Fritzl’s House of Horror – More Timeline Items

1984 Elisabeth is forced to write a letter to her parents asking them to stop looking for her

1986 In November Elisabeth suffers a miscarriage, 10 weeks into the pregnancy

1989 Elisabeth gives birth to her first daughter, Kerstin.

1990 Stefan is born.

1992 Elisabeth has a third child, Lisa.

1993 In May Lisa is left in a cardboard box outside Rosemarie and Josef’s house. A letter in the box says the child is Elisabeth’s, and she’s asking her parents to look after it.

1994 Monika is born. In December she is left outside the Fritzl’s front door. The phone rings and Rosemarie hears Elisabeth’s recorded voice. She reports this to the police, saying how strange she thinks it is that Elisabeth knows the new, secret, phone number the family has acquired.

1996 In April Eisabeth gives birth to twins. One of them, Michael, dies and is burned in a furnce by Josef. The other twin, Alexander, survives.

1997 After 15 months in the bunker Alexander, too, is left outside Rosemarie’s door.

2002 Felix is born. Josef Fritzl lets him stay in the bunker, as he considers Rosemarie too old to take care of yet another child.

2008 On April  19, Kerstin, then 19, is taken to hospital. The police calls for Elisabeth to return to help her daughter.

2008 On April 25,  Elisabeth, 42, Stefan, 18, and Felix, 5, are released. Josef Fritzl tells his wife that their daughter has chosen to come home. While visiting Kerstin in the hospital the next day, Elisabeth is collected by the police, and she ends up telling them about the past 24 years.

2008 Josef Fritzl is arrested on April 27 . All the children are taken into care and Elisabeth receives psychological support.

2009 The trial will start on March 16. Josef Fritzl is accused of murder, over 3000 rapes, incest, slavery, unlawful threat and kidnap.

And yet, there is talk that he might be out of prison after only 7 years.

Fritzl is blaming Elisabeth for it all

“Elisabeth asked me to kidnap another girl for her to have company.”

This is what Josef Fritzl, 74, is going to claim during trial in the coming weeks, according to the newspapers in Europe.

In the sound-isolated bunker on Ybbstrasse 40, Josef’’s word was law. His daugher Elisabeth, 43, was his posession and her life consisted only of submitting to his will. But when the trial starts this coming Monday, the 74 year old man is expected to do nothing but blame his daughter while trying to drag her name through the mud.

Josef Fritzl’s lawyer, Rudolph Mayer has also revealed that his client denies having committed rape. During questioning he is alleged to have confessed to having sexual desires on his daughter from her early teens.

“Finally I couldn’t restrain myself anymore.” he is alleged  to have said.

But he does not think he abused her against her will. His understanding was that she participated willingly. Elisabeth, on the other hand, does not agree. 11 hours of taped interviews with her will be played during the trial

She has told investigators about how her dad raped her around 3000 times, that he tied her up, drugged her, and threatened her to get her to do what he wanted.

“My client will deny rape and enslavement, but will admit to incest,” Fritzl’s lawyer said.

I have no doubt he will. But there is no way he’ll get away with it.

Fritzl’s House of Horror – A Timeline

1935. Josef Fritzl was born in Amstetten, Austria

1955. Josef Fritzl graduates as an electrical engineer

1957. At the age of 22, he marries Rosemarie, 17. Their first daughter Ulrike is born the same year. Daughter Rosemarie is born in 1960, and their son Harald, 1963.

1966. The couple’s fourth child, Elisabeth, is born.

1967. Josef Fritzl is sentenced to 18 months of prison for the rape of a nurse while threatening her with a knife. Rosemarie told the children he had gone away for work.

1969. Having done his prison time, Fritzl finds a job with a construction firm in Amstetten.

1970. Josef Fritzl starts visiting the brothel Villa Ostende.  He very quickly acquires a reputation for being violent and is most unpopular amongst the prostitutes.

1971. Rosemarie gives birth to twins; Gabriele och Josef.

1972. Rosemarie and Josef’s last child together, Doris,  is born. Josef Fritzl abuses Elisabeth for the first time. She is 11 years old.

1978. Building permission for a bunker on Ybbsstrasse 40, is granted.

1984. On August 28 Josef Fritzl sedates his daughter using ether and imprisons her in the bunker.

24 years of hell begin.

What is so wrong with breastfeeding pictures???

Facebook, you’ve lost my respect.

Apparently Facebook is telling mothers who have pictures of themselves breastfeeding their babies in their profile, to take their pictures down or be banned from the forum. Yet, at the same time there are members with pornographic pictures in their profiles, and nobody says anything to them. What is wrong with this picture???

I’ll tell you what’s wrong with it. Obviously the people at Facebook are quite happy to look at pictures of porn, but something as natural as feeding one’s baby on the other hand, that is just too disgusting for words. PATHETIC, FACEBOOK!!

Now, many mothers on Facebook are protesting this ludicrous crap by posting their pictures of breastfeeding. I’d join them, but I don’t have a single picture of me breastfeeding. I breastfed allright, but never thought to take a picture of me doing so. But I applaud all the women who are taking part in this protest. You go girls!!

Is monogamy right for humans?

In our past, we were not exactly the faithful types, and if we’re to look at the rest of nature, monogamy does not seem to be a very popular way of life. Only 3 percent of all mammals spend their entire lives with one partner. And we’re part of that 3 percent. However, since the Internet came into play, our so called faithful nature has taken a severe beating.

These days, you can be unfaithful in many ways.. physically, on the phone, via text messages, or in online chats. Quite whether non-physical flirting can be called infidelity is another matter, but if you are flirting, stealing away to chat with someone, and hiding evidence, then chances are that you are not being entirely honest about what’s going on.

When man first established him and herself on this earth, monogamy was not part of the equation. For a man, it was important to sow his seeds in as many places as possible to ensure offsprings. And for a woman, it just wasn’t practical to put all her eggs into one man’s basket. Literally.

These days, however, the religious right have kittens every time someone strays outside of marriage, although most of them are probably doing it on the quiet too, and the truth is, it’s not as much fun as it used to be (although I have to admit I have not got much experience since getting married) and with STDs running rampant, it’s just not as safe either.

In a recent survey, 44 percent of the people who replied to the survey admitted to using texting as a means of flirting. 45 % of women who responded said they regularly check their partner’s phone to see if he’s got something going, and 31% of men admitted to doing the same. So.. chances are you’re going to get busted.

You can read more about this in the book ”Myth of Monogamy: Fidelity and Infidelity in Animals and People” by David P. Barash, Ph.D., and Judith Eve Lipton, M.D.

House of Horror – New 3D video of the prison

There is a new 3D Video available on the internet documenting the prison that Elisabeth Fritzl was forced to live in for 24 years, giving birth to children sired by her own father.

Following the “walk-through” to the prison, it simply boggles your mind when you think about all the work that must have gone into this project. This man, Josef Fritzl, is so far gone it is scary. The man should NEVER see the light of day again.

What a HORRIBLE HORRIBLE life these poor children and Elisabeth have had. How they managed to stay sane is beyond me. Elisabeth is an INCREDIBLY strong woman, I am in AWE of her.

The video can be seen here, on the Aftonbladet.se site (Swedish newspaper).

More libido-enhancing pills? Do we really need them?

The latest from the world of sex science is that a new pill has been invented, to improve men’s sex life. There is an attempt to appease women by saying that the pills also work on us, AND the pill would make us thinner.

PUH-LEEZE. Who do they think they’re fooling???

How many of us women “over a certain age”, with jobs, children still in the K-12 school system and in other words still at home needing us more or less 24/7, can honestly say that we would welcome more demands for sex from our more rested and less responsibility-laden husbands?

Yes, many of us women could do with some help with our own ailing libidos, and if only there really was a magical pill that would make us thinner!, but reality is different.

The scientists, who have tested these drugs on monkeys, discovered it encouraged ‘rump presentation and tail wagging, tongue flicking and eyebrow raising’.  Some drug. I don’t know about you, but I know I’d be out of my mind with desire if my husband came home flicking his tongue, presenting his rump at me and wagging that remainder of a tail we as humans have (called the coccyx). Yes, I’m being fascitious. The eyebrow raising would be mine.

I know I’d love to improve my libido, perhaps I could stand the smallest chance of remotely matching my husband’s desires, but LOVE, respect and genuine affection for one another doesn’t come in the form of a pill!

         “The new drug stimulates the release of Type 2 gonadotropin (only a man could invent that name) and makes a man not only capable of having sex, but wanting to have it, too. And with his wife. After 20 years! Forget penicillin, this could be the miracle drug of the 21st century”, writes Amanda Platell of the Daily Mail in the UK.

I’m sure most men are thrilled to pieces about this new pill, about being able to show off their prowess yet again. But what many of them might forget, or conveniently leave out of their reasoning, is that what we women need most is romance. Not necessarily mind-blowing, middle-aged sex. We need to feel recognized, loved, appreciated and most of all we need the man to HELP OUT. THAT is an aphrodisiac. THAT might get you in bed with us. A pill making you feel like you’re 25 again while we still feel our age, is only a recipe for disaster.

Amanda Platell continues to say: “You don’t have to be a marriage counsellor to realize the pressures sex drugs place on marriages. No pun intended, but the rising number of Viagra divorces is well documented.”

Amen, sister.

Perhaps inventing a pill that makes the man more helpful and attentive at home would be money better spent.

Teen pregnancy rates – why are they higher in the US?

The United States of America has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the developed world. That’s a scary fact, don’t you think? Why do we have the highest teen pregnancy rate? I’ll tell you why. 

Puritanism. Republican religious fanaticism.

Pure and simple.  This can also explain why the United States has the highest rate of infant male circumcision in the developed world, for non-religious reasons. But I digress.

Our schools are not teaching kids about contraception. Why? Because it would “encourage sexual activity too early.” Other countries teach contraception, their teens are not sexually active any earlier than ours, and when they DO become active (for the majority of teens, there is no stopping this natural behavior, folks) they end up pregnant a LOT less often than American teens. So, the argument is false. As I’ve said before, teaching kids that abstinence is the way to go, the method favored by the current Republican, religiously fanatical government, simply is NOT working. Teenagers in the United States are more likely to have sexual intercourse before age 15 and have shorter and more sporadic sexual relationships than teenagers in Canada, France, Great Britain and Sweden. As a result, they are more likely to have more than one partner in a given year.

U.S. teenagers have higher STD rates than teenagers in other developed countries—for example, England, Canada, France and Sweden—because they have more sexual partners and lower levels of condom use. The problem is that kids are not only NOT taught about contraception during sex ed at school, but parents are also reluctant, in the US, to talk to their kids about it. 

Countries with low levels of adolescent pregnancy, childbearing and STDs are characterized by societal acceptance of adolescent sexual relationships, combined with comprehensive and balanced information about sexuality and clear expectations about commitment and prevention of pregnancy and STDs within these relationships. So, it really is quite straightforward.

We need to accept, and understand, that it is human nature to want to procreate. In teenagers, this urge is not understood as purely a species-survival method, and let’s face it.. sex feels good. So, they will experiment, they will take active part. The sooner we can all realize this, the better. Then we can act. TEACH your teens, in fact, teach your pre-teens, about sex, protection and STDs. By all means, let them know you’d rather they didn’t become sexually active before they are married or at least in a committed relationship. But you have to face the truth.. chances are they won’t always listen. So make sure they are safe instead.

This does NOT mean you are encouraging them to be sexually active, it means you are encouraging them to be responsible and careful.

Maternal death rates and the curse of senseless morality

For some reason there exists today a resistance towards openly discussing human sexuality and sexual and reproductive health in the world. Coming from a European country myself, and living in the United States since 1996, I am frequently stunned to see how taboo the subject is. The religious fanatics around the country have made sex a shameful subject. Yet, at the same time, there’s hardly a product advertised on tv without some half-naked woman gazing at you in an alluring way. It’s made all the more funny when she’s selling monistat or something. Nothing sexy about a yeast infection!!!

Some values and traditions hinder many organizations working on getting information out about sex, healthcare for mothers and mothers-to-be, advise on protection against STDs and pregnancy and the prevention of aids.  All this contributes to an encompassing and devastating discrimation of women and girls.

Millions of women around the world are denied the right to their own bodies and sexuality.  They are not given the right to decide if, how and when they will have sex, or how many children they are going to have. Case in point right here in the US with the polygamists in the west.  This inequality kills millions of women. Despite repeated promises, actions and goals on an international and national level, the mortality rate for mothers has only been marginally reduced in low income countries during the last 20 years. Every day, EVERY DAY, around 20,000 women and children die, from poor or non-existent healthcare for mothers. That’s about 7.5 million women and children every year.

The lack of political goodwill, resources and effective action, result in the majority of the women of the world being subjected to unacceptable risks where their lives are at stakes during each pregnancy. And yet, we know what needs to be done!

Today, there is an International forum in Stockholm, Sweden regarding this issue. They have 3 major goals with high priority that they want to accomplish:

Strengthen women’s positions. A great number of the women in the world today live in poverty and are at a social and economical disadvantage. Girls must have access to education. Women must be given the opportunities to own land and property, to earn money and participate in the business world and politics. Politicians, authorities, companies, organizations and religious groups must, to a much greater extent, pass on the message of womens’ rights.

Increase the availability of sexual and reproductive services. According to calculations done by the World Bank, the number of women who die during pregnancy and labor could be reduced by 74% through extended healthcare for mothers, and if women were given access to much needed birthing care, such as bloodpressure reducing medication, antibiotics, suction tools during birth, c-sections and blood transfusions. Abortions are of course never a preferred method of birth control, but those women who do not have access to other types of birth control or are victims of rape often see abortions as their only last resort. These abortions are often done under dangerous conditions. In some countries these dangerous abortions are responsible for about 40% of the maternal death rates.

Increase the availability of preventive birth control. Access to birth control could reduce the maternal dealth rates by 25-35%. Every woman must have access to, and decide for herself, which birth control method she is most comfortable with. Young women must also be given access to confidential information and advice.

With the help of well thought-through and goal oriented measures, the maternal death rates could even be almost irradicated.  Numbers and experiences from countries in Europe show this.

People must have the opportunity to have their voices heard. We cannot let morality and destructive cultural practices decide the fate of women and children. 

The maternal death rate of today is simply unacceptable. As women, we have to make our voices heard for our sisters in countries where their voices are silenced, and where their worth is lower than the animals on their farms. We need to educate the men in their societies and make them see sense.

Contact your state representatives today and ask them what they are doing to help the mothers of the world.

Well-educated women have less satisfying sex

If you have a good education, a bachelor’s degree perhaps, or a master’s. Perhaps even a Ph.D, kudos to you. Unfortunately, however, you may be one of the many well-educated women who have a hard time climaxing in bed.

In a recent study, 62% of those women who had been to university reported having difficulties with orgasm, compared to only 38% of the women who had not been educated at university.

The reason? Apparently the well-educated women think too much and can’t relax enough to enjoy the activity.

Heh. I never knew thinking too much was my problem.