Pet Hates Nos. 10 & 11

From http://curmudgeonlyramblings.blogspot.com/:

Well, it's been well over a month since my last moan, so I thought it was about time to have another - perhaps even two, on one day.

The Jimmy $avi£e thing is bothering me a little. There doesn't seem to be much doubt about the extent and horror of what he was apparently up to, but I still can't understand why, out of all the hundreds of people who have reported him since his death, didn't at least one of them manage to make enough noise beforehand to get some publicity for herself?

It's all very well saying how those in power - at the BBC and other media apparently - knew something was going on, but kept a tin lid on it because of the apparent threat that he would withdraw all his charitable works, amongst others. I just can't help avoiding the thought also that there's a lot of bandwagon jumpers out there, who have, being brutally frank, told their stories a bit too late for my liking. Did the fact that he left a large estate influence them?

Nobody feels any sympathy for JS, but I seem to recall a phrase innocent until proven guilty - and he's not here to mount any kind of defence.

The whole story has grown legs and there's now a raft of others similarly accused - although most of them are still alive. Do we have a witchhunt on our hands? The Social Media is now full of various names being bad-mouthed because allegations have been made. We can't condemn them all - at least not until they have been tried.

Enough of that - now an even hotter potato - US gun laws. Sitting here in Europe, it's all too easy for us to look smugly across the pond and preach at our American cousins to sort out their gun laws for once and for all - but it's far from that easy. Guns are a way of life in America, with the right to bear arms enshrined in the Constitution, and one of the most powerful political lobbies being the NRA.

It's not practical or realistic to enact something that tries to round up all the illegal guns - it's way too late for that anyway - that horse has bolted. Lots of stats have been bandied around, but yesterday's Times succinctly summarised the facts:

I suspect Obama will try to clamp down on the more bizarre weapons, which are patently not used for hunting sports, and also take a tougher line on illegally held weapons and perhaps try to control the sale of ammunition. Whatever, something has to give - and perhaps it might this time around.