Old Weird Ward

Old Weird Ward

Unless otherwise noted, that which is posted here is opinion, which is protected by the First Amendment to the US Constitution. If you don't like my opinions, go somewhere else. Nobody is forcing you to actually read this drivel. The presumption exists that you can read at all. That may be a large assumption.
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Wednesday, June 23, 2004

 

- - - - - Our Oh-So-Wonderful Legal System - - - - -

Try this:

Committ a minor infraction in a National Park and get fined $50.

Pay the fine.

Go on vacation.

Come back home and get rousted.

See the whole idiotic story HERE. I remain somewhat less than impressed with Immigration and Customs, a teeny-tiny subsidiary of the Dept. Of Homeland Defense.

A shackled teacher's aide tried to explain her predicament to a Miami judge through tears Friday.

Vacationing from Riverton, Wyo., Hope Clarke said she had been rousted by federal agents at her cruise ship cabin door at 6:30 a.m. She was put in handcuffs on a bench warrant for failing to put away her marshmallows and hot chocolate while staying at Yellowstone National Park last year.

Clarke said she had to pay the $50 fine the same day for the federal offense of improper food storage before she was allowed to leave the park. Nonetheless, a warrant claiming she had not paid went into the federal law enforcement database.

Back in Miami from Cozumel, Mexico, on Carnival's Fascination cruise ship, Clarke was awakened, cuffed, turned over to federal marshals and brought to court in leg shackles and short shorts.




- - - - - On American Civilian Heroes - - - - -

As the news of the events of September 11, 2001 became coherent, instead of fragmentary confusion, I became most impressed with the actions of the passengers of Flight 93. They fought back - and they won, because the terrorists were not able to carry out their mission to crash into the White House or the Capitol.

Now, there is a most interesting analysis of why the bravehearts of Flight 93 were successful in their mission. I'm not sure that I agree with the conclusions, but I certainly do think that an informed public is, to the terrorists, an extremely dangerous public.

At the same time, an informed public that is willing to take action causes a certain amount of nervousness in the ranks of the government - they don't approve of the citizenry acting in their own self-defense. We're supposed to wait on the cops, even if the miscreant is right in front of us.

No matter - the passengers of Flight 93 are heroes.

Requiring less time than it took the White House to gather intelligence and issue an attack order (which was in fact not acted on), American citizens gathered information from national media and relayed that information to citizens aboard the flight, who organized themselves and effectively carried out a counterattack against the terrorists, foiling their plans. Armed with television and cell phones, quick-thinking, courageous citizens who were fed information by loved ones probably saved the White House or Congress from devastation.



See it HERE.

- - - - - US To Allow US Soldiers to be Tried in International Court - - - - -

According to the NY Times (Story is HERE - Registration Required - Yuck), the United States has decided to allow US soldiers to be tried for war crimes in the International Criminal Court.

The envoys from the 15-member council had spent the morning in closed session discussing a rewritten version of the American troop exemption resolution circulated among them Tuesday night to try to meet the widespread objections.

A resolution granting a year's exemption had passed the council the past two years, but this year the attempt to renew it ran into difficulties because of the prisoner abuse scandal in Iraq and a strong statement of opposition from Secretary General Kofi Annan


This is the same UN that has Sudan and Cuba on the Human Rights Commission. The same UN that is not screaming to try the head of Hezbollah. The same UN that mis-managed "Oil for Food" so badly that Kofi Annan's son has been implicated in the enormous amounts of graft. Of course, that Worker's Paradise, the People's Republic of China, has a problem with the American troop exemption:

Ambassador Wang Guangya of China, a country that had supported the measure the past two years, said, "Clearly from the very beginning this year, China has been under pressure because of the scandals and the news coverage of the prisoner abuse, and it made it very difficult for my government to support it."

"My government," he added, "is under particular pressure not to give a blank check to the U.S. for the behavior of its forces."



This, from the country of Tiananmen Square.

One interesting "no comment" came from the Assistant Ambassador to the UN, Mr. James B. Cunningham.

Asked if the United States would limit its participation in peacekeeping activities in the future — a threat it has made in past years when disagreement over the resolution has emerged — Mr. Cunningham said, "I'm not going to comment on that."



You better believe that we're going to think real hard before putting our troops into a situation where they might be exposed to trial by the same court that's taking forever plus three days to try Slobodan Miloscivich, that murderous SOB.