Saw some recent news stories that had me saying, "What were they thinking?"
A town in Canada posts what they call their "Standards and Norms" explaining to immigrants that they are welcome to move to Herouxville as long as they don't stone women in public, or burn them alive or throw acid on them. They explain that "We wish to inform these new arrivals that the way of life which they abandoned when they left their countries of origin cannot be recreated here.." I listened to an interview with one of the town councilmen on BBC tonight and he tried to defend the policy as not being racist or prejudiced. As I look at the town website, many people have written in to support the Council and praise them for writing and posting this declaration. http://municipalite.herouxville.qc.ca/
A rape victim in Tampa,FL was placed in jail for two days rather than provided treatment because she had an outstanding warrant dating back to 2003. As it turned out later, that outstanding warrant has been reported to be a mistake. http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/01/30/jailed.rapevictim.ap/index.html
Finland's Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen broke up with his girlfriend by sending her a text message. http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/ptech/01/25/sms.novel.ap/index.html
There are 78 open investigations into mis-appropriations and fraud in Iraq restoration projects. GW wants Congress to approve another 1.2 B for Iraq reconstructions efforts, but millions have been misused to date. The Baqhdad Police Academy cost over $70M but has not been used. The plumbing never worked in the building. The US paid DynCorp Internation over $40M for a police training academy that has also never been used. Over $36M in equipment cannot be accounted for. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6316057.stm and http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/01/31/iraq.waste.ap/index.html
A woman in NYC accidently killed her baby while trying to protect him from the rats in her apartment. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16891842/ She slept with him in her bed and accidently suffocated him in her sleep. I'm not questioning her - I'm questioning the landlord who despite being cited over 300 times said he was unaware of any rodent problem.
A father killed his daughter in Jordan because he questioned her honor. Tests performed before and after her death proved she was still a virgin. He didn't believe her though and shot her four times in the head. She only came home because he signed a pledge not to harm her. At least Jordan has changed their laws to make honor killings to be like other homicides. Previously, penalties were as light as six months in jail. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070125/ap_on_re_mi_ea/jordan_honor_killing
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Whan I first arrived in the U.S., I lived in Clearwater Fla. I was asked once, "Do you have pizza in Ireland?" and on another occasion I was asked "Do you have dancing in Ireland?" I tried to convince the questioner that everybody Riverdanced in Ireland. He did not need much convincing.
Interesting stories here. It reminds me of the Darwin awards in some cases (or the movie Magnolia); others are just plain sad.
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