Armless man denied check cashing for not giving thumbprint / Amarillo, TX: newschannel10.com — You have to wonder how dumb people are at these banks. What an idiotic situation to let happen.
A Florida man born without arms says a bank would not let him cash a check because he could not provide a thumbprint.
That man is Tampa resident Steve Valdez. He says he tried to cash a check from his wife last week at a Bank of America location in downtown Tampa.
He says he presented two forms of identification but was told by the branch manager he’d have to come back with his wife or open an account himself.
Ben and Jerry’s has changed the name of one of its best-selling ice creams to Hubby Hubby, in celebration of the legalisation of gay marriage in its home state of Vermont.
The flavour formerly known as Chubby Hubby will be sold under the playful new name for the length of September.
Ben and Jerry’s has developed a reputation for social activism – and smart publicity stunts – since being founded by two former hippies in Burlington, Vermont in 1978. The firm has striven to retain its freethinking reputation despite its 2000 sale to food giant Unilever, and earlier this year marked Barack Obama’s election as US president by renaming one of its nutty ice cream flavours “Yes Pecan”.
The state of Vermont’s decision to issue marriage licences to same-sex couples, which came into force on Tuesday, was deemed suitable grounds for another celebration.
“At the core of Ben & Jerry’s values, we believe that social justice can and should be something that every human being is entitled to,” said Walt Freese, chief executive of Ben & Jerry’s.
Har! This is rich! Of course, not that there’s anything wrong with that!
A “pandemic response bill” currently making its way through the Massachusetts state legislature would allow authorities to forcefully quarantine citizens in the event of a health emergency, compel health providers to vaccinate citizens, authorize forceful entry into private dwellings and destruction of citizen property and impose fines on citizens for noncompliance.
If citizens refuse to comply with isolation or quarantine orders in the event of a health emergency, they may be imprisoned for up to 30 days and fined $1,000 per day that the violation continues.
This is on the bill: “An individual who is unable or unwilling to submit to vaccination or treatment shall not be required to submit to such procedures but may be isolated or quarantined.”
It hasn’t been approved by the House, but I imagine it will be inserted in another bill and passed that way.
Daylife/Getty Images used by permission
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In a fiery speech that had her conservative Colorado audience cheering, U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann railed against the dangers of health care reform and other Democratic initiatives, warning the proposals “have the strength to destroy this country forever.”
“This cannot pass,” the Minnesota Republican told a crowd at a Denver gathering sponsored by the Independence Institute. “What we have to do today is make a covenant, to slit our wrists, be blood brothers on this thing. This will not pass. We will do whatever it takes to make sure this doesn’t pass…”
In a speech filled with urgent and violent rhetoric, Bachmann — who proudly acknowledges she is the country’s “second-most hated Republican woman,” behind only former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin – drew a clear line on health care reform…
“Right now, we are looking at reaching down the throat and ripping the guts out of freedom,” she said. “And we may never be able to restore it if we don’t man up and take this one on…”
The inmates are thoroughly in charge of the Republican asylum.
Thanks, Mr. Justin
WASHINGTON – Secretary of State Clinton ordered an investigation on Tuesday into the Animal House revels of private guards at the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan – including booze, hookers and other “deviant behavior.”
“These are very serious allegations, and we are treating them that way,” State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said of photo and e-mail evidence of the “climate of fear and coercion” at the living quarters of ArmorGroup guards. The investigation by the State Department’s inspector general follows a shocking report to Clinton by the nonprofit Project on Government Oversight detailing a “Lord of the Flies environment” at the Camp Sullivan compound a few miles from the embassy in Kabul. Prostitutes allegedly were brought in for birthday parties, drunken guards engaged in brawls and boozy lawn parties turned into naked affairs where guests urinated on one another, according to photos and videos obtained by the nonprofit group.
The report found sleep-deprived guards regularly logging 14-hour days, language barriers that impair critical communications and a failure by the State Department to hold the contractor accountable. “One guard described the situation as so dire that if he were to say to many of the Gurkhas, ‘There is a terrorist standing behind you,’ those Gurkhas would answer ‘Thank you, Sir, and good morning,'” the report said.
Wackenhut did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
What happened to the days when American Embassies used Marines as guards? Wackenhut? Is that the same bunch of morons that they use at malls?
Some folks (e.g., The Concord Coalition) are saying the 10-year deficit could be $14 trillion or more. If the deficit is anything even close to $10 trillion over the next decade, this puts us in largely uncharted waters, since it would represent the biggest deficit, in both nominal terms and relative to GDP since World War II. Deficits could range from 6-10% of GDP annually, far out of the range of anything we’ve seen in the post-war period.
So I began asking myself some tough questions, especially since I’ve been saying that the economy can grow 3-4% a year in spite of the ugly fiscal policy environment staring us in the face. Just how easily are these deficits going to be financed? Could they effectively absorb all or most of the savings of the private sector, leaving the economy with little or no private-sector investment? Could this be the real “crowding-out” of private borrowers that became a fashionable concern during the Reagan years but in the end proved overblown? How can the economy grow if the government—a chronically inefficient spender and investor—is commandeering nearly all the economy’s savings? Annual deficits on the order of 10% of the GDP are reminiscent of Japan in recent decades, and haven’t they led to a moribund economy and a crippled stock market?
[…]
But these trillion-dollar deficits for as far as the eye can see are being driven primarily by a big increase in government spending. So that leaves us with the worst of all worlds, doesn’t it? How can one be optimistic in the face of this impending disaster?
The [Honolulu] City Council is considering a bill that will make it illegal to “bring onto transit property odors that unreasonably disturb others or interfere with their use of the transit system, whether such odors arise from one’s person, clothes, articles, accompanying animal or any other source.”
Councilman Rod Tam, a co-sponsor of the bill, explained why it is needed:
“As we become more inundated with people from all over the world, their way of taking care of their health is different. Some people, quite frankly, do not take a bath every day and therefore they may be offensive in terms of their odor.”
[…]
“There’s the whole issue about at what point does it become illegal,” [Chairman Gary] Okino said, noting that city attorneys are researching the matter. “How smelly does a person have to be? Just to base things on smell, I just don’t feel good about that.”
[…]
If convicted, a person could be fined up to $500, spend up to six months in jail, or be both fined and jailed.
AT&T claims that Iphone customers generate much higher revenue per user than the average, close to $100 a month. However to keep Apple happy, AT&T paid a $400-a-phone subsidy to keep the Iphone cost down for those who signed away their souls on two-year contracts to buy the thing.
For an Iphone customer to make AT&T any cash they have to pay the telecom firm $2,000 a year. If AT&T is right, on average punters are paying $2,400 during that time. But $400 over two years is nothing, really.
But actual revenue figures might be even worse than AT&T is letting on. […] In fact the Iphone subsidy depressed AT&T profit margins, he claimed.
[…]
Then there is the small problem of AT&T’s network. From day one Apple users have complained that the telecom’s network was not up to scratch. Now they are really hammering it, downloading material online for a flat $30 a month fee.
An animal rights group publicized a video Tuesday showing unwanted chicks being tossed alive into a grinder at an Iowa plant and accused egg hatcheries of being “perhaps the cruelest industry” in the world.
The undercover video was shot by Chicago-based Mercy for Animals at a hatchery in Spencer, Iowa, over a two-week period in May and June. The video was first obtained Monday by The Associated Press.
“We have to ask ourselves if these were puppies and kittens being dropped into grinders, would we find that acceptable?” asked Nathan Runkle, the group’s executive director, at a news conference in Des Moines. “I don’t think that most people would.”
The group said that tossing male chicks, which have little value because they can’t lay eggs or be raised quickly enough to be raised profitably for meat, into grinders is common industry practice. United Egg Producers, a trade group for U.S. egg farmers, confirmed that. The video, shot with a hidden camera and microphone by a Mercy for Animals employee who got a job at the plant, shows a Hy-Line worker sorting through a conveyor belt of chirping chicks, flipping some of them into a chute like a poker dealer flips cards. “There is, unfortunately, no way to breed eggs that only produce female hens,” Head said. “If someone has a need for 200 million male chicks, we’re happy to provide them to anyone who wants them. But we can find no market, no need.” Using a grinder, Head said, “is the most instantaneous way to euthanize chicks.”
I suppose we could just wait ’till they’re adults and just lop their little heads off.
Exit poll results for key elections in Saarland, Thuringia and Saxony, showing Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives had suffered strong setbacks surfaced on the microblogging site around 90 minutes before officially due.
Berlin — German politicians warned Monday democracy had been damaged after exit polls for state elections were leaked on Twitter before voting ended, the second time results have recently appeared prematurely.
Exit poll results for key elections in Saarland, Thuringia and Saxony, showing Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives had suffered strong setbacks surfaced on the microblogging site around 90 minutes before officially due.
The deputy parliamentary head of Merkel’s Christian Union bloc, Wolfgang Bosbach, said the leaking of the results “damaged democracy.”
All primary school-age children in New York City will be offered free vaccines for seasonal and H1N1 flu this year under a plan announced on Tuesday by Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
The vaccines are part of the city’s strategy to combat the new H1N1 swine flu strain that hit the city hard during the spring, infecting an estimated 750,000 to 1 million people or about 10 percent of the population.
Here, kid, take two-to-the-arm and I’ll give you this candy…
For Kindle and with free ePub version. Only $9.49 Great reading.
Here is what Gary Shapiro CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) said: Dvorak's writing sings with insight and clarity. Whether or not you agree with John's views, he will get you thinking and is never boring. These essays are worth the read!
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