MONKEY MUSINGS DAILY OPEN DISCUSSION #42 6/12/09 - 6/30/09

[Blue Moon]

WOW Bluemoon - scarey stuff!  Glad you are safe now!  Great picture!

My son was having a fit cause I was on the back deck taking these pictures and yelling at him to find someplace, anyplace we could hide.  No basement so you get this feeling that you are trapped.  I did get really nervous when I took this picture and it was the last of 4 pictures I took and then I ran inside and paced the floors. But we survived another round and hopefully many more to come.  My next home will have a basement though.

[Keepthefaith]

I promised pictures of the tail of a tornado to the north of my house, it is kinda blurry as I got a little concerned at that moment having that image right in front of me but the tornado tail is in the middle of the picture in line with the power lines.  This tornado touched down north of me about 15 miles but it formed and started in the vicinity of my home:

WoW..Whatta great picture!Glad to know the Blue Moon family is safe....

[mytime]

OMG this is shocking to me!!    

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,526037,00.html

Blogger Admits Story of Terminally Ill Baby Is a Lie
Friday , June 12, 2009




A blogger who wrote of deciding to give birth to a terminally ill baby, attracting a following of thousands of supporters online, admits now that the entire story was made up.

The woman behind the hoax isn't "April's Mom" — a single expectant mother who lay awake at night terrified her unborn child would die at any time, according to the Chicago Tribune.

She is actually Beccah Beushausen, a 26-year-old social worker from the Chicago suburb of Mokenka who says she didn't know how to free herself from the web of lies she wove.

"Soon I was getting 100,000 hits a week, and it just got out of hand," she told the Tribune. "I didn't know how to stop. ... One lie led to another."

The blog reached its peak at nearly a million hits when Beushausen wrote that baby April Rose was born alive at home — and then died mere hours later, the paper reported.

Anti-abortion supporters were captivated by her story, logging on each night to read about her plight and saying they were praying for her.

Some followers even sent gifts and photographs to the post office box she listed online. Parenting Web sites that oppose abortion promoted her site.

But the web of lies began to unravel when a photo of a lifelike doll posted as a supposed picture of baby April Rose raised suspicions, according to the Tribune.

"I have that exact doll in my house," dollmaker and blog reader Elizabeth Russell of Buffalo, N.Y., told the newspaper. "As soon as I saw that picture, I knew it was a scam."

When supporters of "April's Mom" found out her story was fiction, they were outraged and demanded that the blogger be unmasked and held accountable.

"I know what I did was wrong," Beushausen told the Tribune. "I've been getting hate mail. I'm sorry because people were so emotionally involved."

There's no evidence that Beushausen profited financially from the hoax or committed a crime.

  OMG, why would anyone do that?  How sad and sick!   

[mytime]

WOW Bluemoon - scarey stuff!  Glad you are safe now!  Great picture!

I am glad you are ok too.  That is scarey looking! 

[klaasend]

WOW Bluemoon - scarey stuff!  Glad you are safe now!  Great picture!

My son was having a fit cause I was on the back deck taking these pictures and yelling at him to find someplace, anyplace we could hide.  No basement so you get this feeling that you are trapped.  I did get really nervous when I took this picture and it was the last of 4 pictures I took and then I ran inside and paced the floors. But we survived another round and hopefully many more to come.  My next home will have a basement though.

Yeah I think if I lived in tornado area I'd have either a basement or some kind of concrete room/bomb shelter type of thing.

[MuffyBee]

OMG this is shocking to me!!    

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,526037,00.html

Blogger Admits Story of Terminally Ill Baby Is a Lie
Friday , June 12, 2009




A blogger who wrote of deciding to give birth to a terminally ill baby, attracting a following of thousands of supporters online, admits now that the entire story was made up.

The woman behind the hoax isn't "April's Mom" — a single expectant mother who lay awake at night terrified her unborn child would die at any time, according to the Chicago Tribune.

She is actually Beccah Beushausen, a 26-year-old social worker from the Chicago suburb of Mokenka who says she didn't know how to free herself from the web of lies she wove.

"Soon I was getting 100,000 hits a week, and it just got out of hand," she told the Tribune. "I didn't know how to stop. ... One lie led to another."

The blog reached its peak at nearly a million hits when Beushausen wrote that baby April Rose was born alive at home — and then died mere hours later, the paper reported.

Anti-abortion supporters were captivated by her story, logging on each night to read about her plight and saying they were praying for her.

Some followers even sent gifts and photographs to the post office box she listed online. Parenting Web sites that oppose abortion promoted her site.

But the web of lies began to unravel when a photo of a lifelike doll posted as a supposed picture of baby April Rose raised suspicions, according to the Tribune.

"I have that exact doll in my house," dollmaker and blog reader Elizabeth Russell of Buffalo, N.Y., told the newspaper. "As soon as I saw that picture, I knew it was a scam."

When supporters of "April's Mom" found out her story was fiction, they were outraged and demanded that the blogger be unmasked and held accountable.

"I know what I did was wrong," Beushausen told the Tribune. "I've been getting hate mail. I'm sorry because people were so emotionally involved."

There's no evidence that Beushausen profited financially from the hoax or committed a crime.

That is really a slap in the face to those that have had problem pregnancies and infants that have died.  So she's "sorry because people were so emotionally involved".  Sorry doesn't cut it.  No wonder she's been getting hate mail.  What has she done to try to atone?  As for myself, one of my children died due to prematurity right after her birth.  My next pregnancy, I was about 6 months along and I went to see the doctor, because I couldn't feel the baby moving. The doctor thought I was just worried.  There was no fetal heartbeat.  I can't describe what it was like after that.  I just wanted to slam my head in the car door over and over on the way to the hospital.   And this woman makes up a story like this?  She can go to hell and rot there. 

[texasmom]

WOW Bluemoon - scarey stuff!  Glad you are safe now!  Great picture!

My son was having a fit cause I was on the back deck taking these pictures and yelling at him to find someplace, anyplace we could hide.  No basement so you get this feeling that you are trapped.  I did get really nervous when I took this picture and it was the last of 4 pictures I took and then I ran inside and paced the floors. But we survived another round and hopefully many more to come.  My next home will have a basement though.

 

Wow!  Great picture Blue Moon!  You are a much braver Monkey than me!

So glad you are all o.k.! 

[klaasend]

((HUGS Muffy)) and I agree with you 100%

[Artcolley]

OMG this is shocking to me!!    

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,526037,00.html

Blogger Admits Story of Terminally Ill Baby Is a Lie
Friday , June 12, 2009




A blogger who wrote of deciding to give birth to a terminally ill baby, attracting a following of thousands of supporters online, admits now that the entire story was made up.

The woman behind the hoax isn't "April's Mom" — a single expectant mother who lay awake at night terrified her unborn child would die at any time, according to the Chicago Tribune.

She is actually Beccah Beushausen, a 26-year-old social worker from the Chicago suburb of Mokenka who says she didn't know how to free herself from the web of lies she wove.

"Soon I was getting 100,000 hits a week, and it just got out of hand," she told the Tribune. "I didn't know how to stop. ... One lie led to another."

The blog reached its peak at nearly a million hits when Beushausen wrote that baby April Rose was born alive at home — and then died mere hours later, the paper reported.

Anti-abortion supporters were captivated by her story, logging on each night to read about her plight and saying they were praying for her.

Some followers even sent gifts and photographs to the post office box she listed online. Parenting Web sites that oppose abortion promoted her site.

But the web of lies began to unravel when a photo of a lifelike doll posted as a supposed picture of baby April Rose raised suspicions, according to the Tribune.

"I have that exact doll in my house," dollmaker and blog reader Elizabeth Russell of Buffalo, N.Y., told the newspaper. "As soon as I saw that picture, I knew it was a scam."

When supporters of "April's Mom" found out her story was fiction, they were outraged and demanded that the blogger be unmasked and held accountable.

"I know what I did was wrong," Beushausen told the Tribune. "I've been getting hate mail. I'm sorry because people were so emotionally involved."

There's no evidence that Beushausen profited financially from the hoax or committed a crime.

That is just sickening. What would make a person want to do something like this?

Also, those "reborn" dolls DO look very very real.

[Artcolley]

I promised pictures of the tail of a tornado to the north of my house, it is kinda blurry as I got a little concerned at that moment having that image right in front of me but the tornado tail is in the middle of the picture in line with the power lines.  This tornado touched down north of me about 15 miles but it formed and started in the vicinity of my home:

Glad you and your family are safe and sound!
Beautful picture, but very very scarey. 

[MuffyBee]

((HUGS Muffy)) and I agree with you 100%

Thank you Klaas. 

[mytime]

That is really a slap in the face to those that have had problem pregnancies and infants that have died.  So she's "sorry because people were so emotionally involved".  Sorry doesn't cut it.  No wonder she's been getting hate mail.  What has she done to try to atone?  As for myself, one of my children died due to prematurity right after her birth.  My next pregnancy, I was about 6 months along and I went to see the doctor, because I couldn't feel the baby moving. The doctor thought I was just worried.  There was no fetal heartbeat.  I can't describe what it was like after that.  I just wanted to slam my head in the car door over and over on the way to the hospital.   And this woman makes up a story like this?  She can go to hell and rot there. 

I am sorry Muffy to hear of your pain and loss.  I just can't imagine what makes people go to such deceitful and sick lengths to gain attention.  What is so wrong with just being ourselves. Both the good and the bad. 

[MuffyBee]

That is really a slap in the face to those that have had problem pregnancies and infants that have died.  So she's "sorry because people were so emotionally involved".  Sorry doesn't cut it.  No wonder she's been getting hate mail.  What has she done to try to atone?  As for myself, one of my children died due to prematurity right after her birth.  My next pregnancy, I was about 6 months along and I went to see the doctor, because I couldn't feel the baby moving. The doctor thought I was just worried.  There was no fetal heartbeat.  I can't describe what it was like after that.  I just wanted to slam my head in the car door over and over on the way to the hospital.   And this woman makes up a story like this?  She can go to hell and rot there. 

I am sorry Muffy to hear of your pain and loss.  I just can't imagine what makes people go to such deceitful and sick lengths to gain attention.  What is so wrong with just being ourselves. Both the good and the bad. 

Mytime- I think people that make up stories like the one we are discussing are true attention whores, with no thought to anyone but themselves.  It's all about them.  They have sad little lives.  No self esteem.  They cannot accept themselves for who they are and so they try to create something to talk about.  You see, I like the part where you just said "what is wrong with just being ourselves.  Both the good and bad".  I totally agree with you mytime.  In the words of John Prine "we are who we are and we ain't who we ain't". 
We all have the good and bad in life, but then that's life.  No need to make stuff up 

[Artcolley]

Muffy  I can't even imagine the pain you felt, I am so sorry.

But then to have a clown like this make up stories, it IS a slap in the face, you are right.

 

[MuffyBee]

Muffy  I can't even imagine the pain you felt, I am so sorry.

But then to have a clown like this make up stories, it IS a slap in the face, you are right.

 

Artcolley~ I think people in general are good and caring.  Most people that would read a story about a woman that was to give birth to a terminally ill baby would feel compassion, including women that have children or hope to have children. Would there be any reason to believe she wasn't truthful?  And then to find they have been deceived by lies.  Why?  Why do this?  I just don't know.  I really do feel for the people that were kind and compassionate to this woman.   I am disgusted by it, but the people that were emotionally invested must feel so much more.  And how does that affect the way they see things now?

[trimmonthelake]

Muffy,   

[always 1]

Muffy,   

Ditto for me Muffy Bee Muffy Bee

[Artcolley]

Muffy  I can't even imagine the pain you felt, I am so sorry.

But then to have a clown like this make up stories, it IS a slap in the face, you are right.

 

Artcolley~ I think people in general are good and caring.  Most people that would read a story about a woman that was to give birth to a terminally ill baby would feel compassion, including women that have children or hope to have children. Would there be any reason to believe she wasn't truthful?  And then to find they have been deceived by lies.  Why?  Why do this?  I just don't know.  I really do feel for the people that were kind and compassionate to this woman.   I am disgusted by it, but the people that were emotionally invested must feel so much more.  And how does that affect the way they see things now?

Muffy, you are right. People are generally good and caring and the sad thing is she depended on their compassion to keep her ruse going. She knew her "audience".
I have no idea what would make a person be deceitful like this, something lacking in their own life, I suppose. Very sad.
I would imagine that the ones that felt compassion for her are now quite jaded. 

[mytime]

Muffy  I can't even imagine the pain you felt, I am so sorry.

But then to have a clown like this make up stories, it IS a slap in the face, you are right.

 

Artcolley~ I think people in general are good and caring.  Most people that would read a story about a woman that was to give birth to a terminally ill baby would feel compassion, including women that have children or hope to have children. Would there be any reason to believe she wasn't truthful?  And then to find they have been deceived by lies.  Why?  Why do this?  I just don't know.  I really do feel for the people that were kind and compassionate to this woman.   I am disgusted by it, but the people that were emotionally invested must feel so much more.  And how does that affect the way they see things now?

Muffy, you are right. People are generally good and caring and the sad thing is she depended on their compassion to keep her ruse going. She knew her "audience".
I have no idea what would make a person be deceitful like this, something lacking in their own life, I suppose. Very sad.
I would imagine that the ones that felt compassion for her are now quite jaded. 

Hi Artcolley,

I have to agree with you.  People are generally good and caring.  However, it is these kind of sick people that do jade the caring people over time.  I am sure many are left wondering who and what they can believe now. 

I know people can invent whomever they want to be on line, but why would you want to??  I would think it would only make them feel worse about themselves and their own lives.

If theses kind of people spent more time and effort on their own lives then pretending to be something they are not, then maybe, just maybe they would be happy and not feel the need to seek attention in such a sick and deceitful way.   

[KCJackie]

    WOW!!!

BlueMoon - Thank God you are safe.