Martin World News

 

  

So today our plant is shut down as Indiana digs out of their share of the massive weekend witner storm.  We got close to 10 inches...

But we had noplace to go, and Bobs was open...

So anyway, prayers still up for those who got the huge ice storm (including a niece who lost power and had a tree come to a gentle rest on her roof in Mississippi), and I will avoid the 'hard news' (and rants, lol) and try to find something amusing...

CNN- See, I was juggling the glasses, and...

Headline: What to know about the French ex-senator on trial for spiking a colleague’s drink with MDMA

Not really amusing on the surface: old pervert and former French senator Joël Guerriau, 68, is accused of spiking the drink of fellow senator Sandrine Josso...

... which he admits to- but says, "It was an accident."  So let's enter the land of far-fetched excuses.

Our pervert claims he uses the drug on himself, for "depression".  Then, his lawyers say on "that he put them in the glass the previous day planning to drink them himself, but didn’t do so and then offered the glass to Josso by mistake.".

Uh-huh.  Compounding the apparent dishonesty, he fought calls to resign for 2 YEARS before resigning last October, "presenting the move as a political decision with no link to the legal proceedings."

Uh-huh again.  His trail starts Monday, and he looks at a possible ten years for treating depression without a doctor.

GB News- Because you never know when George Jetson might fly by...

Headline: Council blames wet weather for removing Union Jack flags hung by patriotic Britons

So anyone who pays attention to real news knows it's become virtually a crime to say or do anything patriotic in the UK for fear of offending some Muslim.  But in Oxfordshire, they decided to make a creative excuse.  Again, let's descend into the land of far-fetched excuses.

A row of Union Jacks and English flags were ordered taken down by the County Council.  Why?  Because the weather in England sucks.

""However, placing flags or painting them on or near highways can create serious safety hazards," the spokesman said.   "The council confirmed that teams have been taking down flags and other unauthorised items attached to streetlights as part of routine maintenance work, or when they present an immediate danger.

"With the current darker, windier and wetter weather, these risks are increasing. We are therefore stepping up the removal of flags and other unauthorised items."

"Man, did you see that?  That flag almost jumped out and caused me an immediate danger!"

Moscow Times: I think additional safety testing might be needed

No headline...

I pulled this from a general report on stuff happening in the republics outside mainstream Russia.

In the republic of Sakha (Yakutia), a 16-year-old boy was killed on Tuesday after being crushed inside a tank on display at a military exhibition featuring equipment captured during Russia’s war in Ukraine. 

The phrase "crushed in a tank on display" piqued my curiousity.  It seems that the boy- the son and heir apparent of Chechnya's leader- was riding in a tank in a motorcade when a CAR that was speeding the other way hit the tank!  I don't know whether this was a case of an exceptionally well-built Russian car, or an exceptionally-poor built tank.  Of course, the latter would help explain why Russia hasn't conquered Ukraine yet, I guess...

News.com AU- Flip the property, they said.  You'll make a fortune, they said.

Headline: Property investor ordered to pay nearly $1m for backing out of deal

This happened in New Zealand, where our hero, a guy by the name of Paljeet Singh thought to make a deal on a house he intended to then sell for a profit.  He bought the house in November 2021 in an auction from Robert and Margaret Smallridge for (Australian dollars) AU$ 1.6 million.  The deal was, he paid 5% down and would owe the rest in one year, with a clause allowing him reasonable access to show the place to buyers.  But NObody wanted to visit.

Why? He wanted to jack the price up 21%, to around AU$2.1 million.  He never got one visitor: "few buyers showed interest due to Singh’s “unreasonable price expectations” and none had requested access," according to an agent who testified against him.  Testified?  Yes, because when the bill came due- and the ONLY way he could have paid it was to sell the house- he sued the seller "because they voilated the agreement by not permitting access" to the zero people who wanted to see it.

Needless to say, that didn't fly, and when the Smallridges took back possession, the housing market had tumbled and they had to sell for AU$973 K- a 51% bath!  So they, in turn, sued Singh.  And now, Singh has to pay the difference- PLUS initial contractual interest- PLUS additional interest of about AU$ 230 per day until he pays it off.  As he never had the money to pay in the first place, his total bill is now approaching a cool million.

Finally, as I ran out of places to look (before lunch, that is...)

Buenos Aires Times- out of sight out of mind

Headline: Sticky note saves the day – Malvinas map row sparks diplomatic protest at French National Assembly

For those not in the know: what Argentina calls "Islas Malvinas", the rest of the world calls the Falkland Islands.  You might remember them from that delightful little war in 1982, when the Argentine military rulers decided to take the islands off their coast from Great Britain, who has ruled them since roughly 1832- and promptly got their rears handed to them.  In 2013, a referendum was 99% in favor of them remaining with Great Britain.  However...

A hearing in front of the French National Assembly was being held where Argentine ambassador Ian Sielecki was to speak.  However, he noted a problem with a map being displayed...

"I have just noted that I am seated in front of a map that shows the Malvinas Islands as part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain," he said, as revealed in a video broadcast by the parliamentary channel LCP.

"I cannot, as a representative of the Argentine state, speak freely in front of that map. Doing so would mean legitimising a situation that constitutes an attack on my country’s sovereignty, on the dignity of the Argentine nation, and a flagrant violation of international law," he added.

As serious as he made the charge sound, the incident was solved when someone put a yellow sticky note over the islands.  Just think: $138,240,000 worth of sticky notes could have prevented the war in 1982....