In Georgia, a man has been arrested on felony animal cruelty charges after killing a rat terrier.  Alexander Davis, 19, robbed Angela DeLettre's home, and then put her one year old rat terrier in her oven and set the temperature to 400 degrees. 

Police later found the burned dog while searching Ms. DeLettre's home.

Too bad Davis won't get the sentence he gave the poor pup.

My Uncle Dale is trapped by Katrina.  He lives out in the country in Mississippi, and his roads out are blocked by downed trees.  He is using a generator for electricity and somehow has managed to be able to use the internet to let us know he is okay (I don't know what kind of connection it is).  He said this is the most scared he has been since he was in Vietnam (he is a retired US Army captain).  He has 5 gallons of gas for his generator, and no way to get more. 

I wish there was something I could do for my uncle or anyone.  The restaurant Ron works at has been overrun with people trying to get out of Louisiana.  He said most appear to be pretty calm, but worried.  He thinks most are staying at the hotels by BIAH (he is near there).

Even just a tropical storm can be devastating to whoever gets hit with it.  I can't even imagine a Cat 4 or 5 like Katrina.  And this is not even the midpoint of the storm season this year....

That's the only explanation I can come up with, after reading this story.  Or maybe some of the losers from the Guardian (no link, thank you, I don't want to barf).

Of course, to most radical animals rights people and radical environmentalists, the only thing wrong with this planet is people.  Well, now we know who is running the London Zoo.  I just wonder when it is that London was annexed by California....

But what can a person expect from a lawyer, especially one advocating for a callous murderer like Robert Alan Shields.  Luckily, the US Supreme Court did not get involved in the case, and Shields has been executed.

It is very disheartening to hear a lawyer accuse the victim of causing her own death by coming home from work early:

But lawyers trying to block his execution Tuesday in Huntsville were arguing in the courts that Shields, then 19, was trying to defend himself and never intended to kill Stiner. She had left her job at a Pasadena insurance agency early in 1994, and may have surprised the intruder at her home where he took a shower after spending the night in their garage unknown to them. (Emphasis mine.)

Defend himself from who?  The rightful owner of the house who just happened to come home earlier?  And if someone is defending themselves, do they bash someone else's head in with a hammer and stab them multiple times?

Then the lawyer says the most stupid, callous words I have heard from a lawyer in a long time...he implies that Paula Stiner's life was next to worthless, that her death was, in his words "a trespassing that got ugly".

Richard Ellis, the lawyer, only has compassion for the bad guy.  As far as Mr. Ellis is concerned, the victim is just a cipher, a nobody, a nothing.  It is easy to see how Mr. Ellis became a death penalty appeals lawyer. 

I hope Paula Stiner's family never read Mr. Ellis' words.  His disregard for her life would probably hurt like salt in a fresh wound.