This story about an Army National Guard officer who stole a tracked vehicle and went joyriding in Virginia continues to get weirder:
Emergency personnel surround a National Guard military vehicle taken from Fort Pickett, Va., on June 5, 2018. Police said they arrested an officer who took the armored personnel carrier after chasing him for more than 60 miles. (Grace Hollars/Richmond Times-Dispatch via AP)
The Army National Guard officer accused of stealing an armored personnel carrier from Fort Pickett last June is scheduled to go on trial May 20. But Joshua Yabut’s trial has been put on hold because the 30-year-old first lieutenant plans to plead not guilty by reason of insanity, according to WTVR. A new hearing in Nottoway County, Virginia, is set for July 2. Yabut is accused of stealing the military vehicle and leading police on a more than 60-mile chase to Richmond, Virginia, while under the influence of drugs. He said he had permission to take the APC, but Virginia National Guard officials denied that in initial reports.
Yabut’s case took another twist in January when he violated the terms of his bond and traveled to Iraq, somehow losing his ankle monitoring bracelet along the way.
He used his valid military ID to board a flight at Naval Station Norfolk before flying commercially from Charlotte, North Carolina, the rest of the way to Baghdad. He returned to Norfolk two days later, according to WTVR. His military ID is no longer valid and he was put back behind bars.
I wonder if this soldier was trying to take a selfie before he fell in?:
An aerial view of the Kilauea summit from 2018.
A soldier survived a 70-foot fall onto a ledge inside Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano this week after hopping a railing to get a better look at the crater. The 32-year-old Schofield Barracks soldier was on the Big Island as part of a training mission, Army officials told Hawaii News Now. He climbed over a permanent metal railing at the Steaming Bluff overlook to get closer to the edge of a 300-foot cliff and fell at about 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, according to a statement from Hawaii National Park.
Onlookers alerted the park staff right away, and about two and a half hours later the injured man was found on a narrow ledge about 70 feet from the cliff edge. Ropes and a litter were used to rescue him, according to the park. He was airlifted to the hospital in critical condition, but was upgraded to stable on Thursday, according to NPR.
ROK cable network MBN's bureau chief on disciplinary action after station misreported FLOROK Kim Jung-sook as "First Lady Kim Jong Un," "North Korean president (instead of "President Moon") has message for KJU from President Trump." https://t.co/kq9pyOA3RC
Sorry I could not resist making the title for this post:
The head of the California Air National Guard, Maj. Gen. Clay Garrison, was relieved of command and replaced by Brig. Gen. Gregory Jones two months after a newspaper detailed the fallout from a scandal involving someone urinating in the boots of a service member. A Guard spokesman, Lt. Col. Jonathan Shiroma, on Friday confirmed the shake-up, but he did not have additional details.
The command change follows a Los Angeles Times report on allegations that whistleblowers at the Guard’s Fresno base suffered reprisals for questioning actions or conduct, including an incident in which a female guardsman discovered urine in her boots.
In interviews with the Times, several current and former members of the Guard described a culture of retaliation by high-ranking officers and mistrust in the inspector general system intended to hold them accountable.
You can read much more at the link, but this is just a weird case. First of all I don’t know of anyone that leaves their uniform in a urinal and I have also never heard of anyone ever urinating in someones boots which is extremely unprofessional. Then to top it off the bathroom was considered a “crime scene” according to the LA Times that required two Security Forces investigations and there was even demands for the FBI to investigate. Then there was even an effort to conduct a DNA test of the urine and then senior officers tried to cover up this stupidity by ordering the evidence destroyed.
This whole stupidity reminded me of back in 2003 when my unit was waiting to cross the berm into Iraq from Kuwait. The camp in the middle of the desert we were at had a number of porta-potties. Someone was going around and shitting all over the porta-potties and would leave messages taking responsibility for the mess. The perpetrator went by the name “Shithouse Bandit”.
It became a running joke trying to find out who the Shithouse Bandit was. I guess the porta-potties should have been sealed off as a crime scene, multiple investigations conducted, called the FBI and had DNA tests done to uncover who the Shithouse Bandit was. To this day I continue to wonder who it was crapping all over the porta-potties.
Here is the latest attempt by the Korean left to increase tensions with Japan and indoctrinate Korean children. Do not expect these attempts to increase tensions to stop anytime soon:
South Korea’s largest province is considering whether to stigmatize nearly 300 Japanese companies over their purported actions during World War II, by imposing an ordinance that requires schools to put alert labels on these firms’ products in their schools.
Twenty-seven members of the Gyeonggi Province council submitted the bill last week in an attempt to give students the “right understanding on history.” If passed, schools will have to place on the items stickers that say: “This product is made by a Japanese war criminal company.” The move is likely further deepen a diplomatic spat between Seoul and Tokyo, which are at loggerheads over territorial issues and the legacy of Japan’s 35-year colonization of the Korean Peninsula (1910-1945).
The list of 299 companies includes Nikon, Panasonic and Yamaha. The rule would apply to items such as projectors, camcorders, cameras and copy machines with a price tag of 200,000 won ($190) or more. Most of the companies on the list do not commonly supply products to schools — they include Tokyo Gas, Kawasaki Heavy Industries and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.
You can read more at the link, but maybe the Trump administration should offer a compromise to the Moon administration to reopen the Kaesong Industrial Complex only if a war crimes label is attached to every product that looks like those grotesque ads seen on cigarette boxes.
Via a reader tip comes this bizarre story of an extremely obese American who flies on a Taiwanese airline in order to get the flight attendants to wipe his butt:
The obese American man who harassed and traumatized EVA Air flight attendants by ordering them to wipe him after defecating has, despite being banned, successfully booked more flights with the same airline.
According to Shanghaiist via Taiwan News, the unnamed man booked a two part flight with EVA Air for May 17, which would take him from Bangkok to Taipei and finally to Los Angeles. The man has reportedly booked over 20 flights with EVA in the past; in fact, this past incident was the second such incident recorded wherein the man bizarrely harassed flight attendants to wipe his butt after using the bathroom.
The owner of a Ford Explorer smashes his car with a baseball bat in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province, Jan. 20. Yonhap
A Korean man has destroyed his new car worth more than 50 million won ($45,000) in a fury, claiming he was given a Ford Explorer that “wasn’t actually new.”
Jang Dong-min smashed his vehicle with a baseball bat in front of a Ford sales shop in Jeonju on Jan. 20, accusing Ford Motor Company of giving him a car with “traces of repair.”
“It was the last and only thing I could do after no one had believed me,” Jang told The Korea Times Tuesday. “Every time I looked at my car, I felt my heart swelling with anger … I couldn’t just let it go.”
Jang bought his first Ford Explorer in May 2017, but within a few weeks, a serious engine problem occurred, he said. So the company exchanged that car for a new one in August that year.
But he later found some traces, which he believes indicate that his car was not brand new.
After receiving an experts’ technical evaluation report that supports his claims, Jang eventually brought the issue to the court. But the judges did not accept his claims.
Instead of an emotional support animal this seems more like a way to draw attention to ones self:
Wally, an emotional support alligator, walks into the SpiriTrust Lutheran Village at Sprenkle Drive in York, Pa., on Jan. 14, 2019. TY LOHR/YORK DAILY RECORD/AP
On a recent Monday afternoon, Joie Henney walked into the Glatfelter Community Center at the Village at Sprenkle Drive, an assisted-living development north of York, with his emotional support animal on a leash. He walked by an elderly woman sitting on a bench by a window, reading a book. The woman glanced up from her book, took a look at Joie’s emotional support animal, shrugged and went back to her book. Which seemed kind of unusual. Joie’s emotional support animal is a four-and-a-half foot alligator. There must be some currency to the adage that if you live long enough, you’ll see everything. Joie paused in the hallway while residents and staff gathered in a semi-circle, an air of curiosity mixed with the terror of seeing a huge reptile, its sharp teeth visible inside its powerful jaws, and kept their distance. Joie said it was all right. Wally – that’s the gator’s name – wouldn’t hurt them. He’s a pretty mellow reptile, and he likes people in the companionship way, not the potential food way.
You can read more at the link, but I wonder how long before we will see even more exotic animals as emotional support animals and people demanding they be allowed on planes and in other public spaces?
#SouthKorea's EBS, education channel for kids, placed Kim Jong-un paper assembly 3-D dolls for sale online, causing controvery. EBS called him "the youngest head of state" & generally praised him. No mention of "human rights." The price was $3.https://t.co/izWA0ENWxk
