The Inqisitr Reports
An Italian man currently under house arrest has requested to spend the rest of his sentence in jail, to get away from his nagging wife.
30 year old Santo Gambino, who was charged and convicted for dumping hazardous waste, spend part of his sentence in prison, but was transferred to his home near Palermo, Sicily to serve the rest of his sentence. Gambino, a construction worker who spent much of time working, was not accustomed to spending so much of his time at home with his wife. The couple had argued often and his wife constantly blamed him since his inability to work due to the house arrest caused financial problems for the family.
So against the conditions of his house arrest, Gambino left the house and went straight to the police station, demanding to be arrested and put back in jail.
Police did charge him for violating the conditions of his house arrest sentence, but instead of jailing him, they sent him back home to make peace with his wife.
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Posted by ChasinDatPaper on September 16, 2009 at 8:30pm
London Times Online Reports
‘The greatest fear people have is that of being themselves. They want to be 50 Cent or someone else. They do what everyone else does even if it doesn’t fit where and who they are. But you get nowhere that way; your energy is weak and no one pays attention to you. You’re running away from the one thing that you own—what makes you different. I lost that fear. And once I felt the power that I had by showing the world I didn’t care about being like other people, I could never go back.’ 50 Cent
1. See Things for What They Are - Intense Realism
Reality can be rather harsh. Your days are numbered. It takes constant effort to carve a place for yourself in this ruthlessly competitive world and hold on to it. People can be treacherous. They bring endless battles into your life. Your task is to resist the temptation to wish it were all different; instead you must fearlessly accept these circumstances, even embrace them. By focusing your attention on what is going on around you, you will gain a sharp appreciation for what makes some people advance and others fall behind. By seeing through people’s manipulations, you can turn them around. The firmer your grasp on reality, the more power you will have to alter it for your purposes.
2. Make Everything Your Own - Self-Reliance
When you work for others, you are at their mercy. They own your work; they own you. Your creative spirit is squashed. What keeps you in such positions is a fear of having to sink or swim on your own. Instead you should have a greater fear of what will happen to you if you remain dependent on others for power. Your goal in every manoeuvre in life must be ownership, working the corner for yourself. When it is yours, it is yours to lose - you are more motivated, more creative, more alive. The ultimate power in life is to be completely self-reliant, completely yourself.
3. Turn Shit into Sugar - Opportunism
Every negative situation contains the possibility for something positive, an opportunity. It is how you look at it that matters. Your lack of resources can be an advantage, forcing you to be more inventive with the little that you have. Losing a battle can allow you to frame yourself as the sympathetic underdog. Do not let fears make you wait for a better moment or become conservative. If there are circumstances you cannot control, make the best of them. It is the ultimate alchemy to transform all such negatives into advantages and power.
4. Keep Moving - Calculated Momentum
In the present there is constant change and so much we cannot control. If you try to micromanage it all, you lose even greater control in the long run. The answer is to let go and move with the chaos that presents itself to you - from within it, you will find endless opportunities that elude most people. don’t give others the chance to pin you down; keep moving and changing your appearances to fit the environment. if you encounter walls or boundaries, slip around them. do not let anything disrupt your flow.
5. Know When to Be Bad - Aggression
You will always find yourself among the aggressive and the passive aggressive who seek to harm you in some way. You must get over any general fears you have of confronting people or you will find it extremely difficult to assert yourself in the face of those who are more cunning and ruthless. Before it is too late you must master the art of knowing when and how to be bad - using deception, manipulation, and outright force at the appropriate moments. Everyone operates with a flexible morality when it comes to their self-interest—you are simply making this more conscious and effective.
6. Lead from the Front - Authority
In any group, the person on top consciously or unconsciously sets the tone. If leaders are fearful, hesitant to take any risks, or overly concerned for their ego and reputation, then this invariably filters its way through the entire group and makes effective action impossible. Complaining and haranguing people to work harder has a counterproductive effect. You must adopt the opposite style: imbue your troops with the proper spirit through your actions, not words. They see you working harder than anyone, holding yourself to the highest standards, taking risks with confidence, and making tough decisions. This inspires and binds the group together. In these democratic times, you must practice what you preach.
7. Know Your Environment from the Inside Out - Connection
Most people think first of what they want to express or make, then find the audience for their idea. You must work the opposite angle, thinking first of the public. You need to keep your focus on their changing needs, the trends that are washing through them. Beginning with their demand, you create the appropriate supply. Do not be afraid of people’s criticisms - without such feedback your work will be too personal and delusional. You must maintain as close a relationship to your environment as possible, getting an inside “feel” for what is happening around you. Never lose touch with your base.
8. Respect the Process - Mastery
The fools in life want things fast and easy — money, success, attention. Boredom is their great enemy and fear. Whatever they manage to get slips through their hands as fast as it comes in. You, on the other hand, want to outlast your rivals. You are building the foundation for something that can continue to expand. To make this happen, you will have to serve an apprenticeship. You must learn early on to endure the hours of practice and drudgery, knowing that in the end all of that time will translate into a higher pleasure—mastery of a craft and of yourself. Your goal is to reach the ultimate skill level—an intuitive feel for what must come next.
9. Push Beyond Your Limits - Self-Belief
Your sense of who you are will determine your actions and what you end up getting in life. If you see your reach as limited, that you are mostly helpless in the face of so many difficulties, that it is best to keep your ambitions low, then you will receive the little that you expect. Knowing this dynamic, you must train yourself for the opposite—ask for more, aim high, and believe that you are destined for something great. Your sense of self-worth comes from you alone—never the opinion of others. With a rising confidence in your abilities, you will take risks that will increase your chances of success. People follow those who know where they are going, so cultivate an air of certainty and boldness.
10. Confront Your Mortality - The Sublime
In the face of our inevitable mortality we can do one of two things. We can attempt to avoid the thought at all costs, clinging to the illusion that we have all the time in the world. Or we can confront this reality, accept and even embrace it, converting our consciousness of death into something positive and active. In adopting such a fearless philosophy, we gain a sense of proportion, become able to separate what is petty from what is truly important. Knowing our days to be numbered, we have a sense of urgency and mission. We can appreciate life all the more for its impermanence. If we can overcome the fear of death, then there is nothing left to fear.
Extracted from Robert Greene and 50 Cent’s new book The 50th Law, published by Profile Books
NY Daily News Reports
A Floridian biology teacher fired after posing for racy pictures has landed a new career – in pornography.
Tiffany Shepherd, 31, made headlines in April after bikini-clad pictures of her on a fishing charter got her canned from Port St. Lucie High School. She turned to doing porn, she told a Florida news outlet, after losing custody of two of her three kids to her ex-husband and sending out 2,500 resumes – some even to prisons – without landing a new teaching job.
"I'm not particularly proud of it. To be honest, I hate it," Shepherd told Page2live.com. "I'm an educated woman, but I never thought it would come to this. No one gets brought up thinking they'll be a floozy."
On screen, Shepherd goes by the name Leah Lust and has filmed five feature films, including one titled ‘My first sex teacher,' where Shepherd portrays the very job she's been trying to get back.
"It's very professional," says Shepherd on the Web site. "Everyone's tested -- for venereal diseases and AIDS -- and I'm carrying around my little piece of paper that says I'm fine. They love me because I take care of myself and I don't run out to party with my money."
Shepherd got into the business after the captain of the fishing charter that got her into trouble in the first place recommended it as a way to make good money. Captain Gil Coombes, of the boat ‘Smokin ‘Em,' owns a porn Web cam studio with his wife, Kat, called KLC productions.
"We sat down with her and told her she'd never get a teaching job again," Coombes told Page2live.com. "So I told her, use ‘em before they fall to the ground. But God, does she need to work on her acting!"
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Family photo of Destiny Antonio, 8, who fell from her 7th floor apartment window and survived.
New York Daily News Reports
It was her destiny to survive.
An 8-year-old Bronx girl aptly named Destiny survived a seven-floor plunge from her bedroom window early Thursday.
Destiny Antonio landed on a 10-foot swath of grass in front of the Castle Hill Houses, narrowly missing a paved roadway when she fell around 1:30 a.m.
"When somebody after that stays alive, it's a gift from God," said neighbor Juanita Candelare, 64.
"I'm gonna' thank God all day that she's alive." Friends said the family was sleeping when Destiny somehow tumbled out of the window in the bedroom she shares with some of her 11 siblings.
The little girl is undergoing surgery at Jacobi Medical Center, said longtime family friend Paul Miller. She suffered a broken hip, shattered pelvis, broken leg and trauma to her intestines and liver.
"Doctors are saying the first six hours are the most important," Miller said.
Authorities are still trying to determine how the child got out of the window, which has a visible window guard.
Miller said the window also opens from the top and believes the child squeezed herself through that.
He said Destiny's mom had complained to building management recently about the gap and that it had been fixed. A NYCHA employee said the top of the window should only open four inches.
Scene at 2140 Seward Avenue, Destiny Antonio, fell.
"She might have lifted the window up and climbed over the window guards?" neighbor Cecilia Colon, 52, speculated.
"It's a mystery. I can't figure it out."
Luis Guzman was hanging out with friends when he heard the girl hit ground and said she was "moving around, like when you're having a nightmare."
"It sounded like you threw something very heavy," he said. "When we looked it was a little girl right there."
Guzman sat by the girl, dressed in her pajamas, and told her, "Mama, don't move."
The girl's mom ran outside immediately.
"Oh, my baby!" the mother cried.
Guzman said the woman almost fainted.
Relatives were keeping vigil Thursday at the hospital as Destiny underwent surgery. "A miraculous kid," Miller said of Destiny. "God had his hands on her," he added.
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Former world heavyweight champions Lennox Lewis and Evander Holyfield have shared their sentiments over a possible showdown between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather, Jr.
"Well, until you beat the guy, Pacquiao's the best and that's the thing. Floyd hasn't done that yet," Holyfield told FightHype.com. "When Floyd left, he became the best because Floyd left, but now that Floyd is back, I guess they have to get it on to see who is the best."
Mayweather held the No.1 pound-for-pound ranking of Ring Magazine until he retired in 2007. The title now belongs to the Filipino boxing icon.
Holyfield thinks that fighting Pacquiao immediately after coming out of retirement is not a good move for Mayweather.
"I don't think that would have been smart. I don't think he needs to fight him immediately. That guy is good," Holyfield said of "Pacman."
"I think he'll give Floyd trouble. He's got fast hands too, he's left-handed and he's got a lot more speed than pretty much all the guys Floyd has fought," continued the four-time heavyweight champion.
Talks about a Pacquiao-Mayweather fight gained ground after Floyd Jr. came out of retirement last May.
Mayweather was supposed to have his comeback fight on July 18 against Juan Manuel Marquez but he sustained a rib injury during training. The fight has been postponed.
“Whether or not he believes that or if the fight will even happen, we will have to wait and see, but I would like to see it," Lewis, meanwhile, said of the Pacquiao-Mayweather match up.
“I think Floyd’s got the talent to beat Pacquiao,” said Lewis, who was recently inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
Lewis, a three-time heavyweight champion, also has praises for Pacquiao for his accomplishments in boxing.
“He’s putting the Philippines on the map and showing the world that the Philippines is a force to be reckoned with when it comes to boxing,” he said. “I’m glad they don’t have any heavyweights.”
“He’s a hero in his country and he could quit fighting any time now and become President,” he added.
Lewis said the Filipino reminded him of himself in the way he prepares for each fight.
Lewis and Holyfield faced off twice in the ring. The first Lewis-Holyfield fight in March 13, 1999 ended in a draw. Eight months later, Lewis beat Holyfield by unanimous decision to retain his WBC heavyweight title and win the WBA, IBF and vacant IBO heavyweight belts.
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A scene in the upcoming comedy Bruno featuring Michael Jackson's sister La Toya has been permanently deleted from the film.
In a statement, Universal, the studio behind the movie, says, "Out of respect for the Jackson family, the filmmakers have decided to remove a small scene involving La Toya Jackson." Bruno opens on July 10.
After Michael Jackson's death was reported yesterday, actor Sacha Baron Cohen and the makers Bruno scrambled to delete the scene just before the film's premiere at Mann's Chinese Theater in Los Angeles.
The scene, which had previously been seen by journalists, found Baron Cohen's Bruno -- a wildly gay, fame-seeking Austrian fashionista -- snagging an interview with La Toya.
Ms. Jackson, who did not appear to be in on the joke, gamely tried to answer Bruno's questions even as he interrogated her about her brother Michael and tried surreptitiously to find Michael's number on her cellphone.
The scene ended, as most things in Bruno's world do, with a moment of raw, funny discomfort.
Source : Entertainment WeeklyRead more…
Michael Jackson and nanny Grace Rwaramba along with two of his children
The nanny who became “mother” to Michael Jackson’s three children has told how she regularly had to pump his stomach to remove dangerous cocktails of drugs.
Grace Rwaramba, 42, who flew from London to Los Angeles yesterday in the hope of being reunited with his children, has given a graphic account of the singer’s increasingly desperate final months.
She paints a grim picture of Jackson, sometimes penniless but deluded about his “riches”, leading a nomadic life, moving from country to country and hotel to hotel, before allegedly falling under the increasing influence of the Nation of Islam, the extremist sect.
“There was one period that it was so bad that I didn’t let the children see him . . . He always ate too little and mixed too much.”
The nanny says she once called in the singer’s mother, Katherine, and sister, Janet, to attempt an “intervention”, trying to persuade the singer to come to terms with his addiction. Instead Jackson turned on her, accusing her of betraying him. “He didn’t want to listen; that was one of the times he let me go,” she said.
Rwaramba, who is from Rwanda, worked for Jackson for more than a decade, starting as an office assistant before becoming nanny to his children, Michael Jr, known as Prince, aged 12; Paris, 11; and Prince Michael II, 7, nicknamed Blanket to distinguish him from his brother.
She was dismissed for a final time last December but still went back to see the children. When she visited them in April she claims Jackson was so hard up she had to buy “happy birthday” balloons for Paris on her own credit card.
On a previous occasion he had sent her to Florence to buy antiques for $1m. “We didn’t even have a home to live in. So we had to put the antiques in storage,” she said.
Yesterday an official with the Los Angeles police revealed the singer had become “heavily addicted” to the powerful painkiller OxyContin and had received an injection of Demerol, another painkiller, an hour before his death. It is now almost certain the police will begin a full investigation into the singer’s death and that Rwaramba will be regarded as a witness. Coroners in the case said yesterday there was no suspicion of foul play but toxicology tests would take several weeks.
One theory is that Jackson was taking an increasing amount of drugs to combat the stress of his forthcoming 50 concerts at the O2 in London. The nanny said: “Fifty performances! I told him . . . what are you doing? He said ‘I signed only for 10’. He didn’t know what he was signing. He never did.”
Detectives have made contact with Dr Conrad Robert Murray, a cardiologist who was with Jackson at his rented mansion when he died, and have made clear they want to interview him. Police denied a report that they also want to talk to a second doctor.
Police will also want to know whether early CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) efforts to save the singer’s life were botched. On a tape of conversations between the Jackson home and the ambulance service, one of Jackson’s staff tells the dispatcher that Jackson is on the bed and that a “doctor is here”, meaning Murray.
Medical experts say it is usual for the patient to be on a hard surface because it is difficult to compress the chest on a soft surface. The operator told the caller to “get him on the floor”. A car towed by police from Jackson’s home is registered in the name of Murray’s sister in Texas.
Rwaramba claims the Nation of Islam, the sect that had become increasingly prominent in Jackson’s life, told him it cost $100,000 (£60,000) a month to rent the mansion, but she believes similar properties were on the market for no more than $25,000 a month.
The sect has supplied bodyguards to the singer and allegedly intimidated auction houses that were selling Jackson memorabilia.
“Michael had no idea about money,” Rwaramba said. “He got a proposal to make an appearance in Japan for $1m . . . By the time everyone took their share, he ended up with $200,000.” At one stage Jackson and his entourage flew economy class to Germany. One of the worst periods was after Jackson was acquitted following a five-month trial in 2005 on charges of sexually abusing a boy during sleepovers at his Neverland ranch.
Jackson, Rwaramba and the children went to Bahrain as guests of Sheikh Abdullah, a son of the king, who hoped to make a CD with the singer.
People there described yesterday how they sometimes saw Jackson walking through a mall, his frail body draped in a woman’s abaya, or robe, which covered part of the face. He drew a crowd since he did not walk like a woman.
When the singer and the sheikh fell out, Jackson and his family moved to Ireland to stay with friends of Rwaramba and then in a small house in New Jersey where Jackson slept in a downstairs room while she and the children shared a bedroom.
When Jackson did have money, he hid it in black rubbish sacks and under the carpets at the Los Angeles house. Rwaramba says Katherine Jackson rang her in London at 7am on Friday to ask where the money was, possibly to stop it being stolen.
Sources close to the Jacksons yesterday told the TMZ entertainment website, which broke the news of his death, that the children would stay with their grandmother and grandfather Joe at the family home in Encino, California.
They said: “We’re told the family is 100% behind this - feeling that Katherine and Joe Jackson are the only people who can help the children understand who their father was, help them grieve, and teach them to deal with life in the spotlight.”
Source : Times OnlineRead more…
RICHMOND, Va. -- Suspended NFL star Michael Vick left a Kansas prison before dawn Wednesday to finish his 23-month sentence in home confinement in Virginia, one of his attorneys said, the latest step on a journey that Vick hopes will lead to his reinstatement.
Vick, who turns 29 in June, slipped past waiting cameras and reporters undetected to leave a federal penitentiary in Leavenworth after serving 19 months for financing a dogfighting ring.
He was headed to Virginia by car to begin two months of home confinement at his five-bedroom house in Hampton before a scheduled released from federal custody on July 20.
He was accompanied by his fiancée, Kijafa Frink, and they were traveling back to Virginia with several members of a security team arranged by Vick's team of lawyers and advisers, a person familiar with the plans told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to comment on the matter.
The traveling party also includes a videographer recording the journey, the person said, although what Vick plans to do with the footage has not been announced.
The drive from Leavenworth to Hampton is expected to take about 19 hours.
ESPN NFL analyst Herm Edwards says if he were a general manager he would have to consider a lot of things pertaining to Michael Vick. Herm says it is not a right to play in the NFL, it is a privilege.
"It's a happy day for him to be starting this part of the process," Larry Woodward, Vick's Virginia-based attorney, said. "He looks forward to meeting the challenges he has to meet."
Ultimately, Vick's goal is to rehabilitate his image and return to the NFL, but Woodward said his first priority "is spending time with his children and his loved ones."
Vick, once the NFL's highest-paid player, is scheduled to report to a probation officer Friday in Norfolk, Woodward said. He will be allowed to leave home to work a $10-an-hour job as a laborer for a construction company and for other limited purposes approved by his probation officer. He will serve three years of probation after his home confinement ends.
Getting out of prison will allow Vick to begin rebuilding his life, repairing his image and working toward returning to the NFL.
Commissioner Roger Goodell, who suspended Vick indefinitely in August 2007, has said he will review Vick's status after his criminal case is concluded. He has said Vick will have to persuade him and the public that he is genuinely sorry for his crime, that he has been changed by his experience and that he is committed to leading a different life.
Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank said Wednesday that Vick has paid his debt to society and merits a second chance. Blank said the quarterback is taking positive steps by wanting to work with humane societies and making other changes in his life.
The Humane Society of the United States said Tuesday that Vick met its president recently in Leavenworth and wants to work on a program aimed at eradicating dogfighting among urban teens.
"There's no question Michael's paid his debt to society, obviously," Blank said during a break at the NFL owners' meetings in Florida.
Retired defensive tackle Warren Sapp, who played 13 seasons for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Oakland Raiders, also said Vick should be given an opportunity to resume his football career.
"We've always been a country of second chances. That's the essence of us, have some contrition for what you did, go pay your price and then come back and become a better person or a little different person, whatever it is," Sapp said last week.
Even if he is reinstated, Vick's NFL future is uncertain. He and the Falcons have parted ways, agreeing to a contract settlement that will allow Vick to sign with another team -- if there is one willing to endure the wrath of some fans in exchange for a player who was perhaps the NFL's most electrifying performer.
A public backlash isn't the only risk. By all accounts, Vick has tried to stay in good physical shape, but there's no telling how much his skills have eroded after two missed seasons.
Vick said in bankruptcy court last month that he believes he can play another 10 to 12 years. The NFL career average is only 3.2 years, and Vick already has played seven.
One certainty is that he will not command the kind of money he once earned. Vick supplemented his 10-year, $130 million Falcons contract with several lucrative endorsements, all lost because of the dogfighting. The minimum salary for a player with Vick's years of experience is $620,000.
Vick filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy plan that would have allowed him to keep the first $750,000 of his annual pay, with a percentage of any amount over that going to his creditors. A judge has rejected that plan, in part because of uncertainty about Vick's NFL future, and ordered him to submit a new one.
His bankruptcy lawyers have complained about the difficulty of handling Vick's highly complex bankruptcy case while their client was in prison 1,200 miles away. Having Vick back in the area should help them wrap up the Chapter 11 reorganization case.
Vick's startling fall began in April 2007 when authorities conducting a drug investigation of his cousin raided the former Virginia Tech star's Surry County property and seized dozens of dogs, some injured, and equipment commonly used in dogfighting.
A federal indictment issued about three months later charged Vick and three of his "Bad Newz Kennels" associates with an interstate dogfighting conspiracy. Vick initially denied any involvement, and all four men pleaded not guilty. All four eventually admitted their crimes and were sentenced to prison. Vick's sentence was the longest.
The gruesome details outlined in the indictment -- dogs were hanged, drowned and electrocuted -- fueled public outrage, but also brought unprecedented attention to the problem of dogfighting, prompting several states to tighten their laws.
However, some supporters also remained loyal to Vick, contending that while he made mistakes he was being singled out for harsh treatment because of his celebrity status.
Vick also pleaded guilty to a state dogfighting charge and was given a three-year suspended sentence.
Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press
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