Hell on Earth
In the class I've been teaching lately on Death & Rebirth, we were reading about the "miserable realms" (from a Buddhist point of view).
Read teaching by Lama Zopa Rinpoche on this.
Here are some of my picks for "Hell on Earth" from the recent pages of the newspaper.
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May 17, 3:06 AM EDT
Chemist gets life for killing husband in acid vat
By GARANCE BURKE
Associated Press Writer
FRESNO, Calif. (AP) -- A biochemist was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole Friday for killing her estranged husband by knocking him out and stuffing him into a vat of acid, possibly while he was still alive.
Larissa Schuster was convicted in December of murdering Timothy Schuster with the special circumstance that the murder was committed for financial gain. At the time of his death in July 2003, the Schusters were in the middle of a divorce after nearly 20 years of marriage.
Just days after Timothy Schuster was reported missing, his half-dissolved remains - intact from only the belt buckle down - were found inside a 55-gallon barrel concealed in a storage unit his wife had rented.
Kristin Schuster, the couple's adult daughter, told the judge that she felt safer knowing her mother would be behind bars.
"I've been living for five years not knowing if I would have to worry for my own safety," she said. "In your quest to become a dominating power freak, you became your own demon. You have hurt me for so many years and probably smiled inside, but look who's smiling now."
http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/ACID_VAT_SLAYING?SITE=CACRU&SECTION=NATIONAL&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/R/RIDE_COLLAPSE?SITE=CACRU&SECTION=NATIONAL&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
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May 19, 4:38 AM EDT
Thousands killed in 1950 by US's Korean ally
By CHARLES J. HANLEY and JAE-SOON CHANG
Associated Press Writers
DAEJEON, South Korea (AP) -- Grave by mass grave, South Korea is unearthing the skeletons and buried truths of a cold-blooded slaughter from early in the Korean War, when this nation's U.S.-backed regime killed untold thousands of leftists and hapless peasants in a summer of terror in 1950.
With U.S. military officers sometimes present, and as North Korean invaders pushed down the peninsula, the southern army and police emptied South Korean prisons, lined up detainees and shot them in the head, dumping the bodies into hastily dug trenches. Others were thrown into abandoned mines or into the sea. Women and children were among those killed. Many victims never faced charges or trial.
The mass executions - intended to keep possible southern leftists from reinforcing the northerners - were carried out over mere weeks and were largely hidden from history for a half-century. They were "the most tragic and brutal chapter of the Korean War," said historian Kim Dong-choon, a member of a 2-year-old government commission investigating the killings.
Hundreds of sets of remains have been uncovered so far, but researchers say they are only a tiny fraction of the deaths. The commission estimates at least 100,000 people were executed, in a South Korean population of 20 million.
http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/K/KOREA_MASS_EXECUTIONS?SITE=CACRU&SECTION=NATIONAL&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Read teaching by Lama Zopa Rinpoche on this.
Here are some of my picks for "Hell on Earth" from the recent pages of the newspaper.
________________________
May 17, 3:06 AM EDT
Chemist gets life for killing husband in acid vat
By GARANCE BURKE
Associated Press Writer
FRESNO, Calif. (AP) -- A biochemist was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole Friday for killing her estranged husband by knocking him out and stuffing him into a vat of acid, possibly while he was still alive.
Larissa Schuster was convicted in December of murdering Timothy Schuster with the special circumstance that the murder was committed for financial gain. At the time of his death in July 2003, the Schusters were in the middle of a divorce after nearly 20 years of marriage.
Just days after Timothy Schuster was reported missing, his half-dissolved remains - intact from only the belt buckle down - were found inside a 55-gallon barrel concealed in a storage unit his wife had rented.
Kristin Schuster, the couple's adult daughter, told the judge that she felt safer knowing her mother would be behind bars.
"I've been living for five years not knowing if I would have to worry for my own safety," she said. "In your quest to become a dominating power freak, you became your own demon. You have hurt me for so many years and probably smiled inside, but look who's smiling now."
http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/ACID_VAT_SLAYING?SITE=CACRU&SECTION=NATIONAL&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Article Launched: 05/16/2008 09:51:27 AM PDT
SANTA CRUZ -- An argument about a woman sent one man to the hospital and the other to County Jail early this morning.
The fight happened downtown around midnight.
It started with the men yelling at each other, but quickly escalated to a physical fight and one man pulled a knife, police reported. That man, 32-year-old Jeremy Stevens Borders, allegedly stabbed the victim, a 25-year-old Santa Cruz man, several times in the upper body, according to police.
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May 17, 8:40 PM EDT
2 girls remain hospitalized following carnival ride crash
By DON THOMPSON
Associated Press Writer
ANGELS CAMP, Calif. (AP) -- A mechanical failure caused the collapse of a spinning-chair ride at a county fair that injured all 23 aboard, mostly children, according to an initial investigation by state inspectors.
All of the victims but two had been released from hospitals by Saturday, a day after the ride broke down. A 12-year-old girl was hospitalized in good condition and a 14-year-old girl was listed in stable condition, according to sheriff's Sgt. Dave Seawell. The sheriff's office initially said 24 people were injured, but revised the number on Saturday.
The Yo-Yo ride has a series of metal arms extending from a rotating hub. A chair is attached to the end of each arm by long chains, and the arms and chairs swing outward as the hub rotates and picks up speed.
People who witnessed the accident at the Calaveras County Fair said they saw the ride's arms and chairs suddenly collapse, dragging the passengers on the ground until the machine came to a halt.
"It was spinning in the air and then it just dropped," said Mark Pearson, 14. "It was all tangled and everything. Little kids were just laying there screaming. People were screaming, 'Oh my God, it's horrible!' ... Then I saw people lying on the ground, with blood out of their legs. It scared me."
2 girls remain hospitalized following carnival ride crash
By DON THOMPSON
Associated Press Writer
ANGELS CAMP, Calif. (AP) -- A mechanical failure caused the collapse of a spinning-chair ride at a county fair that injured all 23 aboard, mostly children, according to an initial investigation by state inspectors.
All of the victims but two had been released from hospitals by Saturday, a day after the ride broke down. A 12-year-old girl was hospitalized in good condition and a 14-year-old girl was listed in stable condition, according to sheriff's Sgt. Dave Seawell. The sheriff's office initially said 24 people were injured, but revised the number on Saturday.
The Yo-Yo ride has a series of metal arms extending from a rotating hub. A chair is attached to the end of each arm by long chains, and the arms and chairs swing outward as the hub rotates and picks up speed.
People who witnessed the accident at the Calaveras County Fair said they saw the ride's arms and chairs suddenly collapse, dragging the passengers on the ground until the machine came to a halt.
"It was spinning in the air and then it just dropped," said Mark Pearson, 14. "It was all tangled and everything. Little kids were just laying there screaming. People were screaming, 'Oh my God, it's horrible!' ... Then I saw people lying on the ground, with blood out of their legs. It scared me."
____________________________________________________
May 19, 4:38 AM EDT
Thousands killed in 1950 by US's Korean ally
By CHARLES J. HANLEY and JAE-SOON CHANG
Associated Press Writers
DAEJEON, South Korea (AP) -- Grave by mass grave, South Korea is unearthing the skeletons and buried truths of a cold-blooded slaughter from early in the Korean War, when this nation's U.S.-backed regime killed untold thousands of leftists and hapless peasants in a summer of terror in 1950.
With U.S. military officers sometimes present, and as North Korean invaders pushed down the peninsula, the southern army and police emptied South Korean prisons, lined up detainees and shot them in the head, dumping the bodies into hastily dug trenches. Others were thrown into abandoned mines or into the sea. Women and children were among those killed. Many victims never faced charges or trial.
The mass executions - intended to keep possible southern leftists from reinforcing the northerners - were carried out over mere weeks and were largely hidden from history for a half-century. They were "the most tragic and brutal chapter of the Korean War," said historian Kim Dong-choon, a member of a 2-year-old government commission investigating the killings.
Hundreds of sets of remains have been uncovered so far, but researchers say they are only a tiny fraction of the deaths. The commission estimates at least 100,000 people were executed, in a South Korean population of 20 million.
http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/K/KOREA_MASS_EXECUTIONS?SITE=CACRU&SECTION=NATIONAL&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Hi Drimay! This is Ben. What a good practice to use the newspaper as a meditation on the hell on earth teachings. Thank you!
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