Speaking of dicks, I read the following article about Prince Andrew being heckled while walking in a funeral procession for his mother.

I don’t have a great understanding of royalty and why they are necessary in the modern world but if the British want to keep them, it is none of my business and they can do whatever the Hell they want to. However I found this incident irksome. A heckler spouted some choice insults about Prince Andrew while he was walking in a funeral procession for his mother. The heckler was, of course, arrested and charged with breaching the peace while Prince Andrew carried on marching in the procession.

I could have lived with the police removing the heckler from the street because, I suppose, there was a case that the heckler was in danger from the other members of the crowd and removing him was for his own safety. Charging him, however, seems petty given that Prince Andrew is guilty of more serious crimes and he got away with them. He avoided prosecution and criminal charges through artful use of lawyers and his mother’s money while also calling his accuser a liar when she was telling the truth. But then he is a prince.

I thought that the Queen arranged with Prince Andrew a withdrawal from public life. Walking down the street behind the hearse of the most famous woman on earth is about as public as it gets. But it is his mother, you say. Yes and if she was regular old Elizabeth Windsor living in Croydon I would say the heckler was out of line but again his mother was the queen of England — a very public figure. He has forfeited his public role and that means he shouldn’t participate in any aspects of her public funeral. He can mourn her in private.

He has behaved shamefully. He should be ashamed about it. He should be hiding out in some castle while his more law-abiding relatives bury his mother. More importantly, he should have had the good sense to know this without being told. Even more importantly, and a bit shocking because it didn’t happen, is that since he didn’t have the good sense, somebody else in the family should have explained it to him. That nobody told him shows a terrible lack of judgement from the new royal family.