h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Dear Reader,
If you don't know,"Sarah's Law" is a proposal that information about the movements of convicted paedophiles be released into the public domain. The Sarah of the title is one Sarah Payne, a little girl abducted and murdered by a paedophile who had had a previous conviction for such and attack.

The theory is that if parents know about the risk from paedophiles in their area, they will act accordingly. In this way Sarah's death could have been prevented. Unfortunately people have not been shown to work like that:- when a tabloid newspaper published the names, photos and locations of convicted paedophiles in the summer of 2000, it unleashed a wave of hysterical protest and vigilante attacks. Innocent people were targetted because their names were similar to those published. In one case a paediatrican was attacked and forced to move house. The general public in the UK have shown themselves incapable of being trusted with information about paedophiles.

It is possible that mob rule could force suspected paedophiles to repeatedly move house. The mob will be happy, because NIMBY (Not In MY Back Yard) is satisfied. But NIMBY has never solved anything; it only moves a problem, and anyone who believes that shunting a paedophile nearer to other people's kids is a good idea is contemptable. It would simply penalise people who have already been deemed to have repaid their debt to Society.

"So what?" I hear. "Why worry about the rights of sickos like that over the safety of little kids?" Because the vast majority of child abuse is not carried out by "sickos like that"; it's done by relatives. This fact is not widely publicised in the rabble-rousing tabloid newspapers, and I think this is because the truth is unpalatable. It's difficult to stomach this truth because it shows that the family, not Government, are the ones most capable of preventing child abuse.

I have very little sympathy with the "sickos", but Sarah's Law is a sledgehammer to crack a nut, and in my view it misses the nut.

GEOFF 18/12/01

Now you've gone and got me worried. Would you mind changing your name please?

I'm worried about your audiences mistaking me for you because of the similarities in our names, and beating me up if I don't give them their money back.

G. Taylor Eschicken

Now I've got YOU worried? I don't even know what you're on about!!

"Innocent people were targetted because their names were similar to those published"

I don't want any of them comedy vigilantes turning up at my door to complain about your language.

I doubt that will happen... "Geoff Taylor" - "Nanny the six-foot Chicken".... I think the differences are obvious to even the thickest pituitary retard.

Oh sorry, see the confusion has already started!

That Eschicken was my signature in posting 2 when I make the mistake of lapsing into reality, not a comment aimed at you.

On the other hand Nanny, if Wummenbeevil falls for it you may never have to visit B&Q again.

So you're not THE G.Taylor then Geoffers?

Hey! Good point about B&Q Kat!

Oh no! After Violent Duplicity, ou're not going to start accusing me of being Geoff Taylor now are you?

Geoff, meet Kat. Please tell her we are separate entities.

Geoff, do you find it a little odd to have such a request addressed to you by a six foot chicken? (a drumstick for everyone?)

Help, my home page is being invaded by people who are making no sense at all !!!!

Any chance of someone explaining what's going on here?

That's no way to welcome your guests. You're meant to say "cake or death" or something similar like "#^*! off back to Broadmoor".

Geoff, meet Kat, she's read too many Miss Marple books (well it's actually Scooby Doo, but I humour her) and goes around accusing me of being people I'm not, and with us both being G. Taylor she is a cert to accuse one of us of being the other.

There, now that's all cleared up, I have this great money-making idea for a pet crematorium in Korea.

Sorry Geoff - I came here to make a perfectly sane and sensible comment about male relatives and little ghouls, only to find that oversized broiler impugning my good name (not to mention yours). What's a supposed to do?

Help me Nanny!!!

I've run in circles, screamed and shouted and now I don't know what to do next

Norton AV says I have summat called Bloodhound.File.String
It found 192 infected items that it couldn't repair so it quarantined 187 of them and told me to delete these:

CHKDSK.EXE
SCANDISK.EXE
SYS.COM
EXT.EXE

(all in compressed files)

and
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\MPREXE.EXE

Should I run in some more circles?

Is this REALLY the first time you've been hijacked Geoffers?

Humble jalopies

Yup. Hijack virgin, that's me.

It's quite surreal to discover I share my name with an overgrown....er...feathery....bird type thing.

Anyone want ? Or some other graphic representation of food?

Mmm. Hi Jack Virgin. Pleased to mm eat you. I'll have as many graphic representations of food as you care to toss in my direction. Thanks.

Oooh thanks! Nothing like a nice bit of graphic imagery to fill the cyberspace in Nanny's tummy.

Watch yourself Jack Virgin, Kat's gonna try and link you with being someone else. My guess is that she'll try and work, "Do you know Jack S**t" into the conversation somewhere along the line.

Kat, I haven't listened to anything by any Norton prog for around two years with no ill-effects, so I'm not really the chicken to ask. Might I suggest you jump up and down and throw a hairy fit? Alternatively, I know a dwarf called Harry Fitt if you're interested.Yes, he's got high blood pressure and is a red dwarf.

From the little I can gather, it may or may not be harmful.....

...it all depends what the dwarf lands on.

"No-one tosses a dwarf"

Say, Jack Virgin, is your name Gimli by any chance?

(Or do you just need a hand?)