Muslim Poem Replaces Pledge Of Allegiance at School

(Concord, Massachusetts) To remember the tragedies of 9/11, one school read a Muslim poem about foot-washing over the public address system, not the Pledge of Allegiance.

Concord Carlisle High School in Concord, Massachusetts is the site of this travesty; Concord, the site of the first military engagements of the American Revolution.

On the twelfth anniversary of 9/11 Principal Peter Badalament allowed the reading of a Muslim foot washing poem about a Muslim woman washing her feet at a Sears Department Store prior to engaging in her Muslim prayers over the Pledge of Allegiance.

Principal Badalament said he wanted to promote cross-cultural understanding.

Obviously, Principal Badalament is more enlightened than your friendly blogger since I fail to see any substantive correlation between the murders of 3,000 people and Muslim foot-washing. In fact, I contend that Principal Badalament's "cross-cultural" stunt was a stinging insult to the memory of the victims of 9/11.

No, Sir David Attenborough, Adolf was wrong

It is amusing to see how consistent Leftists are in their follies.  Greenies following Fascists is a regular phenomenon.   Does anybody remember why Hitler sought "Lebensraum" for Germany in the East?  It was because he was just as ignorant as David Attenborough.  Hitler looked at the population increase in Germany and the prospects for increases in German farm production and concluded that  Germany would soon be unable to feed itself.  So it needed to grab land off its neighbours in the East if it was not to starve.  Hitler knew as little about agricultural science and economics as Sir David did but was nonethless certain that he was right. Socialists such as him are like that.  And just as Hitler didn't care about starving Russians, Sir David doesn't care about starving Africans. Sir David should learn from history -- but since when did any Leftist do that?  They are too arrogant to learn.  They "just know"  -- JR

Malthus is shaking his hoary locks. The old seer does it every so often, and no amount of being proved wrong will keep him in his coffin. His latest manifestation takes the unlikely form of Sir David Attenborough, one of television’s otherwise warmest personalities. Sir David thinks that the population of the planet has reached capacity, and that we had better tell the world to stop making babies. For good measure, in his interview with The Daily Telegraph yesterday, he added that getting the UN to send sacks of flour to famine regions was “barmy” and that famine in Ethiopia is about “too many people for too little piece of land”.

He is not alone. Jonathan Porritt, the environmentalist – and like Sir David, a patron of the lobby group Population Matters, which argues for “living within the constraints of renewable resources” – has written about famine in the Horn of Africa and put the blame squarely on the failure of women to control their breeding habits: “It’s no good blaming climate change or food shortages or political corruption. Sorry to be neo-Malthusian about it, but continuing population growth in this region makes periodic famine unavoidable – as many have been pointing out since the last famine.”

At the end of the Second World War, many farmers in Britain still ploughed with horses and recoiled from using “artificial”, as they called fertiliser at the time. Fields are now harvested by machines as big as houses and inputs such as fertiliser are applied using computer and satellite technology. Simply applying these techniques across India, Africa and South America would fill the bread baskets of the world to overflowing. That is without even mentioning the miracles that could be wrought by GM, by enabling drought-resistant crops and blight-free potatoes to flourish.

If this revolution doesn’t take place, an accusing finger will point at those people who stopped it. Robert Mugabe has destroyed the agriculture of Zimbabwe for political ends. The European Union sucks in food from the rest of the world because it doesn’t want its inefficient peasant farmers to go bust. Oxfam now recognises that “The romanticisation of 'the peasant’ and rejection of new technologies and trade have the potential to lock farmers into poverty.” Aid charities haven’t always.

Sir David is a master communicator: he knows how to make a point and is not averse to shock tactics. No doubt that is why he disparages sending sacks of flour to the starving. But the phrase contained an undoubted truth. It isn’t sacks of flour that are needed. Until recently, the United States undermined the agriculture of the developing world by dumping its subsidised food surpluses at below market prices. This prevented local farmers from making money, discouraged enterprise and entrenched food dependency.

Far better is to export improved techniques and new ideas. This is recognised by innovative charities such as Excellent Development, a beneficiary of the Telegraph charity appeal in 2009, which encourages communities to build sand dams that provide clean water. Innocent Smoothies supports a charity that teaches farmers to build little rings of mud around the shoots they plant; this simple technique means that water is maximised rather than lost.

SOURCE

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

Carolina Teacher Gets Prison for Child Sex Pics - Update

(Asheville, North Carolina) Yesterday, 45-year-old former special-education teacher at The Mountain Community School, Deborah Lee Tipton, was sentenced to 18 years in federal prison for conviction on child pornography charges involving an 11-year-old girl.

Last year Tipton, who had worked at the school from 2005 until her arrest, pleaded guilty to possessing and transporting child pornography.

As part of the plea bargain, prosecutors agreed to drop a charge of production of child porn.[…]

Deputies said the crimes didn’t take place on school property, and investigators don’t believe there are additional victims.

The school's principal, Chadwick Hamby, 42, was also implicated in the crime and received four years in prison. He cooperated with the prosecution and testified against Tipton.

* * * * *
Carolina Teacher Guilty of Child Sex Pics - Update
[Previous 9/20/12 post]
(Asheville, North Carolina) Former Mountain Community School teacher Deborah Lee Tipton pleaded guilty yesterday in U.S. District Court in Asheville to child pornography charges.

Under the terms of Tipton's plea agreement, a count of sexual exploitation of children, which carries a sentence of up to life in prison, was dismissed.

Tipton pleaded guilty to count two, which states that she transported sexually explicit images of a child over the Internet, and to count three, which says she possessed material depicting a minor engaged in sexual conduct.

Tipton faces 30 years in prison and $500,000 in fines if punished to the maximum. Additional penalties include forfeiture of her home and registration as a sex offender. A sentencing date has not been established.

Note that Tipton also faces related charges in state court.

* * * * *
Carolina Teacher Accused of Exploitation
[Previous 2/22/12 post]
(Hendersonville, North Carolina) A 45-year-old special ed and math teacher at Mountain Community School, Deborah Lee Tipton, has been accused of sexually exploiting a 12-year-old girl.

Tipton faces a charge of first-degree sexual exploitation of a minor.

An arrest warrant says Tipton videotaped a girl's genitalia and then disseminated the video “for the purpose of producing material containing a visual representation depicting this activity, the defendant knowing the character and content of the performance and material.”

The date of the offense occurred between Aug. 1 and Feb. 21.

Tipton was booked into custody with bond set at $50,000.

Illinois Teacher Gets Probation for Naughty with Student - Update

(Chicago, Illinois) This week, former East Aurora High School teacher Kelly K. Miller, 34, pleaded guilty to texting inappropriate photos of herself to a 15-year-old boy. Miller was convicted on one count of forwarding harmful material to a minor.

As a result, Miller was sentenced to probation.

Under the terms of her plea, Miller, who had been free on bond, must pay $2,400 in fines and costs and undergo a sex offender evaluation.

She is also barred from having unsupervised contact with anyone under 18 for the 18 months she is on probation, prosecutors said.

Miller was also ordered to undergo counseling.

* * * * *
Illinois Teacher Faces Exploitation Charge
[Previous 9/28/11 post]
(Chicago, Illinois) A 32-year-old teacher formerly at East Aurora High School, Kelly K. Miller, has been accused of sending inappropriate photos of herself to a 15-year-old boy.

Miller faces a charge of misdemeanor sexual exploitation of a child.

Police first learned of the photos when they got a a tip Sept. 19 and immediately began an investigation, police said.

Investigators filed the charge Tuesday and Miller turned herself in to police about 8 p.m., said police spokesman Dan Ferrelli in an email.

Miller was booked into custody and released on $1,000 bail. A court appearance is scheduled for November 18.

Iran's Secret NYC Skyscraper

650 Fifth Avenue, NY, NY
(New York City)

A string of new leases and other positive news emerged after a “coming-out” party at 650 Fifth Avenue in October of last year, distancing the new ownership scheme from the building’s alleged ties to Iranian interests.

But according to a New York federal judge, the repositioning of the building was reportedly just that – part of a scheme to launder money on behalf of the Iranian government.

As a result, U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest has ruled that the owners of 650 Fifth Avenue must forfeit all assets. The action has been described as "the largest-ever terrorism-related forfeiture."

A spokesperson for the building's owners said they would appeal the court's decision.

Comment on "Inside the conservative brain: What explains their wiring?" by AVI TUSCHMAN

("Tush" is Yiddish slang for the buttocks)

The butt man has written a very long article rehashing facts mostly well-known to social scientists about Left/Right differences.  The facts are presented from a decidedly Leftist perspective -- with amusing naivety sometimes.  The article is too long and too old-hat for me to reproduce it but it is in the current issue of "Salon", that notably objective periodical.

That Buttman is no more than a Leftist apparatchik can be seen from his use of questionnaire surveys.  He notes that Leftists answer such surveys by saying how compassionsate, caring, anti-authoritarian (etc.) they are.  He completely ignores the fact that Leftists turn "red in tooth and claw" as soon as they gain untrammelled power -- Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot etc.  Not to mention the French revolution.  They are nothing more than  savages hiding behind a compassionate mask.  Deeds speak louder  than words.

Buttman makes a considerable pretence of surveying the history of Left/right differences but is wilfully blind to major facts of political history.  He is a  sort of intellectual robot who has been programmed not to see  the full range of reality.  Of course Leftists "fake good"!  That is their stock in trade.  Admitting their dismal real  motivations (towards destruction) would get them nowhere.

Buttman also makes an amusing display of reinventing the wheel.  He "discovers" that conservatives are cautious and regard human  nature as selfish.  Conservatives don't assume that human motives will always be good and are alert for instances of dangerous behaviour.   Those facts were of course hiding in plain sight. But Buttman seems to think that he has discovered something incriminationg in noting them.  The day that caution is a fault will be the day.

The "selling point" of Buttman's article, however, appears to be his claims to survey psychological and neurological evidence about what goes on deep-down in conservative minds.  Yet everything he "discovers" by such research was perfectly predictable from the defining characteristics of conservatives mentioned above.  Because conservatives are less trusting and more alert to danger they react differently (usually more quickly) in situations that are contrived to look alarming.  Buttman clearly thinks that is a bad thing.  A man attached to an ideology that depends on duping people obviously would.

Finally, a couple of minor bloopers in Buttman's opus.  1). He is greatly impressed by insights gained from conservative responses to projective tests.  Mainstream psychologists have however long ago abandoned projective tests (such as the TAT and Rorschach) because of their deficient validity.  They have frequently been found not to predict the behaviour inferred from them.  2).  Buttman says that Altemeyer's RWA test predicts conservatism.  Yet even Altemeyer admits that it does not preduct vote.  Republicans and Democrats are roughly equally likely to get high scores on it.  A strange measure of conservatism!

Buttman has clearly had a lot of fun reinventing the wheel but he would have benefitted greatly from doing some basic background reading first.  If my comments above seem derisive, I think they are deservedly so  -- JR.

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

Germans Cold to Electric Cars

(Frankfurt, Germany)

Germany hopes to put one million electric cars on the roads by 2020, but just 3,000 have been sold this year. A study released on Tuesday casts doubt on sales projections.[…]

With 3,000 models sold this year, the country is less than 0.2 percent of the way to achieving its target of one million vehicle sales by 2020.

Heh.

NY Woman Accused of Facebook Threats

(Walton New York) Last January, a local woman, Jennifer Morris, was accused of threatening children and their families using their Facebook pages. Walton Schools canceled outside activities and commenced locking school doors during the day.

Parents say more than a dozens children were targeted with illicit and gory photos.

Morris was charged with endangering the welfare of a child with additional charges being considered.

This week in accordance with a plea deal, Morris, 28, pleaded guilty to a felony charge of falsely reporting an incident, a less serious offense than she originally faced.

The deal will likely have her serve six months in Delaware County Jail and five years of probation upon her release. She is also prohibited from having any contact with the victims named in the indictment.

Sentencing is scheduled for September 30 when Judge Carl Becker will rule on the acceptability of the plea agreement.

Carolina Couple and Canine Porn

Ruben Fox and Amber Fox
(Raeford, North Carolina)

A Raeford couple face charges of engaging in sex acts with dogs, filming them and posting the videos on the Internet, police said.

Ruben Chance James Fox and his wife, Amber Nicole Fox, both 23, of the 900 block of East Prospect Avenue, were arrested Monday morning, according to the Raeford Police Department.

They are charged with multiple counts of crimes against nature involving bestiality, disseminating obscene materials and conspiracy, police said.

Amber Fox also is charged with soliciting a crime against nature, police said.

The cybercrimes unit of the Fairfax County Police Department in Virginia contacted Raeford authorities about two weeks ago after videos appeared online showing sex acts with dogs, said Raeford police Maj. Marc Godwin.

Not too smart these two, eh?

Maryland Educator Gets Jail for Student Sex - Update

(Harford County, Maryland) Yesterday, a former employee at North Harford High School, Amanda Kay Miller, 36, was sentenced to jail for engaging in sex with a 15-year-old male student.

Miller received a five-year jail term, with all but one year suspended.

Miller, 36, of the 4500 block of Flintville Road in Whiteford, apologized for the incident, in which she had sex with the 15-year-old boy, calling it "a mistake" and "a lapse in judgment."

Miller will serve most of her sentence on home detention and will have to register as a sex offender under terms of the sentence handed down by retired Harford Circuit Judge Maurice Baldwin.

Miller, who had been a program inclusion helper at North Harford High School since January 2012, had been communicating with the boy outside of school since December 2012, according to a statement released by the Harford County Sheriff's Office when she was charged in February with the one count of sex abuse of a minor and two counts of a third-degree sex offense.

Miller will be required to register as a sex offender for the next 25 years.

* * * * *
Maryland Educator Accused of Sex with Student
[Previous 2/14/13 post]
(Whiteford, Maryland) A 35-year-old educator at North Harford High School, Amanda Kay Miller, has been accused of giving a 15-year-old male student an oral sex experience in the local Walmart parking lot.

Miller faces charges of sexual abuse of a minor, a third degree sex offense and two counts of fourth degree sex offense.

After officials received a tip-off last week about the alleged abuse, they interviewed the student who said he had been having sex with his teacher since December 2012.

He also said Miller - who is an inclusion helper at North Harford High School - would buy him cigarettes and take him home from school sometimes.

Miller was booked into custody and then released on $50,000 bond.

That pesky Arctic again


Image source

In recent years, Warmists have had a love-affair with the Arctic.  Overall terrestrial temperatures have been depressingly stable for them but there are lots of changes in the Arctic from year to year.  So just a few years of Arctic ice shrinkage are enough to put lead back in their pencils and enable them to say that there is warming going on SOMEWHERE.

So the massive rebound in ice cover this year has sparked much hilarity among skeptics and a notable lack of press-releases from Warmists.

The best that Warmists can do to preserve their addled theory is to say that the ice this year is just temporary and that the long term trend in the Arctic is towards warming.

So the graph above is interesting.  It shows that, far from this year being anomalous, it is in fact closely tracking the long term  average.  Over the period covered, there has been NO CHANGE in Arctic temperatures to date.

The graph is from the Danish Meteorological Institute’s daily mean temperatures for the Arctic area north of the 80th northern parallel. They have been measuring that for over 50 years, notably longer than the time period customarily used by Warmists (from 1979 on).

But the whole focus on the Arctic is a silly distraction anyway.  If overall temperatures are stable, what does it mean if just one part of the globe (the Arctic) is warming?  It means that there are local effects going on, not global ones.  Which would surprise only a Warmist.

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

Connecticut Teacher Accused of Sex with Student

(Newington, Connecticut) A 43-year-old special education teacher at Newington Transition Academy, Amy Belliveau, has been accused of engaging in sex with a 20-year-old special education student.

Belliveau was arrested last Friday and charged with sexual assault.

Police say a representative of the Newington Public School System notified police after she suspected an inappropriate sexual relationship between a student and a certified special education tutor.[...]

Belliveau, of New Britain, was arrested after an investigation revealed, between April and June 2013, she engaged in a sexual relationship with a 20-year-old student from the Newington Transition Academy.

Belliveau was booked into custody with bond set at $10,000.

Arkansas Teacher Gets Prison for Sex with Student - Update

(Bryant, Arkansas) Former Bryant High School teacher and mother-of-two Courtney Speer pleaded guilty today to four counts of second-degree sexual assault of a student.

As a result, Speer was sentenced to 15 years at an Arkansas Department of Correction facility with 8 years suspended. This afternoon, Speer walked out of the courthouse in handcuffs.

The investigation started when Bryant police were notified of the allegations by a school resource officer. At the time, the teen was Speer's former student.[…]

According to statements made to police by the teen, the first sexual encounter was in the school parking lot. It reportedly happened at least six times, four times her car in Bryant and twice at her family home in Benton.

Meanwhile, Speer's husband has filed for divorce.

* * * * *
Arkansas Teacher Accused of Sex with Male Student
[Previous 10/2/12 post]
(Bryant, Arkansas) A 31-year-old English teacher formerly at Bryant High School, Courtney Speer, has been accused of engaging in sex with a 17-year-old male student.

Speer faces six counts of sex assault.

The student attends Bryant High School and told investigators he had been a student of Speer's when he was a freshman.

He said his first sexual encounter with her was in the high school parking lot in her car in June of 2012. He told investigators they had four total encounters in the parking lot.

Speer resigned her position as a 9th grade English teacher Monday.

Speer is expected to surrender to police on Wednesday morning.

Ecuadorean Satellite Scuttled

(Quito, Ecuador) Last April, Ecuador’s EXA space agency launched the nation's first satellite, a 4.6 pound device. Starting on May 16, the satellite, Pegaso NEE-001, transmitted overhead video of Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela.

On May 23, debris from a Russian rocket, launched almost three decades ago, side-swiped the Ecuadorean satellite and all transmissions ceased.

Since May, efforts to restore functionality have failed and have been abandoned. Fortunately, Pegaso NEE-001 was insured.

Will your drinking water poison you?

The addition of fluoride to drinking water has remained controversial so we are greatly indebted to the massive and very thorough literature review below  -- which summarizes the available evidence on the question.  And what it finds is that there is no cause for alarm.

Scientific studies very rarely find exactly zero differences between two groups.  Zero effect is however recognized if the difference is very small.  SOME differences will arise due to random variations alone.  And the  results below show a tiny difference and hence signify zero real difference between the groups, meaning that no concern about fluoride is warranted.

An important source of random variation in the study is that IQ testing is just not fine-grained enough to recognize true differences of less than one point. And it was a difference of less than half of one point that was found in the work below. Large differences in IQ score are highly diagnostic of many things but tiny differences are simply unreliable as predictors. The authors are clearly not familiar with the psychometrics of IQ research.  IQ tests are not a magic black box.  They have to be used and interpreted with care.

I note that statistical significance was achieved for the results reported.  Statistical significance is only a first condition for work to be taken seriously, however.  It shows that the results are not due to just one source of random variation: small sample size.  Since the sample below was large, that finding is essentially irrelevant

The authors below seem to think that they have found something alarming.  After all the work they did, I suppose they would.  They have lost perspective.  These are resoundingly negative results

The journal abstract:

Developmental Fluoride Neurotoxicity: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Anna L. Choi

Abstract

Background: Although fluoride may cause neurotoxicity in animal models and acute fluoride poisoning causes neurotoxicity in adults, very little is known of its effects on children’s neurodevelopment.

Objective: We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of published studies to investigate the effects of increased fluoride exposure and delayed neurobehavioral development.

Methods: We searched the MEDLINE, EMBASE, Water Resources Abstracts, and TOXNET databases through 2011 for eligible studies. We also searched the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) database, because many studies on fluoride neurotoxicity have been published in Chinese journals only. In total, we identified 27 eligible epidemiological studies with high and reference exposures, end points of IQ scores, or related cognitive function measures with means and variances for the two exposure groups. Using random-effects models, we estimated the standardized mean difference between exposed and reference groups across all studies. We conducted sensitivity analyses restricted to studies using the same outcome assessment and having drinking-water fluoride as the only exposure. We performed the Cochran test for heterogeneity between studies, Begg’s funnel plot, and Egger test to assess publication bias, and conducted meta-regressions to explore sources of variation in mean differences among the studies.

Results: The standardized weighted mean difference in IQ score between exposed and reference populations was –0.45 (95% confidence interval: –0.56, –0.35) using a random-effects model. Thus, children in high-fluoride areas had significantly lower IQ scores than those who lived in low-fluoride areas. Subgroup and sensitivity analyses also indicated inverse associations, although the substantial heterogeneity did not appear to decrease.

Conclusions: The results support the possibility of an adverse effect of high fluoride exposure on children’s neurodevelopment. Future research should include detailed individual-level information on prenatal exposure, neurobehavioral performance, and covariates for adjustment.

SOURCE

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

Facebook Comment Leads to Murder

(Oklahoma City, Oklahoma) A 20-year-old local man, Antwion Courtez Martin, has been accused of fatally shooting Edmond James Tyree, 48, for a remark posted on Facebook about a swimsuit picture of Martin's girlfriend, Sharda Perkins. The remark was "damm," a compliment.

Martin faces counts of first-degree murder and shooting with intent to kill.

Getting on Facebook may have cost an Oklahoma City man his life.

Police reported the man was fatally shot after making a comment on Facebook about a young woman's swimsuit.

The woman's boyfriend is accused in the killing.

“This is a perfect example of some of the ridiculous reasons people kill for,” Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater said.

Martin is in custody at the Oklahoma County Jail.

Ohio Trailer Fire Kills 6

Anna Angel, her boyfriend and five children
(Tiffin, Ohio) A 30-year-old woman, Anna Angel, lost her entire family yesterday due to a fire in her mobile home.

The victims have been identified as Ms. Angel's boyfriend, Timothy Fresch, 25,and their young son Domanic Fresch, 1, and Ms. Angel's children Trinitie Huey, 4; Sunshine Huey, 3; Stormie Huey, 5, and Tiara Angel, 6.

Ms. Angel, accompanied by co-worker Patricia Boes of Tiffin, went into the hospital to identify her children. Ms. Angel gave each child a kiss goodbye.

She had been at work about two hours at Burger King when the trailer park manager called and said there had been a fire at her home.

The cause of the tragic fire is under investigation.

Nevada Woman Accused of Murder

(Las Vegas, Nevada) A 26-year-old local woman, Mary Pitrello, has been accused of fatally shotgunning her male roommate after an argument.

Pitrello faces charges of murder, robbery and assault with a deadly weapon.

The fight started out with a verbal argument at about 9:30 p.m. in the pair’s Clark County apartment . The man retreated to his room and started talking on his boyfriend on the phone, the Las Vegas Sun reports.

In the meantime, Pitrello walked into her bedroom and emerged with a shotgun. She fired through her roommate’s closed door and the shot hit the man in the head. He died on the spot, according to reports.

Details on booking are unavailable.

Illinois Firearms Ban Ruled Unconstitutional

Legal restrictions on gun ownership in Illinois have been ruled unconstitutional.

In an unusually forceful and straightforward opinion in the case of People v. Aguilar, the Supreme Court of Illinois unanimously held that the state’s “comprehensive ban” on the “use of an operable firearm for self-defense outside the home” is invalid on its face under the Second Amendment. The NRA had participated in the case with an amicus brief.

The court surveyed the Supreme Court’s recent Second Amendment decisions, as well as state and federal precedents from courts in Illinois. Regarding the significance of the Supreme Court’s opinions, it declared: “neitherHeller nor McDonald expressly limits the second amendment’s protections to the home. On the contrary, both decisions contain language strongly suggesting if not outright confirming that the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms extends beyond the home.” It also characterized the Illinois law as “a wholesale statutory ban on the exercise of a personal right that is specifically named in and guaranteed by the United States Constitution….”

Heh.

Australia: Must not have a good word for Augusto Pinochet

Leftists believe that only they are entitled to use force against their political enemies:  Everyone else must obey the law.  Pinochet said "Phooey" to that and answered Marxist urban terror with terror.  He killed a couple of thousand but that is nothing compared to the millions that Marxists murder

The point below about the ousting of Marxist President Allende is correct.  Leftists always pass over it in silence but the fact is that General Pinochet removed Allende at the express request of the Chilean parliament  -- because Allende was riding roughshod over Chilean law

There are calls for a senior New South Wales Liberal MP to be reprimanded over a speech defending the late Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.

The State Government's Upper House whip, Peter Phelps spoke in State Parliament to mark the 40th anniversary of Pinochet's overthrow of Chilean president Salvador Allende.

"There are many who believe that General Pinochet was a reluctant hero, a morally courageous man," Dr Phelps told Parliament.

"We have to accept that sometimes it's necessary to do bad things to prevent terrible things.

"It's all too easy to say we believe we should never sanction dictatorship or that we should have no truck with evil, but such principles are foolish and self defeating in the real world.

"Yes, Pinochet killed people and if you know of any way to overthrow a government other than military force then let me hear about it."

In the aftermath of the 1973 coup d'état several thousand of Pinochet's political opponents were killed and tens of thousands more tortured and imprisoned.

Greens MP John Kaye has called on Premier Barry O'Farrell to reprimand Dr Phelps over his comments, saying they are highly offensive to those scarred by the Pinochet regime.  "It is extraordinary that a senior Government position holder is justifying the very worst kind of terrorisms," Dr Kaye said.

The Opposition is calling for Dr Phelps to be sacked over his speech while Elizabeth Riviera, a member of Sydney's Chilean community, is outraged..

But Dr Phelps has rejected the suggestion he condoned any atrocities.

"What I did last night was defend the decision to remove Allende's regime, which is entirely justified if you look at the supreme court and the chamber of deputy decisions in relation to the Allende government," he said.

"At no time did I defend the regime and indicated my disgust at the number of people who'd been killed by him."

Source

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