I’m a Pundit

Meredith Kercher was pretty much your normal British exchange student, but in November last year her semi naked body was found on the floor of her apartment in Italy with her throat slit.

Now deaths like this are always a sad affair but should the family really be seeking £20 million in compensation, that’s around $40 million, or roughly 8,695,652 pints.  Now it would be naive to think that the family are not grieving the loss, and expecting some kind of reparations for the pain caused would be more than understandable.

But consider this, the average compensation for death in the UK is around £10,000, barring life insurance which tends to hover around the 4x earnings mark.  If the average is £10,000 why in God’s name would anyone try and obtain 2000 times that amount?

While I am unsure of who exactly the parents are trying to sue, since obviously the perpetrators were young and poor, while the government cannot really be held accountable, I think the amount being chased is unfair, unreasonable and in itself unjust.

written by Oli \\ tags: Compensation, Crime, Culture, Murder

I have often commented on the insanity of the British legal system, murderers get put in jail for 2 years while people who are too poor to afford taxes get 10, people who beat people in drunken brawls in city centre, trash peoples cars or break into peoples houses get off scott free, while someone defending themselves gets a sentence.

Therefore it was refreshing to read a story regarding a man, who after splitting up with his wife five years ago became an alcoholic, spending around £500 a week.  He was recently convicted of his seventh driving offence, but spared jail on the offence that he did not touch or drinking alcohol for 12 months.

This isn’t however what made me laugh, as part of the judges verdict, he said,

‘(That is) poor judgement on two counts there — drinking that much and drinking Melbourne Bitter,”

This coming from a country where personal choice in beer is sometimes fought for as aggressively as their support for football teams I could not help but laugh at the judge bringing this rivalry into the courtroom, something that would see a judge suspended in the UK.

God bless Australia.

written by Oli \\ tags: Australia, Crime, Drinking, Driving, Funny, News

For those people searching for the ‘right’ ISP to supply their Broadband Internet many will find the majority of ISPs offering Unlimited internet packages.   However many families are finding tehir internet access restricted, removed and even in some cases extra charges appearing on their internet bill.

This is all down to the ‘fair usage policy’. A fair usage policy is basically a small line in your contract that says while your internet is Unlimited you cannot use more than xxGB per month.

Suddenly things don’t seem quite so unlimited anymore.

The ISPs back this move saying it keeps things fair for all of their customers.  Some users abusing the system can slow down the network for everyone.

Now here I think is a very important point.  If I bought an unlimited usage product I should expect unlimited usage. The company should have the network to deal with this if it decides to advertise such a product.

If I hired a Builder to paint a mansion I would be very friggin upset if the builder only did half of it and then said He couldn’t paint anymore because then there might not be enough paint for the other houses.

If I went to an all you can eat resteraunt but was told I could only have half a plate of food so there was enough for everyone I would also be pretty damn annoyed.

So why the hell should internet service providers get away with unethically and misleadingly advertising products as unlmiited when they sometiems have usage limits as low as 5 gig.

Fortunately there is help available, there have been several casse where people have won full refunds and even damages for loss of connectivity because the Fair Use Policy was not well displayed and that the advertisements were misleading.

Lets take down the corporate bastards who decided to call limited unlimited!

written by Oli \\ tags: Advertising, Crime, Fair Usage Policy, Internet, ISP, Law

It seems that more and more cases are appearing of women who have been kept in captivity for long periods of time by some fairly weird people.

The most recent case is that of a man in Austria who imprisoned his ten year old daughter for 24 years.  During this time he fathered 7 kids with her, 6 of which survived, and three of which were sent to his grandparents with the claim they had been abandoned on his doorstep.

Even more worryingly his wife denies any knowledge of his crimes, despite the daughter and grand kids being kept in his basement. You would have though at least the issue of the food bill might have come up at some point, i mean keeping 7 people fed and watered is no cheap thing to do!

The good news however is that this man will be going to jail for a long time, with kidnapping, imprisonment, Incest and murder of the dead child on the cards.

I think the real question which needs to be asked is HOW did this man get away with imprisoning a girl for so long?

Surely someone in the town must have noticed the disappearance at some point.  I think some real work needs to be done from stopping this king of thing from happening.

written by Oli \\ tags: Abduction, Crime, Imprisonment, Incest, Kidnapping, News

The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is indeep trouble over allegations of child sexual abuse and brain washing. This church was founded around five years go in Texas by a man named Warren Jeffs (Currently in Jail as an accomplice in the rape of an underaged girl)

While the members of the church themselves have remained quiet on the matter it has become apparent that several of the children may have been put into marraige at a younger age than 14. The children themselves showed a strong sense of wanting to get married as soon as possible, with no age too young and to have as many babies as possible.

Now while some of the accuracy of the accusations has been debated and the families of the children hotly denying any wrong doing there is some major contention in the courts. (Where mass DNA testing is underway to decide the actual structures of these polygamistic families) . The adults are refusing to say the current relationships between the families fueling the investigation as to wether or not adults have been marrying and engaging in girls who in some cases may have not even hit puberty.

Personally I can see the plus points of polygamy, the child sex abuse is however something that needs to be looked into with all available resource, peaodphilia this widespread is something that deeply worries me.

written by Oli \\ tags: , Crime, Mormons, Peadophilia

I read This story on the BC website today.  I am glad to see the Judge and Jury system has finally rejected the insanity plea on a horrific case.

This man Microwaved a two month old baby for around 20 seconds.  for 20 seconds he saw his daughter burn in the microwave.  This isn’t insane, it’s taking a pleasure in causing pain and suffering.

I fully support the 25 year sentence, and personally think his lawyer should be removed from service for trying to claim that the offender Joshua Mauldin was insane at the time he put his daughter in the microwave.

The fact that people are even considered applicable for this sickens me.

written by Oli \\ tags: America, Atrocities, Crime, Insanity