Load of Balls

Let’s face it; we don’t hear much about the Canadian military here in Europe. However, at the moment, they are in the middle of two controversies. One being a naval officer, who has been arrested for allegedly passing on classified material to the Russians, but much more fun is the rush order put in by their top brass for… 20,000 rubber stress balls. Oh yes… and they wanted them in orange.

The ‘rush order’ was required very quickly, to beat the upcoming financial year-end, after which, with the planned budget cuts during the next fiscal year, any requests would be looked at very hard indeed.

The belief is that the load of balls were to be used for promotional purposes… but we’ll never know, as the Minister for Defence, Peter MacKay, got wind of the order and that the media were having a field day on the back of the story and immediately instructed that the order be cancelled. That must have been an interesting conversation, between the said minister and the person who placed the order, with a few choice expletives thrown in.

Just remember that this is, as usual, the stupidity of senior officers and military civilian senior managers. The brave soldiers of Canada returned from Afghanistan in December after handing over to the US and Afghan military. That ended a nine-year commitment, during which they lost 157 troops; two aid workers, a senior diplomat and a military trainer.

I’m sure the lads that came home could give some very good advice as to what the pen-pushers and politicians can do with the balls.

 

Gay Gaff

Until 1993, the Russian authorities considered that homosexuality was a mental illness, and any openly gay person stood a pretty good chance of ending up getting arrested. They still disapprove of Gay Pride marches, which in the past have caused riots, with the gay men and women being attacked by just about everyone, including the Police.

Things have improved, but if we are honest, Russia is still not quite ‘with the program.’ This was evident recently in Kaliningrad where a group of fitness enthusiasts were doing a walk/run to promote fitness and healthy living. However, a citizen telephoned the police saying that the people involved looked a bit gay.

The police arrived and came down hard, making several arrests. In the end, the organizers of Action for a Healthy Life had to sign a statement saying that the march was purely to promote health and nobody present had any intention of playing a pink obo or biting a pillow. The police were partly convinced, but decided just to be sure they would get statements from just about all the participants, even the children.

Eventually, the runners/marchers were freed, however nobody from the police was available for comment.

 

Bad Bill

There are some pretty stupid ways one can get oneself arrested, but Michael Fuller from North Carolina, USA found one of the most stupid of all.

Strolling into a Walmart, he selected a vacuum cleaner, a microwave oven and a few other items, then at the checkout he hands over a one million dollar note. The checkout girl was a little suspicious of the note, as she was well aware (unlike our master criminal), that US banknotes only go up to 100 dollars. It is true, that up until 1969, there were a few 10,000-dollar notes in circulation, but one million is a little bit silly. Anyway, after arguing with Fuller for some time because he continued to insist the note was real, the police were called.

Forgery Fuller will be appearing in court soon, charged with trying to obtain property with a ‘forged instrument.’ Until that time he is languishing in custody… no doubt planning a two million dollar note scam.