Liberal_in_LA
Liberal_in_LA's JournalMemphis Fair clown fired: "Hey nappy head", "Sheneneh... you look unbeweavable" to black family
Clown fired from Tennessee fair after taunting black family with racist commentsThe dunk tank clown was heckling Tanya Jones and her family when he crossed the line, calling her ‘Sheneneh’ and describing her hair as ‘unbeweavable.’ The clown has since been fired and Jones’ family received a refund.
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http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/clown-fired-fair-racist-comments-article-1.1926144
Racism is no laughing matter.
A clown at the Memphis Delta Fair lost his job after allegedly taunting an African-American family from Atoka, Tenn., with racial epithets on Labor Day.
"We heard over the loud speaker someone said, 'Hey nappy head,'" Tanya Jones told WMC. "When we heard that we looked at each other because we didn't know who they were talking to."
The voice came from a man sitting on a bench in the dunk tank who was supposed to hurl lighthearted insults at festival-goers, coaxing them to participate in the game.
Players try to throw balls at a target that drops the clown's bench — sending him or her into the water.
But Jones' family feels this clown crossed a line.
"He was like, 'Yeah I'm talking to you, Sheneneh ... you look unbeweavable,'" Mario Curry said to the station.
Cee Lo Green show cancelled after he tweets rape opinions - "passed out" implies consent?
Now Cee Lo Green's show The Good Life is 'cancelled' after he posted shock tweets about rape and pleaded no contest to furnishing a woman with ecstasy
Cee Lo Green's television show The Good Life has been cancelled, according to The Wrap.
The show has been canned by TBS, with a network source claiming it suffered low ratings.
However, the decision comes after the singer tweeted controversial statements about rape on Monday and later deleted his Twitter account just days after pleading no contest to furnishing a woman with ecstasy.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2741279/Cee-Lo-Greens-The-Good-Life-cancelled-posted-shock-tweets-rape-pleaded-no-contest-furnishing-woman-ecstasy.html#ixzz3CCu6HEE6
volunteers hold down bear & remove bucket from its head (had been on there for ONE MONTH!)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2740932/Pennsylvania-Bucket-Bear-cut-free-bucket-help-daring-volunteer-rescuers.html
Bear that wandered around town with a bucket stuck on its head for a MONTH is caught and freed by brave residents
The young black bear was roaming Perry Township, Clarion County, in western Pennsylvania with a bucket-like object stuck on its head
Bucket Bear was rescued by Dean Hornberger and Samantha Eigenbrod, who have done animal rescue work in the past
The Pennsylvania Game Commission was contacted but told locals they could not do anything while the bear was healthy and 'mobile'
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The two rounded up a band of volunteers to assist in the rescue and set off for the woods near where the bear was photographed.
Hornberger and Eigenbrod had been searching for two hours and were about to call it quits for the day, when they came across the Bucket Bear near the highway.
Hornberger approached it and attempted to wrestle off the rubber container, which turned out to be an air bag that likely broke off a tractor trailer.
The bear slipped out of his grasp and led the group on a 20-minute chase through the woods towards 'the biggest mud hole in the area,' as Hornberger described it.
Once the group tackled the bear, Shawn Balcita pinned it down with his body while Hornberger cut the metal ring on the cushion with a hacksaw.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2740932/Pennsylvania-Bucket-Bear-cut-free-bucket-help-daring-volunteer-rescuers.html#ixzz3CBtXmWn0
The Great Nunquisition: Why the Vatican Is Cracking Down on Sisters
Today's generation of nuns are progressive women, two things the Church isn't used to
Nuns are an endangered species. They are dying and not being replaced.
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In 2014 there were just 49,883 religious Catholic sisters in the United States, down 13% percent from 2010 according to figures from the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate. To put it in greater perspective, that is a 72% decline since 1965.
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Sister Dianna Ortiz made headlines in 1989 when she was abducted, tortured and raped while working as a teacher in Guatemala. After living through that horror, instead of allowing herself to sink into a terrible depression, she headed up an organization to help thousands of torture survivors around the globe find the will to keep living.
It’s a problem that you haven’t heard about these women. You would think that, during a time when the Church has suffered from great criticism and weathered very public scandals, it would be celebrating these incredible achievements. Think again.
The Vatican doesn’t celebrate these women. In fact, it has done the very opposite. Attacks on American nuns have been happening since 2008, when the Vatican’s Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life initiated an “Apostolic Visitation,” a euphemism for investigation, of the nuns.
To put it in perspective, previous “visitations” conducted by the Church were designed to investigate things like the priest sex abuse scandal.
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Today’s nuns are simply too progressive for the Vatican. The Vatican chooses not to celebrate nuns and it chooses not to empower them.
http://time.com/3222422/vatican-catholic-church-nuns-nunquisition/
Cantor lands sweet $3.4 million bank gig
Former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor is taking his talents to Wall Street, joining boutique investment bank Moelis & Co. as a vice chairman and board member.
Cantor's move into the private sector was widely anticipated following his June electoral defeat at the hands of an unknown economics professor -- one of the biggest political upsets in recent memory.
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During his most recent congressional campaign, Cantor raised $785,000 from the investment industry -- more than any other sector, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. His top single donor was Blackstone Group (BX).
Cantor's move to Wall Street is likely to inflame critics of the so-called revolving door in Washington. They say politicians are too often trading public service duties for lucrative private sector jobs.
http://money.cnn.com/2014/09/02/investing/eric-cantor-wall-street/index.html?hpt=hp_t4
dog eating fading in South Korea
http://www.kokomotribune.com/news/features/article_5c8e4d1c-2fb4-11e4-b404-001a4bcf887a.html?mode=jqmyoung people eat chicken soup on a dog day and even those who eat dog tend to refrain from talking about it openly, according to Moon Jaesuk, a 32-year researcher who enjoyed eating dog meat before he moved to Seoul.
"There's a burden in a group of 10 or 20 people to suggest eating dog, like making a sexual joke," he said. "It's not easy to talk about eating dog when there are a lot of people."
Young South Koreans grow up watching TV shows about raising puppies and other pets, which sapped appetite for dog meat, said Oh.
Her restaurant used to sell as many as 700 bowls of dog stew a day in the 1980s. These days it is less than half that. Young people also enjoy a diverse dining culture unlike previous generations that came of age amid the poverty that followed the 1950-1953 Korean War.
Meanwhile, Nonghyup Economic Research Institute forecasts the pet business in South Korea to swell to 6 trillion won ($5.9 billion) by 2020, from 0.9 trillion won in 2012. It says one in five South Korean households have either a pet dog or cat.
Sometimes the differing perceptions of dogs become a source of family tension. Kim Dongyoung, 30, said she gets into fierce arguments with her grandfather over her lap dog.
"Whenever he saw my dog at home, he would say it's the size of one bowl of hot soup," Kim said. She recently pulled out of signing a lease for an apartment when she saw it was in the same building as a dog stew restaurant.
Russian bank offers cats with mortgages (2 hour loan)
http://money.cnn.com/2014/09/01/news/companies/sberbank-mortgage-cats-russia/Would you like a cat with that mortgage?
Russia's biggest bank, Sberbank (SBRCY), is offering to deliver cats to the doorsteps of new mortgage clients as part of a quirky promotional campaign.
In Russia, it's considered good fortune if a cat enters a new home ahead of the owners.
A few customers have already signed up, though cat lovers may be disappointed to hear that the kitties will be on loan for just two hours and then whisked away.
Clients can choose from 10 felines with names like Caesar and Caramel. But they'll have to hurry to secure one -- the bank is limiting the cat campaign to 30 new mortgages only.
Sberbank's promotion may be part of an effort to present a warm, fuzzy image since getting slapped with European sanctions one month ago.
racial profiling stories
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/ng-interactive/2014/aug/29/-sp-mike-brown-stories-racial-profiling-policeTammy Duckworth pregnant, expecting girl in December
http://my.chicagotribune.com/#section/544/article/p2p-81233987/Duckworth pregnant, expecting girl in December
Duckworth: "I'm expecting a baby girl in December ..."
— Tammy Duckworth, an Illinois congresswoman and Iraq War amputee, announced Monday that she is pregnant and is due in early December.
Duckworth, 46, a Democrat from Hoffman Estates running for her second term in the House, is expecting a girl, according to spokesman Anton Becker, who said the lawmaker told her staff about a month ago.
In a statement, Duckworth said: "My husband Bryan and I are thrilled to announce that we are expecting our first child later this year. We are overwhelmed by the support of our family, friends and neighbors. I look forward to continuing my work in Congress to make sure that all my constituents have the opportunity to achieve the American dream."
Her husband, Army Maj. Bryan Bowlsbey, serves at the National Guard Bureau.
as more Americans renounce citizenship, US quintuples renunciation fee to $2350
U.S. Fee to Drop Citizenship Is Raised Fivefold
http://blogs.wsj.com/totalreturn/2014/08/30/government-fee-to-give-up-u-s-citizenship-is-raised-fivefold/
The fee for individuals to renounce U.S. citizenship is jumping to $2,350 as of Sept. 12—more than five times the current charge of $450.
The U.S. State Department, in its explanation for the increase, said that documenting a renunciation is “extremely costly” and requires a minimum of two intensive interviews with the applicant as well as other procedures.
The fees charged for a number of other services, such as “fiance(e) visas” and employment-based visa applications, increased far less than those for renunciation and in some cases declined.
The large increase in the renunciation fee comes at a time when record numbers of Americans living abroad are cutting ties with the U.S. Last year, 2,999 U.S. citizens and green-card holders renounced their allegiance to the U.S., a record number, and renunciations in 2014 are on track to exceed that. The State Department estimates that 7.6 million Americans live abroad.
In its explanation of the fee increase, the State Department referred to the growth in renunciations, noting that since 2010 the demand has “increased dramatically, consuming far more consular time and resources.” It also referred to a 2010 statement saying that the $450 fee was substantially less than what it cost to provide the service, adding that “there is no public benefit or other reason for setting this fee below cost.”
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