Here's the results of the last poll:

Entry: Gallows Poll

Should the kids be charged with murder? yes, that's what it was. 23% No, it was an accident. 46% Other - explain in comments. 31% Total Votes: 13

   8 comments

	Posted by Miz UV @ 10/30/2007 11:36 AM PDT
	It sounds like an angry impulse that went all wrong. The original charges were harsh enough, so I say just keep those. I don't think the kid should go unpunished.

	Posted by Cody Bones @ 10/30/2007 12:07 PM PDT
	As the parent of a teenage boy, and lets be honest, these situations are about boys, I feel qualified to give an answer. Teenagers do NOT have the mental capacity or the same maturity as an adult. Their brains are not fully developed. Does this mean let them off scot-free, NO. There is a juvenile court system in place for this type of ACCIDENT. Lets also be honest. This was an accident, this kid did not mean to kill his father, he needs therapy more than anything. We set the age of maturity at 18 in this country, why do we charge children as adults? I don't know anyone who thinks that it's a good idea. Kids are stupid, and I defy anyone reading this post to say that they never did anything stupid as a child, or even things that might have caused arrest or bodily harm. USE THE JUVENILE COURT SYSTEM. IT"S THERE FOR A REASON.

	Posted by Lucyp @ 10/30/2007 12:48 PM PDT
	Although he threw the pole at his father, murder seems too harsh a sentence and i would call it manslaughter at the very most. Here the age for criminal responsibilty is 10 and in Scotland it is 8 which makes for some interesting thoughts on different countries views.

	Posted by nat @ 10/30/2007 04:53 PM PDT
	I'd agree that the original charge might be more in line. I, too, parented a teen boy, and those angry outbursts can be somewhat unexpected and quite severe. I have heard doors slam, seen fists go through hollow doors, etc. Once he grew a bit older, his hormonal outbursts mellowed, though. I mean, the dad sounded like a REAL piece of work, so how do we know that the guy wasn't egging the kid on in some way? Can't you just hear drunk/drugged up loser dad yelling something at the kids as he pulled away?

	Posted by O' Tim @ 10/30/2007 10:52 PM PDT
	Though I'm loathe to align with the numbskull newscasters, I'm having a hard time seeing that lightweight aluminum pole piercing a skull with a throw that ostensibly had a hang time long enough for the dad to spin the truck into a target zone. Were there any witnesses? The kid's explanation sounds fishy.

	Posted by Cheezy @ 10/31/2007 01:10 AM PDT
	I voted 'Other' because it wasn't an accident, but I don't think it has too many of the hallmarks of actual murder either. For a start, as you say, there is the age to consider... So I think any reasonable lawyer could get the kids off a murder charge... even without having to resort to 'the Chewbacca defence'.

	Posted by raejane @ 10/31/2007 09:11 AM PDT
	I vote 'other' also. It wasn't accident. The kid clearly wanted to throw it at his dad.. his intent, however, was not to kill him. They should be punished, but not for murder. Gawd... they are probably hurting so much right now.

	Posted by Sinja @ 11/03/2007 05:14 PM PDT
	I actually feel pretty terrible for the kids, and the whole family in general. I don't think any punishment should be too severe, and they shouldn't be tried for murder. I think something more along the lines of involuntary manslaughter to be tried as juveniles. I can't stress enough how much these kids need therapy, though. The drinking and drug use by their father (and I'm sure other members of their family and/or environment) puts them in a frame of mind that cannot be viewed as anywhere near competent emotionally.

While some felt it was murder and should be treated as such, they didn't really comment. I thought Cody's comment was spot on - we have set these benchmarks of maturity - 18 for war, 21 for beer - yet we will grant a child adult status for the purpose of punishment.

I won't worry too much about these kids, though. Remember this one? He'll be out when he's twenty one, based on evidence of abuse that came pretty much just from him. Certainly the teenage girl deserved better, if not the mom and dad. Plainly put, I saw no reason, in that case, why a juvenile sentence should not extend past the age of 21, but that's the way it is. The white ones usually tend to get a break, it seems.

And so, thanks to Cody Bones, we have the topic for another poll. Thanks, Cody!

As many of you know, Mark and I have not always gotten along. In fact, we came out of the gate fighting as soon as we met. Despite that, we started getting along when his dog passed on. Having recently put a beloved cat to sleep, I wrote him a consolatory e-mail. We became friends after that, but as you all know, it didn't last.

Now, in return, when my dog was put to sleep, I heard nothing from him. When my MOTHER died, he actually MOCKED her on his blog. He took it down later - far be it from a coward like him to actually stand behind his cruelty. He knows, as we all do, that mocking someone's dead mother is about as low as a piece of human shit can be. But several people saw it including Paula and DangerDoll.

Many of you are aware that I recently lost my job. The company was bought out by Xerox, and having nothing to do, the President who had founded the company moved on to start another one. After that, the "restructuring" began. MY position, along with several others, was eliminated. A couple managers got it, too. I have been granted a referral from the company, and the former President is one of my references. If I were fired for cause, I would not get unemployment, but I do. There has been no advertisement for my position, because it was the position itself that was eliminated, along with the manager's. There was no enmity against me.

So imagine how I feel when I see this posted at Mark's.

Buy A Clue With That Severance Pay

Gee, maybe you got canned for fucking off on blogs all day when you were supposed to be working. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

Merry Christmas!

Domain Name comcast.net ? (Network)
IP Address 68.35.161.# (Comcast Cable)
Visitor's Time Nov 28 2007 9:47:04 am

(BTW, stupid, people who are fired for cause don't generally get severance pay.)

First off, yes, I looked at his blog. I do that because he keeps writing about me. He has this obsession, you see. If you don't like it, Mark, why not be like your cowardly lawyer friend and go private? IT'S A PUBLIC BLOG YOU ARE POSTING ON, YOU STUPID FUCK. EVERYONE HAS A LEGAL RIGHT TO LOOK AT IT. YOU'RE JUST MAD BECAUSE I DON'T ALLOW YOU TO LIE ABOUT ME BEHIND MY BACK.

Beside this, it shows what I've been saying all along- that Mark is a PHONY. How many times has he gone on about shadenfreude? He loves to tell everyone that he is above taking pleasure in the misfortunes of others. But what about the above? WHAT ABOUT MOCKING MY MOTHER'S DEATH? What about any actor he doesn't like who has a bad time. He does it constantly. He thinks that just SAYING he has a quality makes it so. It doesn't. It just shows what a liar and a phony he is.

Besides, who thinks this guy has ANY information about my work? Any whatsoever? Just because he can make something up, he thinks he can make others think it's true. That's called a LIAR.

Has everyone had enough of this cocksucker yet? I have. Yet still some will still want to associate with him, because it "isn't your problem." If that is how you feel, please make sure that I am no longer your problem as well. I'm sorry, I've had enough. There are people who tell me not to react, but those people aren't a target for lies and abuse every few months. If you think that Mark has a greater right to throw stones than I have to defend myself, then let's just leave each other be.

If you go here, you can see the site he's posted for his work. See the phone number?

It's {Mark posted this number himself, but since he's a sniveling little cocksucker he whined to Blogdrive about me having it and made them threaten me to take it down. I wonder if they blew his nose and dired his little pussy tears, too}. That's the number to call if you ever want to tell him what you think of cowardly, dishonest phonies that shit all over Blogovia and make things less fun for all of us.

Now go to the White pages reverse lookup page. Drop that number in. What do you get? You get this.

Or you can Google the words "Mark F. (edited due to whining) carpenter" and look at the last entry on page one.

You see, Mark has frequently lied, as have at least two of his female friends, about how I posted his address and put him in danger, however, that is false for two reasons.

First, being publicly listed and posting a phone number as he did, he himself made the information public. Do you see any information here that it would take a detective to find? No, anyone smarter than Mark - which includes my cats- can find this info that HE has provided.

Second, if his family is in danger, it isn't because of me. It's because he traipses from blog to blog being a petty, dishonest asshole. People don't dislike him because he is always so right about everything, and OH, SO courageous in calling it like it is. People dislike him because he is rude, obnoxious, and abusive.

Oh, and I'm not removing this publicly available information this time, Mark. FUCK YOU. If you don't want to be endangered, it's time to stop being such a prick and start treating people with the respect you want for yourself. In other words, stop deserving it. Try not being a hypocrite for a change.

The fact is, you're jealous. You're jealous because, despite how much you want everyone to hate me, you can't do it. You're mad because when you try, you only lose more friends yourself. You're jealous because everyone knows that on your BEST day you cannot out-debate me on my WORST day. I mean, look at Cody's blog. You couldn't answer my last comment from a week ago, could you? You aren't SMART enough. You're mad because I have logic and facts on my side when all you have is neo-con lies and assumptions that you want everyone to see as facts.

And you're mad because your own actions have shown people what a petty, pathetic, cowardly, lying little phony you are. Don't like my saying that? Then come here and shove these words down my throat like you said you would six months ago, you loudmouth pussy. You have my address, right? Oh, that's right - you were only willing to threaten, not act, unless I came to YOU.

How typical.

Update: Hey, look! Dingleberry posted an update. It says this:

UPDATE: Visitor's Time Nov 29 2007 7:26:34 am

I guess someone's learning to be a pest on his own time now...Amazing what happens when your boss puts his foot up your ass in the form of a pink slip. Better luck in that next Habitrail habitat you manage to slither into. You might leave the pot at home, too...

Once again, he claims information he could not have, proving he made it up. Never mind that the managers I answered to either retired before the lay-off or were laid off with me. And that remark about pot?

Well, that's another thing Mark is jealous about. He had a long-running love affair with drugs and alcohol once, but found that he wasn't able to handle them.He must hate it when he meets someone who can smoke pot, drink, and still be at work everyday, along with going to college part time and getting a 3.94 GPA. That kind of self-control must just burn him up.

I saw this in the news today. Like the case of the woman in Saudi Arabia, this is sure to have lots of Americans wringing their hands in rightful indignation.

What's darkly funny, however, is that a lot of people who will condemn this vocally (and don't get me wrong, I DO condemn it) are folks that want to see America made a "Christian nation", as they will tell you it started as, officially. Many more are supporters of the Iraq war, which is also laughable.

They will tell you that this is why Islam is a "gutter religion." I say it is exactly why NO religion should be in any government whatsoever.

After all, does anyone with any objectivity in the matter actually believe that if the separation of church and state were removed, that this could not happen here?

Look at the things that HAVE happened here. Slavery. Women as second class citizens. Jim Crow. The Japanese-American prison camps. The weakening of the Bill of Rights. The loss of habeus corpus, the very cornerstone of liberty. Terrorist bombings on American soil, mostly by Americans, and many by Christians.

The fact is, anything, be it good or evil, can happen here. There is no such thing as "It can't happen here." People who say that are not just wrong - they are lying, and they know it.

I have no doubt whatsoever that if this becomes an official "Christian nation", we'll see similar things happen here. Perhaps not flogging, but what religious country is NOT going to outlaw disrespect for their God? Do we think that the same people who get upset every year because December is not strictly about Christmas will not stick you in jail for a week or so for saying "Happy Holidays" instead of Merry Christmas? Is it so unlikely that church attendence would become mandatory?

I mean, it must be what these people want. There are already laws against Biblical wrongs such as murder, theft, and perjury - those things that harm others. What else would the religious right want in tearing down this wall, if not  mandated respect for their religion, and  all Commandments codified into law? What other point could there possibly be to this excercise? What else do they have to gain by it?

And Iraq  now has a more Sharia-based government than it had four years ago, thanks to us.  Sure, we saved them  from Sadaam, only to turn them over to someone worse - themselves. Many of the people who claim that this is exactly what we're fighting against will miss the fact that this is exactly what we've helped to spread.

So while I think that the sentence - hell, the law itself - is a travesty, I must argue against those that will see this as an example of Christianity's superiority over Islam. People are people, and religious people are religious people. If we had no separation between our government and religion, we'd have the same type of laws here. 

To put it succinctly, "There but by the grace of the Founding Fathers go we." I really wish more people could appreciate that.

Courtesy of Miz UV.

I love editing. I edit all the time.There's one writer I prefer to edit on a regular basis.

I find his stuff engaging, witty, all of that good shit, but in need of reigning in a bit. On occasion. Just a little. Bit.

He's that me guy.

Sometimes, what he writes in a comment isn't quite what he meant to say, but I catch that for him. I tweak it a little before I let him hit that "post" button.

Sometimes, what he writes is a little too off-the-cuff. I make sure I take the knee-jerk out for him.

On occasion, he's even responding in anger. Well, there may be a right to. I try to temper his words for him nonetheless.

Sometimes, I can even hold up a post. Especially the long ones, or the ones that my writer starts when he's drunk. Like this one.

I work pretty quickly, too. He just lets me look it over before it's sent. That's all.

I'll fix spelling and grammar. I'll take his foot out of his mouth. I'll make sure that what he writes is what he means to say, and that it speaks diplomatically. I'll make sure all the premises are in the right order and that the conclusion is logical. I'll read the text he's responding to to make sure I think he's interpreted it correctly. I'll double check the whole thing.

I help save him embarrassment. I help him stay out of fights. Mostly, I just keep him from looking like an illiterate buffoon. His typing is for shit.

Best of all, I work for free.

It really is amazing that more people don't use me.

1- What time did all this happen? (Oddly enough, car theft is illegal 24/7.)

2- Do you have GPS installed in your truck? (This has what do do with running the old people off the road??)

3- Were there children in the car?  (Do you think that if there were children in the car with the crack dealer, the D.A. or the testifying officer might have mentioned that?)

4- Was it snowing at the time? (Does clear weather make it less reckless to drive east on the westbound side of a six-lane highway?)

5- Was there any testimony besides the confession that implicates the target? (WHAAAAT???)

6- Is there a reason you didn't charge him with....(conspiracy, intent to distribute, child endangerment, etc.)  (Why yes, there probably is!)

7- Did you test him for DWI? (Well now that you've mentioned it, I'm sure he'll think of it next time.)

8- What was the argument about? (Really, it's the stabbing that matters, isn't it?)

9- Were there any open containers in the car? (I think they might have mentioned that, as well. They like to press charges.)

10- Could he have broken into the room with the children? (I'm sure he could have, but he didn't, so let's not waste time trying to charge him with it, 'kay?)

11- Do you rent the apartment where you were assaulted? (Yes, this question came from a real estate agent. Let's do our prospecting somewhere else, shall we?)

12- Did you see where the blood on his shirt was coming from? (Well, * just going out on a limb here *, but perhaps it came from the bullet hole in his chest?)

13- Can I take this call? (In the middle of hearing testimony? I can't imagine why that would be a problem. Let's just stay on the record, shall we?)

1- I hate wearing shoes and socks, and will only do so outside.

2- When I'm sleeping, I must have one foot sticking out of the covers unless it is very cold or Billie is attacking my toes.

3- I play music when I go to sleep, and usually it's a bootleg I've never heard before. I can do that every day if I wish. Then I have to listen to the end of it later, because I fall asleep in the middle.

4- I once put saurkraut on a list of 13 things I would never eat, but I like it now.

5- I still hate bananas. I'm certain I always will.

6- I have 11 gallons of melomel ( mead made with fruit) in my kitchen ready to be bottled.

7- My hair goes halfway down my back.

8- I was almost in a Kim Basinger film, but an astute stagehand got me the fuck out of the way.

9- I can't eat when I first get up. I have to be up a while first. I can drink coffee or tea imediately, however.

10- I have double jointed fingers than can bend in ways that make other people uncomfortable.

First, you can scroll down a little and taunt the Asshole of the Month. If you have already taunted him once, you may taunt him a second time.

Next, come and see Nat and I, while we discuss the oldest items in our record collections. What dusty old grooves do YOU still have hanging about?