Tuesday, October 03, 2006

What’s the sell-by date of revenge?

A guy walks into a school in an Amish town in West Pennsylvania with an automatic pistol, stun gun and 600 shells, sends the boys outside and shoots the girls, killing five and injuring six, apparently in revenge for some slight inflicted on him when he was a pupil twenty years ago.
You have to wonder how long people can hold revenge in their hearts – and why? What good does it do them? And who suffers most – the victim, who suffers briefly, or the poor sod who's nurtured it for twenty years?
I’ve never seen much point in revenge. I had trouble accepting The Count of Monte Cristo: loved it until Edmond escaped from the Chateau d’If, but couldn’t follow the rest of it.
This is the third reported school shoot-up in the US in a week. There’ll no doubt be the usual discussions: you know, gun control versus the constitutional right to bear arms, then it will all die down.
The Democrats are trying to get a bill through the Pennsylvania legislature that will restrict the purchase of hand guns to only one, per person, per month. Charlton Heston would turn in his grave (if he were dead) - don't they realise that this means you will be able to buy only twelve guns a year? How many schools do they expect you to shoot up with twelve guns a year? (Or you could pop over to Ohio.)

Our more perceptive readers will have noticed that the posts are fewer and briefer of late. (In fact many have expressed gratitude.) It’s not laziness or lack of subject matter: the reason is purely technical - we have only one PC between us right now, so we have to wait until the other has finished before we can get on. Things can get pretty nasty.

Does Sir Cliff Richard read my blog? I haven’t noticed any significant increase in my Barbadian readership, but you have to wonder. Following my recent post on the subject of the Blair family’s All Goin’ on a Summer Holiday chez Cliff, the lisping knight has officially denied that he has ever discussed with T. Blair the possibility of bringing in legislation that would give him twenty years’ extension of his copyrights.
On the contrary, says Cliff - he allows the Blairs their annual cavort at Condo Cliff (when they’re not at Chateau Berlusconi) because he thought Mr B. looked ‘careworn’. If you want careworn, Sir Cliff, take a look at my picture – and oh yes, I’ll need the loan of Blair Force One to get there.

Let's hear it for British Airways media relations folks. Got a reply from them (see worldsworstwebsite) in 24 hours! Many thanks guys.

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