Archive for March 12th, 2009
A judge in Pennsylvania seems to think so:
DUI Defendant Claims He Is His Own Country
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Associated Press/Fox News
EASTON, Pa. — A man accused of driving drunk said Pennsylvania courts have no jurisdiction over him because he’s his own country. After seeing the paperwork that 44-year-old Scott Allan Witmer filed with the court claiming sovereignty, a Northampton County judge said Tuesday he cannot be released from jail until he gets a mental exam.
Witmer, who represented himself, said he believes police lack jurisdiction to pull him over. As he said in court: “I live inside myself, not in Pennsylvania.” He said there is no victim in the crime and asked to go to trial.
Defense attorney James Connell, Witmer’s standby counsel, said a challenge to the traffic stop would need to be filed as a pretrial motion.
As long as the court doesn’t end up ruling that being your own country is a good enough defence, I’ll be happy. The precedent which would be set by letting people off because they claim to be a country would be intolerable.
Samuel
March 12th, 2009 at 11:25pm
A short distance out of Jerilderie along Conargo Road is one of the more interesting phone towers in existence. It’s a much more elaborate setup than most phone towers and I took some photos of it on the 13th of December.
The entire complex:
The upper half section of the tower:
The lower section of the complex:
The tower has obviously been there for quite some time as it is from the pre-Telstra era. Here’s a sign along the side of the dirt track leading up to the tower which bears a Telecom Australia logo:
It’s probably a good thing that they didn’t print the “underground cable locations” phone number on the sign as they would have needed to replace the sign when they changed the number last decade.
Samuel
March 12th, 2009 at 11:21am
Deniliquin council will spend over $200,000 on safety improvements at the water filtration and raw water pumping station, and has granted the Deni rural fire service approval to build a new fire station at the airport.
Campaspe shire council has secured a $300,000 grant from the Victorian government to build a bike and pedestrian bridge over the Campaspe river, linking Echuca’s east and west.
The Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment has refused to reduce fuel loads in the Barmah Forest, prompting concerns about the bushfire risk in the region.
The New South Wales department of the environment has returned water flows to the Wakool River system, three weeks after halting them.
Discount supermarket chain Aldi has received approval from Campaspe shire council to build a supermarket on the eastern boundary of the old St. Mary’s school site on Anstruther Street.
And the Deniliquin clay target club are holding their pre-national shoot on Sunday at 9:30am.
Samuel
March 12th, 2009 at 09:49am
In this dream I was sitting in the hall of my primary school watching a presentation by the head of a company which produces wool so that it can be stuck on sheep before they are sheared. The speech appeared to be part of a conference about farming, and this speaker was the speaker before Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.
The wool speaker introduced Mr. Rudd and offered him a sheep so that he would be able to buy wool. Mr. Rudd declined the offer.
Mr. Rudd then took the microphone and offered everyone in the room a free cow, which seemed to be a popular announcement…he then declared that everyone in the room had to vote for him at the next election, or he would appoint Jon Stanhope as Prime Minister “in order to doom the country”.
This prompted me to run out screaming. I ran screaming all the way home, where Jon Stanhope was waiting for me. He promptly informed me that he was going to turn in to a cow so that Kevin Rudd would give him to a farmer…the plan being that, as a cow, he would be able to prevent the farmer from voting for Kevin Rudd, and would then become Prime Minister.
I asked Mr. Stanhope if he intended on “dooming the country”, to which he replied “oh no, much worse than that…I intend on making Katy Gallagher the minister for everything”.
I agreed that his intentions were much worse, and the dream ended.
I’m hoping that there will be a sequel.
March 12th, 2009 at 07:08am
