Harold Camping’s Mistake

Harold Camping

If you wanted to get into the mind of Harold Camping, last night provided a good window. Whether you were actually brave enough to listen to the Family Radio broadcast or, like me, preferred the safer option of reading tweets by Huffington Post reporter Jaweed Kaleem, Harold Camping made his attempt at redeeming himself last night and, personally, I was underwhelmed. Instead of admitting he was wrong or even apologize to his followers, Camping just revised his end of the world prophecy, giving himself until Oct. 21 to be proved wrong for a third time. The only thing Camping did was dig himself deeper in the whole and create tons quotes worthy of a political or religious comics’ wet dream.

For example, when a reporter asked if “humans are not capable of understanding the Bible,” Camping responded with “You are correct.” This response came before Camping launched into his interpretation of the story of Saul. Through the broadcast, Camping also analyzed Greek and Hebrew versions of the bible, and spoke about his own interpretation of biblical numerology. Camping maintained that May 21 was an “invisible judgment” and said of his calculations: “The timing, the structures, the proofs, none of that has changed at all.”

Family Radio follower

It was mainly reporters conversing with Camping on Family Radio last night and they focused on two important questions: the matter of what happens to Camping’s followers as well as the financial situation of Family Radio. Camping insisted that he never encouraged his followers to give up their worldly goods, but they did so because “they love the Lord.” When asked if he would personally give up his belongings, Camping said: “I still have to live in my house…I still have to pay my bills…I still have to live until the end. The end is five months away.” According to Camping, the loses of the average Family Radio listener are not as bad as all of the losses from the recession, and so people should “cope.”

Lyn Benedetto

Reporters also asked Camping about a woman who attempted to kill herself and her daughter when his prophecies didn’t come to fruition. Camping replied to the question by saying: “She attempted to? Oh my that makes me feel better because death is terrible. It’s contrary to all that the Bible teaches.”  Camping also stated he had no responsibility for the “spiritual rule” of his followers and that the only person he has “spiritual rule” over is himself and his wife. The woman in question is  Lyn Benedetto  a woman from California who, when the doomsday prophecy didn’t come true, lay her 11 and 14-year-old daughters on her bed, slashed their throats with a box cutter and then did the same to herself “to prevent her family from suffering” at the end of the world.

Camping said the group had no intention of returning money to those followers who lost everything because those people’s “desire to propagate the gospel” was the source of their donation.When asked about his church’s financial well-being, Camping insisted he had no clue how much money Family Radio was worth. Likewise, Camping said he did not know how much money was spent on the May 21 campaign.  According to Camping, the money earned through donations prior to May 21 “is still going out…We are not out of business, we’ve learned that we still have to go another five months.” FYI: sources estimate family radio is worth about $72 million with around $118 million in donations based on the May 21 predication. Camping maintained he isn’t getting money from Family Radio profits and called himself a “full-time volunteer.” According to Camping: “Not one of us has ever gained a chunk of money out of Family Radio. Every nickle has been spent as fairly as possible, as efficiently as possible.”

End times billboard

It is obvious Camping wasn’t prepared for the sorts of questions reporters would ask him, and it was mistaken of him to go into this fracas of media without being adequately prepared. The fact that most of his answers seem vague at best indicate either that he was really unprepared or purposely hiding something. Being that he is the figurehead of his company and yet doesn’t know how much money that company earns also makes him fishy, especially in a world where ministers embezzling from their flock is nothing new. Though Camping might be concerned for the well-being of his followers, he didn’t exactly come off that way and didn’t take responsibility as the leader of the May 21 movement.

Personally, I won’t be holding my breath for Camping’s Oct. 21 prediction, and I hope the followers of the May 21 prediction will wise up before they give anything else to Camping.

Read previous Family Radio Related entries here and here.

Tags: crime, current events, doomsday, family radio, harold camping, news, religion, society, weird

Would you go freegan?

Freegan poster boy Arthur Boyt

I would have to say the National Geographic channel is one of the reasons why I keep my cable package and in particular, the show Taboo.  While watching the show entitled “Misfits,” I found myself equally disgusted and intrigued by Arthur Boyt, a man who saves on grocery money by eating roadkill. Boyt is called a “freegan,” a growing group of people who not only eat what others might consider garbage but live a lifestyle bent on recycling just about everything. Boyt isn’t the show’s first adventure into the world of freeganism since they also covered a group of freegans in their “Outsiders” episode.

The website Freegan.info defines the lifestyle as employing “alternative strategies for living based on limited participation in the conventional economy and minimal consumption of resources.” Anticonsumerism is a focal point of the movement as well, as Freegan.info states the lifestyle is “a total boycott of an economic system where the profit motive has eclipsed ethical considerations and where massively complex systems of productions ensure that all the products we buy will have detrimental impacts most of which we may never even consider. Thus, instead of avoiding the purchase of products from one bad company only to support another, we avoid buying anything to the greatest degree we are able.” The movement started in the 1990s out of a growing desire to preserve the environment as well as reverse the impact of globalization, which has contributed to an increase in world hunger.

Would you eat these cookies?

Freegans often gain food by picking up roadkill or taking discarded but still edible food from dumpsters. While the food-aspect of the lifestyle is what draws the most attention, freegans don’t limit themselves to just picking up day-old-donuts out of dumpsters. They try to find everything from housing to decor to transportation to clothing for free, which, considering the current state of the economy, may seem a little bit more appealing to people.

In fact, a quick search of Google trends yields the interesting fact that searches of freeganism went up starting with 2007 – the same year the global recession began – and peaked in 2008, the same time the recession also peaks in search trends.  Smaller peaks with freeganism can be attributed to major television broadcasts of the lifestyle, such as on Taboo and Oprah. It’s no surprise that, with costs of everything including gas and food going up, that people might start to think the freegans are a little less taboo and a little more on to something.

Squirrel: It's what's for dinner.

However, I don’t think I could personally eat something I found out of a dumpster. Throughout my life, I have heard stories of what people did in the days before refrigeration and the local supermarket just to get by. Growing up in the Appalachian mountains, my grandparents’ childhood in the 1950s is more akin to what most families lived like in late 1800s. My grandfather was the son of a coal miner and my grandmother lived without electricity until she was in her early teens. Growing up poor and in a region virtually isolated due to surrounding geographical features, it’s no wonder my grandparents can discuss the different ways they used to cook and eat a variety animals such as squirrel, rabbit, opossum and other small game we probably wouldn’t consider putting on the dinner plate. Squirrel meat even seems to be making a comeback in some American kitchens.

Being that they now live comfortably in the modern, world both of them insist they wouldn’t eat squirrel again unless they absolutely had to. And personally, unless I was really desperate, wouldn’t either.

Tags: animals, anti-consumerism, biology, cooking, counterculture, environmentalism, food, freeganism, global warming, nature, news, science, society, vegan, weird

Where Are They Now? Doomsday Followers Edition

False prophet William Miller is similar to Camping.

See updates to this story at bottom.

As of this writing, I am about four hours past what many media outlets are calling “the Doomsday that Didn’t Happen,” and much like the Millerite’s Great Disappointment of 1844, there are now hundreds, possibly thousands of devoted believers wondering what went wrong. While most people throughout the world treated the prediction of Harold Camping as just another comical, weird news story, there are a group of people out who sold everything they have and invested their whole life’s savings in what has turned out to be yet another great disappointment. So, where do the believers of a false prophet turn when everything they dedicated themselves to proves to be another big hoax?

Suicide hotlines have been set up nationwide for fear that, realizing their doomsday didn’t happen, followers might commit suicide. At least one person committed suicide when Camping’s prophecies fell through in 1994 and at least one suicide has already occurred, which police think could be connected to the May 21 predictions. Mass suicide has become a focal point of many cults, such as Heaven’s Gate, Jim Jones’ Jonestown, and a host of others. Many of Camping’s followers have nothing left to loose. Many are even wondering if Camping himself plans to commit suicide, viewing his goodbye letter from May 18 as a possible suicide note.

One of the famed Doomsday billboards

There have been myriad reports of May 21 followers who have sold everything they owned, stopped saving for their children’s college fund, and invested their entire retirement savings in the fleet of buses, RVs, and purchasing benches and billboards to advertise Camping’s false beliefs. Many gave up jobs and homes to travel the country. One man even planned to euthanize his pets before the end of the world, rather than invest in one of the many places offering pet-care for the animals of raptured owners. In case you were worried, animal control removed the man’s animals before any rapturing could occur.

With possibly no money and not wanting to return to friends and family in shame, there might not seem like many options for the followers of a cult that has fallen apart. While people are ridiculing Camping, I find it hard to ridicule his followers. Were they gullible? Yes. Were they wrong? Yes. But most importantly, they were betrayed by a man they thought they could trust and honestly, I think just about everyone in the world has put their trust in someone at one time or another only to be deceived. Most people don’t just do it on such a major scale. For those who have felt cheated and devastated by Camping’s false prediction, the good people at Cult Watch have some great advice.

Follower Robert Fitzpatrick was in Times Square when nothing happened.

News outlets were following some believers, like one follower who was camped out in Times Square awaiting Judgment Day. “When the hour came and went, he said: ‘I do not understand why …,’ as his speech broke off and he looked at his watch,” Reuters reported. “‘I do not understand why nothing has happened.” The man is Robert Fitzpatrick, a retired MTA worker who spent much of his retirement savings on Camping’s campaign. According to the New York Daily News: “After the clock ticked past 6 p.m. and nothing happened, Fitzpatrick appeared to shrink amid the jeering crowd.” Your heart sort of goes out to Fitzpatrick and the other followers who really planned for this day to be their last.

As for Harold Camping, no one has heard head or tail of him since he disappeared to his California home to “spend Doomsday with his family.” In fact, when reporters went to his home, they found Camping mysteriously gone from there as well. The last contact anyone reportedly had from him was his daughter this morning, who received a phone call from her father, apparently bewildered that he was wrong yet again.

Noticeably, the web site for Family Radio, Camping’s organization,, and We Can Know, also sponsored by Camping, have been down all day today as well as the radio station itself. Many are already expecting some sort of excuse when Camping is located. The Camping-lampoon site We Can’t Know has begun a “countdown to backpedaling” clock, waiting to see how long it will take for Camping to come up with an excuse for his prophecy failing. Personally, I believe Camping is long gone to some foreign country with all of the money he raked in from the believers he swindled both financially and spiritually.

As many reporters have since pointed out, this failure is a financial Armaggedon for Camping and his ministries, which have been supported through the donations of believers. Around $177 million went into Camping’s ministry by devotees, with $19 million of that donated last year alone. Ironically, even though the world was supposed to end, Camping’s organization asked for an extension on their taxes this year.

Hopefully, the followers of Camping’s ministries will be able to wake up on May 22 a little wiser and be able to get their lives back on track. Sure, they got caught up in the fervor and made some stupid decisions, but they can recover from this. After all, it’s not the end of the world or anything.

Update: Camping has been found. He was hiding out at his home in California for much of the weekend, apparently “flabbergasted” that he was wrong for a second time. While Camping is seemingly flummoxed, his followers remain devastated. We can only wait and see what is the next step for Camping’s followers.

Update 2: Camping went on air Monday evening to discuss his predictions. Rather than face any blame, Camping discussed a myriad of strange biblical passages as well as backtracked on his earthquakes claim, saying they would come with the true end of the world in October. He maintains that God brought judgment on the world Saturday. For more on Camping’s remarks, read this post.

Tags: children, crime, crisis, current events, news, religion, weird

How to Survive the End of the World

With all of this hullabaloo from the Harold Camping camp about impending end of the world on May 21, I decided to look into my options about how I could survive the Rapture and impending apocalypse. To be fair, I am more for consulting the Complete Zombie Survival Guide than the Left Behind series for my post-apocalyptic needs, and I am relived to find there are many in the country (secular humanists, atheists, agnostics, non-crazy Christians) who are nice enough to see the same humor in End-of-Days survivalism as myself.

If it's on a bus, it must be true.

Fortunately, there is a group in Seattle already raising funding for those of us who will not be “called home,” which is some comfort. Though they are charging about $50 a pop, there is also a group out in Texas who is holding a conference this Memorial Day weekend in order to educate people on their End Times survival skills, whether the end of the world comes this weekend or with the Mayans in 2012. I believe these are more helpful than the sites devoted to post-Rapture looting and pet care for the “taken up.”

The CDC, in light of recent concerns, has even released their advice on how to medically deal with zombie outbreaks, meteor collisions, and other disasters that might occur if the world were to come to an end. Believe me, an organization devoted to complex medical jargon has never before made me squee like this.

With no telling whether or not the Internet will still be up and running once the world ends, I decided to go ahead and do my research before time ran out. According to the venerable CDC, those facing emergency situations should have a plan and begin stockpiling food, water, and medicine during the early days.

Other useful survival kit material include utility knives, duct tape, battery powered radios as well as clothing items and bedding. Cleaning supplies and personal documents (i.e. birth certificates, driver’s licenses) may also be of help. A basic first aid kit is among the recommendations, though the CDC wisely advises: “You’re a goner if a zombie bites you.”

Based on military recommendations and books such as the Zombie Survival Guide, other items such as sewing kits, LED flashlights or solar lights, matches, tinder, bandanas, fishing hooks, and a means of navigation (compass, maps, lithium powered laser pointers) are also important items to have. Overall, the main items of need are something to provide shelter/warmth, health or first aid, means of attaining food and water as well as multi-use tools and items to keep traveling packs light.

There are some websites that sell survival kits for up to 72-hour disaster periods, based on a variety of needs and specifications. There are some geared toward those living in more urban settings while others are more general .  Some sites sell kits specifically for homes, offices, schools and cars and, considering our impending doom, many are offering special discounts for the concerned. My favorite, however, would the create-your-own Rapture survival kit.

Your typical survival kit.

Survivalism has been around probably since the first end of times prediction, and there are no shortage of resources and writings by people who have put way much more thought into this whole post-Rapture thing, as opposed to my flying-by-the-seat-of-my-pants approach. In the next few days, you can brush up on your skills by reading this collection of how-to writings based on around what might happen if we descend into utter chaos. The Survival Gear blog gives great advice on how to deal with various scenarios that might happen during the apocolpsye while Survivalist.info has plans for those of us taken a “the sky is falling” approach.

Of course, you better read up quick. As of this posting, we only have about two days left.

Tags: cooking, crime, crisis, current events, health, health care, humor, news, weird

Sickening: America’s School Nursing Crisis

As the clock winds down for the government to settle on a federal budget, school systems across the nation are worried the decreases in the federal education budget may lead them to cut something that has become vital: school nurses. As the year began, more and more schools are seeing nursing layoffs.

A school nurse treats a student

In an age where childhood obesity, ADHD, asthma and various health problems plague students, school nurses are often a resource for students need advice, immediate response, as well as for families who may not be able to afford health care. School nurses are the ones who handle children with severe allergies and are trained to treat everything from sports injuries to heart attacks on campus.

They provide hygiene and nutritional education as well as health information. School nurses were the ones on the front line of the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, helping ensure children were vaccinated and treated for the disease. If school nursing budgets are cut, this could also mean school psychologists are cut, often the front lines in diagnosing teen depression and tools schools often use to prevent incidents like Columbine.

NASN Logo

Even as essential as school nurses have become, only about 45 percent of schools in the U.S. have a full-time on-site nurse with 30 percent having a part-time nurse, usually working at several schools within the system, according to a study conducted by the National Association of School Nurses. Currently, a quarter of U.S. schools have no nursing facilities and, with budget cuts, these numbers can increase. The study also identified that 17 states allow the hiring of school nurses who do not have an RN degree and that both school nurses and administrators agree more nurses are needed in schools with other school personnel often having to chip in with nursing duties.

Nurses seem to have an uphill battle all around when it comes to actually working to ensure healthy schools. Another study by Health School Network, Inc. and NASN found schools often put children’s health on the back burner. The study, known as the “Sick Schools Report,” found 40 percent of schools knew children and staff were adversely affected by pollutants, including pesticides and chemical spills. Only 17 percent of schools said they had cleaned up asthma triggers such as pests, molds, sanitation, and air quality after parents or staff reported issues. School nurses said when discussing these issues with school leaders, they were encouraged to “not address the problem,” that there was no time for the problem, or treated negatively for bringing up the problem.

A quarter schools in America have no school nurse and most only have part-time nurses or must share with other schools.

“Parents and taxpayers should be enraged,” says NASN Executive Director Amy Garcia, RN. “Children continue to miss school because of illnesses triggered by indoor air pollutants. Attendance is strongly correlated with school success and graduation. School nurses call on school boards, administrators to develop indoor air quality teams on states to assist schools Environmental Protection Agency with guidance, and the to complete work on school environments mandated by Congress.”

With the country already experiencing a nursing shortage, many school systems are seeing nursing jobs lost as a result of budget cuts. Schools systems in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Ohio, Arizona, New Hampshire, Texas, South Dakota, Massachusetts and New York have all had to layoff nursing and other school positions as a result of state budget crunches. The state of California has been in a vicious cycle of needing more school nurses yet firing large numbers of nurses in schools since 2010 and is now seeing nursing layoffs all the way from San Mateo to Los Angeles and Pasadena. Even Glouchester, Mass., the sight of the famed pregnancy pact that spawned a mediocre made-for-TV movie and a nationwide debate about if nurses should be allowed to offer students birth control options, is contemplating firing school nurses.

As America continues to struggle to dig it’s way out of the national recession and Congress argues over budget specifics, people need to remember children are the future and their health school be a national priority.

Tags: children, crisis, current events, health, health care, news, nursing, students

Born Free: Zoo Animals Hit the Open Road

The missing Bronx Zoo cobra

Many were relieved today when the Bronx Zoo announced it has found the missing Egyptian cobra that had evaded zookeepers for six days not too far from the snake’s tank. The missing snake gained international attention due to its poisonous nature, not to mention a serpentine prankster who tweeted the snake’s alleged New York whereabouts while the snake was missing. The Reptile House was closed after the snake went missing and plans to reopen soon. Though this incident gained widespread attention, it is only the first in a series of zoo-related mishaps making it seem as though some zoo animals are attempting escapes back into the wild, ala Madagascar.

On Tuesday, officials with the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs, Colo. said Butti, a rare 13-year-old Indian Star tortoise was missing from its habitat. Most alarmingly, evidence indicted the tortoise was possibly stolen from the zoo. Due to the animal’s medical history, zookeepers were afraid the animal would not live long without proper care.

If found, return to Cheyenne Mountain Zoo

“Staff is concerned for Butti’s welfare, as he has special care and dietary needs,” the zoo said in a media release. “If he isn’t kept at the proper temperature and doesn’t receive the right type of food, he could suffer from significant health problems.”

The zoo has offered a $700 reward for Butti’s safe return. Oddly enough, Butti’s brother Tutti, another Indian Star tortoise, was safely ensconced in the turtle habitat when zookeepers discovered Butti was missing

Following the recent trend of renegade reptiles, a zoo in Thailand reported several crocodiles went missing from their exhibits due to recent incidents of extreme flooding in one of the country’s southern province.s Though two of the missing crocodiles were recovered, one remains at large.

RIP BB

Also on Tuesday, a bird that had escaped and then been returned to the Brevard Zoo in Melbourne, Fla. had died. Birds usually had wings clipped to keep them in the zoo’s Africa exhibit, but the Southern ground hornbill named BB was able to escape after his wings grew out. The bird was sedated in order to bring him back to the zoo, but never awoke after being sedated. Zoo officials said the sedation was probably a contributing factor to the animal’s death.

Florida has also experienced a range of sea animals fighting back recently. Just as the animals are starting to recover from the bad press surrounding the death of Steve Irwin, an eagle ray off the coast of the Florida Keys leapt into a boat and launched itself against an Illinois mother of three. The ray allegedly pinned the woman down and kept ramming her while the boat captain and others struggled to remove the ray back into the ocean. Though the woman was uninjured, a similar human vs. ray altercation in the same area in 2008 killed both the tourist and the sea creature.

Tilikum: the literal killer whale?

Tilikum, an orca (also ironically known as a killer whale), was involved in the death of SeaWorld Orlando animal trainer Dawn Brancheau when the whale dragged the trainer into the water by her ponytail and drowned her. Tilikum was also implicated in the death of two previous trainers – Keltie Lee Byrne in 1991 and Daniel Dukes in 1999. Despite this, the whale has returned to action at SeaWorld in the famous Shamu show this week.

With all of these animals, for lack of a better term, going wild, it is perhaps time people remember that they are just that: wild animals. Expecting animals to act human, especially in what many consider inhumane conditions can be a tall order. The debate on if zoos are good for animals continues with people arguing preservation and conservation versus exploitation, especially in the wake of these animal escapees.

UPDATE: The missing cobra from the Bronx Zoo has been named Mia (or Missing in Action) after a poll from the zoo.

Tags: animals, conservation, current events, humor, news, preservation, weird, zoos

The Real Landlady

A depiction of Roald Dahl's "The Landlady."

As a child, I was always a little bit terrorized and slightly entertained by the works of somewhat macabre British children’s writer Roald Dahl. One of his short stories that has stuck with me particularly throughout the years is that of “The Landlady.” Not to spoil its rather Hitchcockian ending, but the story ends with the reader finding out the Landlady poisons all visitors to her boardinghouse with cyanide slipped into their tea, sort of a creepy old lady’s way to keep from being lonely. Imagine my surprise to find out nearly 20 years after Dahl’s story was published, a real life serial killer landlady walked among us.

Today, Dorothea Puente, 82 of the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla, Calif. area died. Puente opened a boarding house in the city in 1980 and in 1988, it was discovered she was linked to the rather odd disappearances of several of her tenants. Local police found seven bodies buried in the backyard of Puente’s boardinghouse, but not before the lady donned a red coat, high heels, $3000 and skipped town. In total, Puente had killed nine of the tenants staying in her old Victorian house. Of those nine, she was only convicted of three deaths, enough to earn her a life sentence in prison.

Puentes at her trial in 1993.

Puente apparently sought out tenants who were elderly or disabled
so she could continue collecting their government assistance checks. When they asked where their money was going, Puente killed them. Like the landlady of Dahl’s fictional story, Puente drugged her tenants before killing them. Despite the strange smells from her house, which Puente allegedly attributed to rats in the sewer system, she was beloved by local social workers for her work with her elderly and disabled tenants.

Puente's blue Victorian boardinghouse.

Oddly enough, Puente had a previous criminal record. The year after Dahl’s version of “The Landlady” was published, Puente was arrested for running a brothel in Sacramento for which she served 90 days. She was then arrested for vagrancy and possibly other petty crimes. Soon, she began working as a nurse for the old and disabled. Puente had several short-lived and violent marriages before earning an income based on seducing older men and stealing their social security benefits. She was convicted on 34 counts of treasury fraud shortly before she began renting out her pale blue Victorian. In 1982, she was charged with drugging elderly people to rob them of their valuables.

The best-selling cookbook.

Now, the kicker that brings things all back around is this: Puente is the co-author of a popular cookbook titled “Coooking with a Serial Killer: Recipes From Dorothea Puente.” The book was written with Shane Bugbee, who began corresponding with Dorothea following her imprisonment in 1998. The books apparently contains Puente’s recipes for the Thanksgiving meals and Mexican meals she would cook her tenants as well as other dishes she allegedly used to poison said tenants. The book also contains her firm assertions her tenants all died from natural causes before being buried in her backyard. The books is rated four out of five stars on Amazon.com and apparently has sold very well for a cookbook written mainly through prison interviews.

Tags: cooking, crime, literature