R J Adams | sparrow chat

July 9, 2008 - 4 Comments

JonBenet Ramsey: How Many Are Guilty?

How kind of the Boulder County District Attorney’s office in Colorado to issue a statement today officially clearing the Ramsey family of involvement in the horrific murder of six year old JonBenet Ramsey at her home – in 1996!^[1]

According to the family lawyer, JonBenet’s father, John Ramsey, was “grateful” for the statement.

Personally, I wouldn’t have been “grateful”, but furious that a case so badly bungled from the start by the Boulder Police Department, allowed to degenerate into a media witch-hunt in which the parents of JonBenet were accused and castigated, has been allowed to drag on for twelve years.

Trial by media in this country is a common occurrence. The emphasis is undeniably ‘guilty until proven innocent’. The Ramsey case is, perhaps, one of the worst examples of its type, compounded by a degree of police ineptitude staggering even for the United States. (This BBC report from August 2006 gives a concise synopsis)^[2]

JonBenet’s mother, Patricia, didn’t live to hear this verdict. She died from cancer two years ago, her disease undoubtedly aggravated by the stress of public condemnation.

Research into the case leaves one feeling there are a great number who should suffer shame for the moral crimes committed while the search for this little girl’s killer was so ingloriously conducted.

Whoever did kill JonBenet Ramsey is just one of many with reasons for remorse.

^{[1] JonBenÃ©t Ramsey Wikipedia.}

^{[2] “JonBenet: The case that grips America” BBC, August 29th 2006}

Filed under: Endemic injustice

July 8, 2008 - 5 Comments

Wolf-Nipple Chips, Anyone? *

There’s been a G8 summit. Has anyone noticed? It was billed as the most important G8 ever, which is hardly surprising when a global recession means the rich and powerful have to tighten their belts and cut back on the caviar. That’s bad news, especially for their personal cardiologists.

Still, hard times just around the corner is reason enough for splashing out on a darned good nosh, and that’s exactly what our esteemed leaders masticated their way through this week in Japan.

Lunch was a mere four courses (asparagus and truffle soup, crab and supreme of chicken served with nuts and beetroot foam, followed by a cheese selection, peach compote, milk ice-cream and coffee with petits fours) helped down with lashings of Chateau-Grillet 2005 (presently on offer by the Sunday Times Wine Club at $193 a bottle, though that’s certainly a member price).

The dinner menu comprised aperitifs of ‘corn stuffed with caviar, smoked salmon and sea urchin, hot onion tart and winter lily bulb’, followed by diced fatty tuna fish, avocado and jellied soy sauce, and pickled conger eel with soy sauce. The main course featured a selection of ‘milk-fed lamb, roasted lamb with cepes, and black truffle with emulsion sauce’, followed by ‘a “fantasy” dessert, a special cheese selection accompanied by lavender honey and caramelized nuts, while coffee came with candied fruits and vegetables.’^[1]

Following the dinner, British prime minister Gordon Brown announced Britons must stop wasting food, as it had become far to precious a commodity to be thrown away.^[2] This was shortly after attempting to dance the conga with Angela Merkel, but prior to belching the host-nation’s national anthem in the Japanese prime minister’s left ear. That feat failed to arouse the acclaim of other world leaders who were outside cheering on Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi as he chased George W Bush around the gardens, brandishing a Samurai sword and threatening to sever George from his manhood for daring to label him a ‘despicable political amateur’.^[3]

It took a full week of wine-drinking before they could agree on global warming, though commentators concur it resulted in only one more of many short, hesitant, steps in the right direction.

It’s not a problem, though.

All that’s needed is for someone to talk the planet into slowing climate change to a more leisurely pace, so that our esteemed leaders may have a chance to catch up.

^{*Apologies to Monty Python.}

^{[1] “Just two of the 19 dishes ………” Guardian, July 8th 2008}

^{[2] “Stop wasting food, Brown urging” BBC, July 7th 2008}

^{[3] “Bush sorry over Berlusconi insult” BBC, July 8th 2008}

Filed under: Party time

July 7, 2008September 5, 2008 - 4 Comments

American News – A Bumpy Ride

I’m getting a seat belt fitted to our sofa. It’s either that or stop watching American news altogether. No matter how much I try to compose myself for the 5.30 CBS bulletin, it’s guaranteed some headline will floor me.

Usually, its the ‘medical’ segment, and tonight was no exception.

“An influential doctors group is recommending that some children as young as 8 be given cholesterol-fighting drugs to ward off future heart problems…….” says CBS News tonight.^[1]

Going one step further, they are advocating screening cholesterol levels from the age of two, with a view to dispensing statins and other cholesterol drugs to children way younger even than eight.

Far be it from me to criticize such an august group as the American Academy of Pediatrics, but one wonders how long before they recommend a program of intravenous drug infusions for pregnant mothers, arguing their babies will then be fully protected against disease, pre-natally.

According to CBS, Dr. Stephen Daniels of the AAP stated that recent research shows cholesterol fighting drugs are ‘generally safe for children’.

Not all doctors are in agreement.

Still, as I mentioned previously, the American Academy of Pediatrics are an august body, no doubt free of any drug company or corporate involvement.

Well, except, that is for:

Aventis; AstroZeneca; Merck; MedImmune, Inc;McNeil Healthcare;Pediatrics Insurance Consultants, Inc; Dermik (a subsidiary of Aventis)

oh, and I just love this one – McDonalds!

These are the “President’s Circle” of donors to the AAP’s “Friends of Children Fund”, who have donated more than $25,000 apiece. There are a whole host of other industry corporates somewhat more stingy of their generosity.^[2]

Of course, I’m not suggesting AAP members are deliberately paid to push drugs on unsuspecting kiddies, but with this sort of involvement by certain, reputedly unscrupulous corporates, could any professional body remain totally independent in reaching its conclusions?

I’ll leave the reader to decide.

With a double-whammy from CBS tonight we learned that Merck’s wonder-vaccine, Guardisil, that protects against the virus responsible for much cervical cancer, may not be quite so miraculous after all. While Merck are vigorously contesting claims the vaccine has caused deaths and paralysis among young girls given the drug, the anecdotal evidence is rapidly mounting.^[3][4][5]

All-in-all just another load of suspicion that the corporates in general, and the drug companies in particular, are not necessarily the benevolent institutions they spend millions trying to convince us they are.

But, then, we knew that already, didn’t we? So why do they bother?

Finally, a report tonight that Barack Obama’s plane was forced to make an unscheduled stop today due to ‘controllability problems’ with the plane’s pitch controls.^[6]

Asked if he was worried, Obama responded: