Joshua Kennon

Mary Bale is a 45-year-old bank employee.  A few days ago, Mary was passing the home of Lola the cat and her owners.  Lola approached Mary and wanted to be petted.  It was a sweltering summer day.  Mary then decided to pick Lola up, throw her into a trash bin, shut the lid, and leave her to literally cook for 15 hours, while her owners spent all day frantically searching for her.

The act of cruelty was caught on camera and has gone viral, with millions of people around the world aghast at how a human being could do this short of being a sociopath or a nutcase.  The video has been duplicated and is all over the place.  Here is one copy for you to watch:

The outcry has been so great that Mary Bale attempted to apologize today.  She said she is sorry for the “upset and distress ” (note she didn’t say she is sorry for what she did) – “I don’t know what all the fuss is about.  It’s just a cat.”  ”I think everyone is overreacting a bit.”  Why did she do it?  Mary Bale said she doesn’t know the reason she just “suddenly thought it would be funny” to put it in the bin, according to UK newspapers.

Mary Bale, I don’t know how anyone could come to any other conclusion than that you are a sociopathic bitch.

When my mom lost her cat for a day during some home renovations, she was on the verge of tears worrying about her because she had been part of the family for a decade.  What would my Aunt Donna do if someone took her beloved little dog and caused it to suffer, it cooking to death as she frantically searched for it?  What would Ashly and Ian do if someone caused that kind of pain to their cats?

The fact that you, Mary Bale, for no reason and with no justification, not only would cause the animal to suffer baking in 100+ temperatures for 15 hours, but would cause that kind of panic to the owners makes you a sick, twisted person.

I find it incredibly sad that I don’t own the bank where you work.  Because I would personally show up today to fire your worthless ass.  That may not be necessary, though, because some are saying that in Great Britain, under the Animal Welfare Act 2006, the maximum fine for animal cruelty is £20,000. The maximum term of imprisonment for offences is six months.  I hope you get it all you nutcase.

(Update: The cat did manage to survive.  It was a shelter cat that had been afraid of people and the owners had finally gotten her to trust strangers by being kind and treating her well.  Great job, Mary Bale.  Way to undo all of their work.)

Heather Thompson hid her pregnancy, then gave birth to her child in her grandmother's bathroom. She then hit the child's head against the bathtub and killed it. She got a lesser sentence than someone who committed 1st degree robbery. Her baby boy died from multiple injuries, including a skull fracture and hemorrhaging in the optic nerve, neck, tongue and esophagus.

Can someone explain to me why this deserves only 15 years in prison?  First degree robbery with a deadly weapon (but where no one is hurt) carries a mandatory sentence of 20 years.  Apparently, bashing your newborn baby’s head against a bathtub to kill it isn’t as bad.

A Missouri woman was sentenced to 15 years in prison early Thursday afternoon for killing her newborn son in May.  Heather N. Thompson, 20, was sentenced after pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter in the death of her infant son, Collin Rissler.

Ms. Thompson, who hid her pregnancy from family and friends, said she gave birth to the child in Collin’s paternal grandparent’s bathroom on May 11. Shortly after his birth, she admitted to striking the newborn’s head on the bathtub.

The baby died at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City from multiple injuries, including a skull fracture and hemorrhaging in the optic nerve, neck, tongue and esophagus.

The sentence was light because roughly 15 family members and friends supported her in court and called it a “lapse of judgment”.

You think?  When I have a lapse of judgment it involves making a stupid trade or eating too much steak.  It doesn’t involve taking my infant son and hitting his head so hard that I shatter his body, causing his eyes to internally bleed out after continually lying about being pregnant for nine months.  But hey, maybe that is just me.

Source

This story is just … wrong on so many levels.  You should not be able to collect alimony for life if you weren’t married that long.  This is insulting.

Steve Niro got married in 1981 at age 23 and divorced less than five years later. At the time of the divorce, he and his wife were in their late 20s, and both were working. Niro remarried nearly 15 years ago, but he’s still paying his alimony.

Two years ago, Niro’s youngest son graduated from college, ending child support payments and leaving his former wife with alimony of $65 a week. “The next thing I know, I get summonsed to court for alimony adjustment,’’ he says. A probate court judge increased the alimony to $700 a week even though the couple had divorced nearly a quarter of a century ago — five times longer than they were married. (Source: Boston.com)

This is happening to women, too, who are in the workforce and then get divorced only to find they have to pay their husbands for life.

Brenda Caggiano of Westwood is one [such woman]. At 71, she is living off her schoolteacher’s pension and Social Security — and paying her former husband alimony. Ten years ago, she came home one afternoon to find that her husband of 27 years had left, without a note. He filed for divorce, and a judge ruled that since she made more money she had to pay him $500 a month indefinitely.

For able bodied people, that is just … wow.  Especially in states where the income and the assets of a new spouse are factored into the alimony decision! That is absurd! If I were to marry a divorcee who had made minimum wage, suddenly they could find themselves owing massive amounts of monthly alimony because of my money and income?  That is bull!

Anyway, the article goes on to say that Massachusetts has proposed a law to fix the problem:

It would limit alimony payments to half the length of the marriage, with a cap of 12 years and automatic termination when the payer turns 65.

That seems way fairer to everyone.  That is not to say huge payouts aren’t sometimes justified.  In most cases, it is just common sense.  A case like this deserves a huge payout: (more…)