Liberal_in_LA
Liberal_in_LA's Journal"It's four good ol' boys sitting around drinking and things got out of control"
NEWS NOV 2 2015, 9:04 PM ET
Husband of Oklahoma Mayor 'Meant no Harm' With KKK Costume
http://newsok.com/block/mobile_gallery_zoom?img=
An Oklahoma mayor told NBC News Monday that her husband "meant no harm" when he and a few friends dressed up as Ku Klux Klan members on Halloween and placed a cross beside a fire.
A photo of the men was posted online, where it quickly triggered intense criticism and cries of bigotry. The image, which was taken by someone who called the police, Garfield County Sheriff Jerry Niles told NBC News, shows two men clad in white hoods standing beside a cross.
Lahoma Mayor Theresa Sharp, 47, said the outcry has also included calls for her resignation.
"I have no intention of doing so," she said, adding that her husband, Cary Sharp, 47, had simply made "some very bad choices."
"It's four good ol' boys sitting around drinking and things got out of control," she said.
htthttp://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/husband-oklahoma-mayor-meant-no-harm-kkk-costume-n456201
Passenger attacks Uber driver. Dash cam records attack
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-uber-rider-arrested-20151101-story.htmlIn the video, the passenger argues with Caban over directions.
The driver eventually pulls into the parking lot of the shopping center in the 1800 block of Newport Boulevard, where the altercation later occurred. As Caban turns into the parking lot, the passenger is seen falling over in his seat.
The two men continue to argue and Caban orders the passenger out of the car. The dispute escalates, and the passenger refuses to leave.
“Get out of my car or I will call the police,” Caban says.
The passenger opens his door, then begins to repeatedly strike the driver, shouting expletives at him and pulling his hair. Caban then pepper-sprays the man.
Billionaire acquires Rubio pending physical
http://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/billionaire-acquires-rubio-pending-physicalNEW YORK (The Borowitz Report)—In the biggest free-agency acquisition of the 2016 Presidential contest, the billionaire investor Paul Singer has acquired Florida senator Marco Rubio for a rumored eight-figure sum, pending a physical.
Just hours after the deal was inked, Rubio was flown by private jet to Singer’s training facility in East Hampton, where the senator will submit to a series of gruelling drills before the deal is finalized.
“We are making a four-year deal with Marco, with an option for another four,” an associate of Singer’s said. “We like what we’ve seen of him on tape, but we want to be sure that he has what it takes to go the distance.”
According to those familiar with Singer’s physical workouts for political candidates, Rubio will submit to a number of demanding tests, in which the billionaire will bark commands and the senator will be measured for his reaction times and accuracy.
Great Dane jumps with joy on covered pool
Oct 17, 2015 - Uploaded by Marci M
This is a safety cover! Nessie aka the
****Disclaimer: We recommend that all pup parents supervise their dogs at all times around pools. Please make sure your pups splash and jump responsibly.
If you ever had the chance to jump on a waterbed when you were a kid, then you know what an awesome experience it is… that is until you got yelled at for, not only jumping on a bed, but jumping a very expensive bed that was full of liquid.
Anyway, if you’ve ever had that opportunity, then you also know exactly how much fun this Great Dane is having romping around on this covered pool.
Indonesia is burning. The greatest environmental disaster of the 21st century. Ignored by US
Indonesia is burning. So why is the world looking away?A great tract of Earth is on fire. It looks as you might imagine hell to be. The air has turned ochre: visibility in some cities has been reduced to 30 metres. Children are being prepared for evacuation in warships; already some have choked to death. Species are going up in smoke at an untold rate. It is almost certainly the greatest environmental disaster of the 21st century – so far.
Fire is raging across the 5,000km length of Indonesia. It is surely, on any objective assessment, more important than anything else taking place today. And it shouldn’t require a columnist, writing in the middle of a newspaper, to say so. It should be on everyone’s front page. It is hard to convey the scale of this inferno, but here’s a comparison that might help: it is currently producing more carbon dioxide than the US economy. And in three weeks the fires have released more CO2 than the annual emissions of Germany.
But that doesn’t really capture it. This catastrophe cannot be measured only in parts per million. The fires are destroying treasures as precious and irreplaceable as the archaeological remains being levelled by Isis. Orangutans, clouded leopards, sun bears, gibbons, the Sumatran rhinoceros and Sumatran tiger, these are among the threatened species being driven from much of their range by the flames. But there are thousands, perhaps millions, more.
One of the burning provinces is West Papua, a nation that has been illegally occupied by Indonesia since 1963. I spent six months there when I was 24, investigating some of the factors that have led to this disaster. At the time it was a wonderland, rich with endemic species in every swamp and valley. Who knows how many of those have vanished in the past few weeks? This week I have pored and wept over photos of places I loved that have now been reduced to ash.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/oct/30/indonesia-fires-disaster-21st-century-world-media
South-East Asia is choking on Indonesia’s forest fires
THE annual haze that blankets swathes of South-East Asia usually begins to recede in October. This year however the smoggy conditions—caused by fires set to clear farmland in rural Indonesia—only got worse. On October 26th Joko Widodo, Indonesia’s president, cut short a state visit to America to handle the crisis, which has become one of the worst in memory. With the onset of this year’s rainy season delayed by the “El Niño” weather cycle, it could be a month or more before all flames are doused.
The word “haze” hardly does justice to the poisonous clouds that have been billowing across the region since August. On bad days Singapore and parts of Malaysia have been enveloped by a reeking white mist that has closed schools and delayed flights. Lately it has also reached southern Thailand and the Philippines. Meanwhile the millions of Indonesians who live close to the hotspots, mostly on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo, are breathing a soupy yellow fog which authorities say has killed at least ten people and caused respiratory problems in more than 500,000.
The blazes are not only a disaster for those who live in the region. Greenpeace says that years of draining and burning peatland, to make way for oil palms and other crops, has turned Indonesia into a “carbon bomb”. Guido van der Werf, a Dutch researcher, reckons that emissions from a three-week period during this year’s fires surpassed Germany’s total annual carbon output. On a daily basis, they may emit more carbon than does America’s economy—which is more than 20 times the size of Indonesia’s. Conservationists also fret about the impact on Indonesia’s endangered wildlife, not least the orangutan colonies in Sumatra.
Indonesia has enlisted more than 20,000 people to control the fires. After some hesitation, it has also accepted help from its neighbours, including Singapore, Malaysia and Australia. The rain that fell on October 28th was useful. But with more than 100,000 fires to fight, the Indonesian authorities badly need more downpours. In the meantime they have built reception centres with oxygen tanks and air-purifiers in the worst-affected areas. A clutch of navy ships is waiting off the coast of Borneo—apparently ready to serve as floating shelters for women and children, should parts of the island need evacuating.
http://www.economist.com/news/asia/21677342-jungles-and-peatland-are-coughing-up-more-carbon-emissions-industrialised-economies-south-east
Sick, hungry orangutans fall victim to Indonesia's haze crisis
ndangered orangutans are falling victim to a devastating haze crisis that has left them sick, malnourished and severely traumatised as fires rage through Indonesia's forests, reducing their habitat to a charred wasteland.
Rescuers at a centre for the great apes on Borneo island are considering an unprecedented mass evacuation of the hundreds in their care, and have deployed teams on hazardous missions to search for stricken animals in the wild.
At the Nyaru Menteng centre in Kalimantan, sixteen baby orangutans have been put into isolation, suffering infections from prolonged exposure to the thick, yellow smoke suffocating Indonesia's half of Borneo island. A devoted carer tries to entertain the youngsters with toys and games as the infants recover from high fevers and serious coughs.
In another enclosure, several orangutans lie about listlessly, too exhausted to move after days hunting for food and water as fires relentlessly encroached on their forest homelands, forcing them to flee.
indonesia's fires labelled a 'crime against humanity' as 500,000 suffer
Haze has caused havoc, with schools in neighbouring Singapore and Malaysia shut down, flights grounded and events cancelled
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/26/indonesias-fires-crime-against-humanity-hundreds-of-thousands-suffer#img-1
Indonesia is the world’s largest producer of palm oil and fires are frequently intentionally lit to clear the land with the resulting haze an annual headache.
But this year a prolonged dry season and the impact of El Niño have made the situation far worse, with one estimate that daily emissions from the fires have surpassed the average daily emissions of the entire US economy.
The fires have caused the air to turn a toxic sepia colour in the worst hit areas of Sumatra and Kalimantan, where levels of the Pollutant Standard Index (PSI) have pushed toward 2,000. Anything above 300 is considered hazardous.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/26/indonesias-fires-crime-against-humanity-hundreds-of-thousands-suffer
Man, 83, is gifted a new truck after pushing his lawnmower more than two miles just to get to work
Man, 83, is gifted a new truck after pushing his lawnmower more than two miles just to get to work
John Joyce from St. Petersburg has been mowing lawns as a hobby after retiring 25 years ago
His 1995 Ford F-150 broke down beyond repair last month, and he started pushing it 2.5 miles to cut Nikki and Robert Norton's grass
When they realized this, they set up a GoFundMe account asking for donations to buy him a new truck
They raised $13,080 and bought him a new truck complete with insurance, a new lawnmower and gas money
With the GoFundMe page, the Nortons raised $13,080 in one month and bought Joyce a 2004 Nissan SE King Cab V8 truck.
'I feel like a millionaire,' Joyce told WTSP.
Joyce's truck broke down last month just after he recovered from being sick in the hospital.
The transmission on his truck went out and the engine block was damaged which could not be repaired.
is when he began walking miles pushing his lawnmower to the Nortons just so he could get their grass, but the couple was unaware.
When they realized, they set up the fundraising account where people from the community donated to help buy Joyce his new truck.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3297985/Florida-man-83-gifted-new-truck-pushing-lawnmower-two-miles-just-work.html#ixzz3qCTfHexr
Be more respectful and call him or her "the person who stole my bicycle" rather than a "criminal"
Is it wrong to call someone who steals a "criminal"?
In a recent thread on NextDoor, a group of neighbors living in the Noe Valley-Glen Park area debated whether labeling a person who commits petty theft as a "criminal" is offensive.
In the site's Crime and Safety area, where residents share strategies for fighting crime, Malkia Cyril asked her Noe Valley neighbors to stop using the label because it shows lack of empathy and understanding.
Cyril suggested that instead of calling the thief who took the bicycle from your garage a criminal, you should be more respectful and call him or her "the person who stole my bicycle."
"I [suggest] that people who commit property crimes are human and deserved to be referred to in terms that acknowledge that," Cyril, who's the executive director of the Center for Media Justice in Oakland, writes in the thread
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Political-correctness-San-Francisco-criminal-6598509.php
Blind and terrified three-year-old pit bull abandoned on a park bench gets a second chance at love
Blind and terrified three-year-old pit bull abandoned on a park bench gets a second chance at love
Poly was dumped on a park bench in Santa Maria, California
An animal control officer found her and brought her to the city pound
Long-time rescuer Jennifer Wales stepped up to give the blind pooch a second chance despite all of her medical issues
Poly is now 'thriving' in a foster home and will soon be ready for adoption
blind pit bull who was abandoned on a park bench has been rescued and is 'thriving' says her rescuer.
The three-year-old pit bull, who was discovered shuddering on a wet and cold park bench in Santa Maria, California, in early October was 'blind and terrified' and 'too scared to even get off the bench.'
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3297407/Blind-terrified-3-year-old-pit-bull-abandoned-park-bench-gets-second-chance-love.html#ixzz3q6rEnkGj
Jeb Bush Made Voting Rights Contingent on Sobriety, but Cut Funding for Treatment
http://m.motherjones.com/politics/2015/10/jeb-bush-prison-vetoes-floridaFlrida is one of just three states that permanently disenfranchises everyone with a felon conviction. Today, that system excludes nearly 1.5 million Floridians from voting and disproportionately affects African Americans, with about 20 percent of the state's black voting-age population barred from the ballot box. For many people, such as White, the only way to earn back the right to vote, to serve on a jury, and to run for office is to make the trip to Tallahassee and personally petition the governor and cabinet for clemency. Mother Jones recently analyzed more than 1,000 pages of transcripts to assess how Bush, now a Republican presidential candidate, oversaw the process during his eight years as governor.
Before restoring an ex-felon's civil rights, Bush wanted proof that the former offender had put his past behind him and become a productive member of society. He asked the men and women who appeared before him if they had a job. If ex-offenders had committed crimes involving drugs or alcohol—a significant portion of them had—he wanted them to be sober. Completing a treatment program helped offer the proof Bush wanted that the people before him, like White, had truly turned a corner.
But Bush's desire to see successful reintegration into society often ran up against his governing philosophy, which prioritized tax cuts and often rebuffed state legislators who sought additional funding for projects in their districts. Bush sought to rein in the budget by using his line-item veto power aggressively, cutting nearly $2 billion out of the state's budgets from 1999 to 2007. Bush embraced the nickname "Veto Corleone" and has used it on the campaign trail as evidence of his conservative economic record. But many of the projects that succumbed to his veto pen were the very programs that helped ex-felons meet Bush's own criteria for evaluating who deserved the right to vote.
Mother Jones searched a comprehensive list of all of Bush's vetoes and found 32 vetoed items, totaling nearly $13 million, that would have funded programs for substance abuse and helped prisoners reintegrate into society. (The list below does not include many of the substance abuse programs targeted at adolescents. In his second year in office, Bush signed a law imposing draconian mandatory minimum sentences—up to 20 years in adult prison—for minors convicted of certain crimes, while also dedicating $5 million to drug and alcohol rehabilitation for minors.)
University of Louisville president, staff wear sombreros, bushy mustaches for stereotypical ‘Mexican
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University of Louisville President James Ramsey wore a sombrero and a rainbow-striped poncho at a stereotypical Halloween party for his staff Wednesday.
Ramsey’s wife Jane Ramsey gave her husband and at least 15 staffers hats, bushy mustaches and veils that mimicked bygone Hollywood depictions of Mexican bandits and their outlaw lovers, The Courier-Journal of Louisville reported.
The group posed for a picture while wearing the garb and holding up maracas during a luncheon at Amelia Place, the president’s university-owned mansion. Ramsey’s chief of staff issued an apology Thursday after the photo showed up online in a Courier-Journal story about the historic property and prompted an outrage.
Latino students - whose presence at the school mirrors Kentucky’s 3.4% Latino population - condemned the costume party.
“I was appalled,” said freshman Leonardo Salinas. “It's not just offensive to Mexicans; it's offensive to the immigrant community as a whole. Someone thought, ‘Oh, this is a good idea.’ How did it not click in anybody's mind that it was a very bad idea?”
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/louisville-president-staff-wear-stereotypical-costumes-article-1.2417301
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