Police Protect Criminals

A crimebuster who made a video of crack dealers operating outside his home has been banned from filming by the police, and warned he is breaching civil liberties.

Darren Gibbet bought a £250 video camera soon after the people moved into the flat opposite his and started dealing crack. Despite numerous complaints to the police, they failed to deal with the problem.

On one occasion as he filmed, one of the dealers entered Darren's property, assaulted him and tried to smash the camera against a wall. The police were called, but when they arrived Darren was told that he was breaching their civil liberties, and that the man was entitled to retrieve the film. In addition, if he persisted in filming he would face arrest and prosecution.

It's An Outrage!!

How many times do we hear the police extolling the virtues of neighborhood watches, or bemoaning the fact that they can't get ordinary citizens to stand up against and help prosecute criminals?

But when somebody actually has the courage to do exactly what they're asking, they plump to protect the criminals!!

Darren Gibbet should be given a medal, and control of London's CCTV system; the man's a hero, not a villain.

Hypocritical Manufactured Pop Band

Manufactured pop band GirlsAtPlay are just about to clog up the bottom of the charts with a remix of the classic 80's song by Mel & Kim, Respectable.

Now some of my favourite pop bands have been well and truly manufactured, but by that I mean pulled together from a large crowd and honed into a unit (Take That springs to mind).

But when I say 'manufactured' in relation to GirlsAtPlay I mean so totally fake that Trading Standards ought to be locking them up.

If you are unlucky enough to stumble across their website, you'll find that the group is made up of the following highly unlikely mix;

• Lisa-Jay, an incredibly successful business woman who owns the biggest and hippest club in London - Fallulabub's (try this on a search engine, there's only one entry...)
  

• Rita, the owner of an all-women chain of garages (there must be a Kwik-Fit pun in there somewhere; answers via emailplease!)
  
• Lynsey, an NYPD motorcycle officer who won a Medal Of Honour for "an act of heroism above and beyond the call of duty" (going out without make-up on perhaps?)
  
• Shelley, an Air Force One Pilot who flies the President around whenever he needs her
  
• Vicky, a cow girl who was left a ranch by her 18 year old Native American cowgirl penpal who died of an unspecified cause (handy, that)

Hmmm....

Some of the text on there is just so laughable you'd swear it was straight out of Monty Python or The Fast Show ("I bumped into the Prez at a club in Ibiza when he was in drag, and asked if he needed a pilot" - I'd have been asking for about $50million in used notes and a City named after me!!)

(I've emailed Lynsey and Shelley to check what exactly they've been doing to help in the wake of the terrible World Trade Centre attacks, but so far no answer.)

So that's bad enough, but what makes it worse is the song they've chosen

It's An Outrage!!

How can a bunch of Spice Girl wannabees possibly have the nerve to take on this tune?

Firstly they murder it. Secondly, and more importantly, hasn't anyone pointed out to them the irony of the lyrics?

They'll always be respectable, because every word they say is scripted, everything they do is planned, they are mindless drones controlled by people with both eyes on the bottom line.

What are the chances of any one of them dropping in a swear word into a kids TV interview? Or being photographed buying large bottles of gin from the local offie? Or being caught by police in a drug-fueled sex orgy?

Fairly slim I'd say... and more's the pity; it might make them slightly interesting and give them about another week in the spotlight than they're going to have.

Stupid Pepsi Cinema Advert

There's a really stupid advert at my local cinema which has been running for the last few months, advertising Pepsi.

It shows two improbably good looking college guys in a loft apartment messing with all sorts of computers, lasers and high tech gadgets.

They are seemingly able to 'pixelise' themselves, that is, change their solid bodies into computer hologram thingies.

They discover this 'cool' ability by sweeping their arms through columns inside their building, then decide to go on a full road test of their new found talent.

This includes;

• jumping through the floor to the apartment below (landing on the bed of a beautiful woman),
  

• jumping out of the wall of the building into a car full of gangsters,
  
• jumping out of there into the road,
  
• having another car (and it's driver) drive right through them,
  
• pushing their heads through the wall of a lingerie store,
  
• rushing through two bouncers into a nightclub,

before finally making their weary way home.

However, to their utter dismay, when they get there they find they can't pick up the cans of Pepsi they left before embarking on their strange and wonderful journey.

It's An Outrage!!

I almost don't know where to start with pulling this ad to pieces, but I'll try!

• how is it that they can jump through their own floor but are stopped by a bed, instead of plummeting to the earth's core (and possibly straight through to the other side of the planet)??

• as above, but the road also stops them after they leap off the bed and through a wall

• as above, but how come they have the ability to stand up at all, anywhere??

• they go straight from broad daylight into a heaving nightclub, then straight back out into broad daylight

• when they get back, even if they could pick up and try to drink the Pepsi, wouldn't they just be pouring it on the floor?

• as above but with food? Wouldn't they starve to death?

Add to this that their biggest disappointment is not the possibility of any of the above happening at any given time, but the fact that they can't drink on over-sweet, tooth rotting, carbonated blend of vegetable extracts, and I find it hard to be 'sold to' by this particular advert.

But nice try - certainly better than the Spice Girls in Pepsi dresses...

The Price Of Chips at Robbie's Concert

We went to see Robbie Williams play at Manchester the other week, and whilst we were waiting for the support bands to come on, we decided to get something to eat.

Chips seemed to be the best option, so we found a stand and ordered a tray to share.

We got them, and handed over £1.50, only to see about 20 chips sat in the smallest tray you've seen!

If you work out how much they were charging per chip, you'd be looking at 7.5p per chip!!

It's An Outrage!!

Good grief - you could buy a sack of potatoes for £1.50 and stuff yourself full of chips (like this chap here...).

I bet he didn't pay £1 bloody 50 for that tray, only to waste them by stuffing them up his nose and in his ears!!

When I buy a tray of chips, I want it to look more like this and cost about 90p. And be smothered in red sauce and vinegar too.

When Not To Clean Main Roads

Near where I live, there's a road I use every day to get to work, and it's a main road. It connects two of the main routes into Nottingham, and is therefore very busy.

It's also single lane either way, and has got houses on one side, with cars parked outside them. This makes it narrow at the best of times, especially when you throw in the buses that use it and have to stop frequently to let people on and off.

Now, although I'm not an expert on these things, I would suggest that one of the busiest times on this road (and most others) would be 07:00 - 08:00 on a Monday morning, when people are trying to get to work. Usually not in a good mood either, what with it being the first day back after the weeken and all that.

So when do you think would be possibly the worst time to send a road sweeping lorry up such a road at it's customary 3 miles per hour?

But when do you think the local City Council have chosen as their preffered time to do just that??

It's An Outrage!!

As if driving to work on a Monday morning isn't bad enough, try doing it with one of these lumbering beasts holding you up!!

A journey which should take three minutes tops from one end of this road to the other often takes up to 15!!!!!

What the hell's wrong with doing it at 10:00, or 20:00?? I'm all for clean streets, but not when it means I have to sit behind the lorry that's doing it, every week without fail.

Do Councillors have a care for their city's motorists, or do they just fail to notice the gridlock they're causing because they're too busy squandering my tax pounds on chauffeur driven taxis??

Stupid Astrological Marriage Query

In the Daily Express newspaper every Saturday there's an advice column run by an astrologist called Claire.

Mostly the people who write in are your normal, everyday run of the mill idiots who believe in this sort of nonsense and ask mindless questions like "My hairdresser is an Aquarian, and I'm a Scorpio with Mars rising, so should I have highlights or just a cut and blow dry?", or "My foot is on fire, when would be the best time for me to call for an ambulance given the current phase of the Moon against Sagittarius?"

But every now and again you get a real corker, like this one (taken word for word, I kid you not!);

Dear Claire
I have been married for two months and love my wife very much. She is a great girl in every way.
But she is a vegetarian. I am not, and she refuses to cook meat meals.
This is getting me down as my mother is a great cook and I miss her steak pies and mixed grills. What can I do?
I am a Taurean born May 14 1971, and my wife is a Pisces born on March 12 1972.
David

It's An Outrage!!

I almost don't know where to start, but the most obvious question has to be;

What the hell did you talk about before deciding to get married?

Her vegetarianism never came up once? Not even when you took her to meet your mother and she cooked half a pig on a stick for lunch? (You did take her to meet your mother didn't you...? Doh!)

Your love of meat and meat related foodstuffs was simply skimmed over was it, mumbled under your breath just as Emmerdale started?

During your courtship, did you ever actually eat together, even sandwiches from a corner shop? "Bacon, sausage and egg do you my love?" says he. "No thanks, I'll have a cheese salad" says she. That would have been one clue!

And are you such a momma's boy that you can't either cook for yourself, or pop round to see your old mum and get her to knock you up a pie of some sort? You sound like a real wuss to me.

Especially if you think this has anything to do with your time of birth and the vague position of stars in the vast universe that had probably been dead for millenia before you were even conceived.

They are simply hydrogen burning furnaces, just like our own sun. Huge, chemical reactors whose only effect on inhabitants of planets is to warm them up and stop them freezing to death.

To David I would say, get a grip, get a griddle, and next time you pick a girl to marry, try not to use a catalogue!!

(Don't you just love it when people start to describe their partners by saying "I love my wife/husband very much. She/he is a great girl/guy in every way." You just know there's a huge but due in the very next sentence! Of course, I love my girlfriend very much, she's a great girl in every way....)

Hong Kong Doctor Cleared of Misconduct

Hong Kong surgeon Dr Tung Hiu-ming has been cleared by the Medical Council of any professional misconduct after taking a phone call and discussing buying a new car whilst in the middle of an operation.

Dr Tung took the call as he performed a keyhole colon operation on a taxi driver. The driver, who was conscious at the time and heard the conversation, lodged a complaint after his colon was pierced and he had to undergo further surgery. He recounted at a disciplinary hearing how Dr Tung has discussed a BMW for sale with a caller in a conversation that lasted for several minutes. The original hearing found Dr Tung guilty of serious misconduct (as they bloody well should) and he was banned from promotion and pay rises for five years. The Medical Council findings have now overturned this ruling.

Dr Tung's defence rested on the fact that he had answered his hands-free phone 'accidentally' and that he had immediately told the caller that he was busy and finished the call. The Medical Council dismissed the complainant's case as unreliable because, though conscious, he was nevertheless sedated at the time.

Exactly how do you answer a phone 'accidentally', and why was it not considered relevant that the phone company's records showed the call lasted 15 mins? Yes that's right ... 15 mins! How long does it take to say, "Sorry I'm busy right now inside a man's stomach, I'll have to call you back later"?

Frankly,

It's An Outrage!!

I have been to HK hospitals for the birth of my two sons and there are signs absolutely everywhere asking visitors to switch off mobile phones because they interfere with sensitive medical equipment. Dr Tung presumably knew this, and presumably the operating theatre was full of 'sensitive medical equipment', so why wasn't his phone turned off?

The Medical Council have made an utter mockery of this case, showing their total lack of impartiality, protecting their own against what was disgraceful and unprofessional behaviour by one of their surgeons.

Teachers Want 35 Hour Week

Teachers in England and Wales are expected to vote for industrial action on Monday unless the government begins moves towards a 35-hour week.

The unions are all demanding a maximum working week of 35 hours, maximum classroom time of 22.5 hours and a salary structure which would allow most teachers to reach a wage of £35,000.

The Government's Education Secretary, David Blunkett, has said the public was unlikely to sympathise with teachers wanting to work a 35-hour week when they got such long holidays.

It's An Outrage!!

Damn right we'd unlikely to sympathise!!

Teachers in England get the following holidays;

• 1 week in February (Half Term)
  

• 2 weeks at Easter
  
• 1 week in May (Spring bank Holiday)
  
• 6 weeks in Summer
  
• 1 week in October (Half Term)
  
• 2 weeks at Christmas
  

• this equates to 13 weeks of holidays!!

So, with most other workers getting 4 weeks of holiday across the WHOLE YEAR, they are already 9 weeks up on the rest of us.

And, doing a quick bit of maths, a 35 hour week means 7 hours per day, which means starting at 08:30 and finishing at 15:30.

Isn't that exactly the length of the children's school day? And isn't it 1.5 hours less than office workers? And when will they do their marking, lesson preparation, extra-curricular activity?

Stretching my maths skills to their limit (it has been after all, over a dozen years since I left school!), you get the following;

• 52 weeks minus 13 weeks of holidays = 39 weeks at work
  

• 39 weeks of 35 hours = 1365 hours at work per year
  
• £35,000 across 1365 hours = £25.64 per hour at work

Now that seems like a mighty fine hourly rate to me!!

Unions say that some teachers are already doing 50 hour weeks, and that this will combat that problem. I say, rubbish. My working week is 37.5 hours a week, but I almost never do that few hours. Just like most other people I know, I do the hours that the job dictates.

I have every symathy for teachers who have to deal with disruptive, unruly, dangerous children, but that's one of the hazards of the profession and they know that before they go into it. Teaching is a vocation, and not just a job.

Do it right, or don't do it at all.

(My dad's fully in favour of a 35 hour week for teachers though - he says anything to increase the number of hours they currently work must be a good thing...)

Eagle Star Screw Me For Car Insurance

Eagle Star Insurance used to insure both my car and my partner's car, right up until last month.

That's when they issued a renewal notice as it was due to run out, and whacked it up by 35% over the previous year - a huge £246!!

And all because I'd made my third claim within a five year period.

Ah well, I hear you say, you're a crap driver and therefore must pay the penalty. If only that were the case. The incidents were;

• Aug 1999 - I ran into the back of a truck on a roundabout (I didn't expect him to stop to let a car cross in front of him, but that was clearly my fault.)

• Nov 2000 - whilst pursuing a criminal, a marked police patrol car backed into the side of the car whilst I was stationary outside my house, with my lights on, and after I'd sounded the horn to let him know where I was. Pretty much NOT my fault!

• Jan 2001 - a greedy fox with a mouthful of pheasant ran out in front of me on a long, straight country road at midnight. Oops! Two dead animals for the price of one smashed bumper.

So, even taking into consideration that only 1 out of 3 of these was really anything to do with my bad driving, I was penalised. Apparently that's the rule - 3 incidents in 5 years and your premium leaps upwards.

It's An Outrage!!

There seems to be no flexibility or adaptability in the way insurance is calculated by Eagle Star.

Still, I did what every consumer should, and took my business to a competitor.

Drunk Driver Sues Employer

A judge in Canada has awarded $200,000 in damages to a woman who crashed her car while driving home drunk from an office party.

The judge found Linda Hunt's employers partly responsible for allowing her to drive in an unfit state because the party she attended had taken place during company time. Since the crash, the woman has been unable to work because of her injuries.

Campaigners against drink-driving welcomed the compensation, saying it sent an important message that alcohol in the workplace should not be allowed.

Employers said it could affect Christmas office parties across Canada.

Normal people however, like you and me, say;

It's An Outrage!!

Followed closely by "For Christ's sake, get a grip!!"

This woman poured her own drinks down her own throat under her own free will, then of her own violation tried to drive home. Her employers had nothing to do with it!

Does this mean every time I go out and drink until I throw up in a taxi that I can sue my employers for working me hard in the week, giving me two days off and then putting money in my pocket?!

Or would that be the barman's fault for not stopping me, or the brewer's fault for supplying too many bottles to the pub in the first place, or for making drinks with alcohol in them, or....you get my drift!

Regular visitors to this site will know how I feel about holding other people responsible for your own misfortunes, and this is just another one in the long line.

Trust me, I've seen the future - in ten years nothing will be your own fault, and we'll be genetically engineering low-IQ clones to walk the streets and take the blame for everything.

Of course, the scientists will have to work pretty hard to drop the clones' IQ below that of the people forcing us down this path.

What we ought to be doing is making clones that will hunt these idiots down and club them to death with their own legislation. Before it's too late!!

Royles Cleaned Up for US TV

The hit British comedy, The Royles, is to be cleaned up when it is re-made for US TV later this year. The new American version of the show will be a toned-down version of the uncouth comedy that features a northern family sitting around the television, eating junk food, smoking and swearing.

In fact The Kennedys, as it will be called, will feature no swearing and only minimum smoking.

The head writer of the pilot show for the CBS network, Maya Forbes, stated that the network would like the family to be very much like the British one, but that they have a few restrictions.

"You can't even say 'Jesus Christ!' on American network TV," she added. "There's smoking only if one of the characters makes a responsible comment about how bad it is, so we'll have to rely on junk food."

Ms Forbes has also not yet thought of a replacement for the lead character Jim's "my arse" catchphrase. "It's difficult to find something with bite that you can actually say".

It's An Outrage!!

How can US TV justify sanitising a programme like The Royles and purging all the stuff that makes it so funny, yet at the same time can produce and broadcast such brilliance as The Sopranos?

This Mob-family drama has bucketloads of sex, violence and bad language all in glorious, explicit detail. Yet a layabout slob can't say "my arse"??!

And who are they trying to protect by expunging the swearing and smoking? The gun-toting, crack-smoking, gang-running youth of their country? The same ones that run around shooting up their own schools?

Perhaps US TV should take a wider look at it's responsibilities and the positive part it could play in educating America's young minds.

A good start would be to try broadcasting something worth watching, instead of ripping the heart, soul and guts out of every sitcom they touch. The Royles without cussing and tabs?? I think I'd rather be out popping a cap in someone's ass...probably a Fox Network Executive's!!

The Sopranos Sued by Italian Group

An Italian-American organisation is suing the makers of drama series The Sopranos, claiming the show wrongly portrays the community as mobsters.

The Chicago-based American Italian Defense (sic) Association wants a jury to declare that the mob series offends the dignity of Italian-Americans.

The group is suing Time Warner Entertainment under the "individual dignity" clause of the Illinois constitution.

Broadcaster HBO said the company was "very proud" of the series. "We're hardly alone in our assessment that the show is an extraordinary artistic achievement," a spokesperson said.

But the group's attorney Enrico Mirabelli said: "This is like no family I know. I don't know Italian mothers, ever, who try to have their son killed. That's not realistic."

The association claims the series "suggests criminality is in the blood or in the genes of Italian Americans and that Italians as early immigrants to this country had little opportunity other than to turn to crime".

Last year, producers cancelled plans to film at a university in New Jersey after complaints from staff and students over its portrayal of Italian-Americans.

However, the programme continues to be a huge success, and last year was nominated for 18 Emmy Awards. The first episode of the third series drew 11 million viewers when it was shown on HBO. The series is shown in the UK on Channel 4.

I'm a huge fan of The Sopranos, and love every episode, but 'mannagge'! This is crazy!! IT'S A TV SHOW!!!!!!

It's An Outrage!!

By this group's reckoning, does that make all Seattle psychiatrist's crap at relationships? Or that all Boston lawyers are thin and neurotic? I don't think so.

The Sopranos simply depicts one set of American-Italians who are mobsters, and includes many others who are not (e.g., a restauranteur, two psychiatrists, a doctor, a painting contractor, a priest, a retirement community manager, a couple of teachers, three FBI agents, and so on...).

The reason we watch it is because it gives us a glimpse into the sexy, dangerous and yes glamorous lives of extraordinary people. If it was just about dreary, fatuous, two dimensional characters leading tedious, tiresome existences, it would be called EastEnders, and 20 million people would watch it.

And therein lies the biggest injustice of all...

192.com Promotes Illegal Book

Having once used the 192.com service to try and locate somebody, I seem to be forever on their emailing list.
One morning this week I got the following email from them;

ORDER THE BIG BREACH NOW FROM 192.COM

192.com has over 50% of the total printed copies of The Big Breach and will be flying the books into the UK on Tuesday. It will be the first company in the UK, online or otherwise, to stock the controversial MI6 book which will be available to it's 650,000 registered users as well as the public at large.

The inner workings of Britain's intelligence services are revealed in the book. The Foreign Office has warned that publishing the information could put National Security at risk.

The Court of Appeal ruled on Thursday that the Sunday Times could serialise the book once it was in the public domain. The book's official launch is on Tuesday in Moscow after which it will be widely available across Russia, Europe and the US.

192.com champion the cause for Freedom of Information, and firmly believe that details on National Security widely accessible in other countries should be available to UK citizens.

It's An Outrage!!

It's called National Security for a fecking reason!! I don't believe anyone, anywhere should be able to read this sort of thing. Just because a disgruntled ex-low level MI6 operative wants to make a quick, easy pile of money, does not mean he should be allowed to put lives at risk.

If Government documents were used in a poker game, The Freedom Of Information would not beat The Official Secrets Act. So why should it be this way when money is involved?

Every police or military or security service action now seems to be open to the lottery of public scrutiny. Do you think we'd have won WWII if Churchill had to answer to the media every time he made a decision? Or do you think we'd all be speaking German now?

As the general public, we do not have the appropriate moral or intellectual capacity to pass judgement on how these things are carried out. Neither do we have the bigger picture, or the balls.

The man who wrote this should be paid a 3am visit by his ex-colleagues.

It's Another Outrage!!

192.com claim to be championing the cause of the public, and as such you'd think they themsleves would be beyond reproach.

Funny then that their own operating practices have been called severely into question by the Office Of Fair Trading.

They do not make it clear that they have no affiliation to BT's Directory Enquiries service (who are 192 on the phone).

They contact businesses and 'advise' them that their business name has been deleted from the 192 CD-ROM, and ask for a payment to ensure it goes back on. Except that they've never actually produced one copy of this CD so far.

Perhaps they're also in line for a 3am visit...?

Wilkinson Sword's Razor Con

I bought some new blades this week for my disposable Wilkinson Sword razor, and chose their newly launched ones.

Supposedly they have a diamond coating bonded to the cutting edge to give a better shave.

They're in the same packaging as the old ones, but were 50 pence more expensive. Well, I thought, for a closer, smoother shave, that's a price I'm willing to pay.

So I bought them, took them home, and the following morning opened the packet to use them.

To my horror, there was one razor missing. Or, to be more precise, instead of there being two lots of five blades, there were two lots of four blades. The picture above shows what I mean.

On the right is the old design, on the left is the new one. Wilkinson haven't even bothered taking the effort to disguise this with new packaging - they've just left one out.

It's An Outrage!!

Packaged exactly like the old style ones, you'd expect to get the same number, but you don't!! That's just downright out of order!!

Alright, it does say on the bottom left of the packet 8, and not 10, but men are just too busy thinking of higher level, more important stuff to notice that....

Safeway Brand Gingerbread Men 'Non-PC'

Safeway supermarket in Grantham, Lincolnshire, is to rebrand Gingerbread Men as Gingerbread Persons.

They claim this is because they are due to introduce a Gingerbread family complete with children (and perhaps a cat, though personally I can't see those selling very well - but I could be biased!!) and consequently labelling their shelves with the individual gender descriptions will become too cumbersome.

However, the more cynical amonst us, including the store manager Tom Lax, assume it is yet another assault by the Political Correctness brigade.

It's An Outrage!!

Gingerbread Men are clearly different from Gingerbread Women (or Ladies), as they don't have skirts or long, flicked hair.

And how many Gingerbread 'persons' have actually complained about their gended specific labelling to warrant this move?

Are we to see them lobbying Parliament in the near future with angry slogans neatly iced onto those big, flat, round lollypops you only see in comics and at funfairs?

I'd have though that the prospect of having their limbs bitten off one by one before having their heads munched (or worse, in the case of younger children, simply being gnawed into a soggy mess) would be their first concern. But as I'm not a thing of sugar, oats and ginger I guess I'll never know.

Anyway, Safeway should stick to the traditional, descriptive names given to these pieces of confectionary several hundred years ago, lest they fall foul of the famous Gingerman's fate.

For those of you who don't remember the fable, the Gingerbread Man ran all round town causing mischief, thinking he was cleverer than anyone else. Until he ran into a VERY clever fox who tricked him and gobbled him up.

Okay, it's a tenuous link, but try and make the leap with me...

Mobile Phones in the Gym

I go to a gym a couple of times a week, and I'm becoming increasingly bewildered by the number of people that come straight out of the showers, open their lockers and stand there buck naked whilst they check their mobile phones.

Most of them even answer or make calls before they get a stitch of clothing on them and I have to wonder - just HOW important is that phonecall??

I am not a mobile phone hater, as I have one for work and one for personal use; I think they're an invaluable asset.

But, not so valuable as to knock getting dried and dressed down a place on the list of 'Things To Do After A Shower'.

Even if, God forbid, it was a call to say something dreadful had happened to one of their nearest and/or dearest, they'd still have to towel off and put some pants on wouldn't they??

It's An Outrage!!

Even worse are the one or two very, VERY strange people who actually take their phones INTO the gym with them.

Perhaps it's a cutting edge personal trainer, who works from home, manages twenty or more clients, and just rings each of them up now and again to say "Go on my son - one more set!", or "No pain, no gain!", or "Push it to the max, big fella!".

Then again, it's probably the other-half, reminding them to bring some milk home... just like every one else.

Crack Addict Sues Suppliers

A California crack addict is suing his suppliers for $1 million, on the basis that they got him hooked and ruined his life.

Hmmmm - pinned him down and force fed him it did they? Put a knife to his throat and compelled him to sell all his worldly goods did they? Coerced him at gun-point to rob and steal and prostitute his girlfriend to feed his habit, is that how it was?

Or was it more a case of them asking him if he wanted some, and him saying Yes Please?

Now whilst I have no feelings of compassion towards drug dealers - I tend more towards scorching them from the face of the Earth - I grudgingly admit to being on their side on this one.

It's An Outrage!!

If this moron hadn't tried the stuff in the first place he wouldn't be in the situation he is now. And let's face it, the dangers of crack are hardly a well-kept secret are they? It's not like suppliers have promoted a positive image of the drug for forty years and subdued all the medical evidence to the contrary, unlike another well know, widely available, addictive and life endangering narcotic.

You never saw glamorous, sexy movie starlets or handsome, rugged cowboys indulging (Welcome to Crack Country...). I don't recall sports champions lifting a huge silver cup sponsored by Crack, or Formula One cars emblazoned with it's logo tearing round Monte Carlo.

It hooks everyone, and will kill you bit by bit. Even grannies and school kids know this.

So I can't really see what his case will be based on. "Please your Honour, I was a weak willed, feeble minded, easily lead, gullible, arrogant, no-hope loser, and then Big Boys came and took advantage of me. . ."

I say, "Excellent, well done, shame he didn't overdose". The more of these stupid washouts we can be rid of the better. Over here in Britain, we're even experimenting with releasing poisoned drugs onto the streets, cutting demand, crime and temptation in one easy step. Click here to see what I mean.