Simply Dumb

                                      Sometimes a story comes across the newswire with Simply Dumb written all over it. This, my friends, is one of those. Reuters out of Singapore reports a criminal with a fetish for smelling women’s armpits received a 14-year jail sentence today.

The 36-year-old man, believed to suffer from sort of mental illness (you think?) molested 23 women over a 15-month period. His abuse consisted of touching them improperly in staircases, lifts and their homes. Oh yeah, and he sniffed their armpits.

And since it’s from Singapore, you just know that was only a part of his punishment. In keeping with that nation’s tradition by which male criminals can be caned across the buttocks, he also received 18 strokes of the cane. As you’ll probably remember, this practice came to international scrutiny when American Michael Fay got caned for vandalizing cars.

After everyone from activists to then President Bill Clinton begged leniency, Singapore officials agreed to lower the punishment-  from six cane strokes to four. They’re all heart in Singapore.

American pro wrestling fans will remember the publicity from the 1994 case led to the creation of a new foreign object: the Singapore Cane. When I read about someone getting caned, I still like to imagine ECW’s Sandman (pictured above) delivering the blows.

Image courtesy of Newscom.

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