British Justice

A 79-year-old man from Somerset who was said to have "snapped" and strangled the wife he had cared for has been jailed for 12 months.
Malcolm Beardon, of Churchfields, Wellington, admitted the manslaughter of Margaret, 78, who had dementia.
The manslaughter plea was accepted by the prosecution on the grounds that Beardon had lost control after caring for his wife for more than a decade. Exeter Crown Court heard that Beardon had been caring for his wife of 58 years - and childhood sweetheart - for more than a decade.

Judge Graham Cottle said that to describe the case as tragic would be "a significant understatement". He described Beardon as having been a man of "impeccable character" and added: "I am sure that what you did will haunt you for the rest of your days."

The court heard that as Mrs Beardon's dementia progressed, she no longer recognised her home, her family, or her husband. At a previous hearing, the court was told that after strangling his wife, Beardon had phoned his daughter to tell her. He had rejected offers for help, insisting that he could cope, the court heard.

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Richard O'Dwyer, the 23 year old man who was accused by Big Content of operating streaming website TVShack, faces extradition to the United States.

O'Dwyer's servers were outside of the USA, but that has not stopped Big Content and its political cronies from pursuing him and calling for an extradition. A British court has now caved in to America's demands and he faces being shipped to the States for the grave crime of linking to website that stream TV shows online for free.

America has been openly running a paper tiger policy against people it perceives are a threat to its churlish but effective role as the world's bully.
Judge Quentin Purdy ruled that O'Dwyer's website "could have" been illegal under UK law, and that any grounds for human rights appeals would go nowhere.
O'Dwyer's family will appeal.




Hacker Gary McKinnon was targeted because, admitted a US ambassador, he "mocked" the USA.
As Senator Darrell Issa said of Julian Assange: "If the President says 'I can't deal with this guy as a terrorist,' then he has to be able to deal with him as a criminal, otherwise the world is laughing at - this paper tiger we've become."
If Big Content has the influence to push through an undemocratic blanket-censorship bill like SOPA, then it has the influence to push for O'Dwyer's extradition.
O'Dwyer's mother's statement is a poignant one.
She told the Guardian's Walker: "If they can come for Richard they can come for anyone".

Stanford Squirms, Stays on Hook

My favourite financier, Ex "Sir" Allen Stanford, approaches public denouement as inexorably as entropy. Ducking, foaming at the mouth, diving in psychotic style, he is driven back into the naughty corner by American Justice, pressing every available button marked "DELAY" "PREVARICATE" that he can find.
The Beeb clinically traces his ducks and weaves.


27th Jan: Allen Stanford ruled unfit to stand trial for fraud

A US federal judge has ruled that Texan billionaire Allen Stanford is unfit to stand trial at present over accusations he led a $7bn (£4.5bn) fraud scheme.
Mr Stanford is facing trial over allegations that he ran a pyramid scheme based in Antigua which defrauded investors.

"The court finds Stanford is incompetent to stand trial at this time based on his apparent impaired ability to rationally assist his attorneys in preparing his defence," District Judge Hittner wrote in his ruling in Houston, Texas.

16th Feb: Stanford moved from Houston to a different detention facility

U.S. District Judge David Hittner ruled after a hearing in January that Stanford is incompetent to stand trial and must undergo detoxification from addictions to medications prescribed for anxiety and depression.
A brain injury Stanford suffered in a 2009 altercation with another inmate also may have diminished his capacity to assist in his defense, the judge wrote, citing expert testimony in the hearing.

18th Feb: Allen Stanford files $7.2bn countersuit

Texan billionaire Allen Stanford has filed a countersuit against US prosecutors, accusing them of depriving him of his constitutional rights. The lawsuit claims prosecutors "undertook illegal tactics" in their investigation of Mr Stanford's alleged pyramid scheme that they claim defrauded investors of $7bn (£4.3bn).
Mr Stanford is seeking $7.2bn in damages from the SEC and FBI.

23rd Dec: Allen Stanford ruled fit for trial

A US federal judge has ruled Texan financier Allen Stanford is mentally fit to stand trial for allegedly operating a $7bn (£4.5bn) Ponzi scheme.
"I see no brain injury that stands in the way of his standing trial," said Dr Robert Cochrane, a psychological evaluator at the prison.
US District Judge David Hittner agreed after a three-day hearing in Houston, Texas, that Mr Stanford was able to help his lawyers prepare for the trial.

Mr Stanford has spent more than eight months at a North Carolina prison hospital undergoing psychological tests and being weaned off anti-anxiety medication. Charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2009, Mr Stanford denies running a Ponzi scheme involving the sale of fraudulent certificates of deposit issued by his offshore bank in Antigua.

21st Century Tatts

Disclaimer: I have no tattoos and three sealed up piercings.


They've got these hi tec guns and stuff now, so the ink bottle and one of Mum's needles is restricted to an underclass, but tattooing is still pretty basic.
You want a tatt, absolutely 100% fine by me (as if you give a fuck), but the end result seems to be defined by the limitations of the process. Sticking an inked bit of metal in your skin.
And you get a piece of graphic art, a picture, or writing, script, and that's your lot.
A good artist can get a 3D effect with colour and composition but it's still a static image, a snapshot, paradoxically often expressing more abstract values.

So 20th century, static stuff. In this new century, on the move is the way, whole countries with no copper wire telephones but smart phones, multi dimensional tasking made essential in order to cope with the privations being forced upon us by out banking Lords, to pay their gambling debts. To make us able to buy 24/7, fulfill our capitalist obligations as the Consuming Serf.
Everything is moving, marketing fish waiting for your credit card to snap them up swim all around you in virtual shoals, infinitely breeding with depthless digital fecundity. We will never be able to eat enough, and their greed will never be satiated.

Anyway, what about nanotechnology? I first came across this as a sceptical green, reading with grim horror about nanosilver socks that stop your feet smelling by killing bacteria. Everything above the size of nothing, apparently. Which is cool if you're a lazy cunt who can't be bothered to wash his feet, but not so good for Good Old Mother Earth and her groovy ecosystem.
Because not all somethings above the size of nothing are bad for you, that's why, but nanosilver doesn't give a monkey's about that. You're a toasted microbe.
To cut to the chase, I was wondering if you could graft an 'active' skin onto your body, made with computerised elements at the nanolevel, and have

MOVING TATTOOS!

To be continued...

Very Short Videos Inc. presents: Belle and the Hooker

Pepper with that?

America's Law Enforcement Officers Enforce Law

Breaking News: U.S. Economy in Safe hands

The world's greatest deliberative bodies are exempt from insider trading laws, even though its members get quicker access to market-moving information than almost anyone else.

If you're one of those 9 percent of Americans who still trust Congress, well, avert your eyes and don't read a new book, Throw Them All Out, written by the conservative scholar/sometime Palin speechwriter Peter Schweizer.

Working through it, one of the ugliest revelations so far -- prodded in the Kroft story -- is the degree to which Rep. Spencer Bachus, then ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee, bet against the market as it collapsed in 2008. Schweizer finds "no less than forty options trades" in Bachus's records from July 2008 to November 2008.

The trades made him wealthier; almost nobody else had the information he had, and could have made them. Take this example, from the bottom of the collapse.

On the evening of September 18, at 7 p.m., Bachus received [a] private briefing for congressional leaders by Hank Paulson and Federal Reserve Bank Chairman Ben Bernanke about the current state of the economy. They sat around a long table in the office of Nancy Pelosi, then the Speaker of the House. These briefings were secretive. Often, cell phones and Blackberrys had to be surrendered outside the room to avoid leaks.

What Bachus and his colleagues heard behind closed doors was stunning. As Paulson recounts, “Ben [Bernanke] emphasized how the financial crisis could spill into the real economy. As stocks dropped perhaps a further 20 percent, General Motors would go bankrupt, and unemployment would rise . . . if we did nothing.” The members of Congress around the table were, in Paulson’s words, “ashen-faced.”

Bernanke continued, “It is a matter of days before there is a meltdown in the global financial system.” Bachus was among those who spoke. According to Paulson, he suggested recapitalizing the banks by buying shares.

The meeting broke up. The next day, September 19, Congressman Bachus bought contract options on Proshares Ultra-Short QQQ, an index fund that seeks results that are 200% of the inverse of the Nasdaq 100 index. In other words, he was shorting the market. It was an inexpensive way to bet that the market would fall. He bought options for $7,846 on a day when the Dow Jones Industrial Average opened at 8,604. A few days later, on September 23, after the market had indeed fallen, he sold the options for over $13,000 and nearly doubled his money.

There are dozens of examples like this. On September 8, Hank Paulson gets a tip from GE about the company's sluggish bond sales, on September 10, Bachus shorts GE optionsfour times. It's all legal, and Bachus is now the chairman of House Financial Services.

Being a Giant isn't always a bowl of cherries