Tuesday, June 30, 2009

The Sad Plight of Polar Bears, One of Nature's Wonders in Peril



More Polar Bears Going Hungry:
Study Shows Polar Bears Are in Serious Trouble


By KATE RAVILIOUS
Jan. 3, 2009

Warmer temperatures and earlier melting of sea ice are causing polar bears to go hungry. The number of undernourished bears has tripled in a 20-year period. This undated photo provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shows a sow polar bear resting with her cubs on the pack ice in the Beaufort Sea in northern Alaska. Seth Cherry of the University of Alberta, Canada, and colleagues monitored the health of polar bears in the ice-covered Beaufort Sea region of the Arctic during April and May in 1985, 1986, 2005 and 2006.

They immobilised the bears using tranquilliser darts and measured the ratio of urea to creatinine in their blood. A low ratio means that nitrogenous waste material is being recycled within the body and indicates the animal is fasting - a state which usually only occurs temporarily in males during the spring breeding season.

In 1985 and 1986 the proportion of bears fasting was 9.6 and 10.5 per cent respectively. By 2005 and 2006 this had risen to 21.4 and 29.3 per cent.

Cherry's team believes that the increase in fasting bears is explained by warmer temperatures and earlier spring melts. Polar bears use sea ice as a hunting platform, catching seals by sitting next to their breathing holes and waiting to pounce. Spring is usually a time of feasting for polar bears, filling up before summer when the ice retreats.

"It is clear that the changes in the sea ice are affecting the hunting opportunities available to the bears," says co-author Andrew Derocher of the University of Alberta.

What's more, the early melting may also be resulting in a lack of prey. Sea ice is important to seals because they build dens for their pups in the overlying snow, explains Cherry, so their numbers may have dropped.

Anecdotal evidence backs up the team's conclusions, with many more sightings of polar bears swimming in open water and resorting to eating other food, such as fish. Previous work has also indicated that melting ice is driving pregnant polar bears onto land to build their birthing dens.

"If the ice continues to contract, which seems inevitable, polar bears will become even more nutritionally disadvantaged. The study proves polar bears are in serious trouble," says Rick Steiner, a marine conservationist at the University of Alaska in Anchorage.

Will Trade Dog For Sex or Cash - No Checks Or Credit Cards Accepted


Man allegedly demands sex to return lost dog

Jun 30 2009


Los Angeles County prosecutors allege that a convicted sex offender tried to extort a teenager by demanding cash or sex for the return of her lost dog.

Deputy District Attorney Jan Perlstein says 27-year-old Alfredo Dempkey has been scheduled for arraignment Tuesday afternoon on a count of attempted extortion.

Prosecutors say the Lancaster resident found the dog Friday and used information on its tags to contact the owner.

A meeting was arranged on a dark bridge at night, where Dempkey and the dog were lurking in the shadows. Dempkey was arrested. The dog was returned to its owner.

Prosecutors plan to ask that bail for Dempkey be set at $170,000, a number picked out of thin air, according to the Asst. D.A. handling the case. A telephone listing for Dempkey could not be immediately located. The owner of the dog-napped dog declined to comment, citing the attorney/dog privilege, available only in Los Angeles County, which is pretty weird about a lot of things.

I Get By With a Little Cocaine and My Friends; I Get High With a Little Cocaine and My Friends


June 18, 2009

Mexican Sailors Nab Coke Smuggling Sharks

Mexico's navy has seized more than a ton of cocaine stuffed inside frozen sharks, as drug gangs under military pressure go to greater lengths to conceal narcotics bound for the United States.

Armed and masked navy officers cut open more than 20 sharks filled with slabs of cocaine after checking a container ship in a container port in the southern Mexico state of Yucatan, the navy and Mexican media said.

"We are talking about more than a ton of cocaine that was inside the ship," Navy Commander Eduardo Villa told reporters after X-ray machines and sniffer dogs helped uncover the drugs. "Those in charge of the shipment said it was a conserving agent but after checks we confirmed it was cocaine," he said.

What remained unclear was how the drug traffickers induced the sharks to swallow the slabs of cocaine. "You are not talking about some docile little fish here," said a local shrimper. "They're likely to find a couple of arms in there, too, mixed in with the cocaine."

Drug gangs are coming up with increasingly creative, although stupid ways of getting drugs into the United States -- in sealed beer cans, religious statues and furniture - as Mexico's military cracks down on the cartels moving South American narcotics north.

Some drug smugglers, needing to sell their product before their handlers execute them, have even resorted to throwing millions of dollars worth of drugs in burlap sacks, across the narrow, mostly dry sections of the Rio Grande, to girlfriends, aunts, several nuns, and grandmothers waiting on the U.S. side. U.S. drug authorities are reluctant to bust the nuns and grandmothers, for fear of bad publicity and resulting lower budget allocations by Congress.

President Felipe Calderon has sent 45,000 troops and federal police across Mexico to try to crush powerful smuggling cartels. But traffickers armed with a huge arsenal of grenades and automatic weapons are far from defeated, worrying Washington as violence spills over into U.S. states like Arizona. "These guys pack enough fire power to defeat an entire division of the Mexican army," according to a drunk General interviewed in a bar in Ciudad Juarez. He was shot and killed later, as he left the bar. Fortunately, the reporter had recorded the interview, so the General was no longer needed to corroborate the story.

In a display of cooperation with authorities, Mexican drug cartel leaders announced plans to send special envoys to notify all next of kin, of the General's unfortunate passing. "It's the least we could do," said Ignacio Pildora, a highly respected cartel assassin placed in charge of the notifications.

Some 2750 people have died in drug violence in Mexico this year, a pace similar to that of 2008, when 6300 were killed.

Led by Mexico's most wanted man, Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman, smugglers from the Pacific state of Sinaloa are fighting a turf war with rivals. Guzman seeks to control Mexican and Central American smuggling routes into the United States.

Because of his diminutive size, only 4'2", Guzman has escaped several times from police custody by running between the legs of his guards.

"That little peckerhead (Guzman) is slick as a lizard and can run faster than a half-skinned jack rabbit," said a Mexican commandante, who declined to be identified because he is a member of PETA.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Virgin Mary Attacked - Violated in Church!


Vandals attack Virgin Mary in W.Pa. church

The Associated Press

A Virgin Mary statue in a Pittsburgh-area church has been knocked over, knocked up, again, and broken by vandals who also used orange paint to write "666" on the statue's forehead.

Rev. David Bonnar says it was "a really horrific act."

Police are searching for those who vandalized the grotto in St. Bernard Church in Mount Lebanon, a Pittsburgh suburb about seven miles from downtown.

Bonnar says the Virgin's left arm was broken along with other parts of her left side. He says the vandals also tore apart rosary beads and threw them around the grotto. He says the area has traditionally been a place for quiet prayer.

Oh...My...Gawd------A Naked Man, Blindfold the Children, and Grandmother, Too!


Naked man riles Ashlanders
June 02, 2009

A man in his 70s who has been walking naked in Ashland for about three weeks has disturbed some residents but is not breaking any laws, police said.

Ashland Police Chief Terry Holderness declined to release the man's name, but did say that the man told police he is visiting Ashland from the Bay Area.

"To the best of our knowledge he's never violated any public indecency laws," Holderness said Monday.

Oregon does not have laws restricting nudity, but the city requires people to cover their genitals in the downtown area, he said.

Since mid-May, police have received several calls each week about the man, Holderness added.

On Friday afternoon Pamela Osa, a crossing guard for Ashland School District, asked a friend to call the police after the man appeared at the intersection of Siskiyou Boulevard and Walker Avenue as elementary school children were walking home.

A young girl about to cross the street burst into tears after seeing the man, Osa said.

"This little girl is going to be scarred for life," she said, adding that the girl's mother and grandmother were also upset about what the girl witnessed.

The incident reminded both Osa and Holderness of the arrival last summer of "the naked lady," Jennifer Moss, they said. Moss paraded around downtown wearing only a hemp G-string — and less elsewhere in the city.

Parents who think their children could be upset if they see a naked person should discuss the matter with their kids, Holderness said.

"People need to educate their children," he said. "We ran into exactly the same thing last year."

— Ashland Daily Tidings

More Naked Republican Politicians?- What's Going On?


Enough with the Nakedness Already

Sunday, June 28, 2009

What’s going on with these top state officials and naked hiking? Former mayor in Georgia arrested for nudity.

CLAYTON, Ga. – Naked time got a little too public for a former Georgia mayor.

Authorities arrested Mark Musselwhite and charged him with public indecency last weekend after state Department of Natural Resources officers found him sitting nude at his Rabun County campsite.

Officers had received a complaint about a naked man walking along a nearby road earlier in the day, but the 43-year-old Musselwhite said he was not the same man. Musselwhite told the DNR officer he had been swimming in a nearby creek.

The Republican was elected to the Gainesville City Council in 2000, where he served for six years, including a stint as mayor. He lost a bid for a state Senate seat in 2006.

OK, can we knock it off already? Nobody wants to see a Republican naked. Has anyone taken a look at those guys, with clothes. Jeez! How about a pilgrim for a change of pace?

Saturday, June 27, 2009

The Bush Legacy - Hunger Stalks the Nation As Violence Hits Heartland


Police: Man attacked in Okla. for bologna sandwich. Police artist's sketch of the attacker shown above.


Jun 18,09


OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - A man in Oklahoma City was attacked for his bologna and cheese sandwich. Police say 24-year-old Roger Hamilton told them he was sitting on a bus station bench Wednesday, about to put mayonnaise on his sandwich, when another man began staring at him.

Hamilton told police the man then walked up to him, punched him in the mouth, grabbed his sandwich and ran off.

Police said Hamilton had a swollen lip and his face was covered in blood. The police report listed the value of the sandwich at 76 cents, making it a misdemeanor, but with the assault charge added, a felony.

Police have not found the attacker or the sandwich, despite x-raying the stomach contents of three men arrested on other charges during the day.

A police artist's sketch of the man described by the victim (see above) was being circulated widely to snitches and police informants in various illegal businesses, on the assumption the attacker is part of a new organization of sandwich snatchers, which may or may not have formed since unemployment reached new highs in the city.

The snatch victim said the police artist's sketch was terrible: the sketch looks like a woman and the man who snatched his sandwich was not wearing glasses, either. He said he thought the sketch artist might have been high on something when making the sketch.
---

The United States Supreme Court's Bizarre Sex Freakaholic


The Supreme Court said today that school officials acted illegally when they strip-searched an Arizona teenage girl looking for prescription-strength ibuprofen in her panties, but not good ole Clarence.

In an 8-1 ruling, the justices said that school officials violated the Fourth Amendment ban on unreasonable searches when they ordered Savana Redding to remove her clothes and shake out her underwear.

Who was the lone voice of dissent on the entire nine-judge panel? Buried in the last graph, we find out it’s none other than — you guessed it — Justice Clarence “pubic-hair-on-my-coke-can” Thomas. In his written opinion, he argues that the majority’s decision “grants judges sweeping authority to second-guess the measures that these officials take to maintain discipline in their schools and ensure the health and safety of the students in their charge.” Yeah, strip searching teenaged girls is a terrific disciplinary tool.

This perverted clown, Thomas, has been sitting on the Supreme Court bench far too long. He got there originally despite well-substantiated claims by a female lawyer, Anita Hill, that old Clarence had sexually harassed her in the work place when he was her supervisor. But he was the "other Bush's" singular contribution to the court.

Since then, Clarence has been on the side of pornographers, molesters and sex freaks in numerous cases decided by the High Court. He should have been censured by his colleagues long ago but they lack the intestinal fortitude. And Scalia, Rehnquist, and the other hard line right wingers on the court liked to keep him around for a sure supporting vote for anything the conservatives wanted to do, like (s)electing George W. Bush as President in 2000.

But sometimes — especially when you’re talking about a search for something as horrifying as prescription-strength ibuprofen — too far is too far. Eight of nine Supreme Court justices seem to agree there’s nothing wrong with setting a few limits of decency on the behavior of school officials.

A Detroit Free Press reader jumps right in to point out what we’re all thinking: “interesting,” isn’t it, “that a guy once accused of sexual harassment doesn’t find it unreasonable to search in women’s underwear.” Of course, “women” isn’t whom we’re actually talking about here, since the decision pertains to someone who, at the time, was a 13-year-old girl.

These kinds of civil liberties issues are so often decided along partisan lines, that Thomas’ position can’t help but stand out. One shudders to imagine the thought process as Thomas pondered the testimony and imagined the scene. “Could you go over that bit about the 13-year-old’s panties one more time?”

Why Are So Many Floridians Dumb as Sticks?


Man using drive-through at bank deposits $200 and small bag with pot and cocaine, police say

Associated Press

June 26, 2009


TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Authorities said a man using the drive-through at a Tallahassee bank deposited $200 and a small bag containing marijuana and cocaine. Police said an employee at the Wachovia Bank called police Wednesday after the unusual deposit. An officer arrested a 38-year-old man and found the remnants of three marijuana cigarettes inside his vehicle.

The man was charged with drug possession and later released on $3,000 bail.

It's not clear why the man included the drugs with his deposit. It's not clear why the person responsible for this story thought it was unclear. Duh!

Apparently new reporters in Florida are no exception to the dumb rule, either.

___

These People Are Vicious: They Will Stop at Nothing!



Tenn. couple accused of assault using Cheetos

Jun 26 2009



Authorities said a couple got into a fight using Cheetos. The Bedford County Sheriff's Department said a 40-year-old man and 44-year-old woman became involved in a 'verbal altercation.' Words soon were followed by blows and the couple hurled the orange puffy snacks at each other in the assault.

Police were summoned and Sheriffs Deputies said the two were charged with domestic assault. No one was hurt, with only minimal orange-colored stains to their clothing.

According to the Shelbyville Times-Gazette, both posted bond of $2,500.

___

Friday, June 26, 2009

Caskets Are Expensive - If Your Grandmother Doesn't Need Her's Yet, You Can Profit By Using It in Your Business

Not actual sizes of marijuana brick and casket but note many pockets in casket which can be used for storage of different things, including bricks of marijuana, or plastic bags of blow.

Dallas stop yields 100 pounds of pot in casket

June 26 2009


A casket minus a cadaver yielded nearly 100 pounds of marijuana during a traffic stop in Dallas.

William Dale Crock of Cave City, Ark., was in jail Friday on a marijuana possession charge, plus traffic and seat belt violations.

Dallas police say Crock was arrested Wednesday when bundles of marijuana were discovered under the casket's cover and pillow.

The Dallas Morning News reports the bust began with surveillance on a suspected drug house and the loading of a van. Police followed the vehicle, pulling it over on suspected traffic violations.

A drug-sniffing dog alerted officers to the marijuana.

The online records of the Lew Sterrett Justice Center had no listing for an attorney for Crock. Police did not immediately return a message for further details.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Hard Working Man Demands Lemonade - Calls 911 For Assistance



Floridians Are Crazy #35

February 27, 2009 by Mitch Martin

Some chucklehead in Florida wanted lemonade so badly he called 911 from the Burger King drive-thru. He upgraded his status to ass-clown when he parked in the Burger King parking lot and waited for the cops to arrive. When the cops showed up they gave him a ticket for misusing 911 instead of hooking him up with the lemonade he was hoping for.

(Paste the following website into your browser to hear the actual conversation between the disgruntled worker and the 911 operator. It's a treasure.)


http://tastybooze.com/2009/02/floridians-are-crazy-35/#ixzz0JT7rYu8t&D

Are We Home Yet? Asks Lawyer


Lawyer Found Lying in Trash Can Resigns Lucrative City Job

Jun 24, 2009
By Martha Neil

Larry Wilder did the right thing by taking a limo home after celebrating a friend's good news about passing a real estate licensing exam with a few drinks.

However, he didn't make it the final few feet to his door. Finding him lying headfirst, seemingly asleep, in a trash can at 7 a.m. on June 17, an elderly neighbor called authorities. The police walked Wilder home, filing no charges against him because he was cooperative, reports the Louisville, Ky., Courier-Journal.

However, the incident—which is documented in a photograph apparently taken by one of the officers on his cell phone and distributed via the Internet--has made the news because of the 48-year-old Wilder's $107,000-a-year contract position as municipal attorney for Jefferson City, Ind., according to the newspaper.

The city council was planning to hold a special meeting to discuss Wilder's future in the job, but he has forestalled any possible adverse job action by resigning, the Courier-Journal reports in another article.

"I was not driving," Wilder tells the newspaper, apologizing for the embarrassment he has caused his children, in particular. "It's a private matter, made public because I am a public person."

The 80-year-old who called police is also regretful, telling the Courier-Journal he didn't realize it was Larry Wilder who was lying in the trash can when he called police. Conrad Embry describes Wilder as a wonderful neighbor. "He musta just had one too many last night. Shame he had to sleep in all that crap," said the neighbor.

Kibitzers speculated the photo might be used as advertising for Wilder's law firm, if they represent DUI's. "You can't see his face so it could be any old drunk," said a man who refused to give his name because he might be deported to Hawaii or Tahiti.

Left is Vodka - Right is Tequila


Woman pleads guilty in drunken breast-feeding case

Jun 24 2009

A North Dakota woman accused of breast-feeding her 6-week-old baby while drunk has pleaded guilty to child neglect. Stacey Anvarinia, 36, could face up to five years in prison when she's sentenced on the felony charge in August.

Judge Sonja Clapp says Anvarinia will not have to register as an offender against children.

Police officers who responded to a domestic disturbance call at Anvarinia's home on April 13 say they saw an intoxicated Anvarinia breast feeding. Health officials say alcohol consumed by breast-feeding mothers can be absorbed into an infant's system.

Attorneys believe it's the first such case prosecuted in North Dakota.

___

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Latest Rage - Tattoos for the Maimed and Handicapped?





I imagine it would be horrible to lose a limb in some sort of accident. One of my biggest fears is some kind of horrible industrial accident. Since I work around a bunch of printers and presses and with a bunch of awful machines, that’s always a distinct possibility. However, if that does happen, I hope my morbid sense of humor would lead to me getting my broken stump of a limb tattooed with something awesome, like these folks with unusual body tattoos: women with total mastectomy tattoos; woman with syndactyly; man with missing arm; and man who lost some toes.

As I’ve always said, if you’re going to get a tattoo, you need to get something different than everyone else. There’s nothing more unusual than a shark tattoo on a missing arm stump! That’s a great way to turn something people are going to stare at to something that… well, people are going to stare at. But it turns a negative into a positive, right?

Probably, the best idea for the writer of this blurb would be to get a brain tattoo. That's the disabled part of his body. Now, what should it say? How about DUMB ASS?

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

He Looks Menacing? Like a Chihuahua Threatening a Rottweiller?


By Jeremy P. Kelley
June 9, 2009

A Sugarcreek Twp. man pleaded not guilty Tuesday, June 9, to five counts of public indecency and three counts of menacing, all misdemeanors, after police say he harassed several people over the span of a week while wearing a women’s swimsuit.

Kevin L. Miller, 41, of Washington Mill Road, remains in the Greene County Jail after Judge Michael Murry set bond at $10,000. Miller was arraigned in Xenia Municipal Court via video conference Tuesday morning.

Murry told Miller that if he posts bond, he must immediately report to the probation office for pretrial monitoring. If he does not post bond, a pretrial hearing is expected within two weeks.

Xenia Prosecutor Ron Lewis said Miller was charged with menacing because he chased people in a few of the incidents. Lewis said in one case, Miller swam into the Little Miami River chasing after two women who were canoeing, and in another case Miller chased two juveniles who were coming back from an ice cream shop.

Lewis said the public indecency charges came because Miller partially exposed himself to some people while wearing the women’s swimsuit. Lewis said Miller has a 2008 conviction for disorderly conduct that had nothing to do with the current situation. Sugarcreek Police Sgt. Mark White said Miller has lived on Washington Mill for about three years, and the disorderly conduct case was the police department’s only previous contact with him.

Most of the incidents that resulted in the current charges occurred June 2 and June 3, although Miller was seen in a swimsuit multiple times over the past week along Washington Mill Road and the adjacent Little Miami River. Miller was arrested Monday evening in a green, one-piece swimsuit.

“He said he just wanted to harass people to get a response because, to him, it was the thing to do,” White said. “ But we don’t believe he was being honest about his motives.”

Lewis said two victims picked Miller out of a photo lineup, and White said police found a tent on Miller’s Washington Mill property that contained numerous swimsuits. White reiterated that Miller did not physically harm anyone.

“But we still have to treat this seriously,” he said. “We’re very happy we got him off the street before anything serious happened."

Monday, June 22, 2009

This Could Happen To You If You Keep a Friend's Dead Grandmother and the Friend Doesn't Return for Several Years


Dead Grandmother, After Five Years Decomposing-Note the Missing Tooth in the Upper Right Jaw. Possible gold theft.

By Ariel Barkhurst - Express-News

Investigations continued Saturday into the discovery of a body of a woman — dead for several years— in a rusty casket at the abandoned Forest Park Funeral Home on the East Side.

When Forest Park vacated the location this month, the body of Ada T. Young was left behind because the family had not paid for a funeral, administrator William Hardy said.

San Antonio police are investigating the incident as an alleged abuse of a corpse.

Sgt. Edward Rohmer said the body was transported to the Bexar County medical examiner's office after it was found Friday. The medical examiner's investigation will help determine whether police pursue criminal charges against Hardy or the owner of the funeral home, Clara Bell, Rohmer said.

“It depends on whether it was natural (death) and whether they can positively ID the person,” Rohmer said.

On Friday, Hardy said the funeral home had been in possession of Young's body since 2004, when she died and received a chapel funeral. Her closest surviving family member, a granddaughter, could not pay for the funeral or burial, Hardy said.

“I have always carried that body,” Hardy said. “Every time we went to a new location, I had that body with me. I helped them.”

But when Forest Park recently left its location in the 1900 block of Rigsby Avenue, Hardy said he did not move the body again.

“I have a very ill sister,” he said, “and she's at hospice, and I had a tough week from an illness perspective, and I didn't get around to doing anything about it. But she's been dead since 2004. And her granddaughter has not done anything about it.”

The family could apply for a county burial, according to Joseph Conde, funeral director for M.E. Rodriguez Funeral Home, which handles Bexar County's pauper burials. If the family's income status qualifies, the county will bury the body. And if the family doesn't apply, the funeral home could, Conde said.

“The funeral home should've had the audacity to call Bexar County and say, ‘We have a body, and the family can't pay,'” Conde said.

When asked if he was aware of the county burial option, Hardy said he was not.

The abandonment of Young's body, kept in a storage shed behind the former funeral home, was reported by Tina Leggett and her husband, Reginald McCraney, who live above the business. Leggett said she and McCraney had been in the shed with Hardy and had seen the casket mostly hidden beneath papers and other materials.

But after Forest Park left, Leggett said McCraney got curious about the casket.

“My husband said, ‘Let's go ... pull it out,'” Leggett said. “And I was like, ‘And do what with it?' But he said, ‘Let's just pull it out.' So we did. It (casket) was all rusted, so we could tell something was wrong. Then he opened it, and you could smell that smell.”

Young's body, Leggett said, was dressed in a pale white gown, open at the neck; the casket was silver with maroon trim. The body was badly decomposed, she said, but considering all things she looked peaceful and at rest. "Her gown has held up remarkably well for such a long time on a decomposing body," said Ms. Leggett, speaking only on condition of not being quoted. Sorry, Ms. L.

Leaving behind a body could pose legal liabilities, said J.D. Pauerstein, an attorney who represents several funeral homes.

“It is illegal, under several provisions of the civil and criminal statues in Texas,” Pauerstein said. “The penal code has a provision in it that says it's a criminal offense to treat a human corpse in an offensive manner. There's a basis to prosecute someone who abandons a corpse.”

The abuse of a corpse statute, that provides for criminal penalties, has been on the books for many years. Most people don't realize it's a crime to abuse a corpse. So sometimes they will just discard it in a dumpster or, as happened somewhere in the Northwest recently, barbecue the corpse on a back yard grill.

"The state has to prosecute because the corpse doesn't really care in most instances what happens to it after it is dead and it can't make either a verbal or a written complaint, which has caused some state legislators to question the continued vitality of the law. One Texas state Senator raised the question of why waste state tax dollars prosecuting corpse abusers and keeping them in prison, at public expense, when the abusee, the corpse, can't even make a complaint on its own? "Now if the corpse is sexually abused while it is still warm, that is another matter altogether and we have laws prohibiting necrophilia also," said a local sheriff who was not authorized to speak about the matter.

Man's Arm Thown Out With Trash


Bakery allegedly discards employee's severed arm


Email this Story

Jun 10, 8:49 PM (ET)


MADRID (AP) - A Spanish trade union is suing a bakery that allegedly threw the severed arm of an employee into a bin after it was amputated in an accident with a kneading machine. The Workers Commissions said in a statement Wednesday that Bolivian immigrant Franns Rilles lost his left arm in May 28 at the Rovira bakery in the eastern Valencia region.

The union said that while Rilles was being taken to a hospital someone tossed his arm into the garbage. It says the bakery then cleaned the machinery and continued production.

Police found the arm the next day, the union said, but doctors were unable to reattach it.

The union said Rilles had worked illegally at the factory for two years, earning euro23 ($32) a day, and had not been properly trained on the kneading machinery.

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Designer Vaginas Unknown To Owners


Not the actual surgeon

Charges Against Doctor Bring Ire and Questions


By ISABEL WILKERSON
December 11, 1988


Relief, shame and anger were being expressed today in this central Ohio city where for 22 years Dr. James C. Burt performed what experts say was crude experimentation on hundreds of women without their consent.

This week the Ohio State Medical Board formally charged Dr. Burt with ''gross immorality'' and ''grossly unprofessional conduct'' in surgery he performed to restructure his patients' genitals, procedures that the board said often caused permanent physical damage. Dr. Burt, 67 years old, who is still practicing out of his office here, has 30 days to request a hearing, which could be scheduled as early as next month.

The doctor, who detailed some of his procedures in a 1975 book, did not return repeated phone calls to his office this week. But he has said in recent months that he was confident of vindication.

Concern About Other Doctors

In Dayton, many people are relieved that charges have been brought against Dr. Burt by the medical board. But heartbroken patients here and incredulous physicians elsewhere are trying to figure out why it took so long for his practices to attract the scrutiny of medical investigators and wonder whether other doctors are trying out unproven techniques on their patients.

Janet Phillips went to Dr. Burt with complaints of cramps six years ago and was one of hundreds of patients who ended up with her anatomy changed. ''You're raised to trust your minister, your policeman and your doctor,'' she said. ''He was the one with the degree on the wall. He knew medicine better than I did. I didn't think he would hurt me.''

In all of the soul-searching and finger pointing, the state medical board is now looking into the role and responsibility of his colleagues who, board officials say, silently watched as many of Dr. Burt's patients suffered permanent physical damage.

''There is a great deal of concern about the breakdown in the reporting system,'' said Lauren Lubow, an attorney and spokesman for the board. ''The doctors in the Dayton medical community are under investigation for what they knew.''

Some doctors say they repeatedly told medical board investigators about Dr. Burt but say the board did not take action until Gov. Richard F. Celeste wrote it about the case. The board has said that the physicians did not submit written complaints against Dr. Burt and that their reluctance slowed the investigation.

Physicians across the country said they were astonished and outraged that Dr. Burt had operated outside recognized standards for so long. ''It's a disgrace to all of medicine,'' said Dr. Sidney M. Wolfe, an internist who is director of the Public Citizens' Health Research Group, a consumer advocacy group in Washington. ''His procedures were several standard deviations from what is acceptable. And only now are people who should have spoken up 20 years ago slowly, timidly coming out of the closet.'' Surgery Prohibited

The procedure has not been performed since January 1987. Last month, the board prohibited Dr. Burt from surgery pending its investigation, but it has not revoked his license.

Dr. Burt, once a well-regarded physician, considered merely eccentric, began the special surgery in 1966. Explaining his philosophy in his 1975 book, ''Surgery of Love,'' Dr. Burt wrote: ''Women are structurally inadequate for intercourse. This is a pathological condition amenable to surgery.'' In franker terms, he also said that his surgery would turn women into ''horny little mice'' and asserted that ''the difference between rape and rapture is salesmanship.''

In the book, Dr. Burt admitted to performing reconstructive surgery on ''many hundreds'' of women without their consent, usually after the birth of a child. ''The patient,'' he wrote, ''had not been informed that anything more had been done to her than delivery and episiotomy and repair, or ''Yes, you had stitches with your delivery.' ''

The surgery often included removing the hood of a patient's clitoris, repositioning the vagina, moving the urethra, and altering the walls between the rectum and vagina. It was intended, the doctor wrote, to redesign the vagina to increase sexual responsiveness.

Instead, the surgery caused sexual dysfunction, extensive scarring, chronic infections of the kidney, bladder and vagina and the need for corrective surgery in many patients, according to the Ohio medical board. Although some of the patients have expressed satisfaction with their surgery, at least one patient suffered phlebitis, blood clots and a heart attack, the board said, and several have permanent disabilities.

The procedure is not recognized by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the standard-setting organization for gynecology, nor taught in American medical schools.

Gynecologists have told one former patient, Cheryl Sexton, that corrective surgery will require four specialists and cost $25,000. 'Dissatisfied Women'

Dr. Burt told The Dayton Daily News on Nov. 20 that the criticisms came from ''dissatisfied women who may have had complications, who may be lying, who may have had positive feelings turn negative when forced to pay the bill and women who stand to make a lot of money from the lies.''

Dr. Burt began his medical career in 1945 when he graduated from the University of Rochester Medical School. He is neither a fellow of the American College of Obstretricians and Gynecologists nor certified by the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Mrs. Phillips was one of the many women who went to Dr. Burt for a relatively minor physical problem. She was told she needed a hysterectomy because her Fallopian tubes were ''rotting.'' Now, she suffers chronic infections, extreme difficulty urinating and excruciating pain if she attempts intercourse. The strain eventually destroyed her marriage, she said.

Seven hours of surgery completely changed her life. ''I feel like a freak,'' Mrs. Phillips said. ''I can't date. I can't ride horses. I can't urinate like normal women.'' She characterized the surgery as a form of sexual abuse and said, ''He stole parts of my body.''

Gynecologists knew about Dr. Burt's surgery and recognized it when they examined his former patients. ''Doctors would say, 'Dr. Burt's done surgery on you, hasn't he?' '' said Joy Martin, on whom he performed his surgery after delivering her son in 1974. She recently had corrective surgery. Mrs. Phillips and Mrs. Sexton have filed lawsuits, seeking $6 million, against Dr. Burt and St. Elizabeth's Hospital, where he performed most of his surgeries. Thirty-five other former patients are expected to sue in the next few weeks, said Lee Sambol, the lawyer for the women. Ten malpractice suits against Dr. Burt over the past 12 years were dropped after other physicians refused to testify.

''We've all had Dr. Burt's patients, and we've tried to undo the work he has done,'' said Dr. Robert Hilty, a gynecologist who was chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Kettering Medical Center in Dayton for 18 years. ''But we need the freedom to openly criticize without fear of legal retribution.''

Some doctors also point to the patients, who they say did not question Dr. Burt enough or consult other doctors, and to St. Elizabeth.

The hospital, which does not permit elective abortions, allowed Dr. Burt's ''love surgery'' to be performed for 12 years before it began requiring special consent forms that, it says, left the responsibility to the patients and the physician. A spokeswoman declined to comment further while the case is under investigation.

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Let's Not Hire Any More of Those Meter Maids From the Blind Center


Parking tickets pile up on van with dead driver

Jun. 5, 2009

NEW YORK - A New York City woman says her father apparently lay dead for weeks in an illegally parked van while police repeatedly left parking tickets on the vehicle.

Jennifer Morales of Manhattan told the Daily News on Thursday that she believes her father, George Morales, died of a heart attack.

Morales said she last heard from her dad in early May. She said she had contacted police, but police say they have no report on record.

A city marshal found the body of George Morales on Wednesday while trying to tow the van from the city street where it had stood for over a month. Parking tickets and dust covered the vehicle. The parking tickets were removed before photographing the van. Mr. Morales was removed from the van, too, prior to towing.

Friday, June 19, 2009

Ant Woman Has World's Smallest Waist, Appears Top-Heavy


















Undated, Somewhere

Cathie Jung grew up reading about women with hour glass figures. They were so romanticized in fiction for young women that Cathie decided she wanted an hour glass figure, too. At least that's what we would like to believe. Cathie has never said what motivated her, so it's really only pure speculation on our part ...... essentially nonsense.

In reality, there probably are far more complex forces at work in Cathie's psycholgical make-up that caused her to wear extremely uncomfortable, progressively smaller corsets for years, squeezing her waist until it is only 15" in circumference, causing her to resemble a giant ant. By way of comparison, Marilyn Monroe, the ultimate pin-up, had a waist size of 22-23 inches.

No one really finds Cathie's figure attractive, very likely not even Cathie herself. She is so far out of conventional proportions as to be a freak. But once you've gone down that path as far as Cathie, there doesn't seem to be any turning back. How small can Cathie's waist actually become? Can she reach 10"? What about 5"?

We'll follow up on this story, maybe 10 years from now, if you remind us. In the interim, if you run across any men with 15" chests, send them our way. They and Cathie might like to meet, but probably not.

Oh, and this is no joke. No trick photography, no optical delusions, no barometric protusions, no transendental conclusions, just Cathie the No Waist Woman.

Unplanned Parenthood - Should There Be a Legal Limit?


Tennessee Man Confuses Popular Card Game With Sex

Faces huge child support problems

MAY 29--The Tennessee man who made headlines this week over his struggles to pay child support for the 21 kids he fathered with about a dozen women, trying to win at Blackjack, may soon find it even more difficult to pay for his brood. That's because Desmond Hatchett, 29, could be headed to prison for violating terms of a probation sentence handed down following a 2008 felony conviction. Hatchett, pictured in the mug shot above, was arrested in late-2007 in Knoxville on aggravated assault and armed robbery charges after he allegedly pistol-whipped, shot, and robbed a man, as a means to obtain money to support his family, according to Hatchett.

He pleaded guilty last year to the assault count and, after spending about six months in jail, was placed on "enhanced probation" until March 2014. It was estimated by a court clerk that Hatchett's annual child support payments are $50,000 plus. Last year his reported earnings were $11,600.

Last month, a probation revocation notice was filed against Hatchett, who was charged with twice driving with a suspended license, violating his curfew on nine occasions, and failing to pay court-ordered probation fees. Hatchett is scheduled for a July 30 hearing on the revocation matter. Hatchett, whose criminal history runs 14 pages (one for every baby's mama), was arrested last November on a domestic violence charge. While that bust triggered an earlier probation filing, both the criminal case and the revocation were subsequently dismissed after the alleged victim declined to cooperate with authorities, claiming it was a consensual beating. Hatchett's oldest child is 11 and he is the father of two newborn babies. The earliest entry on his rap sheet is for statutory rape and rape of a child, charges for which he was acquitted at trial.

It is unquestioned Hatchett has led a busy life.

Crook Follows Intended Victim to Sheriff's Dept. Where Arrested


Man or woman stupidly follows would-be victim to police

Jun 18 2009 08:13PM CDT


Illinois authorities say a Michigan man or woman was so intent on robbing a motorist that he/she stupidly followed her in his or her car straight to a sheriff's department, where s/he was arrested. Carleous Clay Jr., 26, was arrested Tuesday and remains jailed in Madison County, Ill., on charges of attempted armed robbery and possession of a stolen vehicle.

Authorities say the Edwardsville woman called 911 saying a man or woman had tried to rob her at gunpoint when s/he pulled alongside her to ask for directions. She had her three children in the car with her.

Investigators say a dispatcher guided the woman to a nearby sheriff's department while the suspect followed. They say s/he realized too late where she was headed and was arrested a short time later.

The attorney assigned to Mr. or Ms. Clay did not immediately respond to a phone message Thursday seeking a statement. What could he say? My client is a dumb-ass?

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Two Lesbians Pummel Man To Death in Weed/Sex Misunderstanding


Don't You Just Hate It When You Go To a Nice, Peaceful Park to Smoke a Joint with Two Lesbians and They Beat You To Death Instead?

Bloody Wednesday, Jun. 17 2009

By Chad Garrison

That's what police say happened to Willard Bryant Payne, the 26-year-old man found dead in Forest Park on Monday.

According to the St. Louis police, Payne of University City went to the park late Sunday or early Monday to smoke marijuana with two women he'd just met, Dawn Fulks, 25, (left photo above) and Mellonie Jones, 20, (right photo) of St. Louis. When Payne made a verbal sexual advance toward Fulks, Jones (described by police as Fulk's girlfriend) became enraged and allegedly hit Payne.

The police say Payne tried to run from the women but they caught up with him and continued the beating.

Payne's body was found at 6:41 a.m. by persons driving near the park. He was pronounced dead at the scene, a victim of blunt force trauma.

Both Fulks and Jones are described as being larger than Payne. When they were arrested Tuesday, the women told police that Payne tried to rape them. Police say their investigation later found the rape claim to be false.

On Wednesday the women were charged with first-degree murder, armed-criminal action (for using an object to beat Payne) and for filing a false police report. No bond has been set at this time.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

British Woman, Busted in Dubai for Screwing Around, Released


June 17, 2009
Hannah Fletcher

Sally Antia, jailed for adultery in Dubai, is released


A British mother, referred to by people who know her, as a MILF, was jailed in Dubai for adultery but has been released and reunited with the husband who turned her in.

Sally Antia, 44, is thought to have flown to Australia with her husband, Vincent, after serving six weeks of a two-month jail sentence.

A source said: “Although she is British and could have flown to the UK, she decided to fly to Brisbane instead. She and Vincent were booked on the same plane.”

Mrs Antia, from Merseyside, was arrested last month as she left a hotel with her British lover, Mark Hawkins, 43, after spending six days with him. They were prosecuted under Dubai’s strict Sharia-based legal system in which adultery is punishable by jail and deportation.

Mr Antia, 48, aka the cuckold, reported his wife’s affair to the Dubai police but then did not want to press charges. “I did ask to withdraw my complaint on May 3, but was told the Government wished to proceed with the case and it was out of my hands,” he said.

He continued to visit his wife in prison and said that the relationship was amicable. Mrs Antia said in an interview that she was trying not to be “bitter” for the sake of their children.

The couple had been living in Dubai, where Mr Antia works as a pilot, for more than 12 years. While he was off flying, she was doing some flying of her own, but only up and down. The couple have two daughters aged 11 and 13. It is not known whether the girls accompanied their parents yesterday, but Mrs Antia is now banned from returning to Dubai, and it was suggested that the trip to Australia might be a permanent move in an attempt to start afresh.

Mrs Antia described her experience of jail in Dubai as being like a labour camp. “The food, when you get it, has maggots in it. The lights are on all day and night. I am frightened and I feel totally abandoned,” she said last month. "All you want to do is get laid and you are thrown into this stinking hell hole," she complained to reporters.

The cuckold husband declined to answer any questions, saying his wife would answer for both of them.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Blowtorches Gone Wild: Used as Weapons, Exterminators, Defrosters and Burglary Tools



'Blowtorch Bandit' Bungles Heists

(Note blowtorch in circle in photograph. Bandit about to torch own genitals.)


Story not entirely by Brian Dakss

Different Dates

In Southern California, police say a man tried to rob two stores with a blowtorch. A surveillance tape shows one clerk fighting back with a bat.

(CBS/AP) A robber who used a blowtorch to threaten a drug store worker and a gas station clerk was being sought for the two failed heists, authorities said Friday.

The man went into a Rite-Aid store on Jan. 31 and demanded cash. He pulled a self-igniting propane torch out of a bag, lit it and pointed the 2-foot-flame at a worker, authorities said.

The clerk refused to give him money and yelled at the man, who fled.

About 15 minutes later, however, he pulled the torch on a gas station cashier.

The cashier pulled a bat from behind the counter and began to hit the robber, who fought back with the blowtorch and then ran outside.

The fight continued until he threw the torch, which missed the clerk and landed near gasoline pumps.

The clerk, Eric Piva, says, "If he'd have had a gun, I'd go another ways, ya know? I'd go, 'Here, take the money.' It's not worth it. But when he pulled out the blowtorch, I go, 'Hell, yeah. It's time for some fun!"

The bandit fled in a car occupied by a woman, minus his Xmas blowtorch. Before the couple could get away, the gasoline attendant managed to break 3 of the vehicles windows with his bat.

The station worker was not injured but had a really good time.

Authorities, who never saw the bandit, described him as a 5-foot-2, 220-pound man in his 50s or 60s. He wore a tan fishing hat.

"If you see this man, he is not armed and not considered dangerous, except to himself," said police. (cont.)


Blowtorches... blowtorches, everywhere.


Meanwhile, in other blowtorch related activities around the nation, and abroad, a man in Georgia set his own house on fire when he tried to use a blowtorch to clear out cobwebs under the eaves of the house. The house was a total loss.

And up north, in New Bedford, Mass., another deranged man decided to employ a blowtorch to melt the ice from his back porch. Instead, he too, succeeded in setting his own home on fire. Damage, which was estimated at $20 to $30 thousand, was not as extensive as in the Georgia house burning but it still was a messy affair, and led directly to the divorce of their neighbors.

And not to be outdone by the Americans, across the pond a British man used a blowtorch to break into several homes in Nottingham, from which he would steal the keys to a car parked in front and go joy-riding, after which he would set the stolen cars on fire, with his blowtorch.

He was sentenced to 3 years and 3 months for the mini crime wave.

The International Union of Plumbers and Welders issued a statement, saying: "Blowtorches don't cause fires, people do. Whenever innocent citizens can't own blowtorches, blowtorches will only be owned by criminals."

The man reading the statement to reporters was led away by two men in white uniforms.

Hindu Holy Man Bathes in Sacred Waters, Falls Dangerously Ill the Following Day


It is not known with certainty whether the above headline is true, but what is known with deadly certainty is that it is highly possible. The Ganges River in India is one of the most heavily polluted rivers in the world. 400 million people live, work, play and worship along its banks. It serves as sacred holy water used in Hindu rituals, and as one of the major sources of the nation's drinking water. It also serves as one of India's principal sewage disposal sites, receiving tons of untreated, raw sewage daily, plus medical wastes, human and animal corpses, and toxic chemicals, to name only a few of the dangerous pollutants found in its waters.

From his base in Kampur, Rakesh Jaiswal has waged a lonely battle to clean up the Ganges, India's sacred river for almost 15 years. He was born in Mirzapur, 200 miles downstream from Kanpur, and remembers his childhood as an idyllic time.

"I used to go there to bathe with my mother and grandmother, and it was beautiful," he said. "I didn't even know what the word 'pollution' meant."

Then, one day in the early 1990s, while studying for his doctorate in environmental politics, "I opened the tap at home and found black, viscous, stinking water coming out. After one month, it happened again, then it was happeing once a week, then daily. My neighbors experienced the same thing."

Jaiswal traced the drinking water to an intake channel on the Ganges. There he made a horrifying discovery: two drains carrying raw sewage, including contaminated discharge from a tuberculosis sanitarium, were emptying right beside the intake point. "Fifty million gallons a day were being lifted and sent to the water-treatment plant, which couldn't clean it. It was horrifying."

Mishra says he's especially concerned for the future of India's most devout Hindus, whose lives are entirely focused on Mother Ganga. He calls them an endangered species. "They want to touch the water, rub their bodies in the water, sip the water," he said, "and someday they will die because if it."

"If you tell them 'the Ganga is polluted,' they say, 'we don't want to hear that.' But if you take them to the places where open sewers are giving the river the night soil of the whole city, they say, 'this is disrespect done to our mother, and it must be stopped.' "

The problem is that there is no sign of any real prospects for any solutions! Population growth is considered to be the most important factor in increasing environmental destruction because, for one thing, India's population grows by 1,815 people every hour. In one year, that's equal to almost one-half the total population of New York City.

—Excerpts from "A Prayer for the Ganges" by Joshua Hammer;
Smithsonian; November, 2007; pages 75-82.

Monday, June 15, 2009

What I Think About Your No Return Policy

Friday, June 5, 2009

Angry customer starts fire in Wal-Mart



A man who was angry he was not allowed to return items to a local Wal-Mart went to the men’s department and set three racks of clothes ablaze, according to a Manatee Sheriff’s report.

The fire ruined thousands of dollars of merchandise and caused extensive damage to the store in the 2900 block of 53rd Avenue East in East Manatee County around 4 p.m. Thursday.

After the fire was discovered, employees saw a man flee the store in a tan pick-up, and other Wal-Mart stores in the area were notified to watch out for him.

Two hours later, deputies were called to the Wal-Mart near Lockwood Ridge Road and University Parkway, where they arrested a man who fit the arsonist’s description.

Phillip R. Wright, 41, of Monroe, Louisiana was arrested on an arson charge in the incident, the sheriff’s office said.

No one was injured in the fire, the report said.

Sunday, June 14, 2009

News For All Those Rat and Snake Lovers And Fans of Sarah Palin



Happy news for Rat Island and Snakeville?

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Two places that belong in the Disgusting Infestation Hall of Fame have reason to celebrate today.

This week there was news about a police station in Sierra Leone that was overrun by venomous snakes. Happily, soldiers with AK-47s and firemen with power hoses have attacked the slither-fest, and killed about 250 of the 400 snakes.

Imagine how much safer folks will feel now, with a mere 150 snakes left!

Meanwhile, off the Alaska coast there is important news about Alaska’s Rat Island, which has been run by rats for 229 years ever since a shipwreck spilled rampaging rodents onto the remote island. Suffice it to say as an island tourist destination, Rat Island hasn’t been giving Maui any sleepless nights.

The rats, on the other hand, have loved the beautiful, green, lush, almost tropical looking island and have flourished on their very own private island get-away. Until: Dum de Dum Dum, here comes the government.

Now the place appears to be rat-free, thanks to a government program of dropping poison from helicopter-hoisted buckets. The first remaining question is what to call the place. The second is will it ever be habitable again? It is rumored that Alaska Governor Sarah Palin wants to transform the former rat paradise into a resort for convicted and disgraced Republican former lawmakers and public officials.

"What a wonderful place for the Republican National Party to hold its national convention," said the Governor, winking and flashing more than a little of her now familiar cleavage. "It would be like homecoming for all the rats, and a tribute to the former inhabitants," she continued before falling down,face first,drunk. The Governor was quickly removed in a large wheelbarrow by a state maintenance crew. A maintenance official, speaking on condition of bulimia, said he was not authorized to make a statement.

Three helpful suggestions for a new island name:

* The Putrid Stench-Pit Formerly Known as Rat Island
* Take that you dirty rat, you. (James Cagney)
* Palin Swingers' Paradise - Swing With Sarah and Todd, and Maybe Bristol, Too.

One of the Strongest Arguments Against Marriage: One Dead, Two Imprisoned!

Not Ms. Shobrook or Mr. Johnson pictured above.

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A Plymouth couple have been convicted at the city's crown court of killing a man the morning after their wedding.


Wendy Shobrook and Barry Johnson, who had denied murder, were found guilty of George Auchterlonie's manslaughter.

Shobrook and Johnson, both 40 and from Clowance Street, went on a drinking binge after marrying on 9 June 2008.

They later had an argument at their home and Shobrook left to spend the night with Mr Auchterlonie. Johnson went to the flat and attacked him.

Plymouth Crown Court heard that during a row after their marriage, Shobrook set fire to Johnson's bed, screaming he should "burn in hell".

As the blaze ravaged the property, she went to spend the night with 45-year-old Mr Auchterlonie.

Oar injuries

The following day Shobrook rang Johnson and told him Mr Auchterlonie had tried to rape her and steal her money, the court heard.

Johnson then went to the flat and attacked Mr Auchterlonie.

The court heard both a wooden oar and a tumbler glass were used to inflict 38 separate injuries, including 14 to the head and neck.

Martin Meeke QC, prosecuting, had previously told the court that Shobrook's claims were false and that she had set up Mr Auchterlonie for "the beating which he got".

He said: "The night before she had set fire to the bed in which her new husband was lying.

"She had left him on their wedding night, gone to spend the night at the address of a man with whom he believed she was having an affair.

"She knew how he was likely to react."

Mr Auchterlonie, who very much regretted allowing the woman to stay overnight at his flat, and who is from Plymouth, is believed to have died some hours after the attack. His body was not found for three days.

The couple are due to be sentenced at Plymouth Crown Court on 10 July

So much for any extended Honeymoon plans and non-refundable airline and hotel bookings.

Woman Detained for Exercising 1st Amendment Rights - Well, Maybe A Little Out of Control, Too!



Woman accused of smoking, swearing and hitting attendant on flight
Alan Gathright, Rocky Mountain News

June 19, 2008

Christina Seale *undated police mug shot.



Chaos broke out aboard a JetBlue plane after a flight attendant snatched a cigarette out of a woman's mouth, court records say.

Christina E. Szele, 35, is accused of flouting no-smoking rules and swearing and screaming racist slurs at a flight attendant, whom she allegedly socked in the jaw.

Szele, of Woodside, N.Y., was charged Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Denver with assaulting a flight attendant and interfering with a flight crew.

The pilot diverted the New York-to-San Francisco JetBlue flight to Denver International Airport on Tuesday. Frightened flight attendants and passengers said that a kicking, cursing woman was endangering everyone aboard, according to an FBI agent's arrest warrant statement.

Veteran flight attendants told the FBI that they never had faced such a disruptive passenger. A fellow traveler said that the woman was "beyond control" and "putting the plane in danger by thrashing about."

Flight attendants said they restrained the woman with plastic flex cuffs but that she slipped free to punch the flight attendant and threatened to kill him, the FBI statement said.

The ordeal began when flight attendant Dorotea Negoescu seized a cigarette and matchbook from the woman as she waited to use the airplane lavatory.

Smoking is illegal on U.S. commercial flights, with violators facing a $1,000 fine and a $2,000 fine for anyone tampering with a smoke detector in a plane's lavatory.

Flight attendant Naomi Garcia then found the woman "nonchalantly smoking at her seat," court records stated.

Flight attendant Paul Whyte said he snatched the cigarette out of the woman's mouth, telling her that she was "endangering everyone on the flight."

Whyte said that the woman accused him of punching her in the mouth, but the flight attendant told the FBI that he didn't touch her.

Because the woman was sitting in an emergency-row exit, Whyte told her for safety reasons that she would have to move to a front row. She began to kick and scream, Whyte told the FBI, so he bound her hands with the flex cuffs.

The woman slipped free and threw the plastic cuffs, allegedly hitting Garcia in the chest. When Whyte returned to place a second pair of cuffs on the woman, she allegedly punched him in the jaw.

The woman, who is white, then began swearing and shouting racist slurs at Whyte, who is black, according to several witnesses.

Whyte said he felt threatened when the woman said, "I'm going to get you" and threatened to kill him, according to court records.

During the struggle, flight attendant Garcia had an asthma attack and needed to use an inhaler.

The cuffed woman kept swearing, kicking a bulkhead wall and stomping the floor until the plane landed in Denver, witnesses said.

In a DIA holding cell, the woman told the FBI that she'd had two beers before the flight and three vodka drinks on board, but that she has a "high tolerance" for alcohol and felt fine.

She didn't recall smoking at her seat or hitting anyone, the FBI statement said. "If she did, she had to have been drunk during the flight. She blamed the crew for serving her the three vodka drinks," the FBI agent wrote.

A flight attendant said that the woman was just served one drink.

The woman said "she normally curses a lot" and "often uses the 'F' word," the FBI agent wrote.

Passenger Jason Caron said that the woman was "completely out of line" and "disruptive beyond control."

Szele, who is being held at Jefferson County jail, is scheduled for a detention hearing Monday in U.S. District Court in Denver.

Goddamn It, It's a Good Thing - In Defense of Swearing!


Why Do We Swear?
By John M Grohol PsyD
March 30, 2009

Why do people swear? Why does using a swear word make us feel better? How do we choose which word or words we use?

As an example, in the incident depicted above, HOLY SHIT! probably would be a good choice.

Luckily for you, the Association of Psychological Science’s Perspectives on Psychological Science just published an article that answers these important scientific questions in a piece by Timothy Jay (2009). If swear words hurt your eyes, you may want to stop reading now.

Jay notes that swear words (or taboo words, as he calls them) can include sexual references (fuck), those that are profane or blasphemous (goddamn), scatological or disgusting objects (shit), animal names (pig, ass), ethnic/racial/gender and sexual orientation slurs (fag, lesbo), ancestral allusions (bastard), substandard vulgar terms and offensive slang. Taboo words can be mildly offensive to extremely offensive, and people will often use a more mild euphemism to replace a swear word when in mixed (or unknown) company, for example, the use darn in place of damn.

How do we choose what word to use and when? We make choices about which word to use depending upon the company we’re in, and what our relationship is to that company, as well as the social setting. We’re more apt to use less offensive terms in mixed company or in settings where more offensive swear words might result in recrimination (such as work). For instance, people are more comfortable and are more likely to use technical terms for sexual references in mixed crowds, and to reserve the taboo words for same sex crowds or with their sexual partner. Most people feel uncomfortable saying, “Fuck” in a business or public crowd, instead falling back on less offensive words like, sexual relations.

As Jay notes, “Swearing is like using the horn on your car, which can be used to signify a number of emotions (e.g., anger, frustration, joy, surprise).”

Taboo words can be used for a variety of reasons, including to achieve a specific reaction from others. Swearing injects a direct, succinct emotional component into the discussion, usually in order to express frustration, anger or surprise (up to two-thirds of our swearing is for just such expressions). These insulting swears can be name calling or wishing someone harm, so it’s no wonder they are often a defining feature of hate speech, verbal abuse, sexual harassment and obscene phone calls.

Swearing is beneficial in ways that people may underestimate or take for granted. Swearing is often cathartic — it frees us of the feelings of anger or frustration we hold and allows expression for them. It can also be a useful substitute to physical violence (who wouldn't rather be sworn at instead of being punched out?).

Swear words can also be used in a more positive manner, in the form of jokes and humor, sex talk, storytelling, self-deprecation or even social commentary. Imagine when you want to emphasize how great you think something is, a swear word emphasizes the positive feelings you have for that object, situation, person or event (”This concert is fucking awesome!”). Sure, we could just say “This concert is awesome,” but the addition of the swear word emphasizes the emotional reaction we have toward it — and easily conveys that emotional reaction to others.

Virtually all people swear, and people swear pretty consistently throughout their lifetime — from the moment they can speak to the day they die. Swearing is almost a universal constant in most people’s lives. Research, according to Jay, has shown we swear on average from 0.3% to 0.7% of the time — a tiny but significant percentage of our overall speech (frequently-used personal pronouns occur at approximately 1.0% rate in speech). Swearing is more common than you might think. But personality research suggests that people who swear more, not surprisingly, score higher on traits such as extraversion, dominance, hostility and Type A personalities. Swearing is not just for the uneducated or people of a lower socioeconomic class — it knows no social boundaries in its expression. Even heads of states are often caught off guard by an open microphone when swearing.

Swearing is a natural part of human speech development. We learn which words are taboo and which words are not through our normal childhood development. We also learn that not all swear words are equal, as Jay notes — “Fuck you! represents a greater level of anger than crap!” We then learn that we may be able to say a swear word in one social context, but not another. For example, you might tell your boyfriend, "Let's fuck," when you are alone in a car or a cheap motel room but you never would be expected to say, "Let's fuck," to your brother at the Thanksgiving table.

Jay’s article was a bit of an eye-opener for me as well, as I didn’t know that swearing was really as commonplace as he notes, and I never much considered the beneficial effects of swearing. Jay calls on more psychological research to be done on this topic, and after reading his article, I’d have to agree. For right now, I plan to get as many of those benefits as I can, so fuck every goddamned one of you up your ass with a splintered broomstick, you chickenshit, mother fuckers."

Reference:

Jay, T. (2009). The utility and ubiquity of taboo words. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 4(2), 153-161.

The United States of America: The Sex Stops Here


Screwing the American People

By Ellen Friedrichs, AlterNet. Posted June 12, 2009.

In the land of the free, the freedom to express your sexuality can land you in prison.

The older I get, the luckier I feel not to have been busted for breaking a sex law. It’s not that I have been doing anything particularly scandalous. Public sex sure isn’t my thing, and I’m not in the habit of spamming my friends and colleagues with XXX emails. But in a world where a teen can get arrested for texting a boyfriend her own nudie shots, I don't want to take anything for granted.

Really though, my clean record probably has as much to do with where I've lived, as with what I've done. Growing up in Canada, meant that I didn’t worry about the legal ramifications of losing my virginity to my high school boyfriend. Had I spent those angst-ridden years in Texas, or even Maine, I could have been charged with the crime of underage sex.

Similarly, accompanying a terrified 16-year-old to a New York City clinic for an abortion a few years back could have been illegal if I had done the same thing in many of the 34 states with parental consent and notification laws for this procedure.

So I've been fortunate. But plenty of other people haven't. We often don't realize that sex regulations extend beyond archaic blue laws banning things like having sex in a toll booth, or forbidding sororities on the basis that women living together constitute a brothel. Such prohibitions may remain on the books, but people seldom, if ever, face charges for breaking them. The sex laws that do get enforced every day tend to be a lot less laughable.

Occasionally, the focus on a particular case can lead to a law’s repeal. For example, in 2004, a Texas mom was arrested for violating that state's ban on selling sex toys after she was busted hawking vibrators to her friends. The coverage of the incident drew attention to the statute and eventually lead to its 2008 nullification. And famously, following a 2002 arrest for having anal sex with his boyfriend, John Lawrence argued his case before the U. S. Supreme Court, and succeeded in getting the federal sodomy laws overturned.

Nevertheless, for many people, simply paying their fine or doing their time is preferable to embarrassing publicity that can accompany fighting charges. Still, plenty of cases do make the papers, whether those involved want them to or not.

Here are fifteen recent examples highlighting the fact the land of the free, the freedom to express your sexuality can still be pretty limited.

1) Over the past year, New York City has seen thirty-four gay men arrested for prostitution in what many people are calling an anti-gay sting operation. One case, reported by the New York Times, involved Robert Pinter, a fifty-three-year old massage therapist, who was approached by an undercover police officer in the adult section of a video store. As Pinter told the Times, “[the man who propositioned me] was very charming and cute, and we agreed to leave the store and engage in consensual sex.” Pinter explained that man then offered him $50 for doing so--an offer which he says did not respond to. Once outside, Pinter was handcuffed and arrested on charges of, “loitering for the purpose of prostitution.” The relationship between gay men and the police has often been far from harmonious (hell, arrests of gay men in the sixties are what prompted the Stonewall riots in 1969), and this situation has renewed fears that old habits die hard.

2) Despite the fact that Georgia has some real problems with youth sexual health -- among other things it boasts the eighth highest teen pregnancy rate in the country -- this state has put a lot more effort into targeting teens than it has into helping them stay safe. One particularly outlandish case involves a young man named Genarlow Wilson. Genarlow was recently freed after serving almost three years in a Georgia prison. He had been sent there at seventeen for getting a blow job from a consenting fifteen-year-old girl. Though Generlow was only two years older than the girl, in Georgia, he was above the age of consent and she was below it. As a result, the high school senior was charged with aggravated child molestation. At the time, Georgia had a mandatory minimum sentence of ten years for this crime, so that's what he got. A year into his sentence, the law was changed to make the maximum penalty a still pretty serious twelve months in jail. Even so, it took another two years for a judge to order Genarlow's release.

3) Florida is famous for it's liberal views on how little clothing can be considered publicly acceptable. It's not so liberal, however, when it comes to the kind of sex it considers acceptable for people to have privately. In February, a lawsuit was filed against a strip-mall based private swingers club. The charges came after a year-long undercover operation, and despite the sheriff's acknowledgment that, “detectives never found any evidence of drug use or sales and never saw any instances of anyone paying for sex.” Swinging is legal, so in the end, the best the cops could do was charge the club with violation of local zoning codes.

4) Starting off 2009 with a bang, seventeen Pennsylvania teens -- thirteen girls and three boys -- were busted for child pornography. The charges came after a teacher confiscated a student’s cell phone and discovered that the girls had sent “provocative” pictures of themselves to the boys. Initially, the boys were charged with possession of child pornography, and the girls with manufacturing, disseminating and possessing child pornography. These charges could have come with jail time and the requirement to register as sex offenders. The New York Times reports that given such daunting prospects, almost all of the students accepted a deal requiring them to attend a ten hour class dealing with pornography and sexual violence. But three of the girls rejected the deal and instead filed a lawsuit against the district attorney, claiming that offering them such a deal was illegal, as their actions never should have been considered criminal.

Public panic over sexting is growing and as a result the Pennsylvania case is far from an isolated incident. In fact, USA Today reports that between January and March police had already, “investigated more than two dozen teens in at least six states...for sending nude images of themselves in cell phone text messages.” And as a girl busted for sexting in Idaho this June can tell you, that number has surely grown since then.

5) No one has ever claimed that Georgia is a haven for the LGBT community. But a recent decision by a custody judge to bar a gay dad from “exposing” his kids to his “homosexual partners and friends,” is a reminder that in this state, the notion that everyone is equal under the law only applies if the “everyone” in question isn't gay. In this case, the man’s soon to be ex-wife argued that the fact that her kids have a gay dad has landed them in therapy. So she asked that the restriction be imposed to protect them from discomfort. But as the father said, “In general, that [restriction] will never allow me to have my children present in front of any friends, whether they’re gay or straight -- no one hands you a card saying are you gay, straight, heterosexual, bi, whatever.”

6) After his boxers were spotted by cops as he peddled his bike around town, a twenty-four-year-old Bainbridge, Georgia man became the first person arrested there under a new city ordinance that prohibits wearing pants low enough to expose a person’s underwear. Arrests like this have become common all over the country as more and more cities adopt such so-called baggy pants bans. But it isn't only men who are targeted by these laws. This June, the city of Yakima, Washington, voted to change the city's indecent exposure laws to include "cleavage of the buttocks." This means that women whose thong or G-string show can now be fined $1,000 or face up to 90 days in jail. If a child under the age of 14 is thought to be a victim of this form of indecent exposure, the perpetrator is looking at a $5,000 fine and up to a year in jail. Still while most cities choose to focus on legislating visible underwear, some laws take the clothing restrictions even further. For example, an ordinance passed in Lafourche Parish, Louisiana in 2007, not only outlaws “any indecent exposure of any person or undergarments,” but also bars a person from, “dressing in a manner not becoming to his or her sex.”

7) In February 2008, Wisconsin mom, Amy Smalley, was charged with the felony of “exposing a child to harmful descriptions.” The issue came to light after her eleven-year-old son told a counselor about conversations his mom had with him and his brother. These included talking about her sex life, explaining how to perform oral sex and showing the boys a sex toy. The charges, which could have landed Smalley three years in prison, were plead down to a misdemeanor. Smalley was placed on probation and had to undergo court ordered counseling. As the Court TV website put it, “Smalley called it education. Prosecutors called it a crime.” I call it terrifying. As a mom myself, I can easily see having similar conversations. (Okay, not for a while as my kids are only both under three. But still…). Sure, Smalley probably made a bad judgment call. But really, is this any worse than parents who let their kids watch Family Guy and South Park, despite the endless stream of rape jokes and blow job humor?

8) Come 2010, a law designed to protect child prostitutes will take effect in New York State. Until that time, kids as young as twelve can continue to be charged with the crime of prostitution. This is true even if they were forced into the business by pimps. Interestingly, since 2000, foreign-born teens have been protected from prosecution by anti-trafficking laws which view them as victims. For the next year, however, teens with American citizenship may still find themselves in juvie for being the victim of something most people would consider pretty horrific abuse. Hopefully, this is a sign that we are making progress not only the issue of sex work, but on the treatment of juvenile offenders in general.

9) In December, a Florida woman reacted to the penis being forced into her mouth by biting. Twenty-seven-year-old Charris Bowers told police that despite the fact that she didn't want to have oral sex, her husband, Delou pushed himself into her mouth, and that she clamped down to get him to stop. He responded by punching her in the head until she let go. In the end no charges were filed against Delou, even though it is illegal for anyone, including a spouse, to make another person perform a sex act. Charris, on the other hand was arrested and charged with battery. Apparently, the era of blaming the victims of sexual assault is not a thing of the past.

10) That sexual double standards for men and women are alive and well shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone. But a Wisconsin town recently showed just how damaging such notions can be. On consecutive January days in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, seventeen-year-old Norma Guthrie and seventeen-year-old Alan Jepsen were charged with sexual assault for having consensual sex with their fourteen-year-old partners. However, that's where the similarities between the cases end. Guthrie was charged with a misdemeanor, which carries a maximum nine months in prison. Jepsen, on the other hand, was charged with a felony, which carries a maximum twenty-five years in prison. The Sheboygan Press reports, “Assistant District Attorney Jim Haasch, who filed both complaints, said the misdemeanor charge was filed in part because Guthrie has no prior criminal record. But online court records show Guthrie has a pending charge of misdemeanor battery, filed in October. Haasch would not say whether Jepsen has a prior juvenile record -- which is typically sealed -- but the boy has no adult charges listed in online court records. Haasch also said the cases are different because Guthrie's boyfriend is “almost 15,” with a birthday in February. Jepsen's girlfriend turns 15 in April.”

11) In December, something called a paramour clause was used to force a lesbian in Tennessee to move out of her house and away from her family. The clause prohibits cohabitation of unmarried partners if minor children are in the home. In this particular situation, the lesbian couple had lived together for over ten years. Much of that was with the biological mom's kids, who were the product of a previous relationship with a man. There was no indication that this living situation was harming the thirteen and fifteen-year-old teens. Nor had the father requested that his ex’s partner move out. Still, a custody judge imposed the rule, leaving few options for the women in a state where same sex couples cannot legally marry. And people wonder why Proposition 8 matters?

12) As a sex ed. teacher, I believe in answering teens’ questions honestly and in using language that they will relate to and understand. So had I overheard a conversation between a New York State high school teacher and some of her students, I probably would have applauded her candor. But I didn't get wind of this conversation. Josephine Isernia’s school board did. According to the board, when asked for advice on oral sex by one of the girls, Isernia used words that were, “vulgar, obscene and disgusting.” The words in question? Head job, hand job, and fellatio. Isernia was a teacher with over twenty years of experience who had never been in trouble before. Yet despite her clean record and the fact that the students sought her out for information, when 2009 rolled around, she was out of a job and educators everywhere were given a sad wake up call.

13) Remember a few years back when PDA policies were making the news every other day? Lately stories about sexting and mom's who pose as teens on MySpace, have been stealing the headlines. But rules regarding public displays of affection never really went away and this February, twenty-two-year-old Jessica Garica was arrested at her local mall for kissing her girlfriend. According to Garcia, mall security told the couple, "This is a family mall, y'all can't do this. Y'all kissed, and if y'all do it again I'm going to write you a citation or I'm going to kick y'all out." The mall countered that after being asked to leave following the kiss, the couple returned and became belligerent. This, a mall spokesperson claimed, and not the kiss, is what lead to the arrest. Regardless, Garcia is considering suing for discrimination.

14) Imagine this: You’re sixteen and having sex with your boyfriend. You want to be safe so you ask your mom to take you to the doctor for birth control. Most people would call this a sign of maturity and responsibility. The state of Mississippi would call it an incident to be reported to the cops. That’s because a bill that passed in January makes it a crime for parents not to report to the police that their kids are having sex. The Mississippi Child Protection Act of 2009, requires mandatory reporting of sex crimes against children and imposes new abortion restrictions on minors. Though there is much to quibble with in the bill, one section is particularly alarming. This is the clause that prohibits, “the intentional toleration of a parent or caretaker of the child's sexual involvement with any other person.” Supporters of the law claim that they are trying to protect young people from abuse. But nowhere does the bill distinguish between sexual abuse and consensual sexual encounters between teens. Mississippi already boasts the highest teen pregnancy rate in the country. Maybe they are striving for the number one spot in preventing parent/child communication, as well...

15) This past November, a convicted sex offender in Oklahoma had little reason to celebrate having his criminal record expunged. That’s because the requirement that he register as a sex offender for life remained. This is particularly problematic seeing as the individual in question is a kid. Due to age of consent laws, he was convicted at sixteen of having consensual sex with a thirteen year-old girl. His mother explains that sex offender status meant the boy was, “removed from high school [and] prohibited from being in the presence of children other than his younger brother. He can't go near schools, day care centers or parks. His brother, age 11, can't bring friends into their home. If his brother had been a girl, Ricky [the offender] would have been removed from his home.” The United States has some of the toughest sex offender laws in the world and Ricky is far from the only teen forced to live under such conditions. As Human Rights Watch reports, “Some children are on registries because they committed serious sex offenses, such as forcibly raping a much younger child. Other children are labeled sex offenders for such non-coercive or nonviolent and age-appropriate activities as “playing doctor,” youthful pranks such as exposing one's buttocks, and non-coercive teen sex.”

There has been talk recently about America’s liberalizing morality. But as long as teens and gay men are still under attack for having sex, and teachers and parents still get in trouble for taking about it, then it would seem as if there is still quite a ways to go before we can claim that this is the dawn of a progressive new era.