Irrelevant Ramblings

WikiLeaks has released a classified US military video depicting the indiscriminate slaying of over a dozen people in the Iraqi suburb of New Baghdad — including two Reuters news staff.

Reuters has been trying to obtain the video through the Freedom of Information Act, without success since the time of the attack. The video, shot from an Apache helicopter gun-sight, clearly shows the unprovoked slaying of a wounded Reuters employee and his rescuers. Two young children involved in the rescue were also seriously wounded.

Disclaimer: Contains scenes of violence and course language, viewer discretion is advised.

To see the complete full length version of this video visit Collateral Murder.

Sounds weird, I know, but it’s true. The reason for this post is because twice in the last 5 months I have caught men taking pictures of my girls with their digital camera’s.

Vancouver Creeper

Back in August, Simone, had a wedding shoot to do in Vancouver. So, we packed up the kids and went to Van. for the weekend. My mom and dad came up as well to hang with us and hit the aquarium.

While Simone was at the wedding, my parents and I took the kids all over Vancouver via the Skytrain (Vancouver’s subway system). We had a great time riding the rails and the sea bus. As the sun began to move lower in the sky we decided to head back to our hotel. It was a  10 block walk from the train station to the hotel and the kids were tired. So with kids in hand we headed up the street.  Dad had one kids hand, mom had the other two girls and I had our son in my arms.

We were half way to the hotel, as we walked past a bus stop beside a little cafe with a patio.  As we walked by I saw an older man standing in the bus stop. He had a camera in his hand. As my two oldest girls walked by, I noticed the camera move as if it was following the girls as they walked by. As I passed the man I glanced over the mans shoulder and sure enough, on the little screen on the camera, a picture of my girls.

I called to mom and dad to stop, I passed off L. to my mom and confronted the man.  I walked up beside him, and bumped him roughly with my elbow, he was surprised. And in a loud voice, loud enough for the people at the bus stop and the people sitting at the cafe could hear, I said, “Did you just take a picture of my kids?” All the people that heard turned to look at him with this look of disapproval, as he replied, “I don’t know, I might have!” I grabbed the camera out of his hands and began to look at the pictures, and as I did he said, “if I did, I wasn’t going to use them!” Sure enough, there was a picture of my kids.  He continued to tell me that it was a new camera (Lie), and that he really didn’t know how to use it (Lie, there were a bunch more pictures on there). I made sure the image was deleted and contemplated smashing that camera and beating on the guy, but I had made a big enough scene and my kids were watching, so I just walked away.

The whole experience was a little creepy, but we enjoyed the rest of the weekend.

Kelowna Creeper

Just a couple of weeks ago, Halloween, Simone, my mom and I took the kids to the mall to Trick of Treat. As we were going from store to store, I saw a man with a camera trying to take a picture of my kids. I would move so that I could block his view of my kids and he would move to get around me. This went on for a couple of seconds. I turned, when Simone asked me a question and as I did he moved and snapped the pic of the girls.  I turned back to confront him, but he slipped into the group of people and I lost him.  As we continued through the mall, I was constantly scanning to see if I could find this guy.  As our time was winding down, I finally found the guy. I left the kids with Simone and my mom and I went to talk to the guy.  I asked if he had taken a picture of my kids, and he said he might of. What shocked me was he asked, “You don’t like that!” (What a stupid question!!!) Anyway again I took the camera and scrolled through the images on the camera and sure enough there was the pic of my kids. Again I deleted the image. I should have wiped the whole card as there were over 100 other images of kids trick or treating in the mall.

Warning

So parents, when you’re out and about with your kids, keep an eye out for “creepers with camera’s.” They’re out there.

Apple has been sued by a Beverly Hills, CA man, who accuses the company of conspiring with the mafia to track him and his activities in secret. According to the complaint, Gregory McKenna believes his bedroom, living room, upstairs bathroom, and Toyota Camry, along with an iPod shuffle he purchased from eBay and an iPod mini he purchased in an Apple Store, all contained receivers that allowed the mafia to transmit threats to him and follow his whereabouts. McKenna claims that recordings of mafia members saying “I’m going to kill him” played in unison with a song on his iPod mini in 2008, and that a modified version of the Mike Jones song “Still Tippin,” heard on his iBook G4, PowerBook G4, and two iPods contained the word “herpes,” which McKenna suggests was added to the song in order “to humiliate, degrade, and cause emotional stress.” Apple is but one of several entities named in the lawsuit, joining the St. Louis County Police Department, a local auto mechanic, and “unknown agents” of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Filed in U.S. District Court in Missouri, the suit reads, “The recording of death threats and other evidence prove that APPLE INC. conspired with the Mafia and other Defendants to manufacture, distribute, and sell illegally bugged iPods and other electronic equipment to Plaintiff to perpetuate the stalking, extortion, and torture.” (Read the entire article at AppleInsider)