Einstein : Not everything that can be counted counts. And not everything that counts can be counted.

Monday 30 July 2007

Dog Bites.....ouch.

The next time you hear someone shouting these words'

"Police Officer with a dog, stop or I'll send the dog "

Exactly what should you do ?

Choose your answer and your subsequent actions carefully.

Is it

Answer A: Ignore them, they're only bullshitting you. Run off.

Answer B: Even if there is a dog I can either outrun it or hide. Run off.

Answer C: I'd better stop as instructed. If there is a Police Dog and it bites me it will hurt and probably land me up at the nearest acident and emergency department.

Answer D: Shout at them "Come on you bastard send you're f+*^"g dog, I can take him and you as well". Don't run off but stay and fight.

See here for the correct answer.

http://coppersblog.blogspot.com/2007/07/get-bite.html

Nice one Mr. Copperfield.

I think I would suggest answer C:

Sunday 29 July 2007

Whoever said History was boring ?

Some true facts............IN THE 1500'S

The next time washing your hands and complaining because the water temperature isn't just right, think about how things used to be. Here are some facts about the 1500s:

These are interesting....

Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May, and still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were starting to smell, so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odour. Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married.

Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children. Last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it. Hence the saying, Don't throw the baby out with the Bath water..

Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high, with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof. Hence the saying . It's raining cats and dogs.

There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house.. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That's how canopy beds came into existence.

The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt. Hence the saying, 'Dirt poor'. The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they added more thresh until, when you opened the door, it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entrance way. Hence the saying a thresh hold.

(Getting quite an education, aren't you?)

In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while. Hence the rhyme, Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old..

Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man could bring home the bacon. They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and chew the fat..

Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.

Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or the upper crust.

Lead cups were used to drink ale or whiskey. The combination would sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen
table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up. Hence the custom of holding a wake.

England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a bone-house, and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive. So they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, thread it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the graveyard shift) to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be 'saved by the bell' or was considered a 'dead ringer.'

Whoever said History was boring ? ? ?

Saturday 28 July 2007

Less paperwork ????

Crime in England and Wales has remained stable during the past year, according to Home Office figures. Police recorded the first fall in overall violence in eight years, but drug offences and robbery went up. The figures also indicate 24-hour drinking laws have not changed rates of alcohol-fuelled crime, but have merely shifted incidents to the early hours.

The Home Office said it needed to boost public confidence in statistics because 65% believed crime was rising. On publishing the annual figures the Home Office said it needed to rethink how it describes some crimes after an independent report last year warned the public do not understand the statistics, leading to a loss in confidence.

Ministers say they want a debate on what makes a violent crime because some of the offences currently classed as violent do not involve injuries.


They also said crime rates varied so much from area to area that police forces would soon start publishing local monthly crime figures to give the public a better idea of what was happening, they added.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said: "One of the biggest challenges we face is that public perceptions of crime levels remain high. Every community faces its own unique challenges when it comes to crime."

The home secretary said information on local crime would become more accessible.

Announcing a new crime strategy, Ms Smith said from next July everyone would have access to a street-by-street "story of crime" in their area from local police data posted on the internet.

So exactly what does this all mean??

One thing is for sure, contrary to the Governments claim to want to reduce the variety of paperwork we do only one thing is certain. This is going to increase the need for statistical information.

So who, exactly, will be submitting all this extra paperwork ??

Need you ask. It will end up sinking down towards the bottom dwellers.

Meanwhile, police chiefs have been criticised by a committee of MPs who concluded giving police forces extra cash had not helped reduce crime. The Home Affairs select committee found the drop in levels of crime had taken place before the injection of funds began. In real terms, police budgets went up in England and Wales by 40% from £8.5bn in 1996/7 to £12bn in 2006/7 and the number of officers rose by 11%, according to a report by the committee.

But its acting chairman, David Winnick, said: "We know the police have had a major increase in funding over the past decade but it is much more difficult to tell what they have done with it."

Read into that what you may.

visa rules ?

Visa rules?

United States: Overstay your visa and you are banned from returning for six years.

Britain: Overstay your visa and your MP works hard to prevent you from leaving!

Why is Britain always the soft touch!?!

Got this from Not Proud Of Britain (But Would Like To Be)
http://notproudofbritain.blogspot.com/

Thursday 26 July 2007

Border Police.

So Mr Brown recommends a new Border Police, from multi-agency type of approach. Great news. This will help with immigration and the like, I'm sure. But then again perhaps not.

We know where every untaxed car is in the country, located amongst all the millions of cars there are on the roads withn the UK, allegedly. We are able to clamp and then seize offending cars, as well as prosecute the owners.

We haven't a clue where almost all of the illegal immigrants and other unwelcome visitors or overstayers are. This includes the terrorists, potential terrorists and their misplaced sympathisers, supporters and accomplices.

Perhaps we should get the DVLA in charge of immigration.

One of the better nights.

I'm driving around an area that has been hit hard with burglaries during the night. The crime analyst shows us that the offences are between 1900 and 0400, thats 7pm and 4am in old money. I have just moved from one series of lanes, alleyways and footpaths towards another. I narrow the times down to changeover and perceived grub times.

My radio crackles into life............"burglary in progress at number 46, occupier away on holiday, neighbour has heard smashing glass from the rear and can hear noises inside"

I stop, quickly, silently as I can despite the pile of deisel shite I'm in, kill the lights and think quietly to myself 'pinch me'. I tell comms where I am and then PR off. Even right down low it makes too much noise. Certainly too much noise for the sharp hearing senses of the intruder.

I look to the side, can't see any numbers of the houses but must be close. Me and matey are out low profiling along the walls, I see a number, its 26, christ I can't believe how close I am. Ten houses away, lucky for me, I am on the right side of the road, even luckier. Get to 46, front gate open, dim light moving inside and shadowy figure moving throught the glazed door. I'm in through the gate, along the side of the house towards the back door, matey begins to whine, he knows something is about to happen. Dogs can sense things like this.

As I get to the back door, which has been pushed closed but not shut, matey boy in sorting through stuff on the kitchen worktop. I decide I can get through the door into the kitchen and his only route out will be through the door into the hallway which is open. I consider waiting until someone is at the front. Bingo, he closes the door to get something out of a cupboard.

Now is the time for my introduction. My boot goes onto the centre rail of the door, which crashes open, matey boy tries to run but his feet seem glued to the spot, several yards seem like half a mile but he is mine. I shout, my mate shouts too, in his own way, suddenly its that look again, the one that I know. My mate is right there, in an instant. The eyes are the windows into the mind and once the realisation is clear that hospital attention is a worse alternative than a cosy small room, a few signatures and free meals I am in control. My mate hates dwelling burglars as much as I do. Compliance is the only choice, exactly. He's on the floor, safe unless he decides to try to escape or decides to have a pop. I tell him what will happen if he doesn't comply. The deterrant is only inches away, and he knows. He's on the floor until the response arrive to search him and his baggage, we've hit the jackpot. Gear from several breaks including from a mate of colleague.

Repeat dwelling burglar, breaches bail on more than one occasion and still gets the luxury of his liberty to allow him to continue to burgle peoples homes. They are not houses they are homes. He has no respect for this, he doesn't care for this, he does what he needs to do to get his sorry ass through the next day after he trades his booty for what is important to him. He has neither conscience nor remorse, they relate not to him. He is driven by other demons that he tries to justify the unjustifiable. Suddenly, to some, he appears to be the victim. Some people feel sadness for him, even sorry for him. The offender is the drug, not the person.

Not so the people who have had him inside their homes, not them, definately not them.

Something is seriously wrong for this to be the case. But later that morning I know I won't sleep well. I'm too excited to sleep. Last night will have been one of the better nights. Another night's pensionable service. This one certainly was.

Tuesday 24 July 2007

Constantly, and I mean constantly,

Well I have heard (again) that the Government wants to reduce bureaucracy, reduce paperwork and get us out onto the streets more. After all, thats what the public want. Thats the way to deter crime and increase public confidence and the feeling of safety. How many times have we heard this before.

The problem is that all these efforts to do this seem to be utter rubbish. As the tide of reducing paperwork ebbs the tide of accountability and measuring paperwork flows. They don't even cancel each other out.

The increase in statistical information is the only boom industry we have, all in the name of micro-managing the distrust the management have in the troops and the efforts to justify how they manage us. There are positive efforts to ensure that this information is submitted daily, weekly or monthly, depending for when the next management meeting is likely to be.

More time than ever is being used to complete and submit these electronically originated numbers so itis easy for the management to collate them and 'see' what we are doing without actually finding out for themselves.

Constantly, and I mean constantly, we are reminded that we are Police Officers but this only seems to apply applies to what Noddy called the 'bottom feeders' within the Force. The blame for this doesn't all rest with the Government, some of it lies with the levels of management who insist that this is the best way forward.

We haven't really looked forward from the audit commission report, some years past,that regarded constables on the beat as a waste of space and not really productive. They believed them to be an inefficient use of resources. This was because so much of what they did was not measurable within the big business context of how things work.

The efforts seem to be to show how well the machine runs, how efficiently itis maintained and managed without the same regards for what the machine actually does.

Monday 23 July 2007

Mental Health Hotline.

Mental Health Hotline, this just takes automated call handling to a new level. This is almost as good as the Police automated system.

"Hello and welcome to the Mental Health Hotline.

If you are obsessive-compulsive, press 1 repeatedly.

If you are co-dependant, ask someone to press 2 for you.

If you have multiple personalities, press 3,4,5,6.

If you are paranoid we know what you are and what you want, stay on the line and we’ll trace your call.

If you are delusional press 7 and your call will be transferred to the mothership.

If you are schizophrenic, listen carefully and the small voice will tell you which number to press.

If you are depressive it doesn’t matter which button you press, no-one will answer you.

If you are dyslexic press 696969.

If you have a nervous disorder, please fidget with the hash key until the beep. After the beep, please wait for the beep.

If you have short term memory loss, please try your call again later.

And if you have low self esteem, hang up - all our operators are too busy to talk to you."

Tuesday 10 July 2007

Can you see jesus ?

Yes, this is a dog's arse. Just answer the question.


What makes 100% ?

From a strictly mathematical viewpoint it goes like this:- What makes 100% ?

What does it mean to give MORE than 100% ?

Ever wonder about these people who say they are giving more than 100% ?

We have all been to these meetings where someone wants you to give over 100%

How about achieving 103%? What makes up 100% in life?

Here's a little mathematical formula that might help you answer these question.

If:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
is represented as:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26.

Then: H A R D W O R K8+18+4+23+15+18+11 = 98%

K N O W L E D G E 11+14+15+23+12+5+4+7+5 = 96%

But: A T T I T U D E1+20+20++9+20+21+4+5 = 100%

And: B U L L S H I T2+21+12+12+19+8+9+20 =103%

AND, Look how far ass kissing will take you.
A S S K I S S I N G1+19+19+11+9+19+19+9+14+7 =118%

So, one can conclude with mathematical certainty that whilst hard work and knowledge will get you close, and attitude will get you there, it's the bullshit and ass kissing that will put you over the top and take you that extra mile.

Statistics.

I have been able to get one of them 'counter' things attached to the blog to see whats going on.

I was very surprised indeed to see that yesterday I had 100 hits. Since the counter stats have been working that is over 1300. I have also compiled a top ten for referals with the list as follows.

1. The Gadget blog. (I did not expect any less.)
2. Direct . (whatever that means.)
3. Blogger.
4. Google.
5. T.U.P.C.
6. PoliceCameraPaperwork.
7. Big fella in blue.
8. Officer Dibble.
9. Noddy and Toytown.
10.Area trace no search.

I have also seen that the 'hits' come from all over the country as well as from Australia, Europe and America.

Thanks for your links and all of the comments. This just shows that our words are being read.

Monday 9 July 2007

I've seen fear.

Its dark, its a little way before 04.00am, gentle but persistent rain had dusted the ground and in the orange of the street lights, it gives an eerie yellowy type of glow. From my hiding place in a garden I can see all along one road into the trading estate. Along the only other road into the estate I can clearly see a road junction, the only other way out and back to civilisation. I have been there for 30 minutes because my companion started to sniff the air. No I, most definately, had not farted. So there had to be someone about somewhere.



It was then I heard the familiar crash.....tinkle, tinkle of a window going in, somewhere closeby.



I inform comms and ask for some units to come, silent approach, if they are not committed. I make my way quietly out of the garden towards where the crash......tinkle, tinkle was heard. I am walking into the wind and almost immediately my comrade begins to whine which gives me the nod that we are close. Around the first building and I see some pallets leant against a wall underneath a small open window, the jagged outline of the broken glass and the shards of debris on the ground nearby. I creep to a corner position where I've got two sides of the building covered and update comms. I can still clearly see the window. I can now hear banging coming from inside. I ask for a keyholder but we have no detail card for the premises and no alarm activation from the alarm company. Then bingo......one of the units calls up, they have contact details from a burglary there only a week or so before. These are given to comms and only minutes later we hear that the keyholder is on their way.



The keyholder arrives and as we enter leaving the others outside, the audible springs into life. This must have one hell of a delay. Just shows how old some of these really are.



I'm trying to watch my comrade as he searches. He finds an axe, a rather large and uninviting screwdriver, an open briefcase full of keys and the usual misc papers. These are left around in an office close to the point of entry. As we enter a large dark room, at the farthest point, only lit by the orange glow through the windows from outside, itis immediately apparant that my comrade has got the smell of something interesting on his mind. His intention is to locate the source of this interest. His breathing changes, the subtle sniffs change into snorts, his mood and focus increase and the state of arousal heightens as this hunt closes in on the prey. He becomes excited and frantically begins to scratch at a closed door, whining and then breaks into a bark, the type of bark that means just about only one thing. I shout to identify us and offer an opportunity to exit what lies behind the door. Nothing.



I open the door, shout another challenge to who ever lies within and see that the door leads to a tardis of another room larger than I had imagined. Darkness within. I release my comrade and as he heads into the darkness I illuminate with my torch at the same time that I hear a different, intimidating growl and bark that shows me that my comrade has located our prey. In my torchlight the focus is not on me but on my comrade, only feet away from a cowering burglar who suddenly wishes that he had taken up an alternative night time livelyhood. At the moment anything would be better than this. Sometimes the working conditions are not all they are cracked up to be.



I shout at him to do exactly as I say but he appears like a rabbit in the headlights. A rabbit in the headlights of an impressive set of canine dentistry which are waiting for a signal, the signal.



There is genuine fear, genuine compliance, eventually when I speak in the language he understands and a genuine desire to do whatever it takes to leave with all the parts he came in with. Apart from, perhaps, a little DNA that would corroborate this presence. That might be useful. But at the moment, that moment, the elation is ours and ours alone. The eyes of the burglar tell the only story you need to know. Response are elated as he is a target, there is no shortage of volunteers to supply the taxi ride towards incarceration. Even the wet patch on the seat illuminates the misery of the weather. The nights brings the warm glow of a success that motivates everyone and reminds us of exactly why we joined in the first place. To provide this sort of service. Itis the criminals who should be incarcerated, not us incarcerated within beaurocracy and paperwork prisons. As he is being led away we get the call from the alarm company. Confirmed alarm actuation at the premises.



There is little or no fear in being arrested or taken to a cell for hours, days or however long it takes. There is little or no fear in the legal processes that take place. There is little or no fear in the paltry and derisory sentences that burglars receive if and when they are convicted.



But for a short moment, only a brief moment, I can say that I've seen genuine fear.

Saturday 7 July 2007

John Smeaton - quotes.

Two genuine quotes from Glasgow Airport terrorism witness John Smeaton.

When asked what message he had for the terrorists he said.

"This is Glasgow, we'll just set about you."

When asked how he tried to restrain the terrorist he said.

"Me and other folks were just tryin tae get the boot in and some other guy banjoed him."

There is a lesson there for terrorists.

The politicians say the same, but only in a far longer and politically correct way.

Banjoed.......................I like banjoed. I must try to bring this into conversations.

Well done John. Add me to your pints list.

Einstein, again.

Some more Einstein quotes.

Nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced.............Albert Einstein

Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler.....................Albert Einstein

If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough..............Albert Einstein

And again:
Not everything that can be counted counts.
And not everything that counts can be counted..........Albert Einstein

Anyone else got any other quotes that they like ?

Simple and to the point.

Thanks to anonymous for this comment on an earlier post.

Simple and to the point.

To paraphrase Einstein :

Not everything that can be counted counts.

And not everything that counts can be counted.

Thursday 5 July 2007

Investing in people,again.

Investing in People ?

Now what's all that about then ?

An organisation that values all their staff and their abilities they bring to the organisation.

Organisation.............sounds like another 'good' word. Much like 'cascade'.

Back to investing in people.

Sounds like another trendy in-phrase that gets bandied about and is great in practice but is ignored in reality. Reality is where a lot of us of seem to spend our time.

Perhaps you've never been shafted by the management and you think itis a good thing.

Perhaps, then again, you have been shafted and the phrase 'investing in people' leaves a particularly nasty taste in your mouth.

I'll help you search for the mouthwash.

Wednesday 4 July 2007

SCUM


This is a picture of a lady who is a victim of crime. This frail old lady was returning home after collecting her pension when she was subject to being robbed, known fashionably as 'mugging'.
She did nothing to invite or incite this horrible offence apart from being an easy target for someone who I describe as SCUM. As a result this lady is in a hospital, in a coma and fighting for her life. This is because of the actions of SCUM.
This SCUM is likely to be a repeat offender.
This SCUM is also very likely to have a drug habit.
This SCUM has absolutely no conscience at all.
This SCUM does not deserve to breath the oxygen we share nor to walk our earth.
This SCUM deserves to suffer an unfortunate and very painful accident.
This lady is not just a victim. She is a mother, probably a grand-mother and has any number amount of friends and family who are deeply distressed and angry that this SCUM has done this horrible thing.
To the victim and her family I wish hope and recovery. That is the least you deserve.
To the SCUM, you deserve nothing, not even a life. I hope the drugs you will probably buy result in an overdose and there is nothing or no-one around to save you. That too, is the least you deserve.

Tuesday 3 July 2007

Convinced ? Not quite.

I've just had a bit of a chat with someone with several pips on their shoulders covering a couple of matters and raised some concerns over things that we do. I have been semi-reassured over a few issues concerning the increasing need for statistical as well as other sorts of information and the apparently ridiculous things we get set to do, as well as being told how to do them. I found out that during the myriad of meetings the management attend, all sorts of things are brought forward as suggestions which they then have to go away to research. The good ones they try to put meat on the bones, as it were, whilst the bad ones they try to make seem unworkable or appear stupid. The trouble is, not all are raised by the S.M.T with a good deal being brokered by the Chief Officers at the behest of Government, namely faceless nameless burocrats who have no idea of what we do and how we do it.

It appears that this is like me trying to advise someone on open heart surgery, which I know nothing about. I am not remotely qualified and nobody would dream of listening to me, if they are in their right mind.

Most seems to be connected to one budget or another and financial directives drive almost all of what we do.

If it can save money it will work, or we will find a way of making it appear to work. Then we will somehow claim it is more efficient and as a result must be far better than before.

Itis not my performance that will be judged upon this it will be someone else who will have hit a target and probably get a reward of some sort for their effort. If the targets are not hit then who bears the responsibility for the failure ?

Monday 2 July 2007

Congratulations

CONGRATULATIONS TO A LL THE KIDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE
1920's, 30's 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's !!

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us and lived in houses containing asbestos.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese, tuna from a can, sugar, put salt in the veg and didn't get tested for diabetes or cervical cancer. Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets or shoes, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking .

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags. We drank water from a stream and not from a bottle. Take away food was limited to fish and chips, no pizza shops, McDonalds or KFC. Even though all the shops closed at 6.00pm and didn't open on the weekends, somehow we didn't starve to death!

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this. We could collect old drink bottles and cash them in at the corner store and buy fruit spangles and some straws to blow up frogs with.

We ate sponge cake, white bread and real butter and drank soft drinks with sugar in it, but we weren't overweight because......

WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!! We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on. And with no mobile phone No! one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K. We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. We built tree houses and made camps in the woods and played in the gutters with matchbox cars.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no mobile phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms..........

WE HAD FRIENDS!!!!!! and we went outside and found them! We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no Lawsuits from these accidents and no waiting at A&E for the host people from all over the World who can't spell Accident and Emergency to be seen before us.

Only girls had pierced ears! We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever. You could only buy Easter Eggs and Hot Cross buns at Easter time.......no really! We were given pellet guns and Bow and arrows for our 10th birthdays and we did not grow up to be muggers or hold up shops.

We drank milk laced with Strontium 90 from cows that had eaten grass covered in nuclear fallout from the atomic testing.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them and that was after walking in. We kept doorkeys on a piece of string behind the letter box. When the neighbours spoke, yes they actually spoke, they weren't being nosey, just neighbourly.

Mum didn't have to go to work to help dad make ends meet! Football had trials and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!

Our teachers used to belt us with big sticks and leather straps and bullies always ruled the playground at school. The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

Our parents got married before they had children and didn't invent stupid names for their kids like "Sky" and "Blade"

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever! The past 70 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL! And YOU are one of them!

CONGRATULATIONS! You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good.
And while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were. Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?!

Thieves have rights too.

I am amazed at a story from a tabloid newspaper in which it reports that a shopkeeper was fined £250 after he chased and caught 3 thieves after they stole spray paint from his store.

Two of the 3 thieves were given fixed penalty fines of £80 but he was charged with assault and subsequently pleaded guilty, rather than face a possible jail sentence.

A shopworker who assisted in catching the thieves also faces court proceedings.

The court ruled that the shopkeepers claim of self defence, kicking one of the thieves on the ground after he had been assaulted, not sufficient enough reason not to convict him.

Well thanks everso much. That is another member of the public we can trust on for their support in the future and who will also have trust in the system. Oops, I forgot, he is now a criminal.

It appears that thieves have rights and deserve the full protection of the law.

That is really re-assuring to know, especially if you happen to be a victim of crime.