Scene and heard

Yesterday, I was sent an article from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about a woman by the name of Donna Moonda who had her Boyfriend kill her Husband. Her defence was that she had a happy childhood. A $300 an hour ‘expert’ (*), paid for out of our tax money, claimed that she has Dependent Disorder Syndrome, making her easily led. This, because her parents spoiled her. After she was found guilty, her lawyer, without the merest hint of human decency, had the front to claim that it would be unfair on her family for her to be sentenced to death! I am not pro-Death Penalty, but this reasoning could only come from someone with psychopathic tendencies. Do you believe the fucking nerve of the man? This is actually a digression, but I just had to write it, it is so monumentally crass! Good lawyers like my friends Rob and Carrie, who don't earn vast fortunes and do have consciences, get a bad rep because of creeps like this!

(* Don’t even get me started about these ‘experts’. For enough money, some will agree with and set out to ‘prove’ just about anything)

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07199/802442-85.stm

3 or 4 years ago, a teenager in London stole his father’s credit Card and took some friends to Spain for a few days. He then went to Birmingham, I believe it was, and embarked on a spending spree which stopped when he was arrested. He blamed it all on his father. To paraphrase: ‘If he had bought me what I asked for in the first place, I wouldn’t have had to steal his card’.

Also in England, kids with wealthy parents have pretty much ruined some areas. I drove buses through Southgate, North London; once a fine area. I’m sure their parents would tell me that they are good boys. I am telling you that they are barely even human! No respect for anyone or anything. They treat people with utter contempt; they vandalise buses. Their favourite way of spending Halloween is throwing eggs at bus windscreens early in the evening, then later attempting to throw lit fireworks on the buses, with no regard to the passengers on board. They have an insatiable need to prove that they are badder than bad and tougher than the real toughs. I used to call them the creatures of the night.

What is the common link? These kids were spoiled by lousy parent who think that the way to be a good Mum or Dad is to give their kids whatever they want. They do this in lieu of real parenting. And they create monsters.

An overweight woman of 40 something, sitting with one leg partially up on the park bench; phone stuck to ear: "...And I said, [name] I said....... And then I said, blah blah blah I said blah blah blah. So I said....... And then I said don't push me, because I don't care. And then I said....... I said, I said blah blah, I says blah blah....." The entire time I was eating my sandwich, this damned bore of a woman was telling everyone within a 10 yard radius about what a rebel she is. After about 10 minutes, I hoped she'd say "hello? hello? Are you there?" But no such luck. All there was , was "oh, yeah, right! So then I said.... " and off she went again. Hardly a sentence didn't begin with 'I said". Must've averaged more than once per sentence overall with the occasional 'I says' thrown in for variety. She must have had voice training, because I swear she didn't seem to pause for breath. I can picture her 'friend' rolling her eyes, mouthing 'she won't shut up' to someone close by. What a nice, de-stressing lunch break I had. Is it time to go home yet?

Last Friday, the BBC published a story about how some Iraqis believe the British army has let loose man eating Badgers and are catching and killing the poor things. It just so happens they are indigenous of the area.

I would have loved to have been at the press conference when a British major said “We can categorically state that we have not released man-eating badgers into the area.” Could he have possibly said it with a straight face?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6295138.stm

And just in case anyone reading this might think I am wrong to laugh at this; that if people are so traumatised as to think such a thing, it isn’t funny; let me just remind you about the number of idiots in this country who insist that 9/11 was an inside job. Conspiracy theories are everywhere and always have been. Most are annoying or pathetic. A very few have some substance.

Some time back, I saw some students by the New York Stock Exchange with a banner proclaiming 9/11 to be an inside job. They were trying to hand out leaflets. A couple of people stopped and I heard one of these morons saying “there’s compelling evidence…” I interrupted: “There’s compelling evidence that about 20 years ago, a brother and a sister became rather too familiar!”

(Thanks to Joel for the idea for the headline. It is a bit like Monty Python’s Killer Bunny)

An article on the BBC website today cites a study in Aberystwyth, Wales. Apparently, Cows and Sheep produce 3% of all Greenhouse Gases in the UK and 5% in Wales – in all 30% of all Methane emissions in the UK come from these animals! Apparently, a cow can produce up to 500 litres (132 US Gallons) of methane, which is 23 times more potent in terms of greenhouse gases than carbon dioxide, daily. Although most of this comes from belches, I still think that the main lesson I got from this article is to never stand behind a cow.

Apparently, Garlic can cut these emissions down by 50%! I wonder if that works for humans! Damn! If so, can you imagine what chili would be like without garlic?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/mid_/6288012.stm

I had a thought that balloons could be attached to cow behinds, but then an image appeared in my head of cows flying. The balloons would get more full and the cows would fly higher until they stopped producing gas due to lack of food intake. I think that while some people might be initially amused by the sight, this would actually be a bad thing. But I would far rather we found some way of harvesting cow methane than that we waste fields growing corn for production of methane while people in the world starve.

I just googled ‘corn methane’ and found an article which details how corn cobs can store gases at 180 times their own natural volume. Any chance of shoving corn cobs up cows backsides?

http://www.energygrind.com/?p=49

Three people in England held an epileptic man hostage in a garden shed. They tortured him over a period of 6 weeks until he died. He had fractured ribs and larynx and burns over 10% of his body. They made a ‘hostage style’ video of him. But ‘experts’ claimed that it could not be proven that it wasn’t the epilepsy which killed him, so murder charges were dropped. 2 of these murderers received 10 year sentences and the other, 9 years having pled guilty to false imprisonment and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/gloucestershire/6284184.stm

What is the precedent here? If someone has heart disease and is kidnapped and tortured, but dies of a heart attack, can it be proven that he wouldn’t have had a heart attack if the kidnap/assault hadn’t taken place?

What ridiculous nonsense is this? As I don’t believe the same would have been said in my latter, hypothetical case, that leaves the question of whether this was discrimination against epileptics. Either way, I’m disgusted!

All around the Tri-State area, impatient drivers insist on inching over the stop line at Traffic Lights. For some, it doesn’t matter if pedestrians are crossing when they do this.

Use cameras to catch them. Fine them and put points on their licenses.

And use the same cameras to catch the arseholes who speed up to go through red lights, even as pedestrians have stepped foot on the crossing. Two days ago, I saw someone on 86th Street speed up to cross 4th Avenue. He/she was heading towards a busy pedestrian area. A bus turning right from 4th Ave was blocking much of the intersection and this moron could not see if anyone was crossing, but nevertheless, without slowing down, he/she dodged between the jutting front of the bus and the car facing the other way, waiting at the stop line. Reckless driving. Depraved indifference to human life. That person should be behind bars.


Traffic is an unavoidable part of city living. Honking a horn does nothing to clear gridlock. It may give fellow drivers a headache. This is already illegal, but nobody ever gets penalised.

Fine them and put points on their licenses.


Tailgating is illegal and very dangerous – and rarely punished. The tailgater will not get anywhere faster and may directly or indirectly cause accidents. They may even kill people.

Fine them and put 6 points on their license. Ban them for a second offence. Jail them for a third. If they are responsible for road deaths, charge them with murder.

If people tailgate in poor conditions, haul them into the station without letting them finish their intended journey. Ban them from driving effective immediately. Charge them with reckless endangerment.


What is this ‘vehicular manslaughter’ bullshit when drunks kill people with their cars!!! Being drunk is not a valid excuse for committing murder. Getting behind the wheel of a car when double the legal alcohol limit should carry an attempted murder charge. Killing someone with that level of alcohol in the blood should be murder. It was premeditated. They knew before they got behind the wheel that diving drunk is dangerous and potentially fatal, so it cannot be manslaughter. And doing it with a vehicle should not lessen the sentence. The dead person is just as dead and their families will grieve no less if the murderer was wielding a car as opposed to a gun or knife.


Roads are dangerous, and fuck the civil libertarians who claim that cameras on the roads infringe upon our civil liberties. Who are they protecting? Certainly not pedestrians or good drivers! There aren’t enough cameras, so the roads are more dangerous than they should be. People get away with hit and run murders and behaviour which could kill. Time to crack down.

Some look for their own personal Valhalla; others the missing link, Mr. or Ms. Right or their keys. I am looking for Square One. It seems important. People frequently talk about going back there or are being advised to go back there. Did they know they were there when they were there? Does anyone know exactly where it is or what it looks like? Can we even be sure it really is a square!! It would really throw the cat among the pigeons if I found it and it turned out to be a circle. More likely, it changes shape and if you ‘went back’ there, it wouldn’t be the same as your earlier visit. I could have my own Wikipedia entry as the man who discovered that Square One was not in fact square! And even if it really is square, I could surely make money selling the directions: Head East along High Road; turn left at the Junction with Main Street; proceed 1.4 miles…. I would probably be more successful starting a new religion though. I show a bunch of rich kids who are looking for something but they don’t know what, how to reach the first square/circle/triangle or whatever, and they give me all of their money. Or perhaps I could bottle Square One Water with the slogan “It comes from where you came from”. The possibilities are endless!

My son seems to think that this entry will cause people to scratch their heads. As a disclaimer, I feel I must state I had no intention of causing allergic reactions in people’s scalps or brains and apologise if you suffered this reaction.

So President Bush commutes Scooter Libby’s sentence. No huge surprise. The far right had called his prosecution a liberal vendetta. Yes, the same far right who ignored data suggesting that Bill Clinton was the best President this country had had in decades, and hounded and handicapped his Presidency and got him impeached because he lied about being given a blow job. And this while their spokesman, Newt Gingrich, was involved in an extra-marital affair! (He didn’t lie about it. He wasn’t asked.)

Why the liberal vendetta? Well, an entire US spy ring was compromised, thus also compromising the security of the country. I haven’t heard the word used too loudly, but folks, that is Treason. It is potentially the only crime worse than murder, as it can put an entire country at risk. And Libby was only the foot soldier. His boss, Vice President Cheney, the most dangerous and crooked man to hold senior office in my time at least, was the architect. The same man whose pockets are lined every time Halliburton is awarded another no bid contract. The same man whose pockets are being lined daily by the high oil prices. Did that little detail pass you by? Yes! The President and his loyal Deputy are oil men and are being enriched by high oil prices. But that they are greedy bastards who don’t mind getting rich while oil prices affect the pockets of the American people isn’t the main point here. VICE PRESIDENT CHENEY IS GUILTY OF TREASON! I don’t call this a vendetta. I actually think that the Democratic Party has been guilty of being too silent on this. Treason cannot be excused. It cannot be left unprosecuted. IMPEACH CHENEY NOW!!!

Vladimir Putin was in the USA meeting the current and former President George Bush. Once again, the incumbent was altogether too touchy/feely. It really isn’t appropriate for him to wrap his arm around the shoulders of world leaders. That is a sign of ownership – establishing who is the top dog or alpha male - and, I’m sure, is not particularly appreciated by anyone he makes a point of doing it to when the cameras are on. In my opinion, it shows a distinct lack of class.

But what really got me yesterday was watching the news – CNN no less. Why do American news readers insist on calling Putin (note the middle letter) poo-in! * I’m insulted for the guy! If your name is spelled Crichton but you say cryton, or cry-an for that matter, that’s fine. If your name is spelled St. John and you prefer to say sinjon, who am I to judge? Well, publicly at least! But it is not for you to lose the ‘t’ in someone’s name. If they use it, you use it – at least if you are reading news. It’s simple respect - very easy to show and it goes a long way!

Question: Why, in New York at least, does Pitta Bread become peedah bread, but Putin become poo-in?

* How do you correctly write this sound? It is like a hard gap or hard nothing. Or like ‘uh?’ without the ‘u’ or the question mark. Cockneys have always used it, turning ‘little’ into li-ouw, for example or ‘party’ into pah-ee. For want of a better way of writing it, I insert the ‘-‘.

On my recent trip to Detroit, I saw several instances of ignorant car drivers tailgating other cars, a couple of morons endangering everyone else on the road darting between lanes recklessly. I also saw one thoughtless person in the middle lane of 3, refusing to switch lanes while a truck was behind him. This person should be aware that by law, he can use all three lanes but truck drivers can only use two. While he drives alongside the guy in the slow lane, effectively reducing the highway to a one lane road, this truck driver cannot overtake him. So if truck drivers sometimes seem to be bullies, this is the other side of the coin.

Further proof of the stupidity of some drivers: Tailgating trucks! OK idiots! If you can’t see the mirrors of the vehicle in front of you, the driver of that vehicle can’t see you. Duh!! At least if you tailgate me, I can see you. Sure I’ll brake and make things uncomfortable for you because, as I see it, you are nothing but a dickforbrains, and if you want to die on the road, there are plenty of trees you could wrap yourself around, so you should leave me out of your sick fantasy. But if the truck driver is forced to brake suddenly, you’ll go from living, breathing, arsehole to bug food faster than you can yell “Mom-meeeeee!!”

A Magistrate in Northern England is in trouble because he walked out of court rather that handle a case where a defendant was wearing a full Muslim head veil.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/manchester/6254506.stm

Certainly, he should have handled himself differently. My first thought was that a woman official could confirm the identity of a devout Muslim woman before she enters the courtroom. Easy! However, an important aspect of determining guilt or innocence is body language and facial expression during questioning. Certainly, if the face is covered, the latter is quite impossible. I would invite a learned Muslim to please post a thoughtful suggestion as to how this problem can be overcome in a manner that doesn’t cause distress to a Muslim woman defendant and also doesn’t offer her the advantage of hiding her facial expressions.

Recent events in Britain once again highlight the danger of when a community is silent. In Iran, an educated and largely secular people are ruled by a minority of religious zealots, so entrenched now, that resistance from the masses may be futile and would certainly be very bloody.

In England, the mainstream of the Muslim community are standing by while extremists become ever more powerful. Some, at least, are scared to act. It seems obvious that the best means of stopping the growing militancy among British born children of Pakistani immigrants, for example, is for that community to band together and put a stop to it before it all goes too far. They must stand and be heard. They must do whatever it takes and ask for help from the authorities if needed.

I’m sure some very good Pakistanis in England have found themselves on the wrong end of ignorant comments. They must be aware that as attacks perpetrated by young Muslim men continue and presumably intensify, it seems inevitable that the backlash will unfortunately, increasingly turn into physical assaults - against anyone who might look even close to Pakistani or Arab, and indiscriminate of their religion. Yes, anger brings out the worst in the ignorant! There is a very bad situation unfolding right now in my homeland. Let nobody be under any illusions – it will continue to get worse until action is taken. I really hope that action comes from within.