After being stolen in broad daylight back in 2004, "The Scream" has been recovered by police and will eventually be returned to public display.

"The Scream" and another stolen masterpiece by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch were recovered by police on Thursday, two years and nine days after gunmen seized the paintings from an Oslo museum.

"'The Scream' and 'Madonna' are now in police possession," police chief Iver Stensrud told a news conference. "The damage is much less than we could have feared."

He said the pictures were recovered on Thursday afternoon in "a successful police operation" but dodged questions about how it was done. He said no ransom had been paid "as of today."

"The Scream," Munch's most famous work, is an icon of existential angst showing a terrified figure against a blood-red sky. "Madonna" shows a bare-breasted woman with long black hair.

The picture has become a pop-culture icon over the last several years, but has long been a favorite of art lovers. I'm thrilled to learn that this piece will be returned to its public very soon.

In honor of the recovery, all of today's posts will feature "The Scream" -- with a special caption appropriate to the story.

I'm baaaaaaack!

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We finally have regulations issued under the texas law mandating parental consent for minor seeking abortion. parents will be required to give that consent in writing, not verbally.

After 13 months of intense pressure from opposing factions, the state has adopted rules requiring written — and notarized — parental consent forms for girls under age 18 to get abortions.

The new forms span six pages, warn of medical risks and tout "women's right to know" brochures backed by abortion opponents, said those on opposite sides of the issue.

"There was just so much heat from so many different sources," said Dr. Donald Patrick, executive director of the Texas Medical Board, which adopted the rules. "We were trying to tread a pretty fine line. It's just sometimes hard to do when there are two diametrically different points of view."

The board plans to send a copy of the medical records rules regarding parental consent to the Texas Register next week.

The rules would take effect 20 days later.

Patrick said the governor's office backed the final form approved late last week, which requires parents' written consent be notarized, an administrative rule not required by the consent law.

Given the number of cases of fraud that have been foundin consent cases, where someone other than the parent misrepresents tehmselves to authorize the abortion (including the responsible male, who is seeking to hide the evidence of statutory rape), the requirement that the signature be notarized is a good one.

Personally, I'd require that the parents sign in blood. Just as a reminder that they are authorizing the killing of their own innocent grandchild.

Parental consent? Informed consent?
What do they think this is -- a medical procedure?

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And I'm sure the crew and all the mission personnel are chompng at the bit!

NASA decided to try to launch the space shuttle Atlantis next Wednesday to resume construction of the International Space Station, after a delay caused by a lightning strike and the threat of bad weather. Hopes of a liftoff before the Atlantis’s launching window closes late next week had been rekindled after Hurricane Ernesto lost intensity on its approach to Florida. “We had no damage,” Bruce Buckingham, a Kennedy Space Center spokesman, said after the hurricane left the Atlantic Coast of Florida and headed north. “Zero. Nada.” Launching pad technicians have begun reattaching equipment needed to prepare the shuttle.

Please, not another weather delay!

Posted by: Greg at 10:26 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Well, given the demonization of our military personnel by the lft, we knew it would come to this.

The Pierce County Sheriff's Department is searching for five people who allegedly attacked a uniformed National Guardsmen walking along 138th Street in Parkland Tuesday afternoon.

The soldier was walking to a convenience store when a sport utility vehicle pulled up alongside him and the driver asked if he was in the military and if he had been in any action.

The driver then got out of the vehicle, displayed a gun and shouted insults at the victim. Four other suspects exited the vehicle and knocked the soldier down, punching and kicking him.

“And during the assault the suspects called him a baby killer. At that point they got into the car and drove off and left him on the side of the road,” Detective Ed Troyer with the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department told KIRO 7 Eyewitness News.

Notice, of course, that none of the scum were willing to make it a fair fight -- five-on-one and a gun gave tehm all sorts of courage that they lack as individuals.

H/T to Michelle Malkin, who also lists a number of such instances in the recent past.

Posted by: Greg at 10:34 PM | Comments (88) | Add Comment
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Sounds like a pleasurable way to get cheap gas.

A SYDNEY brothel owner has resorted to offering petrol discounts to clients in a bid to boost business.

Madam Kerry's brothel in western Sydney offers clients a discount of 20c a litre if they use one of its "service providers".

Kerry said high petrol prices were hurting the sex service market as much as any other industry.

"We wanted to think outside the box, we have gone quieter with the high petrol prices and we wanted to find a way to give something back to our clients."

And on top of the money back from the brothel, motorists could still claim the 4c discount offered by service stations aligned with supermarket chains.

"They just need to bring in the docket," Kerry said.

Ah, the entrepreneurial spirit is at worl!

But I will say this -- I'm surprised the line I put in italics made it into a story that deals, even tangentially, with prostitution. "Think outside the box"? "Give something back to our clients"? Incredible!

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My initial reaction was “Now THAT’S entertainment!”

Kids Watch As Clown Is Crushed to Death

Admit it. It sounds sort of like something out of The Onion.

Unfortunately, the story is much more tragic – and all too true.

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Personally, I've never understood the ban on producing hemp, which has many industrial uses but such a minimal THC level that it is not useful for toking purposes.

Now there is a move to legalize the crop, which was raised by Washington and Jefferson, in California.

Charles MeyerÂ’s politics are as steady and unswerving as the rows of pima cotton on his Central Valley farm. With his work-shirt blue eyes and flinty Clint Eastwood demeanor, he is staunchly in favor of the war in Iraq, against gun control and believes people unwilling to recite the Pledge of Allegiance should be kicked out of America, and fast.

But what gets him excited is the crop he sees as a potential windfall for California farmers: industrial hemp, or Cannabis sativa. The rapidly growing plant with a seemingly infinite variety of uses is against federal law to grow because of its association with its evil twin, marijuana.

“Industrial hemp is a wholesome product,” said Mr. Meyer, 65, who says he has never worn tie-dye and professes a deep disdain for “dope.”

“The fact we’re not growing it is asinine,” Mr. Meyer said.

Things could change if a measure passed by legislators in Sacramento and now on Gov. Arnold SchwarzeneggerÂ’s desk becomes law. [The bill reached Mr. Schwarzenegger last week; he has 30 days to sign or veto it.]

What are the uses of hemp?

Hundreds of hemp products, including energy bars and cold-pressed hemp oil, are made in California, giving the banned plant a capitalist aura. But manufacturers must import the raw material, mostly from Canada, where hemp cultivation was legalized in 1998.

Over 30 countries worldwide allow the cultivation of industrial hemp. The Chinese currently produce about 40% of the world's supply.

Must the War on Drugs, which has produced any number of inane results over the years, make the capitalist system a casualty?

Posted by: Greg at 10:13 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Now let me begin by saying that I find Trooper Robert Henderson's beliefs and associations to be reprehensible -- but I also find them to be First Amendment protected. And furthermore, I find the attempt to fire him more offensive than his membership in these groups. Fortunately, an arbiter agreed with my position, although the state of Nebraska intends to seek to have a court overturn that ruling.

Robert Henderson was not fired as a state trooper because he belonged to the Ku Klux Klan and another white supremacist group, authorities said. Instead, he was ousted because he could not uphold public trust while participating in such groups, they said.

An arbitrator disagreed, ordering the State Patrol to reinstate Henderson within 60 days and pay him back wages. The state went to court Friday to keep him off the force.

"The integrity of Nebraska's law enforcement is at risk," Attorney General Jon Bruning said at news conference in Lincoln. "The Constitution does not require law enforcement to employ anyone tied to the KKK."

In a summary of the causes for firing Henderson in March, the State Patrol said membership in the KKK "seriously compromised" Henderson's ability to do his job.

Henderson and the state troopers union appealed and, under its contract, went to binding arbitration, to get his job back.

Arbitrator Paul J. Caffera, a New York lawyer, last week overturned the firing.

Heck -- imagine that the state tried that with someone who joined the Nation of Islam, a notoriously racist group. Or for that matter, a Muslim convert -- after all, how much of the public really trusts Muslims since 9/11, especially given the continued terrorism of the last five years (or, for that matter, the preceeding few decades). Or maybe some Hispanic guy associated with MEChA -- which has as its motto "For Our Race, everything. For Those Outside Our Race, nothing" (Por La Raza todo. Fuera de La Raza nada). Would firing a Communist be acceptable? There would be lawsuits galore regarding First Amendment violations and accusations of racism and religious discrimination. Either all members of the law enforcement community retain their First Amendment rights, or none do.

By the way -- is Robert Byrd still in the US Senate?

OPEN TRACKBACKING AT: Stop the ACLU, Wizbang, Samantha Burns, Is It Just Me?, Adam's Blog, Bacon Bits, Bullwinkle Blog, Stuck on Stupid, Conservative Cat, Third World County, Blue Star Chronicle, Right Nation, Uncooperative Blogger, Right Wing Nation

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A dog is a man's best friend.

That even applies -- perhaps especially applies -- if you are a world-famous artist.

And that best friend sometimes even finds his way into your art.

Some old masters made a point of including the faces of fellow artists and patrons in the crowds portrayed in large oil paintings. Pablo Picasso paid similar homage to a more unusual friend: a self-assured little dachshund called Lump.

* * *

More than three decades after the deaths of the Spanish-born artist and the German-born dachshund, Mr. Duncan has published “Picasso and Lump: A Dachshund’s Odyssey” (Bulfinch Press, $24.95), a 100-page book of photographs taken in 1957 that show Lump as the top dog in the Villa La Californie, Picasso’s hillside mansion in Cannes.

The sequence starts on April 19, 1957, the day that Lump met Picasso. Mr. Duncan, who had first photographed Picasso a year earlier, brought Lump along for the ride, largely because the dog did not get along well with Mr. DuncanÂ’s other pet, an Afghan hound called Kublai Khan.

“Lump immediately decided that this would be his new home,” Mr. Duncan recalled in an interview on a visit to Paris, noting pointedly that “lump” means “rascal” in German. “He more or less said, ‘Duncan, that’s it, I’m staying here.’ And he did, for the next six years.”

Picasso was apparently equally entranced. That very day, he did his first portrait of Lump, a signed and dated portrait of the dog that he painted on a plate while having lunch with Jacqueline Roque, his new partner, whom he would marry four years later.

Lump eventually went back home with Duncan -- and died, one week before Picasso, in 1973.

This is a charming story -- and a must for dog lovers everywhere.

Posted by: Greg at 05:03 AM | Comments (37) | Add Comment
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I'm troubled by this story.

A Madison County public defender has been accused of having "inappropriate sexual relations" with a 32-year-old female inmate.

Walter Wood, 52, a one-time Municipal Court judge in Ridgeland, was arrested Wednesday on two counts of disorderly conduct, said Sheriff Toby Trowbridge.

Wood posted bond and referred all questions to his attorney, Tommy Savant.

Savant could not be reached for comment.

Trowbridge said that following a meeting between the inmate and Wood last week, "we had reason to believe that there might be some inappropriate behavior between attorney Walter Wood and his client in the interview room of the detention center."

After their meeting, the woman was interviewed by sheriff's deputies and accused Wood of "sexual misconduct," he said.

1) Could there have been a circumstance under which Wood had "appropriate sexual relations" wih his client?

2) Under the Clinton Doctrine, isn't this "just about sex" and therefore not any of our business?

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If it isn't a baby, how can you explain this attrocity?

Police and prosecutors in Hialeah, Fla., are investigating an abortion clinic incident that has all the markings of murder. On the morning of July 20, an 18-year-old girl walked into the A Gyn Diagnostics Center to abort her baby at 23 weeks. She had received medication to dilate her cervix the night before. By that afternoon, however, the clinic abortionist, Frantz Bazile, had not shown up for work.

The girl delivered her baby, alive, moving, and trying to breathe. Clinic worker Belkis Gonzalez then allegedly cut the umbilical cord, stuffed the wriggling, gasping baby into a biohazard bag, and sealed the bag shut.

That is the story the baby's mother and at least one other witness told investigators, according to Hialeah Deputy Police Chief Mark Overton. The day the baby was born, police received a tip and searched the clinic, but found no body. Nine days later, acting on another tip, police searched A Gyn again. This time they found the infant, still in the biohazard bag, unrefrigerated and badly decomposed.

There are no words that need be added.

H/T Anna Venger & Right Wing News

Posted by: Greg at 12:52 PM | Comments (119) | Add Comment
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Why are we sending one thin dime to a backwater, Third World hell-hole like New Orleans -- especially as long as this jackass is in charge?

During the "60 minutes" interview, a correspondent pointed out flood-damaged cars still on the streets of New Orleans' devastated Ninth Ward. Nagin replied, "You guys in New York can't get a hole in the ground fixed, and it's five years later. So let's be fair," according to CBS.

New Orleans is one of the stupidist places in America to build a city -- and America's stupitest city. The incompetence and corruption of state and local officials over the course of many years resulted in many deaths and the failure of the levees. And at every turn, Ray Nagin looks to blame someone else for the failures of the state of Louisiana and the city of New Orleans.

And now he insults the victims of a real American tragedy -- an attack on the United States by foreign enemies.

From where I stand (surrounded by criminals and welfare leeches shipped in from New Orleans following Katrina), the time has come to cut that city off, raze it, and let Mother Nature reclaim the site.

MORE AT Hot Air, Oblogatory Anecdotes, small dead animals, Pundit Guy, HuffPo, Gawker, Ed Driscoll

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Houston's own wonder of the world will be getting a new life in the not too distant future.

Commissioners Court unanimously gave the go-ahead to a private firm's plan to spend $450 million reinventing the mostly dormant, county-owned Astrodome as a convention hotel.

The hotel is planned as a four-star facility with at least 1,000 rooms, a 2,100-space garage around two-thirds of the Dome's exterior, and restaurants, nightclubs and retail stores.

The entrepreneurs behind the project envision the facility as a destination attraction, with winding waterways and gondola rides.

With its vote, the court gave the Harris County Sports & Convention Corp. permission to sign a letter of intent with Astrodome Redevelopment Corp. No public money will be put into the project.

The letter of intent states that by March 2007, Astrodome Redevelopment must obtain financing and the approval of Reliant Park's tenants, the Houston Texans and the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.

Hotel construction would begin late next year at the earliest.

The county would lease the Dome to Astrodome Redevelopment for 50 years and give it an option to extend the lease another 20 years.

Astrodome Redevelopment would pay the county $2.5 million in rent annually and 2 percent to 3 percent of gross revenues.

Unfortunately, the approval forbids the operation of a casino in the dome -- and also bans sexually oriented busineses (I guess to avoid unfair competition with the adult bookstore across Loop 610 and all the local stripper bars).

But that also means that the world's largest emergency shelter will be out of commission.

As the county moved a step closer Tuesday to redevelopment of the Astrodome as a convention hotel, officials said it no longer will figure in emergency shelter plans as it did when thousands of hurricane evacuees arrived last year.

During future emergencies, other facilities, including the George R. Brown Convention Center and Reliant Center, will be the region's primary shelters, Harris County Judge Robert Eckels said.

Posted by: Greg at 10:30 PM | Comments (29) | Add Comment
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Seems to me like we will see fewer car chases on television -- but will have more fleeing traffic violators due to this new policy change.

A new policy rolled out late Tuesday by the Houston Police Department will prohibit officers from chasing minor traffic offenders who refuse to stop.

The new policy- read at roll call Tuesday night-was signed into immediate effect by Houston police Chief Harold Hurtt.

* * *

Houston Police Officers' Association President Hans Marticiuc said the new policy will make officers less effective on the streets.

``Personally, I think it is an asinine policy at this point in the city's history,'' Marticiuc said. ``First of all, we've already got crime going up, and now let's tie the officers' hands a little bit more.

``This is a clear message to the criminal element (to) 'go ahead and run from the police,''' Marticiuc said.

Several HPD officers said late Tuesday that they were not happy with the change in policy. But they declined to comment on the record about why traffic offenders might not stop for police officers.

Marticiuc said that people run from police officers for several reasons.

``Sometimes, they run out of fear. Sometimes, it's other outstanding warrants for minor offenses,'' Marticiuc said. ``And sometimes, they run because they have committed a more serious crime. Why give those people the right to take off from us?``

So if you want to avoid that ticket, fine, and the consequences of your misdeed, just put the pedal to the metal and leave HPD in the dust -- you get a freebie.

But don't bother shooting a bird at the cops as you go -- Chief Hurtt has done that for you.

Posted by: Greg at 10:24 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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It appears we have an unintentional leak of the name of the new crew exploration vehicle which will take us back to the moon and blaze the trail to Mars – Orion.

The name of the new vehicle that NASA hopes will take astronauts back to the moon was supposed to be hush-hush until next week.

But apparently U.S. astronaut Jeff Williams, floating 220 miles above Earth at the international space station, didn't get the memo.

Williams let it slip Tuesday that the new vehicle's name is Orion.

"We've been calling it the crew exploration vehicle for several years, but today it has a name Orion," Williams said, taping a message in advance for the space agency that was transmitted accidentally over space-to-ground radio.

NASA planned to reveal the new name Aug. 31, when the space agency also announces which contractor will build the vehicle. Competing for the award are Lockheed Martin and a team made up of Northrop Grumman and Boeing.

The crew exploration vehicle will replace the space shuttle program after it ends in 2010. Earlier this summer, NASA announced the names of the rockets that will propel the crew exploration vehicle and a cargo vehicle, respectively Ares I and Ares V.

Nine days until we know more about the next generation of space vehicle.

Posted by: Greg at 12:15 PM | Comments (18) | Add Comment
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If this were a story about black youth or Hispanic women or quadraplegic Muslim lesbians of Asian descent, there would be calls for massive government intervention to deal with the "crisis". Want to bet the response to this story is silence, thoug -- because the suicide epidemic is among older white men.

Older white males have the highest suicide rate in the United States, said the Population Reference Bureau in Washington.

Suicide is the 11th leading cause of death in the United States with 11 suicide deaths per 100,000 Americans.

For white males over the age of 65, the rate is almost triple that figure.

White males are more than eight times as likely to kill themselves as women of the same age and the risk increases as they get older, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.

Suicide experts are unable to pinpoint an exact cause for the higher rate but some believe white males lack the resilience and coping mechanisms that women and other ethnic groups have.

They also point to the fact that males are socialized to be in control and are less apt to seek help for depression which leads to suicide.

I think it probably comes from a lifetime of being told that every social problem is the fault of white males. If you internalize the notion that every single problem in the world is ultimately your responsibility, wouldn't you feel a moral obligation to check out as soon as possible?

Posted by: Greg at 11:58 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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After all, this "civil rights advocate" has spewed bigotted garbage against ethnic minorities and Jews -- while stone-cold sober. Will Andrew Young get the Mel Gibson treatment?

The civil rights leader Andrew Young, who was hired by Wal-Mart to improve its public image, resigned from that post last night after telling an African-American newspaper that Jewish, Arab and Korean shop owners had “ripped off” urban communities for years, “selling us stale bread, and bad meat and wilted vegetables.”

In the interview, published yesterday in The Los Angeles Sentinel, a weekly, Mr. Young said that Wal-Mart “should” displace mom-and-pop stores in urban neighborhoods.

“You see those are the people who have been overcharging us,” he said of the owners of the small stores, “and they sold out and moved to Florida. I think they’ve ripped off our communities enough. First it was Jews, then it was Koreans and now it’s Arabs.”

Mr. Young, 74, a former mayor of Atlanta and a former United States representative to the United Nations, apologized for the comments and retracted them in an interview last night. Less than an hour later, he resigned as chairman of Working Families for Wal-Mart, a group created and financed by the company to trumpet its accomplishments.

“It’s against everything I ever thought in my life,” Mr. Young said. “It never should have been said. I was speaking in the context of Atlanta, and that does not work in New York or Los Angeles.”

His remarks drew forceful condemnation from Arab, Jewish and Asian leaders.

Mel Gibson is an alcoholic actor who spoke while three (or more ) sheets to the wind. Young is an influential political figure who spoke while under the influence of his own hatred. Wil he receive the same sort of high-tech lynching that Gibson did -- or will his liberal credentials be sufficient to earn him a pass from those who have sought the personal destruction of a sick conservative?

Posted by: Greg at 10:37 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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Imagine that -- bucking the trend and condemning terrorists for engaging in terrorism.

NICOLE Kidman has made a public stand against terrorism.

The actress, joined by 84 other high-profile Hollywood stars, directors, studio bosses and media moguls, has taken out a powerfully-worded full page advertisement in today's Los Angeles Times newspaper.

It specifically targets "terrorist organisations" such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Palestine.

"We the undersigned are pained and devastated by the civilian casualties in Israel and Lebanon caused by terrorist actions initiated by terrorist organisations such as Hezbollah and Hamas," the ad reads.

"If we do not succeed in stopping terrorism around the world, chaos will rule and innocent people will continue to die.

"We need to support democratic societies and stop terrorism at all costs."

A who's who of Hollywood heavyweights joined Kidman on the ad.

The actors listed included: Michael Douglas, Dennis Hopper, Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, Danny De Vito, Don Johnson, James Woods, Kelly Preston, Patricia Heaton and William Hurt.

Directors Ridley Scott, Tony Scott, Michael Mann, Dick Donner and Sam Raimi also signed their names.

Other Hollywood powerplayers supporting the ad included Sumner Redstone, the chairman and majority owner of Paramount Pictures, and billionaire mogul, Haim Saban.

Is it just me, but are the big donors to Democrats missing from this list? Could it be that there is a connection between support for liberals and support for terrorists?

Posted by: Greg at 10:20 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Almost a decade later, police have cracked one of the great crime mysteries of the 1990s -- the case that led to the current trend of covering crimes against pretty white girls more heavily than anyone else.

An American man was arrested in Bangkok as a suspect in the 1996 death of JonBenet Ramsey, the 6-year-old girl from Boulder, Colo., whose unsolved killing became a media obsession, prosecutors said Wednesday.

[The man, John Mark Karr, 41, said publicly Thursday he was with the 6-year-old when she died and called her death "an accident," the Associated Press reported from Bangkok. "I was with JonBenet when she died," Karr, a former schoolteacher, told reporters in Bangkok, visibly nervous and stuttering as he spoke. "Her death was an accident." Police said Karr admitted to the killing after he was arrested Wednesday at his downtown Bangkok apartment by Thai and American authorities.

Karr will be taken to Colorado within the next week where he will face charges of murder, kidnapping and child sexual assault, Ann Hurst, Department of Homeland Security attache at the American Embassy in Bangkok, said at a news conference in Bangkok.

Karr, speaking to reporters after the news conference, declined to say what his connection was to the Ramsey family or how long he had known JonBenet. Wearing a blue, short-sleeved shirt, he appeared ashen with an expressionless look on his face.]

Karr was arrested on sex charges unrelated to JonBenet's slaying after several months of investigation, officials said. Boulder County District Attorney Mary Lacy said investigators from her office were heading to Thailand to question the suspect and bring him to Colorado.

Officials said that John and Patsy Ramsey, who were at one point suspected in their daughter's death, had been consulted during the investigation. Patsy Ramsey died of cancer in June but was told before her death that an arrest might be imminent, her husband said.

I never believed that this little girl died at the hands of her parents, no matter who odd their actions were. That this man, who killed her in the course of sexually abusing her, dares to call it an accident is paticulalrly galling.

I'm glad that her mother knew that the authorities were closing in on this guy. May that knowledge help her rest in peace.

Posted by: Greg at 10:02 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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But it seems they are seen as undesirable by Australian farmers.

Australian scientists have called on the country's farmers to report any ugly sheep found in their flocks.

A campaign called "Xtreme sheep" aims to study sheep with undesirable wool features to unlock the genetic makeup of the prized merino and ensure production of its high quality fleece.

The South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI) said Tuesday its search for "Australia's ugliest merino lambs" may hold the key to securing the nation's A$2.8 billion (US$2.1 billion) wool industry.

The institute said ugly lambs -- with uneven wool, strange fibres, clumps of wool that fall out, bare patches, no wool, or highly wrinkled skin -- are usually culled by farmers.

"Before sending them to the abattoir, we'd like farmers to talk to us first, because studying animals with extreme features offers one of the most efficient ways to find good genes that can impact on certain wool traits," said project leader Simon Bawden.

"It might seem a paradox that ugly wool may be good, but when looking through a genetic profile, the random genetic mistakes act like a flag, speeding up our search to finding genes critical to wool formation and synthesis," Bawden told reporters

The institute hopes to the DNA study will lead to improvements in Australia's merino wool, making it stretchier, less scratchy, shinier and easier to spin, and better able to compete against synthetic fibres.

So far only 10 ugly sheep have been found this lambing season, which stretches from April to September, when statistically there could be hundreds, said the institute.

Sounds interesting -- and I bet that such sheep would be welcome in College Station, had the Aggies' animal husbandry program not been ended by the Texas Legislature due to large unexplained expenses for candy, flowers, and sexy lingerie from Victoria's Secret.

Please feel free to add other Aggie jokes in the comment section.

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After all, which political party holds the reins of power in the area?

A report released yesterday describes Orleans Parish prisoners trapped in flooded cells, deprived of food and water for days, and calls the scene at the jail ``some of the worst horrors of Hurricane Katrina."

The American Civil Liberties Union compiled the report through interviews with prisoners, Orleans Parish Prison deputies and staff and through legal and public documents.

``Prisoners went days without food, water, and ventilation, and deputies admit that they received no emergency training and were entirely unaware of any evacuation plan," the ACLU report said. ``Even some prison guards were left locked in at their posts to fend for themselves, unable to provide assistance to prisoners in need."

Other deputies abandoned prisoners in locked cells, where some were standing in sewage-tainted water up to their chests, according to the report.
Tom Jawetz, litigation fellow for the ACLU's National Prison Project, said the sheriff's office was ``completely unprepared for the storm."

Interestingly enough, the ACLU neglected to note that abiding by the law would have spared all of these victims from the horrors they suffered.

There is also this small note.

``The Louisiana Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals did more for its 263 stray pets than the sheriff did for the more than 6,500 men, women, and children left in his care," Jawetz said.

Might I suggest that the 263 stray pets are of more value to our society than those criminals who have shown themselves unable to conform to the basic norms of society?

Posted by: Greg at 01:29 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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What will this do to gas prices?

Oil company BP has indefinitely shut down the nation's biggest oilfield after finding a pipeline leak, removing about 8 percent of U.S. oil production and stoking fears that already high gas prices will shoot up further.

Steve Marshall, president of BP Exploration Alaska Inc., said Sunday night that the eastern side of Prudhoe Bay would be shut down first, an operation anticipated to take 24 to 36 hours. The company will then move to shut down the west side, a move that could close more than 1,000 Prudhoe Bay wells.

Once the field is shut down, BP said oil production will be reduced by 400,000 barrels a day. That's close to 8 percent of U.S. oil production or about 2.6 percent of U.S. supply including imports, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

BP officials said they didn't know how long the Prudhoe Bay field would be off line. "I don't even know how long it's going to take to shut it down," said Tom Williams, BP's senior tax and royalty counsel.

It is unclear if this is a case of production being down for a wek, or whether it will take longer.

But this should serve as a spur to opening up off-shore drilling and other oil exploration -- and put to rest the notion that oil companies are not good stewards of the environment. After all, BP is acting on its own, not based upon a government mandate to stop production.

Posted by: Greg at 11:18 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Frankly, I don't care about the notion of a trial for such as these -- lynching seems to be in order to me. After all, a crime like this is simply evil.

An Iraq war veteran who lost an arm and leg in a roadside bombing was mugged during a night out from the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, according to an Associated Press report.

Lance Cpl. Mark Beyers, 27, and his wife were attacked and robbed as they left a restaurant in Bethesda, Md. on July 22.

The Marine from western New York was dining out while finishing up rehabilitation at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

As they left the restaurant, five men approached them and asked for a cigarette.

Denise Beyers told The Buffalo News they gave the men a cigarette -- but then the men grabbed her purse, kicked her and knocked the couple to the ground.

The thieves made off with $500 just wired to them by a relative.

Mark Beyers expects to be back home in the Buffalo area this weekend.

His family is planning a fundraiser for him on Aug. 12.

If someone will help me track down an address on where to help Lance Cpl. Bryers and his wife, I will be pleased to post it here.

Posted by: Greg at 03:33 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I'm not about to make nasty comments about Elena White, who was arrested for DUI on Monday night here in Houston. I'm not even going to take any cheap shots at her daddy, Houston Mayor Bill White, or his parenting skills. I believed such things were wrong when it involved the Bush twins, and I believe that they would be wrong now.

Even though Elena smelled of alcohol when she was pulled over after cops spotted her weaving in and out of traffic with no headlights at around 11:00 PM (which I must note is after the curfew that her father and the City Council want to impose on every teen in the city).

Even though she failed the field sobriety test.

Even though she refused the Breathalyzer test.

Even though daddy has now hired high-power defense attorney Rusty Hardin to handle her case.

But I will note that Elena is 17.

And I will note that Mayor White, whose office initially issued a very responsible statement on the situation, has shifted direction and adopted a position that I can only call irresponsible.

"My daughter believes that she was not intoxicated and was not dangerous and wouldn't be impaired in her condition to drive," White said, calling her a "good kid" who has "always shot straight with me."

He added, "I personally, based on what I've heard today, think that it (the arrest) may have been a mistake."

Excuse me, Mr. Mayor.

I believe the legal drinking age here in Texas is 21. That makes it pretty clear that your daughter broke the law and deserved to be cited.

Your daughter couldn't walk a straight line or track objects with her eyes during the field sobriety test -- would you accept the assurances of any other drunk that they weren't impaired and could safely drive in that situation? Would you consider their arrest "a mistake"? Would you ever consider issing an order that the police release any driver who, having failed those tests, assured them that they weren't impaired and could make it home safely? I think we all know the answers to those questions.

It is clear you love your daughter, sir. And it is clear that she made a stupid mistake of the sort that many kids make in high school and on into college. As you point out, it doesn't make her a wild child or of bad seed, or proof of your moral failings as a parent, politician, or human being.

But might I urge you to reconsider that quote I cited above. It sends the wrong signal -- to her, and to young people all over this area. While it may be the first impulse of a loving parent, it is wrong for you to try to help her avoid the consequences for something she clearly did.

The best thing you can do for your daughter is to get her to 'fess up to what she did, accept her punishment, and learn from the mistake. And might I suggest that you teach her by example, by issuing a statement and conceding that your comments above, while made out of the purest love of a parent for his child, were wrong.

Because while I disagree with you on many things political, I know beyond all doubt that you are a good man. Prove me right.

Posted by: Greg at 09:00 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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