Psychotic kid, and the mom’s an enabler

Via newscenter:

A teenage boy has been charged with booby-trapping a snowmobile trail last weekend by stringing fishing line across the trail at head height.

Another story on this I read said it was braided fishing line*, no less. 5 lb. test line could kill someone on a fast-moving vehicle, but braided line is practically guaranteed to.

The youngster is charged with reckless conduct, but his mother said the incident has been blown out of proportion
[...]
Three snowmobilers found the fishing line Sunday evening. It caught one of them in the facemask and pulled his head backward, but he was not hurt because he was slowing down.

And if he hadn’t been going slowly? Or been hit in the neck instead of the facemask?

And some priceless quotes from the mombie:

“But I feel this has gone way beyond where it should,” she said. “It was just two kids who stupidly put up the fish line. They didn’t want to hurt anyone.”
“My son realizes he made a stupid, stupid mistake,” she said. “It will affect him the rest of his life. Kids do kid things, and the kids are going to suffer for it. I’m very upset childish pranks get taken so far.”

Putting braided fishing line where it could easily garrotte necks, crush windpipes, and slice open jugular veins is not a “kid thing” to do, lady. Your son is psychotic. Attempted murder is not a “prank”. He’s a teenager, not a five-year-old. I knew long before my teen years that braided fishing line along a snowmobile path could hurt someone. “They didn’t want to hurt anyone” my ass. They strung braided line at head height.

The caption here points out that it’s braided line.

Debt

Walt Disney was once asked if his career was going successfully, and he replied, “I must be successful. I owe seven and a half million dollars.”

Church tax evasion in Mexico

Some of you may have noticed that many churches in Mexico that have been operational for decades nonetheless have a somewhat unfinished appearance. For example, there are half-bricks missing from the front of the church pictured above in Puerto Vallarta.

The reason? Under Mexican tax laws, once the church is “finished”, they have to pay taxes.

This church is called Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, and it’s been operational since 1963. It’s one of Puerto Vallarta’s most recognizable landmarks and tourist attractions. They’re open from 7 AM to 10 PM every day.

They have never had to pay taxes because the church is “unfinished”.

As are many other churches in Mexico. So much for rendering unto Caesar.

[Photo Source]

Interesting choice of words, Cardinal.

Via yahoo:

A top Catholic cardinal has blasted “The Da Vinci Code” as a “gross and absurd” distortion of history and said Catholic bookstores should take the bestseller off their shelves because it is full of “cheap lies.”
[...]
“You can find that book everywhere and the risk is that many people who read it believe that those fairy tales are real,” he said. “I think I have the responsibility to clear things up to unmask the cheap lies contained in books like that.”

And, with that, he resigned his position in the Church . . .

How not to handle a financial mistake

Awhile back a middle-aged guy came into the store and shouted at us for turning a bounced check over to a collection agency.

First off, all bounced checks go from the bank straight to the collection agency; this was the only way we could get the bank to stop charging us a returned check fee every time a check from a customer bounced. We don’t even find out a check bounced until the collection agency sends us a letter about it. We don’t charge customers a bounced-check fee, even though we lose half of the check to the collection agency when it bounces. We just eat the loss.

We told him all that, but it was of no use. He continued shouting a long, detailed tirade that he had been apparently making at many places that day, civility be damned. And the details were illuminating:

“No Rational Purpose”

Via msnbc:

SAN FRANCISCO – A judge ruled Monday that California’s ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional — a legal milestone that, if upheld on appeal, would open the way for the most populous state to follow Massachusetts in allowing same-sex couples to wed.

Judge Richard Kramer of San Francisco County’s trial-level Superior Court likened the ban to laws requiring racial segregation in schools, and said there appears to be “no rational purpose” for denying marriage to gay couples.
[...]
Two groups opposed to gay marriage rights, The Campaign for California Families and the Proposition 22 Legal Defense and Education Fund, argued that the state has a legitimate interest in restricting marriage to opposite-sex couples as a way of encouraging procreation.

Really? Could y’all slide some of that politicking money to Vista Del Mar Child and Family Services? There’s been plenty of procreation in California already, and plenty of kids already here who need help if that’s really what this is about. But let’s be honest. It isn’t.

Fighting crime, one chisled rock at a time

This is from an article about public displays of the 10 Commandments:

“Ninety-nine percent of people believe in the Ten Commandments,” [Supreme Court Justice] Scalia said. “Eighty-five percent couldn’t tell you what they are,” he added to widespread laughter.

[. . .]

Texas legislators received the monument as a gift from the Fraternal Order of Eagles to fight youth delinquency.

Monuments ain’t cheap. That kind of cash could have paid for alot of after school activities, the time of day when the juvenile crime rate is the highest. Oh, but that would make sense. Nevermind. Giant hunks of rock for all! Yeeeehaw!

And now I complain about someone who owes me money…

He decided to get dog. But not just any dog. A status dog. An over-$1,000 rare breed dog. All the information he can find on the dog says they’re very hard to potty train. Oh, no problem, he’ll have the dog potty-trained in no time.

So he drops over a grand on the poopy pooch. Then he and his wife drop hundreds more on special potty-training equipment (some big sandbox thing with rocks in it) and on dozens of little outfits for the dog. Dozens and dozens of freaking outfits for the dog at $19.99 and up.

Outfits.

For a dog.

That poops all over everything.