Massachusetts Judge Denied Disability Pension For Hate Mail

Former Superior Court Judge Ernest B. Murphy will not be receiving disability payments in addition to his multimillion dollar libel award against the Boston Herald. Murphy filed for disability pension based on a claim of post-traumatic stress disorder and depression linked to receiving hate mail and death threats due to his ruling in a rape case. The Supreme Judicial Court in Massachusetts found unanimously that the Contributory Retirement Appeal Board was correct in denying Murphy the disability pension.

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Things That Tick Me Off: Busch Gardens

It is time for another addition to my list of “Things That Tick Me Off” — an occasional ranting about something I encounter that drives me to distraction or dismay in everyday life. This week’s cathartic event was a trip on Sunday to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, Virginia to celebrate the birthday of one of my kids. Around four, the park experienced bad weather. The rejection of the park however proved as unpredictable as the storm.

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Joan Marie Appleton, R.N. (1948-2012)

By Mike Appleton, Guest Blogger

My sister Joan died two weeks ago, but we don’t know precisely when.  She lived by herself in an apartment in St. Paul, and her death was discovered when a close friend, unable to reach her for two days, contacted the apartment manager.  Joan was 64.

Our Catholic parents practiced the rhythm method in 4/4 time, four pregnancies in four years, but with five births; Joan was a twin.  She was strong and daring and feisty from the beginning.  My earliest memory of her is an unfortunate incident involving a broom, a beehive and copious amounts of calamine lotion.  A year later she fell out of the family car.  I recall turning to watch her small body receding in the distance, followed immediately by our mother’s terrified, “Oh, my God!”  She was fine except for the gravel burns. Continue reading “Joan Marie Appleton, R.N. (1948-2012)”

Marathon Man: Does Paul Ryan Play Fast and Loose with the Facts?

Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger

In an article for Huffington Post, Miles Mogulescu wrote the following about Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan:

He comes off like a Midwest choir boy who grew up busing tables and just wants to help unemployed 20-year-olds get jobs and move out of their parents’ house. This ‘aw shucks’ act may play well among heartland voters who could swing the election.

But Ryan lies like a hooker telling her john that she loves him. And given a media that tends to cover the horse race rather than the substance, there’s a good chance he could lie his way all the way to the vice presidency.

Mogulescu—among others—has written and spoken about the number of inaccuracies and untruths included in the speech that Paul Ryan gave at the Republican National Convention last week.

Sally Kohn of Fox News wrote:

to anyone paying the slightest bit of attention to facts, Ryan’s speech was an apparent attempt to set the world record for the greatest number of blatant lies and misrepresentations slipped into a single political speech. On this measure, while it was Romney who ran the Olympics, Ryan earned the gold.

The good news is that the Romney-Ryan campaign has likely created dozens of new jobs among the legions of additional fact checkers that media outlets are rushing to hire to sift through the mountain of cow dung that flowed from Ryan’s mouth. Said fact checkers have already condemned certain arguments that Ryan still irresponsibly repeated.

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Dealing With Iran and Reality

Respectfully submitted by Lawrence Rafferty (rafflaw)-Guest Blogger

We have heard a lot lately from politicians of many stripes claiming that Iran must be stopped at any cost and that their Nuclear program is already a “clear and present danger” to Israel and its allies in the West.  We have had visitors to this site claim that Iran is already a nuclear threat and the Iranian nuclear facilities must be taken out now to protect Israel and our interests in the Middle East.  With that drumbeat of an alleged need to attack Iran, I thought it was especially interesting that the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff seems to be against the idea of a unilateral strike against Iran, by any country.  Including Israel! Continue reading “Dealing With Iran and Reality”

Meet Venus

-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger

Not photoshopped. Jerry Coyne has more here. Nat Geo has more here.

Fur color genes for each half of the face must reside on different loci. Coyne points out that eye color genes are no located near the fur color genes. It’s not unusual for cats, especially Siamese, to have different color eyes.

 

South Africa Wants Products From Israeli Occupied Territories Labeled As Such

-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger

The government of South Africa has approved a measure that would relabel products made in the West Bank, from “Made in Israel” to “Israeli Occupied Territories.” The South African government said the move will “prevent consumers being led to believe that such goods come from Israel.” The Israeli government responded angrily when Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said that South Africa “remains an Apartheid state.”

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AAP: Health Benefits Of Circumcision Outweigh Risks

-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP – the science-based one) has recently published the results of its task force on circumcision. The AAP evaluated the recent evidence and determined that “the health benefits of newborn male circumcision outweigh the risks and that the procedure’s benefits justify access to this procedure for families who choose it.” We have previously discussed the ruling of a German court that parents who circumcise their sons based on religious beliefs are committing child abuse.

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Sandusky’s Apologist: Child Abuse Victims “Seduce” Their Tormentors According To Catholic Monk

By Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger

Fr. Benedict Groeschel is a prominent member of the ultra-right Franciscan Friars of the Renewal with his own religious column and a programming spot on EWTN, the ominous sounding Global Catholic Channel. In a recent article in the Catholic Register, Groeschel takes aim at the Sandusky scandal at Penn State and the objects of his ire are the child abuse victims. Because, to the learned friar, it is Sandusky, and not his prey, that is the rightful recipient of sympathy. Calling Sandusky “this poor guy” he says:

“People have this picture in their minds of a person planning to — a psychopath. But that’s not the case. Suppose you have a man having a nervous breakdown, and a youngster comes after him. A lot of the cases, the youngster — 14, 16, 18 — is the seducer.”

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State Department: As A “Rule of Thumb” Don’t “Hold Down The Fort”

State Department Chief Diversity Officer John Robinson has published a warning to State Department employees that if they want to “go Dutch” or “hold down the Fort,” they had better find another way to express it. Those phrases are now deemed offensive.

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Methodist Mayhem: Church Cited For Changing Message On Sign More Than Two Times In One Day

There is an interesting free exercise case developing in Fairfax County, Virginia (where I live). The Church of the Good Shepherd has been informed that it may have to remove its sign after violating country rules that prohibit electronic signs from being changed more than twice a day unless they are giving weather reports. An inspector informed the church that it had posted three different messages in one day and thus stood in violation of the law. The church is objecting on religious freedom grounds — citing the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act. Matthew 12:39 warns that “an evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign” and it appears that Fairfax County has found one.

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