February 28, 2015

Witchcraft Popular Among Young Women



Tarot cards can be found in hip stores as well as new age shops. Tarot cards by The Wild Unknown.
[From article]
Today, The Spiral Dance is in its third edition, and has sold over 300,000 copies. It is many people’s first introduction to Wicca, the earth-based spiritual movement that was created in the 1950s and has come to be a recognized religion around the world. It is also one of the most well known and comprehensive texts from a very particular moment in feminist history which until recently was largely unfashionable: the “women’s spirituality” movement, in which women radically rewrote existing religions, or simply made their own to be in line with the goals of women’s liberation.
[. . .]
In the 1970s, with the resurgence of the feminist movement, a lot of us began to investigate a feminist spirituality and the goddess traditions of Europe and the Middle East.”
Wicca, with its focus on a goddess (rather than a male god – though it has those too) and its relatively open approach to creating canon, was a natural fit for many feminist women interested in writing their own spiritual script. But women who weren’t explicitly Wiccan were also drawn to “witchy” ways of processing the world:
[. . .]
Their protest chants were particularly catchy: “Double, bubble, war and rubble/ When you mess with women, you’ll be in trouble”.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/24/witch-symbol-feminist-power-azealia-banks

Season of the witch: why young women are flocking to the ancient craft
Rapper Azealia Banks brought witchcraft back into the mainstream by tweeting ‘I’m really a witch’. But women in the US have been harnessing its power for decades as a ‘spiritual but not religious’ way to express feminist ambitions
Sady Doyle
Tuesday 24 February 2015 13.00 EST

Illinois College Freshman, 19, Charged With Fifty Shades Attack on Woman Student



Mohammad Hossain, 19
Photo: Cook County Sherriff Office
[From article]
A University of Illinois freshman is being held on $500,000 bail after he allegedly attempted to act out scenes from Fifty Shades of Grey with a classmate without her consent, reports the Chicago Tribune. Nineteen-year-old Mohammad Hossain, a student leader and triathlon athlete, is being charged with aggravated criminal sexual assault.
According to reports, Hossain and the unnamed woman, with whom he'd been intimate before, went back to his dorm room on Saturday evening and started to hook up. The woman agreed to strip down to her bra and underwear before Hossain allegedly tied her arms and legs to the bed with a belt, gagged her with a tie, and began hitting her with the belt. He then reportedly covered her eyes with a cap and continued to hit and punch her before sexually assaulting her "as she continued to plead for him to stop."
When Hossain's roommate came home shortly after the assault, he attempted to hold the door to keep him out, but in the ensuing fracas, the woman was able to escape and call the police.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/02/50-shades-of-grey-assault.html

February 24, 2015 9:18 a.m.
College Student Claims Fifty Shades of Grey Inspired Him to Sexually Assault Classmate
By Jessica Roy

* * *

[From article]
A college student has been charged with sexually assaulting 19-year-old woman after he allegedly attempted to recreate Fifty Shades of Grey.
Mohammad Hossain, 19, is accused of tying up his victim, a fellow student, whipping and punching her before raping her in his dormitory at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
The engineering student has admitted to police that he assaulted the woman, but explained to them that it was because they were 're-enacting scenes from Fifty Shades of Grey'.
[. . .]
Despite the victim crying and continuing to beg him to stop, Mr Hossein held her arms behind her back and sexually assaulted her, an arrest warrant claims.
The woman left Mr Hossain's dorm after the alleged assault and reported the incident to the police.
Mr Hossain was arrested by campus police, and after admitting to 'doing something wrong' and assaulting the woman, he told officers they had been 're-enacting scenes from Fifty Shades of Grey', Ms Karr said according to the newspaper.
Mr Hossain remains in custody on a $500,000 bail. His lawyer claims he thought the sex was consensual.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2966492/College-student-arrested-tying-whipping-raping-classmate-dorm-attempt-recreate-scene-50-Shades-Grey.html

College student arrested after 'tying up classmate with belts in his dorm before whipping and raping her in attempt to recreate scene from Fifty Shades of Grey'
Mohammad Hossain, 19, is accused of assaulting a fellow student
He 'tied up his victim, whipping and punching her before raping her'
Alleged assault took place in his dorm at University of Illinois Chicago
He allegedly told police they were 're-enacting scenes from Fifty Shades'
By SARA MALM FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 04:23 EST, 24 February 2015 | UPDATED: 11:28 EST, 24 February 2015

Suspect Arrested in Triple Stabbings in Natick, MA





[From article]
Natick police responded to a reported stabbing on Harvard Street at about 3:30 a.m., Middlesex District Attorney spokeswoman Jacquelyn Goddard said.
A man has been arrested in connection with the triple-stabbing and authorities believe “there is no threat to the general public,” police said. The seriously-injured victim remains hospitalized in a Boston-area hospital, Goddard said.

http://www.bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/herald_bulldog/2015/02/police_suspect_nabbed_in_natick_triple_stabbing

Police: Suspect nabbed in Natick triple stabbing
Tuesday, February 24, 2015
By: Owen Boss
Boston Herald

Muslim Terrorists Burn Iraq Library, Destroy Thousands of Historical Manuscripts and Books



ISIS Burns 8000 Rare Books and Manuscripts in Mosul
[From article]
While the world was watching the Academy Awards ceremony, the people of Mosul were watching a different show. They were horrified to see ISIS members burn the Mosul public library. Among the many thousands of books it housed, more than 8,000 rare old books and manuscripts were burned.
“ISIS militants bombed the Mosul Public Library. They used improvised explosive devices,” said Ghanim al-Ta'an, the director of the library. Notables in Mosul tried to persuade ISIS members to spare the library, but they failed.
The former assistant director of the library Qusai All Faraj said that the Mosul Public Library was established in 1921, the same year that saw the birth of the modern Iraq. Among its lost collectionswere manuscripts from the eighteenth century, Syriac books printed in Iraq's first printing house in the nineteenth century, books from the Ottoman era, Iraqi newspapers from the early twentieth century and some old antiques like an astrolabe and sand glass used by ancient Arabs. The library had hosted the personal libraries of more than 100 notable families from Mosul over the last century.
During the US led invasion of Iraq in 2003, the library was looted and destroyed by mobs. However, the people living nearby managed to save most of its collections and rich families bought back the stolen books and they were returned to the library, All Faraj added.
“900 years ago, the books of the Arab philosopher Averroes were collected before his eyes...and burned. One of his students started crying while witnessing the burning. Averroes told him... the ideas have wings...but I cry today over our situation,” said Rayan al-Hadidi, an activist and a blogger from Mosul. Al-Hadidi said that a state of anger and sorrow are dominating Mosul now. Even the library's website was suspended.
“What a pity! We used to go to the library in the 1970s. It was one of the greatest landmarks of Mosul. I still remember the special pieces of paper where the books’ names were listed alphabetically,” said Akil Kata who left Mosul to exile years ago.
On the same day the library was destroyed, ISIS abolished another old church in Mosul: the church of Mary the Virgin. The Mosul University Theater was burned as well, according to eyewitnesses. In al-Anbar province, Western Iraq, the ISIS campaign of burning books has managed to destroy 100,000 titles, according to local officials. Last December, ISIS burned Mosul University’s central library.
http://news.yahoo.com/isis-burns-8000-rare-books-030900856.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter


ISIS Burns 8000 Rare Books and Manuscripts in Mosul

By Riyadh Mohammed
February 23, 2015 10:15 PM

One Dead in Three Shootings in Brockton, MA




[From article]
A 23-year-old man was killed and another wounded in multiple shootings Thursday morning in Brockton, officials said.
A gunman opened fire on the man from the passenger’s side of a black Mercedes.

Taunton Man Killed, Another Wounded In Brockton Shootings
February 26, 2015 4:31 PM
CBS News Boston MA

* * *

http://www.myfoxboston.com/story/28210247/police-on-scene-of-shooting-in-brockton

Man dies after being shot in the face in Brockton
Posted: Feb 26, 2015 11:55 AM EST
Updated: Feb 26, 2015 6:34 PM EST

* * *

http://www.bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2015/01/police_2_brothers_in_20s_shot_dead_in_car_in_brockton

Police: 2 brothers in 20s shot dead in car in Brockton
Friday, January 30, 2015
By: Associated Press
Boston Herald

Black Media CEO Criticizes Al Sharpton For Abandoning Black Media




[From article]
Allen told The Daily Caller that top media interests are actively freezing out and in some cases destroying black-owned media companies — and they’re paying Reverend-turned-MSNBC host Al Sharpton to give them racial cover to do it.
As for Washington politicians like Obama? According to Allen, they’re bought out by the very same interests, and they’re playing a part.
Allen, 53, is the chairman and CEO of the production company Entertainment Studios, which joined with the National Association of African-American Owned Media to file a $20 billion racial discrimination lawsuit this week against Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Sharpton’s National Action Network, the NAACP, the Urban League, and former FCC commissioner Meredith Attwell Baker. Allen and his fellow plaintiff also filed a $10 billion suit against AT&T and DirectTV.
[. . .]
Sharpton’s curious takeover of the 6 pm timeslot on Comcast-owned MSNBC in late 2010 was predicated on the Reverend signing off on Comcast’s last merger: its historic acquisition of NBCUniversal, which the FCC and Department of Justice approved in January 2011 after a tough regulatory fight from California Rep. Maxine Waters on racial discrimination grounds. Comcast lavished donations upon Sharpton’s National Action Network and other civil rights groups to get them to sign off on the deal, according to Allen’s suit.

http://dailycaller.com/2015/02/26/byron-allen-goes-to-war-with-sharpton-obama-comcast-for-future-of-black-media/

Byron Allen Goes To War With Sharpton, Obama, Comcast For Future Of Black Media
12:51 AM 02/26/2015
PATRICK HOWLEY

Sarah Palin at CPAC 2015




Sarah Palin at CPAC

http://www.c-span.org/video/?324557-14/sarah-palin-remarks-cpac

FEBRUARY 26, 2015

Sarah Palin Remarks at CPAC
Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin (R) spoke at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) hosted by the American Conservative Union.

Updated: Retired New York Policeman Shoots Dead Two Teen Daughters, Himself; Removed Wife, Daughter From Pension Death Benefits


Posted February 23, 2015 8:54 PM ET; Last updated February 28, 2015 4:59 PM ET


Glen and Anamarie Hochman
Photo: Facebook

[From article]
Glen Hochman, who spent 22 years as a While Plains officer, filed retirement papers on Jan. 30 — about three weeks before the bloodbath — that intentionally left the beneficiary section blank, sources said.
“It’s the most selfish final insult,” said a family friend from Harrison. “It’s reckless and insulting for any man to leave their family high and dry like that, by choosing the zero option on their pension.
“But for him to do that and then kill his children, that’s pure evil. He effectively stole the future away from the family he left behind.”
Hochman, 52, executed daughters Alissa, 17, and Deanna, 13, in their sleep on Saturday before killing the three family dogs and then turning the gun on himself.
He typed a hateful suicide note that included taunts to his wife, Anamarie, 50, warning her to be financially responsible — even though he knew she would be broke.
He left a second note at the Windward School in White Plains where he worked security and Deanna was a student.
Sources said Anamarie — who wanted a separation

http://nypost.com/2015/02/27/suicide-slay-cop-omitted-wife-and-surviving-daughter-from-pension/

Suicide-slay cop omitted wife and surviving daughter from pension
By Shawn Cohen, Lorena Mongelli and Leonard Greene
February 27, 2015 | 2:11am
New York Post

* * *

[From article]
The day before a decorated retired cop gunned down his two teenage daughters and killed himself, his wife went to the local police station to report a “domestic incident” at the home, sources told The Post on Sunday.


Hochman’s daughters

Anamarie Hochman, 50, wanted an official report to document the argument she’d had the night before with husband Glen, 52, at their Adelphi Avenue house in leafy Harrison, the sources said.
The wife did not want her husband arrested, and told Harrison cops that he’d apologized for the dispute, a disagreement over a cell phone bill. But the dispute had so disturbed her that she wanted it documented.
Just one day later, on Saturday, the worried wife, who was at the Mohegan Sun casino with the eldest daughter, Samantha, 22, called the cops and asked for a wellness check at the home.

http://nypost.com/2015/02/23/wife-sought-help-for-domestic-incident-before-husband-killed-daughters/

Wife sought help before husband killed daughters
By Shawn Cohen, Reuven Fenton and C.J. Sullivan
New York Post
February 23, 2015 | 12:17am

* * *


Glen Hochman with his daughters Deanna, 13, and Alissa, 17.

[From article]
Police were called to the Harrison, N.Y. home around 3:30 p.m. and found Hochman dead in the garage from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Anamarie, 50, and the couple’s third and oldest daughter, Samantha, had spent the day at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut.
The dead daughters were Alissa, 17, a 12th grader, and Deanna, 13, who was in the seventh grade.


Hochman and one of his daughters
http://nypost.com/2015/02/21/retired-cop-kills-his-two-daughters-then-himself/

Retired cop kills his two daughters, then himself
By Shawn Cohen and Larry Celona
February 21, 2015 | 9:17pm
New York Post

Teen, 16, Hacked High School Computers To Change His Grades



Eric Walstrom, at his home Thursday, allegedly hacked into computers at New Dorp High School and changed his grades.
[From article]
Eric Walstrom, 16, a junior at New Dorp HS, made it past a password barrier and software security system using a computer in the school and set up the network so he could access it from his smartphone, the sources said.
Between Dec. 14 and Feb. 9, he pulled up his report cards and transcripts and “changed those grades,” according to a criminal complaint.
[. . .]
He was caught when a school IT worker noticed the unauthorized log-ins to the system, sources said. The school notified police, and Walstrom was arrested Wednesday.
He was charged as an adult with forgery, computer trespass, unauthorized use of a computer, computer tampering and criminal possession of forgery devices.
Walstrom learned some of his high-tech tricks at an elite summer camp at NYU.

http://nypost.com/2015/02/27/cyber-hacking-si-student-changed-grades-from-his-smartphone-cops/

Kid charged with using smart phone to hack school, change his grades
By Frank Rosario, Erin Calabrese and Natalie O'Neill
February 27, 2015 | 2:07am
New York Post

Targeted Shooting Death in Jamaica Plain, MA




[From article]
“They were people who didn’t like each other who crossed paths,” said police Capt. Alfredo Andres at a meeting with neighborhood residents and police. “They, for lack of better terms, had a vendetta against each other.”
Kenneth Lamour, 18, was shot dead Feb. 11 at 10:33 a.m. while shoveling snow with a work crew through the nonprofit group Roca, which helped troubled youths and former inmates.
Josiah Zachery, 18, was arrested near the scene after firing at a cop and running, police said. He has been arraigned on murder charges for the shooting. Police said they recovered a handgun they say he tossed as he ran, before they found him with a shovel pretending to be working. Yesterday, Donte Henley, 24, from South Boston, was also arrested and charged with murder.
“We had a bloody homicide a stone’s throw away from our houses,” said a resident who asked not to be named, one of a handful of people who attended the meeting. “I’m looking for a little more assurance than it won’t happen again.”

http://www.bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2015/02/slay_wasn_t_random_cops_tell_shaken_jp_residents

Slay wasn’t random, cops tell shaken JP residents
Friday, February 27, 2015
By: Lindsay Kalter
Boston Herald

MIssouri Gentleman Shoots Dead Six, Then Himself



Joseph Jesse Aldridge

Psychiatrists join lawyers and police who earn their living from human tragedy.

[From article]
Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon said the state was ensuring that mental health counselors and crisis intervention services would be provided to students in the area and other residents.
"This is a horrific tragedy, and our hearts go out to the victims of these senseless acts and their families," he said.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/27/us/missouri-deaths/

Police: Missouri gunman kills 7 in town of 50 then himself; was cousin to 2 slain couples
By Michael Martinez and Jason Hanna
CNN
Updated 3:24 PM ET, Sat February 28, 2015


* * *

[From article]
Eight people were killed in overnight shootings in southern Missouri — and the gunman was found dead early Friday from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to reports.
The attacks occurred in various locations in and around the town of Tyrone, in Texas County, about 40 miles north of the Arkansas border, police said. The victims were found at four separate homes.
The 36-year-old suspect — who was found dead in Shannon County — and the victims have not yet been named.
A motive for the killings and possible ties between the shooter and victims were not immediately clear.

http://nypost.com/2015/02/27/8-shot-dead-including-suspect-in-missouri-town/

9 dead, including suspect, after shootings in Missouri town
By Yaron Steinbuch
New York Post
February 27, 2015 | 9:38am

February 27, 2015

Republican Candidate For Missouri Governor Suspected of Suicide



Thomas Schweich

[From article]
A leading Republican candidate for Missouri's governor's office died in an apparent suicide on Thursday morning.
Thomas Schweich, the 54-year-old state auditor who'd just won a second term while running unopposed in 2014, was pronounced deceased from a single gunshot wound, possibly self-infliction, according to a Clayton Police Department press release.
Detectives are conducting an investigation and an autopsy is pending, authorities said.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch said Schweich's wife, who was in another room, heard him making phone calls -- and then a gunshot. It happened just hours after Schweich had requested interviews with the Post-Dispatch and The Associated Press at his home.
[. . .]
In October, Schweich launched an audit of municipal courts in Ferguson and six other cities, an initiative that had bipartisan support, according to St. Louis Public Radio.
"More and more officials have become concerned about the abuse of the traffic court system for revenue generation purposes rather than for safety, justice and efficiency purposes," Schweich told reporters at the time.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/26/politics/missouri-politician-suicide/

Missouri Republican dead after apparent suicide
By Eric Bradner
CNN
Updated 5:34 PM ET, Thu February 26, 2015

Identity Politics Eliminates Learning History, Literature, Science




[From article]
This proliferation of in-your-face sexual identities is all posturing, just part of the dance between students desperate to find one last means of being transgressive and college bureaucrats eager to show their sensitivity and to justify their six-figure salaries. Students who should be studying European history and the roots of the novel—would that such subjects were still taught—are instead combing the farthest reaches of the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic Manual for ways to distinguish themselves. By posing what they hope will be rejected demands on their administrations, they seek only to prove that they are living a life of oppression.
[. . .]
With so many marginalized groups on campus, one wonders who is left to do the discriminating and oppressing.

http://www.city-journal.org/2015/eon0226hm.html

HEATHER MAC DONALD
Not Your Parents’ Open House
At Wesleyan University, if you’re oppressed, there’s a “safe space” for you.
26 February 2015

Chicago Mayor Lost His Way, Voters Too




[From article]
Emanuel’s Chicago has regularly been cited for innovation in the use of technology and data in government.
[. . .]
During the “lost decade” of the 2000s, Chicago saw more than 200,000 residents head for the exits. The Loop shed 18.6 percent of its private-sector jobs; the Chicagoland region lost more than 300,000 jobs. Debt soared.
[. . .]
Chicago can be seen, Saunders suggests, as “one-third San Francisco, two-thirds Detroit.”
[. . .]
Chicago is also uniquely burdened among major American cities by its twin deficits. Both the state of Illinois and the city of Chicago are in dire financial condition. Illinois’s unfunded pension liability stands at $111 billion. It owes another $56 billion in unfunded retiree health-care obligations. Chicago itself faces $35 billion in unfunded pension liabilities. The total liability for all local government obligations adds up to as much as $83,000 per household.
[. . .]
It’s a one-party town, and anyone who challenges the party line risks excommunication. Chicagoans don’t understand the city’s position because no one has explained it to them. Bathed in a nonstop stream of civic pronouncements about their amazingly awesome global city, many residents think Chicago is just like London, New York, and San Francisco.
[. . .]
He manages the local media with Washington-style spin control. He’s also shown a lack of regard for the optics of leadership.

http://www.city-journal.org/2015/eon0226ar.html

AARON M. RENN
Rahm’s Runoff
Chicago’s problems run deeper than many in the city want to acknowledge.
26 February 2015

New York City Council A Situation Comedy




Among my ideas was to write a television comedy called City Council using video tape from councils throughout the country. But I could never have made up some of the real actions taken by New York City Councilors described in this article. Cambridge City Council is sane compared to this. 

[From article]
de Blasio came into office with an advantage that his recent predecessors lacked: overwhelming support in the city council, whose members, as one lawmaker put it, are like a “cult of true believers,” eager to follow their leader. In New York, the mayor makes most of the news, and it’s easy to ignore the city council. That would be a mistake. Not only did de Blasio himself come from its ranks, where he spent years building alliances; New York’s next mayor may well be a sitting council member today—and, if so, judging by the views of some of the council’s leading figures, the de Blasio years might be ironically remembered for how moderate they were.
[. . .]
Insiders had considered Mark-Viverito a long shot for the speakership. She grew up in privilege in Puerto Rico, where her ophthalmologist father, who owned his own dual-engine Cessna, founded a hospital that, after his death, sold for $165 million. She and her family own properties in San Juan and along the coast that provide them with a stream of rental income. Under the auspices of a program aimed at middle-income, first-time home buyers, Mark-Viverito purchased her current home, a three-family structure on East 111th Street, for $350,000, and paid off the mortgage after only ten years. The property is now estimated to be worth $1.2 million. Despite appearing at Zuccotti Park during the Occupy Wall Street sit-in and announcing on camera that she belongs to the “99 percent,” Mark-Viverito has the real-estate portfolio of a 1 percenter.
[. . .]
Melissa Mark added her mother’s maiden name, Viverito, after graduating from Columbia University.
[. . .]
Including Mark-Viverito as speaker, the caucus, with 18 seats, now makes up more than one-third of the 51-member council and dominates the council politically, holding all leadership posts and most key committee chairmanships. Its members are unremittingly left-wing.
[. . .]
As a council member, Chin lifted the protective-landmark designation on an early-nineteenth-century wood-framed building on the Bowery, one of the few such historic structures remaining in Manhattan. The 1817 building, owned by a Chinese-American bank that contributed generously to Chin’s campaign, was quickly torn down to allow for the development of a generic, eight-story brick-and-glass structure. Chin defended the erasure of a remnant of New York’s Federal-era past, saying that the new building would offer below-market “affordable office space.” “Affordability” in reference to housing is a legal term pertaining to residents’ income. There is no equivalent term for commercial real estate, so Chin concocted the phrase to give cover to her donors.
[. . .]
Rather than condemn the violence, [Letitia] James instead chided the restaurant’s owners for “irresponsible” management in holding their promotion on the eve of a school holiday, when the teenagers would be more likely to go out for the evening. “I want this Tuesday restaurant promotion stopped, or the lease of this business revoked,” she demanded.
[. . .]
Council Member Jumaane Williams of Brooklyn [. . .] sponsored a resolution calling on police to “stop arresting people for committing minor infractions in the transit system.” According to the text of the resolution, being arrested for littering, gambling, or urinating in the subway can be “very disruptive” to the arrestee. Moreover, being arrested is “overly punitive and unfair” and can even cause “financial hardship.” Clearly, Williams’s policy priorities don’t include protecting subway riders from disorderly or violent behavior.
The only reason that Council Member Inez Barron isn’t a Progressive Caucus member is because the group’s politics aren’t radical enough. In January 2014, Barron, a former state assembly member, assumed the seat formerly held by her husband, Charles Barron; he, in turn, will succeed her in Albany this year. A former Black Panther, Charles Barron was known during his time on the council for never standing during the Pledge of Allegiance, for inviting Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe to City Hall, and for saying that he wanted to go up to the next white person and “slap him, just for my mental health.”
[. . .]
Few council members have much experience of professional life outside politics. Many worked as staffers to council members before becoming council members themselves. One, Progressive Caucus member Richie Torres of the Bronx, said in an interview with The Nation, “Do I look like a politician to you? I’m a 25-year-old college dropout who grew up in public housing. I’m gay. I’m Afro-Latino. I hardly have the characteristics people associate with a politician, but here I am.” Council Member Torres had previously served on the staff of a council member from an adjoining district. He was essentially selected by the local machine to fill a vacancy. So when he asks, “Do I look like a politician to you?” the answer, more or less, is yes.
[. . .]
The quirky personalities and often zany ideas of New York’s progressive council members can make for amusing reading, but the job of governing a city of 8 million people is no joke.
[. . .]
In short, the city faces serious challenges and needs serious leaders to meet them. Based on the quality of its political bench, New York could be in real trouble soon.

http://www.city-journal.org/2015/25_1_new-yorks-progressive-council.html

SETH BARRON
Council of Crackpots
New York City’s far-left lawmakers are out of touch with reality.
Winter 2015

Release of Medicaid and Medicare Physician Data Cosmetic Act Keeping Patients Confused




[From article]
But the new policy will accomplish little beyond confusing patients and embarrassing physicians.
The problem is that patients cannot intelligently interpret the CMS data.
[. . .]
The CMS records won’t help patients assess the quality of the services provided or compare one doctor with another.
[. . .]
CMS’s release of the records will have at least one clear benefit: helping to identify fraud and abuse.
[. . .]
But these records are already available to law enforcement and regulatory authorities. In fact, many physicians with unusual billing patterns in the 2012 record release had already been disciplined by state medical boards and/or law enforcement. Yet, Medicare continued to pay physicians who had been sanctioned, lost their licenses, or had been convicted of fraud and theft and spent time in jail—a failure of the system’s fraud-detection procedures that won’t be solved by the public release of physician payment records.
[. . .]
But most physicians take their professional duties seriously. They make a good faith effort to perform services for the best interests of their patients and not for personal gain. They don’t deserve to be pilloried based on misleading information. Until Medicare payment records can be made useful and readily intelligible, CMS should suspend their release. If CMS insists on going ahead, it should at least help people understand what they’re looking at.

http://www.city-journal.org/2015/eon0224jz.html

JOEL ZINBERG
When Transparency Isn’t Transparent
A planned release of Medicare and Medicaid physician data will likely confuse patients and the public.
24 February 2015

Muslim Terrorists Provoke US Politicians To War



Products of War

[From article]
Listen for long to GOP foreign policy voices, and you can hear calls for war on ISIS, al-Qaida, Boko Haram, the Houthi rebels, the Assad regime, the Islamic Republic of Iran, to name but a few.
Are we to fight them all? How many U.S. troops will be needed? How long will all these wars take? What will the Middle East look like after we crush them all? Who will fill the vacuum if we go? Or must we stay forever?
Nor does this exhaust the GOP war menu.
Enraged by Vladimir Putin’s defiance, Republicans are calling for U.S. weapons, trainers, even troops, to be sent to Ukraine and Moldova.

http://buchanan.org/blog/gop-platform-war-without-end-15674

GOP Platform: War Without End
Friday - February 27, 2015 at 12:32 am
By Patrick J. Buchanan

Wild Pigs A Parable; Plus Poverty, A Film



TRAPPED - Feral hogs captured in a corral trap. 
(Image courtesy Billy Higgenbotham, Texas AgriLife Extension Service, bugwood.org.)
Wild Pigs - A Reminder For All

A thought to remember, Marx said, "Remove one freedom per generation and soon you will have no freedom and no one would have noticed."

There was a chemistry professor in a large college that had some exchange students in the class.

One day while the class was in the lab, the professor noticed one young man, an exchange student, who kept rubbing his back and stretching as if his back hurt. The professor asked the young man what was the matter.

The student told him he had a bullet lodged in his back. He had been shot while fighting communists in his native country who were trying to overthrow his country's government and install a new communist regime.

In the midst of his story, he looked at the professor and asked a strange question.

He asked: "Do you know how to catch wild pigs?"

The professor thought it was a joke and asked for the punch line.

The young man said that it was no joke. "You catch wild pigs by finding a suitable place in the woods and putting corn on the ground. The pigs find it and begin to come every day to eat the free food.

"When they are used to coming every day, you put a fence down one side of the place where they are used to coming. When they get used to the fence, they begin to eat the corn again and you put up another side of the fence.

"They get used to that and start to eat again. You continue until you have all four sides of the fence up with a gate in the last side.

"The pigs, which are used to the free corn, start to come through the gate to eat that free corn again. You then slam the gate on them and catch the whole herd.

Suddenly the wild pigs have lost their freedom. They run around and around inside the fence, but they are caught. Soon they go back to eating the free corn. They are so used to it that they have forgotten how to forage in the woods for themselves, so they accept their captivity."

The young man then told the professor that is exactly what he sees happening in America. The government keeps pushing us toward Communism/Socialism and keeps spreading the free corn out in the form of programs such as supplemental income, tax credit for unearned income, tax exemptions, tobacco subsidies, dairy subsidies, payments not to plant crops (CRP), welfare entitlements, medicine, drugs, etc., while we continually lose our freedoms, just a little at a time.

One should always remember two truths:

There is no such thing as a free lunch, and you can never hire someone to provide a service for you cheaper than you can do it yourself.

* * *

http://video.pbs.org/video/2296684923/

Park Avenue: Money, Power & the American Dream
Broadcast 11/12/2012
54 minutes
Expires: 11/05/2019
Academy Award-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room) presents his take on the gap between rich and poor Americans in Park Avenue: Money, Power and the American Dream. Gibney contends that America's richest citizens have "rigged the game in their favor," and created unprecedented inequality in the United States.

February 26, 2015

Hedge Fund Manager Who Lost $100 million, "I'm Sorry."



Photo: Getty Images

[From article]
Owen Li is the founder of hedge fund Canarsie Capital, which grew to some $100 million.
His job got a lot less complicated after he lost all but $200,000 of it.
But Li did send investors a letter saying he was “truly sorry” for acting “overzealously,” according to CNBC.

http://nypost.com/2015/01/21/hedgie-who-lost-100m-tells-investors-hes-sorry/

Hedgie who lost $100M tells investors he‘s ‘sorry’
By New York Post Staff Report
January 21, 2015 | 10:49pm

DEA Secretly Tracked American Citizen's Phone Calls For A Decade



Photo by: Mark Wilson
Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agents.
(Associated Press)

[From article]
Although the court document only refers to outgoing calls, sources familiar with the program say it also collected data on incoming calls.
However, the program did not monitor the content of the conversations. The document did not identify the countries called or say how many countries were involved, but did mention Iran as one of the countries reached.
The program operated from 1990 until 2013, sources told The Journal, and the Justice Department said the database was deleted and has not been searched since 2013.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jan/17/dea-secretly-tracked-americans-calls-for-over-a-de/

DEA secretly tracked Americans’ calls for over a decade, document reveals
By Kellan Howell
The Washington Times
Saturday, January 17, 2015

Washington DC Pols and Journalists Divert Attention to Foreign Violence, Ignoring Violence Here




[From article]
the very same Senate Democrats who claimed to oppose Obama’s amnesty when they were campaigning are currently filibustering a bill to defund it, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is ready to cave.
ISIS has killed four Americans — in Syria. We’re not exactly talking about another 9/11. Here’s a tip: If you don’t want to be killed by ISIS, don’t go to Syria.
Meanwhile, illegal aliens have killed, raped, and maimed thousands of Americans — in America. If you don’t want to be killed, raped, or maimed by illegal immigrants in your own country, I have no tips for you. There’s nothing you can do. You’re on your own. Good luck.
[. . .]
Our politicians don’t care. They are obsessed with cleaning up the rest of the world, while we’re getting our clock cleaned at home.
Americans are at greater risk of being killed by Joran van der Sloot than by ISIS, since a lot more of us vacation in Aruba, as Natalee Holloway did, than in Syria.
[. . .]
With the media’s Soviet-style censorship about immigrant crime, unless a member of your immediate family has been killed by an illegal alien, you might not have noticed the growing death toll, but here are some small, below-the-fold local news items just from the last two weeks.
On Monday of this week, Jaime Balam, an illegal alien from Mexico, appeared in court in San Francisco to face charges that he shot three American college students, one fatally, because they happened to be wearing the wrong colors.
[. . .]
With the media’s Soviet-style censorship about immigrant crime, unless a member of your immediate family has been killed by an illegal alien, you might not have noticed the growing death toll, but here are some small, below-the-fold local news items just from the last two weeks.
On Monday of this week, Jaime Balam, an illegal alien from Mexico, appeared in court in San Francisco to face charges that he shot three American college students, one fatally, because they happened to be wearing the wrong colors.
[. . .]
ISIS is not at our doorstep. Illegal immigrants are not only at our doorstep, but millions of them are already through the door, murdering far more Americans than ISIS ever will.
Sometimes people don’t want to be cleaning up the rest of the world.
[. . .]
Lenin seized power from Russia’s provisional leader, Alexander Kerensky, in 1917, because Kerensky would not stop fighting wars. By promising peace, Lenin won such widespread support from exhausted Russians that the Bolsheviks were able to overthrow the government in less than a day.
That’s what a lot of Americans thought they were voting for last November. Couldn’t we please focus on Americans for a bit? Can’t a Republican Congress do anything to stop the surge of foreign criminals, viruses and parasites crossing our border?
http://humanevents.com/2015/02/25/for-death-by-isis-you-have-to-go-out-illegal-aliens-deliver/?utm_source=coulterdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl

Colorado Gentleman Charged With Killing Two Wives



Survived: Toni henthorn left behind a daughter, Hayley, who was seven when she died. The $1.5 million policy at the center of the legal dispute was for ‘estate planning and income protection/planning to have children’.
Very similar story broadcast twice on network TV News show, mother of two girls (one son?) killed in same way. Father acquitted and moved to Texas with new wife.

[From article]
Double wife killer’ Harold Henthorn is fighting to keep a $1.5million life insurance payout from a policy taken out on his second wife, whom he is accused of murdering.
Henthorn was charged with the murder of second wife, Toni Bertolet, 51, last November and police have reopened their investigation into the suspicious death of his first wife some 20 years earlier.
Both women died in ‘freak’ accidents to which Henthorn, 59, was the sole witness. Dr Toni Jill Bertolet plunged 140ft to her death shortly before her 12th wedding anniversary while hiking with Henthorn in a remote stretch of Rocky Mountain National Park.
Lynn Rishell - his first wife - was crushed to death under the front of Henthorn’s Jeep when, he told first responders, the jack gave way as she reached under the vehicle for a lug night while changing a flat tire in the dark.
In both cases Henthorn was named as the sole beneficiary in a string of lucrative life insurance policies totalling $500,000 on the death of his first wife and $4.5million on the death of his second.
[. . .]
Henthorn has not relinquished the claim he made in September 2013, one year after his wife’s death the previous September. He cited cause of death as ‘Accidental Fall.’ At the time of making this claim Henthorn was unaware that he was under investigation by the FBI who painstakingly scrutinized every aspect of the widower’s life across two years before swooping and arresting him in November last year.
But an autopsy carried out on Dr Bertolet had already concluded that she ‘died as a result of multiple blunt force injuries when she fell or was pushed down a cliff’. The manner of death was noted as ‘undetermined,’ by the coroner who stated: ‘Homicide cannot be excluded.’
[. . .]
Grace Rishell was going through a divorce and ‘concerned for her financial stability,’ when she initially agreed to Henthorn taking out a policy that would pay $50,000 to Grace’s brother and each of her four daughters for a total of $250,000.
According to prosecutors in Dr Bertolet’s murder case, ‘the evidence will show that Henthorn had a romantic interest in Rishell’. But Rishell had a change of heart in spring 2010 and told the insurance agent to stop the policy from going through. Instead she took out a policy of her own with another insurer.
Unbeknownst to her ‘her signature was forged to procure the original policy as well,’ with Henthorn making payments on the policy until December 2012 and listing himself as sole beneficiary.
The policy was cancelled in 2013 when the insurer concluded that Henthorn had no insurable interest in Rishell. But the very fact of its existence raises the specter that Henthorn had Rishell in his sights as a third potential victim.
[. . .]
Investigators have also established that Henthorn ‘extensively scouted’ the fatal hike trail. Contrary to what he told law enforcement he made nine different trips to the area around Rocky Mountain Park that summer.
The fortnight before their anniversary – the date of her death – Henthorn had hiked six trails to ‘find the perfect one for the trip.’ And damningly a map found in his car showed the spot where Dr Bertolet fell to her death, marked with a pink X.
In both Lynn Rishell and Dr Toni Jill Bertolet’s deaths Henthorn was eager to have his wives’ bodies cremated quickly despite family requests against it and, disturbingly, he spread both women’s ashes on the same mountain near Ouray, Colorado.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2965769/Double-wife-killer-legal-battle-1-5-million-life-insurance-payout-received-murdering-second-wife-pushing-cliff-Rockies.html

EXCLUSIVE: Double wife 'killer' in legal battle to keep $1.5 million life insurance payout he received after 'murdering second wife by pushing her over cliff in Rockies'
Harold Henthorn is charged with murdering his second wife in criminal trial which will also hear that he killed his first wife
Both died in freak 'accidents' to which he was sole witness and FBI spent months investigating second death before he was charged
Court papers disclose he is trying to keep $1.5 million paid when second wife - Dr Toni Jill Bertolet - plunged 140ft to her death in Rockies
Civil case in Douglas County, Colorado comes ahead of May criminal trial
By LAURA COLLINS FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 08:42 EST, 24 February 2015 | UPDATED: 09:06 EST, 24 February 2015

Updated: Jonathan Gruber, and Three Other Medical Board Members Appointed by Deval Patrick Fired By New Massachusetts Governor; Gruber Suspected of Exaggerating Billing To State Of Vermont


Posted February 25, 2015 8:35 PM ET; Last updated February 26, 2015 4:56 PM ET




[From article]
A Massachusetts Institute of Technology health economist who made national headlines last year for talking about 'the stupidity of the American voter' was a target Monday in a report from the Vermont state auditor saying the economist may have padded his bills to the state.
Auditor of Accounts Douglas Hoffer said he referred his findings on Jonathan Gruber and his contract with the state to Attorney General William Sorrell.
Hoffer said Gruber's invoices billed Vermont $100 per hour for the work of a research assistant – 1,000 hours in 10 weeks.
'To do so, the RA would have worked exclusively on this project for more than 14 hours per day – every day,' the auditor said.
If the assistant worked Monday through Friday, it would amount to 20 hours per day, with just four hours left over to eat and sleep.
[. . .]
The MIT economist got $392,600 from the Department of Health and Human Services for his Obamacare consulting, records show.
The National Institutes of Health paid him another $2 million for Medicare consulting, and the Justice Department has compensated him to the tune of $1.7 million for 'expert witness testimony.'
Four US states, including Vermont, contracted with him for another $1.6 million in consuting work for advice about health care laws.
[. . .]
'It is noteworthy that Dr. Gruber's first invoice reported round numbers of hours worked (100 for Mr. Gruber and 500 for the research assistants),' Hoffer wrote.
'This is possible, but unlikely. In addition, the second invoice reported exactly the same figures, which is implausible.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2965958/Obamacare-architect-turned-villain-Jonathan-Gruber-accused-padding-bills-work-Vermont-s-health-insurance-20-hours-weekday.html

Obamacare 'architect'-turned-villain Jonathan Gruber accused of padding his bills for work on Vermont's health insurance system – at 20 hours per weekday!
Gruber famously was caught on video saying that Obamacare became law because of 'the stupiditiy of the American voter'
The MIT economist is now accused of inflating his hours on a contract with the state of Vermont
Gruber was tasked with creating an economic model that would show all the costs associated with a single-payer health insurance system
He billed the state for 1,000 hours of work by a research assistant over just 10 weeks – a rate of more than 20 hours for every weekday
By ASSOCIATED PRESS and DAVID MARTOSKO, US POLITICAL EDITOR FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 17:41 EST, 23 February 2015 | UPDATED: 15:19 EST, 24 February 2015

* * *

[From article]
Gov. Charlie Baker fired four members of the Health Connector Board, including MIT professor Jonathan Gruber Wednesday.
Gruber drew national attention when he suggested that President Barack Obama's administration pulled the wool over voters' eyes with the Affordable Care Act.
He later apologized.
All four Deval Patrick appointees were asked for the resignation, and they tendered them today.
"As with all incoming administrations, I am establishing a new leadership team and I have instructed those individuals to take a fresh look at the Connector and to implement ideas to improve the operation of that important state entity," an excerpt of the letter that was sent to those who resigned said.

http://www.wcvb.com/politics/baker-fires-4-members-of-health-connector-board/31483370

Baker fires 4 members of Health Connector Board
MIT professor Jonathan Gruber among those fired
Published 6:02 PM EST Feb 25, 2015
WCVB-TV Boston MA

Tribute To Victims Of Paris Cartoonist Bombing Closed For Third Time Due to Muslim Terror Threats




[From article]
The Finnish Comics Society is having a hard time finding a venue for its exhibition honouring the cartoonists killed in the Charlie Hebdo terror attack in Paris, reports the daily Helsingin Sanomat.
The show entitled "I am Charlie", was on Monday closed for a third time amid security concerns. The display had only been open for about 15 minutes at Library 10 in the Helsinki’s main post office building.
Originally the exhibition had been on display at another library in the Arabianranta neighbourhood, but was moved last week to the Rosebud bookshop in the city centre.
In all three cases, the building owners had asked to have the show closed because of safety worries – particularly following last week’s attacks in Copenhagen.

http://yle.fi/uutiset/i_am_charlie_exhibit_forced_to_close_in_helsinki/7826592

24.2.2015 16:14 | updated 24.2.2015 16:22
'I am Charlie' exhibit forced to close in Helsinki
The exhibit includes work by 10 leading Finnish cartoonists, paying tribute to their colleagues killed in the French terror attack.

Sunni Muslim Blames Israel For Middle East Collapse



Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb
Photo: Getty Images
Bullies like to blame the victim. Is this Imam employed by the White House? Or the US State Department? In this case everything is always Israel's fault according to the 1.6 billion Muslims. 

[From article]
The leading “moderate” authority in Sunni Islam has blamed Zionism and the “new colonialism” for the collapse of the Middle East, further undermining western efforts to secure the region’s stability.
Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar University, the premier source of religious authority in Islam, was speaking at a counter-terrorism conference in Saudi Arabia, as part of efforts to encourage the Muslim world to join forces against terrorism.
However, he seemed to blame Israel and by implication the United States for the chaos in the Arab world

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/saudiarabia/11430829/Moderate-Sunni-Islam-leader-blames-Zionism-and-new-colonialism-for-Middle-East-collapse.html

Moderate Sunni Islam leader blames Zionism and 'new colonialism' for Middle East collapse
Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar University, appears to blame Israel and by implication the US for chaos in Arab world
By Richard Spencer, Middle East Editor
8:36PM GMT 23 Feb 201515

Alan Dershowitz Upset That Congressional Democrats Plan To Boycott Speech by Netanyahu



Democratic Congressman

[From article]
"As a liberal Democrat who twice campaigned for President Obama, I am appalled that some Democratic members of Congress are planning to boycott the speech," wrote Dershowitz in the opinion piece.
"This controversy is not mainly about protocol and politics — it is about the constitutional system of checks and balances and the separation of powers. Under the Constitution, the executive and legislative branches share responsibility for making and implementing important foreign-policy decisions.
[. . .]
"Congress has a critical role to play in scrutinizing the decisions of the president when these decisions involve national security, relationships with allies and the threat of nuclear proliferation."
[. . .]
Leading Democrats are concerned that Netanyahu will use the speech to persuade congressional Democrats and the public against supporting the administration’s current nuclear talks with Iran, aimed at curtailing the Islamic Republic’s nuclear weapons program.
But Dershowitz wrote, "Congress has every right to invite, even over the president’s strong objection, any world leader or international expert who can assist its members in formulating appropriate responses to the current deal being considered with Iran regarding its nuclear weapons program.
[. . .]
"Indeed, it is the responsibility of every member of Congress to listen to Prime Minister Netanyahu, who probably knows more about this issue than any world leader, because it threatens the very existence of the nation state of the Jewish people."
He continued, "Congress has the right to disagree with the prime minister, but the idea that some members of Congress will not give him the courtesy of listening violates protocol and basic decency to a far greater extent than anything Mr. Netanyahu is accused of doing for having accepted an invitation from Congress.
Dershowitz also said that Obama "should urge members of Congress to do their constitutional duty of listening to opposing views in order to check and balance the policies of the administration."

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Alan-Dershowitz-netanyahu-speech-congress/2015/02/24/id/626522/

Dershowitz: Democrats' Boycott of Netanyahu 'Appalling, Irresponsible'
Tuesday, 24 Feb 2015 09:11 AM
By Drew MacKenzie

February 25, 2015

US Court Awards $218 million Damages For Palestinian Attacks



Attorney Kent Yalowitz, representing those affected by attacks in Israel in the early 2000s, comments about the conclusion of he case outside a federal courthouse in New York Monday, Feb. 23, 2015. The court found the Palestinian authorities liable in the attacks, with jurors awarding the victims $218.5 million in damages at a civil trial.
(AP Photo/Craig Ruttle) (The Associated Press)

[From article]
The Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority were the catalysts for a series of terrorist attacks in the early 2000s in Israel that killed or wounded several Americans, a U.S. jury found Monday at a high-stakes civil trial.
In finding the Palestinian authorities liable in the attacks, jurors awarded the victims $218.5 million in damages for the bloodshed. The U.S. Anti-Terrorism Act could allow for that to be tripled.
The case in Manhattan and another in Brooklyn have been viewed as the most notable attempts by American victims of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict to use U.S. courts to seek damages that could reach into the billions of dollars.
The PLO and Palestinian Authority had no immediate comment. None of the victims was in the courtroom Monday for the verdict.
In closing arguments, plaintiff attorney Kent Yalowitz had urged the Manhattan jury to order the PLO and Palestinian Authority to pay $350 million for providing material support to terrorists involved in six bombings and shootings from 2002 to 2004.
No amount could make up for the human toll, he said. "But if the only thing you can give them is money, then money has to stand in as compensation for the unspeakable loss," he added.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/02/23/us-jury-palestinian-authorities-liable-for-israeli-terror-attacks-2185m-in/

US jury: Palestinian authorities liable for Israeli terror attacks, $218.5M in damages awarded
Published February 23, 201
Fox News

No Spokesmen For Disability Rights




Homosexuals have the Human Rights Campaign. Women have NOW. Black Americans have the NAACP, WGBH, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Chris Matthews, Eric Holder, Tavis Smiley, Barack Obama, et al. Persons with disability have bupkis. They need to file a lawsuit. Harvard University can ignore inconvenient laws (Obama-Holder Doctrine), unless they are unable to control the courts and end the lawsuit.

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2015/2/25/ADA-lawsuit-virtual-education/

Analysis: Experts Say ADA Case Has Merit
By TYLER S. OLKOWSKI
Harvard CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
February 24, 2015

Cambridge Police Say Extremely Low Crime Statistics Due to Cold Weather




They all have it backwards. Crime causes global warming. The reason it is so cold is there is no crime.  

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2015/2/25/crime-snow-historic-low/

Severe Snowstorms in Cambridge Drive Crime to ‘Historic Lows’
By MUJTABA A. A. WARSI, CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Harvard Crimson
February 24, 2015

Empty Dinner Plates Create Terrorists




[From article]
This is the confab where Obama again mentioned America’s Muslim founding fathers. You know, like Osama Ben Franklin. Then they floated their Jobs for Jihadis program for the genocidal ethnic cleansers, I mean aspiring rappers, who are turning their lives around.
You’ve surely seen the list of proposed new Islamist anti-poverty agencies: Be-Head Start, the Jobs Corpse, etc.
[. . .]
“In our era,” Kerry sniffed, “poisonous ideas can come from almost anywhere. … In some cases, they may come from … the contrast between one family’s empty dinner plate and a fancy restaurant’s lavish menu.”

http://www.bostonherald.com/news_opinion/columnists/howie_carr/2015/02/carr_bloodthirsty_try_liveshot_s_menu

Carr: Bloodthirsty? Try Liveshot’s menu
Wednesday, February 25, 2015
By: Howie Carr
Boston Herald

Boston, MA Gentleman, 27, Arrested in Cambridge, MA Picking Up Package of Oxycodone Pills



Cambridge, MA, Destination For Drug Mules

[From article]
Ryan said postal authorities notified her office Nov. 19 that a man, later identified as Pierre, was picking up suspicious packages being sent through FedEx and UPS from Los Angeles to a rented mailbox in Cambridge.
Pierre went to the UPS store in Cambridge at least seven times between Nov. 19, 2014 and Jan. 23 to pick up packages, authorities said. He also collected packages at UPS stores in Brighton and Waltham.
On Feb. 23, Pierre picked up two packages from Cambridge and was stopped in his vehicle. A search warrant for the vehicle recovered 4,000 oxycodone pills, and 2,000 more pills were recovered with a search warrant of Pierre’s home, along with cocaine and $37,000, Ryan said.

http://www.bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2015/02/da_man_caught_with_6000_oxy_pills_37g

DA: Man caught with 6,000 oxy pills, $37G
Wednesday, February 25, 2015
By: Antonio Planas
Boston Herald

Abraham Lincoln and Politicians Overrode Supreme Court On Slavery




From article]
America is at a constitutional crossroads. The federal courts are threatening radically to revise the family law of all fifty states. There is no Constitutional justification for them to do so. If we don't stop them the American experiment will be at an end. We will lapse back into government by an insular aristocracy, exactly what we waged the Revolutionary War to escape.
Most observers now expect the Supreme Court to rule this year that the Constitution forbids states to define marriage as including only relationships between members of opposite sexes.
[. . .]
No homosexual partners can ever fulfill the mission of a marriage. Members of the same sex can't produce children together. They can, as leftists never tire of pointing out, adopt. Sometimes, in the absence of a better alternative, adoption by same-sex partners may be in the best interests of a particular child. But human beings crave close contact with both a mother and a father. No two men can ever give a child a mother. No two women can ever give a child a father. Some homosexual partners raise children, but they never do so in the circumstances society, for very good reason, prefers.
The argument that the law should treat heterosexual and homosexual relationships as equal is absurd.
[. . .]
Reading the Constitution to require that the law be blind to the distinction between something essential and something extraneous is inane.
Unfortunately, that inanity has gotten popular with our legal elite. A cadre of deranged jurists has decided that mothers don't matter, fathers don't matter, men and women are interchangeable and there is nothing special about marriage that states are entitled to recognize.
[. . .]
In fact, the GOP was founded to nullify a Supreme Court decision closely analogous to Windsor. The 1860 presidential campaign was principally about whether the federal government would continue following that decision. Abraham Lincoln's victory ensured that it wouldn't.
The case was Dred Scott v. Sandford, in which Chief Justice Taney proclaimed that the United States had no power to restrict slavery in federal territories. This was almost as absurd as Justice Kennedy's pronouncement in Windsor that the federal government lacks the power to define the terms in its own statutes.
[. . .]
Both Dred Scott and Windsor were foolish attempts to resolve contentious political issues by arbitrary judicial decree. When judges invade politics in that fashion it is up to the politicians to defend their turf. That's what happened with Dred Scott and slavery.
[. . .]
Republicans governed as they had promised. They defied the Supreme Court and banned slavery outright in all federal territories as the prelude to the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th amendment.
[. . .]
When the Court oversteps its bounds it is up to elected officials to smack it down and up to the people to demand that they do so.

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2015/02/same_sex_marriage_and_emdredd_scottem.html

February 25, 2015
Same Sex Marriage and Dred Scott
By J. Peter Mulhern

White House Began Insulting Americans First Day In Office




[From article]
On January 21, 2009, about three-quarters of the way through his first inaugural address, after paragraphs of bromides about American greatness, he alluded to the menace of militant Islam:
For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth…
It has become customary in our time to speak of America as a Judeo-Christian civilization because the facts of history show that, so “a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus” as a new formulation of the melting pot meme was a major departure.
[. . .]
Muslims, by contrast, played no role in the making of America. There is no evidence of a Muslim presence before the 20th century. Yet here on that January day was the brand new American President orating that the U.S. was “a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus…”
In this formulation, the Jews have been bumped back to third place, elbowed, so to speak, aside by Muslims who take their place. This recalls what happened in the 7th century when their Prophet Muhammad told his followers that they had replaced the Jews as Allah’s Chosen People.
[. . .]
Jefferson spent five years in France after the Revolution as a trade commissioner, then ambassador. That is when he bought his Koran, because almost every day of these years there were American hostages enslaved in North Africa that he struggled to but failed to liberate. In this period, he even met in London with an ambassador from the Bashaw (pasha) of Tripoli, a predecessor of Muammar Gaddafi who demanded $100,000 not to begin hijacking American ships and enslaving all the people aboard. Jefferson listened as the ambassador cited the jihad as the justification for this behavior. That was in 1786.
[. . .]
When he entered the Oval Office the next morning to begin work as president -- with the U.S. economy in a crisis not seen since the Great Depression of the 1930s -- he asked that his first phone call as president be put through not to some expert on economics but Mahmoud Abbas, the Holocaust Denier and international Muslim terrorist criminal.

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2015/02/the_presidents_first_insult.html

February 25, 2015
The President's First Insult
By Sha'i ben-Tekoa

Journalist Gets It Completely Wrong on Dangers From Ebola




[From article]
One week after the Washington Post called us nuts for believing that airborne transmission of Ebola might be possible, the Washington Post reports that airborne transmission of Ebola is “very likely.”
[. . .]
Achebach’s college degree is a 1982 baccalaureate in Politics, if we can believe the dystopian Wikipedia. That almost makes Bill Nye’s baccalaureate in mechanical engineering sound impressive. Not that anything’s wrong with not having a college degree in science, or not having any college degree at all. But something does seem a little off when guys like Achenbach (BA Politics), Nye (BS Mechanical Engineering) and Al Gore (BA Government) lecture real scientists like Richard Lindzen (BA Physics, PhD Applied Mathematics, Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Meteorology at MIT) and William Happer (PhD Physics, Cyrus Fogg Brackett[3] Professor of Physics at Princeton University) on climate.

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2015/02/is_there_anything_science_reporters_dont_know.html

February 24, 2015
Is There Anything Science Reporters Don't Know?
By Randall Hoven

George Soros, Ford Foundation Fund Campaign for Government Control of Internet, Curbing Free Speech



George Soros 

[From article]
Liberal philanthropist George Soros and the Ford Foundation have lavished groups supporting the administration’s “net neutrality” agenda, donating $196 million and landing proponents on the White House staff, according to a new report.
And now, as the Federal Communications Commission nears approving a type of government control over the Internet, the groups are poised to declare victory in the years-long fight, according to the report from MRC Business, an arm of the conservative media watchdog, the Media Research Center.
“The Ford Foundation, which claims to be the second-largest private foundation in the U.S., and Open Society Foundations, founded by far-left billionaire George Soros, have given more than $196 million to pro-net neutrality groups between 2000 and 2013,” said the report, authored by Media Research Center’s Joseph Rossell, and provided to Secrets.
“These left-wing groups not only impacted the public debate and funded top liberal think tanks from the Center for American Progress to Free Press. They also have direct ties to the White House and regulatory agencies. At least five individuals from these groups have ascended to key positions at the White House and FCC,” said the report which included funding details to pro-net neutrality advocates.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/soros-ford-shovel-196-million-to-net-neutrality-groups-staff-to-white-house/article/2560702

Soros, Ford shovel $196 million to 'net neutrality' groups, staff to White House
BY PAUL BEDARD
FEBRUARY 25, 2015 | 2:22 PM

Indian City Bans Public Gatherings After 900 Deaths From Swine Flu


A passenger from India's Gujarat state arrives at the New Delhi railway station wearing a mask as a safe guard from Swine flu, in New Delhi, India, Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2015. Health officials in India are struggling to contain an outbreak of a flu that has claimed more than 700 lives since mid-December.
(AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)


[From article]
A west Indian city has banned most public gatherings in an attempt to halt the spread of swine flu, which has claimed at least 926 lives nationwide in 11 weeks.
Officials prohibited gatherings of five or more people in Ahmedabad, the capital of Gujarat state, starting Wednesday. Marriages and funerals are exempt from the ban, but participants will need to wear protective masks, officials said.
The law invoked for the ban is generally used to maintain law and order, not health, and officials said they would be flexible in interpreting which public events would be prohibited.
Gujarat has had the second-highest number of deaths, with 231, after the northwestern state of Rajasthan, where 234 have died.
Among the thousands in Gujarat testing positive for H1N1, the virus which causes swine flu, were its assembly speaker and state health minister.
[. . .]
The Health Ministry said most of the more than 16,000 cases reported nationwide since mid-December were in the states of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Telangana and Madhya Pradesh.
Federal Health Minister J.P. Nadda urged people not to panic, saying there was enough medicine to cope with the rising number of cases.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/indian-city-bans-public-gatherings-swine-flu-fears-29209456

Indian City Bans Public Gatherings Over Swine Flu Fears
AHMEDABAD, India
Feb 25, 2015, 2:04 PM ET
By R.K. MISRA
Associated Press

Updated: Misguided Priorities: Politicians Talk Don't Act To Help Homeless People, Give Taxpayer Funded Benefits to Illegal Aliens


Posted February 21, 2015 5:19 PM ET; Last updated February 25, 2015 8:39 PM ET



Here's an example of the priorities of politicians. While veterans have no homes, illegal aliens are being showered with taxpayer funded benefits. 

[From article]
Illegal immigrants who are able to obtain Social Security Numbers and work permits as a result of President Obama’s executive amnesty could claim tens of thousands of dollars in back tax benefits, a new Congressional Research Service memo obtained first by Breitbart News reveals.
The report comes following the Internal Revenue Service’s confirmation that once illegal immigrants are granted Social Security Numbers — as a result of Obama’s executive actions — they will be able to file back tax returns and obtain up to four years of tax benefits, including the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the Child Tax Credit (CTC).
The new CRS report — dated Wednesday and requested to gauge the tax benefits an amnesty beneficiary could potentially accrue — looks at the amount of EITC and CTC for a hypothetical family from from 2011-2014.

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/02/25/amnesty-beneficiaries-could-claim-more-than-35k-in-tax-benefits-in-first-year/

AMNESTY BENEFICIARIES COULD CLAIM MORE THAN $35K IN TAX BENEFITS IN FIRST YEAR
by CAROLINE MAY
25 Feb 2015
* * *

The highest priority of state and US government taxpayer funds and law enforcement will remain, ensuring that all states permit same sex marriage. Next will be free college, EBT cards, and Wi-Fi for all poor families in the world. Then maybe taxpayer money will fund academic studies of how to best help veterans without homes. What is the rush? The snow will eventually melt.

In the Cambridge Chronicle article, City Councilor McGovern admits what he does is ludicrous but that does not stop him from doing good with a reporter following him. That is what John Kerry perfected, and many other celebrities practice. They help vulnerable people but make certain there are reporters who record what they do. McGovern actually admits that the city is nine years into their ten year plan to end homelessness. The city received US taxpayer funds only after they submitted their plan. So much for studies. It is a waste of money but keeps academic consultants employed. Homeless people need homes, not studies, or blankets or day care centers. Homes. 

http://cambridge.wickedlocal.com/article/20150211/NEWS/150219044/0/SEARCH

Cambridge officials raise funds to offer blankets to homeless
By Nicholas Iovino
Cambridge (at) wickedlocal.com
Posted Feb. 11, 2015 at 2:51 PM
Updated Feb 11, 2015 at 3:09 PM
CAMBRIDGE Chronicle

* * *

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2015/2/18/shelters-scramble-long-island/

Shelters Scramble to House Displaced Long Island Homeless from Winter Storms
By ANNIE SCHUGART
Harvard CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
February 17, 2015

Get Ready For Full Body Transplants



Doctor plans to attach a living person’s head to a donor body in operation he says is not far off. Photograph: Alamy
Much too difficult. It is much easier and less time consuming to just do mind transplants. If Obama, Biden, Holder, the Clintons and Jonathan Gruber can do it, anyone can.

[From article]
Sergio Canavero, a doctor in Turin, Italy, has drawn up plans to graft a living person’s head on to a donor body and claims the procedures needed to carry out the operation are not far off.
[. . .]
He has claimed for years that medical science has advanced to the point that a full body transplant is plausible, but the proposal has caused raised eyebrows, horror and profound disbelief in other surgeons.
[. . .]
According to the procedure Canavero outlined this month, doctors would first cool the patient’s head and the donor’s body so their cells do not die during the operation. The neck is then cut through, the blood vessels linked up with thin tubes, and the spinal cord cut with an exceptionally sharp knife to minimise nerve damage. The recipient’s head is then moved on to the donor’s body.
The next stage is trickier. Canavero believes that the spinal cord nerves that would allow the recipient’s brain to talk to the donor’s body can be fused together using a substance called polyethylene glycol. To stop the patient moving, they must be kept in a coma for weeks. When they come round, Canavero believes they would be able to speak and feel their face, though he predicts they would need a year of physiotherapy before they could move the body.

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/feb/25/first-full-body-transplant-two-years-away-surgeon-claim

First full body transplant is two years away, surgeon claims
Doctor plans to graft a living person’s head on to a donor body using procedures he believes will soon be ready
Ian Sample, science editor
@iansample
Wednesday 25 February 2015 13.50 EST