Moments after Republicans succeeded in thwarting the will of 90% of Americans by defeating background checks, Republican leader Mitch McConnell and his team couldn’t contain themselves. As Democratic leader Harry Reid and fellow Democrats consoled members of Newtown families that lost a loved one in Sandy Hook, this caption and picture appeared on McConnell’s Facebook page.
We love the memes you send us! Keep them coming!
Disgusting behavior indeed. A United States Senator is mocking the wishes of a majority of Americans, celebrating the defeat of a bill 90% of us wanted. And some of these Americans used McConnell’s Facebook post to express their displeasure in the Republican’s taste.
Below are some of the first responses to McConnell’s sick humor.
If the bulk of current evidence is to be believed, there’s a sweet spot in laptops right now around $799 to $999, where nearly any PC maker seems to be able to produce a slim, touch-screen laptop with an aluminum body running an Intel Core i5 CPU and a 128GB SSD.
Operating at the upper end of the laptop category is much more difficult, and very few brands have been able to create products that can successfully sell for $1,500 to $2,000. Apple is a rare exception, and if you’re pitching a laptop that costs as much or more than a comparable MacBook, that’s what we would describe as a bold move.
(Credit: Dan Ackerman/CNET)
Toshiba, long a well-known brand in that midprice space, has thus far relied on its multimedia Qosmio line for more expensive laptops. But, these have been large desktop-replacement-style laptops, with big, bulky bodies, discrete graphics cards, and even 3D displays. While often a good value considering the high-end hardware inside, these systems are a far cry from the slim, premium ultrabooks that style-savvy consumers may be willing to pay more for.
To break into this high-end, high-style category, Toshiba is launching a new product line called Kira. The first product in that line is a 13-inch laptop called Kirabook. This is a 13-inch ultrabook, with high-end features that rival — and in some cases beat — anyone else in the market.
The Kirabook’s biggest selling point is its high-res screen. Far beyond 1,920×1,080, this is instead a 2,560×1,440-pixel-resolution display (called PixelPure), putting it firmly in the territory of the MacBook Pro with Retina Display. Of course, that also includes MacBook-Pro-like prices, with the Kirabook running from $1,599 to $1,999.
(Credit: Dan Ackerman/CNET)
Surprisingly for a 2013 luxury laptop, some models will offer touch screens while others will not. As of our recent hands-on briefing with the Kirabook, the base $1,599 model will not include a touch screen, but one will be available as a $100 upgrade. Will anyone spend $1,599 on a non-touch-screen laptop? Perhaps — Apple buyers do it all the time. But, what works for Apple doesn’t always translate to other brands (case in point: Dell’s Air-like Adamo laptop).
Another big selling point is the magnesium body. Using magnesium instead of aluminum saves weight and still provides great strength, and the Kirabook weighs a enviable 2.6 pounds. Toshiba is also including upgraded service and support (including a two-year warranty and U.S.-based 24-hour phone support) to help sweeten the deal.
In our brief hands-on time with the Kirabook, it certainly was thin and light, and it felt physically very well put-together. The high-res screen looked amazing when playing native resolution video content — as it would on a Retina MacBook Pro or Google Pixel Chromebook.
(Credit: Dan Ackerman/CNET)
But, aside from the display, the rest of the system has a premium, but not necessarily luxury, feel. The magnesium body was finished so that it looked a lot like Toshiba’s less-expensive laptops, such as the excellent Satellite U845t ultrabook, which has a Core i5 processor and 128GB SSD for $799. Those two systems aren’t identical, but the Kirabook, while nicer, certainly doesn’t look like it costs twice as much.
Put another way, after seeing it and hearing the specs, we took guesses at how much the Kirabook would cost — and we weren’t even close.
A handful of laptops have tried for this kind of premium pricing recently. The Acer Aspire S7 is one example, but it at least brought a radically eye-catching design to the table (and some versions are already down to about $1,000).
Still, it’s great to see more PC makers embracing higher screen resolutions, and Toshiba has a commendable knack for putting itself out there early on, pioneering everything from autostereoscopic 3D to affordable ultrabooks.
The Kirabook will be will be available for pre-order on May 3 and for purchase on May 12, through outlets including Amazon, BestBuy.com, B&H, and the Microsoft Store.
A pedophile or a racist? This teacher chose the latter.
A Texas woman is admitting to being a racist in order to clear her name of sexual assault. She plans to use the claim as a defense against the charges that she fondled an African-American student in her first grade class at Northwest Preparatory Academy Charter School in Humble.
According to a criminal complaint obtained by the Houston Chronicle, the 7-year-old girl said that 61-year-old Esther Irene Stokes sent all of the other students out of the room on March 1 and then touched her “private part” on the outside of her clothes.
“The victim said that she was in the classroom alone with the teacher and that the teacher touched her on the outside of her clothes, on what she called her ‘private part,’ her vaginal area,” Humble Police Department Detective J. Blanchard explained on Tuesday.
When Stokes took a polygraph test and failed, she told the police that she hadn’t touched the girl, and she had proof that she didn’t.
“She doesn’t like to even touch the black children on their hand, she shies away when they try to hug her — she admitted to being prejudiced,” Blanchard said.
The complaint stated that Stokes “doesn’t like black students because she was prejudiced” and “has little to no interaction” with her accuser.
The little girl also told police that Stokes made her stand out in the hall without any lunch. But of course, she denied that as well.
Stokes’ attorney, Patty Maginnis, said that any racist comments made by her client were “not proof that any crime has been committed.”
“I would consider that just a personal opinion,” the lawyer noted. “The facts of the case will determine that she is innocent.”
She was fired on Tuesday.
Next time she might want to argue that she doesn’t like to mess with kids PERIOD! Not that she has a preference. SMH.
While the nation was busy mourning the devastation that happened in Boston on Monday, Republicans in the Senate, supported by a few Democrats managed to slowly and willfully kill background checks. Apparently what happened in Newtown Connecticut was not enough for these heartless Senators to support a bill that will guarantee making sure gun purchasers are sane enough to buy a gun.
The vote on the amendment was 54 to 46. Sixty votes were needed for the amendment to be adopted.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein pushes for an assault weapons ban in the U.S. while speaking on the Senate floor Wednesday.
The deal was the result of a deal struck between Republican Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia.
As the bill was defeated, a voice in the Senate gallery could be heard yelling “Shame on you!”
The Manchin-Toomey amendment would have extended existing background check rules to gun sales made online and at gun shows. It was vehemently opposed by the National Rifle Association, who said it infringed on the rights of gun owners.
BOSTON (AP) — A suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings is about to be arrested, a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation said Wednesday.
The official was not authorized to divulge details of the investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. The suspect was to be taken into custody by federal marshals and taken to a Boston courthouse, the official said.
The official spoke shortly after several media outlets reported that a suspect had been identified from surveillance video taken at a Lord & Taylor store between the two bomb blasts.
An official news briefing was scheduled later Wednesday.
Law enforcement agencies had earlier pleaded for the public to come forward with photos, videos or any information that might help them solve the twin bombings that killed three people and wounded more than 170 on Monday.
Investigators circulated information about the bombs, which involved kitchen pressure cookers packed with explosives, nails and other lethal shrapnel. But the FBI said nobody had claimed responsibility.
A person close to the investigation had previously told AP the bombs consisted of explosives put in 1.6-gallon pressure cookers, one with shards of metal and ball bearings, the other with nails.
Are you tired of all the hate coming from the so-called “Church” in Florida better known as the Westboro Baptist Church? Well if you are, then you’ll love the decorations Anonymous has done to their official Facebook page.
A little disturbing background: While the entire nation mourned, the so-called “Church” recently announced that they would protest the funerals of those killed on Monday in the terrorist attack in Boston. Protesting funerals of upstanding Americans like those who died in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the kids who were murdered in Newtown Connecticut, is something Westboro is known for. It is their twisted way of bringing attention to their cause: Hate.
Well Anonymous has had enough and they took over Westboro’s official Facebook page, posting things a Church should actually be posting… things about love, peace and caring. And based on the comments, it seems that a majority of people are supporting Anonymous’ actions.
Personally, I’m wondering why this wasn’t done much much earlier.
Here’s an example of Westboro Anonymous’ posts and the responses it received. And take a look at Westboro’s Facebook page.
A letter addressed to President Obama that field-tested positive for the poison ricin was received at the remote White House mail screening facility Tuesday, according to law enforcement officials.
Law enforcement officials emphasized that these tests are preliminary and are often unreliable. They said the final word would come from a complete lab test that should be completed in the next 24 to 48 hours.
A false positive for ricin occurs at least once each year, a homeland security official told ABC News.
The facility routinely identifies letters or parcels that require secondary screening or scientific testing before delivery.
The office of Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi also Tuesday received a suspicious letter potentially laced with ricin, postmarked from Memphis.
Testing on the first letter is incomplete but expected to be finished this afternoon. The first letter was addressed to Republican Wicker.
The Secret Service mail screening facility is a remote facility, not located near the White House complex, that all White House mail goes through.
The Secret Service is working closely with the U.S. Capitol Police and the FBI in this investigation.
FBI sources say anytime suspicious powder is located in a mail facility, field tests are conducted. The field and other preliminary tests in this instance produced inconsistent results. The material has been sent to an accredited laboratory for further analysis.
Only a full analysis performed at an accredited laboratory can determine the presence of a biological agent such as ricin. Those tests are in the process of being conducted and generally take from 24 to 48 hours.
The Centers for Disease Control defines ricin as a poison that comes from castor beans and can be found in a powder, a mist, a pellet or dissolved in water.
“In the 1940s, the U.S. military experimented with using ricin as a possible warfare agent,” the CDC writes. “In some reports ricin has possibly been used as a warfare agent in the 1980s in Iraq and more recently by terrorist organizations.”
New Hampshire State Rep. Peter Hansen referred to women as “vaginas” in an email to colleagues sent on the legislature’s official internal listserv. In response to a message debating a “stand your ground” measure being considered by the State House, the Republican lawmaker wrote:
What could possibly be missing from those factual tales of successful retreat in VT, Germany, and the bowels of Amsterdam? Why children and vagina’s of course. While the tales relate the actions of a solitary male the outcome cannot relate to similar situations where children and women and mothers are the potential victims.
Hansen’s use of metonym outraged his Democratic and Republican colleagues, prompting Democratice State Rep. Rick Watrous to respond:
“Children and vagina’s”??!! Are you really using “vaginas” as a crude catch-all for women? Really? Please think before you send out such offensive language on the legislative listserve.”
NARAL Pro-Choice New Hampshire weighed in, too:
Shame on Representative Hansen — we will do everything in our power to ensure voters in his district know about his demeaning rhetoric. Women are more than their reproductive organs. We are daughters, sisters, mothers, students, professionals, and community leaders. We deserve more than being referenced by our body parts.
Hansen initially remained defiant in response to criticism, explaining that he had a “fairly well educated mind” and did not need his colleagues to act as “self-appointed wardens” to his speech. He went on to suggest that anyone offended by his use of female genitalia to describe women everywhere should “re-examine [their] psyche.”
But his critics persisted and Hansen relented over his figure of speech, at least a little:
was not, and is not, my intention to demean women at any time. It is apparent that the intent of my remarks has been misinterpreted, the true goal of the message lost and for that I apologize to those who took offense.
In a move of pure class, the New York Yankees paid tribute to the home of their baseball rivals in Boston. After suffering from the bombing acts of a coward, the Yankees acknowledged a moment of silence before their Tuesday night game with Arizona, and played a Boston favorite between the second and third quarter of their eventual win.
The Neil Diamond classic was appreciated by the Fans in attendance.
Showing his appreciation, Neil Diamond himself tweeted to say thanks to the Yankees for their support.
Thank you NY Yankees for playing ‘Sweet Caroline’ for the people of Boston. You scored a home run in my heart. With respect, Neil #OneBoston
Superman, the world’s greatest comic book super hero is back in the movies. And if great SFX is your thing, this movie looks like its got it!
In theaters June 14th
From Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures comes “Man of Steel”, starring Henry Cavill, directed by Zach Snyder. The film also stars Amy Adams, Diane Lane, Kevin Costner, Michael Shannon, Russell Crowe, Antje Traue, Ayelet Zurer, Henry Lennix, Christopher Meloni and Laurence Fishburne.
The two sets of pictures below were obtained by Fox 5 Atlanta. The first set of pictures, a ‘before’ pic shows a bag placed by the barricades next to a mailbox. In the ‘after’ picture, the bag is gone.
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The next set of pictures show a man running away from the area where the bag was placed. Although it is possible that he was scared because of what had just occurred, it is a bit strange that while everyone around him seemed shocked, covering their ears and bending down, this man is seen running away in the opposite direction.
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