Author: Ezra Grant

I'm just tired of the lies and nonsense coming from the GOP, so this is my little contribution to combat the nonsense!

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pope francis Religion

Pope Francis Washed And Kissed The Feet Of Inmates – Pic

Pope Francis washed the feet of a dozen inmates at a juvenile detention center in a Holy Thursday ritual that he celebrated for years as archbishop and is continuing now that he is pope. Two of the 12 were young women, a remarkable choice given that the rite re-enacts Jesus’ washing of the feet of his male disciples.

The Mass was held in the Casal del Marmo facility in Rome, where 46 young men and women currently are detained. Many of them are Gypsies or North African migrants, and the Vatican said the 12 selected for the rite weren’t necessarily Catholic.

Because the inmates were mostly minors — the facility houses inmates aged 14-21 — the Vatican and Italian Justice Ministry limited media access inside. But Vatican Radio carried the Mass live, and Francis told the detainees that Jesus washed the feet of his disciples on the eve of his crucifixion in a gesture of love and service.

“This is a symbol, it is a sign —washing your feet means I am at your service,” Francis told the youngsters. “Help one another. This is what Jesus teaches us. This is what I do. And I do it with my heart. I do this with my heart because it is my duty, as a priest and bishop I must be at your service.”

h/t TPM

Categories
child support Tid Bits

Child Support Warrent Issued For $338 Million Powerball Winner

The New Jersey man who won $338 million in the Powerball lottery last weekend is wanted on charges of unpaid child support, according to the Passaic County Sheriff’s Office.

An arrest warrant was issued for Pedro Quezada in 2009, the sheriff’s office said. He has five children ages 5-23 and owes a total of $29,000 in back child support, spokesman William Maer said. It is not clear which children the payments are for.

Quezada’s son, Casiano, said his father has hired an attorney and is “working through it.”

A child support warrant usually results in payment, an installment plan or arrest, Maer said. He declined to comment on the Quezada case because the investigation is ongoing.

Every person who wins more than $600 in the New Jersey Lottery is checked for outstanding taxes, liens, child support payments and the like, lottery spokeswoman Judith Drucker said. The funds owed are deducted from the winner’s final payment, she said.

Quezada has chosen a lump-sum cash jackpot payment that will amount to about $152 million after taxes.

Categories
Immigrants Politics

Alaska Republican Refers To Immigrants As “Wetbacks”

Rep. Don Young of Alaska said Thursday that he “meant no disrespect” when he used the term “wetbacks” to refer to the migrant laborers who used to work on his father’s California ranch.

The Republican congressman dropped the racial slur during an interview with the Alaska radio station KRBD when talking about the changing market for U.S. labor jobs.

“My father had a ranch; we used to have 50 to 60 wetbacks to pick tomatoes,” he said. “It takes two people to pick the same tomatoes now. It’s all done by machine.”

The term “wetback” was originally used to refer to Mexicans who entered the U.S. by swimming or wading across the Rio Grande.

After an uproar about his use of the derogatory term, Young issued a statement that walked back the remark without exactly apologizing.

“During a sit down interview with Ketchikan Public Radio this week, I used a term that was commonly used during my days growing up on a farm in Central California,” he said, according to Alaska’s KTUU-TV. “I know that this term is not used in the same way nowadays and I meant no disrespect.

Categories
Politics shooting

President Obama – “Shame On Us If We’ve Forgotten” [Newtown]

Amid signs that he may have to accept a scaled-down version of gun legislation, Obama sounded a note of frustration in calling upon Americans to demand action from the U.S. Congress in the weeks ahead.

He said the legislation’s opponents, the powerful U.S. gun lobby led by the National Rifle Association, are “doing everything they can” to derail the effort barely 100 days after the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, in which a gunman killed 20 children, six staff members and then himself.

“The entire country pledged we would do something about it and that this time would be different. Shame on us if we’ve forgotten. I haven’t forgotten those kids. Shame on us if we’ve forgotten,” said Obama, appearing at the White House with mothers of children who had been shot to death.

The gunman in Newtown, Adam Lanza, fired 154 rounds in less than 5 minutes, selecting high capacity magazines from a home arsenal stocked with swords, knives and a cache of guns, officials said Thursday.

Categories
Politics Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin’s Political Ambition Shooting For 2014

The two-minute ad, titled “Loaded for Bear,” focuses heavily on Palin’s CPAC appearance, lauding her as the fearless anti-establishment superstar.

The video also features freshman Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) praising Palin for her work in 2012 and giving her credit for his win, as well as that of others. It also features text reminding viewers that there are 35 Senate races and 36 gubernatorial races next year. The video ends with the silhouette of a bear growling, and the words “We haven’t yet begun to fight!”

Categories
Politics twitter

Ashley Judd Has Made Her Decision – Says No To Senate Run

If you were hoping and praying that Ashley Judd would run for Senate, well I’m sorry to disappoint you. After much fanfare about a possible Senate run to dethrone Republican Mitch McConnell, Judd took to Twitter and informed the world that she would not run. Instead, the popular Democratic actress said that she would use this time to concentrate on her family.

thanks @TonyLBlackwell

Categories
Politics

Analysis: Supreme Court Will Not Budge On Same Sex Marriage

If the country is rushing headlong toward full-throated endorsement of same-sex marriage, the Supreme Court apparently didn’t get the memo.

Over two days of oral arguments on what has been described as the civil rights issue of the 21st century, the justices spent more time addressing mundane matters of states’ rights and judicial standing than threshold issues of equality and morality.

The result still may be at least incremental progress for the gay rights movement, but it’s likely to come more with a whimper than a bang — and with substantial regrets about the way the two cases were presented, argued and decided.

The best guess at this point is that the court, controlled by Justice Anthony Kennedy, its swing vote, will leave California’s gay marriage ban in the hands of that state’s courts, which already have struck it down. That would legalize gay marriage in the nation’s largest state — no small matter — but would not implicate similar bans in 37 other states.

And even on the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which offered a fatter target for the court because it denies financial and other benefits to legally married same-sex couples, the court fretted more over the government’s jurisdiction than matters of morality.

Categories
Politics

Florida Professor Asked Students To Stomp On Jesus

This post will be filed under WTF because I am at a total loss as to the point this professor wanted to make.

A university is under fire after a class assignment instructed its students to write the word ‘Jesus’ on a piece of paper, throw it on the floor, and then stomp on it.

Florida Gov Rick Scott has now demanded an investigation into the ‘offensive’ assignment after a Florida Atlantic University professor allegedly threw a student out of his class for refusing to participate.

Ryan Rotela, a junior at FAU’s Davie campus who describes himself as a de

vout Mormon, says it was his refusal to participate that led to his suspension.

‘Anytime you stomp on something it shows that you believe that something has no value. So if you were to stomp on the word Jesus, it says that the word has no value,’ Mr Rotela told CBS12.

The assignment instructed in Dr. Deandre Poole’s intercultural communication class was meant to demonstrate the power of words and symbols, according to the exercise.

This exercise is actually included in the school’s instructor’s manual where the students are to express why they would hesitate before stomping on the name JESUS.

The problem with this exercise is once any student does go through with the exercise, you have now crossed a boundary where the rights and respect for all religions is certainly being violated.

I can totally understand not believing in someone’s religion. That freedom to have your own belief is what this country was built on. This freedom is even written into the constitution.

So what exactly gave this professor the authority to ask his students to deface the religion of millions is not only stupid and insensitive; it also slaps the constitution dead in the face.

An investigation is definitely in order. And his teaching credentials should be revoked for life.

Categories
Politics trayvon martin twitter

George Zimmerman’s Brother Compares Trayvon Martin To A Baby Killer

The older brother of George Zimmerman, the man accused of killing Florida teenager Trayvon Martin, posted an image on Twitter comparing the deceased teen to an alleged Ga. baby-killer.

On March 24, Robert Zimmerman, Jr., tweeted an image of Martin alongside one of De’Marquise Kareem Elkins, the 17-year-old accused of fatally shooting one-year-old Antonio Santiago in his stroller on March 21.

Zimmerman’s brother George shot and killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Feb. 2012.

Categories
Music

Singer Dionne Warwick Files For Bankruptcy

Dionne Warwick, the singer and actress who was a regular at the top of the Billboard chart for four decades, owes more than $10 million in back taxes and has only $10 left at the end of each month after paying expenses, according to a petition filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New Jersey last week.

The 72-year-old five-time Grammy Award winner, who lives in a 3,200-square-foot home in South Orange and won awards for songs like “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again,” “That’s What Friends are For” and “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head,” pays $5,000 a month for housekeeping.

The East Orange native also pays $4,000 for a personal assistant and another $11,940 in other monthly expenses, the bankruptcy petition stated.

Warwick, who filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy Thursday, has $25,500 in assets and $10.7 million in liabilities, according to the court papers.

Among the valuables listed in her bankruptcy petition: Two fur coats and two sets of diamonds earrings that have a combined value of $13,000; gowns and everyday clothing worth $5,000; and artwork and paintings worth $5,000.

Warwick owes nine years of back taxes, totaling $7 million, to the federal government and $3 million to the state of California, according to the bankruptcy petition.

h/t NJ.COM

Categories
Abortions illegal north dakota Politics

Abortions Are Now Illegal in North Dakota

It’s now legal. Abortions are illegal in North Dakota.

Gov. Jack Dalrymple signed legislation Tuesday that that would make North Dakota the nation’s most restrictive state on abortion rights, banning the procedure if a fetal heartbeat can be detected — something that can happen as early as six weeks into a pregnancy.

The Republican governor also signed into law another measure that would makes North Dakota the first to ban abortions based on genetic defects such as Down syndrome.

The measures are fueled in part by an attempt to close the state’s sole abortion clinic in Fargo. Supporters of the so-called fetal heartbeat measure said it is a direct challenge the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion up until a fetus is considered viable, usually at 22 to 24 weeks.

Abortion-rights advocates have promised a legal fight that they say will be long, costly and unwinnable for the state

Categories
gun Politics

Republicans Promising To Block Any New Gun Laws

Twenty young kids were gunned down in Newtown Connecticut last December. That’s in addition to the thousands who are killed each year from gun violence. But is all that enough to appeal to the cold hearted nature of the Republicans?
Not even close. Congressional Republicans are promising to block any attempt by Democrats to implement sensible gun laws.

Sens. Rand Paul, Ted Cruz and Mike Lee are threatening to filibuster gun-control legislation, according to a letter they plan to hand-deliver to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s office on Tuesday.

“We will oppose the motion to proceed to any legislation that will serve as a vehicle for any additional gun restrictions,” the three conservatives wrote in a copy of the signed letter obtained by POLITICO.

Reid plans to bring up a gun-control measure that focuses on broadening background checks and cracking down on interstate gun-trafficking after the current Senate recess.

Conservatives are concerned that once that bill reaches the floor, amendments could stiffen restrictions on gun control.

These people are sole subsidiary of the NRA.

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