[An Nahar] Can the Chemical Weapons Convention be used against a woman who tried to poison her rival in a love triangle? My answer would be "that's a really stoopid question."
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday suggested that the answer is, no. "It seems unimaginable that you would bring this prosecution," Justice Anthony Kennedy told the government prosecutor during oral arguments in the case. Actually, I think that was a "hell no!"
Justice Samuel Alito asked jokingly if he would be at risk of prosecution after handing out Halloween candy bars since "chocolate is poison to dogs." He was whacking the prosecutor with a slapstick at the time...
At issue is the case of Carol Bond. Tell us about Carol. She sounds sweet.
The Pennsylvania microbiologist put arsenic and potassium dichromate on the mailbox and car controls of her friend who had an adulterous fling with Bond's husband and got pregnant. Okay, she's not all that sweet.
Bond was arrested in the failed attempt to kill her friend, pleading guilty in 2007 to two counts of the federal crime of having used using a chemical weapon. Trying to poison someone is a Bad Thing. But putting rat poison in Uncle Bob's soup isn't the same thing as gassing the opposing trenches on the Marne. Someone is terribly confused.
She was sentenced to six years in prison and released last year. She did her time, now she's out. Put it behind her. Move on with her life...
But Bond now has appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, saying the law was supposed to stop terrorists from using chemical arms, not to prosecute individuals. There is that, isn't there. Who wants that sort of thing on his/her/its record? Better a plain old-fashioned attempted murder charge, which actually would have covered it.
"If the statute (is used) for any malicious use of chemicals then it clearly exceeds Congress's powers," her attorney Paul Clement argued. [Insert sledge hammer-insect analogy here]
That amounts to "police power," and as such would be a responsibility of the individual U.S. states, Clement argued. How'd the Feds get involved at all? Were state lines crossed?
One of the justices fretted that the list of potentially harmful chemicals would be "a thousand miles long," although the three women on the nine-member court seemed favorably disposed toward the government's case. Probably left the court and went to buy steering wheel covers...
But legal expert Lyle Denniston suggested on the ScotusBlog website that the best the government could hope for in the case is a small defeat, rather than a massive beatdown. Rather than being chased from the U.S. Supreme Court by people wearing fright wigs and size 22 shoes, honking air horns at them while thumping them with bladders...
"It appeared that the government might just have to hope that it loses the case on narrow grounds, because it might lose it in a sweeping way," Denniston wrote. Being laughed out of court is pretty sweeping.
A decision is expected by June. I have a mullet under my tongue. I am waiting with baited breath.
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11/07/2013 00:00 ||
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One of the justices fretted that the list of potentially harmful chemicals would be "a thousand miles long," although the three women on the nine-member court seemed favorably disposed toward the government's case.
Oh, great, another bureaucratic trick for the EPA to seize more abusive power to shut down the country.
Police in southwest England appealed for help Tuesday in tracking down thieves who made off with 160 sheep from a field near the village of Wool.
Police say the sheep were stolen between Saturday and Monday, and that the thieves would have needed a large vehicle to move the woolly haul.
Constable Adam Taylor says all of the sheep were electronically tagged.
He is urging anyone who has witnessed suspicious activity -- or been offered sheep "in unusual circumstances or for very low prices" -- to come forward.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/07/2013 00:00 ||
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I suggest a local, unrelated criminal punishment fits this crime as well:
In the village of Wool.... A small single lane hump backed stone bridge about 200m north from the railway is no longer used for vehicular traffic. It has a stone halfway along it stating that those who deface or damage the bridge will be transported (sent to Australia or another penal colony) for the rest of their lives.
[Dawn] Nine people were shot and at least two were killed at a barber shop in bankrupt, increasingly impoverished, reliably Democrat, Detroit ... ruled by Democrats since 1962. A city whose Golden Age included the Purple Gang... , Michigan where gambling often takes place, police said Wednesday.
Police were looking for two men who expeditiously departed at a goodly pace in separate vehicles.
"The location historically is known as a place where gambling took place so we're not sure if this was over bad debt, we have no idea," Detroit Police Chief James Craig told news hounds.
"Our investigation is still very early and still continuing."The suspects "engaged a couple victims" and several shots were fired inside the barber shop. Craig said some of the victims may have shot back.
He had initially told news hounds that three people were pronounced dead at the scene but local media said that number had been downgraded to two.
Detroit police did not immediately return requests for confirmation.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/07/2013 00:00 ||
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Lack, poverty, and hopelessness to blame, Ockham's razor.
#4
Gives new meaning to "getting trimmed" or "clipped." This would be a good time to make a film titled: "Escape from Detroit" if the usual suspects were involved. Or maybe "Detroitistan" if this were mooselimb inspired. I wonder if the police response time to this shooting was the usual one hour.
#7
This is even worse: Detroit
The family of a Detroit woman shot to death after she is believed to have sought help at a Dearborn Heights home is calling for answers in the incident.
The family of Renisha McBride, 19, said she went for help after a car accident around 2:30 a.m. Saturday. She died of a gunshot wound to the head after knocking on the door of a home on the 16000 block of Outer Drive near Warren in Dearborn Heights, near where the accident occurred. Her cellphone battery had died, her family said.
Few other details about the incident have been released by the Dearborn Heights Police Department.
Dearborn Heights (has) identified the person who fired the shot and killed the woman, according to a press release. The statement added that a final report on the shooting will be forwarded to the Wayne County Prosecutors Office for review in the near future.
McBrides maternal aunt, Bernita Spinks, said the shooting was not justified even if the resident believed McBride was an intruder breaking into the home.
He shot her in the head ... for what? For knocking on his door, said Spinks on Tuesday. If he felt scared or threatened, he should have called 911.
Spinks said the family met with officials from the Prosecutors Office on Tuesday. Spinks said she believes her niece was racially profiled.
You see a young black lady on your porch and you shoot? said Spinks.
He killed my niece and he needs to pay for it. He needs to be in jail.
There was no window broken. My niece didnt bother anyone. She went looking for help and now shes dead.
"Spahic allegedly performed an Islamic ceremony that involved "chanting and rubbing the body with oil," court papers said. ...Holy crap!!! I'm a freaking Muslim...!
#1
At the time of his arrest Spahic served as the imam - a leader of Islamic prayer services - at the Des Moines Islamic and Cultural Center Bosniak on Lower Beaver Road.
Curiosity getting the best of me, I tried to punch the addy into my Garmin, but the voice prompt began to laugh uncontrollably.
#2
Stopping them from killing apostates, kaffirs and other non-Muslims is also probably interpreted by the same kind as violating their 'religious freedoms'.
Philippine authorities are making preparations for a "super typhoon" which is expected to slam into the central part of the country later this week.
Disaster officials have issued their highest alert level ahead of the arrival of Typhoon Haiyan, which already boasts wind gusts of up to 185 kilometers per hour.
[An Nahar] The United States indicated Wednesday it was ready to lift sanctions against Rwanda if Kigali cuts all ties with Congolese M23 rebels.
Washington has distanced itself from its ally Rwanda since July 2012 by freezing its modest $200,000 military aid and imposed sanctions in a bid to urge President Paul Kagame's regime to end its support of the mainly Tutsi rebels of M23, who surrendered on Tuesday.
Last month, Washington slapped sanctions on Kigali for its alleged backing of the Congolese rebels who recruit child soldiers into their ranks.
The United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... , Democratic Republic of the Congo ...formerly the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Zaire, and who knows what else, not to be confused with the Brazzaville Congo aka Republic of Congo, which is much smaller and much more (for Africa) stable. DRC gave the world Patrice Lumumba and Joseph Mobutu, followed by years of tedious civil war. Its principle industry seems to be the production of corpses. With a population of about 74 million it has lots of raw material... and the United States all accuse Rwanda of providing military support to the rebels.
"If it turns out that Rwanda is no longer involved in such activities, if it turns out that their role here has been a positive one... then we will certainly review whether it is appropriate to continue these sanctions," U.S. Special Envoy for the Great Lakes Russ Feingold told a telephone conference.
Feingold recognized that Washington is not certain that Kigali's support for the M23 has completely stopped.
He called for a "fact-based investigation with the sincere hope that we find out that the support's terminated and certainly with an open mind in that regard."
The State Department had welcomed Tuesday's military victory by U.N.-backed Congolese troops over the rebels, and called for all sides to sign a final peace agreement on the Great Lakes in line with negotiations that began nearly a year ago in the Ugandan capital Kampala.
Rwanda and Uganda's decision to stop backing the M23 helped facilitate this latest shift in the long-running conflict. The two countries were under intense diplomatic pressure, including from the United States in recent weeks, to halt support for the rebels.
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Whatever is done, this needs to end completely now. Even if it all must be rooted out.
With all the dead Children on the fields, they will have to look at themselves.
South African police fired rubber bullets on Tuesday to disperse a protest march organized by a firebrand new political party and arrested four people, highlighting tensions building ahead of general elections next year.
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), headed by Julius Malema, the expelled bad boy of the ruling African National Congress, said in a statement an unspecified number of its members were injured in the march near the main government buildings in the capital Pretoria.
It also said four of its leaders had been arrested.
Police confirmed the incident, saying the march was illegal because no permission had been granted in advance.
#1
Jacob 'Shower head' Zuma and his "Lethu Mshini Wami" ("Bring Me My Machine Gun") too liberal and soft for the anxious Malema. A much welcomed schism ek se.
[An Nahar] They work hard, sniffing out crime with only the occasional pat on the nose in gratitude.
But police dogs deserve better, according to the police and crime commissioner in the English county of Nottinghamshire, who wants to reward them with "pensions" on retirement.
Paddy Tipping says the idea for a canine pension fund came about because officers were picking up the costs for retired police dogs. Handlers normally take dogs home upon retirement. Tipping, however, says he doesn't "think it's fair that they have to pay all the bills."
The plans announced Monday will be rolled out next month. Up to 500 pounds ($800) annually will be given to handlers for three years to cover veterinary bills for work-related injuries or illness.
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Good stuff, and in the splendid tradition of Greyfriars Bobby.
The author is whining about not doing enough. I present it as an example of how much it's going to cost, notwithstanding the need.
For climate change optimists, California is indeed the golden state when it comes to aggressive policies designed to avoid alleged catastrophic climate change. But as a new report makes depressingly clear, even Ecotopia will fall far short of hitting a target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 80% by 2050 without the invention of new technologies and imposition of more draconian green mandates. Give us more power and control! We will save you!
That's the number scientists believe must be met to keep climate change in check. "This is quite a stringent requirement, and even if we aggressively expand our policies and implement fledgling technologies that are not even on the marketplace now, our analysis shows that California will still not be able to get emissions to 85 metric tons of CO2-equivalent by 2050," said Jeff Greenblatt, a researcher at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory who wrote the report.
Greenblatt assumes that Californians will drive 30% fewer miles in 2050, and if they're still driving gasoline-powered cars, their vehicles will get about 78 miles per gallon. About 17 million cars would need to be zero-emission vehicles--powered by batteries or fuel cells. The state had better hope that fracking works out; 45% of all heavy-duty trucks would be powered by natural gas under the most optimistic scenario. They'd prefer that truck would run off unicorn natural gas, none of that nasty fracking, please! Coming soon, with additional funding grants -
The study does identify policies that were not considered under the third scenario because of a lack of data on their impact. Those included making all buses electric or powered by fuel cells, converting trains to run on natural gas, self-driving cars, and the mass deployment of solar panels and energy storage in every home to radically cut power plant emissions. Nor were their any cost estimates associated with the proposed changes.
Posted by: Bobby ||
11/07/2013 09:00 ||
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California will just have to take more radical steps, like banning the sale and use of fossil fuels and turning off their electric grid. Turn away all ships attempting to dock at their ports.
#6
AlanC, I've often wondered about that. Do pious greenies really believe that restricting greenhouse gas emissions on this or that small patch of land will make much difference in world where industrializing behemoths like China and India have no intention of following suit? Even if they're correct about the problem and the solution, it hardly matters if most of the rest of the world blows it off. Like swearing off smoking with the left hand but not with the right. What's the point? I mean, other than OWG. Do they even think about it?
#7
Now RandomJD, you know the problem with your question. You KNOW they don't think, because thinking is against their religion. If they start thinking, they become heretics when they realize everything they believe is a lie and wrong.
#8
There are so many opportunities they overlook. For example, have you ever flown at night? Notice how bright it is? Think of how much electricity from the nasty fossil-fuel plants we could eliminate if we just turn off all the lights when we went to bed. Like they do in North Korea.
Snark of the day.
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You are assuming of course that it's about the environment. Not the case. The environmental protection agency and vast majority of other 'enviromental groups' don't give a rats arse about protecting the environment.
Controlling people's lives on the other hand... Oh yeah!
#10
I hate to admit but I do know the answer to the question. Unfortunately once the answer has been stated there is nothing else to say...and where's the fun in that.
The answer, of course, is that there are the stupid greenies who believe their own bilge and there are the leadership greenies who are more accurately labeled water-melons, green on the outside and red in the middle.
For the leadership it is, as CF points out, all about control and power for me but not for thee.
Once you have identified the totalitarians and tyrants what is left to say on this issue?
#11
Back in the 80s when it was all about the rain forest I wondered why didn't all these groups start buying up rain forest so it couldnt' be logged. I know that's a capitalist answer but with all the money they raised for awareness they could have bought a large chunk of forest and saved it. I bet they could have gotten the UN or Brazil to work on their behalf to get a discount or tax exemption. Except it wasn't ever really about the trees.
POLAND - It was one of those nights for 56-year-old Marek Michalski. One of those nights when "one more" seemed like a good idea - but wasn't. He was found passed out on a bench in Piotrkow, Poland without a pulse. Concerned citizens called an ambulance and he was whisked away.
Fade to Black:
Fade in:
It's hours later. It's dark. It's quiet.
Marek awoke in a body bag and screamed for help but nobody heard him. He then rolled the bag off the table and extricated himself from his premature eternal sleeping bag to find himself in the morgue.
He told local media, "I remember sitting on a bench and the next thing I woke up in a morgue. Someone has to pay for this, I have nightmares now about being sliced up by doctors who dont realize I am alive and want to do an autopsy."
Marek intends to file suit against the hospital which gave a glimpse of its razor sharp defense: "They [the staff] believed that the man was dead and followed procedure by putting him inside a sealed bag."
The moral of the story is if you plan to drink a lot, try not to die...if even for a short while.
[An Nahar] The far-right Sweden Democrats party on Wednesday proposed forbidding foreigners from begging in the country under penalty of jail time or expulsion.
"Make begging in Sweden an offence for foreigners and impose the punishment of expulsion or an entry ban" for a certain amount of time, the party wrote in a political program.
The Sweden Democrats entered parliament for the first time in 2010 on an anti-immigration, euroskeptic platform, and the party hopes to win even more seats in September 2014 legislative elections.
The latest opinion polls show the party has around 12 percent support among voters.
According to the party, in a section of the program entitled "fight against criminality", there are two types of beggars in Sweden.
"The main reason beggars come to Sweden is to beg in a professional manner. We can compare them to Swedish beggars who often beg because of their homelessness or addiction to alcohol or drugs.
"The Sweden Democrats think that professional begging has no place here in Sweden. We also feel that Swedish social protection must first of all be directed towards, and take care of, our fellow citizens," according to the document.
Sweden has relatively few homeless people, however their number has increased as a result of the economic crisis in Europe.
The government in 2012 counted 370 homeless European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... citizens in the country, most of whom were men or Roma.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Street begging has got to be tough in winter there. Not like you can hitchhike to Florida for seasonal work.
Thousands of striking Greek workers marched to parliament in pouring rain on Wednesday to protest against measures imposed by foreign lenders, whose inspectors are in Athens to review the country's bailout.
The 24-hour general walkout by Greece's largest public and private sector unions shut schools and disrupted flights but far fewer people took to the streets compared with previous protests as heavy downpours blanketed Athens.
What a bunch of wussies -- the protests were called on account of rain?
#1
What a bunch of wussies -- the protests were called on account of rain?
Agree, I recall an African king, many years ago who went lion hunting. The lion turned, charged and killed him.
Seems that was the first time the reign was called on account of game....
A coalition of Burmese armed minority groups has agreed to continue a dialogue with the government to try to reach a nationwide cease-fire deal.
Representatives of 17 armed groups and the Burmese government ended two days of talks in northern Kachin state without any concrete agreements. But the two sides announced they will keep meeting, starting next month in the southern state of Karen.
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.
[An Nahar] Can the Chemical Weapons Convention be used against a woman who tried to poison her rival in a love triangle?
[An Nahar] Wool's wool is missing.
[An Nahar] They work hard, sniffing out crime with only the occasional pat on the nose in gratitude.
