Society's ChildS


Bizarro Earth

Exxon Mobil shuts Louisiana oil pipeline after leak

* 22-inch line delivers crude to Exxon Baton Rouge Refinery, 4 others

* Spill contained in immediate area around Torbert, LA

* Baton Rouge Refinery is 3rd largest in U.S.

* Exxon says no immediate impact on Baton Rouge production

Exxon Mobil Corp has shut the 160,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) North Line crude oil pipeline in Louisiana after a leak spilled 1,900 barrels of crude oil in a rural area over the weekend, affecting a conduit that supplies the nation's third-largest refinery.

The 22-inch line originates in St. James, Louisiana, and provides shippers with access to oil from the giant Louisiana Offshore Oil Port and crude from offshore platforms, according to Exxon's website.

It was unclear Monday, the second full day the North Line was shut, how long it might be down. The line pumps crude to ExxonMobil's 502,000 barrel per day (bpd) Baton Rouge, Louisiana, refinery as well as a handful of other plants.

The U.S. pipeline regulator said it had sent an inspector to investigate the leak, but has not issued any orders that would prevent Exxon from resuming operations when it is ready. The company said it had contained the oil in the "immediate area".

Yoda

Rachel Maddow Takes on the Big Boys in the War On Women

Republicans tried to target Rachel Maddow in their war on women, but Maddow made history by calling out the GOP's condescending misogyny on Meet The Press.

Here is the video:


Partial transcript is below:

Bomb

RFK Assassination: Witness claims second RFK shooter


A key witness to the 1968 assassination of Robert F. Kennedy has retracted her official statements in the case and now claims that convicted assassin Sirhan Sirhan did not act alone.

Nina Rhodes-Hughes, 78, tells CNN that the FBI and then-California Attorney General Kamala Harris "twisted" her original statements to authorities.

"What has to come out is that there was another shooter to my right," Rhodes told CNN. "The truth has got to be told. No more cover-ups."

Rhodes' original FBI statement says she only heard 8 gunshots at the time and makes no mention of a second shooter. However, Rhodes, who was just feet away from Kennedy says she never claimed to have only heard 8 shots.

Attention

Apartheid Israel: Tel Aviv residents protest refugees' presence

Residents of Shapira neighborhood hold demonstration, decide to create security squads in wake of recent firebomb attack

Light Saber

Major British supermarket chain Co-Op boycotts West Bank settlement produce

Co-op, fifth biggest supermarket chain in Britain, emphasizes it will continue doing business with companies that can guarantee none of their products come from outside the Green Line.

Cult

US Pastor Terry Jones Burns Koran, again

pastor terry jones
Terry Jones
Controversial US pastor Terry Jones has burned more copies of the Koran and a depiction of the prophet Mohammed to protest the imprisonment in Iran of a Christian clergyman, The Gainesville Sun reported.

The newspaper said Jones and another pastor, who carried out their protest in front of their church in Gainesville, Florida on Saturday, demanded the release of Christian pastor Youcef Nadarkhani from an Iranian prison.

Cult

Flashback Buy your way to Heaven! Pope brings back Catholic 'indulgences'

Church
© Sarah Gilbert
These days, you can get a deal on anything. Even salvation! Pope Benedict has announced that his faithful can once again pay the Catholic Church to ease their way through Purgatory and into the Gates of Heaven.

Never mind that Martin Luther fired up the Reformation because of them: Plenary Indulgences are back.

Gear

Minnesota Public Schools Forcing Kids to Eat Lunch in 10 Minutes

Hungry Kid
© Minyanville
Speed eating legend and Nathan's hotdog receptacle Takeru Kobayashi might have to throw in the -- imaginably very greasy -- towel, with a new generation of American children being groomed to master the fine art of stuffing face.

Mother Jones has picked up on an outrageous report out of Minnesota, where two elementary school students claim they're given a measly 10 to 11 minutes to eat lunch. 10 to 11 minutes! Let's break that down. That's one to two minutes getting served food with highly questionable nutritional content, another minute trying to squeeze a seat in at the cool-kid's table. Finally, these sixth graders are given a whopping seven minutes to socialize -- and do I dare say, enjoy themselves -- and, oh yeah, carefully chew and digest their food. School administrations might shave off another minute if they switched to edible packing, allowing students to avoid a trip to the garbage by saving their trash for an afternoon snack.

Fast eating among US students is an unfortunate nationwide norm. The School Nutrition Association, whose mission it is to educate and empower its members to provide healthy meals for children, estimates students have on average 25 minutes to eat lunch. Cost restrictions are equally as tight. Even with new federal guidelines, which provide more funding for fresh and healthful foods in cafeterias, schools have less than $3.00 per a student to spend on mealtime. That's roughly the cost of large cup of coffee at your local Starbucks.

Display

Apple responds to tax criticism by highlighting job creation

apple inc
Rebuttal comes in the wake of a report claiming the tech giant goes to great lengths to avoid paying billions of dollars in taxes.

Apple responded today to criticism that the company goes to great lengths to cut its global tax bill by billions of dollars every year, trumpeting the "incredible number of jobs" it has created.

The statement was in response to an in-depth report published yesterday by The New York Times that depicted Apple as a pioneer in developing ways to sidestep taxes and that claimed companies seeking to do the same have used its methods as templates. "Apple serves as a window on how technology giants have taken advantage of tax codes written for an industrial age and ill-suited to today's digital economy," the Times reported.

In response, Apple said it was one of the biggest taxpayers in the U.S.

Arrow Down

Apple avoids paying billions in worldwide tax

apple tax
Apple, the world's most profitable technology company, doesn't design iPhones in Nevada. It doesn't run AppleCare customer service from Reno. And it doesn't manufacture MacBooks or iPads anywhere nearby.

Yet, with a handful of employees in a small Reno office in a company subsidiary named Braeburn Capital, Apple has done something central to its corporate strategy: it has avoided millions of dollars in taxes in California and 20 other US states.

Apple's headquarters are in Cupertino, California. By putting an office to collect and invest the company's profits in Reno, just 350 kilometres away, Apple sidesteps state income taxes on some of those gains.

California's corporate tax rate is 8.84 per cent. Nevada's, zero.

Setting up an office in Reno is one of many legal methods Apple uses to reduce its worldwide tax bill by billions of dollars a year.