"Capitalism is an evil, and you cannot regulate evil."Unwittingly, Moore boils down all leftist thought into one line and in the process exposes the intellectual fantasyland the left inhabits.
Bail opposed for woman in kidnapping caseThat's from last year. A woman knowingly kidnaps a young child, terrifying the family as to his safety.
Victorian police have opposed bail for a woman accused of fleeing interstate with her partner's seven-year-old son earlier this month.
The Melbourne Magistrates court heard 36-year-old Danielle Boundy of Winchelsea attacked Eric Kruger with a bread knife and a hammer in the days before she took his son. It is alleged she sped off with the boy in Mr Kruger's car in Ballarat. An intervention order has been taken out against Boundy, who consented to it in court. She is charged with nine offences. Police told the court Boundy's family does not want her released from prison.
Boundy's lawyer said the authorities are keeping her in a 23-hour lockdown.
The bail hearing will resume tomorrow.
Woman who stole child avoids jail timeJudge Rezenes needs to be sacked immediately for not enforcing the law. If his job is not to do that then what is it?
A Victorian woman who stole her internet lover's seven-year-old son and drove him to South Australia has avoided serving jail time. Danielle Boundy, 37, ordered her lover out of the car during an argument near Ballarat, in July 2008 and with, the child still in the back seat, she drove on to Port Augusta in South Australia.
The Victorian County Court heard on Tuesday that Boundy rang the child's mother later that night falsely saying she was near the country Victorian town of Winchelsea. Police tracked the call to Port Augusta and arrested Boundy late the next day.
Boundy pleaded guilty to child stealing and two counts of intentionally causing injury, relating to fights she had with her lover.
County Court Chief Judge Michael Rozenes said child stealing was a very serious offence.
"Parents suffer great distress in cases worrying about what will ultimately happen to their child and it makes no difference to them whether the offender was ill or wicked," he said.
But noting reports from psychiatrists about the effect further prison time would have on Boundy, Judge Rozenes suspended the sentence.
Judge Rozenes sentenced Boundy, of Winchelsea, to two years' jail, wholly suspended for three years.
He also placed her on a community based order for two years on the causing injury charges.
A DRIVER has been clocked speeding at 200km/h while using his mobile phone - but that's not all he did.For those who still live in the 20th century 200km/h is 120mph. And what else could he have done? Mooned the speed camera? Given the cops the two finger salute? Sung Nessun Dorma off key? The possibilities are endless...
When the police caught up with the Queensland driver, they found that none of his four passengers was wearing a seat belt.That is mind boggling. No seatbelts? If you're going to punt down the road at high speed and you happen to have an accident then the wearing of seatbelts might be somewhat academic but if it were me then I'd be buckled up just to have a fighting chance.
A NSW police highway patrol first spotted the 28-year-old’s minivan swerve across the southbound carriageway of the Hume Highway, north west of Canberra.Minivan?
In the 2007 reliability report published by TÜV, 1st generation (1999-2005) of Kia Carnival placed 113th out of 113 in the 2 to 3-year-old cars category, with a defect rate of 25.1%.In the 2008 TÜV report, 1st generation (1999-2005) of Kia Carnival placed 116th out of 116 in the same category, with a defect rate of 19.70%, and also placed 111th out of 111 in the 4 to 5-year-old cars category, with a defect rate of 27.60%.Oh. Read on.
The driver was initially clocked at 179km/h by a stationary speed gun but accelerated when the police gave chase.What sort of person, driving a Korean POS with four passengers, accelerates when a police car chases him? That is completely lunatic. What was he thinking?
“Police immediately began to follow the car along the highway,” a police statement said.And the coup de grace...
“A further speed check showed the car reached 198km/h.
“As they followed the car the driver swerved between lanes while talking on a mobile phone.”Classic stuff. How many drugs had he taken?
The driver, from Urangan, in Queensland's South Burnett region, will appear at Gundagai court on September 7 charged with speeding and other driving offences.Gundagai is famous for its dog on the tuckerbox...
Security guards have been hired to watch over a grade 1 barbecue at a primary school in Melbourne's outer north-east.What can the excuse be for this?
Radio 3AW has reported that a letter from the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development confirmed the presence of security guards at the end-of-year gathering for the group, which would largely be six year olds.
The Age contacted the school and was told the principal would make an announcement this morning. The Department of Education was also unavailable to provide immediate comment.
Hurstbridge Primary School principal Jan Shrimpton today confirmed the security, saying it was necessary due to the "actions of a small number of parents''.
In a statement issued to The Age, Ms Shrimpton said the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development was taking "every step'' to ensure a healthy and safe workplace for school staff.
"This includes the provision of security services during the school day and at a number of school events, as determined by me,'' she said.
"I want to stress that this is not about students' behaviour but about the actions of a small number of parents."
The school would not comment further as to what the actions were.
"As principal of this excellent school, I will not tolerate any threat to the health and safety of my staff or any disruption to students,'' Ms Shrimpton said.
"A safe teaching and learning environment is absolutely necessary, and working with the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, I intend to ensure that the school provides that.''
Pamela Anderson has written an angry letter to Cate Blanchett picking a fight with the star over her association with Georgio Armani.Why didn't she just pick up the phone? I smell a publicity stunt.
Anderson, a spokeswoman for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), called on Blanchett to use her influence with Armani to make him ditch fur in his fashion label, the Daily Telegraph reported.People may, or may not, be aware that PETA is in fact an organisation with a long history of animal abuse which you can discover by perusing PETAkillsanimals.com. Whenever you see any of those idiotic women disrobing to protest whatever PETA's cause-du-jour is, you can thank the power of the media for giving you some eye candy.
"Cate, as you are such a huge part of Armani's publicity machine, would you please urge him to keep his promise and leave fur out of his future collections?" Anderson wrote, according to the newspaper.Well that certainly sounds angry! I wonder what Pammy is like when she's trying to be nice. Oh, yeah, like in the videos.
Anderson was referring to remarks made by Armani last year where he said he had spoken "with the people from PETA, and they showed me some materials that convinced me not to use fur".
In the letter, Anderson also made a dig at Blanchett for attending the launch of one of his collections in Milan earlier this year.
The former Baywatch noted, pointedly, that she had helped raise $50,000 ($A55,000) for PETA at nearby Lake Garda that very same night.
The fashion label responded to the letter by saying it would stop using all fur except from rabbits.A spokesrabbit from Lepus International told APA News today that they would take action against Armani for discrimination.
"As a luxury fashion house, which has always been attentive to this issue, we feel we are being unfairly targeted in comparison to our competitors," a company statement said.Gee, this really is a cat fight. The language and tone are horrific.
Anderson staged a memorable protest for PETA during her July visit to Australia when she stormed into a Gold Coast KFC store dressed in skimpy red shorts and a low-cut shirt.So she got dressed up, then?
She fought her way through a crowd of 100 to hand a staff member a letter protesting against KFC's treatment of chickens, addressed to the managing director of KFC's parent company in Australia, Albert Baladi.Point the first. I'm not too sure that giving a pimply 15 year old kid a letter is exactly the fastest way to get it to the managing director. They'll only have to stick it in the post anyway so why didn't Pammy simply mail it herself and save everyone the aggro?
"Fortunately, I won't be stomped to death, have my legs broken or be scalded to death in a tank of hot water, yet as PETA's undercover videos have revealed, the chickens raised for KFC's restaurants in Australia often suffer these abuses," the letter read.
Going to war without France is like going deer hunting without your accordion - Jed BabbinAnd my favourite...
"Somebody was telling me about the French Army rifle that was being advertised on eBay the other day - the description was, 'Never fired. Dropped once.'" - Rep. Roy Blunt (MO).
"Do you know how many Frenchmen it takes to defend Paris? It's not known, it's never been tried." - Rep. R. Blount (MO).
War without France would be like, uh, World War II.
"It is important to remember that the French have always been there when they needed us." - Alan Kent.So news overnight that the French army had actually used live bullets and injured people comes as something of a surprise:
Seventeen people, including a child left in a critical condition, were injured when soldiers fired live bullets instead of blanks during an open day display, regional officials have told AFP.Let's hope that everyone injured is OK.
Fifteen civilians and two soldiers were injured in the incident, of which the details remained unclear, involving a demonstration by members of a marines parachute regiment of hostage liberation exercises, the regional authority said.
Four of the 17 were seriously injured, with two described as critical following "incomprehensible" scenes at the barracks near Carcassone, in the country's southwest.
According to local authorities, five children were among the injured.
Five helicopters, 11 firefighters' first-aid vehicles and two ambulances rushed to the scene to help the injured.
One soldier had been detained, although no explanation was immediately forthcoming for why the wrong ammunition was loaded into weapons.
OCEANSIDE, Calif. — On a Monday morning last month, highway patrol officers visited 20 classrooms at El Camino High School to announce some horrible news: Several students had been killed in car wrecks over the weekend.One can understand why school officials felt that they had to go so far over the top to get their message across. What with all of the other hysteria students have to deal with (global warming and other environmental alarmism etc) they are building resistance to hysterical messages and officials needed to go to the next level to get kids to listen.
Classmates wept. Some became hysterical.
A few hours and many tears later, though, the pain turned to fury when the teenagers learned that it was all a hoax — a scared-straight exercise designed by school officials to dramatize the consequences of drinking and driving.
As seniors prepare for graduation parties Friday, school officials in the largely prosperous San Diego suburb are defending themselves against allegations they went too far.
At school assemblies, some students held up posters that read: "Death is real. Don't play with our emotions."
Michelle de Gracia, 16, was in physics class when an officer announced that her missing classmate David, a popular basketball player, had died instantly after being rear-ended by a drunken driver. She said she felt nauseated but was too stunned to cry.
"They got the shock they wanted," she said.
Some of her classmates became extremely upset, prompting the teacher to tell them immediately it was all staged.
"People started yelling at the teacher," she said. "It was pretty hectic."
Others, including many who heard the news of the 26 deaths between classes, were left in the dark until the missing students reappeared hours later.
"You feel betrayed by your teachers and administrators, these people you trust," said 15-year-old Carolyn Magos. "But then I felt selfish for feeling that way, because, I mean, if it saves one life, it's worth it."
Officials at the 3,100-student school officials defended the program.
"They were traumatized, but we wanted them to be traumatized," said guidance counselor Lori Tauber, who helped organize the shocking exercise and got dozens of students to participate. "That's how they get the message."
The plan was to tell the truth to the students at an assembly later in the day. But word that it was all a hoax began to spread before the gathering. Tauber said some counselors and administrators revealed the truth to calm some students who had become upset.
Oceanside Schools Superintendent Larry Perondi said he fielded only a few calls from parents, while the PTA chapter said it had not heard any complaints. Perondi said the program would be revised, but he would not say how. And he said he was glad that students seemed to have gotten the message.
"We did this in earnest," he said. "This was not done to be a prankster."
A 21-year-old university student has been crowned Miss Universe Australia after proposing people should use less hairspray to help the environment.Her hairspray reduction idea topped a plethora of environmentally sensitive ideas including turning people's water off every other day, charging $20/l for petrol and building houses out of plastic instead of wood in order to save the forests. One hopeful even put forward the plan to only allow one piece of toilet paper. When told that it had already been suggested she cried.
Laura Dundovic, a third-year psychology student from Sydney, received the honour in Melbourne last night. "It would be great to reach the success of my predecessors, but at the moment I am the over the moon to be here," The Herald Sun quoted her as saying. The event's director, Deborah Miller, said the standard of competition was one of the highest ever, with all contestants having "charisma, beauty, and intelligence".I don't know if it was 'intelligence' or something that resembled intelligence and so they got a pass.
Tact was perhaps a little less evident in some of the beauty queen hopefuls. One contestant said the lives of homeless people could be improved if more of them used helplines.And you thought I was kidding when I said she beat out a number of other hopeless ideas...
Ms Dundovic beat 28 other young women to the title, which was the start of great things for Jennifer Hawkins, who won in 2004. Ms Hawkins went on to win the international title, Miss Universe. A multi-million-dollar contract as the face of Myer and a job in television followed. Ms Dundovic will represent Australia in the international final in Vietnam in July.Good luck to her. She'll be up against some serious environmental competition though she'll need to change her line, as I don't think that Vietnamese judges will know what hairspray is.
Homosexuals have been designated an area in a Copenhagen cemetery for those who want to be buried among people who shared their sexual orientation, one of the project initiators says.Meanwhile, Danish accounts are picketing outside parliament for the right to be buried together. "Why are we not allowed to have our own cemetery space?" asked Danish Accountants for Fairness leader, Lars Numbernein. "All of our lives we've been discriminated against because of our lack of sense of humour and appalling dress sense. We too want the camaraderie of being buried together with people who love and appreciate tax returns, expense claim forms and all things actuarial."
"We founded an association called Regnbuen (Rainbow) and our goal is that gays and lesbians can be buried next to each other," Ivan Larsen told AFP.
The association has rented spots that can hold up to a total of 45 urns at Assistens cemetery. Each space costs 2,500 kroner (335 euros, 526 dollars).
The cemetery already hosts figures as diverse as the Danish fairytale author Hans Christian Andersen and the philosopher Soeren Kierkegaard.
The area the group has booked is separated from the rest of the cemetery by a large triangle of pebbles on the ground, with a massive rock placed on one of the angles.
"The triangle is our old symbol, but it is also a sign of suffering," Larsen said, recalling that the Nazis forced homosexuals to wear a pink triangle.
The rainbow flag, a universal symbol for homosexuals representing diversity, will be placed on the rock, he added.
"We don't want to isolate ourselves but we also feel a need to be together. We see this as a family grave, one that will be taken care of by our family," said Larsen.
Earth Hour, under the working title 'the big flick', was conceived by members of WWF-Australia's communication team in December 2005 as a possible campaign to engage all parts of the Australian community on the need to address climate change.2.2 million people out of a population of 3.8 million participated and could only reduce power use by 2%. Even using the WWF's 10.2% it's still a miserable effort. It really should give people cause to contemplate the extent of reductions necessary in order to hit proposed CO2 reduction targets if that's all of the impact that can be achieved. Mind you, the 2.2 million figure was obviously achieved by using The Lancet's methodology for counting things, which means it's probably out by a factor of 10.
A partnership was formed in August 2006 between WWF-Australia's Andy Ridley, Leo Burnett's Nigel Marsh and Fairfax Media's Phil McLean with a planned campaign date of early 2007. Earth Hour was launched publicly as a Sydney-only event on December 16, 2006 by Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore and took place at 7:30pm on March 31 2007.
Following significant interest from both inside Australia and around the world, Earth Hour was formed into a non-profit entity owned by WWF-Australia, Leo Burnett and Fairfax Media. The decision was taken to make Earth Hour an open source model, allowing any genuinely interested individual, company, media or government anywhere in the world to adopt the campaign for 2008.
The 2007 Earth Hour was part of a wider awareness campaign that aimed to reduce Sydney's carbon emissions by 5%. 68,506 individuals and 2,270 businesses registered their intention to participate on the Earth Hour website. EnergyAustralia, a utility, attributed a 10.2% decrease in consumption during the hour to the campaign. A poll of about 1000 people conducted afterwards suggested that 57% of Sydneysiders participated – some 2.2 million people.
Strong backing from the City of Sydney and its Lord Mayor, Clover Moore, helped to make Earth Hour 2008 an international event. As of 27 March, over 11,900 businesses and over 200,000 individuals had indicated their intention to participate at earthhour.org.People may also recall that some media outlets Photoshopped images of Sydney in order to make them look dimmer than what they actually were. The fact was that the city of Sydney was just as bright for Earth Hour as both before and after. No doubt there'll be more of the same this year in the post-event propaganda.
SYDNEY — A New Zealand man has been sentenced to community service after telling police he was raped by a wombat and the experience had made him speak "Australian".Readers may or may not be aware that Sydney is home to the vast majority of those activists-in-animal-costumes that annoy the crap out of everybody who's more than 10 years old and who scare the crap out of the kiddies. I suspect that one of them, still dressed in his work clothes, stumbled into the wrong house after getting tanked at the local enviro-pub and proceeded to set about what he thought was his partner. It is Sydney, after all.
Arthur Ross Cradock, 48, from the South Island town of Motueka, called police on February 11 and told them he was being raped at his home by the wombat and he needed help, The Nelson Mail newspaper reported.
The orchard worker later called back and said: "Apart from speaking Australian now, I'm pretty all right, you know."Who would have thought that there was such as simple way to get people to talk Australian? No longer do we have to have government instructions printed in every language ever spoken since Babylonian times. The Department of Immigration and Citizenship just needs to hire a few wombats to do the job on arriving immigrants and voila, sie spracht Strine.
Cradock pleaded guilty in the local court to using a phone for a fictitious purpose. He was sentenced to 75 hours' community work.If using a phone for fictitious purposes is a real crime then all of us are in a lot of trouble. "Honey, I'm working back late..." is enough for weekend detention when it really involves the close company of your receptionist (or wombat or favourite other marsupial) and inappropriate use of the board room table.
Police prosecutor Sergeant Chris Stringer told the court alcohol played a large role in Cradock's life.You don't say?
A New Zealand couple is looking to call their newborn son Superman — but only because their chosen name of 4Real has been rejected by the government registry.You're joking?
Pat and Sheena Wheaton say they will get around the decision by the Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages by officially naming their son Superman but referring to him as 4Real, the New Zealand Herald newspaper has reported.Why not name the kid Michael and refer to him as 4Real?
The Wheatons decided on the name after seeing the baby for the first time in an ultrasound scan and realising their baby was "for real".Then name him Foreal!
They decided 4Real was the best way to write it, but the name was rejected because the registrar said a name had to be a sequence of characters.Ah. Apparently SMS is an official language in New Zealand.
Pat Wheaton said he was considering appealing against the decision through the courts, but whatever happens he won't be budged on his choice.One of the only talents he has, surely?
"No matter what its going to stay 4Real," Wheaton told the Herald, "I'm certainly not a quitter".
A spokesman for the Department of Internal Affairs, which operates the registry told the Herald discussions with the Wheatons about their son's name were continuing.A few years ago Channel 9 in Australia screened a show, IQ Test Australia, which allowed viewers to test their IQ. There were live participants split up into different groups of between 15 and 20 including, from memory, Blondes, Teachers and New Zealanders etc. I've forgotten the other categories. Truckies might have been in there, too.
The baby is now two months old, after the Wheatons first applied to register his name in later June.
The public believes the effects of global warming on the climate are not as bad as politicians and scientists claim, a poll has suggested. The Ipsos Mori poll of 2,032 adults - interviewed between 14 and 20 June - found 56% believed scientists were still questioning climate change. There was a feeling the problem was exaggerated to make money, it found.Well, well, well. It seems the old adage that you can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time but not all of the people all of the time is holding true. The public has finally woken up to the false science of climate change and understands it's a grab for money and power.
The Royal Society said most climate scientists believed humans were having an "unprecedented" effect on climate.For the purposes of the statement a 'climate scientist' is one that believes that the models are 100% accurate and forecast doom. People like Richard Lindzen, John Christy etc etc etc are not considered 'climate scientists'. The fact that the Royal Society has fallen so far from its once lofty, honest perch is one of the great tragedies of the 20th century onwards.
The survey suggested that terrorism, graffiti, crime and dog mess were all of more concern than climate change.Terrorism? Terrorism? Hahahahahahaha! Stupid leftards have been not only ignoring the threat of terrorism for years but actively supporting it with their inane excuses. I wonder how the ninnies feel being shown up for the dolts they are by the public. If Climate Brown Shirts are consistent then they'll need to lobby for billions of dollars to be spent on avoiding dog poo and then introduce a trillion dollar poo trading scheme in order to limit the amount of poo we need to deal with. It would therefore be possible to consider a carbon credit to poo credit exchange rate in those areas where one was a bigger issue than the other.
Ipsos Mori's head of environmental research, Phil Downing, said the research showed there was "still a lot to do" in encouraging "low-carbon lifestyles"."Still a lot to do" means that more money needs to be pumped into enviro propaganda.
"We are alive to climate change and very few people actually reject out of hand the idea the climate is changing or that humans have had at least some part to play in this," he added. "However, a significant number have many doubts about exactly how serious it really is and believe it has been over-hyped."It has been over-hyped, people can see the evidence right in front of them and so of course they will have doubts. But could there be another reason why they're sceptical?
People had been influenced by counter-arguments, he said.Aha! I knew it! Those pesky pushers of a little thing called facts. How inconvenient.
Royal Society vice-president Sir David Read said: "People should not be misled by those that exploit the complexity of the issue, seeking to distort the science and deny the seriousness of the potential consequences of climate change. "The science very clearly points towards the need for us all - nations, businesses and individuals - to do as much as possible, as soon as possible, to avoid the worst consequences of a changing climate."To use a very British phrase - what complete bollocks. The BBC may be part of the loopy left but there's still The Guardian, which manages to take things to an even more unhinged level. The headline on this article is "If half the nation is in denial about the threats we face from climate change, what hope is there?"
I was more depressed by the findings of a single public opinion survey on climate change than I've been by all the pessimistic stories about how little is being done by governments and individuals to combat global warming.Isn't that the most pathetic thing you've ever read on the subject?
Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne's son Jack has lost 22 kilos, beaten his drug habit, and penned an autobiography — but that's nothing compared to his most astonishing conquest....I hope my ticket is still in my wallet when she calls.
Jack's parents have revealed he and Paris Hilton had an intimate relationship.
"Paris was always hanging around our house," Ozzy told The Sun. "I’m not sure if she was a friend of Kelly or Amy — which one was it, Sharon?"
Sharon awkwardly replied: "She was Jack’s, erm, friend."
A thrilled Ozzy exclaimed: "He didn’t shag her, did he? Well done, my son!"
For once, the incarcerated heiress is probably happy she doesn't have to face the public.
CRANSTON, R.I. — Behind the barbed wire and thick walls of the state mental hospital here are two patients who have not been allowed to live in the outside world for 20 years. Both were found not guilty of murder by reason of insanity.As I said, Ron Paul supporters are shaking in their boots at losing the right to vote.
Still, they have voted in elections nearly every two years, casting ballots by mail. Now, however, election officials are taking steps that could ban them from voting, arguing that state law denies the vote to people with such serious psychiatric impairments.
“I just think if you are declared insane you should not be allowed to vote, period,” said Joseph DeLorenzo, chairman of the Cranston Board of Canvassers. “Some people are taking these two clowns and calling them disabled persons. Is insanity a disability? I have an answer to that: no. You’re insane; you’re nuts.”
Rhode Island is among a growing number of states grappling with the question of who is too mentally impaired to vote.
The issue is drawing attention for two major reasons: increasing efforts by the mentally ill and their advocates to secure voting rights, and mounting concern by psychiatrists and others who work with the elderly about the rights and risks of voting by people with conditions like Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.The fact that the American Bar Association, representative of the Democratic Party's largest contributor base - trial lawyers, is in favour of the move should immediately raise suspicion levels though there is an argument that given Democratic electoral rolls are filled with the names of dead people and that Democrats don't want people to have to show driver's licences when voting that they'd naturally see the insane as potentially their demographic.
This summer, recommendations for national standards will be released by a group of psychiatrists, lawyers and others led by the American Bar Association, suggesting that people be prevented from voting only if they cannot indicate, with or without help, “a specific desire to participate in the voting process.”
Some state skirmishes involve efforts to ease restrictions, while others involve specific cases that compel officials to clarify old laws.Are things so good for the mentally ill now that all they have left is to lobby for their right to vote? It makes you wonder whether the advocates aren't suffering from some derangement themselves.
And with research showing that many people with dementia or other impairments vote or want to, there is also a desire to ensure they are not pressured to vote certain ways.
“There’s a lot of people out there who either don’t have adequate access to the ballot and should, or could be vulnerable to overreaching political types who want to take advantage of their votes to swing an election,” said Charles Sabatino, director of the commission on law and aging at the bar association.
In Missouri, advocates for the mentally ill have sued the state, trying to make it easier for people under guardianship for mental incapacity to vote.
New Jersey may put on the November ballot an amendment to the state’s Constitution to replace language forbidding an “idiot or insane person” to vote. Advocates for the disabled want those words removed but worry that replacement language is so vague it could be unfairly restrictive. They want to allow people to vote if they can supply information for a voter registration form.An 8 year old can supply that information. If someone has a car accident, is mentally retarded from birth or has dementia that results in them having a mental age of 8 then if they're allowed to vote why can't an 8 year old?
In Maine, a federal ruling a few years ago said a constitutional provision, twice affirmed by referendum, was discriminatory because it barred voting by people under guardianship for mental illness.And you know that the discrimination lobby has run off the end of the reality runway when they want to take action on the grounds of discrimination against the mentally impaired. Last time I checked, the mentally impaired suffered from...mental impairment.
Recent local elections in Alabama, South Carolina and elsewhere have included accusations of ballots cast on behalf of nursing home residents who were incompetent to vote. In New Jersey, a nursing home employee who won a 2004 election to a county Democratic committee stepped down because her victory resulted from absentee ballots cast by the nursing home residents.Seriously. The amount of vote rigging that the Democratic Party gets up to is amazing. It makes the result of the 2000 election all the more ironic, especially given Al Gore tried to have the postal votes from those serving in the armed forces not counted.
State laws vary and are inconsistently applied, said Jennifer Mathis, deputy legal director for the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, an advocacy group in Washington. Ms. Mathis said most states fell into one of two categories. About 18 bar voting by people under guardianship or who are “non compos mentis” (“not master of one’s own mind”), a determination that is often not clearly defined. Another 18 prevent voting if there is a specific determination that people lack voting competence.You gotta watch that Satan. You never know which way he's going to vote.
Rhode Island’s case concerns William Sarmento, institutionalized after he claimed Satan had ordered him to kill two boys, ages 6 and 9, and John A. Sarro, charged in the throat-slashing of a man in a bar restroom, and later with killing another psychiatric patient.
If the men had been convicted and imprisoned, they would be unable to vote; only Maine and Vermont allow jailed felons to vote.Better not give that 'compos mentis' test to Ron Paul supporters...
Last October, Edward Desautel, a restaurant manager running for the Rhode Island House of Representatives, learned that Mr. Sarro and Mr. Sarmento were on the voting rolls. He wrote the three-member Board of Canvassers, arguing “we don’t need the additional burden of worrying whether an incompetent child murderer’s vote might affect the outcome of a close School Committee or other local race.”
In an interview, Mr. Desautel said, “If you’re criminally insane, even if you’re found not guilty, you still shouldn’t be able to vote.”
Mr. DeLorenzo said he was “ready to remove them from the voting list,” but because the House election had been so close, the American Civil Liberties Union intervened, saying more notice was required for a hearing. (Mr. Desautel lost by 1,700 votes.)
In March, the canvassers notified Mr. Sarro and Mr. Sarmento that their voting rights were being reviewed, and a hearing is expected soon. The canvassers cite a state constitutional provision that a person “lawfully adjudicated to be non compos mentis” cannot vote.
Kate Sherlock and Kate Bowden, lawyers from the Rhode Island Disability Law Center, representing the hospitalized men, say “non compos mentis” is different from “not guilty by reason of insanity.”Well if it's so important then maybe they should have thought about that before committing their evil atrocities.
The latter “means they were not found to form the specific intent required for the crime,” Ms. Sherlock said. “It does not address an individual’s capacity to vote in any way.”
Mr. DeLorenzo cited semiannual doctors’ evaluations saying the men should remain hospitalized. Ms. Bowden said the evaluations considered “dangerousness, not capacity to vote.”
Dr. Barry Wall, director of the forensic service at the mental hospital, said the hospital encouraged voting when possible. “We think of it as part of their treatment, to try to move them closer to society,” Dr. Wall said.
Through lawyers, Mr. Sarro, 52, said, “I’ve been voting a long time now, and it’s important to me.” Mr. Sarmento, 40, said: “I read the paper just about every day. I’m aware of what is going on in the world. I care about voting.”
The Missouri lawsuit seeks to end what it calls a state voting ban for people under full guardianship because of mental illness. Missouri’s attorney general’s office says the law lets judges allow voting in individual cases. A court ruled for the state, but the case is being appealed.This person is clearly a Democrat, as he has political opinions but doesn't worry about money.
David C., 26, of Fayette, Mo., who asked that his last name be withheld, said he had been prevented from voting because he was under guardianship, although he had distributed campaign fliers and lobbied a state senator about issues like Medicaid.
Sebastian Go of St. Peters, Mo., under guardianship because of bipolar disorder, Asperger’s syndrome and brain injury, registered to vote and researched races when he turned 18 last September, said his guardian and grandmother, Linda Clarke. But the day Mr. Go received his voting card he also got a letter saying he could not vote because he had been declared mentally incapacitated.
“He has to have someone manage his money for him and make his medical decisions,” Ms. Clarke said. “But Sebastian is able to make a political decision.”
Mr. Go said he considered voting “my duty as an American citizen,” adding “I have an opinion on the outside world, on who’s governor, who’s senator, who’s president. And that one vote could count.”If these people don't understand the voting process then they're not going to understand what's going on at election time and simply not vote at all, regardless of their legal right to do so. The fact that there are advocates to allow them to vote demonstrates that Ron Paul supporters and at least one side of politics realise that they can affect the outcome of elections by taking bus loads of mentally ill people to the polling stations. You already see the support from the mentally ill in online polls for Ron Paul. Who's to say that won't translate come election time?
The 2001 ruling in Maine, allowing people to vote if they understood the nature and effect of voting and could make a choice, was considered a model. How to assess such qualifications, however, is controversial.
“To fail to have any standard that requires a person to have a grasp of what the process is all about would degrade the voting process,” said Dr. Paul S. Appelbaum, a Columbia University psychiatry professor who was a leader of a study that asked Alzheimer’s patients to choose between hypothetical candidates and describe how elections work.
Some advocates for the mentally ill object to such questions, however, saying they exceed what most prospective voters are asked.
“The question asked of you when you go to vote is, Have you registered,” said Sally Hurme, a senior project manager for AARP, an association for older Americans. “Why should your next-door neighbor be given a greater barrier to voting than you just because they have a medical diagnosis?”
So far, in Maine “basically now there is no restriction,” said Melissa Packard, the state’s director of elections. “We don’t require local registrars to determine if they think the person understands the voting process.”
I then responded to another comment with:
That's all true and correct in the real world but it's completely contradictory to what passes as reality in Loewenstein's truth-barren parallel universe.
By 'almost none' it's actually around 16% but people have a view that it's the major source and that's why we're involved in Iraq. I'm actually preparing a post on that subject at the moment. This post was sunk immediately and you can see below that BenZ makes a very similar enquiry about the apostrophe an hour and a half later and...that it's fixed.
A cable television company is investigating just how children in some New Jersey homes ended up watching hardcore pornography when they tuned into a popular cartoon program on the Disney Channel.Well, I guess it's possible to mix up Handy Manny with Handy Maddy, a show about a bisexual Latino and her 'talking' tools.
Paul Dunleavy, a Middletown, New Jersey, subscriber to cable giant Comcast, was stunned on Tuesday morning to find his five-year-old son watching something other than Handy Manny, a cartoon show about a bilingual Latinohandyman, Manny Garcia, and his talking tools.
"It was two people doing their thing, it was full-on and it was disgusting," the Middletown father of three told The New York Daily News newspaper for its Wednesday editions.It was disgusting? However did he manage to produce three kids if not for this disgusting act?
"I couldn't believe it," he said. "We try to do the right thing to protect our kids from this stuff, and then they broadcast it on children's TV."By trying to protect the kids from this stuff does he mean locking up his prized collection of Big Bad Bertha videos?
Dunleavy's phone number was unlisted when The Associated Press tried to contact him Wednesday. Comcast spokesman Fred DeAndrea confirmed the programming error occurred around 9:30 am Tuesday. He described it as an "isolated issue in a local New Jersey facility".Disciplined? I hope so. Perhaps they could broadcast that particular piece of B&D instead of Family Guy or Darkwing Duck.
"We automatically detected the issue and it was corrected promptly. We apologise to any customer who experienced an issue yesterday morning," said DeAndrea, who said the mistake was made by his company, not Disney.
DeAndrea declined to provide the duration of the pornography broadcast, how many homes it reached, how the mistake happened and whether anyone will be disciplined for the X-rated error.
A Disney Channel spokeswoman said the company has asked Comcast for assurances that appropriate measures are taken to prevent such offensive incidents from happening again.I hope it doesn't become an issue for him, either. Those Latino women are pretty hot.
"We value the trust that parents have in our programming and certainly take yesterday's regrettable program disruption extremely seriously," said Disney Channel spokeswoman Karen Hobson. "Comcast has taken full responsibility for this situation, and we understand that they are currently working to determine the root cause of the incident."
Dunleavy told The Daily News that he received an apology directly from Comcast. But he was still disturbed by the incident. "My son was extremely upset because he thought he'd done something wrong, and we're hoping what he saw doesn't become an issue for him."
An irate wife who thought her husband was cheating on her served him up a curry laced with dog poo, a Scottish court has heard.Given the quality of curries available in the UK where chicken curries are conspicuously absent of any fowl and beef curries are seemingly made from Oxo cubes his suspicion should have been immediately aroused when he found that there was more substance than normal.
Jill Martin plead guilty to charges of reckless conduct relating to the 'special' curry she made for her estranged husband Donald.Was he estranged before the incident?
When Mr Martin began eating the curry she laughed out loud and told him it was full of arsenic before confessing she'd actually put dog excrement in the curry.I'd have preferred she stuck with the original story. Arsenic couldn't take down ol' Rasputin so I wouldn't have been worried. Dog poo, though. That's beyond the pale.
Mr Martin's defence lawyer likened the incident to "an episode of Desperate Housewives," the BBC said.Isn't that an American show? There must be a way to blame George W Bush. "Bush lied. People ate poo." Makes as much sense as the normal way that line is used.
Defence lawyers claimed Mr Martin's constant questioning of his wife's mothering skills had been part of five years of emotional abuse which had a huge impact on her state of mind.Perchance, was he questioning why the kids' breath smelled so bad?
The court heard the couple's 21-year-marriage "had hit an all time low" in recent years as Mr Martin started a business without his wife's knowledge. She assumed he was cheating on her with another woman.How many people would start a business without telling their spouse? Seems bizarre. Doesn't mean he's cheating on her...unless he opened a knocking shop.
Mrs Martin was legally barred from the family home and her husband following her initial arrest.Probably lucky she was legally barred. He would have wanted her to be iron barred.
The judge has deferred sentencing until November, though the couple have since begun divorce proceedings.The bloke's name is Donald Martin (Don Martin was the name of the famous MAD Magazine cartoonist. Coincidence? Completely). What are his mates going to say to him when he goes to the pub? How's he going to pull a bird when they all know what's been in his mouth?
