n2doc

n2doc's Journal

August 29, 2014

This Toon says it all: Labor Day Memories

August 29, 2014

Christian Group Begins All-You-Can-Eat 'Fast' to Protest Gay Marriage

Talk about cheating on your diet.

In an effort to influence the US Supreme Court to rule against same-sex marriage when it hears the first of a series of appeals cases in October, a Virginia based conservative Christian group has kicked off a 40-day fast where participants will be allowed to eat.

Huh?

As reported by EDGE , a statement released April 10 by the Family Foundation of Virginia announcing the protest read:

The Family Foundation is asking that you join us for 40 Days of Prayer, Fasting and Repentance for Marriage from August 27 until October 5, 2014. [..] The Supreme Court begins its session on October 6. We fully expect it to take a marriage case sometime in the next year. In the natural, it looks like a David vs. Goliath battle. The federal government, the news media, Hollywood, the public education system and big business all are arrayed on the side of same-sex "marriage." Only the church stands in support of God's design for marriage. Our 40 Days will culminate on October 5 just before the court begins its session. We don't know what the Lord will do. We do know that He is sovereign. Whatever happens, we must adopt the attitude of the three Hebrew children who refused to bow before the golden image in Babylon

Only, as Pink News reports, the group later clarified that participants in the protest don't actually have to give up food to take part in the 'fast.'

more

http://www.edgeonthenet.com/entertainment/television/164742/christian_group_begins_all-you-can-eat_'fast'_to_protest_gay_marriage

August 29, 2014

Florida man caught killing, and eating, threatened tortoises

Wildlife authorities in Florida caught a man who killed and ate 15 gopher tortoises and planned to slaughter 11 more of the threatened reptiles, a spokeswoman said on Thursday.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said a tip-off led an officer to woods in Citrus County on Florida's west coast where he found tire tracks and shells dumped on the ground. Returning the next day, he found a container holding 11 live gopher tortoises.

"He hid himself and waited, figuring the subject would return that afternoon," the FWC said in a statement, adding that when the man came back he admitted to feasting on the threatened species.

Katie Purcell, a spokeswoman for the FWC's law enforcement division, said prosecutors were preparing appropriate charges. The 11 tortoises were set free.

more

http://www.newseveryday.com/articles/717/20140828/florida-man-caught-killing-and-eating-threatened-tortoises.htm

August 28, 2014

Image of Blue Lightning

A streak of blue jet lightning was captured by pilot and photographer Thijs Bors in the Northern Territory, Australia, during a thunderstorm. Blue jets are cones of blue light that spray upwards from the tops of thunderclouds. They can reach up to 25 miles, and strike at approximately 22,000mph.
Picture: THIJS BORS / CATERS NEWS

August 28, 2014

The Expanding World of Poverty Capitalism

In Orange County, Calif., the probation department’s “supervised electronic confinement program,” which monitors the movements of low-risk offenders, has been outsourced to a private company, Sentinel Offender Services. The company, by its own account, oversees case management, including breath alcohol and drug-testing services, “all at no cost to county taxpayers.”

Sentinel makes its money by getting the offenders on probation to pay for the company’s services. Charges can range from $35 to $100 a month.

The company boasts of having contracts with more than 200 government agencies, and it takes pride in the “development of offender funded programs where any of our services can be provided at no cost to the agency.”

Sentinel is a part of the expanding universe of poverty capitalism. In this unique sector of the economy, costs of essential government services are shifted to the poor.

more

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/27/opinion/thomas-edsall-the-expanding-world-of-poverty-capitalism.html

August 28, 2014

Police lobby fights to keep military gear

Police associations are beginning a major lobbying push to protect their access to the military equipment that was used against demonstrators in Ferguson, Mo.

Law enforcement groups argue a Pentagon program that provides surplus military gear helps protect the public, and they are gearing up for a fight with lawmakers and the Obama administration over whether it should be continued.

“We are the most vigorous law enforcement advocacy group, and we intend to be at our most vigorous on this issue,” said Jim Pasco, the executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police, the largest police organization in the country.

The Fraternal Order and other groups told The Hill that they are already meeting with lawmakers’ offices in an attempt to get a jump on the issue before Congress returns from the August recess.

Read more: http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/business-a-lobbying/216127-law-enforcement-lobbies-to-keep-gear

August 28, 2014

Guns still plague America like an incurable social disease – and Congress does nothing about it

by DENIS HAMILL

read it all, but the end is the most powerful part:

“People can be cruel, we just want people to remember Charlie the right way,” said a woman who identified herself as Vacca’s mother-in-law on Wednesday when reached by The News.

And the little girl who killed him must live with the images of deafening gunfire, blood and death as the highlight of what she did on her 2014 summer vacation.

Awful. Shameful. Barbaric.

But guns don’t kill people; people kill people.

Sometimes the person killed is a pro-gun Second Amendment enthusiast and military veteran who was a husband and father and by all accounts a well-liked fella. Sometimes the person who kills someone like Vacca is an innocent 9-year-old girl with a ponytail and pink shorts.

Lock and load that image into the congressional chamber and let it rip.

http://m.nydailynews.com/news/national/limit-u-s-gun-insanity-article-1.1919590

August 28, 2014

The Extreme Partisanship of John Roberts's Supreme Court

“Politics are closely divided,” John Roberts told scholar Jeffrey Rosen after his first term as chief justice. “The same with the Congress. There ought to be some sense of some stability, if the government is not going to polarize completely. It’s a high priority to keep any kind of partisan divide out of the judiciary as well.”

No one who observes the chief justice would doubt he was sincere in his wish for greater unanimity, greater judicial modesty, a widely respected Supreme Court quietly calling “balls and strikes.” But human beings are capable of wishing for mutually incompatible things—commitment and freedom, for example, or safety and excitement. In his desire for harmony, acclaim, and legitimate hegemony, the chief was fighting himself. As he enters his 10th term, his quest for a non-partisan Court seems in retrospect like the impossible dream.

The Supreme Court’s 2013 term began with oral argument in a divisive, highly political case about campaign finance and concluded with two 5-4 decisions of divisive, highly political cases, one about public-employee unions and the other about contraceptive coverage under the Affordable Care Act. In all three cases, the result furthered a high-profile objective of the Republican Party. In all three cases, the voting precisely followed the partisan makeup of the Court, with the five Republican appointees voting one way and the four Democratic appointees bitterly dissenting. In all three cases, the chief voted with the hard-right position. By the end of the term, the polarization Roberts had seen in the nation had clearly spread to the Court. In fact, the clerk’s final gavel on June 30 did not signal even a momentary respite from the bitterness.

The day after the decision, 14 religious leaders sent a letter to President Obama asking for a new kind of religious exemption. Many religious charities provide various social services under contracts funded by the federal government. Obama had proposed rules banning government contractors from discriminating in employment against gays and lesbians. The singers wanted religious objectors to be free to continue policies of excluding them from employment. There was certainly language in the opinion to encourage those hopes. Could religious objections now override a civic commitment to equality?

more

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/08/john-robertss-dream-of-a-unifying-court-has-dissolved/379220/

August 28, 2014