It was said in Australia by a District Judge, but similar opinions have been expressed here in the US by many elected officials.
District Court Judge Garry Neilson was caught on tape offering his view that just as same-sex relationships were once considered socially unacceptable, sexual contact between adults and children or siblings may no longer be regarded by society as unnatural or taboo.
…a jury might find nothing untoward in the advance of a brother towards his sister once she had sexually matured, had sexual relationships with other men and was now ‘available,’ not having [a] sexual partner.
Jed Horne, Policy and Project Officer at New South Wales Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby, told Australia’s Star Observer that “the comments attributed to the judge are completely unacceptable.”
Not only do they make a highly offensive comparison between being gay and sexual offences, but they are an affront to members of the community which have experienced sexual abuse in their lives.
Former U.S. Rep. Ken Gray, who represented southern Illinois in Congress and earned the nickname the “Prince of Pork” for bringing $7 billion in projects to his district, died Saturday at age 89.
Parker-Reedy Funeral Home in West Frankfort said Sunday that Gray died at a hospital in Herrin after a long illness. Gray was first elected to Congress in 1954 and served ten terms until high blood pressure forced him to retire in 1974. He returned to Congress in 1984 to serve two terms but retired again, citing a muscular disorder caused by a tick bite during a congressional visit to Brazil.
Gray, a Democrat, was a colorful figure during his time in Washington. He was known for bringing federal projects to his depressed district, including a federal prison, an interstate highway, post offices and hospitals.
President Obama used this week’s address to recapped his visits with folks who have written him letters about their own American stories — their successes and struggles. While Congressional Republicans are blocking meaningful measures that would strengthen the middle class, the President continues looking for ways to grow the economy and expand opportunity for more hardworking Americans.
I know, I know: Money is the answer, plain and simple. School districts don’t want to pay teachers for advanced degrees and right wing politicians don’t want public schools to begin with, so it makes sense that Texas and North Carolina are both in the forefront of starving their states of effective teachers in an effort to…well, I’m not sure.
The debate over whether teachers who earn advanced degrees and credits that allow them to earn more money on the salary scale are actually better teachers than those who don’t, or are better themselves than if they had just stuck with their Bachelor’s degree credits, is becoming louder and more intense. As any teacher can tell you, though, there really is no debate. Teachers who continue their educations, broaden themselves or even go in a new educational direction tend to be more effective. There is no question that teachers should be encouraged (required?) to take courses in content or pedagogy.
So why the screed? Because a few states, most notably Texas and North Carolina, have decided that paying teachers more for advanced degrees doesn’t necessarily lead to high student test scores. And they might be right, but that’s exactly what’s wrong with the current push for test scores to evaluate teachers. Earning a higher degree makes the teacher more knowledgeable and exposes them to more effective teaching methods. Students are then exposed to a greater variety of teaching methods and more expansive content. That’s the point of an education. Equating the tests with teacher effectiveness is a terrible idea whose time, unfortunately, has come.
Even worse is the fact that public leaders continue to say that we need the best and brightest college graduates to become teachers (as if we don’t have a significant majority of them in classrooms right now). What the best and brightest know, and being one of them allows me to represent their argument, is that educating yourself is the best practice any teacher can follow. The best and brightest also know that motivating people to push themselves should be recognized monetarily. Isn’t that what law firms, banks and other corporations do?
The best and brightest are not swayed by specious arguments from elected officials who are not, in most cases, the best and brightest. For proof, consider the reaction in North Carolina:
In April, the Wake County Public School System – the largest in North Carolina with about 150,000 students – said more than 600 teachers had left since the beginning of the school year, an increase of 41 percent over the same period the year before.
One district official blamed a lack of a significant pay raises in recent years, along with the phasing out of tenure and extra pay for advanced degrees. Human Resources Superintendent Doug Thilman called the figures “alarming” but “not surprising.”
Not surprising? If your best teachers are leaving the schools, why continue the policy? And who, might I ask, is taking the place of these best and brightest? People with no interest in getting advanced degrees? These are not the best people to have in your classrooms. This is the kind of lazy thinking that will rule the country if conservatives are elected to the Senate and the White House.
Something to seriously think about this fall and for 2016.
Big government indeed. Rick Perry, governor of Texas, is requesting more and more from tax payers and ultimately the Federal Government. He wants the National Guard to come in and patrol the border not because they can make arrests, they can’t, but because he wants the visual.
According to the backward thinking of Big Government Rick Perry, who was interviewed on Fox News by Brit Hume, cutting into the already depleted budget to pay a few thousand of National Guardsmen to patrol the border for the perfect picture moment, is how we will stop the children from coming over the border.
“They need to be right on the river. They need to be there as a show of force because that’s the message that gets sent back very quickly to Central America,” he said.
Hume challenged Perry, asking what purpose troops could actually serve.
“They’re not, under the law, allowed to apprehend any of these children that are crossing, are they?” he asked.
“The issue is with being able to send that message because it’s the visual of it, I think, that is the most important,” Perry responded. “If you don’t stop the bleeding. If you don’t staunch this flow of individuals that are coming up here, this is only going to get worse.”
Hume continued to press Perry.
“But the question I’m trying to get at with you is this: if these children, who have undergone these harrowing journeys to escape from the most desperate conditions in their home countries, have gotten this far, are they really going to be deterred by the presence of troops along the border who won’t shoot them and can’t arrest them?” he asked.
“I think we’re talking about two different things here,” Perry responded.
The governor then added that the “most humanitarian thing that we can do” is to take care of the undocumented immigrants, quickly process them and return them to their families.
The man behind the best-selling basketball sneakers of all time is in the Basketball Hall of Fame and is still a household name even though his career ended years ago. No, it’s not Michael Jordan. We’re talking about Chuck Taylor.
This story originally aired on Nov. 2, 2013
Millions of people around the world wear Chuck Taylor’s name on their ankles every day. His signature has appeared on the high-top, canvas All Star sneakers since 1932.
In Harvard Square in Cambridge, Mass., there’s a steady stream of college students, tourists, hipsters … and Chuck Taylors. On a sunny October afternoon, Morgan Goldstein was sporting a multi-colored pair of high tops. The 23-year-old has owned several pairs of All Stars.
“They’re comfortable. They’re classic,” Goldstein said. “My parents wore them. My mom thinks it’s weird that I’m still wearing them because that’s what she wore when she was a kid.”
Aleem Ahmed, 29, was wearing black low-tops. Ahmed has no problem explaining why he likes the sneakers, but like most Chucks owners, he’s less certain about Taylor’s story.
“I only know him from the sneakers. Maybe he has a skateboarding background? I don’t know,” he said.
Abraham Aamidor wrote a biography of Taylor published in 2006 titled Chuck Taylor, All Star.
“It became like Betty Crocker in a sense. If you were a cook, you knew the name Betty Crocker. There was no such person as Betty Crocker. But there really was such a person as Chuck Taylor. Most Americans didn’t know that,” Aamdior said. “People who were buying his shoes by the ’60s, ’70s, ’80s and beyond, they just thought of Chuck Taylor as a brand. His brand grew with the shoe even as his persona, the real persona, was lost.”
A Player In Basketball’s Early Days
Charles Taylor was born in 1901, just ten years after Dr. James Naismith is credited with inventing the game of basketball. Taylor grew up in Columbus, Indiana and played for the Columbus High Bull Dogs. He graduated in 1919 and eventually landed in Akron, Ohio where he played for the Firestone Non-Skids, a semi-pro team owned by the tire manufacturer. But in 1922, he accepted a job as a salesman at Converse, and basketball was a critical part of his position.
Joe Dean worked for Converse for nearly 30 years, ending his tenure as a vice president. When Dean was hired in 1959, Taylor was already a giant at the company and in the world of basketball.
“He loved the game [of basketball]. He loved being a part of it. He put on clinics all over the country, helping kids learn how to play a little bit better,” said Dean, who later served as the athletic director at Louisiana State University and is in the College Basketball Hall of Fame.
“He was a loveable guy and fun to be around and a nice guy, and he, at one point, knew every college basketball coach in the country. And if you wanted to hire a coach, you went through him. He’d recommend somebody.”
In the 1920s and ’30s, Taylor played on Converse’s own team and generated publicity in local newspapers with countless basketball clinics. The self-promotion paid off. The All Star sneaker had debuted in 1917 and Converse added Taylor’s name 15 years later, but Aamidor says customers had already made the switch.
“People would order ‘Chuck’s shoe’ or ‘Chuck Taylor’s shoe’ instead of the Converse All-Star. So his signature was added just under the five-point star. Brilliant marketing, brilliant branding.”
Taylor never asked for a royalty for having his name on the shoe. Air Jordans have earned Michael Jordan far more money than he ever made as a player, but Converse gave Taylor a full expense account and commission. By the time he retired in the mid-1960s, Taylor had been out on the road selling for more than 40 years. He married and divorced then married again later in life, but had no children. Dean says Taylor had no regrets.
“He went years without having a house or an apartment or anything. He lived out of a hotel 365 days a year. And that was happy for him. Christmas Day was just another day to him. Converse paid for Christmas. They were just glad he didn’t ask for a little extra change for his name,” Dean said, laughing.
Oh wait! So you didn’t know that the borders were God’s design? You didn’t know that it was his intention that people stay separated? Well according to the Republican “Christian” preacher, preaching Republican policy ideas, that is exactly the case.
In a column for BarbWire today, Fischer writes, “What we learn from the Bible is that borders are God’s idea, and that such borders are to be respected. They are not to be crossed without permission.”
As a result, he writes, “[o]ur southern border is there by God’s design” and those who “regard it as something not worth respecting and defending” are insulting God.
He gives himself an out by adding an exception to biblical national borders in the case of “a just war.”
What we learn from the Bible is that borders are God’s idea, and that such borders are to be respected. They are not to be crossed without permission.
Crossing a border without permission is like breaking in the back door of a house to help yourself to goodies instead of being invited in by the host through the front door. You might get to eat either way, in the same house and from the same cupboard, but in one case you would be doing something respectful and civil and in the other doing something that rightly should land you in jail.
The Scriptures make it clear that national sovereignty, including clearly defined borders, is God’s idea. In Acts 17:26, we read, “And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place…” (Emphasis mine throughout.)
Two things, we are told, are under God’s sovereign control: how long a nation lasts, and where its borders are. The verb translated “having determined” is the Greek verb “horizo,” from which we get the word “horizon.” It means “to mark out, to define.” So God has marked out and defined the borders of each country.
Our southern border is there by God’s design. To disregard it, to treat it as if were not there, to regard it as something not worth respecting and defending, is an insult to the God who put it there for our benefit.
…
The lesson? Each nation’s sovereignty is marked by its boundary, and each nation has the moral right to decide who will be given permission to enter its sovereign territory. Moses recognized this, and so should we. The only exception is under circumstances of a just war.
Bottom line: borders are biblical, and are there by God’s sovereign design. And they are to be respected by everyone.
– See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/bryan-fischer-our-southern-border-there-gods-design#sthash.HhngntnB.dpuf
Once again, under extreme fire from the Right, Barack Obama calmly, and oh, so cooly, tells the GOP and Texas Delegates what time it is. Last Thursday night, in Austin, Texas, the president slammed the Republican agenda, and brought up their pending lawsuit. He makes it very clear this ain’t his first rodeo.
“As long as Congress will not increase wages for workers, I will go and talk to every business in America if I have to. There’s no denying a simple truth: America deserves a raise, and if you work full-time in this country, you shouldn’t live in poverty. That’s something that we all believe.
Now, here’s where it gets interesting. There are a number of Republicans, including a number in the Texas delegation, who are mad at me for taking these actions. They actually plan to sue me. Now, I don’t know which things they find most offensive — me helping to create jobs, or me raising wages, or me easing the student loan burdens, or me making sure women can find out whether they’re getting paid the same as men for doing the same job. I don’t know which of these actions really bug them.
The truth is, even with all the actions I’ve taken this year, I’m issuing executive orders at the lowest rate in more than 100 years. So it’s not clear how it is that Republicans didn’t seem to mind when President Bush took more executive actions than I did. Maybe it’s just me they don’t like. I don’t know. Maybe there’s some principle out there that I haven’t discerned, that I haven’t figure out. You hear some of them — ‘sue him,’ ‘impeach him.’ Really? Really? For what? You’re going to sue me for doing my job? Okay.
I mean, think about that. You’re going to use taxpayer money to sue me for doing my job — while you don’t do your job.
There’s a great movie called ‘The Departed’ — a little violent for kids. But there’s a scene in the movie where Mark Wahlberg — they’re on a stakeout and somehow the guy loses the guy that they’re tracking. And Wahlberg is all upset and yelling at the guy. And the guy looks up and he says, ‘Well, who are you?’ And Wahlberg says, ‘I’m the guy doing my job. You must be the other guy.’ Sometimes, I feel like saying to these guys, ‘I’m the guy doing my job, you must be the other guy.’
So rather than wage another political stunt that wastes time, wastes taxpayers’ money, I’ve got a better idea: Do something. If you’re mad at me for helping people on my own, let’s team up. Let’s pass some bills. Let’s help America together.”
Those mean and nasty animals of the right are at it again.
Rick Perry was just here in San Francisco talking to a political club when he suddenly, in the city of The Castro, said that homosexuality was just like alcoholism. I guess he meant that it’s a disease that can be cured. Now he is saying that the crisis at the border is “Obama’s Katrina.” I guess he means that 3,000 Americans have died there.
Well no homosexuality is not a disease and therefore there is no “cure.” And no, there haven’t been thousands of Americans killed at the border. You see just because Perry has decided to dress and look smart doesn’t mean he is. I mean his newly cosmopolitan style is just that…a superficial facade. He is still just a dumb, ignorant Texas boy. Just like the guy he loved so dearly when Katrina actually happened..Bush.
Perry said that Bush got lots of criticism for just flying over New Orleans and not going down to see what was happening. Really? From whom? Guys like Perry? Noooo. Guys like me and the Democrats..well the Democrats eventually. So he wants Obama to go and see what is happening at the border. Now let’s say Obama did just that. What would we hear from the right? What would we see all over Fox News and be listening to on right wing talk radio?
Guys like Sean Hannity, who thinks he is tough while standing next to a machine gun with his shit kicker Governor buddy, patrolling the border and ready to shoot dead some of those awful 14 year old kids who want to live in the USA, would be saying it was just a photo op. There goes Obama again looking good and making a great speech. He would be ridiculed. Do you really think they would actually give him some credit for once?
Of course not. Plus Obama is learning, finally, that the Republicans are full of shit. He is done with reaching out and now he understands that they just need to be mocked. He isn’t playing their games anymore. They have had NUMEROUS chances to pass some sort of immigration reform and they refuse because he is President. And of course those of us with an IQ above 100 know that Dubya signed the bill that has led to the current issue at the border.
Speaking of superficial ways to try and look good. Sarah Palin is back at it. Palin has officially reached top hooker status. She is at platinum level. Wearing enough make-up to make a 60 year old look..oh I don’t know..58, she is back at it, talking about how Obama must be impeached. The ignorant Palin, who is loved by the ignorant masses in America, thinks that word can be used for anything she disagrees with. Any policy that actually helps people is an impeachable offense.
Palin also loves the attention. The way a porn star does when she has ten guys taking turns. She knows that her people get all hot and bothered when she uses that word. So she just throws and it out there and as usual strings together a few other terms that make no sense. It all makes perfect sense to Palin lovers though, because it’s all about getting rid of the black President and boy does that give them multiple orgasms. Like I said..Platinum level Sarah baby!
When asked about Palin throwing around the word “Impeachment” John Boehner said he disagrees with her. However he has no problem at all throwing out the word “Lawsuit.” Yes Boehner continues to talk about suing Obama for…well he’s not quite sure. I think he has settled on Obamacare and the mandate. He had to think about it for a month or so before deciding. He is suing Obama for getting shit done! Of course this was all voted on and passed by Congress but hey, that doesn’t matter. Of course this was voted on and passed by the American people since Obama won two landslide victories with this as one of his major platforms, but hey, that doesn’t matter.
Now this lawsuit will go nowhere as this is just a stunt by Boehner to try and deflect the attention away from his do nothing Congress for the upcoming mid terms. Your tax dollars will be used to fund this game but you are Americans, so bend over and enjoy it! His Congress does nothing to help Americans AND they get to steal your money as well! Great system we have in place. Same system that allows all but two incumbent representatives to win their primaries while polls show people giving those same reps a 7% approval. Makes perfect sense doesn’t it?
The good news as I mentioned earlier is that Obama seems to have reached a turning point in his Presidency. It’s a point I and many others wish he had reached on January 20, 2009 just after hearing about the Republicans plan to block him on everything and make him a one term President. The good ole boys were so incensed that a black guy had won that they held this meeting behind his back as though he were Julius Caesar. He should never have tried to reason with them for five years. Big mistake. But that was then, this is now.
He is now going around the country ridiculing their bullshit. Throwing it back in their faces. Helping the American people see them for what they are. Better late than never.
Just like Dorothy on that yellow brick road there is no reason to fear the animals. You just need to have some heart, a brain and some courage.
Like he did a few years ago James, had some fans thinking that he was their guy, only to turn around and go elsewhere. Today was no different, as James shocked Miami and surprised Cleveland.
In an exclusive article ppsted on Sports Illustrated, James broke to Hearts of Heat fans by telling them that he is going back to Cleveland.
I’m not promising a championship. I know how hard that is to deliver. We’re not ready right now. No way. Of course, I want to win next year, but I’m realistic. It will be a long process, much longer than it was in 2010. My patience will get tested. I know that. I’m going into a situation with a young team and a new coach. I will be the old head. But I get a thrill out of bringing a group together and helping them reach a place they didn’t know they could go. I see myself as a mentor now and I’m excited to lead some of these talented young guys. I think I can help Kyrie Irving become one of the best point guards in our league. I think I can help elevate Tristan Thompson and Dion Waiters. And I can’t wait to reunite with Anderson Varejao, one of my favorite teammates.
Here we go again! Haven’t we blindly skipped down this yellow bricked road with James before?
The NBA star seems content with toying with the heartstrings of his beloved fans. They’re once again waiting on pins and needles for James to break their hearts as he takes his time deciding where he will play next season. And while some fans will jump with joy when he finally decides, others will get their hearts broken… again!
On the first day that NBA free agents were allowed to sign with their new teams, James continued to play stall ball on Thursday and did not reveal what he’s going to do, although there was a growing sentiment among NBA players and executives that he is heading back to Cleveland.
According to a league source, several Miami Heat players have resigned themselves to seeing James bolt for the team he started with and have expressed those concerns to other players across the league.
“There are guys he’d be playing with in Miami who definitely feel like he’s not coming back,” the source said.
But James maintained his silence, while virtually no details had emerged from the hour-long meeting that he held in Las Vegas on Wednesday night with Heat president Pat Riley. Afterward, the four-time MVP left to discuss his plans with family, with one Cleveland TV station saying that a source close to James’ agent, Rich Paul, disclosed that an announcement would be made by 11 p.m. Thursday.
That obviously did not happen, and James reportedly flew back to Miami with Dwyane Wade Thursday night and is expected to head to Brazil Saturday for the World Cup final.
Meanwhile, the scene in and around James’ hometown of Akron bordered on surreal. Scores of fans lined the streets outside his home in Bath as a steady stream of cars drove by, with the vehicles’ occupants stopping to ask if he had made an announcement. A half-dozen police officers had to maintain security outside the empty house, while awaiting what was billed as a major announcement that never came at 3:30 — the Akron area code.
All the while, James was at his basketball camp in Las Vegas, where Wade dropped by to chat and watch pickup games.
Meanwhile, the Cavs announced that Kyrie Irving signed the five-year, $90 million extension he agreed to last week when free agency opened.
Irving’s long-term presence with the team is seen as one of the major reasons that James will pull up stakes in South Beach and return to the Cavs.
Additionally, the Cavs were said to be trying to work on a deal with Minnesota for All-Star forward Kevin Love, which would turn them into instant contenders to win the East if James returns. The price for Love would likely start with the No. 1 pick from this year’s draft, Andrew Wiggins, along with other young players, including swingman Dion Waiters.
So Republicans, especially House Speaker John Boehner, voted against healthcarw refirm, even voting over 50 times to end Obamacare. They call the law a travesty, saying that it would lead to ” armageddon ” if it went into effect.
Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) lawsuit against President Obama will focus on the delay of the employer mandate in ObamaCare, according to a draft resolution authorizing the litigation released Thursday.
The lawsuit will challenge the administration’s decision to unilaterally delay a requirement that firms offer health insurance to their employees or pay a penalty, Boehner said in a statement.
“The president changed the healthcare law without a vote of Congress, effectively creating his own law by literally waiving the employer mandate and the penalties for failing to comply with it,” Boehner said. “That’s not the way our system of government was designed to work. No president should have the power to make laws on his or her own.”
Under the law, employers with more than 50 full-time workers offer health insurance or pay a penalty. But earlier this year, federal health officials announced that employers with between 50 and 99 workers have until January 2016 to comply with the requirement to offer health insurance or pay a fine.
That was on top of a previous delay in July 2013, which pushed back implementation of the penalty for all impacted companies until January 2015.
Boehner said the lawsuit was borne out of “an obligation to stand up for the Legislative Branch.”
“The current president believes he has the power to make his own laws — at times even boasting about it,” Boehner said. “He has said that if Congress won’t make the laws he wants, he’ll go ahead and make them himself, and in the case of the employer mandate in his health care law, that’s exactly what he did. If this president can get away with making his own laws, future presidents will have the ability to as well.”
The White House panned the lawsuit as a “political stunt” that will waste taxpayer dollars.
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