Weekly Daily Brickbats Archive 2009 November 8-31

In Franklin County, Ohio, former deputy Joseph M. Cantwell pleaded guilty to two health code violations and was fined $500 and given five years probation. Cantwell gave a bologna sandwich to inmate Joseph Copeland after another inmate had rubbed it on his penis.

In Finland, a court has found Helsinki City Council member Jussi Halla-aho guilty of insulting Islam and fined him 330 euros. Halla-aho had noted on his blog that Mohammad, the founder of Islam, married an underage girl. Halla-aho said he believed that made Mohammad a pedophile and Islam a religion that sanctifies pedophilia.

Brian Bendle was standing in shallow water when a jet ski smacked into him at England's Middlemoor Water Park. He suffered a broken back and ribs and a punctured lung. But when paramedics arrived at the scene, they refused to enter the six-inch deep water to help him out. They said health and safety rules demanded that a fire crew remove him from the water.

The Internal Revenue Service reports that 107,831 refund checks, worth $123.5 million, have been returned by the U.S. Postal Service because the mailing addresses on the envelopes were wrong.

A Spokane County, Washington, sheriff's deputy pulled Donald Ross out of a funeral procession and gave him and his family tickets for not having their seatbelts fastened. Ross was driving to his sister's funeral. By the time they arrived at the grave, the service had already ended. The sheriff's office defends the deputy. "We are out here trying to prevent funerals, not disrupt them," said spokesman Dave Reagan.