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Quack Science: Study claims secular European countries are the happiest in the world (yet lead in suicides)

P Gosselin
NoTricksZone
Tue, 10 Sep 2013 15:44 UTC
Happiness Report
© NoTricksZone
UPDATE: Happy marriages, too. Almost half of all marriages in Europe end in divorce. And it's the happy Europeans who fret endlessly about the world-ending climate catastrophe.

CNN reports here on the latest UN World Happiness Report, issued from the comfy confines of their New York or Geneva offices. I'm a little confused here. Is the report from the UN or Columbia University? Is there really a difference?

The study assessed people's happiness in 156 countries, based on western metrics having to do with economics, social support, generosity, mental illness, etc..

Europe ranks highest in happiness

Their findings: Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Sweden are the world's happiest countries, and Rwanda, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Benin and Togo are the unhappiest.

Let's all rush to be like hip Europeans, the report wants to tell us. But can we really trust the elitist authors of the report? One could easily interpret the report as racist. Look at the study's message: Northern European, socialist secular societies (the whitest of the whites) are the happiest.

Sub-Saharan African countries, on the other hand, are just all so miserable. Of course the authors surely are not at all racist, but they are indeed very ARROGANT.

I don't trust the yardstick used by the authors here, and I ask: Are the European countries really the happiest?
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Question

Cloud 'angel' spotted in Devon skies

Hayley Dixon and Agencies
The Telegraph, UK
Wed, 11 Sep 2013 15:28 UTC
© Apex
A cloud in the shape of an "angel” in the evening sky over Sidmouth in Devon.
Ian Williams noticed the glowing cloud over Sidmouth in Devon on around 7.30pm on Tuesday.

He said: "I'd been doing some work in the loft at my father's house when I looked up through the window and spotted the 'angel'.

"I quickly grabbed my camera and managed to get a couple of shots before the formation dispersed.

"I was surprised at how much it resembled an angel gliding through the sky within the shape of arms out and flowing hair."
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Yemeni child bride, eight, 'dies on wedding night'


The Guardian, UK
Wed, 11 Sep 2013 15:13 UTC
Child Bride
© Mohamed Huwais/AFP/Getty ImagesYemeni women attend a rally in Sana'a in support of proposed legislation banning the marriage of girls under 17.
An eight-year-old Yemeni girl has died of internal bleeding on her wedding night after marrying a man five times her age, a social activist and two local residents said, in a case that has caused an outcry in the media and revived debate about child brides.

Arwa Othman, head of Yemen's House of Folklore and a leading rights campaigner, said the girl, identified only as Rawan, was married to a 40-year-old late last week in the town of Meedi in Hajjah province, north-western Yemen.

"On the wedding night and after intercourse, she suffered from bleeding and uterine rupture which caused her death," Othman said. "They took her to a clinic but the medics couldn't save her life."

Othman said authorities had not taken any action against the girl's family or her husband.

A security official in the provincial town of Haradh denied any such incident had taken place. He did not want to be identified because he was not authorised to speak to the press.

But two Meedi residents contacted by Reuters confirmed the incident and said tribal chiefs had tried to cover up the incident when the news broke, warning a local journalist against covering the story.
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Eye 2

Snake preserved in wine bites woman, China

Lucy Shaw
The Drinks Business
Wed, 11 Sep 2013 10:07 UTC
A woman in northern China has had to receive hospital treatment after a snake preserved in rice wine jumped out of the bottle and bit her hand.

Image
According to the Global Times, the surprise attack happened when the woman, surnamed Liu, from Shuangcheng went to top up the bottle with more wine.

Remarkably, the snake, which had been pickling for three months, was still alive.

Liu, who received treatment at a local hospital for inflammation, had bought the snake wine to try and cure her rheumatism.

It is a widely held belief in China that such wines boast medicinal properties

This is not the first incident of a pickled snake seemingly coming back to life.

One Mr Zhang of Hubei Province was bitten by a snake in 2009 that had been preserved in a bottle of rice wine for two months.

While in 2001, a villager from Guangxi Zhuang died a day after being bitten from a pickled snake.
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Attention

Food stamp cuts sneaking through the House during Syrian crisis

Arthur Delaney
The Huffington Post
Tue, 10 Sep 2013 13:31 UTC
Image
© Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call| Getty
The debate in Congress over whether the United States should bomb Syria may be diverting attention from the economy at home. While the House and Senate hold hearings on authorizing military force, a bill that would cut food stamps is headed to the House floor next week with relatively little fanfare.

"There are 50 million people in the United States of America who are hungry, 17 million are kids," Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) said in an interview. "It is something we all should be ashamed of, and the United States House of Representatives is about to make that worse. This is a big deal and my hope is that we'll treat it as such and not just let it go by without a lot of discussion and debate because we're all focused on Syria."

Last week the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that the rate of "food insecurity" in American households remained constant from 2011 to 2012, with 15 percent of the population struggling to afford food at some point during the year. That's 47 million people, roughly the same amount as are enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as food stamps. Research shows that enrollment trends track economic conditions.

Next week the House will vote on legislation to cut SNAP by roughly 5 percent. The bill is bypassing the House Agriculture Committee, which oversees food stamps, because it is a priority of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.).
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Sheriff

Louisiana police chief Steve E. Bodine indicted on child rape


The News Star
Mon, 09 Sep 2013 00:00 UTC
Image
© Steve E. Bodine
Bodine being held on $500K bond Spearsville Police Chief Steve E. Bodine, accused of aggravated rape of a child under the age of 13, has been indicted by a Union Parish grand jury. Bodine, 64, was booked late Monday afternoon into the Union Parish Detention Center. Third Judicial District Court Judge Cynthia Woodard set bond at $500,000.

Union Parish Sheriff's Office Chief Deputy Dusty Gates said the indictment and arrest of Bodine came after a yearlong investigation by sheriff's investigators, Louisiana State Police detectives and the District Attorney's office.

"This investigation took a while because this all occurred before he became chief two years ago," Gates said. "They were also witnesses located out of state that we had to find and interview." Gates said the investigation started after a family member filed a complaint with the sheriff's office.
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Pistol

Missouri teen fatally shot himself

Kris Hilgedick
NewsTribune.com
Tue, 10 Sep 2013 13:01 UTC
Ashland shooting
Barrett Glascock, Southern Boone school board member, talks with law enforcement outside the Southern Boone County Middle School on Tuesday where lawmen had converged on a report about a potential threat to the school. Classes were cancelled before 6 a.m. Tuesday because of the threat
Police were trying to question him about text threat against school

An Ashland teenager fatally shot himself in the chest after Boone County law enforcement personnel tried to take him into custody in order to question him about a text message threatening the Southern Boone County School District.

The incident happened early Tuesday morning.

The name of the 17-year-old - who authorities said lived with his father and stepmother on Bob Veach Road, northeast of Ashland - was not released at a press conference held mid-day Tuesday.

Ashland Police Chief Lyn Woolford said the situation came to his department's attention around 10:30 p.m. Monday when "a fellow student" reported receiving the threatening text message. The message was forwarded to the Ashland police and to Southern Boone County School Superintendent Chris Felmlee.

Subsequent investigation by Ashland police and Boone County sheriff's deputies deemed the threat to be "non-descriptive," but also "credible" and "dangerous." They declined to elaborate on the exact wording of the threatening message.
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Play

Caught on Camera: Texas cop charged for beating the whole family because the son was speeding


alternet.org
Tue, 10 Sep 2013 00:00 UTC
The officer reportedly broke the son's ribs, bruised his father's face, and dragged his mother.

Texas cop beating family
© Unkown
A Texas officer has been caught on camera beating up several members of a family. According to KHOU.com, Harris County Deputy Jimmy Drummond followed the son home for allegedly speeding, then attacked members of his family when they approached him. The altercation was recorded on a dash cam.

According to KHOU, the officer, who's due in court on Friday, broke the son's ribs, bruised his father's face, and dragged his mother.
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Cult

And finally... Fox anchor asks viewers to consider if bombing Syria is a harbinger of the second coming of Christ

David Edwards
The Raw Story
Tue, 10 Sep 2013 17:08 UTC
Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto on Monday devoted an entire segment to the possibility that a United States attack on Syria could be a sign of the End Times, a period in which Christians believe that Jesus Christ will return to face the emergence of the Antichrist.


"This Syria stuff is way old," Cavuto explained. "I mean Old Testament old. That's how old I'm talking about. Don't laugh. Some biblical scholars say it's all there in black and white."

The Fox News host invited author Joel Rosenberg to weigh in on the link between the Syrian conflict and the Bible passages, which he said were "uncanny" and "kind of scary."
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Arrow Down

Florida man draws 60 years in Connecticut cannibalism case


Associated Press
Tue, 10 Sep 2013 17:03 UTC
Tyree Smit
© Ned GerardTyree Smith listens to testimony during his trial in Bridgeport Superior Court, in Bridgeport, Conn. on, July 8th, 2013. Superior Court judge John Kavanewsky ordered Smith committed to the state’s maximum security psychiatric hospital in Middletown for up to 60 years for the murder of Angel "Tun Tun" Gonzalez.
A Florida man who killed a vagrant with an ax and ate his brain and eyes has been committed to a maximum-security psychiatric hospital in Connecticut after being found not guilty by reason of insanity.

Tyree Lincoln Smith, 36, of Lynn Haven, Fla., was ordered committed Monday by a three-judge panel in Bridgeport Superior Court. The panel in July found him not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect.

Smith apologized for killing Angel Gonzalez, whose mutilated body was found in a vacant apartment in Bridgeport in January 2012, a month after he was hacked to death.

"I'm really sorry for what I did, that I couldn't be myself," Smith told the judges. "It really had nothing to do with the other person."

The apology surprised relatives of Gonzalez who were in the courtroom, the Connecticut Post reported.
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