Dvorak News Blog

Judge Blames South Park While Students Observe “Kick a Ginger Day”

By McCullough Monday May 11, 2009

Two Calgary teenagers have been handed absolute discharges in an assault on a classmate on so-called ‘Kick a Ginger Day.’

Judge Lynn Cook-Stanhope said on Friday she was satisfied the teenagers had taken responsibility for their actions, and she saved her scathing remarks for the animated television show South Park, which she called a “vulgar, socially irreverent program that contributes nothing to society.” Unfortunately, the writers and producers of the show will never be called to account for encouraging such action, the judge added.

The charges stemmed from an attack on a red-headed Grade 10 boy in the locker room of St. Francis High School after gym class. The locker room assault happened on Nov. 20, which was promoted by a Facebook group as Kick a Ginger Day. The Facebook group urged members to kick people with red hair — referred to as ginger kids. The group was likely inspired by a South Park episode from 2005 focusing on one character’s hateful attitude toward redheads.

At least three Calgary schools reported attacks that day on red-headed students.

At St. Francis High School, police were asked to investigate rumours of a locker-room swarming, and 13 students were suspended. Two 15-year-old boys were charged with one count each of assault and pleaded guilty in youth court. They can’t be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act. On Friday, Cook-Stanhope said that since the assault, one of the teenagers has done community service, while the other made a donation to a youth club. Both have written letters of apology to the victim, who she said is still dealing with the aftermath of the assault.

Hah! Stupid Judge, everybody knows “Kick a Ginger Day” is November 28th!

American Taliban Report: Student to be suspended for merely attending prom

By John C Dvorak Monday May 11, 2009

33 Comments

Student to be suspended for attending prom – 13abc.com — The Baptists can do whatever they want. And they can be a target of criticism too. Curiously I have never seen a mention of rock and roll in the Bible.

Consider tomorrow Judgment Day for a Findlay teen who decided to take his girlfriend to her prom at her school.

Tyler Frost, 17, expects he’ll be suspended from Heritage Christian School and be prohibited from attending graduation. The Baptist school forbids dancing, rock music, and hand holding. Frost’s stepfather says the rules shouldn’t apply outside of school and he may take legal action if Frost is suspended tomorrow.

Of course what the media fails to discuss is the fact that the kids have to sign what amounts to an NDA to attend the school. In it they are prohibited from things such as this prom date! The preacher/principal makes his case on the website here.

What this tells me is that the Dad who is anxious to sue the school cannot .

at the beginning of the school year, every family must sign a statement of cooperation. Students in 7th through 12th grades must also sign it. It doesn’t say that you have to agree with them, but that we will all abide by them. What kind of a school would we be if we suspended a policy because it was convenient to do so?

Were Children Sodomized In Front Of Their Prisoner Mothers At Abu Ghraib?

By Uncle Dave Monday May 11, 2009

47 Comments

Is Rumsfeld right that the evidence shouldn’t be released? Whether it is or not, should Americans at any level who allowed it to happen be prosecuted, perhaps by handing them over to the mothers and the boys?

After Donald Rumsfeld testified on the Hill about Abu Ghraib in May, there was talk of more photos and video in the Pentagon’s custody more horrific than anything made public so far. “If these are released to the public, obviously it’s going to make matters worse,” Rumsfeld said. Since then, the Washington Post has disclosed some new details and images of abuse at the prison. But if Seymour Hersh is right, it all gets much worse.

Hersh gave a speech last week to the ACLU making the charge that children were sodomized in front of women in the prison, and the Pentagon has tape of it.
[…]
“Debating about it, ummm … Some of the worst things that happened you don’t know about, okay? Videos, um, there are women there. Some of you may have read that they were passing letters out, communications out to their men. This is at Abu Ghraib … The women were passing messages out saying ‘Please come and kill me, because of what’s happened’ and basically what happened is that those women who were arrested with young boys, children in cases that have been recorded. The boys were sodomized with the cameras rolling. And the worst above all of that is the soundtrack of the boys shrieking that your government has. They are in total terror. It’s going to come out.”
[…]
The Telegraph and other news organizations described “a videotape, apparently made by US personnel, is said to show Iraqi guards raping young boys.” The Guardian reported “formal statements by inmates published yesterday describe horrific treatment at the hands of guards, including the rape of a teenage Iraqi boy by an army translator.”

Chain store stops charging extra to women with big boobs

By Eideard Monday May 11, 2009

19 Comments

Daylife/Getty Images used by permission

Marks & Spencer said it would stop charging more for larger bras after more than 14,000 consumers joined a Facebook group calling for an end to its differential pricing.

Unlike most retailers, M&S charged £2 more for bras with a cup size above DD – a cost described by the Facebook group Busts 4 Justice as a “tit-tax”…

However, it has now backed down and today took out full-page adverts in the press to tell consumers that from tomorrow, all bras will cost the same. Under the headline “We boobed” the adverts say: “We were wrong, so as of Saturday 9th May the storm in a D cup is over…”

The Busts 4 Justice group was set up last summer by Beckie Williams, a 26-year-old writer from Brighton who was fed up of paying extra for her 30G bras…

Eventually, her Facebook group had attracted 14,246 members. In a message on its homepage she told them: “We are really happy to say that, thanks to the members of Busts 4 Justice, M&S have decided to abolish the tit-tax, and from now on will be operating a one-price-fits-all policy across their ranges.”

Bravo! I’d be willing to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with a political movement like this, any day. Something like that.

Somali pirates guided by London intelligence team, report says

By John C Dvorak Monday May 11, 2009

12 Comments

Somali pirates guided by London intelligence team, report says | guardian.co.uk — This is now making sense. It’s organized crime (or British Intelligence). How else do these idiots find the ships?

The Somali pirates attacking shipping in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean are directed to their targets by a “consultant” team in London, according to a European military intelligence document obtained by a Spanish radio station.

The document, obtained by Cadena SER radio, says the team and the pirates remain in contact by satellite telephone.

It says that pirate groups have “well-placed informers” in London who are in regular contact with control centres in Somalia where decisions on which vessels to attack are made. These London-based “consultants” help the pirates select targets, providing information on the ships’ cargoes and courses.

In at least one case the pirates have remained in contact with their London informants from the hijacked ship, according to one targeted shipping company.

The pirates’ information network extends to Yemen, Dubai and the Suez canal.

Found by John Ligums.

Caption This Photo

By Uncle Dave Monday May 11, 2009

28 Comments

No Agenda #96 Now On Cage Match

By KD Martin Monday May 11, 2009

7 Comments

Click image to go to No Agenda.

John and Adam discuss the news of the day from an international perspective

Queue / cue / Q the closing credits — We hope you enjoy the show!

No Agenda Archive

Running time: approx. 90 mins.

Court Says Cops Can Attach GPS Tracker To Anyone’s Car Without A Warrant

By Uncle Dave Monday May 11, 2009

29 Comments

Wisconsin police can attach GPS to cars to secretly track anybody’s movements without obtaining search warrants, an appeals court ruled Thursday.

However, the District 4 Court of Appeals said it was “more than a little troubled” by that conclusion and asked Wisconsin lawmakers to regulate GPS use to protect against abuse by police and private individuals.

As the law currently stands, the court said police can mount GPS on cars to track people without violating their constitutional rights — even if the drivers aren’t suspects.

Officers do not need to get warrants beforehand because GPS tracking does not involve a search or a seizure, Judge Paul Lundsten wrote for the unanimous three-judge panel based in Madison.

That means “police are seemingly free to secretly track anyone’s public movements with a GPS device,” he wrote.

One privacy advocate said the decision opened the door for greater government surveillance of citizens. Meanwhile, law enforcement officials called the decision a victory for public safety because tracking devices are an increasingly important tool in investigating criminal behavior.

Why Would London Police use Agents Provocateurs to Incite the G20 Riots?

By McCullough Sunday May 10, 2009

31 Comments

An MP who was involved in last month’s G20 protests in London is to call for an investigation into whether the police used agents provocateurs to incite the crowds.

Liberal Democrat Tom Brake says he saw what he believed to be two plain-clothes police officers go through a police cordon after presenting their ID cards.

Brake, who along with hundreds of others was corralled behind police lines near Bank tube station in the City of London on the day of the protests, says he was informed by people in the crowd that the men had been seen to throw bottles at the police and had encouraged others to do the same shortly before they passed through the cordon.

Brake, a member of the influential home affairs select committee, will raise the allegations when he gives evidence before parliament’s joint committee on human rights on Tuesday.

“When I was in the middle of the crowd, two people came over to me and said, ‘There are people over there who we believe are policemen and who have been encouraging the crowd to throw things at the police,'” Brake said. But when the crowd became suspicious of the men and accused them of being police officers, the pair approached the police line and passed through after showing some form of identification. Brake has produced a draft report of his experiences for the human rights committee, having received written statements from people in the crowd. These include Tony Amos, a photographer who was standing with protesters in the Royal Exchange between 5pm and 6pm. “He [one of the alleged officers] was egging protesters on. It was very noticeable,” Amos said. “Then suddenly a protester seemed to identify him as a policeman and turned on him. He legged it towards the police line, flashed some ID and they just let him through, no questions asked.”

Videos that Make you Go Hmmm

By John C Dvorak Sunday May 10, 2009

27 Comments

Kymotropic analysis of all 81 tone pairs of the Expanded Solfeggio scale that total 1110hz… Ascending and descending concurrently.

Found by Ron Poynter.

Cops spend $2M to get $350K worth of drugs off the street!

By SN Sunday May 10, 2009

41 Comments

Flint Journal – May 10, 2009:

Two rival local agencies spent more than $2 million last year fighting drug dealers and trying to rid communities of dope.

The results: They took about $350,000 worth of drugs off the street.

A Flint Journal review of the budgets and seizures for the Genesee County Sheriff’s Posse and the state police-run Flint Area Narcotics Group show far more was spent in enforcement of drug laws than the drugs are actually worth.

Officials with the two teams say even more drug fighting tools are needed locally. But critics contend it’s a waste of money and doesn’t fix the community’s overall drug problem.

Officials point out that drug enforcement is funded by the criminals themselves, by cash seized during drug raids.

However, drug forfeiture money is only 25 percent of the Posse’s overall budget of $536,000 and only 17 percent of FANG’s annual $1.4 million budget.

Star Trek Spoofs

By Uncle Dave Sunday May 10, 2009

22 Comments

Want more? Engage…

Oh, almost forgot. Anyone see the new one?

Deprived of sex, Kenyan sues over boycott

By Eideard Sunday May 10, 2009

5 Comments

A Kenyan man has sued activists who called on women to boycott sex to protest the growing divide in the nation’s coalition government.

James Kimondo said the seven-day sex ban, which ended this week, resulted in stress, mental anguish, backaches and lack of sleep, his lawyer told the state-run Kenya Broadcasting Corp.

The lawsuit filed Friday claims lack of conjugal rights affected Kimondo’s marriage and seeks undisclosed damages from the G-10, an umbrella group for women’s activists…

Gender activists say they are not worried about the lawsuit.

“I have not been served with the papers, but I was told they are coming and I am eagerly waiting,” said Ann Njogu, executive, director of Centers for Rights Education and Awareness. “It will be interesting to see the face of a man who is not willing to abstain for the sake of his country.”

Har!

SNL: Motherlover

By SN Sunday May 10, 2009

16 Comments

Abstinence Only Funding Eliminated

By Uncle Dave Sunday May 10, 2009

79 Comments

Yesterday, President Obama struck a blow to the abstinence-only community, cutting ALL of their funding streams in his new 2010 budget. Obama made it clear that our government should no longer fund these failed programs that promote misinformation, misogyny, discrimination and, of course, juggling and cinder block wielding abstinence clowns.

And the response from these abstinence-only organizations has ranged from angry to completely unhinged.
[…]
I’m sure you’re asking yourself, “what evidence”? The independent government-funded Mathematic study revealing the failure of abstinence-only programs? Rigorous reviews from both Advocates for Youth, and the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, have identified which sex education programs are effective – and not one abstinence-only program made the cut. So the NAEA has been in panic mode.

Their strategy has been two-fold: (1) rebrand themselves as something other than abstinence-only (they’re now “holistic” and comprehensive), and (2) ignore and dismiss all independent studies showing their failure and pretend that research shows that abstinence-only works.
[…]
Fortunately, President Obama didn’t buy the spin. But this isn’t stopping the NAEA, as they immediately sent out an action alert to contact Congress and force them to sneak funding for abstinence-only programs back into the budget, using the same rhetoric.

There’s a certain irony about a right-wing group complaining about the elimination of government funding for something that many on the right feel should be a subject dealt with only by parents.