Unique Justice & Lots More
From foxnews.com, edited by yours truly: Two Montana men falsely claimed to be military in order to get more favorable prison sentences. Neither will be eligible for parole until they complete unique assignments. One was sentenced to 10 years for violating the terms of his probation for felony burglary. The other got five years on a drug possession conviction. Judge Greg Pinski suspended three years of each man’s sentence, but ruled that they must hand write the names of the 6756 Americans killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, write out the obituaries of the 40 Montanans killed there, and send hand-written letters of apology to veterans groups, identifying themselves as having lied about military service. They were also ordered to perform 441 hours of community service with a veteran’s organization — one hour for each Montanan killed in combat since the Korean War. The judge also ordered that during the suspended portions of their sentences Morris and Nelson must stand at the Montana Veterans Memorial for eight hours on Memorial Day and Veterans Day wearing a placard that says: “I am a liar. I am not a veteran. I stole valor. I have dishonored all veterans.” Kudos, judge.
The mainstream media had a field day excoriating the President for considering the acquisition of Greenland. Sean Hannity has since pointed out that we have two military bases there, and that the country is rich in plutonium. If the Russians or Chinese buy it, reporters will excoriate Trump for having allowed it to happen.
I saw a headline at FN about Kim Kardashian studying law. I googled for more info and found this surprising fact: There are four states that allow applicants to take the bar exam without having gone to law school: California, Washington, Vermont and Virginia. According to the National Conference of Bar Examiners, 70 of the approximately 70,000 people who took the exam in 2017 chose that path. Wow. I wonder how they’re doing.
69, I’m fortunate to have suffered only minor ailments in my life, and I continue to enjoy good health — knock wood. Any time something unusual pops up, I go into WTF? mode. This weekend on both Saturday and Sunday, what look like skeeter bites popped up on my butt — a lot of them. I wonder if I incurred them while selling books under the tree in front of the Chase bank at Bay Parkway and 85th, or if they’re in my car, or if my apartment has been invaded. The main worry is always bedbugs, despite the fact that my apartment was sprayed a few years ago when some folks in the complex had a problem. I stripped my bedding and checked the mattress and, to my relief, found nothing. I remembered recently killing a couple of fleas that landed on my computer screen, and wondered if that was the problem, which reminds me of the Seinfeld episode where Jerry has to call an exterminator. “Mom, dad — I have fleas!” I doubt Elaine’s boss at the publishing house, Mr. Lippman, would object to that exclamation point. Anyway, I cleaned the chair with Lysol. There weren’t any new bites overnight, so it may have been bugs on 85th St. or in the car. Of course, the mind has a tendency, at least mine does, to consider the worse case scenario, such as the rarities one spots on the web about flesh eating diseases and such. So far so good, although the itching is maddening.
Mother Nature provided a fall preview today, and it was glorious. Almost all of the floating book shop’s transactions involved Russian fare. My thanks to the buyers, and to the woman who bought two books on Chihuahuas; and to Wolf, who bought A History of Russia by Nicholas V. Riasanovsky and The Real Messiah: The Throne of St. Mark and the True Origins of Christianity by Stephan Huller; and to Barb, who donated a paperback romance; and to local porter Robert, who donated three poetry collections, including one of e.e. cummings.
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