Year: 2012

Murder or Madness? Ohio Woman Arrested For Trying To Hire Hitman To Kill Random Fur Wearer

Meredith Lowell, 27,has been arrested in a rather bizarre alleged murder plot: to randomly kill a fur wearer. Lowell was charged with soliciting a hit man to shoot a stranger — justifying the hit was akin to liberating people from Nazi concentration camps.

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Tampa NBC: Where We Don’t Find The News, The News Finds Us

Local NBC reporter Adrienne Pedersen in Tampa did not exactly come across as Edward R. Marrow in this clip. She is reporting on gas prices as screeching tires are heard behind her in a wreck. She is then told by the anchor to turn around and does a surprisingly dismissive account of the accident.

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Chinese Company To Expand “Bear-Bile” Farms To Harvest The Gall Bladders Of Drugged Bears

The Chinese have long believed that bear gall bladders hold special healing qualities — leading to the worldwide massacre of bears to feed the Chinese traditional medicine market. Now a publicly traded pharmaceutical company, Guizhentang, has introduced “Bear bile farms” where hundreds of bears are held in cramped cages to be harvested for their bile. The horrific practice is carried out on drugged bears with a hypodermic needle.

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Ashes To Go: Ohio Church Offers Drive-Thru Service For Ash Wednesday

Ever get up for Ash Wednesday and just hate to have to get out of your car and walk into a church? Now, getting your ashes is as easy as a McDonald’s cup of coffee. Just pull up to Mt. Healthy United Methodist Church in suburban Cincinnati and Rev. Patricia Anderson Cook will appear at your window for ashes on the run.

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Loose Wire Blamed For Faster-Than-Light Mistaken Finding

Albert Einstein is not such a dummy after all. As we previously discussed, scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in making a subatomic particle go faster than the speed of light for the first time. The scientists used neutrinos, which were observed smashing past the cosmic speed barrier of 186,282 miles per second (299,792 kilometers per second). It now turns out that it was just a loose wire that delayed the reading by a few nanoseconds — that was enough to disprove the faster than the speed of light finding. It also means the loss of a good joke

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Iranian Court Orders The Death Penalty For Christian Pastor Convicted of Apostasy

The Iranian Sharia courts have given the world a steady stream of horrific judgments — using the pretense of a legal system to mete out religious-based and perfectly medieval punishments. They have now added a fresh outrage. Despite worldwide condemnation, a trial court in Iran has issued its final verdict that Youcef Nadarkhani, 34, be put to death. His crime? Converting to Christianity. During the country’s Sharia law, such apostasy is punished by death.

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Law Professor And Leading Gay Rights Advocate Dies In Apparent Suicide

It is with great sadness that I report the death of Chapman Law Professor Mary Katherine Baird Darmer, 47, a leading proponent for protections of gay and lesbian citizens. Darmer died in a six-story fall from a parking garage that was believed to be a suicide. She leaves a husband and at least one child.

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New York Lawyer Loses Defamation Claim Against Ex-Girlfriends Who Posted Comments On Liarscheatersrus.com

We have previously discussed the problems of lawyers with being attacked by ex-girlfriends for their alleged bad relationships. The latest such story involves attorney Matthew Couloute Jr. who sued a former roller derby queen Stacey Blitsch and another ex for their posts about him at liarscheatersrus.com. The site still has a place for Couloute comments. Now, federal Judge Harold Baer has tossed out the defamation lawsuit as improperly based on protected opinion. In this case, the opinion that Couloute is a collossal loser. [Just for the record, I want to note that I have not dated Couloute and that I am merely repeating the opinion of those who have dated Couloute].

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The Orthello Defense: Cleaver Assaulting Husband In Kentucky Insists “Love Will Conquer All.”

James Privett, 26, believes in love . . . and its power to heal all wounds . . . including cleaver scars. Privett took a cleaver to his wife but has told police that he hopes “loves conquers all” and hopes to reconcile with his wife Erica.

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Russians Find 30,000 Year Old Plant . . . So Chinese Find 300 Million Year Old Forest

Sometimes the Chinese are sooooo competitive. On the heels of the announcement of Russian scientists that they have grown a plant from 30,000 old seeds, Chinese scientists have announced that they have found an entire 300-million-year-old peat-forming forest at a site near Wuda, China. Of course, Americans have had the last laugh but pointing out that the Earth is only 5000-6000 years old, according to Creation Science and many of our leaders.

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If Toys Are Criminal, Only Criminals Will Have Toys: Michigan Moves To Make Possession A Crime . . . Of Toy Guns

Michigan legislators are moving to make possession of toy guns a crime. The legislation by members is based on the growing practice of criminals cutting off the orange tips and using the toy guns in crime. This way, presumably, they will go and get real guns for their crimes?

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CNN Contributor Claims Ultrasound Intrusive Exam Under Virginia’s New Law Is No Different From Consensual Sex

The debate over Virginia’s new abortion bill is raging. While there are good-faith debates over the scope of state authority vis-a-vis women in cases of abortion, the legislation would appear to require an invasive ultrasound procedure for women in the first 12 weeks of a pregnancy — tipping the scales in terms of the burden on women. However, conservative CNN Contributor Dana Loesch went on the air this week to make the rather astonishing claim that such an involuntary procedure is no different from voluntary sex.

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Babeu in Arms: Will The Sheriff Sue [Or Be Sued] For Defamation?

Mitt Romney is out another supporter. Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu (who is also running for Congress) has resigned from the campaign after the Phoenix New Times reported that Babeu not only has a male lover but a Mexican immigrant lover who Babeu allegedly threatened to deport if he revealed their relationship. Babeu denies the allegation of threatening to deport the man and insists that it was the former campaign worker named as Jose who threatened him. While some are focusing on the political, I am wondering about the libel in these rivaling statements.

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Four-Year-Old Boy Diagnosed With Gender Identity Disorder And Raised A Girl

We have previously discussed the growing number of stories of young children raised in the opposite gender (here) or without a gender (here and here). The children raised in the opposite gender are often found to have Gender Identity Disorder (GID). Now, a four-year old boy named Zach has been diagnosed with GID and he is being raised as a girl. He began to evidence GID, according to his doctors and parents, when he was three.

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