BOBKAT'S BIZARRE NEWS - Bunny, Rain, and Link Laws - All ridiculous!

I've been in something of a funk lately... my job is overwhelming, being single and practicing abstinence, as the federal gov't would prefer me to be is cutting into my life, liberty and happiness. Plus I'm up on the news... although as you'll soon see, I'm inclined to feel I'd rather not be.  The rash of senseless mass murders being one of them, and my own opinion that if we weren't such an uptight, control oriented society much of this senseless hurt wouldn't ever occur. But that's my opinion.

Top of the news story...

SOURCE: Fox News, Aug. 10, 2012

7 year old Connecticut girl, Kayden Lidsky, has been threatened by officials that her 20 pound pet rabbit is prohibited under law, and that she must surrender her pet to authorities immediately. The rabbit is 3 years old, and likes to "lick people... she's not a mean bunny", Kayden told WTIC - TV News. The problem apparently, is her father, and a grievance the town has with the way he's failing to maintain the property. As a result, the town has threatened Kayden and her pet bunny, to get to him, claiming it (the pet bunny) violates zoning laws. What better way for a town to get to a lazy parent than to threaten their 7 year old child and her pet bunny??? As last reported more than 1800 people had signed a Change.org petition protesting the actions of the town. 

Like any 7 year old and even one with a lemonade stand... laws are meant to protect people, and I'm supposed to believe that the town is acting in the best interests of it's citizens. Yeah. Bullshit!

Next in the news:

Man jailed in Eagle Point, Or. for collecting rain-water. Gary Harrington has collected more than 13 million gallons in reservoirs he build since 2003 when he was approved to do so. But the town recently reversed it's decision to give him a exemption to a  1925 Oregon law that makes rain-water public property. Gary has three large reservoirs, and the water in them simply fell from the sky and collected in the private locations he dug. He has been sentenced to 30 days in jail, and fined $1500. He has been told to drain his reservoirs or be subject to additional penalties. Maybe even felony possession of rain-water where he might be handed a life sentence in prison. Again, the government protecting the citizen's best interests. You can read the full story here: Man Jailed for Collecting rain-Water.

Next up:

A farmer in Vermont was busted for growing cannabis - called marijuana to those of you who still believe that misnomer for cannabis is valid despite it's link to racial prejudice against Mexicans and Black people originating in the 1930's. Apparently he got pretty upset for being busted growing a plant God gave us a right to grow and drove his tractor to the Orleans County Sheriff's dept. in Newport, VT.,  drove over several parked law-enforcement vehicles with his tractor, crushing them, then drove away.

Hey, I agree, I'd be pissed off too, but what he did wasn't right, though I can hardly blame him. Still, the problem isn't the police who only enforce the laws, since they don't make them. It's our law-makers and it's time to let them know we're angry and we're not going to take their friggin' shit anymore with these laws that help no-one and hurt most people more than they help! Problem is they don't listen. They think we think they're protecting the public good, and our self-interests, when in fact, they're protecting their own self-interests. Time to change the laws, not crush the cruisers police used to "protect" us.

You can read about this story here:

SOURCE: Fox News: Aug. 02, 2012

And finally, though this is hardly the end of the bizarre news I read everyday:

Richard O'Dwyer lives in England. In 2007 he set up a website with links to other websites, TVShack.net. On June 30th, 2010, Federal ICE officials seized O'Dwyer's website along with 6 other websites in violation of federal copyright infringements. Now all he had on his website were links to oter websites. So the seizer and penalty of 10 years in a federal prison along with a significant fine are for posting links, as according to the article that's all he had were links. Google and Yahoo publish links too, as do I... but you can bet Google and yahoo won't face jail-time... me? If it get's me out of my 3 and 1/2 hour commute and a job that feels like being in jail M-F I'm all for it. You can read about this story here AT THIS LINK: 

CIO - "Just Linking Could Get You 10 Years in Jail"

It makes me think of the following analogy: You have a friend and you decide to meet the friend in NYC. You know of a restaurant, so to get directions you look up the restaurant online. You get directions from MapQuest, print those out, and print out a picture of the restaurant from it's website to send to your friend. You mail the information to your friend. This is the essence of a LINK! By sending those directions and a picture you found online to your friend you would, according to this article, now face a potential ten years in prison and a fine. Unbelievable!!!

Again... our government looking out to protect and serve our best interests. I think not!

Paranoid anyone... well don't be. That's just the 21st Century and if most of us don't end up in jail or lose our pets, it'll be God's intervention, not luck, that keeps us safe; which doesn't seem to happen all that often. 

My advice? Dig a big hole in the ground, build a fortified shelter, stock it with enough food and water for the rest of your life and get off the national grid. Either do that or join the Church of Scientology which seems immune to most infringements by government... however, no link available, as I don't want to piss them off.

Have a wonderful day!!! Enjoy your rights under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and pursue your happiness by virtue of our Bill of rights.

IS THIS THE DEATH OF BATMAN?

Is Batman dead? I ask, as I'm shaking my head, as I'm sure most of us are, as to why the massacre last Friday in the Aurora CO. Cinema happened. What would motivate someone to do such a thing as murder 12 innocent people and wound 58 others?

The question here is "what would motivate"? And the suspect was apparently seeing a professional psychiatrist, who I'm sure by now has an attorney. The suspect apparently sent a notebook to her and speculation is he detailed his plan to murder people. The fact is, the notebook is protected under doctor-patient protection.

But what about the rest of the nation?

Gun sales are off the charts, again, as they always are after a tragic event like this. And people and politicians are again calling for stricter gun laws. Ted Nugent today came out and said it - "the AR15 used is one of the most popular hunting rifles in America." The killer used it as a assault rifle, but he goes onto say, he believes, the shotgun is the more dangerous weapon. And I believe him.

But none of that is really the issue. The issue are the victims, who lay in hospitals with medical bills in the millions of dollars. And the injured, and those in that theater that night! How insane to sit down and enjoy a movie and have a madman go berserk?  It's a worst nightmare. I find myself wondering, doesn't a movie theater have insurance for this sort of thing, couldn't the movie industry donate the medical costs to these poor people who have been in hell?

But that only leads me to the real tragedy yet to come. As happened after the September 11, 2001 tragedy, the federal government enacted measures for national security, on a permanent basis, that almost overnight began stripping Americans of their personal rights, freedom and dignity. Muslim Americans became the new suspect. And now, gun owners of America.

Why make more victims. Stricter gun laws won't stop these people from hurting others. The majority of Americans are responsible.

We deserve respect. We deserve logical, scientific and sound decisions to be made when it comes to public safety, not frenzied reactions.

Chicago's Children's hospital canceled the appearance of a Batman entertainer that tries to help many people. THE STORY IS HERE. Understandably the hospital is concerned. But I'm concerned that just as happened after the 9/11 tragedy, we're letting the villain win. We're succumbing to fear, and not letting ourselves get back on the horse. I'm afraid one of the most American Super heroes is Dead! 

I came out with a spontaneous joke this more during a discussion with  a someone. I was given an appointment for Oct. 31. I commented, "well, that's Halloween", to which the person replied, "yes, are you going to dress in a costume?" And I replied, "yes, but not as batman."

Later I had concerns it was a "poor joke", or in bad taste, and a co-worker made the obligatory, he agreed. 

So, when, if ever, can we joke about Batman? Admire Batman. That is the question. And if we can't, why? 

What are we really doing as a society to stop the hurt? Controlling the masses, based on the actions of a few is futile. To control the masses we would need to become a Totalitarian governed society. Is that America?

To President Obama... get your weapons straight - the killer used an AR-15, not an AK-47.Not that it matters much. As I already said, if someone wants to harm others, they can do so without guns. Prohibition and excessive control over the masses yields resistance... both intimidate and tread on the basic principals this Country values as a free nation. 

Batman must live, for us to live on. No Joker can stop Batman... Batman must/will rise again.

My sincere condolences to the victims of the Aurora CO. cinema massacre. 

WHERE'S THE HONOR IN HONOR KILLINGS?

A lot of my posts relate to cannabis/marijuana/marihuana/pot/weed/ganja/hemp/dope and personal freedom, the problem with the "War on Drugs", it's harm to society, and stopping the hurt (the) war is causing.

Why? I mean why don't I simply accept that marijuana, i.e. "drugs" are bad, and that all measures should be taken to eradicate them from society? Isn't that what a good American should believe? Are we not to feel that drugs are a blight on society? That cannabis/marijuana is a big part of that blight? Well, yeah, that's what "they" want me to believe, but I don't. I feel the blight on society are current laws and the War on Drugs. It's hurting people, millions of people around the world. We can stop that hurt; but not without a serious reassessment of what we as a society allow, but what we don't allow, also.

Lately, I've read a lot of articles relating to the murder of children, or in many cases, teens and young adults. They're called Honor Killings, but where's the honor in murdering your child/children? Where's the honor in believing you the parent know what's best for your child, however old they are, if it involves a sense of control over them, so strong, that if they don't grow up and conform, you'd murder them?

There's a popular belief that those who are involved in honor killings are Muslim. I think in general this is true, that it tends to be, statistically, a Muslim issue. But looking deeper, honor killings take place among all religions, among all parts of society. They don't always result in physical death, but rather, many honor killings attack the child's mind, self-esteem, sense of self...

When I was a child, I had a "crazy aunt", Gertrude. She lived in a small house in my town and occasionally was a part of family gatherings. Also on occasion I would go with my mother to visit her. I remember her as a nice person, not crazy, but I never thought to find out more about her - I was too young. She'd spent time in an insane asylum, and I took my family's word for, she's insane.

Years later, many years later, after my own failed attempts to establish my own independence from my family and what was expected of me, I heard the story about how against the wishes of the family, my Aunt Gertrude had moved to NYC as a young adult with "fantasy ideas of becoming an actress. She'd failed, and came home completely insane." That was the story. And it made sense suddenly to me. It wasn't that she was "insane", it was that her spirit had been broken, her self-esteem destroyed, because she defied the family expectations.

How do I know this? I suffered the same humiliation and character assassination when at age 20 I got a job as a custodian at the local community college. When I began to have sex outside of marriage. When I grew my hair long and stopped going to church. I actually refused to become a member of our church. And I remember actually being scared of my decision. The repercussions.

I spent 4 very successful years at the community college as a custodian, what my mother referred to as "a toilet bowl cleaner", though it was a whole lot better than that. I got free tuition, made many friends, got involved with really nice women and learned a lot. I broke free of the year's of bullying as a child by my peers, and gained a good amount of self-confidence. By age 24 I was ready to move West and live my adult life - except for one event that would change me forever.

The night before I was to leave for Arizona where I had a woman-friend willing to let me live while I could get settled, I called my parents to say good-bye. To be honest, I didn't want to... I got along very well with my father, but it was my mother I feared. Four years I had already endured phone calls every other night "checking on me". I'd endured family visits at my parent's home with my other siblings, or full family picnics, only to be scorned by my mother for my long hair and "lack of pride", doing what I did for work, and my free-natured hippie beliefs. My own father warned me that the "town wasn't big enough for me to live there..." it was he, my father, who suggested I move away.

That night on the phone with my mother, it came down to "who was I going to be staying with?" Well, it was a woman, a friend, but I couldn't admit that to my mother. Why? Well I tried to avert the question but ultimately admitted a woman-friend was going to let me stay with her. The result? My own mother cursed me to hell and damnation and hoped I would never find happiness, as my act was so evil and immoral I didn't deserve to succeed in life.

I was more than stunned. In an instant, every fiber of my self, my self-esteem and my self worth evaporated. I felt like a 7 year old child again. I felt deep shame and guilt. I moved to Arizona, but severely depressed, and moved back home a month later, conceding defeat. My mother took it as a success... on her part, that I had failed, as i should have failed, being the sinner I was.

The long term effects of what happened to me has a label, a psychological definition, called PTSD - post traumatic stress syndrome. But the truth of the matter is simply, I died. Spiritually, I passed on... whatever self-esteem I'd gained, whatever success relating with others, whatever friends I'd made and good experiences I'd had, died. It was made much worse from the fact i had moved back home at age 25. There was absolutely no expectation that prior to moving to Arizona that such a thing would have happened.

Yes, I was ashamed... but not because I had brought my fate upon myself living a life in defiance of that expected by my family, but because they had succeeded in defeating me as a person.

The life of my Aunt Gertrude suddenly became apparent to me years later, in my late 40's, while I struggled to communicate with my mother on yet never-ending arguments regarding life and moral responsibility. It became clear to me that my family defeated my Aunt Gertrude, that she had phoned home and that was her undoing, or that prior to when she left for the Big Apple, she had endured similar humiliation. I suddenly wished my Aunt were still alive, and felt sorrow for what she must have endured as an adult with different ideas about what life is all about.

In Part two of Honor Killings I will discuss the unfortunate, far more tragic events that lead a parent to murder their own child if they don't conform. It's not something I'm going to enjoy, but rather, something that makes me ill thinking about the abuse, and death of a child because they don't abide by the traditions of family. That we should be born, only to fulfill a set of expectations demanded of us by family tradition is unacceptable. That we become victims of such expectations is more than a tragedy in life, it's a travesty of society that control of others is deemed acceptable, so much so that our own government imprisons and subjects people to laws that are no more than efforts at moral and traditional conformity.

LENNOX the DOG - PUT TO DEATH - A MATTER OF "PUBLIC SAFETY"!

Lennox the dog, a Pit Bull-Labrador mix, was murdered (euthanized) - put to death by order of the courts, in Belfast, N. Ireland, allegedly this past Tuesday, July 10. His "crime"? Being a Pit Bull-Labrador mix, emphasis on Pit Bull!

SOURCE: CNN (Link to Story)

I found the story on CNN the other day, however the sad saga began over two years ago when Belfast authorities somehow got wind of Lennox the dog. They investigated a possible Pit Bull sighting - Pit Bulls are illegal in Northern Ireland - and found Lennox indeed living with Caroline Barnes, of Belfast, as a family pet. Lennox was seized immediately and confined for two years in a high security prison for dangerous animals. If the city had had it's way he would have been killed in short notice like other "dangerous animals".


In N. Ireland, like marijuana is in the US, Pitt Bulls are considered a serious threat to public safety. Lennox however was a mut. A mixed breed dog. He was 7 years old when imprisoned.


During his two years imprisoned on "death row", guards report Lennox was very good natured and gentle. The seizure trials, appeal process bought time, but according to the news article the city council was all for setting an example of Lennox.


In all the 7 years Caroline Barnes had Lennox, he threatened no one.


Over 200,000 people protested in an online petition to release Lennox. Northern Ireland's First Minister, Peter Robinson, appealed also. He's the man responsible for running the Country.


Victoria Stilwell, of "Animal Planet" fame, a very renowned expert with dogs, made a genuine offer to the city to take Lennox back to the states. The council and courts rejected her offer. They were adamant, as a way to protect the public, Lennox had to die.

Victoria Stilwell

Caroline Barnes never got to hold or say good-bye to Lennox. Appeals exhausted, Lennox was put to death in secret.


I don't think there's anything to add to this tragic story. Yes, it sickens me. Yes, to protect the public, certain laws are necessary... but all too often governments go over the line. And they think nothing of it.


Lennox had no choice over how or what he was born. Perhaps Caroline Barnes had a choice, but Lennox was a mixed breed dog, not a full bred Pit Bull. The moral here is the city showed no humanity, no thought for life. Lennox harmed no one. Yet Lennox was put to death, even with the offer by Victoria Stilwell to take him to the states.


It's murder. The unjust death of a living creature. No different than poachers around the world that kill for insane reasons.


My condolences to Caroline Barnes... and 1 strong shout of protest for the death of Lennox!