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Sucker-punching cop shamed by judge for breaking 'Good Samaritan' woman's leg

David Edwards
Raw Story
Thu, 18 Dec 2014 01:56 UTC
Image
© Tracy McLaughlin photo
Maria (Tony) Farrell leaves Orillia court house
A judge in Canada this week lashed out an Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) officer for causing "catastrophic injuries" to a 49-year-old woman who he said was acting as a "Good Samaritan."

During the trial that lasted longer than a year, the court heard how Maria "Tonie" Farrell responded to a woman screaming behind a convenience store in 2013, according to QMI Agency reporter Tracy McLaughlin.

When OPP Sgt. Russ Watson arrived on the scene, Farrell attempted to point the officer in the direction of the man who had been attacking the woman, but he refused to listen.

"Shut the f*ck up," Watson warned.

"Mrs. Farrell was acting as Good Samaritan who went to the assistance of a woman who was being assaulted," Justice George Beatty said this week. "She had no criminal record and wanted to assist Sgt. Watson."

"Watson kicked her to the side, a karate-kick that snapped her leg," the judge explained, adding that "Watson then jumped on her and punched her on the left side of her face. She turned face-down and Sgt. Watson kept kneeing her in the back."

With her leg dangling, and screaming from the pain, Farrell was handcuffed and placed in the police cruiser. She was later charged with assaulting a police officer.

Comment: While it's nice to see a judge who actually takes a policemen to task for his brutality, it's really not enough. This cop should have his badge taken away and he should be charged with assault. When a cop attacks a person who was doing nothing illegal and causes such horrific injuries, they should be held criminally responsible. Otherwise, there is no deterrent for cops to continue to brutalize the population.

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Hardhat

Governor of New York state announces fracking ban


Phys.org
Thu, 18 Dec 2014 00:00 UTC
anti-fracking

A woman holds an anti-fracking sign at a rally for a Global Climate Treaty December 10, 2014 near the United Nations in New York
Governor Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday he would ban hydraulic fracking in New York State, citing health concerns about the controversial oil and gas drilling technique.

The announcement extends a de facto New York ban on the practice, which offers the potential to unlock vast quantities of natural gas but which has come under intense scrutiny from environmentalists.

The energy industry complains that New York has lost jobs and investment by not following neighboring states by drilling into Marcellus, a huge shale rock formation in the eastern US.

Comment: It appears that the movement to ban fracking is gaining ground, despite the protestations of the industry that can no longer successfully argue that the practice does not involve serious environmental and health risks.

France Becomes First Country to Ban Extraction of Natural Gas by Fracking

Texas town, birthplace of hydraulic fracking, votes to outlaw it

Massachusetts seeks 10 year ban on gas fracking after series of Texas earthquakes

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Gold Bar

What is going on in the physical gold market?

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Tue, 16 Dec 2014 00:00 UTC
Image
© Gunvor
Back in March, otherwise very under-the-radar Swiss commodities trading giant Gunvor and the fifth largest oil trader in the world, made headlines in the press when one of its then-Russian owners, billionaire Gennady Timchenko (estimated net worth of $8.5 billion), sold his entire 44% stake in the company to his partner in the firm, Torbjorn Tonqvist, just a day before the US revealed its first round of sanctions against individuals affiliated with the Putin regime. Timchenko was among them. As a result of the sale, however, Gunvor avoided falling on the US sanctions list and a Treasury official said that "Gunvor Group Ltd. isn't subject to automatic blocking from dealing with U.S. persons under Russian sanctions because co-founder Gennady Timchenko owns less than 50 percent of the company."

Since then the Geneva-based company rarely appeared in the media which is how the nondescript company liked it. Until last week, that is, when Bloomberg reported that the company was giving up trading physical precious metals, read gold, less than a year after the commodity house started a business dedicated to buying and selling gold. Gunvor is, or rather was, one of the few large commodity firms that handles precious metals. The move into gold was part of an expansion into non-oil businesses that now include iron ore, industrial metals and natural gas. Gold trading was done by a handful of people in Singapore and Geneva.

Comment: We do know of publicized cases where holders of vaulted allocated gold experienced extreme difficulty getting their gold physically delivered - one case threatening legal action. If large quantities of gold are entering the market in a condition of traceless title/ownership, some of it may be coming from allocated accounts. This could indicate that the end of our current ponzi currency system is near (not to mention the importance of physical possession).

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Dollar

12 things to know about the piteous open letter from RBS employee to Russell Brand

Thomas G. Clark
Another Angry Voice
Wed, 17 Dec 2014 13:50 UTC
Image
© Mail Online
Russell Brand (right) has apologised to business analyst Joseph Kynaston Reeves, 40 (left) following the letter.
Have you seen the open letter from Jo (the disgruntled financial sector worker) to Russell Brand that has been described as "hilarious" and "scathing" by the mainstream press? I have, and I have a few points to make about it.

TL;DR

The letter was far too long - and that's some criticism coming from me, given the length of most of my articles, including this one. I console myself with the fact that when I write my long articles I like to employ internal structure (such as subject headings) in order to break it down a bit into coherent and accessible pieces, rather than just jumbling together a long rambling diatribe.

The only reason that I bothered reading Jo's seemingly endless whining until the end was that after only the first dozen or so paragraphs I knew damn well that there would be plenty of ammunition for one of my "12 things ..." articles, otherwise I would almost certainly have dismissed it as TL;DR (too long; didn't read).

Hilarious? Piteous more like it?

The letter wasn't "hilarious" as claimed by the mainstream press, it wasn't even funny. If endless callbacks to Jo caring more about his cold lunch than society was meant to be a joke, it simply wasn't funny, and it remained unfunny despite the constant repetition.

I found Jo's letter about as hilarious as I found Russell Brand was when he and Jonathan Ross and made those abusive phone calls to an old man who used to be famous. Like 2008 vintage Brand, Jo's letter was was annoyingly self-centred and desperately unfunny.
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Arrow Down

New study shows that the most overweight workers in the US are police

John Vibes
Free Thought Project
Thu, 18 Dec 2014 19:28 UTC
Fat Police
© www.funinstore.com
As we reported earlier this year, an FBI study recently revealed that roughly 80% of police officers are overweight. Now, a new study published this week by the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found that police officers also rank as the most overweight workers in the country.

However, this study differed on the percentage of officers who were obese. While the FBI study earlier this year suggested that 80% of officers were overweight, this more recent study said that the number was around 41%. Although, it is possible that the FBI was using more rigorous standards.

The recent study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine calculated their numbers using body-mass-index statistics, while the sources of the numbers in the FBI study are unclear.

Body-mass-index is a measure of relative weight based on the mass and height of an individual, and is defined as the body mass of an individual divided by the square of their height.

Not only are a vast number of police officers in the US overweight, but they are also significantly less intelligent than the average person as well. As we reported, police departments actually reject applicants when they score too high on IQ tests.

Oddly, even with such low standards on both fitness and intelligence, it is actually extremely hard to actually get onto a police force. Police departments tend to look for specific types of individuals, people who they feel are capable of carrying out orders and inflicting violence with minimal reflection.

The American Journal of Preventive Medicine study also included a list of the professions that they found to be most in-shape. On that list was athletes, scientists, janitors, servers and artists, among others.
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Pirates

Boko Haram group attacks a village in Nigeria killing 32 and kidnapping scores of others


Press TV
Thu, 18 Dec 2014 12:26 UTC
Image
© AFP / Pius Utomi Ekpei
Boko Haram
The Boko Haram terrorist group has killed as many as 32 people and kidnapped scores of others in the restive northeastern part of Nigeria.

Officials and witnesses from the village of Gumsuri said on Thursday that the number of the abductees, which include women and children, could exceed 100.

"After killing our youths, the insurgents have taken away our wives and daughters," said Mukhtar Buba, who fled Gumsuri to Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State.

Boko Haram has claimed responsibility for many deadly gun and bomb attacks in various parts of Nigeria since the beginning of its militancy in 2009. Over 10,000 people have so far been killed in the assaults.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, nearly 650,000 Nigerians have fled their homes due to Boko Haram's attacks and are displaced inside the country, while thousands more have taken refuge in neighboring countries.

Comment: The goal of the Boko Haram group is - along with the overthrow of the Nigerian government - to establish their own caliphate in the region. Much like what ISIS is doing in the Middle East. Maybe they are receiving their instructions from the same source?

Boko Haram: A CIA Covert Operation
Nigerian terror group Boko Haram linked to Mossad and the CIA

Create a terrorist group > let them commit atrocities > use the atrocities as a pretext for U.S. intervention.
The geo-strategists' goal, according to one analyst in the following Press TV report, is to split Nigeria into more manageable statelets, then secure the country's vast oil reserves for Western elites.
See also: Clinton, Obama, and Boko Haram Yup, we armed them and let them run wild

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Cow

US: Ground beef prices climb to another record

Ali Meyer
CNSNews
Wed, 17 Dec 2014 09:24 UTC
Image
The average price of a pound of ground beef climbed to another record high -- $4.201 per pound -- in the United States in November, according to data released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

In August 2014, the average price for a pound of all types of ground beef topped $4 for the first time, hitting $4.013, according to the BLS. In September, the average price jumped to $4.096 per pound, and in October, the average price climbed to $4.154 per pound. In November, the average price hit the highest price ever recorded -- $4.201 per pound.

A year ago, in November 2013, the average price for a pound of ground beef was $3.477 per pound. Since then, the average price has increased 20.8 percent in one year.

Five years ago, in November 2009, the average price of a pound of ground beef was $2.062, according to the BLS. The price has since climbed by $2.139 per pound, or 103.7 percent.

The overall Consumer Price Index measures the relative change in the prices of a basket of goods and services relative to a basis of 100. Subordinate indexes measure the relative change in price for individual goods or services or categories of goods and services.

The price index for seasonally adjusted, uncooked ground beef hit an all-time high of 296.616 in November, up 1.4 percent from October when it was 292.588. In 1947, the earliest year in this index, it was 26.5.

"The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) declined 0.3 percent in November on a seasonally adjusted basis," states BLS. "Over the last 12 months, the all items index increased 1.3 percent before seasonal adjustment."

Comment: With the bizarre weather here on the planet, food prices are going to continue to rise. Get prepared!

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Wine n Glass

Former police officer arrested 3 times in one day, twice for DUI

Fausto Giovanny Pinto
Connecticut Post
Tue, 16 Dec 2014 01:31 UTC
Image

John Biehn
A former Bridgeport police officer, accused in the past of drunkenly shooting up a city housing complex, was arrested three times in about 11 hours stretching into early Tuesday, following a Monday court appearance on a drunken-driving charge.

The first incident occurred just before 1:30 p.m., Vernon police said, when they pulled over 39-year-old John Biehn, of Southington, in the parking lot of McDonald's on Talcottville Road after receiving a call that a blue Hyundai Sonata was being driven erratically and on the wrong side of Route 83.

Biehn told officers he was coming from state Superior Court in Rockville, and he failed a standardized sobriety test, police said. Vernon police charged him with operating a vehicle under the influence of alcohol or drugs and failure to drive in the proper lane.

Biehn's court appearance concerned similar charges stemming from a July 26 incident, according to the state judicial website. He entered an initial plea of not guilty and is scheduled for his next court date on those charges in January.

He was released from Vernon Police Headquarters on $2,500 bond posted by his wife, Bridgeport Police Det. Kimberly Biehn.
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Eye 2

Psychopath Ann Coulter on women reporting rapes: Just 'girls trying to get attention'

David Ferguson
Raw Story
Wed, 17 Dec 2014 21:11 UTC
Image
In an appearance on talk radio's The Lars Larson Show last week, conservative talking head Ann Coulter claimed that women who report rapes, most of the time, are just "girls trying to get attention."

According to Right Wing Watch, the Godless author said that a botched Rolling Stone story about a campus rape at the University of Virginia just shows that "there is no campus rape problem."


Comment: That is some ridiculous logic there! So because Rolling Stone backs down on their story, which is probably just the tip of the iceberg regarding college sexual assaults, Coulter decides that campus rape is all just a method young girls use to get attention. Yeah, because being known for being raped and then being an outcast in your social circle is so desirable! Seriously, Coulter doesn't seem to even have two neurons firing here. Either that, or she's projecting her own inner state onto others and that is what she would do to get attention, because psychopaths aren't bothered by the same stuff normal individuals are so feeling cut off from your social circle wouldn't matter to them.


Coulter dismissed the notion of date or acquaintance rape out of hand, insisting that unless a victim gets "hit on the head with a brick," it isn't a legitimate rape.

"People know what a rape is," Coulter insisted, "and to have girls trying to get attention - from Lena Dunham to this poor psychotic at UVA, Lady Gaga claiming she was raped but she didn't admit it to herself for five years. What major crime do people say, 'I didn't admit it to myself?'"

In a second part of the interview, the 53-year-old pundit said that liberals are vastly overplaying instances of campus rape, which, in her experience is generally perpetrated by liberal men like the "Clintons and Kennedys," anyway.


Comment: Yes, it's all those evil liberals fault! Those dang Clinton and Kennedys are the only ones who rape, and the young Republican frat members would never engage in that behavior. Ann Coulter is clearly living in another reality.


Listen to Coulter's remarks, embedded below via Right Wing Watch:

Part One


Part Two

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Black Cat

Massachusetts mother charged with murder after three dead babies found in home

Jared Keever
Opposing Views
Wed, 17 Dec 2014 20:29 UTC
Image
© Reuters/Paul Kapteyn
A Massachusetts woman has been indicted on murder charges after police found the remains of three babies in her home, the Worcester district attorney announced Tuesday.

The Boston Globe reports police arrested Erika Murray, 31, in September after searching her Blackstone home following the removal of four neglected children from the home in August. She has been in custody since that time.

Authorities had been notified of a problem after one of the children went to a neighbor trying to get help for a crying baby. When they responded, police found four children, ranging in age from 5 months to 13 years old, living in what they said were deplorable conditions.

Prosecutors said the 5-month-old and 3-year-old were covered in their own feces and the 3-year-old was unable to walk or talk. Police removed the children from Murray's care.

They returned in September with a search warrant for the home. That is when they found the remains of two babies, dressed in diapers and infant outfits. The body of the third child is described by The Boston Globe as that of a fetus.

"I have never seen anything like the facts in this case," Worcester District Attorney Joseph Early said at a news conference Tuesday, according to The Associated Press. "Everyone who went into that house, to a person, said they'd never seen anything like it."


Comment: Did 'persons' go into the house before or after the horrific conditions and dead babies were discovered? If so, why was that not reported by anyone?


The house, which was eventually demolished, was said to be infested with rodents and insects, with feces smeared on the walls.

Comment: That our society has degenerated this far is just deplorable. At some point, seven children were in one home. How does this go unnoticed by ANYONE? Where were social services?

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