The author of a now-retracted study linking autism to childhood vaccines expected a related medical test to rack up sales of up to $43 million a year, a British medical journal reported Tuesday. Git a rope ...
The report in the medical journal BMJ is the second in a series sharply critical of Dr. Andrew Wakefield, who reported the link in 1998. It follows the journal's declaration last week that the 1998 paper in which Wakefield first suggested a connection between autism and the measles, mumps and rubella, or MMR, vaccine was an "elaborate fraud." Find a tree ...
The venture "was to be launched off the back of the vaccine scare, diagnosing a purported -- and still unsubstantiated -- 'new syndrome,'" BMJ reported Tuesday. A prospectus for potential investors suggested that a test for the disorder Wakefield dubbed "autistic enterocolitis" could produce as much as 28 million pounds ($43 million U.S.) in revenue, the journal reported, with "litigation driven testing" of patients in the United States and Britain its initial market. Insert perp ...
Among his partners in the enterprise was the father of one of the 12 children in the 1998 study that launched the controversy, the journal reported. Oh, did I put up the noose picture? Sorry about that. Hopefully everyone here will take it the right way. Rhetorically speaking, of course...
#2
Actually, the rope is appropriate, in that what is being done here is more like institutional lynching than good science.
A capsule summary of Wakefield's theory was that the three vaccine combination in MMR vaccine, as well as a measles infection in one case, could cause a previously undescribed inflammatory bowel condition, and that it, the bowel condition, would, in a small number of children, either activate an existing predisposition to autism, or perhaps bring about the condition in a normally healthy child.
The immediate firestorm by the medical community, which included broad spectrum testimony before congress, was almost cringe-worthy, containing several arguments:
1) Measles, Mumps and Rubella are far *deadlier* in children than the "statistically insignificant" number who *might* become autistic. (That is, they had not yet challenged Wakefield's theory.)
2) It is terribly hard to vaccinate children with a single vaccination for three diseases. If the three were given as individual vaccinations, as Wakefield suggested, it would be much more expensive, and many children would miss out on one or two of the three.
3) (And this one hurt) The conclusion that it doesn't matter if he is right or not, that vaccination is so important, that the medical community are willing to accept a limited number of casualties of those harmed by vaccination. (This was long the case with the oral polio vaccine, as a certain number of people were known to be harmed by it.)
The bottom line is that, sad to say, the medical community is painfully correct.
An argument can be made that trashing Wakefield may do more harm than good, and his theory of bowel inflammation deserves more research, as it is already known that similar conditions do cause all sorts of autoimmune diseases.
But I don't like the idea that pragmatism should rule the day over science. That is too damn much like MMGW.
#3
Sorry Moose but I disagree. Wakefield is a crook and opportunist who came out with a crackpot theory for no other reason than he could make money on it. He had all sorts of deals with plaintiff lawyers who wanted to sue the vaccine makers.
Measles is deadly. Rubella and mumps are serious. There's only a couple thousand years of human history and couple hundred years of organized biomedical science in support of that.
Wakefield's theories might or might not be interesting, but he is not and will never be the person to talk about them ever again.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/12/2011 9:46 Comments ||
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#4
Steve White: He may be a crook and opportunist, but his theory could possibly be correct.
That is, it is now known that the immune system is interactive with both the intestinal flora and a slew of parasites, many of which are no longer common, that humans adapted to over a great length of time.
This is why, for example, Sulfasalazine, which impacts intestinal flora, is used as one effective treatment for psoriasis, an autoimmune disease. Yet it is definitely not a universal treatment, does not cure the disease, and for years they had no idea at all why. They still just know it works, but they aren't close to fully knowing why.
Likewise, the Germans are using pig whip worms to treat Crohn's disease. Just their presence in the GI tract can have a profoundly normalizing effect on the immune system.
His claim was that MMR, in a very few children at a young age, caused GI inflammation, and this inflammation somehow impacted a genetic trigger, causing or intensifying autism. It would take many years and any number of studies to either prove or disprove this theory, and they haven't been done.
Unfortunately, because of this hubbub, they may likely never be done, a great loss to medical science.
So whatever else, the theory is not crackpot, because there is nowhere near the amount of evidence to say it's wrong, and while there isn't evidence to prove it, either, it is parallel to known immunological paradigms.
What we know: 10% of children develop fever, malaise and a rash 5–21 days after the first vaccination; 5% develop temporary joint pain.
Japan, however, has discontinued using MMR, and goes for three separate injections, but their rate of diagnosed autism has continued to increase. This statistical notation is the best evidence that there is no correlation between MMR and autism.
That is, we haven't scientifically proven anything either way. Wakefield saw a trend in one direction, and assigned a cause and effect relationship to it. The Japanese see a trend in a different direction that might disprove a cause and effect relationship.
#9
Moose, it doesn't matter if he's wrong or right. And it doesn't matter what social impact the study has. All what matters is that the study is carried out properly. And it's the only thing that matters, because it's the only way that works.
Complex as in too complex for him to go flapping his jaws just yet. He has had parents withholding vaccines from their kids on a half-baked theory. A theory so complex that they are looking for minuscule correlation coefficients.
Best case: More kids are dying or getting screwed up than are getting autism.
#11
What causes autism? Genetic factors, exacerbated by problems in pregnancy and labor. Environmental factors may cause some behaviors; this angle is still under study. Brain injuries (see problems with labor and prolonged fetal distress). A few--a VERY few--kids respond "miraculously" to some dietary controls, suggesting that the condition that triggered their autistic behavior is caused by a different set of genetic factors having to do with how their bodies handle a given set of nutrients. NONE OF WHICH HAS A DAMN THING TO DO WITH THE VACCINE.
Wakefield was funded by tort lawyers.
He stood to make millions on the medical test.
He fudged his data.
Kids died of measles and other complications because of Wakefield's fudged documents.
If it slithers like a viper, hisses like a viper, has the markings of a viper, it's a viper.
#12
Thats right gorb, at least at my household. Wife didn't want daughter to get immunized because the tv news. Had to convince her that even if, and that is a big if, the 20-30 kids developed autism because of the immunization, how many millions of immunizations are dispersed each year? I'm more likely to be killed by a dog walking to my car than daughter getting autism - if - it isn't just the news blowing crap out of proportion like they do every storm.
If I were part of this, I'd stay the hell away from my wife.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Jermaine Jackson is reportedly stuck in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso after his passport expired and he is unable to arrange a new one.
Michael Jackson's brother has made no secret of his financial worries and it is thought that he owes more than $91,000 in child support.
According to reports Jackson has to find the cash for the mother of his children, Alejandra, before he will be granted a new passport as according to Californian law, if someone owes more than $2,500 a month in child support and their passport expires it will not be renewed until they become current on their payments.
In May 2008, Alejandra took Jackson to court and it resulted in a child support order of $3,000 a month.
Last month TMZ website revealed that Jackson owed $91,921.
It's not a definite that the American Embassy will make arrangements for Jackson to return to the US but, it is thought that they could issue him temporary papers to get home.
Alejandra married Jermaine in 1995 -- right after she broke up with his brother Randy. She had Jaafar and Jermajesty with Jermaine, and her other three kids with his brother.
Jermaine divorced her in 2004 because despite being married to him and having kids with both him and his brother Alejandra had never bothered to divorce her first husband. That word you're probably looking for about now is "sordid."
That's long for "ick".
Posted by: Fred ||
01/12/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
So why exactly would anybody who didn't have to be be in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso?
Maybe she can get knocked up by Tito for the hat trick...
#4
Look's like baby mama knows she's hooked into a plush deal...
Katherine Jackson has been trying to get Alejandra to leave since June after her son, Jaafar threatened ‘Blanket’ Jackson with a stun gun. Alejandra promptly hired a lawyer, so the Jackson family sweetened the offer – ‘Move out and you get a free condo.’ But she had to sign a confidentiality agreement and agree to not write a book about the family. Alejandra refused to sign and is now in ‘active negotiations’ for a gaudy tell-all about life with the Jacksons.
When Alehandra flew out to Japan last month, Momma Jackson assumed sheÂ’d left for good and brought in workers to remodel the family compound in Encino. Then Alejandra returned, moved straight back in and is now holding the remodel hostage by refusing to leave.
Katherine called the cops, but they couldn’t do anything without an eviction order so Mamma Jackson is now asking a court to grant her one so she can be free of this leech. Her case is that Alejandra and her brood – Jaafar, Jermajesty, Genevieve, Donte and Randy Jr. are not beneficiaries of her son’s will and thus have no claim to be on the property.
#9
It's a shame they broke up before they had the opportunity to saddle some unfortunate child with the name of Jeroyalhighness. Apparently, the names of the three children with the brother weren't ridiculous enough to be mentioned. *sigh*
if I don't plagiarize the Odyssey
I can't wait to see what you use in place of the phrases "wine-dark sea" and "rosy fingered dawn".
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
01/12/2011 12:07 ||
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#1
There is now snow cover in 49 states. Only Florida does not have a significant amount of snow on the ground anywhere in the state.
At this time, snow covers some 69.4 percent of the contiguous United States.
Posted by: No I am The Other Beldar ||
01/12/2011 12:57 Comments ||
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#2
uh, guys? It snows here every year. Why do you think they call the volcano Moana Kea__ White Mountain (hint__ it ain't because of guano)? There's actually a ski run on one of the volcanos - Kea or Loa, don't remember which. When it snows in Honolulu like it did last in , um 1959, I think__ then you have a story.
#6
Back in the late 70s early 80s my 1st wife and I knew a guy that wanted to move to the Big Island and start a hyprondrics operation. He was out looking at sites when on vacation and he had to stop at Sears for whatever and was walking through the Sporting Goods dept when he did a double take on a snowmobile display.
#7
It's not news that it snowed in Hawaii. I am really sad that we in the Sacramento valley have yet to feel the sweet kiss of a Snow Day. Can someone send Al Gore here?
#8
When I first visited Hawaii in 1990, I was eagerly looking out the plane window for any sign of the islands, surrounding by the bright sea. The very first thing I saw was the snow-capped peak of Mauna Kea. A few minutes later the pilot's voice came over the internet to announce that the sight of snow was the first glimpse normally obtained of the islands as pilots approached from the US West Coast.
Union and health officials suggest that 50 died in the town of Kasserine alone. Fresh protests broke out late on Tuesday in the capital, Tunis.
The protests over unemployment are widely seen as being fueled by political frustrations. It is the most serious unrest in Tunisia for decades. On Monday, the government ordered all schools and universities to be indefinitely closed following the demonstrations.
Locals in Kasserine said on Tuesday that demonstrators had been fired on from rooftops, and that a curfew was been imposed and snipers stationed on roofs. Officials said the police had acted in self-defence when their station was attacked with petrol bombs.
A trade unionist in the town of Thala said that police were warning residents not to gather in groups - even of two. He said there was a desperate shortage of food and heating oil in the town.
In Tunis, actors, musicians and other artists said security forces had violently broken up a protest on Tuesday against government violence.
[Ennahar] TUNIS - Death toll of social unrest that shook Tunisia for almost a month has risen to about fifty dead in the center of the country in three days, according to a union official who referred to a situation of "chaos" on Tuesday in Kasserine, the main city center.
The Interior Ministry has reported four dead and eight coppers injured Monday in Kasserine. The previous official corpse count Sunday gave fourteen dead in Thala and Kasserine.
"It's chaos at Kasserine after a night of violence, sniper fire, theft and looting of shops and homes by police personnel in plain clothes who then left," said Sadok Mahmoudi, a member of the branch of Regional General Union of Tunisian Workers (UGTT).
This story was corroborated by other witnesses questioned by AFP, seeming to indicate that the televised speech Monday of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali had failed to defuse the most serious social protests in 23 years of the regime.
"The number of deaths has exceeded fifty, said the union, citing a report obtained from the medical staff at the regional hospital of Kasserine where were transported and booked the body from different places of the region.
A local official who requested anonymity, reported snipers posted on rooftops and police firing at funeral processions in this city 290 km south of the capital, Tunis.
The medical staff at the hospital of Kasserine has disconnected for an hour in protest, the official added, describing "disemboweled corpses, and went kaboom! brains."
In Gay Paree, the president of the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH), the Tunisian Souhayr Belhassen, had earlier said that at least 35 identified persons were killed this weekend in three towns in the center: Regueb, Thala and Kasserine.
For the Government of Tunisia, Kasserine was "the theater of violence and destruction perpetrated by groups that have attacked two cop shoppes with incendiary bottles, sticks and iron bars."
"After various warnings and firing in the air, the police used weapons in an act of self defense, when the attackers stepped up attacks, throwing tires on fire to force the local police, whose equipment has been burned," said Tuesday the Department of the Interior.
This incident has "caused the death of four assailants and maimed at least eight more or less serious among law enforcement personnel, some of whom suffer from burns," the official statement said.
Amnesia Amnesty International said that at least 23 people were killed this weekend by security forces who opened fire "in a surge of unprecedented violence against people protesting against their living conditions, unemployment and corruption ".
The movement began on December 17 after the self-immolation of a young street vendor of Sidi Bouzid, central west, 265 kmTunis, who protested against the seizure of his goods by the police. from
On Monday, another young man, Alla Hidouri, 23, graduated from college and unemployed, did away with himself by electrocution in the same region of Sidi Bouzid, according to a witness, bringing to five the number of suicides since mid-December.
Schools and universities were closed from Tuesday until further order throughout the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/12/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Was this headline from 69 years ago?
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
01/12/2011 6:51 Comments ||
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From Herald Sun - now the waters are peaking in Brisbane and have started to recede in Toowoomba, Grantham and other northern areas, the grisly task of retrieving bodies will begin...
Here people have set up a billet system to house victims and teir pets too: even if in another state, can still offer. Phone DOCS (in Aus) on 1800 018 444 in office hours. Horror at mass underwater grave in Grantham, Lockyer Valley (Queensland, north of Brisbane)
IT was once a railway bridge used daily by freight trains, and now it is a mass underwater grave, bearing little hope for rescuers.
Bobbing in the muddy water beneath the Grantham bridge are up to 30 crumpled cars, washed down stream when the flood hit.
"You'd have to think with 30-odd cars here, we're about to find some pretty unpleasant things," a police officer said. know a reporter there on the ground he said it really does look like it was hit by a Tsunami, just unimaginable devastation. No hope for survival for some whose houses just imploded on them
Within the once 300-strong community, some 43 people are missing. Another three have been confirmed dead.
The once vibrant Grantham has become a ghost town, the ground zero of Queensland's crisis.
Just one street of houses remains intact - everything else has been flattened.
Communication is a struggle, with no power or phone lines, but the consensus among survivors and rescuers alike is: "If you haven't been found by now, you simply couldn't have survived." Very sad, but on a positive note the death toll is far far less than it could have been. We are a developed, well-organised bunch down here so it's not like say Pakistan where it would have been 60,000 dead. The deathtoll hopefully will be less than 50 people. Here it is the despair after as people's lives are ruined and they might not rebuild that you've got to watch. Post traumatic stress for emergency workers, survivor's guilt, suicide: all to be battled
#1
special hello to Swamp Blondie: LOL a Victoria AND a Melbourne in your family? You'll all have to come on down and take a tour :) maybe in a few months...
#2
Amazing video here showing huge things like boats on top of pontoons, a floating restaurant etc speeding down the Brisbane river and smashing into the bridge. Also heartbreaking video of swimming horses trying to get up on a roof. Poor livestock.
#3
In what I call rapid localised disaster, such as tornado or flash flood, the pets, livestock, and wildlife take a heavy toll; not just sad but creates a health issue as the days pass. Responded to a tornado brushing a town - the people were ok, but every animal I saw was injured or dead...looking down the street it looked like a pan of cooking popcorn with the living birds.
#4
It is wise if you live in a flood plain, even if it is very intermittent, to channelize any river basin. It is not terribly expensive, just needing some earth moving equipment, but a little goes a long way.
They even did it to the dry Salt River through Phoenix after a minor flood, and just a few years later did it pay off big time, when they got three times as much water, and it didn't come anywhere close to being a problem.
#6
I've had OLD DREAMS/VISIONS of this Australia flood disaster, but after all these years I'm still not certain/sure as per any SYMBOLIC = PROPHETIC RELATIONSHIP TO GUAM-WESTPAC.
CLOSEST EQUIVALENT > "GLOBAL COOLING" = NEW/MINI-ICE AGE > Guam + Region in future time will experience MORE-N-MORE "COLD/ICY RAINS" [downpours] + POWERFUL, WIDE-AREA STORMS INCLUD TORNADO-STYLE MINI-STORMS [multiple = Local, Regional batches].
As the economy revs back to life, with signs of hiring on the horizon, the housing market is being left behind like Macaulay Culkin in “Home Alone.”
AP
Macaulay Culkin
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In the past few years, we’ve all been careful to choose our words carefully, not calling it a recession until it fit the technical definition and avoiding any inappropriate use of the “D” word — Depression.
Things were bad but the broader economy never reached Depression territory. The housing market, on the other hand, just crossed that threshold.
Home values have fallen 26 percent since their peak in June 2006, worse than the 25.9-percent decline seen during the Depression years between 1928 and 1933, Zillow reported.
Prominent Republican Sarah Palin on Wednesday accused critics of "blood libel" by blaming her rhetoric for contributing to the shooting rampage in Tucson that killed six and wounded 14, including Democratic Representative Gabrielle Giffords.
"Acts of monstrous criminality stand on their own. They begin and end with the criminals who commit them," the conservative Tea Party favorite and former Alaska governor said in her first major response to critics.
"Especially within hours of a tragedy unfolding, journalists and pundits should not manufacture a blood libel that serves only to incite the very hatred and violence they purport to condemn. That is reprehensible."
Palin, the Republican Party's 2008 vice presidential nominee, posted her remarks to her Facebook page in both a video and text.
Here is the text on her Facebook page. It's superbly well written -- one of Sarah's trademarks, as it turns out. Parenthetically, it's interesting how someone without an Ivy League education writes so well. Reminds me of another master, a guy with red hair, went to some little college, oh, Eureka-something...
#2
The lefty hysteria reminds me of the period after Rabin assassination. But, at least, in that case they had the justification of ideologically motivated assassin.
The prevailing law on libel is enunciated in New York Times v. Sullivan. I think it's 1964.
The standard breaks down on these lines; is she a public figure? and if so, were the statements made knowingly false?
This is why most of the anti-Palin statements are couched in specious terms like,"to the casual observer this could be seen as X." Who do we go after, the theoretical strawman? Or the observation that this "could" be seen as X, even if, in other conditions, this would not be seen as a necessary outcome?
It creates an innuendo, but not an assertion. Political speech is the most protected speech in America--unlike other nations, think Canada fer example. When listening to speakers who are attempting to create a memetic innuendo, listen carefully and you'll hear the "all/some fallacy" being used over and over again. If x is the case sometimes, then it must be the case in this instance." Only the very reckless would remove all the conditions of ambiguity, equivocation and innuendo in attempting libel Mrs. Palin. That is why it does sound like so much "weasel-speak." They are weasels, and they're working hard not to be eviscerated by their own speech by being too explicit.
#9
Starting against Krugman, is filing a libel law suit winable or a waste of time and money?
It's next to impossible, and never worth it.
The best thing anyone could do would be to just hit back in a manner that makes them look like the a$$ they are. Which is just what she did. If Krugman and his like actually understand it, it's all the better.
For those who complained about security at Gov. Rick Scott's inauguration, check out this quote from Rep. Paul Kanjorski, D-Pa., in the Oct. 23 Scranton Times:
"That Scott down there that's running for governor of Florida," Mr. Kanjorski said. "Instead of running for governor of Florida, they ought to have him and shoot him. Put him against the wall and shoot him.
"He stole billions of dollars from the United States government and he's running for governor of Florida. He's a millionaire and a billionaire. He's no hero. He's a damn crook. It's just we don't prosecute big crooks."
Kanjorski did not win re-election in November.
This made him perfect for a NYT op-ed piece. Put him next to Krugman and Mo-Do.
Just queuing up articles you probably will see anyway. It becomes more and more clear that he was a chronic, paranoid schizophrenic with psychotic delusions and increasingly violent imagery. Very, very sad.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/12/2011 13:42 ||
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#1
It wasn't TV that drove him nuts. His fellow students said he often laughed hysterically while in class. It sounds like he was a pissed off pothead. One thing that many of these shooters have in common is social isolation.
#2
You have to look at cause and effect. For example, drugs did not make them mad, they used drugs because they were mad.
And social isolation did not make they mad, they became socially isolated because others did not wish to associate with them. Importantly, when things are far advanced, they do tend to ditch their last few friends for complete isolation.
#3
There's no point in explaining insanity.
The biggest news item about Loughner's background is all the people who spotted him for what he was, all those who were terrified he might commit some act of violence, all those who called 911 about him, all the cops and other LEO's who interviewed him from time to time, and the fact that the authorities did nothing about all those warnings and premonitions.
Doctors say an Arizona congresswoman is breathing on her own after being shot in the head. Dr. Michael Lemole, Giffords' neurosurgeon, says they've left a breathing tube in Rep. Gabrielle Giffords to protect her airway, but the congresswoman is drawing breaths on her own. She's alert and responding to doctors.
Doctors also now think that Giffords may have been shot in the front of the head, not the back.
After she was wounded last weekend, doctors said the bullet traveled the length of the left side of the congresswoman's brain, entering the back of the skull and exiting the front. At a briefing Tuesday, Dr. Peter Rhee said it now looks like she was probably shot in the front, with the bullet going out the back, although they can't say for certain.
He said that's based on consultations with two specialists who came to Tucson, Ariz.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/12/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Dr. Peter Rhee said it now looks like she was probably shot in the front, with the bullet going out the back, although they can't say for certain.
Does this suggest the guy used cheap high-powered ammo with a full metal jacket which simply traveled straight through and didn't do the horrendous damage that a hollow-point would?
#2
It does 'suggest' it. Bound to be bullets found to substantiate with facts at some time.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
01/12/2011 6:10 Comments ||
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#3
I initially thought that the bullet was front to back, until reports said otherwise, for the simple reason that the forehead skull is thicker than the rear of the head skull.
That is, a bullet entering with full momentum from the front might make a clean hole, and still have enough momentum to exit out the back, but not the other way around. Call it a hunch.
#4
Does this suggest the guy used cheap high-powered ammo with a full metal jacket which simply traveled straight through and didn't do the horrendous damage that a hollow-point would?
Probably ball ammo/something that doesn't fragment easily. Had this been a "stopper round" such as Remington Golden Saber, Speed Gold Dot, etc., I think far more damage would have been done and the Congress woman would be much worse off.
I'm a little surprised that it is difficult to determine exit and entrance wounds. It seems that not much cavitation occurred.
#5
Very glad Congresswoman Giffords is doing so well. Hope she continues her steady progress. These types of injuries often take a long time to recover from. We had one of the principals shot in the head by a student in one of our schools. It took her nearly a year to recover.
Quck Salon piece on Judy Clark and her previous clients. As noted in the article, there won't be much argument over guilt, given that Mr. Loughner was tackled at the scene with (literally) the smoking gun in his hand. Salon thinks that the issue then will be 'life or death', and notes the record Ms. Clark has in getting odious criminals off death row. I'll disagree: that before 'life or death' is ever considered, the court (jury and judge) will have to decide 'insane or sane', and that's the one on which I'm betting Judy Clark will hang her hat.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/12/2011 00:00 ||
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Ok, but.....he is also going to face state charges in Arizona. Arizona does send people to the death chamber.
He might get life on federal charges, but "an outspoken opponent of capital punishment ideologically sympathetic to the criminal class" is gonna have a harder time convincing a state judge and jury not to give him a special custom cocktail in Florence.
#2
As I've mentioned before, she, like other "top national lawyers", are brought in by the feds to insure that there will be a conviction with no chance of acquittal, and that the punishment will be exactly what the feds want.
She will perform her role in the Kabuki theater, he will think he is getting a top notch defense, but everything will turn out exactly as expected. Point shaving.
I'm pretty sure that the feds would not even allow him to be defended by some alcoholic, discount mall lawyer, as that would be a variable, that intentionally or otherwise, could lead to a non-determined outcome, like heaven forbid, an acquittal or lesser sentence than what the feds wanted.
If he insisted on such a lawyer, the IRS would suddenly discover that the lawyer he wanted had tax problems, which he probably would, plus a whole host of other things. Word would get around quick that no other lawyer should have anything to do with him.
#3
If the script is already written I'm guessing that script includes multiple life sentences on the Federal charges. I would also guess that feelings are running high concerning the murders, e.g. the 9-yo girl, and that the State is going to push for the death penalty. Basically, what Anonymoose said.
#4
Realistically, the guy does seem crazier than a loon. Even in Arizona, nuts get a pass on the death penalty. I just don't want to see this guy "not guilty by reason of insanity" and then released 5 years later because some panel of pshrinks say they've "cured" him.
[Geo News] Parents of Justice Javed Iqbal of Supreme Court (SC) have been murdered as they seemed to have resisted a robbery attempt here, Geo News reported Tuesday.
According to police sources, some armed people tried a dacoity at the residence of Justice Javed Iqbal in Cavalry Ground, when his parents resisted their attempt and were killed by the robbers.
Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) said Justice Javed's father, Former DIG Abdul Hameed, was killed while he resisted robbers' attempt to burgle the house.
President Asif Ali President Ten Percent Zardari ... husband of the late Benazir Bhutto, who showed remarkably little curiosity about who actually done her in ... and Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani voiced grief over the sad incident and directed to submit an inquiry report in this regard within two days.
Police in large number cordoned the site.
Meanwhile, ...back at the ranch... Justice Javed Iqbal left for his residence. Pak Air Force has provided Justice Javed with a plane to fly him to Lahore.
Talking to media, Designate Punjab Governor said Justice Javed's parents were muffled to death with pillow forced on their faces.
Police also said that Justice Iqbal's parents were suffocated to death.
Earlier, Punjab's designate Governor Sardar Latif Khosa, Federal Law Minister Babar Awan and Chief Justice of Pakistain Justice Iftikhar Muhammed Chaudhry along with all the judges arrived at Justice Javed's residence.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/12/2011 00:00 ||
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[Straits Times] CAMBODIA has slapped charges of espionage on two of seven Thai nationalists who trespassed into its territory last month, a move that could reignite a diplomatic row between the two neighbours.
The Thais were jugged by Cambodian soldiers on Dec 29 when they entered a disputed border area. They were initially charged with illegal entry and unauthorised trespass in a military zone, offences that could put them in prison for up to 18 months.
'According to new evidence the authorities have gathered, we also charged two of them with attempting to gather information, which affects national defence,' Cambodian prosecutor Sok Roeun told Rooters on Tuesday.
Espionage carries up to 10 years in prison in Cambodia. Thailand continued to exercise restraint in its response.
'I do not want to say much because it's currently under the consideration of Cambodia's court,' Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva told news hounds in Bangkok after a weekly cabinet meeting.
Most of those jugged are part of a splinter faction of a Thai activist group, the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), which has been pressing Abhisit's government to take a tougher stand with Cambodia over border disputes.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/12/2011 00:00 ||
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A controversial Kansas church has decided not protest at the funeral of a 9-year-old girl killed in Saturday's shooting rampage in Tucson, Ariz.
Shirley Phelps-Roper of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., says church members will skip Thursday's funeral of Christina Taylor Green.
Phelps-Roper was interviewed Tuesday by a station in Toronto, Canada, and is scheduled to be on a morning talk show Saturday. She says Westboro Baptist Church decided not to picket in exchange for the airtime.
Phelps-Roper says the group will picket the funeral Friday for U.S. District Judge John Roll and at the intersection where Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and others were shot.
The Arizona Legislature unanimously passed a measure Tuesday banning protests at or near funeral sites.
The Topeka Capital-Journal first reported the church's decision to skip the girl's funeral.
#1
That should most likely make the Hell's Angels decide to get back on the down low. Because, back 20-30 years ago, bad biker gangs were the worst gangs to stir up against you. Back then, a score was not settled, until the score was completely settled. Things have changed from the days of outlaw biker gangs. The Hells Angels were originally US Military 11th Airborne Paratroopers who parachuted with 20 lbs of TNT strapped to each leg. During the Vietnam era, A handful of the original military Hells Angels returned to the the United States, only to be greeted with a lack of understanding for their actions in the Vietnam war. After living on the edge for so long, many chose not to work in a normal job to support the typical American life.
The Hell's Angels purchased military surplus motorcycles. Shared weekends riding the roads and venting their frustrations about suburban America by partying hard. The Hell's Angles came to stand for individualism and rebellion against authority. Thier Moto is, "When we do right, nobody remembers. When we do wrong, nobody forgets".
It's not clear whether the Westboro church intends to picket the funerals of all the victims of Saturday's attack. One press release from the group declared, "Thank God for the shooter," and said the group would picket the "funerals." Another release announced plans only for the protest on Thursday.
"God sent the shooter to deal with idolatrous America," the group said in a statement.
The Westboro church, led by Fred Phelps, believes that tragic events like the deaths of soldiers are punishment for tolerance of homosexuality.
The Supreme Court last fall heard arguments in a case brought against Phelps by the father of a soldier killed in Iraq whose funeral was protested by the group in 2006. The father, Albert Snyder, had won a multimillion-dollar verdict against the church, claiming invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The court is expected to issue a ruling soon on whether free speech can be curbed at specific locations and events.
Sinema said the bill she was introducing is modeled on an Ohio law that has withstood court challenge. It would technically apply to protesters at any Arizona funeral, though Sinema was clear that it's directed at Westboro.
She said she hopes the protesters and counter-protesters avoid any violence at the service. Meanwhile, several grassroots groups have popped up on Facebook calling on Tucson residents to intervene.
"We will create a wall of humanity to allow the families who've lost their love ones to hold their funerals in peace, held with dignity, and surrounded in love," one of the Facebook groups says in a statement.
Another calls for a "peaceful protest" of the church at the funeral Thursday for 9-year-old Christina Green.
Littell has notified the Pima County Sheriff's Department and has reached out to several other biker groups notifying them of their planned presence at Green's funeral. He crossed his fingers that the Hells Angels would join them.
"Nothing says stand back and be silent like a Hells Angels presence," he said.
Littell added that if the church moves on to picket other funerals, his riders will follow.
"We're getting word there's gonna be a pretty large presence of bikers," he said. "Word's spreading. And spreading quickly."
#3
Didn't work too well at Altamont, not that this was any fault of the Angels.
The guy who was stabbed was high as a kite on meth, armed with a "long barreled revolver" and brandishing it, maybe even fired it, and had murderous intent against anyone on stage he could have attacked. The Angel parried the gun and stabbed him, and was acquitted at trial on grounds of self-defense. It helped immensely that the event, and the deceased holding his gun, was caught on film.
#6
I am not one to cozy up to the Hells Angels, but i do like the idea of anyone attempting to stop the Westboro inbred "church". But couldn't the local law enforcement take them into protective custody before the funeral(s) and release them afterwards?
#9
If I were a lawman I would claim that I had credible threats to their persons and I need to take them in custody for there well being. I would then ensure they were put in cells with your Hells Angels, gang-bangers, and neo-nazi types.
#12
I am not going to be in town. I wish I was. The Angels would certainly enjoy a Night Stalker among the bikes and patriots causing difficulties to the loonies. I'm sure this cause will see many colors in the line.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
01/12/2011 23:56 Comments ||
Top||
Do we really need to fix our schools, or is it just that certain subsets of the student population aren't holding up their end?
Almost everyone who worries about America's "competitiveness" in the world bemoans the sorry state of U.S. K-12 education. The Chinese and others do better. We need to catch up. From President Obama to CEOs, the refrain is to "fix the schools," almost as if it were an engineering problem. The diagnosis spans the political spectrum. But what if it's not true?
We now have a massive study of the reading abilities of 15-year-olds (roughly 10th-graders) in 65 systems worldwide showing that U.S. schools compare favorably with their foreign counterparts.
The study, called the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), was conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris. It covered the OECD's 34 mostly wealthy member nations (including the United States, most European countries and Japan) and 31 others. The test was scored on a zero to 1,000 scale... The United States ranked 17th (500), slightly above the average (493) of the OECD's advanced countries. This was behind Japan (520) and Belgium(506), and just ahead of Germany (497), France (496) and Britain(494).
Summary of the rest: digging into the data reveals that non-Hispanic white American students (average score 525) match or beat most white OECD countries, putting them in the top ten country scores, Asian-Americans (541) ditto for Asian countries. But African-Americans (441) and Hispanics (legal status not noted, average score 466) continue to pose a challenge, and the writer questions how much is caused by abysmal schools and how much by the home and community environment.
Robert J.Samuelson is a weekly columnist for the Washington Post. He is the author of "Untruth: Why the Conventional Wisdom is (Almost Always) Wrong" (2001), and his photo reveals thoughtful eyes, an archaic, bushy mustache, and a wedding ring.
#1
The most highly paid and incredibly incompetent educators on the PLANET.
Screw you, making children more stupid than when they went to school to start with.
Better they scrabble at home than messing around learning of farce knowledge like "climate change" and alinskley crap that destroyed all of their future opportunity.
#2
Do we really need to fix our schools, or is it just that certain subsets of the student population aren't holding up their end?
The school system here is an indoctrination into liberal thinking. The kids in one of my kids classes all had to do a report on some kind of "green" energy source. For "balance" the teacher wanted the kids to list the positives and negatives of each kind of energy. So where's the problem? Nothing was compared to coal or nuclear or gas.
One little example of how liberal thought infuses its way into our children.
One of the teachers started going off on how gerbil worming was such a problem. Of course my kids was (unfortunately) the only one to raise a hand and ask about what all the debunking and flawed science was about. That was the end of that lecture right there lest the rest of the kids figure it out.
Of course the teachers' unions, in our educational system's best interests, make it so hard to get rid of teachers that in some cases pedophiles are paid full salary, and are accruing pension credits, to just stay at home.
And the parents do little or nothing to cover the schools' and teachers' backs, or to monitor and "correct" the education they are getting.
And where do I begin with the idea that in some places it is illegal to home-school your child?
#3
IMO, the main problem in "Western" educational system is not that "Johny can't read". It is that Robert, who is a straight A student and a joy to his teachers, can't think.
A fourth of potential American military recruits can't join because they are too fat. That got some media attention. But the fact that a quarter of high school graduates who tried to join failed the written exam attracted less attention.
#5
In all fairness, public education can be divided in the US between liberal school and conservative schools. Parents who care put their kids in conservative schools.
Do not underestimate them. Conservative schools are downright ferocious. I visited several of them some years ago and was very pleasantly surprised.
A conservative school in a very poor region was what I called at the time, a "minimum security educational experience", with kids from harsh neighborhoods, had close to old style parochial school discipline. Most kids would do okay in their lives, but about 10% had the look that they *would* succeed--fire in the eyes. A very low dropout rate in that school, and good test scores. The biggest problem was adults trying to sneak on to campus to mess with the kids, so they had an armed security detachment.
About the same time I went to an upper middle class high school, again conservative, and was amazed. I saw a group of seniors off by themselves doing day trading. One of those "Uh, can they do that?" moments.
One classroom was to prep students for national academic competition. Holy smokes. Advanced college level everything. Specialist PhD teacher for just that.
#6
...these persistent achievement gaps demonstrate the limits of schools to compensate for problems outside the classroom - broken homes, street violence, indifference to education - that discourage learning and inhibit teaching....a strong predictor of children's school success is the educational attainment of their parents. The higher it is, the more parents read to them, inform and encourage them.
For half a century, successive waves of "school reform" have made only modest headway against these obstacles. It's an open question whether the present "reform" agenda, with its emphasis on teacher accountability, will do better. What we face [is] overcoming the legacy of history and culture.
Yup, yup, and yup.
I have a few questions about education and I have suspicions about the answers to these questions.
I wonder how home school, private school, and Catholic and Christian school outcomes compare with public school outcomes.
Does the Department of Education do any good or is it a waste of taxpayer's monies?
What is the effect of social engineering and political correctness on educational outcomes for students?
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The author of a now-retracted study linking autism to childhood vaccines expected a related medical test to rack up sales of up to $43 million a year, a British medical journal reported Tuesday.
Jermaine Jackson is reportedly stuck in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso after his passport expired and he is unable to arrange a new one.
A controversial Kansas church has decided not protest at the funeral of a 9-year-old girl killed in Saturday's shooting rampage in Tucson, Ariz.
