This came tonight.  I share it with you without comment.

______________________________________________

I would like to say that I have been reading through your posts with interest and I would like to let you know that AJ’s family have been reading your posts too.

I would like to thank many of you who have openly expressed support and condolences to the family during this extremely difficult and painful time.

There has been a lot of press coverage both here in Ireland and the USA that has been full of speculation and unsubstantiated drivel about family, AJ himself and private lives of the Hanlon / Carroll family. This is causing a lot of pain and difficulty to the family and has no place or relevance in this case. This is something that is being used to sensationalise the story and sell newspapers.

I know this family, I know Dorothea & Justin, I know Melanie, Eamonn Thomas, Andrew James, Mary Kate and Danielle, I also know Andrew’s father Eamonn Hanlon and the extended families on all sides. I know that truth and the background. These kids, most young adults now, are loved and cherished by their family and never would you say that this was a neglected home nor was anyone of the kids abandoned as reported by the gutter press in both countries. I know that anyone that knows this family or has had the opportunity to spend time with this family will know this to be true.

Also I would like to inform all of you of the arrangements for AJ’s funeral.

The Funeral will be held on Monday the 21st of July at 10am in Saggart church, Co Dublin.

Also as per the wishes of the family I would ask that those wishing to attend not bring floral tributes as there will be a facility for contributions towards AJ’s repatriation fund.

This tragic event has put the entire family both immediate and extended at large financial strain as no one expects to lose a son, a brother, a nephew or a friend like this.

Again thank you for your support and a special thank you to Bock for making it possible for comments and views to be aired openly on the unnecessary slaying of this young bright Irish Son.

_______________________

UPDATE

Andrew’s friends set up a memorial site where he was killed. the site contained personal memorabilia, flower arrangements, trinkets,artwork and photos.

The Silverton public works department removed all the objects and destroyed them.

______________________

All Bock posts on AJ Hanlon HERE

Just when you think you’ve seen it all, damn me but don’t they go and invent something so clever you just have to push your John Deere cap to the back of your head, move the dust around with your toe and mutter Shucks!

I’ve just realised there’s been a general theme of violence here over recent days, and so I thought, why not bring you something utterly violent and at the same time utterly ludicrous?

Have a look at this.  See what you make of it.

That’s right.  It’s a knife, but it isn’t just any old knife.  No indeed.  I wouldn’t like to be stabbed with this knife, though of course, at short notice, I don’t know if I’d like to be stabbed with any knife, but this one in particular holds a special dread for me.

Why?

Well, you see, when the Special Forces assassin stabs you with this weapon, he doesn’t just twist it in the traditional evil villain method any more.  Not at all.

Instead he presses a small button, and guess what happens.

Go on.  Guess.

Yes?  No?  Not sure?

Ok. I’ll tell you.  The knife injects a high-pressure cloud of frozen gas the size of a basketball that instantly turns your heart, lungs, liver, lights, guts, spleen, and kidneys into one solid block of frozen dead person.  It then blows you to bits.

What?

Yup.

Here’s a cutaway picture of the Wasp knife and you can see the little cylinder of gas embedded in the handle.  Clever, eh?

Have a look at this video.

You can see how handy the Wasp knife would be around the kitchen or at barbecues.  Never again worry about cutting that melon in half. 

The manufacturers think this knife will be a great advantage for divers when a shark attacks them, and if they happen to be running cross country in their flippers and facemasks, they can also use it to kill any bears they bump into.  Then, in a moment of pure inspiration, the makers think about it some more, and they realise that it could also be useful for killing human beings.

Here’s the list of people they think  are suitable to have a Wasp knife:

Special Ops Troops (Land or Sea)

Downed Pilots Stranded In Open Water or Remote Forests

S.W.A.T. and Special Police

Security Guards

Got that?

Right.  Now, on reflection, I reckon I can live with the idea of Special Ops having it.  After all, they’re going to kill you one way or another.  And I always had a soft spot for downed pilots.  You couldn’t leave them defenceless.  SWAT and police?  Well, why the hell not?  After all, they’re blowing people away already, as we’ve seen in the last week or so in Silverton, Oregon.

But then we get to security guards and I start to think, Wait a minute!  What the hell is this?  Are you saying that the fat unshaven bastard lounging outside the supermarket in an ill-fitting button-popping shirt is getting a knife that can blow me to bits?  This is considered a suitable weapon for security guards?

What the hell kind of planet do these people live on?  In what demented, violent universe did somebody think it was a good idea to sell such a weapon to security guards?  So I check, and suddenly it all makes sense: there’s the logo.

Why am I not surprised?

While I’m at it, here’s something equally ridiculous.

The scandal goes on.

You’ll remember I wrote extensively about this disgraceful story when the frenzy was at its height.  After behaving like absolute swine, the British press were eventually forced to print front-page apologies to Kate and Gerry McCann for printing lies about them.

Now they’ve been forced to apologise to another of their victims and to pay him £600,000 in compensation.  Robert Murat was vilified and libelled by the papers.  His life was destroyed.  He was turned into a figure of hatred by the media hyenas who trailed him everywhere he went and made his days and nights into a hell.

They imprisoned him in his house and tried to convince the world that he was responsible for Madeleine’s disappearance, when in reality he had nothing whatever to do with it.

All that Robert Murat did was try and help the investigation by translating for the police.  That was when a fool of a reporter from the Sunday Mirror, Lori Campbell, reported Murat to the police because she thought he was creepy.  The thundering idiot.

These are  the kind of cretins who work for the major papers and TV stations.  Talking heads without a brain between them, who trade in suspicion and ignorance to destroy the lives of innocent people.

Scum.

____________________

Previously

Madeleine McCann

Right.  You’ll remember that I threatened promised to bring you the occasional Bock post from the archives.

Well, here’s today’s offering.  Just ignore this if you’ve seen it already.

___________________________________

Imagine Being A Muslim Martyr

I was out tonight in my pub of choice, having a few scoops of my drink of choice with my friends of choice, when the subject of Islamic martyrdom came up.  This is how sad I am, and how pathetically sad my friends of choice are too.

As we were all men, somebody was bound to bring up the matter of the 77 virgins. You just would, y’know? Somebody said, Well, it isn’t that bad. You have the 77 virgins waiting for you when you die heroically, after the martyrdom, which is probably painful all right, probably very fukken painful getting a spear through your chest or blown to bits, but still, 77 virgins, y’know. How bad?

And on the face of it, that’s probably true. On the face of it, you would certainly think, how bad could it be?

Well, here comes the news. It could be pretty fucking bad. There you are, newly-arrived in Heaven, and here’s your 77 virgins.

How’s it goin’, Boss? Satisfy us, ya bollix!

All well and good. You get down to business, and as it’s heaven, involving the afterlife where you don’t get tired or any of that kind of thing, you finally manage to satisfy the 77 virgins.

Jesus Christ, I need a pint, you gasp, and you’re about to slither off to the pub.

Where the fuck do you think you’re going? says the 77 ex-virgins.

To the pub!!

Without us? Not a chance!!

So there you are in the pub, eventually, having called 19 taxis. Right darlings, what are we having?

A stupid question. You stand at the bar, discussing your order with the barman who can’t believe what a stupid twat you are:

Let’s see if I have that, now. 32 Heineken with ice. 14 Heineken with lime. 4 spritzers. 2 gin and tonic. 5 Jagermeisters. 2 Fat Frogs. 11 tequila slammers. 3 pints of Bulmers. 3 Jamesons. 1 Black Bush. And a Guinness.

No bother.

The door swings open.  It’s your brother in martyrdom, Mikey.

Jesus, there’s Mikey. How’s it goin’, Mikey - what will you have?

Oh, I’ll have a pint of Guinness, 44 tequila slammers, 15 red wines, 3 Wild Turkeys, 12 Coronas and 3 Slivovitz.

Grand, says the barman. That’s 32 Heineken with ice, 14 Heineken with lime, 4 spritzers, 5 Jagermeisters, 3 Jamesons, 55 tequila slammers, 2 gin and tonics, 2 Fat Frogs, 3 pints of Bulmers, 15 red wines, 3 Wild Turkeys, 12 Coronas and 3 Slivovitz. 1 Black Bush. And 2 pints of Guinness.

That’s right. Oh, fuck it, here’s Tommy with his Mexican virgins. Tommy will ya have a pint? Grand. Barkeep, will ya make that 32 Heineken with ice, 14 Heineken with lime, 4 spritzers, 5 Jagermeisters, 3 Jamesons,132 tequila slammers, 2 gin and tonics, 2 Fat Frogs, 3 pints of Bulmers, 15 red wines, 3 Wild Turkeys, 12 Coronas and 3 Slivovitz. 1 Black Bush.  And 3 pints of Guinness.  Grand. Fine.

Finally, after eight of the lads turn up, we get a cosy little sing-song going, just the 702 of us, involving a medley of old numbers by Captain Beefheart and the Velvet Underground. Yet something isn’t quite right, though we don’t know what.  The 693 virgins seem a little pissed off at our lack of attention.

What’s wrong? we say.

As one, the 693 virgins fold their arms and reply, Nothing!

I see the Irish Sun have an exclusive today.

It’s all about Jane Stone’s revelations regarding Andrew Hanlon’s killing, which I wrote about in this post the day before yesterday.  Come to think of it, I did happen to notice somebody from News International visiting here yesterday.

I understand that, following their visit here, the reporter phoned Jane to confirm the story, but oddly enough, the quotes in the Sun bear a remarkable resemblance to those I published on Tuesday.

Needless to say, there’s no mention of Bock in the article but I suppose I should be flattered that an organisation with Rupert Murdoch’s vast resources at its command should take the lead from a harmless old blogger in Limerick.

______________________

Meanwhile, events are unfolding fast in Silverton, and I’ll bring you the information as I get it, or alternatively, you can read it in the Sun if you’re prepared to wait a couple of days.

_____________________

UPDATE 18th July

I see Associated Newspapers have been visiting today.

I wonder if we can expect to see material from this site appearing on the Irish Mail on Sunday?  Let’s keep an eye out.

I notice News International  are reading the AJ Hanlon reports again too.  In fact, they’re on right now, and they’ve been going through them for the last two hours.  It’ll be interesting to see what they steal.

A 40-year-old woman has been convicted in the Circuit Court on two counts of incest and two of sexual abuse against her son.

Why do I mention this?  Ah come on.  How often do you hear of women being convicted for sexual abuse? 

Does this mean women don’t commit sexual abuse?  No, of course it doesn’t, but sexual abuse by women is far less likely to be reported, and accusations are far less likely to be believed .  In just the same way, men are far less likely to complain of domestic violence, for all sorts of reasons, including shame and embarrassment.  Even if they do complain, the police are less likely to take them seriously.

I was listening to a radio interview last week with a journalist who wrote a book called something like “Irish Wife-Murderers”, and I thought to myself, what about  women killing their husbands?

Certainly, these cases aren’t nearly as common, but they do happen, and when women kill their partners, their defence is often attended by the most outrageous claims that a male accused wouldn’t get away with for a second. 

The defence team always seems to attack on the dead man’s character in an effort to persuade the court that he deserved to die.

Can you imagine the reaction if some man accused of killing his wife made such a claim?  Yes, I killed her but I had to.  She was violent and abusive.  I had to choke her.  I had no choice.

Why am I saying this?  Am I trying to achieve some parity of disrespect between men and women?  No.

I’m saying that society tends to make assumptions that aren’t necessarily true.  I’m saying that men don’t hold the monopoly on violence and abusive behaviour.  I think there may be other reasons why more women aren’t charged with domestic violence or sexual abuse, and those reasons may be to do with society’s reluctance to acknowledge the existence of such offences.

I wonder if someone will try to argue that this woman was forced by a male-dominated society into sexually abusing her children?  Perhaps this woman is really the victim and it’s my fault she did what she did.

Vegan Bastards

Is there anything more annoying than a vegan?

Well, yes, actually.  Now that you mention it, there is.  Vegan parents are more annoying.

There was a case recently of a 12-year-old girl admitted to a Glasgow hospital with a degenerative bone condition caused by the lack of calcium.  According to the hospital, this child’s spine was in a condition they’d expect to find in an 80-year-old.

It’s belief, you see. More bullshit.  The parents’ beliefs are more important than their children’s welfare.  That’s why adults, who grew up on a diet of milk and cheese and fish and meat, and who have developed strong and healthy bones, feel entitled to deprive their infant children of all these things.  It’s their belief, and that makes it all right, even though what they believe in is a load of old bollocks.

It’s their belief, just like the nonsense that is homeopathy, a non-science that believes water has a memory.  These charlatans dilute your medicine until it can no longer be detected in the water, and then they tell you that the water remembers what was dissolved in it.  Now, all water is as old as the planet and has had everything in the world dissolved in it at one time or another, but somehow it only remembers what the chancer wants it to remember.

Bah!

What the hell is this obsession we have with belief, and why do we give a special place to some beliefs but not to others?  Why did we agonise when two Jehovah’s Witness parents wanted to prevent their child having a blood transfusion?  Why didn’t we just arrest them there and then for trying to endanger their child?  Throw them in the slammer and give the child to a family who’ll take proper care of it?

I don’t know.  We said, it’s their religion!

So what if it’s their religion?  So what?  Religion or not, it’s still insane.  Why the hell are people entitled to switch off our sanity button by invoking their religion?

I’m going to wear a bag over my head while I’m in school.

No you’re not.

Yes I am.  It’s my religion!

Insane.  It isn’t my problem if some old guy in the desert a thousand years ago decided you have to wear a bag on your head.  It’s your problem for swallowing such horseshit.  Get over yourself!

I don’t give a rat’s arse what delusion you believe in.  Your delusion isn’t a licence to behave like a total gobshite.

I’m a Scientologist and I believe an alien from Venus lives inside your head.

You’re nuts.

You can’t say that. 

Yes I can.

You’re oppressing me!  I’ll set 43,000 lawyers on you! 

I think we’ve reached the quota for lunatic beliefs now, and if you want to start a new lunatic belief system, you’ll have to wait until one of the old ones is extinguished, like a pub licence.  That’s why the majority of sane, rational people in this country will laugh at Jehovah’s Witnesses, but happily go on believing that a man in a skirt can turn Jesus into a biscuit, which is a nice, sensible belief.

Did you ever think about that transubstantiation thing?  I did, and it worries me.

Now, it’s not that I’d be at any religious service very often, but sometimes you have to go to funerals, weddings and that sort of thing, and I was wondering.  You know the bit where the witch-doctor waves his hands around and sparks fly out of his fingers and he turns that biscuit into the body and blood of Jesus?

You with me?  Right, well, what I’m wondering is how far the bread-to-Jesus rays travel and how powerful they are.  Maybe a Christian Scientist might know the answer.  You see, it’s possible you might not have got home the night before, and perhaps you have half an uneaten pitta bread doner kebab in your pocket.  Or a ham sandwich.  Or maybe a packet of biscuits.

You see where this is going, and it’s a real worry for me.  If the priest is feeling particularly powerful this morning, possibly because he had a nice altar-boy good slug of whiskey, would he be able to zap that kebab right through your pocket, truly turning it into the Spicy Lamb of God?  Or if it was still wrapped in the aluminium foil, would that stop the rays getting through?

Maybe you’d need a lead-lined kebab just to be on the safe side.

I don’t know.  Theology was never my strong point.

What I do know is that I hate vegans for being condescending, insufferable twats, and therefore I’ve invented a new breakfast cereal for them.  When the revolution comes, my people will round them all up and force them to eat this every morning, but it’ll be good for the general public too.

I think this is going to be a real success.  A breakfast cereal made of pork.

I call it Meatabix.  What do you think?

__________________________

Thanks to Achilles for doing the pic.

________________

Elsewhere: Natural Selections

Fanni Mae and Freddie Mac are America’s two largest mortgage companies.  Between them, they own or guarantee half of all the mortgages in the United States, and now they’re in trouble.

Hold on a minute.

Fannie Mae?

Freddie Mac?

Who said Americans have no sense of irony? Their lending system is controlled by two cartoon characters, there’s a cowboy in charge of the government, and something has gone badly wrong in Mortgageland.

Shrub has knocked the country flat on its back, and now Friendly Fannie and Fun-loving Freddie are going to fuck it senseless.

You know, with all the money they spent searching for terrorists, maybe they were looking in the wrong place the whole time.

This came from Jane Stone, who lives on the street where AJ was killed.

It’s an extraordinary statement that paints a picture of householders over-reacting to Andrew’s knocking on the door, followed by a merciless killing.  What’s not so clear is who fired the first two shots.  The report seems to hint that Gonzales shot Andrew several times after he had already been shot by two other men.

These men ran to the back of the building where Jane lives, after the shooting.  Were they the two men who pursued Andrew after he knocked on the door or were they the police?

I’m trying to clarify this and I’ll come back with more information if I can find out exactly what meaning is  intended.

This is Jane Stone’s account:

I am devastated by what happened to Andrew.  He was murdered in front of my building, on Oak and Mill St. in Silverton, Ore.  I am an internationally known artist/writer and although I did not know Andrew, I feel a kinship as a fellow artist, and also several of my artist apprentices over the years knew Andrew.  Every single one of them told me what an awesome  person he was, and that he loved life.

This is what i know to be true:  first 2 shots came from front and side of my bldg..  NO WARNING CALL ie: “police” hands up”, “stop” etc.

NOTHING except 2 shots, then 2 males ran away from victim to back window of my bldg., where I was at computer.  Then, (maybe 1 minute or more later) popping sounds on oak st..  I believe andrew was already fatally wounded when officer inflicted shoulder  limb shots.  that (could) be why Andrew “tripped and fell down.”

There is huge cover up going on here, I KNOW WHOEVER FIRED 1ST 2 SHOTS (very loud) they were fired by or at my bldg..  please-  we must not let this go!!!

We must not give up until light shines on Andrew’s soul…  he was (from every report I’ve heard) a fine, gentle person who was going thru loss of employment, loss of place to live and expired visa~ enough to bring stress to anyone.

The whole thing could have been dealt with at the outset  by a pause, kindness and directions. How does banging on a door intrepret out to a burglary in progress???  This young irishman was barefoot, no backpack, 130#, 5′6″,totally un armed,  being chased down oak st. hill by husband (of wife who called to report burglary in progress) and friend of husbands’.

How many times kids have come to my door asking for directions (late at night)?

live up Oak St. Hill from my studio-(the bldg. from which 1st 2 shots were fired) and all I’ve had to do is walk kid (s) out to sidewalk, then show them the road they were looking for, which is usually the one directly across from my house.

Simple.

Why would anyone call police because a young adult needed directions, and within minutes, he is dead?  This was a tragic sensless brutal murder and I pray we will see justice here, for Andrew’s soul, for the family of andrew and the young adults in Silverton who loved him, for the people in ireland who are heartbroken too.

I am wanting to do more, please with the help of good people from around the States and in Ireland, let us join together here, in the name of Andrew J Hanlon.  He so deserves a sacred memorial, it would be called “JUSTICE LIVES” and it would be built out of TRUTH.  We cannot allow this murder to be covered up,

How can we start?  What will we do?  I send my love to everyone whose life was  and is being touched by Andrew.

J Stone

_________________________

This is where they killed him after he was chased down the hill by a neighbour.  The police were waiting for him near the junction of N 3rd St and Cascade HWY (aka Oak St).  The approximate location of his killing is marked with a white asterisk.

And this gives an indication of how near he was to his sister’s house when he knocked on the door.  This is not a big city.  this is a town of 7.000 people.

All Bock posts on AJ Hanlon HERE

This is AJ.He was 20 years old, a gentle boy, loved by all who knew him, but now he’s dead. A part-time policeman in Silverton, Oregon shot him seven times and killed him.	This is AJ’s killer.Since he killed AJ Hanlon, Tony Gonzales has been arrested on complaints that he sexually abused a young girl. Story HERE, and HERE

Some people in Oregon have attempted to smear AJ’s character, and even to question the standard of his upbringing, but it’s now becoming plain to everyone that he was just an inoffensive kid who was unlucky enough to run into someone like Tony Gonzales.

It now seems that what happened was very simple.  AJ knocked on the wrong door, the occupants thought he was a burglar and called the police.  Gonzalez, who was having an extremely bad day, arrived and emptied his gun at AJ, hitting him seven times.

People who knew AJ have been leaving comments HERE if you want to read them.

All Bock posts on AJ Hanlon HERE

______________________

______________________

AJ Hanlon 1988-2008   RIP

______________________

UPDATE:

Court video of Gonzales’s arraignment HERE

______________________

Elsewhere: KVAL,