The VonFrederick 

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January  2009  Volume 6 Issue 1

  Feature Article:

In Defense Of The Battered Woman Syndrome

Elka Svensson Bjork, M.D., Ph.D, Vice President, The VonFrederick Group

Some psychologists say that many women who experience an extended pattern of spousal abuse suffer from “battered woman syndrome,” which includes a well-founded fear that they will be killed if they try to leave their husbands or lovers. The battered woman defense has been used by women who have argued that their only means of escaping life-threatening abuse was to kill their husbands. 

If a woman, who is suffering from battered woman syndrome kills her abuser, should the killing be considered self-defense? Definition: There has been confusion concerning the definition of the battered woman syndrome (BWS). Some authors use the abusive acts committed against the woman as the defining aspects of  BWS (e.g., severity and frequency of assaults). Lenore A. Walker, in contrast, conceptualizes the syndrome as a severe stress reaction, a subcategory of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). 

Basic personality components include fear, depression, guilt, passivity, and low-esteem. Battered woman syndrome expands the concept of legal defense. This defense holds that a battered woman is virtually held hostage in a violent household by a man who isolates and terrorizes her. A. DePaul describes the syndrome as “the situation of a long-time victim of physical, sexual, and psychological abuse who loses self-confidence, feels trapped, and eventually strikes back, assaulting or killing the abuser.” Only six states currently have passed laws recognizing the battered woman syndrome.

The American Psychiatric Association conceptualizes BWS of the development of a set of  personality attributes brought on by abuse that render the victim more able to survive in the relationship and less able to escape it. The battered woman’s belief that escape is impossible and the depression that accompanies this belief lead to her entrapment in the relationship. The three components of the syndrome are as follows: (a) behaviors brought on by victimization, (b) learned helplessness behavior, and (c) self-destructive coping behaviors.

Although it is possible that battered women’s behavioral repertoires included these elements before the battering, it is more likely that the fear engendered by the violence produced or exacerbated the conditions. E.M. Schneider fears, however, that use of BWS may reinforce the sentiment that women are helpless beings and may create a new category of mental incapacity. According to DePaul, “Without expert testimony to explain how women come to feel so dependent or fearful that they cannot leave an abusive relationship, juries often are left to wonder why the woman did not walk out long before she felt compelled to retaliate.”E. Greene, A. Raitz, and H Lindblad studied the level of juror’s knowledge about the experiences of battered women. Jurors were relatively informed about the findings of empirical research on a number of issues: violence escalates in a relationship; women are anxious, depressed, feel helpless, and suffer in many ways; battered women are afraid that their spouses might kill them; and leaving the batterer may lead to further harm. Jurors have much less information about other factors: battered women blame themselves, feel dependent upon their husbands, accept their spouses’ promises to change, can predict when the violence will occur, even occasionally provoke an assault to end the build-up of tension, and come to believe that they must use deadly force to stay alive. To be continued… 

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Liberal Academia, A Path To Ruin?

George A. Torres, MBA, Law Enforcement Specialist

"Who owns the youth owns the future!" - Adolf Hitler

While Hitler was the essence of evil, he was a shrewd politician. He is said to have once told an audience that while he may not convince them to follow socialism he could their children. The recent elections not only validated his comments but the display of overwhelming ignorance should cause grave concern for the future of our nation.

Early in the presidential campaign many conservatives expressed disbelief that Americans would be stupid enough to elect the inexperienced and radical Marxist Obama. But any populous can be easily misguided if properly indoctrinated. A review of our public education since President Lyndon Johnson's Elementary and Secondary Education Act (1965) reveals a lack of education and a heavy dose of liberal indoctrination. Marxist activist inserted themselves into academia and became K-12 teachers and college professors.

For example, during the 1970s, Sidney Simon's "Values Clarification" taught students to cast off their parents' values and make their own choices. During the 1980s, radical 1960’s antiwar activists became the teachers and professors that indoctrinated their impressionable and captive audiences. A domestic terrorist like William Ayers, an Obama associate, became an education professor at the University of Chicago. He instructed future teachers how to focus on teaching “social justice” in the classroom. A catchy liberal phrase Obama uses a lot. Ayers is explicit about the need to indoctrinate public school children with the belief that America is a racist, militarist country and that the capitalist system is inherently unfair and oppressive.

Consider the Milwaukee-based "Rethinking Schools" that publishes instructional materials to assist teachers how to "weave social justice issues throughout the curriculum." Lessons include "Rethinking Mathematics: Teaching Social Justice by the Numbers" and "Reading, Writing and Rising Up: Teaching About Social Justice and the Power of the Written Word." Or liberal professor Howard Zinn urging educators to prioritize "social justice" education over political neutrality and in 1998 expressed his goal was a "quiet revolution" to move us toward "democratic socialism". 

The National Association for Multicultural Education (NAME) sponsors seminars like "Our Work as Social Justice Educators," "Teaching for Social Justice in Elementary Schools" and "Creating Change Agents Who Teach for Social Justice." Arne Duncan, Obama's selection for Secretary of Education, recommended the creation of a Chicago Social Justice High School-Pride Campus, where half the students would be heterosexuals and half would be homosexuals.

After being subjected to a liberal K-12 education it’s no wonder so many Obama supporters exhibited massive ignorance. Sadly, many college graduates fair no better. Considering courses taught in our colleges, that is no surprise. Take these courses taught in Virginia Tech’s English department. English 5454, "Studies in Theory: Representing Female Bodies" with assigned readings like Selling Hot Pussy: Representations of Black Female Sexuality in the Cultural Marketplace. English 4784, "The City in Literature" explores the lives of a prostitute who kills herself and a violent man who kills his girlfriend. English professor Nikki Giovanni specializes in diversity, post-modernism, feminism and multiculturalism. Marxist English Instructor Allen Brizee espouses our role in the capitalist system makes us guilty of oppression. In another example columnist Mike Adams noted that at the beginning of a Latin American Studies course a leftist professor forces her student to stipulate that in America, factors such as race, class, gender, and sexual orientation are still the most pervasive influences on human behavior.

Liberals, like the Nazi state, promote academic control of the youth. In 2008, a liberal activist judge in California ruled parents who opted out of public schools “do not have a constitutional right to home-school their children.” By forcing parents to enroll their children in public indoctrination centers liberals have enhanced their ability to promote Marxist ideology and ignorance at the expense of basic educational disciplines. 

In this election Obama supporters displayed an overwhelming ignorance on Obama’s trivial resume and basics like current events, economics, history and civics. While liberals see this as a successful advance of their agenda, in reality such a display proves the total failure of public education and exposes the inability of our “youth” to compete in a global market. 

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India and Pakistan: 

The aftermath of the terrorist attack of Mumbai are scary because of the increasing military tensions between two nuclear powers that have regularly been at hot and cold war since 1948. Of course you have all heard about the Mumbai terror attacks and proven Pakistanese links to training camps and local officials and Islamic groups. There is a saying in India that all states have an army but in Pakistan, the army has a state, and the current government of Pakistan does seem powerless in the hands of its military. Furthermore, Pakistan today is afraid not just of Indian reactions (surgical strikes and so on) but also of a likely international community's backlash especially US, and maybe also of some sort of Israeli revenge strike for the brutal killing of Jews in Mumbai. To escape political, economic or military retaliation, the Pakistanese military seems to be willing to create a war hysteria, which they hope will divert the attention of the international community. India is not keen to start a war but may be inclined to somehow retaliate against the terror infrastructure in Pakistan, with international support if they can garner it. Of course such an action would most likely mean some level of war for Pakistan and tension is growing. As far as the military buildup at the Indian/Pakistanese border goes, it is fooling the west for now but also weakening the Pakistanese military presence in the tribal and Al Qaeda areas at a time when it is also reported that Islamic groups are spreading and conquering more provinces by force and terror, imposing Islamic laws and parallel governments to the local people that did not flee. The Talibans and the Pakistanese army have never been really enthusiast at fighting each other and creating a war hysteria that relegates India’s justified anger to the side line is helping both unlikely allies in Pakistan. But in the long run, Pakistan is the losing party! In the meantime, the Allied task in Afghanistan will become tougher because the Taliban and terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan has been left alone and unchecked. I wonder who will win that one: the “sane” or the terrorists? I wonder if America will fill the vacuum and resume the necessary surgical strikes in Pakistan, with India, under the “cover” of an “international alliance”. 

Israel, Hezbollah and Hamas:

The title is not a mistake! Israel is not finally retaliating against the Palestinian people but against Hamas, a terrorist and mostly foreign organization paid, trained and armed by a foreign country (Iran) that has hijacked a democratic process to take over the land and manipulate its people. Hamas, Iran, don’t want peace in the region, don’t care much for the Palestinians. Hezbollah, in Lebanon, is another terrorist and mostly foreign organization paid, trained and armed by a foreign country (Iran) that has hijacked a democratic process to take over the land of Lebanon and manipulate its people. Hezbollah, Iran, don’t want peace in the region, don’t care much for the Lebanese. Sounds familiar? Same story different place and same goals! Hezbollah is currently flexing its muscles again, stirring the anti-Jew hatred pot in Lebanon and getting ready to open a second front against Israel. The Palestinian and the Lebanese people have historically been the unwilling pawns of the self serving anti-Israel policies of neighboring countries that took turns leading the charge. Syria, Libya, Egypt, Jordan and Iran have always been involved, together or alone, at one time or another. Using Lebanon or the land given to the Palestinians (Gaza strip) as the starting point for terrorist or military attacks has been a traditional sport of the Arab powers since the state of Israel was created... War by proxy and to hell with the people they claim to protect: they don’t care much about them and they should die for their cause too. Israel has hammered down again and again the recent Hezbollah’s rearming policies and provided worrisome figures for the world to ponder with. Hezbollah is allegedly a 14,000 fighters strong force and could also assemble 10,000 reservists. Its arsenal could include Russian made anti aircraft portable missiles and about 30,000 rockets (short range, 107 and 122mmm, many of them provide by Iran and Syria). Hezbollah, Iran, must feel secure in Lebanon, hiding among the civilian population while setting home-made rocket launch pads on timers along the Israeli border. But thinking that the next Israel offensive will be as politically correct and weak as the 2006 “Second Lebanon War” could be a fatal error. The February 2009 Knesset Elections are looming in Israel and the weaklings, led by Olmert are on the way out. Olmert is still the acting leader of a caretaker government despite his resignation but watch out for the tough rising star, Tzipi Livni!

Somalia and Piracy:

Civil war: The United Nations are currently debating about the stabilization of “The Horn of Africa” and considering again the creation of another multinational force of “Blue Helmets” to intervene in Somalia against the Islamist militias that are holding most of the country and waging a brutal civil war that has been a long lasting humane tragedy. President Abdullah Yusuf has resigned and fled the country with his followers upon learning that the Ethiopian military that was fighting the Islamists for him was bound to withdraw (by the way…read an older newsletter of mine talking about the US Congress financed genocide in Ethiopia and the US complacency toward it as long as Ethiopia fights the terrorists in Somalia!). Somalia is now left in a vacuum the Islamists are quickly going to fill unless something is done. Sure, 2600 African Union soldiers are already there under the banner of the UN but they have not been effective at all. A new UN resolution, #1831, is going to renew for six months the mandate of that force with a wishful clause for some country to show up and provide them with “logistical, political and technical reinforcements”! The financial cost and the total lack of security in the country is less than appealing and financial aid to help sustain 3,5 million starving Somalis have been steadily decreasing. Also, many Non Governmental Organizations have left the country, unable to safely provide a much needed medical help for the locals. Somalia seems like a lost cause and the UN is basically trying to jump start some kind of international interest in the fate of the victims of the long lasting civil war. A 10,000 strong UN force with a clear mandate might be able to lower the “tensions” between neighboring Eritrea and Ethiopia, both respectively providing support to the warring factions, Islamic militias for the former and local government for the latter. But we all know that the UN is as strong as the modern Western country that makes and finances the bulk of its force, and as successful as its will to win the thing is strong. Who on earth would want to go back there? America? Been there, been kicked out. France: been there, done that, wasted lives, time and money, left…Anybody out there?

Piracy: In April 2008, Somali pirates captured a French luxury cruise boat, “Le Ponant”, and took thirty people hostage. On April 11, the government agreed to pay the two million Euros ransom and recovered boat and hostages. In the meantime, the pirates were tracked leaving the boat with the money and boarding a SUV. They took off through the desert until ambushed by French combat helicopters that destroyed the engine of the truck. 6 terrorists were captured along with the ransom and two killed. In September 2008, the 15th, the French sail boat “Carre d’As” is captured by Pirates around the tip of the “Horn of Africa”. 30 French Special Forces operatives and Marines assaulted the boat, killed the terrorists and recovered the hostages. The night assault was “book perfect” with high altitude air coordination and intelligence, close air support helicopters on standby, a Malaysian hospital boat at the ready, a speed boat for diversion and an assault boarding party on a secondary vessel. Technology (Night vision devices, radio transmitters…), intelligence, discretion, skills and speed made it possible. Do you think that the Pirates have gotten the message not to attack French boats anymore?

And Georgia (Russian military punishment and aftermath: Cold War?), Ukraine (Russia and port of Sebastopol), Dagestan (rebels vs. Russia), the US missile shield in Eastern Europe vs. Russia, the Philippines (Muslim separatist threat), Northern Ireland (extremist cell splitting from IRA resuming the war?), North Mali…and North Korea, Thailand, China, Tibet, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Guinea, Zimbabwe, Myanmar…

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Continuing from the last edition…corporate fears intensified in 1993, a banner year for workplace gore. In January, Paul Calden opened fire on his former colleagues at Fireman’s Fund Insurance Co, in Tampa, Florida, killing three. Over the next two weeks, four more workers attacked their employers. In May, two postal workers, one in Michigan and one in California, chose the same day to launch shooting sprees. On July 1, Gian Luigi Ferri attacked a San Francisco law firm, killing eight before killing himself. 

The year also saw the arrival of the first research on workplace violence from federal and private sources, almost all of it prone to misinterpretation. In September, Mr. Kinney released his widely cited book in which he presented his personal calculation that murder by employees had “doubled or tripled” since 1990. On October 1, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released its first Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, which found that homicide was the second leading cause of death in the workplace, after transportation-related accidents.

The convergence of so much blood and data infused the common wisdom with the conviction not only that workplace violence was rampant, but that invariably the culprits were disgruntled workers or ex-employees. In fact, the underlying data challenged popular perceptions. 

Consider, for example, the widely reported BLS finding that homicide is the second leading cause of death in the workplace. Reporters often insert the finding when reporting the latest murder by a disgruntled worker, conveying the impression that workers are to blame for elevating homicide to the number two position. The numbers, however, depict a far more complex landscape, one most news accounts fail to describe. 

In August 2004, for example, the BLS released it workplace death toll, covering deaths in 2003. Once again, it ranked homicide second. But a closer look at the study shows that workplace murder is a rare event. Of over 120.8 million people in the workforce, 1,063 – one out of 114,000 – were killed while at work or on duty. However, the risks varied dramatically among occupations. Raw numbers supplied to the Wall Street Journal by the BLS show that the chances that an executive, manager or administrator (other than hotel and restaurant managers) would be slain on the job by anyone, disgruntled or otherwise, were one in 226, 000. For secretaries, the risk fell to one in 370,000. For doctors, engineers, computer scientists, and other members of the Census Bureau’s “professional specialties” category, the chances were still remote; one in 457,000. The study itself helped obscure the conclusion, however, by defining workplace violence so broadly as to beg the question: When is workplace violence merely ordinary violence under a new name?

The study also found that three-quarters of the year’s homicides were committed during robberies where the motive was plain old greed. Those victims included cab drivers, convenience-store-clerks, owners of inner-city bodegas, and pizza delivery drivers. 

Such statistics have armed a cadre of “workplace-violence experts” who in turn may also be fanning company fears. Typically, they concentrate on co-worker violence to the exclusion of far more common robbery-related murders. Antiviolence seminars for corporate executives have proliferated, and convey the impression that massacres are almost common place. 

The prospect of killings by workers, continue to frighten companies far out of proportion to their true incidence. Your job does not have a co-worker lurking behind the water cooler, waiting to kill you. Instead of being fearful of a crazed employee or disgruntled worker going “postal,” employers should be more fearful of the lawsuits that will be brought against the company by victims of workplace violence; it is the financial vengeance that will topple most companies.

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Did You Know? Michelle Glisan Blevins         

• That nearly half the population of Liberia lives in its capital city Monrovia, named after US President James Monroe

• That the University of Liberia in Monrovia opened in 1862 is one of the oldest in Africa

• That the 5% of Liberians who are the descendents of the freeborn African Americans and former slaves who settled in Liberia in the 1800s are known as Americo-Liberians

• That current Liberian president, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, is the daughter of the first indigenous Liberian elected to the national legislature and the first female to be elected as a head-of-state in Africa

• That between 1989-1996 and again between 1999-2003 Liberia underwent two civil wars

The Liberian flag, based on the design of the United States flag, has 11 equal alternating horizontal bands of red and white and a five-pointed white star on a field of blue on the upper hoist side.

ENRICO FERMI

Enrico Fermi

9-29-1901 to 11-28-1954

Born in Rome, Italy, Fermi was an accomplished theoretical and experimental physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1938. Sometimes known as the “Architect of the Nuclear Age”, Enrico Fermi immigrated with his wife to America during World War II where he was appointed Professor of Physics at Columbia University. He was a lead scientist for the Manhattan Project working hard to develop the atomic bomb, though he later argued against the development of the hydrogen bomb. Fermi died of stomach cancer at the age of 53.

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How to Escape from a Mountain Lion

1. Do not run.
   The animal most likely will have seen and smelled you already, and running will simply cause it to pay more attention.

2. Try to make yourself appear bigger by opening your coat wide.
   The mountain lion is less likely to attack a larger animal.

3. Do not crouch down. 
   Hold your ground, wave your hands, and shout. Show it that you are not defenseless. 

4. If you have small children with you, pick them up- do all you can to appear larger.
   Children, who move quickly and have high-pitched voices, are at higher risk than adults.

5. Back away slowly or wait until the animal moves away.
   Report any lion sightings to authorities as soon as possible.

6. If the lion still behaves aggressively, throw stones.
   Convince the lion that you are not prey and that you may be dangerous yourself. 

7. Fight back if you are attacked.
   Most mountain lions are small enough that the average size human will be able to ward off an attack by fighting back aggressively. Hit the mountain lion in the head, especially around the eyes and mouth. Use sticks, fists, or whatever is at hand. Do not curl up and play dead. Mountain lions generally leap down upon prey from above and deliver a “killing bite” to the back of the neck. Their technique is to break the neck and knock down the prey, and they also will rush and lunge up at the neck of prey, dragging the victim down while holding the neck in a crushing grip. Protect your neck and throat at all costs.
   

HOW TO AVOID AN ATTACK

If none of these options is feasible, you have two other choices.

• Mountain lions, also called cougars, have been known to attack people without provocation; aggressive ones have attacked hikers and especially small children, resulting in serious injury. Still, most mountain lions will avoid people. To minimize your contact with cougars in an area inhabited by them, avoid hiking alone and at dusk and dawn, when mountain lions are more active. 

.(Piven and Borgenicht)

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