BBC Arabist, Malise Ruthven, says that only "scholarly" criticism of Islam should be allowed 

It's a very long-winded article (in the NYT, unsurprisingly)  but the last 3 paragraphs of it (below) seem to be the point of it.  Ruthven burnishes his own scholarly status by using such hard words as "aniconic" and "docetic" but shows how much he really knows by approving of the term "Christianist" as a description of Pamela Geller.  She is Jewish and needs no assistance from Christians or Christianity to form her opinion of jihadists.  Ruthven is obviously far too grand to listen to or respect "ordinary" people

These contrasting responses suggest the possibility of a two-pronged approach to the free speech issues raised by images of the Prophet. “Insulting” the Prophet with the intent of stirring up hatred might be categorized as a form of “hate speech” comparable to anti-Semitism, racism, flag desecration, or Holocaust denial, which are forbidden by law in many countries (though not the US, where a proposed amendment protecting the US flag failed to pass by a single Senate vote in 2006), because the sacred image of the Prophet has become a fundamental part of how Muslim communities have come to define themselves. While in practice it may be difficult to draw the line between “insult” and “criticism,” if there is a distinction it must lie in intention.

In Britain, for example, the government’s effort in the wake of the Rushdie Affair to extend the race relations act in response to Muslims protests opened a legal minefield. It is now an offense (under the 2006 Racial and Religious Hatred Act) to display by writing or other visible representation material that is “threatening, abusive or insulting” with the intention of causing “harassment, alarm or distress.” Yet the law paradoxically protects the right to “insult and abuse” with a proviso stating that nothing in it “shall be read or given effect in a way which prohibits or restricts discussion, criticism or expressions of antipathy, dislike, ridicule, insult or abuse of particular religions or the beliefs or practices of their adherents.” Intention is clearly the key. Had he been required to defend his book under the 2006 act, Rushdie and his lawyers would doubtless have argued that the storm of controversy it raised was an unintended consequence of a misreading (mostly by politically-motivated parties) of his “serious” novel.

Critical analysis of the Quran that challenges the myths surrounding the primal figures of Islam is another story entirely: it is something that scholars of other faiths have been engaged in since the Enlightenment. Since the nineteenth century, Islamic scholars such as Sayyed Ahmad Khan and Chirag Ali have questioned the authenticity of many of the hadiths (verbally transmitted reports) on which the earliest chroniclers relied for their accounts of the Prophet’s life, exemplary behavior, and ministry. It would be utterly wrong for the law to discriminate in favor of (or effectively against) Muslims by insulating them from this process, because critical engagement—about science, religion, and politics—is a necessary precondition for communities to flourish in a cosmopolitan and increasingly globalized world.

Source

It's absurd to expect everybody to speak with academic precision and yet that is essentially what this guy is proposing.  What about having one law for all and not a law that suits just a few?

Treating everyday speech as scientific or scholarly speech is a very common bad-faith ploy.  For instance, if a man says:  "Blacks are a criminal lot", he will immediately be hounded as some sort of terribile bigot who is obviously wrong because some blacks are not criminal.  But that is bad faith.  That all blacks are criminal is unlikely to be what the speaker meant and instead of people trying to understand what the speaker is really saying he gets condemned.

If however, someone says that "the incidence of criminality is  much higher among blacks than whites"  he gets a pass.  I know.  I once said something similar and even got it published in one of the academic journals of sociology  -- of all places.  But I did have some striking statistics on my side.

There is far too much "hunting" of people according to the way they express themselves.  In a decent world one would try to understand what the average person was saying rather than pouncing on him with vile and superficial allegations because his speech is a bit careless.  That someone has the background to speak in an academic way is no guarantee of wisdom, rightness or moral probity.  The praise recently lavished on the unrepentant and disgusting Communist Eric Hobsbawm is evidence enough of that.


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

French Hygiene Study

(Paris, France) According to a study performed by a French hygiene product company, people in France do not consider personal hygiene to be a priority.

Frankly, it's been the word on the street for as long as I can remember.

My perspective? While certain segments of society may stink up their surroundings, generally poor French hygiene is more a myth than a matter of fact.

Sniffer Mice Smell Landmines

(New York City) The threat of landmines, which reportedly kill about 70 people every day worldwide, is being addressed by development of genetically-modified rats and mice, capable of sniffing out explosives.

The concept of using rats to sniff out landmines began with HeroRats, giant African pouched rats who, after nine months of training, can detect TNT even when the source is underground. When a HeroRat catches the telltale scent of TNT, it scratches at the ground and makes a clicking noise to let its handler know that it has come across a buried landmine.

Two HeroRats and a handler can cover 300 square feet in under two hours, as compared to the two days that it would take two people with metal detectors to cover the same area.

Researchers at Hunter College in New York also began recruiting mice (dubbed MouSensors) to sniff out landmines; however, to eliminate the training step, they genetically modified their mice so that they were extremely sensitive to the smell of DNT, a close relative of TNT.[…]

Before the MouSensors can be of use as bewhiskered landmine detectors, researchers still need to develop a ‘readout’ for their sensitivity, or some signal which would indicate the presence of TNT comparable to the HeroRats' clicking and scratching.

Reportedly the rats and mice are too small and light to trigger detonations of the landmines.

World Food Day

Tomorrow (October 16) is World Food Day, a celebration to honor the 1945 founding of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Its purpose is to raise awareness of issues related to poverty and hunger.

Three Letters and Question Mark

Indian man carrying cucumbers
Of course, the three letters are double-u, tee, and eff.

Nonagenarian Steals $200K

(River Falls, Alabama) The local mayor, Mary Ella Hixon, 91, has been convicted of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from the small Alabama town where she served as mayor for three decades.

Hixon distributed $201,000 to her family and friends.

The town of roughly 500 residents just north of the Florida panhandle has nearly been bankrupted by the thefts, said Covington County District Attorney Walt Merrell.

Hixon has been placed on five years’ probation after a judge suspended a sentence of 10 years in prison because of her age.

“Had it not been a 91-year-old woman, I would have stood on my head to make sure she went to prison,” Mr Merrell said.

Hixon's lawyer said she was taken advantage of by those she trusted.

Woman Drinks Hand Sanitizer




(Middletown, Connecticut) A 36-year-old local woman, Jennifer Wilcox, was arrested after crashing her vehicle while allegedly under the influence of hand sanitizer.

Police smelled alcohol on Wilcox, but she denied drinking. After failing field sobriety tests she was charged with driving under the influence.

Wilcox later admitted to drinking half of a bottle of hand sanitizer, the newspaper reported.

Wilcox was booked and released on $500 bond.

Mystery Disease Killing Sugar Cane Workers

(Central America) According to a detailed report, chronic kidney disease (CKD) has been killing thousands of sugar crop workers in rural Central America.



Workers protest at plantation entrance

It goes by many names, but around here they call it "the malady of the sugar cane". It's a quiet epidemic that has been preying on Central America for at least 20 years, killing impoverished landworkers in their tens of thousands across Nicaragua, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Guatemala. And it is becoming ever more deadly. Between 2005 and 2009, incidents in El Salvador rose by 26%.[…]

The health minister, María Isabel Rodríguez, made a dramatic appeal to the international community for help, telling them: "It is wasting away our populations." But nobody knows what to do about it, because nobody knows what exactly it is.

In the wealthier west, CKD is largely caused by hypertension or diabetes, but most of the victims here have neither. And it attacks the kidneys in an unusual way. Rather than damaging the filtering system, as in ordinary CKD, this disease seems to have an impact on the tubules – the part of the kidney where the composition of the urine is determined.

At the moment, the only scientific consensus is that it's real, and unexplained.

So far, researchers have failed to pinpoint the exact cause of the mysterious and deadly malady. Constant exposure to agrochemicals and persistent dehydration in tropical heat are suggested as likely causes.

Texting and Drinking While Driving

(Reno, Nevada) A 20-year-old motorist, Heather Dyer, has been accused of driving under the influence and texting while driving before crashing and injuring two construction workers.

Dyer was arrested on suspicion of texting while driving, drunken driving, driving with a suspended license, being a minor in possession of alcohol and failure to maintain a lane.

She is accused of crashing into construction equipment in a controlled work zone Wednesday night on Interstate 580.

Dyer was booked into custody at the Washoe County Jail and later released on bail.

Global warming stopped 16 years ago, reveals Met Office report quietly released... and here is the chart to prove it 


The article below is from the mass-circulation "Daily Mail" in Britain.  The writer is one of their general journalists
 
The world stopped getting warmer almost 16 years ago, according to new data released last week. The figures, which have triggered debate among climate scientists, reveal that from the beginning of 1997 until August 2012, there was no discernible rise in aggregate global temperatures.

This means that the ‘plateau’ or ‘pause’ in global warming has now lasted for about the same time as the previous period when temperatures rose, 1980 to 1996. Before that, temperatures had been stable or declining for about 40 years.



The new data, compiled from more than 3,000 measuring points on land and sea, was issued  quietly on the internet, without any media fanfare, and, until today, it has not been reported.  This stands in sharp contrast  to the release of the previous  figures six months ago, which went only to the end of 2010 – a very warm year.

Ending the data then means it is possible to show a slight warming trend since 1997, but 2011 and the first eight months of 2012 were much cooler, and thus this trend is erased.

Much more HERE


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

Housekeeping

Regular readers will notice a new blog template. The change was necessary to allow for Comments. Sadly, my previous Comments provider apparently ceased doing business.

I urge readers to be patient as the new template is worked toward something that approximates the previous version of Interested-Participant. It's time consuming.

Email from Allah

Received an email from the Lord of the Worlds:

Where? Emergency Message

FROM:
Allah

Friday, October 12, 2012 3:57 PM

This planet is in danger. I need to know where to go to help these people. You were suggested as someone who may have heard of God (Allah) and it was suggested I email you, personally. I am God the Father, Allah, and looking for a place to get started for purposes previously explained in the Holy Bible or Qur'an. If you have a suggestion for how you want Me to help, get in touch. If not, there could be spiritual repercussions for your failure to comply.

NOTE: This could be your only opportunity to interact with God Allah.
Thank you for your prayers and review.

Emergency Message,
ALLAH
Lord of the Worlds
Author, Holy Qur'an / Bible
god @llah .US (Unsubscribe)
P.O. Box 701
San Mateo, CA 94401

+1-650-458-7524 SMS/VM ; no international callbacks... email only... English Only
In the event of subscribe error at LLAH.US, you may post to https:// allah. zendesk. com or email god @llah .US (unsubscribe).

An email from Allah or any deity is obviously a spam effort. Nevertheless, there's a bit of comedy here. Of all the individuals credited throughout history with solutions to save the planet, Allah emails an everyday guy in Ohio for suggestions. It's contrary to the recognized all-seeing, all-knowing attributes of a Supreme Being.

More interestingly, one must wonder how many people are gullible enough to believe that Allah lords over the planet Earth from a P.O. Box in San Mateo, California. If so, California must be heaven. Some reports indicate otherwise.

Ohio Woman Busted for Drugs Near School

(Newark, Ohio) A 25-year-old local woman, Kalie D. McCualsky, has been accused of dealing methamphetamine near the Cherry Valley Elementary School.

McCualsky faces a charge of aggravated trafficking in drugs, a third-degree felony.

Officers with the task force and Newark police’s Special Operations Group obtained a search warrant for her residence and had Cherry Valley Elementary School placed on lock down while the search occurred, Lt. Paul Cortwright said.

McCualsky left the residence and was stopped by officers. Police report she had methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia on her person, according to the statement of facts.

Kalie McCualsky was booked and released on $20,000 bond.

Why Jews Support Obama

From Caroline Glick:

Decades ago, the sociographer Milton Himmelfarb coined the aphorism that "American Jews earn like Episcopalians and vote like Puerto Ricans." And his words ring as true today as ever. Surveys show that roughly 70 percent of American Jews intend to cast their ballots for President Barack Obama's reelection next month.

Himmelfarb's quip indicated that American Jews abjure their economic interests in favor of their liberal values. Certainly it is true that for American Jews to vote for Obama next month they must act against their economic interests.

Obama's economic policies have taken a huge toll on the economic fortunes of American Jews who invest disproportionately in the stock market. His nationalization of the college loan business has given universities impetus to raise tuition rates still further, thus dooming more young American Jews to start their adult lives under a mountain of debt. And it isn't at all clear how they will be able to pay off this debt since under Obama half of recent college graduates cannot find jobs.

Obama's gutting of Medicare to pay for Obamacare has harmed the medical choices for older Jewish Americans.

His war on tax deductions for charitable contributions has placed synagogues, Jewish schools and nursing homes in financial jeopardy.

So with economics ruled out as a reason to support Obama we are left with American-Jewish values.

But is Obama really advancing those values? What are those values anyway?

There's more.

Topless Robber

(St. Paul, Minnesota) A 45-year-old local woman, Debra Ann McCoy, has been convicted of robbing a man after flashing her breasts to distract him.

McCoy pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting first-degree robbery in the May 2 incident in which a 50-year-old patron of the Wild Tymes bar was robbed.

According to a criminal complaint, the victim told police he was walking outside the bar when two women approached him, propositioned him and flashed their breasts at him. He walked with the women into an alley where he said two men struck him on the head and robbed him. The victim told police he could hear the women yelling, "How much money you got?"

The other woman arrested in the case, Janet Elizabeth Hall, 31, of Minneapolis, also pleaded guilty and was sentenced to four years and 10 months in prison.

McCoy was sentenced to four years and two months in prison and ordered to pay $1,300+ in restitution.

Glaciers Cracking in the Presence of Carbon Dioxide? 

Note that this is just computer modelling.  Why can't they study ice directly?  It's not exactly hard to find.  Models will usually give you what you want.  Reality is more pesky

And reality would suggest that any such effect is trivial (note that they offer no quantification of the effect).  How, for instance, do the conclusions below fit in with the geologic record, that of CO2 rising in apparent response to global warming only to be followed by an almost equally dramatic temperature fall despite all the extra CO2 around? Judging from the record, CO2’s alleged ability to reduce the earth’s albedo by breaking up ice does nothing to alter the monotonous timing of one Ice Age after another.

New research, published October 11, in IOP Publishing's Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, has shown that CO2 molecules may be having a more direct impact on the ice that covers our planet.

Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute for Technology have shown that the material strength and fracture toughness of ice are decreased significantly under increasing concentrations of CO2 molecules, making ice caps and glaciers more vulnerable to cracking and splitting into pieces, as was seen recently when a huge crack in the Pine Island Glacier in Antarctica spawned a glacier the size of Berlin.

Ice caps and glaciers cover seven per cent of Earth -- more than Europe and North America combined -- and are responsible for reflecting 80-90 per cent of the Sun's light rays that enter our atmosphere and maintain Earth's temperature. They are also a natural carbon sink, capturing a large amount of CO2.

"If ice caps and glaciers were to continue to crack and break into pieces, their surface area that is exposed to air would be significantly increased, which could lead to accelerated melting and much reduced coverage area on the Earth. The consequences of these changes remain to be explored by the experts, but they might contribute to changes of the global climate," said lead author of the study Professor Markus Buehler.

Buehler, along with his student and co-author of the paper, Zhao Qin, used a series of atomistic-level computer simulations to analyse the dynamics of molecules to investigate the role of CO2 molecules in ice fracturing, and found that CO2 exposure causes ice to break more easily.

Notably, the decreased ice strength is not merely caused by material defects induced by CO2 bubbles, but rather by the fact that the strength of hydrogen bonds -- the chemical bonds between water molecules in an ice crystal -- is decreased under increasing concentrations of CO2. This is because the added CO2 competes with the water molecules connected in the ice crystal.

It was shown that CO2 molecules first adhere to the crack boundary of ice by forming a bond with the hydrogen atoms and then migrate through the ice in a flipping motion along the crack boundary towards the crack tip.

The CO2 molecules accumulate at the crack tip and constantly attack the water molecules by trying to bond to them. This leaves broken bonds behind and increases the brittleness of the ice on a macroscopic scale.

SOURCE

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.). 

Texas Teacher Accused of Sex with Student

(Houston, Texas) A 36-year-old career technology teacher at Sealy High School, Stacey Manning, has been arrested for allegedly engaging in sex with an 18-year-old male student.

Manning faces a charge of second-degree felony improper relationship between educator/student.

“She got angry and started calling his girlfriend names, because he had a girlfriend at the time,” student Caleb Scarbrough said of the male student who was allegedly trying to break off the relationship with the teacher.

“And so the girlfriend went and confronted him about this relationship and so they went to the police about it because she was saying awful things about this girl.”

Manning was booked into custody and released on $10,000 bond.

Turtle Urine Study

Chinese Soft-Shelled Turtle
(Singapore)

The Chinese soft-shelled turtle looks like someone glued the snout of a pig onto the face of a fish, with the texture of a scrotum for good measure. But its bizarre appearance pales in comparison to an even more bizarre, and newly discovered, habit: it urinates through its mouth.

When the turtle breaks down proteins in its liver, it ends up with an abundance of nitrogen, which it expels from its body in the form of urea. Humans are the same — we get rid of urea in the form of urine, via our kidneys. But the soft-shelled turtle has an altogether different route.

It's well-adapted to life in the water, and lives in salty swamps and marshes. But Yuen Ip from the National University of Singapore noticed that when the turtle emerges from water, or is stranded on land during dry spells, it will plunge its head into puddles. While submerged, it rhythmically expands and contracts its mouth. Ip found that the turtle gets rid of most of its urea through its mouth rather than its kidneys, via gill-like studs in its mouth. It can breathe and urinate through the same structures.

There's a joke here somewhere.

Florida Teacher Accused of Child Abuse

(Tampa, Florida) A 37-year-old teacher at Seminole Heights Elementary School, Esraa Mohamed Soliman, has been accused of child abuse for rubbing a shoe on the face of an autistic student.

Soliman was arrested at her home on a charge of child abuse.

She was teaching at Seminole Heights Elementary School on Tuesday afternoon when she got upset at the boy for not listening to her, cops said.

Soliman allegedly grabbed him by his backpack and forced him into a chair.

When the child threw one of his shoes at her, cops and witnesses said, she grabbed it and rubbed it into his face.

Soliman was booked into custody and released on $2,000 bond.

Michigan Teacher Guilty of DUI - Updated

(PawPaw, Michigan) On appeal, a Circuit Court judge reinstated the charges against former teacher Leslie Buscher, now 38. Yesterday, the case was decided.

From WOOD TV:

A Van Buren County district judge found a former Portage teacher guilty of being "super drunk" in a case that involved legal twists and turns since her arrest in July 2011.

The judge found Leslie Buscher guilty of operating a vehicle while intoxicated with a high blood alcohol content (Michigan's "super drunk" law), operating while intoxicated with an occupant under 16 years old, and having an open intoxicant.

No sentencing date yet scheduled.

* * * * *
Teacher DUI Dismissed, Appealed - Updated
[Previous 3/1/12 post]
(PawPaw, Michigan) Elementary school teacher Leslie Buscher is temporarily safe.

Although Leslie Buscher was found in her car with a blood alcohol level exceeding 0.4 percent, drunken-driving charges against her were dismissed because her car was parked off the road, according to court documents.

A Van Buren County judge's decision turned on this point: Does the shoulder of Red Arrow Highway fit the definition of a roadway "ordinarily used for vehicular travel"?[…]

Van Buren County sheriff’s deputies said Buscher, who has worked in Portage schools since 1999, was slumped over the wheel of her 2005 Dodge Durango and had a cup of vodka and her two children inside the vehicle when they found her at about 3:30 p.m. that day.

In a written opinion filed last month, District Judge Richard Hentchel dismissed the charges. He agreed with Buscher's attorney that she could not be found guilty of driving while intoxicated, since she was not driving the car at the time and her car was off the roadway when she was found by deputy David Walker.

The prosecution has appealed the case.

* * * * *
Teacher Faces Drunk Charges
[Previous 7/26/11 post]
(PawPaw, Michigan) A 37-year-old 5th-grade teacher at Lake Center Elementary School, Leslie Buscher, was found slumped over her steering wheel with a blood alcohol level five times the legal limit.

Two children, ages 2 and 4, and a party cup half full of vodka were also found inside the vehicle.

Sheriff's officials say Buscher's BAC was more than .40; the legal limit in Michigan is .08.[…]

Buscher is charged with two misdemeanors: Operating with a blood alcohol content of .17 or more and operating while intoxicated with a passenger under 16 years of age.

Buscher waived her arraignment and pleaded not guilty through her attorney.

An example of what complete socialist control means for the environment 


Socialists are only "green" if it doesn't hobble their power

If you're looking for a lakeside retreat on a budget, it's likely you could easily pick up a villa near to Russia's beautiful Lake Karachay and still have change left for a new sofa.

But it's probably worth bearing in mind that in 1990 just standing on the shore for an hour would give you a radiation of dose of 600 roentgen.  In case you were wondering, that's more than enough to kill you.

The lake, in Russia's south-west Chelyabinsk region, close to the modern border with Kazakhstan, is located within the Mayak Production Association, one of the country's largest — and leakiest — nuclear facilities.

Built in the Forties as Soviets moved armament production east to avoid the Nazi invasion, Mayak was one of the Russia's most important nuclear weapons factories and was off limits to foreigners for 45 years.

It was only after President Boris Yeltsin signed a 1992 decree opening up the area that Western scientists were able to gain access - and promptly declared it the planet's most polluted area.

In their long decades of obscurity, the nuclear engineers at Mayak spent their time mainly having nuclear meltdowns and dumping radioactive waste into the river.

The watered-down waste was a cocktail of radioactive elements, including long-lived fission products such as Strontium-90 and Cesium-137–each with a half-life of approximately thirty years.

When their facility's existence was finally acknowledged, the Chelyabinsk region had seen a 21 per cent increase in cancer, a 25 per cent increase in birth defects, and a 41 per cent increase in leukaemia.

The nearby Techa river, on which several villages relied for water, was so contaminated that up to 65 per cent of locals were stricken with radiation sickness.

Prevented from mentioning radiation in their diagnoses, doctors treating those who had fallen ill termed the sickness 'special disease'. Even then, these notes were classified until 1990.

The rural communities surrounding the nuclear facility suffered greatly from their government's nuclear arms race with the U.S.

Eager to catch up with the technological development of Western weapons, the Mayak engineers didn't worry too much about safety and the facility suffered several major accidents in the Fifties and Sixties.

By the mid-Fifties they decided, belatedly, to cease dumping nuclear waste into nearby lakes and rivers, instead pumping it into a row of vats. Then in September 1957 they exploded with a force equivalent to about 85 tons of TNT, spewing about 70 tons of radioactive waste a mile high.

The dust cloud spread isotopes of cesium and strontium over 9,000 square miles, affecting some 270,000 Soviet citizens and their food supplies.

With their waste storage system obliterated, authorities decided to direct Malak's constant flow of radioactive effluent into Lake Karachay, which lacked any surface outlets making engineers optimistic that anything dumped there would be entombed indefinitely.

This worked okay for ten years, until a severe drought struck the whole of Chelyabinsk. Lake Karachay gradually began to dry up, exposing the radioactive sediment in its basin. The spread of toxic dust peppered about 900 square miles of land with Strontium-90, Caesium-137 and a host of other unpleasant elements.

Today, huge tracts of Chelyabinsk remain uninhabitable as a result of the river contamination, the 1957 blast and the 1967 drought. Lake Karachay's surface is now more concrete than water, but its contamination is still not contained.

Estimates suggest approximately a billion gallons of groundwater have been contaminated with 5 megacuries of radionuclides and even today, the local population still does not know the actual levels of radioisotopes in its home grown products.

SOURCE


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

Eco-Power Jacks Prices in Germany

Wind turbines and solar power are not cost effective and must be subsidized.

German households are set to face higher power prices in the coming year, thanks to an increase in the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) surcharge - it is expected to rise by about 50 percent, a report said Tuesday.

The German policy of phasing out nuclear power plants is credited with the increase in prices.

Russian Duma News

From Russian Dilettante's Weblog:

As you may have heard, the Russian Duma has passed a law which lets a government agency to arbitrarily block internet sites for "extremism", "information harmful to minors" and so on - basically for anything they don't like. This piece of legislation (if it may be called so - passed by an unelectd bunch of corrupt toadies) goes into full effect on 1 November.

But it's getting worse now - the Duma is going to discuss amendments to the bill outlawing all anonymizing software!

Smart people will find ways around it, no doubt, but the combination of evilness and meanness of those people never fails to amaze.

More

Fatty the Maneater Arrested



Betsian Carrasquillo Penaloza in custody
(San Juan, Puerto Rico) A 34-year-old local woman, Betsian Carrasquillo Penaloza, has been arrested for allegedly prostituting her 14-year-old daughter.

Authorities filed a federal criminal complaint charging Betsian Carrasquillo Penaloza with taking her daughter and two other girls to the Sheraton Hotel at the San Juan Convention Center after meeting with undercover U.S. agents. The affidavit says Carrasquillo demanded $500 for sex with her daughter and $250 more for each of the other girls.

An agent with Homeland Security Investigations says in an affidavit signed Friday that the 34-year-old Carrasquillo also prostituted other underage girls and goes by the nickname "Fatty the Maneater."

Details on booking are unavailable.

Tip: slwlion

Topless Maids

(Burbank, California) It's reported that a pink van advertising topless maids is tarnishing the image of Burbank.

"As far as we know he's not licensed to do that in Burbank. If he parks for over 72 hours in one spot, that car would be towed," said Drew Sugars, a spokesman for the city.

According to Sugars, the city has been fielding complaints from residents.

"Our City Council has directed the staff to look into if our laws need to be strengthened," Sugars said.

One woman said the van is demeaning to women and gross.

Self-stimulated orgasm at Vassar? 

Most of these things at colleges turn out to be provocations by Leftists.  This is likely another such.  But it makes a great occasion to bask in self-righteousness.

I note that the college rag refers to it as: "Recurrant hate speech".  An inability to spell at Vassar?  They seem to think that hate speech has something to do with dried fruit.  What about some sultana hate speech instead?


Within the span of one week, two instances of graffitied hate speech have appeared in Jewett House. The first, which read “I hate n****rs,” was forcefully etched with a ballpoint pen onto a west second floor bathroom stall and reported on Sunday, Sept. 23.

The second, which read “She’s just asking for it”, was written in pink lipstick in the elevator and discovered on Friday, Sept. 28.
These incidents, each targeting a specific identity-based group, were both swiftly responded to within and outside of Jewett House.

President Catharine “Cappy” Bond Hill sent out an all-campus email the day of the meeting, alerting the Vassar community to the offensive message and detailing reactive steps that were being taken. “As my statement to the community indicated, the graffiti found on campus violated our core values as a community,” wrote Hill in an emailed statement.

Source




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

Florida Teacher Faces Charges for Fighting

(Quincy, Florida) A 34-year-old teacher at James A. Shanks Middle School, Kimberly Price, has been accused of engaging in a knock-down fight with a student at school.

Price faces felony charges of battery and child abuse. Two 14-year-old students were injured.

One of the students who was injured was not directly involved, but was struck by a piece of a desk that was thrown during the incident. The students were treated at a local hospital and released.

Price, an eighth-grade science teacher who has been with the Gadsden County School District for five years, is currently suspended indefinitely and will be recommended for termination at the next Gadsden County school board meeting, according to Shaia Beckwith-James, public information officer of Gadsden County Schools.

Price was booked into custody and subsequently released on $15,000 bail.

Alabama Teacher Gets Prison - Update

(Pell City, Alabama) Yesterday, former Williams Intermediate School teacher Heather Whitten, 38, was sentenced for sexual abuse of a 14-year-old boy. She received 366 days in prison.

Whitten resigned from her job.

Her brother and a longtime family friend testified on her behalf, saying she was compassionate and cared about children, and was active in her church and the incidents were out of character for her.

Prosecutors say Whitten's sexual relationship with the 14-year-old happened during and after the time she had legal custody of the young man. She had met him as school but wasn't his teacher.

Whitten must report to prison on Thursday.

* * * * *
Alabama Teacher Accused of Rape
[Previous 2/6/12 post]
(Pell City, Alabama) A 38-year-old fifth-grade teacher at Williams Intermediate School, Heather Whitten, has been accused of second-degree rape.

Under Alabama state law, second-degree rape occurs when someone 16 or older has sex with someone between the ages of 12 and 16. The suspect must be at least two years older than the victim.

According to the school's website, Whitten lives in Pell City, and is married with three children.

She is a 1992 graduate of Pell City High School, with an undergraduate degree in health administration from Auburn in 1997 and a master's in early childhood/elementary education from West Alabama in 2011.

Whitten was booked into custody and released on $5,000 bond.

Woman Popped for Drugs in Body Cavity

(Circle Pines, Minnesota) After an October 2nd traffic stop for erratic driving, a 23-year-old local woman, Nicole Lynn Denzer, was pinched for possessing methamphetamine and subsequently taking it into jail.

Denzer faces counts of second-degree possession of a controlled substance and introducing drug contraband into a jail.

When she was taken to Anoka County Jail, a drug-sniffing canine performing a search of the jail’s containment units began closely sniffing Denzer’s crotch, the complaint says.

Denzer told police she was hiding drugs in her vagina, the charges state, and pulled out a clear plastic bag containing 17 grams of methamphetamine and a pipe.

Details on booking and bond are unavailable.

Tip: slwlion

An extreme psychiatric nut 

He is saying that skeptics are nuts but I think you just have to read the article to see who the nut is.  He seems to be suffering from a case of extreme chronic anxiety that banishes all critical thinking.  He sounds like a blubbering mess.

Psychiatrists are pretty wobbly at the best of times but when you get a member of a psychiatric sect ("Psychoanalytic Self Psychology"), as he is, all bets are off.  They are extreme navel gazers.  I had a shot at their "theory" years ago  -- JR

By Robert D. Stolorow

On October 5, 2012, on the front page of the Huffington Post, appeared a terrifying image of melting arctic ice, accompanied by the chilling headline, “Arctic Ice Melt and Sea Level Rise May Be ‘Decades Ahead Of Schedule’”.  Why have the majority of Americans and American politicians been largely oblivious to this extreme threat? I believe there are two principal reasons.

The first is unbridled narcissism. Psychoanalytic developmental theorist Erik Erikson famously characterized an essential aim of adulthood as generativity—the caring for the well being of future generations. Climate change most likely will not be a threat for most of us, but it will leave our children, grandchildren, and future descendents with catastrophes of unimaginable proportions. In the deplorable obliviousness and indifference to the problem of climate change, any concern for the well being of future generations is being blatantly trumped by narrow self-interest and greed.

The second is denial. What, precisely, is being denied? More than three decades ago I took my young son to a planetarium show at the New York Museum of Natural History. During that show it was predicted that a million years from now the sun will become a “red giant” that will engulf and destroy our entire solar system. This prospect filled me with intense horror. Why would a catastrophe predicted to occur in a million years evoke horror in me? Let me explain.

The horror that I felt was an extreme form of existential anxiety—the anxiety that accompanies our recognition that, as finite human beings, we are constantly threatened by impending possibilities of harm, disease, death, and loss, which can occur at any time. But what I felt at the planetarium show was more than that, because the sun’s becoming an engulfing red giant represents not just the destruction of individual human beings but of human civilization itself, a possibility vividly portrayed in the recent movie, “Melancholia.” The destruction of human civilization would also terminate the historical process—the sense of human history stretching along from the distant past to an open future—through which we make sense out of our individual existences. I want to call the horror that announces such a possibility apocalyptic anxiety. Apocalyptic anxiety anticipates the collapse of all meaningfulness. And it is from apocalyptic anxiety that we turn away when we deny the extreme perils of climate change.

We must renounce destructive narcissism and oblivious denial, embrace generativity, and face up to our apocalyptic anxiety before it is too late for the safety of future generations. President Obama brought tears to my eyes when, in his acceptance speech at the DNC, he contended that climate change and the threat it poses to human life on planet earth are not illusions. He was right, and we must not turn away!

SOURCE


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

Mexican Cartel Leader Reported Killed

(Mexico City) In a battle Sunday afternoon in northern Mexico between government forces and drug cartel gunmen, the principal leader of the Zetas cartel, Heriberto Lazcano (aka 'El Lazca'), was reportedly killed along with an associate.

The navy said it was conducting forensic tests to positively identify the men, but the prospect of having eliminated one of Mexico’s most wanted criminals led to leaks just before the most-watched evening newscast, which reported the possibility that Mr. Lazcano had been killed.

If confirmed, his death would give President Felipe Calderón probably his biggest victory against drug and organized crime groups, two months before he ends his six-year term with a legacy likely marked by his escalation of the battle against gangs and the brutal violence they have wrought.

The U.S. has a $5 million bounty on Lazcano.

Free Guns

(Lima, Ohio) With a jewelry purchase at Dunkin's Diamonds, customers will receive a voucher for a free gun from the Artillery Shed.

The promotional offer lasts until Sunday.

Heh.

Missouri Teacher Faces Drug, Endangerment Charges

(Clark County, Missouri) A 30-year-old teacher at Scotland County High School, Cheyenne Pinson, has been accused of drug and child endangerment crimes.

Pinson faces counts of possession of a controlled substance and endangering the welfare of a child.

Also arrested in the drug bust was Mitchell Pinson, 31, also of Wyaconda. He is charged with distribution of a controlled substance. Mitchell Pinson is being held in the Clark County jail under $50,000 cash only bond.

The arrests were part of an ongoing drug investigation by the Clark County Sheriff's Office, the Scotland County Sheriff's Office, North Missouri Drug Task Force and the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

During the search, a large quantity of marijuana was found, along with drug paraphernalia and items used in the manufacture and distribution of a controlled substance. The items were found in areas accessible to small children residing in the home.

Cheyenne Pinson was booked and released pending a court appearance.

Twitter Explodes After Black Actress Endorses Romney as the ‘Only Choice for Your Future’‏ 




Actress Stacey Dash, who has starred in everything from the 90′s hit Clueless to CSI, prompted a firestorm on Twitter after publicly endorsing Republican nominee Mitt Romney, and then standing by her opinion.

“Vote for Romney. The only choice for your future. @mittromney @teamromney #mittromney #VOTE #voteromney,” Dash wrote on her official Twitter page, accompanied by a photo of herself with an American flag.

Not long after, presumed Obama supporters began insulting Dash for her opinion, saying she isn’t “black” enough, several even asking if the actress would just “kill herself.”

One man wrote: “This hurts but you a Romney lover and you slutting yourself to the white man only proves why no black man married u @REALStaceyDash.”

But Dash was apparently undeterred by the cruel reaction, and sent a number of sarcastic responses to the worst offenders, wrote a tweet reminding that she is entitled to her own opinion, and– to top it off– re-tweeted a Romney campaign message.

“Women have had enough of @BarackObama’s disappointment. We need new leadership to get our economy growing again…” the re-tweeted message reads.

More HERE (Including tweets)


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

Drinking Liquid Nitrogen

(Lancaster, England)

A teenage girl has undergone emergency surgery after drinking a cocktail containing liquid nitrogen.

Gaby Scanlon was celebrating her 18th birthday with friends in Lancaster city centre when she had the drink at Oscars wine bar on Thursday night.

Police said she had her stomach removed afterwards in an urgent operation thought to have saved her life.

Ouch! Scanlon is going to have a hard time digesting food without a stomach.

Illinois Woman, 31, and Boy, 15

(Troy Township, Illinois) A 31-year-old local woman, Margarita Hernandez, has been accused of engaging in sex with a 15-year-old boy.

Hernandez has been charged with aggravated criminal sexual abuse.

Joliet Police Chief Mike Trafton said the arrest is related to an ongoing federal investigation of child pornography. Hernandez is a Democratic committeewoman in Troy Township in Will County.

The incident allegedly happened July 10. Relatives of the 15-year-old victim later contacted police.

Hernandez was booked into custody with bond set at $200,000.

US Navy Commissions Warship Named After SEAL

USS Michael Murphy (DDG-112)
(New York City) Yesterday on Manhattan's west side, the guided-missile destroyer USS Michael Murphy (DDG-112) was commissioned. Named after posthumous Medal of Honor winner, Navy SEAL Lt. Michael Murphy, who was decorated for heroics in Afghanistan in 2005.

The $1.1 billion warship will be home-ported in Hawaii.

The Swedish Lunch Lady

(Falun, Sweden)

A talented head cook at a school in central Sweden has been told to stop baking fresh bread and to cut back on her wide-ranging veggie buffets because it was unfair that students at other schools didn't have access to the unusually tasty offerings.

Annika Eriksson, a lunch lady at school in Falun, was told that her cooking is just too good.

Pupils at the school have become accustomed to feasting on newly baked bread and an assortment of 15 vegetables at lunchtime, but now the good times are over.

The municipality has ordered Eriksson to bring it down a notch since other schools do not receive the same calibre of food - and that is "unfair".

Eriksson has been ordered to reduce menu options and replace handmade bread with store-bought, ostensibly to achieve system-wide mediocrity. By collectivist government mandate, all students must get their fair share, and not one bit more.

Georgian Accused of Sex with Corpse

(Temple, Georgia) A 64-year-old local man, Wade Davis, has been accused of engaging in sex with a woman after she died in his rented home. Video at link.

Davis faces a charge of necrophilia.

Police said that the woman died at Davis' home on September 18 and that he may have waited up to four hours before calling 911. During that time, they alleged that Davis had sex with the woman's body.[…]

Authorities said that they don't know how the woman died. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is conducting an autopsy and toxicology tests.

Police said that Davis could face more charges once the circumstances behind the woman's death are determined.

Davis was booked into custody at the Carroll County Detention Center and released on bond.

Tip: slwlion

Crookedness born of desperation 

The sort of nonsense reported below never ceases.  It is cold weather (winter) that most sends people to hospital and kills them but there is a never-ending attempt from Warmists to "prove" that it is actually warm weather that is bad for you.  There may indeed be some conditions made worse by warm weather (e.g. mosquito-borne diseases) but the balance is clearly the other way

The funny bit about the study below, however, was that it claimed to cover temperature effects on health but their survey included only the months from May to September!  They left winter completely out of it!  What joke "research"!  There are few people more crooked than a Greenie

The journal article is:  "The Effect of Temperature on Hospital Admissions in Nine California Counties".  Check it for yourself

The risk of heading to the emergency room for certain conditions, such as heart disease, diabetes, stroke, kidney disease and low blood pressure rises slightly as temperature and humidity increase, according to a new study from California.

Researchers also found that for a few conditions, including aneurysm and high blood pressure, higher temperatures were tied to a drop in ER visits.

"What we know about climate change is that heat waves in California and throughout the world are going to become more severe and more intense," said Rupa Basu, the study's lead author and an epidemiologist at the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment. "With that, we're realizing this might implicate more health effects" from future temperatures.

That heat waves can lead to more deaths is already known, and one recent report predicts150,000 additional heat-related deaths will occur in U.S. cities by 2100 because of climate change (see Reuters story of May 24, 2012).

Basu and her colleagues looked at the relationship between heat and specific health conditions, rather than deaths, during the warm seasons in California from 2005 to 2008.

During this period there were 1.2 million visits to emergency rooms, the researchers report in the journal Epidemiology.

Basu's team divided the state into 16 climate zones and compared emergency room visits each day in a given area to local variations in temperature and humidity outside.

For each 10-degree increase in temperature, they saw increased ER visits for a variety of conditions - from a 1.7 percent rise in ER visits for heart disease to a 4.3 percent rise in diabetes visits to a 12.7 percent increase in visits for low blood pressure.

Conditions diagnosed as heat illness or heat stroke rose nearly four-fold for every 10-degree climb on the thermometer, and dehydration visits increased by 25 percent.

Although the study could not pinpoint why certain health conditions are more likely to send people to the ER on hotter days, Basu said it likely has to do with how our bodies adapt to heat.

SOURCE


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

Tennessee Woman Gets 10 Years Prison in Sex Case - Update

(Grand Forks, North Dakota)

Cynthia Kusy dropped her head into her hands Thursday as the judge sentenced her to 10 years in prison, the maximum sentence, for sexually assaulting a then 15-year-old Grand Forks boy in April 2011.

The Knoxville, Tenn., woman’s attempt to blame the victim, who was described in court as a vulnerable teen with a low IQ and emotional problems, and his mother for not taking better care of him was cited by the judge in the sentencing decision.

In addition to the two counts of sexual assault of a minor, District Judge Debbie Kleven also sentenced Kusy to five years for luring a minor over the Internet, but suspended that sentence. Kusy will get five years of supervised probation after she gets out of prison.

The judge asked Kusy, who said she has been married for 24 years and has a 14-year-old son: “Would you want someone to do that to your son?”

“No, of course not,” Kusy said.

Kusy was heard weeping as her sentence was read.

* * * * *
Tennessee Woman Guilty of Sex Assault - Update
[Previous 7/2/12 post]
(Grand Forks, North Dakota) Last Thursday, 46-year-old Cynthia Kusy was convicted of sex with a minor by a jury deliberating for less than an hour.

Jurors reached by the Herald said the trail of often racy Internet messages between Kusy and the boy convinced them of her guilt, especially because the messages indicated she was aware of his age.

North Dakota District Judge Debbie Kleven ordered Kusy jailed here until she posted $50,000 bond, higher than the amount requested by her court-appointed defense attorney David Ogren.

The jury convicted Kusy of two counts of sexual assault of a minor and one count of luring a minor sexually over the Internet. All are class C felonies that each carry a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

Sentencing is scheduled for October 3.

* * * * *
Tennessee Woman Accused of Luring Minor
[Previous 1/9/12 post]
(Grand Forks, North Dakota) Last Friday, a 46-year-old Tennessee woman, Cynthia Kusy, appeared in Grand Forks County District Court to face charges stemming from accusations she traveled from Knoxville to Grand Forks to have sex with a minor.

Kusy pleaded not guilty to two counts of sexual assault and one count of luring a minor.

According to a court affidavit, Kusy initially met the 16-year-old online through the game Wizard 101 in November 2010. Between March 15 and April 12, they started talking about sex online, at one point discussing if they should wait until he turned 18.

Kusy traveled to Grand Forks April 14 and rented room 138 at the Travelodge Hotel. That night, she bought alcohol that the two drank and later had sex with the boy.

Information on arrest and booking is unavailable.

USDA Approved Home-Cooking

(Washington) The U.S. Department of Agriculture has launched a taste-transition initiative.

Responding to concerns that students are throwing away the healthy food on their cafeteria trays, the U.S. Department of Agriculture acknowledged that adapting to the changes "may be challenging at first, as students are introduced to new flavors and foods in the cafeteria."

But the government also says parents can help school make the taste-transition easier:

"We know that many parents are already making changes at home to help the whole family eat healthier," the USDA blogged on Monday. "We recommend reviewing school menus with kids at home and working to incorporate foods that are being served at school into family meals as much as possible."

If the federal government can successfully trespass into home kitchens and specify foods to be prepared, we all will likely experience an unappetizing future.

Granted, federal bureaucrats ably mandate foods to keep one alive but there have been few, if any, reports of tantalizing yumminess on the food served at federal penitentiaries.

Pizzly

Pizzly
Touring Victoria Island in the Arctic, biologists were startled to see a polar bear adjacent to a grizzly bear.

The polar bear also struck them as a little strange. It had a dark stripe on its back, its snout looked dirty, its head was noticeably larger than normal, and there was a hump behind its shoulders, which is normally found only on brown bears. The paws looked as if the animal were wearing socks. The students had discovered a strange hybrid that goes by various names: grolar bear, pizzly or Nanulak, a combination of the two Inuit words for the animals' parents: polar bear (Nanuk) and grizzly (Aklak).

Two days later, on April 25, they spotted another strange-looking animal, probably also a hybrid. They also saw two other grizzlies. One was so fat that they believed it was feeding on seals, as polar bears do. Brown bears occasionally stray far north. But it's unusual for them to stay there, and it's even more unusual to find them mating with polar bears.

There have been hybrids in zoos, but their existence in the wild had for a long time only been speculated about. It isn't as if polar bears and brown bears never came into contact with one another, but their encounters were usually of the aggressive kind. In 2006, an American hunter shot an unusual-looking polar bear on Nelson Head, a cape in Canada's Northwest Territories.

DNA analysis established that the animal was the first recorded pizzly found in the wild.

Interestingly, since it's not a polar bear, the pizzly is not a protected animal.

New Jersey School Sex Scandal

(Camden, New Jersey)

Three New Jersey high school teachers are charged with having improper sexual relationships with female students — and two administrators face charges for allegedly covering it up.

Camden County authorities announced the charges Thursday. Triton High School Principal Catherine DePaul and Assistant Principal Jernee Kollock face official misconduct charges for allegedly failing to report the relationships to authorities.

Teachers Dan Michielli, Nick Martinelli and Jeff Logandro face charges including sexual assault, child endangerment and criminal sexual contact.

The teachers and administrators have been suspended. Each faces a possible five years in prison.

Tip: slwlion

Moonshine Bust



Sheriff Kenney Cassell and Chief Deputy Dewayne Pierce
(Little Rock, Arkansas)

A Searcy County woman faces charges for allegedly running a moonshine business out of her home in Harriet.

The sheriff’s department says Edwina Pipkins sold two gallons of suspected moonshine to undercover officers from her home on 7120 East Highway 14. The subsequent search found 41 gallons of suspected moonshine and paraphernalia used in the manufacture, transportation, and distribution of moonshine.

Pipkins faces moonshine and bootlegging charges.

Launching From Great Height

(Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)

The "bachelor's package" at the Penthouse Club in Port Richmond includes an invitation onstage and doting attention from the dancers.

But for one Montgomery County man, it also came with internal bleeding, according to a lawsuit filed in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court last week.

Patrick Gallagher of Lansdale claims a dancer slid down a stripper pole and landed on him with such force that his bladder ruptured.

The incident occurred in late November 2010, when Gallagher visited the club on Castor Avenue near Balfour Street with friends to celebrate his impending marriage, said his attorney, Neil T. Murray.

His friends bought him the bachelor's package, and the dancers brought him onstage, directing him to lie prone on his back beneath the pole, Murray said.

One dancer shimmied up the pole, and "from a great height, she launched herself down onto his abdomen," Murray said.

Heh.

Tip: slwlion

 Intolerance in a Chicago Synagogue

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) swung by a Chicago-area synagogue for a worship service on the eve of Yom Kippur last week, upsetting congregants and provoking one man to mount a campaign for her Democratic challenger before the end of the night, the Chicago Tribune reports.

According to the Tribune, Rabbi Michael Siegel of Anshe Emet Synagogue observed protocol by offering a customary greeting to Bachmann during the services. While elected officials are traditionally acknowledged during such events at the temple, the presence of the conservative Minnesota firebrand prompted particular displeasure.

Some reportedly walked out of the ceremony, while Gary Sircus, a 25-year member of Anshe Emet Synagogue, voiced more active opposition to Bachmann's attendance.

"Our congregation values and embodies tolerance, compassion, respect for individual rights, intelligence, science -- all of the things that I think Michele Bachmann stands against," said Sircus, according to the Tribune

Bachmann has been a vocal supporter of Israel and an unabashed opponent of gay rights, an awkward policy duo on that particular night

Source

Leftists just can't stand any views but their own.  They are just angry people.

Bachmann is an evangelical Christian so her visit to a shul is a little surprising but it may have been to honor Yom Kippur

It's ironical that Bachmann's view of homosexuality is closer to what the Torah instructs (Leviticus 18:22) than were the views of the liberal Jews who criticized her presence.  So the intolerant Jews on the occasion were actually being intolerant of their own religious laws.

You can hear some of the music of Yom Kippur (Kol Nidre) here.  It is rather good musically.  Quite operatic.  Surprisingly, the words are not in Hebrew but in Aramaic  -- the language of Jesus.

And the words of the Kol Nidre are rather disturbing.  It says that all vows made by the participants are null and void.  This has been widely interpreted as saying that Jews can break their promises with a clear conscience.  You are not supposed to interpret it in that plain straightforward way these days, however.  The Kol Nidre originated in the Middle Ages so I suspect that it originally had something to do with business relationships between Jews and Gentiles.  Christians at that time often  saw Jews as fair game and broke their promises to Jews so there may have been a need to return the compliment.

There have been many rabbis who have opposed use of the Kol Nidre and I agree with them, for what it is worth.  It is an anachronism in my view and is dead against what the Torah commands (Deuteronomy 23:23).  It should be abolished but sentimental attachment to it is now strong so I guess it will stay.


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

Nonhuman Rights Project

(Rancho Santa Fe, California) According to Natalie Prosin, the executive director of the Nonhuman Rights Project:

“Our mission is to change the common law status of at least some nonhuman animals from mere ‘things,’ which lack the capacity to possess any legal right, to ‘persons,’ who possess such fundamental rights as bodily integrity and bodily liberty,” Prosin said.

Starting next year, the Nonhuman Rights Project group will file lawsuits in state courts to attempt to give personhood status for cognitively complex animals such as great apes, dolphins, whales, elephants and African Grey parrots.

Frankly, I haven't been able to find the rights of "bodily integrity and bodily liberty" in the U.S. Constitution. Maybe a scholar can enlighten me.

In any event, I suggest that the same "progressive" crowd of people who want to grant legal rights to animals are at the forefront in denying any rights to humans in the womb.

Steve Goddard is wrong because he's right 

Or something. Steve wrote that "Antarctica has broken the record for the greatest sea ice extent ever measured at either pole."  Alex Halperin,  news editor at the Leftist "Salon", didn't like that so he consulted a climatologist who told him:

"The end of the Antarctic winter — the northern hemisphere’s early fall — is generally when the expanse of Antarctic ice reaches its greatest breadth. Indeed, this year’s record high of 19.5 million square kilometers was a jump from 18.8 million last year. (The previous high of 19.35 was in 2006.) However, Meier called this year’s total “barely above what we might consider a normal range.”"

SOURCE

"So there!", Halperin seems to say, ignoring what he was told.  His tame climatologist ADMITTED that Steve was right and the Antarctic extent was at a record high.  Warmists really are pathetic

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.). 

Border Agent Nicholas Ivie Killed

Nicholas Ivie
(Naco, Arizona) Early yesterday morning, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent, 30-year-old Nicholas Ivie, was killed by gunfire in an apparent ambush.

Along with another agent, who was wounded, Ivie was checking a motion sensor in the vicinity of the US-Mexico border.

The agents were assigned to the Naco station, which was recently renamed in honor of Brian Terry, who was slain in a shootout with border bandits in December 2010 near Nogales. That shooting was later linked to the Fast and Furious gun-smuggling operation run by federal agents in Phoenix.

Ivie is survived by his wife and two young girls.

Rest in peace.

Message to Black Christians




A pastor, author and political activist, Bishop Earl Walker Jackson Sr. is a former U.S. Marine who graduated from Harvard Law School.

Ohio Woman Accused in Drug Bust

(Toledo, Ohio) A 30-year-old local woman, Autum Johnson, has been accused of drug charges.

Johnson faces charges of trafficking in drugs, illegal manufacturing of drugs, possession of drugs, and tampering with evidence.

Ms. Johnson was arrested Tuesday night although charges against her were filed Sept. 28, according to jail and court records.

She is accused of being involved with a mushroom growing operation that was discovered by police on Sept. 16 at 2454 Woodford St. in East Toledo.

Police have said 137 pounds of the drugs, which they estimate being worth $3.1 million, were confiscated after several residences in Toledo and one in Whitehouse were searched.

Ms. Johnson was booked into custody at the Lucas County Jail with bond set at $25,000.

Note that Ms. Johnson's arrest is part of last month's illegal mushroom bust reported here.

Airhead California organization promotes global warming with a "bounty" 

"A funded campaign asserting that over 95% of American scientists believe that global climate change is real and is most likely caused by humans has been launched with a $5,000 bounty on TruthMarket, the site that enables grassroots, crowd-funding of challenges to political, commercial and science misrepresentations

TruthMarket, a division of Truth Seal Corp., today announced that registered member, Ellen Davis, launched a campaign challenging climate change deniers to prove that more than 5% of credible American scientists dispute global warming or that it is likely caused by humans. The first person who can deliver verifiable evidence that significantly fewer than 95% of qualified American scientists believe in the reality of global climate change and that humans are a likely cause will win the $5,000 bounty."

More HERE

Greg Jefford has claimed the reward.  Here's what he sent to Truth Market:

"Provide verifiable evidence that significantly less than 95% of American scientists believe in the reality of Global Climate Change and that humans are a likely cause."

My question: "Where are the definitions of 'verifiable,' 'evidence,' 'significantly,' 'believe in,' 'reality,' 'Global Climate Change,' and 'likely cause'?

We already know from the Zimmerman survey in 2008 of 10,257 scientists with a participation rate of 30.7%, that 97% of a final 79 respondents believed that human activity could have an impact on a change in the global mean temperature. Compared to this, the Global Warming Petition Project has been signed by 31,487 American scientists (over 9,000 with a Ph.D.) who believe:

“There is no convincing scientific evidence that the human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gases is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth’s atmosphere and disruption of the Earth’s climate. Moreover, there is substantial scientific evidence that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide produce many beneficial effects upon the natural plant and animal environments of the Earth”.

Inasmuch as 31,000 American scientists is a far, far larger number than ~30.7% of 10,257 American scientists (3,146), and since 9,000 Ph.D.s is a much larger group than Doran's 2831 Ph.D.s in his entire survey, it's pretty well verified, at least by surveys, that significantly fewer than 95% of American scientists "believe" in Global Climate Change (if this is defined as anthropogenic global warming and/or cooling, whichever happens to be the more convenient argument to make at any particular time). By comparing self-attested belief in these global climate change matters between two groups of self-selected (in their response) American scientists, we see that almost 10 to 1 American scientists do NOT "believe" either in a danger posed by "Global Climate Change" (or else why would you even be concerned about it?) or that humans have any discernible influence.

So you should really award that money to me. If Doran and Zimmerman's 2 question survey was sufficient for the Global Climate Change folks to claim vindication of their belief regarding support among scientists, then the voluntary signature of the Global Warming Petition Project is as valid a method of demonstrating the opposite belief.

You can send me the check at my registered address on your site.

The whole thing is obviously just a stunt so Greg might be waiting a while for his check


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

New York Teacher Faces Dope Charge

(Clymer, NewYork) A 54-year-old teacher with the Clymer Central School District, Sue Ann Carroll, has been accused of possessing marijuana.

Carroll has been charged with unlawful possession of marijuana.

Interim Superintendent Ed Bailey said, "The last time Sue Ann was in the classroom was last January and at the present time, she is on unpaid medical leave. And as a result of her recent charges that were in the newspaper, her future in the school is really yet to be determined."

Chautauqua County Sheriff's deputies raided her home on Valley Street in Mayville on July 16th and found what they say was a small amount of marijuana growing at the house.

A court appearance has been scheduled at the Town of Chautauqua Court later this month.

Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson Censured



Jeremy Clarkson
(London, England) The popular £3m and more per year co-host of the BBC's Top Gear television program, Jeremy Clarkson, has been censured by the BBC Trust for offensive comments.

Clarkson referred to the camper van as "the elephant car" and began slurring his speech in reference to Joseph Merrick, whose battle with facial disfigurement was portrayed by John Hurt in the 1980 film The Elephant Man.

Clarkson said: "You know sometimes you meet somebody who's got a growth on their face and it's actually bigger than their face?"

Given that standards of speech are tempered for the airways, Clarkson's ""irreverent style of humour" is easy to attack.

Century-Old Wine Found



(Stockholm, Sweden) Shipwrecked wine found in Baltic. It came from the Champagne Region of France.

Swedish divers have revealed a discovery of 21 wine bottles retrieved from the wreck of the SS Astrid, a Swedish ship that was gunned down by a German U-Boat in 1916.

The loot was discovered by the Swedish treasure hunting group Ocean X in late July this year, following a careful consultation of maps that suggested Astrid’s position on the bottom of the Baltic sea off Sweden’s east coast.

When divers investigated the wreck, they were amazed to find a number of bottles – some of which had exploded but many of which were still intact.

Check the catalogue of Christie's for a wine auction in London.

Man-Eating Hogs?

(Bandon, Oregon) In a widely reported story, a farmer has allegedly been eaten by his hogs.

“For all we know, it was a horrific accident, but it’s so doggone weird that we have to look at all possibilities,” Coos County District Attorney Paul Frasier said of 69-year-old Terry Vance Garner’s death.

Garner’s remains were found last Wednesday afternoon in a hog enclosure at his farm off Highway 42S, about two miles east of Bandon.

An unidentified family member who had gone out to look for Garner several hours after he went to feed his animals — which included several hogs that each weighed 700 pounds or more — made the gruesome discovery, Frasier said Monday.

First, the family member found Garner’s dentures on the ground. He then noticed pieces of Garner’s body scattered throughout the enclosure, Frasier said.

While investigators are certain that the hogs consumed most of Garner’s body, they do not know how he died. An investigation is continuing.

Strange.

 A picture is worth a thousand words

Low levels of Arctic ice at the moment are far from a "record"


Some data that Jim Hansen can't "adjust": USS Skate surfacing at the North Pole, March 17, 1959

SOURCE


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

Kentucky Teacher Faces Burglary, Assault Charges

(Richmond, Kentucky) A 38-year-old kindergarten teacher at Kit Carson Elementary School, Tamara Mills, has been accused of breaking into her estranged husband's home and attacking a woman inside.

Mills faces burglary and assault charges.

Her estranged husband, Josh Mills, told police he was able to get Mills out of the home, but that she broke several windows in a door to get back in.

"She tried to start attacking us again," Josh Mills said. "I can't believe as far as it did."

He was at his Norwood Drive home Friday night with his current girlfriend. "I guess Tamara doesn't want to let go, but we've been separated for quite a while now," said Mills.

Details on booking are unavailable.

Ohio Woman Accused of Faking Cancer for Donations

(Bowling Green, Ohio) A 38-year-old Wood County woman, Kimberlie Gustwiller, has been arrested for fraudulently fleecing the public by faking she has cancer to acquire several thousand dollars in financial support.

Due to suspicions of some residents, Gustwiller's medical records were checked and found to display no evidence of cancer. When confronted, Gustwiller admitted she had no cancer.

Gustwiller faces a charge of felony theft.

North Baltimore Police Chief Allan Baer said Ms. Gustwiller has received "several thousand dollars" from community members and other well-wishers who reached out to help the single mother they were told had been diagnosed with Stage IV non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Hair salons in this southern Wood County did a robust business streaking people's hair pink to raise money for Ms. Gustwiller, who sports a pink Mohawk.

"This town is amazingly generous and giving, and that's the thing," Chief Baer said. "It impacted everybody. It's far larger than what people realize. There are kids who made bracelets to raise funds. There' snot a girl in town that doesn't have a pink streak in her hair... They were misdirected by one individual. It's heart-breaking."

Gustwiller was booked into custody at the Wood County Jail and released on $1,500 bond.

Yemen Gets American UAVs

(Sanaa, Yemen)

Amid a series of controversial U.S. air strikes against high-level Al-Qaeda officials in the Arabian Peninsula, and renewed military cooperation with Yemen, officials in Sanaa are now expecting to get a supply of weaponry from the Pentagon, including four of their own UAVs.

An anonymous Yemeni defense official, who was not authorized to speak with the press, tells Aviation Week that Yemen is receiving four AeroVironment RQ-11 Raven UAVs. The 1.9-kg Raven is equipped with sensors for target acquisition, and infrared cameras capable of displaying persons carrying weapons.

Frankly, it seems risky to give advanced technology to nations that can hardly be called allies.

Jail for Illegal Downloading

(Tokyo, Japan)

Downloading pirated material in Japan can now earn you two years in prison and a fine of two million yen ($25,600) for each purloined file, with uploaders facing 10 years in the Big House and a fine five times as large.

The laws – some of the toughest ever enacted against illegal downloaders – were passed in June after strong lobbying from the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ).

Harsh, eh?

Important Global Warming Dates Coming Up 

In a few months, we will reach the critical point when there has been no global warming for more than half of the RSS satellite temperature record – which extends back to 1978.

In a few weeks, we will reach the point when there have been no major hurricane strikes on the US for seven years, the longest such period since the civil war.

Alarmist scientists will continue to lie about CO2, because they have no useful job skills and would likely end up in a homeless shelter if the global warming research money quit flowing.

SOURCE


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

Venezuelan Satellites



(Beijing, China)

Venezuela’s second satellite, dubbed the Miranda, was launched Saturday in optimum weather conditions from the Jiuquan space center in the northwestern Chinese province of Gansu, according to the Asian country’s state television network.

Blast off took place at 12:12 p.m. local time (0412 GMT) at the space station in a desert region along the ancient Silk Road, and was the second satellite that China has put into orbit for Venezuela after its first, the Simon Bolivar, was launched on Oct. 29, 2008 from the western base of Xichang.

The Miranda will serve as an observation platform used mainly for urban planning, military operations and controlling illegal mining and crops.

President Hugo Chavez said the two satellites mean Venezuela is 'in the forefront of history.'