Thursday, January 24, 2013

Asshats on Parade - Rape Edition - Cathrynn N. Brown

Several political professionals are trying to teach Republicans how and how-not to talk about Rape according to Media-ite:
“This is actually pretty simple,” said Republican strategist Kevin Madden. “If you’re about to talk about rape as anything other than a brutal and horrible crime, stop.”
 Marina Ein, a crisis communications specialist, said Republicans need “sensitivity training” to succeed in the next elections. "It all boils down to whether or not the Republican Party thinks this is a problem,” she said. “If they want to make inroads with women, then they need to subject every one of their candidates to sensitivity training — not to mention reality training.”
Cathrynn N. Brown
I submit House Bill 206 as an example of how intelligently and seriously Republicans have taken excellent and expensive advice. Yes, it is a real bill. Read it and laugh. Or weep. 

That old Republican magic = Poof! You are now an evidence locker. Hard to believe that a lady this cute could be so pea picking corn snorting dumb and inhumane is it not? And Ms. Brown is an attorney. Let that sink in for awhile. 
HOUSE BILL 206
51ST LEGISLATURE - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - FIRST SESSION, 2013
INTRODUCED BY
AN ACT
RELATING TO CRIMINAL LAW; SPECIFYING PROCURING OF AN ABORTION
AS TAMPERING WITH EVIDENCE IN CASES OF CRIMINAL SEXUAL
PENETRATION OR INCEST.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO:
SECTION 1.  Section 30-22-5 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1963,
Chapter 303, Section 22-5, as amended) is amended to read:
"30-22-5.  TAMPERING WITH EVIDENCE.--
A.  Tampering with evidence consists of destroying,
changing, hiding, placing or fabricating any physical evidence
with intent to prevent the apprehension, prosecution or
conviction of any person or to throw suspicion of the
commission of a crime upon another.
B.  Tampering with evidence shall include procuring
or facilitating an abortion, or compelling or coercing another
to obtain an abortion, of a fetus that is the result of
criminal sexual penetration or incest with the intent to
destroy evidence of the crime.  
C.  Whoever commits tampering with evidence
shall be punished as follows:
(1)  if the highest crime for which tampering
with evidence is committed is a capital or first degree felony 
or a second degree felony, the person committing tampering with
evidence is guilty of a third degree felony;
(2)  if the highest crime for which tampering
with evidence is committed is a third degree felony or a fourth
degree felony, the person committing tampering with evidence is
guilty of a fourth degree felony;
(3)  if the highest crime for which tampering
with evidence is committed is a misdemeanor or a petty
misdemeanor, the person committing tampering with evidence is
guilty of a petty misdemeanor; and
(4)  if the highest crime for which tampering
with evidence is committed is indeterminate, the person
committing tampering with evidence is guilty of a fourth degree
felony."
SECTION 2.  EFFECTIVE DATE.--The effective date of the
provisions of this act is July 1, 2013.
- 2 -
.190749.3

Friday, January 4, 2013

"Rice is the best, the most nutritive and the most widespread staple in the world." - Escoffier

 There seem to be but three ways for a nation to acquire wealth. The first is by war, as the Romans did, in plundering their conquered neighbors. This is robbery. The second by commerce, which is generally cheating. The third by agriculture, the only honest way, wherein man receives a real increase of the seed thrown into the ground, in a kind of continual miracle, wrought by the hand of God in his favor, as a reward for his innocent life and his virtuous industry.    Benjamin Franklin

I wonder about the world food supply and the effect of global climate change on agriculture. Our corn harvest in the USA is seriously affected by sustained drought.  About 80 percent of our agricultural land is experiencing drought. I wonder what this will do to the price of milk and eggs. Global climate change is a bread and butter issue. 

I found this press release from the United Nations comforting.
19 November 2012, Rome - Global rice production for 2012 is forecast to outpace consumption in 2012/13, resulting in an upward revision of 5 million tonnes in 2013 closing inventories, according to a new forecast by FAO's  Rice Market Monitor issued today. 
"Compared to last year, world rice carryover stocks are expected to rise by 7 percent, or 10 million tonnes, to a new high of almost 170 tonnes, marking the eighth consecutive year of stock accumulation," says the RMM. "As a result, the world rice stock-to-use ratio is forecast to rise from 33.6 percent in 2012 to 35.5 percent in 2013.
I wonder how many rice farmers in Africa are beautiful women.  I love Rice. So this is good news to me. There certainly is lots to think about. So I am going to keep thinking "aloud" about it and relaying what I find. I am particularly interested in urban farming.

Learn how to cook rice and get rice recipes with pictures and directions for the beginning cook at this this wonderful blog:


Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Need Sandy help? Look for this sign. - Update !!!! Arson !!!!

Update: Occupy Church torched by arsonist.

A two-alarm fire has severely damaged an Episcopal church in Brooklyn, NY that has been serving  as a storage and distribution hub for the Occupy Sandy relief effort, just two days ahead of Christmas. According to CBS News New York, fire department officials say that the blaze was intentionally set.




Saturday, December 15, 2012

Guns: written in horror and haste. - with Update


My Father was a hunter and gun enthusiast. He had at least four guns at any given time. He was the kind of Italian guy goes boar hunting in his 60s. He was kind of dotty toward the end there at 83. He managed to get a trophy boar's head and avoid killing people.

I do not own a gun because I am bipolar. I take legal drugs. Drugs legal and illegal are a common thread through all these mass shootings. So is mental illness for which we take ... wait for it ... drugs.

I am open to gun control. We need it here in Philly. But the PoPo and the Suits never go about it in a way that will actually work. I know a way. Bust nobody for drugs, just guns. Offer a reward to anyone who turns in anyone who has a gun and carries. Does not have to be much: a hundred dollars maybe. That will take many violent felons with guns off the streets.

As long as the War on Drugs continues, so will shootings. Don't innocents always get shot in wars? This war is being waged on our streets and in our homes.

Put the money spent on interdicting drugs into mental health facilities and public health. Take a close look at legal psychotropics being freely prescribed to children and others. The legal drug pushers need attention: Merck, Pfizer, Glaxo-Smith-Kline and many more. You know who they are. They push drugs on the TV and not the street corner.

I just went to the funeral of my friend Baby D who was shot by a paranoid drug dealer. A completely senseless death. I miss him every day. Children are being shot on the streets in my city. The children we lost in Connecticut were shot with legal guns. Gun control is needed. Gun killings are only a symptom of a larger problem. If we look only at the guns, we will miss the mark. We have a large group of people in this country who are zealots, armed and into shooting Doctors. Doctors. Violence in our society is about a lot more than guns. For God's sake, stop rewarding the shooters with a public circus.

Stop dithering SCOTUS, POTUS and Congress about the War on Drugs. You started it. We need to end it - as badly as we need to end the war in Afghanistan. Both are a money sinks that provide no discernible benefit that I can see. We are dying out here in America, Bubble Folk. Poverty creates violence too. We need jobs. We need health care. We pay you to fix this shit. You are not doing the job. You are bloviating. This shit is real.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/11/jared-loughner-mass-shootings-mental-illness