off.

But as he slowed about three-quarters of a mile from the store, perhaps for a traffic sign, she jumped from the moving car and fell to the ground. She got up and ran to the nearby home of Brian Lindberg, a wrestling coach at her high school, who called 911.

"At first I thought she had had an accident or hit a deer," he said. "She had blood on her forehead, and she was pretty confused, but she said someone had taken her, and she jumped from his car.

"She saved her life by what she did," Lindberg said.

Coming six days after the apparent abduction of a 22-year-old woman from a mall parking lot in Grand Forks, N.D., less than 50 miles away, the attempted abduction set Fertile, population 893, ablaze with flashing lights.

By Saturday morning, however, authorities had determined that the incident was not related to the Nov. 22 disappearance of Dru Sjodin of Pequot Lakes, Minn., Polk County Sheriff Mark LeTexier said.

Grand Forks police also issued a statement, saying investigators had ruled out a connection "and are handling it as a completely separate investigation."

Authorities were not saying how they concluded there was no link, but they were treating it as a credible account of an attempted abduction.

"We're still looking for an adult male, 5 feet 10," LeTexier said late Saturday.

Connected or not, reports of an assault on another young woman in this low-crime region left people stunned.

"This really freaks you out," said Samantha Kveno, 18, who also works at the store. "This is Fertile!"

Authorities have not named the girl, but friends and co-workers have identified her. The Star Tribune is not naming her because of safety concerns. The girl was treated for injuries at "a nearby medical facility," LeTexier said. He would not identify it, but the closest major hospital is Altru in Grand Forks. She was released Saturday morning, he said.

Al Pierson, who owns the grocery store with his wife, Laura, and has talked to investigators, said they were told the abductor had "struck her in the head and knocked her senseless."

LeTexier said she was not able to describe her attacker beyond estimating his height. She said the inside of his car smelled of cigarette smoke but could not identify the car.

"She just ran," LeTexier said. "She didn't look back."

Buttons for hugs

In Grand Forks, members of Sjodin's family said they had been briefed on the Fertile incident and would trust authorities to determine whether there was any connection with Dru's disappearance.

If unconnected, the Fertile case "hampers our investigation to some degree," said Sgt. Mike Hedlund of the Grand Forks police. "It detracts attention," he said, and investigators who were peeled off the Sjodin case "unfortunately were not able to follow up on leads in this situation."

Linda Walker, Dru's mother, making her first appearance in Grand Forks after waiting last week at her home in Pequot Lakes, said at a news conference that the reward for the safe return of Dru, a senior at the University of North Dakota, had jumped to $140,000.

Friends and others at Sun Country Airlines, where Walker works, have pledged $100,000, she said. The family and an anonymous donor had offered the initial $40,000.

"Please keep Dru in your prayers," Walker said, speaking for about 20 relatives.

Earlier Saturday, about a dozen family members fanned out through the Columbia Mall shopping center to pass out buttons and fliers bearing Dru Sjodin's picture. Paul McCabe, one of 15 FBI agents from Minneapolis working on the case, accompanied them.

"Yes, I do need one -- someone took mine," said Kim Torgerson, manager of a shoe store, as she was offered a flier.

"I wish the best for you," she told Charity Pankonin, 28, of Maple Grove, one of Sjodin's cousins.

Grand Forks Mayor Mike Brown wore a button and offered the family encouragement.

"Words can't express what our community feels," Brown told Pankonin. "Let us know how we can help."

Authorities called for 200 volunteers "in good physical condition" to help search a location in Grand Forks County today for Sjodin, who disappeared after leaving the Victoria's Secret store in the mall, where she worked.

Investigators have focused on an area around Fisher, Minn., about 10 miles east of Grand Forks, where a call was traced to her cell phone. It was widened to Crookston, Minn., about midway between Grand Forks and Fertile, because the cell phone signal could have carried that far, officials said.

Sjodin finished work at 4 p.m. on Nov. 22 and shopped for about 20 minutes at another store. Her boyfriend has told investigators that she was talking with him on her cell phone when the call ended abruptly with her startled cry, "Oh, my God!" or "Oh, no!"

It was difficult for some family members to go to the mall, Charity Pankonin said, but "this is where she was," she said, and it might help find her.

"And it helps us," she said.

(snip)

Here's another thread:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1029252/posts

This is a terrible story for this young woman. And in the middle of the afternoon too.

5 PM in N Dakota in late November is late afternoon and already dark. Even with lights in parking areas, difficult to see someone bothering her. Often employees are REQUIRED to park at the perimeters of malls so that customers may park close in. Same for grocery store clerks. Been there, had to do that.

I heard that she didn't say "oh my god no no" I saw on her website www.finddru.com on the message boards there that her boy friend said there was no sound of struggle in her voice she just said "ok ok ok" and then the line went dead. I live like down the road from the Columbia Mall and this is pretty scary coming from a town where since I have lived here hasn't had anything like this happen..plus it couldn't have been the boyfriend..they already arrested the guy who they think did it today.
My Family and my prayers are out to Dru and her family <3

They said that her car was in two different places..I think he took her somewhere else and brought her car back..the mall has security cameras all over outside I think..im not 100% on that but I think thats what happened. They think its a trucker that was asking her out constantly at the El Roco where she worked at night

same here...this isn't normal at all for grand forks

They Found The Guy

http://kroxam.com/News%20Page.htm for more info..they have his picture up too

Love And Prayers to Dru
<3 cbfromgf

ok, this for everything. I just found this site. Some of the things I have read really disturb me. Yeah, so her words do sound like something a movie, but you dont know exactly how she said them. You can't make judgements about that. In all honesty I would have probably said the same things. Another thing about the car in different spots. They dont know that. There are no camera's outside of the mall. There has been some people saying that, the person took her in her car and brought her somewhere and brought the car back. But there is no way to prove it cause there are no cameras. Another thing that really disturbed me was all the comments about the boyfriend doing it. I live in pequot lakes. I went to school with dru, and I live right down the road from where Chris works! I dont think he would ever think about that. He was in the cities. almost 6 hours away!!!!! How can that even be possible! Some people I wonder. Maybe some people should think about things before they say it. Instead of judging and jumping to conclusions I think you should be praying for he safe return instead of thinking it's to "soap opera"!!!!!

That "perfume sample" story is, in fact, an urban legend. You can read about it at snopes.com. In fact, you can look up almost any rumor or story you here--the Druj Sjodin story included--and find out whether it's true or false at snopes.com.

I don't know why all the comments on what she said as her "last words." We weren't there, so how the hell should we know?