Shot by both sides?

From the CNN website:

Like hundreds of young men joining the Army in recent years, Jeremy Hall professes a desire to serve his country while it fights terrorism. But the short and soft-spoken specialist is at the center of a legal controversy. He has filed a lawsuit alleging that he’s been harassed and his constitutional rights have been violated because he doesn’t believe in God. The suit names Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

“I’m not in it for cash,” Hall said. “I want no one else to go what I went through.” Known as “the atheist guy,” Hall has been called immoral, a devil worshipper and — just as severe to some soldiers — gay, none of which, he says, is true. Hall even drove fellow soldiers to church in Iraq and paused while they prayed before meals. “I see a name and rank and United States flag on their shoulder. That’s what I believe everyone else should see,” he said. “I was ashamed to say that I was an atheist,” Hall said.

It eventually came out in Iraq in 2007, when he was in a firefight. Hall was a gunner on a Humvee, which took several bullets in its protective shield. Afterward, his commander asked whether he believed in God, Hall said. “I said, ‘No, but I believe in Plexiglas,’ ” Hall said.

The issue came to a head when, according to Hall, a superior officer, Maj. Freddy J. Welborn, threatened to bring charges against him for trying to hold a meeting of atheists in Iraq. Welborn has denied Hall’s allegations.

I know that the military in the US is profoundly right-wing and thus religious, I find it strange that “god fearing” personnel should join the military which in the end is about killing an enemy.

It must be confusing for allied nations to fight alongside the Americans like they do at the moment. You can imagine the conversation;

Yank: “We want you to help us fight some religious extremists in Afghanistan.”

Brit: “Which ones? The ones sporting beards and Kalashnikov’s or the one with a stars and stripes badge on his arm who occasionally take pot shots at us as well?”

So remind me, who are the Animals?

“Five youths are being questioned by police after a heavily pregnant ewe was kicked and stabbed with a pitchfork. Police said the sheep was taken from a field off Polka Road, Wells-next-the-Sea in Norfolk in the early hours of Sunday. The sheep was then dragged through the town and its dead body dumped in a wheelie bin. The five youths were arrested after police followed a trail of blood through the town.”

This above is from the BBC new website.

The title of this post will come into play a couple of times on this thread.  What kind of people would do this?  Sheer animals.

But here’s the twist. A person who was so shocked over what had happened decided to start a website over this crime and named the five arrested youths on the site. This fellow claimed that because the site was hosted in the US and thus protected under the first amendment which refers to freedom of speech , he could name the accused. I can’t link to the site as it will be removed soon and the owner is now facing criminal charges for what he has done. (His website wasn’t in this country, but the idiot forgot he was).

And I say throw the book at him.

This idiot could have compromised the case against these youths, which the defence lawyers could have and still can claim that the trial has been prejudiced. What if anyone one of them is found innocent? The due process of law must be followed, by naming them he could have jeopardised the outcome.

I’ve been looking at a few sites and the replies that have been turning up have been nothing short of lynch mob mentality. We forget something that is very important in Law and it protects all of us, and that is INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY. No sooner than something offends some peoples sensibilities like this that we are throwing that noose over the nearest tree branch, which to me makes these people behave like the animals they want to execute.

We had lynch mob rule on the streets of Britain a few years back. This was over Megans Law, which requires authorities to make information available regarding sex offenders public in the US and some wanted this kind of law introduced in the UK. What we got was a media frenzy, particularly from the Red-tops(Sun, Star, Mirror etc) and gangs of people hounding out individuals who were “perceived” to be Pedophiles, forcing them to leave their homes. None of these individuals were proven to be so. I seem to remember this was quite prevelant in Portsmouth, Which to me is unsurprising.

How quickly the unintelligent amongst us descend to the level of pack animals, I wonder how many innocent people have died at their hands over Human existence?

U-Turn.

I was rather shocked when the Labour Government(I use the term “Labour” loosely of course) removed the ten percent tax rate for the five million or so lowest earners in the UK. People said Labour was abandoning these people, originally the party’s core voters in favour of lowering by two percent the tax rate for the middle income earners. A cynical ploy to assist the voters who hold the keys to Government? never.

With a parliamentary back bench revolt in the offing, the Government have now decided to compensate those people affected by the ten percent loss.

The right-wing press made much of the tax rate abolition, that the Government weren’t listening, so now the Government has attempted to correct the situation they accuse the Government and particularly Prime minister Gordon Brown of being weak, indecisive and of being bullied by the back benchers of the party. Damned if you do…

David Cameron came out with a said at PMQ’s: “Do you have any idea what a pathetic figure you cut today?” Well David, you cut a pathetic figure everyday, so at least let someone else have a turn. Mr Brown did counter with the statement that Mr Cameron’s “new found” interest in poverty had “lasted a few seconds”. Which pretty much summed up what the Tories think about poverty.

Money Down The Drain…

Ofwat, the Uk’s water industry Regulator has proposed a fine of £35.8 million against Severn Trent Water for providing false information deliberately and offering the company’s customers a poor service. This amount is 2.9% of the water company’s annual turnover.

Ofwat’s Chief Exec Regina Finn stated: “The size of the fine reflects how seriously Ofwat takes the deliberate misreporting of information. “This sends a clear message to the company and the rest of the water sector – Ofwat will protect consumers and companies must comply with their legal obligations or pay the price.”

Is this a case of an industry regulator finally coming down hard (unlike the FSA)on wayward water companies? My answer would be no. The fines must be heavier, like 10% of turnover, once you start hitting these privatised utilities where it hurts most, in the pocket, then maybe they will stop abusing their position of monopoly and treat their customers better.

The selling of the utility companies in the 1980’s was SHEER MADNESS, I will also include the rail network here as well. Water, Gas, Electricity and Rail are a vital part of the infrastructure of the country and must be treated as a service, not for profit.

Thames Water was bought by a consortium led by Australian investment fund Macquarie in an auction. The bid was for £8bn. That year Thames water made a profit of £346Million. So why such a high bid? RWE, the German company that was selling, bought Thames Water in 2000 for £4.8bn. £3.2bn for just six years of ownership, almost a doubling of the company’s value. I wonder how much Macquarie will be selling Thames water for in a few years time.

Companies like the privatised utilities are more than just an instrument from which owners can make profit. At their best, they should be living, breathing human institutions held together by trust and a sense of common purpose. We should try to organise our capitalism so it reflects these truths. To argue in this way, however, is beyond the pale; no frontline politician of any party dares to promote it.

Business, and its conception of how to do business, rules supreme.

You Gotta have Faith…

Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair has called for faith (not a woman) to be given a central role in tackling the world’s problems.

So Tony, now that you are a middle east peace envoy(oxymoron) go and put those flames out over there…here, douse it with this petrol.

Litter row killers get four years

I don’t often delve into what the UK law courts get up to with regards to handing out tough sentences for offenders, because I don’t want to come across as some rabid nutter who only leaves the house to buy the Daily Mail.

But I have to comment on the following:

Two teenagers who killed a man during a row over litter have each been sentenced to four years detention.

Evren Anil, 23, died from head injuries after he confronted the youths who threw litter in his sister’s car window in Crystal Palace, south-east London.

Dejon Thompson, 16, of Thornton Heath, south-east London and Patrick Rowe, 17, from Tottenham, north London, admitted manslaughter at the Old Bailey.

Mr Anil, a first class honours IT graduate, had just started his job as a programme developer at the time of the attack last August. He and his sister were waiting at traffic lights in her Peugeot 307 when Rowe threw a half-chewed Lion bar through the car’s open window. Mr Anil got out of the vehicle and threw it back at them, only for one of the boys to produce a 4ins knife from his trousers. The knife was held to his throat and he was then punched in the face so hard that his skull was fractured, and he suffered a haemorrhage.

The two will have already served 210 days in custody and with time off for good behavior could be released in 18 months. What the bloody hell was that judge thinking? These two who have shown no respect for other people and had no qualms about carrying a knife should have got a minimum of 15 years.

I’m sure the Daily mail readers and many other right wing newspapers will be going mental over this and to be quite honest if this is the type of sentencing being handed out for these offences, the courts deserve all the criticism they get.