My Commonplace Book

Have any of you Deaf or hearing ASL speakers ever heard of anything like this happening? I'm hoping this is just an isolated incident of a real asshole and this kind of thing isn't common!

Gestures spark 5-person brawl

Raymond Keith McWain, 26, had just turned from Mountain View Drive onto Boniface Parkway when he noticed a truck with three men alongside his car. One of the truck occupants is deaf and mute. The deaf man was communicating with the other two in the truck through American Sign Language, a written police statement said.

McWain thought the sign language gestures were some sort of slight or "disrespect" toward him, police said. So McWain began doing some gesturing of his own. He honked and cut in front of the truck before pulling into the Papa John's pizza store on Boniface, police said. The men in the truck followed.

That's the opening of the original article in the Anchorage Daily News. The Washington Post Online has the full AP story.

Apart from the horrible situation, I wonder if the guy really can't speak, or if the reporter just assumed that anyone who is deaf must be "deaf and mute".  (At least she didn't say "deaf and dumb"!)

( Full text from Anchorage Daily News )

There are at least a few creative judges out there!

Logical consequences and embarrassment will always work better than unrelated punishment. In the second case, the guy did get some richly deserved jail time, but the length of his sentence was reduced in return for accepting the alternative punishment. (I think it was reduced a little too much, but maybe he'll remember it better this way.)


Public apology ordered for man who parked in handicapped space

( Text )


Man to Wear Pup Costume for Shooting Dog

( text )

If you've ever gotten an oil change at Jiffy Lube -- or think you might want to -- read this first. And don't miss the videos!

Channel 4 in Los Angeles got a tip from an insider that at the Jiffy Lube service centers in the LA area owned by franchisee Heartland Automotive, they were recommending additional work, pretending to do it, and charging for it -- but not doing it! Channel 4 used hidden cameras and pre-marked parts to conduct an investigation at nine outlets -- and got the whole scam on video, including an admission by one store manager.

It turns out that Heartland management had a quota for the shops -- a quota that was higher than it was possible to meet in the hours the store was open. The only way to charge enough work was to not take the time to do it.

You might think that once the Jiffy Lube corporate office heard about Heartland's antics they'd come in and clean house. Well, they claimed to -- but this is the third time Channel 4 has investigated Jiffy Lube outlets in the area, and every time Jiffy Lube claims they'll crack down on it. They close the outlets involved for "training" -- but the insider says that rather than being trained to be honest, they get trained on how not to get caught.

Bolstering that claim is the fact that Jiffy Lube shunned the station, and repeatedly and steadfastly refused to make any statement on camera. Eventually, what little they said was communicated to the station by email.

If a franchisee is found cheating customers, I would expect the company to be more concerned. The insider said the instructions to charge for work that isn't done come "right from the top" -- and I got the impression he means the corporate office, not just the franchisee's office. Apparently Jiffy Lube's expectations are also too great, and it may even be subtly communicated by a wink-wink-nudge-nudge that the quota is more important than the quality -- or even the existence -- of the work.

I'll never take my car to a Jiffy Lube again. The company's response toward the franchisee's lying, cheating and stealing makes it obvious that any franchisee can do it, and may even be encouraged to do it. I don't care who owns the individual outlet I may go to ... I don't trust the whole company.

( The robbery went well -- until it was time for the getaway )

( ATM Robbers Yank Out Wrong Machine )

( Angry driver blew chance of beating speed camera ticket )

( Men jump in front of cars to take pictures )


And although the last two aren't criminals, they certainly fit in with the theme:

( Mystery cleaner breaks in and cleans )

( Darwin Award nominee: Man Dies After Pounding on Window )

It takes an enlightened judge to come up with such a creative way to teach kids about how their pranks impact others. Putting them in jail would have only made them resentful and bound to take revenge, and random community service would have been meaningless. But this way they'll learn a lesson they'll never forget!

A judge ordered two paintball shooters to take aim at their own cars in order to stay out of jail.

Joshua Breeding, 20, and 19-year-old Christopher Lyons were found guilty on Thursday of splattering up another man's vehicle with paintballs in May. They each got a sentence of 60 days in jail.

[Painesville, Ohio] Municipal Court Judge Michael Cicconetti gave them the option of shooting their own cars with paintballs and then cleaning up the mess. They also have to spend 40 hours painting at a Habitat for Humanity home.

The judge also ordered the pair to apologize to their victim and pay court costs.

Ove  the weekend, someone stole dozens of lette s from the signs a ound G eencastle, Indiana. Police can't figu e out a motive for the biza  e c ime, in which the thieves took dozens of  's f om gas stations,  estaurants, auto  epai  shops, docto s' offices -- even the National Gua d A mo y, which lost six  's, leaving the sign looking like a half-finished hangman game.

No other lette s we e stolen -- just  's. Those Hoosie s su e a e st ange.

Ever wonder how they get soldiers to enforce heinous orders like those given at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib?

Judge offers choice: Join Army or go to jail

A judge offered a 20-year-old man facing sentencing an unusual choice: Enlist in the Army or go to jail for up to a year. ...

Prosecutor Caroline Wojtaszek was doubtful Guerra would actually enlist but said, "maybe they're the only ones who can whip him into shape."

A judge can't order someone to join the Army, but she can decline to impose a sentence if conditions are met, said Guerra's attorney, Matthew P. Pynn. "We do that with misdemeanors all the time," he said.

Guerra had been accused of shoving his girlfriend's friend against a wall and kneeing her in the stomach. Authorities said he was trying to assault his girlfriend and her friend tried to shield her. ...

This isn't new. It was going on when I was young, too, and probably for a long time before that. But the Army has drastically lowered its standards in order to fill the ranks, so I imagine more and more people who enlist under these circumstances are becoming All That They Can Be. Unfortunately, that isn't much.

In replying to comments to the previous entry about the three trees that were removed from a Vancouver park by a rich woman who wanted a better view of the water -- damn other residents and full speed ahead -- I realized that I really shouldn't neglect to mention  a very similar situation right in my own back yard, involving a far richer individual who cut down far more trees to improve his view of the water and make his far bigger and more expensive home worth far more than Ms. Matheson ever even dreamed of.

In 2004, Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder hired workers to take chain saws to 130 trees on several acres of woodlands on a hillside behind his estate, giving him a panoramic view of the Potomac River from the $10 million home he had purchased three years earlier from Queen Noor, widow of Jordan's King Hussein. (There's a photo with the article at the link.) It came to light when birders noticed the denuded riverbank and contacted the Audubon Society.

The National Park Service, which has long had a reputation for zealously enforcing scenic easements that protect the woods along riverbanks, was oddly calm about the situation, saying only that Snyder cut the trees "by mistake" and that he failed to notify the agency. But then officials at the C&O Canal National Historic Park said they okayed the logging plan after months of negotiations with Snyder's attorneys, and the NPS suddenly admitted that Snyder did have permission.

A few months later, the Washington Post reported that government documents showed that the NPS gave Snyder permission to remove the trees in exchange for a possible share of the enhanced value -- estimated at $500,000 to $1 million -- that he'll receive from his new river views. "The Park Service did not disclose the monetary arrangement when asked about the tree removal last December," the Post sniffed.

After a series of conflicting explanations, the NPS finally said that Snyder had been allowed to cut down the trees because his property has been invaded by nonnative species, such as ailanthus and paulownia, that the Park Service has been trying to keep out of its forests.

If that was true, why didn't they say it in the first place? Or even in the second place? However, the story is even more convoluted than that.  Montgomery County officials are investigating whether Snyder violated local conservation laws by removing the trees without the approval of the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission. According to documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, the Park Service and the county told Snyder as far back as 2001 that such approval was needed. County officials said he went ahead with the cutting after receiving only federal clearance,  but the county's forest conservation law requires a permit before a landowner can remove more than 5,000 square feet of trees.

And, it gets worse! It seems the C&O Canal superintendent decided to allow Snyder to remove 20 diseased native trees, although he claimed he "specifically articulated" to Snyder that he needed to secure county approval.

If you've lost track of all this by now, join the club. That's aparently what everyone involved is hoping. The point is that officials of county and federal agencies are falling all over each other to try to (a) point the finger at someone else and (b) say it's not a problem that 130 trees were cut down by one of the richest people in the country, who made it into the Top 10 of Fortune's list of the richest Americans under 40.

On the other hand, the folks on the poor side of town, who overlook the Anacostia River (which is, not coincidentally,  the DC area’s greatest source of toxic pollution to the Chesapeake Bay), were surprised to hear that the NPS is apparently waging a war on nonnative species of trees and shrubs on its land. Their views and access to the river are blocked in most places by these same nonnative species of trees and shrubs — ailanthus, mimosa, paulownia, northern catalpa, Russian olive, bush honeysuckle — not to mention English ivy and multiflora rose. "It sounds as though the same kind of deal [that Snyder got] would greatly benefit Hill East residents such as activist/author Jim Myers, who has been agitating for better access to the river and more Park Service attention," opined columnist Duncan Spencer in a DC political publication.

"The present situation along the Hill’s 'other' river is abominable," Spencer fumed. "Weed trees have been allowed to grow completely unchecked, and there is no Park Service policing or effort to stop the invasion by nonnatives. All the Park Service does on the west bank of the river is mow roadside grasses and erect signs warning of pollution, or announcing the presence of private boat clubs. That west bank is completely infested with bush honeysuckle, to mention just one invader, a bushy, opaque shrub that blocks access and sight line. One presumes that after the Snyder deal citizens of the Hill have not only the right but also the duty to help the Park Service by hacking away with a will."

If residents near the Anacostia are unsure of what to cut, Spencer recommends they check out invasive.org, a US Forest Service website dedicated to eradicating nonnative plants on public lands in accord with National Park Service policy.

eudyptes posted a report about a wealthy Vancouver interior designer who poisoned five trees in the park in front of her building because they were blocking her spectacular view of English Bay from her third-floor condo and she wanted to "get rid of them."

The Reuters article didn't say much, and I wanted to find out more about it. When I searched Google News, I was dismayed to find that, other than the Reuters.uk report that eudyptes quoted -- which was carried on their "odd news" channel, not reported as anything serious or important -- this incident was covered solely by the Canadian press, and not very extensively at that.

It seems that in the spring of 2004, staff from Vancouver's park board found holes drilled in the base of five trees, including a maple, chestnut, oak and two London planes. The CBC reported (.ram file) that a neighbor saw 72-year-old June Matheson go out to the park in front of the building very late one night with a male companion; while the man paced back and forth nearby, the neighbor said, Matheson knelt down for a few minutes at the base of several trees. She had drilled the trees with a ¾-inch auger and poured in a mix of herbicides that are unavailable in Canada -- she'd gone to Bellinham, WA to buy them, poured them into plain containers and smuggled them across the border. (The CBC's web article includes a photo of the holes drilled in one of the trees, as well as of the building and the park  in front of it.) Three of the trees subsequently died.

Her lawyer actually told a CBC reporter that Matheson's action was "not dishonest"! "The public misunderstands," he said. "[These trees] are roughly 25 years old and you can go buy them at the nursery." Her neighbors and others who use the park didn't see it that way -- to express their anger, they threw rocks, eggs and even bags of dog feces at her apartment balcony.

To get out of trouble, Matheson pleaded guilty and wrote a letter to the court apologizing abjectly. "At the time I did this, I thought only selfishly about my view and the thousands of dollars spent on waterfront taxes to enjoy the beautiful ocean. What I now realize is how wrong it was to take away something that wasn't mine to take. For that I apologize." She also said, "I had to sell my home that I love because of endless harassment. I now have a home with no view. My health has been affected and I've had death threats made against me."

She also mentioned that she had already given the Vancouver Park Board a check covering the almost $30,000 cost of replacing the trees, plus an additional $20,000 donation.

Judge Ellen Gordon was quite sympathetic. "The resulting attention and harassment forced her to sell the two things she loved most, her apartment and her business," Gordon said of Matheson, and then gave her an absolute discharge from the criminal proceeding.

But Matheson may have been planning to sell her condo anyway -- prosecutors said she may have felt an improved view of nearby English Bay would increase its value.  She sold it in October 2004 for nearly 1.7 million CAD (approximately 1.5 million USD). And she was 72, so it was a good time to sell her business, which included clients like Goldie Hawn, Sarah McLachlan and Bif Naked, and retire on her obviously ample wealth. I'm sure her new "home with no view" is quite comfortable.

Vancouver Park Board chair Heather Holden said she was very satisfied with the result, even though Matheson got no punishment. "But what about the message this sends to the public?" the CBC interviewer asked her. "Yeah... um..." Holden stammered, before noting that after all, Matheson did pay for the trees she had destroyed, and even given them $20,000 extra. 

But if Matheson would have gotten, say, "only" 1.5 million CAD with the trees blocking the view, she's still ahead by $150,000 (almost 130,000 USD)! Obviously poisoning the trees was a good choice -- she went through some aggravation over it, sure, but she came out ahead in the long run.

This would go perfectly in the book I'm reading right now, Your Call Is Important to Us: The Truth About Bullshit. I'm about halfway through, and enjoying it very much -- no, I can't say I'm enjoying a book that's all about the bullshit we suffer with every day. But I am finding it very lively and interesting. And this story would fit right in.