">My Big World Of Crap

Stewart Blackburn, 18, was having problems with his girlfriend.  In fact she was threatening to break up with him.  So he poured petrol over her and set her on fire, then held her bedroom door shut, cutting off any chance of escape.

Her final words to her father were: "I don’t want to die, Dad - I love you."  The prosecutor told the court:

"It is difficult to envisage more cruel or sadistic treatment of another human being,"

Too true!  Blackburn faces life imprisonment when he is sentenced next year for murdering 17 year old Jessica McCagh.  I’m thinking a Joan d’Arc style punishment is more fitting – tie him to a stake and light the bonfire.

Violence at a school fete in Papua New Guinea left eight people dead and a severed head hanging from a power pole.  According to local media, an armed gang attacked villagers gathered at the fete in Kainantu district last Friday, and killed four people.  The gang’s leader interrupted a speech by a local magistrate, produced a gun and shot him dead.  Villagers retaliated by killing three of the gang members. One was beheaded and the head hung on a power pole.  Another was killed the next day.  The gang’s leader, Patrick Sira, is wanted by police over a string of murders, rapes and robberies – he escaped after the attack.

While I’ve never been to a fete that extreme, I still hate them.  Can’t see the point of buying other people’s shit and crap made by other people’s kids.

Murder, that is!

In June last year a Cowra man murdered his wife and 2 grandchildren. He stabbed his wife and hit her on the back of the head with a hammer. When police interviewed him he described the hammer with pride, affectionately referring to it as ”Fred”. According to a report prepared by a psychiatrist, the man ”gave a gruesome account of first drowning the younger girl and then luring the boy to go to the toilet and hitting him over the back of the head with a hammer”.  He re-dressed his five-year-old granddaughter in her pyjamas and put her on the bed. He put the seven-year-old on the bunk next to his sister. He then drowned the family dog and put it under the children’s bed. He told police he was worried there would be no one left to look after it.  When his daughter, a police officer, arrived home from work, he tried to kill her with an axe. He told police he then planned to drive to Newcastle to kill his daughter’s estranged husband.

Less than a year earlier, his younger brother, in England, murdered his partner and 4 year old son.  James Conan, stabbed his partner Kirsty O’Connell in what the court heard was a ”hail of knife blows”. During the frenzied attack, Conan severed his 21-year-old girlfriend’s jugular vein. He then smoked a cigarette, played with their son Patrick, then took him to the bedroom, smothered him with a pillow and bathed him.  He then laid out his son in what the prosecutor said was a bizarre Viking-style ritual. He put a dagger next to the body, a torch in his hand and boots on his feet. He then surrounded the boy with toys ”arranged like treasures”.

Both brothers have been jailed for life for their crimes.  Their parents, had they still been alive, would have been so proud.  Or not.  When interviewed by police, Conan spoke of an appalling and unhappy childhood, in which the family moved from Ireland and eventually settled in a working-class area of Leeds. But his sister and two older brothers, including the Cowra murderer, spoke of an unremarkable childhood.

By the way, Conan wasn’t the younger brother’s real name – he changed his name to Conan, after his hero Conan the Barbarian. 

Police were busy in Victoria yesterday morning, 400 of them executing 19 search warrants in connection with a suspected terrorist plot.  Four men of Somali and Lebanese descent were arrested. A fifth man was already in custody over an unrelated matter.  They are alleged to have been planning an attack on Sydney’s Holsworthy army barracks.  The arrests were apparently the result of a 7 month long police investigation.

The men who appeared in court today were Abdirahman Ahmed, Yacqub Khayre, Nayef El Sayed and Wissam Mahmoud Fattal.  The fourth man, Saney Edow Aweys, was expected to appear later.  They have been charged with preparing for a terrorist attack. 

The raids were carried out because police believed a suicide attack was imminent.  They believed Abdirahman Ahmed, who returned from the war-torn country only three weeks ago might have secretly obtained a fatwa from a sheik in Somalia.  Two members of the group are believed to have travelled to Somalia to train with the militant extremist group Al-Shabaab, which the US believes has links with al-Qa’ida. But when other members of the group could not travel to Somalia, they turned their attention to carrying out an act of terror in Australia.  Police believe the group planned to launch a suicide assault on Holsworthy army base using automatic weapons. It is alleged they planned to kill as many soldiers as possible before they were themselves killed.

The men showed their lack of respect for our society in court.  Two of them refused to stand when asked by the magistrate – citing religious grounds, that they would not stand for anyone but God.   Others claimed to be too tired to answer questions.  Fattal, as he was being led from the court,  accused Australia of killing innocent people in Afghanistan and Iraq and said "you call us terrorists - I’ve never killed anyone in my life". He also said Palestinians were labelled as terrorists while Israelis forcedly took land from them.

What I don’t understand is why these dickheads want to live in Australia but still carry on like they are jihadist savages in the back blocks of Mogadishu.  If they want things here to be like Somalia, just fuck off and go live there.  Better still, get themselves over there and into some inter-factional warfare amongst the various jihadi militias – kill each other, not innocent people. 

It really pisses me off when people come to Australia and can’t leave behind their old hatreds in their old country.  Message to these people – you’re in a new country, leave your grudges behind.  If you want to continue them, fuck off back to your old country and fight away to your heart’s content, just don’t do it here.  In this case its Somali and Lebanese muslims wanting to carry on the fight against just about anyone who doesn’t want to revert back to their 7th century version of how the world should be run.  But the same argument applies to anyone, Arabs vs Jews, Serbs vs Croats, Protestants vs Catholics, Hutu vs Tutsi – I don’t care.  Do not bring your hatred towards each other here – leave it behind.

“Curry bashing” apparently is a form of amusement for some of the lowlife scum among the population.  It means going out looking for Indian people to beat up.

Or, if you’re John Caratozzolo, and you can’t find an Indian, a Chinese will do just fine.  Caratozzolo and his mates were out one night in January last year, when he suggested to them they go “curry bashing” because he needed a new mobile phone.  However they ran into  Dr Zhongjun Cao, who was on his way home from his job as a university lecturer.  The group attacked him without warning, assaulting him "for pleasure" without even asking for his phone. One of the group dropped Dr Cao on his head during the attack and as he lay badly injured.  Carotozzolo kicked the dying man in the head as a parting gift, laughing with his mates as he did it.

Soon afterwards, Caratozzolo and friends attacked another man, an Indian student and robbed him.  He didn’t die, but he was injured seriously enough to spend time in hospital and to require 2 weeks of sick leave from his job.

Caratozzolo pleaded guilty to murder and two counts of robbery.  The judge talked tough in sentencing him, but in the end gave him only 15 years, with a non-parole period of 10 years.  Way too lenient in my view – Carotozzola is 21 and will be back out in the community in his early 30’s.  It completely escapes me why scum such as him should be fortunate enough to see the outside of a prison cell before they are very old and infirm.  25 years should be the absolute minimum for a murder, especially when its random and completely unprovoked and done just for the hell of it.

A 16 year old was also charged in connection with Dr Cao’s murder.

Their families must be so proud of them!

Not that one!

Good riddance, Robert “Dolly” Dunn.

Remember the little girl at Hawk’s Nest in NSW who died of starvation.  Her parents were charged with various things including murder.

Well, mum got convicted for her murder, and dad for manslaughter.  Sad, pathetic, evil swine and all that, but thats not really what I wanted to post about.

Its this interesting ad placement:

Mmmm, starving child, eat Subway!

A 58 year old man found lying naked on top of a 5 year old girl has claimed that he was just trying to keep her warm

The Supreme Court in Hobart heard today the man was hosting a family of five when the incident occurred on February 5 this year.  The 3 kids went to sleep in a tent in the back yard.  Mum became suspicious something was happening and went to investigate.  As she approached the tent they heard their daughter cry: "I want mummy."  They heard the offender reply: "Don’t worry about mummy, I will keep you warm."

They opened the tent flap and found him lying naked on top of the girl, whose pants and underpants had been removed. The offender had an erection.

An altercation followed, and the family upped camp and reported the matter to police. 

In sentencing the man to 9 months jail, the judge said to him:

"One disturbing aspect of this is that you don’t seem to acknowledge there is anything wrong with what you did,"

"Nobody else thinks like that and that’s why you’re going to jail today."

He was also ordered to have his name placed on the sex offenders register for 7 years after he is released.

I’m surprised he actually got off so lightly with the sentence he got.  I find it strange how judges talk tough then squib it on the sentencing.   I’d have thought something like this deserved at least a few years jail rather than months.

And notice how I’ve resisted the temptation to throw in a Tasmanian joke.

Something that really does piss me off is men who go through all sorts of contortions to avoid paying child support to their former partners.  I mean, they are the father’s kids too, and you’d think these guys would have some interest in ensuring they are properly looked after.  But no, often getting revenge on the ex takes precedence over the kids.

Simon Sywak is one such man.  He was a hedge trader with JP Morgan who earned more than $500k a year.  His marriage ended unhappily in 2005  after 8 years and 2 children.  Mrs Sywak was granted the family home and monthly maintenance of £2750 from her former husband’s income of more than £250,000 a year.  He paid maintenance for two years, but in 2006 the payments stopped suddenly when he argued that he had abandoned trading and was unemployed and training to become a bus driver as well as thinking about writing a book.

The banker then proceeded to use his legal proceedings against his former wife to stop paying maintenance. Ms Sywak, who was immediately suspicious that her high-flying, wine-loving former husband would tone down his lifestyle, hired a private investigator who tracked him down in Singapore.  He was caught out when was filmed by a private investigator and was seen accepting flowers at his office with a card which stated "Thanks for everything". Despite being caught, he continued to refuse to pay maintenance and not only brazened it out for several months but continued a court case against his former wife in the hope that delays would bankrupt her.

He was recruited by Westpac as a derivatives trader in Sydney after leaving his job with JP Morgan in Singapore. Westpac sacked him last year, three days after the it was reported that he had been pretending to be training to become a bus driver to avoid paying child maintenance.  He argues that Westpac owes him at least $1.3 million, a sign on bonus for starting his new job with them.  Westpac terminated him 3 weeks before this payment was due. He is suing them, arguing that the terms of his contract meant he could be sacked only for fraud or other illegal conduct, and not for matters involving his personal life.

Hopefully the court acts with commonsense and decency, and finds against him.  Busted, being an unethical prick, I think gives the company plenty of grounds to sack him.  Scumbag.

A 35 year old Ipswich man has been charged with the rape and attempted murder of his 2 year old son.

Police were called to a Collingwood Park home, south-west of Brisbane, at 11.51am (AEST) yesterday and arrived within minutes to find the boy seriously injured.

The boy was taken by ambulance to the Mater Children’s Hospital, where he remains in a critical condition.

Once again, I have to ask, what could possibly motivate a human being to do things like this?

I want one of these.

Not that its actually worth anything, but for the novelty of having a $50 billion note. (Thanks to Denford Magora for the image).

Actually if I just print one off now on my home printer, it’s worth about the same as the real thing – in fact the paper and ink I’d use to print it is probably worth more (or if not now, it will be in a day or so).

My thinking on the solution to Zimbabwe’s problems – starts with the CIA or MI6 doing their best on Robert Mugabe and other key members of the dictatorship.  Some lead poisoning would not go astray!

American gun nuts often argue that arming the civilian population makes them safer, because if they had more reasonable gun controls in the US, regular people would be defenceless because the criminals would still have their guns, and that giving everyone the ability to arm themselves makes criminals think twice before attacking or robbing someone who might be armed and fight back.  Right!

How come then, whenever there is a gun massacre in the US, the only armed person there is the nut with the guns.  Never do you see any of the targets fight back.  Why is this?  Impeccable planning by the nuts who go on these rampages so they never pick any victims who are armed themselves and likely to defend themselves?  You’d think one lunatic at some stage in some attack would be unlucky enough to run into someone who fights back.  Just doesn’t happen in real life though.  Why?  Because the reality is that loose gun controls just make it easy for the nutjobs who have some gripe with the world, or some bizarre fantasy about themselves as some sort of guntoting super warrior, to arm themselves to the teeth admirably equipped to do their worst.

Sure, the gun advocates will say guns don’t kill people, people do.  Well, to a point thats right, but guns do make it a hell of a lot easier.  Maybe the nuts would take out their rages some other way without their guns, but how many mass knifing or baseball bat swinging rampages do we hear of where 6,8,10, 13, 20+ innocent victims get killed?

On Friday, someone with a grudge about his inability to speak English took out 13 people, and himself, in Binghamton, New York.  Authorities there identified the gunman who killed 13 people and himself at an immigrant services centre as Jiverly Wong, 41, a Vietnamese immigrant who had taken English classes there. Binghamton Police Chief Joseph Zikuski today no motive for the shooting had been determined, but he confirmed reports that Wong, who also went by the name Voong, had felt degraded by his inability to speak English and by a recent job loss.

"From the people close to him … this action he took was not a surprise to them,"

Mr Zikuski said.

"He felt degraded from his inability to speak English and he was upset about that,"

he added. Mr Zikuski said Mr Wong was "heavily armed" and had held a permit since 1995 or 1997 for two handguns recovered at the scene.

I wonder if any of those who subsequently thought his actions weren’t a complete surprise thought about telling the police that he was some sort of time bomb waiting to go off.  Perhaps reasonable gun laws would have empowered police to confiscate weapons from a person like this?

Then, yesterday, another guy, in Pittsburgh, started shooting at police who attended a domestic disturbance call, killing 3 of them and wounding another.  The gunman, 23-year-old Richard Poplawski, was arrested after a four-hour standoff. Friends say the gunman had recently been upset about losing his job and that he feared the Obama administration was poised to ban guns.   He apparently lay in wait for the police, armed with an AK-47 assault-style rifle, a .22-caliber rifle and a revolver and wearing a bulletproof vest. Before surrendering, he exchanged hundreds of rounds of gunfire with SWAT officers from his bedroom window, while taking time to call friends and tell them he was going to die, that he had been hit in his bulletproof vest and leg, and that he loved them. 

Poplawski was a dishonourably charged Marine who adhered to a number of right-wing conspiracy theories and expressed fears of a "Zionist nation" revoking his right to own guns.  I heard a friend of his on the radio news this morning, ranting on about something like 30 states had declared sovereignty from the central government …I just love the paranoid rantings of the lunatic right in America – talk about bizarro world!

Again, it was evident the shooter was a nutcase with plenty of history of psychological/behavioural problems – how is it a good thing that the gun laws in America enable him to be armed to the teeth?  Someone please explain this to me.  And while you’re at it, what possible justification is there for civilians to be owning AK-47’s and similar assault weapons?  Worried about killer super rabbits and deer fighting back while you’re out hunting or something?

The shootings in Pittsburgh were the 6th mass shooting in the past month in the US, including one in Alabama (10 dead + the gunman), and another in Oakland, California (4 police killed).  All this in the land where guns make everyone safer!  Yet the US has something like 9 times the rate of gun murders than Australia, where guns are much less prevalent – and is way out in front of the rest of the civilised world.  Just where are all those citizens in America using their guns to defend themselves against the gun toting criminals? 

Why not try something radical in the US?  Loose gun controls, and widespread gun ownership are obviously failing to protect the people at large.  How about this?  Try doing what the rest of the western world does, and restrict gun ownership.  Its not like things are going to get worse than they have been, is it?

I don’t expect this to happen.  The gun lobby in the US seems to find it acceptable that a few thousand people a year are murdered by people using guns – and their politicians are so much in the pocket of that gun lobby that they are not willing to do anything but token gestures at the margins of gun control.  Clearly they think a few thousand murders a year are ok too?

You know something else I found disturbing in one of the articles I linked to.  The resigned acceptance of these murders.  This was said of the Oakland killings of the 4 police officers:

"We lose officers about every 57 hours in this country,"

"But seldom do you have one of this magnitude."

Thats about 150 police officers killed each year.  Fact of life in America!  Just something they accept as business as usual.  Wow!  I can’t find the equivalent numbers for Australia, other than that 731 officers have died in the course of duty since 1803 (which includes car accidents, plane crashes etc as well as criminal killings), and that 45 have died in the last 10 years, and in Victoria some 30 of the 150 who died since 1803 were murdered.