Category: News

‘They stole my little girl,’ says mother judged too stupid to care for her baby:

A young mother who was judged too stupid to care for her own baby has accused social workers of ‘stealing’ the child from her.

The woman, who must be identified only as Rachel for legal reasons, is taking her case to the European Court of Human Rights in a last ditch attempt to halt the adoption of the child, now aged three.

She has told the Mail that she was bitterly unhappy with her treatment at the hands of social workers at Nottingham City Council.

Her daughter, referred to only as K, was born three months prematurely with severe medical complications. Officials felt the first-time mother lacked the intelligence to cope with the child and care for her in safety.

K was eventually discharged from hospital and given to a foster family.

But although her health has now improved to the point where she needs little or no day-to-day care, the child is due to be handed to adoptive parents within three months.

Rachel will then be barred from further contact.

The adoption is going ahead despite a recent psychiatrist’s report which declared that the 24-year-old has ‘good literacy and numeracy and that her general intellectual abilities appear to be within the normal range’.

It said the unemployed former cleaner had no previous history of learning disability or mental illness.

Given that you, ma’am, have determined that judicial wisdom is racially or experientially relative with this quote:

I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.

Could you please elaborate on the complete hierarchy of wisdom and jurisprudence in your worldview. For example, where do blacks and Asian-ancestored people fall? Are they above white males (probably) but below Hispanics? Also, how do substrata within the ethnic groups fall, for example Korean versus Pakistani or Mexican (Aztec-influenced) versus Guatamalan (more Mayan in identity)? Aside from national origin, are there other hardship modifiers to calculate, such as physical handicaps or socio-economic upbringing? For example, does a Caribbean with a limp trump the son of a Panamanian business leader?

As a white male blogger and hence probably less wise than a well-trained golden retriever, I’d like the complete scale to make sure we’re not settling for someone who is limited to the middle of the wisdom scale.

Obama to crack down on business taxes:

President Barack Obama plans changes to tax policy certain to be unpopular with corporations with international divisions and individuals who use tax havens.

Obama’s two-part plan, which he is slated to unveil at the White House on Monday, also calls for 800 new federal tax agents to enforce the system.

The president’s proposal would eliminate some tax deductions for companies that earn profits in countries with low tax rates, as well as consider U.S. citizens who use tax havens in the Bahamas or Cayman Islands guilty of violating U.S. tax laws.

It’s going to raise $21 billion a year in revenue, minus unintended consequences.

Or, to put it in perspective, 1/100th of the new deficit spending the President and the Democrat-controlled Congress has incurred. Not counting forthcoming cap-and-trade plans and national health care bills. And all unintended consequences forthcoming.

Full disclosure: This change will affect me because I am a capitalist Fat Cat who bought a couple hundred bucks’ worth of stock in a Taiwanese chipmaker, and I get to knock off the taxes I pay to the government of Taiwan. You know who else is a corporate Fat Cat in this scenario? Anyone with an International Fund selection in a mutual fund, 401(k), or retirement plan. You know, you.

Candidate Obama promised not to raise taxes on families making less than $250,000 a year or whatever. President Obama, though, has a different scale for determining feline weight.

The story is misheadlined: Missouri House votes to send $12 million in stimulus money to Metro because let’s just see what it is. Is it:

The House voted Wednesday to use $12 million in federal stimulus funds to soften dramatic service cuts at Metro.

The sponsor of the Metro funding amendment, Rep. Rachel Storch, D-St. Louis, said thousands of people can’t get to work since bus routes at the St. Louis-area transit agency were slashed. She also decried cuts in transportation services for the disabled.

I thought stimulus money couldn’t go to mass transit, but either I was misinformed or rules and promises out of the government are subject to change at the next member of government’s whim (logically, this is a false dilemma, as it could be both).

At least Representative Storch is clear about how unwise it is to use “one-time” stimulus payments to bridge budget deficits:

Storch portrayed it as stopgap funding until Metro can persuade area voters to raise taxes for the system.

Ah, yes. Because the voters have spoken, but they spoke wrongly and must receive chance after chance to do what the leaders want.

So what the state legislature has approved is a $12 million marketing and lobbying budget. It won’t get old bus routes running again, but it will bridge a gap in the efforts to convince people to raise their taxes.

Kind of like those nice vinyl signs on the bus stops that are out of service. Metro did not remove the bus stop signs. No, they converted them all into free billboards to tell the electorate how it done Metro wrong.

The New York Post compiled an article enumerating Obama’s mistakes in office: 100 DAYS, 100 MISTAKES.

Maybe they were premature:

After all, who knows what might be done today or tomorrow? I’d save a spot on the list to see how the president handles the 100 days of disaster protesters in Arnold, Missouri, tomorrow.

The president claimed ignorance of the Tea Parties, but these guys will be right there. Unless their freedom-to-protest zone is in Hillsboro.

Missouri Legislature tackles eating disorders.

It would be entirely consistent behavior for the legislature to merely make eating disorders against the law. That would curb the problem, much like it does with drugs, prostitution, and so on.

Maybe they’ll take the tack of smoking and merely ban purging in public places.

Instead, they’ll just compel insurance companies to cover them in a fashion the government dictates, which will cause higher insurance rates, which will then require more government intervention at the Federal level.

Note that there are Republicans co-sponsoring the bill. Funny how small government principles fail in lots of small ways. Like encouraging government intervention for just this one little problem.

Stimulus money paying Illinois bills:

More than $1 billion in federal stimulus money is winding its way toward Illinois school districts. But don’t expect any major changes in local education efforts.

Rather, the cash — approved by the U.S. Department of Education on Monday — will largely go toward paying bills the state already owes to school districts for items like transportation and special education services.

Isn’t that what taxpayers did with their stimulus checks? Instead of running out and buying consumer goods, they paid bills?

Unfortunately, at the state level, this is a real problem if states spend that one-time (hah!) windfall to pay ongoing expenses because those expenses will still be there when the funds are gone.

But it keeps state officials from having to make difficult decisions, hopefully until such time as the state officials become Federal officials, leaving a new crop of leaders to deal with the mess.

You know, the media tends to really get down on surveillance in pursuit of terrorism. However, have you noticed how any intrusive police actions that infringe upon private citizens are okay if it falls under behavior that the media dislikes, such as driving after a couple beers?

Here’s the story:

Police in St. Charles County are drawing a new weapon in their fight to stop drunk drivers — blood testing.

On Thursday night, about two dozen officers from several area police departments are holding what they’re calling a “no refusal” checkpoint to catch impaired drivers.

From 11 p.m. to 3 a.m., police will stop all drivers at a busy intersection near Interstate 70, the city’s Main Street corridor and the Ameristar Casino. If those arrested on suspicion of driving drunk refuse an officer’s request for a breath test, police plan to get on-the-spot court orders for blood tests from a nearby on-call prosecutor and circuit judge.

Though the approach has already been tested in at least three other states, police say this style of checkpoint combining the “no refusal” element may be the first of its kind in Missouri. Police and advocates for tougher enforcement hope the effort adds muscle to a criminal justice system that often fails to keep drunk drivers off the roads.

Checkpoints, prosecutors and judges waiting on speed dial to issue warrants based only on refusal to submit to search, what isn’t to like if you’re pro-statist in pursuit of trivial goals or a pro-statist eager to just erode civil liberties because you can?

You want to get men into church? This ain’t the way:

On the Sunday before Easter, the Rev. Tom Skiles bounded onto a stage in the gym of Simpson Elementary School here.

Spirit of St. Louis Church’s praise band had just finished four chest-thumping Christian rock tunes, complete with light show, and Skiles’ flock of about 100 was settling into the metal folding chairs lined up in front of the stage.

“This is an awesome time of year, and I’m really pumped about what’s about to happen,” Skiles said. The pastor, 36, his head shaved, was dressed in jeans and blazer over a red T-shirt and spoke into his headset microphone.

What’s about to happen at SOS Church is a connection between the torture and crucifixion of Jesus Christ and the spinal cranks, head butts and anaconda chokes of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. As Skiles spoke, a large screen behind him projected the red UFC logo on a chain-link background, a reference to the cage in which UFC fighters do battle.

The church rents space each Sunday from the school, and on Easter the gym will be outfitted with an octagonal ring where Skiles will begin a four-week preaching theme based on the hugely popular sport of extreme fighting, or mixed martial arts. MMA, as fans know it, combines a variety of fighting techniques, from punching to kicking to elbowing to choking.

This is:

The Barna Group, a Christian research organization, has shown in surveys over the last decade that women attend church in much greater numbers than men.

Call it the “Surf City” strategy: tell the guys that there are two girls for every boy, and you’ll find a lot more boys interested in going. Why churches and universities don’t play this up, I don’t understand.

Well, except for the universities. That would be objectivating the girls.

Then they came for big screen televisions, and no doubt they’ll notice:

The California proposal—which could be adopted this summer—would forbid retailers from selling TVs that require what state officials think is too much power. Proponents claim they are mandating energy efficiency, and who could object to that? The practical effect, however, would be to remove TVs with screens 40 inches or bigger from the market.

Why not let the controlled markets work, and just let the sales fall as part of a depression caused by other leaders of that mindset?

Because that’s not ruling the peasants, baby.

Semitrailer truck carrying kegs of beer rolls over near Miller Park on I-94:

Crews will have to unload kegs of beer from a semitrailer that rolled over near Miller Park and they will have to close all westbound lanes of I-94 some time this afternoon when they’re ready to remove the truck from the freeway.

Except for some minor bruising, the kegs seem to be okay.

You know what would really suck? Getting hit by a keg truck and having the accident rupture some kegs which leak into your car and into your mouth and and you get a DUI for it. Now that would suck.

That’s what makes me exceptional at software QA. A good imagination for how it could be worse.

The problem is, his country is apparently the European Union.

From the London Telegraph, a story that covers the Republican wrath over President Obama’s remarks:

In a speech in France, a country that has been a bastion of anti-US sentiment in recent years, the President said: “In America, there is a failure to appreciate Europe’s leading role in the world. Instead of celebrating your dynamic union and seeking to partner with you to meet common challenges, there have been times where America has shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive.

“But in Europe, there is an anti-Americanism that is at once casual, but can also be insidious. Instead of recognising the good that America so often does in the world, there have been times where Europeans choose to blame America for much of what is bad. On both sides of the Atlantic, these attitudes have become all too common.”

You know, I’m mostly Republican, but all American. President Obama can call me those things if he wants, but if he’s talking trash about America, now that does rankle me. I feel as though I should explain to him as I would a two-year-old that this behavior is inappropriate.

Perhaps this is President Obama’s Ich bin ein Berliner speech. Except in his case, one can reasonably wonder if he wishes it were so.

Krauthammer says:

(Video seen on Neo-neocon.)

Power Line guys say:

Barack Obama’s criticism of America before a French audience takes this approach to a new level. He is after all the president of the United States. Obama nevertheless passed judgment on the United States and found America wanting….

Gabriel Malor adds:

This guy is going to stand up Over There and badmouth Americans and President Bush? He’s a coward with an inferiority complex, a desperate desire to win the approval of his perceived European betters. What an ass.

County DA: No shooting victims could’ve been saved:

A faster response by emergency officials to the attack at an immigrant services center in Binghamton would have saved no lives, a county prosecutor said Sunday.

You know who might have saved lives? A concealed carry citizen on the scene.

Kaiser fires 15 workers for snooping in octuplet mom’s medical records:

A Kaiser Permanente hospital located in a Los Angeles suburb has fired 15 employees and reprimanded eight others for improperly accessing the personal medical records of Nadya Suleman, the California woman who gave birth to octuplets in January.

The unauthorized accessing of Suleman’s electronic records at the medical center in Bellflower, Calif., violated a California law designed to safeguard the privacy of health care data, according to Kaiser spokesman Jim Anderson, who said the snooping incidents have been reported to the California Department of Public Health.

Ah, yes, practices, procedures, and laws. They don’t prevent this sort of petty violations of privacy. And they won’t when the data is stored in a very large government database to which every petty bureaucrat will have access.

But they give the legislators a nice, warm cover when they make it all possible.

Say it ain’t so! The government based legislation lobbied by industrialists on the industrialists’ marketing brochures and not on reality? Be still my beating heart (as soon as its beating is too expensive for Washington)!

It sounds like such a simple thing to do: buy some new light bulbs, screw them in, save the planet.

But a lot of people these days are finding the new compact fluorescent bulbs anything but simple. Consumers who are trying them say they sometimes fail to work, or wear out early. At best, people discover that using the bulbs requires learning a long list of dos and don’ts.

On the dark side (which is the optimistic side for some people today), this will cut down on light pollution. And a bulb that does not illuminate is more energy efficient that the most energy efficient bulb that does.

In the meantime, remember, you have no choice come 2012!