Though never convicted, it is strongly suspected Joran van der Sloot murdered Natalee Holloway. Van der Sloot has now confessed to murder of a young woman in Peru.

I have a confession to make. It’s not what you’re thinking. It’s worse. I… admit…. I used to watch Nancy Grace on CNN. I know. I still can’t believe it, but I did. I’ve stopped now, but have occasionally relapsed for 5 minutes, every now and again.

With the recent arrest of Joran van der Sloot in Peru, where he apparently confessed to murdering a young Peruvian woman, the story of the murder of Natalee Holloway in Aruba five years ago is back.

I remember it well. Nancy Grace would go on and on and on. It seemed that she was obsessed with it for months.  I don’t know what possessed me to watch. It was a sad story about a young woman who vanished while on holidays in Aruba and her body’s never been found.

Aruban resident and Dutch citizen Joran van der Sloot had been arrested, but never convicted. I don’t think he ever even went to trial. His dad is a judge there. Hmmm. Not sure how much that had to do with it.

So now he’s in trouble in Peru and up to his old tricks, sadly. I don’t think he’ll get out of this one. I don’t think Peru’s justice system has a reputation for letting people off easy. Karma’s a bitch, Joran.

If you haven’t seen Nancy Grace, you ought to give it a try just once. She’s certainly a pit bull and any semblance of journalism is out the window. It’s pure TV tabloid and everybody’s guilty. It’s like watching the same car wreck in slow motion, every night. It’s terrible, but oh so delicious, and mind-rotting, but delicious none the less.

You’ll see the same snippets of video, over and over and over again. CNN has mastered the video loop. Every detail of whatever case she’s on will be fine sliced, over and over and over.

If you’re looking for spectacle, you’ll find it here. I think my IQ may have recovered now.

I guess Martin fraudulently used credit cards to purchase just under $5,000 worth of goods. It’s really a shame he did that. He was sentenced to three years in West Virginia for the crime. I’ve chatted with Martin on Twitter and I like Martin. That won’t change either. It’s a shame he’s ruined a promising career and everything’s come crumbling down around him.

What I’m pissed about, and apparently there are many others who are upset in this case, is the sentence. Three years for credit card fraud? Doesn’t that seem a little harsh for someone who has no record? There have been many people who’ve been convicted of far worse crimes and only had house arrest. I remember one case where a guy molested his daughter many times and never ended up in jail. The judge should be convicted of stupidity in that case.

I think judges should really weigh whether it’s worth the cost to the taxpayer to keep someone in jail who’s not violent or dangerous, depending on the severity of their original crime of course. I don’t think crime should go unpunished, but why not community service, restitution and fines?

What’s happened to zi.ma?

The great thing about zi.ma was that it was a URL shortening service that tracked visits through the URL you created. Now it’s been redirected to kl.am. Apparently the arrangement is legitimate, but kl.am pales in comparison. The name sucks too. But, I’ll use it because I don’t know of any other service that does the same thing. Know any?

It’s nice that the old zi.ma URLs have been recovered to an extent, along with the statistics. I’m not sure how accurate or complete either are.

Martin Bowling’s future

According to the story, Martin could get out of jail on parole within 12 months. Let’s hope he does and that he gets back on the path to success quickly. I hope for his sake that it does happen. Hang in there Martin! You do have support out there.

Related links & stories about Martin Bowling:

• State official gives grants to company Martin Bowling worked for
• Webmaster Radio story on Martin Bowling
• Free Martin Bowling
• Interview with Martin Bowling
• Martin Bowling’s blog
• Twitter search feed: @martinbowling
• Martin’s inmate record
• Charleston Gazette Blog: Resident evil genius
• Charleston Gazette Blog: No hoax
• Raven: Kl.am taken over by Zi.ma

Story update:

March 24 – Martin Bowling hoping to serve sentence at home

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