Justice isn’t justice if it isn’t equal for all
Image courtesy of Olaf Growald, Wikimedia Commons.
The death penalty? The righteously wrathful were rubbing their palms last week as jurors in the penalty phase of the Timothy McVeigh murder and conspiracy trial decided he should die for his crime.
His crime – the April 19, 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City that killed 168 people – was undeniably horrible.
But while death penalty advocates declared their satisfaction and pundits hailed the trail as proof the U.S. legal system “works,” some of us held our noses and waited for the stench of sanctimony to pass on by.
Timothy McVeigh’s trail was many things, but it was not a test for the workability of American justice – not when they’re letting convicted felons run free after serving mere fractions of their sentences, and certainly not after O.J.
Also, I’d wonder about a government that could execute Timothy McVeigh while granting diplomatic recognition to a butcher like Yasser Arafat, or proffering most-favored nation trading status to a genocidal autocracy like the People’s Republic of China.
I believe the operative word here is “hypocrisy.”
For a system to “work,” it must work for all.
Charity bowl: Daily News columnist Kelly Humphrey has organized the Bowl for Red Cross fund-raiser, and now that she’s done all the work, we can do the fun part:
Bowl!
The Bowl for Red Cross happens Saturday at Destin Lanes from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The owners will donate 25 percent of the proceeds to the Red Cross, which is helping the flooded folks of Fargo, N.D. mop up after the Red River jumped its banks earlier this year and did an Opal-like number on the while town. What makes this worse for our northern cousins is their unenviable lack of WARM TEMPERATURES and a MOSQUITO-FREE EXISTENCE while cleaning up the mess.
We had ICE in our Cokes, not our debris.
Come out Saturday and bowl a few lines. I’ll need somebody to show me how to use the scoring computers, so bring the kids. It’ll be a good time – you betcha!
This week’s wire weirdness: MIAMI (AP) – The U.S. government has rejected Raul Blanco’s to become a citizen five times. But the 53-year-old Cuban immigrant hasn’t given up.
Ten fingerprints are required from applicants and Blanco only put down seven.
But that’s all he has – seven whole fingers.
The clerks who read Blanco’s application failed to see the explanation: “amputated.”
Years ago, he lost the ring finger and the tips of the index and middle fingers of his right hand after an accident at a Cuban sugar mill.
James Minton, deputy chief of the Immigration and Naturalization Service’s Miami office, acknowledged the agency goofed.
“Our office is going to call him,” Minton said.
Words that should be words: “Pupkus,” as in: The moist residue left on a window after a dog presses its nose to it.
Headlines that did not work: “Lung Cancer in Women Mushrooms.”
Redneck computer terms: “LAN”: To borrow, as in: “Hey Billy Joe, LAN me yore truck.”
This column was previously published in the June 18, 1997 Northwest Florida Daily News and is used with permission.
About the author:
Del Stone Jr. is a professional fiction writer. He is known primarily for his work in the contemporary dark fiction field, but has also published science fiction and contemporary fantasy. Stone’s stories, poetry and scripts have appeared in publications such as Amazing Stories, Eldritch Tales, and Bantam-Spectra’s Full Spectrum. His short fiction has been published in The Year’s Best Horror Stories XXII; Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine; the Pocket Books anthology More Phobias; the Barnes & Noble anthologies 100 Wicked Little Witch Stories, Horrors! 365 Scary Stories, and 100 Astounding Little Alien Stories; the HWA anthology Psychos; and other short fiction venues, like Blood Muse, Live Without a Net, Zombiesque and Sex Macabre. Stone’s comic book debut was in the Clive Barker series of books, Hellraiser, published by Marvel/Epic and reprinted in The Best of Hellraiser anthology. He has also published stories in Penthouse Comix, and worked with artist Dave Dorman on many projects, including the illustrated novella “Roadkill,” a short story for the Andrew Vachss anthology Underground from Dark Horse, an ashcan titled “December” for Hero Illustrated, and several of Dorman’s Wasted Lands novellas and comics, such as Rail from Image and “The Uninvited.” Stone’s novel, Dead Heat, won the 1996 International Horror Guild’s award for best first novel and was a runner-up for the Bram Stoker Award. Stone has also been a finalist for the IHG award for short fiction, the British Fantasy Award for best novella, and a semifinalist for the Nebula and Writers of the Future awards. His stories have appeared in anthologies that have won the Bram Stoker Award and the World Fantasy Award. Two of his works were optioned for film, the novella “Black Tide” and short story “Crisis Line.”
Stone recently retired after a 41-year career in journalism. He won numerous awards for his work, and in 1986 was named Florida’s best columnist in his circulation division by the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors. In 2001 he received an honorable mention from the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association for his essay “When Freedom of Speech Ends” and in 2003 he was voted Best of the Best in the category of columnists by Emerald Coast Magazine. He participated in book signings and awareness campaigns, and was a guest on local television and radio programs.
As an addendum, Stone is single, kills tomatoes and morning glories with ruthless efficiency, once tied the stem of a cocktail cherry in a knot with his tongue, and carries a permanent scar on his chest after having been shot with a paintball gun. He’s in his 60s as of this writing but doesn’t look a day over 94.
Contact Del at [email protected]. He is also on Facebook, twitter, Pinterest, tumblr, TikTok, Ello and Instagram. Visit his website at delstonejr.com .
Image courtesy of Flickr user lilbluelola.
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Performance Against AIDS: Frankly Scarlett in downtown Fort Walton Beach will again be the venue for Performance Against AIDS V, a fund-raiser for OASIS and its efforts to improve the quality of life for local folks who are living with AIDS.
Expect a variety show, also starring local folks, on June21 at 10 p.m. Ticket prices are $8, with limited VIP tickets going for $50. That’ll get you a reserved seat at the show and two complimentary drinks, but more importantly it’ll sponsor a second ticket for a person living with AIDS or who is HIV-positive and wants to attend the show.
There’ll be hors d’oeuvres, door prizes, and no-show tickets that people who can’t attend but want to help can buy.
It’s all for OASIS, which provides financial assistance and support services to people in Okaloosa and Walton counties affected by HIV and AIDS.
For more info, give Melissa Welch a call at 314-0950, or fax her at 314-0952. Frankly Scarlett is at 217 S.E. Miracle Strip Parkway.
Bay Day in May: Camp Timpoochee was the site for the first Bay Day – a fascinating celebration of science and environmentalism that organizers hope to make a yearly event.
The flora and fauna that make up the bay and its watershed were on display, and Steve Rider of the Department of Environmental Protection even brought his Okaloosa darters, the endangered fish that in the past has stirred up more than just sediment around these parts.
An afternoon thunderstorm swept away brochures and knocked over planters, but everybody crowded under the camp enclosure and waited for Mom Nature to get her act together. It was all part of the scene.
The Choctawhatchee Basin Alliance did a good job with its first festival and they’ve got a year’s preparation time to make the second an even bigger and more elaborate event. Plan on it for ’98.
That coveted Bowlegs loot: The Bowlegs treasure hunt winners are promised $500 in gift certificates from downtown businesses.
That’ll buy a lot of skull tattoos.
And a whole FLOCK of partridges in a pear tree!
Words that should be words: “Phonesia,” as in the affliction of dialing a phone number and forgetting whom you were calling just as they answer.
This week’s wire weirdness: ASSEN, Netherlands (AP) – A pilot dubbed Capt. Flinstone because he insisted pm singing the theme to the popular cartoon series over his small plane’s radio has been sentenced to four months in jail.
Authorities jailed pilot Wim de Nijs because his March 1996 prank tied up a radio frequency used by air traffic controllers at the airport in the northern Dutch city of Groningen.
By bellowing out “Flintstones, meet the Flintsones, they’re a modern stone-age family” for 20 minutes, de Nijs drowned out controllers’ contacts with other aircraft, prosecutors said.
Redneck computer terms: “Mouse,” as in a fuzzy, softy thing you stuff in your beer bottle in order to get a free case.
Headlines that did not work: “British Left Waffles on Falkland Islands.”
This column was originally published in the Wednesday, June 11, 1997 edition of the Northwest Florida Daily News.
About the author:
Del Stone Jr. is a professional fiction writer. He is known primarily for his work in the contemporary dark fiction field, but has also published science fiction and contemporary fantasy. Stone’s stories, poetry and scripts have appeared in publications such as Amazing Stories, Eldritch Tales, and Bantam-Spectra’s Full Spectrum. His short fiction has been published in The Year’s Best Horror Stories XXII; Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine; the Pocket Books anthology More Phobias; the Barnes & Noble anthologies 100 Wicked Little Witch Stories, Horrors! 365 Scary Stories, and 100 Astounding Little Alien Stories; the HWA anthology Psychos; and other short fiction venues, like Blood Muse, Live Without a Net, Zombiesque and Sex Macabre. Stone’s comic book debut was in the Clive Barker series of books, Hellraiser, published by Marvel/Epic and reprinted in The Best of Hellraiser anthology. He has also published stories in Penthouse Comix, and worked with artist Dave Dorman on many projects, including the illustrated novella “Roadkill,” a short story for the Andrew Vachss anthology Underground from Dark Horse, an ashcan titled “December” for Hero Illustrated, and several of Dorman’s Wasted Lands novellas and comics, such as Rail from Image and “The Uninvited.” Stone’s novel, Dead Heat, won the 1996 International Horror Guild’s award for best first novel and was a runner-up for the Bram Stoker Award. Stone has also been a finalist for the IHG award for short fiction, the British Fantasy Award for best novella, and a semifinalist for the Nebula and Writers of the Future awards. His stories have appeared in anthologies that have won the Bram Stoker Award and the World Fantasy Award. Two of his works were optioned for film, the novella “Black Tide” and short story “Crisis Line.”
Stone recently retired after a 41-year career in journalism. He won numerous awards for his work, and in 1986 was named Florida’s best columnist in his circulation division by the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors. In 2001 he received an honorable mention from the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association for his essay “When Freedom of Speech Ends” and in 2003 he was voted Best of the Best in the category of columnists by Emerald Coast Magazine. He participated in book signings and awareness campaigns, and was a guest on local television and radio programs.
As an addendum, Stone is single, kills tomatoes and morning glories with ruthless efficiency, once tied the stem of a cocktail cherry in a knot with his tongue, and carries a permanent scar on his chest after having been shot with a paintball gun. He’s in his 60s as of this writing but doesn’t look a day over 94.
Contact Del at [email protected]. He is also on Facebook, twitter, Pinterest, tumblr, TikTok, Ello and Instagram. Visit his website at delstonejr.com .
Image courtesy of Pikist by way of a Creative Commons license.
Let the good times roll: Skinny teenagers capered across the stage at Fort Walton Landing as I stood astride my bike, trying to ignite matches by rubbing them between my flab rolls.
It was Saturday night’s Battle of the Bands. I loved the music but I hated the fact that these kids didn’t need sawhorses to hold up their love handles.
Meanwhile, a mother of a friend of a band member tried to help me see the bright side.
“Embrace your flab,” Sally said as she simultaneously demonstrated various crunches and other flab-reducing maneuvers. The contradiction did not escape me.
Another thought that didn’t escape me was my memory of the movie “The Blob,” in which a giant, loogie-type mass of protoplasm devours every single living thing it encounters, including trim, smart-alecky teen-agers. That’d learn ’em. I’m reminded of that movie every time I try on a pair of pants with a 33-inch waistline.
“Be proud of your flab,” Sally declared, striking a New Deal pose with her appraised fist, a firm set to her jaw, and immense spasms of hysterical laughter quivering just beneath the surface of her expression.
OK, Sally. Go ahead and almost laugh. When you see me on David Letterman, shooting fireballs out of the cracks of my flab rolls, you’re gonna say, “To think: I knew him when he almost burned down the judge’s tent at Battle of the Bands.”
Meanwhile, Tracey and her beau, 99 Rock’s Jason, who you almost saw wearing a bikini in this very column, came up with the most logical solution to the entire problem: “Let’s go eat!”
And I really wanted to. Really. The only thing standing between me and a fried oyster sandwich was the absence of Andrew Jackson – that and the fact that the only element missing from my fashion statement was a hockey mask and I’d be tossed out of any restaurant that didn’t have the suffix “cide” in its name.
So me and my flubber rolls pedaled away, but not before holding a visitation with The Mustangs, who serenaded the dark outside The Last Saloon. Those guys were no flat-bellies either, but you could hear the wisdom in their music, and after a moment I didn’t feel so bad.
Headlines that didn’t work: Panda Mating Fails; Veterinarian Takes Over.
Redneck computer terms: “Network,” as in activity meant to provide bait for your trot line.
This week’s wire weirdness: GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) – Throat cancer patient Abraham Mosley couldn’t scream when his pajamas caught fire as he tried to light a cigar.
The silent seconds until the smoke alarm sounded may have cost Mosley his life. Family and friends rescued him from the fire, but the 64-year-old died later … at a hospital.
Mosley, confined to a hospital bed in his kitchen, ignited strips of paper on a stove burner in an attempt to light the cigar because the cancer had degraded his manual coordination. But the paper lit first the gauze bandages around his neck, then his pajamas.
Words that should be words: This week’s offering is: “Petrophobic,” as in, one who is embarrassed to undress in front of a household pet.
This column was originally published in the June 4, 1997 Northwest Florida Daily News and is used with permission.
About the author:
Del Stone Jr. is a professional fiction writer. He is known primarily for his work in the contemporary dark fiction field, but has also published science fiction and contemporary fantasy. Stone’s stories, poetry and scripts have appeared in publications such as Amazing Stories, Eldritch Tales, and Bantam-Spectra’s Full Spectrum. His short fiction has been published in The Year’s Best Horror Stories XXII; Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine; the Pocket Books anthology More Phobias; the Barnes & Noble anthologies 100 Wicked Little Witch Stories, Horrors! 365 Scary Stories, and 100 Astounding Little Alien Stories; the HWA anthology Psychos; and other short fiction venues, like Blood Muse, Live Without a Net, Zombiesque and Sex Macabre. Stone’s comic book debut was in the Clive Barker series of books, Hellraiser, published by Marvel/Epic and reprinted in The Best of Hellraiser anthology. He has also published stories in Penthouse Comix, and worked with artist Dave Dorman on many projects, including the illustrated novella “Roadkill,” a short story for the Andrew Vachss anthology Underground from Dark Horse, an ashcan titled “December” for Hero Illustrated, and several of Dorman’s Wasted Lands novellas and comics, such as Rail from Image and “The Uninvited.” Stone’s novel, Dead Heat, won the 1996 International Horror Guild’s award for best first novel and was a runner-up for the Bram Stoker Award. Stone has also been a finalist for the IHG award for short fiction, the British Fantasy Award for best novella, and a semifinalist for the Nebula and Writers of the Future awards. His stories have appeared in anthologies that have won the Bram Stoker Award and the World Fantasy Award. Two of his works were optioned for film, the novella “Black Tide” and short story “Crisis Line.”
Stone recently retired after a 41-year career in journalism. He won numerous awards for his work, and in 1986 was named Florida’s best columnist in his circulation division by the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors. In 2001 he received an honorable mention from the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association for his essay “When Freedom of Speech Ends” and in 2003 he was voted Best of the Best in the category of columnists by Emerald Coast Magazine. He participated in book signings and awareness campaigns, and was a guest on local television and radio programs.
As an addendum, Stone is single, kills tomatoes and morning glories with ruthless efficiency, once tied the stem of a cocktail cherry in a knot with his tongue, and carries a permanent scar on his chest after having been shot with a paintball gun. He’s in his 60s as of this writing but doesn’t look a day over 94.
Contact Del at [email protected]. He is also on Facebook, twitter, Pinterest, tumblr, TikTok, Ello and Instagram. Visit his website at delstonejr.com .