Abante: Plagiarism Fail!

.:Plagiarism Fail:.

While reading some Tweets this afternoon, I noticed a pretty funny one from one of the people I follow, Tania Arpa…

That sounds funny. I must investigate.

DK Recap

.:More DK Recap Madness:.

If you haven't been listening to the Disenchanted Kingdom on 99.5 RT, you really should. From 6-10 PM, you're treated to one of the most entertaining radio programs on Philippine radio, featuring King DJ Logan, Marf, Ana Q5, and Lu Skywalker. Every now and then, I drop by and guest, but this show is just awesome from top to bottom, truth be told.

All things considered, while last week was a bit fun thanks to how we ended up discussing some silly stuff where we just ended up laughing our heads off for no apparent reason. Obviously, our show went really well because everyone just hit their stride that day. I'm just trying to remember what we were laughing about, though...

Last night, though, was something else. With KDL and Marf absent, Lu and Ana had to hold the fort, and when I got there, things started cooking when we decided to talk about rules on dating and relationships. Lu practically gasped when I mentioned the rule about not dating co-workers and then pointing out I don't technically work with Cleo Caliente. That resulted in a pretty interesting discussion, punctuated by them telling me that if I had a hot co-worker, I'd quickly ignore this rule like it were nothing.

This was when I snuck in a greeting and said to them that Denise Cua, my uber-hot co-worker, is indeed hot, but I still wouldn't break the rule, regardless. Denise was amused when I told her about it, albeit yeah, that means I just threw myself into the friend zone right then and there.

Whether it be advice for a caller about getting involved in friends' relationship woes, or the rules on when to call a girl or how many rings she should wait before taking your call, it was a lively discussion all around. For a half-manned DK, that was certainly one of our better efforts, to say the least, although Justin Bieber being a security threat in an airplane was quite an irresistible setup for my lousy joke about Bieber being the bomb. I'm sure Bin Laden would've been proud. Too bad he's dead.

Well, better Osama than Ozawa, I guess.

Ted Failon's Pyrrhic Victory...

.:NBI Investigation Reveals: Trina Etong Committed Suicide:.

Finally, it can be confirmed that Ted Failon did not attempt to kill his wife. The investigation was very clear and though this is not cause for joy but merely relief, I’m sure that Ted Failon must be feeling significantly better now that he is not being suspected, at times even accused, of having killed his wife.

I write about this story because I personally find it to be a very important lesson to people who enjoy doing nothing more than speculating and bandwagoning. The sheer number of armchair CSI specialists who turned up in Plurk and on the blogosphere alike was ridiculous, and I hope all of those insensitive souls who were quick to assume the worst out of Mr. Failon are eating crow right now.

I don’t have much to add when it comes to the NBI findings, really. I just feel that this moment is a victory, albeit a pyrrhic one for Mr. Failon. I would never know if the man is a saint or whatnot. I don’t know him personally. But when people started to go on a witch-hunt and when they decided for themselves that watching CSI on TV was going to be enough education for them to bypass due process, I was admittedly disturbed by the trend I saw. Just a year or two ago, I left this kind of sensationalism up to anonymouse bloggers or Brian Gorell, but now, I see so much sensationalism in blogs and Plurks alike, I find it difficult to tell them apart from seedy tabloids.

So to the people who went ahead and accused Mr. Failon of being his wife’s killer, are you decent enough to offer an apology to him, even if he may never read it? We bloggers keep on talking about our power and our ability to voice out what we think, but are we responsible with what we write or say? Or is libel just the standard operating procedure in cyberspace?

I could’ve sworn that wasn’t the blogosphere I spent almost seven years in all this time. When did it all take a turn for the worse? When did bloggers get so full of themselves that they think the rules of decency and propriety no longer apply to them?

If I didn’t make it clear enough, to the people, be they bloggers, politicians, plurkers, or whomever else who accused Ted Failon of killing his wife, to those who aggrandized themselves by thinking they’re some wonderful forensic experts despite not having set one foot in the “crime” scene, shame on you.

Shame on you for milking your traffic with theories about why he acted the way he did despite being a journalist. The next time your wife gets shot in the head and you’re going out of your mind trying to save her life, I hope you’d know exactly what to do and not let a single ounce of emotion get in the way.

Shame on you for accusing an innocent man of wrongdoing for no other reason than it sounds sensational and it “seems” to make all the sense in the world.

Shame on you for being insensitive to a man who just suffered a tragedy.

And shame on you for not understanding the concept of “innocent until proven guilty”.

Woes Of News...

.:You Call This News?!?:.

So yeah, Manny Pacquiao won again, but given the lead-up to the fight, do you call this newsworthy?

It's ridiculous how even Manny Pacquiao's dinner menu makes it to the headlines. I don't need to know about this pompous, self-deluded bastich when there are people trying to ferret out what's going on in Burma and are in dire need of airtime, dammit.

.:You Let This Guy Go Out On Bail?:.

Welcome to the justice system. For a measly 80,000 pesos, Atty. Manuel Hernandez gets to walk around before his day in court on bail, despite killing two people in broad daylight over a traffic altercation.

Apparently, they are downgrading his case from murder to a homicide, and quite frankly, I am incensed they are doing this.

The man shot a total of eight bullets into two people, six of them on one person. If this were merely homicide, then he could've stopped after shooting, once, maybe even twice. Shooting someone in cold blood six times betrays that this was no longer a spur of the moment thing. He had four shots after the first two to change his mind, but he didn't.

There is a strong case against him, and for good reason. That man should not be out on bail. He really shouldn't.