The Ultimate Vampire Resource and Directory

RALEIGH, N.C. -- MySpace.com has found more than 29,000 registered sex offenders with profiles on the popular social networking Web site -- more than four times the number cited by the company two months ago, North Carolina officials said Tuesday.



North Carolina's Roy Cooper is one of several attorneys general who recently demanded the News Corp.-owned Web site provide data on how many registered sex offenders were using the popular social networking site, along with information about where they live.



After initially withholding the information, citing federal privacy laws, MySpace began sharing the information in May after the states filed formal legal requests.



At the time, MySpace said it had already used a database it helped create to remove about 7,000 profiles of sex offenders, out of a total of about 180 million profiles on the site.



Two MySpace spokeswomen did not immediately return calls seeking comment Tuesday.



The site, which is the largest of its kind, allows users to create personal profiles with pictures, music and text. Users can allow their profiles to be viewed publicly, browse profiles and send messages to each other. They also can block undesired contact from other individuals, or make their entire profile accessible only to their designated "friends" using MySpace.



Cooper is pushing for a state law that would require children to receive parental permission before creating social networking profiles, and require the Web sites to enact procedures for verifying the parents' identity and age.



Cooper is working with top law enforcement officials in other states in pressuring MySpace to use age and identity verification methods voluntarily. Based on media reports, Cooper's office found more than 100 criminal incidents this year of adults using MySpace to prey or attempt to prey on children.



Most recently, a Virginia man pleaded guilty Monday to kidnapping and soliciting a child by computer, charges related to a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old North Carolina girl he met on MySpace, according to authorities.



"All we're doing is giving parents the right to make a choice whether their children can go online," Cooper told a state House committee, which is considering a bill Cooper said will lead to "fewer children at risk, because there will be fewer children on those Web sites."



Advocates for Internet-based industries and privacy issues testified against those restrictions, saying they would establish broad parental verification standards that would be found unconstitutional in court because it prohibits free speech or impedes interstate commerce.



The plan also isn't foolproof, they said, because information can be fabricated by the computer user or a child can type in a parent's information.



The parental verification requirement "makes promises to consumers that cannot be kept. It is dangerous language," said Emily Hackett, executive director of the Washington-based Internet Alliance, whose clients include AOL, Yahoo and VeriSign. "There is no way to eyeball a user."



Sen. Walter Dalton, a primary sponsor of the bill, scoffed at the testimony.



"I don't buy any of those arguments I just heard," said Dalton, D-Rutherford, adding that he and Cooper's office believed the age verification requirements could withstand judicial scrutiny.



The bill, which already passed the Senate, would require a social networking Web site to compare information provided by a parent with commercial databases containing public records or other government-issued identification.



The sites also could be in compliance if they required a parent to use a valid credit card or fill out a printed form, then confirm with parents that permission had been granted.



Registered sex offenders who access the sites would face felony charges.



The bill, which was sent to a subcommittee for more consideration, may not stop all sexual predators from getting on social networking sites, but it addresses a problem that shouldn't be ignored, Dalton said.



"There is obviously a compelling state interest to protect our children from sexual predators," he said.



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I am not going to comment much here. I think the article said it very well. Just look out for yourself online like you would in real life. Just because it is the Internet does not mean you are entirely safe.

Please everyone recheck your profile from time to time for spelling errors. And please do not use cute ways to spell word's or what you think may be a useful short cut for that word's actual spelling. There are some on this site that are not very nice to those who make spelling errors. They are annoyed beyond belief by that and in some ways I do understand. They see so many errors and they forget there is a reason God allowed erasers, the delete button and liquid paper to be invented. No-one on the planet is perfect. If anyone tells you otherwise or acts that way ( you will know. You will be featured in their journal. ), they are not being truthful about themselves. They will sit in judgement about your spelling mistakes, but who knows what they are like in real life. As humans, we all do the same thing. IF you are not sitting in judgement about the mistakes on someone's profile, you may be sitting in judgement about the clothes someone in your real life chooses to wear. That happens all the time. It is a part of human nature we all need to curb in ourselves. We are all human beings. Even those who claim to be the Hollywood stereotype of the vampire on this site are actual human beings at the end of the day.



I am sure there are many who wish and have given up about the world being a better place. Well, if each person would start with themselves we may have a chance to get somewhere in that department. As long as we do not fight the urge to sit in judgement of others, we may find the planet in more danger somewhere down the line.



IF you are having trouble with spelling and grammar, get someone who does not to check your profile. There is no shame in getting help. Some people who cannot write are geniuses at Math. Albert Einstein failed Math and I am sure there were children who made fun of him. He may have been called stupid by some of them. Today we know who Albert Einstein is. We do not know the name of any of his grade school classmates.



You can also improve on your grammar and spelling. I am sure there are areas that those who point out your mistakes could improve on. Do we know what they look like? Are they putting their health in danger and cutting their own life span short by being overweight? Are they good to the people in their lives? Are the bitter by life and unable to feel happiness? We do not know. Just remember they are not perfect either. That is probably one of the things that makes them an unique human being too.

Editor's note: In our Behind the Scenes series, CNN correspondents share their experiences in covering news and analyze the stories behind the events. Here, Soledad O'Brien takes users inside a jail where many of the inmates are mentally ill.



MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- The ninth floor of the Miami-Dade pretrial detention facility is dubbed the "forgotten floor." Here, inmates with the most severe mental illnesses are incarcerated until they're ready to appear in court.



Most often, they face drug charges or charges of assaulting an officer --charges that Judge Steven Leifman says are usually "avoidable felonies." He says the arrests often result from confrontations with police. Mentally ill people often won't do what they're told when police arrive on the scene -- confrontation seems to exacerbate their illness and they become more paranoid, delusional, and less likely to follow directions, according to Leifman.



So, they end up on the ninth floor severely mentally disturbed, but not getting any real help because they're in jail.



We toured the jail with Leifman. He is well known in Miami as an advocate for justice and the mentally ill. Even though we were not exactly welcomed with open arms by the guards, we were given permission to shoot videotape and tour the floor. Video Go inside the 'forgotten floor' »



At first, it's hard to determine where the people are. The prisoners are wearing sleeveless robes. Imagine cutting holes for arms and feet in a heavy wool sleeping bag -- that's kind of what they look like. They're designed to keep the mentally ill patients from injuring themselves. That's also why they have no shoes, laces or mattresses.



Leifman says about one-third of all people in Miami-Dade county jails are mentally ill. So, he says, the sheer volume is overwhelming the system, and the result is what we see on the ninth floor.



Of course, it is a jail, so it's not supposed to be warm and comforting, but the lights glare, the cells are tiny and it's loud. We see two, sometimes three men -- sometimes in the robes, sometimes naked, lying or sitting in their cells.



"I am the son of the president. You need to get me out of here!" one man shouts at me.



He is absolutely serious, convinced that help is on the way -- if only he could reach the White House.



Leifman tells me that these prisoner-patients will often circulate through the system, occasionally stabilizing in a mental hospital, only to return to jail to face their charges. It's brutally unjust, in his mind, and he has become a strong advocate for changing things in Miami.



Over a meal later, we talk about how things got this way for mental patients.



Leifman says 200 years ago people were considered "lunatics" and they were locked up in jails even if they had no charges against them. They were just considered unfit to be in society.



Over the years, he says, there was some public outcry, and the mentally ill were moved out of jails and into hospitals. But Leifman says many of these mental hospitals were so horrible they were shut down.



Where did the patients go? Nowhere. The streets. They became, in many cases, the homeless, he says. They never got treatment.



Leifman says in 1955 there were more than half a million people in state mental hospitals, and today that number has been reduced 90 percent, and 40,000 to 50,000 people are in mental hospitals.



The judge says he's working to change this. Starting in 2008, many inmates who would otherwise have been brought to the "forgotten floor" will instead be sent to a new mental health facility -- the first step on a journey toward long-term treatment, not just punishment.



Leifman says it's not the complete answer, but it's a start. Leifman says the best part is that it's a win-win solution. The patients win, the families are relieved, and the state saves money by simply not cycling these prisoners through again and again.



And, for Leifman, justice is served. E-mail to a friend E-mail to a friend



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Now, one would not think off the bat that things like this was happening in the United States in 2007. The mentally ill in this institution are not serial killers or major lawbreakers. They are using drugs. I am sure most people reading this know the term self-medicating. That is when someone with a mental illness does not take their medicine and will drink or do drugs in an attempt to stablize themselves. Yes, they may have an addictive personality, but they differ from your average not mentally ill to begin with addict. They know damn well that something is wrong. They just are going about the wrong way to fix it.



Some do not follow direction from authority or anyone else. The article stated as much. Throwing them on a floor together without the proper tools to help them is inhumane. These people need to pay for their so-called crime, but not in the same way we would make other criminals pay. They are sick. They are sick in the same way someone with heart disease or cancer is sick. The brain is an organ of the body. It can break down just like any other organ. Medical science knows less about the brain than any other part of the body. Most people do not want to empathize with someone with a mental disorder. They want to avoid them. They may even say ugly, hurtful things about them. I wonder how many people have hid the fact they have one due to fear that others would shun them or mistreat them. All they have to do is watch what happened to another mentally ill person to know that the same bad things could happen to them.



No-one shuns a person with cancer and they should not. What about the person who is suffering with a mental illness? The mental illness may not kill them as fast as some forms of cancer, but it will kill them if they do not get treatment and they will suffer more in the long term if people do not try to understand or treat them with respect.

Osama bin Laden stresses the importance of martyrdom for Muslim causes in a videotape that purportedly contains a 50-second message from the al Qaeda leader.



The 40-minute videotape, whose audio was being translated from Arabic by CNN, was intercepted before it was to appear on several Islamist Web sites known for carrying statements from al Qaeda and other radical groups.



He was one of several men appearing and speaking on the tape.



There is no indication of when or where the videotape was made, and CNN cannot verify its authenticity.



It was branded by As-Sahab Media, the company that traditionally handles al Qaeda communications to the public.



Octavia Nasr, CNN's senior editor for Arab affairs, said the videotape does not appear to be new.



The environment shown is similar to that on releases made before the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, in which bin Laden is seen in the company of some of the hijackers, Nasr said.



Some of the backdrops also resemble those shown in videos when the U.S. attacks against the Taliban in Afghanistan began not long after the 9/11 attacks, she added.



The last time a recording of bin Laden was made public it was an audiotape, with an Arabic transcript, released on June 30, 2006.



For several weeks, radical Islamist Web sites have been announcing that there would be "good news soon from Sheikh Osama bin Lad.



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The article above was taken from CNN.com.



This article makes one wonder why anyone in their right mind would follow a man that is calling for others to give their life to a cause , when he is not willing to do the same. He will live, unless he is caught to a ripe old age. He has already outlived the young men who ran planes into buildings on 9/11.



Once you think about it, you realize that you are thinking from a Western perspective. Not all people in the Middle East think this way either. However, some have been brainwashed since they were foot high to a grasshopper to believe the West is evil and must be destroyed in any way possible. Death is just another way to get at the Great Satan that is the West in these people's mind. Their rationale seems foreign to those of us who value our way of life and living as long as we can on this planet. Unless one is wanting to kill themselves or has another type of death wish, those in the West want to live as long as possible in the best condition possible.



To fight terrorists, we may have to get into their mindset and make sure we know who is likely to become one in the first place. What social and economic circumstances will drive someone from the Middle East to follow a rich boy like Osama who is telling them to die? Why do they not see he has a God/Allah complex? He wants the power of life and death. What mental conditions are plaguing the mind of someone who can be brainwashed to follow someone who does not have their best interests at heart? Are they learning this from their family? Did another family member lay their life down and is now considered a hero? If we can reach the children and other young relatives of suicide bombers, we may prevent the next generation from following in their footsteps. Are they looking for a scapegoat for all their problems or did the policies of the West cause them to want to hate everyone living there? These questions have to be answered if we are going to be effective in stopping terrorists from continuing their efforts to hurt everyone. That includes themselves.

The adulterer, his wife, and the tent pitched too close to a cliff

By Kathy Marks in Sydney

Published: 06 July 2007



She was a wealthy widow; he was a former English police officer with a harem of girlfriends and a taste for sports cars and French champagne. Des Campbell took his third wife, Janet, on a camping holiday, and pitched their tent a few feet from a cliff edge. Her body was found at the bottom.



Australian-born Mr Campbell, who left the Surrey force in disgrace in 1997, told police his wife fell over the 120ft cliff after she went outside at dusk to answer a call of nature. He did not attend her funeral and, a week later, flew to Queensland for a holiday with one of at least three other women he was seeing at the time.



An inquest in Sydney into Mrs Campbell's death has heard from several former girlfriends, including a British policewoman who flew from the UK to testify. They told of being seduced by the "charming" and "manipulative" 48-year-old, who swindled them out of tens of thousands of dollars.



Mr Campbell married Janet Fisicaro in secret. Six months later, he took her on a trip to the Royal National Park, south of Sydney. He was an experienced camper. She had never been camping before.



A few days after her death in 2005, he inquired about her will and made plans to sell their home. Soon afterwards he withdrew A$70,000 (£30,000) from a mortgage account, and travelled to the Philippines to bring back a woman he had met through an internet dating service. That woman is now his fourth wife, and they have two children.



A former friend, Adam Wilson, said Mr Campbell had boasted of "shagging sluts" and preying on vulnerable, well-off women. Mr Campbell told his brother's wife that Mrs Fisicaro was a "fat, ugly, dumb bitch" who was stalking him. But he also bragged that she was "filthy rich" after inheriting her late husband's estate, worth about A$1m.



Mr Campbell left the Surrey force and returned to Australia after a woman in England accused him of sexually assaulting her. He had met her while investigating a domestic violence complaint, and took her out on a date.



June Ingram, who worked with him in Surrey, told Glebe coroner's court that he proposed to her over the phone in 2001. She moved to Melbourne to be with him, but he was "enraged" to learn she had received only $66,000 in her divorce settlement. To placate him, she bought him a car, and a house in southern New South Wales.



Ms Ingram said Mr Campbell sold the house while she was overseas, and ended their relationship by text message in 2002.



Mr Campbell then began seeing Mrs Fisicaro, described by her family lawyer as "a pleasant, naive but simple woman". He was working as an ambulance officer. He had left the Australian Army and Victorian police force after disciplinary investigations.



After marrying Janet in secret, he persuaded her to move to Otford, near the Royal National Park, and to buy them a house.



The girlfriend he took to Queensland, Gorica Velicanski, said she had been planning to move in with Mr Campbell.



She had no idea he was married. Nor did another woman, Lynda Rogers, whom he promised to take on a cruise if she lost 50lb.



All of Mr Campbell's women were attractive, middle-aged blondes. All were widowed or divorced.



The inquest continues.



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I will be the first American to admit that this kind of thing happens as well in my native land. Men and women will prey on those who seem too lonely. If you are single, it is a good idea not to fall for anything to save yourself from being alone. I am sure the family of the woman found dead would have preferred her to be single the rest of her life than die at the hands of her husband. I am sure they believed he did it. Of course, he is innocent unitl proven guilty in the eyes of the law. In the eyes of the people who lost their loved one, he is a murderer.



Many on this site seem very eager to hook up with someone else here. I always question those who cannot go one week without finding someone new to be with on the Rave. If one person, does not work out, they will move on to another. They want to feel like they are wanted. Hopefully, they are not running a scam or are a killer. Protect yourself. I am not saying you cannot find real love on the rave or elsewhere on the net. It would not work too well for me. Anything is possible, but exercise caution. You would want to end up alive, if you do not end up with the love of your life. If you end up alone, it is much better than having to learn a bought lesson. A bought lesson is a taught lesson. Why lose well-earned money to someone who is conning you? Why put all your faith in someone who may not even like you? What if they have someone else and the hundred dollars you sent to pay their rent last month actually went to take their true love out to eat for their birthday? Think before you do anything.



There are those who meet the love of their life on the Internet. They are the lucky few. They are the expection not the rule.

LONDON, England (AP) -- Two suspects in the failed car bombings in Britain had contacted a clearinghouse for foreign doctors about working in the United States, the FBI said Friday, and British officials probed links between the attacks and al-Qaeda in Iraq.



An FBI spokeswoman said Mohammed Asha and another suspect had contacted the Philadelphia-based Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates, as first reported in The Philadelphia Inquirer. Asha, a Jordanian physician of Palestinian heritage, contacted the agency within the last year, but apparently did not take the test for foreign medical school graduates, said the spokeswoman, Nancy O'Dowd.



"He was applying, (but) we don't believe he took the test," she said.



O'Dowd could not immediately confirm the name of the second suspect.



The FBI visited the organization's office in West Philadelphia this week, O'Dowd said.



On June 29, authorities defused two car bombs that had been set to explode near packed nightclubs and pubs in central London. The following day, two people rammed a car loaded with gas canisters into the airport terminal in Glasgow, Scotland. The car ignited, seriously injuring one of the suspects. Both men in the car have been arrested.



"From what I know, we are getting to the bottom of this cell that has been responsible for what is happening," Prime Minister Gordon Brown said in an interview with British Broadcasting Corp. television.



Asha was arrested on the M6 highway Saturday night along with his wife. In Jordan, security officials said Asha had no criminal record, and friends and family said they found it hard to believe either he or his wife were connected with terrorism.



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I did not copy and paste the entire article. You can find it on the home page of CNN.



It is not a question of if the United States will be attacked. It is a question of when. If sleeper cells have existed in Britain and Scotland, you can bet your last dollar and win, they are in the United States.



Our foreign policy and the foreign policy of many of our allies has played a crucial role in terrorist organizations being appealing to some. When you feel no-one cares, when you feel there is nothing else left for you to do, and when you feel the Western world does not care if your people live or die, then the ones that promise a way out are going to be the ones you go with. A terrorist organization in Lebanon provided food and health care to the poor while the rest of the world watched. Of course, the Lebanese people will suffer for a so-called deal with the devil, but in the mean time they are enjoying the food and health care. They are also believing the promises of terrorists.



The Soviets use to use the same trick. Does anyone ever learn from history? The Soviets would get to a country first and help them out. The people would be grateful for the aid and allow the Soviets to do whatever they wanted. Years later, the people of that particular country would realize they were tricked. I am sure there were citizens of the nation that did not trust the Soviets in the first place. Their voices went unheeded.



Every person in the Middle East who feels the Western world has done something to them is banding together. These organizations cross country boundaries. We cannot think that regional differences between Saudi Arabia and Lebanon will stop terrorists from those two countries from working together. It has been and will be proven again that there belief that the West is the Great Satan will transcend their country of origin. Foreign policy will have to be changed to address these issues or we all may pay a hell of a price.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness- Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence.



Many years ago, some people got tired of those across the pond who did not respect them and thought they existed just for their benefit. They wanted to be happy or at least have the chance to be happy. They wanted freedoms that had long been denied them. Most people are aware that on the day these words were written many groups in the United States would fight for the rights declared in the sentence I copied from the Declaration of Independence long after the American Revolution became history.



The writer of the Declaration of Independence was far from perfect like every other human who has walked. Here was a man who owned slaves that he did not see in the same light as those sharing his skin color. The words he put on paper later played a part in those fighting for their civil rights in the 20th century saying they wanted their life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. Women had to fight for the right to vote . Even though that right was secured in 1920, many men still tried to tell their wives how to vote. It took many more decades for society to realize that women could do many of the same things that the other gender could do. Things are not perfect, but we have came a long way since John Hancock signed his name larger than everyone else at the bottom of the Declaration of Independence to make sure King George the Third saw his signature. More will need to be done. Other groups still have not seen what they need to see to feel they were included on that day when Thomas Jefferson put his quill to a piece of paper that changed the course of history. Things are not where they should be for other groups that have secured some rights.



Hopefully, by the time my great-grandchidren are noticing gray hairs, the citizens of this country have more freedom from intolerance than they do today.

Sometimes people on this site forget an important fact. Even though the people you encounter on the Rave are probably for the most part people you do not know in real life or will ever met, they are real human beings. Yes, they are like you. They have feelings and they can be hurt.



The people you met on the Rave come from all walks of life and are from everywhere on the globe. IF you are one of those who only understands yourself and those similar to you, I am sure you are having a hard time dealing with some you encounter here. That is okay. It is when people start assuming things about others that I have an itch under my skin that will not go away.



Treat others on here like you want to be treated. Unless someone is totally creeping you out or forgetting you are human, it is not acceptable to treat someone in a bad manner. Do not assume things about people you do not know. No-one on the Rave ( and that includes those with long journal entries about their life) is telling you everything. That would not be safe in today's world. When you assume things about people you do not know, you are only making an ass out of yourself.