NOBLE, Georgia (AP) -- Distraught families lined up to give blood samples Monday in the hope their DNA might help investigators identify more of the scores of corpses scattered around a Georgia crematory.

          This was the lead-in for a recent article on the continuing drama unfolding in Georgia surrounding the crematory operator, Ray Brent Marsh, who dumped bodies on the crematory grounds when the incinerator broke down.  Now, certainly, Mr. Marsh is an idiot (see below) and is guilty of criminal, as well as morally despicable, acts; however, this article does not concern the actions of Mr. Marsh.  I’m perplexed by the actions of the relatives of the deceased disposed of at this particular crematory.  I really don’t understand the reasoning behind wanting to reclaim the rotting, half-decomposed body of a loved one.

          My thought is this, dead is dead.  The body is just a vehicle used by the personalities and souls of the people we love.  Once the spirit of these people leaves the body, it becomes an inanimate object that should have no more attachment to it than you have for your car.  With this in mind, I say that these families should just let the federal authorities deal with the bodies and not re-open the painful memories surrounding the death of their family members again.  After all, the feds are going to do the same thing that the families are going to do with the bodies, right – bury or cremate them?

          I believe that most of these families just see an opportunity to play the “victims” on a national stage and are taking full advantage.  “I can’t believe that my mother’s body wasn’t burned to a crisp like I expected,” she cried.  “Instead her body was decomposing in a hole in the ground.”  Gasp!  Like every other body buried in a coffin or tomb in the world.  “The only thing that will make me feel better is if Mr. Marsh is hung by his testicles and I get invited on to The Real World or Survivor – part 3.”  Do these people really want to lug around the decayed bodies of their loved ones just to inter or cremate them again?  It doesn’t make any sense to me.

          If it were I and I had a relative whose body was at the crematory in Georgia, I would just assume that the body was cremated as I had requested.  “What if it wasn’t?” you ask.  Then, I would figure that the body would soon be taken care of properly by the authorities.  I don’t need to perform my drama queen act on CNN to see things put right.

          In short, people should be outraged by Mr. Marsh’s behavior because he acted fraudulently in misleading his clients about the service that he would perform on the bodies of their loved ones.  The fact that this fraud was conducted when these people were most emotionally vulnerable makes it even more abhorrent.  Other than that, let it go.  So you received an urn full of concrete instead of your loved one’s remains?  What were you going to do with them anyway?  Last time I checked, you could spread concrete powder over the ocean just as well as incinerated remains.  Besides, such acts are emotional gestures for the benefit of the survivors and not critical to the deceased (obviously).  Remember, dead is dead! 

Idiot Sighting:  Ray Brent Marsh, Noble, GA – A no-brainer appointment here given the article’s subject matter.  Just how long did ol’ RB think he could continue burying bodies around the place?  So the incinerator is broken; how many times do you have to take money from folks for doing nothing to pay for an incinerator repair?  Well, if RB was a rocket scientist I wouldn’t be talking about him here.  Still, it is amazing how stupid some folks can be.  What a solution, I’ll bury the bodies all over my property and dump them in my pond.  Great job, Idiot.

Until next time, The Idiot