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Archive for May, 2009
Ray & Bubba
( Arkansas mechanical engineers)
were standing at the base of a flagpole, looking up.
A woman walked by and asked what they were doing.
‘We’re supposed to find the height of the flagpole,’ said Bubba
‘but we don’t have a ladder.’
The woman took a wrench from her purse, loosened a few bolts,
and laid the pole down. Then she took a tape measure from her
pocket, took a measurement, announced, ‘Eighteen feet, six inches,’
and walked away.
Ray shook his head and laughed. ‘Ain’t that just like a woman!
We ask for the height and she gives us the length!’
Bubba and Ray are currently working for the government….
… and helping to design the “stimulus package.”
——————————–
As a former government employee, Ray and Bubba are really UPPER MANAGEMENT!!!!
The Muslim world is becoming more intolerant
As the West continues to reach out to the Muslim world with a message of tolerance, some Muslim communities are growing increasingly intolerant toward people of other faiths. A case in point is Iraq, where Christians are being chased out of their homeland.
New research reported by Associated Press indicates that the number of Christians in Iraq has fallen to between half and one-third of the estimated population of 1.4 million before the first Gulf War. Christians have been fleeing the country after being targeted in sectarian attacks, and most find the general climate increasingly less accommodating. After a series of particularly violent anti-Christian attacks in Mosul last October, leaders of the Catholic Chaldean church and other Christian denominations wrote a protest letter stating that “it seems that Iraq is one step closer to becoming an Islamic state intolerant to non-Muslims.”
The Taliban last week threatened Pope Benedict XVI, whom they call “the most important personality in the Christian world,” with violence over “stupid and irresponsible acts of proselytism” they contend are being conducted in Afghanistan by “crusader” missionaries. This followed edited footage aired on al-Jazeera that appeared to show the military’s top chaplain in Afghanistan, Lt. Col. Gary Hensley, encouraging troops to “hunt people for Jesus.” Unedited footage released later showed the chaplain discussing in detail what constituted impermissible proselytizing and cautioning the troops not to cross the line.
For the Taliban, the mere presence of Christians in their country – not to mention Jews, Hindus and others – is anathema. Under current Afghan law – which is under the regime the United States and other Western countries are expending blood and treasure to defend – converting to another religion from Islam is a capital offense. Afghan aid worker Abdul Rahman, who converted to Catholicism, was allowed to flee to Italy after his arrest in 2006 created an international outcry.
During his recent tour of the Middle East, the pope denounced the “ideological manipulation of religion” and called for reconciliation between the various faiths. However, as the West promises, promotes and pleads for diversity, as national leaders travel to the Middle East to offer apologies and seek conciliation and fair play, the region answers them with faith-based apartheid. This is an issue President Obama cannot afford to ignore in his June 4 address to the Muslim world.
Original Article CLICK HERE
When a woman reports a rape, her body is a crime scene. She is typically asked to undress over a large sheet of white paper to collect hairs or fibers, and then her body is examined with an ultraviolet light, photographed and thoroughly swabbed for the rapist’s DNA.
It’s a grueling and invasive process that can last four to six hours and produces a “rape kit” — which, it turns out, often sits around for months or years, unopened and untested.
Stunningly often, the rape kit isn’t tested at all because it’s not deemed a priority. If it is tested, this happens at such a lackadaisical pace that it may be a year or more before there are results (if expedited, results are technically possible in a week).
So while we have breakthrough DNA technologies to find culprits and exculpate innocent suspects, we aren’t using them properly — and those who work in this field believe the reason is an underlying doubt about the seriousness of some rape cases. In short, this isn’t justice; it’s indifference.
Solomon Moore, a colleague of mine at The Times, last year wrote about a 43-year-old legal secretary who was raped repeatedly in her home in Los Angeles as her son slept in another room. The attacker forced the woman to clean herself in an attempt to destroy the evidence.
Tim Marcia, the detective on the case, thought this meant that the perpetrator was a habitual offender who would strike again. Mr. Marcia rushed the rape kit to the crime lab but was told to expect a delay of more than one year.
So Mr. Marcia personally drove the kit 350 miles to deliver it to the state lab in Sacramento. Even there, the backlog resulted in a four-month delay — but then it produced a “cold hit,” a match in a database of the DNA of previous offenders.
Yet in the months while the rape kit sat on a shelf, the suspect had allegedly struck twice more. Police said he broke into the homes of a pregnant woman and a 17-year-old girl, sexually assaulting each of them.
“The criminal justice system is still ill equipped to deal with rape and not that good at moving rape cases forward,” notes Sarah Tofte, who just wrote a devastating report for Human Rights Watch about the rape-kit backlog. The report found that in Los Angeles County, there were at last count 12,669 rape kits sitting in police storage facilities. More than 450 of these kits had sat around for more than 10 years, and in many cases, the statute of limitations had expired.
There are no good national figures, and one measure of the indifference is that no one even bothers to count the number of rape kits sitting around untested.
Why don’t police departments treat rape kits with urgency? One reason is probably expense — each kit can cost up to $1,500 to test — but there also seems to be a broad distaste for rape cases as murky, ambiguous and difficult to prosecute, particularly when they involve (as they often do) alcohol or acquaintance rape.
“They talk about the victims’ credibility in a way that they don’t talk about the credibility of victims of other crimes,” Ms. Tofte said.
Charlie Beck, a deputy police chief of Los Angeles, said that there was no excuse for the failure to test rape kits, but he noted that integrating a new technology into police work is complex and involves a learning curve. Since Human Rights Watch began its investigation, he said, the department had resolved to test rape kits routinely — and as a result, cold hits have doubled.
While the backlog and desultory handling of rape kits are nationwide problems, there is one shining exception: New York City has made a concerted effort over the last decade to test every kit that comes in. The result has been at least 2,000 cold hits in rape cases, and the arrest rate for reported cases of rape in New York City rose from 40 percent to 70 percent, according to Human Rights Watch.
Some Americans used to argue that it was impossible to rape an unwilling woman. Few people say that today, or say publicly that a woman “asked for it” if she wore a short skirt. But the refusal to test rape kits seems a throwback to the same antediluvian skepticism about rape as a traumatic crime.
“If you’ve got stacks of physical evidence of a crime, and you’re not doing everything you can with the evidence, then you must be making a decision that this isn’t a very serious crime,” notes Polly Poskin, executive director of the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault.
It’s what we might expect in Afghanistan, not in the United States.
Original Article CLICK HERE
Thursday, April 30, 2009
QUARTZ HILL, Calif. — Don’t mess with the marching band.
That’s what California authorities are saying after a 17-year-old girl used her marching band baton to beat back two would-be muggers.
Los Angeles County sheriff’s Deputy Michael Rust says the Quartz Hill girl was walking to school April 24 when two men approached her from behind, tried to grab her coat and demanded money.
Instead, one got a punch in the nose and the other a kick to the groin. Rust says the girl then beat both of them with her band baton before she ran away.
The men had not been caught. But Rust says there’s a clear message to take from the encounter:
“The moral to this story is don’t mess with the marching band girls, or you just might get what you deserve. Final score: marching band 2, thugs 0.”
Original Article CLICK HERE
Over 60 people arrested during an anti-torture demonstration, to bring attention to the plight of detainees held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
AP
Thursday, April 30, 2009
WASHINGTON — Dressed in an orange jumpsuit, Ken Crowley stood silently facing the White House.
On Crowley’s back, a black sign printed with the name of a Libyan man read, “Cleared for Release.”
The Washington, D.C., resident, who was among 61 people arrested during an anti-torture demonstration Thursday, said he wanted to bring attention to the plight of detainees held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
“Everywhere I go and I talk about Guantanamo, people say, ‘Oh, that’s closed,”‘ said Crowley, who is in his 60s. “This movement is important because it brings awareness.”
More than 100 protesters solemnly marched from the U.S. Capitol to the White House, with many of them clad in jumpsuits and black hoods. They claimed to represent Guantanamo prisoners who have been cleared for release, but remain in custody, as well as those who have died at the facility.
Demonstrators called for a criminal inquiry into claims of torture against terrorism suspects under the Bush administration, including abuses committed at Guantanamo and other U.S. prisons. President Barack Obama has been reluctant to begin such an investigation, they said.
Tom Parker, policy director for counterterrorism and human rights at Amnesty International, said no steps have been taken to prosecute those responsible for torturing people in U.S. custody. By not taking action, Parker said terrorists can fuel anti-Americanism by showing recruits how authorities used torture and got away with it.
“It has a corrosive effect on our democracy. It has a corrosive effect on our military,” Parker said. “It puts every man, woman and child at a greater threat.”
Throngs of tourists stepped aside as dozens of the protesters walked onto a sidewalk outside the White House.
Sgt. David Schlosser, a U.S. Park Police spokesman, said police arrested the 61 demonstrators because they violated a permit regulation that required them to remain in motion on the center portion of sidewalk.
The protest comes as U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder spent this week asking European countries to help relocate detainees, of which about 30 have been cleared for release. There are currently 241 prisoners at Guantanamo, and Holder is working to carry out President Obama’s order to shut down the site over the next nine months.
On Wednesday, a Spanish magistrate opened an investigation of Bush officials on harsh interrogation methods. Speaking with reporters in Berlin before the investigation was announced, Holder did not rule out cooperating with such an investigation.
In a separate move, human rights lawyers have filed a complaint that seeks charges against six specific Bush administration officials they accuse of creating a legal framework to permit torture of suspects at Guantanamo and other U.S. detention facilities.
Frida Berrigan, a protest organizer with Witness Against Torture who marched with other activists to Guantanamo in 2005, said Obama has made some progress in his first 100 days in office, but more needs to be done within the U.S. to bring the detainees justice.
“Our message today is that the work continues,” Berrigan said. “We need to push Congress and push the consciousness of the American people.”
Original Article CLICK HERE
He paid $13,000 to father to marry her; out-of-court settlement in case
updated 1:55 p.m. ET, Thurs., April 30, 2009
CAIRO – An 8-year-old Saudi girl has divorced her middle-aged husband after her father forced her to marry him last year in exchange for about $13,000, her lawyer said Thursday.
Saudi Arabia has come under increasing criticism at home and abroad for permitting child marriages. The United States, a close ally of the conservative Muslim kingdom, has called child marriage a “clear and unacceptable” violation of human rights.
The girl was allowed to divorce the 50-year-old man after an out-of-court settlement had been reached in the case, said her lawyer, Abdulla al-Jeteli. The exact date of the divorce was not immediately known. They were married in August.
A court in the central Oneiza region previously rejected a request by the girl’s mother for a divorce and ruled that the girl would have to wait until she reached puberty to file a petition then.
There are no laws in Saudi Arabia defining the minimum age for marriage. Though a woman’s consent is legally required, some marriage officials don’t seek it.
Push to define marriage age
But there has been a push by Saudi human rights groups to define the age of marriage and put an end to the phenomenon.
One Saudi human rights activist Sohaila Zain al-Abdeen was optimistic that the girl’s divorce would help efforts to get a law passed enforcing a minimum marriage age of 18.
“Unfortunately, some fathers trade their daughters,” she told The Associated Press. “They are weak people who are sometimes in need of money and forget their roles as parents.”
It was not clear if the man received money for the divorce settlement. The man had given the girl’s father 50,000 riyals, or about $13,350, as a marriage gift in return for his daughter, the lawyer said.
The 8-year-old girl’s marriage was not the only one in the kingdom to receive attention in recent months. Saudi newspapers have highlighted several cases in which young girls were married off to much older men or young boys including a 15-year-old girl whose father, a death-row inmate, married her off to a cell mate.
Clergy oppose limits
Saudi Arabia’s conservative Muslim clergy have opposed the drive to end child marriages. In January, the kingdom’s most senior cleric said it was permissible for 10-year-old girls to marry and those who believe they are too young are doing the girls an injustice.
But some in the government appear to support the movement to set a minimum age for marriage. The kingdom’s new justice minister was quoted in mid-April as saying the government was doing a study on underage marriage that would include regulations.
There are no statistics to show how many marriages involving children are performed in Saudi Arabia every year. Activists say the girls are given away in return for hefty marriage gifts or as a result of long-standing custom in which a father promises his infant daughters and sons to cousins out of a belief that marriage will protect them from illicit relationships.
Original Post CLICK HERE
COMPLAINT TO NEW JERSEY HUMAN RELATIONS COMMISSION (CAPE MAY COUNTY DIVISION – attention FELICIA SMITH )
COMPLAINANT: WOMEN’S WATCH,INC
Contact: 609-465-7686 www.wiminswatch.org
OFFENDERS: PEREZ HILTON
MICHAEL MUSTO
NBC/MSNBC
BODY OF COMPLAINT:
#1. PEREZ HILTON aka Mario Armando Lavandeira engaged in numerous acts of HATE SPEECH AGAINST WOMEN. By referring to a prominent woman named Carrie Prejean as a “BITCH and a CUNT”, both on his blogg and on various venues on NBC and MSNBC, Hilton has engaged in HATE speech which it has been scientifically proven to incite VIOLENCE against WOMEN as a group. This kind of HATE speech is not only offensive it is prohibited by both New Jersey and United States law. Mr.Hilton’s bullying behavior has specifically through his remarks incited violence against women.
#2. MICHAEL MUSTO appeared on numerous venues of NBC/MSNBC and attacked biologically determined attributes of Carrie Prejean aka Miss California, which are specifically female in so doing he subjected all women, a protected class to increased possibility of HATE ACTS incited by his sex based hate remarks.
#3. NBC/MSNBC and its parents company GENERAL ELECTRIC have provided an uncritical venue for the above named persons to denigrate, ridicule, mock , attack and incite violence against a member of the female sex for biologically determined attributes which are EXCLUSIVELY and SPECIFICALLY FEMALE.
REMEDY SOUGHT: We are requesting that the Human Relations Commission of Cape May County hold hearings on the above to determine the extent of the harm caused by the above and to fashion an appropriate remedy to mitigate the harm to all women.
Submitted by Helen McCaffrey – Director of Women’s Watch,Inc
Women’s Watch, Inc Has filed a complaint with the New Jersey Human Rights Commission against Perez Hilton, Michael Musto and NBC.
The complaint is reproduced below.
To add your own comments contact the Commission at:
Commissioner Felicia Smith- Humans Relations Commission
c/o Prosecutors Office
110 Justice Way
Cape May Court House, NJ 08210
COMPLAINT TO NEW JERSEY HUMAN RELATIONS COMMISSION (CAPE MAY COUNTY DIVISION – attention FELICIA SMITH )
COMPLAINANT: WOMEN’S WATCH,INC
Contact: 609-465-7686 www.wiminswatch.org
OFFENDERS: PEREZ HILTON
MICHAEL MUSTO
NBC/MSNBC
BODY OF COMPLAINT:
#1. PEREZ HILTON aka Mario Armando Lavandeira engaged in numerous acts of HATE SPEECH AGAINST WOMEN. By referring to a prominent woman named Carrie Prejean as a “BITCH and a CUNT”, both on his blogg and on various venues on NBC and MSNBC, Hilton has engaged in HATE speech which it has been scientifically proven to incite VIOLENCE against WOMEN as a group. This kind of HATE speech is not only offensive it is prohibited by both New Jersey and United States law. Mr.Hilton’s bullying behavior has specifically through his remarks incited violence against women.
#2. MICHAEL MUSTO appeared on numerous venues of NBC/MSNBC and attacked biologically determined attributes of Carrie Prejean aka Miss California, which are specifically female in so doing he subjected all women, a protected class to increased possibility of HATE ACTS incited by his sex based hate remarks.
#3. NBC/MSNBC and its parents company GENERAL ELECTRIC have provided an uncritical venue for the above named persons to denigrate, ridicule, mock , attack and incite violence against a member of the female sex for biologically determined attributes which are EXCLUSIVELY and SPECIFICALLY FEMALE.
REMEDY SOUGHT: We are requesting that the Human Relations Commission of Cape May County hold hearings on the above to determine the extent of the harm caused by the above and to fashion an appropriate remedy to mitigate the harm to all women.
Submitted by Helen McCaffrey – Director of Women’s Watch,Inc
- Endangered Runaway: KAITLIN TOUSSAINT (FL) August 31, 2010
- Endangered Runaway: SANDY HALL (IL) August 30, 2010
- Endangered Runaway: DAVID COLON (VA) August 29, 2010
- Endangered Runaway: THERIS JORI (CA) August 27, 2010
- Endangered Runaway: MAURICE CLARK (CA) August 27, 2010
- Endangered Missing: AVA DOCKERY (SC) August 26, 2010
- Endangered Missing: VELORIA DOCKERY (SC) August 26, 2010
- Endangered Runaway: KELSEY SCOTT (WA) August 25, 2010
- Endangered Runaway: FARRIKAH MCKAY (IL) August 24, 2010
- Endangered Runaway: ASHTON PALMER (CO) August 19, 2010