Tourist Beaten, Robbed and Stripped Naked In Baltimore As Crowd Laughes

A video has emerged from last St. Patrick’s Day that shows a brutal attack on a tourist in Baltimore who is beaten, robbed, and stripped naked as a crowd stands around and laughs. No one reportedly called police and someone stood filming the scene of utter inhuman and depraved conduct by the crowd. [Update: A second video of the brutal attack has emerged]

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Happy Ishtar Day: The Origins of Easter

By Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger

Today from Sandy Bay, Maine to San Diego, California, Americans will don their Sunday Best, attend a religious service, and enjoy the Spring air while their kids search for candy and eggs. A  joyous celebration on both the Christian and secular calendar, it wasn’t always that way — or maybe it was.

Easter was looked on with some skepticism by the ultra-religious Puritan sect when they showed up at Plymouth Bay. According to author Steve Englehart, these earlier settlers had bona fide religious reasons to eschew the holiday. “They knew that pagans had celebrated the return of spring long before Christians celebrated Easter…for the first two hundred years of European life in North America, only a few states, mostly in the South, paid much attention to Easter.”

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Farewell Vermont


We made it home last night from Vermont after having a glorious time. I have always said that, if I ever left Virginia, I would go to Vermont. No state has worked so hard to protect the environment and preserve the natural beauty of the land. Vermont legislators basically work for free (with a small stipend for travel) and every citizen seems connected to the local and state political system.

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Justice Thomas Speaks Out

-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is known for not asking questions during oral arguments. Thomas has not asked a question from the bench in 6 years and no other Supreme Court justice has made it through a single year without asking a question.

in an AP interview, he defended his silence. Thomas said the habit of frequent interruptions is unproductive and “I think that when somebody’s talking, somebody ought to listen.”

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Pet of the Week: Meet My Dearly Departed Cat Abby

Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger

A couple of years ago, Jonathan highlighted a “Pet of the Week” post on Sundays.  This Saturday before Easter, I’d like to return to highlighting a pet of the week–my cat Abby. Abby was a gift given to my daughter Sara by her high school boyfriend when she was a junior. Sara’s boyfriend got Abby for her after we had to have Amber, the cat my husband and I gave our daughter for her eighth birthday, put to sleep. (Amber had cancer, had difficulty walking, and was barely able to eat.)

Sadly, this week, we had to have Abby put to sleep. It was a decision that had to be made. I was at my daughter’s house late Monday night when my husband called with the news that Abby was in distress. He wanted to know where the nearest animal hospital that provided 24-hour emergency services was located. Fortunately, my daughter and son-in-law knew of an excellent veterinary hospital not too far from our house where they had to take their dog Jack last year when he suffered from heat stress. Like Amber, Abby had been having some difficulty walking recently. She also had a heart murmur and congestive heart failure. I’m glad that she didn’t suffer for long.

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The Roman Catholic Church and the Gays

Respectfully submitted by Lawrence Rafferty (rafflaw)-Guest Blogger

On this Easter weekend, I was dismayed when I learned that the Roman Catholic Church recently decided that helping the poor in Colorado obtain health care is fine, as long as the organizations assisting these needy folks were not gay or “hanging out” with the Gays. Continue reading “The Roman Catholic Church and the Gays”

The Popcorn Revolution

By Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger

Joshua Thompson, 20-ish, of Livonia, Michigan loves the movies, but could not understand why his soda pop  and candy purchase rang up the till for another $8.00 on top of the price of admission.  In the same cinema, popcorn and a soda can run you $11.00. Rather than just griping, he filed a consumer class action suit in Wayne County (Michigan) Circuit Court on behalf of us all to get some answers.

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Finally, Clean Hydrogen? Maybe.

by Gene Howington, Guest Blogger

Science and society are common topics of discussion here. As frequently noted on this blog, a great number of our foriegn policy and domestic economic headaches could be made to go away if we were not dependent on foreign oil or oil at all. Alternatives have been discussed, but one of the most promising technologies – hydrogen – has time and again run into the issue of how to manufacture carbon-free or clean hydrogen. A new technology developed by doctoral student Erik Koepf working out of the University of Delaware and currently being tested in Switzerland shows promise of delivering hydrogen production free from carbon dioxide and other undesirable emissions.

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GSA Administrator Resigns After Report Finds Small Agency Spent $820,000 On Lavish Nevada Conference

In Washington, there are a few standard rules of engagement. Rule 436 is “if you are going to spend taxpayer dollars on lavish vacations, do not make a mocking video boasting that you will buy those things the agency can’t afford and “never be under OIG investigation.” This week the Office of Inspector General (OIG) proved the difference between rap and reality — it issued a damning report on the $820,000 spent by Public Buildings Service’s western region at the M Resort Spa and Casino in Henderson, Nevada.

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California Pastor Arrested For Taking Pliers To Teen After Beating Him, Macing Him, And Making Him Dig His Own Grave

Pastor Lonny Lee Remmers, 54, has been charged with felony assault and inflicting injury on a 13-year-old child with pliers and directing two church members to discipline the youth. He is the pastor of the Heart of Worship Community Church in Corona. After his arrest, many parishioners learned that Remmers has previously served time for fraud. Two other church members — Nicholas Craig, 22, and Darryl Duane Jeter Jr., 28 — have also been charged. Craig is Remmers’ stepson.

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Egyptian Court Sentences 17-Year-Old Christian Boy To Three Years In Jail For Cartoons of Mohammad on Facebook

We have for years been following the rising number of blasphemy prosecutions not only in the Muslim world but, even more worrisome, in the West. Now, an Egyptian court has added a new outrage in sentencing a 17-year-old Christian boy to three years in jail for publishing cartoons on Facebook deemed mocking of Islam and the Prophet Mohammad. It is the latest example of the abuses of Sharia law and the danger of intermingling religion and government.

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