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1

General / Only a politician could get away with this

« on: November 29, 2011, 08:42:27 AM »

I tried to post this in the Create show prep thing but it kept setting off the spam filter, so I've posted it here.

http://www.news.com.au/national/former-mp-terry-martin-walks-free-after-sex-with-12-year-old/story-e6frfkvr-1226209499522

  -  Former MP guilty of having sex with 12-year-old
  -  Judge found medication triggered hypersexual desire

TERRY Martin showed no sign of emotion and refused all requests for comment as he walked free from the Supreme Court in Hobart this afternoon after he was found guilty of having sex with a 12-year-old girl.

In a surprise move Justice David Porter chose not to jail the former MP and long-serving Glenorchy mayor instead handing him a 10-month suspended sentence back-dated to November 22 when he was taken into custody.

Martin was last week found guilty of having underage sex - with a 12-year-old girl prostituted by her mother and mother's friend - in September, 2009.

He pleaded not guilty and argued from the start he believed the girl was 18.

He became involved with her after responding to an ad for her services in the newspaper listing her as "Angela, 18, new in town".

But the jury found he ought to have known she was underage after the nine women and three men deliberated for several hours on Monday last week.

In light of the massive amount of publicity surrounding the case Justice Porter chose to give extensive reasons for his decision not to jail Martin - who was found guilty of one count of sex with a young person under 17 and one of producing child exploitation material.

He was acquitted of a third charge of indecent assault after the jury was unable to reach a verdict and the Crown elected not to pursue that matter any further.

Justice Porter accepted expert opinions backing up Martin's assertion the medication he was prescribed for his Parkinson's Disease had caused him to suffer from hypersexuality at the time of his offending.

The judge said he accepted the submission that if Martin had not been taking those drugs he would not have become "obsessed with sex'' and hooked on prostitutes - and would therefore not have come into contact with the 12-year-old.

2

General / Issues about a free market.

« on: February 26, 2011, 08:34:03 PM »

Although I've accepted a true free market is a better system than a government run "free market", I'm still not greatly knowledgeable about all the possible pitfalls of a free market.

I'm hung up on one issue that may arise in a true free market.

Say you run a business and you're doing well. A competitor decides they want to ruin your reputation, and business, and start selling dodgy and harmful products inside packaging that is exactly the same as your own. What do you do? How would the free market combat this without intervention by government?

Also, whats to stop robber barons rising up in a free market and, apparently, making everyone's life hell?

3

General / A police helicopter in the backyard

« on: September 30, 2009, 05:38:56 PM »

First, a bit of background - I live on a 6 acre property and theres an old greenhouse on it. So, this was yesterday morning for me. Having brekfast and I hear this noise and think "jeez that helicopter is flying low", and sure enough, down the backyard is a police helicopter hovering just above the greenhouse. A greenhouse that hasn't been used in the 14 years since we moved in.

4

General / The best Obama T-shirt so far

« on: August 11, 2009, 06:54:33 PM »

As you probably guessed, it comes from Tshirthell.com

http://www.tshirthell.com/funny-shirts/guess-he-cant-barack-obama

5

General / Some bloke went fishing and caught a missile.

« on: June 09, 2009, 07:50:09 PM »

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,25614378-38198,00.html

HE thought he'd bagged a big one, but after reeling it in, police said a Florida fisherman found he really did have a live catch on his hands - an air-to-air guided missile.

Commercial fisherman Rodney Salomon never panicked, and kept long-line fishing aboard his Bold Venture boat in the Gulf of Mexico for another 10 days before returning to port.

True to fisherman form, Mr Salomon had several versions of his tale prepared for various media outlets.

"I had it strapped to the roof of my boat as we rode through lightning storms,'' he told Tampa Bay's local 10 Connects News.

"I had it secure. I keep it cool,'' he told The Associated Press, adding that he packed it with ice.

The bomb squad from a nearby military base that promptly dismantled it upon his return to shore said the heavily corroded eight-foot-long missile "could have exploded at any moment".

"I wasn't scared,'' the 37-year-old Salomon said, according to local media reports.

"Why should I be scared?''

Eglin Air Force Base later denied the missile was carrying explosives, claiming it was a "telemetry missile" used for evaluation purposes.

Mr Salomon, from Saint Petersburg, Florida, was 80km out in the Gulf from Panama City when he caught the military ordnance.

The experts said the missile was corroded by its apparent extended stay in saltwater.

Mr Salomon asked the bomb squad if he could keep the missile as a souvenir after it was made safe, but the request was denied.

Warming to the task, Mr Salomon then told local media it wasn't the first missile he and his three-man crew picked up.

Days after the find, he nabbed another, but that one "was beeping", so he decided to let it go.

Sure Rodney, but you forgot to tell us how big it was...

They should have let him keep it.

6

General / President Obama walks into a bar....

« on: May 26, 2009, 06:40:49 PM »

This came from tshirthell.com

President Obama walks into a bar. Everyone applauds. He sits on a stool. Everyone applauds. He orders a beer. Everyone applauds. He says "Shut the fuck up, you sheep! None of this matters!" Everyone applauds. Then he rips off his face and reveals that the president has been nothing but a cyborg who changes his mask every few years ever since Kennedy died. The bar patrons realize freedom of choice has been nothing but an illusion their entire lives. They're fine with that and decide to vote for an Asian mask in 2012.


So true.