Yearly Archives: 2013

‘Safe haven’ Chicago schoolhouse demolished despite community opposition

"Supporters of a Chicago community schoolhouse were arrested Saturday morning while protesting the facility’s demolition, as residents vowed to continue pressuring city leaders to live up to financial commitments. According to WLS-TV, the building had become a focal point for a neighborhood group, the Whittier Parents Committee, who used the facility to offer free workshops, computers and a library, and staged a 43-day sit-in in 2010 to keep it. 'They talk about safe passage, they talk about the violence,' committee member Gema Gaete said. 'We were an answer. We were providing an answer for free at no cost to CPS, and this is how they repay us.'" Continue reading →

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‘Missing’ French tourists found safe at home after prompting a manhunt

"The discovery of an empty canoe floating in the Lac de Sainte-Croix in the heart of Provence triggered fears for a couple and two children believed to have rented it on Thursday. About 40 rescuers, backed up by a helicopter, divers and sniffer dogs, had been scouring the picturesque emerald lake and its surrounds ever since, in a rescue operation closely followed by local media. Gendarme Captain Frederic Del Aguila said the tourists explained that their boat had been overturned by a small wave after the sluices were opened on a hydroelectric dam. However they would be fined 35 euros for entering a part of the lake forbidden to tourists." Continue reading →

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The Drug War Murders a Toddler

"Joshua Hill didn’t know that his July 25 visit with his daughter Alexandria would be the last he would enjoy. Four days later the two-year-old child was killed by the state-licensed foster mother who had been given custody after Joshua’s daughter was seized by the Texas Child Protective Service. Why was this child taken away from loving and capable parents? Last November, the state confiscated the infant from her home because the parents admitted to using marijuana on occasion. This was described as 'neglectful supervision,' a charge that permitted the child-snatchers to deliver the infant into the hands of an aggressively abusive individual." Continue reading →

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Should Cops Enforce Internet Etiquette?

"Joseph Grabko of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania was briefly employed at a pizza restaurant called The Wild Tomato before quitting over issues of hygiene and finding drug paraphernalia on the premises. Grabko posted a critical review of the restaurant in the Yelp social network site. When it was deleted, he reposted it. The owner of the restaurant threatened Grabko with a 'harassment' charge if he didn’t take down the reviews within 24 hours. Shortly thereafter Grabko received a call from Officer Hallie Miller of the Lower Paxton Township Police Department, who told him that his online opinions 'can be construed as harassment.'" Continue reading →

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French revolutionary rule keeps Paris bakers baking

"The presence of bread – which holds an almost mythical importance for the French – has been guaranteed in the capital since the chaotic and starving days of the French Revolution. And to avoid the possibility of another revolution, the state has since ensured that modern Parisians have no need to rise up for lack of a fresh baguette. City bakers now have strictly regulated summer holidays and are expressly forbidden to abandon the capital en masse and leave behind a potentially dangerous bread vacuum. The rules go back to the Revolution, when in October 1798 baker Denis François was lynched by an angry mob for not opening his shop." Continue reading →

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British warships arrive in Gibraltar amid tension with Spain

"British warships arrived in Gibraltar on Monday for scheduled exercises amid tensions with Spain over fishing around the British Mediterranean enclave. Although British, Spanish and Gibraltarian authorities have said the navy’s arrival at the British overseas territory is long-scheduled, some in Spain see it as provocative. Spain claims the territory, population just 30,000, which it ceded to Britain by treaty 300 years ago. In Monday’s German Sueddeutsche Zeitung, Gibraltar Chief Minister Fabian Picardo accused the Spanish government of creating conflict to distract attention from corruption allegations against the ruling People’s Party." Continue reading →

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Ex-CIA official to ask Italy for pardon for illegal U.S. ‘extraordinary rendition’

"Former CIA Milan station chief Robert Seldon Lady is to ask Italy’s president to pardon him for kidnapping an Egyptian Muslim cleric under the U.S. 'extraordinary rendition' program, his lawyer was quoted as saying on Monday. Lady was among 23 Americans sentenced at an Italian trial in 2009, the first time U.S. nationals had been convicted over the program, operated by the administration of former U.S. President George W. Bush during the so-called war on terror. Lady – 59, and now retired – escaped extradition in July from Panama, where he was detained after crossing the border from Costa Rica. He was released and returned to the United States." Continue reading →

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Social Security and Medicare: Twin Disasters Loved by All Age Groups

"The Social Security system, like the Medicare system, is beloved of younger workers, because they think they're going to get a free lunch from the government when they're older, and this enables them to spend less money now for their retirement years. They love it. They figure somebody else is going to pay for their retirement, and they think they're going to dig deep into somebody else's wallet. This is a Ponzi scheme. But Ponzi schemes are incredibly popular with people. Think of Bernie Madoff. People loved to get in. They begged to get in. Madoff realized early that it was this insatiable desire for outsiders to get in that was his sustaining factor." Continue reading →

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RNC develops a video rebuttal the the CNN “Hillary Documentary” love fest, Part 1

In case you missed it, CNN decided to do a documentary on Hillary Clinton, as it is assumed her crowning is all but assured for President in 2016 (until someone shinier comes along like in 2008): Cable News Network has announced they will produce a documentary film about presumptive 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to […]

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NSA Says It Was All a Series of Mistakes.

"The NSA is having a PR problem with documents provided by Edward Snowden before he arrived in Russia. The Post article indicated that the NSA is spying on Americans inside the USA. Snowden is the source of the NSA’s problems. He provided evidence. Over half of the American public thinks he did wrong. The voters are content with the loss of privacy. They want negative sanctions imposed on Snowden, not the NSA. The NSA will simply hunker down. This will blow over soon enough. Eventually, the media will run out of leaked documents. Then it will be business as usual. Over half the public does not care." Continue reading →

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