http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wichita_Massacre
The Wichita Massacre, also known as The Wichita Horror[1], was a murder/assault/rape/robbery spree perpetrated by brothers Reginald and Jonathan Carr in the city of Wichita, Kansas in the winter of 2000. The crimes shocked Wichitans, and purchases of guns, locks, and home security systems subsequently skyrocketed in the city.[2]
Contents[hide]
1 Crime spree
2 Controversy
3 References
4 See also
5 External links
//
[edit] Crime spree
The Carr brothers, 22-year-old Reginald and 20-year-old Jonathan, already had serious criminal records when they began their spree. On December 8, 2000, having recently arrived in Wichita, they committed armed robbery against 23-year-old assistant baseball coach Andrew Schreiber. Three days later, they shot and mortally wounded 55-year-old cellist and librarian Ann Walenta as she tried to escape from them in her car.
Their crime spree culminated on December 14, when they invaded a home and subjected five young men and women to robbery, sexual abuse, and murder. The brothers broke into a house chosen nearly at random where Brad Heyka, Heather Muller, Aaron Sander, Jason Befort and a young woman identified as H.G. , all in their twenties, were spending the night. Initially scouring the house for valuables, they forced their hostages to strip naked, bound and detained them, and subjected them to various forms of sexual humiliation, including rape and sodomy. They also forced the men to engage in sexual acts with the women, and the women with each other. They then drove the victims to ATMs to empty their bank accounts, before finally bringing them to a snowy deserted soccer complex on the outskirts of town and shooting them execution-style in the backs of their heads, leaving them for dead. The Carr brothers then drove Befort's truck over the bodies. Muller was a pre-school teacher at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic School. Every year the school awards a deserving 8th grade student the Heather Muller Love of Mary Award.
They returned to the house to ransack it for more valuables. It was then they claimed their final victim, Nikki, H.G.'s muzzled dog who was beaten and stabbed to death.
H.G. survived (thanks to her plastic hairpin having deflected the bullet), after running naked for more than a mile in freezing weather to report the attack and seek medical attention. In a much-remarked point of tragedy, she had seen her boyfriend Befort shot, after having learned of his intention to propose marriage when the Carrs, by chance, discovered the engagement ring hidden in a can of popcorn.
The Carr brothers, who took few precautions, were captured by the police the next day, and Reginald was identified by Schreiber and the dying Walenta. Law enforcement officials ultimately decided that the Carrs' motive was robbery, despite the other aspects of the crime.
[edit] Controversy
The case gained notoriety among conservatives and others concerned about urban crime because the perpetrators were black and all seven victims were white.[3] Since there was no evidence of racial motivation, Sedgwick County District Attorney Nola Foulston decided not to treat the incident as a hate crime. David Horowitz, Michelle Malkin, and Thomas Sowell stated that the crime did not garner much airtime or space in the national mainstream media due to political correctness.[4][5]
People have highlighted the races of the perpetrators (black) and those of the victims (white) to draw attention to black-on-white crime. These people believe that had the races of the perpetrators and the victims been reversed, the reactions of the mass media would have been very different, and the hate crime angle would have been assumed outright. Local politicians began playing the case for political gain.[2]
[edit] References
^ Prosecutors Downplay Racial Element in Kansas Murder Trial by Jim Burns, CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer, October 10, 2002
^ a b The Wichita Horror, the brutal murders by Jonathan and Reginald Carr: The Heartbreak of a City by Denise Noe, Court TV's Crime Library
^ The Wichita Massacre by Stephen Webster, American Renaissance, July 16, 2002
^ Black Racism: The Hate Crime That Dare Not Speak Its Name By David Horowitz, FrontPage Magazine, July 16, 2002
^ Winona and the Wichita massacreBy Michelle Malkin, Townhall.com, Friday, November 8, 2002
[edit] See also
Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom murder
Media blackout
[edit] External links
Extensive account of the crimes by Court TV's Crime Library
'Wichita Massacre' Brothers Sentenced to Death
Kansas v. Marsh decision by United States Supreme Court
KAKE-TV news story on Wichita Horror survivors engagement to be married
"Was this Kansas killing spree a brotherly affair?," CNN and CourtTV
Thursday, June 19, 2008
really really sucks to be unarmed
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Channon_Christian_and_Christopher_Newsom
Hugh Christopher Newsom, Jr., 23, and Channon Gail Christian, 21, were a couple from Knoxville, Tennessee. According to a Tennessee grand jury, they were murdered and both were raped after being kidnapped early on the morning of January 7, 2007. Their vehicle had been carjacked.[1][2] Five suspects have been arrested and charged in the case.[3] The grand jury indicted four of the suspects on counts of murder, robbery, kidnapping, rape and theft, while one final suspect has already been convicted of federal charges as accessory after the fact to carjacking.[2]
Contents[hide]
1 Crime
1.1 Reaction
2 Victims
3 Suspects and indictments
4 Trials
5 Verdicts
6 References
7 External links
//
[edit] Crime
According to news reports, Christian and Newsom had gone on a date at a local restaurant on Saturday, January 6, 2007, but did not return home. During their night out, the couple was "hijacked, bound and blindfolded and taken back to Lemaricus Devall 'Slim' Davidson's rented house on Chipman Street."[4]
Christian's parents found her abandoned Toyota 4-Runner two blocks away from the Chipman Street house the following Monday with the help of her mobile phone provider. An envelope recovered from the vehicle yielded fingerprint evidence that led police to Lemaricus Davidson and 2316 Chipman Street. When police went to the address on Tuesday, January 9, they found the home unoccupied and Christian's body in a trash can in the kitchen.[5] Forensic evidence showed that Christian had also been raped vaginally, orally, and anally.[2] [6] One of the suspects, Vanessa Coleman, later told police that, "she witnessed Christian's mouth being cleaned with a bottle of some type of cleaner," in an attempt to remove DNA evidence.[7] Forensic evidence showed significant trauma caused by "an object" to Christian's vagina, anus, and mouth, and that she had died slowly in the trash can, suffocating while wrapped in curtains, sheets, and several trash bags.[6] There was also evidence of blunt trauma to her head leading to bruising of the brain in addition to bruises found on her neck, arm, back, and anal region.[8] Coleman also said that she had seen "clothes that were stained with blood and smelled of gas being put in the washing machine at the house."[7] Newsom was shot three times, "his body wrapped in a blanket, set afire and dumped alongside nearby railroad tracks." [5][9] Evidence has also been presented that he had been anally raped.[2][6]
[edit] Reaction
The national news media was initially criticized by some for not giving the crime adequate coverage because the victims were white and the suspects black, but one commentator explained that "as bad as this crime is, the apparent absence of any interest group involvement or any other 'angle' might also explain the lack of coverage."[4][10][11][12] This criticism was also fueled by erroneous reports of dismemberment, mutilations, and the duration of Christian's rapes allegedly committed by the suspects, especially in early reports.[13] Most of the original reports along with misinformation reported from a federal deputy shortly after the suspects were apprehended in the arresting state of Kentucky were later denied by the District Attorney.[13] This misinformation was capitalized on by white nationalist groups promoting two small demonstrations in Knoxville against the crime and its lack of mainstream media coverage.[14][15][16][17][18]
Police Chief Sterling Owen IV said that there is no indication the crimes were racially motivated and that the murders and assault "appears to have been a random violent act."[19] "There is absolutely no proof of a hate crime," said John Gill, special counsel to Knox County District Atty. Randy Nichols. "We know from our investigation that the people charged in this case were friends with white people, socialized with white people, dated white people. So not only is there no evidence of any racial animus, there's evidence to the contrary."[20] Some commentators have disagreed, notably including white nationalist Hal Turner, claiming that such a crime would include a motive of racial hate. This viewpoint was also repeated, along with erroneous rumors about the crime, in some conservative-leaning media, including blogger Michelle Malkin on Fox News's O'Reilly Factor program.[18] Prior to the DA's statement, Newsom's mother sympathized with the "hate crime" position stating, "It may have started out as a carjacking, but what it developed into was blacks hating whites."[20] Christian's father (addressing those who used his daughter's death to suit their own agenda) appeared ambivalent, stating "[the crime] ain't about you."[18] However, after the conviction of Eric Boyd, Christian clarified his belief that it was a hate crime, stating that "what they did, you don't do unless you hate."[21]
[edit] Victims
Christian moved from Louisiana to Tennessee with her family in 1997. She was a graduate of Farragut High School and a senior majoring in sociology at the University of Tennessee.[22][23] On January 12 her family released a statement to thank the Knoxville community "for all their prayers and everything." A candlelight vigil was held on the university campus January 25, 2007 in her honor. Newsom, a former baseball player for the Halls High School Red Devils, graduated in 2002. He was interred at Woodhaven Memorial Gardens.[24]
In 2008, a Golf Tournament and Memorial Foundation were established in Channon Christian's memory to provide a scholarship for a Farragut High School Senior to attend the University of Tennessee.
[edit] Suspects and indictments
The four indicted were:
George Geovonni "Detroit" Thomas, 27, faces a total of 46 charges. Thomas was indicted on 16 counts of felony murder growing out of the rape, robbery, kidnapping, and theft of Christian and Newsom, 2 counts of premeditated murder, 2 counts of especially aggravated robbery, 4 counts of especially aggravated kidnapping, 20 counts of aggravated rape, and 2 counts of theft.
Lemaricus Devall "Slim" Davidson, 25, (b. June 13, 1981) faces the same 46 charges as Thomas. Davidson had also completed serving a five-year sentence in Tennessee on a previous felony conviction for carjacking and aggravated robbery on August 5, 2006.
Letalvis "Rome" Cobbins, 24, (b. December 20, 1982) also faces the same 46 charges as Thomas. In 2003, Cobbins was convicted of third-degree attempted robbery in New York state. He and Davidson are brothers.
Vanessa Coleman, 18, was arrested by police in Lebanon, Kentucky. She faces 40 Tennessee state charges. Coleman was indicted on 12 counts of felony murder growing out of the rape, robbery, kidnapping, and theft of Christian and Newsom, 1 count of premeditated murder (of Christian only), 1 count of especially aggravated robbery (of Newsom only), 4 counts of especially aggravated kidnapping, 20 counts of aggravated rape, and 2 counts of theft.
In each indictment, the large number of rape counts were included to provide a range of options for prosecutors, not to reflect the number of rapes which actually occurred.[25]
Further, Eric DeWayne "E" Boyd, 34, was arrested in connection with the fatal carjacking, though not indicted by the Knox County grand jury. Still, Boyd was charged in federal court as an accessory after the fact for helping the suspects evade the police. Later, Boyd was also accused by Thomas and Cobbins of rape and murder, and a search warrant was obtained for his DNA.[26] The accusations did not result in charges.[27]
[edit] Trials
The four suspects indicted in Knox County were originally scheduled to be tried separately, at trials scheduled between May and August of 2008.[28] However, the trial date for the subjects indicted in Knox County was moved back to 2009 in February of 2008.[29] In an apparent attempt to force the prosecution to try the case with the least forensic evidence first, the attorneys for Thomas filed a motion for a speedy trial, arguing there was no forensic link between their client and the crime scene.[30]
District Attorney Randy Nichols has announced that the state would be seeking the death penalty for both Cobbins (currently the first to go to trial) and Coleman if convicted.[31][32] Davidson has also been indicted for a second robbery which was committed after the murders.[28] The publicity against the accused led the defense to argue that a change of venue was required in order to ensure a fair trial. However, the state argued that an impartial jury could be found during voir dire, and the presiding judge subsequently denied the motion as "premature."[33]
[edit] Verdicts
On April 16, 2008, Eric Boyd was found guilty in Federal court of being an accessory to a fatal carjacking and for failing to report the location of a known fugitive. [34] Boyd's was the first case to go to trial, and he was the only suspect not charged with murder.[8] He faces up to 22 years in prison for the convictions.[35]
[edit] References
^ Satterfield, Jamie; Don Jacobs. "Details of double slaying emerge", Knoxville News Sentinel, 2007-01-13. Retrieved on 2007-06-12.
^ a b c d Grand jury presentment in Christian/Newsom case, Knoxville News Sentinel, 2007-03-03
^ Granju, Katie Allison. "Female suspect arraigned in Channon Christian, Chris Newsom murders", WBIR-TV, 2007-04-18. Retrieved on 2007-06-12.
^ a b Lohr, David. "Christopher Newsom and Channon Christian Brutally Murdered As The Nation Looks on", Court TV/Crime Library, 2007-04-03. Retrieved on 2007-06-12.
^ a b Parents' memories of Channon Christian, Knoxville News Sentinel May 22, 2007.
^ a b c Victim's father: 'One down, four to go', knoxnews.com, April, 16, 2008.
^ a b Four suspects charged with murder in Knoxville double slaying WATE 6 News, February 1, 2007
^ a b Accessory case deliberations to start Wed. in double murder, WATE.com, April 15, 2008.
^ Released documents reveal new details of Christian, Newsom murder investigation, WBIR-TV, January 16, 2007,
^ Media criticized in slayings with racial overtone. MSNBC (2007-05-20). Retrieved on 2007-06-30.
^ Mansfield, Duncan. "Critics say news media ignoring Knoxville couple slaying", Associated Press, 2007-05-17. Retrieved on 2007-05-17.
^ Alexander, Mark. "Murder in Black and White", The Patriot Post, 2007-03-04. Retrieved on 2007-06-12.
^ a b Slaying victims lost in the furor, Knoxville News Sentinel, May 27, 2007
^ Dill, Amanda. "White supremacist arrested at Downtown rally", WBIR-TV, 2007-05-26. Retrieved on 2007-06-12.
^ Balloch, Jim. "Rally will protest black-against-white crime", Knoxville News Sentinel, 2007-04-20. Retrieved on 2007-06-12.
^ Balloch, Jim. "Rally 'stressful' but controlled", Knoxville News Sentinel, 2007-05-19. Retrieved on 2007-05-19.
^ White supremacist leader gets 6 months probation for protest charges
^ a b c Sanchez, Casey (Fall 2007). The Big Lie. Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved on 2007-10-09.
^ Watson, Kay. "City leaders say race not an element in Christian, Newsom murders", WBIR-TV, 2007-05-17. Retrieved on 2007-05-17.
^ a b Witt, H. "What is a Hate Crime?", Chicago Tribune, 2007-06-10. Retrieved on 2007-06-15.
^ Channon Christian's parents speak exclusively to WVLT, WVLT, April 17, 2008.
^ Robinson, Will. "Memorial to be held for loss of student", The Daily Beacon, 2007-01-25. Retrieved on 2007-06-12.
^ Channon Gail Christian, Knoxville News Sentinel from January 12, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-4-20.
^ Chris Newsom, Knoxville News Sentinel from January 12, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-4-20
^ Granju, Katie Allison. "Christian, Newsom murder suspects in court", WBIR-TV, 2007-02-20. Retrieved on 2007-06-12.
^ [1], Knox County, Tennessee from January 12, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-05-17
^ WBIR.com Knoxville, TN Boyd could get double prison sentence with new indictment
^ a b Granju, Katie Allison. "Trials set for suspects in Christian, Newsom murders", WBIR-TV, 2007-05-17. Retrieved on 2007-05-17.
^ Brian, Gregory; Kim Bedford (2008-02-14). Christian-Newsom Murders: Trial for one carjacker moved to 2009, others could follow. WVLT-TV. Retrieved on 2008-02-27.
^ Jamie Satterfield. "Alleged carjacker wants 1st trial". knoxnews.com. March 7, 2008.
^ Jim Balloch. "State can delay sharing evidence". knoxnews.com. October 12, 2007.
^ Barker, Scott (2008-02-15). Another death penalty notice in Christian-Newsom slayings. Knoxville News Sentinel. Retrieved on 2008-02-27.
^ Jamie Satterfield. "Judge denies change of venue for Boyd". knoxnews.com. December 1, 2007.
^ GUILTY: Eric Boyd's Christian-Newsom murder accessory trial over, VolunteerTV.com, April 16, 2008.
^ Boyd guilty of aiding alleged ringleader in fatal carjacking, knoxnews.com, April 17, 2008.
[edit] External links
Newsom, Christian Family Reaction w/Video
5th Suspect Arrested in Double Murder, Announcement Expected Soon
Volunteer TV 8 Double Murder Suspect Indicted in Court
Martin, Roland S., "Commentary: Where is the outrage when humans are abused?," CNN
Hugh Christopher Newsom, Jr., 23, and Channon Gail Christian, 21, were a couple from Knoxville, Tennessee. According to a Tennessee grand jury, they were murdered and both were raped after being kidnapped early on the morning of January 7, 2007. Their vehicle had been carjacked.[1][2] Five suspects have been arrested and charged in the case.[3] The grand jury indicted four of the suspects on counts of murder, robbery, kidnapping, rape and theft, while one final suspect has already been convicted of federal charges as accessory after the fact to carjacking.[2]
Contents[hide]
1 Crime
1.1 Reaction
2 Victims
3 Suspects and indictments
4 Trials
5 Verdicts
6 References
7 External links
//
[edit] Crime
According to news reports, Christian and Newsom had gone on a date at a local restaurant on Saturday, January 6, 2007, but did not return home. During their night out, the couple was "hijacked, bound and blindfolded and taken back to Lemaricus Devall 'Slim' Davidson's rented house on Chipman Street."[4]
Christian's parents found her abandoned Toyota 4-Runner two blocks away from the Chipman Street house the following Monday with the help of her mobile phone provider. An envelope recovered from the vehicle yielded fingerprint evidence that led police to Lemaricus Davidson and 2316 Chipman Street. When police went to the address on Tuesday, January 9, they found the home unoccupied and Christian's body in a trash can in the kitchen.[5] Forensic evidence showed that Christian had also been raped vaginally, orally, and anally.[2] [6] One of the suspects, Vanessa Coleman, later told police that, "she witnessed Christian's mouth being cleaned with a bottle of some type of cleaner," in an attempt to remove DNA evidence.[7] Forensic evidence showed significant trauma caused by "an object" to Christian's vagina, anus, and mouth, and that she had died slowly in the trash can, suffocating while wrapped in curtains, sheets, and several trash bags.[6] There was also evidence of blunt trauma to her head leading to bruising of the brain in addition to bruises found on her neck, arm, back, and anal region.[8] Coleman also said that she had seen "clothes that were stained with blood and smelled of gas being put in the washing machine at the house."[7] Newsom was shot three times, "his body wrapped in a blanket, set afire and dumped alongside nearby railroad tracks." [5][9] Evidence has also been presented that he had been anally raped.[2][6]
[edit] Reaction
The national news media was initially criticized by some for not giving the crime adequate coverage because the victims were white and the suspects black, but one commentator explained that "as bad as this crime is, the apparent absence of any interest group involvement or any other 'angle' might also explain the lack of coverage."[4][10][11][12] This criticism was also fueled by erroneous reports of dismemberment, mutilations, and the duration of Christian's rapes allegedly committed by the suspects, especially in early reports.[13] Most of the original reports along with misinformation reported from a federal deputy shortly after the suspects were apprehended in the arresting state of Kentucky were later denied by the District Attorney.[13] This misinformation was capitalized on by white nationalist groups promoting two small demonstrations in Knoxville against the crime and its lack of mainstream media coverage.[14][15][16][17][18]
Police Chief Sterling Owen IV said that there is no indication the crimes were racially motivated and that the murders and assault "appears to have been a random violent act."[19] "There is absolutely no proof of a hate crime," said John Gill, special counsel to Knox County District Atty. Randy Nichols. "We know from our investigation that the people charged in this case were friends with white people, socialized with white people, dated white people. So not only is there no evidence of any racial animus, there's evidence to the contrary."[20] Some commentators have disagreed, notably including white nationalist Hal Turner, claiming that such a crime would include a motive of racial hate. This viewpoint was also repeated, along with erroneous rumors about the crime, in some conservative-leaning media, including blogger Michelle Malkin on Fox News's O'Reilly Factor program.[18] Prior to the DA's statement, Newsom's mother sympathized with the "hate crime" position stating, "It may have started out as a carjacking, but what it developed into was blacks hating whites."[20] Christian's father (addressing those who used his daughter's death to suit their own agenda) appeared ambivalent, stating "[the crime] ain't about you."[18] However, after the conviction of Eric Boyd, Christian clarified his belief that it was a hate crime, stating that "what they did, you don't do unless you hate."[21]
[edit] Victims
Christian moved from Louisiana to Tennessee with her family in 1997. She was a graduate of Farragut High School and a senior majoring in sociology at the University of Tennessee.[22][23] On January 12 her family released a statement to thank the Knoxville community "for all their prayers and everything." A candlelight vigil was held on the university campus January 25, 2007 in her honor. Newsom, a former baseball player for the Halls High School Red Devils, graduated in 2002. He was interred at Woodhaven Memorial Gardens.[24]
In 2008, a Golf Tournament and Memorial Foundation were established in Channon Christian's memory to provide a scholarship for a Farragut High School Senior to attend the University of Tennessee.
[edit] Suspects and indictments
The four indicted were:
George Geovonni "Detroit" Thomas, 27, faces a total of 46 charges. Thomas was indicted on 16 counts of felony murder growing out of the rape, robbery, kidnapping, and theft of Christian and Newsom, 2 counts of premeditated murder, 2 counts of especially aggravated robbery, 4 counts of especially aggravated kidnapping, 20 counts of aggravated rape, and 2 counts of theft.
Lemaricus Devall "Slim" Davidson, 25, (b. June 13, 1981) faces the same 46 charges as Thomas. Davidson had also completed serving a five-year sentence in Tennessee on a previous felony conviction for carjacking and aggravated robbery on August 5, 2006.
Letalvis "Rome" Cobbins, 24, (b. December 20, 1982) also faces the same 46 charges as Thomas. In 2003, Cobbins was convicted of third-degree attempted robbery in New York state. He and Davidson are brothers.
Vanessa Coleman, 18, was arrested by police in Lebanon, Kentucky. She faces 40 Tennessee state charges. Coleman was indicted on 12 counts of felony murder growing out of the rape, robbery, kidnapping, and theft of Christian and Newsom, 1 count of premeditated murder (of Christian only), 1 count of especially aggravated robbery (of Newsom only), 4 counts of especially aggravated kidnapping, 20 counts of aggravated rape, and 2 counts of theft.
In each indictment, the large number of rape counts were included to provide a range of options for prosecutors, not to reflect the number of rapes which actually occurred.[25]
Further, Eric DeWayne "E" Boyd, 34, was arrested in connection with the fatal carjacking, though not indicted by the Knox County grand jury. Still, Boyd was charged in federal court as an accessory after the fact for helping the suspects evade the police. Later, Boyd was also accused by Thomas and Cobbins of rape and murder, and a search warrant was obtained for his DNA.[26] The accusations did not result in charges.[27]
[edit] Trials
The four suspects indicted in Knox County were originally scheduled to be tried separately, at trials scheduled between May and August of 2008.[28] However, the trial date for the subjects indicted in Knox County was moved back to 2009 in February of 2008.[29] In an apparent attempt to force the prosecution to try the case with the least forensic evidence first, the attorneys for Thomas filed a motion for a speedy trial, arguing there was no forensic link between their client and the crime scene.[30]
District Attorney Randy Nichols has announced that the state would be seeking the death penalty for both Cobbins (currently the first to go to trial) and Coleman if convicted.[31][32] Davidson has also been indicted for a second robbery which was committed after the murders.[28] The publicity against the accused led the defense to argue that a change of venue was required in order to ensure a fair trial. However, the state argued that an impartial jury could be found during voir dire, and the presiding judge subsequently denied the motion as "premature."[33]
[edit] Verdicts
On April 16, 2008, Eric Boyd was found guilty in Federal court of being an accessory to a fatal carjacking and for failing to report the location of a known fugitive. [34] Boyd's was the first case to go to trial, and he was the only suspect not charged with murder.[8] He faces up to 22 years in prison for the convictions.[35]
[edit] References
^ Satterfield, Jamie; Don Jacobs. "Details of double slaying emerge", Knoxville News Sentinel, 2007-01-13. Retrieved on 2007-06-12.
^ a b c d Grand jury presentment in Christian/Newsom case, Knoxville News Sentinel, 2007-03-03
^ Granju, Katie Allison. "Female suspect arraigned in Channon Christian, Chris Newsom murders", WBIR-TV, 2007-04-18. Retrieved on 2007-06-12.
^ a b Lohr, David. "Christopher Newsom and Channon Christian Brutally Murdered As The Nation Looks on", Court TV/Crime Library, 2007-04-03. Retrieved on 2007-06-12.
^ a b Parents' memories of Channon Christian, Knoxville News Sentinel May 22, 2007.
^ a b c Victim's father: 'One down, four to go', knoxnews.com, April, 16, 2008.
^ a b Four suspects charged with murder in Knoxville double slaying WATE 6 News, February 1, 2007
^ a b Accessory case deliberations to start Wed. in double murder, WATE.com, April 15, 2008.
^ Released documents reveal new details of Christian, Newsom murder investigation, WBIR-TV, January 16, 2007,
^ Media criticized in slayings with racial overtone. MSNBC (2007-05-20). Retrieved on 2007-06-30.
^ Mansfield, Duncan. "Critics say news media ignoring Knoxville couple slaying", Associated Press, 2007-05-17. Retrieved on 2007-05-17.
^ Alexander, Mark. "Murder in Black and White", The Patriot Post, 2007-03-04. Retrieved on 2007-06-12.
^ a b Slaying victims lost in the furor, Knoxville News Sentinel, May 27, 2007
^ Dill, Amanda. "White supremacist arrested at Downtown rally", WBIR-TV, 2007-05-26. Retrieved on 2007-06-12.
^ Balloch, Jim. "Rally will protest black-against-white crime", Knoxville News Sentinel, 2007-04-20. Retrieved on 2007-06-12.
^ Balloch, Jim. "Rally 'stressful' but controlled", Knoxville News Sentinel, 2007-05-19. Retrieved on 2007-05-19.
^ White supremacist leader gets 6 months probation for protest charges
^ a b c Sanchez, Casey (Fall 2007). The Big Lie. Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved on 2007-10-09.
^ Watson, Kay. "City leaders say race not an element in Christian, Newsom murders", WBIR-TV, 2007-05-17. Retrieved on 2007-05-17.
^ a b Witt, H. "What is a Hate Crime?", Chicago Tribune, 2007-06-10. Retrieved on 2007-06-15.
^ Channon Christian's parents speak exclusively to WVLT, WVLT, April 17, 2008.
^ Robinson, Will. "Memorial to be held for loss of student", The Daily Beacon, 2007-01-25. Retrieved on 2007-06-12.
^ Channon Gail Christian, Knoxville News Sentinel from January 12, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-4-20.
^ Chris Newsom, Knoxville News Sentinel from January 12, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-4-20
^ Granju, Katie Allison. "Christian, Newsom murder suspects in court", WBIR-TV, 2007-02-20. Retrieved on 2007-06-12.
^ [1], Knox County, Tennessee from January 12, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-05-17
^ WBIR.com Knoxville, TN Boyd could get double prison sentence with new indictment
^ a b Granju, Katie Allison. "Trials set for suspects in Christian, Newsom murders", WBIR-TV, 2007-05-17. Retrieved on 2007-05-17.
^ Brian, Gregory; Kim Bedford (2008-02-14). Christian-Newsom Murders: Trial for one carjacker moved to 2009, others could follow. WVLT-TV. Retrieved on 2008-02-27.
^ Jamie Satterfield. "Alleged carjacker wants 1st trial". knoxnews.com. March 7, 2008.
^ Jim Balloch. "State can delay sharing evidence". knoxnews.com. October 12, 2007.
^ Barker, Scott (2008-02-15). Another death penalty notice in Christian-Newsom slayings. Knoxville News Sentinel. Retrieved on 2008-02-27.
^ Jamie Satterfield. "Judge denies change of venue for Boyd". knoxnews.com. December 1, 2007.
^ GUILTY: Eric Boyd's Christian-Newsom murder accessory trial over, VolunteerTV.com, April 16, 2008.
^ Boyd guilty of aiding alleged ringleader in fatal carjacking, knoxnews.com, April 17, 2008.
[edit] External links
Newsom, Christian Family Reaction w/Video
5th Suspect Arrested in Double Murder, Announcement Expected Soon
Volunteer TV 8 Double Murder Suspect Indicted in Court
Martin, Roland S., "Commentary: Where is the outrage when humans are abused?," CNN
really sucks to be unarmed
http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_23643.aspx
Courageous Victim Recounts 19 Hours Of Rape And Torture In Stunning Courtroom Testimony
Tuesday June 10, 2008
CityNews.ca Staff
Warning: the following story contains extremely graphic and disturbing testimony about a terrible crime. Viewer discretion is strongly advised.
We can't tell you her name but she was able to tell a jury about what happened to her. And her determination to recount some of the most incredible savagery ever heard in a courtroom is testimony to her courage and her desire to see justice done.
The recall of a Columbia University student that unfolded in a New York City hall of justice on Monday was almost too hard to hear. The 24-year-old victim sat in the witness box with her jaw clenched and her mind focused, as she retold the unimaginable ordeal she claims she suffered at the hands of 31-year-old Robert Williams (top left).
The ex-con stared straight ahead as his 24-year-old accuser poured out her story of a 19-hour rape and torture session, a day-long siege so brutal she begged her attacker to kill her.
It happened on April 13, 2007 when Williams allegedly burst into her New York City apartment.
He's accused of forcing her to have oral sex and raping her seven times during that ordeal, but that wasn't the worst of it.
He allegedly scalded her with boiling water from a kettle, forced her to take massive doses of painkillers, used a knife to mutilate her face and slice her eyelids and ordered her to gouge out her own eyes using the same blade.
When she refused, cops say he threw bleach into her face in an attempt to blind her.
"I was burning all over," the witness related in terms so vivid many jury members had to look away. "He threw the rest of the bleach into my face, but I was able to close my eyes in time. I was breathing it in. My lungs were burning."
And still she didn't give up. At one point, she fought back, using the scissors police contend he forced her to cut her hair with. "I tried to stab him in the neck," she testified, noting she cut two of her own fingers in the attempt. "He grabbed my hand and threw me into the corner.
"When he started raping me again, I was sure I was going to die.
"I asked him, 'How does this end?' and he said, 'You know how this ends,'" she told the hushed courtroom. "I took that to mean he was going to kill me."
By the time her attacker poured a second kettle of boiling water on her open wounds, the woman was pleading for him to kill her so the pain would stop.
"I was screaming and crying and in so much pain and agony," she testified. "I said, 'Just kill me. You know you're going to kill me anyway. Just kill me.'"
But she claims he refused. "No, you're not good enough for that," she said he told her. When he ordered her to gouge out her own eyes a second time, she took the blade, ready to commit suicide.
"I was in so much pain I decided to aim for my neck, and if I died it would be so much quicker than how he was going to do it," she related. She tried to fall onto the blade but missed.
That enraged the intruder so much that he struck her with something, possibly her own TV set. The attacker then slashed at her eyelids again, "beating my face, my eye sockets, with the blunt end of the knife."
She screamed until she mercifully blacked out.
But mercy wasn't something this man had for her.
When she came to, she was alone in her apartment and tied to her bed. Her intruder was gone but had left one last terrible surprise for her. He started a fire in her room, hoping to kill her as she lay there helpless. She couldn't untie her hands so she made one last incredible decision to burn off the ties that kept her captive.
She finally broke free and despite the unbelievable violence and injury, managed to reach her front door as the flames spread quickly behind her. She raced out of the apartment and found a couple who took her to their residence and called 911.
The woman suffered liver failure from the overdose of pills, severe scarring and burns and spent months in physical therapy. She's finally able to move normally again, but her physical and mental scars may never heal.
At first Williams refused to appear in court to hear her recount what happened that day. But a judge ordered his presence as she stayed strong on the stand and finished her agonizing story of survival against all odds.
The attorney for the accused admits it was a tough day. "It's always damning when a witness identifies your client," Arnold Levine notes in something of a massive understatement. He refused to cross examine her and her long day came to an end.
It's expected he'll argue witnesses have identified the wrong man.
Williams is facing 71 different charges, including attempted murder, assault, rape and arson. If convicted, he'll likely spend the rest of his life in jail.
Photo courtesy: New York City Police Dept.
Courageous Victim Recounts 19 Hours Of Rape And Torture In Stunning Courtroom Testimony
Tuesday June 10, 2008
CityNews.ca Staff
Warning: the following story contains extremely graphic and disturbing testimony about a terrible crime. Viewer discretion is strongly advised.
We can't tell you her name but she was able to tell a jury about what happened to her. And her determination to recount some of the most incredible savagery ever heard in a courtroom is testimony to her courage and her desire to see justice done.
The recall of a Columbia University student that unfolded in a New York City hall of justice on Monday was almost too hard to hear. The 24-year-old victim sat in the witness box with her jaw clenched and her mind focused, as she retold the unimaginable ordeal she claims she suffered at the hands of 31-year-old Robert Williams (top left).
The ex-con stared straight ahead as his 24-year-old accuser poured out her story of a 19-hour rape and torture session, a day-long siege so brutal she begged her attacker to kill her.
It happened on April 13, 2007 when Williams allegedly burst into her New York City apartment.
He's accused of forcing her to have oral sex and raping her seven times during that ordeal, but that wasn't the worst of it.
He allegedly scalded her with boiling water from a kettle, forced her to take massive doses of painkillers, used a knife to mutilate her face and slice her eyelids and ordered her to gouge out her own eyes using the same blade.
When she refused, cops say he threw bleach into her face in an attempt to blind her.
"I was burning all over," the witness related in terms so vivid many jury members had to look away. "He threw the rest of the bleach into my face, but I was able to close my eyes in time. I was breathing it in. My lungs were burning."
And still she didn't give up. At one point, she fought back, using the scissors police contend he forced her to cut her hair with. "I tried to stab him in the neck," she testified, noting she cut two of her own fingers in the attempt. "He grabbed my hand and threw me into the corner.
"When he started raping me again, I was sure I was going to die.
"I asked him, 'How does this end?' and he said, 'You know how this ends,'" she told the hushed courtroom. "I took that to mean he was going to kill me."
By the time her attacker poured a second kettle of boiling water on her open wounds, the woman was pleading for him to kill her so the pain would stop.
"I was screaming and crying and in so much pain and agony," she testified. "I said, 'Just kill me. You know you're going to kill me anyway. Just kill me.'"
But she claims he refused. "No, you're not good enough for that," she said he told her. When he ordered her to gouge out her own eyes a second time, she took the blade, ready to commit suicide.
"I was in so much pain I decided to aim for my neck, and if I died it would be so much quicker than how he was going to do it," she related. She tried to fall onto the blade but missed.
That enraged the intruder so much that he struck her with something, possibly her own TV set. The attacker then slashed at her eyelids again, "beating my face, my eye sockets, with the blunt end of the knife."
She screamed until she mercifully blacked out.
But mercy wasn't something this man had for her.
When she came to, she was alone in her apartment and tied to her bed. Her intruder was gone but had left one last terrible surprise for her. He started a fire in her room, hoping to kill her as she lay there helpless. She couldn't untie her hands so she made one last incredible decision to burn off the ties that kept her captive.
She finally broke free and despite the unbelievable violence and injury, managed to reach her front door as the flames spread quickly behind her. She raced out of the apartment and found a couple who took her to their residence and called 911.
The woman suffered liver failure from the overdose of pills, severe scarring and burns and spent months in physical therapy. She's finally able to move normally again, but her physical and mental scars may never heal.
At first Williams refused to appear in court to hear her recount what happened that day. But a judge ordered his presence as she stayed strong on the stand and finished her agonizing story of survival against all odds.
The attorney for the accused admits it was a tough day. "It's always damning when a witness identifies your client," Arnold Levine notes in something of a massive understatement. He refused to cross examine her and her long day came to an end.
It's expected he'll argue witnesses have identified the wrong man.
Williams is facing 71 different charges, including attempted murder, assault, rape and arson. If convicted, he'll likely spend the rest of his life in jail.
Photo courtesy: New York City Police Dept.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
islam vs. everyone
This seems clear enough
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZTU5YmYwNGE1ODAxN2VhMDRhOTBjNGQwNmY4Njk0YzQ=
this 2006 piece by Bruce Thornton (or, actually, just about any piece by Bruce Thornton). Every word should be memorized, but this is particularly relevant to the thinking behind the language purge:
[S]ome Westerners, enthralled to their own materialist assumptions and multicultural “we are the world” sentimentalism, wave away this evidence and reduce this destructive behavior to any and every cause except the one that counts: spiritual belief. So we hear that the violence is caused by a lack of jobs, or a lack of liberal-democratic institutions, or “frustration” and insecurity about the dismal backwardness of most Muslim states, or wounded pride in the face of Western success, or resentment of Western imperialist and colonialist sins, or oppressive autocrats, or . . . take your pick. The same therapeutic mentality that thinks destructive behavior in teens results from a “lack of self-esteem” reduces the religious values of Muslims to mere “epiphenomena,” as the Marxists see it, symptoms of some underlying condition rooted in material deprivation, political impotence, or psychological trauma.
The problem with Islam, however, is not a lack of self-esteem but too damned much. This is a faith fanatically certain of its truth and righteousness, the culminating vision of God’s relations with humanity, the ultimate meaning of human existence on every level, including the social and political. As such, its destiny is to spread over the whole world until the benefits, both in this life and the next, of submission to God are bestowed on all humans, and the dysfunctional man-made values–– including democracy, materialism, “equal rights,” and freedom–– are swept away. For however alluring, these do not deliver true happiness or true freedom, but mere hedonism and license that create misery and degradation in this world, and put the soul at risk in the next.
If, then, you are in possession of this truth that you are absolutely certain holds the key to universal happiness in this world and the next, why would you be tolerant of alternatives? Why should you tolerate a dangerous lie? Why should you “live and let live,” the credo of the spiritually moribund who stand for everything because they stand for nothing? And why wouldn’t you kill in the name of this vision, when the infidel nations work against God’s will and his beneficent intentions for the human race?
This is precisely what the jihadists tell us, what fourteen centuries of Islamic theology and jurisprudence tell us, what the Koran and Hadith tell us. Yet we smug Westerners, so certain of our own superior knowledge that human life is really about genes or neuroses or politics or nutrition, condescendingly look down on the true believer. Patronizing him like a child, we tell him that he doesn’t know that his own faith has been “hijacked” by “fundamentalists” who manipulate his ignorance, that what he thinks he knows about his faith is a delusion, and that the true explanation is one that we advanced, sophisticated Westerners understand while the believer remains mired in superstition and neurotic fantasy.
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZTU5YmYwNGE1ODAxN2VhMDRhOTBjNGQwNmY4Njk0YzQ=
this 2006 piece by Bruce Thornton (or, actually, just about any piece by Bruce Thornton). Every word should be memorized, but this is particularly relevant to the thinking behind the language purge:
[S]ome Westerners, enthralled to their own materialist assumptions and multicultural “we are the world” sentimentalism, wave away this evidence and reduce this destructive behavior to any and every cause except the one that counts: spiritual belief. So we hear that the violence is caused by a lack of jobs, or a lack of liberal-democratic institutions, or “frustration” and insecurity about the dismal backwardness of most Muslim states, or wounded pride in the face of Western success, or resentment of Western imperialist and colonialist sins, or oppressive autocrats, or . . . take your pick. The same therapeutic mentality that thinks destructive behavior in teens results from a “lack of self-esteem” reduces the religious values of Muslims to mere “epiphenomena,” as the Marxists see it, symptoms of some underlying condition rooted in material deprivation, political impotence, or psychological trauma.
The problem with Islam, however, is not a lack of self-esteem but too damned much. This is a faith fanatically certain of its truth and righteousness, the culminating vision of God’s relations with humanity, the ultimate meaning of human existence on every level, including the social and political. As such, its destiny is to spread over the whole world until the benefits, both in this life and the next, of submission to God are bestowed on all humans, and the dysfunctional man-made values–– including democracy, materialism, “equal rights,” and freedom–– are swept away. For however alluring, these do not deliver true happiness or true freedom, but mere hedonism and license that create misery and degradation in this world, and put the soul at risk in the next.
If, then, you are in possession of this truth that you are absolutely certain holds the key to universal happiness in this world and the next, why would you be tolerant of alternatives? Why should you tolerate a dangerous lie? Why should you “live and let live,” the credo of the spiritually moribund who stand for everything because they stand for nothing? And why wouldn’t you kill in the name of this vision, when the infidel nations work against God’s will and his beneficent intentions for the human race?
This is precisely what the jihadists tell us, what fourteen centuries of Islamic theology and jurisprudence tell us, what the Koran and Hadith tell us. Yet we smug Westerners, so certain of our own superior knowledge that human life is really about genes or neuroses or politics or nutrition, condescendingly look down on the true believer. Patronizing him like a child, we tell him that he doesn’t know that his own faith has been “hijacked” by “fundamentalists” who manipulate his ignorance, that what he thinks he knows about his faith is a delusion, and that the true explanation is one that we advanced, sophisticated Westerners understand while the believer remains mired in superstition and neurotic fantasy.
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Congress can even fuck up anything.
Now it is food. I've been watching this.
As VDH said something like-My grandfather put half his acreage in production as a fuel resource for his horse. Now 100 years later we have half our agriculture growing fuel, doesn't make sense"
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=OTBiOTY2ZTAyMWQwYTJkMDIwMmFiZGY4YzAxM2VkNjc=
April 24, 2008, 4:00 a.m.
Global Food RiotsMade in Washington, D.C.By Deroy Murdock
To draw a phrase from the late, great William F. Buckley Jr.’s words as he founded National Review, someone must stand athwart the federal ethanol program yelling, “Stop!” The emergency brake should be pulled — NOW — before ethanol wreaks further havoc.
Poor Haitians rioted last week outside Port-au-Prince’s presidential palace, forcing Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis’s April 12 ouster. Haitians are sick and tired of food prices that are 40 percent higher than last summer’s. Some have resorted to eating cookies made of salt, vegetable oil, and dirt. That’s right: Dirt cookies.
Developing-world denizens are taking it to the streets with growling stomachs. In Bob Marley’s words, “A hungry man is an angry man.”
Climbing corn prices have ignited Mexican tortilla riots. Enraged citizens in Egypt and Pakistan — potential Muslim powder kegs — have also violently protested premium prices for basic staples. Similar instability has erupted from the Ivory Coast to Indonesia. Resurrecting the defeated “import substitution” model of yore, India and Vietnam are among the nations that lately have prohibited grain exports and imposed government price controls. Kazakhstan, Earth’s No. 5 wheat source, just halted wheat exports, hoping to hoard local supplies. One third of the global wheat market is now closed.
High oil prices and growing global food demand fan these flames, but government lit the match. Atop the European Union’s biofuels mandate (5.75 percent of gasoline and diesel by 2010; 10 percent expected in 2020), America’s 51-cent-per-gallon ethanol tax subsidy (2007 cost: $8 billion) and Congress’ 7.5-billion-gallon annual production quota (rising to 36 billion in 2022, including 15 billion from corn) have turned corn farms into cash cows. Diverting one quarter of U.S. corn to motors rather than to mouths has boosted prices 74 percent in a year.
Eager to ride the ethanol gravy train, wheat and soybean farmers increasingly switch to corn. Thus, hard wheat is up 86 percent, while soybeans cost 93 percent more. Since April 15, 2007, pricier, grain-based animal feed (which consumed 40 percent of 2007’s 13 billion bushel U.S. corn crop) has helped hike eggs 46 percent. Got milk? You paid 26 percent more. Conversely, meat prices have dropped, as farmers slaughter animals rather than pay so much to feed them. (For details, click here.)
All this has triggered a race to the top of the grain silo. On April 9, “the World Bank estimated global food prices have risen 83 percent over the past three years, threatening recent strides in poverty reduction,” the Wall Street Journal noted the next day. “
As crops are sold for alternative-energy production, food prices have soared: The price of rice, the staple for billions of Asians, is up 147 percent over the past year.”
As ReasonOnline’s Ronald Bailey observed April 8, “the result of these mandates is that about 100 million tons of grain will be transformed this year into fuel, drawing down global grain stocks to their lowest levels in decades. Keep in mind that 100 million tons of grain is enough to feed nearly 450 million people for a year” — assuming 1.2 pounds of grain each, daily.
In short, car engines are burning the crops that feed a half-billion people. That has to hurt.
“There is growing consensus that we need urgently to examine the impact on food prices of different kinds and production methods of biofuels, and ensure that their use is responsible and sustainable,” British Prime Minister Gordon Brown wrote Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda April 10, urging discussion of the issue at July’s G8 Summit in Hokkaido. “Rising food prices threaten to roll back progress we have made in recent years on development. For the first time in decades, the number of people facing hunger is growing,” Brown added.
President Bush announced April 14 that the U.S. would provide $200 million in nutritional aid to poor countries ripped by such unrest. This may feed starving rioters, but it perversely requires that Uncle Sam allocate fresh taxpayer money to scour the mess he created by spending $8 billion in ethanol subsidies.This is like buying a new hangover cure every morning after closing a new bar every night.
If this keeps up, President Bush may have to direct some of that food to a Western Hemisphere nation called the United States of America.
As shocking as it sounds, The New York Sun reported Monday that the global rice shortage has struck home. American citizens have begun to experience food rationing in our rich, blessed country.
“Due to the limited availability of rice, we are limiting rice purchases based on your prior purchasing history,” read a sign above a shrinking rice supply at a Mountain View, California Costco store. Each customer was limited to one bag of rice. A shopper who tried to buy two bags found one of them pried from his hands and thrown back on the store shelves, in something akin to Cuban-style egalitarianism. While such scenes have yet to erupt nationwide, the Sun found that limited stocks of rice, flour, and cooking oil are causing purchase limits and hoarding by consumers trying to lock in today’s high prices (fearing even higher future prices) or simply to acquire products that soon may be unavailable.
But wait. There’s more.It would be bad enough if this human suffering and geopolitical strife were ethanol’s ransom for dramatic environmental progress. In fact, ethanol is Earth-hostile.
According to the Hoover Institution’s Henry Miller and University of California Davis professor Colin Carter, “ethanol yields about 30 percent less energy per gallon than gasoline, so miles per gallon in internal combustion engines drops significantly.”
It takes three to six gallons of water to grow the corn for one gallon of ethanol, thus draining rivers and reservoirs.
As farmers turn forests into corn fields, they expend energy uprooting trees that produce oxygen, absorb CO2, and store carbon. Princeton University researchers calculate that this ethanol-driven arboricide has spawned a “carbon debt” that already will take 167 years to reverse.
As Princeton’s Tim Searchinger said in the February 8 Washington Post, “We can’t get to a result, no matter how heroically we make assumptions on behalf of corn ethanol, where it will actually generate greenhouse-gas benefits.”
Meanwhile, tree killing consumes wildlife habitat. Orangutans now are in jeopardy as their surroundings fall to new, ethanol-inspired palm-oil plantations.
Nitrogen fertilizer, common in corn cultivation, yields nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas — which is no laughing matter. As Nobel laureate Paul Crutzen and his scientific team concluded in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics last August 1, “the relatively large emission of N2O exacerbates the already huge challenge of getting global warming under control.”
Unless superior substitutes emerge, obeying Congress’ 2022 diktat will require a corn crop equal to 115 percent of 2007’s U.S. output, with every kernel going to ethanol, none for food. The consequences would be calamitous — from movies without popcorn, to over-farmed and under-rotated fields, to growing global starvation.
It gets worse.
As Eric Peters explained in the March 3 American Spectator, ethanol is simply ethyl alcohol. Unfortunately, “Alcohol fuels may constitute a new type of fire hazard because they are harder to extinguish than gasoline fires and require new types of fire-extinguishing equipment and training.” Peters added:
The fires are extremely hot, and the flames invisible. . . . Foams designed to combat alcohol fires are made using specific polymers that can smother the flames of an ethanol fire but carry a price tag about 30 percent higher than conventional flame-suppressing foams.
That means your local fire department has a new line item on the budget.
Enough!
Congress should abolish federal ethanol subsidies, mandates, and the 54-cent-per-gallon tariff on imports — including Brazil’s cheaper, cleaner, sugar-based ethanol. If scientists can develop ethanol that neither starves people nor rapes the Earth, splendid. However, this enterprise must not rest upon morally repugnant, ecologically counterproductive, economically devastating, government-ordered distortions.
It’s time for emergency legislation to repeal ethanol-market meddling. The federal program began as a sop to U.S. grain growers — arguably the most pampered and endlessly entitled people this side of the Saudi royal family. It has grown into a cancer on global food markets. Still, U.S. farmers won’t surrender quietly. Since they are hooked on handouts, let’s offer them one more: In exchange for accepting a two-year federal tax holiday on any income they earn, every actual, tractor-driving corn/biofuel farmer simply would walk away and let Congress relegate state-sponsored ethanol to the Unintended Consequences Hall of Fame. Compared to the global chaos that ethanol is fueling, this is a tolerable, one-time investment to pry these farmers’ and their Washington enablers’ hands off of our necks.© 2008 Scripps Howard News Service — Deroy Murdock is a New York-based columnist with the Scripps Howard News Service and a media fellow with the Hoover Institution.
As VDH said something like-My grandfather put half his acreage in production as a fuel resource for his horse. Now 100 years later we have half our agriculture growing fuel, doesn't make sense"
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=OTBiOTY2ZTAyMWQwYTJkMDIwMmFiZGY4YzAxM2VkNjc=
April 24, 2008, 4:00 a.m.
Global Food RiotsMade in Washington, D.C.By Deroy Murdock
To draw a phrase from the late, great William F. Buckley Jr.’s words as he founded National Review, someone must stand athwart the federal ethanol program yelling, “Stop!” The emergency brake should be pulled — NOW — before ethanol wreaks further havoc.
Poor Haitians rioted last week outside Port-au-Prince’s presidential palace, forcing Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis’s April 12 ouster. Haitians are sick and tired of food prices that are 40 percent higher than last summer’s. Some have resorted to eating cookies made of salt, vegetable oil, and dirt. That’s right: Dirt cookies.
Developing-world denizens are taking it to the streets with growling stomachs. In Bob Marley’s words, “A hungry man is an angry man.”
Climbing corn prices have ignited Mexican tortilla riots. Enraged citizens in Egypt and Pakistan — potential Muslim powder kegs — have also violently protested premium prices for basic staples. Similar instability has erupted from the Ivory Coast to Indonesia. Resurrecting the defeated “import substitution” model of yore, India and Vietnam are among the nations that lately have prohibited grain exports and imposed government price controls. Kazakhstan, Earth’s No. 5 wheat source, just halted wheat exports, hoping to hoard local supplies. One third of the global wheat market is now closed.
High oil prices and growing global food demand fan these flames, but government lit the match. Atop the European Union’s biofuels mandate (5.75 percent of gasoline and diesel by 2010; 10 percent expected in 2020), America’s 51-cent-per-gallon ethanol tax subsidy (2007 cost: $8 billion) and Congress’ 7.5-billion-gallon annual production quota (rising to 36 billion in 2022, including 15 billion from corn) have turned corn farms into cash cows. Diverting one quarter of U.S. corn to motors rather than to mouths has boosted prices 74 percent in a year.
Eager to ride the ethanol gravy train, wheat and soybean farmers increasingly switch to corn. Thus, hard wheat is up 86 percent, while soybeans cost 93 percent more. Since April 15, 2007, pricier, grain-based animal feed (which consumed 40 percent of 2007’s 13 billion bushel U.S. corn crop) has helped hike eggs 46 percent. Got milk? You paid 26 percent more. Conversely, meat prices have dropped, as farmers slaughter animals rather than pay so much to feed them. (For details, click here.)
All this has triggered a race to the top of the grain silo. On April 9, “the World Bank estimated global food prices have risen 83 percent over the past three years, threatening recent strides in poverty reduction,” the Wall Street Journal noted the next day. “
As crops are sold for alternative-energy production, food prices have soared: The price of rice, the staple for billions of Asians, is up 147 percent over the past year.”
As ReasonOnline’s Ronald Bailey observed April 8, “the result of these mandates is that about 100 million tons of grain will be transformed this year into fuel, drawing down global grain stocks to their lowest levels in decades. Keep in mind that 100 million tons of grain is enough to feed nearly 450 million people for a year” — assuming 1.2 pounds of grain each, daily.
In short, car engines are burning the crops that feed a half-billion people. That has to hurt.
“There is growing consensus that we need urgently to examine the impact on food prices of different kinds and production methods of biofuels, and ensure that their use is responsible and sustainable,” British Prime Minister Gordon Brown wrote Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda April 10, urging discussion of the issue at July’s G8 Summit in Hokkaido. “Rising food prices threaten to roll back progress we have made in recent years on development. For the first time in decades, the number of people facing hunger is growing,” Brown added.
President Bush announced April 14 that the U.S. would provide $200 million in nutritional aid to poor countries ripped by such unrest. This may feed starving rioters, but it perversely requires that Uncle Sam allocate fresh taxpayer money to scour the mess he created by spending $8 billion in ethanol subsidies.This is like buying a new hangover cure every morning after closing a new bar every night.
If this keeps up, President Bush may have to direct some of that food to a Western Hemisphere nation called the United States of America.
As shocking as it sounds, The New York Sun reported Monday that the global rice shortage has struck home. American citizens have begun to experience food rationing in our rich, blessed country.
“Due to the limited availability of rice, we are limiting rice purchases based on your prior purchasing history,” read a sign above a shrinking rice supply at a Mountain View, California Costco store. Each customer was limited to one bag of rice. A shopper who tried to buy two bags found one of them pried from his hands and thrown back on the store shelves, in something akin to Cuban-style egalitarianism. While such scenes have yet to erupt nationwide, the Sun found that limited stocks of rice, flour, and cooking oil are causing purchase limits and hoarding by consumers trying to lock in today’s high prices (fearing even higher future prices) or simply to acquire products that soon may be unavailable.
But wait. There’s more.It would be bad enough if this human suffering and geopolitical strife were ethanol’s ransom for dramatic environmental progress. In fact, ethanol is Earth-hostile.
According to the Hoover Institution’s Henry Miller and University of California Davis professor Colin Carter, “ethanol yields about 30 percent less energy per gallon than gasoline, so miles per gallon in internal combustion engines drops significantly.”
It takes three to six gallons of water to grow the corn for one gallon of ethanol, thus draining rivers and reservoirs.
As farmers turn forests into corn fields, they expend energy uprooting trees that produce oxygen, absorb CO2, and store carbon. Princeton University researchers calculate that this ethanol-driven arboricide has spawned a “carbon debt” that already will take 167 years to reverse.
As Princeton’s Tim Searchinger said in the February 8 Washington Post, “We can’t get to a result, no matter how heroically we make assumptions on behalf of corn ethanol, where it will actually generate greenhouse-gas benefits.”
Meanwhile, tree killing consumes wildlife habitat. Orangutans now are in jeopardy as their surroundings fall to new, ethanol-inspired palm-oil plantations.
Nitrogen fertilizer, common in corn cultivation, yields nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas — which is no laughing matter. As Nobel laureate Paul Crutzen and his scientific team concluded in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics last August 1, “the relatively large emission of N2O exacerbates the already huge challenge of getting global warming under control.”
Unless superior substitutes emerge, obeying Congress’ 2022 diktat will require a corn crop equal to 115 percent of 2007’s U.S. output, with every kernel going to ethanol, none for food. The consequences would be calamitous — from movies without popcorn, to over-farmed and under-rotated fields, to growing global starvation.
It gets worse.
As Eric Peters explained in the March 3 American Spectator, ethanol is simply ethyl alcohol. Unfortunately, “Alcohol fuels may constitute a new type of fire hazard because they are harder to extinguish than gasoline fires and require new types of fire-extinguishing equipment and training.” Peters added:
The fires are extremely hot, and the flames invisible. . . . Foams designed to combat alcohol fires are made using specific polymers that can smother the flames of an ethanol fire but carry a price tag about 30 percent higher than conventional flame-suppressing foams.
That means your local fire department has a new line item on the budget.
Enough!
Congress should abolish federal ethanol subsidies, mandates, and the 54-cent-per-gallon tariff on imports — including Brazil’s cheaper, cleaner, sugar-based ethanol. If scientists can develop ethanol that neither starves people nor rapes the Earth, splendid. However, this enterprise must not rest upon morally repugnant, ecologically counterproductive, economically devastating, government-ordered distortions.
It’s time for emergency legislation to repeal ethanol-market meddling. The federal program began as a sop to U.S. grain growers — arguably the most pampered and endlessly entitled people this side of the Saudi royal family. It has grown into a cancer on global food markets. Still, U.S. farmers won’t surrender quietly. Since they are hooked on handouts, let’s offer them one more: In exchange for accepting a two-year federal tax holiday on any income they earn, every actual, tractor-driving corn/biofuel farmer simply would walk away and let Congress relegate state-sponsored ethanol to the Unintended Consequences Hall of Fame. Compared to the global chaos that ethanol is fueling, this is a tolerable, one-time investment to pry these farmers’ and their Washington enablers’ hands off of our necks.© 2008 Scripps Howard News Service — Deroy Murdock is a New York-based columnist with the Scripps Howard News Service and a media fellow with the Hoover Institution.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
More on CFL Bulbs
Well derr, see below...................
How about this wrinkle.
Houses last like 100+ years normally.
How much mercury will be contaminating a house over 100 years with CFL bulbs. Say one broken bulb every 4 years......
that is 25 light bulbs worth if mercury polluting the place. Who wants to raise their kids in that??
http://hotair.com/archives/2008/03/19/green-shock-cfls-more-dangerous-than-first-thought/
Green shock: CFLs more dangerous than first thought
posted at 8:32 pm on March 19, 2008 by Ed Morrissey
The compact fluorescent lightbulb has plenty of supporters in the environmental movement, even while concerns have grown about their disposal. CFLs contain mercury, and when the glass breaks, it spreads the toxic dust in the area. Boosters had previously dismissed concerns over the issue, but now researches worry about the collective effect their massive disposal will have on landfills once they start failing in large numbers:
Compact fluorescent light bulbs, long touted by environmentalists as a more efficient and longer-lasting alternative to the incandescent bulbs that have lighted homes for more than a century, are running into resistance from waste industry officials and some environmental scientists, who warn that the bulbs’ poisonous innards pose a bigger threat to health and the environment than previously thought. …
As long as the mercury is contained in the bulb, CFLs are perfectly safe. But eventually, any bulbs — even CFLs — break or burn out, and most consumers simply throw them out in the trash, said Ellen Silbergeld, a professor of environmental health sciences at Johns Hopkins University and editor of the journal Environmental Research.
“This is an enormous amount of mercury that’s going to enter the waste stream at present with no preparation for it,” she said.
Even a single CFL could provide toxic levels of exposure for mercury. One contains five milligrams of mercury, which would be enough to contaminate 6,000 gallons of drinking water. Low-mercury models have about one-sixth of the amount, but that’s still enough to contaminate 1,000 gallons. It makes the CFL one of the most toxic components of a household, one that causes kidney and brain damage when people get exposed to enough of it.
What happens when an incandescent bulb hits the floor? Simple: sweep it up, and try not to step on a shard of glass with bare feet. Here’s how people need to handle a broken CFL:
1. Open a window and leave the room for 15 minutes or more.
2. Shut off the central forced-air heating/air conditioning system, if you have one.
3. Carefully scoop up glass fragments and powder using stiff paper or cardboard and place them in a glass jar with metal lid (such as a canning jar) or in a sealed plastic bag.
4. Use sticky tape, such as duct tape, to pick up any remaining small glass fragments and powder.
5. Wipe the area clean with damp paper towels or disposable wet wipes and place them in the glass jar or plastic bag.
6. Do not use a vacuum or broom to clean up the broken bulb on hard surfaces.
7. Immediately place all cleanup materials outside the building in a trash container or outdoor protected area for the next normal trash.
8. Wash your hands after disposing of the jars or plastic bags containing cleanup materials.
9. Check with your local or state government about disposal requirements in your specific area. Some states prohibit such trash disposal and require that broken and unbroken lamps be taken to a recycling center.
10. For at least the next few times you vacuum, shut off the central forced-air heating/air conditioning system and open a window prior to vacuuming.
11. Keep the central heating/air conditioning system shut off and the window open for at least 15 minutes after vacuuming is completed.
Er, that’s quite a commitment for a lightbulb. I have several of these around the house, and I had no idea that a break could require such an intense cleanup. Like others who bought these products, I hoped to save a little energy and drive down replacement costs.
And guess what — I can’t even throw these in the garbage, broken or unbroken. As MS-NBC reports, Minnesota requires that I take any CFLs to a disposal center certified to handle them. I didn’t know that until tonight, and I have no idea where such a center might be. It does make sense, though, considering the disposal issues involving mercury.
In other words, we have opted for a product that has much more impact on our environment and could turn households into toxic-waste sites to replace a product that uses a little more energy, a change driven ironically by environmentalists. What’s next — lead containers to replace Tupperware?
How about this wrinkle.
Houses last like 100+ years normally.
How much mercury will be contaminating a house over 100 years with CFL bulbs. Say one broken bulb every 4 years......
that is 25 light bulbs worth if mercury polluting the place. Who wants to raise their kids in that??
http://hotair.com/archives/2008/03/19/green-shock-cfls-more-dangerous-than-first-thought/
Green shock: CFLs more dangerous than first thought
posted at 8:32 pm on March 19, 2008 by Ed Morrissey
The compact fluorescent lightbulb has plenty of supporters in the environmental movement, even while concerns have grown about their disposal. CFLs contain mercury, and when the glass breaks, it spreads the toxic dust in the area. Boosters had previously dismissed concerns over the issue, but now researches worry about the collective effect their massive disposal will have on landfills once they start failing in large numbers:
Compact fluorescent light bulbs, long touted by environmentalists as a more efficient and longer-lasting alternative to the incandescent bulbs that have lighted homes for more than a century, are running into resistance from waste industry officials and some environmental scientists, who warn that the bulbs’ poisonous innards pose a bigger threat to health and the environment than previously thought. …
As long as the mercury is contained in the bulb, CFLs are perfectly safe. But eventually, any bulbs — even CFLs — break or burn out, and most consumers simply throw them out in the trash, said Ellen Silbergeld, a professor of environmental health sciences at Johns Hopkins University and editor of the journal Environmental Research.
“This is an enormous amount of mercury that’s going to enter the waste stream at present with no preparation for it,” she said.
Even a single CFL could provide toxic levels of exposure for mercury. One contains five milligrams of mercury, which would be enough to contaminate 6,000 gallons of drinking water. Low-mercury models have about one-sixth of the amount, but that’s still enough to contaminate 1,000 gallons. It makes the CFL one of the most toxic components of a household, one that causes kidney and brain damage when people get exposed to enough of it.
What happens when an incandescent bulb hits the floor? Simple: sweep it up, and try not to step on a shard of glass with bare feet. Here’s how people need to handle a broken CFL:
1. Open a window and leave the room for 15 minutes or more.
2. Shut off the central forced-air heating/air conditioning system, if you have one.
3. Carefully scoop up glass fragments and powder using stiff paper or cardboard and place them in a glass jar with metal lid (such as a canning jar) or in a sealed plastic bag.
4. Use sticky tape, such as duct tape, to pick up any remaining small glass fragments and powder.
5. Wipe the area clean with damp paper towels or disposable wet wipes and place them in the glass jar or plastic bag.
6. Do not use a vacuum or broom to clean up the broken bulb on hard surfaces.
7. Immediately place all cleanup materials outside the building in a trash container or outdoor protected area for the next normal trash.
8. Wash your hands after disposing of the jars or plastic bags containing cleanup materials.
9. Check with your local or state government about disposal requirements in your specific area. Some states prohibit such trash disposal and require that broken and unbroken lamps be taken to a recycling center.
10. For at least the next few times you vacuum, shut off the central forced-air heating/air conditioning system and open a window prior to vacuuming.
11. Keep the central heating/air conditioning system shut off and the window open for at least 15 minutes after vacuuming is completed.
Er, that’s quite a commitment for a lightbulb. I have several of these around the house, and I had no idea that a break could require such an intense cleanup. Like others who bought these products, I hoped to save a little energy and drive down replacement costs.
And guess what — I can’t even throw these in the garbage, broken or unbroken. As MS-NBC reports, Minnesota requires that I take any CFLs to a disposal center certified to handle them. I didn’t know that until tonight, and I have no idea where such a center might be. It does make sense, though, considering the disposal issues involving mercury.
In other words, we have opted for a product that has much more impact on our environment and could turn households into toxic-waste sites to replace a product that uses a little more energy, a change driven ironically by environmentalists. What’s next — lead containers to replace Tupperware?
Friday, March 7, 2008
polygamist asshats
put this in usa is going to sh8t catagory
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MThlZGU3MmI1OTAyNWM3ZTUyN2JlMDMxOGM1YWNhZDM=&w=MA==
March 07, 2008, 8:00 a.m.A Polygamist State of MindUnacceptable behavior in New York.By Lisa Schiffren
Big-city tabloids love puppies, kittens, almost-naked women, and babies. It’s a cliché of downmarket journalism that editors should take any opportunity to print pictures of any of the above. So perhaps my fear of creeping sharia practice right here in the Big Apple constitutes reading too much into what could be a perfectly innocent story in this past Sunday’s New York Post, accompanied with a full page of pictures, about a Malian immigrant named Moussa Magassa and his pair of two-month-old infant sons.
The adorable babies, each one shown being held by his mother, are noteworthy because a year ago — March 7, 2007 — Moussa’s house in a Bronx neighborhood full of West African immigrants burned, tragically killing four of his children (as well as another woman and her child). Mayor Bloomberg attended the funeral and went all out to comfort the bereaved and mitigate the family’s suffering. As the city joined Mr. Magassa in mourning such a grave loss, it slowly became clear that, in the building he owned, he had been housing his two wives and their offspring. This seemed a little shocking at the time, though no one was rude enough to point out that polygamy isn’t legal in New York — or anywhere in this country. Those convicted of bigamy in New York can be sentenced to four years in prison.
A couple of weeks after the fire, the New York Times ran a front-page story explaining that there is now a full-blown culture of polygamous West African immigrants, most of them here illegally, who keep importing young, mostly illiterate, and therefore powerless brides from the villages of Mali, Senegal, and Guinea. It’s all very hush-hush.
The women involved may be miserable, but they cannot risk complaining, since they can easily be divorced, kicked out of the community, and stranded. Because they are here illegally and their marriages are not valid in the United States (though they can serve as grounds for deportation of a polygamous husband), the women effectively have no rights. So they often put up with brutal conditions. Among other things, sharing a cramped New York apartment with 11 kids and another woman is far more likely to lead to, say, domestic violence than living in neighboring huts in a traditional village.
The Times’s exceptionally well-researched story said that social-service workers have learned not to make an issue of polygamy in handing out benefits and guiding applicants, legal and otherwise, through the bureaucratic mazes of the welfare system. Doctors at hospitals turn a blind eye. The men speak for their wives. By quoting women who have left such marriages after abuse and misery, the story suggested that perhaps polygamy wasn’t quite as benign a multi-culti variant of our own cozy little practices as was being portrayed. Suffice it to say, however, that the story caused no changes in New York’s policies.
In any event, now that a year has passed since the fire, the Post decided to catch up with Moussa Magassa and his family, which is growing again. Manthia, 36, the mother of the four dead children, gave birth on January 4 to a son. Aisse, 25, gave birth to twins the very next day at the same hospital. (One of the twins, the girl, died a few weeks later.) But Mr. Magassa’s family is also growing in another way: Lo and behold, in the interim, he has taken an additional wife — and now lives with all three. The new, youngest one is named Niekale.
I am trying to think like the liberal legal scholars, anthropologists, and activists, and consider honestly — not just as a matter of my bourgeois, Judeo-Christian, American, female prejudices — what the merits of polygamy might be, now that my neighbors could be practicing it with impunity sometime soon.
To be sure, in the Post’s pictures of the Magassa women, none of them look happy. In their chadors, with their full faces revealed, they look sad and resigned, while their graying husband appears to be chortling with glee. Advocates for polygamy tell us that it breeds sororal feeling among the wives, and while it may engender normal human jealousy, it also provides domestic support and more hands to lighten the load at home. But I am wondering how that goes in the Magassa family.
After all, with two wives out of commission due to pregnancy, it would have been up to the newest one, Niekale, to do the housework, take care of the others’ offspring, and service the lord and master in bed. Would that be a sexual triumph? Or an unpleasant burden? And what of the other two? It’s bad enough to know that their beloved husband impregnated both of them within days of each other. That sure could make a girl feel just a bit less special when she should be glowing with pregnancy. Knowing that the babies are an assembly-line production might shatter the kind of emotional high that I, for one, cherished when producing my own babies, with their father there in the delivery room — not shuttling off to visit yesterday’s batch.
The Magassa arrangement illustrates perfectly the benefits and drawbacks of polygamy. As a utilitarian matter, polygamy produces more legitimate offspring from a given male, since he can impregnate many women simultaneously.
The Magassas got three new lives in a matter of two days, bringing the total number of children up to nine. Back in Mali that would have been useful labor on the farm. In New York, of course, it’s a cost that taxpayers may end up bearing.
The drawback is also apparent. Whatever the current feelings of the participants, such marriages are not love matches. According to the Times story, the women do not come to them freely, nor is any wife an equal partner with her husband. She has, at most, one-third the status that he does — usually much less — and little or no bargaining power. Given the customs of their culture, even when these women are allowed to work outside the home, they are often forced to turn their earnings over to their husband, leaving them essentially working as slave labor.
And those nine children, at least some of whom are American by birth — what do they learn of being free citizens in a democracy from the values they imbibe in this familial structure? The boys become autocrats; the girls become servants. They will never be free men and women, equal and responsible. It’s a longer argument for another day, but allowing this barbaric import to thrive in the U.S. will undermine all the advances that women have made in the past 150 years with regard to education, financial independence, and political and sexual equality. Polygamy, like slavery itself, cannot co-exist with true democracy.
It’s time for the Magassas to be sent home, and for an example to be made so we can avoid the situation the French find themselves in. France has so many people living in polygamous families — somewhere between 200,000 and 400,000 — that politicians are powerless to rein in the practice, since the polygamists can vote and riot, and they have the critical mass in their own neighborhoods to elect their own representatives. Nor do they assimilate. If we allow the same thing to occur here, the next thing you know, parts of the United States will live under sharia law. Failure to prosecute is an invitation to just that.
— Lisa Schiffren is a writer and GOP speechwriter living in New York.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MThlZGU3MmI1OTAyNWM3ZTUyN2JlMDMxOGM1YWNhZDM=&w=MA==
March 07, 2008, 8:00 a.m.A Polygamist State of MindUnacceptable behavior in New York.By Lisa Schiffren
Big-city tabloids love puppies, kittens, almost-naked women, and babies. It’s a cliché of downmarket journalism that editors should take any opportunity to print pictures of any of the above. So perhaps my fear of creeping sharia practice right here in the Big Apple constitutes reading too much into what could be a perfectly innocent story in this past Sunday’s New York Post, accompanied with a full page of pictures, about a Malian immigrant named Moussa Magassa and his pair of two-month-old infant sons.
The adorable babies, each one shown being held by his mother, are noteworthy because a year ago — March 7, 2007 — Moussa’s house in a Bronx neighborhood full of West African immigrants burned, tragically killing four of his children (as well as another woman and her child). Mayor Bloomberg attended the funeral and went all out to comfort the bereaved and mitigate the family’s suffering. As the city joined Mr. Magassa in mourning such a grave loss, it slowly became clear that, in the building he owned, he had been housing his two wives and their offspring. This seemed a little shocking at the time, though no one was rude enough to point out that polygamy isn’t legal in New York — or anywhere in this country. Those convicted of bigamy in New York can be sentenced to four years in prison.
A couple of weeks after the fire, the New York Times ran a front-page story explaining that there is now a full-blown culture of polygamous West African immigrants, most of them here illegally, who keep importing young, mostly illiterate, and therefore powerless brides from the villages of Mali, Senegal, and Guinea. It’s all very hush-hush.
The women involved may be miserable, but they cannot risk complaining, since they can easily be divorced, kicked out of the community, and stranded. Because they are here illegally and their marriages are not valid in the United States (though they can serve as grounds for deportation of a polygamous husband), the women effectively have no rights. So they often put up with brutal conditions. Among other things, sharing a cramped New York apartment with 11 kids and another woman is far more likely to lead to, say, domestic violence than living in neighboring huts in a traditional village.
The Times’s exceptionally well-researched story said that social-service workers have learned not to make an issue of polygamy in handing out benefits and guiding applicants, legal and otherwise, through the bureaucratic mazes of the welfare system. Doctors at hospitals turn a blind eye. The men speak for their wives. By quoting women who have left such marriages after abuse and misery, the story suggested that perhaps polygamy wasn’t quite as benign a multi-culti variant of our own cozy little practices as was being portrayed. Suffice it to say, however, that the story caused no changes in New York’s policies.
In any event, now that a year has passed since the fire, the Post decided to catch up with Moussa Magassa and his family, which is growing again. Manthia, 36, the mother of the four dead children, gave birth on January 4 to a son. Aisse, 25, gave birth to twins the very next day at the same hospital. (One of the twins, the girl, died a few weeks later.) But Mr. Magassa’s family is also growing in another way: Lo and behold, in the interim, he has taken an additional wife — and now lives with all three. The new, youngest one is named Niekale.
I am trying to think like the liberal legal scholars, anthropologists, and activists, and consider honestly — not just as a matter of my bourgeois, Judeo-Christian, American, female prejudices — what the merits of polygamy might be, now that my neighbors could be practicing it with impunity sometime soon.
To be sure, in the Post’s pictures of the Magassa women, none of them look happy. In their chadors, with their full faces revealed, they look sad and resigned, while their graying husband appears to be chortling with glee. Advocates for polygamy tell us that it breeds sororal feeling among the wives, and while it may engender normal human jealousy, it also provides domestic support and more hands to lighten the load at home. But I am wondering how that goes in the Magassa family.
After all, with two wives out of commission due to pregnancy, it would have been up to the newest one, Niekale, to do the housework, take care of the others’ offspring, and service the lord and master in bed. Would that be a sexual triumph? Or an unpleasant burden? And what of the other two? It’s bad enough to know that their beloved husband impregnated both of them within days of each other. That sure could make a girl feel just a bit less special when she should be glowing with pregnancy. Knowing that the babies are an assembly-line production might shatter the kind of emotional high that I, for one, cherished when producing my own babies, with their father there in the delivery room — not shuttling off to visit yesterday’s batch.
The Magassa arrangement illustrates perfectly the benefits and drawbacks of polygamy. As a utilitarian matter, polygamy produces more legitimate offspring from a given male, since he can impregnate many women simultaneously.
The Magassas got three new lives in a matter of two days, bringing the total number of children up to nine. Back in Mali that would have been useful labor on the farm. In New York, of course, it’s a cost that taxpayers may end up bearing.
The drawback is also apparent. Whatever the current feelings of the participants, such marriages are not love matches. According to the Times story, the women do not come to them freely, nor is any wife an equal partner with her husband. She has, at most, one-third the status that he does — usually much less — and little or no bargaining power. Given the customs of their culture, even when these women are allowed to work outside the home, they are often forced to turn their earnings over to their husband, leaving them essentially working as slave labor.
And those nine children, at least some of whom are American by birth — what do they learn of being free citizens in a democracy from the values they imbibe in this familial structure? The boys become autocrats; the girls become servants. They will never be free men and women, equal and responsible. It’s a longer argument for another day, but allowing this barbaric import to thrive in the U.S. will undermine all the advances that women have made in the past 150 years with regard to education, financial independence, and political and sexual equality. Polygamy, like slavery itself, cannot co-exist with true democracy.
It’s time for the Magassas to be sent home, and for an example to be made so we can avoid the situation the French find themselves in. France has so many people living in polygamous families — somewhere between 200,000 and 400,000 — that politicians are powerless to rein in the practice, since the polygamists can vote and riot, and they have the critical mass in their own neighborhoods to elect their own representatives. Nor do they assimilate. If we allow the same thing to occur here, the next thing you know, parts of the United States will live under sharia law. Failure to prosecute is an invitation to just that.
— Lisa Schiffren is a writer and GOP speechwriter living in New York.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
interesting parental perspective here
wonder if the islamic immigrats go to classes?
Since they kill their teen daughters, I'm guessing they don't follow the corporal punishment rule.
http://www.thelocal.se/10282/20080305/
Swedish parenting: Back to a traditional future?
Published: 5 Mar 08 14:09 CETOnline: http://www.thelocal.se/10282/
Four years on from the start of the great “curling” and “helicopter” debates, the issue of parenting is back in the news. This time round, the focus has switched to the unprecedented popularity of state-sponsored parenting classes. Peter Vinthagen Simpson takes a closer look.
Kid-friendly Sweden aims to better record with parenting classes
(7 Jan 08) In the spring of 2004, Sweden was awash with debate about the growing prevalence of so-called “curling parents”. Drawing an analogy with the sport of curling, the phrase refers to parents who rush ahead of their children, frantically sweeping their path clean of even the most minor obstructions.
The phrase was coined by Danish child psychologist Bent Hougaard in a challenge to the perceived status quo. Parents had become slaves to their children, who ruled the roost, rejecting adult authority in all its forms.
The discourse was joined later by “helicopter parents,” a term describing parents who pay very close attention to their children, hovering around them at all times.
In recent months, parenting in Sweden has again been under the microscope, with some 20,000 parents turning to state-sponsored parenting courses for help last year. But the courses are controversial and experts fear a traditionalist backlash.
Critics argue that the courses signify the return of shaming and the naughty step. Advocates however contend that the courses, which focus on behaviour, work.
Is Sweden, proud of a more “enlightened”, cooperative approach to parenting, losing faith in itself and rediscovering a more “traditional”, hands-on approach to raising its children?
Lars H. Gustafsson, paediatrician and author of several books on children and youth, is critical of the broad application of parenting courses and writes that many of the methods taught in courses such as Komet and Cope are not suitable for the average family. Many of the methods are designed for families with serious problems and could be counterproductive when applied universally, he argues.
“I want to emphasize that I am positive to the idea that parents should meet and discuss parenting, but there should be more of a menu of courses that parents can choose between. It is the content that I react against. There is an important distinction between treatment therapy for families with serious problems and the majority of parents that can manage perfectly well,” says Gustafsson.
Agneta Hellström at Cope, just one of the courses available to parents in Sweden, argues that attitudes have changed over the past thirty years and that state-sponsored courses are not as controversial as they were in the 1970s and 1980s.
“The courses are offered to parents and not imposed upon them. In my experience there has been a professionalization of parenthood. In the same way that the owner of a boat wishes to learn to sail, parents wish to learn to develop in their new roles. The courses are very much part of an 'empowerment programme' and it is the parents and not the course leader who shape the content.”
Gustafsson agrees that the courses are not as controversial and parents are less sceptical towards authorities today. “They should be though,” he warns, adding that “the recent vigorous media debate is perhaps an indication that there remains a healthy scepticism to being told by society how to be a parent.”
He reacts against the behaviour focus of many of the modern courses and would like to see courses focused more on “interplay,” “teamwork” and “parental dialogue.”
“Along the lines of a French language study circle.”
Methods such as “time out” and ignoring the child have been the focus of much of the debate. The “time out” method is argued by Gustafsson to be reminiscent of the “room arrest” that was once common in parenting. “Room arrest” was cited by the government in 1979 as an example of what could be considered a “prohibited violation of the rights of a child” and thus equivalent to the use of corporal punishment and thereby prohibited by the new legislation.
Sweden was the first country in the world to outlaw the corporal punishment of children, in 1979. In fact the right of parents to beat their children was removed in 1966.Hellström argues that the “time out” method has been misunderstood. The method, she emphasizes, should be used selectively and only to “break a vicious circle,” in extreme cases, such as when the child is hitting another child. “Time out is part of the 'positive reinforcement' taught in Cope's courses and does not mean room arrest,”
Hellström explains. “It is important that parents remain in control.
Time out is a so-called 'sharp tool' - a means of breaking a more negative situation and reinforcing a positive one,” she adds.
It was not until after the end of the Second World War that physical punishment and shaming began to be questioned as methods of parenting in Sweden, Gustafsson writes in 'The return of the naughty step.'
Children's author Astrid Lindgren created the characters of Pippi Longstocking, Emil, Madicken and Ronja and was influential in embedding new attitudes towards children and parenting in the Swedish popular self-identity that led to a re-think in the 1970s and early 1980s.
“I was part of the process to develop parenting courses in the beginning of the 1980s. The thought was that we would develop a three-stage process taking the child up to school age, but financial concerns came in the way. Even then we were careful to avoid the word 'education' and we went for 'parent groups' instead,” Gustafsson tells The Local.Hellström argues that today's parents are not familiar with the 1970s tradition and seek “concrete, pedagogical methods for improving their daily lives with their children.”
One such “concrete” method is the so-called “balance of trust.” Deposits are made, in the form of praise, gold stars or “quality time” and, later, withdrawals in the form of punishments. Hellström emphasizes that it is important to consider what we mean by punishment.
“If I turn off the TV because it is time for my child to get to bed is that really a punishment? - It doesn't fit the Swedish definition.”
Hellström compares this “balance of trust” to an employment contract that most adults at some point enter into. “Built on an agreement and most importantly, renegotiable”
The National Institute of Public Health (Folkhälsoinstitutet) has developed parenting courses in a Swedish cultural context. Sven Bremberg at the institute explains to The Local that “foreign” methods such as “time out” have been consciously omitted from its new parenting course material which has an emphasis on “warmth and limits.”
The popularity of parental courses could be argued to be a result of a period of introspection by parents prompted by the curling and helicopter debates. So what of the children?
One might ask whether these parenting courses aren't more for the benefit of parents struggling to find a balance to “life's puzzle” in the high-stress, “I want it all” 2000s, than for their children. Children are one more piece of the puzzle needing to be effectively managed; squeezed in alongside a career, a rewarding social life and free-time activities. Hence the focus on controlling behaviour, or perhaps more accurately, output. Gustafsson agrees:
“The definition of normality has narrowed in today's society. That which was once considered normal is now considered to be deviant. Take sleep for example. Small children sleep badly, that's normal, but parents today live with such tight schedules they cannot run the risk of their child having a bad night's sleep.”
“I miss the children's perspective,” he concludes.
Since they kill their teen daughters, I'm guessing they don't follow the corporal punishment rule.
http://www.thelocal.se/10282/20080305/
Swedish parenting: Back to a traditional future?
Published: 5 Mar 08 14:09 CETOnline: http://www.thelocal.se/10282/
Four years on from the start of the great “curling” and “helicopter” debates, the issue of parenting is back in the news. This time round, the focus has switched to the unprecedented popularity of state-sponsored parenting classes. Peter Vinthagen Simpson takes a closer look.
Kid-friendly Sweden aims to better record with parenting classes
(7 Jan 08) In the spring of 2004, Sweden was awash with debate about the growing prevalence of so-called “curling parents”. Drawing an analogy with the sport of curling, the phrase refers to parents who rush ahead of their children, frantically sweeping their path clean of even the most minor obstructions.
The phrase was coined by Danish child psychologist Bent Hougaard in a challenge to the perceived status quo. Parents had become slaves to their children, who ruled the roost, rejecting adult authority in all its forms.
The discourse was joined later by “helicopter parents,” a term describing parents who pay very close attention to their children, hovering around them at all times.
In recent months, parenting in Sweden has again been under the microscope, with some 20,000 parents turning to state-sponsored parenting courses for help last year. But the courses are controversial and experts fear a traditionalist backlash.
Critics argue that the courses signify the return of shaming and the naughty step. Advocates however contend that the courses, which focus on behaviour, work.
Is Sweden, proud of a more “enlightened”, cooperative approach to parenting, losing faith in itself and rediscovering a more “traditional”, hands-on approach to raising its children?
Lars H. Gustafsson, paediatrician and author of several books on children and youth, is critical of the broad application of parenting courses and writes that many of the methods taught in courses such as Komet and Cope are not suitable for the average family. Many of the methods are designed for families with serious problems and could be counterproductive when applied universally, he argues.
“I want to emphasize that I am positive to the idea that parents should meet and discuss parenting, but there should be more of a menu of courses that parents can choose between. It is the content that I react against. There is an important distinction between treatment therapy for families with serious problems and the majority of parents that can manage perfectly well,” says Gustafsson.
Agneta Hellström at Cope, just one of the courses available to parents in Sweden, argues that attitudes have changed over the past thirty years and that state-sponsored courses are not as controversial as they were in the 1970s and 1980s.
“The courses are offered to parents and not imposed upon them. In my experience there has been a professionalization of parenthood. In the same way that the owner of a boat wishes to learn to sail, parents wish to learn to develop in their new roles. The courses are very much part of an 'empowerment programme' and it is the parents and not the course leader who shape the content.”
Gustafsson agrees that the courses are not as controversial and parents are less sceptical towards authorities today. “They should be though,” he warns, adding that “the recent vigorous media debate is perhaps an indication that there remains a healthy scepticism to being told by society how to be a parent.”
He reacts against the behaviour focus of many of the modern courses and would like to see courses focused more on “interplay,” “teamwork” and “parental dialogue.”
“Along the lines of a French language study circle.”
Methods such as “time out” and ignoring the child have been the focus of much of the debate. The “time out” method is argued by Gustafsson to be reminiscent of the “room arrest” that was once common in parenting. “Room arrest” was cited by the government in 1979 as an example of what could be considered a “prohibited violation of the rights of a child” and thus equivalent to the use of corporal punishment and thereby prohibited by the new legislation.
Sweden was the first country in the world to outlaw the corporal punishment of children, in 1979. In fact the right of parents to beat their children was removed in 1966.Hellström argues that the “time out” method has been misunderstood. The method, she emphasizes, should be used selectively and only to “break a vicious circle,” in extreme cases, such as when the child is hitting another child. “Time out is part of the 'positive reinforcement' taught in Cope's courses and does not mean room arrest,”
Hellström explains. “It is important that parents remain in control.
Time out is a so-called 'sharp tool' - a means of breaking a more negative situation and reinforcing a positive one,” she adds.
It was not until after the end of the Second World War that physical punishment and shaming began to be questioned as methods of parenting in Sweden, Gustafsson writes in 'The return of the naughty step.'
Children's author Astrid Lindgren created the characters of Pippi Longstocking, Emil, Madicken and Ronja and was influential in embedding new attitudes towards children and parenting in the Swedish popular self-identity that led to a re-think in the 1970s and early 1980s.
“I was part of the process to develop parenting courses in the beginning of the 1980s. The thought was that we would develop a three-stage process taking the child up to school age, but financial concerns came in the way. Even then we were careful to avoid the word 'education' and we went for 'parent groups' instead,” Gustafsson tells The Local.Hellström argues that today's parents are not familiar with the 1970s tradition and seek “concrete, pedagogical methods for improving their daily lives with their children.”
One such “concrete” method is the so-called “balance of trust.” Deposits are made, in the form of praise, gold stars or “quality time” and, later, withdrawals in the form of punishments. Hellström emphasizes that it is important to consider what we mean by punishment.
“If I turn off the TV because it is time for my child to get to bed is that really a punishment? - It doesn't fit the Swedish definition.”
Hellström compares this “balance of trust” to an employment contract that most adults at some point enter into. “Built on an agreement and most importantly, renegotiable”
The National Institute of Public Health (Folkhälsoinstitutet) has developed parenting courses in a Swedish cultural context. Sven Bremberg at the institute explains to The Local that “foreign” methods such as “time out” have been consciously omitted from its new parenting course material which has an emphasis on “warmth and limits.”
The popularity of parental courses could be argued to be a result of a period of introspection by parents prompted by the curling and helicopter debates. So what of the children?
One might ask whether these parenting courses aren't more for the benefit of parents struggling to find a balance to “life's puzzle” in the high-stress, “I want it all” 2000s, than for their children. Children are one more piece of the puzzle needing to be effectively managed; squeezed in alongside a career, a rewarding social life and free-time activities. Hence the focus on controlling behaviour, or perhaps more accurately, output. Gustafsson agrees:
“The definition of normality has narrowed in today's society. That which was once considered normal is now considered to be deviant. Take sleep for example. Small children sleep badly, that's normal, but parents today live with such tight schedules they cannot run the risk of their child having a bad night's sleep.”
“I miss the children's perspective,” he concludes.
Danish drinking age
Thought this was worth a post
http://www.cphpost.dk/get/105943.html
Despite a 2004 law change raising the minimum age for purchasing alcohol to 16 from 15, one in three 15-year-olds, and one in seven 14-year-olds say they have bought alcohol, according to a National Board of Health study. When confronted about their age, young drinkers say they either lie or tell store workers they are buying for an older person. Stores say part of the problem is that they are not permitted to ask customers to present a picture ID when purchasing alcohol. Stores can be fined up to DKK 10,000 for selling alcohol to an underage customer.
http://www.cphpost.dk/get/105943.html
Despite a 2004 law change raising the minimum age for purchasing alcohol to 16 from 15, one in three 15-year-olds, and one in seven 14-year-olds say they have bought alcohol, according to a National Board of Health study. When confronted about their age, young drinkers say they either lie or tell store workers they are buying for an older person. Stores say part of the problem is that they are not permitted to ask customers to present a picture ID when purchasing alcohol. Stores can be fined up to DKK 10,000 for selling alcohol to an underage customer.
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
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