I’m disgusted!
I just read a news report about a 60-year-old former Georgia man who was ‘sentenced’ for killing a Florida panther in Georgia.
The Florida panther has been listed as an endangered species since March 11, 1967.
At the time of the shooting, according to the report, the man shot the animal while deer hunting – and he knew he was shooting at a species of cougar. The bullet fired from the man’s gun “entered the Florida panther in the rear portion of the rib cage by the right hindquarters just below the spine and lodged in the inside of the panther’s right front shoulder,” the report said.
If that isn’t disgusting enough – what came next really made me sick.
After being found guilty, the man was sentenced to … TWO YEARS PROBATION!
Wow! The hammer of justice really came down hard on this guy!
Oh … and the brave ‘sportsman’ is not allowed to hunt or obtain a hunting license anywhere in the United States during the period of probation. I bet he’s really sorry!
I’m wondering why they bothered to put him on trial at all. This minimal sentence for killing a beautiful and endangered animal is outrageous – and so sad. He should have gotten jail time. Even Paris Hilton was eventually sent jail – and for much less.
This appalling injustice reminds me of another recent news story about one of our typical ‘well adjusted’ South Florida teenagers who amused himself one afternoon by slaughtering an entire family of Muscovy ducks, sitting by a pond, with a baseball bat.
He got probation too. Anybody taking bets that we’ll probably be hearing from this sicko again?
These two atrocious incidents (among the countless others) bring to mind that old adage: “Human beings are the only species of animal that kills for fun.”
This disturbing fact doesn’t bode well for the future of the human race.
And, if we humans wind up wiping each other off the face of the Earth, what may be heard in our absence could be a loud, collective echo of “Good Riddance!”

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After the latest debacle delivered by our esteemed members of Congress, with both parties ‘fiddling while Rome burns,” then blaming each other for lighting the fire, it’s obvious to me that this country desperately needs a third political party.

The current Congress dithered so long over raising the debt ceiling (a pathetic situation to begin with) that  the country lost its Triple-A credit rating for the first time in U.S. history – and the Dow keeps plunging as a result.

With all the Congressional scandals, criminal charges, and squirming out of getting their just desserts – not to mention Congress’ ineptness at running the government – don’t ‘We the People’ deserve something better?

But If we just vote all of them out as a solution, the next batch, unfortunately, will look much the same.  No, the real solution is a viable third party that doesn’t have to answer to anybody but its constituents.     

How about a ‘Populist Party’ whose candidates must have some degree of moral ethics and principles, to start with, as well as a proven sense of fiscal responsibility? 

Boy, that would be a welcome change!

I’d like to see a political party that’s socially liberal and fiscally conservative.  A party that stays out of the bedroom, out of the womb, and keeps religion only in churches, synagogues, mosques or whatever.  A party that has the fiscal common sense to spend the astronomical income this country produces wisely, while generating more.

For example – how about taxing through the nose any U.S. corporation that outsources?  How about heavily taxing any foreign goods entering the country that puts American-made products at a disadvantage?  And, instead of  entertaining cutbacks to Social Security and Medicare, desperately needed by millions of Americans, why not cut corners by cutting foreign aid!  If one can’t pay his own rent and feed his own family, why support everyone else on the block!

One giant leap in lessening the deficit would be to end military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.  It has cost more than $900 billion for military operations in those countries – and that’s just up until 2009!  And all we have to show for it is young soldiers coming home in caskets.  And as for the $3 billion a year we give to Pakistan … well, we have to be the ‘#1 chump of the century!’

If these aren’t reasons enough for someone to initiate a third party – then I guess the old adage is really true – ‘the masses are indeed asses!”

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Now that Casey Anthony has been found innocent of any (yes, I said any) involvement in her toddler daughter’s death, we are left to ponder how the nearly, 3-year-old little girl died, and who dumped her decomposing corpse into that wooded Florida swamp, just minutes from the Anthony home.

While I can’t say for certain just how little Caylee met her death, it doesn’t take much common sense to figure out who was responsible, and who tossed her in the muck and apparently never gave her another thought.

Maybe, if you believe her lawyer’s explanation that Caylee’s death was a drowning accident “that snowballed out of control” (whatever that means), you can accept the verdict – kinda. 

However, I’m having trouble accepting that if it truly was an accidental drowning, why cover a dead child’s nose and mouth with duct tape and then hide the body? 

Hmmm …

Casey’s lawyer also conceded that she is a liar – but “not a murderer.”  But those weren’t just a bunch of sundry lies, Casey told.  That carefully and cunningly concocted trail of lies was crafted for one purpose only – to cover her butt as to why a child in her care suddenly and utterly disappeared off the face of the earth.

Common sense says that’s the behavior of a gaily person, not just a pathological liar.

To tell the truth, if I had been on the jury, I couldn’t have found her guilty of first-degree murder and given her the death penalty.  There were just too many missing pieces and unanswered questions for that.  

But having said that, there’s no doubt in my mind, whatsoever, that Casey Anthony was directly responsible for little Caylee’s death.  Moreover, I believe the prosecution proved, at least, a case of manslaughter – and did so without leaving a ‘reasonable doubt.

But, apparently, that jury wanted ‘no doubt’ at all. Which would make it next to impossible to convict anybody of anything by those standards. 

That those jurors found her innocent of any responsibility in her daughter’s death makes me wonder if maybe they’ve spent way too much time next door in Disney World, and lost all common sense.

And so while the jurors will be reviled for a while and Casey will, undoubtedly, go on to sell her story, appear on TV and make millions on a little girl’s suspicious death – a toddler’s ghost will forever haunt that swamp, and cry out for justice.

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As I follow the daily debate in the media regarding same-sex marriage, I’m reminded of that illuminating remark made by Zorba the Greek in the 60’s movie of the same title when he was asked if he had ever been married.

“Yes …” he groaned,  “the whole catastrophe!”

So, whenever I’m asked my opinion on whether gays should be allowed to legally marry, or not, I think of Zorba’s somewhat cynical attitude and reply, “Why not?  Why shouldn’t they be as miserable as the rest of us?”

With roughly 50 percent of marriages today ending in divorce, I would think a lot of people would agree with me.  Moreover, as a former member of that “50-percent club” myself, I’m not exactly a big fan of ‘wedded bliss,’ nor would I ever be heard encouraging anybody to get married.

But, then again, I realize some people are very happily married … just nobody I know.  So, I’m the wrong person to ask on that subject.

However,  if I’m pressed for my opinion, I would have to declare that if a couple has their mind set on “the whole catastrophe,” whether same-sex, or otherwise, who are we to give them a hard time about it.

I believe legal marriage is a civil rights issue, and not a religious one.  So it’s up to society’s civil laws to decide who may marry.  And, according to all national polls, a majority of Americans believe same-sex couples should be able to marry.

But I don’t believe any clergy person should be forced to perform a marriage ceremony if it goes against their religious beliefs. And if that stipulation is included in every same-sex marriage bill, I don’t see how  same-sex marriage will fail to become national law.

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“DING DONG, THE WITCH IS DEAD … THE WICKED WITCH …  THE WICKED WITCH. DING DONG, THE WICKED WITCH IS DEAD.”

It’s been decades since I first heard that tune, but it’s only now, after joyfully learning of the extermination of bin Laden, that I can really appreciate the jubilation felt by the Munchkins of Oz when Dorothy’s house obliterated the Wicked Witch of the East.

 That the butcher’s demise was long overdue goes without saying; however, one huge consolation is the welcome fact that the death of the monster that caused countless suffering and death, didn’t come quick. Instead of being instantly erased by an impersonal missile launched from miles away, bin Laden came face to face with Devine retribution – and it wore ‘Stars and Stripes’ and spoke with an American accent.

 I can just imagine his fear hearing the sound of helicopters landing in his heavily fortified, million-dollar resort compound.  Pop! Pop! Pop! The unmistakable sound of gunfire surely announced he was in deep doo-doo.  But when Arabic voices were suddenly replaced by American voices, I’m sure he knew his number was up.  And, if news reports are correct, in the end, this ultimate ‘jihadist’ showed his true color – yellow – when he shielded himself from bullets by hiding behind a woman.

In the aftermath of this happy event, some serious questions need to be answered. 

Has Pakistan’s true face finally been revealed?  The fact that bin Laden had been living in the lap of luxury in the wealthy resort city of Abbottabad, meters from a Pakistani military installation (and not in some ratty desert cave, as believed), had to be known by Pakistani intelligence.  If not, then they’d be better off hiring The Three Stooges to run their intelligence operation. 

Anyone who believes Pakistan didn’t know the whereabouts of bin Laden all these years is either in denial, or a fool.  Let’s hope we soon learn the truth of who are friends really are.

 In the meantime … DING, DONG, THE WITCH IS DEAD!

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