(null)Created 23 Sep 2003 at 17:28 UTC by pedro.
URL: http://www.cnn.com/Notes: This is for things that are Yet Another Reminder of where this big rock ball is headed, assuming that you think it's heading to either a bang or a whimper. No optimism here please. You'll also have to decide where to put your items, since some things that COULD go here also could belong in Apple Pie or in World Events... but I liked this name so much, and I post things like this often enough, that I just had to do it.
solid proof
Read only if you've not eaten recently and therefore won't vomit. This is a REAL baptist church website, though I don't think these people are Christian, in my opinion.
The first page is bad enough but my head hurts from viewing the second page. I can't imagine people who fill their lives with the fuel of hatred as those people do. The weird thing is that I don't think of myself as a hateful person but I actually do feel hatred toward them when I see how horribly vile the people in that organization are.
those people have some serious issues, and need something better to do with their lives, if they were being assaulted for their beliefs I bet they wouldn't feel that way about other's.
It makes me want to do something positive in the world.2 kids killed with bat; mom steps in traffic
Associated Press Published September 25, 2003
LAS VEGAS -- A woman bludgeoned her two children to death with a baseball bat, then stepped into the path of a truck in what was thought to be a suicide attempt, authorities said Wednesday.
Sylvia Ewing, 40, was hospitalized in critical condition. Police Lt. Tom Monahan said she will face murder charges if she recovers.
Monahan would not disclose the contents of a note found in the two-room apartment where Ewing's husband discovered the bodies of his children, Phillip, 8, and Julie, 4, when he arrived from work Tuesday.
However, Monahan said the note "left little doubt it was her intention to take the children's lives."
"There is evidence that she was in the depths of a deep depression," Monahan said.
Monahan said that about an hour after Ewing's husband went to work early Tuesday, Ewing took the children to a nearby Wal-Mart and bought the bat.
A few hours later, Ewing was struck by the tractor-trailer, police said.
"There were witnesses who watched her step into the path of the oncoming truck," Monahan said.
He said the family was renting the apartment while their house was under construction in the Las Vegas area.
Copyright © 2003, Chicago Tribune
Student cuts off penis and tongue after drinking hallucinogenic teaA student cut off his own penis and his tongue after drinking an infusion of the latest drugs craze to sweep Germany.
The 18-year-old, only named as Andreas W, from Halle in Germany drank a tea made with the hallucinogenic angels' trumpet plants.
His mother said: "Andreas was behaving normally the whole day until he left the house and disappeared into the garden for a couple of minutes."
When he returned to the house he was wearing a towel wrapped around him and was bleeding heavily from his mouth and between his legs.
The emergency doctor who arrived a few minutes later said the student had cut off his penis and his tongue with garden shears and it was impossible to reattach the organs.
Dr Andreas Marneros, from the local psychiatric hospital the student was admitted to, said: "Andreas will have to receive psychological help for years. Tea from Angels' Trumpets is extremely dangerous as the drug cannot be dosed."
Angels' Trumpets, known for their fragrant and trumpet shaped flowers, have increasingly become popular as an alternative drug in Germany.
Suddenly waking up the next morning with a hangover doesn't seem so bad. Heck, I'd even call it refreshing by comparison.On a slightly different note: First World Championships Challenge Yoga Karma
Toddler survives three weeks alone on ketchup, dry pasta
Rock band vows to defy law with onstage assisted suicide
That story about the two-year-old little girl alone for three weeks is sad, so very sad.... She reminds me of Bean from Ender's Shadow.
amy, did i completely miss the fact that you have read these books? or did we discuss it so long ago that i forgot? bean is a sad character...
That poor little girl. I keep having visions of Anna alone for ONE day let alone 19. That poor, poor child. I hope she recovers, emotionally... and I hope they find a new, caring, attentive home for her. I can't even imagine the horror.
California
Michael Moore apparently released a new book today.
This is ridiculous
Andra Ferguson and her boyfriend, Brandon Kivi, both 15, use the same type of asthma medicine, Albuterol Inhalation Aerosol.Ferguson said she forgot to bring her medication to their school, Caney Creek High School, on Sept. 24. When she had trouble breathing, she went to the nurse's office.
Out of concern, Kivi let her use his inhaler.
"I was trying to save her life. I didn't want her to die on me right there because the nurse's office (doesn't) have breathing machines," Kivi said.
"It made a big difference. It did save my life. It was a Good Samaritan act," Ferguson said.
But the school nurse said it was a violation of the district's no-tolerance drug policy, and reported Kivi to the campus police.
The next day, he was arrested and accused of delivering a dangerous drug. Kivi was also suspended from school for three days. He could face expulsion and sent to juvenile detention on juvenile drug charges.
and every single time it completely disgustes me. If that girl had dies he probably would have been sued for NOT giving her his medication when he knew it would save her life.
what bullshit. why is it criminal to give someone a legal drug? one that has been prescribed for them? i don't understand this. although still ridiculous, it's one thing to violate the 'no tolerance' policy and a completely different thing altogether to bring criminal charges for this. it just doesn't make sense.
exist to remove the requirement that people actually think.
They don't have to think about ethics or rational judgment because the law tells them exactly what to do.
Full ArticleOKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) -- An 11-year-old Oklahoma girl has been suspended from a public school because officials said her Muslim head scarf violates dress code policies.
Board officials met Friday to discuss the fate of suspended sixth-grader Nashala "Tallah" Hern, who was asked to leave school in the eastern Oklahoma town of Muskogee on October 1 because she refused to remove her head scarf, called a "hijab."
School officials instituted a dress code in 1997 prohibiting the wearing of hats and other head coverings indoors. Officials said they implemented the code to stem gang-related activity. Hern declined to remove her hijab, saying it would violate the way she observes her religion.
Officials at the school, the Ben Franklin Science Academy, previously summoned Hern to the office on September 11 to inform her she was no longer allowed to wear the scarf. She had worn it since the school year started a few weeks earlier.
A school attorney said federal education rules adopted in 1998 do not allow for exceptions for religious beliefs.
"As I see it right now, I don't think we can make a special accommodation for religious wear," said school attorney D.D. Hayes. "You treat religious items the same as you would as any other item, no better, no worse. Our dress code prohibits headgear, period."
Oklahoma City -- that says so much.
This is messed up. I've posted the article in full below:Suspected penis snatcher beaten to death
Fri Oct 10,12:12 AM ETBANJUL (Reuters) - A 28-year-old man accused of stealing a man's penis through sorcery has been beaten to death in the West African country of Gambia, police say.
A police spokesman told Reuters on Thursday that Baba Jallow was lynched by about 10 people in the town of Serekunda, some nine miles from the capital Banjul.
Reports of penis snatching are not uncommon in West Africa, with purported victims claiming that alleged sorcerers simply touched them to make their genitals shrink or disappear in order to extort cash in the promise of a cure.
The police spokesman said many men in Serekunda were now afraid to shake hands, and he urged people not to believe reports of "vanishing" genitals. Belief in sorcery is widespread in West Africa.
Seven alleged penis snatchers were beaten to death by angry mobs in Ghana in 1997.
And let me tell you, if a guy stole my penis through sorcery I'd beat him to death too.
do you think they checked to see if it was actually gone before crying "penis snatcher! let's get him!"? and why do so many people there believe in sorcery? do you think it's possible that some phenomenons exist in only a very small part of the world and the rest of us, because of ignorance, think they're all cracked?
I mean, superstition obviously exists, but on the other hand, unexplained phenomena do too, so I think just for objectivity's sake, you have to ask that question. That said, if I was in the "penis snatching" business, I wouldn't physically snatch anything, but I would just cast a spell on it making the person impotent or infertile. Much harder for the victim to verify. Or put a futuristic snatch spell on so it wouldn't actually disappear for a week or something.
that the alleged penis snatchers make the penii[?] reappear elsewhere? maybe they should call them penis collectors.
There was a hypnotist at North Park when I was an undergrad who made people believe there were birds in their hands on stage. It was pretty freaky. Then he told the people to go back to their seats and that their belly buttons had disappeared. About 30 minutes later when they were back in their seats and he had done a bunch of other stuff he asked all the people in the audience to check their belly buttons. The look on the participants faces (in the audience) when they "realized" their belly buttons were gone was crazy. So, anycrap, the ending thing is that there's something definately convincing about hypnosis.
On Friday, school officials decided to expel Kivi but not press criminal charges. They said it was an amicable agreement."I'm happy. Everything's final," Kivi said. "I'm expelled 'til after Christmas and I can come back after Christmas, but I won't."
woman crashes SUV into home.
So, Medicare, the taxpayer-funded government healthcare program, has it's own blimp that "will provide aerial television coverage for selected sporting events and make appearances at major community events and senior activities throughout the fall." Does this strike anyone else as completely and senselessly wasteful?
That is RIDICULOUS.
it's part of some new advertising campaign for the 800 number which may not be the best way to blow your ad budget, but I'd bet they are spending a lot more on tv and radio ad buys.
You'd think they could like, make an arrangement with McDonalds and other national chains to hand out a flyer with any Senior Discount or something.
this really makes me sad.
It'll be dancing by the Book Wheaton College students look for a graceful way to hold first dance in school's 143 yearsBy Meg McSherry Breslin Tribune staff reporter Published October 24, 2003
The exuberant faces of the Wheaton College students swing dancing on a suburban dance floor don't give it away, but nothing short of a revolution is about to take place on the quiet evangelical college campus. Dancing.
Throughout the school's 143-year history, students have been banned from drinking, smoking, gambling and social dancing on and off campus during the school year.
But after years of student pressure to lift the dancing ban, the college administration introduced new guidelines for campus living in February, shocking students with news that an official on-campus dance would be held for the first time in school history this year.
With the big event just weeks away--the date will be announced during the college's family gathering this weekend--Wheaton students are testing out their moves at area dance halls.
But they're far from bumping and grinding. The dance of choice for this group of devoutly Christian students seems to be the old-fashioned swing dance. Many students hope college leaders will follow that interest by selecting swing as the theme for the first dance.
For Wheaton, the new policy represents a monumental turnaround. Just six years ago, the same college president who lifted the ban, Duane Litfin, told the Tribune that most contemporary social dancing was "very sensual ... the kind of thing that doesn't add to the Christian atmosphere on campus."
Wheaton's decision is likely to prompt changes at a number of the 127 members of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities, said Bob Andringa, the council president. Already, a number of Christian colleges have ended dancing bans in recent years and others may soon follow suit, he said.
"Wheaton is one of the flagships in Christian higher education, so it always gets more attention," he said.
Until now, Wheaton students were allowed to dance only with members of the same sex or to square dance, as the country-western line dance gave students little or no chance of getting too intimate with the opposite sex. In 1997, a small policy change allowed students and teachers to dance with spouses or relatives at family events.
Clearly, many students are excited about the change. While there have always been some students who danced, those who faithfully followed the ban are thrilled they can dance without facing discipline. They no longer have to feel like they're doing something wrong, even sinful.
Jesse Armerding, the grandson of former Wheaton College President Hudson T. Armerding, was an enthusiastic participant at a recent Sunday night swing session at the Willowbrook Ballroom in Willow Springs. He said swing dancing is hardly erotic and that it was unfair to lump all kinds of dancing into one category. "I love music," he said. "And sometimes you just can't help it."
Still, there's much apprehension about the first dance.
Bethany Jones, the student leader who is organizing the event, is feeling pressure to produce "something fun but wholesome--good, clean fun."
Litfin emphasized that the new code of conduct is hardly a loosening of the college's standards. The new guidelines state that on-campus dances will take place only with official college sponsorship. Students are asked to use good judgment, avoiding behavior "which may be immodest, sinfully erotic or harmfully violent."
Yet Litfin is cautious as preparations get under way.
"On balance, I know the decision was the right one, yet I'm eager to see to it that we don't do anything to drag down the spiritual environment on campus," he said.
There's also the potential for an outcry from alumni and college backers.
After the new policy was announced, Litfin got 300 calls and e-mails, a third of which were angry outbursts or confusion over the change. Some alumni and supporters felt lifting the dance ban wasn't in keeping with the Wheaton they knew, Litfin said. So far, though, campus leaders said the decision has not affected contributions.
Wheaton's new policy, dubbed the "Community Covenant," also lifted a longtime ban on drinking and smoking in private for faculty. Litfin said a key factor in that change, along with the new dancing rule, was the 1991 Illinois Right to Privacy in the Workplace Act, which some feared left the college vulnerable to a lawsuit.
The law prohibits discrimination against employees who drink or smoke off the job unless there is a strong religious belief against the practice. Litfin said Wheaton's former policy was based more on tradition, not biblical beliefs, thus prompting college leaders to put rules in place--for faculty and students--that more closely reflect the Bible's teachings.
Another incentive was concern that the college's previous guidelines did not allow students to think through their choices in preparation for a Christian life after college.
"Are you really growing your students in terms of discernment when suddenly they walk out of college and they don't have easy rules?" Litfin said. "There's something to be said for this being part of their education."
Still, some Wheaton supporters remain unconvinced, said Marilee Melvin, vice president for alumni relations.
"[Some] alumni are legitimately concerned that our students be challenged, taught and motivated to live the kind of life Jesus Christ asks of us, and they fear that some of these things ... will really get in the way of that," she said.
Other Christian college leaders say they were not surprised by Wheaton's move.
"In some important respects, the morals of evangelical Protestants are changing," said Joel Carpenter, provost of Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich., and a scholar of American religious history. "There's dancing all over in the Bible. It seems to be a legitimate God-given cultural conveyance of feeling."
For a campus that claims as its motto, "For Christ and His Kingdom" the no-dance policy was as much a campus fixture as the volume of tributes to a famous alum, Rev. Billy Graham.
The ban helped define the campus as the antithesis of modern college life. Missing were coed floors, heavy drinking, the "sinfully erotic" dancing.
Students did find creative ways to let their hair down and still abide by the ban. At one social gathering, students put tape on the floor to create a separate female and male section, because it was OK to dance with a member of the same sex. At another party on a women's floor recently, students pulled the shades and danced with abandon to "Bohemian Rhapsody."
Though many followed the old rule, pressure mounted over the years to lift it. Some student leaders said the ban seemed increasingly out of pace with more modern Christian values.
"It makes us seem less like a subculture in our own little world," sophomore Julia Stampfl said of the new policy.
Out on the dance floor, Wheaton students say concerns about the new policy are overblown. After all, this is a campus where students speak freely about their love of Christ, where they attend mandatory chapel three times a week, and where the campus cafeteria is flooded with news of missionary trips and local spiritual meetings.
Even the swing dancers at the Willowbrook Ballroom hardly seem like rebels. Sipping water from plastic glasses, they discuss the virtues of dance as an _expression of their love of God.
Sophomore Chad Hauge is all style and energy on the dance floor, swinging in his tuxedo, his shoulder-length blond hair flipping from side to side.
Off the floor, he turns serious, talking of how he was attracted to Wheaton because of students' values, including a respect for abstinence and an openness to more spiritual friendships.
Days after he left the dance floor one recent Sunday, he composed an e-mail about his views.
"What I, and really most of the college students here, care about more than this college, more than dancing, more than anything, is Jesus Christ," Hauge wrote. "I love the covenant because it is true to God's word, and seems to place the focus on Jesus, not the college.
"It gives me freedom, but asks that I use that freedom responsibly. That seems like a good deal to me."
Copyright © 2003, Chicago Tribune
5 men charged with multiple assaults on teenBy Jeff Coen Tribune staff reporter Published October 24, 2003
Charges have been filed against five men accused of raping a 14-year-old girl who was picked up from her school Monday, attacked over 18 hours at different locations and then left on a street corner, authorities said.
doctors call anderson's estimates "inflammatory" -- they're phones are ringing off the hookOf course, she is not following the conventional remedies, so who knows. It makes me sad not because I care about Pamela Anderson as a celebrity... but as an example of the human condition.
whoops
...but how is Pamela Anderson's medical status a reflection on the human condition?
It just makes me sad to see someone who obviously either didn't think that she would get sick, or didn't care, end up suffering from her actions. I wish that she would not have made the decisions that led to her contracting Hepatitis C, and it makes me sad that we live in a society where some lifestyles that are glorified and can be lucrative and fame producing often lead to personal self destruction. It's not that I don't think she's responsible for herself, I just pity her and the flawed world that created those possibilities.
I understand. I also share your frustration that personal self-destruction doesn't seem to be viewed as a very high price to pay for fame, glory and material wealth.Tangentially...
About 15 years ago, I turned down a good job at Sun Microsystems, and a promising career in programming, for an uncertain future in television. I did this because I was worried that programming would be too stressful, cost me some of my identity (my brother was a programmer) and that I would burn out early. Though it was a hard decision I have never regretted it. My first real job after making that decision was at USA Today on TV, and people there actually looked down on me because I had turned down such wealth. It didn't make any difference to them that I was *happier* where I was, they still essentially turned their noses up.
Yeah, I know all about the inflated emphasis on material wealth.
Jeez, Wheaton dancing? What will the "Carlson Crazies" do to mock our adversaries now?Wheaton Girls, Will You Please "Come To The Hollywood Lounge" / "Skip Chapel" With Us?
and they are both really cool, down-to-earth, funny, good people. this sounds so awful, but i always had these misconceptions about everyone at wheaton being very strange and puritanical. despite the fact that my favorite-ever professor is also a wheaton alum. in fact, i mentioned this to one of the wheaton alums in my office and she said, "Professor So-and-So? But she's so...normal." yes, my sentiments exactly. anyway, the two ex-wheatonites in my office were rolling with laughter when they read the article. it is all strange to me. i feel badly for having such ignorant misconceptions, but hey, it's wheaton.
In a report published Monday, the Lovenstein Institute of Scranton, Pennsylvania, detailed its findings of a four-month study of the intelligence quotient of President George W. Bush. Since 1973, the Lovenstein Institute has published its research to the educational communityon each new president, which includes the famous "IQ" report among others. There have been twelve presidents over the past 50 years, from F.D. Roosevelt to G.W. Bush, who were rated based on scholarly achievements, writings that they produced without aid of staff, their ability to speak with clarity, and several other psychological factors, which were then scored using the Swanson/Crain system of intelligence ranking. The study determined the following IQs of each president as accurate to within five percentage points.In order by presidential term: Franklin Delano Roosevelt [D]142, Harry S Truman [D]132, Dwight David Eisenhower [R]122, John Fitzgerald Kennedy [D]174, Lyndon Baines Johnson [D]126, Richard Milhous Nixon [R]155, Gerald R. Ford [R]121, James Earle Carter [D]175, Ronald Wilson Reagan [R]105, George Herbert Walker Bush [R]098, William Jefferson Clinton [D]182, George Walker Bush [R]091
In IQ order: 182 . . William Jefferson Clinton [D] 175 .. James Earle Carter [D] 174 . . John Fitzgerald Kennedy [D] 155 .. .Richard Milhous Nixon [R] 147 . . Franklin Delano Roosevelt [D] 132 . . Harry S Truman [D] 126 . . Lyndon Baines Johnson [D] 122 . . Dwight David Eisenhower [R] 121 . . Gerald R. Ford [R] 105 . . Ronald Wilson Reagan [R] 098 . . George Herbert Walker Bush [R] 091 . . George Walker Bush [R]
The six Republican presidents of the past 50 years had an average IQ of 115.5, with President Nixon having the highest at 155. President George W. Bush rated the lowest of all the Republicans with an IQ of 91. The six Democrat presidents had IQs with an average of 156, with President Clinton having the highest IQ, at 182. President Lyndon B. Johnson was rated the lowest of all the Democrats with an IQ of 126. No president other than Carter [D] has released his actual IQ (176). Among comments made concerning the specific testing of President G. W. Bush, his low ratings are due to his apparently difficult command of the English language in public statements, his limited use of vocabulary [6,500 words for Bush versus an average of 11,000 words for other presidents], his lack of scholarly achievements other than a basic MBA, and an absence of any body of work which could be studied on an intellectual basis. The complete report documents the methods and procedures used to arrive at these ratings, including depth of sentence structure and voice stress confidence analysis.
"All the Presidents prior to George W. Bush had a least one book under their belt, and most had written several white papers during their education or early careers. Not so with President Bush," Dr. Lovenstein said. "He has no published works or writings, which made it more difficult to arrive at an assessment. We relied more heavily on transcripts of his unscripted public speaking."
The Lovenstein Institute of Scranton Pennsylvania think tank includes high caliber historians, psychiatrists, sociologists, scientists in human behavior, and psychologists. Among their ranks are Dr.Werner R. Lovenstein, world-renowned sociologist, and Professor Patricia F. Dilliams, a world-respected psychiatrist.
It would have been more plausible if Dubya's Dad hadn't been assigned such a low value. I don't think you get to be the head of the CIA with a value like that.
in the dictionary, but i think there is some truth in that report. the "average" IQ is 100, and from what i can tell, that guy is far below average.
Dubya's value is plausible indeed (or maybe he just has problem communicating). I think the perpetrators of the hoax were trying extra hard to fool people by making Bush senior's value low so that folk might think junior's specialness was inherited.
By Capitol Hill politics. You want the really really smart people at CIA to be in the low and middle grades, the people who are doing field work, getting and evaluating intelligence so people like I usetabe aren't getting nasty pointed surprises.Cabinet level and just below positions (like the top four people at the CIA, the Director, the Deputy Director, and then the two other deputy directors for intelligence and operations--all have to be approved by Congress and vetted in Senate confirmation hearings.)
Just like if I ever make major--at the rate I'm going, and in my branch, they'll have to issue me a cane with my gold leaves--that promotion slate will have to be approved by the Senate, and it will have on it majors at the bottom, and full 4-stars at the top.
What you want at the top of government agencies are good administrators who can protect your people from Congress and the GAO, be able to feed at the budget trough, and still be able to provide intelligence (in the case of the CIA) or reasonable federal law enforcement (the FBI).
What you don't want are people who are only angling for the slot to check off a box on the way to higher. In this country, a government agency hiccups and jobs vanish, the stock market plunges, and worst of all, in some cases people die who shouldn't have.
and here is the article
It's blindly obvious where pedro's interests lie, isn't it?I mean, you can't get any more obvious about screaming la la la and running away than changing the subject to Britney Spears.
I yield the field.
When i post something like that, it's almost always meant as an aside -- a smaller piece of poop floating by a bigger piece of poop.
Britney Spears for head of the CIA!
I'm Not a Woman, Not Yet Joint Chiefs of Staff
I think Britney probably has her eye more on UN Secretary General.
I am now beginning to believe lieutenant because, pedro, you seem to have given the subject waaay to much thought.
I don't think Hit Me Baby, One More Time would be a good presidential campaign song. Or go over well with Homeland Security, for that matter...
but was "Bring 'em on" any better?
Bombastic Foreign Policy?
no. no it wasn't.
Thanks, nutella. Really got to meet you face to face someday. . . .Capitol Hill Lobbyists and All Special Interest Groups; I'm A Slave4U
We have a 4U "slave," it's our backup firewall... no, actually maybe it's only 1U, now that I think about it.
Whenever I start to feel like the world is too nice a place, I visit a message board devoted to the childless, or, as they call themselves, the childfree. It is a collection of people, so says the introduction, who have decided that they don't want children. The introduction goes on to state that it is a support community, not a debate community, and that posts about parenting won't be tolerated.That's fine, I can accept that. I know that society can sometimes be a little hard on people who choose not to have children, and I can see why they might want a safe haven.
But truth be told, it's one of the most abrasive, mean-spirited communities I have ever seen. Yeah, I read the disclaimers that said that people's language can be harsh when they know they are venting to like minded people, that they would never consider actually doing some of the things they post about wanting to do, that the harsh sounding jargon is borne of frustration, yadda yadda yadda.
Why am I posting this here? Because today I saw a post that for me tipped this bunch of people past that fine line between the victimized and the victimizer. Seems that one of their members has a friend whose wife was feeling the urge to have a child. The husband, who doesn't want children, went to his friend, the Childfree board member, for advice. The member's solution was to take his friend and the friend's wife to a mutual acquaintance's home, where there were children present, for a weekend. Apparently it wasn't a totally functional household; the Childfree poster noted that the children were shrill and undisciplined, and by the end of the visit, the poster's friend happily reported that his wife never wanted to consider having children again.
But that is not the end of the story. The title of the post was, "Won one for the team," and the thread continued with woo-hoos and attaboys from the regulars on the board. The overwhelming sentiment was that the poster had done a good deed, perhaps even a heroic one, by saving this couple from the lifetime of misery that is raising children. One poster even commented that he had probably saved their marriage.
I came away from this with en empty, depressed feeling in the pit of my stomach, and not for the reason you might expect.
I used to not want kids. I can relate to almost every reason the people there give for not wanting them. So it's not that I'm upset that people choose not to have kids. Heck, I'll be the first to admit that a lot of people who have them are not qualified to be parents.
What bothers me about this board is twofold: first, there's the raw venom. Yes, I know that people rant privately in ways they would not talk publicly and that it's partially my fault for venturing into this snake pit in the first place. But I think you can tell a lot about someone's personality from the way they talk in private, too, and from that I detect an awful lot of anger among their members, and I have to wonder, what makes them so enraged that they feel this pathological need to lash out. Second, and I was REALLY bothered by this, I can't stand the hypocrisy of retreating to a support message board so as to be able to talk about childfree issues in private, yet not seeing any problem with one of their members reaching beyond their borders to mess with the life of someone on the outside, then being so presumptuous as to theorize that this interference constitutes saving someone else's marriage -- a marriage that was already in trouble the minute that people who disagreed about such a major issue tied the knot in the first place.
I know, I know. I shouldn't read over there. *sigh*
is that people think that the desire to be childless is such a defining factor in their lives that it is appropriate to create a special community for it... I mean, if I decide to start communicating with a community of random strangers, I might want try to share something in common with them other than "childless"... I don't know if I'm making sense, but that to me is very sad.
is that once you reach a point in life where all your friends and peers are having children and you've decided you do not want kids, it becomes quite a bit of a defining factor. [as having children also defines the people's lives who have them] another notion is that a portion of people who join those groups probably CANNOT have children, rather than simply not wanting them. they probably gain a level of justification for the situation they are in and can convince themselves to some degree that they don't want children anyway. in other words, if there is a level of difficulty involved there is probably a support group for it. and that's okay. i just wouldn't suggest venturing into those support groups unless you share their difficulties.
Isn't the goal of a typical support group to offer support, and not to bash the outside? What I witnessed would be like someone going to AA meetings and bragging about how he stole the key to his friend's booze cabinet.Of course you're right about not venturing in there. I suppose I derive some sort of perverse fascination from it.
I find that disgusting, for any support group to feel that making others feel the way they do is abhorrable. And putting his wife in a situation where she only sees the negatives of children is also down right nasty. She didn't get to see the I love you's, or the crawling in bed to cuddle, or other adorable things kids do, but instead was brought into a disfunctional situation and shown that as the norm. Makes you wonder how one of them would feel if someone from a ChildFull support group went and impregnated one of their Childfree members, just to win one over the the childbearing side.
story
but this is classy.
This is crazy:
LAUDERHILL -- The clock may soon run out on a purple and gold house whose summer paint job has upset neighbors, attracted the attention of city commissioners and is the main reason every homeowner may have to conform to a color palette.City officials heard neighbors' cry over the purple and gold hues, and promptly set about drafting an ordinance that would restrict the colors residents can paint their homes.
Should commissioners approve the new law today at a 7 p.m. meeting at City Hall, homeowners with homes not matching the city's color palette will have three years to repaint. Those who can prove a financial hardship will be given five years to change the colors.
There's a picture of the house if you follow the link. I'm not exactly crazy about the purple and gold, but legislating the color of houses seems incredibly pointless and wasteful to me.
If they tried the same thing in S.F. the city would run out of paint overnight (unless they chose a very generous palette).
Well, this sort of thing goes on all the time when you've got condo boards and housing covenants, but this is the first I've heard of a city doing it.
This is the best argument I have yet for abolishing retirement and working folks into their graves.
s/I have//
The Rescuers
cleft palate serious handicap
That's just sad.
stupid
loathsome
interesting how a major advertisement stunt is requiring people to pay to watch it.sex sells on such a deep level that people will pay to see sexy advertisement.
reprehensible, in my opinion.
Actually I'm pretty sure there is no right place
Actually, Pammy, when your entire livelihood is centered around your breasts, people have low expectations of you. Blonde has nothing to do with it.
when you are stupid, you think that you hair color is actually a a meaningful factor in anybody's decision.
Quite gross
Seriously, don't click on the link above if you have a weak stomach or if you become emotional about animal rights.
the animal was dead already, had been beached and died of seemingly natural causes, and was being transported for research. that still doesn't take away from it being possibly the nastiest thing i've ever seen.
The Jacskson Effect.
D.C. Mother Faces Cruelty Charges In Neglect CaseBy Henri E. Cauvin Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, February 7, 2004; Page B01
The mother accused of leaving her six children alone in the family's decrepit apartment has told police that she promptly spent the month's entire $719 public assistance check without paying the rent or the gas bill or even buying food, prosecutors said in charging papers filed yesterday.
Instead, Colleen Hooks, 29, who was charged yesterday with cruelty to children, said she spent the money on her "personal needs," leaving the children to manage for themselves in the family's apartment in Southeast Washington, the charging papers stated. The documents do not say what she bought.
The filthy home, she told police, was the fault of the children and was their responsibility to clean up, according to the charging document filed as Hooks made her first appearance in the criminal case late yesterday in D.C. Superior Court. Her name was made public with the filing of the criminal charge.
Magistrate Judge J. Dennis Doyle ordered that Hooks be kept in a halfway house while her case is pending. The children are now under the supervision of the city.
When police arrived at the apartment Wednesday, they said they found a nearly uninhabitable place, with no food in the refrigerator and the floor hardly visible among the soiled clothes and diapers.
The youngest child was just 3 months old, and the oldest in the home when police arrived was 7. Police would later learn that the oldest two children, ages 9 and 12, had gone to school.
When the officers asked if the children knew where their mother was, they said they did not know, according to the charging papers. And when police asked when they had last had a meal, they were unable to say, the papers state.
The children were not supposed to be in their mother's care. Last month, after a report of neglect, the D.C. Child and Family Services Agency placed them with their maternal grandmother to give Hooks a chance to straighten out her home. But within a couple of weeks they were back in the apartment, in the 1300 block of Morris Road SE.
It was not the first time that the mother had come under investigation. Cases were opened on the family in 1998, 2002 and last year, agency officials said. Each time, the agency stabilized the family and closed the case, they said.
After another report of neglect came in last month, Child and Family Services apparently believed it could fashion yet another remedy. The plan called for the agency to be contacted once the mother had cleaned the house and was ready to have the children back.
The charging papers said that Hooks told police that she knew she was not supposed to have the children in her custody but that she had taken them back anyway. The papers also said that she admitted using PCP, but they do not say when. A separate court report, filed by the D.C. Pretrial Services Agency, quotes Hooks as saying she used drugs in the past week but provides no other details.
The apartment was in even worse shape when police found the children on Wednesday morning, after a neighbor's call.
Police said they found a bowl containing two raw chicken pieces with barbecue sauce on the floor, along with a heap of chicken bones. A slightly opened can of beans was also discovered, and from the sauce around one child's mouth, it appeared the child had been eating the beans.
During a hearing Thursday on a neglect petition filed against the mother by the city, Magistrate Judge S. Pamela Gray asked the city social worker and the city attorney involved in the case why the family's troubles had not been brought to the court's attention.
Without court intervention, city social workers cannot check on families outside the District.
They made five follow-up visits to the D.C. apartment last month to check on Hooks, but no one was home and they failed to contact her, a social worker said.
Mindy L. Good, a spokeswoman for the agency, said that the Hooks case was handled in a "diligent and caring" manner. Nonetheless, the agency will revisit it.
"We're going to be looking at this whole situation to see what we could have done better," she said.
Killer of pregnant 10-year-old set to die tonight By MICHAEL GRACZYK Associated PressHUNTSVILLE -- Shakeisha Lloyd was 17 weeks pregnant when she was killed with a shotgun blast to the head at her home in Fort Worth in a rampage that also took the lives of two great-aunts.
She was 10 years old.
Edward Lagrone, the father of her unborn child and the man convicted of killing her, was set to die tonight for the 1991 slaying.
"He's a poster child to justify the death penalty," said David Montague, the Tarrant County assistant district attorney who prosecuted Lagrone.
Lagrone, 46, twice convicted of murder, would be the fifth Texas inmate executed this year and the first of two on consecutive nights this week.
He refused to speak with reporters as his execution approached. His attorneys had asked state and federal courts to review the case and stop the execution. An appeal also was challenging the constitutionality of the state's use of lethal injection.
Lagrone, who lived in Arlington and had worked as a cook, was known in Fort Worth's Stop Six area as a drug dealer who employed youths to hustle drugs. He already had a murder conviction and prison term on his record when he was arrested for the attack that also claimed Zenobia Anderson, 83, and Caolo Lloyd, 74. Lloyd was deaf and blind and bedridden with cancer. Another relative, Dempsey Lloyd, was wounded.
The girl's mother, Pamela Lloyd, once dated Lagrone. She filed a sexual assault complaint against him after discovering her daughter was pregnant and had been assaulted several times.
Lagrone denied impregnating the girl, who completed the fourth grade the day before she was killed. DNA evidence, however, excluded 99.99 percent of other men as the father. Eight genetic tests could not exclude him, a DNA expert testified.
Pamela Lloyd testified that Shakeisha was concealing her 19-month-old sister behind some boxes and shouting at her mother to hide when she was shot.
Peak Oili'd be willing to live with any/all of you in a commune.
but First human embryos successfully cloned (and grown past the point of IVF)Egads.
...but I'm planning to clone myself for an organ source as SOON AS POSSIBLE!Besides, the world could use a few more of me.
Make sure you do it sequentially and call them all Peter.Peter "Peter" Peterson
Peter "Peter" Peterpeterpeterson
Peter "Peter" Peterpeterpeterpeterpeterson...
Okay, the humour level is beginning to peter out here...
Peter PetersonPeterson Peter PetersonPeterson IX Peter [Drone-19X] PetersonPeterson MCVXLIetc.
Of course by then, you'll all be dead and I'll be ruling Mars with an iron fist.
That looks better without the line breaks.
it's not what it's cracked up to be.
I've been wondering where would be the best place to hunt & gather...
kamchatka?
now I want to play Risk.
We could definitely grow enough food on my parents land to last all year. It would be hella hard work, but it could be done.
Marc DutrouxUnbelievable.
Also, do we ever have trials where the defendants are behind bulletproof glass?
Mother Charged With Stillborn's MurderThursday, March 11, 2004
SALT LAKE CITY -- A pregnant woman who allegedly ignored medical warnings to have a Caesarean section (search) to save her twins was charged Thursday with murder after one of the babies was stillborn.
Prosecutors said Melissa Ann Rowland, 28, didn't want the scars that accompany the surgery.
An autopsy found that the baby died two days before its Jan. 13 delivery and that it would have survived if Rowland had had a C-section when her doctors urged her to, between Christmas and Jan. 9. The other baby is alive, but authorities had no further information.
The doctors had warned that without a C-section, the twins would probably die, authorities said. A nurse told police that Rowland said a Caesarean would "ruin her life" and she would rather "lose one of the babies than be cut like that."
"We are unable to find any reason other than the cosmetic motivations by the mother" for her decision, said Kent Morgan, spokesman for the district attorney.
Court documents give no address for Rowland, and she isn't listed in area telephone books.
The charges carry five years to life in prison. She was jailed on $250,000 bail.
It was not immediately clear whether she had an attorney.
According to the documents, Rowland went to LDS Hospital (search) in Salt Lake City in December to seek advice after she hadn't felt her babies move. A nurse, Regina Davis, told police she instructed Rowland to go immediately to one of two other hospitals, but that Rowland said she would rather have both babies die before going to either place.
On Jan. 2, a doctor at LDS Hospital examined Rowland and recommended an immediate C-section based on an ultrasound and the babies' slowing heart rates. Rowland left, the doctor told police.
The same day, Rowland allegedly saw a nurse at another hospital, saying she had left LDS Hospital because the doctor wanted to cut her "from breast bone to pubic bone," a procedure that would "ruin her life." The nurse also told investigators that Rowland said she would rather "lose one of her babies than be cut like that."
A week later, Rowland allegedly went to a third hospital to verify whether her babies were alive. A nurse there told police she could not detect a heartbeat from one twin and advised Rowland to remain in the hospital, but Rowland ignored the advice.
Girl, 12, in coma after kissing boy From correspondents in Baltimore 12 mar 04A 12-year-old girl was beaten into a coma by a group of other girls and women after she kissed the boyfriend of another girl on a dare, police said.
Three adult women and two teenage girls have been charged in the beating of Nicole Townes, who remained in a coma Wednesday more than a week after the attack at a February 28 party.
"I have seen people beaten to death, but not a child and not for no apparent reason," Detective Donny Moses said. "This is a hideous story."
The attack happened after an unidentified boy, also 12, was dared to kiss Nicole. After the kiss, his 14-year-old girlfriend attacked Nicole, and others joined in, beating the girl for at least 30 minutes.
Monique Baldwin, 36, and Erin Baldwin, 19, were charged with attempted murder and assault, said Moses, who said he didn't know the relationship between the two. Kenya Keene, 25, was charged with assault and conspiracy to commit child abuse.
Two unidentified teens, ages 13 and 14, also were arrested, but Moses said he did not know the specific charges against them.
The adults are also accused of giving false statements about what happened, telling authorities Townes fell and hit her head on a wall.
Dex, you should turn the news off for at least a week and dive into any one of the books recommended to you in this forum, or better yet, take the hour you use to watch the news and pray for the world . . .
People like this make people like me go crazy.
me too.
Amazingly strange.And lieutenant - I took your advice. No news is good news for the time being.
I was wondering if anybody had any thoughts on online gambling. it seems that some in the government want to 'crack down' on it - make it illegal, stop it, regulate it, etc. mostly, it seems they want to be able to make a huge chunk of money off it like they do other casinos or shut it down entirely. it's really lame, i think.i read an article, which i will try to repost here, about it. it seems in NY state the Attorney General is trying to stop people from gambling online. citing technicalities in landmark cases that have really given the anti-gambling mavens a leg up on this fight, the AG of NY has the 'problem' of online gambling to deal with on a state level. the thing that's stupid is that it is 'gambling' if the level of skill outweighs the element of chance. so now they're trying to ban online poker, which i think is ludicrous. just because some people don't know how to play poker well doesn't mean that it's a game of chance.
anyway, just wondering if anybody had any opinions...
Has problems with gambling, especially since NY has a high Native American reservation population, and perennial fights with said nation governments. The Seneca Indians, 45 min from the home of my boyhood, have since put a casino at Niagara Falls, and Gov. Pataki practically had a coronary infarction (Gotdangit, Hank, I'm havin' an infarction!) trying to stop them from doing so. I think he's more incensed at the loss of the revenue to the state, not on moral purposes.Does anyone know? I thought NY had a state casino @Saratoga Springs but that also may be Native American . ..
yikes.
The band "Jet"
Sorority e-mail stains blood-donor effort By Scott Charton Associated PressApril 13, 2004
COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Members of a sorority were urged to lie about their health to qualify as donors in a competitive blood drive at the University of Missouri, a school that once set a record for blood collection.
In an e-mail sent last Tuesday to about 170 members of Gamma Phi Beta, Christie Key, the chapter's blood donation coordinator, wrote: "I dont care if you got a tattoo last week LIE. I dont care if you have a cold. Suck it up. We all do. LIE. Recent peircings? LIE."
The sending of the e-mail was first reported Sunday by the Columbia Missourian and the Columbia Daily Tribune.
Sororities and fraternities conducted the competitive blood drive last week. It is a campus tradition that took in 3,156 units of blood in 1999, earning the feat recognition from the Guinness Book of Records as the largest single-site, single-day blood collection.
Jim Williams, a spokesman for the American Red Cross, said the organization discourages any actions that could jeopardize the blood supply, including donations from the sick or those who recently received tattoos or piercings.
"We have emphasized from day one it is not necessary for each girl to donate, so it is a waste," Williams said Monday.
About 3,300 units were collected in the recent event.
In her e-mail, Key wrote: "We're not messing around. Punishment for not giving blood is going to be quite severe."
Key declined comment Monday and referred questions to Gamma Phi Beta's chapter president, who did not return a call. A vice chancellor said the university had begun an inquiry.
Copyright © 2004, Chicago Tribune
the whole prisoner torture/abuse thing is so depressing. i could post it any other entrees but i figure stories and photos that make me cry and well up with anger belong in here.
convenience is the new god
in the new national geographic that arrived yesterday. Also in a new book by Paul Roberts The End of Oil: On the Edge of a Perilous New World that was reviewed by salon today. The nat'l geo article was well written and informative and had lots of great pictures and charts. I only wish it would have gone even more in depth, especially about china's insanely fast growth of oil consumption.
ken asked how much we imported
from someone in orange county to an online friend of mine and her oust-bush protest:"you tree hugging douche bag....maybe in the city of brotherly love they tolerate your lame ass bullshit, but if you came out to orange county, a high-income, republican, surburban, non-wellfare, non-communist areahe kind of place that actually has a SAY in american politics), everyone would laugh and tell you to go a couple hundred miles north to san fransisco, the REAL city of "brotherly" love (every other person is a gay hippie). i hate to tell you but bush is winning this election, so get used to have a president who is has mainstream beliefs and normal values and who is trying to protect the best interest of America as a whole, not just your flaming liberal, anti-American, communist ass. Go to Canada. that's where all you rejects belong. Cause here in America, we care about the economy more than trees, we care about people more than animals, we care about the majority more than a few psycho individuals, and we care about our own citizens more than we care about terrorists. wow, what a concept. if you dont like it leave. America is a white, christian, republican nation, and it always will be. no low-income white trash tree hugging PETA member crackhead is going to change that. sorry :("
i mean, this girl really seems to know what america is all about right?
now that is one completely ignorant paragraph. I'll counter it with a simple, "I thought in the last election the majority vote went to the Democrats, huh funny."
And here I thought valuable political dialogue was dead.
The O.C., a good place for a high-income, republican, surburban, non-wellfare, non-communist. When I think of America, I think of the The O.C. Oh, and that realistic TV show too.
May 20, 2004A shoplifting charge was dismissed today against a Northwestern University student accused of eating 41 cents' worth of bulk candy at an Evanston convenience store without paying for it.
Cook County Assistant State's Atty. Larry Krulewich dropped the case against Alison Baenen after she agreed never to return to the White Hen Pantry.
Baenen was handcuffed and arrested at the White Hen in the 800 block of Emerson Street on May 2 after she allegedly snacked on two or three pieces of gummy candy.
"I was just filling a bag of candy and had a piece or two," Baenen said. "(A store manager) said stop eating the candy. I apologized and continued to fill the bag with more candy."
When she got to the register to pay, the manager had locked the door to the store and called police.
White Hen owner Peter Mueller said he agreed not to pursue the case because he didn't want Baenen to have the misdemeanor offense on her record. The store manager said he warned the student twice to stop eating candy before he called police.
Baenen, who expects to graduate from Northwestern next month, plans to teach English in Thailand.
"I'm just glad this is over," she said. Copyright © 2004, Chicago Tribune
I think if he did pursue charges and it made the news the manager probably would have gotten in trouble for the really bad PR move.
To see what actually happened. Did she disregard the manager's request to stop eating the candy? Or did the store manager just decide that he was going to bust her even though she stopped? If you read that again, there is no clear picture what happened.It's definitely overkill either way, but if the student kept eating it after the manager asked her to stop, I'd say the manager had the right to call it shoplifting.
true...I like to know what really happened. In the meantime, I'll be more careful in the bulk section, because I've done the same thing many times myself.
if she was filling a bag, that means she intended to pay for a bag of candy. if there was a problem, t hey could have tacked on the 41 cents to her bill. I mean, if I was doing that, I would just expect to have to pay for the 2 or 3 pieces I ate as well as the stuff in the bag.I'd have laughed at that manager for calling the police on me.
It sounds like Owen Wilson doing the voiceover. It's all about this guy who is moving in with his gf -- but he has a "film collection" and doesn't know how to sneak it into the apartment without her noticing. The voiceover guy tells him to take her out to a really nice dinner, etc. then when she's sleeping or out with her friends or something, sneak in the pornos and put them somewhere where she'll never find them. Oh, and voiceover guy will hold on to the collection for a while if he needs.That's not only totally disgusting, but it's not even that creative of advice!
to my question about the decline of society in general...or the world is going to pot pie entree.Yep, not even funny at all. I'd suggest asking the wife; one might be surprised!!
but this guy seems to be a connoisseur.Canada's Pot Still Poor, Patient SaysPOSTED: 10:57 am EDT July 13, 2004 OTTAWA -- The Canadian government is promising better dope for legal pot smokers.
The government is under a court order to supply medical marijuana to people authorized to smoke it, but the first batch of pot was panned by users.
Now, a second effort could be going up in smoke. User Marco Renda says it's no good, either. He said he took a couple of hits and snuffed out his joint. Renda added that the government pot didn't taste right and had no effect.
But a spokeswoman for Health Canada said the new pot is a purer smoke and has less twigs.
Health Canada maintains the medical case for marijuana remains unproven, but the agency has been ordered by the courts to make the weed available to certain patients.
the iowa channel
I like the part about how it "didn't taste right". I just feel like taste is something you worry about if you use it recreationally, medicinally, of course not, medicine isn't supposed to taste good, and besides, the gov't probably does everything it can to make it taste bad the last thing they want is to become known as a source of some good buds.
That may be the most ironic post (name of entree) I've ever seen.
...from Guantanamo Bay.
Has anyone been following the Scott Peterson trial? Any thoughts? Think he did it? Didn't do it?
But I haven't been following it for a long time. What's happening?
I think he's guilty, very guilty and very disgusting. I stopped following because he just made me feel too yucky.
The prosecution (sp?) is doing a poor job of trying to bag the guy. From what I can tell, they can't get enough evidence against him, witnesses are fibbing, and all the while Scott Peterson shows very little emotion.What's most disturbing how he reacted after his wife/child went missing. Most would be beyond distraught, yet the guy didn't seem to care. You think he'd at least try to act the part of a worried husband/father...but nothing. He seems so guilty, but who really knows for sure. I can't understand his motive, unless he just hated his wife and didn't want her getting half of what he owned after a divorce. Every report prior to the trial seems to say he was rich, selfish person.
I also think he's guilty but it could be the influence of the media on me since all the media outlets also think he's guilty. What's weird is that in a supposed complete coincidence another pregnant woman in the area about a year earlier was also found dead in a similar fashion to Lacy and her child. The media doesn't play that up though. I'll try to find a link and post it.
they're saying it would be imposible to dump a bod off of his boat without tipping it, and that there's no blood evidence on anything on the boat. I heard someone on the radio who's been covering the trial saying that the more evidence he sees the more he looks innocent.
Similar homicide
Be all you can be and more! <person>lieutenant</a>, does this mean you're eligable for breast enlargement? Or is there a gender bias?
how about some ass enahncers (or whatever they are called)
They wouldn't pay for braces when I was a kid, but now they'll turn you into Brad Pitt or Britney Spears. That's sad. (Speaking of sad, it's been too long since anyone mentioned Brad Pitt's hair...)
Yeah, Tricare Dental is less than stellar.Lipo? Get thee behind me, Satan. I have to get on the Official Pedro Run-Excess-Flesh-Off Tastytronic Diet and get this cage of flesh offa me the right way.
I don't find this surprising at all, smax. After all, it's their lives that are forfeit, in a very real sense, and so generally the perks are pretty good.
However, I would think that these aren't surgeons who primarily have focused on plastic surgery, more surgeons who are prepared to deal with the reconstructive side of heavy trauma necessitated by military combat care and triage. So there's a distinct difference from your man/woman whose practice is Beverly Hills-based and the man/woman who's done the reconstructive program at Fort Sam Houston . . . .
for the impending peak oil disaster.
shit, i'm pretty steamed about that.
briefly.
Farewell to free speech (we knew that was coming), but in a Las Vegas casino?
she said something they didn't like. the paying customers decided they weren't happy with the entertainer's...whatever...and left. the casino didn't stop the performance, but they decided that they didn't want to upset their customers in the future, and therfore decided not to hire Rondstadt again.where was a citizen's right to free speech infringed upon?
don't get your panties in a bunch because people at a vegas performance by linda rondstadt disagree with your political views and decided to leave the performance because of it.
part of 'free speech' is the right of people not to stick around to hear what you are speaking freely on, no?
What steams me is when people think incidents such as that one have anything to do with free speech.
i think that's what i'm getting at.
... is sitting through two days of BOTOX MARKETING AND SALES MEETINGS like i have just done.my job is funny.
this is my 'blog' response to the incident:"i was appalled at the whole linda ronstadt deal. there have been over a hundred requests by people who want their money back. dick. i say dick! they got their whole show. this incident happened in the encore, did it not? this part of the show was for the people who thought she was good enough to stick around asking for more. she's been a public liberal for years and years. you know where she stands. just because she makes one statement of support, doesn't mean you fucking get your money back if you disagree. how many times do you walk into a large amphitheatre to see a show and there are ads plastered everywhere? is that not the same thing? they are trying to influence you in one way or another by supporting a product. you don't ask for your money back then, do you? fuck."
and the owner surely has the right not to invite her to perform there again [actually, in a statement made before the performance she mentioned that she's been trying not to get invited back to the aladdin for a long time], but to ask her to leave immediately and renege on the complimentary hotel suite seems rude and uncalled for.
perhaps he should be more angered by the audience members who threw their drinks and tore down posters and generally destroyed things around the place...
i mean, maybe not. they were probably in the right to throw hissy fits.
the people are dumb. but i don't see how it's a free speech thing.no. they shouldn't get their money back. and, depending on the contract LR had with the casino, they probably should have given her the suite. but, unless they were bound by contract to do so, it's fully in their discretion to withdraw that offer.
basically, the problem is that people went to see Linda Ronstadt in the first place. then again, Vegas has been known to cater it's live shows to a certain type of clientele who have not normally been accused of having good taste. but still. Linda Ronstadt?
Quick, call the Plow King!
..is like royalty in tucson.(seriously, she's pretty much all we've got.)
has done some really good spanish songs. I think she has three albums or so, all called "songs of my father". Anyway, owners of private establishments get to control 100% of what goes on, i'm sure her contract was for her to perform some songs, not give political views (if you had cochrane, you could probably get a suit filed). Anyway, the constitution only bars congress from withholding freedom of speech.Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
Which would make me think that owners of private establishments can prohibit said speech. but that's just me, and i think lenin did a good job, so i don't expect you to agree with me.
Who would want free surgery so inexperienced surgeons can get practice!! That's pretty looney.
i read an article the other day about companies performing surgeries and practices of other kinds on people for whom they are unnecessary and having those people sign over their insurance checks in exchange for pay of a certain amount. apparently the insurance they collect is quite lucrative.weird.
The movie Dirty Pretty Things with the Amelie actress deals somewhat with unethical surgical practices dealing with exploitation. I'm trying to be vague b/c I don't want to give it away. Anyhow, I recommend it.
this is an article from popular science about how long our oil can last. If I read correctly, and we only harvest 35% of what's there, then i don't think we'll have a problem, other than dependence on worn out tshirts
your link leads me to an i-80 cocaine bust.
that was the other link i was trying to use last night. Fixied link from popsci.com clicko
with an article like that, i don't understand how they get away with having the word "science" in their name.
Racist Wins GOP Primary in Tenn and here's the clown's website.
link
or you might face criminal charges
almost dropped the ol' JFC bomb when i read this one. the story of the 200 dollar bill
giant zucchini grown in new jersey, surely it's full of drugs...right?
is now officially rendered obsolete, to replce it, we have; bling blao it's get seven miles a gallon...of diesel. diesel my friends. This of course is an appropriate time, to use the JFC bomb.
jesus fucking christ.
If it were at least a manual transmission it would have a redeeming quality, but now I dodn't even get the satisfaction of knowing that the driver would've had to learn how to use a semi shifter. The only remaining hope is that the cops will realize that vehicle that big is required to stick to posted truck routes.
not to mention stopping at weigh stations. I hope you have to have CDL to drive that thing. It's just so disgusting. I think if I saw someone driving that, I'd flip 'em the bird. I mean, honestly. how would anyone ever use it? you ain't gonna take it muddin', are you?
WTF?
Frankly, I've thought for years that Cat Stevens is a threat to the forces of Light.
he's on the "no fly" list...which apparently works so well and speaking of flying: I don't remember where i read it, or i would post a link. The hours of non-communicatoiousness caused by the radio system going down in L.A. last week causing all the rucous of near misses etc. in the air. caused by a "system anomaly" with the new dell servers running windows 2k server...those darned unix servers were just too black and white, i guess. I hate to think that even though i may have to trust ms software with password etc, i didn't think i was going to have to trust them with my life too...earth to bush, invade redmond
The no-fly list: because they're so dangerous we can't let them touch an airplane, but so innocent we can't even arrest them with the PATRIOT act, to horribly misquote Bruce Schneier.
since horses aren't vehicles, apparently you can ride when you're wasted. the article mentions that a horse is smart enough to stop your drunk self from, uh riding into a ditch, but i disagree. the horse will abruptly stop, before going into the ditch, and if you're drunk, you probably will still go into the ditch, that's how i've seen it happen at least. you?
From the NY Times: Sentenced to Be Raped By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF EERWALA, Pakistan -- I'm still trying to help out President Bush by tracking down Osama bin Laden. After poking through remote parts of Pakistan, asking for a tall Arab with a beard, I can't say I've earned that $25 million reward.But I did come across someone even more extraordinary than Osama.
Usually we journalists write about rogues, but Mukhtaran Bibi could not be more altruistic or brave, as the men who gang-raped her discovered. I firmly believe that the central moral challenge of this century, equivalent to the struggles against slavery in the 19th century or against totalitarianism in the 20th, will be to address sex inequality in the third world - and it's the stories of women like Ms. Mukhtaran that convince me this is so.
The plight of women in developing countries isn't addressed much in the West, and it certainly isn't a hot topic in the presidential campaign. But it's a life-and-death matter in villages like Meerwala, a 12-hour drive southeast from Islamabad.
In June 2002, the police say, members of a high-status tribe sexually abused one of Ms. Mukhtaran's brothers and then covered up their crime by falsely accusing him of having an affair with a high-status woman. The village's tribal council determined that the suitable punishment for the supposed affair was for high-status men to rape one of the boy's sisters, so the council sentenced Ms. Mukhtaran to be gang-raped.
As members of the high-status tribe danced in joy, four men stripped her naked and took turns raping her. Then they forced her to walk home naked in front of 300 villagers.
In Pakistan's conservative Muslim society, Ms. Mukhtaran's duty was now clear: she was supposed to commit suicide. "Just like other women, I initially thought of killing myself," said Ms. Mukhtaran, now 30. Her older brother, Hezoor Bux, explained: "A girl who has been raped has no honorable place in the village. Nobody respects the girl, or her parents. There's a stigma, and the only way out is suicide."
A girl in the next village was gang-raped a week after Ms. Mukhtaran, and she took the traditional route: she swallowed a bottle of pesticide and dropped dead.
But instead of killing herself, Ms. Mukhtaran testified against her attackers and propounded the shocking idea that the shame lies in raping, rather than in being raped. The rapists are now on death row, and President Pervez Musharraf presented Ms. Mukhtaran with the equivalent of $8,300 and ordered round-the-clock police protection for her.
Ms. Mukhtaran, who had never gone to school herself, used the money to build one school in the village for girls and another for boys - because, she said, education is the best way to achieve social change. The girls' school is named for her, and she is now studying in its fourth-grade class.
"Why should I have spent the money on myself?" she asked, adding, "This way the money is helping all the girls, all the children."
I wish the story ended there. But the Pakistani government has neglected its pledge to pay the schools' operating expenses. "The government made lots of promises, but it hasn't done much," Ms. Mukhtaran said bluntly.
She has had to buy food for the police who protect her, as well as pay some school expenses. So, she said, "I've run out of money." Unless the schools can raise new funds, they may have to close.
Meanwhile, villagers say that relatives of the rapists are waiting for the police to leave and then will put Ms. Mukhtaran in her place by slaughtering her and her entire family. I walked to the area where the high-status tribesmen live. They denied planning to kill Ms. Mukhtaran, but were unapologetic about her rape.
"Mukhtaran is totally disgraced," Taj Bibi, a matriarch in a high-status family, said with satisfaction. "She has no respect in society."
So although I did not find Osama, I did encounter a much more ubiquitous form of evil and terror: a culture, stretching across about half the globe, that chews up women and spits them out.
We in the West could help chip away at that oppression, with health and literacy programs and by simply speaking out against it, just as we once stood up against slavery and totalitarianism. But instead of standing beside fighters like Ms. Mukhtaran, we're still sitting on the fence.
students cought with pot brownies
Wow, apparently no one in Iowa has ever heard of pot brownies... also, could someone explain this:"One teen was charged with possession with the intent to deliver marijuana and a tax stamp violation."
you can go to some gov't building downtown and buy tax stamps for when you sell weed, problem is that you have to buy them a sheet at a time, and that's like, 1000 bucks. Yeah, i think the mentality here is that if we let them have beer they won't want anything else, you know, the "okay, you can have that, but nothing more". Anyway, this town drives me nuts, but not enough that i'll choose to stay in ames too long either. Shut up in my room, that's the life for me.
Voter Registrations Possibly Trashed
those aren't really allegations though. NPR had the man on that wrote the initial report about it, he actually held the torn registrations in his hands. It's complete BS, they make me feel ashamed.
first satanist allowed to perform rituals about UK naval ship. Obviously a ploy to make blair look good, right?
Bush Vows No Letup in Iraq, War on Terror
Bolstered by a hard-fought election victory, President Bush says the United States will vigorously pursue wars in Iraq and against terror and will not retreat from trying to spread democracy through the Middle East.Translation: More death to come...
disturbing new salon article
[just the excerpts]
On June 15, 2003, Sgt. Frank "Greg" Ford, a counterintelligence agent in the California National Guard's 223rd Military Intelligence (M.I.) Battalion stationed in Samarra, Iraq, told his commanding officer, Capt. Victor Artiga, that he had witnessed five incidents of torture and abuse of Iraqi detainees at his base, and requested a formal investigation. Thirty-six hours later, Ford, a 49-year-old with over 30 years of military service in the Coast Guard, Army and Navy, was ordered by U.S. Army medical personnel to lie down on a gurney, was then strapped down, loaded onto a military plane and medevac'd to a military medical center outside the country....
He went on, "There were also rules and regulations to follow. Some of the rules applied only in peacetime, some only in time of war. Some always applied. You knew which was which. These simple, basic rules were pounded into your head from the day you got off the bus at basic training. You broke the rules, you paid the price. Period. Everyone knew that simple fact, and everyone accepted it."
But Ford said those rules were savagely broken in Samarra in June 2003. He described multiple incidents of what he called "war crimes" and "torture" of Iraqi detainees ranging in age from about 15 to 35. According to Ford, his teammates, three counterintelligence agents like himself -- one of them a woman -- systematically and repeatedly abused several Iraqi male detainees over a two-to three-week time period. Ford describes incidents of asphyxiation, mock executions, arms being pulled out of sockets, and lit cigarettes forced into detainee's ears while they were blindfolded and bound. These atrocities took place in an Iraqi police station, Ford said. His attempts to stop the abuse were met with either indifference or threats by his team leader, who was himself one of the abusers, according to Ford.
...
Ford said he found the team leader and had it out with him. "I told him that if there was ever a court-martial over these incidents, I would absolutely testify against him. I said that this kind of crap has to stop or else I would report it to Artiga." According to Ford, the team leader replied, "Fine, Greg, you do what you have to do." By then, Ford said, he'd "had enough." He told the team leader that he would be filing a complaint against him and the other agent as soon as possible. He said the team leader told him he was "crazy" and "seeing things" and no one would believe him anyway, so "knock yourself out."
The next day, Ford said he rode with the rest of his team down to Camp Anaconda, where the 223rd had its headquarters, as did the 205th M.I. Brigade, which was made infamous by the Abu Ghraib scandal. Both divisions were commanded by Col. Thomas Pappas. Upon his arrival, Ford said that he immediately went to the company headquarters and met with Artiga and 1st Sgt. John Vegilla. Ford said that it was clear that Artiga knew he was coming. "I told them that I wanted to request a formal investigation into allegations of war crimes committed by my team against Iraqi detainees. I said I wanted to request a removal of this whole team and their replacement by a senior team, because they're bringing the house down. He looked right at me and said, 'Nope, that never happened. You're delusional, you imagined the whole thing. And you've got 30 seconds to withdraw your complaint. If you do, it will be as if this conversation never took place.'" Ford refused, and Artiga told him to "get out of here" and that he would call him when the complaint was ready.
...
"Madera ordered me to lie down on a gurney that had been in the rear of the Humvee so she could strap me down. I again asked what was going on, only this time a lot more pissed off. I said that I was perfectly able to walk." Ford said Madera insisted, telling him it was the order of "[Lt. Col. Timothy] Ryan and Artiga" that he be "bound and secured" when taken "out of country." "I saw that I had no choice and finally said OK, anything just to get the fuck out of there," Ford recalled. With the help of the male captain, who Ford said identified himself as a medical officer, Madera strapped him to the gurney.
Just then, Ford claimed, Ryan, Artiga's superior officer, pulled up in his Humvee and walked over to where Ford was lying on the gurney. "He looked down at me and said, 'Don't worry. We are going to get you the best treatment available.' I was enraged at that point, and it was a good thing I was strapped down. I just stared back at Ryan with looks that I hoped could kill, but I didn't say nothing. What was the point? He had won that round."
Ryan did not respond to interview requests for this story.
The propellers of the huge turboprop engines on the C-130 sent scorching blasts of superheated air back toward the group, almost hot enough to singe the skin on a face. (When I left Iraq from the same tarmac a few months later, I did get burned from the blasts.) As Ford's gurney sank into the steaming tarmac, Madera and the other medical officer wheeled him up the long ramp and into the aircraft's cavernous interior. Once they were airborne, Madera unstrapped Ford and motioned for him to sit next to her on one of the hard benches that run along the sides of the plane. "She told me that she was forced to get me out of Iraq ASAP by Ryan and Artiga, who she claimed were scared to death by what I might say. She also told me that she wanted me to get out of Iraq as soon as possible because she feared for my safety." Ford said Madera also told him, "These people are serious and very scary." She apologized for having orchestrated such an exit, but said there was no other way. "I told her that I understood, but felt as though I had just been kidnapped." According to Ford, Madera replied, "You were."
...
According to an Army CID special agent who is familiar with Ford's case, "This is a classic case of a whitewash. A coverup. The agent in Iraq never even looked at the 15-6 investigation the 223rd supposedly did. No one was ever interviewed until Abu Ghraib hit the fan." When I asked him whether the CID was complicit in an Army coverup of the case, he said, "Absolutely ... Do you have any idea how ugly this case could get if they ever really looked into it? It would open up a whole can of worms that they just don't want to touch." The agent, who refused to give his name for fear of retaliation, added, "Based on everything I know about this case, I believe Ford. I have seen too many similar cases not to. It fits the pattern. Everyone involved in this blatant coverup should be criminally prosecuted. For this to have dragged on for over a year without being investigated is ridiculous." In September, the CID conducted two telephone interviews with Marciello, but no one else in the 223rd has yet been interviewed, including myself.
...
About the writer: David DeBatto is an author and former U.S. Army counterintelligence agent who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom.
"Last night I was up all night," said Naoki, smiling again, "talking online to this woman who really - I mean really - wants to die. She asked me to do it with her today, but I said I couldn't because I had this television crew coming to see me. So she said we can do it after they've gone."
weird nightclub shooting
I've seen Dimebag play several times with Pantera in the 90s! Probably 4 times or so! I can't believe someone just got on stage and killed him!
i've never like ohio, i guess that's just fuel for the fire.
blockbuster video drops late fees, opts to rape, pillage users wallets in other ways. Hopefully this means larry the cable guy will be back in stock shortly into the new year
When I think of hell, I se something like these pictures.
I just don't get europeans!
The former US-led Coalition Provisional Authority headed by American Paul Bremer, seen here receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George W. Bush, lost track of nearly nine billion dollars it transferred to Iraqi government ministries to a black hole of fraud, kickbacks and fund misappropriation.
this is the most popular prom dress this season.
read the story here.
notice that the above picture differs from the one accompanying the story, illustrating the "wardrobe malfunction" referred to in the article.
personally, its tasteless design is more offensive than how much skin it reveals.
lawyer takes dog, refuses to return it, cites "mystery nun"
Look at this. It's disgusting. It's horrifying. It wouldn't even look appropriate on a hooker.
Yeah, I know it's from the NY Post, but there were other articles about it...
they might be by the same designer.
If that is the most popular selling prom dress of the season, where are the parents at?Seriously.
btr
Dave
Therapy.
The dog was returned to her family, due to the volume of irate calls the lawyer's firm received, ntm the e-mail server went on strike due to the number of vitriolic e-mails, one of which was from my wife....
I highly doubt parents are in the picture, or if they are, they're the kind of brainless breeders that are not teaching their kids to be responsible or take reponsibility for their own actions, and the kind of people who let their kids do anything they want just to avoid conflict. Parents shouldn't be their kid's friends, and these people choose not to notice that.
From KSTP websiteST. PAUL - Artists at the Anodyne Artist Company struggle to create special works of art. That's because they are special themselves. At Anodyne, artists with disabilities receive instruction in the visual and performing arts.
But Sunday night, burglars ransacked the gallery and much of the artists' work. Burglars broke through a door, walked up some steps and found a goldmine of art, which took these special artists years to complete. The burglars took cash, computers, three paintings, and a full studio of recording equipment.
After all was tabulated, more than $30,000 worth of art and equipment was taken from Anodyne, which struggles to stay open month to month.
``At least I can think my paintings are good to steal,'' said artist Jon Leverentz. "I think this whole thing is pretty sick."
At 17, Leverentz was in a disabling car accident. He turned his life to painting. Now, his life's work has been taken from him.
"This is a violation to a community of people that have fought, and struggled, and worked hard to use this space," said Mary Pendergrast, director of Anodyne.
Police do not have any leads in the case. Anyone with information is encouraged to contact the St. Paul police. To contact the Anodyne Artist Company, call 651-642-1684 or email anodyneart@aol.com <mailto:anodyneart@aol.com> <<mailto:anodyneart@aol.com>>.
these girls showed poor judgementAlso, Lieutenant, the kids parents are at Therapy? Like, the irish punk band? Wow, they're cooler than I thought.
And they let their kids wear anything they want! Gear!
"Man convicted for illicit fileswapping of Oscar films dies in jail A man who was convicted of unauthorized copying and filesharing of Oscar screeners was found dead in his jail cell Monday." more...
like wear'n a cross upside down in church link
you've probably read this by now
I really hope this isn't real. It's an mp3 of a woman calling 911 over a cheeseburger order. The worst part is that she mentions her kids... people like this shouldn't breed.
now, what the hell is wrong with ohio? ohio woman dies in iowa after swallowing bag of meth. One down, too many to go.
student at ohio high school force girl to give them oral sex after punching her in the face. Principals refuse to call police, fearing media involvement...that didn't work, now they're getting fired.
all this from a state that built a school on top a military waste depot, which explained and outbreak of leukemia, but hey, it's only children...
OKEECHOBEE, Florida (AP) -- A woman was arrested for allegedly forcing her 12-year-old daughter into prostitution and trading a 14-year-old daughter for a car.
wow
or else
I now have a new reson to hate golf. Like I needed another.http://www.golf-day.co.uk/home.html
It's not that bad.....though, umm, is this taking aim at your means of support?, because then I've been reading your news of what you do all wrong!
I seem to post in here a lot... hmmm..."One adult American in five thinks the Sun revolves around the Earth, an idea science had abandoned by the 17th century." read more...
Did New Orleans Catastrophe Have to Happen? 'Times-Picayune' Had Repeatedly Raised Federal Spending Issues
That we have repeatedly undone centuries of natural protection draining wetlands.
would be outraged if i hadn't run out of outrage from the first term
As specific orders began arriving to the firefighters in Atlanta, a team of 50 Monday morning quickly was ushered onto a flight headed for Louisiana. The crew's first assignment: to stand beside President Bush as he tours devastated areas.
armed and dangerous killer navy dolphins loosed by katrina
Squirrels on crack Oct 7 2005South London Press
Nature lovers fear that squirrels could become hooked on crack cocaine plundered from addicts' hidden stashes. The furry animals are thought to be behind a new drugs turf war in Brixton - stealing rocks of crack hidden in front gardens. Tough police action to rid the town centre of dealers and addicts has seen crackheads abandon their usual drug stash hideouts. But the blitz has displaced some dealing into nearby residential streets. Drug addicts are known to be hiding small stashes of crack rocks in people's front lawns late at night. Squirrels have been spotted in the same front gardens, seemingly hunting out the buried narcotics. The discovery has led some residents to speculate that the squirrels are already in the grips of addiction. One resident, who asked for his name to be withheld, told the South London Press.
"I was chatting with my neighbour who told me that crack users and dealers sometimes use my front garden to hide bits of their stash.
"An hour earlier I'd seen a squirrel wandering round the garden, digging in the flowerbeds. "It looked like it knew what it was looking for.
that is just making me laugh.... "It looked like it knew what it was looking for." Oh my gosh.
I got a pretty good kick out of it....certainly it could not have been an acorn that it had hidden in the garden.
that's a pretty good story, where i read it though they alluded that it may be a uh, you know, urban legend kind of thing, but i'm too lazy to check snopes. It's funny though.
Evil People Speak Out
There's a good article in the current Time about pensions. Now, I'm not the biggest fan of company pension programs per se, but it's maddening how CEOs can walk away from companies with millions and millions of dollars while life-long employees get screwed.
powerball
u.s. goes to war on flimsy intelligencealso.... remember the maine.
Annoying someone via the Internet is now a federal crime.It's no joke. Last Thursday, President Bush signed into law a prohibition on posting annoying Web messages or sending annoying e-mail messages without disclosing your true identity.
In other words, it's OK to flame someone on a mailing list or in a blog as long as you do it under your real name. Thank Congress for small favors, I guess.
This ridiculous prohibition, which would likely imperil much of Usenet, is buried in the so-called Violence Against Women and Department of Justice Reauthorization Act. Criminal penalties include stiff fines and two years in prison.
"The use of the word 'annoy' is particularly problematic," says Marv Johnson, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union. "What's annoying to one person may not be annoying to someone else."
To grease the rails for this idea, Sen. Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, and the section's other sponsors slipped it into an unrelated, must-pass bill to fund the Department of Justice. The plan: to make it politically infeasible for politicians to oppose the measure.
The tactic worked. The bill cleared the House of Representatives by voice vote, and the Senate unanimously approved it Dec. 16.
There's an interesting side note. An earlier version that the House approved in September had radically different wording. It was reasonable by comparison, and criminalized only using an "interactive computer service" to cause someone "substantial emotional harm."
That kind of prohibition might make sense. But why should merely annoying someone be illegal?
There are perfectly legitimate reasons to set up a Web site or write something incendiary without telling everyone exactly who you are.
Think about it: A woman fired by a manager who demanded sexual favors wants to blog about it without divulging her full name. An aspiring pundit hopes to set up the next Suck.com. A frustrated citizen wants to send e-mail describing corruption in local government without worrying about reprisals.
In each of those three cases, someone's probably going to be annoyed. That's enough to make the action a crime. (The Justice Department won't file charges in every case, of course, but trusting prosecutorial discretion is hardly reassuring.)
Clinton Fein, a San Francisco resident who runs the Annoy.com site, says a feature permitting visitors to send obnoxious and profane postcards through e-mail could be imperiled.
"Who decides what's annoying? That's the ultimate question," Fein said. He added: "If you send an annoying message via the United States Post Office, do you have to reveal your identity?"
Fein once sued to overturn part of the Communications Decency Act that outlawed transmitting indecent material "with intent to annoy." But the courts ruled the law applied only to obscene material, so Annoy.com didn't have to worry.
"I'm certainly not going to close the site down," Fein said on Friday. "I would fight it on First Amendment grounds."
He's right. Our esteemed politicians can't seem to grasp this simple point, but the First Amendment protects our right to write something that annoys someone else.
It even shields our right to do it anonymously. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas defended this principle magnificently in a 1995 case involving an Ohio woman who was punished for distributing anonymous political pamphlets.
If President Bush truly believed in the principle of limited government (it is in his official bio), he'd realize that the law he signed cannot be squared with the Constitution he swore to uphold.
And then he'd repeat what President Clinton did a decade ago when he felt compelled to sign a massive telecommunications law. Clinton realized that the section of the law punishing abortion-related material on the Internet was unconstitutional, and he directed the Justice Department not to enforce it.
Bush has the chance to show his respect for what he calls Americans' personal freedoms. Now we'll see if the president rises to the occasion. "
maybe this doesn't belong here...i mean, some good could come of it. Anyway, Monsanto doesn't even come close to these fluorescent pigs.....
travesty
Big brother doesn't like t-shirts that don't support big brother. On a slightly more positive note than Sheehan getting harassed, there is a wonderful group out there collecting 1984 books to send to congress, the man, etc...
As often happens, my school computer has blocked your first two links as "tasteless"... However, the I could look at the link about the books. That was in December... I wonder if they got much of a response.
t-shirts
I work with teenagers...This makes me shudder.
iran is soliciting cartoons of the holocaust to test freedom of expression. iran
It isn't like anti-Jewish, Holocaust-denying cartoons aren't ALREADY published regularly, throughout the Arab world.Just goes to show what I've always known: if you're Jewish, and you're not paranoid, you aren't paying attention.
someone hacked into my parents bank account and stole all of their money from their savings and checking.
dogman: that seriously sucksjt: ugh. pretty hypocritical, apparently. of course, people here believing that the holocaust actually happened will somehow be proof that our freedom of the press is a sham. Or something. It won't be enough that the cartoons will be (and are) published here and abroad and there aren't violent protests about it.
I still can't believe people are getting this worked up about cartoons? Cartoons!? All I know is that Boondocks guy should probably be keep an eye open with the lunatics running about.Dogman, Did someone hack their account online or was it a nabbed receipt type thing? I hope their bank's insurance is helpful.
and they are being dumb about insurance.
Middletown police warn residents after turkey kicks manMIDDLETOWN -- A wild turkey roaming in a flock yesterday afternoon struck back when a car owner tried shooing it away.
A 50-year-old man told the police that he was sitting in his car on Russett Road near Bartlett Road when a group of large, wild turkeys approached his car.
When one of the turkeys climbed onto the driver's side door, the man opened the door to scare it away, and the turkey kicked his leg.
The incident prompted the police to warn residents that wild turkeys can be aggressive.
three times as many as columbine
... and completely unrelated from Bruce Schneier via BoingBoing:
"It seems like every time someone tests airport security, airport security fails. In tests between November 2001 and February 2002, screeners missed 70 percent of knives, 30 percent of guns and 60 percent of (fake) bombs. And recently (see also this), testers were able to smuggle bomb-making parts through airport security in 21 of 21 attempts. It makes you wonder why we're all putting our laptops in a separate bin and taking off our shoes. (Although we should all be glad that Richard Reid wasn't the "underwear bomber.")"
" I, for one, welcome our new insect clone zomborg masters!"
"pregnant" "woman" "beaten" "stick" "shower" and "brawl" probably shouldn't ever go together ever again.
US considering tactical nukes in Iran
i like how they close the curtains to find the vein, but then reopen them to "reveal him dying". We are truly evolved!
short person gets probation instead of prison
"this morning at Christie's Baghdad, where the US Government paid a record-setting $286 billion--plus $240 for framing--for this portrait of the dead Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi" more... as if you needed more.
i hate to rain on insectaturk's parade, but the administration has no intention of changing its star chamber system. in the five years since the twin tower attacks, it should have become brutally obvious that every presidental controversy of this administration not related to bush's private religious beliefs is related to the expansion of executive power. i consider this a direct assault on the democracy that has defined democracy for the last two centuries.
security problems in iraq
ignorance is bliss
Not only do we not hear the full news from our news companies vs. overseas news companies, we don't even hear the same news from the same company as the rest of the world. That's just nucking futs!
we watch cnn a lot at work, taking a break for the daily show at 2. I usually just have my headphones on because I get sick of the 24 news bullshit really fast but everyday CNN does an hour of CNN international and it is really great coverage of issues and news. Then at about 6 oliver will turn on secial report on fox news. I think he does it just so I'll yell at brit hume.
not sure if this is good or bad. but i thought this might be the safer entree.
the piano better start drinking early.
At first I thought that your reference was just to the piano needing to be drinking, and then I read that article and saw she's covering Tom Waits, and it made it even more funny!I love when something that's already funny becomes more so when you find out the context. OK it's early and I haven't had coffee so everything is probably going to get funnier as it sinks into my brain, but that's beside the point...
he was tasered five times
Thank God for Technology
"Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich yesterday said the country will be forced to reexamine freedom of speech to meet the threat of terrorism."
Really if you change the word terrorist to communist the situation is almost identical to the red scare of the McCarthy era.
some Democrat paid Gingrich 3 million dollars to say that... that is the craziest thing I have ever heard!
I agree that the situation is ridiculous and all that, but I can't believe he said that and meant it.
I don't know, I think free speech is highly overrated. It's about time we did something about all these darn liberal terrorist lovers daring to criticized our government just on account of a few lies and crimes against the constitution. I mean, hey, we've all made mistakes right?
a soldier's storyThis whole situation makes me wonder what this generation of soldiers will do for our politics when they come home. I wonder how their experience in the reality of Iraq and the reality of the government's choices affect them in the long run.
Another good one. Summary: video of a soldier taunting Iraqi kids with a water bottle, yes water. I wonder why the Iraqi people don't love Americans?And a link to that Gingrich bit of crap.
What about all this Miss America nonsense? The whole notion seems kind of antiquated and condescending for the 21st Century.
Adel Hamad was a teacher of elementary school orphans, a hospital worker, and someone who coordinated the delivery of food, medicine and blankets to refugees. He has been imprisoned for 5 years and classified as an enemy combatant, despite the lack of any allegations or evidence that he ever acted against the U.S. or its allies, or even had political sympathies for those who did. His friends and colleagues describe him as a funny, apolitical man who loved charity work and ping-pong. One of the U.S. Army Majors at his Tribunal called his detention unconscionable.Please watch the video here.
Woonsocket moms arraigned in middle school brawl12:25 PM EST on Thursday, January 11, 2007
By KIA HALL HAYES Journal staff writer
PROVIDENCE -- Two Woonsocket mothers who were arrested along with their daughters after a brawl outside Woonsocket Middle School Monday answered charges this morning in District Court, Providence.
One of the mothers, Ana Rivera, pleaded not guilty to a simple assault charge, which alleges that she punched the 13-year-old daughter of Maribel Santiago.
Appearing before Judge Michael A. Higgins, Rivera, 44, was asked through an interpreter if she accepts the misdeanor charge.
"No, that's false," she said. Her case was turned over to the public defender, and she is scheduled to return to court Jan. 29.
Maribel Santiago, the other mother, pleaded no contest to a simple assault charge, which alleges that she punched vice principal Robert J. Picard, who intervened in the scuffle.
She was given a one-year filing, the lowest level of punishment for first time offenders. If she stays out of trouble for that period, the charge will not be on her permanent record.
Both women were arrested Monday after a fight outside the middle school, which is New England's largest middle school with 1,500 students. Police and school officials allege that Rivera drove her daughter--whom they claim was suspended -- to the school to initate a fight with Santiago's daughter.
Officials say that Rivera also assaulted Santiago's daughter after the two girls began fighting, and that Santiago punched Picard in the face when he tried to break up the altercation. Rivera's hand was cut in the brawl, but officers have found no evidence that a weapon was used.
Santiago and Rivera's daughters, as well as two other 13-year-old girls who made threats, were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. The four girls were suspended from school.
Interviewed after her arraignment, Rivera gave a different account than has been provided by police and school officials. She said that her daughter was not suspended at that time, but she told her to stay home from school for her own protection.
"I told my daughter not to go to school, because they were going to jump my daughter," she said. Her daughter, who came to the arraignment with her, nodded in agreement.
Santiago, however, has said that it was Rivera and her daughter who were making threats, and that Santiago went to the school to collect her daughter and bring her home.
Not so, says Rivera.
After ordering her daughter to stay home, Rivera said she went to work. But the other girls continued calling the house and taunting the girl, prompting her to walk to the school to face them.
"I was like 'Oh really?,' so I left the house and went to school to fight the girl," Rivera's daughter said.
When Rivera called her daughter and found out she was on her way to confront the other girls, she drove to the school to stop the fight. In her effort to intervene, her hand was cut.
"I was trying to separate the girls," she said.
i can't even believe he's going there. The situation had to be so psychologically complex for this kid... how can bill o'reilly say stuff like that?
I can't believe the dude still has a job. If you aren't yet out of of outrage browse the extensive list of items we have produced on bill-o. Although, according to him I work with a bunch of smear merhcants and ankle biters...so i'm not to be trusted.
murder suicide in the northland
My National Security Letter Gag OrderFriday, March 23, 2007; A17
It is the policy of The Washington Post not to publish anonymous pieces. In this case, an exception has been made because the author -- who would have preferred to be named -- is legally prohibited from disclosing his or her identity in connection with receipt of a national security letter. The Post confirmed the legitimacy of this submission by verifying it with the author's attorney and by reviewing publicly available court documents.
The Justice Department's inspector general revealed on March 9 that the FBI has been systematically abusing one of the most controversial provisions of the USA Patriot Act: the expanded power to issue "national security letters." It no doubt surprised most Americans to learn that between 2003 and 2005 the FBI issued more than 140,000 specific demands under this provision -- demands issued without a showing of probable cause or prior judicial approval -- to obtain potentially sensitive information about U.S. citizens and residents. It did not, however, come as any surprise to me.
Three years ago, I received a national security letter (NSL) in my capacity as the president of a small Internet access and consulting business. The letter ordered me to provide sensitive information about one of my clients. There was no indication that a judge had reviewed or approved the letter, and it turned out that none had. The letter came with a gag provision that prohibited me from telling anyone, including my client, that the FBI was seeking this information. Based on the context of the demand -- a context that the FBI still won't let me discuss publicly -- I suspected that the FBI was abusing its power and that the letter sought information to which the FBI was not entitled.
Rather than turn over the information, I contacted lawyers at the American Civil Liberties Union, and in April 2004 I filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the NSL power. I never released the information the FBI sought, and last November the FBI decided that it no longer needs the information anyway. But the FBI still hasn't abandoned the gag order that prevents me from disclosing my experience and concerns with the law or the national security letter that was served on my company. In fact, the government will return to court in the next few weeks to defend the gag orders that are imposed on recipients of these letters.
Living under the gag order has been stressful and surreal. Under the threat of criminal prosecution, I must hide all aspects of my involvement in the case -- including the mere fact that I received an NSL -- from my colleagues, my family and my friends. When I meet with my attorneys I cannot tell my girlfriend where I am going or where I have been. I hide any papers related to the case in a place where she will not look. When clients and friends ask me whether I am the one challenging the constitutionality of the NSL statute, I have no choice but to look them in the eye and lie.
I resent being conscripted as a secret informer for the government and being made to mislead those who are close to me, especially because I have doubts about the legitimacy of the underlying investigation.
The inspector general's report makes clear that NSL gag orders have had even more pernicious effects. Without the gag orders issued on recipients of the letters, it is doubtful that the FBI would have been able to abuse the NSL power the way that it did. Some recipients would have spoken out about perceived abuses, and the FBI's actions would have been subject to some degree of public scrutiny. To be sure, not all recipients would have spoken out; the inspector general's report suggests that large telecom companies have been all too willing to share sensitive data with the agency -- in at least one case, a telecom company gave the FBI even more information than it asked for. But some recipients would have called attention to abuses, and some abuse would have been deterred.
I found it particularly difficult to be silent about my concerns while Congress was debating the reauthorization of the Patriot Act in 2005 and early 2006. If I hadn't been under a gag order, I would have contacted members of Congress to discuss my experiences and to advocate changes in the law. The inspector general's report confirms that Congress lacked a complete picture of the problem during a critical time: Even though the NSL statute requires the director of the FBI to fully inform members of the House and Senate about all requests issued under the statute, the FBI significantly underrepresented the number of NSL requests in 2003, 2004 and 2005, according to the report.
I recognize that there may sometimes be a need for secrecy in certain national security investigations. But I've now been under a broad gag order for three years, and other NSL recipients have been silenced for even longer. At some point -- a point we passed long ago -- the secrecy itself becomes a threat to our democracy. In the wake of the recent revelations, I believe more strongly than ever that the secrecy surrounding the government's use of the national security letters power is unwarranted and dangerous. I hope that Congress will at last recognize the same thing.
i think the woman who got shot is still alive...
Everytime I think that we've hit the absolute limit of the insanity that can be authorized under the PATRIOT act I discover that someone has found an even more absurd and abusive use for it. It's good to know that our citizens are being silenced and coerced in the interest of freedom.
Spiderman -- The MUSICAL by the hit duo Evans and Hewson
good question... why didn't congress think of this?
she should write for a sitcom.
Am I wrong in thinking that woman is just a little bit slow? Or am I missing some stunning satire?
I think she's a bit slow, but I pray that i'm missing something. Arkansians dude, Arkansians.
You know how there are form letters put out by different organizers so that people who agree with them can send them into newspapers? Someone should make a bunch of artistically flawed letters and post them on fake political websites and see if they get used and printed. That's what this looks like to me.
That's funny! You can't make this stuff up!
If they didn't keep us so busy that we can't tell whether we're learning anything or not, I bet we law students could write some things in this vein.
www.idonowidont.com
station owner stops selling gas for a day as a protestFrom the article...
Maria McClory, 38, drove 10 miles out of her way to buy a diet soda from Pollack's station after seeing local television coverage of the protest.
"I just wanted to support them and thank them for making a statement," said McClory, who drives about 100 miles a day for work in her sport utility vehicle.
Now, on the one hand, i appreciate the sentiment and the idea -- try to stick it to the man -- since gas station owners aren't getting rich on gas margins. But people should remember that demand increases price... and driving an SUV 100 miles every day definitely increases demand...
gas price protests - by consumers, by gas stations, by grandstanding politicians - are a symptom of the same malaise that ended the roman empire. people here and now in america have a particular lifestyle that is afforded by cheap energy, cheap imported goods, and high capital inflows. the average roman lived a similarly unprecedented lifestyle that was afforded by the spoils of conquest and efficient administration. just as the end of roman conquest (and its spoils) ended pax romana, so will the end of any of the above preconditions end the american dream which is predicated on them. just as the romans protested the end of their lifestyle, famously demanding "bread and circuses", so are americans protesting the end of theirs, demanding cheap gasoline.
lord of the rings : the musical!
"The stage jammed during the show's first British performance earlier this month and the sound cut out on Aragorn, played by Jerome Pradon, in mid-battle cry. The curtain was hurriedly drawn before normal service was restored."No doubt one of Sauron's clever schemes.
when life imitates hilarious movies!http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/06/26/gator.attack.ap/index.html
I can't believe this Scooter Libby thing... actually, I can -- it's absolutely Bush's style, but that only depresses me more because to me it represents how he just does whatever he wants.The thing is, I really dislike people who rag on the president just because he's from the wrong party, or just because they like to feel superior and enlightened... but the fact is that somebody broke the law on a matter of national security (you can wave your hands and say it didn't really matter, but it was still illegal as far as I understand it) -- then, because you're commander-in-chief (and a republican) you take "national security" and defense very seriously, you make statements about the investigation as though you really want to see the truth come out.
But then an investigation and legitimate prosecution concludes that it was one of your friends and you pardon him instantly?! That only looks like cronyism and like you really do not care about justice or the legal process at all. Shame on you.
Incidentally, here's a transcript of some of what Bush said... turns out it's pretty prophetic.
it's not a pardon - they've made a point of noting - but a commuting of his sentencing. this simply means that he's not removing the guilty verdict, only the major element of punishment.it's so unsurprising at a point when i was hoping maybe somehow he'd start surprising us. god, i can be naive.
well. what a damn shame. every minute of the whole show.
I feel exactly the same way -- I thought, "at least someone is paying for the valerie plame thing," because that is what seems appropriate. But then nope, it's a get out of jail almost free card.I haven't talked to any of my bush supporting friends/family, but I just don't see how this is defensible. And it seems to me like it's exactly the kind of thing that if it were a democrat who did exactly the same thing and said exactly the same thing (including "it's not a pardon, it's a commutation!") people on the right would be absolutely freaking out about it -- and well they should be.
as my brother was quick to point out... there was clinton.also, it seems like many on the right are disappointed and dismayed. though i can't really detect surprise on anyone's lips.
The only surprise you'll detect on my lips is that I didn't see this coming.
the scooter libby BS infuriates me. But what infuriates me more is the punditry who denigrate ms. plame, who had full cover as part of the DO at the CIA. and to 1. blow her cover because you dislike her husband is BS and 2. to then denigrate her as some lowly desk officer is even worse. The people who work there, regardless of their personal politics work their fucking asses off because they care about protecting this country from harm. (and yes there are definitely abuses performed by the agency and I am not in any way excusing said abuses or illegal actions). So when I see these neo-con pundits pontificate about the war and then in the same breath talk bout plame as someone who was just out to hurt the president I get really really angry. furious.
wiretapping
this chase literally went right by our house -- we heard squealing tires and a bunch of sirens and a chopper. by the time we turned on the tv, there was live video of the car passing an intersection just down from us.
Just read this article. There are some many things about this that trouble me, but I guess the big one is the fact the hate crime begetting hate crime factor. What I don't think Jesse Jackson is recalling here is that the first crime was also a hate crime. And what Bill White doesn't get is that justice is being delivered based on the laws of his county/state/country... The social contract only works when people are both sane and humane... (And really, without higher authority to back it up, it doesn't really work at all)... Sorry for babbling.
Bob Dylan shilling for Cadillac.
Ok, I'm no fan of PDA but this is absurd. A female student in an Illinois middle school has received two detentions for hugging two of her friends goodbye. The school district has banned public displays of affection entirely. A representative of the district said he considers the punishment "appropriate." Just so I'm clear, is there anything left that hasn't been banned in school? One can only tremble at the thought of what might have happened had she given one of her friends a peck on the cheek (suspension? expulsion? hanging?)
China is building a high-tech police state with American help... from Rolling Stone, so maybe you've read it.
At least with the Soviet Union, you didn't have IBM and Honeywell going over there helping the USSR build massive surveillance systems. Our friendly relationship with China and our hypocritical habit of averting our eyes to their policies is going to get us in the end. Either because they will do it themselves, or because the allure of their methods and the profits made by our companies will convince us (via our lawmakers) that a "democratic" police state is justifiable.
IBM doesn't exactly have the best track record in the are of human rights over profits...
Praying to the Wall Street bull for the economyYou just can't make this shit up...
Some more: http://www.boingboing.net/2008/10/30/wonkette-jesus-peopl.html
Where it came from. Can he, they really all be that stupid? Really?
they're showing solidarity with other nine-fingered americans.
I work with a guy who only has nine fingers. He lost his left index finger in a mining accident a while back. It looks like a simpson hand.
There's only one Simpson character that has 5 fingers, GOD.
When I was a kid, I used to daydream about Russians kicking down the doors of the church and executing us. This seems like a lot more fun.I mean, it's really disrespectful and obnoxious obviously, but also kind of funny.
Workers riot at Chinese toy factoryWait for it....
"The latest violent protest to rock China's export machine was still simmering Wednesday at the massive plant, which makes Nerf toys for the U.S. company Hasbro Inc."
Yes. A riot at the Nerf factory.
I'll be thrilled to see you go, Dick Cheney"He goes out the door as stubborn and defiant and out of touch as ever, talking about the way he defended and protected the Constitution. Talking now because soon nobody will care what he says. Saying that history will be so much kinder to him and Bush than their current critics. It can only mean Cheney believes history is dumber than Donald Rumsfeld's postoccupation strategy in Iraq."
Asked in a broadcast interview about Jeb Bush's consideration of the Senate seat, Bush 41 said: "I'd like to see him run. I'd like to see him be president someday."F@&*ing gotta be kidding me. Worst idea ever.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090104/ap_on_go_pr_wh/another_president_bush