Mary Kay Letourneau and Vili Fualaau

/27 Comments/in /by

Many of you have asked me to look at the Barbara Walters interview of Mary Kay Letourneau and Vili Fualaau. Many people saw a lot of emotions in Vili which they weren’t sure how to interpret.

When I watched Vili, I see a man trying to find himself after living a very chaotic life.  I see a man who is still discovering who he is, who is confused about how society let him get into the situation he was in and has now ultimately ended up.

Vili explained in the interview that no one helped him through this difficult time.  Even school counselors didn’t seem to know how.  Plus he didn’t have a good support system in place at home either.

Furthermore, Vili said, “I don’t support younger kids being married or having a relationship with someone older. I don’t support it.”

This clearly indicates that Vili likely wouldn’t chose to live the life he has to date with Mary Kay Letourneau, if he could chose again, knowing what he knows today. And yet he has stayed.  I wonder if he feels he has no one else? The world can be a lonely place. And then he has faced depression.

Mary Kay seems clueless about it.  She seems to believe that by doing this interview she would convince the world they found “true love”. I am not sure Mary Kay even understands what love is, sadly. I see her as someone who goes through the motions, without forming true attachments. She clearly has a lot of issues herself, and is not the mentor Vili needs.

I think Mary Kay lives in an illusion, and Vili in confusion.

Mary Kay acted more like a mom then a wife to Vili–answering questions for both of them, and Villi seems to have gotten used to these dynamics. Why wouldn’t he? He was taken in by a woman who took advantaged and preyed him when he was very young and vulnerable.

I think we can assume the only positive support Vili got in his life was from Mary Kay (where the word  positive is clearly debatable), and if she was his best option, you can understand his dire circumstances and confusion today as an adult.

I think Mary Kay has intellectual challenges, too, and perhaps Vili is slowly uncovering he may be the gifted one between the two of them. Without guidance, Vili has had a lot of adult problems to work through at a very young age. It has to make it doubly hard.

I hope Vili continues to find himself, and has the courage to step out into the world on his own.  He’s faced a lot of difficulties in life, no doubt, but his life is really just beginning and if he is not happy, he should feel absolutely free to start again!

Dash Cam Facial Expressions

/4 Comments/in , , , , /by

Here is a fascinating study of young drivers and the facial expressions they make while driving. Watch them drive and face some seriously close calls.

What is surprising is their facial expressions seem muted considering the situation.

I hear Dr. Drew Pinsky in my head saying that young people under the age of 25 haven’t developed fully in the brain, and therefore don’t make good decisions.

Here is a research article that talks specifically about this. In it, they say, “The frontal lobe, tasked with decision making, planning, judgement, expression of emotions and impulse control may not be fully mature until the mid-20s.”

That may explain it…

Nick Gordon Speaks To Dr. Phil

/6 Comments/in /by

I know many people were anticipating Dr. Phil’s interview of Nick Gordon this week as many people are curious about what happened to Bobbi Kristina Brown.

Dr. Phil arrived to find to find Gordon in bad shape. Gordon admitted that he was taking Xanax and mixing it with alcohol, which can be fatal. Dr. Phil’s goal was simply to get him into rehab, which was the right thing to do.

As you can see in the video above, Gordon was highly unstable and erratic, and knowing he is under the influence, I would take heed in putting too much into anything he says. Xanax and alcohol combined are known to cause jumbled thinking, poor judgement, and can even induce severe panic attacks. You can read more about what Xanax and alcohol can do here.

While I saw a couple of things that raised my eyebrows, I would not put too much stock on them until Nick is of sane mind and able bodied again. When Dr. Phil does the next interview with Gordon, I will share my thoughts then.

Interestingly, it seem this combination of drugs also played a part in Whitney Houston’s death.  It makes you think if Whitney introduced these kids (intentionally or unintentionally) to these drugs?

48 Hours: Melissa Calusinski

/19 Comments/in /by

Did you catch 48 Hours (click here for the full episode) this past weekend? If you didn’t, its a story you don’t want to miss. Erin Moriarty tells us of the story of little 16-month-old Ben Kingan. He was at daycare and was being cared for Melissa Calusinski when she says she he started to fall asleep.

“Ben was … sittin’ in his bouncy chair, playing with his blanket. …And then he kind of falls back asleep,” she told Moriarty. “When I saw him startin’ to fall asleep, I’m like, ‘Ben, Ben.’ And no response. …he didn’t look right. …and I touched his hand. He did not wake up at all.”

Ben died from his injuries.

The police interrogated Melissa for nine hours.  She denied hurting Ben over 70 times, but then she slowly broke down.  She confessed to police that she threw Ben to the ground.

But now she says she is innocent and her confession was false.

As an expert in human behavior, I absolutely believe in false confessions and this case has all the hallmarks of it.

If you aren’t familiar with false confessions, I highly suggest reading the information presented by the Innocence Project. They have some great statistics and facts for you.

The Innocence Project found that 60% of confessions of homicide that were later exonerated by DNA were false!!

Think about that.

I am thrilled to see Kathleen Zellner has taken on this case.  I regard her as one of the best attorneys in the country. She is amazing!  Many thanks to Erin Moriarty and 48 Hours for doing this show.

I support Kathleen Zellner and Melissa Calusinski, and I hope this case gets re-examined.

Own Lumber Liquidators Laminate Flooring?

/3 Comments/in , , /by

If you own Lumber Liquidator’s laminate flooring, you might want to listen to the report by CBS’s 60 Minutes (above). Anderson Cooper tells consumers that the flooring they bought at Lumber liquidations, according to their tests across the country, are made with formaldehyde and are exceeding indoor air pollution levels designated by the EPA.  Some samples 20 times higher than what is considered safe and acceptable.

I find this story so interesting because in the last month, I was in the market for a new wood floor, and I went to Lumber Liquidators to look at their products, and my experience at their store really raised my eyebrows. I ended up not buying their product because I simply didn’t trust them. While I wasn’t looking at laminate flooring, I was looking at hardwood floor. And several of the products I was interested in (red oak) were not available. I waited three weeks and checked again, and still no stock. That was a bad sign considering the store was totally empty on my visit. I was the only customer.

I even called the retailer a couple of times to find out when they’d get more product in, and they told me they didn’t know. You don’t make money without a a product on the shelves to sell. And it certainly wasn’t flying off the shelves with no one in the store.

Of course they said they were happy to order me what I needed, but I saw a huge downfall in that offer. If I had a bad batch, I was going to stuck in a loop waiting for more orders, and what if the orders didn’t match, or had quality issues. I saw my project turning into many months of hassles without much effort. I saw a lose/lose scenario before I even started.

When I asked the store clerk if I could return boards that were defective, he told me no. They would only switch entire boxed bundles. Without inventory, it was a deal breaker. I also found that they had bad reviews online in the middle of doing my homework. Upon finding out, I called the store and identified that I saw that they had bad reviews. I asked them how they would stand by their product if different quality issues arose and they said that no one had returned a box of the product I wanted in over two years.

I didn’t buy it for one minute after reading dozens and dozens of bad reviews, and seeing a video of YouTube of the exact problems encountered.

Naturally, I decided to go elsewhere. They had a handful of red flags that told me not to buy their product before I saw the 60 Minutes report.

Now seeing Lumber Liquidators in the news and watching the owner talk, I am confident I made the right decision not to trust Lumber Liquidators. Seeing the the owner talk to Cooper, I do not trust him.