Irony in the News

Anthony Weiner

I almost don't need to add anything after that.  Weiner's name by itself is entirely too perfect for a guy, a political candidate, who can't seem to stop posting pictures of his insufficiently-clad self online and sexting people.

Now here's a thing: there's nothing strictly illegal - except there is - about what he's doing.  Things like this going on between adults is pretty much blameless assuming everyone is of age and consenting.  But Weiner is married, an adult who is supposed to be capable of making smart decisions, and a former politician who lost his seat in the heat of a scandal that formed around this very behavior.  These other considerations throw his current behavior into a much less flattering light.

I'm a little confused why it's illegal to willingly send images of yourself over the phone to a willing recipient, but all manner of hardcore porn continues to travel over the same networks for Internet consumption.  That's another of those places where technology and law collide and grind.

Déclassé, tacky, amoral, unbecoming of a government official, yes.  And the fact that he's just flat-out lying when he says he isn't sexting people anymore, well.  He's doing that on camera, for the record.  That ought to tell you something about the guy's character.  How is it he hasn't dropped out of the New York mayoral race yet?

He says he isn't addicted.  I disagree.  Someone who isn't addicted would stop.

Amanda Bynes might actually be crazy

I've talked about Ms. Bynes at some length in these pages and if you'll recall, I pointed out my concerns that she is probably not entirely on the same plane as the rest of us.  Now, in the aftermath of setting some stuff on fire on a stranger's driveway, accidentally dousing her dog with gasoline and stripping off her pants to chase it down (!?), Amanda has had her freedom temporarily curtailed so the state of her sanity can be assessed.

I also asked the question, where were her parents.  As it turns out, they weren't clueless.  Amanda's parents are seeking conservatorship over her so they can, hopefully, put the brakes on the train before Amanda wrecks it completely.  Good job, folks.  I just wish you'd stepped up before things got this bad.  Then again, considering Amanda is an adult with plenty of her own money (aka power and autonomy), it would be hard to take conservatorship over her if she wanted to fight it.  And as combative as Amanda has been on Twitter lately, I would imagine she would fight it pretty hard.  The advent of the 5150 hold has given her parents a lot more leverage, and maybe we'll see Amanda get her head on straight.  Let's hope.

Speaking of train wrecks...

The driver of the high-speed train that went off the rails in Spain had posted boasting remarks on Facebook of passing police cars and setting off their radar guns.  The curve where the train derailed is posted for 50mph and the train was travelilng at over 100 mph.  Whether that would be sufficient to derail the train on that curve isn't clear at this time.  There's also a puff of smoke from about halfway back along the length of the train immediately before the derailment, and it is currently unknown whether that was associated with a proximate cause of the derailment, or the result of the chain of events of the derailment, some of which was undoubtedly taking place in such a way that the surveillance camera that captured the accident couldn't record it.

Whether or not the speed was the direct cause of the wreck, you know it can't possibly have made things any better.  78 people are dead in that accident; if the driver had been adhering to the posted speed limit of the curve, the deaths would most likely have been radically fewer.

Kidnapper behind bars

How this guy didn't get the death penalty is almost beyond belief.  I would be strongly inclined to send him for a fast ride on Old Sparky regardless of however he pleaded.  I reckon that's a good reason for me to not seek a career in law enforcement or justice.

A sentence of "Life plus 1000 years" is an unequivocal death sentence...eventually.  He will die in prison.  No chance of parole.  In fact if you wanted to very strictly adhere to the terms of the sentence, he would die in prison and then be buried under the prison exercise yard.

Now, this is just me: since we're committed to him dying in prison, why not skip the intervening expensive 30-50 years of food, shelter and health care and just get rid of him?  It takes thousands and thousands of dollars per year to keep a prisoner alive, and there is clearly no intent to ever let him back into society.  Why not just kill him, save the community hundreds of thousands of dollars, and be done with him?

Please note: I hate the death penalty and everything about it.  That doesn't preclude the fact that there are a lot of people who shouldn't be permitted to continue living.