Society's Child
© Tijana Martin/The Canadian Press via AP, File
Members of the Toronto Police Service excavate the back of a property in Toronto during an investigation in relation to alleged serial killer Bruce McArthur
Members of the Toronto Police Service excavate the back of a property in Toronto during an investigation in relation to alleged serial killer Bruce McArthur
Prosecutor Michael Cantlon said McArthur would later access some of the photos long after the killings. The prosecution didn't display the images found on McArthur's electronic devices during the session, but said they included after-death photos of six of the eight victims.
"Victims were posed naked, with cigars in their mouth, shaved, and/or made to wear a fur coat and hat," Cantlon said.
He also said police found a naked man handcuffed to the bed when they raided McArthur's home and arrested him Jan. 18, 2018. He said police moved in when they realized McArthur had someone over. The man, who survived, was identified only as Middle Eastern and named "John."
© Agence France-Presse / Christophe Archambault
The comments were made in the police command room, as broadcaster France 3 reported, where the officers were watching an intense standoff between police and the demonstrators unfolding on the streets of Toulouse.
While the officers aren't seen in the video, the voices are heard saying "What a bunch of bastards!" and "The f***ers!", when the clashes turned violent.
© Global Look Press / Felix Voge
A Leavenworth County judge recently said he thought so when he reduced the prison sentence for a man who paid for sex with young girls he solicited over the internet.
District Judge Michael Gibbens sentenced Raymond Soden to five years and 10 months in prison. That was eight years less than what was called for in Kansas sentencing guidelines.
In doing so, the judge opined that the girls, who were both younger than 15, were partly to blame for what happened and questioned how much they were harmed. The judge pointed out that the children went to Soden's house voluntarily and didn't appear in court when he was sentenced.
"I do find that the victims in this case, in particular, were more an aggressor than a participant in the criminal conduct," Gibbens said before sentencing Soden. "They were certainly selling things monetarily that it's against the law for even an adult to sell."
Comment: Perhaps the citizens of Leavenworth county ought to consider putting pressure on the authorities to replace this clueless judge.
© Reuters / Joshua Roberts / File
Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos
Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos
The paper ran a $5.25 million, Tom Hanks-narrated ad during the Super Bowl which, according to the Post's CEO Fred Ryan, highlighted "the important, and increasingly dangerous, work of journalists around the world."
Bezos, the founder of internet retail giant Amazon and the world's richest man, bought the Washington Post in August 2013 - but according to some of his employees, the billionaire may be more interested in tooting his newspaper's horn than providing benefits to the journalists that he purportedly so deeply admires.
"Now unfreeze our pensions, pay an equal wage, and strengthen maternity benefits,"Washington Post journalist Dan Zak wrote in response to a tweet by Bezos sharing the pricey promotion.
© Flickr / La Priz
Guinness is an Irish institution, and a sponsor of the Six Nations rugby tournament. With the tournament underway, the stout-maker found itself in hot water with immigration activists for a series of seemingly innocuous advertisements placed around Dublin last week.
The billboards reading "You don't pick a side. Your grandparents have done that already"' appeared ahead of Ireland's opening match of the tournament against England in Dublin's Aviva Stadium on Saturday.
Comment: The 'wokies' strike again. These people are so sensitive, it's amazing they can even stand being out of their houses.
On Jan. 9, Del. Kathy Tran, D-Va., introduced two bills in the state legislature: one affects butterflies, the other affects babies. According to Tran's website, the first bill's goal is to "help save ... butterflies by protecting the fall cankerworm (caterpillar)" from deadly insecticides.
The other bill's goal, Tran explained in a now-viral video, is to allow late-term abortion up until the moment of birth.
If you kill the caterpillar, you've killed the beautiful butterfly. What a strange and chilling code of ethics to prohibit insecticides while promoting infanticide.
This is not a theoretical debate. According to the pro-choice Guttmacher Institute, there are about 12,000 abortions performed annually after 20 weeks of pregnancy. That's a staggering statistic: 12,000 babies aborted every year in the second half of pregnancy, when many are viable and can survive outside the womb in a neo-natal intensive care unit. Pampers even has a special line of diapers for these "micro-preemies," as they are known.
Comment: It's no surprise to see this kind of attitude towards life. In our materialistic, Darwinistic culture, there is nothing special about life: it's all just dead matter anyway. Fortunately, most people reject this philosophy. Unfortunately, many of those in political leadership accept it wholeheartedly.
© Global Look Press / Z6869 Reinhard Kaufhold
Marcus Franz, a doctor and former MP from the conservative Austrian People's Party, made the comments on local TV last week.
"I myself know fathers who, when their daughters come home in the evening when they live in the problem area, give them headscarves so they won't be recognized as Austrians. I know this personally, in the 15th district [of Vienna], this is a fact," Franz said.
Franz also stated that his experience as a doctor tells him that women are afraid because of repeated "micro-aggressions" happening on the streets of Vienna, especially in districts with a lot of migrants.
© Reuters / Michael Dalder
About half a dozen complaints about the practice have been filed over the past year or so with ITIM, an organization that assists immigrants and converts challenged by Israel's religious bureaucracy.
"It is really terrifying thinking where this could lead," Elad Caplan, the director of the advocacy center at ITIM, told Haaretz. "Judaism is about belonging and community - it's not about race and blood, as our worst enemies have claimed."
Comment: It seems not all Jews would agree with that sentiment...
In one recent case, he said, a bride-to-be was sent for DNA testing because she was born quite a few years after her parents were married, and doubts were raised as to whether she was the biological daughter of the woman.
In another case, Caplan said, a woman was sent for DNA testing after she reported that her mother was in her mid-forties when she gave birth to her and doubts were raised as to whether this could have been possible.
A Jewish bride and groom must marry through the Orthodox-controlled Chief Rabbinate's office if they wish to be recognized as married in Israel. All couples seeking to marry through the Rabbinate must first register at one of its local offices.
These offices will typically refer individuals to the rabbinical courts if no certification exists that the mother of the bride or groom was married through the Rabbinate (or by a rabbi approved by the Rabbinate if they are from overseas). Likewise, couples will be referred to the rabbinical court if suspicions have been raised about the authenticity of the documentation they presented.
Natalya Baksheyeva (left) and Dmitry Baksheyev (combo photo)
Court officials in the southern city of Krasnodar told RFE/RL on February 5 that a jury found 43-year-old Natalya Baksheyeva guilty a day earlier.
Baksheyeva was accused of urging her husband, 36-year-old Dmitry Baksheyev, to kill a woman after an argument at the couple's home in September 2017.
She went on trial in late October.
Comment: The official count is likely very low compared with reality. Macron has caught the tail of a tiger two decades in the making. The people will not be backing down.