SWIFT JUSTICE / Amanda Knox

SWIFT JUSTICE  

My long-running albeit irregular column on famous court cases features today Amanda Knox, whose appeal of a 26-year prison term for murder will be decided within days in Perugia. Back in 2009 I already gave this
VERDICT:
Guilty of involuntary manslaughter (a charge she rejected and was sentenced for murder in the trial) /
MY SENTENCE:
32 months in prison.
Sadly, the appeal has to be squashed now and Miss Knox will spend at least 24 more years in prison.

European Dis-Union

State of Dis-union:
When chief commissioner Barroso holds what daft Europeans call a "State of the Union" speech (another copycat ploy from the Americans) this Wednesday, it will be an exercise of infantility, imbecility, incompetence, ignorance, ridicule, self-flagellation and head-in-the-sand cluelessness. It's a sure "10" on the Vomit Scale!

Jag

Roaming London...

No PLO State

I oppose vehemently statehood for Palestinians. Hamas, a globally recognized terrorist organization, would hold the reigns of power in such a ill-conceived stae, closely alligned with terror regimes of Iran, Syria and Yemen. Deprived of measurable means to sustain itself economically, a PLO state would also immediately become a basket case, totally depending on hand-outs from the EU and aid organisations.

Those Arab nations who call today for the creation of a Plaestinian state today have in the past exercised brutal persecution and forced expulsions of Palestinians from their own territory. It's the sort of scheming, back-stabbing, spitting and double-crossing attitude Arabs are renown for best.

Across the Tyne

Millennium Bridge, Newcastle-upon-Tyne

Newcastle Wail

At the Great North Run in Newcastle this morning,
cheering on 3 members of our London team!
Good weather, even!!

Posted via BlackBerry

NEW YORK STATE OF MIND

I'm in a New York state of mind. Nothing bad will happen today in New York. Those cowardly thuggish desert rodents who attacked ten years ago are gone, and their psychopath missions won't be repeated in a place prepared to strike back. They are only after the innocent, the unsuspecting, the unaware, the defenseless. Today New Yorkers are too prepared. I'm in a New York state of mind.

Commemorating is so much easier this year, knowing that the chieftain of Massmurder &Co cannot enjoy the amenities of a European prison cell under the auspices of a International Court Of Justice in Holland, hot showers and Cable TV included, but had his head recently cut in two by bullets from some US law enforcement.

Yeah, I'm in a New York state of mind.
Current Music: CARMEN McRAE  -  New York State of Mind

Before 9-11

Before 9-11...

Two dates are etched into my memory: my date of birth and September 11th.
It doesn't matter if it were the 1st, the 10th or the umptieth anniversary of that fateful day in 2001. The pain never stops, good memories nearly edging out but never completely succeeding to destroy them: I did enjoy good times, so many of them, at the Windows On The World, the top notch eatery and bar way up above Lower Manhattan. I have been a Friday evening regular there when I worked just a stone's throw to the south.

The weekend will be solemn, in the presence of a loved one. She too has connections to the WTC: as an intern with CNN, when they were still located on Ground Level.

The picture I posted was the view from WOTW down on the World Financial Center; on 9-11-2001 both disappeared.

Sacrebleu!