News

Well, since the world seems to going down the drain essentially at the speed of light, I thought I'd report a bit on some of the articles I've read about. All of these are courtesy of GMX, which is where I go to to access my main email account.

1) Paris Hilton has been sent back to jail. For those of you who have better things to do with your lives, here is a summary of the backstory to this article: After having been caught driving under the influence several times, having her license suspended, and then being caught driving under the influence without her license, a judge finally decided to send Paris Hilton to prison for 45 days. I thought that this was slightly less than fair, but it was something. Anyway, Paris Hilton left to start her sentence early...right after attending this year's MTV Movie Awards. Okay, at least she was being a good girl about it. Everything was going well, the prison guards were reporting that she was courteous and polite (of course, she was), and then...on the third day of her sentence, she was released from prison...due to medical reasons (supposedly a nervous breakdown).
Now onto the actual article: Judge Sauer (which I, as part-German, think is a hilarious and fitting name for a judge) decided after a day of "freedom" for Paris Hilton (she was to remain in her villa for the remainder of her sentence) that she would be returning to prison. Paris Hilton's reaction to this: crying and calling out to her mother.
There were reports of Paris Hilton complaining that she was cold and hungry in her prison cell. Well, you do have to think about the other people sitting in prison. I mean, you have people with diabetes, AIDS, and other illnesses or psychological disorders that make prison life a literal hell. I think that being hungry and cold would be the least of my problems... Then, you have people like Al Sharpton crying about racial discrimination. I don't know how true that is, but I am more likely to believe that it was discrimination based on wealth and social status. (Contrary to popular belief, wealth doesn't necessarily guarantee a higher social standing and vice versa.) There were also enraged district attorneys, who mentioned that we couldn't just simply set up a multi-layered prison system based on someone's wealth and/or social status. Surprisingly enough, the police are on Paris Hilton's side. Sheriff Baca mentioned that Paris Hilton has some serious problems that were getting worse in prison. (Umm, yeah, of course she has some serious problems. This was new? And of course they were getting worse in prison. Don't the problems of pretty much everyone else get worse in prison?) Another statement was that Paris Hilton had already spent the "average" time in prison for her "traffic sins" (Verkehrssuenden) and that other "traffic sinners" usually only have to sit out a tenth of their sentence. (And this is reason enough to let her go early?)
I hate to say this, but Paris Hilton needs to learn a lesson and get her head out of her butt. She's in her mid-twenties already, for crying out loud. She behaves the way she does and is then surprised that people want to see her dead. I don't think that she should die, but she should at least squirm and suffer a little. If she were to die from one anxiety attack...then she obviously hasn't suffered from enough of them. Honestly, she doesn't seem to care about the people around her. I mean, she was caught quite a few times driving under the influence, even though she could have easily called for a taxi or a limo to pick her up and drive her home. How many lives did she risk each of those times? Has she ever thought about that one?
So, here is my personal message to Paris Hilton (not that she'll receive it, but it will make me feel better): Grow up, baby girl!!! I'm only 21 and I have more common sense and compassion in my right little finger than you have and could ever have in your whole body! You're an arrogant, spoiled, two-faced baby, who hasn't been told to shut up enough in her life. Do yourself a favor: travel around the world incognito (if that is at all possible), go to developing countries, rely on yourself and the kindness of others...and not on your and/or the Hilton money, abstain from parties and alcohol and the social scene in general, and then maybe you will be ready to show yourself in public again.

2) Prince Harry is thinking about leaving the military. Why this? Because in addition to not letting him go to Iraq, he also isn't allowed to serve in Afghanistan. Why this? Because not only have so many soldiers died already, not only is it a highly dangerous area for the average soldier to be in, but it is especially dangerous for a member of one of the most widely-recognized royal families to be in.
According to several reports, Prince Harry is fully aware of this, but being denied both assignments kind of signaled an early death to his young military career (in addition to these denials being a blow to his blue-blooded ego). So, he is now supposedly thinking about "retiring" early from the military. Instead he wants to concentrate on humanitarian work, such as the organization Sentabale in the South African kingdom Lesotho, which helps AIDS-orphans and was established by Prince Harry as a memorial to his mother.
My thoughts: Go for the humanitarian work. Your mother will be proud of you and you'll most likely help more people with that than if you were to stay in the military and drive yourself crazy for lack of assignments. I also doubt that anyone will think less of you, should you choose to leave the military for humanitarian work.
Seriously, can you blame the boy? First off, it's pretty damn certain that he will never be crowned king (and it seems like he's just fine with that). And second of all, he's denied assignments in areas where it seems like they could use more men. So yeah, if I were in his position, I would feel pretty damn useless. As long as he doesn't leave the military to party and be completely selfish, I think he should go ahead with it.

3) Oh Diana! How many lovers did you have? Well, from the sounds of it...at least three. According to the article on GMX, Diana's first lover was the royal bodyguard Barry Mannakee, who died in 1987, when his motorcycle crashed into a car. Even though this collision was reported as an accident, Diana believed it wasn't. She believed that Barry Mannakee had to die because he knew too much about the miserable state of her marriage to Prince Charles. The other two lovers mentioned were her riding teacher James Hewitt (who is also supposedly the father of Prince Harry) and Dodi Al-Fayed (who was also her last lover and died in the same collision that killed Princess Diana). This article came up mainly because the author Tina Brown released excerpts from her soon-to-be-released book "The Diana Chronicles", which will supposedly be available in Germany on June 12th, but already seems to be available here. Of course, this book will most likely be one among many. I mean, it has almost been a decade since that unfortunate collision in Paris. I won't say that I condone Diana's affairs, but she did belong to the more compassionate portion of the world's population.
1997 was a tragic year in that aspect: We lost both Princess Diana and Mother Theresa. Don't these deaths always happen in groups of three? Where's the third one? Okay, sorry, I'm veering off topic.
Anyway, I don't know how good this book is...nor do I know how much of it is true. It's pretty certain that Princess Diana had affairs with both James Hewitt and Dodi Al-Fayed, but I don't know how much longer this list of lovers is.
Who knows...I might even buy the book, read it, and then write a review on it.

Well, that's all I have to say...at least until I find something new to write about.

Take care people!