Vermont Man Sets Fire To Car; Later Realizes It's The Wrong Car

I often do weird crime updates from Florida, which seems to be the World Headquarter for people who do strange,  creative lawbreaking.

Vermont man torches car to get back at somebody
he disliked. But oops, wrong car.  

But where I live in Vermont, we try to contribute to this phenomenon, especially up in the remote Northeast Kingdom part of the state.

After all, this is the part of the state where, in 2012, a mentally ill man ran over and crushed eight police cruisers in a parking lot with a tractor he was driving. 

It's the part of Vermont where last year,  a reporter for a small town newspaper didn't have to go far to get a crime story. He just looked out the window and watched his car get stolen.

Today, we introduce you to Cory Carpenter, 33, of Newport, Vermont. According to the Newport Dispatch, he was caught Saturday night after setting a Dodge Neon ablaze in Newport.

Asked by the arresting officer why he did it, according to the Dispatch, Carpenter replied, "I did it to be an asshole."

Well, no argument there.

Apparently, he wanted to set fire to a car owned by somebody with whom he was having a disagreement. The destroyed car, however, belonged to somebody else, somebody Carpenter apparently had no beef with.

Police said while in custody, he penned this note to the person whose car he torched: "I apologize for setting fire to your car. Wasn't my intention. Peace be with you. Truly sorry, Cory L. Carpenter Jr."

Well, at least he's sorry. But he's still facing charges. Which goes to prove, revenge isn't necessarily sweet.

25th Anniversary Of Internet, And www.dumb.com

There's much ado today about the 25th anniversary of the World Wide Web, which we can all agree has changed our lives immensely.

The World Wide Web has also exposed incredible boatloads of stupidity, given what people say and do on the Internet. But again, we knew that, too.

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of stupidity on the Internet, I give you the image in this post. (click on it to make it bigger and more readable)

I can't verify if a person really wrote it and really believes the things he or she said. But rejoice! You're smarter than this person!

And happy 25th Birthday, World Wide Web!!  Time for me to go off and watch more cat videos.

Worst Start To A Marriage EVER

We don't know they're names, but the happy couple left Atlanta recently for their honeymoon in Costa Rica.

In what might prove to be a very, very short
marriage, a groom got drunk argued with his bride
on their honeymoon flight. He got kicked off the plane.  

Sounds so, so romantic, doesn't it? Launching a marriage in a beautiful, natural tropical paradise. Ahhh..

Well, maybe not. In what might go down as the worst start to a marriage on record, the groom got drunk and argued with his bride on the plane.

Our groom got so disruptive that the Delta flight made an emergency landing in Grand Cayman, according to Reuters.

Our drunk argumentative groom was kicked off the plane and faces drunk and disorderly charges there, Reuters said. He might face even more harsh charges under international law because the airline industry and law enforcement tend to frown on forcing flights to make emergency landings.

As for the (surely) blushing bride, after the groom left the plane joined the rest of the passengers in continuing on to Costa Rica.

She'll probably have a better time without her obnoxious groom anyway.

Watch A Not So Merry Prankster Get Exactly What He Deserved

Some people make prank videos these days because, I guess they're pretty good at generating clicks, and that means some revenue.

Many of the pranksters, as I've noted before are extremely stupid, not funny and risk getting people hurt.

And sometimes, they hurt themselves, and deserve it.

That's the case with the moron in the video below. He and his co-conspirator faked ATM robberies, to see how people would react.

Finally, one person, convinced it was a real robbery, punched the prankster in the nose, causing a rather grotesque injury. (Don't watch if you're eating)

I am reluctant to post the video because Lord knows I don't want to generate publicity or revenue for this idiot, but I do think it's a good warning for other would-be pranksters out there.

That warning is: You'll eventually get what you deserve, and what you get could well be unpleasant.

I have no sympathy for the guy in the video and judging from the comments on his YouTube page, nobody else does, either.

Judge for yourself and watch:

Odd Gay Discrimination Lawsuit Roils Small Vermont Town

Here where I live in Vermont, people are pretty good dealing with gay people like me and my husband Jeff.

From WPTZ: The two Barbaras involved in
an anti-discrimination lawsuit against the
town of Addison, Vermont.  

I rarely hear people act in a bigoted way toward us, and while I'm sure some people don't like our orientation, we don't hear from them often.

We know a few homophobes could make things ugly for us, but so far, knock on wood, things are pretty good.

But it can get ugly even in gay-friendly Vermont.  A sad, surprising lawsuit, filed last week, is a case in point, if the allegations in the lawsuit prove true.

The couple, Barbara Ernst and Barbara Supeno, live in the incredibly scenic, little town of Addison, Vermont.

The area is gorgeous. It's in the southern Champlain Valley, with a landscape of rolling farmlands and patches of woods. The Green Mountains rise to the east, the Adirondacks to the west. In between is Lake Champlain, and the Barbaras, as their friends call them have a place on the shore of the lake.

It sounds absolutely idyllic, but for them, not really, apparently.

According to television station WPTZ in Plattsburgh, N.Y/Burlington, Vermont, the Barbaras have filed a lawsuit against some of their neighbors and some town officials, saying there's been a concerted effort to drive them out of town because they are gay. 

The couple's attorney, David Bond, said some neighbors, and town leadership are trying to run them out of town.

According to WPTZ:

"It's entirely based on their sexual orientation," Bond said. "Neighbors insulted them, made obscene gestures to them. There were dead animals left on their property.

In a lawsuit filed Wednesday, Bond claims town leadership tried to push the women out of town."

Part of the problem might be that the chairman of the town selectboard is Jeff Kaufmann. (In small Vermont towns, the chairman of the selectboard is kind of like the position of mayor) Kaufmann is also Addison's zoning and planning administrator, which is the go-to guy to get a permit to say, add a porch onto the house, or build a fence or a handicapped accessibility ramp.

Kaufmann is also a Baptist minister. Some Baptist ministers are pretty hostile toward gay people, but I don't know if Kaufmann is. He declined to comment on the lawsuit, according to WPTZ and other media sources.

In any event, a lot of people might be surprised to see such a lawsuit come out of Vermont.

The state has a reputation as being quite liberal, and has been in the forefront of granting gays rights such as marriage and anti-discrimination laws.

But, like everywhere, Vermont has subsets of religious evangelicals, closed minded souls and a scattering of simple, homophobic bigots.

Life in Vermont for the LBGT community, then, isn't always a Nirvana of acceptance good friendly vibes.

Most Vermont towns are small.  They often have cliques, and some of those cliques basically run everything in town.  And it's amazing what damage or disruption a clique in a small Vermont village can cause if said group is incompetent, stupid, mean-spirited, ignorant or comprised of bullies.

That kind of ridiculousness doesn't happen too, too often, but it does happen.

And that might be what's going on with the Barbaras of Addison.

I don't know the selectboard or zoning administrators in Addison. I don't know whether this lawsuit has merit. We'll find that out eventually. Part of it could be the Barbaras' personalities somehow rubbed people in Addison the wrong way, that kind of thing happens.

Then again, the Barbaras might be the sweetest people in the world, and some people in the town of Addison are homophobic trolls.  Given the allegations in the Barbaras' lawsuit, homophobic trolls in Addison seem like they might be the culprits.

Mere personal dislike of the Barbaras probably wouldn't lead to the following, as alleged in the lawsuit:

• The town wouldn't response to grievances they filed about the neighbors' harassment.

• The Barbaras tried to apply for a permit to install a handicap ramp for Supreno's mother. The couple need to get the permit to avoid a $100 fine, but the town clerk refused to accept the application.

• A weird letter, written by someone who is grammatically and spelling challenged,  circulated in town that said the Barbaras are scam artists and that they pretended to be nice, involved people to cover up their "devious and vicious behavior." 

• An attorney got a weird letter that was purported to be from the Barbaras (it wasn't) that said the couple love screwing around with lawyers by obtaining attorney's services, then never paying up.

• The couple needed to have a hearing to get permission to put up a fence around their property to fend off their offensive neighbors. Two public hearings were held regarding the fence, but nobody from the town bothered to tell the Barbaras when and where the hearings were. 

So the bottom line is, homophobia ain't dead, and bigots find ways around anti-discrimination laws, and if this lawsuit has merit, there goes your proof.

The LBGT community has made lots of strides toward equality, but it'll take a lot more work to change everybody's minds.

Starving For Spring, So Here's A Time Lapse Of Flowers Blooming

As I look out my window in St. Albans, Vermont, I see it's snowing a little on this cold, gray March morning.

We can dream of spring, can't we?  

A lot more snow is in the forecast this week. Much of the northern part of the nation is still locked in a winter that just won't quit, and forecasters say the cold, January-like regime will last into April.

It's enough to make you want to go to Siberia to warm up, as it's probably mild there.

To help a little, here's a video showing time lapses of flowers blooming. It's bound to help a bit.

More Florida Weirdness: Don't Tell Cop You're On Your Way To Kill Friend When Stopped For DUI

Every day, Florida is a reliable source of crime news about ne'r do wells who have a novel opinion on how best to commit an offense.

Police said this guy was in a hurry to
go kill his friend, but was stopped for DUI  

Today we bring you Alberto Moreno, 45, of Port St. Lucie, Florida, whom police said roared by them at a high rate of speed on February 18. When the cops pursued him, he was reportedly weaving all over the road.

When they finally stopped Moreno, he didn't exactly help his case. That's because he told the police he'd been drinking all day and he was in a tremendous hurry because he had to go to his former friend's house to kill him for screwing him over.

Needless to say, our buddy Moreno never did make it to the former friend's house. Hurting his case even more, Moreno could barely stand during the roadside sobriety test.

He was charged with DUI, but apparently not charged with wanting to kill his friend, since he never made it there and the friend wasn't hurt.