HOBBY HORSE TIME AGAIN!!!

Have a look at this please ...   

This piece of public art used to stand in Centenary Square in Brum city centre until some moron set fire to it.  I was all for a public flogging and hanging for the arsonist!  Sadly all he got was a slap on the hand and ordered to do community service.  But it's happened again ...

Scarborough Castle has been vandalised with parts of the Roman Fort also on the site suffering damage that can't be repaired and is now lost to the nation.  But these nutters then posted images of themselves on Twitter.  A print out of one of the images was handed to the Castled staff, who passed it on the cops.  The damage was done by two 18 year olds who again just received slapped donnies and community service orders.  But it doesn't end there either ...

I caught a sight of a show on telly this morning that is being recorded ready for viewing later today, Street Patrol UK it's called.  The bit I caught was about metal detectorists digging up an important Roman fort site looking for gold and silver and leaving trenches where they had been digging.  Of course it is illegal to use a detector on an ancient monument site and as far as I understand things any such finds are supposed to be reported to the coroner and or the local museum.  Of course, neither is happening. 

Why is this a hobby horse for me?  Well, my degree is in history, a subject I have always loved.  Therefore any damage done to these sites really pisses me off big time.  But what pisses me off even more is the way the morons are treated in court.  Community service won't work because there is really no deterrent value in it.  But the vandalism is not the only time when the courts act like mamby pamby puppets is it?

How many times do we see and hear of animal cruelty offenders getting light sentences?  I remember one case when someone intentionally hurt an animal that didn't belong to them.  For some silly reason and part of the sentence was a ban on keeping animals.  OK ... but the accused didn't have any animals of their own; so what good was a ban being applied? 

Here's another work of art that regularly get's an unwelcome make-over ... 

this one is on a 'Y' road junction in Brum; we pass it every time we take the back road over there.  It's not the best piece of public art I've seen buy not the worst either.  But is there really any need for the yobs painting it?

And today's funny ...

There are three race horses sitting in a pub (as they do). The first one says, "A strange thing happened to me the other day. I was in the 1:30 at Lingfield, trailing the rest when suddenly, I felt a sharp stinging pain in the rear, startled me so much I passed the rest and won the race".
The second horse says, "That's a funny thing, I was in the 2:30 at Chepstow on Saturday. Trailing the pack like you, then sudden stinging sensation, whoosh, right past the rest of them and won by two lengths".
The third horse says "The same thing happened to me in the 4pm in Cheltenham, losing, sharp pain startling me so much I bolted and won the race."
A greyhound sitting at the next table leant over, "Excuse me, " he said, "I couldn't help overhearing your stories. I was in the 8 o'clock at White City. Last out of the trap and trailing. Suddenly I felt a sharp stinging pain, I was so shocked I passed the hare and won the race."
The first horse turned to the others and said "Bugger me! A talking greyhound!"