Oscar Pistorius receives a five year sentence for murdering his girlfriend in cold blood. And the kicker? This did NOT happen in America.

Courtesy of the BBC:  

South African athlete Oscar Pistorius has been given five years in jail for killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. 

Judge Thokozile Masipa also gave Pistorius a three-year suspended sentence for a firearms charge. 

The parents of Reeva Steenkamp told the BBC they were happy with the sentence and relieved the case was over. The defence said it expected Pistorius to serve about 10 months in prison. 

Pistorius was convicted of culpable homicide but cleared of murder. 

Prosecutors had called for a minimum 10-year term, and the defence had argued for community service and house arrest.

This POS fires a gun through a closed bathroom door, when only he and his girlfriend were in the house. How is that NOT murder?

 Witnesses heard arguing and a woman screaming before the gunshots. That does not sound like there is any possibility that Pistorius was asleep and did not know that his girlfriend was awake as well.

And the defense was incredibly weak as there was NO reason for this asshole to believe that there was a home invasion, and every reason to believe that the person behind the locked bathroom door had to be his girlfriend. And yet he can fire through the door killing her and only get a five year sentence?

I'm sorry that just drives me crazy.

Oscar Pistorius found guilty of South Africa's version of manslaughter.

Courtesy of USA Today:  

South African judge on Friday convicted athlete Oscar Pistorius of "culpable homicide" in the death of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. 

A conviction of culpable homicide, the term for manslaughter in South Africa, carries a maximum 15-year prison sentence. 

Pistorius had already been cleared of murdering Steenkamp. Pistorius has been granted bail and will return to court on Oct.13 to find out whether he will be imprisoned and, if so, for how long. 

A day earlier, Judge Thokozile Masipa said state prosecutors had failed to prove Pistorius, 27, was guilty of premeditated or second-degree murder. 

However, Masipa found the actions by Pistorius — an Olympic and Paralympic athlete known as the Blade Runner for his use of specially designed prosthetic legs — to be "negligent."

Negligent? I'm sorry how do you say WTF in South African?

This asshole fired a gun through the door of his bathroom, when the only two people in the apartment were he and his girlfriend. 

I do not buy for an instant that he thought there had been a break in and was frightened into firing those shots.

A witness says she heard arguing, so how in the hell does this negligent thing come into play?

He had a fight with his girlfriend, she locked herself in the bathroom to get away from him, and he shot her in cold blood through the door.  End of story.

THAT is at the least second degree murder.

This asshole just got away with murder. 

When your minister does not realize that calling his congregates "sheep" is purely metaphorical.

Courtesy of the Daily Mail:  

A South African preacher made his congregation eat grass to 'be closer to God' before stamping on them. 

Under the instruction of Pastor Lesego Daniel of Rabboni Centre Ministries dozens of followers dropped to the floor to eat the grass at his ministry in Garankuwa, north of Pretoria after being told it will 'bring them closer to God.' 

His controversial methods have drawn criticism from thousands of people although members of his congregation swear by his methods - he is said to have claimed that humans can eat anything to feed their bodies and survive on whatever they choose to eat. 

'Yes, we eat grass and we're proud of it because it demonstrates that, with God's power, we can do anything,' Rosemary Phetha told South Africa's Times Live. 

The 21-year-old law student says she had been battling a sore throat for more than a year, but it was healed after she ate the grass. 

Doreen Kgatle, 27, of Ga-rankuwa, suffered a stroke two years ago. 

'I could not walk but soon after eating the grass, as the pastor had ordered, I started gaining strength and an hour later I could walk again,' said Kgatle. 

 Photos on the Rabboni Centre Ministries Facebook page show the followers eating the grass as well as Mr Daniel walking across them as they spread out on the floor. 

Photos that follow show dozens of people getting sick in the toilets - an image of the bathrooms show women clutching their stomach, while the men are vomiting in the sink. 

The pastor's actions during the service prompted a series of online complaints. 

Steven Weinberg once said,  “With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.” 

The same holds true for getting seemingly intelligent people to do truly ridiculous, or harmful things to themselves.

Desperately sick and need a doctor? Not if you have faith.

Suicidally depressed and need counseling as well as medication? Not if you have faith. 

Confused about scientific information, and what it tells us about our planet and solar system? Not if you have faith.

Through faith we can be convinced to suspend our rational minds and buy into any religiously camouflaged BS imaginable.

Even to the point of absurdity.

South African Paralympic star shoots girlfriend multiple times. On Valentine's Day no less.

Courtesy of CBS News:

Oscar Pistorius held his head in his hands and wept openly in court Friday as prosecutors said they would pursue a charge of premeditated murder against the Paralympic superstar. 

Pistorius was formally charged at Pretoria Magistrate's Court with one count of murder after his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, a model and budding reality TV show participant, was shot multiple times and killed at Pistorius' upmarket home in the predawn hours of Thursday. 

A statement released after the court appearance by Pistorius' family and his management denied the charges. 

"The alleged murder is disputed in the strongest terms," the statement, issued from London, read. It also said that Pistorius "would like to send his deepest sympathies to the family of Reeva." 

Prosecutor Gerrie Nel said Friday in court it was premeditated murder, indicating the prosecution would file that more serious charge, upgraded from murder.

This shooting happened in South Africa and not here in the United States, but it is still a very sad indication of how owning a gun makes a domestic conflict suddenly deadly. Somehow I don't think that the guy with no legs was nearly as dangerous to this young woman as a man with access to a gun.

This from The Sun:

The 26-year-old athlete was known to sleep with a pistol next to his bed, a machine gun by a window, with cricket and baseball bats behind the door. 

Double amputee Pistorius explained how his disability made him especially vulnerable to an attack. He told one interviewer: “When I’m in bed and don’t have my legs on, I know there’s nothing I can do if someone breaks in.” 

You know as a double amputee it might be reasonable to understand how this man could feel helpless, but it was not like he was totally unprotected:

His sprawling mansion in Pretoria is surrounded by wired fencing, 10ft high walls and cameras while guards patrol the grounds. 

At first some suggested that perhaps Pistorius had killed his girlfriend by accident, but the facts did not support that theory: 

When South African police were called to an upmarket gated community in Pretoria, the address was familiar to them. It was not the first time they had been summoned to the home of one of the world's most recognisable athletes, Oscar Pistorius, to deal with domestic disputes. 

What they found this time was the dead body of his girlfriend. Reeva Steenkamp had been shot three times in the head and torso with a 9mm handgun. 

Shot three times in the head and torso? Well I guess he showed the world what a man he was. Didn't he?

And here in America the number of gun deaths since Newtown are edging up on 1900. But remember, guns make us safer.

Well at least that's what they keep telling us.