Nanny State Insanity: Hard lemonade, hard price - Dad's oversight at Tigers game lands son in foster care

Hard lemonade, hard price - Dad's oversight at Tigers game lands son in foster care

(excerpts)

The way police and child protection workers figure it, Ratte should have known that what a Comerica Park vendor handed over when Ratte ordered a lemonade for his boy three Saturdays ago contained alcohol, and Ratte's ignorance justified placing young Leo in foster care until his dad got up to speed on the commercial beverage industry.

...

Ratte is a tenured professor of classical archaeology at the University of Michigan...

The 47-year-old academic says he wasn't even aware alcoholic lemonade existed when he and Leo stopped at a concession stand on the way to their seats in Section 114.

An hour later, Ratte was being interviewed by a Detroit police officer at Children's Hospital, where a physician at the Comerica Park clinic had dispatched Leo - by ambulance! - after a cursory exam.

Leo betrayed no symptoms of inebriation. But the physician and a police officer from the Comerica substation suggested the ER visit after the boy admitted he was feeling a little nauseated.

The Comerica cop estimated that Leo had drunk about 12 ounces of the hard lemonade, which is 5% alcohol. But an ER resident who drew Leo's blood less than 90 minutes after he and his father were escorted from their seats detected no trace of alcohol.

The sympathetic cop who interviewed Ratte and his son at the hospital said she was convinced what happened had been an accident, but that her supervisor was insisting the matter be referred to Child Protective Services.

And Ratte thought the two child protection workers who came to take Leo away seemed more annoyed with the police than with him. "This is so unnecessary," one told Ratte before driving away with his son.

But there was really nothing any of them could do, they all said. They were just adhering to protocol, following orders.

...


But that doesn't explain why CPS refused to release Leo to the custody of two aunts - one a social worker and licensed foster parent - who drove all night from New England to take custody of their nephew.

Chris Ratte's sisters, Catherine Miller and Felicity Ratte, left Massachusetts at 10:30 the night of the fateful lemonade purchase after the police officer who'd reluctantly requested a removal order told Ratte the state would likely jump at the chance to place Leo with responsible relatives. But when the two women arrived at the CPS office early Sunday, a caseworker explained they would not be allowed to see Leo until they had secured a hotel room.

The sisters quickly complied. But by the time they returned to CPS around 10:30 a.m., their nephew had been taken to an undisclosed foster home, where he would remain until a preliminary court hearing the following afternoon.

Two days. They kept the boy for two days.

What was more damaging? The stupid malt liquor, or the introduction to the all-knowing, all-powerful nanny state?

Honestly, I would be in so much trouble if this happened to my family, because if morons like this took my child away I would probably kill somebody.

Cue the C.S. Lewis:

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

Jimmy Kimmel: 042408

Today was Take Your Child to Work Day, or, as they say in China, Thursday.

It’s a great day to show your child how miserable they will be.

Onion, Take The Day Off: Paintball Border Security (YCMTSU)

Frankly, I'm still hoping this one is satire...

Border agents to use paintball guns to fend off attackers

TUCSON - Some surprising news came from the United States Border Patrol.

The Patrol has purchased 1,000 guns that fire non-lethal paintball or pepper pellets. The goal of a target practice session was to hit the white rag at the end of a hall with paintballs. Border Patrol agents may soon use paintballs to defend themselves against smugglers along the border due to an increase in violence.

Hmmm... let's see here... the border is getting more violent, therefore Border Patrol should start defending it with toys.

Surveillance video from an incident last year in El Paso shows a Border Patrol agent retreating after people pelt him with rocks. Some could argue the same about being hit by a paintball without protective gear, where a projectile from a paintball gun leaves a small welt on the flesh.

Oh, no... not a welt!

Small welt or not, human rights activists say it is a bad idea, even for a line of defense.

Lord, have mercy on my everlovin' soul.

Can somebody smack a little sense into these people? Or how about put them on the border with children's playthings.

(Oh, and pass the crazy pills, please.)

Chris Jenkins Murder Inspires Serial Killer(s) Search

Over the years there have been many stories of young college men wandering off from parties or bars, disappearing, and then being found much later, victims of drowning.

It always seemed so odd -- because there were too many of them for it not to be. Now it looks like what many suspected may pan out after all:

KSTP.com - DETECTIVES: Chris Jenkins murder connects dozens around country

Could there be a calculated, cross-country plot to kill young college men, including some in Minnesota? It seems a little hard to believe, but two New York detectives say, they can prove it.

Now, they are revealing years of their evidence for the first time to 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS...

University of Minnesota college student Chris Jenkins was found in the Mississippi River in February of 2003.

Minneapolis Police began investigating the case, which also caught the attention of two retired NYPD detectives.

Turns out, Jenkins' death was the missing part of the puzzle for Kevin Gannon and Anthony Duarte.

They think Jenkins connects dozens of other deaths around the country over the last decade. The stories are the same all over the country--an athletic, intelligent, well-liked college student goes missing.

Family and friends launch a massive search. Weeks or months later, the young man is discovered drowned. In more than 40 cases, the deaths are blamed on a drunken accident--except for one.

The death of Chris Jenkins in Minneapolis is the only one where the cause of death was changed from 'undetermined' or 'drowning' to 'homicide.'

Lots of info at the link.

Amy Winehouse Arrested... : |

Amy Winehouse quizzed by police after breaking down in tears over assault claims | the Daily Mail

Poor thing, she's really losing it completely. Pix at the link above... once again, too depressingly hideous to post.

Another Peacenik Attacks: Bush Heckler Arrested After Punching Wheelchair-Bound Girl

FOXNews.com - Bush Heckler Arrested After Punching Wheelchair-Bound Girl

A man heckling First Lady Laura Bush and daughter Jenna outside the 92nd Street Y was arrested after he punched a wheelchair-bound girl whose parents had told him to shut up, authorities said Wednesday.

German Talis, 22, was shouting obscenities at the Bushes, who were leaving the building Tuesday, when he crossed paths with Wendy and John Lovetro and their daughter Maureen, 18, who has cerebral palsy.

They had been in the audience to hear the Bushes talk about their children's book, "Read All About It."

"He began yelling about Iraq and Iran at Jenna Bush. She was waving at the crowd. I told the guy, 'What are you doing? Shut up. This is about a child and books,' " said John Lovetro. "He was unperturbed. I said, 'Get out of here! You're being a moron!' "

The next thing he knew, Talis was allegedly punching Maureen, a fan of the first lady since meeting her in 2004.

Sure, pick on the cripple, as my son would say.

Yeesh.

RotoReuters: Obama suffers from the working-class blues

Obama suffers from the working-class blues | U.S. | Reuters

Part of the problem for Obama, who would be the first black U.S. president, is uneasiness about race. The exit polls showed nearly 20 percent of voters in Pennsylvania said race was important to them, and they heavily backed Clinton.

"Let's not pretend, some of it is race," pollster John Zogby said. 'Among some ethnic voters, there will be difficulty accepting an African-American, especially when he's off message and on the defensive the way Obama was the last few weeks."

There are several other mentions in the article about "whites" and "working class", but no mention that 92% of blacks voted for Obama. Regardless, this news "organ" would have you believe that race factors in more for the white voters -- especially them durned uneducated folk.

RotoReuters... consistently plumbing the depths for your news.

Morons.

Wild Amy Winehouse could face arrest...

Wild Amy Winehouse could face arrest after 'attack on TWO men' while out on all-night bender | the Daily Mail

I can't even post the pix. She's just getting worse and worse. It's reallyreally sad.

Jail in the UK: Breakfast in bed, satellite TV, cheap drugs and free phone calls

Breakfast in bed, satellite TV, cheap drugs and free phone calls: No wonder criminals break IN to our soft jails | the Daily Mail

(excerpts)

...inmates benefit from satellite television, free telephone calls, breakfast in bed and officers who treat them with kid gloves for fear of breaching their human rights.

...

He added: "There's a classic case in Yorkshire where members of the public were climbing over the prison walls to take drugs into the prison. They put up ladders to climb over the walls, but prisoners were so comfortable in the environment they were living in that none of them tried to climb up the ladders and escape.

"When the ladders came down at night, the members of the public hide inside the prison until their colleagues come over the following morning at 6am, put the ladders back up and they were able to get out.

"None of the prisoners inside tried to escape. It tells me there's something wrong in society when people are breaking into prisons to bring in drugs and prostitutes, but the prisoners are quite happy to stay inside."

Speaking to TalkSport, he added: "Prison is no longer a deterrent. It is merely an occupational hazard."

...

A spokesman insisted inmates are not given "breakfast in bed", but are handed a "breakfast pack" to eat in their cells, or a hot breakfast to take back to their cells.

Television in cells is an earned privilege which can be removed, she added, and "no public-sector prisons" have Sky TV in cells.

She confirmed that the Incentives and Earned Privileges scheme means well-behaved inmates can earn extra visits, higher rates of pay for work, in-cell television and access to private cash.

She said the IEP scheme was designed "to ensure good order and control in prisons" and to encourage prisoners to take part in rehabilitation work.

Ahhh... leftism.

Secret Service Catch Mexican Official Nabbing White House BlackBerries

Secret Service Catch Mexican Official Nabbing White House BlackBerries

...a Mexican press attaché was caught on camera by Secret Service pocketing several White House BlackBerries during a recent meeting in New Orleans...

Sources with knowledge of the incident said the official, Rafael Quintero Curiel, served as the lead press advance person for the Mexican Delegation and was responsible for handling logistics and guiding the Mexican media around at the conference. He took six or seven of the handheld devices from a table outside a special room in the hotel where the Mexican delegation was meeting with President Bush earlier this week.

Everyone entering the room was required to leave his or her cell phone, BlackBerry and other such devices on the table, a common practice when high-level meetings are held. American officials discovered their missing belongings when they were leaving the session.

It didn't take long before Secret Service officials reviewed videotape taken by a surveillance camera and found footage showing Quintero Curiel absconding with the BlackBerries.

Sources said Quintero Curiel made it all the way to the airport before Secret Service officers caught up with him. He initially denied taking the devices, but after agents showed him the DVD, Quintero Curiel said it was purely accidental, gave them back, claimed diplomatic immunity and left New Orleans with the Mexican delegation.

*shakes head*

Scalia On Bush v. Gore... and Acceptance

There are a couple of decent quotes here:

Scalia On Bush v. Gore: Get Over It!, Supreme Court Justice Tells 60 Minutes It’s Nonsense To Say The Decision Was Politically Motivated - CBS News

(excerpted)

"The principal issue in the case, whether the scheme that the Florida Supreme Court had put together violated the federal Constitution, that wasn’t even close. The vote was seven to two," he says, referring to the Supreme Court’s decision that the Supreme Court of Florida’s method for recounting ballots was unconstitutional.

Furthermore, says the outspoken conservative justice, it was Al Gore who ultimately put the issue into the courts. "It was Al Gore who made it a judicial question…. We didn’t go looking for trouble. It was he who said, 'I want this to be decided by the courts,'" says Scalia. "What are we supposed to say -- 'Not important enough?'" he jokes.

This is the major point about the case that people like to forget.

The Florida Supreme (Kangaroo) Court decided to change the rules of the game after the game had been played. Life just doesn't work that way... even if "your guy" loses.


and:

Scalia also denies there is anything personal in his decisions or comments, which can often be biting. Stahl asks how he can be a close friend of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, his liberal bench mate, despite the fact that they oftentimes disagree. "I attack ideas, I don’t attack people, and some very good people have some very bad ideas," he tells Stahl. "And if you can’t separate the two, you got to get another day job. You don’t want to be a judge, at least not a judge on a multi-member panel."

Letterman 042208

Pennsylvania primary today. Here’s the problem with the primaries: The Democrats are spending too much time attacking one another, and not enough time trying to rig the election.


[Clinton is] trying to convince voters in Pennsylvania that she is pro-gun. C’mon, if she were really pro-gun, Bill would be dead.

YCMTSU! Priest carried aloft by balloons missing

Paging Larry Walters...

Priest carried aloft by balloons missing - msnbc.com

updated 3:48 p.m. CT, Mon., April. 21, 2008

SAO PAULO, Brazil - A Roman Catholic priest who floated off under hundreds of helium party balloons was missing Monday off the southern coast of Brazil.

Rescuers in helicopters and small fishing boats were searching off the coast of Santa Catarina state, where pieces of balloons were found.

Rev. Adelir Antonio de Carli lifted off from the port city of Paranagua on Sunday afternoon, wearing a helmet, thermal suit and a parachute.

He was reported missing about eight hours later after losing contact with port authority officials, according to the treasurer of his Sao Cristovao parish, Denise Gallas.

Gallas said by telephone that the priest wanted to break a 19-hour record for the most hours flying with balloons to raise money for a spiritual rest-stop for truckers in Paranagua, Brazil's second-largest port for agricultural products.

Some American adventurers have used helium balloons to emulate Larry Walters -- who in 1982 rose three miles above Los Angeles in a lawn chair lifted by balloons.

A video of Carli posted on the G1 Web site of Globo TV showed the smiling 41-year-old priest slipping into a flight suit, being strapped to a seat attached to a huge column green, red, white and yellow balloons, and soaring into the air to the cheers of a crowd.

According to Gallas, the priest soared to an altitude of 20,000 feet (6,000 meters) then descended to about 8,200 feet (2,500 meters) for his planned flight to the city of Dourados, 465 miles (750 kilometers) northwest of his parish.

But winds pushed him in another direction, and Carli was some 30 miles (50 kilometers) off the coast when he last contacted Paranagua's port authority, Gallas said.

Carli had a GPS device, a satellite phone, a buoyant chair and is an experienced skydiver, Gallas said.

"We are absolutely confident he will be found alive and well, floating somewhere in the ocean," she said.

"He knew what he was doing and was fully prepared for any kind of mishap."

Illiterate Peasants according to Rep. Douglas Bruce... and Merriam-Webster

ROTF.

Bruce Told To Leave Podium After Mexican Comment

By Steven K. Paulson, AP Writer

DENVER (AP) ― Rep. Douglas Bruce was ordered to leave the podium of the Colorado House of Representatives on Monday after calling Mexican workers "illiterate peasants."

Bruce, a Republican with a history of provoking controversy with his statements and actions, made the comment during a debate on a bill designed to ease a farmworker shortage in Colorado.

It drew an audible gasp from the House.

"How dare you," said Rep. Kathleen Curry, a Democrat who was serving as chairwoman during the debate. She told Bruce he was no longer recognized to speak.

The bill under discussion would allow the state to help immigrant workers get temporary visas.

Bruce said the bill was about "having more aliens coming into Colorado" from Mexico.

"I would like to have the opportunity to state at the microphone why I don't think we need 5,000 more illiterate peasants in Colorado," Bruce said.

Rep. Mike May of Parker, the House minority leader and head of the GOP caucus, said legislative leaders were trying to determine what action to take against Bruce.

Rep. Terrance Carroll, a Democrat from Denver, said the remark could result in a formal ethics complaint that would require a hearing and possible suspension, censure or expulsion.

"There's no room for bigotry on the floor of the House," Carroll said.

Rep Jack Pommer said calling immigrants "illiterate peasants" is deplorable. He said even for the controversial Bruce, it's a new low.

"It's a horrible thing to say, but we've kind of gotten used to that with him," Pommer said. "He's just the sort of person who seems to enjoy insulting people, and enjoys the reaction he gets when he insults people."

Bruce defended his remarks later.

"I was expressing my view, which is a true statement, that I don't want up to 5,000 more illiterate peasants coming to Colorado," he said. "And I certainly don't want to have a government program to bring them here.

"I looked up 'illiterate' in the dictionary and it means somebody who is lacking in formal education or is unable to read and write," he said. "I don't think these people who are planning to come over here and pick potatoes or peaches are likely to have much of a formal education. I looked up the word 'peasant.' The word 'peasant' means a person who works in agricultural fields.

"These people, most of them, don't speak English. Most of them haven't had any formal education, that's why they're coming over here. I don't blame them for trying, but I don't think we should pave the way for more aliens to come here," he said.

In a statement, Consul General of Mexico in Denver Eduardo Arnal called Bruce's remarks "unfortunate" and "offensive."

"I believe these types of comments do not contribute to the discussion on immigration between Mexico and the United States nor in the search of solutions regarding this topic," Arnal said.

Bruce, of Colorado Springs, has had had other run-ins since arriving at the Capitol in January as a midterm appointee to fill a vacancy.

He became the first Colorado lawmaker censured by the House after he kicked a newspaper photographer for taking his picture during a prayer. Republicans later removed him the powerful State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee because he refused to co-sponsor a resolution honoring military veterans.

Bruce said he believed resolutions were a waste of time because they have no legal impact.

Before becoming a state lawmaker, Bruce was best known as the author of the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights, a voter-approved amendment to the state constitution that limits taxes and government spending.

(© 2008 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

Tony Snow Goes to CNN

CNN has scored a casting coup for the election season.

Former White House Press Secretary Tony Snow joins CNN

Posted: 04:08 PM ET

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Former White House press secretary Tony Snow will join CNN as a conservative commentator beginning Monday.

CNN president Jon Klein announced that Snow, a long-time political observer with a longstanding news background, will contribute to CNN as the network continues to broadcast winning political coverage.

Snow most recently served as press secretary to President Bush. For 10 years, beginning in 1996, he appeared on Fox News Channel as the host of Fox News Sunday, Weekend Live with Tony Snow and other programs. Before joining Fox, Snow served as a substitute "From the Right" co-host for CNN's Crossfire.

Snow has also been a newspaper writer, radio host and columnist, and a speechwriter in the administration of the first President Bush.

The master finally weighs in on BHO's "bitter" comments, and, frankly, it was well worth the wait:

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Mark Steyn: Guns and God? Hell, yes

Obama attacks two of the things that elevate the U.S. above places like Europe

MARK STEYN

Syndicated columnist

Our lesson today comes from the songwriter Frank Loesser:

"Praise The Lord And Pass The Ammunition."

Or as Barack Obama and his San Francisco pals would put it: God and guns. Loesser got the phrase from Howell Forgy, a naval chaplain at Pearl Harbor, who walked the decks of the USS New Orleans under Japanese bombardment, exhorting his comrades. When the line came to Loesser's ears, he turned it into a big hit song of the Second World War:

"Praise the Lord and swing into position

Can't afford to sit around a-wishin'…" – which some folks sang as "Can't afford to be a politician." Indeed. Sen. Obama's remarks about poor dumb, bitter rural losers "clinging to" guns and God certainly testify to the instinctive snobbery of a big segment of the political class. But we shouldn't let it go by merely deploring coastal condescension toward the knuckledraggers. No, what Michelle Malkin calls Crackerquiddick (quite rightly – it's more than just another dreary "-gate") is not just snobbish nor even merely wrongheaded. It's an attack on two of the critical advantages the United States holds over most of the rest of the Western world. In the other G7 developed nations, nobody clings to God 'n' guns. The guns got taken away, and the Europeans gave up on churchgoing once they embraced Big Government as the new religion.

How's that working out? Compared with America, France and Germany have been more or less economically stagnant for the past quarter-century, living permanently with unemployment rates significantly higher than in the United States.

Has it made them any less "bitter," as Obama characterizes those Pennsylvanian crackers? No.

...

In my book "America Alone," I note a global survey on optimism: 61 percent of Americans were optimistic about the future, 29 percent of the French, 15 percent of Germans. Take it from a foreigner: In my experience, Americans are the least "bitter" people in the developed world. Secular, gun-free big-government Europe doesn't seem to have done anything for people's happiness. Consider by way of example the words of Keith Reade. He's not an Obama speechwriter, he's a writer for the London Daily Mirror. And the day after the 2004 presidential election he expressed his frustration in an alarmingly Obamaesque way:

"Were I a Kerry voter, though, I'd feel deep anger, not only at them returning Bush to power, but for allowing the outside world to lump us all into the same category of moronic muppets. The self-righteous, gun-totin', military-lovin', sister-marryin', abortion-hatin', gay-loathin', foreigner-despisin', nonpassport ownin' rednecks, who believe God gave America the biggest d*** in the world so it could urinate on the rest of us and make their land 'free and strong.'"

Well, that's certainly why I supported Bush, but I'm not sure it entirely accounts for the other 62,039,073 incontinent rednecks. Reade, though, does usefully enumerate some of the distinctive features that separate America from the rest of the West. "Self-righteous"? If you want a public culture that reeks of indestructible faith in its own righteousness, try Europe – especially when they're talking about America: If you disagree with Eutopian wisdom, you must be an idiot.

Obama and far too many Democrats have bought into this delusion, most thoroughly distilled in Thomas Frank's book "What's The Matter With Kansas?", whose argument is that heartland voters are too dumb (i.e., "moronic muppets") to vote for their own best interests.

Europeans did "vote for their own best interests" – i.e., cradle-to-grave welfare, 35-hour workweeks, six weeks of paid vacation, etc. – and as a result they now face a perfect storm of unsustainable entitlements, economic stagnation and declining human capital that's left them so demographically beholden to unassimilable levels of immigration that they're being remorselessly Islamized with every passing day. We should thank God (forgive the expression) that America's loser gun nuts don't share the same sophisticated rational calculation of "their best interests" as do Thomas Frank, Obama, too many Democrats and the European political establishment.

As for "gun-totin'," large numbers of Americans tote guns because they're assertive, self-reliant citizens, not docile subjects of a permanent governing class. The Second Amendment is philosophically consistent with the First Amendment, for which I've become more grateful since the Canadian Islamic Congress decided to sue me for "hate speech" up north. Both amendments embody the American view that liberty is not the gift of the state, and its defense cannot be outsourced exclusively to the government.

I think a healthy society needs both God and guns: It benefits from a belief in some kind of higher purpose to life on Earth, and it requires a self-reliant citizenry. If you lack either of those twin props, you wind up with today's Europe – a present-tense Eutopia mired in fatalism.

A while back, I was struck by the words of Oscar van den Boogaard, a Dutch gay humanist (which is pretty much the trifecta of Eurocool). Reflecting on the Continent's accelerating Islamification, he concluded that the jig was up for the Europe he loved, but what could he do? "I am not a warrior, but who is?" he shrugged. "I have never learned to fight for my freedom. I was only good at enjoying it."

Sorry, it doesn't work like that. If you don't understand that there are times when you'll have to fight for it, you won't enjoy it for long. That's what a lot of Reade's laundry list – "gun-totin'," "military-lovin'" – boils down to. As for "gay-loathin'," it's Oscar van den Boogaard's famously tolerant Amsterdam where gay-bashing is resurgent: The editor of the American gay paper the Washington Blade got beaten up in the streets on his last visit to the Netherlands.

God and guns. Maybe one day a viable society will find a magic cure-all that can do without both, but Big Government isn't it. And even complacent liberal Democrats ought to be able to look across the ocean and see that. But, then, Obama did give the speech in San Francisco, a city demographically declining at a rate that qualifies it for EU membership. When it comes to parochial simpletons, you don't need to go to Kansas.

© MARK STEYN

50% of L.A. Workforce Immigrants... In other news, Sun Rises in East

50 percent of LA workforce are immigrants

Published: April 21, 2008 at 12:48 AM

LOS ANGELES, April 21 (UPI) -- Los Angeles is at the leading edge of a U.S. demographic trend, with half of its workforce immigrants, many of them unskilled and speaking little English.

As baby boomers retire, the same pattern will emerge across the country, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday. Demographers estimate that by 2025 most of the growth in the workforce will be from immigrants.

Ernesto Cortes Jr., Southwest regional director of the Industrial Areas Foundation, said Los Angeles is at a crossroads.

"The question is: Are we going to be a 21st century city with shared prosperity, or a Third World city with an elite group on top and the majority at poverty or near poverty wages?" he asked. "Right now we're headed toward becoming a Third World city. But we can change that."

The Migration Policy Institute used U.S. Census data to determine that one-third of immigrants have not graduated from high school and 60 percent do not speak English fluently.

Cortes, with former U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros and others, is to participate in a conference this week at the University of Southern California on how to train and integrate immigrant workers.

© 2008 United Press International. All Rights Reserved.

Los Angeles is at a crossroads? I thought it had pretty much crossed that road to third-world-city status when I left in '05... a certain, small percentage of elites, and the folks that work for them. I love how everyone's all of a sudden surprised.

(P.S. I also love how the article says L.A. is at the "leading edge" of this "demographic trend"... makes spiraling down towards 3rd world status sound kind of progressive, eh?)

New children's book takes on mommy's plastic surgery

This is hilarious.

Excerpted:

New children's book takes on mommy's plastic surgery

By LEANNE ITALIE – 19 hours ago

Divorce. Bullies. Foster care. There are books for children on just about every tough subject these days. But mommy's plastic surgery?

A Florida plastic surgeon has written about just that in "My Beautiful Mommy," a picture book due out April 28 that tries to calm the fears of kids with parents getting tummy tucks, breast enhancement procedures and nose jobs.

Dr. Michael Salzhauer said so many moms brought kids to their appointments that he was motivated to stock up on lollipops in his Bal Harbour, Fla., office. In "My Beautiful Mommy," he explains mommy's recuperation, changing look and desire for plastic surgery.

"Many parents don't explain to their kids what's going on," said the father of four, with his fifth child on the way. "Children are very perceptive. You can't hide a major surgery from them. When mom goes down for two weeks after a tummy tuck it affects them."

Illustrations show a crook-nosed mom with loose tummy skin under her half shirt picking up her young daughter early from school one day and taking her to a strapping and handsome "Dr. Michael."

Mom explains she's going to have operations on her nose and tummy and may have to take it easy for a week or so. The girl asks if the operations will hurt, and mom replies, "Maybe a little," warning she'll look different after the bandages come off.

The girl asks: "Why are you going to look different?"

Mom responds: "Not just different, my dear — prettier!"

The Shamestream Media

I really despise the lamestream media. Apparently the editors at the Augusta Chronicle can sometimes second the emotion.

Now they ignore Haditha

'Massacre' loses its luster for media now that charges are melting away

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Back in November 2005, the mainstream media and much of the Democratic Congress, spurred on by the anti-war, military-bashing, hate-America crowd, went into hysterics over the so-called "Haditha massacre."

The claim, made by Iraqi witnesses, was that a squad of Marines in the village of Haditha -- angry after comrade-in-arms Lance Cpl. Miguel Terrazas was ripped in half by a roadside bomb -- retaliated by wantonly slaughtering unarmed women and children.

Big-city newspapers, network and cable TV ran with the firestorm for days. Time and Newsweek had cover stories on it. Congressional members denounced Marines' so-called brutality, highlighted by U.S. Rep. John Murtha's scurrilous accusation that the Marines had engaged in a "cold blooded" killing of innocent civilians.

The anti-war left was delighted that they'd finally found the Iraq War's My Lai, and the Pentagon, reeling under the negative publicity, quickly put together a crack prosecution team, including 65 investigators, to bring to justice eight Haditha Marines charged with murder.

Well, the Marines are getting justice all right, but not the kind Murtha and fellow anti-war fanatics expected. The five Marines so far slated to go on trial have had their murder charges reduced to manslaughter, then reduced again and again until finally the prosecutors gave up and simply dropped all charges.

So what happened?

According to court observers, the real evidence -- as opposed to the far left's hysterical non- evidence -- just hasn't been there for a serious prosecution. An eight-hour taped deposition by a battalion intelligence officer, and supported by photographic evidence, confirmed Marines' account that they were under hostile fire from buildings in the area, and that they had every right to do what Marines are trained to do under those circumstances -- respond with overwhelming force.

Yes, innocent women and children were killed, but not because the young Marines were angry or out of control. It was because cowardly enemy snipers were using the innocents as shields.

There are still three Marines left to be tried for murder, but court observers believe those charges will also be dropped. Don't expect to hear much about this from Congress or the mainstream media -- or to see any cover stories in Time or Newsweek . It's only news if they're supposedly guilty.

When our courageous troops are not guilty, it's an embarrassment to even bring the issue up in polite far-left company-- much less get an apology from them.

From the Thursday, April 17, 2008 edition of the Augusta Chronicle

Yay... I found a perfect Friday story...

... and the day is yet young.

Drunk Russian sleeps off knifing

A Russian man trying to sleep off a night of after-work drinking failed to notice a six-inch (15-cm) knife in his back - until his wife woke him up.

Yuri Lyalin, 53, took a bus home, ate breakfast and apparently slept like a baby before his spouse noticed a handle sticking out of his back.

He was rushed to casualty but doctors found no vital organs damaged.

Mr Lyalin shrugged the episode off but the drinking partner who stabbed him faces trial, Russian media report.

"Unique and intriguing the case may be, but the accused faces a severe punishment," said Pavel Vorobyov, a deputy prosecutor in the northern city of Vologda.

'We were drinking'

Mr Lyalin, an electrician, had spent the evening drinking with a watchman at his workplace when they got into an argument, Interfax news agency reports.

The morning found him waking up in the watchman's office but instead of going back to work, he decided to take the bus home.

At home, Mr Lyalin had some sausage from the fridge and lay down to sleep, the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper says.

After a couple of hours, his wife noticed the handle sticking out of his back and called an ambulance.

Viktor Belov, a surgeon who treated him, found a kitchen knife in Mr Lyalin's back but "by good fortune, it had gone through soft tissue without touching vital organs".

His alleged attacker reported the crime to the police himself, Interfax adds. Mr Lyalin apparently feels fine and bears no ill-will.

"We were drinking and what doesn't happen when you're drunk?" he was quoted by Komsomolskaya Pravda as saying.