Yesterday, the public interest community lost one of its brightest and most effective advocates: Robert W. Edgar, President of Common Cause. Bob collapsed while running on his treadmill at his home in Burke, Virginia. He was 69. I just recently saw Bob at the Watergate conference and we agreed to have lunch as soon as I got through my recent travels. I was going to call him this week. I will always regret missing that last opportunity to sit down with Bob Edgar who was an inspiration to so many, including myself. He was 69.
I have previously written columns about Herbert and Catherine Schaible, who allowed their child to die pursuant to their religious beliefs of faith healing. They received probation for the death of Kent Schaible, 2, who died of bacterial pneumonia. They were convicted of involuntary manslaughter and child endangerment. Now, after being given 10 years probation conditioned on maintaining medical treatment for their children, they have allegedly killed another child through neglect in refusing basic medical care.
Continue reading “Faith-Healing Parents Arrested After Second Child Dies From Lack of Medical Care”
It appears that some things or some people don’t stay in Vegas. San Francisco’s City Attorney Dennis Herrera is investigating accounts of an illegally busing hundreds of psychiatric patients to California and other states with one-way bus tickets and no food or medication. This “patient dumping” involves the Rawson Neal Psychiatric Hospital in Las Vegas.
Continue reading “Somethings Don’t Stay In Vegas . . . Like Mentally Ill People”
State Rep. Mike C. Stone (R-NC), left, is being accused this week of pressuring the closure of a weekly radio program at the Central Carolina Community College called “The Rant.” Stone appears remarkably sensitive as a politician to criticism and contacted the school about the program and its funding. CCCC President T.E. “Bud” Marchant reportedly responded to the pressure by tossing out any notions of journalistic and academic independence, though he denies the program was shutdown over “content.”
I was struck this week with two remarkable breakthroughs in the use of bacteria. While once the scourge of parents and doctors, the simple bacteria is being enlisted as an ally in new scientific work. Researchers in New York have discovered a way to use radioactive bacteria to kill cancer, using bacteria as a uniquely effective vehicle to find and attack cancer cells. In the meantime, a team from the University of Exeter has discovered a way to use bacteria to make bio-diesel.
Continue reading “In Praise of Bacteria: New Scientific Breakthroughs Find Unexpected Ally”
The experienced canine criminal will remain silent even in the face of incriminating forensic paw evidence.
Continue reading “Spot Remained Silent When Accused Of Trashing The Grass Pile . . .”
There is good news and bad news in the latest Gallup poll on atheist politicians. For the second time in less than a year, Gallup reports that a majority of Americans would vote for an atheist for president. However, the 54 percent who would vote for an atheist are offset by 43 percent who said they would not vote for an atheist even if she or he was well-qualified.
Continue reading “Gallup: 54 Percent Of Americans Would Vote For Atheist For President”
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has spent years denouncing the United States as we have continued to pour hundreds of billions into this country (and his corrupt family and government). Now, Karzai has called on China to come in and guarantee security in the country as he continues to call on the United States to get out. Despite these consistent attacks on the U.S. and Americans as “demons”, the Obama Administration continues to put our soldiers in harms way and spend money that is badly needed at home in this country. So, while the Administration is cutting back on FAA towers and slowing air travel, we will continue to spend wildly in a country seeking to replace us with China. Brilliant.
Continue reading “As U.S. Continues To Spend Fortune In Afghanistan, Karzai Turns To China”
Zambia’s justice minister Wynter Kabimba has gone public with his opposition to efforts to protect gays and lesbians in his country. Kabimba, who is also secretary general of the Patriotic Front, unleashed a tirade against gay rights this week and what he views as an international conspiracy to spend “colossal sums of money” to promote homosexuality. He is just the latest African leader to strike out at gays and lesbians.
Continue reading “Wynter of Discontent: Justice Minister Declares “No Room For Gays” In Zambia”
New York State Senator Greg Ball (R) took little time after the Boston bombing to call for the torture of 19-year-old Dzokhar Tsarnaev. Ball went to Twitter to call for the teenager to be tortured in the name of all of the values we hold dear as Americans.
Continue reading “New York Senator Calls For The Torture Of Boston Bombing Subject”
There is an interesting free speech case brewing in West Virginia where Jared Marcum, 14, has been criminally charged for refusing to remove a T-shirt with National Rifle Association’s logo and hunting rifle. The T-shirt was found in violation of Logan Middle School’s dress code. However, regardless of how you feel about gun rights, the T-shirt was the expression of a recognized constitutional right and constitutes political speech.
Continue reading “West Virginia Teen Arrested After Refusing To Remove NRA T-Shirt”
The Palinotologists are back. A Kansas school district is refusing to back down from a plan for mandatory assemblies featuring a creationist group to explain the history of dinosaurs. Despite overwhelming data and testing showing the world is millions of years old, many creationists insist that Earth is only a few thousand years old. Dinosaurs represent a bit of a problem of course. The solution, as famously stated by that American intellectual Sarah Palin, is that men co-existed with dinosaurs. Hugoton Public Schools invited Creation Truth Foundation’s founder Dr. G. Thomas Sharp to teach the “Truth about Dinosaurs” at two assemblies. Hugoton Public Schools superintendent Mark Crawford however insists that students must hear about science from this biblically based group.
Last week, President Bill Clinton accepted GLAAD’s ‘Advocate for Change’ Award in Los Angeles last night but not everyone was buying Clinton’s latest change of heart over gay marriage. GLADD notably left out of the award that Clinton not only signed but helped push through the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). This was not in 1896 but in 1996. Clinton was heckled by some in the crowd as he accepted the award as a leader on gay rights, yelling “you signed it” when he referred to DOMA as if it was some alien or GOP legislation. What is truly annoying is Clinton’s “some of my best friends are now gay” rationalization.
Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger
Two of my passions are poetry and science. I am especially interested in astronomy. In celebration of National Poetry Month and Hubble’s 23rd anniversary image, I’m posting an ESA/ NASA Hubblecast video of the Horsehead Nebula and a poem by the great Walt Whitman.
Hubble’s 23rd Anniversary Image
Continue reading “The Hubble Telescope, The Horsehead Nebula, and A Little Walt Whitman”
Respectfully submitted by Lawrence E. Rafferty (rafflaw)-Guest Blogger
In the past few weeks, I have written about how the FDIC along with the Bank of England had developed a plan to allow the Big banks to grab depositors funds in order to bail out those very same big banks. Since that article was written, I have reviewed just what role the Federal Reserve Bank plays and how can it be improved. You may remember the role the Federal Reserve played in bailing out the Big Banks during the beginning of the Great Recession.
“As a result of the Government Accountability Office (GAO) audit of the Fed, Senate sponsor Bernie Sanders of Vermont said, “We now know that the Federal Reserve provided more than $16 trillion in total financial assistance to some of the largest financial institutions and corporations in the United States and throughout the world.” Among the investigation’s key findings was that the Fed unilaterally provided trillions of dollars in financial assistance to foreign banks and corporations from South Korea to Scotland. These decisions were all made without the public, media or elected officials’ knowledge, and they would have remained secret without an audit.” Bernie Sanders Continue reading “Fed Up With the Fed”