Women With Troubles - May 2012

Here is a compilation of women with troubles reported in news stories during May 2012. Each name is linked to an Interested-Participant blog entry displaying details.

For a more comprehensive listing, check the Women With Troubles category link. Links to month-by-month compilations are displayed on the navigation bar at left.

(AL) Rebecca Diane Pounders, 40,
neighbor - Accused of dissemination of child pornography, aiding a person traveling to meet a child for a unlawful sex act and aiding and abetting attempted second-degree rape,

(AZ) Christina Marie Carbone, 23,
teacher - Accused of sex with boy, 16,

(AZ) Gabriela Antoinette Compton, 21,
teacher's aide - Gets probation for sex abuse of two male students, both 14,

(AZ) Melissa Ann Dalton, 33,
teacher - Accused of sexual misconduct with two students,

(CA) Mistie Atkinson, 32,
neighbor - Guilty of incest, oral copulation and sex with her biological son. Sentencing in June,

(CA) Mayra Gonzalez, 32,
neighbor - Accused of engaging in sex with her daughter's 16-year-old boyfriend, resulting in a kid,

(CA) Janel Pearl Ramirez, 31,
teacher - Gets house arrest for sex with student, 16,

(CO) Lauren Redfern, 25,
teacher - Guilty of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Sentencing to be determined,

(FL) Artia Patrice Davis, 30,
teacher's aide - Accused of sex with disabled student, 16,

(FL) Gretchen Gonzalez, 34,
teacher - Accused of being inappropriate with a middle school student,

(FL) Krystal Kamil Hernandez, 19,
neighbor - Accused of transmitting harmful material to a minor, sexual battery and lewd and lascivious exhibition,

(FL) Margaret Ann O'Neill, 26,
neighbor - Gets 25 years prison for molesting girl, 7,

(FL) Chung Ramos, 29,
teacher - Faces possible license suspension for sex with student, 18,

(FL) Kacy Wilson, 28,
teacher - Accused of sex with male student, 16,

(GA) Kathern Laura Green, 36,
teacher - Accused of alcohol and cocaine offenses,

(IA) Heather Adams, 41,
teacher - Accused of sexual exploitation by a school employee,

(IL) Sara Glashagel, 27,
former teacher - Accused of forgery,

(IL) Kathryn Morgan, 49,
neighbor - Accused of hosting underage alcohol party for minors,

(KY) Andrea Conners, 33,
teacher - Indicted for first-degree sex abuse,

(KY) Shannon Hirchert, 42,
teacher - Guilty of sex abuse of minors. Sentencing in June,

(LA) Destinee Elizabeth Chaisson, 20,
neighbor - Accused of molesting girl, 13,

(MA) Lisa Lavoie, 27,
teacher - Gets 18 months prison for violating probation,

(MI) Jessica Goolsby, 29,
neighbor - Accused of stealing $12,500 worth of bras, panties, etc. from Victoria's Secret,

(MN) Jenna Anne Schultz, 26,
student teacher - Accused of sending sexual messages to male student,

(MO) Melissa Eaton, 48,
neighbor - Accused of sex with boy, 13,

(MO) Larissa Hurley, 37,
neighbor - Accused of engaging in sex with boy, 16,

(MO) Tessa Vervlerah (aka Venvierah and Vanvlerah), 22,
neighbor - Gets two life sentences for rape of infant daughter,

(NJ) Jillian Clementi, 28,
teacher - Accused of long-term sex with male student,

(NJ) Kristin K. Leone, 26,
teacher - Accused of sex with student, 16,

(NJ) Jennifer Mahoney, 32,
neighbor - Accused of repeated sex abuse of girl, 5,

(NY) Debra Mercado, 52,
neighbor - Accused of criminal sale of controlled substances,

(OH) Alicia Gaston, 20,
neighbor - Accused of engaging in sex with her boyfriend's seven-year-old son,

(OH) Michelle Kazmierczak, 46,
teacher - Accused of sending naked pics of herself to her daughter's 14-year-old boyfriend,

(OH) Laura Saylor aka Laura Barnhart, 36,
teacher - Gets probation for drug trafficking,

(OH) Mary E. Schnell, 25,
teacher - Gets two years prison for sex with male student, 16,

(OH) Heather Schoell-Schroeder, 45,
teacher - Accused of stealing prom money from students,

(OK) Rhonda Michelle Ford, 29,
teacher - Accused of engaging in sex with a 15-year-old male student,

(OK) Stephanie Notah, 44,
neighbor - Accused of child neglect,

(OR) Heidi Hyre, 51,
library aide - Accused of sending sexually explicit texts to three male students,

(PA) Philicia Barbieri, 26,
teacher - Sentenced to home detention for bank robbery,

(PA) Susan McCauley, 27,
neighbor - Accused of arson,

(PA) Kimberly Lake Smith, 36,
teacher - Accused of sex with two students,

(SC) Sally Elizabeth Neal,
house parent in children's home - Arrested for sexual battery of child, 14,

(TX) Tiffany Michelle Amos, 25,
teacher - Accused of soliciting boy, 16,

(TX) Karen Lee Carstens, 41,
neighbor - Accused of engaging in sex with son of a hospitalized friend,

(TX) Natalie Deshan Johnson, 33,
neighbor - Gets 25 years in prison for sex with boy, 13,

(TX) Dusty Dawn McGrew, 31,
youth services worker - Accused of sex with boy under 17,

(TX) Kimberly O’Briant, 46
teacher - Indicted for improper relations with male student, 15,

(VA) Allison Tuthill Gaul, 37,
teacher - Gets suspended sentence for drug offences,

(WA) Cheri Powers, 44,
teaching assistant - Accused of sex with male student, 16.

Thanks to the tipsters.

Korean Hookers in Japan

As always, an increase in supply tends to depress price level.

According to a survey undertaken by the South Korean Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, a crackdown on prostitution in the Land of the Morning Calm since 2004 sent large numbers of the nation’s ladies of the night fleeing abroad, with the result being an estimated 50,000 of them selling spring in Japan.

The U.S. is currently home to 30,000 Korean hookers, and significant numbers are said to be plying their trade in Australia as well.

The large presence of Korean hookers in Japan, reports Nikkan Gendai (May 30), is having a pronounced effect on the prices charged by various sex services.

Illustrated Baby




Source

Conservative Bloggers Harassed




Tip: Don Laird

Arrested for Blogging in Maryland

We read:

"Yesterday, blogger Aaron Walker, aka “Aaron Worthing,” was arrested for his blogging critical of Brett Kimberlin, a convicted domestic terrorist known as the “Speedway Bomber” who has become a progressive activist.

As detailed by David Hogberg and Patterico and here, Kimberlin was able to convince a technologically illiterate judge that Walker’s blogging was incitement and violated a “peace order” Kimberlin had previously obtained against Walker.

Unless there are additional, as-yet-undisclosed reasons for Walker’s arrest, it was blatantly unconstitutional, as Eugene Volokh explains here.

Walker was released late yesterday afternoon, but an equally unconstitutional order barring him from, among other things, blogging about Kimberlin for the next six months further remains in effect.

Many of those commenting on these events have cast the dispute in ideological terms, as Walker is a conservative blogger and Kimberlin is a progressive activist.

Yet, as Popehat explains, the real issue here is the threat to free speech that Kimberlin’s tactics represent — a threat that should be of concern without regard to the ideological orientation of the participants.

Source

(See the original for links)

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

Teacher Gets Hand Slap for Bank Robbery - Updated

(Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)

An Allegheny County judge this morning allowed a former city teacher who robbed a bank to finance her heroin addiction to serve out her jail sentence at home.

Philicia Barbieri, 26, pleaded guilty in December to robbing Fifth Third Bank in East Liberty, stealing 22 computers from the Pittsburgh School of the Creative and Performing Arts and ripping off her neighbor's television and video game console.

Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey A. Manning sentenced Ms. Barbieri to between one year less a day to two years less a day in jail but paroled her immediately.

She will wear an ankle bracelet and be able to leave home only to work, get drug treatment or schooling.

Lenient sentence for bank robbery, eh? Barbieri's accomplice Alvin Carter awaits sentencing.

* * * * *
Teacher Accused of Laptop Theft and Bank Robbery - Updated
[Previous 4/18/11 post]
(Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) Here's another development in the case of science teacher Philicia Barbieri.

Last month, she was accused of stealing more than a dozen laptop computers from the Pittsburgh School for Creative and Performing Arts. Today, Barbieri was arraigned on theft charges.

In a criminal complaint, Pittsburgh police said the young Shadyside woman admits having a drug problem and selling the stolen school laptops to "Jay," who would pay her $150 for each one.

Sometimes she was paid in heroin, and sometimes she got both drugs and money, the complaint said.

Heroin, eh? Makes people do crazy things.

* * * * *
Babe Teacher Accused in Bank Robbery
[Previous 4/16/11 post]
(Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) A 24-year-old chemistry teacher at the Pittsburgh School for the Creative and Performing Arts, Philicia Barbieri, along with an accomplice, Alvin Carter, 28, have been arrested for the alleged robbery of a Fifth Third Bank yesterday morning.



Alvin Carter
Barbieri and Carter have been charged with robbery and criminal conspiracy. They were booked into custody at the Allegheny County Jail.

Bay State Teacher Jailed for Probation Violation - Updated

(Springfield, Massachusetts) Lisa Lavoie, 27, has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for violating the terms of her probation.

Hampden Superior Court Judge Cornelius J. Moriarty sentenced Lavoie because she violated a condition of probation that forbid her to have contact with the now 18-year-old man.

The young man, whose name is not being used here because he is the victim of a sexual crime, gave an impassioned appeal to Moriarty to spare Lavoie jail time.

Assistant District Attorney Patrick S. Sabbs had asked for a three to five year prison sentence.

* * * * *
Bay State Teacher Violates Probation - Updated
[Previous 3/12/12 post]
(Springfield, Massachusetts) During a routine probation check last Friday, former teacher and convicted rapist Lisa Lavoie was found with her victim hiding in a closet. Lavoie was arrested for violating probation.

* * * * *
Bay State Teacher Gets Probation for Child Rape - Updated
[Previous 1/26/11 ]
(Springfield, Massachusetts) Although the prosecution had asked for three to five years in prison for teacher Lisa Lavoie, Hampden Superior Court Judge Cornelius Moriarty generously sentenced the convicted child rapist to probation for five years.

Moriarty said he thinks Lavoie's "interest and concern for (the boy's) emotional well-being was what originally began this episode," which he said "was originally well-intended." He said it appears Lavoie's kindness toward the boy was what led to his sexual interest in her.

"There are those who perhaps will say this sentence is too lenient," Moriarty said.

"This too shall pass," he told Lavoie.

According to District Attorney Mark Mastroianni, there exists no obvious reason for such a lenient sentence. Frankly, I'd suggest that Judge Moriarty could not have sentenced his own daughter to a more lenient sentence.

So, schoolteacher Lisa Lavoie runs off with a 15-year-old student, crosses several state lines and, after a nationwide search, is found jumping the boy's bones in a motel in West Virginia. She's convicted of rape and sentenced to go home and behave. Yeah, that's justice.

* * * * *
Massachusetts Teacher Guilty in Rape Case - Updated
[Previous 12/16/10 post]
(Springfield, Massachusetts) Former teacher at Maurice Donahue Elementary School in Holyoke, Massachusetts, Lisa LaVoie, has pleaded guilty to three counts of statutory rape stemming from a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old boy.

The District Attorney's office is recommending Lavoie serve three to five years in state prison. The maximum penalty she's facing is three consecutive life sentences.

Sabbs says "This is a crime that will not be taken lightly. The District Attorney's office took this very seriously and we recommended a state prison sentence for what she did and we stand by that at this time."

Lavoie was released on personal recognizance and is not to have any contact the victim or his family.

Sentencing has been scheduled for January 26.

* * * * *
Massachusetts Teacher and Runaway Student Caught in WV
[Previous 2/24/09 post]
(Morgantown, West Virginia) A 24-year-old teacher at Maurice Donahue Elementary School in Holyoke, Massachusetts, Lisa LaVoie, has been arrested in Morgantown for allegedly running off with a 15-year-old student.

The boy's parents notified authorities on February 13 and, on February 16, a search was launched. West Virginia troopers caught LaVoie and the boy earlier today at a Super 8 Motel.

LaVoie is being held on charges of child endangerment. She was booked into custody at the North Central Regional Jail without bond.

Arrangements are underway to return the boy to Massachusetts.

Oregon Library Aide Accused in Sex Case

(Albany, Oregon) A 51-year-old library aide at South Albany High School, Heidi Hyre, has been accused of sending sexually explicit texts to three male students.

Hyre faces charges of using a child in a display of sexually explicit conduct, encouraging child sex abuse, luring a minor, contributing to the sexual delinquency of a minor and third-degree sex abuse.

According to Lt. Brad Liles, detectives interviewed three South Albany students who said they exchanged in sexually explicit text messages with Hyre.

One of the boys also said he had a sexual encounter with Hyre in her car in December 2011. They were parked about two miles from the high school, Liles said.

All three students were 17 when police say the incidents occurred.

Hyre was booked into custody yesterday afternoon.

New Computer Virus Attacks Iran, Middle East

Wall Street Journal:

Thousands of computers in Iran belonging to government agencies and private companies have been infected with a highly sophisticated virus, dubbed Flame, in the latest cyberstrike against the Islamic Republic, said cybersecurity experts and Iran's telecommunications ministry.

The malware was widely detected across the Middle East in Syria, Israel and the Palestinian Authority, as well as in other parts of the world, but Iran has the largest number of infected computers, experts said.

At least three times since 2010, Iran has been targeted with sophisticated computer viruses such as Stuxnet, Duqu and Wiper. These viruses have disabled centrifuges for enriching uranium, stolen data from nuclear facilities and erased computers at the oil ministry.

The aim of Flame, said experts at Kaspersky Lab, a Russian information-technology security firm that reported the virus on Monday, was espionage, not physical damage or system interruption.

Reportedly, Flame carries about 100 times more code than a basic virus.

Britain's National Heallth Service removes 'Dad' from parenting leaflets to avoid upsetting same-sex couples

We read:

"The NHS has removed the term "dad" from its childbirth guide after receiving a complaint that the leaflet was excluding same-sex parents.

The Ready Steady Baby pamphlet, which offers advice on pregnancy and the first year of parenthood, has been given to mums and dads-to-be for the last 14 years.

However, the 220-page guide will no longer refer to fathers after a complaint that claimed it was "not inclusive of people in same-sex relationships".

Instead, the leaflet will use the non-gender specific term "partner" in its latest revision.

Norman Wells, of the Family Education Trust, said the NHS was wrong to change the language in the booklet. He said: "The NHS should not be squandering tax payers' money to advance the cause of a minority interest group.

"No matter how much effort is made to present positive images of families headed by same-sex couples, the fact remains it takes a man and a woman to create a child."

Source

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

Pak Cleric Issues Death Fatwa for Dancing

(Peshawar, Pakistan)

A local court on Tuesday released a cleric who allegedly issued fatwa for killing four women and two men for “staining the honor” of their families.

He was released after submitting surety bonds of Rs 50,000.

Police had arrested Maulana Azad and his brother Mohammad on Tuesday from Palis village of Peech Bela union council of Kohistan, after he allegedly issued decree of honor killing of four women and two brothers for violating tribal culture by singing and dancing together at a wedding.

The jirga had declared them fornicators after the wedding videotape came to the surface, which showed the six people dancing together.

Dancing equals fornication? Not in my dictionary.

Operation Hot Mic




Tip: Rita and Eugene

Taliban Accused of Poisoning 160 Schoolgirls

(Kabul, Afghanistan)

A hospital in northern Afghanistan admitted 160 schoolgirls Tuesday after they were poisoned, a Takhar province police official said.

Their classrooms might have been sprayed with a toxic material before the girls entered, police spokesman Khalilullah Aseer said. He blamed the Taliban.

The incident, the second in a week's time, was reported at the Aahan Dara Girls School in Taluqan, the provincial capital.

The girls, ages 10 to 20, complained of headaches, dizziness and vomiting before being taken to the hospital, said Hafizullah Safi, director of the provincial health department.

Incidents of attacks on Afghan girls are now commonplace. Sad. And there's no outrage from the feminist community.

FL judge: Warning others of speed traps is free speech

Another installment of an old controversy. I am a "flasher" (of headlights) myself -- but I don't do it as systematically as this guy did

"A judge in Florida ruled on Tuesday that flashing one's headlights to warn other drivers of speed traps set by police is protected by the First Amendment.

Ryan Kintner of Lake Mary, Fla. was pulled over and cited by a police officer in an unmarked car for doing just that. Kintner was at home when he saw a deputy park along a street and being using his radar gun. He got in his car, drove a little ways away and parked his vehicle so he could flash his lights at oncoming traffic to warn them. ...

Kintner, however, was not going down without a fight. He took his case to court, suing the Seminole County Sheriff's Office, with Attorney J. Marcus Jones arguing that ... 'Flashing your headlights is expressive conduct protected by the First Amendment.'"

Source

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

More fraud: Sea-level rises are due to global "adjustments"

Frank Lansner’s first graph surprised me. It’s well known and often quoted that sea levels have been rising by 2-3mm a year every year for the last 20 years. But it’s not well known that the original raw satellite data doesn’t show that at all.


Fig 1 The data for recent years has gone through significant changes. In Morner 2004 the raw satellite data for sea level rise was shown with the original slope (the grey line with dots named “Topex/Poseidon as of 2001” above).

What astonished me was the sea levels first recorded by the Topex Poseidon satellite array showed virtually no rise at all from 1993-2001. Surely not, I thought. I asked sea-level expert Nils Axel-Morner, and he confirmed: “Yes, it is as bad as that.“ Now, given that Envisat (the European satellite) showed no rise from 2003-2011 (until it was adjusted) that means we have almost 20 years of raw satellite data showing very little rise.

We thought satellites would finally give us a definitive answer on sea levels. Instead, like the tide gauges, and every other tool available to mankind, apparently satellites systematically underestimate the rising trends. And despite the speed of light being quite quick and all, it can take years for the data to finally arrive. Sometimes 4 or 5 (or 10 years) after the measurement was made scientists “discover” that it was wrong.

Now of course, any one of these adjustments could be for very legitimate reasons and give us results closer to the truth. But the adjustments always bring data closer to the modeled trend. It’s decidedly non-random. Either there is a God who thinks teasing climate scientists is spiffy, or else there is something fishy going on, and some investigative journalists need to ask some investigative questions. Is that sea-level rise due to global warming or is it due to global adjustments?

Much more HERE (See the original for links, graphics etc.)

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

BOOK REVIEW: The politically incorrect guide to the Bible by Robert J. Hutchinson

A book has to be pretty good for me to read it, let alone review it but this book makes the grade. Perhaps a little surprisingly, it is not an evangelizing book. It is instead a work of solid scholarship. It wears down criticisms of the Bible, fact by fact, point by point.

Hutchinson uses his vast knowledge of Bible and church history to show how shallow are the points made by atheist critics such as Dawkins and Hitchens. He patiently goes through their criticisms and applies to them the full weight of Bible scholarship through the ages. When critics seem to think they are clever for having thought of some original criticism, Hutchinson sometimes quotes by way of reply something written a thousand years ago. He knows what the points of contention are and knows what the reply to each is.

I found his chapter on slavery particularly interesting. Leftists tend to say that the Bible encourages slavery -- quite ignoring that the people who ultimately destroyed slavery in the West were devout Christians such as Wilberforce. The Bible was of course written when slavery was a univrersal feature of human society but Hutchinson shows that what was called slavery varied a great deal from time to time and place to place and that the Bible has substantial prohibitions about its worst abuses in the OLd Testament and completely forbad it in the New Testament. The thing that most approximated slavery in our modern sense among the Hebrews was in fact punishment for crime. In the absence of prisons, punishment was "outsourced" to individuals.

The book does of course bring us up to date with archaelogical evidence for the accuracy of the Bible accounts and it is rather amusing that many things dismissed by scholars as obviously untrue every now and again turn up as archaelogically verified.

For Christians who enter into disputes with unbelievers, this book offers a host of good replies to almost all likely challenges. A very valuable aid in a skeptical world -- JR

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

Remember

Junk for Dinner


Here's a menu option created in the Far East.

A Japanese artist cooked his own genitals and served them to five paying diners in Tokyo to cover the medical costs, in a bizarre act to raise awareness about sexual minorities.

Mao Sugiyama had his penis and testicles surgically removed in March and kept them frozen for two months before dishing them out -- seasoned and braised -- to customers at an event hall on May 13, according to postings on his Twitter account and local police.

Diners paid 20,000 yen ($250) for the plate with a portion of genitals. Pictures published on a website appeared to show the meal came complete with mushrooms and a parsley garnish.

The painter, who is reportedly 22, said on Twitter the organ had been removed by a physician and certified to be free of infections.

Free of infections, eh? How thoughtful.

As bizarre as this report is, it's a mystery why any rational person would pay to eat some guy's junk.

Tip: slwlion

Oklahoma Woman Accused of Child Neglect

(Bartlesville, Oklahoma) A 44-year-old local woman, Stephanie Notah, has been accused of child neglect after police found her in a car with two toddlers covered in "feces."

Notah faces charges of possession of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia, transporting an open container and child neglect.

According to an affidavit obtained by KTUL.com, when police arrived on the scene they observed Stephanie Notah, 44, yelling at two children inside a vehicle. The affidavit goes onto say when officers made contact with Notah they noticed a "strong odor" coming from the vehicle and noticed the two children, in the backseat, covered with "dried feces" and other "miscellaneous items."

A further investigation of the vehicle by officers revealed an open container, marijuana and several drug paraphernalia items.

Notah was booked into custody at the Washington Jail with bond set at $25,000.

Pinched While Drunk with Zebra and Parrot

(Dubuque, Iowa) A 55-year-old man, Jerald Reiter, was arrested outside of a Dubuque bar on Sunday night with a pet zebra and a macaw parrot in the front seat of his truck.

Officers charged Jerald Reiter, 55, with OWI. Police reports say officers stopped him in the parking lot of the Dog House Lounge as he drove away in his truck.

According to police, field sobriety tests showed Reiter had a blood alcohol level of .14. The legal limit in Iowa is .08.[…]

On Sunday night, they say they took the zebra and the macaw to the bar because it often lets people bring their animals inside. Reiter says the owner told him they were serving food that night and he couldn’t bring a zebra inside the bar.[…]

At that time he went outside to put the animals in his truck and several people were in the parking lot taking pictures. He believes one of those people called police.

Reiter was booked and released from the Dubuque County Jail.

Eugene Polley, Father of TV Remote, b.1916-d.2012




(Chicago, Illinois) Eugene Polley, the inventor of the wireless television remote control, died last Sunday in a Chicago hospital. He was 96.

Tip: Charley Nestor

Nebraska Mom Pimps Out Daughters

(Lincoln, Nebraska) True ugliness here.

Nebraska authorities believe a mother accused of pimping out her 14-year-old daughter also charged men to have sex with her 7-year-old daughter.

The Nebraska State Patrol says the 35-year-old mother allowed at least seven men to have sex with her 14-year-old at least 20 times. Investigators say at least three men had sex with the 7-year-old.

Names are withheld to protect the innocent.

Tip: slwlion

Hand Slap for Virginia Teacher in Drugs Case - Updated



Allison & Michael Gaul
(Virginia Beach, Virginia) Earlier today, former teacher at Corporate Landing Middle School, Allison Tuthill Gaul, 37, pleaded guilty to reduced charges and was sentenced by Judge Teresa N. Hammons.

Allison Gaul received a year in jail, with all of the time suspended if she pays court costs, remains on good behavior for two years and completes the Community Corrections Program.

Husband Michael John Gaul has a July 17 court date to face similar charges.

* * * * *
Virginia Teacher Accused in Drugs Case
[Previous 1/10/12 post]
(Virginia Beach, Virginia) A French language teacher at Corporate Landing Middle School, Allison Tuthill Gaul, and her husband, Michael John Gaul, have been arrested to face drug charges.

Allison Gaul has been charged with sale or distribution of marijuana and conspiracy to sell or distribute marijuana. She has resigned her teaching position.

Michael Gaul faces three felonies, conspiracy to manufacture marijuana, manufacture not for personal use marijuana, and possession of marijuana.

Mr. and Mrs. Gaul were booked into custody. A court appearance is scheduled for February 3.

Counterfeit Chinese Parts in U.S. Military Equipment

(Washington D.C.) Complex supply chains are being blamed for the breakdown in quality assurance.

Bogus electronic parts from China have infiltrated critical U.S. defense systems and equipment, including Navy helicopters and a commonly used Air Force cargo aircraft, a new report says.

A Senate Armed Services Committee analysis "exposed a defense supply chain that relies on hundreds of unvetted independent distributors to supply electronic parts for some of our most sensitive systems," according to an executive summary of the report.

Various military aircraft were named in the report, including the Navy SN-60B Seahawk helicopter and the Air Force C-130J cargo airplane. Fake components were also suspected in the the Navy Integrated Submarine Imaging System and the Army Stryker mobile gun.

In my opinion, counterfeit parts from China shouldn't be surprising. Additionally, the problem is more than nettlesome. Consequences could be tragic.

Fire on Nuke Sub USS Miami (SSN 755)




(Kittery, Maine) A fire in the forward spaces of the USS Miami broke out Wednesday evening and wasn't extinguished until early Thursday morning.

Seven people suffered minor injuries, two crew members and five firefighters. The reactor and engineering spaces were isolated from the fire. An investigation has been initiated.

Muslim Cleric Abu Hamza Coming to America




Extremist Muslim preacher Abu Hamza al-Masri reportedly will soon be extradited to the United States to face terrorism charges.

The European Court of Human Rights ruled last month that Hamza and four other terrorism suspected can be extradited to the US to face trial. The preacher is wanted over an alleged plan to set up a terrorist training camp in Oregon and for helping jihadis in Yemen.

He is likely to be held at the ADX Florence 'super-max' prison in Fremont County, Colorado. The high security prison, dubbed the 'Alcatraz of the Rockies', holds inmates deemed the most dangerous and in need of tightest control.

Hamza, who wears a distinctive metal hook after losing his right hand in an explosion in Afghanistan may lose the prosthesis under a prison regime which prevent prisoners having access to improvised weapons.

What will he do without his hook?

[Add.] Meanwhile, Abu Hamza's pregnant daughter-in-law, Chaymae Smak, 28, has been sentenced to 12 months incarceration for attempting to smuggle a mobile phone SIM card into Belmarsh Prison so Hamza could communicate with his followers.

More fake hate speech

We read:

"Two lesbians who claimed to be victims of a hate crime last year when hateful messages were scrawled on their Colorado home are now being accused of perpetrating a hoax.

Aimee Whitchurch, 37, and Christel Conklin, 29, told authorities last October that vandals had spray-painted "Kill the Gay" on their garage door and left a noose on their doorstep.

The couple, who live in a rented condominium in Parker, Colo., said they believed the alleged incidents were in retaliation for disputes they were having with their Homeowner's Association over their dog.

The FBI reportedly became involved in the investigation. The two women were tested by federal agents to see whether they had spray-paint residue on their palms, Fox affiliate KDVR-reported. They were also asked to take a lie detector test, but declined, according to the station.

Authorities later determined that the women were responsible for the spray-painted words.

Source

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

Aborted Fetuses Eaten by Dogs



(Maharashtra, India)

Indian abortion Doctors are feeding female foetuses to dogs to cover up rampant infanticide by parents who prefer boys, it has been revealed.

The sickening practice was exposed in the town of Beed, in Maharashtra - the state with the worst child sex ratio in the country.

So-called gender genocide was blamed for last year's appalling census figures, which showed that just 801 girls were being born for every 1,000 boys.

By keeping dogs, doctors can get rid of bodies without having to dispose of them through official channels.

It means that the true extent of illegal sex-selection abortion in the town - and elsewhere in India - is being hidden.

This practice is exponentially wrong.

“Antifascist” Fascist Havoc in Suburban Chicago Restaurant

If moonbats didn’t know their agenda is wrong, they wouldn’t follow the Orwellian protocol of calling things by the opposite of what they really are. For example, the refusal to evaluate everyone and everything through the prism of race is called “racism.” Another example is that classical fascist techniques of political terror are referred to as “antifascist” — as we were reminded in suburban Chicago over the weekend.

It was the middle of the lunch rush Saturday, and Mike Winston was working in the kitchen of his Tinley Park restaurant, the Ashford House, when a waitress screamed a fight had broken out in the dining room.

Police call the melee at the restaurant a targeted assault by a mob that Winston said wielded metal batons and hammers. Ten diners were hurt in the attack, and three of those were hospitalized.

Tinley Park police had five suspected assailants in custody, and Winston said 18 young men, all wearing hooded jackets and obscuring their faces with scarves and other coverings, stormed into the restaurant.

Who were these fascistic goons? “Antifascist” moonbats:

A group of ‘anti-facists’ are being credited with Saturday’s mob-style attack inside a Tinley Park restaurant.

An anti-racist website posted a response to the Patch story “Police: Mob Attacked Specific Group of People Inside Tinley Park Restaurant.” The post states that “a group of 30 anti-fascists descended” on the restaurant “where the 5th annual White Nationalist Economic Summit and Illinois White Nationalist Meet-and-Greet” was reportedly taking place.

“These anti-fascists are committed to shutting down and attacking any racist, nationalist or fascist organizers or individuals that they encounter,” the post states.

The “antifascist” brownshirts responsible call themselves Anti-Racist Action. Predictably, they refer to victims of their political terror as “terrorists.”

Do we want to live in a country where you can’t sit down and eat a meal with your family without running the risk of the restaurant being overrun by club-wielding animals? If not, it’s time to roll back the moonbattery.

SOURCE

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

Child Molestation with Bean

(Shanghai, China) A Chinese kindergarten teacher has been accused of molesting a three-year-old girl with a bean.

Police and local education authorities are probing a private kindergarten where parents of a three-year-old girl accused a young female teacher of molesting their daughter by putting a kidney bean into her vagina.

The parents yesterday protested at the Gelin Shuangyang Kindergarten in Yangpu District, demanding an explanation.

The parents claimed they took the girl for an emergency surgery to remove the fingertip-size bean from her vagina last Tuesday, four days after it was inserted.

"Miss Lin put the bean into my body," the three-year-old girl nicknamed Niu Niu told her parents. Lin, 25, is the girl's teacher.

Police started the investigation last week. The kindergarten told police the surveillance camera tape was "automatically deleted" and the girl is too young to be a witness, said the girl's father, Qin Lin.

Kindergarten officials apologized to the family last week, begging them not to expose the incident to the media by promising to give them a response in time, said Qin.

According to Qin, the little girl told a plainclothes policeman that most of her classmates were out on the playground on May 11 while she was playing with a few children in the classroom. Lin then told the girl that they were going to play a private game and she put the kidney bean into her vagina, Niu Niu told the policeman.

Her face turned pale when talking about Miss Lin, and she screamed, "Bad woman!" and hid herself behind a desk, Qin said.

The teacher denies any wrongdoing and, frankly, I'm skeptical of the little girl's story. I'd more easily believe that the little girl inserted the bean and then lied about it after she got sick.

Marijuana Brownies Sickens High School Students



Justin Mendenhall and Katelynn Jennings
(Tredyffrin, Pennsylvania) Two people have been arrested for allegedly selling marijuana to high school students at Conestoga High School. The marijuana was subsequently used to make brownies which sickened several students.

Justin Mendenhall, 19, and Katelyn Ann Jennings, 20, face charges of possession of drug paraphernalia, possession with intent to deliver, conspiracy and related offenses.

Police said a 15-year-old student went to the school nurse after having a reaction to ingesting marijuana. The student said the marijuana was recently purchased from a drug dealer and gave the police the phone number of the dealer, who was Mendenhall, police said.

Mendenhall has sold drugs to students numerous times in the past, police alleged.

Police contacted Mendenhall and set up an undercover buy of drugs. About 8 p.m. Friday, police officers met Mendenhall and Jennings at the Berwyn train station.

Mendenhall and Jennings were each booked and released on $5,000 bond.

Giant Penis Named Gaia Exploded







To some people, it's junk. To others, it's art.

A three and a half tonne model penis work of art was exploded into the air in Bad Blumau, Austria.

The giant penis artwork "Gaia" measuring over 4 metres was designed by Emmerich Weissenberge, but it has now been blown up during a controlled explosion - in the name of art.

The organic remains of the exploded penis will now be buried in the gardens in Bad Blumau.

The sculptor decided on this stunt as he claimed: "I wanted to express the message that you should not destroy art if you do not understand it, there should be an active dialogue about it."

After a dozen readings, I'm still flummoxed by the sculptor's words. Obviously, I just don't understand art.

By the way, Gaia was a poor representation of a penis before it was blown up. I'd suggest it looks like a cookie on top of an anthill.

Dead Florida Voters - Updated

The Florida Secretary of State has found the names of 53,000 dead people populating voter rolls in the state.

How could 53,000 dead voters have sat on the polls for so long? Simple. Because Florida hadn’t been using the best available data revealing which voters have died. Florida is now using the nationwide Social Security Death Index for determining which voters should be purged because they have died.

Here is the bad news. Most states aren’t using the same database that Florida is.

Of course, the dead people have to be assisted when operating voting machines and, thus far, nobody has explained how that occurs.

Tip: slwlion

* * *
[Update] Thanks to commenter J:

With Dems dead people are frequently "drafted to vote", here are just a few of examples:

S.C.- ... Wilson [Attorney General] says the analysis found 953 ballots cast by voters listed as dead. In 71 percent of those cases, ballots were cast between two months and 76 months after the people died. That means they "voted" up to 6 1/3 years after their death.

Texas - dozens ... have apparently cast ballots from beyond the grave, records since 2004 show

Mississippi - an NAACP executive sits in prison, sentenced for carrying out a massive voter fraud scheme... convicted... on 10 counts of fraudulently casting absentee ballots... also convicted of voting in the names of four dead persons.

As stated, they are just a few examples.

NC Teacher Screams at Student: It’s Criminal to Criticize Obama

We read:

"A YouTube video uploaded on Monday afternoon apparently shows a schoolteacher from the Rowan-Salisbury school district in North Carolina informing a student that failing to be respectful of President Obama is a criminal offense. Breitbart News has uncovered that the student is a high school junior, and that the teacher is apparently one Tanya Dixon-Neely.

The video shows a classroom discussion about the Washington Post hit piece about Mitt Romney bullying a kid some five decades ago. One student says, “Didn’t Obama bully someone though?” The teacher says: “Not to my knowledge.” The student then cites the fact that Obama, in Dreams from My Father, admits to shoving a little girl. “Stop, no, because there is no comparison,” screams the teacher. Romney is “running for president. Obama is the president.”

The student responds that both are “just men.”

The teacher yells -- literally yells -- that Obama is “due the respect that every other president is due … Listen,” she continues, “let me tell you something, you will not disrespect the president of the United States in this classroom.” She yells over the student repeatedly, and yells at him that it's disrespect for him to even debate about Romney and Obama.

The student says that he can say what he wants.

“Not about him, you won’t,” says the teacher.

The teacher then tells the student – wrongly – that it is a criminal offense to say bad things about a president. “Do you realize that people were arrested for saying things bad about Bush? Do you realize you are not supposed to slander the president?”

The student says that it would violate First Amendment rights to jail someone for such sentiments. “You would have to say some pretty f’d up crap about him to be arrested,” says the student. “They cannot take away your right to have your opinion … They can’t take that away unless you threaten the president.”

Clearly, the student should be teaching the class, and the teacher should be reading the Constitution more often.

Source

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

Woman Fired for Being Sexy




(New York City) Laura Odes, 29, is suing her former employer and appears to have a solid case.

And, what a shock! Gloria Allred is her lawyer.

Companion post at A Western Heart.

Woman Gets Prison for Sex with Girl, 7 - Updated

(Kissimmee, Florida) Last week, 26-year-old Margaret Ann O'Neill was sentenced to 25 years in prison resulting from her no contest plea to charges of lewd or lascivious molestation of a child under 12.

O'Neill will also be classified as a sexual predator for the rest of her life.

The 26-year-old also must testify against her boyfriend. If she fails to do so, O'Neill's sentence could be overturned and she could face life in prison, Circuit Judge Bob LeBlanc warned on Thursday.

O'Neill admitted to sheriff's investigators that she had sex with the child three times in 2010, a sheriff's report said.

She told detectives her lover, Christopher P. Smith, 32, promised to leave his wife and led O'Neill to believe she could prove her love for him by giving herself to his "sexual appetites."

Smith was arrested Dec. 5, after another woman told authorities Smith had asked her to have sex with the child. Investigators say Smith had videos on his phone of himself and O'Neill having sex with the young girl.

Boyfriend Smith is scheduled for trial in September.

* * * * *
Florida Woman Accused of Sex with Girl, 7
[Previous 12/27/11 post]
(Kissimmee, Florida) A 26-year-old local woman, Margaret Ann O'Neill, has been arrested for allegedly performing oral sex on a seven-year-old girl to satisfy the sexual desires of her married boyfriend, 32-year-old Christopher Smith.

O'Neill faces charges of sexual battery on a child younger than 12 and criminal conspiracy to commit sexual battery. Smith faces charges of sexual battery on a child younger than 12, lewd or lascivious molestation and conspiracy to commit sexual battery.

O'Neill was arrested Wednesday after police say they found a video of her performing oral sex on a child on Smith's cell phone, the affidavit says.

When O'Neill was questioned, she told police that she performed the acts so that Smith would leave his wife and be with her. O'Neill said that Smith was a "manipulator" and that she was "afraid of what he would do if she did not participate in the sexual activity," according to the affidavit.

Smith's wife also admitted to police that she found a video of him sodomizing a child in February but did not report it because she wanted to protect the family, according to police.

O'Neill and Smith were booked into custody at the Orange County Jail without bond.

Tip: slwlion

Mexican Robs Banks in U.S.

(Albuquerque, New Mexico) Arguably, here's one result of having a porous U.S.-Mexico border.

This morning, Jaime Jesus Sanchez-Ramos, 22, a Mexican national, was arraigned on a federal indictment charging him with four counts of bank robbery. Sanchez-Ramos entered a not guilty plea to the indictment. Sanchez-Ramos has been in federal custody since his arrest on April 10, 2012 and remains detained pending trial.

The indictment charges Sanchez-Ramos with robbing the following four banks in Santa Fe, New Mexico, earlier this year: (1) the Century Bank located at 1790 Saint Michael’s Drive on January 26, 2012; (2) the New Mexico Bank and Trust located at 1549 Paseo de Peralta on February 15, 2012; (3) the Bank of Albuquerque located at 706 Saint Michael’s Drive on March 16, 2012; and (4) the U.S. Bank located at 3787 Cerrillos Road on April 2, 2012. The maximum penalty for a conviction on each of the four offenses if 20 years of imprisonment and a $250,000 fine.

Court records reflect that Sanchez-Ramos was arrested following the April 2, 2012 bank robbery of the U.S. Bank. After that robbery, the Santa Fe Police Department received a report that an employee of a home improvement store had retrieved evidence of the bank robbery, including a large amount of currency still bundled with U.S. Bank wrappers after observing a man put something into a trash can that was in the store’s parking lot. Armed with photographs taken by the store’s surveillance camera and a tip received by the FBI, law enforcement officers were able to identify Sanchez-Ramos as the man who allegedly robbed the U.S. Bank on April 2, 2012.

It appears Mr. Sanchez-Ramos was robbing one bank per month.

Impersonating a Spiritual Leader




It's a trailer for the documentary film Kumaré, scheduled for release next month.

Tip: Don Laird

Scotland: Police Arrest Six for Facebook Hate Speech

We read:

"On Wednesday, The BBC reported that police in Glasgow had arrested and charged six Facebook users for “breach of the peace with religious and racial aggravations.” These charges were based on the fact that the users had, allegedly, created a Facebook page called “Welcome to Israel, only kidding you’re in Giffnock,” upon which several posters mocked and insulted members of the Giffnock Jewish community. According to Jennifer Lipman of The Jewish Chronicle, messages left on the page included statements including “F*** the Jewish Zionist” and “Jewish scum.”

The arrests came after Stewart Maxwell, Scottish National Party (SNP) Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for West Scotland asked the chief of the Strathclyde police to investigate those responsible for creating the page.

Police responded by sending nearly 50 police officers to raid at least seven different locations in the Glasgow area. During the raid, police confiscated what members of the local media described as “a significant quantity” of computer equipment. Police officials said that they hoped their actions demonstrated that Scotland would not tolerate hate crimes.

Source

Speech that would be protected free speech in the USA is a "crime" in Scotland

There is a substantial body of opinion among Jewish writers which says that antisemitic speech should not be suppressed. Suppressing it probably leads to heightened antagoniusm towards Jews and in fact feeds the myth that the Jews control the government.

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

French Couple Avoids Traffic Fines

(Cannes, France) A couple has registered their car in the name of their four-year-old son which allows the couple to avoid, under French law, prosecution for motor vehicle offenses.

Local newspaper Nice Matin reported that a quirk in French law allows a minor to be named as the legal owner of a car.

The law, dating back to 1984, was designed to allow 16 and 17 year old learner drivers to be able to have a car. Instead, the canny couple took advantage of the rules to put their car in the name of their son.

All that's needed to do so is proof of address and an identity card. No driving licence is required.

Since registering the car in his name a total of 70 different driving offences have been notched up. These include speeding, parking violations and failure to notify a change of address.

As the four-year-old is the named person on the 'carte grise', the document which identify the owner of the car, he is also assumed to be the driver.

A total of €23,000 ($29,000) in fines have been built up over four years.

Heh.

Ya gotta laugh

Below is a recent bit of Warmist "research" from Australia. I guess that they hope nobody notices the figures behind their conclusions. I have always been one of those pesky people who look at the actual results in a scientific paper rather than the conclusions authors draw from their results -- and that habit is richly rewarded here.

What they actually found is quite hilarious. They found that the current temperature in the Australian region is essentially identical with the temperature in the 13th century!

To be precise, it was just nine hundredths of one degree warmer in the 20th century than it was in the 13th century. A better disproof of 20th century warming would be hard to imagine. The big surprise is that they didn't deep-six their study instead of publishing it

Journal of Climate 2012

Evidence of unusual late 20th century warming from an Australasian temperature reconstruction spanning the last millennium

Joëlle Gergis et al.

Abstract

This study presents the first multi-proxy warm season (September-February) temperature reconstruction for the combined land and oceanic region of Australasia (0°S-50°S, 110°E-180°E). We perform a 3000-member ensemble Principal Component Reconstruction (PCR) using 27 temperature proxies from the region. The proxy network explained 69% of the inter-annual variance in the HadCRUT3v SONDJF spatial mean temperature over the 1921-1990 calibration period. Applying eight stringent reconstruction ‘reliability’ metrics identified post A.D. 1430 as the highest quality section of the reconstruction, but also revealed a skilful reconstruction is possible over the full A.D. 1000-2001 period.

The average reconstructed temperature anomaly in Australasia during A.D. 1238-1267, the warmest 30-year pre-instrumental period, is 0.09°C (±0.19°C) below 1961-1990 levels. Following peak pre-industrial warmth, a cooling trend culminates in a temperature anomaly of 0.44°C (±0.18°C) below 1961-1990 levels between A.D. 1830-1859. A preliminary assessment of the roles of solar, volcanic, and anthropogenic forcings and natural ocean-atmosphere variability is performed using CSIRO Mk3L model simulations and independent palaeoclimate records. Solar and volcanic forcing does not have a marked influence on reconstructed Australasian temperature variations, which appear to be masked by internal variability.

In 94.5% of the 3000-member reconstruction ensemble, there are no other warm periods in the past 1,000 years that match or exceed post-1950 warming observed in Australasia. The unusual 20th century warming cannot be explained by natural variability alone, suggesting a strong influence of anthropogenic forcing in the Australasian region

SOURCE

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

Baltimore County Delegate Acknowledges Epidemic of Black Mob Violence

Sooner or later even the authorities will have to acknowledge the epidemic of black on white mob violence that has made it unsafe to venture out of doors from one end of the country to the other. In Baltimore, it’s already beginning:

A Baltimore County delegate said Wednesday that the governor should send in the Maryland State Police to control “roving mobs of black youths” at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, prompting a colleague to label the message “race-baiting.”

Del. Patrick L. McDonough, a Republican whose district includes part of Harford County, distributed a news release with the headline: “Black Youth Mobs Terrorize Baltimore on Holidays.” In it, McDonough said he had sent a letter to Gov. Martin O’Malley urging him to use the state police to help prevent attacks and to declare the Inner Harbor area a “no-travel zone” until safety can be guaranteed.

Unsurprisingly, many of McDonough’s colleagues were aggressively “offended.” Nothing could be more predictable than that he will be denounced as a racist for pointing out that the house is on fire. However,

McDonough refused to back down, saying he had heard from police that the crowds involved in several recent incidents were all black. Failing to mention the race of the participants, he said, would be “political correctness on steroids.”

McDonough said his statement was prompted by several recent problems, including a St. Patrick’s Day disturbance and a recent incident in which he and his wife witnessed a fight involving about 100 youths at Pratt and Calvert streets.

The St. Patrick’s Day incident involved a tourist being beaten, robbed, and stripped in front of a courthouse by one of the black mobs that roam cities looking for lone whites to assault. Refusing to address them while not only justifying but inciting their behavior with liberal propaganda will only cause the mobs to grow larger and more vicious.

SOURCE

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

Alabama Child Porn Case

(Phil Campbell, Alabama) A 40-year-old local woman, Rebecca Diane Pounders, has been accused of sending nude photos of a 15-year-old girl to an 18-year-old male to entice him into having sex with the girl.

Pounders faces charges of dissemination of child pornography, aiding a person traveling to meet a child for a unlawful sex act and aiding and abetting attempted second-degree rape.

Authorities said Justin Ray Sorensen, 18, of Grayville, has been indicted for possession of obscene child pornography, traveling to meet a child for an unlawful sex act, second-degree sexual abuse and second-degree attempted rape.

Franklin County Sheriff Shannon Oliver said the two were arrested in October 2011.

“This was a very unusual case,” Oliver said. “It’s sad to think that something like this goes on.”

The Phil Campbell Police Department assisted the sheriff’s office with the investigation.

Investigators said Pounders is accused of sending at least two nude photos of the 15-year-old girl to Sorensen at his home, which is outside of Birmingham in Jefferson County.

Officials said she is accused of sending the photos in hopes of getting Sorensen to have sex with the girl.

Authorities said child pornography was found on Sorensen’s computer.

Pounders and Sorensen each were booked and released on $250,000 bond.

Reduce HIV by Making Women Ugly

(Harare, Zimbabwe) A parliamentary workshop explored ways to reduce Zimbabwe's high HIV infection rate. Here's a proposal.

Make women less attractive by forcing them to shave their heads and stop taking baths. Those are suggestions by Morgan Femai, a senator for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change representing Chikomo.

"The government should come up with a law that compels women to have their heads clean-shaven like what the Apostolic sects do," said Femai, speaking to a parliamentary HIV awareness workshop in Kadoma on Friday, according to Nehanda Radio.

"They should also not bathe because that is what has caused all these problems," said Femai. If women dressed in shabby clothes and were uglier, men would not be drawn to have sex with them, she said.

This idea is not well thought out. HIV infections allegedly vectored out of the simian population in Africa by men having sex with monkeys. If it is true that men will have sex with ugly, stinking monkeys, there's no reason to believe that men will be deterred from having sex with ugly, stinking women.

Florida Teacher Accused of Inappropriate Acts

(Orlando, Florida) A 34-year-old teacher at Discovery Middle School, Gretchen Gonzalez, has been accused of acting inappropriately with one of her middle school students.

Gonzalez was suspended from her teaching position after a video surfaced.

The video shows a woman, which the ex-husband's attorney identified as Gretchen Gonzalez, picking up a student and then stopping at an auto parts store where they are seen holding hands, snuggling and kissing.

They eventually head to the Red Roof Inn on the Orange Blossom Trail, where the two checked into a room.

Michael Rathel, the lawyer of Gonzalez's ex-husband, said the two were still in the room when the private investigators left at about 3 a.m.

Gonzalez was asked to leave the school yesterday. The investigation continues.

Ideology and "what works"

Like The "Progressives" of the early 20th century, President Obama and many of his fellow Leftists these days are quite fond of making the claim that they are simply motivated by "what works" and are not driven by ideology the way conservatives are. The philosophical emptiness of such claims is thoroughly amusing and I have always seen it as just too shallow to be worth a reply. Just how empty the claim is can be shown by a simple question: "How do you define "what works"?" -- or -- "When do you know that something has "worked"?"

The inevitable answer to that has to be in terms of ideology: "Whether something leads to greater economic equality", would certainly be a common Leftist answer to my question. But that simply shows that the Leftist subscribes to an ideology that economic equality is desirable.

In his latest book, however, Jonah Goldberg is marginally more respectful of the claim. He first documents the claim at some length but instead of wiping it off with a simple question, he devotes a whole chapter to refuting it. And his conclusion is that both Left and Right have ideologies -- but ideologies that are different.

Jonah does note however that in the past it was in fact conservatives who abjured ideology and customarily pointed to Leftists as ideologues. And I think that view is essential to understanding conservatism. In his book Inside Right, Ian Gilmour, once Lord Privy Seal of England under Margaret Thatcher, offers an historical study of conservatism and concludes that conservatives are "trimmers": People with ideas that change with circumstances without much in the way of pre-established doctrines or policy consistency.

In my own historical study of conservative thought I noted many instances of such claims from conservative thinkers and concluded that conservatism can only be understood as a psychological disposition -- a tendency towards cautiousness -- and that different policy responses may be generated by that underlying psychological conservatism from time to time -- though a desire for individual liberty is a common outcome of that psychological disposition.

So I side with the earlier conservative thinkers and say that it is conservatives who are the non-ideological ones. The Leftist claim on that distinction becomes mere trickery. They think that by claiming to be something that is really true of conservatives, they can gain some added respectibility for their policies and deflect attention from whom the real practical people are. It is a sort of reverse-projection: Instead of seeing their own faults in others, they see the strengths of others in themselves.

So I see Jonah as too kind to the Left. They are just crooks who will say anything if it will get them power. Conservatives should not let the Left get away with stealing our clothes. And the best way to do that is to keep asking them my questions above.

Conservatives don't have to make broad claims about standing for "what works". Rather we just deal with individual issues as they arise and point out what the consequences of a Leftist response to those issues is likely to be. The track record of socialism is so dismal that that is not hard to do. If anything engenders caution, it is socialism

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

New York Woman Faces Drug Charges

(Medina, New York) A 52-year-old local woman, Debra Mercado, has been accused of selling prescription morphine pills.

Mercado faces charges of criminal sale and possession of a controlled substance.

Investigators worked two months on the case before executing a search warrant.

They say they seized 71 morphine pills, 67 Nucynta pills, both narcotics, valued at $1,500.

Mercado was booked into custody at the Orleans County Jail in lieu of $10,000 cash bail or $20,000 bond.

Child Support for 30 Kids

(Knoxville, Tennessee) A 33-year-old local man, Desmond Hatchett, has asked the court for relief from his child support obligations for 30 children by 11 different mothers.

The state already takes half his paycheck and divides it up, which doesn't amount to much when Hatchett is making only minimum wage. Some of the moms receive as little as $1.49 a month. The oldest child is 14 years old.

Hatchett explains how he reached such a critical mass: He had four kids in the same year. Twice.

Back in 2009 when Hatchett was in court to answer charges that many of the mothers were not receiving child support, he had 21 children. At the time, he said he was not going to father any more kids, but he ended up having nine more in the past three years.

The guy needs a holster.

Tip: slwlion

Flesh Eaten After Penile Implant

(Miami, Florida) A lawsuit alleges medical malpractice.

Late Thursday afternoon, Enrique Milla testified at the Miami-Dade County Courthouse from his new home in Lima, Peru via Skype. He said he wanted a penile implant to improve his sex life in 2007. "About a year before I realized I had problems," Milla said through a translator. "I had problems having intimate relations with my wife. As time went by, that problem got worse."

Milla's attorney argues that an anesthesiologist overlooked his client's pre-existing medical conditions, which resulted in Milla having no more external male genitalia.[…]

Milla's problems began after a Gangrene infection spread through his penis about nine days after the surgery. Aronfeld detailed the traumatic experience his client went through. "Turned into a flesh-eating bacteria that ate his penis centimeter by centimeter," he said, " and as a result of this, he has to spend the rest of his life without a functioning penis. He has to sit down to urinate. He'll never have any intimate relationships with anyone, and he's lost his manhood."

Apparently, a penile implant is not advised for a diabetic patient.

Tip: slwlion

NJ Teacher Accused of Criticizing Homosexuality



Jenye "Viki" Knox

(Union Township, New Jersey)

The Union Township High School teacher who created a firestorm last year after allegedly posting anti-gay comments on her Facebook page, wants to retire on a disability pension rather than face tenure charges.

Jenye "Viki" Knox, 50, a tenured special education teacher who has taught in Union since 2000, wrote on her personal Facebook page that homosexuality is a "perverted spirit" and "unnatural immoral behavior," according to charges of unbecoming conduct brought by her district.

She also criticized other teachers on Facebook for putting up a "Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual Transgender" bulletin board in the high school and for proposing a school gay-straight alliance, according to the charges.

The tenure charge case was to begin Tuesday before a state Administrative Law Judge, but Knox filed a motion earlier this month asking that it be delayed while she seeks a disability pension due to both a back injury and "psychological grounds." She did not elaborate. A judge Wednesday agreed to list the case as inactive for three months.

The controversy endures.

Also: EdWatch

Philadelphia Cop Busted in Sex Case




(Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) A 36-year-old Philadelphia police officer, Anthony D. Dattilo, has been accused of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl after making her watch him have sex with another female in a motel room.

Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey said the officer is "under investigation for a sexual assault."

"He was immediately removed from the street, as we would normally do, and then they informed us ... that they had secured a warrant and they were going to pick him up, which they did," he added.

Ramsey said the officer faces several charges, adding that "we'll immediately begin the process now of removing him from our force."

Dattilo was booked into custody at the Bucks County Prison with bail set at $500,000.

Tip: slwlion

Ohio Teacher Gets Probation on Drug Charges - Updated

(Galion, Ohio) In accordance with a plea agreement, Laura Saylor aka Laura Barnhart, 36, of Galion, pleaded guilty to drug trafficking and was sentenced.

In Crawford County Court yesterday, Saylor received three years of probation.

Saylor pleaded guilty to two charges of trafficking in drugs.

Saylor was ordered to pay a $250 fine and court costs and her driver's license were suspended for six months.

No jail for drug trafficking seems quite lenient.

* * * * *
Ohio Teacher Faces Drug Charges
[Previous 8/14/11 post]
(Galion, Ohio) A 35-year-old special education teacher at Grant Middle School in Marion, Laura Saylor (aka Laura Saylor Barnhart), was arrested on various felony drug trafficking charges after Galion police and Crawford County sheriff's deputies conducted a search of her residence. Officers confiscated marijuana, drug paraphernalia, prescription medication and cash.

Also arrested was another resident of the house, Christopher Goodwin, 26, who was charged with misdemeanor drug offenses.

Galion Police Chief Brian Saterfield said the raid was made after authorities received a tip that marijuana was being sold at the residence.

"This is another good example of cooperation among agencies," Saterfield said. "We did some undercover buys and presented that to the grand jury."

Goodwin was given a summons to appear while Laura Saylor was booked into custody at the Crawford County Justice Center.

Donna Summer, b.1948 - d.2012




Celebrated singer/songwriter Donna Summer died earlier today after a long battle with breast cancer. She was 63.

Born LaDonna Adrian Gaines, she took the stage name Donna Summer and became internationally famous as the "Queen of Disco."

R.I.P.

Florida Female, 19, Accused of Sexual Conduct

(New Port Richey, Florida) A 19-year-old local female, Krystal Kamil Hernandez, has been accused of sexually harassing young girls.

Hernandez faces charges of transmission of harmful material to a minor, sexual battery and lewd and lascivious exhibition.

She found the girls on a public bus, deputies said. Two 15-year-olds and two 16-year-olds. She showed them her tattoo: two female symbols on her pubic area. Then, deputies said, 19-year-old Krystal Kamil Hernandez showed them her genitals and a sex toy.

She was accused of sexual battery in the fondling a 13-year-old girl on April 13, according to a Pasco County Sheriff's Office report. Hernandez also said she wanted to use a sex toy on the girl, a report states. Deputies said she knew the girl but did not disclose Hernandez's relationship to her.

Hernandez also sent a photo of herself in an open robe to a 14-year-old girl via her cell phone April 18, deputies said.

Hernandez was booked into custody at the Land O'Lakes Jail with bail set at $35,000.

PA Woman Accused of Arson

(Scranton, Pennsylvania) A 27-year-old local woman, Susan McCauley, has been accused of setting fire to the multiunit apartment building from which she had recently been evicted.

McCauley faces counts of arson and criminal mischief.

Thomas Taylor, a captain with the Wilson Fire Company in Peckville, was the first responder to enter through the home's open exterior basement doors, he said during his testimony Tuesday.

Capt. Taylor explained he found a second door at the rear of the basement stairs open and, once inside, used a pressurized water can to extinguish two areas of flames he encountered before a hose was brought in.

After the entire fire was put out, state police Fire Marshal Stephen Kaneski began his probe into how the blaze began, he testified Tuesday.

In the basement, Trooper Kaneski ruled out the possibility a dryer could have sparked the blaze and found three areas where fires had been intentionally set, he testified.

McCauley was booked into custody at the Lackawanna County Prison with bail set at $20,000.

Michigan Woman Accused of Stealing Unmentionables

(Jackson, Michigan) A 29-year-old woman, Jessica Goolsby, has been accused of stealing $12,500 worth of bras, panties and other items from a Victoria's Secret store in Blackman Township.

Goolsby pleaded guilty this week to first-degree retail fraud.

Public safety detectives arrested her in February, and she was charged with first-degree retail fraud and three additional counts of second-degree retail fraud, a misdemeanor.

In exchange for her guilty plea, the prosecutor’s office is dropping the misdemeanor counts.

Her felony conviction will be reduced to a misdemeanor if she successfully gets through the county recovery court, an intensive program aimed at helping, treating and rehabilitating felons who have a history of drug or alcohol abuse.

Sentencing is scheduled for June 20 when she faces a possible five years in prison.

Suspect Released to do Homework?

(San Francisco, California) A 23-year-old local man, Otis Mobley Jr., has been accused of conspiracy to commit robbery, assault on a federal officer, robbery and a weapons violation.

Mobley allegedly attempted to sell a grenade launcher to an undercover federal officer.

U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers has allowed Mobley to be released from custody "with the stipulation that he wear an ankle monitor and spend an hour each day reading books and writing book reports." [my bold]

I suggest that homework as a condition of release for a potentially violent criminal is irresponsible.