The Crazy Fire Challenge

As kids most of us have done some things on a dare. A friend of mine dared me to squeeze a girls butt, and I did. Iir wasn't right, but I never hurt anybody, least of all myself. Although I did get smacked in the head a few times, the sting wore off, I'd go home, come back the next day, and commit to another dumb dare.

But these days kids are taking dumb dares to a dangerous new level.

Teenagers and preteens are flooding social media with videos of themselves attempting a pair of dangerous games that have parents and authorities concerned. Several news outlets, have documented the serious injuries suffered by teens who've doused their chests with flammable liquids, such as rubbing alcohol, and set themselves on fire as camera phones roll in hopes of achieving Internet infamy.

The fire challenge, as it is known, has dubious competition in the form of the pass-out challenge, also called  "the blackout," "space monkey," "flatliner" or "suffocation roulette." 

One has only to search social media to find videos of teens, and some psycho adults hyperventilating before allowing someone to apply pressure to their chests. The participants, seeking a euphoric high, are then seen fainting. Some even suffer seizures as friends laugh in the background. But authorities say the practice can lead to brain damage or even death.

Meanwhile, fire challenge participants flirt with second- and third-degree burns, like those suffered by 14-year-old Michael Symonette, of Crosby, Texas. He set himself ablaze at his family's home, but couldn't put out the flames fast enough in the shower.

A 15-year-old Lexington, K.Y., boy suffered similar injuries when he foolishly set himself on fire trying to emulate others online.

While searches for #firechallange and #passoutchallenge turn up videos of teens attempting these risky stunts, one will also find photographs of cautionary tales from participants who've learned the hard way, documenting their wounds and warning others to play it safe.

Authorities across the country are asking parents to talk to their children and warn them of the dangers of these "games." 

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. A nation of great thinker's must be raised one at a time. While the fact that setting yourself on fire may cause death should be a foregone conclusion. The fact of the matter is, common sense is not common. What we teach our children must counteract what the media has to offer or them. Or else they will be raised by perverse outside influences instead of influences of love and nurturing.

PR

Just When You Thought You Heard It All News (8-2-2014)

QUICK SOMEBODY CALL CHILD SERVICES!!!!

For some, the idea of child glamour in and of itself is disturbing. But this was definitely not the case for Leann, 33, of London, who dressed her 4-year-old daughter, Scarlett, in a Hooters waitress outfit for a beauty pageant.

This clip of the child dancing suggestively in the controversial costume comes from the UK Channel 5 documentary "Blinging Up" baby, The documentary features not just child pageants, but also a purported trend involving parents who accessorize their kids with diamonds, makeup, spray tans and costumes even if they aren't competing in pageants.

The local media criticizes the film's claim that this so-called phenomenon is going mainstream, however, and asserts there are actually no more than 20 parents countrywide participating in the "fad."

Trend or not, some critics feel parents shouldn't subject their children to this practice at all. "Sexualizing children is seriously wrong and borderline abusive," says one local commenter.

“Some people may say it’s controversial, especially the theme I’ve chosen, but at the end of the day, little girls wear swimming costumes to the beach all summer, and that’s not a controlled environment,” says Leann in the documentary. “The environment my kids go in is a controlled environment and it is ticket-entry only.”

As a parent she is supposed to conttol her daughters environment. Not prep her for the pole.

There is nothing like sleep. 

But there are 3 very important rules to sleeping well and waking up refreshed.

1. Don't sleep in a strangers bed.

2. Don't sleep in a strangers been when they're  not home and have no idea that you're there.

3. Don't break into a strangers house and sleep in their bed naked when they're not home and have no idea that you are there.

These rules should seem obvious but.....

A New Mexico man faces charges after authorities say a couple found him naked and sleeping in their bed.

Investigators say 30-year-old Freddy Shelby of Albuquerque was arrested last week after the homeowners called police to report their unwanted mystery guest.

According to a criminal complaint, Shelby broke into the couple's home through a window and grabbed a Sprite from the refrigerator before falling asleep in the master bedroom. 

I guess they were fresh out of  Pepsi.

Authorities say the homeowners found a disrobed Shelby in a deep sleep.

Officers arrived and called to the man, but he slept through it. Authorities say Shelby woke up only after an officer ripped the blankets off him.

Shelby told officers he thought he was at his girlfriend's house.

He was charged with breaking and entering. It wasn't immediately known if he had an attorney.

This next story gives the phrase "public service announcement" a whole new meaning.

An Australian airline apologized last week for a warning a flight attendant gave passengers who might have been flying high that there were drug-sniffer dogs awaiting them at Sydney airport.

Many of the 210 passengers aboard the Jetstar flight from Gold Coast city last Sunday night had attended the Splendour in the Grass weekend music festival at Byron Bay and were returning home.

"We have been told there are sniffer dogs and quarantine officers waiting in the domestic terminal," Sydney's The Daily Telegraph newspaper on Wednesday quoted the attendant as telling passengers via the Airbus A320's public address system.

"If you need to dispose of anything you shouldn't have, we suggest you flush it now," he added.

The newspaper said the warning prompted passengers to rush for the toilets. LOL!

Jetstar spokesman Stephen Moynihan confirmed the newspaper report was accurate. He said the public response to the announcement had been "mixed."

The airline said it routinely makes quarantine announcements on such flights that cross state borders.

"The crew member's words were poorly chosen and are plainly at odds with the professional standards we'd expect from our team," Jetstar said in a statement. "We apologize to customers offended by the comments."

Jetstar said it was "addressing the matter with the cabin crew member involved," but did not detail any potential disciplinary action.

One passenger told the newspaper several passengers suddenly made for the toilets with "things clenched in their hands."

"Why would you tip people off about this?" the passenger, who was not named, asked." If they have got something illegal, let them get caught."

Snitches get stitches!

But the response on Jetstar's Facebook page was largely positive.

"What a good Samaritan, Jetstar Australia this guy deserves a promotion," Rohit Dwivedi posted.

"Of course you should warn your passengers to help avoid them being humiliated, locked in a cage or fined," Jebediah Cole posted.

Australian Federal Police declined on Wednesday to comment.

PR

ESPN Suspends Steven A. Smith

ESPN has suspended outspoken sportscaster Stephen A. Smith for a week because of his rather egregious comments about domestic abuse suggesting women should make sure that they don't do anything to provoke an attack.

Smith made the comment during a discussion on ESPN2's "First Take" last Friday about the NFL's two-game suspension of Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice following charges he assaulted his now wife in infamous elevator footage that went viral. The remarks attracted widespread attention, including a stinging criticism online from a fellow ESPN personality.

Smith issued an on-air apology Monday, saying it was the most egregious mistake of his career.

A day later, ESPN took action. The network's chief executive, John Skipper, told ESPN's staff in a memo that a decision was made after a "thoughtful discussion" about appropriate actions with men and women in his company.

"I believe his apology was sincere and that he and we have learned from what we've collectively experienced," Skipper said.

Smith will not appear on "First Take" or ESPN radio until Aug. 6, the network said.

During the Rice discussion, Smith alluded to women in abuse cases when he said, "Let's make sure we don't do anything to provoke wrong action ... we got to also make sure that you can do your part to do whatever you can do to make, to try to make sure it doesn't happen again."

Shortly after Smith's remarks, colleague Michelle Beadle responded on Twitter that "I was just forced to watch this morning's First Take, and in a rather dramatic declaration Beadle said, "I'll never feel clean again. I'm not aware that I can provoke my own beating."

Beadle, host of ESPN2's "SportsNation," continued with a series of tweets. She said that "Violence isn't the victim's issue. It's the abuser's. To insinuate otherwise is irresponsible and disgusting."

Smith, during his apology, said it wasn't his intention to say that women could be responsible for their own abuse. "It was not what I was trying to say," he said. "Yet the failure to clearly articulate something different lies squarely on my shoulder."

Smith didn't explain the point that he was trying to make.

ESPN frowns upon its personalities attacking each other on social media or other forums. But it did not announce any punishment for Beadle.

I have a son, two daughters, and five nephews. I tell my son and my nephews to never hit a woman under any circumstances, and I tell my daughter not to ever push a man too far. Each and everyone of us has a limit, and it is impossible to ascertain what might happen once we reach it. I have seen the most docile women, and some of the most patient men pushed to the brink of insanity. As human being's we all deserve a modicum of respect. But respect is taught through lesson's learned one household at a time. With that being said, keep in mind ladies, not every parent teaches their son not to hit a woman under any circumstances. Men take note, a man takes control of his circumstances, but he does not let his circumstances control him. Violence is not taking control it is being controled.

PR

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Evil, Just Evil

There are some stories that are just so vile, and so shocking that there is little or nothing that can be said. No clever remark or in depth analysis is necessary because the actions are just so unfathomable that they deserve nothing more than a one word description EVIL.

A father has been sentenced to a paltry minimum of 18 years and nine months in prison for beating his two-year-old daughter to death in an attack he had hoped would make her a lesbian..........

Donovan Lamar Haynes, 23, was sentenced in Flint, Michigan last week after pleading no contest to second-degree murder for the 2011 killing of Ti'Airra Woodward.

A pre-sentence investigation report claimed Haynes had beat the girl to turn her gay in hope that she would avoid men like him, who had a history of treating women like trash.

Haynes' attorney Elbert Hatchett called him 'deranged' before Genesee Circuit Judge Joseph J. Farah sentenced him to serve a concurrent five-to-15-years in prison for first-degree child abuse.

The attorney added that Haynes needs to undergo extensive psychological counseling while in prison.

Haynes savagely bit and beat Ti'Airra in July 2011 and she was found unresponsive in the basement of Haynes' mother's Flint Township home.

The little girl was rushed to hospital but was pronounced dead at Hurley Medical Center.

Initially authorities said that it appeared she had died from a blunt force trauma to the abdomen and the medical examiner's report said the toddler died of internal bleeding from a lacerated liver.

After her tragic death, Flint Police Chief George Sippert said she was the youngest homicide victim he could remember in 25 years with the department.

'It's extremely tragic and I know it affects a lot of members of the police department that are investigating this case,' he said.

Ti'Airra's mother, Nakeesha Woodward, left the court in tears but returned to the courtroom in time to hear her former boyfriend's sentence.

'I lost a child,' she sobbed as she asked the judge for the strictest punishment.

PR

NO WATER?!

Detroit is a city in shambles. The unemployment rate is one of the highest in America, the city has filed chapter 11, bankruptcy  and once thriving urban enclaves are nothing more than ghost towns. Neighborhoods are in ruins, the crime rate has risen to epidemic proportions, and because of widespread layoffs there is little or no police protection. Now to add insult to injury the city has begun to deprive its citizens of one of their most basic necessities, WATER.

 Protesters in Detroit fighting water shutoffs were greeted by a convoy of Canadians who traveled to the city with hundreds of gallons of water to help those who have been cut off because of unpaid bills.

Maude Barlow, a leading water rights advocate in Canada, and other activists brought 750 gallons of water in a seven-vehicle convoy that traveled through the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel to deliver the water and the message that the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department's policy of shutting off service to delinquent customers violates the United Nations' 2010 declaration that water is a human right.

"What that means is that every country in the world is responsible for looking after their most vulnerable people," said Barlow, national chairwoman of the Council of Canadians, a social advocacy group. "It means that every country in the world is not allowed to turn the tap off of water that is already being delivered, and it means that nobody has the right to say no to water for people who cannot afford it."

It was the latest protest since the city declared a 15-day pause in shutoffs of residential customers as Detroit drew international attention for cutting water service in an effort to collect millions of dollars in unpaid bills.

Detroit says it has 90,000 delinquent accounts totaling more than $90 million. The city has been stepping up collections efforts since last fall, and in April and May alone cut off service to more than 7,500 customers — moves that have prompted outrage among groups that advocate for poor people in a city with deep unemployment and the scars of decades of neglect.

The shutoffs drew criticism from U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes, who said the policy was giving the city a negative image even as it fights for its financial future in its historic Chapter 9 bankruptcy case.

City officials told him they're working to expand education efforts and to pull together more financial assistance for customers without the means to pay.

Paul Moist, national president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, also was in the convoy and said that, while the water the Canadians delivered was small, it was meant to be a symbolic criticism of corporate, right-wing policies that pit poor people against others.

"America is better than this," he said. "If the richest country in the world can bail out banks and bail out Wall Street with public money, then public money from the state level and the national level can be used to help the people of Detroit who are in harm's way health-wise without water."

PR

They TOLD On Her.

This is the pattern, the trick, the conspiracy and the plan. Our hands are tied as parents because the federal and state governments have decided to dictate how we should discipline our children, and society at large has followed suit. Spankings are now considered acts of violence punishable by incarceration instead of consequential lessons. Children have been given a weapon to use against their parents in the form the phone number to child services to report "abuse". There used to be a time when beatings, and spankings were two different things, and not shades of discretionary gray. The irony lies in the fact that the very same authorities that incarcerate parents for spanking their children think nothing of incarcerating the very same children, some as young as 5, when they behave as if they have never been disciplined. The message: don't spank your children, we'll spank them for a lifetime in of the criminal justice system.

 A Brockton, Mass. mother was arrested recently after customers phoned police officers when they saw her spanking her son in the grocery store.

Marie Lyssa Mars spanked her 5-year-old  son as she stood in the checkout line. Other shoppers urged her to stop, but she didn’t. Once Mars was finished with checking out, some shoppers then followed her to her car.  Mar’s license plate was written down and the police were called. Moments after driving out of the supermarket’s parking lot, Mars was arrested. When authorities asked her why she spanked her child, she said he was  “was a very active child,” and that she was just “disciplining him. Mars’ bail was set at $5,000 and her son was turned over to the Department of Children and Families. 

PR

BLACK JESUS The TV Show?!?!

The Cartoon Network has a disturbing, habit of producing short-lived, offensive, sacrilegious programming to air during its late night Adult Swin segment. First there were two awful "comedies" about hell, complete with misguided actors in fiery red make up and horns, and now there's "Black Jesus". My wife and I saw the commercial for this nonsensical, demeaning, debacle on Friday night. To say that we were both flabbergasted is an understatement. Not because Jesus is depicted as an African-American man. Because according to the Bible's description of him he was in fact of African descent. The problem is, in this program he is being depicted as an ignorant, African-American man living in the hood surrounded by the usual cast of character's. Jive talking, bug-eyed, neck rolling, stereo-type perpetuating d-list actor's and actresses. All of whom I refuse to promote by name. But if you've  ever seen a "black hood movie" or TV show you know who they are. During the trailor, "Black Jesus" gets slapped, insulted, cooks at a backyard barbecue, and behaves as if he is the king of fools instead of The King of Kings. Immediately after viewing this atrocious assault on our senses we changed the channel, deciding not to watch the Cartoon Network or adult swim ever again. The show was created by Aaron McGruder who is also the creator of "The Boondocks", another controversial series on Adult Swim known for it's liberal use of the N-word, and outspoken 

social commentary.

The most valuable gift that God has given us is freedom of choice, and one of the most fundamental parts of living in America is the fact that we have the right to exercise that freedom. We are free to worship, and believe, and we are free not to worship and believe. With that being said, there are those who serve God, and there are those who "serve God". Those of us who serve God are born again believer's who seek to mirror the life of Christ. Then there are others who serve him in the form of degrading imagery, serving him as a foul adaptation on a filthy plate for public consumption. The price that they will have to pay in the public eye due to swift backlash from Christian groups calling for the "shows" cancellation is NOTHING compared to the price they will ultimately have to pay for attempting to reduce our Lord and savior to nothing more than a perverse caricature.

PR

 

Just When You Heard It All News (7-26-2014)

http://youtu.be/Yk1iMSCXRlk.           

THIS IS A MUST WATCH VIDEO!!!

Some things never change, I just wish that when I was this kids age my beeper had a built in video recorder. I could have probably made one of these videos every day and twice on Saturday.

While shopping in a series of convenience stores, Vine user Rashid Polo realized that something was up. The store employees around him were ostensibly hard at work, bending to rearrange products for sale, busying themselves with drink machines, but they kept popping up wherever he went.

This phenomenon was not a new experience for Polo, and no matter where he was or what he was doing, it seemed he was guilty of only one crime: shopping while black.

So he came up with the brilliant idea to catch the clerks on camera and uploaded the resulting videos to Vine.

"[The employee] been following me around the store the whole time "he explain in one, but before he can continue, his camera lens catches her close behind him once again.

"There she goes!" he says. "She thinks I'm stealing."

A number of African-Americans have experienced the perils of shopping while black, including a few very famous folks. President Barack Obama has shared stories about being followed in department stores when he was young. Last year, a Swiss clerk-refused to show Oprah Winfrey a handbag because it would "cost too much."

But when people who aren't presidents or media moguls are discriminated against, the incident tends to go on unchecked. But Polo's vines put his experience -- and the experiences of so many others -- center stage, and he took to Twitter to say how happy he was his videos could make even the smallest difference.

A 19-year veteran and loser from the Connecticut State Police has accepted responsibility for stealing cash and jewelry from a deceased accident victim........

Aaron "AJ" Huntsman, 45, entered an Alford plea before a Larimer County judge on Wednesday, to third-degree larceny and tampering with evidence. The plea means Huntsman maintains his innocence, but believes there is a substantial likelihood that he would be found guilty. 

Probably because he is GUILTY!

Huntsman was arrested in November 2012, after an investigation into the theft of jewelry and cash from John Scalesse, a 49-year-old man who was killed in a fatal motorcycle accident in September 2012.

Authorities said Huntsman, a trooper based out of Bridgeport, was one of the emergency workers who responded to the scene of Scalesse's accident. After the accident, the victims' family notified police that his gold crucifix and $3,700 in cash were missing,

State Police investigators determined the items were not logged into evidence by Huntsman. An extensive investigation into the complaint was then launched and detectives located the missing jewelry and, "a large amount of cash from the police cruiser" Huntsman was driving, police said in a November 2012 press release.

Further examination of the police cruiser revealed the dashboard camera had captured video of Huntsman taking the jewelry from a pool of blood and the roll of bills from Scalesse. 

So he's a thief and a dummy, who apparently forgot that he was on camera.

After Huntsman entered his Alford plea, Superior Court Judge Robert Devlin reportedly said he plans to sentence Huntsman to 16 months behind bars and five years of probation. That sentence is expected to be handed down on Oct. 3.

"John didn't deserve his memory to be tarnished like this and we are finally glad it's almost over," Scalesse's mother, Marguerite Scalesse, told The Connecticut Post.

Huntsman was suspended from his job after he was arrested and remains free on bail until his sentencing.

Talk about anger getting the best of you.....

A man in Florida apparently got a dose of road rage karma when police say he was run over by his own pickup truck after getting out to bang on another driver's window. LOLOL 

It happened Tuesday evening in Gainesville, Florida.

48-year-old Joseph Carl had been drinking and drove into a vehicle stopped at a red light. He got out of his truck without putting it in park and began banging on the window of a woman's car. When the frightened woman drove away, there was nothing holding his truck in place.

The truck rolled into Carl. A police report says he was taken to the hospital where he was treated for fractures in his hand and foot.

He's charged with DUI and DUI property damage. It isn't known whether he's obtained a lawyer.

Word to the wise. If you ever decide to get out of your car to be a jerk, make sure you put it in park first.

PR

Eric Holder Said........

It is always refreshing when a politician honestly speaks his mind. Right, wrong, good, bad, or indifferent, you always know where they're coming from. Attorney General Eric Holder is one such politician. A rare breed who takes all of the guess work out of figuring out exactly whats on his mind. Because he has absolutely no qualms about telling the world.

It was nothing for Attorney General Eric Holder to tell ABC News that Sarah Palin "wasn't a particularly good vice presidential candidate” and for him to suggest, in his own way, that she ought to read the Constitution before proposing that President Barack Obama be impeached—seeing as how there would be no legal basis for such an act. Lest we forget, Holder has been speaking his mind since he got the job, and lucky for us that is, people who love it when politicians let loose and tell us what they’re really thinking he won’t stop. He can't stop.

As attorney general, Eric Holder is America’s chief law-enforcement officer. And judging by the number of times that he has spoken candidly and uninhibitedly about hot-button topics and controversial issues, I think it’s safe to say that Holder is the type of counsel who will give it to you straight, no chaser. 

Like........

1. That time he said most of the hate and vitriol that he and the president receive stems from racism. Anyone who doesn't have their head buried in the sand can see this. Whether they admitt it or not. This was, is, and has been obvious to the majority of African-American's.

2. That time he begged David Simon to bring back The Wire.

We knew that Obama’s presidency was going to be a truly special experience when he gushed about how much he loved The Wire. Many of us were stunned when Obama said that Omarthegay stickup bandit was his favorite character.

But Holder one-upped his boss during a panel discussion when he pleaded for David Simon, the show’s creator and lead writer, to bring back the series fora sixth season. 

3. That time he told those Republicans who were hell-bent on perpetuating the Fast and Furious scandal to get a life.

It was a well-intentioned strategy of follow the gun trail. Federal agencies looked the other way while American guns were being sold up the ladder to high-level drug-cartel leaders in Mexico. The plan was that U.S. law-enforcement officials would monitor the gun sales to eventually catch all of the big-time criminals wreaking havoc in and around the border.

That was until some of the guns were found at the murder site of a U.S. border-patrol agent. Somebody needed to take the fall for Operation Fast and Furious, and the GOP picked Eric Holder. He became the only Cabinet member in U. S. History to be held in contempt of Congress. The attorney general didn’t take too kindly to what he perceived was election-year shucking and jiving by Republicans, and described the entire ordeal as “truly absurd conspiracy theories” that were “unnecessary and unwarranted.”

It’s his politically correct way of saying, “This is stupid!"

4. That time he said it doesn’t make sense for nonviolent drug offenders to serve out their lengthy prison sentences.

There is no sensible argument to be made as to why nonviolent drug offenders who received lengthy prison sentences back in the Reagan era should serve out their bloated sentences, when comparable offenders today are getting a fraction of their time. Holder said as much last August and introduced aseries' of policies that would allow several convicts to come before judges for their cases to be reviewed and their sentences reduced. He also put a needle through the war on drugs:

“As the so-called war on drugs enters its fifth decade, we need to ask whether it, and the approaches that comprise it, have been truly effective.”

5. That time he joked about The President's basketball skills.

No one trash-talks like a New Yorker. And so it’s no surprise that Holder found it preposterous that anyone would suggest that a guy from Hawaii, President Barack Obama, was better at basketball than a baller like himself, from the mean streets of Queens, N.Y.:  

“He’s from Hawaii. I’m from New York.You figure out who has the better game.”

6. That time he said it was ludicrous that black people are incarcerated much more heavily than whites for similar offenses.

Keeping in line with his criminal-justice reform work, Holder also called foulonhow black people are locked upmuch more aggressively than whites for similar crimes:

“We also must confront the reality that once they’re in that system, people of color often face harsher punishments than their peers. ... Black male offenders have received sentences nearly 20 percent longer than those imposed on white males convicted of similar crimes,” he said in a speech to the American Bar Association.

“This isn’t just unacceptable—it is shameful.” Well said, Mr. Attorney General.

7. That time he explained how institutional racism is alive and well.

When the nation was making a fuss about Donald Sterling’s comments on that tape, Holder took the time to remind folks about the harsher travesties thataffect black people, like the criminal justice system and how it’s damn near carrying out the mission of the Jim Crow South: making black men and women disenfranchised and unemployable at greater rates than whites.

8. That time he was one of Obama’s most loyal Cabinet members.

They say when the party is all over and the dust settles, it’s who you still have in your corner that counts the most. And through all the pomp and circumstance and the ups and downs, Holder is one of only three members of Obama’s original Cabinet to still be serving in his administration.  

PR

Gay Men Giving Blood

Gay and bisexual men have been banned from giving blood in the United States since 1983. The measure was put into place primarily because of the "high risk" sexual behavior that gay men engage in. Their sexual proclivities put them at a higher risk for contracting HIV and AIDS. Today there is a push to change this rule.

At a National Gay Blood Drive event in Durham, North Carolina, eligible donors showed up to take a stance against the ban at the offices of the Red Cross.

"The reason for the drive is to raise awareness on a ban that was put in place over 30 years ago by the FDA during the height of the HIV and AIDS epidemic, and it bans specifically, gay and bisexual men from donating blood," explained Henry Amador with the LGBTQ Center of Durham.

Amador said the ban is antiquated.

"Blood is being tested differently now. We know now it's not just gay and bi men that can contract HIV and pass it on. Obviously, it's much larger than that," he said.

The national effort is also pushing for at least 100,000 signatures petitioning for a change of policy. The group held the blood drive by signing up eligible donors - with the support of the Red Cross.

They and two other organizations issued a joint statement - saying:

"The safety of volunteer blood donors and the ultimate recipients of blood is our top priority. Blood donation eligibility in the U.S. is determined by the FDA and all blood centers are required to follow the rules and regulations set by the agency."

But, they also say they believe the rules should be modified - saying:

"We strongly support the use of rational, science-based deferral periods that are applied fairly and consistently among blood donors who engage in similar risk activities."

The National Gay Blood Drive signed up about 20 eligible donors in Durham. And while that number is small, they said they believe the drive was successful and they're hoping their petition will be successful. 

Until there is zero risk of the blood supply being contaminated I think that the FDA rule should stand. Are these gay men putting their own selfish need to make constant strides above public safety in the name of public service? Or are they just oblivious to the risk? Until their is a cute for HIV and AIDS this rule should stand.

PR

The POOR DOOR.......

It has long been my as assertion that racism which is still unmistakabley alive in America, has been used as a smoke screen. A tool utilized by rich industrialist's and politicians, who are often one in the same. A devisive method used for polarization. The reason for this all too common distraction is classism. Descrimination due to economic status. Often times race has little if anything to with it and is incidental. The latest and perhaps most blatant example of classism is happening in New York City.

Very soon, the imaginary line between the rich and the poor could be separated by an actual door. New York City officials have approved a shocking "back door" proposal, which will allow a high-rise condo building to create separate entrances for those living in the affordable-housing or the "poor" section of the building.

In case you thought you read this wrong, let me be crystal clear. Tenants who can afford to live in the swankier apartments in the unit can use the glitzy front entrance, while those who are in less-wealthy accommodations will use the back-alley entrance. Swap the "colored only", "whites only" sign's for "rich people" and "poor people" and it's almost like Jim Crow all over again.

The "poor door," as it has come to be known, became the center of controversy last year when developers Extell introduced the idea regarding a 33-story luxury condo in Manhattan's Upper West Side. The condo would include affordable-housing tenants, who would have to enter the building through a separate entrance.

A spokesman for the city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development told the New York Post that Extell’s application for the Inclusionary Housing Program had been approved—complete with the "poor door."

Local developers are allowed to build large properties as long as they include affordable housing. This new development "will have 219 units overlooking the waterfront and 55 affordable units in a building segment facing the street".

Gale Brewer, Manhattan's borough president, said that city officials will reject future developments with separate entrances. 

Because they got caught!

PR

I Stand On My Knees

Just because I've learned to stand on my knees it doesn't not mean that I am weak. 

Just because I am a child of God, it does not mean that I am timid and will not speak. 

Just because I am patient it doesn't mean that I am not strong. 

Just because you try to make me stumble it does not mean that I will not carry on. 

Sleep if you want to but when pushed way too far you will see me through blurry vision, bruised and counting stars.

Down on my knees I am stronger than when I stand.

Just because I follow Jesus it doesn't make me less of a man.

PR

http://www.theprbrownreport.com/

He Got HIS!!!!

This picture is a clear, concise representation of what being a good father is all about...............

The picture you see above is the result of what happened after a Daytona Beach father allegedly walked in on a man sexually abusing his 11-year-old son last week.

“I just walked in on a grown man molesting …,” the upset father told a dispatcher. “And I got him in a bloody puddle for you, officer.”

Daytona Beach Police Chief Mike Chitwood said very simply, “Dad was acting like a dad. I don’t see anything we should charge the dad with…You have an 18-year-old who has clearly picked his target, groomed his target and had sex with the victim multiple times.” 

Police responding to the Daytona Beach home at 1:07 a.m. Friday after the father called and told them that he found Raymond Frolander, 18, of Holly Hill lying motionless on the living room floor. Frolander had several knots on his face and was bleeding from the mouth, an arrest report states.

The 35-year-old unidentified father told police that he walked in on Frolander and interrupted him as Frolander sexually battered the boy, the report states.

When asked by the dispatcher if any weapons were involved, the father said “my foot and my fist.”

Those would be my weapons of choice also if I was in that situation.

“I didn’t proceed to ask him any questions, sir,” the father said. “He is nice and knocked out on the floor for you. I drug him out to the living room.”

The father was not charged in Frolander’s beating, police spokesman Jimmie Flynt said.

According to Chitwood, the suspect lives next door to the victim and was almost like a family member. He is now being treated for injuries at Halifax Health Medical Center.  According to the arrest affidavit, police say when they questioned Frolander he admitted sexually battering the child and said, “I’m guilty.” Frolander has been charged with sexual battery and is being held without bail.

There are some things in life, some circumstances, and a some events for which there is no gray area. Things for which the decision or solution is as clear as day. While I do not advocate violence. I am an advocate for protecting my family by any means necessary. This sick, heinous criminal should thank God that he was able to wake up from this beating. This kids father actually took it easy on him.

PR

Old Enough To Do Life?

In most states teenagers can't get married, drink alcohol, or even rent an apartment on their own, simply because of the fact that they have not reached an age of maturation. But in certain jurisdictions they are deemed mature enough to recieve life sentences, even though it has been scientifically proven that a teenagers brain is not fully developed. The Supreme Court took action but some states are choosing to use a loophole in the courts ruling to impose life sentences anyway.

 In decisions widely hailed as milestones, the United States Supreme Court in 2010 and 2012 acted to curtail the use of mandatory life sentences for juveniles, accepting the argument that children, even those who are convicted of murder, are less culpable than adults and usually deserve a chance at redemption.

But most states have taken half measures, at best, to carry out the rulings, which could affect more than 2,000 current inmates and countless more in years to come, according to many youth advocates and legal experts.

“States are going through the motions of compliance,” said Cara H. Drinan, an associate professor of law at the Catholic University of America, “but in an anemic or hyper-technical way that flouts the spirit of the decisions.”

Lawsuits now before Florida’s highest court are among many across the country that demand more robust changes in juvenile justice. One of the Florida suits accuses the state of skirting the ban on life without parole in nonhomicide cases by meting out sentences so staggering that they amount to the same thing.

Other suits, such as one argued last week before the Illinois Supreme Court, ask for new sentencing hearings, at least, for inmates who received automatic life terms for murder before 2012. A retroactive application that several states have resisted.

The plaintiff in one of the Florida lawsuits, Shimeek Gridine, was 14 when he and a 12-year-old partner made a clumsy attempt to rob a man in 2009 in Jacksonville. As the disbelieving victim turned away, Shimeek fired a shotgun, pelting the side of the man’s head and shoulder.

The man was not seriously wounded, but Shimeek was prosecuted as an adult. He pleaded guilty to attempted murder and robbery, hoping for leniency as a young offender with no record of violence. The judge called his conduct “heinous” and sentenced him to 70 years without parole. Although this sentence is excessive, and undoubtedly harsh, the fact that a 14 year was able to commit such a crime begs the obvious question. Where were his parents?

“They sentenced him to death, that’s how I see it,” Shimeek’s grandmother Wonona Graham said.

The Supreme Court decisions built on a 2005 ruling that banned the death penalty for juvenile offenders as cruel and unusual punishment, stating that offenders younger than 18 must be treated differently from adults.

The 2010 decision Graham v. Florida forbade sentences of life without parole for juveniles not convicted of murder and said offenders must be offered a “meaningful opportunity for release based on demonstrated maturity and rehabilitation.” The ruling applied to those who had been previously sentenced.

Cases like Shimeek’s aim to show that sentences of 70 years, 90 years or more violate that decision. Florida’s defense was that Shimeek’s sentence was not literally “life without parole” and that the life span of a young inmate could not be predicted.

About 200 prisoners were affected nationally by the 2010 decision, and they were concentrated in Florida. So far, of 115 inmates in the state who had been sentenced to life for nonhomicide convictions, 75 have had new hearings, according to the Youth Defense Institute at the Barry University School of Law in Orlando. In 30 cases, the new sentences have been for 50 years or more. One inmate who had been convicted of gun robbery and rape has received consecutive sentences totaling 170 years.

In its 2012 decision, Miller vs. Alabama the Supreme Court declared that juveniles convicted of murder may not automatically be given life sentences. Life terms remain a possibility, but judges and juries must tailor the punishment to individual circumstances and consider mitigating factors.

The Supreme Court did not make it clear whether the 2012 ruling applied retroactively, and state courts have been divided, suggesting that this issue, as well as the question of de facto life sentences, may eventually return to the Supreme Court.

Advocates for victims have argued strongly against revisiting pre-2012 murder sentences or holding parole hearings for the convicts, saying it would inflict new suffering on the victims’ families.

Pennsylvania has the most inmates serving automatic life sentences for murders committed when they were juveniles: more than 450, according to the Juvenile Law Center in Philadelphia. In October, the State Supreme Court found that the Miller ruling did not apply to these prior murder convictions, creating what the law center, a private advocacy group, called an “appallingly unjust situation” with radically different punishments depending on the timing of the trial.

Likewise, courts in Louisiana, with about 230 inmates serving mandatory life sentences for juvenile murders, refused to make the law retroactive. In Florida, with 198 such inmates, the issue is under consideration by the State Supreme Court, and on Wednesday it was argued before the top court of Illinois, where 100 inmates could be affected.

Misgivings about the federal Supreme Court decisions and efforts to restrict their application have come from some victim groups and legal scholars around the country.

“The Supreme Court has seriously overgeneralized about under-18 offenders,” said Kent S. Scheidegger, the legal director of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, a conservative group in Sacramento, Calif. “There are some under 18 who are thoroughly incorrigible criminals.”

Some legal experts who are otherwise sympathetic have suggested that the Supreme Court overreached, with decisions that “represent a dramatic judicial challenge to legislative authority,” according to a new article in the Missouri Law Review by Frank O. Bowman III of the University of Missouri School of Law.

Among the handful of states with large numbers of juvenile offenders serving life terms, California is singled out by advocates for acting in the spirit of the Supreme Court rules.

“California has led the way in scaling back some of the extreme sentencing policies it imposed on children,” said Jody Kent Lavy, the director of the Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Yourh, which has campaigned against juvenile life sentences and called on states to reconsider mandatory terms dispensed before the Miller ruling. Too many states, she said, are “reacting with knee-jerk, narrow efforts at compliance.”

Under Florida law, he cannot be released until he turns 77, at least, several years beyond the life expectancy for a black man his age, noted his public defender, who called the sentence “de facto life without parole” iin an appeal to Florida’s high court.

California is allowing juvenile offenders who were condemned to life without parole to seek a resentencing hearing. The State Supreme Court also addressed the issue of de facto life sentences, voiding a 110-year sentence that had been imposed for attempted murder

Whether they alter past sentences or not, some states have adapted by imposing minimum mandatory terms for juvenile murderers of 25 or 35 years before parole can even be considered — far more flexible than mandatory life, but an approach that some experts say still fails to consider individual circumstances.

As Ms. Drinan of Catholic University wrote in a coming article in the Washington University Law Review, largely ignored is the mandate to offer young inmates a chance to “demonstrate growth and maturity,” raising their chances of eventual release.

To give young offenders a real chance to mature and prepare for life outside prison, Ms. Drinan said, “states must overhaul juvenile incarceration altogether,” rather than letting them languish for decades in adult prisons.

Shimeek Gridine, meanwhile, is pursuing a high school equivalency diploma in prison while awaiting a decision by the Florida Supreme Court that could alter his bleak prospects.

He has a supportive family: A dozen relatives, including his mother and grandparents and several aunts and uncles, testified at his sentencing in 2010, urging clemency for a child who played Pop Warner football and talked of becoming a merchant seaman, like his grandfather.

But the judge said the fact that Shimeek had a good family, and decent grades, only underscored that the boy knew right from wrong, and he issued a sentence 30 years longer than even the prosecution had asked for.

Now Florida’s top court is pondering whether his sentence violates the federal Constitution.

“A 70-year sentence imposed upon a 14-year-old is just as cruel and unusual as a sentence of life without parole,” Shimeek’s public defender, Gail Anderson, argued before the Florida court in September. “Mr. Gridine will most likely die in prison.”

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