Now I’ve been crying lately,
thinking about the world as it is
Why must we go on hating,
why can’t we live in bliss?

Flipping through the channels just now I came across one of the Live Earth shows, this one in Hamburg, Germany. And guess who was on stage? The former Cat Stevens, Mr. Yusef Islam. He was singing his classic hit Peace Train. Yup, the same Yusef that came out in support of that grand master of peace, Ayatollah Khomeini’s fatwa calling for the death of Salman Rushdie. In fact, Cat Boy has publicly stated that Rushdie should die for the “crime” of writing a book critical of the Islamic faith. So Mr. Islam, I ask you in your own words: Why must you go on hating? Why can’t you live in bliss? What a disgusting excuse for a human being. Shame on Al Gore for being willing to sell his soul to further his lost cause.

A portion of Rick’s post below really got to me:

“I told him I would kill his dogs if they ever came back on my property,” he said.

For that, Floyd Simon was issued a citation for disorderly conduct and assault by threat.

I know this is nonsense. Texas Penal Code Section 22.01(a)(2) governs assault by threat. Here’s what it says:

(a) a person commits an offense if the person . . . (2) intentionally or knowingly threatens another with imminent bodily injury, including the person’s spouse.

#1: A dog is not a person, and this guy sure as hell wasn’t married to his pit bulls. I can threaten your stupid dog as much as I please; it isn’t assault. These laws protect persons, not dogs.

#2: The threatened injury wasn’t “imminent.” This is a clear requirement of the statute. “Showing of “imminent” bodily injury as required to prove assault by verbal threats means a danger which must be instantly met and which is near at hand, in that it is on the verge of happening.” Hill v. State, (App. 11 Dist. 1992) 844 S.W.2d 937. Heck, even if this guy had threatened the neighbor himself, it wouldn’t have been assault. In fact, it’s comical to think that this triple-amputee was an immediate threat to anybody.

The police are not allowed to make up the law as they go along because they confront two angry neighbors. At most, the man was guilty of disorderly conduct as charged, but even then, if the man was still on his own property when he made the threat, he can’t be legitimately charged with anything.

Finally, you would have to believe that his threat constituted “fighting words.” I don’t think threatening to kill your neighbors dog if and only if the dog trespasses on your property, and after said dog has decapitated your own pet, constitutes language that can reasonably be read as threatening an imminent breach of peace.

If the story is accurate, there is so much wrong here it boggles the mind.

Words fail me.
(UPDATE) Besides it is all Mr. Rogers fault.