Schoolyard bully

Larry Gadon, suspended indefinitely as a lawyer by the Supreme Court, hasn’t grown up from being a schoolyard bully.

Let’s pity Gadon instead of condemning him, because he’s most probably emotionally and mentally unstable.

When he cussed journalist Raissa Robles on social media, he was probably unhinged.

No person in his right mind – especially a lawyer like him – would have done what he did: spewing unmentionable expletives towards a woman in public.

Gadon needs professional help. He doesn’t need another lawyer to defend his irrational behavior in court, he needs a psychiatrist who will look into the state of his mental health.

Because of Gadon, the high tribunal may want to require henceforth that all candidates for the Bar take neuro-psychiatric tests.

Another lawyer who’s a “candidate” for the mental asylum is a diminutive figure who invites attention unto himself by saying inane statements like having himself castrated if he was found wrong on a controversial issue.

Gadon and that other lawyer are in the same category as other members of the legal profession who are ambulance chasers, or those who kneel before prospective clients to offer their services.

Gadon became swellheaded after he filed a graft case against then Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, who was eventually ousted by her peers.

Gadon thought he was solely responsible for Sereno’s ouster when he was just part of the entire circus.

Buoyed by publicity for going after the then chief justice, Gadon went so far as giving a middle finger to Sereno’s supporters at the grounds of the Supreme Court.

Gadon inflicted himself into the public consciousness when he volunteered to defend former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who was under hospital arrest for alleged plunder while she was in office.

In 2016, he invited disbarment proceedings against himself for hateful remarks against Muslims. Gadon said if he would have had his way, he would raid the houses of Muslims and kill even their children.

“Kailangang burahin ang lahi nila. Kahit masunog ang kaluluwa ko sa impiyerno, gagawin ko yan (Their race should be erased from the face of the earth. Even if my soul burned in hell, I would do that),” Gadon said.

Why wasn’t this guy removed by the Supreme Court from the roster of lawyers for that remark?

The high tribunal seemed to have condoned Gadon’s anti-Muslim statement by its inaction.

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The government has gone way too far in dealing with Gwyneth Anne Chua, the young woman who skipped quarantine after coming home from the United States and attended a Christmas party in a Makati bar where she allegedly infected other guests.

After shaming her in public, the government has also shamed her parents, boyfriend and the Berjaya Hotel where she was supposed to spend her quarantine.

Even the family whose party she went to was considering filing a complaint against Gwyneth Anne Chua.

There seems to be no end in inflicting misery on the girl and those close to her.

There was even a proposal to have the Makati City government declare Chua persona non grata which Mayor Abby Binay turned down.

This columnist is reminded of a term in the 1970’s given to people who went beyond the bounds of normal behavior: OA, or over-acting.

The government is OA in exacting accountability on the young woman.

Enough is enough; but let her just face the music.

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Fr. Nicanor Austriaco, an OCTA Research fellow, will soon get flogged by big pharmaceutical companies, or Big Pharma, for coming out with a statement that seems to indicate that the COVID-19 pandemic is about to come to an end.

“Omicron is a natural vaccine. For those of us who are vaccinated and boostered, if we get Omicron, Omicron acts as another booster. The Omicron infection actually gave (gives) them antibodies that protect them not only against Omicron but against Delta, Gamma, Beta, Alpha and the D614G, the variant from 2020 June-July-August surge in the Philippines, so it protects against all variants,” said Austriaco.

Why would Big Pharma go hammer and tongs against Austriaco, a home-grown research expert?

Because it wants to control the world by scaring people out of their wits.

The more people get scared, the more money Big Pharma earns.

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Austriaco, however, is not alone in hinting about the imminent end of COVID-19.

Perhaps we are witnessing the beginning of an evolution toward a more banal virus like others we know, said Alain Fischer, who coordinates France’s pandemic vaccine response.

Compared to the Delta variant, Omicron is milder, though it spreads much faster, according to a study in the United Kingdom.

Clinical virologist Julian Tang, reacting to a UK study on Omicron’s lesser severity, said he foresees that one day repeat vaccinations and other measures would only be necessary for the most vulnerable.

“I am still hopeful that the virus will eventually become more like the common cold coronaviruses – perhaps over the next one to two years,” he said.

French health minister Olivier Veran has said that “maybe this will be the wave that allows us to acquire a kind of immunity.”

What’s happening now might be similar to the fourth wave of the deadly Spanish flu of the 1920s.

Although the fourth wave was widespread, the virus that caused the Spanish flu became much less deadly and turned into an ordinary seasonal flu.

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Joke! Joke! Joke!

A 90-year-old man tells his doctor to keep good-looking nurses to attend to him.

The doc says, “You are quite old, and you still want women?”

The man replies, “No. That way, my sons will come to see me often.”