Kidnapping

it's a little odd that within the same month a girl who had been kidnapped eighteen years earlier re-emerged, and a woman in australia accidentally let her stroller with a child inside spill over the edge at a train station right as a train swept past and dragged the little fella a hundred feet down the tracks. i don't know which of those stories is more bizarre. that a girl could stay kidnapped for eighteen years, or that a baby can survive being run over by a train. nonetheless, it does pose an interesting question: would the kid in the stroller have been better off if he had been kidnapped by the same people who kidnapped the girl? of course not. the man fathered two kids with her. but that poses a second question: would you rather be molested or hit by a train? the kidnapped situation sounds worse, but she stayed for eighteen years. they found her out in public with the man. not tied up in the backyard, not running for help. just walking around with the father of her kids. "she was brainwashed" - even still, eighteen years is a long time. not just for the victim, but for kidnappers too. feeding an extra mouth for that long has got to take its toll. "it's been lovely having you here as a captive, sweetheart, but is there any way maybe you could kick in a little for rent? your kids are getting a pretty big as well. oh, you're never going to get a job? you're just going to live in the backyard forever? well, that's just perfect. i guess we kidnapped the laziest girl in the world. i didn't sign up for this."