UN Assembly calls for death penalty ban

Bangkok Post Breaking News

Tuesday 18th December.

"New York (dpa) - The UN General Assembly on Tuesday voted 104-54 to adopt a moratorium on the death penalty, defeating vocal opposition from countries that maintain the practice does not violate human rights.

Countries that favour ending the death penalty are a uniformed bloc, arguing the practice "undermines human dignity" and that a moratorium "contributes to the enhancement and progressive development of human rights."

"There is no conclusive evidence of the death penalty's deterrence value and that any miscarriage or failure of justice in the death penalty's implementation is irreversible and irreparable," the proponents said in the resolution adopted by the 192-nation assembly. There were 29 abstentions.

The resolution submitted by more than 90 countries, including most Europeans nations, voiced concern about the continued use of the death penalty and demanded that the UN "establish a moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty."

It called on countries that still apply the death penalty to respect international standards that provide safeguards guaranteeing the rights of sentenced prisoners and to "progressively restrict the use of the death penalty and reduce the number of offences for which it may be imposed."

Countries that opposed the moratorium renewed their criticism before the vote, a replay of the debate last month in the human rights committee of the assembly. Opponents included the block of 13 Caribbean nations and others like Singapore, which accused Europeans of imposing their values on other sovereign nations.

There are 134 countries that have abolished the death penalty.

But countries that continue to use it, like the United States and China, have remained mostly silent during the whole debate.

Despite Washington's official stance on maintaining the death penalty, New Jersey on Monday became the first US state to abolish the sentence in more than 40 years, as Governor Jon Corzine signed into law a measure eliminating it.

New Jersey joined 13 other US states that do not allow executions.

"Today New Jersey evolves," Corzine, a Democrat, said in a statement. "This is a day of progress for us and for the millions of people across our nation and around the globe who reject the death penalty as a moral or practical response to the grievous, even heinous, crime of murder."

Before the final vote in the UN General Assembly Tuesday, the human rights committee voted 99-52, with 33 abstentions, last month to approve the moratorium, and sent the draft to the 192-nation assembly for a final vote.

The issue split the committee into two camps, with the Europeans, led by Italy, on one side against mostly small countries in the Caribbean, Africa and the Middle East that said the death penalty is not a human rights issue."

Jon Corzine Signs Abolition Into Law

On Monday 17th December, Jon Corzine, Governor of New Jersey signed into law the bill approved by the state's Assembly and Senate last week. Although New Jersey re-adopted the death penalty in 1982, following its reinstatement by the Supreme Court in 1976, New Jersey has not executed anyone since 1963.

"The measure spares eight men on the state's death row. On Sunday, Corzine signed orders commuting the sentences of those eight to life in prison without parole.

Among the eight spared is Jesse Timmendequas, a sex offender who murdered 7-year-old Megan Kanka in 1994. The case inspired Megan's Law, which requires law enforcement agencies to notify the public about convicted sex offenders living in their communities."

New York Times

New York Times editorial, Saturday December 15th. "A Long Time Coming."

"It took 31 years, but the moral bankruptcy, social imbalance, legal impracticality and ultimate futility of the death penalty has finally penetrated the consciences of lawmakers in one of the 37 states that arrogates to itself the right to execute human beings."

This is the opening paragraph in what I think is an excellent editorial. The author reports on a couple of recent cases where convictions have been overturned. One of the best reasons for ending the death penalty; it's not easy to apologise to the dead!

"New Jersey’s decision to replace the death penalty with a sentence of life without parole seems all the wiser coming in the middle of a month that has already seen the convictions of two people formerly on death row in other states repudiated. In one case, the defendant was found not guilty following a new trial."

The United States of America is the most powerful of the western civilised nations, but in keeping the death penalty on its statutes, who is it keeping company with?

"By clinging to the death penalty, states keep themselves in the company of countries like Iran, North Korea and China — a disreputable pantheon of human mistreatment. Small wonder the gyrations of New Jersey’s Legislature have been watched intently by human rights activists around the world."

So, lawmakers of Texas, the state which has executed more people than any other since reinstatement of capital punishment, take note. The time has come to consider what place executions have in a civilised world.

"In a sense, the practical impact of New Jersey’s action may be largely symbolic. Although there are eight people on New Jersey’s death row, the moratorium was in place, and the state has not put anyone to death since 1963. Nevertheless, it took political courage for lawmakers to join with Governor Corzine. Their renunciation of the death penalty could prick the conscience of elected officials in other states and inspire them to muster the courage to revisit their own laws on capital punishment.

At least that is our fervent hope."

New York Times Editorial

New Jersey Abolishes The Death Penalty

On Thursday 13th December, the New Jersey Legislature followed up Monday's approval by the State Senate, and in a vote of 44-36 made NJ the first state to abolish the death penalty. The US Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, but New Jersey has not executed anyone since 1963. New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine has said he will sign the bill into law when it arrives on his desk.

The Guardian

"A New Jersey state commission found in January that the death penalty was expensive to administer, had no deterrent effect and carried the risk of killing an innocent person. It was, said the commission, "inconsistent with evolving standards of decency".

"We would be better served as a society by having a clear and certain outcome for individuals that carry out heinous crimes," Corzine said."

I think that, "clear and certain outcome," is a very important factor in abolishing the death penalty. Prisoners will not be sitting on death row, year-after-year, waiting to be taken on their last walk, or to hear last minute news about their latest appeal. The families of victims will achieve some level of closure and not be waiting for the next round of publicity given to the person found guilty of murder. And just as important, no innocent person will be put beyond the oportunity to experience the proof of innocence or to walk free.

The abolition of the death penalty in New Jersey would seem to just write into law what the state has been doing in practice since 1963, but it is a very important piece of legislation. The state legislature has voted for what the Governor calls, "...evolving standards of decency," and I congratulate those who have worked doggedly to get this legislation onto their statute books.

Now what about Texas? Time for that state to look carefully at its standards of decency?

When the Bullies Turned Faceless

New York Times

"LIKE most mobs, the one that pursued Megan Meier was cruel and unrelenting. Its members gathered on the social networking site MySpace and called Megan a liar, a fat whore and worse.

Megan, 13, fought back, insulting her tormenters with every profanity she knew. But the mob shouted her down, overwhelming her computer and her shaky self-confidence with a barrage of hateful instant messages.

“Mom, they’re being horrible!” Megan said, sobbing into the phone when her mother called. After an hour, Megan ran into her bedroom and hanged herself with a belt.

“She felt there was no way out,” Ms. Meier said."

Megan Meier’s suicide made headlines because she was the victim of a hoax. Lori Drew, another mother in the neighborhood, said in a police report that she had created a MySpace profile of a boy, an invention named “Josh Evans,” and that she and her daughter had manipulated Megan into thinking that this fabricated person liked her.

Then, after a few weeks, Ms. Meier said, girls posing as Josh wrote MySpace messages telling Megan that he hated her. He insulted her, and other girls — most unaware that Josh did not exist — viciously piled on. (Later, through her lawyer, Ms. Drew, 48, denied knowing about the hoax.)

In some ways, the hoax was a tragic oddity. Most mothers don’t pull vicious pranks, and few harassed adolescents become depressed and commit suicide. But Megan’s story is also a case study about cyberbullying."

Now, I know that there has always been bullying for as long as young people have socialised and congregated in groups. Most schools, in most countries of the world, will be doing their best to combat bullying, but they will never eliminate it. At least, though, the traditional methods of bullying in the playground and in communal areas of schools was easier to confront; the bullies had faces and could be identified. Mobile phones and text messaging, web sites like MySpace, allow the new breed of bully to remain faceless, to hide behind an anonymous ID. They also allow more people to join in at the speed of cyber-communication.

"And unlike traditional bullying, which usually is an intimate, if highly unpleasant, experience, high-tech bullying can happen anywhere, anytime, among lots of different children who may never actually meet in person. It is inescapable and often anonymous, said sociologists and educators who have studied cyberbullying."

It used to be that a child who was being bullied at school could enjoy some respite in their own home. Not so now. Children have mobile phones and so many have a computer in the bedroom. Mobile phones and the internet allow the bully a way into the sanctuary of our homes and very often parents have no idea that it is happening or have any means of combatting it or of confronting the bullies. Do you take away your child's mobile phone and computer and then render them more isolated and out of touch and maybe more vulnerable than they are already, sitting alone in their bedroom, trying to deal with an anonymous barrage from people who can be brave because they are faceless?

"And, as in the Megan Meier case, the victim of cyberbullying is often isolated, yet never free from attack. “The target sees this entire cyberuniverse where everybody is against them, and no one will come to their defense,” said Dr. Walter Roberts, professor of counselor education at Minnesota State University, Mankato. “The harassment is not limited to the portion of the day when the kids are in school. The targeted kids have no escape.”

The internet is a wonderful invention. It allows instant communication around the globe. When my son was on a gap year, travelling round the world, he found cyber-cafes even on small islands off the coast of Thailand from where he could tell his professional worrier of a mother that he had been swimming with a harmless species of shark! Mobile phones have opened up a new world of communication for deaf children via text messaging and have also probably saved many lives when someone has met with an accident in a remote place. However, they have also rendered our children vulnerable to this new virile form of bullying, and of course, as some parents have discovered, the internet also opens up a world where our children are vulnerable to the most nasty aspect of all, online grooming for sex.

I bid you adieu for now, dear readers. Christmas shopping to do. Thanks to the wonderful internet, I have ordered a load of lovely clothes for my beautiful grandson and a Tokyo Flash JLr7 watch for my son, but Wellesbourne market is calling and I'm off to snap up some bargains!

On this cold December day, may all our children be safe.

Madeleine McCann Found: Home By Christmas

Yes, Metodo3 boss Francisco Marco says they know where Madeleine is and she will be home by Christmas. The Daily Mirror, Daily Express, the free Metro and other UK publications have all quoted Metodo's boss.

Daily Mirror

"In his boldest claim yet, the director general of Metodo 3 said: "We know who kidnapped her. We believe she is in an area not very far from the Iberian peninsula and north Africa. And we have a fairly certain idea of who she is with."

Something may be lost in translation there. An area not very far from the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa? What? The Canary Islands? I guess he could mean that.

There appear to be a few contradictions to Mr Marco's certainty:

"Mr Marco said: "I have always said publicly Madeleine is alive. I have to believe it 100 per cent because I know how to look for living people, not dead ones. But I have no proof Madeleine is alive.

So, he is sure they know where Madeleine is, who took her and that she will be home by Christmas, but he has no proof that she is alive?

"I talk of certainties because we know which group may have her or could have kidnapped her to then sell her on to others."

Certainties, but then he says they know which group might have her of could have kidnapped her? That doesn't sound very certain to me!

Mr Marco says he believes that Madeleine was taken by a paedophile ring. If that is true, then I have doubts about Madeleine's being home by Christmas, even if she were to be found alive tomorrow. Does he think that the paedos will have been taking good care of her? If she had been in the hands of a paedophile ring for seven months, that poor child would need some very serious emotional rehabilitation as well as physical treatment and care.

Mr Marco, there would be no happy reunion under the Christmas tree. Madeleine McCann snatched from a paedophile ring would be an emotionally and physically scarred child.

But, I am very sad to say that I don't think Madeleine will be returning alive to her lovely house by Christmas. I don't think she will be returning alive. When Gerry McCann said, "Find the body and prove we killed her," I began to feel that we would possibly never find out what happened to Madeleine McCann, but I continue to hope that she will be found and laid to rest, finally with her own stone marking the place where she is at peace.

Mother of boy in suitcase faces court.

Headline from the story in the Sydney Morning Herald:

"Compassion plea as mother of boy in suitcase faces court."

In October a group of children found a suitcase floating in a duck pond at Ambarvale, near Campbelltown. Inside was the body of two year-old Dean Shillingsworth. Dean's mother, Rachel Pfitzner, has been charged with his murder.

"Court documents said police believe Dean died between 11 and 11.30am on October 11 - a week before his body was discovered."

The lawyer acting for Ms Pfitzner has appealed for compassion for his client, who is in custody in Silverwater Women's Prison.

"Outside court, Pfitzner's lawyer, Ugo Parente, appealed for public compassion, saying she was entitled to a fair hearing. "I just ask that she be shown a bit of compassion at this time," Mr Parente said. "It is a sensitive matter and it has to be dealt with fairly."

The Herald reports that she is in voluntary protection in prison and that she appeared in court via video link.

"The screen on which her face appeared was dark. The only word she said was "yep" when she was asked routine questions, such as if she could hear."

Very little has been published on this case in the UK and there is very little information available from this article, beyond the fact that Dean's mother has been charged with his murder, that she is in prison and has appeared briefly in court.

Dean's father is also in prison, but there is no information about what charges have been laid against him in the article.

"Dean's father, Paul Shillingsworth, is also in jail, in Tamworth. He was released on parole on the eve of the funeral, but his parole was revoked after fresh charges were laid against him.

Dean's mother is due to appear in court again in February 2008. I shall watch this as it unfolds, wondering why this woman deserves my compassion.

Sydney Morning Herald

Baby Grace is Riley Ann Sawyers

Woops! I'm a bit late with this update, but just in case there is someone out there who does not know, or someone reading this who wonders why I haven't updated, this is the most recent news of that little girl whom the Galveston Police called, Baby Grace.

The police are now almost certain, according to this report on 26th November, that Baby Grace is two year-old Riley Ann Sawyers.

ABC News

"Kimberly Ann Trenor, 19, and her 24-year-old husband, Royce Clyde Zeigler, both of Spring, Texas, are being held in connection with the 2-year-old girl's death on charges of injuring a child and tampering with evidence. The two remain in custody in Galveston County jail, each on $350,000 bond.

In the affidavit, Trenor describes how she and Zeigler beat the toddler with two leather belts and held her head under water in a bathtub on the morning of July 24. Trenor also said in the affivadit that Zeigler picked the child up by her hair and threw her across the room causing her head to slam against a tile floor.

After Sawyers died, Trenor said in the affidavit to the Sheriff's Office, Zeigler covered the child in a purple towel and the pair then went to a Wal-Mart to purchase items to hide and dispose of the body, including a blue plastic container, bleach, a shovel and latex gloves.

According to the affidavit, Trenor said Zeigler hid the container with the remains in a storage shed for two months before the pair tossed the container into the water off Galveston Causeway.

Meanwhile, Sawyers' father and grandmother publicly wept Monday as they demanded justice in the child's "heinous" death."

It is so sad that the person who should have loved and protected little Riley Ann was responsible for her suffering and death, according to the reported details of the affidavit attributed to Riley Ann's mother, Kimberly Ann Trenor. If Kimberly and her husband are found guilty, which seems likely, I hope they both get sent to prison for life with no prospect of parole.

Rest in peace now, little Riley. No more suffering.

Rodney Reed On Death Row In Texas

Information taken from the Daily Texan online.

Daily Texan online

Rodney Reed has spent the last ten years on death row in a Texas prison. He was found guilty of the murder of 20 year-old Stacey Stites, whose body was dumped by the side of a road in Bastrop, Texas, eleven years ago.

Rodney is a black man who was found guilty of the crime by an all-white jury, in spite of what the lawyers presenting Rodney's appeal for a new trial, report as strong evidence linking other people to the crime.

"......including Stites' fiance Jimmy Fennell, to the murder. Last week, Fennell, who is now a police officer in Georgetown, Texas, was indicted by a grand jury on a charge of sexually assaulting a woman in custody at gunpoint, and he was placed on administrative leave from his job. At the time of Stites' death, Fennell was a police officer in Giddings, a town just east of Bastrop."

The evidence linking Jimmy Fennell to the murder of Stacey Stites is, according to the article, more compelling than that linking Rodney Reed.

"The amount of evidence pointing to Fennell in Stites' murder case is overwhelming. In two polygraph tests taken after Stites's murder, Fennell failed the question, "Did you strangle Stacy Stites?" According to a May 13, 1998, Department of Public Service report, fresh beer cans found at the crime scene contained DNA from Stites and two of Fennell's friends, police officers David Hall and Ed Salmela (the original investigator for the case). Furthermore, the truck alledgedly used to transport Stites' body contained fingerprints from only Fennell and Stites and was handed over to Fennell the day it was discovered. Fennell sold the truck the next day."

So, the truck which was allegedly used to carry the body contained fingerprints (allegedly) only from Fennell and Stites. It was returned to Fennell, who sold it the next day? There goes some of the evidence!

"The main evidence linking Reed to the murders is a semen sample containing Reed's DNA, which was taken from the scene of the crime. That can easily be explained by the sexual relationship he and Stites allegedly had before her death."


Beer cans at the scene of the dumped body, showing DNA from Stites and two of Fennell's friends, plus fingerprints in a truck, which was allegedly used to dump the body, only from Stites and Fennell. Semen from Rodney Reed at the scene. It appears to me that there is a strong case for a retrial.

"Reed has been sitting on death row for more than 10 years for a crime he very likely did not commit. The Bastrop County prosecutors should open the case and start a new investigation into his claims of innocence. In the meantime, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which has Reed's case in their hands, should order a new trial in which the jury can hear all of the new evidence."

More info at: Free Rodney Reed

New Jersey Nears Repeal of Death Penalty

New York Times, Tuesday 11th December, 2007. New jersey comes closer to repealing the death penalty after Monday's vote in the State Senate.

New York Times

"By JEREMY W. PETERS

Published: December 11, 2007

TRENTON, Dec. 10 — The New Jersey Senate voted Monday to make the state the first in the country to repeal the death penalty since 1976, when the United States Supreme Court set guidelines for the nation’s current system of capital punishment.

State Senator Raymond J. Lesniak, sponsor of a bill to repeal New Jersey’s death penalty, at the Senate Monday.

Approval in the Senate was seen as the biggest obstacle to the repeal, and in the end, it passed 21 to 16, receiving the bare minimum number of votes required in the 40-seat chamber. Three senators did not vote.

Legislators on both sides of the debate said they expected the measure to pass easily on Thursday in the General Assembly, where Democrats hold 50 of the 80 seats.

Gov. Jon S. Corzine, a Democrat and a staunch opponent of the death penalty, has said he would sign a measure ending executions.

“Today New Jersey can become a leader, an inspiration to other states,” Senator Robert Martin, a Republican from Morris Plains who voted for the bill, said during Monday’s debate.

For those opposed to capital punishment, New Jersey’s repeal would represent a victory that has eluded them in the modern history of the death penalty. Though legislatures across the country have tried to abolish capital punishment since 1976, none have succeeded. This year alone, the legislatures in Nebraska, Montana, Maryland and New Mexico have debated bills to repeal those states’ death penalties, but each measure failed, often by a slim margin.

So far, opponents of the death penalty have succeeded only through court rulings, including the decision in 2004 declaring New York’s capital punishment statute unconstitutional, or through moratoriums imposed by a governor, as in Illinois and Maryland.

“What New Jersey is going to do is have a legislature-initiated repeal, and that’s different,” said Frankin E. Zimring, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

Opponents of the death penalty said Monday that they hoped New Jersey’s action would give new energy to movements in states that have recently voted down repeal bills, and would serve as a catalyst for other states to revisit their laws on capital punishment.

Diann Rust-Tierney, executive director of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, said: “The New Jersey Legislature did the right thing. And we think we’ll be seeing more state legislatures saying, ‘We don’t want the death penalty.’”

While the Senate vote mainly broke down along party lines, four Republicans did break from the party leadership and vote for the bill. Three of them — Mr. Martin, James J. McCullough of Atlantic County and Joseph A. Palaia of Deal — will not be returning to the Senate when the new Legislature is seated next month. Three Democrats voted against the bill.

Earlier Monday, a bill to replace the death penalty with a sentence of life in prison with no parole was approved on a 5-1 vote by the Assembly’s Law and Public Safety Committee.

Because the Senate voted during a lame-duck legislative session, legislators who might otherwise have voted against the bill were afforded some political cover — a factor that may have tipped the balance.

Mr. McCullough said Monday that he arrived at his decision over the summer after meeting with law enforcement officials and the family of a murder victim. “That’s the right thing to do,” he said. “I’m an outgoing senator.”

But opponents of the bill were sharply critical of Senate Democratic leaders for scheduling a vote during a lame-duck session, when issues of such import are seldom taken up.

“Why not let this go to the new session?” asked Senator Robert W. Singer, a Republican.

Robert Blecker, a professor at New York Law School who testified on Monday before the Assembly committee, called the process a “charade” and criticized lawmakers for not allowing for more time to debate the bill. “You’ll go where you want to go,” he said. “You’ll abolish the death penalty in New Jersey, and the world will watch.”

Since the legislative elections on Nov. 6, the process to repeal New Jersey’s death penalty has unfolded swiftly. The Senate president, Richard J. Codey, and the Assembly speaker, Joseph J. Roberts, both Democrats, placed bills abolishing capital punishment at the top of their agendas for the lame-duck session, and called for votes to be taken by the end of the year.

Supporters of the bill said the process was not rushed and pointed to a six-month-long review of the state’s capital sentence system by the New Jersey Death Penalty Study Commission, which found that the system was ineffective and recommended that it be replaced with life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The state has not executed anyone since 1963. In addition, its procedures for carrying out an execution were declared unconstitutional in 2004 by a state appeals court, and the Department of Corrections has said it has no intention of rewriting them.

Yet prosecutors still seek the death penalty in some cases, and eight men are currently on death row at the New Jersey State Prison here.

The measure approved by the Senate gives the eight men 60 days to file motions to be resentenced to life in prison.

Mr. Codey, who sponsored legislation in the early 1980s that reinstated New Jersey’s death penalty, said the system plays a cruel hoax on murder victims’ families by giving them the false hope of an execution.

“The best thing to do for us as a society to do is to be honest with them,” said Mr. Codey, who more recently served as governor. “Don’t tell someone that we’re going to execute somebody when the reality is it’s not going to happen — at least here in the state of New Jersey. Maybe in Texas. Maybe in other states. But it’s not going to happen here in New Jersey, and we’ve got to accept that.”

David W. Chen contributed reporting.

Christmas in Royal Leamington Spa

This is the view from the bottom of The Parade, looking north. On the right is the Town Hall with good Queen Victoria on her plinth.

Royal Leamington Spa is a spa town built mainly during the 19th century. The town was visited by Queen Victoria in 1838, and was given the "Royal" status.

Leamington's main architectural characterisitic is it's wide main streets, with elegant Georgian, Regency and Victorian buildings, many lined with trees.

Well, I have been looking for images of Christmas lights in my town and this is the best I can find. Not wonderful, but then the rest of the lights are not wonderful either. This is the usual Christmas tree outside the Town Hall. My favourite lights are the very simple strings of white lights, randomly threaded through some of the trees at the bottom of the main shopping street, The Parade, but alas, no photos! Maybe I should have a go at taking some!

In the few weeks before Christmas most of The Parade is closed off on Sundays for the Christmas market. This is very popular and well worth a visit for the variety of craft stalls with unusual gifts as well as the Greek stall with a huge range of olives and feta, and some interesting clothes stalls.

My first visit of the year was yesterday and it was a wash-out! The wind and rain had kept many of the stallholders away and my two large bags stayed empty except for a small pack of hand-made gift cards.

I haven't had a great deal of luck with my shopping this week in general. The Japanese web site, from which I wanted to buy a watch, was sold out of the one I wanted. After trawling deep into Google, where the sites are all in foreign, I spotted a link with the words, "Votre panier est vide." So, I thought, "Aha! A site that is selling the watches, not just doing a review of them." After navigating through the French, I got as far as the checkout and my card wasn't one of those listed! Drat!

Then there was Wellesbourne market on Saturday. This is a huge open-air market on an airfield and at this time of year it is usually heaving with people and the stalls are bulging with Christmas goodies. Well, that was a wash-out too! Where there should have been stalls there were huge empty areas with sodden rubbish blowing across the tarmac of the airfield runways. I narrowly missed a collision with a large green wheelie bin that was doing eccentric wheelies through the rubbish and headed back to my car after just ten minutes of holding a soggy hat to my head and desperately looking for something interesting on the few stalls which were there.

Two more shopping weekends 'til Christmas! For anyone living in the Warickshire area, I hear there is a late night Christmas market in Stratford-Upon-Avon each Thursday until Christmas. I guess I'd better get there! I hate those smug people who are telling me they've got all their Christmas shopping done!

The Day They Moved Australia!

For some reason, when I spotted the am news alert from the Sydney Morning Herald in my inbox, the first thought after, well it's bedtime, was of an article I came across a couple of years back. It was so funny that I saved the pic and now I've managed to find the article again!

"Tired of being isolated and ignored, Australia decides to move"

"After what witnesses described as an all night blinder during which it kept droning on about how it was always being bloody ignored by the whole bloody world and would bloody well stand to do something about it, Australia this morning woke up to find itself in the middle of the North Atlantic.

"Good Lord, that was a booze up," said a bleary-eyed Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, speaking from his residence at Kirribilli House, approximately 600 nautical miles east of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.

According to Australians and residents of several countries destroyed or lewdly insulted during the continent's nearly 7,000-mile saltwater stagger, the binge began just after noon yesterday at a pub in Brisbane, where several patrons were discussing Australia Day (Jan. 26) and the nation's general lack of respect from abroad.

"It started off same as always; coupla fossils saying how our Banjo Patterson was a better poet than Walt Whitman, how Con the Fruiterer is funnier than Seinfeld, only they're Aussies so no one knows about 'em," recalled witness Michael Ewen. "Then this bloke Martin pipes up and says

Australia's main problem is that it's stuck in Australia, and everybody says 'Too right!'"

"Well, it made sense at the time," Ewen added.

By 2 a.m., powered by national pride and alcohol, the 3-million-square-mile land mass was barging eastward through the Coral Sea and crossing into the central Pacific, leaving a trail of beer cans and Chinese take-aways in its wake.

When dawn broke over the Northern Hemisphere, the continent suddenly found itself smack in the middle of the Atlantic, and according to most of its 19 million inhabitants, that's the way it's going to stay.

"We sent troops to Afghanistan. You never hear about it. We have huge government scandals. You never hear about it. It's all 'America did this,' and 'Europe says that,'" exclaimed Perth resident Arron Gunthorpe. "Well, we're right in the thick of things now, so let's just see if you can ignore us."

Officials on both sides of the Atlantic conceded that would be difficult. "They broke Florida," said U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher. "And most of Latin America is missing."

Meanwhile, victims of what's already been dubbed the "Australian Crawl" are still shaking off the event.

"Australia bumped into us at about midnight local time," said the Spanish President Juan Carlos. "They were very friendly, they always seem friendly but they refused to go around unless we answered their questions. But the questions were impossible! Who is Ian Thorpe? Do you have any Tim Tams? What day is Australia Day?'"

"Fortunately, somebody here had an Unimportant World Dates calendar and we aced the last one," President Carlos added.

By late morning today, however, not everyone in Australia was quite so blithe. "We've still got part of Jamaica stuck to Queensland," said Australian army commander Lt. Gen. Peter Cosgrove. "I think we might have declared war on it. I don't bloody remember. Maybe it's time to go home."

Cosgrove, however, is not in the majority, and at press time, U.S., African, and European leaders were still desperately trying to negotiate for Australia's withdrawal. But the independent-minded Aussies were not making it easy.

In a two-hour meeting at midday, Australian representatives listed their demands:

1. Immediate inclusion in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization,

2. A permanent CNN presence in all 6 Australian states,

3. A worldwide ban on hiring Paul Hogan,

4. A primetime U.S. television contract for Australian Rules Football,

U.S. negotiators immediately walked out, calling the Australian Rules Football request "absurd."

---

Latest News

New Zealand becomes the major power in the South Pacific with Samoa

New Zealand awoke this morning to find itself as the lone superpower in the South Pacific, after Australia moved north during the night.

"About Bloody time too" stated the Prime Minister Helen Clarke. "we have had just about enough of the whiners and were considering allowing Ngai Tahu to invade them and claim Queensland.

Look out Northern Hemisphere, you don't know what you are in for. They steal your entertainers, claim anyone who even visit them as their own, and inflict their sports teams on them. We will be better off working with Samoa"

Popular opinion is that New Zealand moves to occupy Australia's place as the weather is better.

No report has come from Tasmania. It is believed that Australia left quietly so Tasmanians wouldn't notice and want to follow. It appears the ruse has worked. New Zealand has offered to adopt Tasmania as West New Zealand."

http://stuffucanuse.com/aussie_windows/am.htm

Celtic Shamanism: Part One

My shamanic teacher, good friend and mentor passed on from this reality just a few weeks ago. She had been ill for some considerable time and is now at peace.

So, what is Celtic Shamanism? I was introduced to the practice some 13 years ago when I met the woman who was to become my teacher and friend. Am I a Shaman? Not at the moment! Only when I am involved in shamanic work.

Celtic Shamanism, as I and my circle work with it, has its roots in the Celtic traditions of Britain, as well as borrowing practices from Scandinavia and from North America and other Aboriginal peoples. At the heart of shamanic practice is the shamanic journey. This is a journey into non-ordinary reality, without, I must add, the aid of any kind of drugs in this particular form. There are three levels into which the shaman journeys, the upper world, the middle world and the lower world of non-ordinary reality.

The journey rhythm is set by the drummer and it is thought to induce a state of theta brain waves, a trance-like state. A journey is undertaken to find answers to questions and is always in the company of guides and helpers. Non-ordinary reality can be a dangerous place. So, the very first journey of a newcomer is always to meet one's guides and helpers. This journey is also always done in the company of an experienced person, who must ask a particular and very important question before the start and the newcomer must give a particular answer to the question. I'm going to remain vague on that as well as on a few other details!

Before the ritual of journeying begins, there is the ceremony of smudging with incence. This can be a smudge stick, an incence stick or herbal mixtures on a charcoal block in a dedicated holder. The smoke is wafted around the body to cleanse the aura and protect. As this is taking place there is usually chanting. There are many beautiful chants.

"Spirit of the Wind carry me

Spirit of the Wind carry me home
Spirit of the Wind carry me home to myself

Spirit of the Ocean, depth of emotion
Spirit of the Sea, set myself free

Spirit of the Rain, wash away the pain
Spirit of the Storm, help me be reborn

Spirit of the Sun, warm light healing one
Spirit of the Sky, spread my winds and fly

Spirit of the Earth, help me with my birth
Spirit of the Land, hold me in your hand

Spirit of the River, blessed forgiver
Spirit of the Shore, shows me more and more."

There is usually an altar, on which are placed any objects which are special to the circle or are important for the ceremony. At least one candle will be on the altar, and if more than one, there will be a, "Mother Candle," from which all others are lit.

After smudging comes, "Rattling in," which is a traditional ritual with, well, a rattle! There is a set pattern of rattling to the seven directions...yes, the seven directions...the compass points, plus above, below and within. The purpose of rattling in is to summon the guides and helpers and let them know you're ready to boogie. The rhythmic drumming starts and everyone will lie down and cover themselves with blankets, as the drumming reaches journey rhythm and the expedition begins. After 20 minutes or so, the drumming rhythm changes to the, "Call back," and everyone will rise and record their journey in a special book. Then begins the reporting back, the drummer always being last.

I have a very special drum, called, "An Elk Dreaming Drum," which was made by Nicholas Wood of South Wales. Nicholas is well known in shamanic circles and a Nicholas Wood drum is a very special one.

http://www.nicholaswood.net/

My drum is similar in shape to the ones in the little photo in the right-hand column, but it is made from elk skin rather than deer skin. Nicholas only makes Elk Dreaming Drums to order as the skin is heavier to work with and requires a stronger hoop than the deer skin drums. One very important piece of information about a shamanic drum is that it is a, "power object," and must never be touched without permission. So, even if you were to see my drum rolling down the road, you must not touch it!

Celtic Shamanism cannot be used to cause harm to another person or to any creature. An attempt to use the practice for harm would result in that harm rebounding on the person intending to injure or hurt.

Oh! I forgot to mention the final part of the journey sequence! When reporting back has been completed, comes the, "Rattling Out," which is similar to rattling in, but this time it's done in reverse order and tells the guides and helpers that they are not needed any longer and can go for their dinner!

"Earth my body
Water my blood
Air my breath (and)
Fire my spirit."

Go well, be well, stay well!

Right Said Fred!

I just thought I'd tell the story about my big desk! For many years the desk at which I worked was a huge ex-army, very plain and functional piece of wooden furniture. Four years ago I decided that it was time for a replacement and with very clear ideas about what I wanted, I trawled the local and not-so-local furniture stores. I found nothing that matched my ideas. So, I then looked for a carpenter who would build one for me. I decided that I wanted a desk in natural wood, and of the same dimensions as the old desk. So, with measurements and design ideas, I eventually found a carpenter.

My desk is big! When you accumulate as I do, you need lots of space! It is made of red pine, named for the colour of the bark on the particular species of pine. It has a honey glaze, water-based with honey to give a golden colour. It is a very simple style: I stipulated....no curly or fancy bits! And it is lovely. Well, to me it is lovely, kind of Shaker-style I suppose!

Do you recall that old song about the men moving a piano? "Right Said Fred"? Well, it was like that when my desk was delivered. When I moved into this house with my old desk, I managed to manoeuvre it quite easily into the room in which it stood for about 10 years. When the new one, of identical proportions, was delivered, two hulking great men huffed and puffed, got the desk trapped on its end in the hallway, then took it back outside to the garden path. I tried to give them some advice about how to just kind of swivel it round to fit through the doorway, but well, what would a little woman know about these things? So, they took the knobs off! They got the desk stuck again and took it back outside! They took the drawers out and unscrewed the door off its hinges, got it stuck upside down in the hallway and took it back outside.

The men then decided that the job was impossible, no matter what I suggested or what I said about the previous desk having been identical in size! So, I watched as my lovely new desk got heaved back into the van and driven away!

Three months later, the men came back with my desk, having taken it apart somewhat, and they part-built it in the room in which it now sits!

So, there you are! My big desk and this is News From My Big Desk!

Serving Life for Providing Car to Killers

Ryan Holle, 25, convicted of murder, is serving life without the chance of parole at the Wakulla Correctional Institution in Florida.

From Adam Liptak in the December 4th edition of the New York Times comes this very strange, to me, story of American justice.

"CRAWFORDVILLE, Fla. — Early in the morning of March 10, 2003, after a raucous party that lasted into the small hours, a groggy and hungover 20-year-old named Ryan Holle lent his Chevrolet Metro to a friend. That decision, prosecutors later said, was tantamount to murder."

The friend used Ryan's car to drive three other men to the place where they intended to commit a burglary. Ryan was a mile and a half away at the time. The burglary went wrong and the eighteen year-old daughter of the marijuana dealer, they were robbing, was killed. It did not matter to the prosecution that Ryan was not there:

"He was convicted of murder under a distinctively American legal doctrine that makes accomplices as liable as the actual killer for murders committed during felonies like burglaries, rapes and robberies."

This is how the prosecutor justified the charge of murder against Ryan Holle.

"A prosecutor explained the theory to the jury at Mr. Holle’s trial in Pensacola in 2004. “No car, no crime,” said the prosecutor, David Rimmer. “No car, no consequences. No car, no murder"

"Most scholars trace the doctrine, which is an aspect of the felony murder rule, to English common law, but Parliament abolished it in 1957. The felony murder rule, which has many variations, generally broadens murder liability for participants in violent felonies in two ways. An unintended killing during a felony is considered murder under the rule. So is, as Mr. Holle learned, a killing by an accomplice.

India and other common law countries have followed England in abolishing the doctrine. In 1990, the Canadian Supreme Court did away with felony murder liability for accomplices, saying it violated “the principle that punishment must be proportionate to the moral blameworthiness of the offender.”

Countries outside the common law tradition agree. “The view in Europe,” said James Q. Whitman, a professor of comparative law at Yale, “is that we hold people responsible for their own acts and not the acts of others.”

This seems to be a reasonable view, "..we hold people responsible for their own acts and not the acts of others."

Especially not the acts of others, I would say, over which the person had no control and during which the person wasn't there.

"About 16 percent of homicides in 2006 occurred during felonies, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Statistics concerning how many of those killings led to the murder prosecutions of accomplices are not available, but legal experts say such prosecutions are relatively common in the more than 30 states that allow them. About 80 people have been sentenced to death in the last three decades for participating in a felony that led to a murder though they did not kill anyone."

Ryan Holle was not participating in a felony, though. After a raucous party, Ryan Holle lent his car to a friend, who subsequently used the car to drive to the scene of a crime.

"Mr. Holle, who had given the police a series of statements in which he seemed to admit knowing about the burglary, was convicted of first-degree murder."

He, "seemed to admit."? What kind of evidence is that? He seemed to admit knowing about the burglary, so he was responsible as an accomplice to first-degree murder?

"But Mr. Holle did testify that he had been told it might be necessary to “knock out” Jessica Snyder. Mr. Holle is 25 now, a tall, lean and lively man with a rueful sense of humor, alert brown eyes and an unusually deep voice. In a spare office at the prison here, he said that he had not taken the talk of a burglary seriously.

“I honestly thought they were going to get food,” he said of the men who used his car, all of whom had attended the nightlong party at Mr. Holle’s house, as had Jessica Snyder."

New York Times

Jeez! That is justice? A man wakes up with a hangover after a raucous party, lends his car to a friend, thinks they're joking about stealing the safe from the marijuana dealer, and is as guilty as the person who killed the girl?

"Not every state’s version of the felony murder rule is as strict as Florida’s, and a few states, including Hawaii, Kentucky and Michigan, have abolished it entirely.

“The felony-murder rule completely ignores the concept of determination of guilt on the basis of individual misconduct,” the Michigan Supreme Court wrote in 1980."

Ryan Holle was the only one of five men charged to be offered a plea deal of ten years in prison, which he turned down. To accept he would have to have accepted culpability for the murder, which he clearly was not prepared to do.

"The laws that they use to convict people are just — they have to revise them,” he said. “Just because I lent these guys my car, why should I be convicted the same as these people that actually went to the scene of the crime and actually committed the crime?"

Senate panel votes to abolish death penalty

The state of New Jersey is set to become the first to abolish the death penalty since it was reinstated by the US Supreme Court in 1976.


Tuesday, December 4, 2007

By MICHAEL RISPOLI
Gannett State Bureau

TRENTON

A state Senate committee Monday advanced a proposal to eliminate the death penalty in New Jersey, moving the state one step closer to becoming the only one to legislatively eliminate the punishment since it was reinstated nationally in 1976.

In front of a room spilling over with members of the public, the Senate budget committee took an hour and half of testimony for and against the measure to replace capital punishment with life without parole before approving the measure 8-4.

Public support for the bill came from those morally against the penalty and some victims' families saying the unused law -- no one has been executed in the state since 1963 -- harms families seeking swift justice.

Joined by over a dozen victims' family members, Vicki Schieber, whose daughter Shannon was raped and murdered in Philadelphia in 1998, said the death penalty and its long legal process is "not an answer to many of us who have been through this pain."

"There is no such word as closure, and going through the long, difficult, painful process of a trial puts much more pain and victim in the murder victim's families," said Schieber, a member of the Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights.

Not all victims' families felt this way. Linda Rusconi, whose sister was murdered in 2005, said, "It just doesn't seem fair or just to me to have her killer in prison hurting other guards and people, getting visitors, getting to read books, get to exercise and watch TV while we, my mother, myself, my sister's children . . . have to go visit my sister in the cemetery," Rusconi said.

Opponents of the bill want to refine the law and save the death penalty for the "most vicious, serious, grievous of murders," said ex-state Sen. John Russo.

"Clean it up, make it better," urged Russo, a member of the state's Death Penalty Study Commission, who did not agree with the commission's suggestion to repeal the law.

Senate Minority Leader Leonard Lance, R-Hunterdon, tried to introduce an amendment to reserve the punishment for cop-killers, terrorists and those who rape and murder juveniles, but the amendment was not considered by the committee.

New Jersey has eight men on death row.

Some Democratic senators said although they previously favored the death penalty, they had changed their mind and voted in favor of the repeal.

Sen. Stephen M. Sweeney, D-Gloucester, said the current law gives victims' families "false hope."

"Families deserve closure. They deserve at least an attempt to move on with their lives. The death penalty doesn't give that to anyone," said Sweeney, who voted to abolish the death penalty.

The other tri-county senator on the panel, Martha Bark, R-Burlington, voted to keep the death penalty.

The budget committee took up the bill to review the potential savings the state could see as a result. Bill sponsor Sen. Raymond Lesniak, D-Union, called this "weakest reason to repeal the death penalty." While savings were brought up, the committee quarreled mostly over the principles of the bill and not its fiscal impact.

The Office of Legislative Services determined it could not accurately quantify the total costs or savings of the bill due to a number of variables. OLS did, however, find moving inmates from the Capital Sentence Unit to the general prison population generated an estimated $32,481 savings per inmate annually, and the state could save $1.46 million annually from Office of the Public Defender trial costs based on the average number of capital-punishment cases per year.

The measure now heads to the full Senate for a vote which could come as early as next Monday. Lesniak said he expects the bill to pass, but conceded "it'll be close."

Lance said the Senate Republicans' caucus will not take a party position and that each GOP lawmaker will be advised to vote their conscience.

Legislative leaders have pushed to have the measure voted on before the current legislative session expires Jan. 8. Along with the expected Senate vote, an Assembly committee is set to take up similar legislation next Monday, with a vote expected in the lower house Dec. 13.

Reach Michael Rispoli at mrispol@gannett.com

Courier Post Online

Who Is Paying Metodo 3?

I have just lifted this piece of information straight off the Daily Mirror forum. It's from an item on Spanish TV Channel Antena 3.

" They claimed to have permission from Metodo 3 to reveal:

*Who is paying M3? Brian Kennedy and no one else. BK is said to have no doubt whatever of the McCanns´ innocence. Certain "leaks" to the UK press have commented that the Fund is paying the bill, but this is untrue. CM was misquoted/misunderstood..

*M3 is charging 60,000 euros (plus expenses) for a contract of 6 months.

They also mentioned the following

*Yes the Fund will be paying 80,000 euros for a PR campaign in the Spanish province of Andalucia.

*the McCanns will be re interrogated by the PJ within 10 days.

*that 6 witnesses put RM on the scene that night (3 May)

*the odd coincidence of the British Ambassador´s visit to the PJ within minutes of their return from UK

*the Birmingham forensic tests are not completely finished

* there is a connection between JT and ROB and Murat (through a sister in Exeter)"

So, according to Antena 3, Brian Kennedy, "..and no one else," is paying Metodo 3? Strange! According to this extract from Gerry's blog, the fund is paying loads too!

" Day 210 - 29/11/2007

With this in mind, Madeleine’s fund has started the £80,000 advertising campaign in Southern Spain which will also target North Africa and Portugal. The fund is also contributing £50,000 per month to support the private investigation. We appeal to anyone who may have information to call confidentially our hotline number +34.902.300.213, e-mail investigation@findmadeleine.com or contact the police."

So, if Antena 3 is right and Brian Kennedy and no one else is paying Metodo 3, why is Gerry saying that the fund is contributing £50,000 per month? I did wonder if Brian Kennedy was not paying the full costs, but according to Antena 3, the TV channel has permission from Metodo 3 to say, amongst other things, that only Brian Kennedy is paying them.

If the fund is not paying that money to Metodo 3, it cannot be as cash-strapped as John McCann is saying. Or, if £50,000 is going out of the fund each month and not going to Metodo 3, where is it going?

Daily Mirror Forum

"Maddie's Uncle In Fund Fury"

Gerry McCann's brother John, who lives in Glasgow, has been sounding off about the lack of cash coming in for the Find Madeleine fund.

Scottish Sunday Mail

"THE uncle of missing Madeleine McCann has blamed negative stories about the family for the drop in donations to their fighting fund.

Around £700,000 of the £1.1million raised has been spent in the hunt for Maddie, who disappeared in Portugal on May 3.

Donations to the Find Madeleine Fund dropped following lurid stories after her parents Kate and Gerry were named as official suspects.

The fund brings in around £10,000 a month but the family are paying out £50,000 a month to private detectives.

Gerry's brother, John, of Glasgow, said: "The funds aren't anywhere near the level they were a few months ago thanks to a lot of the crap that's been written over here."

Meanwhile, Portuguese police are set to reinter view the McCanns and their friends, the so-called Tapas Seven."

You'd think there would be some gratitude for all the money that's rolled into that fund, for all the cash pouring in from, "Best Sellers," the wristbands, and from, "Don't You Forget About Me, T Shirts, All Sizes Available! Click Here." But not a bit of it! There was a child who sold her toys on E-bay and sent the cash to the fund, an older man who said that he had donated the money he had been saving for a new pair of shoes, but tell me John McCann, what have you given up? Have Kate and Gerry sold any of their belongings to help in the search for their daughter?

The arrogance of the McCanns really makes me shudder. They fully expect the public to cough up to support their lifestyle and to fund £50,000 a month for a bunch of Spanish anti-fraud detectives with no real experience of finding missing children. The fund has been financing the McCanns' living expenses and has made two mortgage payments for them. Is that what the child sold her toys on E-bay for?

John McCann's whinging about those nasty press stories and how they have reduced the cash flow just exposes that family for the money-grubbers they are. I just can't get over the expectation here that the public will keep giving money to them and the arrogance that accompanies that expectation. No wonder Michael Hitchen of ionglobaltrends calls them, "the Grubs." Dung beetles, I'd say, rolling up and protecting their little heaps!

Child Exploitation Online: Keep your children safe!

How safe are your children online? You don't know who they're talking to when they are in their own rooms, tapping away on the keyboard and the most worrying part is that neither do they. The online chat room is a honey pot for the pervert who wants to conceal his true nature, who grooms your child with sweet words and makes the child feel special. That pervert may be the one who stealthily lures your child into the honey trap, arranging to meet your child, who then feels that they have no control over what is happening with an adult male who turns up in the place of the teenager they thought they were meeting.

Keep your child safe and help to keep others safe. Children do not need to feel that they have let themselves in for whatever happens, as some children will feel. They can take control by being aware of how the pervert sets up his honey trap.

"The Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre works across the UK and maximises international links to tackle child sex abuse wherever and whenever it happens."

For advice on how to stay safe online, parents and children can visit: Thinkuknow

Encourage your children to watch this video and circulate it to as many young people and their parents as possible.

CEOP-Think U Know

The internet has opened up a whole new world of opportunity for the pervert to exploit. Do all you can to make sure it's not your child who goes out to meet that stranger at the bus station or in the park. The internet is one of the best inventions ever for communication and immediate access to information, but it is also a route straight into the heart of our homes, where we think our children are safe, where our children should be safe.

Teach your children to be wary, cynical and above all safe, by giving them the information and the resources to stop the online pervert before he makes inroads into your home and your life and changes your family for ever.

http://www.ceop.gov.uk/

"Parents and adults can click here to download our new Strategic Overview which contains information on the key threats to children and young people online."

Make every child matter.....everywhere!

Dans Le Noir?

Well, I was saying to a friend the other day that my son does not, "do ordinary." He and his bunch of cronies seem to be constantly on the look-out for the most unusual eating places, for instance.

There was the Japanese place they all trooped off to that had cooking facilities in the middle of the tables and what you ordered got cooked right there.

Then there was the place with lights set into the floor and the venue with female wrestlers.

Now, for his birthday, my son and his new dining experience-seeking posse are going to, "Dans Le Noir?", where eating is undertaken in total darkness. I kid you not!

http://www.danslenoir.com/london/

"Dans le Noir ? is a restaurant offering the visitor a dining experience in complete darkness"

Dans le Noir ?... A unique human and sensory experience
of a dinner in the pitch dark…

Sensory experience

Dans le Noir? allows you to completely re-evaluate the notion of taste.
Without sight, other senses are offered a new sensation and emotions.
Darkness leads to truthfulness about taste, kills preconceptions and let you face the realities of ingredients and cuisine. Our chef elaborates a refined and sensorial cuisine with fresh ingredients to help our senses to enjoy the “truth” taste of food.

True conviviality

Dining in the total darkness represents a very unusual social experience. How many times have you ever had the chance to talk to people without any preconception that sight implies?
At Dans le Noir? there is no more pressure of other people’s visual judgment. You talk more freely and spontaneously. The absence of vision changes completely the way you act and react, both emotionally and socially. That’s why Dans le Noir? is far more than just a restaurant: it offers a social and convivial experience. Dans le Noir ? raises some questions such as the role of sight in the way we relate to others.

Empathy

In the dark room, you are guided and served by our blind staff.
A magic switch between sighted and blind people happens. For once, blind people actually become your eyes.
This reversal of roles implies a transfer of trust from the sighted person to the blind guide because without him we are just lost. Who actually feels the most Dans le Noir??
The experience is emotionally strong and this empathy really encourages mutual trust and respect.

Maybe next time I invite people for dinner I could introduce them to the wonderful sensory experience of dining in total darkness. My offerings would certainly be better appreciated, I reckon, if my guests did not actually have to look at them!

Good God In Heaven! What you can find on Bebo!

I must have led a very sheltered life! I would never have thought to find so many asterisks in a communication, which had been lifted from what is intended as an internet space for mostly young people to communicate with each other and make friends!

The following was lifted from a Bebo site, which has since been deleted. I have added +++ to distinguish where I have deleted names from the asterisks which will, of course, convey that rabid swearing has been censored.

"+++++++-+++++-++++++
Well well well if it isnt the dirty little slapper her self +++++!!!
What the **** you acusing me of???!!
Deleting that dirty little whores ++++s page???
Well it wasnt me and thats the truth so get your facts right you stupid little t*rt, your so ****** up upstairs that you cant even find out who it was, see ++++ shouldnt **** with people she dont know who shes ******* with, so im telling you this now, you stay away from +++++ right, go near her in school even right and i be waiting out side for you, what you going too do +++++, print this off again? your ******* so sad
Lisen, ++++ is a ****** up druggie who needs too go get help and stop ******** her dad and the ponys and you just need too stay away from my girlfriend before i ******* tell you too your pony ass face, so go back rubing your **** on ++++s face and sniff some glue your dirty trany.
Stay away from MY girlfriend and say anymore about her and there be BIG **** you DIRTY ******* *****, YOUR A *****! Report Spam34 weeks ago


message 2
+++++++-+++++-++++++
Be warned +++++ right, that sad wee ******* below is 16 years old i will ******* kill him, so if i was you i still wouldnt think you it, you ******* dirty little ****.
Go near +++++ anymore or say anything about her or too anyone then i be waiting outside the school right.

so **** off you ******* dirty little **** so hag ++++s pony you twisted *****!!! Report Spam33 weeks ago "

Well, I wonder what kind of person makes that kind of filthy threat? I hope the parents are thoroughly ashamed of whoever it is, if they know that he/she is writing such disgusting tripe on an internet site. Just as well it has been deleted. Bebo is used by many thousands of young people and I hate to think of the vulnerable ones who might come across such filth accidentally.

Be safe all you young people out there. If anyone posts comments like this on your Bebo site or responds to comments you make on other sites, report immediately to Bebo admin. Put a stop to the filth!

Edit: Will this remain anonymous or will someone claim it as theirs and threaten me with breach of copyright? You never know, they may well be that stupid!