The Dark Furie

Gretchen was taken to hospital with extensive cuts from her neck to her legs and treated for rabies. Later on, local fire crews flooded nearby drains in a failed attempt to drive the animals out. Animal Control has said they're hoping to catch the raccoons by using cat food and sardines as bait.

The entire town of Pitsea has become increasingly aware of their cat problem since that incident in September. Locals say the screeching of wild cats are keeping them up at night, and some have even had to keep their children from playing outside as the cat attacks increase in frequency. The cats have begun vandalising fences and garden sheds as part of their reign of terror, and group together in gangs of five or more to jump off walls and attack passers-by.

Witnesses heard what they thought sounded like dogs fighting and, upon investigating went straight to her defence, but it took four men armed with sticks and brooms to chase the dogs off. Even then they came back until one neighbour managed to see them off by chasing them down with a shovel to defend himself. Mary's 3 year old grandson witnessed the event and is said to be traumatised by it. He kept repeating "The dogs ate grandma." in between sobs.

"The basic principle in the mobile industry is that those companies who contribute in technology development to establish standards create intellectual property, which others then need to compensate for. Apple is also expected to follow this principle. By refusing to agree to appropriate terms for Nokia's intellectual property, Apple is attempting to get a free ride on the back of Nokia's innovation."
Ilkka Rahnasto, Vice President, Legal & Intellectual Property for Nokia

So, the big bully of the technology playground has met someone equally big who doesn't normally throw their weight around, and is getting it's ass handed to them by that normally pacifist kid in the playground. As well as being an analogy of my school days that, my friends, is karma.

Per your public records request: You are correct in stating that at the meeting in the park the fact was "acknowledged that such a written agreement existed." What I don't understand is why you feel that a confirmation of this fact would necessitate a publication or distribution of the mentioned document. As you requested, a copy of the document has been prepared for you to pick up at my office. Our regular office hours are 8:00AM to 4:00PM, Monday through Friday. If there is anything else that I can do for you, which is required by law, don't hesitate to call my office.

Now that's all right. A little odd towards the end but basically the usual "You can have this stuff you're legally entitled to but I'm not happy about it" letter (I've had a few in my time). Unfortunately the e-mail continues.

If it isn't required by law then don't bother asking because I think that you're a worthless piece of shit and I wouldn't piss on you if you were on fire (my opinion). You're a poor, lonely, jealous, old man with aspirations of becoming a writer. You write your lies and uneducated opinions on people and issues from behind the safety of your slobber stained keyboard with the hope that somebody will read them that doesn't know you and believe that you're more than the pitiful, broke-down, lizard-looking thing that you are, in my opinion. Get a life old man. On second thought, don't bother................

Gotta admit, he's got a way with words eh? That "lizard-looking thing" comment even inspired the title for this post (cyber-cookie to anyone who gets the reference). Maybe the official Mayor's Office letterhead helps them seem more eloquent? You can find the entire e-mail here along with the e-mail that provoked it and a few more details on the situation. I wont go into them here because I don't care. Does that sound harsh? I don't see why it should. After all, I don't know either of the men involved.

What I do care about is image. Hell, you've seen me spend six months getting a decent theme for this page so I guess you know that already. You also probably know that my career choice had me managing a nightclub for a time, and that's relevant to this subject. You see, one of the rules I had in place for staff was that they not wear their uniforms anywhere except in the club, and it's a rule I had to follow throughout my entire hospitality career. When you wear the uniform, you're representing the club and any action on your part might reflect badly on the place. I don't give a damn if you publically pick your nose and eat it, but when you're advertising my club and doing that you're reflecting badly on me. It strikes me that if every bartender worked for, with or above is subject to that rule then surely people in more public jobs should be too, like government officials perhaps?

By taking the role of Mayor, this man represents the government and the city in all his actions, and that e-mail doesn't fit in with that image. But Jim Kalb is no ordinary politician and surprisingly this e-mail incident is all a part of the image he's been putting out for a while now. During my cursory research into this story I came across a few details of his life (posted by a Portsmouth blogger in 2007) including multiple arrests when he was younger for assault. You see Jim was a member of the Jackson Street Gang, a racist gang that all lived on Jackson Street in Portsmouth and who swore an oath that they would do everything in their power to destroy the lives of non-white people in their area. You can read more on that here if you wish.

So yeah, this guy is a racist bully who still practices when he thinks he can get away with it. Anyone that's gonna start chanting "Four more years!" for him at any point must be bloody mad.

Recently he responded to a call about a domestic disturbance. After knocking on the door, Deputy Barnett was confronted by a 33 year old man who invited him in very pleasantly. Then the man put his hands behind his back so he could be cuffed and said he was ready to go to jail. During the arrest procedure Richard realised that he hadn't seen the wife or any sign of the reported domestic disturbance. As he investigated further he found that he'd knocked on the door of the wrong house. The man he was arresting had an outstanding warrant for his arrest and gave himself up, assuming that he'd been caught.

The man appeared in court and was found guilty of contempt and violating probation for failing to pay fines or complete an anger management course he had been ordered to undertake as punishment for another incident. As for the victim of domestic abuse... well, no-one knows about that (or it hasn't been reported, at least) so we can assume that they just "walked into a door".