Monday, February 28, 2011

Texas Woman Accused of Sex with Boy

(San Antonio, Texas) A 40-year-old local landlord, Angelina Miller, has been arrested for allegedly engaging in sex with a 15-year-old boy.

Miller faces a charge of sexual assault of a child.
Police said both she and the 15-year-old boy admitted they had been having a sexual affair since November.

The arrest affidavit showed they met a year ago. Miller was the landlord for the boy and his father.
Miller was booked into custody at the Bexar County Jail with bond set at $50,000.
Don't Diss the Boss on Facebook

(Bourne, Massachusetts) Despite arguments citing freedom of speech, unwelcome results have to be expected when one bad-mouths his/her employer in public.
Cape Cod firefighter Richard Doherty lost a job he’d held for 16 years because he ridiculed his own Bourne Fire Department’s rules in Facebook postings, including some timestamped during the fireman’s work shifts.

Town Administrator Thomas Guerino of Bourne, Massachusetts fired Richard Doherty on Wednesday, after a series of three disciplinary hearings had occurred in late 2010.
This is a good illustration of a guy being his own most destructive enemy.
Florida Man Accused of Molesting Girl, 2

(Orlando, Florida) A 26-year-old Brevard County man, Michael Grzybowicz, was arrested last week for allegedly raping a two-year-old girl at SeaWorld Orlando.

Grzybowicz faces charges of possession of child pornography, sexual battery on a child younger than 12 years old and lewd and lascivious molestation of a child younger than 12 years old.
The crime was discovered when pictures of the rape were found on Michael Grzybowicz's cell phone, sheriff's records state.

A member of the Cocoa Police Department's Sex Crimes Unit confiscated the phone.

Four photographs on the phone's memory chip clearly show the violation of the youngster wearing a diaper and a yellow sun dress while she rode in a dark blue stroller, records state. The child visited Sea World on Feb. 17 with her mother, father and Grzybowicz, records state.
Grzybowicz was booked into custody at the Brevard County Jail without bail. He soon will be transported to the Orange County Jail.

Tip: slwlion
Obama's printing of billions of new dollars likely to create an even bigger world financial crisis

Comment from an Australian expert below

Reserve Bank board member Warwick McKibbin has warned that Australia is being caught up in a global bubble that could hit us much harder than the global financial crisis and expose the weaknesses of Labor's economic settings.

Professor McKibbin told The Australian the bubble in global commodity prices and property markets in Asia threatened to dwarf the US housing market bubble that led to the GFC in 2008. He warned that the inevitable bursting of the bubble would reverse the surge in Australia's record high terms of trade, push down the dollar and leave the Reserve Bank struggling to fight off rising global inflation pressures.

"This is shaping to be much bigger than 2004 to 2007," he said in comparing the new excess of global liquidity with the global financial bubble that led to the worst global financial crisis since the 1930s. "This cycle is even bigger."

Professor McKibbin suggested the surge in global liquidity fuelled by US monetary expansion had echoes of the early 1970s surge in food, mining and energy prices that led to global "stagflation", or the combination of high inflation and high unemployment.

An internationally renowned macroeconomist at the Australian National University, Professor McKibbin has been a Reserve Bank board member since 2001. He is not expected to be reappointed by Wayne Swan when his second term ends in July following his criticisms of Labor's budget stimulus spending and now its flood levy.

His analysis suggests much of the surge in mining, energy and food prices is being driven by the near zero official interest rates and so-called quantitative easing of credit conditions in the US and Europe in the wake of the GFC.

The Reserve Bank's commodity price index has jumped 49 per cent in the past year that includes a recent 9 per cent jump driven by a surge in food prices.

Reserve Bank governor Glenn Stevens last week noted strong demand from China and India had fuelled the surge in Australia's terms of trade -- the ratio of the prices we get for exports compared to the prices we pay for imports -- to their highest sustained level for at least 140 years. This was producing the biggest mining development boom in a century.

But Professor McKibbin suggested that perhaps 40 per cent of this terms of trade surge was being driven by US and European monetary expansion, which is feeding generalised inflation pressures. "That is why inflation is taking off all over the world," he told The Australian.

"It is already out of the bag. As interest rates go up, a whole bunch of assets and balance sheets will get crunched, so I am not optimistic."

SOURCE

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).
Mom Gets Prison for Sex with Daughter's Boyfriend - Updated

(Collier County, Michigan) Last Wednesday, 42-year-old local mom, Lisa Kay Creger, accepted a plea deal and was convicted on charges of lewd and lascivious battery and 17 counts of providing obscene material to minors.

As a result, Creger was sentenced by Collier County Circuit Court Judge Franklin Baker to three years in prison. She also was ordered to serve three years of post-release sex offender probation. Also:
Investigators subsequently charged Creger in November 2010 for obstruction of justice for attempting to convince the victim to change his court testimony. Prosecution of this additional charge is pending.
Heh.

* * * * *

Michigan Mom Accused of Sex with Daughter's Boyfriend
[Previous 12/17/08 post bumped]
(Almont Township. Michigan) A 40-year-old local mom, Lisa Kay Creger, surrendered to police last Friday to face charges of allegedly engaging in sex with a 15-year-old boy, her daughter's boyfriend.

Creger faces two counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct.

Police were alerted by the stepfather of the victim after finding sexually explicit photos of Creger sent electronically to the boy. Creger has denied the allegations, however, the 15-year-old told investigators that he had sex with Creger on two occasions.

Creger was booked and released on $50,000 personal bond.
Duke Snider, b.1926 - d.2011



Duke Snider

(Escondido, California) Hall of Fame baseball player Edwin Donald "Duke" Snider died Sunday at Valle Vista Convalescent Hospital reportedly of natural causes. He was 84.
Mr. Snider, nicknamed at a young age by his father, slammed 407 home runs in his 18-year major-league career and joined Jackie Robinson and Pee Wee Reese among the most beloved members of "Da Bums," the Dodgers teams that, even more than a half-century later, still have a sentimental hold on many baseball fans in the borough.

During his 11 seasons in Brooklyn, Mr. Snider appeared in eight All-Star games and helped the Dodgers win six National League pennants and the 1955 World Series. (He won another World Series in 1959 after the Dodgers had moved to Los Angeles.)

Inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1980, he hit at least 40 home runs every year from 1953 to 1957, including the last one at the team's ballpark, Ebbets Field.
The Duke is survived by his wife Beverly.

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Violence Erupts at Border Crossing

(San Ysidro, California) In the early morning Friday, three belligerent women attacked a 32-year-old man with burritos in the border-crossing building.

The dispute erupted because the man had loudly complained about the women cutting ahead of him in line.
A loud altercation broke out, with the women (seemingly intoxicated, said some observers) telling the man to “Shut the f*” up” and that “It’s a free country!”

The verbal assault by the females continued for about 15 minutes with no intervention by U.S. border officials until the women began to strike the man with plastic bags of burritos and tortillas. The baggies broke open and chunks of tortilla began to fly.

At that point, about eight U.S. officials ran toward the altercation (some leaping the turnstiles action-movie style) to stop the females from assaulting the man.
One woman was arrested while the others were sent to the back of the line. Heh.
Some theology below

Barack Obama, the Tea Party, and the Threat of Race: On Racial Neoliberalism and Born Again Racism

Author: Enck-Wanzer, Darrel

Source: Communication, Culture & Critique, Volume 4, Number 1, March 2011, pp. 23-30(8)

Abstract:

This essay engages the racist rhetoric of the U.S. Tea Party and President Barack Obama's (non)response as both emblematic of what David Theo Goldberg and others call racial neoliberalism. While Obama's detractors certainly deserve attention for their invective discourse, Obama also warrants critique for operating within a racially neoliberal discursive field binding him to antiracial (not antiracist) responses to racist discourses. This essay first stakes out the conceptual terrain of racial neoliberalism and addresses the relationship between racial neoliberalism, antiracialism, and racial threat to elucidate its significance for discourse about race. How the Tea Party's racist rhetoric functions and how Obama's reaction further reinforce the hegemony of racial neoliberalism are explained using this critical analytic.

There's a lot of verbose nonsense like that coming from academe. And guess whose tax dollars are paying for it?

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).
How Obama Failed in Middle East Crisis

Professor of History at Harvard University, Niall Ferguson, discusses foreign policy failures by the Obama administration. Spot on, I think.




Tip: Rita and Eugene

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Tennessee Woman Accused of Sex with Boy

(Shelby County, Tennessee) A 40-year-old local woman, Mary Magdalene Collier, has been accused of aggravated statutory rape.
The mother of a 16-year-old boy told officers she returned home to find the woman “completely naked in her son’s bedroom closet.”

Mary Magdalene Collier told Memphis police sex crimes investigators that she had been having a consensual sexual relationship with the boy since January, according to court documents.
Collier was booked into custody at Shelby County’s Jail East with bond set at $50,000.
Disrespect of War Memorial in Wisconsin Capitol



(Madison, Wisconsin) It appears that protesters inside the state capitol have committed a faux pas in not properly respecting Wisconsin's war dead.
Texas Teacher Accused of Theft

(Odessa, Texas) A 43-year-old English teacher at Odessa High School, Jena Marie Graves, has been arrested for having intent to deprive owner of property without consent.

Graves sponsored the Bronchettes, Odessa High School pep squad, and allegedly stole more than $6,500 from the activity fund.

Graves was apprehended earlier this month by Ector County Independent School District Police.
On Jan. 20, ECISD Police Officer Paul Carr hand delivered a letter to Graves, giving her 10 days to return the missing money. On Jan. 31, officers reported they hadn’t been contacted by Graves about returning the money, the affidavit said.

It adds that Graves is the sole sponsor of the Bronchettes and no one gave her permission to take the money or deposit the funds.
The District Attorney has yet to act on the case.
"Obamacare" now incorrect

It's the new "n" word!
"'ObamaCare' ... is a disparaging reference to the President of the United States. It is meant as a disparaging reference to the President of the United States. It is clearly in violation of the House rules against that," said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla. "ObamaCare," according to several blogs, is the new "n" word.

Assume, for the sake of argument, "right-wingers" use "ObamaCare" in a "mean-spirited" way. The left well understands and embraces the tactic: personalize or make a caricature about a policy; or use a description to induce a negative reaction. Here are a few:

"Reaganomics": Used to personalize and attach to a "cold-hearted conservative" president an economic agenda the media opposed and assumed would fail.

"Star Wars": Used to derisively describe Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative, a missile defense program critics thought technologically impossible.

Source


Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).

Friday, February 25, 2011

Google Search Formula Tweaked

Reportedly, 12% of search requests will be affected.
Google says it has tweaked the formulas steering its Internet search engine to take the rubbish out of its results. The overhaul is designed to lower the rankings of what Google deems "low-quality" sites.

That could be a veiled reference to such sites as Demand Media's eHow.com, which critics call online "content farms" — that is, sites producing cheap, abundant, mostly useless content that ranks high in search results.

Sites that produce original content or information that Google considers valuable are supposed to rank higher under the new system.
Original content? Valuable info? Heh, I'd like to think that generally applies to Interested-Participant.

We'll see.
Shoulders Above Other Scum

There is little dispute that Colonel Muammar Gaddafi is a world-class bully but it doesn't make him unique.

Hitler was a bully along with Stalin and Saddam Hussein and Ahmadinejad and Mugabe and Idi Amin and so on. They all rule(d) using iron-fisted thuggery.

Likewise, Gaddafi took power in Libya using thug tactics and, just this weekend, he declared war on his own people, also a common practice among bully dictators.

To be fair, though, the Libyan strongman stands out as unique among murderous national leaders, past and present. Muammar Gaddafi declared war on Switzerland.

Not Hitler, Mussolini, Idi Amin nor any others did it. Hell, the Fuhrer declared war on virtually the whole world, but avoided Switzerland.

By that one measure, Gaddafi stands shoulders above other scum.
LOL: The fun stuff that Warmists bury deep down in their reports

CO2 reduction might HEAT the planet!!!!

Get a load of this: "In contrast, even a fairly aggressive strategy to reduce CO2 emissions under the CO2 measures scenario does little to mitigate warming over the next 20–30 years. In fact, sulphate particles, reflecting particles that offset some of the committed warming for the short time they are in the atmosphere, are derived from SO2 that is co-emitted with CO2 in some of the highest-emitting activities, including coal burning in large-scale combustion such as in power plants. Hence, CO2 measures alone may temporarily enhance near-term warming as sulphates are reduced"

And that is from a report (p. 10) sponsored by two United Nations bodies! (UNEP and WMO).

You couldn't make it up! Only colossal fools would believe anything these guys say after that. But, as Barnum said, there is one born every minute.

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Teacher Gets Probation in False Imprisonment Case - Updated

(Canton, Georgia) Special education teacher Laurie Peavy, 45, pleaded guilty this week to false imprisonment stemming from incidents of duct-taping an autistic boy to his desk and confining a blind girl under her desk.

As a result, Peavy was sentenced to six years of probation and assessed $2,000 in fines.
She must surrender her teaching certificate and not apply for one anywhere else and also agreed not to volunteer in a school or a church or to supervise, teach or tutor any children other than her own.
Nancy Cheek was not prosecuted in exchange for her testimony against Peavy.

* * * * *

Educators Accused of Cruelty to Autistic and Blind Students
[Previous 5/19/09 post bumped]
(Canton, Georgia) Two Woodstock High School educators, teacher Laurie Peavy, 44, and aide Nancy Cheek, 49, were arrested yesterday morning for allegedly being cruel to two special needs children.

Charges stem from incidents where an autistic student was allegedly taped to a chair and a blind student was allegedly confined under a desk.



Laurie Peavy - Nancy Cheek


Both Peavy and Cheek face charges of false imprisonment and first-degree child cruelty. They were booked into custody at the Cherokee County Jail.

Peavy was released yesterday on $60,000 bond. Cheek is reportedly still in custody although her bond was reduced from $30,000 to $22,000.
Killing Barred Owls to Save Spotted Owls

Two decades ago, environmentalists successfully campaigned to save the endangered and dying-off spotted owl in Pacific Northwest old-growth forests.

Decision-makers were persuaded that logging was the greatest threat to the spotted owl and large tracts of federal land being logged were designated as off limits.

Consequently, the lumber industry and supporting communities took huge hits as tens and thousands of jobs disappeared. The cessation of logging was justified as necessary to save the spotted owl from extinction.

Unfortunately, populations of spotted owls have not recovered, rather they continue to die off despite the prohibition on logging.
Turns out the major culprit in its demise was evolution — in the form of the barred owl, a closely related species that is bigger, more omnivorous, and generally all around superior to the spotted owl.

Barred owls (Strix varia), also native to North America, seize spotted owl habitat and out-compete the endangered species.
Of course, this is bad news for environmentalists devoted to the spotted owl. In the words of Lowell Diller, with Green Diamond Resource Co.,
"We have a huge amount of resources committed to protecting that species," Diller says. "Then we have the barred owl show up."
To remedy the situation, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is soon expected to issue guidance to blast the barred owls with shotguns. Possibly 1,200 to 1,500 barred owls will be killed in several study areas and impact will be gauged.



Killing one owl species to benefit another is controversial and not supported by some wildlife and environmental activists. It's such a troubling issue that an environmental ethicist has been retained by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
When Politics Overrides Justice

(Shenandoah, Pennsylvania) In 2008, two male teens got onto a late-night, drunken fight with a male Hispanic who died from his injuries.

Derrick Donchak, 19, and Brandon Piekarsky, 17, were subsequently charged with crimes of violence, including murder, in the death of 25-year-old Luis Ramirez Zavala.



Donchak - Piekarsky

Donchak and Piekarsky were tried in May 2009 in Schuykill County Court on charges of murder, aggravated assault, recklessly endangering another person, ethnic intimidation and simple assault. A jury returned verdicts of not guilty of all charges except simple assault.

Despite the acquittals, immigrant and racism activists pursued action against Donchak and Piekarsky in federal court. Legal scrabbling for an offense found that the Fair Housing Act makes it illegal to interfere, with violence or threats, with a person's right to live where he chooses to live.

Consequently, for violating the Fair Housing Act, Donchak and Piekarsky were tried in federal court on charges that they interfered with Luis Ramirez Zavala's right to live where he wanted.

Yesterday, Donchak and Piekarsky were sentenced to nine years in federal prison.

The MSM has characterized the case as a hate-crime conviction since the victim was an illegal alien and the alleged perpetrators were white males. I would contend that it was a political conviction.

Think about it. The case was about a late-night drunken brawl leaving one dead and, as a result, two guys get sentenced to prison for violating the Fair Housing Act.

It has to be political to make any sense.
An interesting graphic



Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Florida Woman Gets Prison in Sex Case - Updated

(Oklahoma City, Oklahoma) Earlier today, a 45-year-old Florida woman, Anna May Alexander, was sentenced in federal court for traveling to Oklahoma City for the purpose of engaging in sex with a 14-year-old boy.

From U.S. District Judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange, Alexander received seven years in federal prison.
The victim's mother said, "She took his innocence."

The boy became suicidal after his relationship with Alexander was discovered and he had to be hospitalized.
Alexander said she was sorry.

* * * * *

Florida Woman Guilty in Boy Sex Case - Updated
[Previous 8/6/10 post]
(Oklahoma City, Oklahoma) Forty-four-year-old Annamay Alexander, aka Annamay Cherry, pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court to traveling to Oklahoma City for the purpose of engaging in sex with a 14-year-old boy.
Alexander admitted during her plea hearing that she drove to the Oklahoma City area Jan. 9 to have sex with the boy, whom she met through an online Sony PlayStation 3 virtual-reality game. The game allows users to create electronic versions of themselves and interact with others.

Alexander, a mother of three, was arrested in Texas in April, several weeks after authorities issued a warrant for her arrest.

Police found suggestive text and photo messages from Alexander on the boy's phone, according to an affidavit, in addition to a photo stored in the boy's PlayStation console of her in her underwear.
A sentencing date has yet to be scheduled. Reportedly, Alexander faces a possible 30 years in prison.

* * * * *

Florida Woman Indicted in Boy Sex Case - Updated
[Previous 4/2/10 post]
(Oklahoma City, Oklahoma) Forty-four-year-old Florida woman, Annamay Alexander, was arrested by U.S. Marshals this week in Wichita Falls, Texas, and transported to Oklahoma City to faces charges listed on a federal grand jury indictment unsealed yesterday.
The indictment charges Alexander with four separate counts. Alexander is accused of sending obscene material to the 14-year-old boy.

The indictment also alleges that on two occasions, Alexander enticed the 14-year-old to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing photographs.

Lastly, the indictment alleges that on January 9, 2010, Alexander traveled interstate to Oklahoma for the purpose of engaging in sex with the 14-year-old boy.
A court appearance is scheduled for Monday.

* * * * *

Florida Woman Wanted in Boy Sex Case
[Previous 2/19/10 post]
(Deltona, Florida) A warrant has been issued for the arrest of 43-year-old Annamay Alexander for allegedly stalking a 14-year-old Oklahoma City boy via the Internet and the telephone.

Reportedly, the boy's mother found disturbing text messages on her son's phone so she alerted the Oklahoma City Police.

According to Oklahoma City Police spokeswoman Sgt. Jennifer Wardlow, Alexander traveled more than 1,200 miles from Deltona to Oklahoma City to seduce the boy.
Investigators also learned that Alexander traveled to Oklahoma City on one or more occasions to meet the boy. Alexander is driving a white 2003 Dodge Intrepid with Florida license plate J254HN, police said.
Anyone with information is asked to call the authorities.
"Horndog High" Sex Scandal - Updated

(Brooklyn, New York) French teacher Cindy Mauro, 34, and Spanish instructor Alini Brito, 30, allegedly involved in a lesbian classroom sex romp, are suing the city of New York for $2 million claiming their good names were besmirched and they were wrongfully terminated from James Madison High School, locally known as "Horndog High."
A two-page summons with notice, filed Wednesday in Manhattan Supreme Court, says the two romance language teachers are victims of "wrongful termination, libel and slander."

"They've had to deal with these false allegations of engaging in lesbian sex," said Michael Valentine, a lawyer for the classroom cuties. "It's been painful.

"Aside from losing their jobs, their reputations have been ruined."
Responding to a state arbitrator's report, the Department of Education fired the two teachers last month.

* * * * *

Brooklyn High School Sex Scandal - Updated
[Previous 1/9/11 post]
(Brooklyn, New York) To update the year-old scandal involving teachers at James Madison High School, the school system has decided to end its affiliation with Alini Brito.
A Brooklyn teacher caught naked in a lesbian sex romp was given the heave-ho this week -- after ridiculously claiming that she ended up naked and sweaty with a colleague on a classroom floor because she was being treated for low blood sugar.

Spanish teacher Alini Brito, 30, said colleague Cindy Mauro led her into a darkened classroom at James Madison HS for an insulin shot and candy when a dizzy spell forced her to the ground.

"[I] started getting those -- my heart beating fast, a little dizzy, and I knew that I wasn't feeling well," she told school officials regarding the November 2009 incident.

Brito said she ended up on the floor with her feet propped up on a chair while Mauro knelt beside her.

But testimony from two school janitors and a school safety agent who walked in on the duo that night disputed Brito's account.

The safety agent said she saw Brito "naked on the floor with her legs kneeled, like in a birthing position, and I saw the blonde between her legs."
Brito has denied that she was naked or drunk. It could be that the whole episode has been mischaracterized. The media tends to do that but one must suspect that things are rather loosey-goosey at James Madison High School. Medical emergency? I don't think so.

* * * * *

Three Teachers Caught in High School Scandal - Updated
[Previous 12/10/09 post]
(Brooklyn, New York) Attention! There are now three pulchritudinous pedagogues under investigation at James Madison High School.

In addition to teachers Alini Brito and Cindy Mauro, 31-year-old social studies teacher Alison Musacchio has been accused of engaging in an inappropriate relationship with a male student.
The paper reports the school learned of the relationship between 31-year-old Allison Musacchio in March after a female student saw her ex-boyfriend's phone number on the tenured teacher's cell phone.

Officials reportedly found 200 text messages and calls between Musacchio and the male student.
More than 500 fans populate the Facebook page following the stories of the three high school teachers.

* * * * *

Two Teachers Caught Naked
[Previous 12/9/09 post]
(Brooklyn, New York) Two teachers at Brooklyn's James Madison High School have been accused of misconduct and are under investigation. French teacher Alini Brito, 29, and Spanish teacher Cindy Mauro, 33, were allegedly caught naked by a janitor in a classroom.


Alini Brito -- Cindy Mauro

According to Education Department spokeswoman Margie Feinberg, Brito and Mauro have been reassigned pending completion of an investigation. Meanwhile, rumors remain red hot among the student body.

Companion post at The Jawa Report.
Harry Reid: Ban Prostitution

(Carson City, Nevada) In his biennial address to the Nevada legislature, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called for a ban on prostitution.

No applause came from the audience, which included a legal brothel owner, legal prostitutes and the legal industry’s state lobbyist.
The whorehouse owner in attendance, Dennis Hof of the Moonlite Bunny Ranch, told reporters on the scene: “Harry Reid will have to pry the cathouse keys from my cold, dead hands.”
With unemployment in Nevada well above 10%, it's inexplicable that Sen. Reid would propose shutting down an entire industry.
IDEX 2011 Arms Market: Abu Dhabi

(Abu Dhabi, UAE) Currently underway, the 10th International Defense Exhibition & Conference (IDEX 2011) showcases the latest defense industry developments in systems, equipment, devices and programs.




Presumably, defense spending by Middle East countries should ramp up due to unrest and tensions in Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, Iran, Jordan, Yemen, Algeria, Tunisia, yada-yada-yada. But there is a significant degree of apprehension.
"The Middle East was a growing market until a few weeks ago," said one arms trader who, like most, asked not to be named.

"It's a question now of who do we want to sell to. Do we want to sell hi-tech equipment to [Egypt's] Muslim Brotherhood? I don't think so."
Heh.

Tip: Wireless.Phil

Companion post at The Jawa Report.
Facebook Announces "Breakup" Application

Facebook seems to be reaching out to rebound stalkers by instituting a "Breakup Notifier" to alert users when hot buns are coming out of the oven. Come and get it.
The Breakup Notifier is “free for now” according to its website, where users can download and implement the app into their social networking experience.

All interested parties need to do is log onto Facebook with the app, choose the Facebook users who they’re interested in that are currently in a relationship, and then receive emails when their crushes breakup with their significant others.

It’s pretty easy, and more importantly, it will more than likely be incredibly successful.
Arguably, it's hard to dispute the contention that the brain trust guiding Facebook is a cluster of schoolgirls.
Liberal Shell Game

(Ottawa, Canada) This all just smells crooked.

A complaint was filed against Ontario Hydro for overcharging customers. Ontario Hydro was assessed a $17.7 million fine because of the practice.

The Ontario Energy Board agreed to let Ontario Hydro raise rates to cover the cost of paying the fine.

Obviously, the net effect is identical. They are either overcharged or forced to pay higher rates. The customer gets screwed.

Conservative Party Leader Tim Hudak expressed outrage, attacking the Dalton McGuinty administration.
Hudak attacked the Liberals on a range of issues, including massive cost overruns at a hydro expansion project at Niagara Falls, and subsidies to green energy producers that have sent electricity bills soaring.

"Premier, why do you treat Ontario families like they're bottomless ATM machines?"
I know the answer. McGuinty is a liberal and that's what liberal politicians do.
What a weak wriggle-out!

Tufts, a Massachusetts University, is the hotbed of fanatical liberalism that you would expect. So it is no surprise that FIRE recently named it one of the worst American colleges for speech restrictions.

Pleasingly, that seems to have riled Tufts people a bit -- perhaps because it was reported in the Puffington Host. They are so encased in their own little mental cocoon that they think their speech codes are fair and free!

Reality is a little pesky, however. A few years ago the university ruled that two articles in a student newspaper (about blacks and Muslims) made the newspaper "guilty of harassment and creating a hostile environment", which is an offense at Tufts.

Below is the completely dishonest way a Tufts spokesman tries to wriggle out of the situation.
Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman thoroughly disagreed with FIRE's branding of Tufts and believed the organization has exaggerated a lack of free speech on campus.

According to Reitman, it is just as essential to acknowledge offensive material as it is to allow that material to exist. "That's the purpose of community learning — so that we have those conversations that at times include the voice in the community that says, ‘they don't have the right to say that,'" Reitman said.

"I think that's an ingredient of that conversation. It always will be. I will always support a person's right to say, ‘they don't have the right to say that,' because that's their opinion." Reitman said that FIRE itself is guilty of not truly respecting the freedom of expression.

"If FIRE is saying we are at fault because we are restricting people from having an opinion that can be voiced, aren't they doing exactly that by saying a group of people doesn't have the right to call something harassing behavior?" he said. "I think they're hypocritical even in making this argument. So they're saying that people don't have the right to call something what they think it is. So they're the ones in my mind who are talking about censoring."

Brucie might make a good theologian but he is no logician. Neither FIRE nor anyone else is critical of anybody disagreeing with anything. It is using the weight of the university to condemn particular utterances that is the issue. For an individual student to call something harassment is fine. It is when the university tries to suppress the "harassment" that there is a problem.

In logic, Brucie's defense is what is known as a "straw man" argument. He can't answer the actual charge put to him so he makes up another argument to answer. But I am sure Tufts is proud of him. I guess they don't teach logic there. Or is it just that Leftism routinely rots the brain?

While I am having fun with Brucie, let me note this little bit of dialogue with him: "But what does the dean of student affairs do on the Hill? "Besides warning people to be careful in Mexico?" Reitman asked jokingly, referring to this past spring break."

If a conservative had said that he would run a fair risk of having "racism" shrieked at him. It would be claimed that he is "stereotyping" Mexicans or some such. Using his own standard of logic, I therefore find him "guilty of harassment and creating a hostile environment" for Hispanics

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Alaskan Teacher Accused of Sex with Male Student

(Kiana, Alaska) A 26-year-old second- and third-grade teacher with the Northwest Arctic Borough School District, Sheree Buchanan, has been arrested for allegedly engaging in sex with a 16-year-old male student.

Buchanan faces two felony counts of second-degree sexual abuse of a minor by an authority figure.
She had a good reputation as a teacher, said Norm Eck, superintendent of the Northwest Arctic Borough School District.

She was not the male teen's teacher. Eck did not know how their relationship developed, but said the school is small.

"Kiana is a very good school," he said. "It's a very good village. It's just terribly unfortunate that such a horrible thing would occur anywhere, but we have to be watchful and vigilant all the time with those people who work with our children and are entrusted with the care of our students."

The school took action to notify police as soon as the relationship came to light, Eck said. The school district is in the process of terminating Buchanan, he said.
Buchanan was booked into custody at the Kotzebue Jail with bail set at $5,000.
U.S. Foreign Influence

The United States government is currently unable to evacuate non-essential diplomats from violence-plagued Libya. Curiously, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley is unable to say why.

It seems that being American doesn't mean what it used to.

While Washington apparently naps, drug dealers are killing U.S. citizens and agents in Mexico, Somalian pirates are killing Americans sailing in the Indian Ocean, and now diplomats can't even be rescued from a bloody, strife-filled foreign country.

And all that happened just this week. Boy, the U.S. sorely needs leadership.

Of course, our adversaries might contend that the Obama administration is being most accommodating.
U.S. Agent Killed in Mexico - Updated



ICE Special Agent Jaime Zapata

(Brownsville, Texas) Earlier today, hundreds attended the funeral mass of Jaime Zapata, the ICE Special Agent murdered last week by gunmen on the highway in the state of San Luis Potosi in Mexico.

Presiding over the service was Bishop Daniel Flores and members of the Obama administration spoke.
Department of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano spoke of Special Agent Zapata's courage and commitment to the job and vowed to bring those responsible for his death to justice.

"This much is clear we will not relent or flint or let up in any way in our determination to see that those responsible for his death are held to account for their crimes," said Napolitano.

Attorney General Eric Holder and ICE Director John Morton also spoke.

Holder called Zapata a hero and "a man who's acts of valor are a testament to what is best about our country and our national international law enforcement community.
Meanwhile, a possible suspect has emerged.
Jesús "El Mamito" Rejón, a former corporal in Mexico's elite forces who became a top leader in the violent Zeta cartel is one of the people the U.S. believes may have been involved in the killing of Mr. Zapata last week.
Currently, the U.S. is offering a $5 million reward for information leading to Rejón's capture. Mexico offers $2.3 million reward for Mr. Rejón.

* * * * *

U.S. Agent Killed in Mexico
[Previous 2/16/11 post]
(Mexico City, Mexico) Two agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) were ambushed yesterday while driving through central Mexico. One special agent was shot dead while the other received gunshot wounds to his arm and leg.

The deadly attack prompted U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to express strident resolve:
"Let me be clear: Any act of violence against our ICE personnel — or any [Department of Homeland Security] personnel — is an attack against all those who serve our nation and put their lives at risk for our safety," she said in a statement.

"We remain committed in our broader support for Mexico's efforts to combat violence within its borders."
Seems clear to me. Secretary Napolitano will seek justice by talking.
Pittsburgh Most Livable

According to the annual survey of most livable cities assessed by the Economist Intelligence Unit, Pittsburgh beats all other U.S. cities.
The Economist Intelligence Unit is the world's leading resource for economic and business research, forecasting and analysis.
Pittsburgh was selected by 'experts' as most livable due to a variety of factors such as healthcare, culture, environment and education.

Curiously, it appears that the process for naming Pittsburgh as most livable did not include input from people actually living there. Evidence indicates that the population is decreasing even while 'experts' are saying that Pittsburgh is the best place to live.

Between 2000 and 2009, the population of Pittsburgh decreased by 6.61%, possibly explaining the home vacancy rate of more than 14%.

Consequently, it's difficult to understand the selection of Pittsburgh as most livable when people are moving elsewhere and one in every seven homes is vacant. I'd suggest that the best place to live would attract, not jettison, people.

An acquaintance who used to live in Pittsburgh says the city is livable but he departed anyway. As a young man, he believed he should "Go West" and "Get a Life." He credits divine intervention for showing him a sign of life in Pittsburgh.



Heh.
Mrs Obama

I was right in my judgment yesterday that Mrs. Obama would fret about not being invited to the forthcoming Royal wedding in Britain. We read:
Even after it was clear that Prince William and Kate Middleton would not be sending a wedding invitation to the White House, Michelle Obama still appears not to have given up hope. "If I get invited, I'll go," the First Lady said on the Live With Regis and Kelly Show on American television. She conceded, however, that, as things stand, she had not been invited


Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).

Monday, February 21, 2011

Ugly Child Sex Abuse Case - Updated

(Seattle, Washington) The horrible case of a Seattle-area man and wife sexually abusing a four-year-old girl has finally reached a conclusion.
A Burien woman who filmed herself and her husband raping a 4-year-old girl and sent videos of the sexual abuse over the Internet has been sentenced to 26 years to life in prison.

Hollie Beston pleaded guilty in December to first-degree child rape, first-degree child molestation, sexual exploitation of a minor and dealing in child pornography. Her estranged husband, Brian Beston, of Kent, pleaded guilty to the same charges and was sentenced last June to a minimum of 26 years up to life in prison.


 
Hollie Beston, Brian Beston

Once the Bestons complete their terms of incarceration, they will continue confinement until state authorities decide whether they should be released.

* * * * *

Ugly Child Sex Abuse Case
[Previous 10/30/09 post]
(Seattle, Washington) A man and his ex have been arrested for sexually abusing a 4-year-old girl and providing live streaming video of the abuse on the Internet.

Brian K. Beston, 36, and Hollie Beston, 31, (names also reported as Benson), have been charged with multiple child sex crimes.

Reportedly, the Bestons abused the girl between June and October 2009 during which time they also involved a San Diego man they met via Craigslist who was posing as a single mom under the handle "jennymomsd."
The couple began exchanging child porn with jennymomsd and soon the Internet contact "was accepted as a fellow child lover," the court documents said. Jennymomsd then requested pornographic images of children and began receiving pictures of a young girl, according to detectives.

Jennymomsd claimed to have a brother interested in having sex with children, prosecutors said, and the conversations eventually turned to talks of this brother visiting Seattle to have sex with the young girl featured in the photographs sent by the Bestons.

But Jennymomsd remained skeptical of the authenticity of the Bestons' photos; he thought the images may have been pulled from the Internet, he told investigators. When he expressed his skepticism to Brian Benson, the Kent man offered to present the girl via a live video feed, the statement said.

Brian Beston, using the camera on his computer, provided Jennymomsd with a live feed featuring himself sexually molesting the pictured girl for approximately five minutes, detectives said, even briefly holding up a sheet of paper with the day's date written on it to prove the authenticity of the feed.

Jennymomsd later confirmed to federal agents that the girl featured in the feed was the same girl who had appeared in the 40 to 50 pornographic images the Bestons had sent him throughout the course of their correspondence.
Brian and Hollie Beston face charges of first-degree child rape, first-degree child molestation, exploitation of a minor and dealing in depictions of a minor engaged in sexually-explicit conduct. They were booked into custody at the King County Jail with bond for each set at $500,000.

Sick stuff, eh?
Wisconsin Teachers Protest



"We am you're childs future."


Tip: Good Lt. via TJR
Dumb Rapist Gets Prison

(Glasgow, Scotland) Last month, a 21-year-old illegal alien from Uganda, John Ssewagudde, was found guilty by a jury of rape. As a result, he was sentenced to four years in prison last Friday.
AN illegal immigrant who admitted to rape on Facebook was jailed for four years yesterday.

John Ssewagudde, 21, raped a 28-year-old woman after calling on her at her flat, a court was told.

And he later posted a message to her on Facebook, saying: "I admit it. I raped you."

At his trial, Ugandan Ssewagudde denied making the comment on the social networking site and claimed someone else was responsible for it.
Unfortunately for Mr. Ssewagudde, his Facebook entry admitting guilt was traced to his mobile phone.
Florida Man Accused of Sex with 3-Year-Old

(Oakland Park, Florida) A 40-year-old local man, Tomas Bautista, has been arrested for allegedly engaging in sex with his roommate's dog. Bautista faces one count of felony cruelty to an animal.
The 3-year-old female Chihuahua mix, named Mimi, is recovering, said her owner, Clemente Velasquez, 67, on Friday afternoon.

After being treated by a veterinarian, "she is now just lying down on the sofa," Velasquez said. "She's not happy like she normally is."
Bautista was booked into custody at the Broward County main jail with bond set at $2,500.

Tip: slwlion
Uprising in Libya

Stories coming out of Libya are really disturbing. News is breaking continuously so confirmation of reported conditions lacks verification.
- Protesters being strafed by planes in Tripoli,

- All telephone and mobile phone connections have been cut,

- Ground artillery being used on Tripoli protesters,

- Roaming cars with Gaddafi supporters firing at Tripoli protesters,

- Bloodbanks in Tripoli hospitals stolen,

- Libyan Marines have joined protesters in Benghazi,

- 300 people killed in Benghazi hospital,

- Two Libyan Air Force planes land in Malta with pilots seeking asylum,

- Libyan soldiers burned for allegedly refusing to shoot protesters.

[Warning! Graphic video]



Developing....
Journalists Attacked in California

(Sacramento, California) An angry crowd attacked a local news crew yesterday.
The journalists were hit and pushed by family and friends of a young man who had been gunned down the night before outside an International House of Pancakes restaurant in Sacramento.

FOX 40 News reporter John Lobertini and his cameraperson, Rebecca Little, were assaulted after approaching a group of people standing near a memorial for 27-year-old Chester Jackson set up on the sidewalk outside the restaurant.



Fortunately, serious injury appears to have been avoided. Nevertheless, it's beyond troubling that the crowd resorted to violence.
World's Biggest Family




(Baktwang, Mizoram, India) Arguably the world's largest single-family home, 100 rooms in four stories, is occupied by the reported world's biggest family.

Patriarch Ziona Chana has 39 wives and 94 children.
He even married ten women in one year, when he was at his most prolific, and enjoys his own double bed while his wives have to make do with communal dormitories.

He keeps the youngest women near to his bedroom with the older members of the family sleeping further away - and there is a rotation system for who visits Mr Chana's bedroom.
So, "He keeps the youngest women near to his bedroom." It's probably because they are the quickest to respond to a cardiac emergency. Uh, or maybe there's some other reason. Heh.

Tip: slwlion
India builds "Green" bridge

Yikes! "We used minimum cement to reduce greenhouse effect". A bridge built on sand????



The scenic Kerala backwaters can now boast of an engineering marvel — the longest rail bridge in the country at 4.62km. The bridge is part of a 8.6-km railway link connecting Idapalli to Vallarpadam in Kochi, where the shipping ministry has constructed the International Container Transhipment Terminal (ICTT).

Built by the Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd at Rs 200 crore, the bridge came up in a record 28 months.

The rail link between Idapalli railway station and ICTT can also boast green technology to address environmental concerns. The alignment cuts through densely populated habitations and backwaters. "We used minimum cement to reduce greenhouse effect," said a rail official. Land acquisition being a sensitive issue in Kerala, RVNL took an elevated route — a 40m-long girder erected at a curve of 2.5 degrees — to cut down on land use in densely populated areas and also go across the backwaters.

More here

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Alabama Woman Accused of Sex with Teens

(Decatur, Alabama) A 33-year-old local woman, Stephanie White Piner, surrendered to Decatur Police on Friday to face child sex charges.

Piner faces multiple counts including rape, sodomy and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

According to reports filed with the Decatur Police Department on separate occasions in December, Piner engaged in episodes of sexual intercourse with two teen boys, ages 14 and 15.
Investigators determined that Piner had engaged in sexual intercourse and deviant sexual intercourse with both juveniles on multiple occasions, and had provided them with tobacco and alcohol.
Piner was booked into custody with bail set at $100,750.
Virginia Mom Accused of Doing Son's Friends

(Virginia Beach, Virginia) A 37-year-old local woman, Leslie Lozy, has been accused of engaging in sex with two of her son's teen buddies, ages 15 and 18.

Lozy faces charges of misdemeanor custodial indecent liberties and felony contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
"It looks like a case where teenage boys are spending the night at a friend's house and somehow that leads to a sexual encounter with the teenage boy's mother they're spending the night with," said MPO Adam Bernstein of Virginia Beach Police.
Lozy was booked and subsequently released on $5,000 bond. A court appearance is scheduled for March 3.
Record Lobster Harvest



(Portland, Maine) Data from the Maine Department of Marine Resources indicate that state lobstermen caught a record 93.4 million pounds of lobster in 2010.

An average of $3.31 per pound was paid to the lobstermen for a gross amount of more than $308 million. Interestingly, one can expect to pay at least $15 or more per pound for those lobsters if bought in Ohio.

Pass the butter, please.
Rock Snot and Illegal Footwear

The state of Maryland has plans to make felt-soled fishing footwear illegal. The felt material has been implicated as a cause of the spread of invasive species, in particular a yellow-brown algae called didymo.

Didymo is short for Didymosphenia geminata. It is commonly called "rock snot."



Didymo or "rock snot"

Interestingly, the experts and authorities are not in complete agreement as to whether rock snot is harmful even while admitting that the algae spreads by several pathways including waders, shoelaces and boat hulls. Therefore, a ban on felt-soled shoes arguably would have minimal impact, if any. Nevertheless, activists remain undeterred.
"I think the cautionary approach to that would be to assume it's going to have some adverse impacts and respond accordingly," said Ron Klauda, a Maryland freshwater fisheries biologist.
So, based on the assumption that rock snot has adverse impacts, the state of Maryland proposes to ban a certain type of footwear.

For the present, only warnings will be issued to violators. Yet to be determined fines and penalties will be effective next year.
Coverup at pro-Left, pro-Muslim Amnesty International

As Oliver Kamm said last year: "Disastrously for itself and those who depend on its support, Amnesty is no longer the friend of liberty". More on the moral decay of Amnesty here

Human rights group Amnesty International has paid more than £500,000 in a secret pay-off to its former chief, it was revealed yesterday. The organisation paid out another £300,000 to its deputy leader, who quit at the same time in December 2009. Amnesty declined to discuss the payouts to former secretary general Irene Khan and her deputy Kate Gilmore. But the scale of the payments throws a harsh light on the group’s management decisions following years of increasing criticism.

The charity runs appeals for donations from the public, which include attempts to inspire money-raising campaigns among young people and in schools.

The payment to Bangladeshi-born Miss Khan, who has a reputation as a campaigner against poverty, was more than four times her annual salary of £132,490.

Peter Pack, chairman of Amnesty’s international executive committee, said: ‘The payments to outgoing secretary general Irene Khan shown in the accounts of AI (Amnesty International) Ltd for the year ending March 31 2010 include payments made as part of a confidential agreement between AI Ltd and Irene Khan. ‘It is a term of this agreement that no further comment on it will be made by either party.’

Miss Khan, the first Muslim to lead the organisation, has been criticised from the political left for her failure to do more to protest about abuses by American and British troops in Iraq, and notably for a muted response to the Abu Ghraib torture scandal.

Other critics accused the 54-year-old of doing too much to highlight abuse at Guantanamo Bay and too little to expose its inmates alleged links with the Taliban and terror groups.

Miss Khan also failed to impress all of Amnesty’s supporters with her emphasis on alleviating poverty. She insisted that human rights can only follow economic rights, but some believed Amnesty should have concentrated on political rights. Miss Gilmore ran into controversy in 2007 when Amnesty appeared to suggest that abortion was a human right. Roman Catholic supporters turned against her. Miss Gilmore insisted abortion was a right for women who had been raped.

SOURCE

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).
DUI Charge After School Bus Crash

(Pinellas County, Florida) A 48-year-old woman, Donna Lynne Jones, was arrested Thursday for allegedly driving under the influence and crashing into a school bus. Reportedly, Jones rear-ended the bus at 8:15AM.

Jones faces charges of driving under the influence, open container, no proof of insurance and careless driving.
The children on the bus weren't injured. The bus was heading to Garrison Jones Elementary School in Dunedin.

She told deputies she had consumed prescription drugs, the sheriff's office said.
Jones was booked into custody at the Pinellas County Jail at which time she was allegedly found to be carrying a crack pipe. Consequently, Jones was also charged with introduction of contraband into a secure facility.

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Teacher Resigns After Prostitution Conviction

(Little Rock, Arkansas) A 27-year-old algebra teacher at McClellan High School, Solona Islam, was placed on paid administrative leave after the school system learned that she was convicted of prostitution in November.

Islam subsequently resigned her teaching position.
Documented in the police report from October 2010, Islam tells undercover officers she would engage in sexual activities for money.

"I decided at the tail end of it when he offered the sex for extra money to do it," says Islam.

The five year McClellan math teacher says she had fallen on tough times dealing with lawsuits and bankruptcy and had just lost her part-time job.

"When you look at your check and it's only $600 and you know your rent is $700, and the light bill is coming up and your child needs day care paid. It was a point of desperation," says Islam.
Reportedly, the school system requires teachers to provide notification of all convictions and Islam didn't comply. Instead, a reporter notified the school that its algebra teacher was moonlighting as a hooker.


Unfortunately, crippling debt makes people do outrageous things.
Man Replaces Wife with His Daughter

(Balaka, Malawi) Arguably, this report illustrates that there are limits to multiculturalism.

A 42-year-old man tires of his wife and boots her. He said she "has run out of steam." He then proceeds to mix it up with his own his daughter.

Pretty sick stuff, eh?
The man, Fanuel Samsom is said to have been engaging casual sex with the daughter Catherine for close to three years, until last week when the mother caught them red-handed.

But instead of being ashamed with their act, the two joined forces to chase the mother out of the house and declared themselves wife and husband.

In an interview, the mother said there was nothing disheartening like your own daughter snatching away your man.
“Somehow it is understandable when other women take away your man, but not your own daughter,” she said amidst sobs.
Although incest is reportedly illegal in Malawi, it's not clear that Samsom and his daughter will ever be prosecuted.
Australia: Druggie Muslims must not be arrested

A FORMER role-model for young Muslims who was arrested for cocaine supply yesterday won another court case, with the state failing in its bid to have her $18,000 payout for unlawful arrest overturned.

The State of NSW had appealed the payout awarded to Iktimal Hage-Ali in October 2009, arguing that the judge wrongly rejected the evidence of her arresting officers.

Judge Michael Elkaim originally found the arrest unlawful and officers wrong to have resorted to an arrest for such a small scale of supply when they knew Ms Hage-Ali was a person of good character with strong ties to the community.

SOURCE

Background from 2008

Eight days before she accepted her award at the art gallery, police had knocked on the door of the Hage-Ali family home at Punchbowl. They had been tapping her phone calls for the past three months and had taped her coded conversations with her childhood friend and cocaine supplier, Mohammed "Bruce" Fahda.

For their part, the police will argue they had a reasonable apprehension from their phone taps that Hage-Ali was involved in drug trafficking, even if there turned out to be no such evidence. She had told Fahda that she needed more drugs to supply to others, but Hage-Ali argues this was a lie and they were all for herself.

SOURCE.

It seems to me that the police had ample reasons to arrest her and that the arrest was entirely proper -- JR

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).

Friday, February 18, 2011

Indiana Teacher Accused of Child Seduction

(Zionsville, Indiana) A 33-year-old art teacher at Zionsville High School, Mandy Jared, has been accused of child seduction incidents involving a 17-year-old student.

The alleged incidents occurred between October 15 and November 30, 2010.
The charging documents say Jared engaged in fondling or touching with the student with intent to arouse or satisfy her or the student’s sexual desires of her or the student.

Neither the charging documents nor the school district news release identify the gender of the student.
Jared was booked and released. A court appearance is scheduled for Tuesday in Boone Superior Court in Lebanon.
Woman Gets 5 Years in Prison for Child Sex - Updated

(Kirksville, Missouri) Twenty-six-year-old Melissa Songer completed the 120-day sex offender assessment and requested to be placed on probation.
Circuit Judge Russell Steele denied Songer's request and ordered her to serve the remainder of her sentence in state prison.

After serving the five years in prison, Songer will be required to be under lifetime supervision by wearing a GPS ankle bracelet.

She must also register as a sex offender.
It appears that the assessment was less than favorable.

* * * * *

Missouri Woman Gets Prison for Child Sex - Updated
[Previous 9/27/10 post]
(Kirksville, Missouri) Twenty-six-year-old Melissa Songer admitted to engaging in sex with a 13-year-old boy and was sentenced to five years in prison.
Songer will serve 120 days in the Department of Corrections Sex Offender Assessment Unit.

After that, depending on how well she does during those 120 days, she could serve probation for the remainder of the five years.

Adair County Prosecutor Matt Wilson told KTVO due to the nature of her offense, Songer will also be under lifetime supervision by wearing a GPS ankle bracelet.
Songer was also ordered to register as a sex offender

* * * * *

Missouri Woman Accused of Raping Boy
[Previous 5/11/09 post]
(Kirksville, Missouri) A 25-year-old local woman, Melissa Songer, has been accused of engaging in sex with a boy under the age of 14. An Adair County grand jury has indicted Songer on a charge of first-degree statutory rape.
The indictment alleges the incident, involving a boy age 13, occurred in September of last year. Songer is schedule to be arraigned in Adair County Circuit Court Tuesday.
Songer was booked into custody at the Adair County Jail with bond set at $50,000.
Yogurt and Regularity



Found in store parking lot


It appears that claims of promoting regularity made by Dannon Inc. yogurt brands are not adequately supported.
Dannon agreed pay $21 million in a settlement with 39 states and drop some health claims for its Activia yogurt and DanActive dairy drink under pressure from state and federal regulators.

The food company has claimed in marketing that its Activia yogurt helps relieve irregularity and that its DanActive drink helps people avoid catching colds or the flu.
It's not clear how the Activia commercials will be affected. Note that the problems with Dannon Inc. brand yogurt are not related to the semen-flavored yogurt scandal reported last week.




Tip: DMartyr
Court Grants Right of Free Television

A European Union court has ruled that residents of EU countries have the right to watch world and European sports championships on television for free.

The court didn't mention anything about free beer.
Man Loses Penis in Industrial Accident

(St. Cloud, Florida) In January 2010, a 44-year-old worker at Future Foam Carpet Cushion company, Edgardo Toucet Echevarria, lost his family jewels in a steel-bladed peeler machine accident. Reportedly, Echevarria was a contract worker not trained on the equipment.

As consequences, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has proposed fining the company $42,500 and a civil suit has been filed claiming negligence.
"The surgically sharp steel blade sliced through Toucet's pelvis cutting off his penis and testicles while virtually cutting his body in half," the lawsuit states.
Echevarria seeks $15,000 in punitive damages for the loss of his junk. Frankly, I would imagine that a guy's genitals would be valued higher. Mine, for example, are priceless.

Tip: slwlion
Revolutionaries with American Passports

In the excerpt below Peter Berger attempts to explain why some Americans fall in love with authoritarian regimes. His explanation may well be part of the story but I think that for many young Leftists it is rather simple: They hate America and need to find some alternative to it. So they look to regimes that are most unlike America.

That those regimes are in most ways very unattractive explains why most American Leftists don't emigrate to their nirvana but rather remain safely at home. That way they can build castles in the air about their supposed "alternative" society without having to face all the realities of it.

The fools who do put their money where their mouth is generally don't stay for long. The famous philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein migrated to Soviet Russia in 1935 but lasted less than three weeks there

But why do American Leftists hate America? There are a variety of reasons which I set out here but both political stance and tendency to happiness are highly hereditary -- so many are simply born whiners whom nothing suits -- JR


For over fifty years now, cohorts of young, well-educated Americans have become supporters of a long string of bloody revolutions and tyrannical regimes, united by the two traits of socialist ideology and hostility to the United States. What is one to make of this?

Any identity is better than none.

For reasons which are not mysterious and which can be analyzed sociologically, modernity undermines taken-for-granted identities. No longer an unavoidable destiny, an individual’s identity increasingly becomes a matter of choice. This can be experienced as a great liberation, especially in its early phases. It can also be experienced as a burden. There is a deep human longing for certainty concerning the things that matter most —among which, as Immanuel Kant classically formulated it, is an answer to the question “Who am I?”

As a result, there is a market for any movement that purports to provide a certain identity, one that can be relied upon beyond the precarious products of individual self-construction. That is the great attraction of all totalitarian movements. It is the psychological benefit of all fundamentalisms —religious or secular. The promise is always the same: “Come and join us. And we will give you what you have longed for —you will know who you really are.” The promise is kept —if and as long as the individual adheres to the ideology of the movement. Part of such adherence may be the denial of realities that contradict the ideology.

I think that the psychology of the Westerners who convert to radical Islamism is quite similar to that of the leftists discussed above. Of course this type of Islamism has distinct disadvantages, not only the unpleasant possibility of being killed in Waziristan if one takes the conversion to an active conclusion, but also a rigorous sexual code that has little appeal for those raised in post-1960s Western societies.

Leftist [loyalties] rarely get you killed. Very few Americans have volunteered to join guerrillas in the jungles of Latin America. And, even while wearing Che Guevara T-shirts, these “soldiers of the revolution” can enjoy the sexual freedom allowed in Western democracies. They also have the freedom to proclaim their new identity with impunity. In important sectors of elite culture this identity can even be a passport to prestige and tenure.

Despite the poor prospects, reason should not be discarded in efforts to pry individuals out of the St. Vitus dance. It is comforting to recall Freud’s view, that “the voice of reason is quiet but persistent.” But I know of one contingency that has a good chance of de-converting these revolutionaries with Western passports —if they actually reside for a while in the totalitarian society they had admired from afar.

More HERE

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).
Report: Libyan Protests Leave 24 Dead



From BBC:
At least 24 people have been killed in anti-government protests in Libya in recent days, rights activists say.

Many others were wounded in the clashes between security forces and protesters, the US-based Human Rights Watch said.

Protests continued overnight with thousands on the streets of the eastern city of Benghazi, while activists set up camps in al-Bayda, after Thursday's "Day of Rage", witnesses said.
Most observers believe that Gaddafi has enough muscle to overcome the protesters. We'll see.
California Pensions

Wow!



At least 9,111 California pensioners receive more than $100,000 annually of state funds. It makes one wonder what they did when they were working.

Tip: goodrichard

Thursday, February 17, 2011

U.S. Unemployment at 10%




I don't know. There sure seems to be a disconnect between the assertions of the White House and the actual numbers.
Female Wrestler Wins by Default

(Des Moines, Iowa) At the state high school wrestling tournament, female Cedar Falls freshman Cassy Herkelman won her first match by default.

Sophomore Joel Northup of Linn-Mar High said he wouldn't wrestle Herkelman because it's "not how you treat a girl."

Herkelman and Megan Black, an Ottumwa sophomore, made history this year by qualifying for the state tournament.
Republic of South Sudan

(Juba, Sudan) After the overwhelming vote for secession from North Sudan in the January’s referendum, political leaders met yesterday and today in Juba to discuss the official name, flag and currency for their new nation.

It was agreed that the new state will be called the Republic of South Sudan. The flag and currency remain to be determined.
Gaddafi Stifles Protests - Updated



Libyan Leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi

It appears Gaddafi is strongly resisting protest efforts.
With several hundred protesters clashing with police and Gaddafi supporters Wednesday in the city of Benghazi, Amnesty International voiced concern about a new crackdown.

Thursday, clashes between security forces and protesters broke out in Beyida killing four people, opposition website Libya Al-Youm has said. And according to AP, hundreds of people marched through the streets of Zentan, setting fire to security headquarters and a police station. In anticipation of a Tunisia-Egypt-like protest in Libya, Gaddafi argued that Libya does not need to import Western concepts of democracy. The North African leader believes that Libya is safer under his Third Universal Theory system- which entails a concept were citizens govern themselves through grassroots institutions called popular committees.

Amid observations from analysts indicating that an Egypt-style revolt is improbable in Libya because the Gaddafi regime is capable of solving these social problems with its bulky oil revenues, Libyan state television has been broadcasting images of pro-government rallies in cities across the country and whilst completely ignoring the protests.
It's not clear what exactly is going on in the streets.

* * * * *

Gaddafi Warns Opponents
[Previous 2/12/11 post]
On the heels of turmoil in Tunisia and Egypt, the National Conference for the Libyan Opposition(NCLO) have scheduled a mass "Day of Rage" on February 17 to protest against Libyan Leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and his regime.

In response, Gaddafi issued unprecedented warnings of dire consequences.
In the last few days, Gaddafi privately met with Libyan political activists, journalists, and media figures and he issued severe warnings that these professions would be held responsible should they participate in any way in disturbing the peace or creating chaos in Libya.

This was a source of frustration to those who attended these meetings and who had expected Gaddafi to inform them of his intention to carry out important political and economic reforms.

The opposition "Libya Al-Youm" website that is based in London quoted eye-witnesses who attended these meetings with Gaddafi, reporting that Gaddafi addressed the audience (the majority of whom were from cities in eastern Libya) in a tone of warning against the consequences of participating in any potential disturbances.[…]

Libyan activists have claimed that the Libyan intelligence service has been carrying out a large-scale campaign to shut down Libyan websites based outside of the country due to their ongoing coverage of the situation in Libya.
Fasten your seat belts, readers, the North African roller-coaster continues.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Louisiana Woman Accused of Cyberstalking

(Vernon Parish, Louisiana) A 24-year-old local woman, Kayla Marie Bordelon, has been accused of cyberstalking. She faces 13 counts of cyberstalking.
The arrest is the result of an investigation which was initiated in November of 2010 in that a complaint of harassment was received by the Vernon Parish Sheriff's Office.

The initial report was filed by a family member of Bordelon.

Further investigation resulted in several subpoenas being issued to a social networking web site as well as internet service providers.

The information obtained from the subpoenas identified Kayla Bordelon as the individual sending harassing messages to her own family members.

It was found that Bordelon created two ‘fictitious' social networking website pages in the names of acquaintances and sent numerous messages to herself and other family members from those pages.
Bordelon was booked into custody at the Vernon Parish Jail with bond set at $1,300.
NY Sex Slavery Case

(Brooklyn, New York) A 45-year-old local man, John Hopkins, has been arrested for allegedly imprisoning a 27-year-old Wisconsin woman in his apartment as a sex slave for more than a week. Hopkins reportedly solicited the woman via Craigslist.

Hopkins faces multiple charges including rape, assault and unlawful imprisonment.
Hopkins told the woman on the telephone she could live with him for free if she cooked and cleaned. Hopkins allegedly paid for her plane ticket to fly to New York and picked her up at the airport.

However, when she arrived at his home on Feb. 4, Hopkins allegedly told her she was his slave and forced her to call him “master.”

The woman told police that she was handcuffed to a radiator, beaten, bound, gagged and raped repeatedly.
Rescue followed after police were alerted by the woman's mother.

Tip: slwlion
Counterfeit Marlboro Cigarettes



Counterfeit Marlboros

(Los Angeles, California) China-based retailers are facing lawsuits for selling counterfeit cigarettes in the U.S.
Marlboro maker Altria Group Inc. said Wednesday it is suing seven Chinese online retailers, alleging they sold counterfeit versions of its top-selling cigarette brands to customers in the U.S.[...]

Counterfeit, or gray market cigarettes, are made with different materials and under different quality-control procedures than cigarettes sold in the U.S. and may not display the required health warnings, the company said in the complaint.[my bold]
What! No health warning on counterfeit Marlboro cigarettes? Lord have mercy!
NY Teacher's Assistant Accused of Sex with Student

(DeWitt, New York) A 30-year-old teacher's assistant formerly with Onondaga - Cortland - Madison Counties BOCES, Christen L. Hayes, has been accused of engaging in sex with a 17-year-old male student on several occasions between June 2009 and February 2010.
Hayes is charged with three counts of third-degree rape, three counts of third-degree criminal sexual act, all felonies, three counts of third-degree sexual abuse, three counts of endangering the welfare of a child, and one count of unlawfully dealing with a child, all misdemeanors.
Hayes was booked into custody and released on $10,000 bond.
British football pundit accused of 'casual racism' after making joke about Chinese names

A fuss over trivia. He wasn't insulting anyone.
"Commenting on a bungled move for the ball by Chelsea player Fernando Torres, he said: ‘It’s come off his chest, his knee, and his toe. It’s almost like that Chinese player Knee Shin Toe’.

Hoddle - who enjoyed a glittering career playing for Tottenham, Monaco and England - was sacked as the national team manager in 1999 when he claimed in an interview that disabled people were paying for their sins in a previous life.

Source

Names in Chinese often sound amusing in English. There was a big Chinese grocer in Sydney's Chinatown years ago called "Say Tin Fong". I must confess that my friends and I usually DID say "Tin Fong" as we walked past -- rather loudly sometimes. And there was a Chinese grocer over the road from my High School called "Wing On". I am sorry to say that he was sometimes told to "wing off" by some of my fellow students.

Even my mother used to tell me jokes about pseudo-Chinese names. One was: "Have you heard about the latest novel set in China -- called "Spot on the Wall" by Hoo Flung Dung?". And my mother was good friends with our local Chinese grocer so there was no animus in it.

Such jokes are just a harmless tradition in my view. But we live in more sensitive times now.

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

NC Teacher Accused of Liquoring Up Teens

(Selma, North Carolina) A 40-year-old teacher formerly at North Johnston Middle School, Kimberly Bailey Ward, was arrested earlier today for allegedly giving alcohol to six teens.

Ward faces six counts of aiding and abetting underage possession of alcohol and one count of contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile. She reportedly resigned from her teaching position.
According to arrest warrants, Ward caused the youngest of the six teens involved, a 13-year-old, to become intoxicated. The incident took place in January, according to warrants.
Ward was booked into custody.
Academics Object to Prosecution of Muslims

(Orange County, California) Here's an example of academics attempting to influence a criminal prosecution.
One hundred faculty members at UC Irvine signed a letter last week asking Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas to drop the charges against 11 Muslim students, 8 from UC Irvine and 3 from UC Riverside, who last year disrupted a speech on campus by Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren.

On February 4, the DA's office announced that it was charging each student with "one misdemeanor count of conspiracy to disturb a meeting and one misdemeanor count of disturbance of a meeting."

According to the District Attorney, the students planned the disruption several days in advance.

At the event, on Feb. 10, 2010, the first student to stand up and interrupt Oren's speech allegedly said, "Michael Oren, propagating murder is not free speech." Another defendant allegedly said, "Michael Oren you are a war criminal," while another said, "You sir are an accomplice to genocide."

"This case is being filed because there was an organized attempt to squelch the speaker, who was invited to speak to a group at UCI," Rackauckas said in a statement announcing the charges.

"These defendants meant to stop this speech and stop anyone else from hearing his ideas, and they did so by disrupting a lawful meeting. This is a clear violation of the law and failing to bring charges against this conduct would amount to a failure to uphold the Constitution."
The students are scheduled to be arraigned on March 11.
Man Hides Crack in Foreskin

(Louisville, Kentucky) A man pulled over for a traffic stop, Antione Banks, was found to be in possession of a variety of drugs. Banks was arrested on drug possession and trafficking charges.

Banks allegedly had a bag of salvia, liquid codeine, a tiny bag of cocaine tied to the waistband of his shorts and, astonishingly, a small bag of crack cocaine tucked into the foreskin of his penis.

I'd suggest that Banks anticipated being searched.

Tip: slwlion
Correspondent Sexually Assaulted in Cairo



Lara Logan

(Cairo, Egypt) Last Friday when Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak stepped down, CBS correspondent Lara Logan reportedly was surrounded and assaulted in Cairo's Tahrir Square by 200 frenzied demonstrators.
In the crush of the mob, she was separated from her crew.

She was surrounded and suffered a brutal and sustained sexual assault and beating before being saved by a group of women and an estimated 20 Egyptian soldiers.

She reconnected with the CBS team, returned to her hotel and returned to the United States on the first flight the next morning. She is currently in the hospital recovering.
Best wishes for a speedy recovery.
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