BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS

Typical sociopath - no remorse, not his fault, playing victim... Tony Alamo, a one-time street preacher who built a multimillion-dollar ministry and became an outfitter of the stars, was convicted Friday of taking girls as young as 9 across state lines for sex. Alamo stood silently as the verdict was read, a contrast to his occasional mutterings during testimony. His five victims sat looking forward in the gallery. One, a woman he "married" at age 8, wiped away a tear. "I'm just another one of the prophets that went to jail for the Gospel," Alamo called to reporters afterward as he was escorted to a waiting U.S. marshal's vehicle. Shouts of "Bye, bye, Bernie" _ Alamo was born Bernie Lazar Hoffman _ came from a crowd gathered on the Arkansas side of the courthouse. Some came from Fouke, the nearby town where Alamo's 15-acre compound sits. Others were former followers of his ministries in Arkansas, California and New York. The jury of nine men an...

Foley breaks silence on sex scandal Even today, two years after Mark Foley's very public fall from grace, the former congressman can't explain why he sent lurid, sexually explicit computer messages to male teens who had worked as Capitol Hill pages. Sitting in his room at the Four Seasons Hotel in New York this week, the Florida Republican, wearing a yellow tie with blue elephants, finally broke his silence. "I'm trying to find my way back," Foley said in an interview with The Associated Press, his first public comments on the scandal since resigning from Congress on Sept. 29, 2006. Foley insists he did nothing illegal and never had sexual contact with teens, just inappropriate Internet conversations. Investigations by the FBI and Florida authorities ended without criminal charges. And while he concedes his behavior was "extraordinarily stupid," he remains somewhat unwilling to accept full public scorn. These were 17-year-olds, just months from being men...

WHAT FALLS AWAY During the last few weeks of travelling with my children I had some wonderful opportunities to educate them, show them America, re-acquaint them with family and meet some other great people working to end abuse here and in other countries while brainstorming about pro-active approaches to making that happen. One of them gave me a copy of Mia Farrow's book WHAT FALLS AWAY . I have a lifelong habit of reading a little before I go to bed so I thanked this person and accepted the book. It was published in 1997 and wasn't something I would have chosen myself but I am very glad I read it. It has been on my mind ever since. Let me say as an advocate to end abuse & domestic violence, a lot about Farrow's book rang true. Her deep love for Frank Sinatra, who was unfortunately controlling and mercurial, her intellectual love for Andre Previn - with whom she had twins - and the marriage ended when each of their jobs just kept them apart too much. And of course,...