Motley Moose – Archive

The co-chairman of the Polk County Republican Party has resigned and changed his party registration to independent, saying the GOP has become too conservative and is condoning “hateful” rhetoric.

Steve King’s crazy finally set off a morality alarm in someone in the GOP:

Brown said in a phone interview that he became disgusted by a party he believes is being run by the Christian right and the National Rifle Association. He cited Congressman Steve King’s recent, controversial comments on illegal immigrants as an example of his philosophical conflict with the party.

“No one’s really stood out to really fight him on those. I think they’re hateful statements,” he said. King made national news with his comment that illegal immigrants were more likely to be drug traffickers “with calves the size of cantaloupes” than valedictorians.

It seems Mr. Brown values science as he feels the GOP has “declared war on science and common sense” That common sense thing goes right along with knowing Steve King is a certifiable loon. (no offense meant to birds)

Brown’s resignation letter:

   Dear Polk GOP Executive Committee Member,

    I am writing to inform you that I changed my voter registration to Independent today – severing all ties to the Republican Party. Having been a Republican all my life, I did not take this decision lightly.

    Having spoken with a pastor and having prayed about this for hours, I came to the conclusion that this is my only recourse. I’m disappointed with the Republican Party at the National level. I’m disappointed with the Republican Party at the Statewide level. I’m disappointed with the Republican Party at the Countywide level. I find it increasingly difficult to defend issues and statements made by Party leaders and officials from all three levels.

    I decided to get back in this arena following the “contentious” 2012 Polk County GOP Convention. I was upset by what happened at the conventions, and I entered into the arena with the intent to help fix the problems. However, I think this level of dysfunction is not going to be fixed any time soon.

     I donated time and financial resources to the Polk GOP and haven’t had a good return on my investment. In the 2000 Presidential Election, the Polk GOP lost Polk County by about 16,000 votes. In fall of 2000, the Polk GOP had no headquarters. The Polk GOP had no paid staff. The Polk GOP didn’t even have a working telephone number. Fundraising was minimal.

     In 2012, the Polk GOP lost Polk County by over 32,000 votes. Until 2002, Republicans were elected to the State House from Des Moines. In 2012, Republicans lost 2 State House seats in suburban, Republican-leaning districts and came two dozen votes from losing a third. Facts are stubborn things. I think we are now headed in the wrong direction on several fronts and regretfully must step aside.

    It’s my opinion that rather than fix the problems that led to such a massive 2012 defeat, the GOP does not seem to seriously want to fix the issues. I think helping a dysfunctional Party that does not want to address its problems is enabling. I do not believe in enabling. I debated this for weeks and am certain this is the only course.

    I wish you the best of luck,

     Chad Brown

Following a link I saw in a Tweet tonight I was led to an unbelievable POS at Talk Left.

TL is supposedly “The Online Magazine with Liberal coverage of crime-related political and injustice news” Bullshit.

It was like reading a Fox News report, but worse.

On President Obama’s speech yesterday:

The most objectionable part of his comments: Not once did he express any empathy for George Zimmerman, the man who was acquitted who spent the past 16 months under the cloud of criminal charges, and who continues to have a target on his back.

emphasis mine

Empathy for a man who murdered an unarmed 17 year old?

I thought it couldn’t get worse than that but it does.

More below the fold.  

National News



Abducted Cleveland Women Bill Would Provide Them an Income, Education and Health Care

By CHRISTINA NG An Ohio lawmaker is looking to pass a bill that would pay for a lifetime of medical care, a college education and $25,000 a year to the three Cleveland women who were held captive as sex slaves for more than a decade. The bill is named after the three Cleveland women. It is called the Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry, and Gina DeJesus Survivors of Abduction Act and it has been introduced by Ohio state Rep. John Barnes, Jr. who said he wanted to restore some of the things the women were deprived of. Knight, 32, Berry, 27, and DeJesus, 23, have kept a low profile since Berry escaped and the other two women were rescued May 6. “This was perhaps one of the most tragic and protracted crimes in the history of our community here,” Barnes, a Democrat, told ABCNews.com. “They were deprived of an education, they were deprived of health care, they were deprived of a normal life–a prom, an ice cream cone and all of that.”

Powerball Record Winner Is 84-Year-Old Woman Gloria Mackenzie

By GEETIKA RUDRA An elderly Florida woman has claimed the $590 million Powerball bonanza and revealed that she bought the winning ticket when another person waiting to buy a ticket let her jump the line. Gloria C. Mackenzie, 84, of Zephyrhills, Fla., was named the winner of the largest Powerball jackpot in history, but was not present at the televised press conference. Florida Lottery officials read a statement from her in which the elderly woman said: “We bought the winning ticket as a single ticket, even though we bought four other tickets before the drawing. While in line at Publix another lottery player was kind enough to let me go ahead of them in line to purchase the winning Quick Pick ticket. “We are grateful for this blessing of winning the Florida jackpot… We hope that everyone will give us an opportunity to maintain our privacy for our family’s benefit,” her statement said.

Heather McGill, Wife of Alabama Sen. Shadrack McGill, Warns on Facebook to Keep Off Her Man

By ABC News An Alabama politician’s wife who took to Facebook to warn women to stay away from her husband said a “righteous anger” pushed her to write a post that has now gone viral. “I know that I can’t bring about change in other people’s lifestyles but I can protect my household, my husband and my children,” Heather McGill, the wife of Alabama state Sen. Shadrack McGill, told ABC News. Heather McGill logged on to her husband’s Facebook page Monday night to write a post targeted at the women she claims are soliciting her husband, a Republican who has served in the Senate since 2010, for sex. “Multiple times since being in office he has gotten emails from women (who may not even be real) inviting him to explore, also sending pictures of themselves. NO MORE!!!,” McGill wrote.  “We have children that look at our face books from time to time! Shame on you!” Sen. McGill told ABC News that, during his 2010 campaign, strippers arrived at his family’s home in the middle of the night and that, since being elected, he has received numerous photos on Facebook of scantily clad women.

DEA Arrests Scarsdale Mom In Massive Pot-Growing Scheme

by Bill Chappell Andrea Sanderlin, a mother who drives a Mercedes SUV and lives in a large Scarsdale, N.Y., home, is facing serious drug charges after federal investigators accused her of being the mastermind behind an operation growing nearly 3,000 marijuana plants in a warehouse in Queens. “The DEA’s arrest of Sanderlin – an attractive, divorced mother of two girls (ages 3 and 13) who lives in tony Scarsdale, New York – will likely draw comparisons to the Showtime series Weeds,” reports , which first reported the story, “which starred Mary-Louise Parker as the sexy young matriarch of the hydroponic pot-distributing Botwin family.” Sanderlin, who is currently being held in Brooklyn without bail, has pleaded not guilty to trafficking in narcotics, The Smoking Gun reports. If convicted of that charge, she could face a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison. Her lawyer, Joel Winograd, tells New York’s that his client is a full-time mother who has “never been in trouble before.” He added, “It’s rare that you get a woman accused of running a grow house.”

Amazon’s Grocery Delivery: A Trojan Horse To Get In Your Door

by Maria Godoy Amazon already delivers everything from toothpaste to televisions to your doorstep. Now, it wants to bring your berries and beer, too. The online retailing behemoth is planning a major expansion of , the home delivery service of meat, dairy and other fresh and frozen foods that it has been field-testing in Seattle since 2007. The service could launch in Los Angeles as early as this week, and delivery in San Francisco is on the horizon for later this year, according to . By 2014, the company could expand grocery delivery to as many as 40 major urban areas. So why would a heavyweight like Amazon bother diving into the grocery business, with its notoriously razor-thin profit margins? After all, the online grocery business has become a sort of Bermuda Triangle for many companies, including , one of the most spectacular failures of the dot-com era at the turn of the 21st century. But home grocery delivery could prove to be a Trojan horse for Amazon to get inside your home more frequently, says , a senior analyst with , which released a research note on AmazonFresh in April. (The firm shared the note, which requires registration to access, with The Salt.) “What this does is give Amazon the opportunity to connect with customers on a more frequent basis,” he tells The Salt.

International News



Woman labeled ‘icon’ of Turkey protests: It’s not about me

By Ashley Fantz, CNN (CNN) — She has become a symbol of the violent protests in Turkey. Across social media, she’s known as “The Woman in Red.” Wearing a red summer dress and a delicate necklace, the woman walked among demonstrators in Istanbul’s Taksim Square when a security officer lurched at her and pepper-sprayed her so powerfully her hair was blown upward. She could do nothing but turn away from the toxic spray. The officer, wearing a gas mask, lunged closer to her, unleashing more spray on the back of her neck. She covered her mouth as officers spray others. The photos of the incident have been shared widely on social media in recent days. International headlines have proclaimed her an “icon” of the movement against the government of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan.

‘What kind of country is this?’ Families demand answers after China plant fire

By Nic Robertson, Steven Jiang and Jethro Mullen, CNN Mishazi, China (CNN) — The 38-year-old man stands on the road outside the burned out poultry processing plant, yelling at passing vehicles and demanding answers. He blocks the path of a local official’s car and shouts, “My wife’s just gone like that — what kind of country is this?” Wang Shoufeng is very angry, and he’s not alone. He says he last saw his wife before she went to work at 4 a.m. Monday to start her 14-hour shift at the poultry factory in this town in the northeastern Chinese province of Jilin. About two hours later, according to authorities, a fire broke out in the plant’s slaughterhouse and spread through the building. The lights went off, witnesses say, and smoke quickly filled the rooms and passageways. Workers rushed to escape the rising flames, stumbling into one another and slipping over in the confusion. Their panic deepened when they found many of the exits were locked or blocked.

Wasting food is like stealing from the poor, says pope

By Reuters Pope Francis denounced on Wednesday what he called a “culture of waste” in an increasingly consumerist world and said throwing away good food was like stealing from poor people. “Our grandparents used to make a point of not throwing away leftover food. Consumerism has made us accustomed to wasting food daily and we are unable to see its real value,” Francis said at his weekly audience in St. Peter’s Square. “Throwing away food is like stealing from the table of those who are poor and hungry,” he said. Since taking office in March, Pope Francis has said he wants the 1.2-billion-strong Roman Catholic Church to defend the poor and to practice greater austerity itself. He has also made several calls for global financial reform. Around 1.43 billion tons of food, or one third of what is produced for human consumption, gets lost or wasted every year, according to the United Nations’ food agency.

Rescuers winch families to safety in German flood town

BBC Rescuers used helicopters to pluck families from rooftops in the southern German town of Deggendorf on Wednesday as the Danube flood crisis continues. Meanwhile more than 30,000 people in the eastern city of Halle have been told to leave their homes after rivers reached their highest level in 400 years. Floodwater is also threatening parts of Austria and the Czech Republic. At least 13 people have died and two are missing as a result of the floods. Rising waters have been triggered by heavy rain following a wet spring. Eight deaths were recorded in the Czech Republic and three in Germany, while two people were reported dead and two missing in Austria, according to a European Commission update on Tuesday evening. Parts of Germany have not seen such severe flooding in centuries. However, in the Czech Republic, the water level has stabilised in the capital Prague, where there had been fears of a repeat of disasters in 2002 and 1997.

Venezuela expels West Hollywood filmmaker

By Mery Mogollon CARACAS, Venezuela — Interior Minister Miguel Rodriguez Torres of Venezuela confirmed Wednesday that West Hollywood filmmaker Timothy Tracy had been expelled from the country earlier in the day, six weeks after he was arrested on espionage charges. Tracy was put on an American Airlines flight bound for Miami. The documentary filmmaker was arrested April 24 by operatives in the SEBIN intelligence agency on accusations of “gathering information” including video and photographic images for what Torres described as the April Connection, an alleged conspiracy to overthrow the government. The alleged conspiracy included youths affiliated with opposition political parties such as Justice First and Popular Will. “The method of this person was to mix with violent sectors of the right,” Torres said. Torres said the arrest after an investigation and on “instructions of President Nicolas Maduro.”

Every person who witnessed the bombing, survived it, and especially those who were first responders, either professionally or voluntary,  are all victims of a heinous act of terror.

Today, two days past the bombing reality is hitting those people. Shock and adrenalin is wearing off. Chances are they aren’t sleeping well and when they are able to finally doze off out of exhaustion they dream images of the nightmare they witnessed. They see the eyes of that person they kept telling, “stay with me, look at me, look at me, you’re going to be okay.” After enough times of awakening with a racing heart, crying before you’re even fully awake you start to fight sleep. A task as simple as walking into a grocery store is too overwhelming to your senses. You feel like you’re going crazy.

Survivors of the Boston Marathon terror attacks now face risk of developing post traumatic stress disorder, experts warn. (warning-very graphic photo)

Dr Harry Croft, a San Antonio-based psychiatrist, who has treated more than 7,000 former soldiers, said the symptoms would be widespread in the immediate aftermath of the attacks.

‘If it lasts more than a month, and has enough symptoms, it is then described as PTSD,’ he told NBC News.

Initial symptoms often include a sense of disbelief, said Dr Croft, as the experience takes on an almost imaginary aspect. Following that victims either become emotionally numb, or gush with sadness, fear or anger about the horrors they have experienced.

As much as you want to control your brain the images come. Tearing that shirt apart to wrap around the groin so that little girl doesn’t bleed to death.

Trying to calm yourself with a hot bath and breaking down in tears as you see your right foot. That being enough to trigger the image of that little girl with only a piece of her pinky toe left hanging from the side of her right foot.

The image of the 18 year old girl stepping up to help do whatever needed to help you keep that little girl from bleeding to death and going into shock. When you remember the look in your helpers eyes it mirrors reality, the horror, the fear that has to be driven to the deepest parts of your being at that moment so that little girl believes you with all her heart and soul when you answer her question, “Am I going to die?” and you tell her, “no honey, you’re not,just keep talking to me, look at me, you’re going to be okay.” And even in the moment you know that none of you will ever really be okay again.

Once an injury that results in the loss of a limb occurs there are only so many miracles even the best Dr. can pull off. But you battle between the logical reality of that and the thoughts of “was there something I did at the scene that kept the outcome from being better?”

In the days that follow you rush to the phone hoping and praying it’s more good news after the fifth surgery in four days that the little girl has undergone, only to hear a media person on the other end. You think thoughts of violence and words come out of your mouth that horrify you. And then you hang up the phone, sit and sob, and pray.

Days pass, weeks pass, those weeks turn into months. If you’re lucky you’ve realized that what you experienced has left you with PTSD. You find venues to talk, to process. Even with that support the feeling of losing control going insane can return within seconds at the sound of a Life Flight helicopter going over your home, or even a family member with a minor cut from slicing cucumbers.

Time will go on, the little girl survives, you think you’re okay. Then eight years later you sit down to watch what the rest of America is watching with sadness and horror and you suddenly find yourself balling, sobbing. “What the hell, am I losing my mind?” Then you remember what you learned, you’re not crazy, you’re a human having a very normal reaction to a very abnormal traumatic event that are psyches aren’t designed to absorb.

Healing comes but it takes more than willpower and it takes each of us around that person to understand, listen, not judge.

Listen, listen, listen, let them cry, let them sit in silence. Reassure them that even though you’ll never know what it’s like it’s okay for them to not be okay at that moment.  

My heart aches for those who died and their families. But we must remember that an incident like this is like throwing a huge boulder into water, the ripples reach out and touch countless places. Even if that boulder didn’t hit you directly, the waves it produces knocks you off course and at times you feel like you are going to sink.

It is us who must be sure to reach out to those uncounted victims and make sure they get the support and resources they are going to need in the days, weeks, and even years to come.

And I cannot close on this topic without saying that we must remember that our soldiers experience this daily in active duty. The blood, the body parts, and loss of life of their fellow soldiers and even civilians are a daily part of most of our troops. There is no break from it until they come home. Imagine one day of Boston times 365. That alone is why we have to continue to fight like hell for these men and women.

Just surviving is not the ultimate goal, learning to live with what is handed us is.

That journey is much easier shared.  

In the Boston area Brookline Community Mental Health Center has set up services to help volunteers with PTSD in the aftermath of the bombing.

Other PTSD resources:

samsha.gov

NATIONAL CENTER for PTSD

Over at Smartypants this morning I found this excellent piece, “How the Obama administration is taking on the achievement gap,” it took me back in time to the struggles my children went through in school.

Last year I wrote about the fact that Obama’s Department of Education had begun to collect information on civil rights and education – something that had stopped during the Bush administration. We now see that experts are studying that data and highlighting remedies. What they have found is that one in four black students have been suspended from school. And here are the consequences:

   These findings are of serious concern given that research shows being suspended even once in ninth grade is associated with a 32% risk for dropping out, double that for those receiving no suspensions.

But the Obama administration isn’t just collecting data. You might have heard that the Department of Justice investigated the school district and law enforcement systems in Meridian, Mississippi for their gross violations of student’s civil rights in disciplinary practices.

To have a minority child in the school systyem means as a parent you have to investigate closely what the situation was. Who was involved, what exactly was my child’s involvement, how consequences were handed out to others that were involved? . It meant balancing between not protecting your child from natural consequences and making sure those consequences fit the act and were dealt out evenly between all parties involved.

By the time they were in middle school it became glaringly apparent to me the reality of the disparity in discipline between white students and minority students.

As a parent of bi-racial children I was diligent about teaching them what “playing the race card” was, and that it was not cool. If you broke the rules there were consequences, crying out “it’s because I’m black” was bullshit if indeed they had acted inappropriately.  They had seen this take place, tried it a couple times themselves, but when the whole story came out and they were dead wrong I condoned their consequence and hoped lessons would be learned. Sadly, most of the time it was quite the opposite.

A couple of examples, out of many I could share are these:

   Daughter A is riding home on the bus. Another girl, white and in middle school, starts  picking on a young kindergarten student. Calling her names, throwing paper at the back of her head. After telling her to knock it off several times my daughter and the girl start exchanging words, they get to their bus stop, one where a large number of students get off. The verbal exchange continues and my daughter starts walking ahead with her sister and a couple other friends. The older girl catches up with my daughter and the argument starts again. This time the girl gets up in my daughter’s face, pushes her and calls her a nigger. My daughter pushed her back hard enough to send her butt flying onto the ground. Given the large number of students getting off the bus the driver was still sitting up at the corner and saw this happen.

The next day I get a call from school, my daughter is getting suspended for three days. Up I go to the school office. My first issue is that this happened on private property quite a distance from the bus, not on the bus. “Well it started on the bus, so it’s a school matter.” Okay, I was hesitant but willing to accept that, until I found out that the other girl was not even called to the office, let alone being suspended. My protests finally led to the driver and other students being questioned about the other girls part in the incident. At that point the girl was given one day in school suspension, my daughter’s punishment was still going to stand at a three day out of school suspension. Even though I had issues with the school being involved in an act that actually took place off of school property, I was willing to be flexible enough to agree that both girls put their hands on each other and needed a consequence for that, but a fair and impartial one.

I ended up having to take this issue to the district Supervisor’s office.

Daughter B has her sister put a relaxer in her hair, unfortunately without my supervision, the outcome was that we had to get her hair cut clear down. She was in 7th grade at the time and inconsolable about her appearance until I came up with the idea of buying her several very pretty scarves to use as a head wrap until her hair had grown out a bit more. Now I’m not talking bandanas, I’m talking about nice scarves, ones that cost enough to blow the hell out of our very slim budget. But it was more than worth it to give her peace of mind, that didn’t last long for either one of us. Her first day at school in one of these scarves got her sent to the office. It was “gang related attire” What? When did prints and flowers being come gang colors and/or signs? They were actually going to suspend her if she didn’t quit wearing them. Eventually I raised enough hell that the Principal finally granted permission, but there was one particular teacher who kept sending her to the office claiming they were positive it was gang related. The only hand sign she knew in seventh grade was giving someone the bird, a sign I had to sit on my hands in order to not give to that teacher.  This was no inner city school district, although our income was nowhere close to it the median income in that district of +$80,000.00.

Gangs in the sense of what inner city schools contend with were non-existent in this district.

My entire day could be taken up writing one example after another of the blatant disparities, the assumptions that “if you’re black and in my classroom you’re trouble.” Um, yeah,when you start from day one treating a child with suspicion and scorn while having a warm and positive attitude towards others, that teacher is creating a problem where should never be one.

Looking back on the situations my children were fortunate I was in a position to go to the school to advocate and when necessary fight for them. Many children weren’t for multiple reasons. Those reasons ran a spectrum from the parents who do care have to choose between losing a job to take time during the day to go deal with the school, to the parents in the grips of substance abuse who barely provided minimal care for their child let alone paying attention to how they were being treated at school.

Whatever the reason, not only can parents not always be there, as parents of minority children we  shouldn’t have to constantly monitor how our child is being treated by teachers and school administrators. The educators shouldn’t be the people who show that prejudice, racism, and bigotry are still a part of our society.

For all those children who have so many gifts, so much potential, but yet have so many odds against them from the jump I am grateful that the Department of Education is active on this issue again.

As the author of the article points out, the “Cradle to Prison Pipeline” does exist. As parents, teachers, and taxpayers, we have an obligation to stop the destruction of our children.  

In emotional meeting, Newtown families comfort senator

By Patricia Zengerle

Senator Joe Manchin became so emotional on Wednesday about the Newtown massacre and his push for background checks for gun buyers that parents whose children were killed at the Connecticut school in December were moved to comfort him.

“I’m a parent. … I’m a grandparent,” the West Virginia Democrat told reporters during a meeting in his office with eight Newtown family members on Wednesday, when asked what he thought it meant to have them visiting the U.S. Capitol.

“I can’t imagine this … to do something,” he tried to say, in tears, before giving up on his effort to answer.

IRS claims it can read your e-mail without a warrant



by Declan McCullagh

The Internal Revenue Service doesn’t believe it needs a search warrant to read your e-mail.

Newly disclosed documents prepared by IRS lawyers say that Americans enjoy “generally no privacy” in their e-mail, Facebook chats, Twitter direct messages, and similar online communications — meaning that they can be perused without obtaining a search warrant signed by a judge.

That places the IRS at odds with a growing sentiment among many judges and legislators who believe that Americans’ e-mail messages should be protected from warrantless search and seizure. They say e-mail should be protected by the same Fourth Amendment privacy standards that require search warrants for hard drives in someone’s home, or a physical letter in a filing cabinet.

Tens of thousands at US immigration reform rallies

BBC

ens of thousands of demonstrators have rallied across the US in a mass call for citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants.

The co-ordinated protests were designed to press Congress to act as senators negotiate an immigration reform bill.

In Washington DC cheering crowds gathered outside the Capitol, and more than 1,000 demonstrated in Atlanta.

New Guidelines Call for Broad Changes in Science Education

By Justin Gillis

Educators unveiled new guidelines on Tuesday that call for sweeping changes in the way science is taught in the United States – including, for the first time, a recommendation that climate change be taught as early as middle school.

The guidelines also take a firm stand that children must learn about evolution, the central organizing idea in the biological sciences for more than a century, but one that still provokes a backlash among some religious conservatives.

The guidelines, known as the Next Generation Science Standards, are the first broad national recommendations for science instruction since 1996. They were developed by a consortium of 26 state governments and several groups representing scientists and teachers.

Maine hermit living in wild for 27 years arreste



USA Today

A man who lived like a hermit for decades in a makeshift camp in the woods and may be responsible for more than 1,000 burglaries for food and other staples has been caught in a surveillance trap at a camp he treated as a “Walmart,” authorities said Wednesday.

Christopher Knight, 47, was arrested last week when he tripped a surveillance sensor set up by a game warden while stealing food from a camp for people with special needs in Rome, a town of about 1,000 whose population swells with the arrival of summer residents.

Authorities on Tuesday found the campsite where they believed Knight, known as the North Pond Hermit in local lore, has lived for 27 years.

Obama Budget Includes $235 Million For Mental Health Care



By GILLIAN MOHNEY

President Obama is asking for $235 million as part of his new budget proposal to fund mental health initiatives. Of the funds, $130 million will be used to train teachers and others to identify signs of mental illness in students and provide them with access to treatment.

Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius wrote in a blog on her agency’s website Tuesday that the funds include $205 million to help identify mental health problems, improve access to mental health services and support safer school environments. The plan would affect at least 8,000 schools according to Sebelius. Another $30 million will go toward public health research on gun violence.

“We cannot ignore the fact that 60 percent of people with mental health conditions and nearly 90 percent of people with substance use disorders don’t receive the care they need,” Sebelius said in the post.

Changing Rules of Conception With the First ‘Test Tube Baby’



By Robert G. Edwards

Robert G. Edwards, who opened a new era in medicine when he joined a colleague in developing in vitro fertilization, enabling millions of infertile couples to bring children into the world and women to have babies even in menopause, died on Wednesday at his home near Cambridge, England. Dr. Edwards, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for his breakthrough, was 87.

The University of Cambridge, where he worked for many years, announced his death. Dr. Edwards was known to have dementia and was said to have been unable to appreciate the tribute when he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 2010.

Dr. Edwards, a flamboyant and colorful physiologist who courted the press and vigorously debated his critics, and with his colleague, Dr. Patrick Steptoe, essentially changed the rules for how people can come into the world. Conception was now possible outside the body – in a petri dish.

See-through brains promise to clear up mental mysteries



By Sharon Begley

If Dr Karl Deisseroth were an architect, he might be replacing stone or brick walls with floor-to-ceiling glass to build transparent houses. But since he is a neuroscientist at Stanford University, he has done the biological equivalent: invented a technique to make brains transparent, a breakthrough that should give researchers a truer picture of the pathways underlying both normal mental function and neurological illnesses from autism to Alzheimer’s. In fact, the first human brain the scientists clarified came from someone with autism.

Deisseroth and his colleagues reported in the online edition of the journal Nature on Wednesday that they had developed a way to replace the opaque tissue in brains (harvested from lab mice or donated by people for research) with “hydrogel,” a substance similar to that used for contact lenses.

The result is see-through brains, their innards revealed in a way no current technique can: Large structures such as the hippocampus show up with the clarity of organs in a transparent fish, and even neural circuits and individual cells are visible.

What ‘Accidental Racist’ says about evolution of Southern identity



By Mark Guarino

Love, heartbreak, patriotism, and partying have helped make country music the top-selling genre in the US. Segregation and slavery? Not so much.

That is what would seem to make “Accidental Racist,” the new offering by country artist Brad Paisley, so unusual. The song, which has been blasted by critics as a downplaying of racism, attempts to explore the thorny question of whether Southern whites are racist if they are proud of their Confederate heritage.

Yet “Accidental Racist” fits into a long tradition of Southern musicians trying in good faith to reflect on the region’s complicated past. Whether it was the “hillbilly” music marketed to whites from Appalachia and the Ozarks in the 1920s or Lynyrd Skynyrd’s response to Neil Young in 1974’s “Sweet Home Alabama, Southern musicians have sought to address the outsider’s perspective that Southern pride is tied to the legacy of slavery and the Civil War.

port: Arizona is one of ‘worst’ states for gun violence

By Nathan O’Neal

Surrounded by reminders of those who were lost at a Tucson Safeway back in January 2011, survivors of the Tucson shooting gathered to push for tougher gun laws and universal background checks.

“Why are we even discussing this?” said Pam Simon, who was shot at an event for former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, adding: “Frankly it makes me angry… Why should congress be debating this? It is absolutely common sense.”

Survivors were joined by city and state leaders to introduce a report released by the Center for American Progress. The comprehensive state-by-state report analyzes gun violence nationwide.

Feinstein: NRA intimidation weakens weapons reform

By Lisa Leff

The National Rifle Association and gun manufacturers are to blame for the “disconnect” between the broad public support for gun control and the reluctance in Congress to ban assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines, U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein said Wednesday.

Speaking to a hometown audience of about 500 people in San Francisco, the California Democrat said the NRA has intimidated senators with threats that the gun lobby would spend heavily to unseat them if they support the restrictions Feinstein championed in response to the December massacre at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn.

“A fear has set in that if they vote for the bill they won’t be re-elected. It’s that plain, it’s that simple,” Feinstein said during an appearance before the Commonwealth Club. “My view is they shouldn’t go up to the Senate if they are unwilling to stand up and vote.”

Federal judge who sent racist Obama email says he will retire



By Kim Murphy

The former chief federal judge in Montana has decided to retire at the conclusion of a misconduct investigation into a racist email about President Obama he forwarded to friends from his work computer last year.

U.S. District Judge Richard F. Cebull, who had taken less-active senior status on the bench after the incident, will retire in May, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals’ chief judge, Alex Kozinski, said in a statement.

The decision follows an appeals court inquiry into the email controversy that involved interviews with Cebull and others and a review of “voluminous” documentation, including emails, Kozinski said.

New prosecutors named to Texas Aryan Brotherhood prison gang probe



By Chris Francescani

Authorities named a new lead prosecutor on Wednesday in the 2012 indictment of 34 suspected members of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas prison gang after the previous head of the case abruptly quit.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Hileman stepped aside on Tuesday in the wake of the second killing of a Texas prosecutor in two months. While investigators have not named a suspect or person of interest in the twin killings, crime experts identified the Aryan Brotherhood as a group that would come under suspicion.

Defense attorneys notified about Hileman’s withdrawal cited unspecified security concerns, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Hyundai, Kia recall 1.7 million vehicles for electronic defects



By Ronald D. White

The Hyundai Motor Co. and its affiliate Kia Motors Corp. are conducting a recall of more than 1.7 million vehicles – including the bestselling Elantra – to correct electronic defects.

Hyundai said that one of the problems involved 1.1 million vehicles with brake light switches that may malfunction.

The potential problem could also result in cruise control not disengaging and other potential risks that might increase the risk of a crash, the automaker said Wednesday on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration website.

Australia’s example in healing the sexually abused



Christian Science Monitor

On Wednesday, Australia set an example for the world by opening an official inquiry that will allow people who were sexually abused as children in institutions to finally tell their stories.

At least 5,000 Australians are expected to be heard by the commission, many of them able to recount their experiences in private before the six-member panel. They will shed light on a half century of abuse in orphanages, churches, schools, detention centers, and child-care centers, and groups such as the military, Scouts, and organized sports.

Up until now, many were too ashamed to speak out. Or their stories were neglected by authorities. As children, they suffered for years in silence

Can you hear me now? Cellphone turns 40



By Nidhi Subbaraman

Forty years ago, Martin Cooper, a VP at Motorola, made history by placing the very first cellphone call. Appropriately enough, he called his rival at AT&T’s Bell Labs.

Thirty-three years later, a slightly more theatrical Steve Jobs dialed a Starbucks cafe in San Francisco to order 4,000 lattes, making the first public phone call from the very first iPhone while a hushed auditorium filled with journalists watched.

In between those prank calls, the cellphone morphed from a chunky plastic giant to a slender glass slab that doubles up as a computer and camera.

Hint of Dark Matter Found



By Gautam Naik

A space experiment may have identified a new particle that is the building block of dark matter, the mysterious stuff said to pervade a quarter of the universe that neither emits nor absorbs light.

The results are based on a small amount of data and are far from definitive, scientists said Wednesday. Yet, they provide a provocative hint that the puzzle of dark matter-a cosmic prize as eagerly sought as the now-discovered Higgs boson-may also be on its way to being solved.

The results are the first obtained by a $2 billion particle detector, known as Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, or AMS, that is mounted on the exterior of the international space station. It collects and identifies charged cosmic rays arriving from the far reaches of space.

Some news items to peruse, ponder, discuss.

Have a good night, everyone.

National News



Florida Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll resigns amid probe of company she consulted for

By Josh Levs, CNN (CNN) — Florida Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll has resigned, it was announced Wednesday, the day after she answered questions from investigators about her role in an allegedly corrupt veterans’ charity. The resignation came the same day 57 people connected to the charity, Allied Veterans of the World, were arrested on racketeering and money laundering charges. Leaders in the company, which operates Internet gambling parlors, are accused of donating little of its proceeds to veterans, and instead buying luxury goods for themselves. “I want any funds from these groups to immediately be given to charity. I have zero tolerance for this kind of criminal activity, period,” Gov. Rick Scott said Wednesday. In a two-sentence resignation letter delivered to Scott, Carroll said it was an “honor to have served.” She consulted for Allied Veterans, but was not among those arrested Wednesday.

Dow hits new all-time high. Again.

By Maureen Farrel The Dow inched higher, adding five points, to close at an all-time high for the seventh straight day. Wednesday marked the ninth straight day of gains for the index. It’s the longest winning streak for the Dow since 1996. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq closed up roughly 0.1%. The S&P 500 is less than 1% away from its all-time high, reached in October 2007. Economic numbers out of Europe had dampened sentiment before the market opened. But investors seemed encouraged by a better-than-expected report on retail sales in the United States. Doug DiPietro, head of trading at Evercore, said investors have been wary of placing big bets at these levels. But they are also worried about selling stocks too early. Tepid investors have kept volumes low this week, he said.

Iran to add lawsuit over ‘Argo’ to cinematic response

By Jethro Mullen and Ben Brumfield, CNN (CNN) — First, Iran said it would produce its own cinematic response to “Argo.” Now, Tehran plans to sue Hollywood filmmakers who contribute to the production of such “anti-Iran” propaganda films. State-run Press TV reports that Iranian officials have talked to an “internationally-renowned” French lawyer about filing such a suit. “I will defend Iran against the films like ‘Argo,’ which are produced in Hollywood to distort the country’s image,” said Isabelle Coutant-Peyre. “Argo,” directed by Ben Affleck, who also played the lead role, is about the rescue of U.S. diplomats during the Iran hostage crisis. The film, released in 2012, garnered Affleck a Golden Globe as director and also took the prize for best drama movie. The film claims to be based on a true story rather than to constitute a scrupulous retelling of what took place, and its deviations from reality have been documented.

Legislation to arm teachers advances in Ariz.

Alia Beard Rau, The Arizona Republic PHOENIX — Legislation to arm some school teachers and staff passed a key hurdle in the Arizona Senate on Wednesday. Senate Bill 1325, drafted in the wake of the December massacre at a Connecticut elementary school, won approval of the Committee of the Whole. But the bill still faces an uphill climb to become law. It needs a vote of the full Senate, which could come early next week, and then support of the House and Gov. Jan Brewer before being signed into law. SB 1325 would allow school governing boards to authorize any employee to carry a concealed gun on campus if the school has fewer than 600 students, is more than 30 minutes and 20 miles away from the closest law-enforcement facility, and does not have its own school-resource officer. The bill would also allow boards of schools anywhere in the state to authorize any staff member who is also a retired law enforcement officer to carry a concealed weapon on school grounds.

Lawyer expects Supreme Court to uphold gay marriage

Greg Toppo, @gtoppo, USA TODAY A well-known attorney due to ask the U.S. Supreme Court this month to strike down a California law banning same-sex marriage says the high court may very well present a united front in favor of gay and lesbian rights. In a wide-ranging interview this week with the USA TODAY Editorial Board, attorney David Boies said he believes that the court’s ruling, expected in June, “will not be a 5-4 decision. I don’t know whether it’s going to be 6-3, it’s going to be 7-2,” he said. “I don’t know where it’s going to come out, but I don’t think this is going to be a 5-4 decision.” Chief Justice John Roberts’ surprise decision last year to uphold President Obama’s health care overhaul, he said, shows “the court’s willingness to take a careful look at issues and not just conform to some people’s view of where they’re going to come out.”

International News



Native Americans to new Pope: Recant the ‘Discovery Doctrine,’ which gave Catholics dominion over New World

Papal bull from 1400s treated American Indians as cattle. Ruling still applies today. By Stephen Rex Brown A 15th century Catholic decree permitting Europeans to seize Indian land in the New World is a load of papal bull. That was the message Tuesday from the Onondaga Nation, which is calling on the new Pope to revoke the so-called Discovery Doctrine, which evolved from a papal decree written by Pope Nicholas V in 1455. “Now is the time for the new leader of the Roman Catholic Church to extend a hand and talk about these issues,” said Tonya Frichner, the president of the American Indian Law Alliance. The Discovery Doctrine was a key element in the moral justification of the European conquest of indigenous people around the world and remains influential in legal circles.

Pope Francis, the pontiff of firsts, breaks with tradition

By Chelsea J. Carter, Hada Messia and Richard Allen Greene, CNN Vatican City (CNN) — Call him Pope Francis, the pontiff of firsts. When Jorge Bergoglio stepped onto the balcony at the Vatican on Wednesday to reveal himself as the new leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics, he made history as the first non-European pope of the modern era, the first from Latin America, the first Jesuit and the first to assume the name Francis. The new pope then quickly made another kind of history, breaking with tradition in his first public act before the 150,000 people packed into St. Peter’s Square. Rather than bless the crowd first, he asked them to pray for him. “Let us say this prayer, your prayer for me, in silence,” he told the cheering crowd.

U.S. Troops Train For Possible Mission To Secure Syrian Chemical Agents

by Tom Bowman Several weeks ago, Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, said the U.S. is planning what to do about Syria’s vast chemical weapons program once Bashar Assad’s regime falls. The Syrians are believed to have hundreds of tons of chemical agents, including sarin, one of the deadliest chemical agents. A few drops can be lethal. So the central question is this: How can those sites be secured so they don’t fall into the wrong hands? NPR has learned that the 82nd Airborne Division just wrapped up a nine-day training exercise at Fort Bragg, N.C., working with Army chemical experts from the 20th Support Command at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, to get ready for a possible mission to deal with those deadly chemicals in Syria. Thousands of paratroopers jumped in and practiced fighting a foe and surrounding buildings. They wore chemical protective gear, practiced using chemical detectors and corralled mock chemical munitions for containment.

North Korea Severs ‘Hotline’ Communication With The South After Sanctions

by Tom Gjelten North Korean authorities cut off their “hotline” communication with South Korea on Monday as part of their announced withdrawal from the armistice agreement that ended the Korean War in 1953. The move came amid a flurry of bellicose North Korean threats, coinciding with the beginning today of joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises. The White House also vowed anew to protect U.S. forces and South Korean allies against any threats from the North. Analysts say it is among the most dangerous moments on the Korean peninsula in several years.

Berlusconi gets 1-year sentence over published wiretap

By Barbie Nadeau and Michael Pearson, CNN Rome (CNN) — Silvio Berlusconi’s long strange trip through Italian politics — and the nation’s justice system — reached another stop Thursday as a Milan court sentenced the former prime minister to a year in prison for publishing secretly recorded details of a political rival’s telephone conversations. The conviction comes less than two weeks after Berlusconi came in a seemingly improbable second among voters as he tried to win back his old job. Whether Berlusconi, 76, will ever set foot in prison is questionable. Berlusconi has been charged and convicted before but has never served time. Previous charges have either been overturned on appeal or dismissed because the statute of limitations had expired. Berlusconi’s lawyer, Piero Longo, said he will appeal.

This evening I finally opened my laptop. When I saw Denise’s thank you diary I started to make a comment, then realized I had enough I wanted to say that it was probably too much to post there. I didn’t want to throw an important community diary off topic.

Since Sunday I’ve stayed under the radar. . Bottom line, I am battling severe depression. Not sure if it’s side effects from all the drugs given to me when I was sick and on the ventilator for four days, or if it’s issues going on in my life right now, maybe both.

Even doing the “I have much to be grateful for” thing several times a day hasn’t helped much.  

Thing is, I do have a lot to be grateful for. On the other side of the coin there’s some major emotional life stress going on long term.

For eleven months I’ve had a trip to Miami planned for this week. I’ve been in such a funk that it took some people IRL to convince me to go. Snow and record breaking low temps in IA helped, too.

So I’m here. And it’s warm. Yes, I am grateful,  and those loving people who made sure I got on that plane are now jealous as hell. They’re freezing their asses off back there and I’m eating sushi outdoors on a patio this evening.

About a week ago I attempted to start a late night diary series here. I need to apologize for not following through, just disappearing.

Due to real life situations lately, and also very hurtful things that I experienced at GOS, I suddenly felt vulnerable posting somewhere new. Vulnerability kicks off fear for me at times, when I don’t handle fear well I tend to disappear.  That bit of neurosis,  along with the spiraling depression, sent me back into my shell.

The point to all this rambling is that I am very glad the Moose-a-thon was pointed out to me. I am very grateful for this place and those in it I’ve known of some time, and for those folks I’m getting to know.

Do you ever find yourself in awe of where you travel to, without physically moving, when you wander off to various paths in search of a question on the intertubz?

In trying to come up with some brilliant, original, mind blowing, spectacle of an overnight type diary I started pondering whether moose are nocturnal creatures.

An hour later I had learned a LOT about the animal and how much effort has been put into learning about them, too. Let’s not talk about what I should have been doing with that hour, I’ll just say I’m glad the friend I was almost an hour late to pick up for a dinner event we were going to doesn’t read MM…….