I’m not sure which is the more enraging right now.

That a hotel seems to have a company policy to refuse accommodation for any service member in the UK.

Or that the (parent?) company has the gall to call itself “American Amusements” with such a policy in place.

What

The

Fuck?

Such a policy sure as hell isn’t “American” (unless you count certain unmentionable crazies who qualify as “American” solely on the fact it’s their citizenship, not their philosophy).

From “American Amusement”’s website:

American Amusements Ltd is one of the UK’s fastest growing and most successful Leisure Company’s.

Ignoring the fact that they can’t spell “Companies” correctly, I sincerely hope that, as of today, they become the UK’s fastest shrinking and failing company.

Combining a winning blend of family entertainment facilities and exciting late-bar activities, American Amusement Centres seek to offer a variety of unrivalled indoor entertainment for all.

Except, it seems, service personnel.

The hotel duty manager didn’t even have the courage to face the soldier themselves - they were “unavailable”.

Use their web site to find their business locations - and boycott them.

These ingrates need to pay a price for their policy. It’s not nearly the price the people whose patronage they deem “unworthy” risk paying, and I’m sure they’ll whine about how unfair it is - but it’s about time people who dishonour service personnel this egregiously started having some of the benefits they enjoy withdrawn.

The only way companies like this will ever understand the error of their ways is by hitting them in the only place that truly matters - their bottom lines.

You have to wonder if the UK will ever evolve, or will Rudyard Kipling be quoted for ever:

I went into a public-’ouse to get a pint o’ beer,
The publican ‘e up an’ sez, “We serve no red-coats here.”
The girls be’ind the bar they laughed an’ giggled fit to die,
I outs into the street again an’ to myself sez I:
O it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, go away”;
But it’s “Thank you, Mister Atkins”, when the band begins to play,
The band begins to play, my boys, the band begins to play,
O it’s “Thank you, Mister Atkins”, when the band begins to play.

I went into a theatre as sober as could be,
They gave a drunk civilian room, but ‘adn’t none for me;
They sent me to the gallery or round the music-’alls,
But when it comes to fightin’, Lord! they’ll shove me in the stalls!
For it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, wait outside”;
But it’s “Special train for Atkins” when the trooper’s on the tide,
The troopship’s on the tide, my boys, the troopship’s on the tide,
O it’s “Special train for Atkins” when the trooper’s on the tide.

Yes, makin’ mock o’ uniforms that guard you while you sleep
Is cheaper than them uniforms, an’ they’re starvation cheap;
An’ hustlin’ drunken soldiers when they’re goin’ large a bit
Is five times better business than paradin’ in full kit.
Then it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, ‘ow’s yer soul?”
But it’s “Thin red line of ‘eroes” when the drums begin to roll,
The drums begin to roll, my boys, the drums begin to roll,
O it’s “Thin red line of ‘eroes” when the drums begin to roll.

We aren’t no thin red ‘eroes, nor we aren’t no blackguards too,
But single men in barricks, most remarkable like you;
An’ if sometimes our conduck isn’t all your fancy paints,
Why, single men in barricks don’t grow into plaster saints;
While it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, fall be’ind”,
But it’s “Please to walk in front, sir”, when there’s trouble in the wind,
There’s trouble in the wind, my boys, there’s trouble in the wind,
O it’s “Please to walk in front, sir”, when there’s trouble in the wind.

You talk o’ better food for us, an’ schools, an’ fires, an’ all:
We’ll wait for extry rations if you treat us rational.
Don’t mess about the cook-room slops, but prove it to our face
The Widow’s Uniform is not the soldier-man’s disgrace.
For it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Chuck him out, the brute!”
But it’s “Saviour of ‘is country” when the guns begin to shoot;
An’ it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ anything you please;
An’ Tommy ain’t a bloomin’ fool — you bet that Tommy sees!

Rudyard Kipling’s poem: Tommy

Update: The BBC has a followup article.

According to a statement made by American Amusements:

A spokesman said: “The hotel management has always had an open door policy to all its visitors and guests, including members of the military and armed forces, and will continue to do so.”

He added: “On this particular occasion there was a mistake made by a duty receptionist and the hotel management sincerely apologises for that mistake.”

So we’re supposed to believe that a receptionist decided on her own to exclude military personnel, and that she stated on her own initiative that it was company policy?

So why was the duty manager “unavailable”?  I’m sure he or she could have set things straight - were the receptionist truly in error as they claim.

Was the receptionists “mistake” really to admit to a company policy excluding service personnel, rather than come up with a more palatable lame excuse like “we’re full”?

Of course, we’re talking about the UK here, and the statement will be accepted at face value, no matter how illogical it seems, by The Powers That Be - because they refuse to accept there is a problem over there to begin with!

Derek Twigg, a Defence Minister (read, politician) says:

“I am delighted that the armed forces generally enjoy immense respect and gratitude on the part of the nation and that contrary sentiments are rare, though evidently they exist.”

I guess he’s been sleeping when service personnel were advised not to wear their uniforms in public, or when wounded veterans were told to get out of a swimming pool they were undergoing rehab in because they were scaring the children, and hadn’t paid to use the pool.

Maybe he didn’t hear about the furore local residents made over the family accomodation house for Headley Court, or how spraining your thumb from RSI as a civilian employee entitles you to twice as much compensation as a Marine who loses both legs and an arm?

Let this one slide with illogical excuses from American Entertainment, and it’ll simply encourage more of the ingrates infesting the UK to do the same.

Once upon a time, I thought Ryanair took it to extremes when it came to “no frills” flying - but not even they have come up with this idea …

Both the BBC News and CNN.com websites report on the decision by regional airline Air Canada Jazz to remove life-vests from their planes, citing Canadian regulations that say they’re not needed when flying within 50 miles from land.

Apparently, Air Canada Jazz thinks seat cushions are sufficient flotation devices for their passengers’ safety over water.

Umm …

What

The

Fuck?

Excuse me - what about people who can’t hold on to a cushion? Kids? The elderly? People with disabilities?

Even if a flight goes down within 50 miles of land, that doesn’t mean it’s within 50 miles of SAR showing up, either. A bunch of people dumped into the Great Lakes aren’t going to be able to hold onto those seat cushions for very long - it’s kind of cold up there.

That’s always assuming they can even get out the emergency exits with those cushions getting in the way to begin with!

This has to be the most insane idea airlines have come up with yet. Didn’t the Titanic teach anyone that you can never have enough life saving equipment when it comes to water?

Lets face it, it sounds a lot like the usual historical practice of airlines - the costs saved by not doing something are presumably greater than the costs incurred for liability if something goes wrong.

So people have to ask themselves - just how much do they want to use an airline that thinks the potential costs of being sued by survivors or the relatives of victims of an air disaster is less than the costs saved by removing safety equipment this egregiously?

What else would people consider an “acceptable” removal of safety equipment to cut costs? Perhaps double up on oxygen masks? Replace the emergency chutes with a rope at the door?

If there is an air crash involving Air Canada Jazz, and if passengers die in the water from that crash, someone better arrest, charge, and try every single board member, manager, and beancounter of Air Canada Jazz for willfully negligent homicide.

See if those people consider that an acceptable risk.

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• Best Job In Town
  I love space. No, really, I do. That's one of the reasons I write science fiction. Between "Inner Space", the world's oceans, and outer space, what lies outside our atmospheric cocoon, it's hard to tell which one is the most "alien", and the most fascinating for me. But

Since everyone appears to think they’re somehow experts on the subject, here are my predictions for the upcoming Presidential Elections pre-game rally - the conventions.

• Hillary Clinton will try to steal the nomination for Democratic Presidential candidate at the convention.
• John McCain will announce Joe Lieberman as his running mate at some point.

There. With a side note that it’s a pity there isn’t a Paris Hilton/Stephen Colbert ticket. The political system is a joke, so the pair of them are far more qualified!!

Comments

• August 16, 2008, hank_reardon writes: Here is my prediction, There will be a cyanide attack during the dmc Bush will declare martial law bush will stay

There must be something in the water at Sci-Fi Channel headquarters - and if there isn’t, there should be, because that’s the only explanation I can think of that covers the total mess that is BSG Season 4.

Season 4 of BSG has felt like an amateurish rush job at the best of times, but come on guys, not even I could put this many choppy deus ex machina plot twists into a storyline!

I won’t bother with spoilers because … well, to be honest, Season 4, and tonight’s episode especially, are spoiled quite enough.  They manage to go from “Basestar arrives” to “Everyone’s hostage” to the revelation of four of the final five, to peace, to jumping to earth, to … “Coming Soon”.  All in the space of an hour’s show.

What

The

Frak??

BSG started strong, ran well, but this final season has been a third rate abortion of mammoth proportions.  I truly feel sorry for such a sterling cast that they will eventually be remembered for such a piece of crap final season, through no fault of their own.

One might even wonder how cynical Sci-Fi channel is to put “For more information, go to http://www.scifi.com/battlestar” at the end of tonight’s episode, when the site doesn’t actually say anything about the “Coming soon” climactic (HAH) episode(s).

There must be something about Sci-Fi channel that they insist on totally ruining decent shows, such as Farscape and now BSG, whilst spending all their money on badly thought out sci-fi “originals”.  Are they deliberately trying to run the channel into the ground, or are they just hoping to resurrect MST3K - with the channel as the punchline?

Comments

• August 5, 2008, Hank_reardon writes: Just thought i would say hi and find out if i can drop in for some tea (or coffee) when i am next in the United police states of america, just a wee joke
• August 5, 2008, Moonwolf writes: Everyone's always welcome to visit - but are you really sure you want Phorm knowing you're visiting a disability/amerindian/veteran's site? :)
• August 7, 2008, Hank_reardon writes: well i like to live as a free man, phorm be damned. where will they be when they realise that you can't eat megabytes

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• The Story So Far …
  The fourth (and final) season of Battlestar Galactica returns to the Sci-Fi Channel on March 4th, after a horribly long delay (not helped, I think, by worries over the writer's strike). Normally, such a long time means you might be forgiven for being somewhat confused about "the story so

Lisa Takeuchi Cullen runs a blog on Time Magazine’s website, “Work In Progress“, which sometimes can be almost close to approaching nearing the level of cynicism I occasionally use here.

Recently, she ran a blog entry, “Equal pay isn’t a partisan issue. Is it?“, explaining that the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act had been filibustered in Congress by the Republicans.

The Act was intended to be

A bill to amend title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990, and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 to clarify that a discriminatory compensation decision or other practice that is unlawful under such Acts occurs each time compensation is paid pursuant to the discriminatory compensation decision or other practice, and for other purposes.

In other words, to change those laws so that the Statute of limitations regarding lawsuits brought because of unequal pay start with the last time a paycheck was issued.

This Act was in response to a recent SCOTUS 5-4 ruling in an unequal pay lawsuit that decided the statute of limitations “clock” begins at the date of hiring, and runs for 180 days from that date.

Lisa Takeuchi Cullen asks at the end of her blog entry:

Senate Democrats blame Republicans for blocking the vote to protect employers from litigious workers. But what about protecting workers from employers who seek to pay them differently based on gender, race or religion? Can somebody clarify this for me?

The excuse the Republicans have offered for blocking the bill was “protecting employers”. It makes me wonder - just how much do Republicans think unequal pay is prevalent in the workplace?

The Supreme Court has effectively ruled that the laws for equal pay are totally unworkable, and has practically stripped employees of protections against such discrimination. It’s virtually impossible for employees to detect pay differences within 180 days of their hiring date, as the Supreme Court has ruled must occur for them to seek redress.

So all an employer has to do is keep unequal pay a secret for 180 days, and then they can go right ahead and totally screw employees at will, with the practical blessing of the Supreme Court - and the implied blessing of Senate Republicans.

Likewise, they could hire someone for 180 days, give that person’s peers a pay rise later, and the employee with the unequal pay has no recourse.

The justification Republicans claimed for the filibuster is an admission that unequal pay exists in the workplace - they blocked it because they expect this endemic state of affairs to result in large numbers of lawsuits if the bill passed.

They admit to this expectation, quite freely.

“We think that this bill is primarily designed to create a massive amount of new litigation in our country, and I think that is the reason for the resistance to its passage on our side,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is quoted in a Los Angeles Time report.¹

An expectation they could only arrive at with awareness of the scope of the issue.

It’s the only logical explanation behind their filibuster - If they’re expecting so many lawsuits should the Act become law, they must know that the situation is endemic.

In filibustering the Act, they send one clear message to already-struggling businesses and employees - They’re going to permit and perpetuate discrimination rather than allow it to be resolved the only way possible - through the courts.

The filibuster tells employers they can discriminate against employees, including members of so-called “protected classes”, for any reason when it comes to unequal pay, without any fear of being held accountable.

The Senate Republicans, through this filibuster, have effectively demolished another part of anti-discrimination legislation.

Now, employers can legally escape the consequences of paying people with disabilities far less than their able bodied peers.

So now not only can businesses continue their practices of hiring people with disabilities to fulfill phantasmal quotas to give the appearance of “equal opportunities”, they can do it on the cheap.

It’s only a few steps removed from slavery.

Does anyone really believe employers aren’t going to jump at the chance?

Lisa Takeuchi Cullen asks about protecting employees from unequal pay based on “gender, race, or religion”. Even as a Time reporter, however, she doesn’t seem to have thought that people with disabilities are also likely to suffer from unequal pay.

It’s understandable, I suppose, that people will think first about the effect on women’s rights, or religious rights, but the rights of people with disabilities are also affected.

Not to mention it’s possible she just forgot to include people with disabilities when she wrote her blog entry.

But we need to remind everyone that we, too, are a part of those affected, especially now - if the bill is resubmitted to the Senate in the future, it might get “amended” to make it more palateable.

If experience is anything to go by, people with disabilities are likely to be disadvantaged in the process.

The Senators who voted to filibuster the Act, are listed below (House Majority Leader Reid allegedly voted “No” in a procedural move to keep the bill alive for the future).

Call them.

Write to them.

Ask them just what unequal pay situations they’re aware of, that causes them to want to effectively block employees being able to sue to stop discriminating practices.

Ask them why they are supporting unequal pay and discrimination, and are willing to perpetuate discrimination in the workplace.

• Alexander (R-TN)
• Allard (R-CO)
• Barrasso (R-WY)
• Bennett (R-UT)
• Bond (R-MO)
• Brownback (R-KS)
• Bunning (R-KY)
• Burr (R-NC)
• Chambliss (R-GA)
• Coburn (R-OK)
• Cochran (R-MS)
• Corker (R-TN)
• Cornyn (R-TX)
• Craig (R-ID)
• Crapo (R-ID)
• DeMint (R-SC)
• Dole (R-NC)
• Domenici (R-NM)
• Ensign (R-NV)
• Enzi (R-WY)
• Graham (R-SC)
• Grassley (R-IA)
• Gregg (R-NH)
• Hatch (R-UT)
• Hutchison (R-TX)
• Inhofe (R-OK)
• Isakson (R-GA)
• Kyl (R-AZ)
• Lugar (R-IN)
• Martinez (R-FL)
• McConnell (R-KY)
• Murkowski (R-AK)
• Reid (D-NV)
• Roberts (R-KS)
• Sessions (R-AL)
• Shelby (R-AL)
• Stevens (R-AK)
• Thune (R-SD)
• Vitter (R-LA)
• Voinovich (R-OH)
• Warner (R-VA)
• Wicker (R-MS)

Then go read Lisa Takeuchi Cullen’s blog, it’s funny!

(With apologies to Lisa Takeuchi Cullen for calling her Lisa Takeuchi Cullen in this entry, since I don’t “know” her it’d be rude for me to just call her “Lisa”)

1. AHN - Senate Republicans Deny Democrats Consideration Of Fair Pay Act [back]

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Steve Ballmer is reported to suggest Microsoft’s Windows XP’s life may be extended beyond the planned termination of sales and some support soon.

To be honest, it feels like a lot of spin by Microsoft.  Ballmer is quoted as saying:

“If customer feedback varies, we can always wake up smarter”

If this is the source of media speculation XP may be extended, they’re being rather hopeful, as it’s so vague as to be nonsensical.

Ballmer does seem to be continuing the spin with other comments in that report.

But Ballmer was adamant that “most people who buy PCs today buy them with Vista.”

“That’s the statistical truth,” he told reporters at a press conference at Louvain-La-Neuve university.

That’s probably entirely true - the problem is, it omits to mention that most OEMs are only supplying (or by default supply) PCs with Vista pre-installed.  After all, Microsoft had announced it was terminating XP, so manufacturers would be unlikely to push XP over Vista, and most “man on the street” PC buyers wouldn’t buy PCs with a soon-to-be-discontinued Operating System.

So trying to use sales statistics for Vista are kind of disingenuous, as is this quote:

Ballmer said the customers buying PCs with XP are IT departments who are having trouble shifting old machines to newer technology.

Statements such as this are simply trying to deflect the disquiet over Vista, and omit another part of the debate - IT departments are buying XP because Vista has so many problems they don’t have confidence in its ability to run to begin with.  What IT department is going to implement broken software?

I’m reminded of the much-vaunted yet ultimately-ignored Windows ME.  Assuming (with an author’s willing suspension of disbelief) that the upcoming Windows 7 will be released relatively on time, and be an improvement over Vista (which I don’t think would be all that hard to do), history might need to repeat itself - consumers should jump over Vista, using XP until Windows 7 is released.

Of course, if Microsoft extends XP again, it would be seen by many (myself included) as a long-overdue admission that Vista is a “failure”.  Personally, if XP is given a reprieve, I can see Microsoft trying to spin it as somehow doing consumers a “favour”, catering to a “loyal fan base” or something.

If XP is given that reprieve though, at the end of the day whatever face-saving pronouncements Ballmer and the rest trot out will be irrelevant - users will have the ability to use a working operating system, and not get stuck in the perpetual (money making) upgrade cycle.

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It’s amazing just how low some TV “celebrities” will sink to exploit controversy in order to boost ratings. The question is, where do we draw the line between the “entertainment” of covering such controversies, and potentially creating those controversies by encouraging people?

Once upon a time, the Jerry Springer¹ TV show was the last word in “trailer trash”, with most viewers tuning in just to watch the fights, and bouncer Steve jumping in to separate the combatants (Steve himself managed to get his own show).

Then you have “Dr Phil”².

The main purpose of his show, as far as I can see at least, is to launch into paternalistic, condescending, egotistic judgmental tirades designed to beat down and humiliate the targets of his moralistic rants with the most arrogant and holier-than-thou attitude he can muster, on national TV.

His desire for the chance to be the center of attention has reached new depths however. Not content with wandering into Britney Spears’ hospital room, then exploiting her misery to the media with his pontifications, it seems he now wants to hold court on the behaviour of those florida teens facing felony kidnapping charges as a result of their YouTube-destined ambush of one of their “friends”.

What

The

Fuck??

Those teenage terrorists searched for publicity, a “YouTube” moment - so what does this pompous asshole’s staffers do? His producers post bail for one of the teenagers, because the show wants to do a segment about them.

So now not only will teenagers be looking for the notoriety of YouTube exposure of their crimes, they can look forwards to getting on national TV??

What the hell is this guy thinking??

After the rightful outrage of one of the girls’ bail being posted, the show announced it wasn’t going to run the segment - not because giving the brats even more exposure might possibly be the dumbest idea since the Sinclair C5, but rather because posting bail violated the show’s “guidelines”.

It turns out that there’s now been another ambush by teenage terrorists against some hapless victim, again potentially with posting the video online being a strong motivator.

My question is: Will we now start to hear cries of “This is a Dr Phil video!” in the background of criminal assaults by teens replacing “This is a YouTube video!”?

Lots of people have been blaming YouTube for encouraging such attacks, by giving the perpetrators a forum to gain notoriety - but are strangely silent on the possibility this hideously bad judgment call in the quest for ratings by Dr Phil will do even more to encourage such criminality?

Dr Phil likes to pontificate about social responsibility, his catchphrase of “Get Real!” punctuates his indignant browbeating and berating of the hapless sods that appear on his show. I guess this is a case of “Take my advice - I’m not using it”?

I’m just waiting to hear Dr Phil has booked members of the FLDS.

So to paraphrase one of your own exclamations, Dr Phil - What in the hell were you thinking? Are there any populist bandwagons you won’t jump onto in order to boost your own ego?

1. Warning: Badly designed site that requires Flash to view it [back]
2. Warning: Badly designed site that requires Flash to view it [back]

Related posts:

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  I'm not sure which is the more enraging right now. That a hotel seems to have a company policy to refuse accommodation for any service member in the UK. Or that the (parent?) company has the gall to call itself "American Amusements" with such a policy in place. What The Fuck? Such a policy sure as

To the guy (or gal) from Stuttgart, Germany using an army.mil address, thank you for visiting - and thank you for your service!

Stay safe, and keep the faith.

It must be one of the few times something has made its way across the Atlantic with the UK coming first.

Over there, it’s called Happy Slapping - video taping assaults at random for distribution, usually using cell phones.

Most people by now are familiar with the latest US emulation of this particular brand of nastyness, especially with the widely publicized case of 8 teenagers in Florida. There are other cases, but they all have one thing in common - the results of these attacks are filmed, then posted to the ‘Net.

Now some sad sorry excuses for parenting would like to try to shift the blame to the ‘Net - or, such as in the eyes of one of those pathetic parents of the Florida teens, the victim themselves.

But at the end of the day, the blame rests squarely on the shoulders of the perpetrators.

The law is being abused outrageously by teenagers - they know the chances of them actually being punished for their crimes are slim, and any punishment they do get amounts to a slap on the wrist.

Given the state of the Juvenile Justice system, I’m amazed the Judges don’t hand out $20 bills to these vicious feral teenagers for being well behaved in court - On the off chance they get convicted, their sentences are virtual Academy Awards in recognition of these little angels’ acting abilities in court!

So here’s my question.

If such crimes (and, the opinions of some of the parents of these animals aside, they are crimes), are being committed with the intent, primary or otherwise, of posting videos of the crimes to the ‘Net for notoriety, or bullying (or any other reason, come to think of it) - why can’t the wastes of skin that carry out the crimes be penalized and prevented from gaining any “benefit” from doing so?

Most places have a “Son of Sam“-style law - a criminal cannot be allowed to profit from their crime.

So - why can’t legislation be introduced to “enhance” the sentences for crimes where the footage is uploaded? An even bigger enhancement if the crime was committed to be uploaded sounds good too.

Blaming the ‘Net for these callous people’s actions, as many parents who appear to be in denial seem wont to do, is no solution - it doesn’t even begin to address the root causes - Teenagers who think they’re above the law and/or think assaults and kidnapping are harmless fun.

Judd said the most shocking thing about the attack is how lightly the alleged assailants took their actions. Vieira asked him if they showed any remorse when they were arrested.

“None at all,” he said. “When we had them arrested and in detention, they were laughing and joking, ‘Guess we’re not going to go to the beach on this spring break.’ One girl actually asked our detective, ‘Am I going to be released in time to go to cheerleading practice tomorrow?’ ”

MSNBC - Teens videotape revenge beating

Since many parents are failing to instill any level of social and moral responsibility in their children, the only real way to combat this phenomenon is to slam the perpetrators, hard.

Sentence enhancements, Federal Civil Rights violations - something, anything needs to be introduced to start showing these misfits that their behaviour is neither appreciated and will not be tolerated in a civilized society.

It doesn’t matter if it ruins their lives to have a felony record, it doesn’t matter if they spend 5 years in an adult facility - It’s time there was a real deterrent out there.

It likely won’t stop the attacks - some people will still think such things are fun - but those are people we really don’t need to include in society, so let them reveal themselves and end up where they belong.

Behind bars.

In cages.

Away from polite society.

The Florida teens are being charged as adults, including for kidnapping.

Facing charges of battery, false imprisonment and kidnapping are Mercades Nichols, 17, Brittini Hardcastle, 17, April Cooper, 14, Cara Murphy, 16, Britney Mayes, 17, Kayla Hassell, 15, Zachary Ashley, 17, and Stephen Schumaker, 18.

MSNBC - Teens videotape revenge beating

Personally, I hope they get locked up for the maximum amount of time possible. Decent people don’t need animals like those teens amongst them.

It’s just a shame that their parents will never face a judge and jury to determine their own culpability for the actions of the brats they brought into this world.

I’m just amazed they haven’t hired Gloria Allred to try to “explain” their position to the world.

Maybe next we’ll be hearing how it really isn’t their kids’ fault, they were possessed by the magic blue smoke that escaped from inside their computers?

It’s time lawmakers stepped up to the plate and start considering posting the videotapes of these crimes by the criminals to the ‘Net to be worth enhancement of sentences, or even crimes in and of themselves - incitement? Intimidation?

Until we show kids that think this is “fun” that there are real consequences, all we’re going to see is more of this.

Give such brats their 15 minutes of fame, but change the venue. Let them be seen around the world in chains and shackles being sentenced as adults to several years in adult jails. If they really want to be on camera, give them the perfect chance.

Starring on Court TV.

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Blogs are hopping today it seems with stories about Judge Marvin Arrington Sr in Atlanta, Georgia.

The judge is reported to have ordered everyone in his courtroom who wasn’t black to leave, and then gave the blacks present a “lecture”¹.

For some reason, everyone has decided that the judge (who is black himself) was racist in doing so.

I disagree with them, though.

It’s common knowledge that a judge controls his courtroom, end of story. The judge was totally within his rights to exclude anyone for any reason. In the courtroom, the judge is law, after a fashion.

The question is whether or not he was racist (or reverse racist as some have alleged) with all of this.

Yes, he singled out one group by race, and told everyone else to leave. But he did it for a purpose and for a short time - it’s not like he’s saying “Only blacks may enter my courtroom full stop”.

I agree with his motivations for doing this. He took that group aside in “private”, spoke to them as their peer, and brought up things that would probably have been considered humiliating if he’d raised them in a “mixed” environment.

People who know me know I’m strongly opinionated about reverse racism. It’s simply the end result of history, and a backlash against the past. Understandable, if annoying - especially when those victims of slavery are part of supporting the effective slavery of Native Americans in the 21st Century, can be just as racist as anyone else.

But …

It’s ridiculous to accuse the judge of racism in either direction. He was one of the first black students at Emory Law School, the forefront of racial integration for that establishment. This is a man who knows first hand what racism really is, was part of the fight against it.

By excluding non-blacks from his courtroom, he was able to bring up uncomfortable topics, and not embarass the defendants before others.

Bear in mind, the people he was talking to were all accused of committing crimes. There’s nothing that says how many of them were guilty, but at the end of the day, it’s probably safe to assume many of those he talked to are criminals.

If the non-black defendants want to complain they didn’t get a chance to be lectured on the shame of being criminals and behaving abysmally towards society, I’m sure the judge will oblige them.

This is more a case of knee-jerk political correctness and people trying to cause a stink to their own benefit, to be able to try and appeal claiming bias by the judge, than any real racism. Do they really expect people to believe they’re offended they weren’t able to get lectured in public?

The legal system is broken to a large degree, people don’t respect it any more than they respect society by committing crimes. Judges are having to get creative to try to use the courts for some social good, and they have a vested interest in trying to stop people from committing crimes.

If throwing all the non-blacks out of a courtroom to talk to black defendants as a black man to his fellow blacks helps cut down on crime, gets those defendants to change and be productive members of society, then I say let him continue! It benefits society.

Blacks commit crimes. Whites commit crimes. Asians commit crimes. Unfortunately, the black population in prisons in the US is disproportionately higher than any other racial group. I don’t believe they commit more crimes than anyone else, but they’re more likely to end up behind bars. The judge tried to help that group avoid being another statistic, he deserves support, not condemnation for spurious politically correct causes.

If he decides to do the same to all whites, or all Asians, then I say he should go for that too. His idea might just stop someone from making you the victim.

As for the defendants trying to set this up to appeal based on claims of bias, the answer is simple: Don’t commit crimes to begin with, and stop trying to bring this red herring up to get out of being held responsible for being criminals.

1. Source: wsbtv.com - Judge Orders Whites Out Of Atlanta Court [back]

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