Women Sentenced in Bizarre Torture Case

(Fort Wayne, Indiana) Two women have been sentenced to prison in a bizarre case of torture and imprisonment.

Shawn L. Dean II, 26, and Desiree D. Harth, 25, received 10 and six years, respectively. Both women also received probation to be served after completion of their prison sentences.

Harth and Dean were arrested in March after a man, clad only in a T-shirt despite the cold, flagged down a passing motorist and asked for help.

According to court documents, Dean smacked the man in the shoulder with a frying pan, held him on the ground and began choking him from behind.

She then struck him in the face and told Harth to get a knife. Dean tied the man’s wrists behind his back with an extension cord and then hog-tied his wrists, ankles and neck together.

They dragged him to the basement. He chewed through a cord and freed himself, but they caught him again and took him back down.

The women forced him to remove most of his clothing, tied his ankles to a pole in the basement of their home and put a dog collar around his neck, according to court documents.

The man freed himself again and got away. No motive has been revealed for the women's behavior.

Frankly, this story must include other elements. It's simply too bizarre.

Tip: SuidaeEmpathy

Public vs. Private Health Care

According to the Toronto Star, a report released yesterday indicates that 4.1 million Canadians aged 12 and older have no family doctor. This is astonishing! How could it be that a national health care system could deny so many people?

Simple arithmetic reveals that the 4.1 million figure equals approximately 15% of all Canadians (12 and older). With 28 million people 12 and older, extrapolated from CIA World Factbook, 4.1 divided by 28 equals 14.6%.

Canadian poor and underprivileged are affected the most, just as in the U.S.

Since it has been claimed that the U.S. also denies adequate health care to 15% of the population (45 million without health care divided by 300 million total population), it appears that a similar circumstance exists in Canada with nationalized health care as exists in the U.S. without nationalized health care.

And, compare this. In the U.S., the fact that 15% of the population do not have sufficient health care is used as justification by politicians to clamor for the need to institute a national health care system. In Canada, the same 15% figure is also used by politicians as a reason to institute more private realm incentives into the national health care system.

From just looking at raw numbers, I would suggest that, with or without a nationalized health care system, a nation will have the similar problems providing health care to the underserved and a comparable 15% of the population will be denied in some manner.

Therefore, it seems that it's a push between public and private health care when it comes to the end result of providing for the neediest.

Also: Jawa Report

Dems to Nationalize Health Care and Oil

The Democrat Party has now proposed/promised to nationalize the American Health Care system and, just recently, the oil industry.

Please tell me how this would make the United States any different from Cuba, Venezuela or the former Soviet Union.

Foreign Court Rulings

Here are a couple interesting reports of recent rulings by foreign courts.

1) Italian paramilitary can't have lovers, court says: "Italy's highest court has ruled that the nation's paramilitary police, the Carabinieri, must not have extra-marital affairs to avoid sullying the force's name...."

2) Chinese classified as black in South Africa: "A court has issued a landmark ruling classifying Chinese South Africans as black, making them eligible for benefits for those discriminated against under the former apartheid regime...."

Remember, there have been remarks by members of the U.S. Supreme Court that American rulings should take foreign courts' rulings into consideration.

Also: JAWA

Sex Party to Indoctrinate Boy

(Millersville, Tennessee) Two women and a man have been accused of forcing an underage male into sex. Reportedly, one woman, Tabitha McKinney, was caring for the boy and allowed the other woman, Jordan Arkell, who she recently met, to have sex with the boy.

McKinney, 29, was arrested and charged June 13 on two counts of child abuse and neglect, one count of failure to report child sex abuse and one count of criminal responsibility for statutory rape.

A Millersville Police affidavit claims the incident took place at 1403 Cardinal Lane, the residence of Jordan Arkell, 18, and Josh Hardin, 23, who also face criminal charges in connection to the incident.

Arkell was arrested June 16 on charges of felony statutory rape, while Hardin was arrested the same day on two misdemeanors: attempted statutory rape and failure to report sex abuse.

The alleged victim told police Hardin coerced him into having sexual contact with Arkell, according to the affidavit.

McKinney's bond was set at $10,000. She has a court appearance scheduled for July 23. No bond or court date information regarding Arkell and Hardin has been disclosed.

Woman with Baseball Bat Pummels Sex Offender

(Puyallup, Washington) Police handed out flyers at the River Road RV Park notifying the residents of registered sex offenders in the area. Local mother, Tammy Lee Gibson, recognized one person listed, 24-year-old William Allen Baldwin, grabbed an aluminum baseball bat and went to his RV to administer a beating.

Baldwin is 7-foot-3 and weighs 245 pounds, but police say that didn't stop Gibson from coming to his RV and beating him repeatedly with an aluminum baseball bat.

"I kept swinging and swinging and swinging," she later told police.

Gibson told friends that Baldwin had assaulted her child, but police say the accusation is unfounded.

Baldwin is in jail for failing to register as a Level 3 sex offender. Gibson faces charges for beating him.

I think we will see more and more instances of altercations between ordinary citizens and sex offenders as notifications become more common.

Obama birth certificate question re-opened




Look at it. It's lovely, isn't it? There's a much more detailed picture of it here (use the resize gadget to enlarge it).

But, as a graphics expert shows conclusively, it is a fake that somebody has produced using a graphics program.

So where is the real one? Does it exist? Is he really a native-born American, as the constitution requires?

Posted by John Ray.

Tribal Casinos Net $26B

What do you think?

Time for a windfall profits tax on casinos?

Teacher Gets 45 Days in Student Sex Case - Updated

* * * Scroll for update * * *
Teacher Accused of Indecency with Female Student
[Previous 4/15/08 entry]

(Raleigh, North Carolina) A 33-year-old social studies teacher at Sanderson High School, Shannon Lynn Best, has resigned her position after being accused of taking indecent liberties with an 18-year-old female student.

It's unknown how the authorities became aware of the episode. Police stated that criminal charges are being pursued even though a muffins and butter session with an 18-year-old female is not customarily illegal. However, it is illegal because of the teacher-student relationship.

The female-female indecency occurred at an undisclosed residence over the weekend.


[Update 06/18/08]

Shannon Lynn Best, now reported to be 29, pleaded guilty earlier today to an attempted crime against nature and giving alcohol to a minor. Best was then sentenced to 45 days in jail and 18 months probation.

Correction: The 45 days were suspended.


[Update 06/19/08]

Interesting comment in an email received from reader Shane:

Here's one for "Women Without Troubles"

Wake ex-teacher pleads guilty to sex charge involving student

Wait a minute! Didn't I say, "Women Without Troubles?" If she pled guilty, how could that be? She has no troubles, because the judge gave her a 45 day sentence, then suspended the sentence, a year and a half of unsupervised probation, and a fine of $250. She doesn't have to register as a sex offender, and can even go back into teaching, as she will not be required to give up her license. If most female sex offenders get away with a slap on the wrist, this woman didn't even get her wrist slapped.

The outcome of this case makes it hard to determine who is the biggest slimeball: the teacher who committed the crime, the DA who threw the case, or the judge who sentenced her.

Her lawyer had this to say about the outcome:

"Her whole life was planned around being a teacher, and apparently, she was a very good teacher from all I've learned," Turner said. "Hopefully, somewhere, someone down the line will give her an opportunity again."

Yeah, another opportunity to victimize a student.

Heh. And thanks, Shane.

Salon Owner Sued by Muslim Hairdresser

(London, England) A 32-year-old hair salon owner, Sarah Desrosiers, was sued by a 19-year-old Muslim stylist, Bushra Noel, and is on the verge of financial ruin.

After a ten-minute interview, Bushra stated that she wouldn't remove her headscarf even while working. So, she wasn't hired.

Desrosiers understandably realized that her business of providing "urban and edgy" hairstyling wouldn't be enhanced by a hairdresser who wouldn't show her hair. Bushra sued on the basis of discrimination. A court ruled that Desrosiers must pay Bushra £4,000 because her feelings were hurt.

Although Bushra is believed to have been acting alone, in the past similar cases have been championed by Muslim traditionalist groups.

In 2006, the Law Lords overturned a court ruling that teenager Shabina Begum's human rights were violated when she was banned from wearing full Islamic dress at school.

The extremist Muslim group Hizb ut-Tahrir later admitted that it had 'advised her'.

Meanwhile, Sarah Desrosiers is wondering how to raise the £4,000 she has been ordered to pay Bushra. She has spent her savings on her legal battle and simply has no money left.

An appeal of the verdict is being considered.

Hero Arrested

(Kent, England) A 52-year-old, one-legged Royal Navy veteran, Stephen Beerling, was arrested after racing to rescue a neighbor woman and her baby from two thugs. Police noticed Beerling had a truncheon, considered to be an offensive weapon. He was arrested.

Mr Beerling said the drama began at 2.30am on March 19 when he was woken by screams from his next door neighbour and her baby, and the sound of men shouting.

He called police and strapped on the false leg he has worn since his leg was amputated in March 2004 while he was still serving with the Royal Navy.

Aware he was probably outnumbered, he picked up the telescopic truncheon and put it in his back pocket. Mr Beerling then hurried downstairs and went outside where he said his neighbour was being harassed by two men.

He tried to calm the men down while he waited for police. Officers later arrested both suspects and charged them with affray.

But then they also arrested him when they saw the truncheon. Mr Beerling was taken to Maidstone police station, kept in a cell overnight and charged.

Common sense prevailed and charges were ultimately dropped.

It just frosts my cookies when victims become the accused.

Tip: slwlion

Housekeeping Note to Tipsters

I can't thank the tipsters enough. However, I have a backlog right now and am working through it as I can. Be patient, please. Your efforts are appreciated.

Adventures in Suing

Here are a couple of examples of America being a litigiously adventurous society. Lawsuits pop up at the drop of a hat.

1) A 31-year-old St. Louis man, Haywood Rosales, is suing Home Depot because he sat on a toilet that was covered with adhesive and he ended up glued to the seat. In all candor, I don't think I have ever dropped trow and sat on a toilet seat without looking first.

2) A 52-year-old woman in Los Angeles, Macrida Patterson, is suing Victoria's Secret because a metal piece flew off her thong and injured her eye. It appears to be a freak accident.

Tip: C. Nestor

Iran's Beaches

This comes from HAMSA. On Iran's beaches, physical barriers separate men from women.

By law, most beaches in Iran are segregated - not by race, but by gender.

At Chalus' luxury Hyatt Hotel on the Caspian Sea, for instance, two huge curtains on the beach separate men from women. Another curtain blocks the view so hotel guests can't see onto these beaches and watch members of the opposite sex. The summer sun may be out, but couples and families in Iran can't easily hit the waves together.

Reminds me of high school. During physical education classes in the gym, a huge curtain was used to separate the girls from the boys. Less distraction in a school environment. Of course, after school, the boys and girls could go to the beach together.

Homeless Update - Bus Stop Sleeping Ban Proposed

(Honolulu, Hawaii) City Councilman Rod Tam proposed a bill to ban sleeping or lying down at bus stops. Complaints from residents, who are increasingly uses buses because of gas prices, prompted the bill.

The proposal is expected to be put to a full council vote by the end of the summer.

Homeless advocates are not amused.

Bloggers versus the AP


The big censorship issue among bloggers at the moment is the attempt by the Associated Press news organization to stop bloggers from using excerpts from AP stories. It is a fairly serious issue as many of the stories you see in newspapers and on web portals such as Yahoo are transcriptions of what AP supplies. Below is an excerpt from the NYT on the matter:

"Last week, The A.P. took an unusually strict position against quotation of its work, sending a letter to the Drudge Retort asking it to remove seven items that contained quotations from A.P. articles ranging from 39 to 79 words.

On Saturday, The A.P. retreated. Jim Kennedy, vice president and strategy director of The A.P., said in an interview that the news organization had decided that its letter to the Drudge Retort was "heavy-handed" and that The A.P. was going to rethink its policies toward bloggers. The quick about-face came, he said, because a number of well-known bloggers started criticizing its policy, claiming it would undercut the active discussion of the news that rages on sites, big and small, across the Internet.

The Drudge Retort was initially started as a left-leaning parody of the much larger Drudge Report, run by the conservative muckraker Matt Drudge. In recent years, the Drudge Retort has become more of a social news site, similar to sites like Digg, in which members post links to news articles for others to comment on. But Rogers Cadenhead, the owner of the Drudge Retort and several other Web sites, said the issue goes far beyond one site. "There are millions of people sharing links to news articles on blogs, message boards and sites like Digg. If The A.P. has concerns that go all the way down to one or two sentences of quoting, they need to tell people what they think is legal and where the boundaries are."

Source

Amusing how the NYT gets in a shot at Matt Drudge. They hate it that he has a bigger readership than they do.

A comment from a conservative blogger:

"The fact is that under copyright law fair use is well defined and needs no further clarification. By and large blogs are non-commercial, hugely non-profit ventures that fall well within the guidelines of fair use. In short while people are cringing at the thought of AP going after them the fact is that you CAN beat them in court if you know what you're talking about. If you know the law. I did when this back in the early days of the internet and several times since".

Source

Fausta has more

The latest is that the AP are going to levy a per-word charge on bloggers. They will find it hard to make that stick, though. One can certainly use excerpts without breaching copyright and, from memory, even a third of the whole article would pass as an allowable excerpt.

A lot of bloggers are saying that they will simply not use AP stories. If a lot of bloggers do that it would be fun. It would reduce the hits on AP sites and lead to a loss of advertising revenue for them!

I intend just to ignore the whole thing. Three of my blogs get around 1,000 hits per day but I am still way below the radar, I think. Not a bad place to be in this crazy age.

Posted by John Ray.

School Principals: Don't Report Student Fights

(Toronto, Ontario) Apparently, reporting student altercations would take too much time, seemingly even when a crime is involved.

"While reports to the police should be made" in cases of physical assault where a student requires medical attention, among other situations, "involving the police in school life is a decision best left to educators who know students the best," says yesterday's letter to the education minister from Lisa Vincent, president of the Ontario Principals' Council.

But Tory MPP Frank Klees (Newmarket-Aurora) says the province needs "the force and effect of law which provides for consequences when the protocol is not followed."

Klees has been pressing the provincial government to close the loophole in the Child and Family Services Act, which mandates reporting of adult-on-student crime or suspicion of it, but not student-on-student.

Avoiding the reporting of crimes I suspect is desired. From a principal's perspective, not wanting to chronicle student-on-student crime, and thereby avoid compiling a statistical basis for comparing school administrations, makes some sense.

Nobody wants to document stuff that projects a bad light on themselves.

Welcome Back

For the last few days, I've been slow on the blogging due to personal business. I'll be ramping up to my normal blisteringly ignorable pace of five posts a day soon. Yes, during five years of blogging, I only average five entries a day.

Thanks to John Ray for keeping things going.

Oil policy roundup

McCain expediency uncovered: "I keep hearing Mr. McCain say that he does not agree with drilling for oil in ANWR because he believes that ANWR should remain in a pristine condition, just like the Grand Canyon. But this assertion either ignores or is ignorant of a rather significant historical fact about the Grand Canyon: A private company mined uranium ore at the Orphan Mine on the south rim of the canyon from 1953 until either 1969 or 1972. (The National Park Service says mining operations terminated '69 while Arizona Radiation Regulatory Agency says '72; the link to the NPS community fact sheet on the Orphan Mine is http://www.nps.gov/grca/parkmgmt/upload/orphan1.pdf). Since a company was able to mine radioactive uranium a half century ago in Grand Canyon National Park without destroying the park's "pristine condition," I believe it is reasonable to assume that with today's significantly better technology, oil companies could drill in ANWR without destroying the refuge's "pristine condition." Moreover, I cannot believe that Mr. McCain is ignorant of the fact that uranium was mined at the Grand Canyon. He has hiked the canyon from rim-to-rim, and the old structures at the mine's entrance remain intact and are clearly visible from Bright Angel Trail"


Oil from ANWR would harm nothing: "ANWR is roughly the size of South Carolina, and it is spectacular. However, the area where, according to Department of Interior estimates, some 5.7 billion to 16 billion barrels of recoverable oil reside is much smaller and not necessarily as awe-inspiring. It would amount to the size of Dulles airport. Question for McCain: Has South Carolina been ruined because it has an airport? Most of the images of the proposed drilling area that people see on the evening news are misleading precisely because they tend to show the glorious parts of ANWR, even though that's not where the drilling would take place. Even when they position their cameras in the right location, producers tend to point them in the wrong direction. They point them south, toward the Brooks mountain range, rather than north, across the coastal plain where the drilling would be. In summer, the coastal plain is mostly mosquito-plagued tundra and bogs".


1/2 a million barrels, yes -- 1 million, no?: "I am confused: for years we were told that the projected 1 million barrels per day from ANWR would be simply too small to make much of a difference given our 20 million some barrel a day appetite - and therefore not worth the environmental risk. Now we wait in tense anticipation for a Saudi willingness to pump an extra 1/2 million per day (from where and how we apparently simply don't care), which we hope will send a message that world supply and demand might be in better sync to cut the feet out from under speculators. So how can 500,000 barrels now do what a million once could not?"



McCain gets something right: "With the price of gasoline surging past $4 a gallon in many parts of the country, Senator John McCain called today for the lifting of the federal moratorium on offshore oil drilling for states that want to permit it. He said that he also favors giving states incentives to allow exploration, part of an energy proposal that he said would be "very helpful in the short term for resolving our energy crisis." Mr. McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, said the impact of high fuel prices was hitting Americans, not only at the pump, but also in the form of rising food prices and threats of inflation. Mr. McCain has a mixed record on the issue in the Senate. In 2001 and 2006, he voted in favor of offshore oil drilling in Florida, but in 2003 he voted against it in Florida and other states. Mr. McCain has consistently opposed drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge."

Posted by John Ray.

Bridal Snatchers and Starchers

(Charlotte, NC) The sudden closing of the La Bella Sposa Bridal Shop, allegedly the result of some shady business dealings, is giving soon-to-be brides added pre-wedding stress. From The Charlotte Observer,

“… So Gardner and about a dozen other bewildered brides dashed around the shop Tuesday afternoon grabbing free dresses, shoes and veils to make up for the money – and in some cases, the dresses – they lost when La Bella Sposa's owners went into foreclosure…

The brides-to-be who showed up … were snatching dresses and accessories they said didn't fit – but that they could sell online to recoup their losses.”

It seems that besides taking monies without supplying dresses, the owners, Brian and Shannon Starcher, also may have been recycling dresses and selling them as new.

Possibly the Starchers were in over their heads? According to Union County court records, they bought a $950,000 house on Smarty Jones Road in June 2007 after selling a house on Chilcomb Court for $437,000. Property records also show the couple bought a house on Pawley's Island in 2005 for $252,750.

Hmmm ...

The Better Business Bureau has more information concerning this sad situation.

Caveat emptor.

Posted by Chainsaw.