Mary Winkler, Free Killer

Above are photo's of Matthew Winkler (murder victim) and Mary Winkler (killer)

Mary Winkler, anyone remember her. She is the woman who murdered her Church of Christ minister husband in cold blood in 2006. After the murder, she drove to another state and stayed several days in a hotel giving the kids a vacation so they could all be together and play. A true Madonna in the flesh.

Everything about this case angers me and humiliates the American justice system. First, this bitch outright murdered her husband in cold blood. Then she claims that she was an abused wife, but there is and was no evidence of any kind of abuse whatsoever. She simply turned on the tears and claimed that her life was hell behind closed doors. After that this skank is given a three year prison. But after all,we don't want to be too hard on the little lady, so they let her out after serving only 12 days with the stipulation that she has to go to a mental facility. And then she is released from the facility after only two months.

This monster murdered her own husband. She robbed his congregation of their pastor. She took a loving son from caring parents. And finally, she sent the father of her own children to an early grave, they will never again see daddy's face on Christmas morning. And what is her punishment, a hefty 12 days in jail and two months at a mental facility to work out her issues. And to add insult to injury, now she is getting her three children back, because after all, we wouldn't want such a model mother robbed of the right to be with her children.

Somebody please tell me what's wrong with this picture. A woman commits a murder for giggles and then cries abuse and walks. If a man with an abusive wife killed his spouse would he be in the same place? Would he be walking out of jail after only 12 days? Would he be given free mental care for 2 months? Would he be back in custody of his children? We all know the answer is not a chance in hell of that happening! But justice is blind, especially when it hears a female voice!

I can only imagine the mental torture and the heartbreak and the horror that Dan and Diane Winkler, the parents of her dead husband Matthew and the custodians of her grand children, experienced as they had to hand their grandbabies over to the monster that murdered their son and the children's father. I can only imagine the absolute terror those poor children must feel, being told that they are being put into the care of the bloodthirsty monster that killed their father in cold blood and left his lifeless body to rot. And I find myself wondering, will the stress of raising children alone be the excuse for her next murder trial? After all, feeding them takes time, work, effort and money, so I am sure Miss Mary will conclude that they are deserving of a death sentence like she gave their dad once she tires of the work involved!

What I find even more reprehensible is the fact that her attorney Rachel Putnam says this is a good thing. She is quoted in CNN as saying "It should be seen as a sign that the family is healing,". The family is healing? What sign is there that the family is healing? Please inform me. Because from where I sit, I see a murderer has escaped punishment for her crime. I see the parents of the victim being forced to turn over custody of their grand children, the only reminder of their son, to the monster that killed him. And I see three innocent children being forced to live with the killer of their father, every day and night wondering when mommy will tire of them and when they will see their own young lives snuffed out. If that's healing in America, I would rather stay sick! I can assure you, if I was the grandparent of those children, I would be living in another country under an assumed name with my grandbabies before that murdering monster would ever have custody of them again!

At the time of this posting, I am so angry that I literally can not see straight. I find myself hoping that Mary Winkler somehow pays for her crimes, but I honestly can't think of a punishment suitable for such a monster. But that's life in America, isn't it, a good lawyer and some money and you too can kill the victim of your choice. Just ask OJ, Robert Blake and Mary Winkler, hell, OJ even wrote a book telling you how to get away with it~talk about insult to injury.

Call Center Drama

A while back, I started this blog to have a place to express myself. Since starting the blog, I have been posting cute fun things most of the time and I have avoided anything that might spark controversy. Starting today, I will be speaking my mind on several issues, everything and anything that strikes me.

Yesterday, a young man that I work with was fired. I do not know all of the particulars and I do not pretend to. However I am increasingly angered and upset at the way call centers operate. And what happened to this young man is no exception.

You see, call centers tend to hire in people at a better wage than most places. So people flock to their job fairs and they are able to hire only the best. This particular call center deals with technical issues for cellular phones so employees are highly trained, and constantly trained. The work is very stressful as you are constantly dealing with angry customers and with non supportive management.

A typical day is filled with dozens of customers who are having issues with their service, people who are reasonable and people who simply want to have a working solution to their problems. But every day there are also the unreasonable assholes who enjoy abusing hard working people, they swear, scream, cuss and threaten the employees. Employees are only allowed to terminate calls if and only if the customer uses profanity and is warned twice before they are disconnected. So if a caller is yelling and screaming and being unreasonable, you must take the abuse until and unless they have finally started to use profanity. Management is entirely without empathy and will subsequently blame the employee for 'not handling the customer properly' even though they are no better equipped to handle a raging lunatic than the employee is.

On top of the people stress, there is the system of measurements that the call center uses to measure the employees. Many of these would be reasonable if they were appropriately implemented as they are intended to be, however they are weighted against the employee, severely weighted. So, while the employee struggles to maintain good statistics, the company takes away from the employees statistics to make the struggle more difficult. It is much like the old concept of company stores. The company pays the employee, then charges beyond what the employee can pay for items ultimately forcing the employee into a slavery situation.

One statistic is called adherence, it is a measure of how well the employee sticks to his/her work schedule. However, several things are added into the statistic that remove from the employee's ability to stick to their schedule before they start. There are three brief management meetings throughout the work shift, these meetings total anywhere from 15-20 minutes of the employee's time. Minutes used for these meetings are counted against the employee and bring down their adherence level. So before the employee even starts his/her day, their adherence is significantly effected by meetings that the management require, but count against the employee.

Another statistic measures the 'quality' of the employee by a survey that the customer is able to take. Two of the statistics measured by this survey measure what the customer thinks of the employee and how likely the customer is to reference someone to the company. The statistics are measured somewhat like the following. If the employee is rated a certain way, his score is:

Rated Excellent 100%
Rated Good 0%
Rated Fair -100%
Rated Poor -200%

So, if in a month the employee gets say 3 excellent ratings and one good rating, their average for the month will be 75% putting them on the border of failure, if they get 2 excellent ratings and 2 good ratings, they will fail for the month as their score will be 50%.

Then when the customer measures the company the same scoring applies, but the scores do not apply to the company, they apply to the employee. I have seen several employees who cleaned up several difficult messes that the company and other employees have made only to be rewarded by getting failing scores in regard to the customer's thoughts about the company.

So when it comes to the employee rating, they can receive all Excellent ratings in a month and have a total excellent score. But the same employee can fail because the customer has rated the company poorly, and of course, if the employee really had been that good, they would have erased all of the previous bad experiences that the customer had with the company in their one 5 minute exchange, so it must be the employee's fault.

Therefore, Customer's rating of employee is Excellent, employee will get an excellent score on how the customer perceives him/her, but if the customer did not like the telecommunications company and was unhappy with their previous interactions, the employee who fixed the mess will be held responsible and fail that category. So, the employee doing an excellent job in handling customers well, will be punished for how the company is perceived, because after all, the company is it's people isn't it?

Then there are those good wages. Of course they can pay good wages, only 1 in 200 survives over 2 years. The company rarely has to give pay increases and pay benefits for any length of time. They tempt good people into the company with higher wages, then use them and dispose of them to start the cycle over again with some other unsuspecting person who is just looking to make an honest living.

I think it is sad that they tempt good people into extremely high stress jobs then use them up and throw them out like they did to my young friend. JJ (not his real name) you have given me the courage to at least say something here. Everyone who reads this, I hope you will have the decency to write to your local newspapers and to your local agencies to report places that function like this and use employees this way! I personally hope and pray that every member of management staff the took part in misusing people in this way falls on the same kind of hard times and misuse that they have perpetrated on others!

A few cute critters

Sometimes I need a little bit of this to put it all back in perspective. Looking at natures beauty helps me to forget the stress, I hope it helps you too!

A Park Near My Home

Hi all, I thought I would share a few pictures taken from a park right near my home. I walk here daily and it's a beautiful place, I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoy the park! It's in Portsmouth, VA, right on the Elizabeth River. Allow me to brag for a moment, the pictures were taken with a new digital camera that my kids got me for fathers day, Thank you Robbie, Charity, Cliff, Marlisse, Samantha and RJ! You guys are a blessing every day.

Happy Fathers Day!

myspace layout

Hi all, Just a note to say hello. I have been lazy lately, but keep an eye open, I will be posting soon. Thanks for dropping by friends!

Five Generations

Five Generations, Top: Jeanette, Barbara
Bottom: Nicole, Baby Lily, Penny


Last week, my nieces daughter gave birth to a baby girl, the 5th generation. Above, you will see my mom Jeanette, my sister Barb, my great niece Nicole, baby lily and the new grandma, Penny. Not many families can boast five generations! Congrats Nicole!

A Sad Day!

Last night when I came home, I found a note that rocked me to the core of my being. It was not a long or malevolent note. It was not bad news in the traditional sense. However the words stuck in my mind all night long and I find myself almost paralyzed by them.

The note from my son simply said. You need to give your brother a call. Memae (Pronounced like the English version of Renée, mem-ay, means Grandmother) has decided to move into a retirement home and she wants to know what you want out of the house. It was no surprise as my mom has been talking about making the move for years. She is 86 now and managing the house on her own has just become too much for her. Especially in the last two years when her health has not been as robust as it once was.

You see, until two years ago my mother was able to mow her own lawn and to shovel the snow in her driveway. She kept the place immaculately clean and maintained every corner of the property in a meticulous way. But more recently osteoporosis has taken its’ toll on her body and now she is not able to stand for more than a few minutes at a time without pain.

For many people in today’s mobile American culture someone moving out of a home either to another home or into a retirement facility may not be such a big deal. But for our family, this is a huge undertaking and an enormous change. You see, my parents bought that place 51 years ago when I was only three months old.

For them, it was the realization of the American dream. My dad was in his 40’s and my mom in her mid 30’s when they were finally able to have a home of their own. It is the only home that I remember at all, and the only place any of my three older siblings really call home. It is home in the strongest Currier and Ives, Thomas Kincaid, Little House on the Prairie definition of the word (maybe with a little Irish Kennedy clan and Roseanne thrown in for good measure).

For over 50 years, we have celebrated every cookout, every Christmas, every wedding, every funeral, every birthday, every fourth of July, every Easter and every other event of any kind in that little house on Highland Street. There are more memories packed into that house than I think it’s little frame could ever hold.

So many memories and family stories. My dad chasing my brother in law off with a shotgun (before he married my sister of course). My brother stopping his motorcycle too fast on the wet lawn and flying over the handlebars. My sister and brother in law bringing home the first grand baby to visit for the first time. Raking leaves and pine needles and jumping in the piles! The impromptu 4^th of July neighborhood party that started with dad taking the record player outside and sticking a few flairs along the driveway. Throwing mom and dad into the pool on hot summer days. My dad dying on the roof of the garage while making repairs. The day I told my mom I am gay.

Every positive and negative aspect of family life, all rolled up in one little cottage on one little street in what used to be one tiny American town. The list of stories goes on and on, even up until last week when my mother saw the birth of her first great-great granddaughter. If you knew everything that happened there, it would make you laugh and cry and it would make you wonder how on earth this clan managed to stay together. Like my mom sometimes said, if these walls could talk, what a story they would tell.

And now, because of age and time and human frailty, it’s all being taken away. I find myself wondering how my mother must feel as she leaves her home to spend her remaining days in an assisted living facility. Living in a place where the days are spent wondering who will be next to go, instead of looking forward to the next adventure life has to offer.

I don’t even know how to express the intense feelings that I have inside. Concern for my mom, feeling of great loss, feeling like our family history has been ripped away from us. My only desire right now is to cry, and somehow, that does not seem to be enough to express all that is moving around inside! But I can tell you this, cherish who and what you have now, because you never really know when it will all change!