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 The Hidden Threat

 Author:  Topic:  Posted:
Oct 19, 2001
 Comments:
Like her now-deceased coworker Bob Stevens, Stephanie Dailey gained notoriety in the mainstream media for her exposure to the deadly Ames strain of the anthrax virus. Between swab tests, she willingly granted several media interviews, beaming and smiling at the cameras and presenting her cheery disposition across CNN, CNBC, and FOX News television screens. These feel-good segments lifted Stephanie up as a hero, a common victim of possible terrorism whose spirit and cheeriness provided a model for all those exposed to the threats of evil in America.

But is Stephanie Dailey for real? Is she really just an innocent target? Or is Stephanie the master of a personal plot of her own, a psychological drama played out on the stage of mass media? And is this type of threat a greater danger than even Osama Bin Laden's evil plans?

[editor's note, by jelerial] Adequacy.org, the most most controversial site on the Internet, is forming a new policy - if you submit an anonymous story to us for posting, please provide a method for us to contact you. We need assurance that the story is not plagiarised, or stolen from another site as many other popular news sites are famous for doing.

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The anthrax fatality at American Media focused nationwide attention on three people who would otherwise have never drawn a second glance. First was Bob Stevens, a photo editor who died of anthrax inhalation. Second was Ernesto Blanco, a mailroom worker who survived exposure but remains on medication. Both of these men had defined roles in the company, and a clear route of exposure. The third victim was Stephanie Dailey, who apparently was exposed to the airborne bacteria, but who cannot explain her whereabouts and refuses to discuss anything about the incident. An office services associate, Ms. Dailey has consistently deflected meaningful questions on the details of the case and instead focused media attention on her attitude, her course of treatment, and the extent of her emotional trauma.

Stephanie's continued persistence on her own issues in the context of a greater tragedy leads to two possible conclusions:

  1. Stephanie is an innocent victim whose sense of appropriateness is still skewed following the incident.
  2. Stephanie is a classic self-mutilator who sensed a unique opportunity following the terrorist attacks, obtained a sample of the Ames anthrax virus, and willingly exposed herself and others to the bacteria in order to draw attention to herself.
Everyone who witnessed the events and subsequent media coverage of the World Trade Center and Pentagon suicide attacks found themselves enthralled by the constant attention given to the heroes of the time, the firefighters, the nurses, the doctors, and the policemen. Many found themselves later sickened by the inclusion of all victims of the attacks as "heroes." But surely at least one person realized that anyone, by that definition, can be a hero. Anyone can draw nationwide attention to himself or herself if he or she is willing to risk personal health and safety and create the right kind of tragedy, one that will play on the fears of a terrorized nation.

Self-mutilation, commonly called "cutting," is a set of behaviours characterized by focused injury to one's own body, often taking the form of self-inflicted razor or knife cuts to the arms, legs, and torso. Often unfairly classified as a teen practice akin to anorexia or overapplication of benzoyl peroxide, self-mutilation behaviour can occur in people of all ages. In most cases the self-mutilation is purely personal activity designed to counteract stress, anxiety, or personally unsettling social situations. However, in some extreme cases, the self-injury is designed to draw attention and indeed sympathy from those surrounding the afflicted person, which often backfires and causes resentment and anger on all sides. There is a statistical correlation between obesity and self-mutilation. Often fat people have a negative body image and wish to damage themselves as punishment. In other cases fat people feel they are ignored and want to draw attention to themselves. Self-mutilation is one common expression of this attention-seeking behavior.

Stephanie Dailey, as a fat person with a need for attention, clearly fits the profile of a potential self-mutilator. She therefore had the motive and the callous disregard for personal safety required to deliberately release anthrax bacteria in a desperate bid for national coverage. But did she have the means?

The Ames strain of anthrax, also known as B. anthracis V770-NP1-R, is a well-known variant first developed by the US Department of Agriculture in the 1950's as a gold standard for creating more efficacious human anthrax vaccines. It is widely used as a benchmark for testing various biowarfare strategies, as it primarily presents an airborne inhalation threat and is therefore a worst case scenario for widespread civilian disaster response. As a result of its standardization, the Ames strain has become a relatively available research tool, to the extent that samples can be obtained for research purposes by such insecure and unmonitored facilities as veterinary research laboratories. Anyone with access to one of these facilities, even someone relatively low in such an organization, for example a temporary office services assistant, would be able to obtain a sample of Ames strain anthrax bacteria with little effort. If the temporary office services assistant then moved on to another job, perhaps at a supermarket tabloid company in Florida, that temporary office services assistant could easily bring that anthrax along to the new job, just in case.

Motive. Means. Opportunity.

This time only one person lost his life, but statistics show that Stephanie is not alone. There are any number of temporary office services assistants in exactly the same situation, waiting to release deadly strains of Bacillus anthracis into the atmosphere, killing coworkers and halting the publication of supermarket tabloids for one reason and one reason only: to get their negative body image broadcast worldwide on CNN. We must stop these "heroes" before another Florida tragedy hits the morning news.


anthrax is an effective way to lose weight (none / 0) (#8)
by Anonymous Reader on Fri Oct 19th, 2001 at 01:45:04 PM PST
I remember how contracting pneumonia reduced my stature from Mr. Universe to that of Twiggy with nary a stomach rumble, but I cant recommend an Anthrax diet without the strictest medical supervision. Still, the problem with your thesis is that fat people can much more safely reap considerably more attention by simply pursuing an aggressive and sustained policy of bowling in the nude. Once you've roused trailer park USisa, the coasts collapse in on the heartland.


 
My experience with "cutting". (5.00 / 1) (#9)
by Anonymous Reader on Fri Oct 19th, 2001 at 02:00:07 PM PST
I heard a news report on 20/20 about these psychopathic teenage girls cutting up their arms, so I had to see what the big deal was. I took a pocket knife and tried to cut my upper arm with it.

Holy FREAKING mother FREAKING *freak*, it *HURT*. I hadn't even managed to break the skin, but the attempts to use the knife to penetrate the flesh resulted in the nerve endings in the arm sending very unpleasant pain signals to the brain. I tried again, figuring that if a bunch of spoiled rich white pathetic teenage girls could do it, I could surely do it to. So I took another stab (or should I say "slash"?) at it, and once again -- no blood, just pain. HOLY FREAKING VIRGIN MARY ON A PETE-FORSAKEN FREAKING STICK, IT *HURT*. I'd managed to produce a small white line on the skin, but it didn't even count as a scratch, and wasn't even close to the reddish welts I'd seen on the arms of half-hearted cutters I'd met in meatspace, let alone the actual cuts and wounds that more serious cutters produce. I figured if I couldn't manage a cut, I'd at least keep trying until I managed a welt. Or, at the very least, a scratch.

I tried again, same result: it HURT. Still no cut. Still no welt. Still no scratch. Just another white line, parallel to the others.

So I held the knife up a food above my arm and prepared to bring it down upon my arm with full force. For some reason, I couldn't do it. So I went back to producing more white lines. The only blood I saw was when I sliced open a whitehead.

I tried to apply more force with the knife, but something prevented me from pressing the knife hard enough against the skin to do even rudimentary damage: it was as if I had some sort of "self-preservation instinct" that forced me to avoid pain whenever possible. It was the same thing that had kept me from plunging the knife down into the flesh.

Now, aren't all humans SUPPOSED to have this survival instinct? Aren't humans SUPPOSED to be hard-wired to avoid injury, and ESPECIALLY to not inflict injury upon themselves? Isn't the whole purpose of pain to warn the organisim of damage to the body, and to force the organism to avoid future damage by fear of further pain.

Okay, so WHAT THE FREAKING HECK IS WRONG WITH THESE PSYCHOPATH TEENAGE GIRLS who manage to ignore their inbred mental instincts against pain and self destruction, allowing them to create wounds in their own flesh? Were the born without the normal human brain functions, or have they killed their brain with poisions like drugs and rock music and sex until their brain no longers function normally?

In any case, the fact that these girls have managed to lose or supress the self-preservation instinct and aversion to pain and injury makes me think that it's wrong to classify them as "human" as all -- in fact, they're not really even animals. EVERY animal knows from birth to avoid pain and to not inflict injury upon itself. These teenage girls who ignore or subjugate their mental programming are more like plants than animals in terms of their mental behavior.

Absole-freaking-bizarro.


A question... (none / 0) (#11)
by iat on Sat Oct 20th, 2001 at 02:47:29 AM PST
Did you really need to try out "cutting" for yourself to realise it would hurt? Surely you could have figured that out without resorting to experimentation. And, after the first attempt at slashing yourself had hurt, did you really need to try cutting yourself several more times, just to see if it still caused pain?

There are 2 conculsions that may be drawn from your post: either you are so stupid that you should be nominated for a Darwin Award, or that you are a repressed masochist. Assuming that the latter is correct, I advise you to either consult a psychiatrist, who can treat your mental illness, or a professional dominatrix, who will safely dispense that pain that you so obviously desire but without the risk of causing you permanent injury (or death). You will be able to find the telephone number of a good psychiatrist or dominatrix in your local Yellow Pages, or you could ask your friends to see if they can recommend someone to you. Either way, you ought to consult a professional before you cause yourself serious harm. HTH.


Adequacy.org - love it or leave it.

Lame. (5.00 / 2) (#13)
by Anonymous Reader on Sat Oct 20th, 2001 at 03:24:20 AM PST
"Did you really need to try out "cutting" for yourself to realise it would hurt?"

Normally, I would have suspected it would -- however, the teenage girls on TV seemed to be slashing their arms quite readily without experiencing any pain. I wondered if there might some fluke involved, like how normally getting Tobasco sauce on one's skin causes burning, but applying it to skin of the scrotal sac causes no pain at all (try it) or how there are certain places like the heel of your foot where you can stick needles through the outer layers of skin without feeling any pain.

"Surely you could have figured that out without resorting to experimentation."

That's the kind of conservative pseduo-science that's holding our society back. 'Oh, there's no need to verify this via experimentation, I'm just EVER-so-smart, I'm sure the universe will always work the way *I* think it will. Obviously, the world is flat, evolutiion never happened, and space is filled with an invisible substance called Ether. I don't need to prove these things because the fact that I believe them makes them automatically true.'

"And, after the first attempt at slashing yourself had hurt, did you really need to try cutting yourself several more times, just to see if it still caused pain?"

The BASIS of the Scientific Method is repeatability and falsifiability. If an experiment can't be performed over and over with the same results being achieved each time, it's not science.

"There are 2 conculsions that may be drawn from your post: either you are so stupid that you should be nominated for a Darwin Award"

Which just goes to show that you can't RTFM. Darwin Awards are only awarded to people who are dead, which I (clearly) am not, unless you believe that the readership of Adequacy, much like the Florida Republican party's voter registration list, is populated heavily by dead people.

"or that you are a repressed masochist."

Absolutely absurd. After repeating the experiment several times over the course of a five-minute period to verify the results, the pain became a sufficient demotivator to continue, outweighing any further scientific insight I could gain, because by that point I'd pretty much reached all the conclusions I was going to reach. I saw no need to repeat the experiment again in the future, although if anyone else wants to verify the results, they are perfectly free to do so, as long as they use their own flesh and not mine.

"Or a professional dominatrix, who will safely dispense that pain that you so obviously desire but without the risk of causing you permanent injury (or death)."

I fail to see how a risk of death is involved. The white scratches on my arm were no longer visible within one hour of concluding the experiment.

"HTH."

FOAD



Did I hurt your feelings? (5.00 / 1) (#15)
by iat on Sat Oct 20th, 2001 at 09:19:06 AM PST
Obviously, the world is flat, evolutiion never happened, and space is filled with an invisible substance called Ether.

You have 1 out of 3 correct, I agree that evolution never happened. Evolution is nothing more than an unproven theory, and creation (as documented in the Bible) is the only adequate explanation for the existence of the wide variety of species on the planet.

If an experiment can't be performed over and over with the same results being achieved each time, it's not science.

Or it's biological science/medical science.

Which just goes to show that you can't RTFM.

Please don't use g**k acronyms here on Adequacy.org. If you want to use such "clever" phrases, please go elsewhere (where they will also find it hilarious if you use the word "fsck" in place of "fuck"). HTH.


Adequacy.org - love it or leave it.

BTW, (none / 0) (#16)
by tkatchev on Sat Oct 20th, 2001 at 12:37:42 PM PST
what does "HTH" mean? Thx.


--
Peace and much love...




Hack Tha House (none / 0) (#22)
by Anonymous Reader on Sat Oct 20th, 2001 at 05:32:22 PM PST
It's g**ks demanding that someone hack a site that offends them. It's a little known fact that g**ks can't hack. They're too timid and dumb. THey rely on generous hackers to respond to their pleas for hacking. Every time you see HTH, you should request politely that adequacy not be DoSed, while scolding the g**k for his immaturity.


 
amyl nitrate (none / 0) (#27)
by Anonymous Reader on Wed Oct 24th, 2001 at 11:48:28 PM PST
www.dictionary.com never fails.

Teach a man to fish... and he'll asking stupid questions.


 
adequate (none / 0) (#19)
by Anonymous Reader on Sat Oct 20th, 2001 at 03:15:34 PM PST
Would your feelings be hurt to know that evolution is a much more adequate explanation of life on planet Earth than any other provided so far?
<BR><BR>
WWJD


Evolution is a lie (5.00 / 1) (#20)
by iat on Sat Oct 20th, 2001 at 04:09:25 PM PST
Would your feelings be hurt to know that evolution is a much more adequate explanation of life on planet Earth than any other provided so far?

There is no need for the theory of evolution, the correct explanation for the existence of humanity (together with the existence of the universe and other species found on this planet) is given in the Bible. Evolution is an unproven theory, and the reason that it remains unproven is because it is incorrect. Contrast this to the Bible which, as the word of God, is infallible by definition.

I suggest that you read this, it explains the fallacy of evolution.


Adequacy.org - love it or leave it.

 
practical science (none / 0) (#23)
by johnny ambiguous on Sat Oct 20th, 2001 at 06:42:42 PM PST
I fail to see how a risk of death is involved. The white scratches on my arm were no longer visible within one hour of concluding the experiment.

In outline your "experiment" was correct; however it failed in the simple mechanical details. Like improperly washing glassware for a biology experiment, your inadequate preparation gave you a wrong result. What you needed, what you lacked, to do it right, is a sharp, sharp knife.

With hardly any effort and surprisingly small pain a razor sharp knife incises all the way down to and through the artery, THEN BLOOD PULSINGLY SPURTS FORTH.

Yours WDK - WKiernan@concentric.net


Getting into my Chevrolet Magic Fire, I drove slowly back to the office. - L. Rosen

 
A vital tool for every critical thinker's toolkit: (none / 0) (#10)
by elenchos on Fri Oct 19th, 2001 at 06:10:54 PM PST
Cruelty.

The beginning of the decline of Western civilization can be traced directly to the insideous misconception that sympathy for the suffering of others is some kind of virtue. Metaphorically, we have been taught this through the story of the Fisher King, told in numerous verions of the Grail Quest. The idea is that the door to God's grace is opened through a willingness to care most of the pain and suffering of others, and to instinctivly ask after others' welfare prior to any other concern. It is the turning point that leads to Christianity gone soft, and hence the West gone soft.

Earlier Christians, heirs to the kick-ass Gnostics and kick-ass-and-take-names Stoics, didn't go in for all that overdone compassion, and that's what gave them the stones to take over the once-tough Roman Empire and hold off the Islamicist Moon-Worshippers like it was a walk in the park. You can just look around to see what ruin the subsequent perversion of Christian philosophy has brought us all to.

Since it is clear at this point in history that God hates us all anyway, the best thing is to give all that useless baggage the old heave-ho, and return to more stable and productive modes of inquiry. What does that mean?

Well, we have a perfect example of that here. You see a sick person. What to do? Ask them "What the FUCK? What is your GAME, huh?" And don't take any easy answers, either. Cross examine them, and demand some good evidence that they aren't trying to play you for a sucker. Especially in our sickeningly compassionate age of weakness, the world is overrun with predatory victims out to pull the old Fisher King gambit. Don't fall for it!

Remember too that it isn't just strangers like this Stephanie Dailey we see on TV (I don't own a TV by the way, and don't want one. I never watch.) who need to be kicked when they are "down", but even your close friends and family. Your kids, spouse, and parents are the worst when it comes to this con, and I'm sure we all can think of examples of these supposedly loyal kin playing our sympathy for all it's worth.

I salute this article's nameless author -- notice how we force those without scales of pity on their eyes to hide their identities -- for having the strength and courage to look past the lame sob story of this Dailey crook and go after the truth. You are an example to us all, and with luck, more loyal Americans will follow your pityless example.


I do, I do, I do
--Bikini Kill


 
i know how she feels (5.00 / 6) (#12)
by Anonymous Reader on Sat Oct 20th, 2001 at 02:49:50 AM PST
Me and Spuzz, thats this kid I met out in PhysEd class, we used to burn our arms with cigarettes and stuff. At first it was like "see how tough I am (sizzle)?". But then it got to be like we were just burning our arms, because, we thought "that's who I am. I deserve this". We would like look at like the Football Jocks and the Cheerleaders and the Yearbook Committe kids, and they're all beautiful and smart and confident and it's like me and Spuzz, well never be like that, not in a million years. So we'd burn our arms as a badge of who we were.

And I know what your thinking like "Oh I bet this kid gets picked on a lot", but we dont. Sometimes someone will say something like "Oh, that kid Murray, he's such a squid", but mostly its like we're not even there. Mostly Spuzz and me just used to cut class and sniff glue and watch it all pass us by and wonder how we got to be so fucked up.

So one time Spuzz got this stuff from his cousin's freezer (the guys some kind of researcher). It was called Dengue Fever. It's not a really like a fever in a flask. It's a virus. You get the fever if you get the virus inside you. So spuzz was all like, "d00d, lets do some!" I'm like, "Your crazy man, that shit can kill you"! He's like: no man, only if it goes untreated for a long time! Come on, well be like lepers!" I liked how that sounded. Lepers. Thats what we were: Ultimate outsiders. So we got this rig and shot some up. Shooting it up was pretty cool, like me and Spuzz are going to be Dengue Lepers together. Whatever happens, they'll never be able to take that away form us.

The Dengue was pretty horible to start, the fucking headaches were intense. But after a while you get used to being dizzy and having muscle aches, and theres even a cool rash you get just like a real Leper, only your nose doesn't fall off. The doctor couln't figure out how we got it, but he gave me a bunch of antibiotics and stuff. I dont take them. Its better that way cause then me and Spuzz cut class and go sit on the grassy mound behing the maintenance shed, and just trip our brains out all feverish and stuff. We dont even need to sniff glue anymore.

I heard some kids in a school two districts over got caught trying to shoot up malaria. That sucks man. Their parents all made them get counseling like they were fucking crazy or something. People have to understand this is who we are. Well never be rich or famous or smart or popular or even normal. We just want to be lepers and we arent asking any of you for anything so just leave us the fuck alone.

-Murray


Wow. (none / 0) (#14)
by tkatchev on Sat Oct 20th, 2001 at 03:55:12 AM PST
That was better than Salinger. Where can I find more of your writings? This is brilliant stuff, my man.


--
Peace and much love...




Thanks. (none / 0) (#24)
by Anonymous Reader on Mon Oct 22nd, 2001 at 12:03:31 AM PST
Thanks for the compliment. I don't really have other writings, though (sorry). The story was a bit of a one-time thing. I have, however, posted other replies to stories on this website, and will continue to do so until I run out of ideas.


 
Yes (none / 0) (#26)
by Anonymous Reader on Mon Oct 22nd, 2001 at 04:40:29 PM PST
I feel your pain. I too am a fat person who is persecuted because of my size. Luckily I have found a niche to occupy. You should lend an ear to an up and coming rapper who will help you find the peace within. His name is Bubba and he may have a spot waiting for you in his posse.


 
This story is fake (none / 0) (#28)
by Anonymous Reader on Mon Oct 29th, 2001 at 04:09:57 PM PST
Dengue fever is a virus. Not treated with antibiotics. It's extrememly painful (also called bonebreak fever) and is associated with very high brain-damaging fevers.

To make matters worse, if you take aspirin when you have dengue, you can bleed to death internally. It's also called hemorrhagic fever.




 

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