The Republican Party Just Doesn't Give A.........

It is no secret that The Replican Party vehemently despises President Obama, and will do whatever it takes to cast a dark tarnish  his legacy. The GOP bungled both elections by giving credence to its radical off shoot faction, (the Tea Party), and now they are determined to block the law that will define President Obamas presidency, The Affordable Care Act. They are willing to sacrifice the entire country in an effort to defeat Barack Obama. Make no mistake about it. Their threatening to shut down the government has NOTHING to do with stopping "Obama Care", and EVERYTHING to do with stopping President Obama. Similar bills have been introduced in the past by Republican's with little if any opposition. So the only reason for the lies, deception, and propaganda regarding the Affordable Care Act is personal. That's why they coined the phrase "Obama Care" to associate universal health care with a man instead of the reformation of the health care system for the good of the American people.

Congress will not approve a budget that includes the Affordable Health Care Act, causing a Government shut down of all non-essential departments. Of course these departments are extremely essential to those who work for them, and depend on their jobs to put food on the table, and keep a roof over their heads. 

Perhaps the worst aspect of a government shut down is the fact that those brave men and women in the armed forces WILL NOT get paid. Those who so selflessly give of themselves, and would gives their lives for this country would not be compensated because of the dubious decision of a gaggle of angry old men who's hatred for President Obama is greater than the needs of this country. 

The G.O.P does not truely care about America. All this cantankerous, antiquated party cares about is sticking to the first Black president of the United States.

As of this writing America is 10 hours away from a possible shut down, and by the time this is published a decision will have been made to either move this country forward or continue to hold it hostage.

At the time if this publishing the government is shut down!!

PR

"I Can't Hire You Because You're Black"

These days it is considered politically incorrect to be a racist. Peoples behavior and comments may allude to or give a glimpse into their psyches. While some use innuendo, thinly valed, dog whistled signals, and implications all day long. There is rarely an overt statement of racism. But every now and them some jerk is comfortable enough or bold enough to show his or her true colors.

At the Framboise Patisserie in Middle Village, Queens, the pastries are elegant, the cakes are custom-made and city officials say the hiring is discriminatory.

“I can’t hire you because you’re black,” Jamilah DaCosta, 25, said she heard when she applied for a job working the counter at this French bake shop.

The Rego Park woman interviewed with co-owner Patty Meimetea in October 2011 but was told she wouldn’t be a good fit for the “counter girl” position because black workers in the front of the store would scare away customers, according to findings by the city Human Rights Commission.

After an investigation and a trial, the commission last week fined the bakery $25,000 for racial and gender discrimination for weeding out DaCosta because of her race and discouraging men from applying for the job with a gender-specific “counter girl” ad on Craigslist.

“I felt hurt. I was disgusted,” DaCosta said of her experience at Framboise Patisserie. “Before I could even pull out my resume or start a formal interview, she was telling me all this negative stuff she couldn’t hire me because I was black, I would scare away her customers.”

According to DaCosta and the commission, when DaCosta came in for the interview, Meimetea quickly started quizzing her about her nationality. DaCosta said she was American, but after the owner pressed her, she said she was Jamaican and Lebanese, according to the decision.

She told DaCosta her husband would be angry if she hired a black worker for the counter and said she would hire her if there were a job open in the kitchen, where no one would see her.

She also suggested applying for a job at another Queens bakery where bosses wouldn’t care what the workers look like and told DaCosta to look at the pictures hanging around the bakery, pointing out they were all of white people.

A shaken DaCosta cried in her car after the disastrous interview.

“They’re not judging me on my personality, but my skin color. What century are we living in?” she said. “I thought I had thick skin, I thought I could withstand anything, but it just completely broke me down.”

 The owners denied making racist remarks and insist DaCosta is lying. “Of course this is not true,” Meimetea said in a brief interview.

Meimetea’s husband and co-owner AJ Saputhanthri said that DaCosta was not hired because the shop had already filled the position and added that DaCosta didn’t have the necessary experience. 

“I can’t hire somebody who worked at McDonald’s,” he said. “She don’t even know what is the cookie dough.”

Saputhanthri added that he found any charges of racism absurd, because he himself is from Sri Lanka. “I want the human rights judge to look at me and tell me I look like a white,” he said.

Saputhanthri even accused DaCosta herself of racism, saying she assumed his wife, Meimetea, was racist because she looked white. Meimetea is Greek.

Can anyone actually look Greek?

 “It’s never true. I swear to you,” he said. “I respect everybody. I don’t do anything bad to people.”

“They want only money,” he said of city officials. “I’m a simple man living simple, working hard ... They want to take my money away.”

The commission found the pair’s denials weren’t credible, noting they admitted they had never hired a black person or a man to work the counter in the three years they had been in business, though Saputhanthri said the bakery now has two black employees, including one at the counter.

Of course they do.

“Respondents’ actions were blatant violations,” the commission wrote in its decision. “Meimetea’s statements to Ms. DaCosta were cruelly and flagrantly bigoted and demeaning.”

The $25,000 penalty the commission ordered the bakery to pay includes $10,000 in damages to DaCosta, a $10,000 fine for racial discrimination for the shop’s treatment of DaCosta, and a $5,000 fine for gender discrimination for the “counter girl” ad.

  

PR

Just When You Thought You Heard It All News (9-28-2013)

Every man has done something in his lifetime to impress a woman. Some of us have done things that are just down right stupid, and some of us are still doing things that are D.R.S.  But there's a fine line between being stupid and dangerous. This story proves that there is absolutely no correlation between age and wisdom. At least not as far as this guy is concerned.

 

A man from southern Colombia had to have his penis amputated after he allegedly overdosed on the erectile disfunction medication Viagra, officials said. 

Just reading this is painful.

The 66-year-old man from Gigante, told a local newspaper that he intentionally overdosed on Viagra to impress his new girlfriend, local media reported on Wednesday. 

There is no fool like an old fool.

Doctors noted that the man's penis was inflamed, fractured and showed signs of gangrene, and opted to amputate to prevent the inflammation and gangrene from spreading to other parts of his body.

OUCH!!!

Life is a strange thing. No matter what or how you plan. Sometimes things have a way of falling apart when you least expect it. One of the most important aspects of life is how you respond to what happens in it. Whether you choose to make lemonade out of lemons or just focus on the fact that you have lemons makes all of the difference in the world. The following story is one in which a family decided to take their lemons and make lemonade for those who needed it most.

Carol (pictured in blue dress) and Willie Fowler were shocked when their daughter’s wedding was called off, but the food and lavish reception they paid for did not go to waste.

No, I don't know why their daughters wedding was called off. Maybe because of a secret child or a secret lover. But I can almost guarantee that it was a secret something.

The Fowler family reached out to Hosea Feed The Hungry, a local Atlanta organization serving families in need, to help figure out how to best use the food. They ended up turning a disappointing turn of events into a an evening that feed more than 200 homeless people on Sept. 15 at the Villa Cristina, an exclusive reception and wedding spot.

Carol said that she and her husband knew forty days in advance that their daughter, Tamara, would not be getting married, but they prayed about what to do next.

“And when (my husband) woke up the next morning, he said, we’re going to call Hosea Feed the Hungry and ask if we can donate it to the needy. I immediately looked up the number and called and spoke with Mrs. Elisabeth Omilami, and in doing so, we partnered. And it was such a wonderful feeling just to partner with them.”

It is not clear why the wedding was called off, but Tamera’s mother, Carol, said her daughter was taking the change of plans very well. For Omilami’s part, she initially thought Fowler wasn’t serious.

“At first, I thought it was a prank call because it was such an amazing offering,” she said. “And then she said she wanted to focus on women and families, that she wanted to focus on children at which 70 percent of the homeless in Atlanta are children. And so we had an opportunity to go out and look for places like the Nicholas House and Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless, as well as Mary Hall Freedom House. We’d called them all. We said, the Fowler family is going to have a party for you. Then they said, what do you mean? Then we said, it’s just for you. There’s no cost. All you have to do is get there.”

The Fowlers will surely be blessed. But had it been me I would have come out of my own pocket to provide luxury transportation for the homeless. But that's just me...........LOL

My children are special and talented. Your children are special and talented. But can your children spin on the one and two's, cut and scratch on the Technique 1200's or mix "Good Times" on the wheels of steel? No? Do you wish that they could. 

Then this school is perfect for you.

From playpen to playlist! A group of toddlers in Brooklyn is trading in rattles for beat making software.

Just when you thought you’ve heard it all, Cool Pony,  a thrift-store in Brooklyn, NY has debuted the first class for tots to learn how to be a DJ.

The class isn’t intended to transform kids into the next Tiesto or Avicii. It will, however, school them on how to develop their fine-motor skills using beat-mixing equipment.

Baby DJ School is the brainchild of seasoned DJ, (never heard of her, seen her on my TV or heard her on my radio), composer Natalie Elizabeth Weis, who has shared the stage with LCD Soundsystem and Dirty Projectors. 

WHO?! 

While she’s never worked directly with infants before, Weiss has a background teaching at the School of Rock in Manhattan.

 Over the eight-week course, which began on Sept. 18, Weiss will teach her class of six toddlers -- all under the age of 3 -- how to mix and match sample tracks in just 45 minutes.

Plus, Weiss' 45-minute class costs $200 per family.

Samantha Al-Fayez, the mother of one of Weiss’ new students, told the Wall Street Journal that her 1-year-old Julien "loves gangsta rap,"

Shouldn't somebody call child services on any parent who let's their child listen to "gangsta rap"?

Weiss' class doesn't play the "gangsta rap" for grown-ups. She "refuses to use any music with profanity or sexism in her DJing workSide Bar: Ladies and gentlemen, DJ Baby Harrison is in the mix!!!!

I know, I know. I usually do 3 stories in "Just When You Thought You Heard It All News" but I just couldnt ignore this one.

Two words, one name. O.J. Simpson! O.J. freak'in Simpson!!!!

O.J. Simpson found out how the cookie crumbles (rim shot), when he was allegedly caught stealing gooey goodies from a Nevada prison cafeteria.

The former gridiron great was recently caught with a stash of not one, but more than a dozen oatmeal cookies.

Life can be really unpredictable. One minute your running through the airport leaping over luggage, and the next your hoarding prison treats.

Simpson, who is serving a 33-year sentence for armed robbery at Lovelock Correctional Center in Pershing County, reportedly tried to smuggle the cookies into his cell after lunch. He might have gotten away with the cookie caper, if not for an inquisitive guard who noticed Simpson was hiding something under his prison clothes.

When corrections officer questioned Simpson, he allegedly confessed to the theft.

"O.J. just stood there with a goofy grin on his face as the guard kept digging inside his shirt and throwing the cookies on the floor." According to one source.

Simpson's fellow inmates were reportedly on hand to witness guards expose his sweet tooth.

"When the guard started pulling cookies out of O.J.'s shirt, the other inmates started laughing so hard they nearly fell over," the insider told the Enquirer.

Simpson, 66, was arrested in Las Vegas, in September 2007 and charged with numerous felonies, including armed robbery and kidnapping in relation to the armed theft of sports memorabilia. Sentenced to 33 years' imprisonment, the Nevada Parole Board recently granted Simpson parole on some charges related to the robbery, but ordered him held for the next four years.

SMH

PR

It's Good To Be You Unless You're.........

We are all unique, and special people made up of a myriad of experiences, personalities and cultures. Most people have an attribute that makes some aspect of who they are beautiful. This is what makes it good to be who we are. MOST people, but not all people. There are those who were born and exist to be nothing more than a thorn in the side of humanity. 

People like.........

Rush Limbaugh who has spent his entire "career" spreading hate, lies, and propaganda. He has perfected the art of fear mongering, and probably has brunch with the devil every Tuesday.

People like..........

Donald Trump who's often disturbing, misguided commentary is only a little less offensive than his come over. Trump is a gragarious bully, with all the tact of a hungry 4 year old, and has as much class as a school during recess.

People like.........

Flava Flav (William Drayton), who despite being a college graduate, and talented musician, built a career on being an offensive clown. Despite appearing in one VH1 minstrel show after another, this embarrassing mosquito of a man just won't fly away.

People like.......

DJ Mister Cee, who finally decided to crack to closet door, and admitted that he likes doing "things" with "dude girls". Come on! He's been busted 4 times already. Cee should admitt what we already know, and stop playing. Sure Biggie is probably rolling over in his grave. But in the immortal words of Big Daddy Kane in the hip hop classic The Symphony, "Put a quarter in your @%* cause you played yourself!"

PR

Putting It In Perspective

Too many of us are consumed with circumstances that we cannot control. Some of us torture ourselves with painful trips down memory lane. But the fact is we cannot turn back the clock. All we can do is move forward. While the past does have a profound effect on the future, today is already here. We must do everything that we can to not make today  regrettable tomorrow.

My own personal method for doing so is to put things into perspective. 

Perspective is a way of  processing thoughts beyond sight.  A way of analyzing a situation, or circumstances and putting them in their place. It means effectively accepting and being able to reconcile the things that you cannot change, and finding enough positivity at the crux of the matter to go on, and live. This is optimistic perspective. Let me be clear, there is also such a thing as pessimistic perspective. Pessimism is a negative thought process, no matter how subtle or inconsequential, it represents a critical conclusion to analytical thinking. 

The glass will always be half empty instead of half full, and the focus for some will on the misfortune of their glass being half empty as opposed it being half full and searching for an opportunity to fill it to the brim.

Ones perspective can either drive them insane or empower them. The greatest battles are battles of the mind. If we can win those battles everything else will fall into place. 

I've known quite a few people who have relocated. Each and every one of them really believed that a change of scenery would change their lives. But none of them gave a second thought to changing their minds. The majority of them floundered, blaming their new local for their failure, and a few persevered despite new challenges, and eventually thrived. The contrast in these two groups is the fact that those who met their impediments head on always did so, and always shined. The location didn't matter because of their perspectives. But those who failed, failed before they even relocated because they took their perspectives with them.

Proverbs 23:7

7 For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: 

PR

Why Can't She Idolize God ?

When I first heard about prayer being banned in schools I thought that the idea was absolutely proposterous. After all, who is man that he actually believes that he can ban an omnipotent, all mighty God who is everywhere. Make no mistake about it, banning prayer in school is the same as trying to ban God in school, because in prayer we acknowledge God as being greater than we are by humbling ourselves, and asking him to supply all of our needs and the needs of others.

Proponents of this idea say that keeping prayer out of schools is a form of maintaining separation of church and state given the fact that most schools are operated by a governing body. With that being said, I am still waiting for each and every piece of currency that reads "In God we trust", to be removed from circulation due to a failure to maintain separation of church and state. But of course this will never happen because standing on that particular "moral high ground" comes with a cost. So the same hypocrites who speak tolerance have absolutely no tolerance for a conflicting opinions. 

My right to believe that God should be allowed in school is just as important as those with a different opinion. But some on the far left are quick to villify anyone who disagrees, creating a culture of fear. Which frankly, has caused me to move closer to the center. No where near the far right, but far enough removed from the left to avoid being a sheep.

A 10-year-old student at a public school in Memphis, Tenn. was prohibited from writing about God in an in-class writing assignment.

The incident occurred earlier this week at Lucy Elementary School. The girl, identified only as Erin, wanted to write about God for an assignment. For the assignment, the teacher had asked students to choose an idol.

“It was so cute and innocent. She talked about how God created the earth and how she’s doing the best she can,” the girl’s mother, Erica Shead, told the station.

However, Erin’s teacher quickly nixed the girl’s reverence of The Almighty. According to Shead, the teacher told Erin that “it has something to do with God” and, in any case, Erin would not be allowed to idolize God for the assignment in the classroom that day.

“How can you tell this baby, that’s a Christian, what she can say and what she can’t say?” complained Shead.

The concerned mother promptly protested to the school principal, asking to see the policy which prevented students from writing positively about their religious beliefs.

“I told the principal this morning: would it be better if she wrote about Ellen Degeneres?” Shead told a WREG reporter. “Of course there was no comment.”

School district spokesman Christian Ross said that teachers can’t promote a particular religion but also stressed that students are free to write as they like about their own religion.

A later, clarified response from the Shelby County School District called the incident “a regrettable misunderstanding.”

“The principal and teacher have had a positive and productive conversation with the family, and we are pleased this matter is being addressed at the school level,” the later statement also said. “The district will not be discussing this matter further in the media.”

It’s not clear what, if anything ultimately happened with the assignment. According to Shead, her daughter’s teacher had required her to start the project all over again from scratch, choosing another idol.

She chose dead pop star Michael Jackson, a world-historical figure whom the teacher accepted as an idol.

The Second Commandment prohibits the worshiping of idols.

Michael Jackson did not sacrifice himself for anyone except himself. He is as far from an idol as you can get.

PR

Banning Ellison

Ralph Ellison is one of the greatest writers of all time. An accomplished wordsmith who's literary prowess stands head and shoulders above many who have dared to call themselves scribes. His novel, "The Invisible Man", is a literary American masterwork which is nothing short of a cultural phenomenon that should be required reading by all. With that being said, I am puzzled by the fact that one North Carolina school district had almost failed to recognize it as a valuable literary tool and a national treasure, until there was a public out cry.

Randolph County, N.C. is reconsidering a ban on Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man," a novel that focuses on black identity in the first half of the 20th century.

In a 5-2 vote last week, the Randolph County School Board of Education banned the book from county school libraries after the mother of an 11-grader complained. The mother claimed Ellison's work was inappropriate for 11th grade summer reading, citing both language and subject matter.

Could it be that the mother in question found the girth of Ellisions reality unnerving in contrast to her own.

In response, Board members each received a copy of the novel to assess for themselves. According to local media at last Monday's meeting, the board chair rejected "Invisible Man" as a "hard read," and another member stated he couldn't "find any literary value" in it, even though it won the U.S. National Book Award in 1953 and was identified by the Library of Congress as one of the "books that shaped America."

The board's ban upset local residents and gained national attention, even some international attention. The story even appeared on Russian TV.

It is unclear whether the outcry caused the board to schedule a special session as no reason was given for the reconsideration, but the board will meet again on Wednesday Sept. 23 to discuss the ban, and hopefully it will result in the inclusion of Ellisons work in the county curriculum. 

Censored education or incomplete education is not education at all. It is nothing more that miseducation.

PR

Dead In Her Cell

I think sometimes people forget that those who are incarcerated are still human beings who deserve to be treated as such. If not for the grace of God it could be any one of us. We are all someone's mother, father, sister, brother, or child, and we all deservie mercy.

A 37-year-old woman died in a crowded cell at the Central Booking Jail in Brooklyn last July as inmates’ pleas for help were ignored for hours by cops, a witness told the media.

The NYPD Internal Affairs Bureau is investigating the early morning death of Kyam Livingston, who was dead for 20 minutes before EMS arrived, a fellow prisoner said.

“It’s not right for somebody to beg and plead for hours to get help,” Livingston’s son, Alex, 21, told The News. “Who knows how much pain she was going through.”

NYPD officials said Livingston was pronounced dead at Brooklyn Hospital Center. They declined further comment. An autopsy is scheduled for Tuesday.

Fellow inmate Aleah Holland, 38, a registered nurse, told The News that Livingston died needlessly. Police at Central Booking ignored her complaints of stomach pains and diarrhea, Holland said. She said that when she and other inmates banged on the bars calling for help, officers told them Livingston was an alcoholic.

“They said, ‘Shut up before we lose your paper work and you won’t be seen by a judge,’ ” said Holland, who was jailed on an assault charge stemming from a fight with a roommate.

Livingston was arrested for violating an order of protection taken out by Theresa Johnson, her 78-year-old grandmother.

Johnson said she called the cops after Livingston, who lived with her in Windsor Terrace, drank a bottle of vodka and turned violent, breaking two TV remote controls and two tables.

She said the order of protection didn’t bar Livingston from living with her, but forbade her from arguing with her and drinking in her apartment.

Holland said that when she was put in the holding cell, Livingston was already in bad shape.

She said there were 15 women in the cell, and that Livingston’s condition grew worse when they were moved from the first floor.

Holland said she and other inmates cleared a bench for Livingston to lie on. “She was convulsing on the bench,” said Holland, who in 2009 received a $20,000 settlement from the city after suing the NYPD for false arrest.

She said one female jail staffer looked at Livingston and said “Just let it play out,” explaining her grandson suffered seizures.

Holland said an Emergency Medical Services crew was finally called between 5:30 a.m. and 6 a.m. Sunday. By the time they arrived, Livingston had been dead for 20 minutes, she said.

Livingston’s mother, Anita Livingston, 61, said police came to her house at 10 a.m. Sunday to break the tragic news. “Nobody helped her. It’s not fair,” the mother sobbed.

PR

Just When You Thought You Heard It All News (9-21-2013)

There has never been a more fitting, or inspirational story for "Just When You Thought You Heard It All News".

This is proof that all things are possible.

In the game of blind baseball, (yes, you read this right), blind baseball, players use their sense of sound to make up for their lack of sight. They play the game known as Beep baseball with an oversized softball that beeps and bases that buzz. The National Beep Baseball Association was founded in 1975. Teams have been formed nationwide and compete annually in a World Series. In east Atlanta, a team called the Atlanta Eclipse plays at a local park. Players wear blindfolds to ensure fairness since each person has a varying degree of blindness. The pitcher and the catcher are sighted and play on the same team as the batter. On a hit, the batter runs toward the buzz of either the first or third base, which is decided by an official. There is no second base. A run is scored if the batter tags the base before the fielder can pick up the ball; otherwise the batter is out. In this adapted version of America's pastime, cheering is not permitted until the play is over. For the players, the game is about much more than physical activity; It helps them cope with the challenges of being blind. 

After this season they will began training for their toughest challenge yet. Blind Auto Racing!

Glen James, a homeless Boston man, reportedly found a backpack last Saturday at a shopping mall containing $42,000 in cash and traveler’s checks, but instead of keeping it, James flagged down a patrol car so that it could be returned to its rightful owner........

I have a home a nice home, and I have a decent income. But I also have a wife and 3 children who love to eat good food. Had it been me who found the money, I would have said "thank you Jesus". Then I would have went home and told my wife who would have said the exact same thing!

Now the Good Samaritan whose noble words include “even if I were desperate for money, I would not have kept even a penny”  is being honored by his town for his honesty, according to Boston Magazine. 

Hmmm.....Aren't homeless people by definition, desperate for money?

An unnamed Chinese student who was visiting a Boston friend reportedly went to a nearby Best Buy store at the mall when he discovered that his backpack was missing. The student immediately asked the store to report the incident to police.

The backpack contained $2,400 in cash and $39,500 in AmEx traveler’s checks, in addition to Chinese passports and personal documents.

When James handed over the bag to the officers, they in turn took it down to a nearby police precinct, and it remained there until its owner could confirm that it belonged to him.

On Monday, James was honored by Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis and thanked for an “extraordinary show of character and honesty.”  But even though James is homeless, he is reportedly not looking to profit from his honest deed, stating during his City Hall ceremony, “Even if I were desperate for money, I would not have kept even a…penny of the money I found. I am extremely religious God has always very well looked after me.”

James, who does not want to reveal his age, also made it clear that he does not want to burden anyone, because he receives help from the shelter where he stays and food stamps. He also reportedly makes ends meet by panhandling on the streets of Boston.

Consequently, James thanked the strangers on the streets who have given him spare change throughout the years.  “It’s just nice to have some money in one’s pocket so that as a homeless man I don’t feel absolutely broke all the time.”

James’ act of honesty reportedly moved Ethan Whittington so much that he decided to start a crowdsourcing fund-raising page for him on GoFundMe.com. Whittington hopes that there are others who will also be moved by James’ honorable act and donate money to help him get back on track.

James once worked as a file clerk at a Boston courthouse but lost his job after 13 years due to tension with his boss.

In 2005, James became homeless as a result of the job loss.

In addition, James claims that he suffers from an inner ear disorder, Meniere’s disease, which brings on bouts of vertigo that make it difficult for him to hold down a steady job.

Meanwhile, Whittington’s fund-raising effort hopes to raise some $50,000.  At press time thus far, a whopping $17,732 has been raised.

He is being blessed for being a blessing.

This last story takes the phrase "dream job" to a whole new level.

 Are you a lazy person who loves to lie in bed all day? Then you might be a perfect candidate for a certain job at NASA. 

NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, is looking to pay volunteers $10,000 to lie in bed for 70 days in order to study the effects of “microgravity” on the human body.

I'd do it for free.........on second thought, I could use $10,000

Simply put, microgravity is a very small force of gravity that makes astronauts bounce around seemingly weightlessly in space. It’s also the state of the body when it’s in freefall. Since astronauts spend months at a time in space, scientists are continually studying how microgravity affects the human body.  

Could this be the greatest job ever created? Hmmm, only if you were working for Oprah. Buf this one comes close. All one needs is a TV, Video Games, Computer, and some adult material and you’re set for a full year, 2 months is cake.

Adult material?! Nah, there's nothing like the real thing. Now, if they allowed wives to participate they'd  be on to something.

The experiment is twofold: After participants are screened for health (they must be between the ages of 24 and 55 and can’t smoke, take medications, use hormones, or be pregnant or menopausal), they move into the Johnson Space Center for two weeks; there, they carry out daily activities so that scientists can observe their bodies in normal conditions. 

Then they move to NASA’s Flight Analogs Research Unit (FARU) at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas, where they lie in a bed for 70 days with their body positioned so that they’re tilted downward (head lower than feet), which mimics the physiological effects of microgravity. 

Next comes the recovery period. For the following two weeks, people are allowed to stand up and slowly move around the facility and resume normal activity, and then go back to life.

PR

SMH!!! He Couldn't Let Her R.I.P.

Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

A policeman lifted a sheet covering the just-dead body of singing legend Whitney Houston and made "inappropriate" comments including saying "Damn, she's still looking good, huh?" another officer claims.

This behavior is appalling to say the least. But not at all surprising.

Beverly Hills Detective Sergeant Terry Nutall had "no legitimate" reason for the action or remarks, made at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on February 11 last year, after she had been found dead in a bath, said a legal document filed by the fellow cop, published this week.

In the legal claim, published by the Los Angeles Times, fellow officer Sergeant Brian Weir alleges that he was stripped of various privileges when he raised the alleged misconduct with superiors.

This explained why the Sergeant waited so long to come forward. He has become disgruntled. I would have never com forward otherwise. His revelation is based on revenge, and not a guilty conscience. 

According to the legal claim,

"Nutall, for no legitimate (reason) knelt beside and leaned over the decedent (and) removed the sheet and/or other covering from the body of the decedent to an area below the pubic region of the decedent's body," it said.

 He then "came in close proximity to touching the body .. while making inappropriate comments to the effect .. that the decedent 'looked attractive for a woman of her age and current state' and 'Damn, she's still looking good, huh?'"

"Nutall... treated the dead body of the decedent in a way that Nutall knew would outrage ordinary family sensibilities," he alleged in the lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles on September 11.

Weir said he responded to the Beverly Hilton Hotel where Houston was due to attend a traditional pre-Grammys party that Saturday evening  as the senior patrol sergeant on duty at the time.

Afterwards, he raised the alleged misconduct with superiors, but claims that the city of Beverly Hills and its Police Department "retaliated" by removing him from duty with SWAT and K-9 units, cutting overtime pay, withdrawing certain privileges and harassing him.

Weir "has sustained and will continue to sustain economic and non-economic damages. including emotional distress and damage to claimant's reputation, and other injury, damage, loss, or harm," said the lawsuit.

Beverly Hills Police spokesman Lincoln Hoshino said there was no "retaliation" against Weir over the claim, which he said the department knew about.

He added that Nutall had been entitled to look at the body.

"The responding detective sergeant in question was working in the city of Beverly Hills on another assignment, and he did properly and appropriately respond to the scene," he told the local media

"It is appropriate for a responding detective sergeant to briefly examine the body upon arriving to a scene like that."

And he added: "At this time we're not aware of any inappropriate behavior or inappropriate comments."

I am certain of two things. The accusations are absolutely on point, and the Police Department knew about it. This behavior is typical. Extreme Police misconduct and insensitivity, and a department that not only hides it but won't even acknowledge it.

PR

If Obama Had A Son He'd Look Just Like......

Conservative mean-spiritedness knows no limits, and they will never pass up an opportunity to take a jab at the president. Each low is even lower, and each and every attempt at venomous defamation shines a brighter light on a party whose representatives seem Inherently evil. Each and every time I think that they can't go any further into the gutter. They surprise me. 

In a speech shortly after Trayvon Martin was murdered the president said that if he had a son he would look like Trayvon.

"The Right" had a field day criticizing President Obama for his comment which wasn't a shock at all given the fact that many of them live and breathe to critique the Presidents every move.

But some comments, and criticisms go way too far.

The Internet has been abuzz with the ignorant musings of psychos who seem to be happy that the shooter responsible for the murderous rampage in the Navy Yard in Washington (Aaron Alexis), is African-American. Some have even gone so far as to say that if Obama had a son he would look like Alexis. In yet another attempt to demonize the President of The United States, conservatives, and their minions have sank to the bottom of the ocean. To imply that the president some how identifies or empathizes with a mass murderer is nothing short of divisive, and insulting to Trayvon Martin's family. He was the victim of gun violence, and not a violent perpetrator. In applying the Presidents original statement to this incident, "the right" tries to draw a parallel between Trayvon Martin and Aaron Alexis where none exists. A dangerous parallel, not much different than that of a rape victim being accused of being at fault by somehow bringing the crime on themselves. The victim who by definition is not at fault is somehow assigned a level of culpability. Applying the statement " If the President had a son, he would look like", is a tongue in cheek way of comparing a victim to a perpetrator, and signaling that President Obama has an implied sympathy or empathy for both Trayvon Martin and Aaron Alexis. This is nothing more than a subliminal attempt to super impose the image of a criminal and a victim who both have black faces. An effort to blur the lines, and stoke the fires of radical racial fear. The mocking speaks volumes once  you read between the lines.

PR

The United States of Gun Violence

Gun violence in the United States is as American as apple pie. But nobody has ever been killed by a slice of pie. The gun lobby (the NRA), has made it a point to curtail any and all efforts to pass meaningful gun legislation in the face of tragedy. So there is never a question of if there will be another killing spree, but when. We can only hope that it he victims are not another room full of school children.

But unfortunately, murderous rampages continue. In Washington, A former Navy reservist killed at least 12 people on Monday in a mass shooting at an allegedly secure military facility that led the authorities to lock down part of the nation’s capital  even after the gunman was killed in a hunt for two other armed men spotted by video cameras, officials said.

“I heard three gunshots, pow, pow, pow, straight in a row,” said Patricia Ward, a logistics management specialist from Woodbridge, Va., who was in the cafeteria on the first floor when the shooting started. “About three seconds later, there were four more gunshots, and all of the people in the cafeteria were panicking, trying to figure out which way we were going to run out.”

Police officers who swarmed the military facility exchanged fire with a gunman later identified by the federal authorities as Aaron Alexis, 34, a former naval reservist from Fort Worth, Tex. Police officers shot and killed Mr. Alexis, law enforcement officials said, but not before a dozen people were killed and several others, including a police officer, were injured and taken to local hospitals.

Officials said Mr. Alexis was able to drive onto the base and began firing as he approached Building 197, shooting an officer. Once inside, Mr. Alexis made his way to a floor overlooking an atrium and took aim at the employees eating breakfast below.

“He was shooting down from above the people,” one law enforcement official said. “That is where he does most of his damage.”

A police officer underwent several hours of surgery for gunshot wounds to his legs. A second victim suffered a gunshot wound to her shoulder. A bullet grazed a third victim’s head but did not penetrate her skull, according to doctors at MedStar Washington Hospital Center.

Three weapons were found on Mr. Alexis: an AR-15 assault rifle, a shotgun and a semiautomatic pistol, a senior law enforcement officer said. Officials said they were still searching for a motive as they asked the public for help by posting pictures of Mr. Alexis on the F.B.I. Web site.

Navy officials said late Monday that Mr. Alexis had worked as a contractor in information technology. A spokesman for Hewlett-Packard said Mr. Alexis had been an employee of a company called The Experts, a subcontractor on an HP Enterprise Services contract. Navy officials said Mr. Alexis was discharged in 2011 after exhibiting a “pattern of misbehavior,” which officials declined to detail. Because of the lockdown at the Navy Yard, the officials said they were still unable to search databases to determine his current employment status, or whether he had been fired.

The police in Seattle, where Mr. Alexis once lived, said Monday that they had arrested him in 2004 for shooting the tires of another man’s vehicle in what Mr. Alexis later described to detectives as an anger-fueled “blackout.”

Eleanor Holmes Norton, the Congressional representative for the District of Columbia, called the episode “an attack on our city.”

“It’s an attack on our country,” she added.

Mayor Vincent C. Gray called it a “long, tragic day.” President Obama praised the victims of the shooting as patriots.

The tension in the city was heightened for much of the day as the city’s police said they were still unsure whether Mr. Alexis had acted alone. Officials said surveillance video of people fleeing the scene of the shooting showed two armed men dressed in different military uniforms and wielding guns. For hours, the police said they believed that there might have been three gunmen and that two of them were on the loose in the city.

Officials later cleared one of the two men seen on the surveillance video. They continued to search for an African-American man about 50 years old who was wearing an olive-colored military-style uniform and was believed to be carrying a “long gun.”

The reports of multiple suspects generated confusion across Washington as the authorities offered conflicting messages about any continuing danger. Officials did not move to secure the city, leaving the city’s subway system to operate normally. But out of an “abundance of caution,” Terrance W. Gainer, the Senate sergeant-at-arms, put the Senate complex into lockdown at after 3 p.m. The Senate had recessed in the early afternoon.

Around the same time, the Washington Nationals postponed a game against the division-leading Atlanta Braves, which had been scheduled for 7 p.m. at Nationals Park, next to the Navy Yard. The Nationals’ Web site said “Postponed: Tragedy” and notified fans that the teams would play a doubleheader on Tuesday instead.

A city already on edge was further shaken Monday evening when someone tossed firecrackers over the fence at the White House, causing loud bangs and prompting a swift and aggressive response from Secret Service agents, who tackled a man in white shorts and a T-shirt on Pennsylvania Avenue Monday morning, the shooting started at 8:20 on a drizzly day at the Navy Yard, which sits at one end of the 11th Street Bridge, a major thoroughfare bringing traffic into the city from Maryland.

Within minutes of the first reports of shots, hundreds of police officers and naval officers surrounded the Naval Sea Systems Command headquarters, where about 3,000 service members, civilians and contractors work on the Navy’s fleet. Military helicopters circled the facility as police vehicles and other emergency vehicles rushed to the Navy Yard. A helicopter lowered a basket to the roof of one of the buildings and appeared to be taking away victims.

One victim, described as a man in his 60s, was shot in the left temple and was pronounced dead within a minute of arriving at George Washington University Hospital. “This injury was not survivable by any stretch,” a hospital official told reporters. “The patient was dead on the way to the hospital.”

Investigators were still trying to determine how Mr. Alexis gained access to the Navy Yard. The site is protected by a high wall, with entry through checkpoints that require official identification. However, under the “force protection status” that was believed to have been in effect early Monday, someone with official access to the site could have driven a car into the parking lot without having the trunk inspected, or could have entered on foot without having a bag searched.

Employees evacuated from the building described a chaotic situation as an individual armed with a rifle roamed the hallways shooting at people.

Commander, Tim Jirus said he was on the fourth floor when he heard gunshots and saw people start running through the office. The commander said he was at the back of the building working to get people out when a man came out of a maintenance building and approached him, asking about the shooting. Moments later, the man, a civilian, was shot in the head, he said.

“We had a conversation for about a minute,” Commander Jirus said. “I heard two gunshots, and he went down, and then I ran back here.”

Holding a radio as he waited outside the Navy Yard Metro station, Commander Jirus said he had heard that another man in his office, also a civilian, had been shot and evacuated to a hospital.

Asked how he escaped when the man next to him was shot, he said: “Luck. Grace of God. Whatever you want to call it.

The grace of God has nothing to do with luck, and everything to do with is mercy.

We must pray that he keeps is covered so that our families and friends don't fall victim to the next maniac......and so we wait.

PR