Hogswatch speaks the truth of life

Now I was going to put something up about the Omaha family that left their 4 kids in a parked car at a meter that displayed a sign reading a tow-a-way zone during peak hours while the two parents went into the courthouse to appear on something, only to have the car (complete with kids) towed away. Then the family turns around and tries to sue the towing company for imprisoning their children and causing severe mental anguish on the child. Yeah, ranks right up there with the parents that put their kids on intercountry flights alone and expect other people to look after their child.

However, I came across a little tidbit on youtube about my favorite author. Terry Pratchett has got to be one of the most fantastic writers of all time. One of those fantasy writers that takes a story from the reality of Earth, puts it to characters that you think are totally false and then makes the message known. Of course, the reader sits back and thinks "they are fantasy, obviously a work of fiction and untrue" but then the more you think about it, the more the characters look like real life and then in the last few chapters of his books he springs upon you the true meaning of his message. A sort of 'you see timmy' of the old shows of the 60's and 70's where the entire show is summed up in a few short sentences to teach the lifes lesson they want you to learn. Here is that snippet from 'Hogfather' that was put to the TV. The main message is between 2:25 and 3:50.



Granted, the show was not as fantastic as the book is, but it is pretty darn good. If you have not read his books, I highly highly highly recommend his writings, especially if you are a fan of Tom Sharpe. If you are a fan of Pratchett, you obviously know what I am talking about with him being a fantastic writer. Incidentally, while all his characters are fantastically written and wonderfully creative, Death and Granny Weatherwax are my two favorite characters.

5 year old gets off westjet with stranger

Guess with the grinches that spoil xmas, it is good to know that there are some good samaritans out there that are watching the other persons back. Like they say "It takes a village to raise a child" and in this case the village helped bring the child from one end to the other safely. Lucky it was a good hearted person and not a twisted criminal that seem to be breeding in this day and age like rabbits.

WestJet allows stranger to walk five-year-old girl off flight
Last Updated: Friday, December 14, 2007 7:02 PM ET

CBC News

The parents of a five-year-old girl travelling alone are furious with WestJet for breaking its own guidelines and allowing a stranger to accompany the child off a flight.

Sara-Maude St-Louis, 5, was taking her first plane ride Thursday from Edmonton, where she lives with her mother, to Montreal to see her father. The parents paid a special fee to ensure someone from the airline would look after her.

Sara-Maude St-Louis plays with her father in Pontiac, Que. after taking a WestJet flight by herself from Edmonton.

(CBC) Her mother and stepfather took Sara-Maude to the gate under the impression that WestJet staff members would check on her during the flight and then escort the little girl off the plane when she arrived at her destination, which is the company's policy for unaccompanied minors.

Instead, nobody checked on her at all, said her father Steve St-Louis. He's furious with the airline and says Sara-Maude could have been kidnapped or hurt if not for a Good Samaritan who sat next to her.

Pierre Cataford, a father of four from Montreal, played games and drew pictures with Sara-Maude during the long flight.

The girl was wearing a large VIP tag around her neck, but Cataford told CBC News that he did not see flight attendants check on her.

When the plane landed in Montreal, Cataford said he waited for someone to escort Sara-Maude but no one came, so he walked the five-year-old off the plane as crew members waved goodbye to them.

Sara-Maude's father said he was shocked to see a stranger walking into the arrivals area with his daughter.

"She was alone. Nobody came to see her. Nobody asked if she was okay. I mean it was terrifying. It was unbelievable," St-Louis said from his home in Pontiac, Que.

WestJet confirmed it's investigating the incident and issued a statement Friday: "The situation is of utmost concern for WestJet and we are taking this matter very seriously. We have apologized to the parents of the child and are doing all that we can to ensure that this does not happen in the future."

No federal rules for unaccompanied minors
Canada does not have a policy that makes it mandatory for airlines to look after children who travel alone.

"Canadian laws are set out that way as we speak right now and they give all the flexibility to air carriers to establish their own rules," said Jadrino Huot of the Canadian Transportation Agency.

The agency said it asked Air Canada to clarify its policy on unaccompanied minors last month after a 13-year-old girl was not escorted by airline staff to meet her mother in Toronto's Pearson International Airport.

Sara-Maude's parents say they plan to sue WestJet.

The airline is flying Sara-Maude's mother and stepfather to Montreal to pick her up at the end of the month, and the parents said they won't let the girl fly alone again until she's much older.

Grinches spoil christmas with naughty santa letters

What has the world come to these days? I mean, why would sick people like this want to ruin the great season and ideas for all those around us? Now the screening process is going to get tighter for this sort of thing, causing more good willed and good natured people to be discouraged to volunteer. After all, I would love to volunteer for many things to do but really can not be hassled with the expense of going out to pay for a criminal records check followed by finger printing followed by an interview process and all the other things that have to be done to weed out the sickos that do this sort of thing.

I mean, volunteer is supposed to be out of the goodness of your own heart. If you are going to be this thick skulled and moronic, just stay under a rock and dont move.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20071214/santa_letters_071214/20071214?hub=Canada


Naughty Santa letters halt Canada Post delivery
Updated Fri. Dec. 14 2007 11:32 AM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

Canada Post has halted the delivery of letters from Santa Claus in Ottawa after a number of families received naughty responses from the North Pole.

Delivery of Santa's letters was suspended for two days on Thursday in the country's capital and Canada Post is "implementing new measures in the volunteer response process to guard against repetition of such incidents," a statement read.

The handwritten notes from Canada Post's Santa letter program, written in response to children's letters sent to a special HOH OHO postal code, contain curse words and descriptions of lewd acts. They were delivered to at least 10 families in the Ottawa area, the corporation said.

"This is a very serious matter for Canada Post and one we are taking very, very seriously. We are shocked and heart-broken that this much-loved quarter-of-a-century old program has experienced an incident of this kind," Moya Greene, President and CEO of Canada Post, said in a statement on Thursday.

Rosalyn DaCosta was one parent who found vulgarities in a letter to her children.

"I couldn't believe it, I stood there with my mouth open not even believing what I saw," Da Costa told CTV Ottawa.

"That's the one last thing you've got in the world to believe in. There are so many bad things in the world now, and now Santa's bad? It's just not fair."

Canada Post handles more than 1 million letters to Santa each year. More than 11,000 current and retired employees volunteer to help Santa reply to each and every letter received.

Canada Post spokesperson Cindy Daoust says this was the first instance of "sickening" language in the program's 26-year history.

"I have volunteers at the post office that are devastated over this and we just don't want this to happen to another child," Daoust told CTV Newsnet on Friday.

An Ottawa police investigation was "going very, very well," she said.

"They are making great strides in narrowing down the potential volunteers that could have been involved in handling the letters. I'm actually very encouraged this morning with the results," she said.

Daoust explained that volunteers, approximately 250 in the Ottawa area, respond to letters on their own time and are not required to answer letters while at a Canada Post location.

"Many of them do it during their lunch hour or during breaks at work. Because it is done on volunteer time, many of them do take them home to reply to at night," she said.

Federal criminal penalties, including fines or imprisonment, exist for fraudulent use and tampering with mail.

The letters are being processed for fingerprints and volunteers are being appointed to read every letter before it's mailed out.

"When we identify who is responsible for this, they will be turned over to the Ottawa police and they will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," Daoust said.

"If indeed it turns out to be a Canada Post employee that was involved, they will face severe disciplinary action on our end up to and including possible termination."

She assured that every letter sent to Santa Claus will be responded to before Christmas.

Canada Post is advising all parents to open letters from Santa before giving them to their children. Should a family receive a letter that contains inappropriate wording, Canada Post advises parents to keep the letter and envelope and contact Canada Post at 613-734-4258 or 613-734-8119.

Pickton AGAIN

Ok, yet another wonderful thing that had me wondering about Canadian legal system. The Pickton trials. They are going full swing, victim impact statements are being given and read and all is going along. Now an online survey is asking if he should stand trial for the other 20 remaining murder counts that he is being accused of. Now, on this issue I say both yes and no, though when I cast my vote I said 'yes' because there was no 'other' option.

Here are the tallies (as of 6:30pm, Dec 11, 2007 MST):

Do you think Robert Pickton should be tried on the remaining 20 first-degree murder charges he faces?
Yes 5520 votes (72 %)
No 2164 votes (28 %)

Total Votes: 7684

Now here are my reasons. I think he should be tried for the remaining 20 counts on the grounds of closure for the families. When someone loses a loved one or something happens this tragic, we all want someone to blame. We want to point the finger at someone and go 'he did it'. Even though the pointing of the finger does nothing in the long run, it makes us feel better. Also, if Pickton was tried just for a few of the girls murder and the other 20 he wasn't tried, then the family members of those 20 will always have in the back of their minds the "what? our daughter wasn't good enough to be considered a legal person and he be tried for her murder???". Even if he has been sentenced to life in prison for 4 times over, no chance of parole, they will still want that procedure.

However, it is that reason of the being sentenced for life in prison 4 times over that I say he shouldn't be tried. When a person goes out hunting and shoots a deer, once they discover it is dead, do they go up and shoot it 5 more times? I think the phrase 'beating a dead horse' is used here. Once he has been tried for a certain amount of people, then to try him for more and more murders is just a waste of tax payers money.

In the end, I guess it all comes down to which is better, tax payers money savings or personal feelings of the family. Which is the greater good to do? For those that will ask, no I will not even entertain the thought of capital punishment because I can not think of a possible time or place where capital punishment is considered to be legit. Granted, I am perfectly fine with putting Pickton into general population of a prison with all the gang bangers and thugs and let them do their own form of 'jail punishment' with the usual form of prison protection. If he is being beaten, stop the beating, but if you don't see it, you don't report it or try that hard to find out who did it.