Oh, My Goodness...

[Jonathan Randall]

Female astronaut and Navy Captain (one rank below Rear Admiral) allegedly confronts, assaults and attempts to kidnap rival for another astronaut's attention:

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news...feb05,0,6104316.story?coll=orl-home-headlines

 

[exile]

Maybe being out in space (or simulation training) does something ominous to your mind... this is definitely on my top-ten list of bizarrest news stories of all time...

 

[rutherford]

She's married and has 3 children?

I think that news story broke my brain.

 

[Ping898]

He'S NOT WORTH IT!!!....I've never understood why a seemingly sane woman would do something like this over a guy....

i'm thinking she just lost any chance at a promotion....

 

[grydth]

Sadly, such a story is by no means unique. Two other examples:

Some time ago, the middle aged Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals, Sol Wachtler, wigged out over a woman, and wound up being arrested and removed from the bench.

Last December, a former TV News anchor, Maria Damiano, was arrested in Syracuse for trespassing - she was lurking around the home of a woman dating her old boyfriend.

Sometimes we erroneously assume that prominent and professional figures just have to have a higher degree of emotional stability and good judgement when it comes to intimate personal relationships.

 

[searcher]

Sad. SOOOO Sad.

 

[IcemanSK]

It's amazing what people will turn themselves into knots over. It's the human condition, I s'pose.

 

[Xue Sheng]

I saw this just this morning and it is unbelievable. Ruin your life and career for this.

It just boggles the mind

 

[Brian R. VanCise]

Amazing, simply amazing. (and not in a positive way)

 

[JBrainard]

Sadly, such a story is by no means unique.

I stopped being surprised by this type of thing a long time ago. People are crazy, fact of life.

 

[exile]

I stopped being surprised by this type of thing a long time ago. People are crazy, fact of life.

And crazy as it is, it's still not quite as lunatic, IMO, as that case of the Texas cheerleader's mother a couple of years ago who decided to deal with her daughter's chief rival for a place on their high school cheerleading squad by arranging to have the girl's own mother murdered. The idea was that the mother's murder would upset the daughter and her audition for the squad would be ruined. The plot fell apart, of course, and the woman who tried to arrange the murder was convicted and packed off to the slammer. Compared with that, almost anything else, including this case, seems a model of rationality.

But it's still on my top-ten list!

 

[jdinca]

People can be whacked where the heart's involved. What's really shocking is that based on what was found in her car, she was going to kill and cut this person up. Definitely gone off the deep end.

 

[Steel Tiger]

I suppose that once you have been in space driving 1000 miles to kidnap someone doesn't seem that far.

She definitely demonstrated the Right Stuff.

 

[CoryKS]

In space... no one can hear you scream.

But in Orlando, they can. You betcha.

 

[exile]

I suppose that once you have been in space driving 1000 miles to kidnap someone doesn't seem that far.

She definitely demonstrated the Right Stuff.

... till she actually tried to pull it off. At that point, it turned into Mr. Bean.

You would give... well not anything, but a fair amount, to be able to ask her, `What the hell were you thinking???'. Very little is as fascinating as the screwups that are possible in human minds. The problem is, you'd probably get a completely incoherent reply. Maybe it's better not to know...

 

[Rich Parsons]

Now I have lost all respect for Letterman.

Tonight they have announced he will do the top ten reasons an astronaut is out to kill you.

Sad very sad in my opinion.

 

[Jonathan Randall]

Now I have lost all respect for Letterman.

Tonight they have announced he will do the top ten reasons an astronaut is out to kill you.

Sad very sad in my opinion.

I agree - some things are not funny.

 

[shesulsa]

Is there any possibility of this being a result of some as-yet-undiagnosed effect from being in space for a while?

 

[Jonathan Randall]

Is there any possibility of this being a result of some as-yet-undiagnosed effect from being in space for a while?

I'm wondering whether or not something such as, say, Mercury poisoning could be involved? There's no way that I see, IMO, she could have gotten through such training and screening as she did over the course of 25+ years (Naval Academy, Navy Career, Shuttle crew) with as many screws loose as this behavior appears to represent. Something happened along the way...

BTW, I'm thinking maybe the male Shuttle Pilot iin this "love triangle" may not turn out to be such a gem himself.

 

[Don Roley]

This is kind of the point that caused me to wonder.

But police said Nowak intended to kill Shipman, 30, when she bought a knife, BB Gun, and other supplies, got in her car in Houston, and made the 12-hour drive to Orlando, wearing diapers so she would not have to stop along the way.

Ok, so unless she is so small she can get into a pair from one of her kids she had to go out and buy a set for adults. She wore them to save time I assume. But the time it takes to buy and change into them has to be more than a quick pit stop. I mean, it just does not take all that much time to use the factilities and she would also avoid the questions and suspicions if she was pulled over along the way.

But if she was nuts- that explains a lot.