Fish for Friday

Miss Liberty leads the people in Bulgaria

[Anonymous items from the editor's correspondence]

Thank you for noting the situation in Bulgaria two weeks ago. Another article of possible interest to your readers is this one about events on the 29th day of the protests: "First Clashes with Police in Bulgaria's Anti-Govt Protests." [More Bulgarians are coming out to protest in Sofia than North Carolinians are coming out in Raleigh; maybe we need a Miss Liberty?]

Zimmerman case:

I think the whole thing is tragic and feel bad for Trayvon's family, but I have watched all of the trial and the not guilty verdict is correct in my opinion.

I thought he should have gotten something, even if for carrying a gun. But I would accept the jury's judgment. I sure feel sorry for Trayvon's family. And for Zimmerman's too. My news this morning said he would have to be watching his back the rest of his life. What a tragedy it all is.

I realized upon hearing the verdict that I must have been wishing for Zimmerman to be convicted. But the principle of "reasonable doubt" may actually have worked here. The principle is that it's worse to convict an innocent man than to acquit a guilty one, so we shouldn't "rush to judgment." Certainly, though, Zimmerman should NOT have been going after strangers in his neighborhood with a gun!

After listening to a juror's explanation, I believe the verdict was appropriate. What we the public had seen up until and during the trial was the media's interpretation of the event. The jurors who objectively observed both sides of the issue were better able to judge the facts. From the evidence, they believed that Trayvon Martin likely struck the first blow and that Zimmerman was guilty of nothing more than "bad judgment." The jurors did not believe that racial motivation played a part in the event. However, because a white man killed a black man, racial motivation became an issue in the public mind because of the rich history in this country of whites persecuting blacks AND because the media kept reminding us that "racial motivation was NOT an issue." However, I view this particular event as akin to an accident. I do not believe that Zimmerman had any initial intent to do harm to Martin. He was simply an incompetent individual given the task of "neighborhood watching" confronting a hot-headed young man, and one thing lead to another.
    Finally, I should point out that it's unlikely this tragic death would have occurred had a hand gun not been handy.

Snowden case:

He is a traitor. Any American that brings harm to America, on purpose, is a traitor.

I think Snowden is a good guy, and hope he isn't charged with treason. He thought the government was wrong, and said so.

If Snowden stays permanently in Russia, I suspect that would mean he has been a Russian agent for many years. Which would not surprise me at all. How brilliant of them to be able to make a show of providing a safe home for an American who fears for his life anywhere else due to his own American government, if he was an agent all along. Brilliant!!

He is a traitor period.

You just figured out how to do a Gmail signature?? Wow, your street cred just took a hit. Glad I never had to count on you for backup with an automatic weapon.

I parked next to one of these signs once, but I saw the authorities coming and they let me drive away without giving me a ticket: "The Secret Behind a Mysterious Traffic Code? It's Made Up."

My boy likes to swim here [at the fitness center] better than he did in the pond back home where we tossed him in so he'd learn to swim. No snakes.

James Carney's article about hiking Machu Picchu seemed a popular piece on your website, so I thought your readers might enjoy this video: "Micro Picchu."

The left temple of my glasses broke while I was on vacation, and I used tape to repair it temporarily. When I went to an optical shop for I hoped a better temporary fix (until I get a new prescription in a couple of months and buy a new pair), the optician looked in his junk box and found a "new" temple he could use. Works good as new. No tape!

It is amazing how much of the world's poaching and cruelty (such as keeping wild bears in cages with catheters hooked to them to collect bile) is oriented to stroking the egos of Asians, or helping them keep life in a certain personal part of their anatomy so they can stroke it...or have it stroked, if they can find someone willing. All of which is important, I guess, because we all know we have far too many tigers left in the wild (3,000 to 4,000), and not nearly enough Asians (only 4.14 billion): "Feds charge 150 accused in online wildlife sales."

This lake backed up to the farm we lived on for 14 years: "Local Lake May Have Been Accidentally Endangered." It was always good fishing there. Clear Lake had carp in it. They are very bad news. There was talk out there of killing off the lake and restocking, but the cost was very high.

Was that our first real-fish fish?
    No, we've had a few about various bogus fish served in restaurants and sold in supermarkets....
    The one above was our first high-speed, high-jumping, take-you-out-like-a-cannonball fish.

So, World Trade Center Properties lost two of its buildings in the 9/11 terrorist attack, and a third fell mysteriously even though it was undamaged, and insurance covered the losses, but now WTCP is suing the airlines for allowing their planes to be hijacked and used to destroy the WTC buildings: "Airlines, WTC owners square off in NYC court."
    So basically, the owners of WTCP are trying to make a huge profit from the 9/11 disaster? There must be a moral in there somewhere, but I am dubious of the morality. Isn't this sort of like suing someone for if their car is stolen and the thief crashes it into your house?

This happened to me one time: "Amnesia Patient's Sister Found in Louisiana." I woke up in bed next to a fat woman—and immediately started trying to figure out how to kill myself.
    Fortunately it was only a nightmare and when I really woke up, she had been replaced by a 105-pound redhead.

Do people still have stills? (no pun intended): "Working moonshine still found in Frayser man's garage." Excerpt: "...as of Friday the accused brew-master is behind bars while neighbors react to his arrest."

The water spirals of Elakala Waterfalls, Blackwater Falls State Park, West Virginia:

Tornado of fire: Never seen or heard of this before:

   An astonished filmmaker is coming to grips with the moment he witnessed one of nature's rarest phenomenons—a tornado comprised entirely of fire—and lived to tell the tale. Chris Tangey had been out in Alice Springs, Australia, scouting locations for a new movie. After finishing the task, he went over to help workers at a cattle station when he was confronted by one of nature's most intimidating spectacles.
    A fire tornado, also known as a fire devil, is caused when a column of warm, rising air comes into contact—or causes—a fire on the ground. They are a natural rarity, but when they occur they predictably cause significant damage. These fire whirls are known to last for around two minutes on the very rare occasions they take place. But Mr. Tangey found himself mesmerized by the tornado for more than 40 minutes. The 52-year-old said: "The weather was perfectly still and it was about 25 degrees celsius [77 degrees Fahrenheit]—it was an entirely uneventful day. Then the next thing a man is yelling, 'What the hell is that?' and I turned around and saw a 30-metre fire tornado. I was about 300-metres away and there was no wind, but the tornado sounded like a fighter jet. My jaw just dropped." Mr Tangey, who runs Alice Springs Film and Television, in central Australia, described it as a "once in ten lifetimes experience."
    "At any time there were three different tornadoes, it just kept going and going for 40 minutes. The whole experience was staggering and the length and variety was astonishing."
    These rare spectacles are extremely dangerous. In 1923, a fire whirl emerged during Japan's Great Kanto Earthquake and killed 38,000 people in just 15 minutes.

I just can't get the smile off my face from this one:

Limerick of the Week:

The photo above is cozily sweet—
everyone in the family, their feet,
    including baby son's
    and the pawed one's.
Thanks to whoever sent me this treat!

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Copyright © 2013 by Morris Dean

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