Boy Playing with Matches Blamed for One of California Wild Fires

One of the 15 wild fires in Southern California that destroyed more than 21 homes and consumed more than 38,000 acres was started by a juvenile boy playing with matches. Unbelievable!  Don’t they still play the public service announcement videos of Smokey the Bear  in school telling children not to play with matches and fire? Kids, “Only You Can Prevent Forest Wild Fires.”

The boy, whose name and age were not released, admitted to sparking the fire on Oct. 21, Los Angeles County sheriff’s Sgt. Diane Hecht said Tuesday. Ferocious winds helped it quickly spread.

“He admitted to playing with matches and accidentally starting the fire,” Hecht said in a statement.

The boy was released to his parents, and the case will be presented to the district attorney’s office, Hecht said. It was not clear if he had been arrested or cited by detectives. (Yahoo News)

Authorities have blamed an arsonist for setting some of the fires in Orange County, CA that destroyed 16 homes and burned more than 28,000 acres.

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Halloween Jack-O’-Lanterns Tax … Is Pumpkin a Food?

Think we have a government with just a bit too much time on their hands? How misguided can we possible be? In Iowa they seem to be more concerned with taxing pumpkins than dealing with illegal immigration. Oh sorry, Mexican nationals.  

Wait until Sally and Linus get their pumpkin tax bill. Some times one just has to scratch their head and say WTF! So what does the Iowa Department of Revenue have, a “Pumpkin Revenue” Enforcement Officer? Will this individual be dressed up like the “Great Pumpkin” and hide in pumpkin patches waiting to pounce on unsuspecting farmers? As Blue Crab Boulevard so well states, this is “one of the most blatant squeeze the peasants move by a state bureaucracy that I have ever seen.”

Do our bureaucratic officials really have nothing better than to sit around and dream this crap up? Who sits in that board meeting and says, “I have a great idea to pad the coffers, let’s tax pumpkins?” We actually pay these people’s salaries to do this?

DES MOINES, Iowa - The Iowa Department of Revenue is taxing jack-o’-lanterns this Halloween. The new department policy was implemented after officials decided that pumpkins are used primarily for Halloween decorations, not food, and should be taxed, said Renee Mulvey, the department’s spokeswoman.

“We made the change because we wanted the sales tax law to match what we thought the predominant use was,” Mulvey said. “We thought the predominant use was for decorations or jack-o’-lanterns.”

Previously, pumpkins had been considered an edible squash and exempted from the tax. The department ruled this year that pumpkins are taxable — with some exceptions — if they are advertised for use as jack-’o-lanterns or decorations.

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Madrid Spain Train Terror Bombing Verdicts … 4 Guilty and 1 Acquitted

The Madrid Spain train bombings were one if the worst terrorist bombings in Europe killing 191 people and wounding 1800. It has been referred to as Spain’s 911 and now the first verdicts are in for the 28 defendants. Four found guilty and one acquitted.

Rabei Osman, one of the accused masterminds of the 2004 Madrid terror bombings, was acquitted of all charges on Wednesday by a Spanish court after the first four of 28 defendants were found guilty of murder and other charges in the culmination to a politically divisive trial over Europe’s worst Islamic militant terror attack.

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Scared Monkeys Radio Daily Commentary - Wednesday, October 31, 2007 - Dana’s Observations About Children’s Internet Usage

• Dana discusses his recent interaction with a group of youngsters discussing Internet safety.

Download and Comment at the all new ScaredMonkeysRadio.Com

FBI and Mobster Gregory Scarpa Sr Make Strange Bed Fellows in 1964 Civil Rights Case in Mississippi

Local mobster done good … 

The case was the disappearance and search for civil rights workers James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman. They were beaten and shot by the KKK and buried in an earthen dam near Philadelphia, MS. Years later it is being reported that the FBI turned to mobster Gregory Scarpa Sr. to help find the bodies of the missing civil rights workers. Further proving the point that crime and solving crime certainly makes strange bedfellows.

Linda Schiro said that her boyfriend, Mafia tough guy Gregory Scarpa Sr., was recruited by the FBI to help find the volunteers’ bodies. She said Scarpa later told her he put a gun in a Ku Klux Klansman’s mouth and forced him to reveal the whereabouts of the victims.

The FBI has never acknowledged that Scarpa, nicknamed “The Grim Reaper,” was involved in the case. The bureau did not immediately return a call for comment Monday.

Prosecutors say Scarpa plied DeVecchio with cash, jewelry, liquor and prostitutes in exchange for confidential information on suspected rats and rivals in the late 1980s and early ’90s. Scarpa died behind bars in 1994.

The notion that Scarpa strong-armed a Klan member into giving up information about one of the most notorious crimes of the civil rights era has been talked about in mob circles for years. (Yahoo News)

Aruba, How About Some Defensive Driving Classes? Fourth Traffic Fatality in One Week

Safety on vacation. Now vacationers have to worry about the care-free, no responsibility attitude of life in the fast lane on Aruban roads. 17 deaths in 2007 already? Seems like a pretty high amount when factoring the number of actual drivers. Can people just take some responsibility when they are behind the wheel?

What is happening on the roads in Aruba? They now have had 4 traffic fatalities in one week. In 2007 Aruba has already had 17 traffic deaths as compared to 14 deaths in traffic in 2006. Such news really makes one want to rent a car if one actually decides to go on vacation to Aruba.

This is just another aspect of safety issues that seem to get glossed over. One would think that you would always need to educate drivers as to the rules of the road, not just when traffic fatalities go through the roof.

“We need to educate the road-users to change their driving behavior and enter cooperation with other organizations.”

Spokesperson John Larmonie warned the public again this morning to make sure that there will not be more casualties in traffic, not to speed, and to comply with the right-of-way rules.”

Amigoe; October 29, 2007: Fourth death in traffic within one week

A 37-year old man died in a frontal collision near Malmok on Sunday. 

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Scared Monkeys Radio Daily Commentary - Tuesday, October 30, 2007 - Why Do Arsonists Do What They Do?

• Dana comments on the tendencies of arsonists, and our need to expose them for the sake of public safety.

Download and Comment at the all new ScaredMonkeysRadio.Com

The GAP Using Child Labor in Indian Sweatshop?

Child labor in clothing sweat shops? This is never good PR for The GAP or good in general. The Observer reported that “Indian ’slave’ children found making low-cost clothes destined for Gap.” Child labor in such working conditions has been a long time issue within the clothes making industry. One has to wonder how often this practice goes on and just how often it is actually reported. The comment from a Gap spokesperson was as follows:

“At Gap, we firmly believe that under no circumstances is it acceptable for children to produce or work on garments,” the spokesman was quoted as saying. “It is clear that one of our vendors violated this agreement, and a full investigation is under way.”

Gap Stores Using Child Labor in Indian Sweatshop, British Newspaper Reports

LONDON —  A British newspaper reported Sunday that it found children as young as 10 making clothes in a sweatshop in New Delhi, India, that the Gap fashion chain planned to sell in the West.

The Observer quoted the children as saying they had been sold to the sweatshop by their families in Indian states such as Bihar and West Bengal and would not be allowed to leave until they had repaid that fee.

Some, working as long as 16 hours a day to hand-sew clothing, said they were not being paid at the unidentified Gap supplier because their employer said they were still trainees.

The Observer quoted one boy identified only as Jivaj as saying that child employees who cried or did not work hard enough were hit with a rubber pipe or had oily cloths stuffed into their mouths.

The paper said the sweatshop, or “derelict industrial unit,” that it found during its investigation in New Delhi was “smeared in filth, the corridors flowing with excrement from a flooded toilet. (FOX News)

Boston Red Sox Win World Series in Sweep over Colorado Rockies

The Boston Red Sox dominated the Colorado Rockies in ever facet of the game during the 2007 World Series on their way to a four game sweep. Red Sox nation did not have to wait another 86 years this time to win another World Series. Following the 2004 Red Sox Series win, it just took 3 years this time.

They are the lovable losers no longer … in fact the Boston Red Sox are the model team in MLB with the perfect combination of veterans and youth, speed and power. During the World Series the Red Sox won with their bats, they won with their starting pitching, they won with their closer and they even won playing National League ball with stolen bases, pitchers hitting and pinch hit home runs. Forget the talk of the eight game Rockie layoff, the better team won.

The Red Sox outhit Colorado, .333 to .218. They rolled up the second-highest World Series batting average of all time. They batted .419 with runners in scoring position — while holding the team they were playing to a .167 average in the same spots. They trailed at the end of just three innings in the entire World Series (by one run early in Game 2) — and never were behind at any point over the final 23 innings. (ESPN)

The best: A new era dawns and it’s twice as nice

Five thousand feet above sea level and 1,800 miles from Fenway Park, the Boston Red Sox last night won their second World Series in four seasons, beating the Colorado Rockies, 4-3, to complete a four-game sweep of the 103d Fall Classic. Frustrated for the final eight decades of the 20th century, the Sox have emerged as hardball monsters of the new millennium.

How Sweep it Is

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Scared Monkeys Radio Daily Commentary - Monday, October 29, 2007 - Dana’s Take on Paparazzi

• Dana discusses some recent run-ins with Paparazzi. From Jessica Biel to Britney, there needs to be a better way.

Download and Comment at the all new ScaredMonkeysRadio.Com