California pizza kitchen cooks up trouble when they try to throw out my service dog

Love me love my dog the old adage says, well when it comes to service dogs california pizza kitchen doesn’t agree. Zeus And I just rolled in for a quick bowl of hummus only to be told by a Mohawked teen” don’t Be bringing no dog in” she argued and I showed her the Ada card I carry and the manager was called, After a long discussion with all involved I was told I could come in as long as we were in the corner and left if anyone complained? Well were still here, Zeus and I are one and the law agrees.
footnote the food was worse than the service powdered hummus anyone?

Autistic girl’s ‘broken cheeseburger’ goes viral after kind waitress saves the day

Anna MacLean’s outings with her little sister, Arianna Hill, aren’t always easy. Sometimes the 7-year-old, who is autistic, will throw herself onto the ground in the middle of the mall or eat her food too loudly at a restaurant, causing fellow patrons to move tables. It’s not often, but when it does happen, Anna, like any other protective big sister, is rattled.

“It’s really hard, the mama bear in me wants to jump in and defend her. You just want to put a big sign on her that says ‘please know that if I have a meltdown, it’s because I’m autistic,’” MacLean told TODAY Moms. “The average person doesn’t know that these kids have a developmental disability by looking at them, so they pass judgment and think you’re raising a spoiled child.”

Courtesy Anna MacLean
“Oh, I missed you!” Arianna Hill, 7, kisses her unbroken cheeseburger, thanks to one very understanding waitress.That’s why MacLean, 25, and her husband, Alex, knew they’d need to be ready for anything when they took Arianna to lunch Sunday at a local Chili’s Grill & Bar in Midvale, Utah, before taking her to visit the Easter Bunny.

“We always expect to have to pay for our meal early on and leave because Arianna gets too overwhelmed. But sometimes she surprises us, it’s unpredictable,” said MacLean, who has her younger sister come stay with her at least one night a week.

On this occasion, Arianna ordered her favorite meal on the menu, a cheeseburger with french fries. When their lunch arrived, Anna noticed that Arianna wasn’t touching her burger.

“I asked her ‘aren’t you going to eat it?’ and she told me she didn’t want it because it was broken. It quickly dawned on me why she wasn’t eating it, because it was cut in half.”

Anna explained to waitress Lauren Wells that they’d love a new cheeseburger not because there was anything wrong with the first one, but because her sister, who was autistic, thought it was broken.

“It was amazing, the interaction immediately went from me explaining the situation to Lauren, to Lauren talking directly to Arianna. ‘I brought you a broken cheeseburger?!’ Lauren asked, ‘You know what, I’ll have them cook you a new one!’ … If Arianna had seen me and Lauren talking, and then all of a sudden Lauren took the burger away, she would have had a complete meltdown.”

Even the restaurant’s manager, Brad Cattermole, got involved and apologized for the “broken” cheeseburger. When the new, unsliced burger arrived, Arianna was thrilled. “Oh, I missed you!” she exclaimed, and started kissing the burger over and over.

MacLean snapped a photo, and was so grateful for their experience that she shared her story on Chili’s Facebook page. The story quickly went viral, garnering more than 800,000 likes and nearly 50,000 comments.

Courtesy Anna MacLean
Anna MacLean, 25, with little sister Arianna Hill, 7. Arianna stays with her big sister at least once a week, and Anna has learned how to handle Arianna’s autism symptoms.MacLean was shocked. “I had no idea it would turn out to be such a big story! But to me, it’s the awareness that’s so important. I mean just look at the numbers of children diagnosed with autism. All you can do is hope that people will be more aware and less judgmental.”

For caregivers of autistic children, the pressure to keep things predictable, even something as small as an “unbroken” cheeseburger, is magnified. Parents of special-needs children know all too well how seemingly minor things can trigger a meltdown, and how public meltdowns can invite looks of scorn from people who don’t understand. In fact, a 2012 study found that parents of autistic children say that judgment from other adults is one of their biggest challenges, second only to their children’s actual behavior problems.

“It’s truly a chain reaction,” explains MacLean. “Lauren could have taken the cheeseburger from Arianna without explaining what she was doing, Arianna could have had a meltdown, we would have had to skip her visit to see the Easter Bunny, Arianna would have gone home upset, she wouldn’t have had a good night’s sleep, she would have woken up tired the next day, and the whole weekend would have been ruined!”

A spokeswoman from Chili’s confirmed the incident and wrote in a statement, “We are delighted by the shining examples in Lauren Wells, Brad Cattermole and the Midvale team, and their kind gestures that made Arianna, Anna and Alex feel so incredibly special.”

Maclean says the lack of judgment from the restaurant staff turned what could have been a nightmarish lunch into a happy family memory.

“I’ve put myself in other people’s shoes, and I wouldn’t know how to interact with autistic children either. But for kids with autism, it’s so important that people interact with them on this kind of personal level. It’s a social disorder, so if people aren’t so afraid to socialize with them, who knows how they’ll thrive. The fact that Lauren interacted with Arianna, it saved our entire weekend. It’s so silly, but I know every parent can relate. The ‘broken cheeseburger’ that saved the day!”

7Yr old Aussie Down syndrome girl booted out of cinema because she laughed at childrens movie

From: news.com.au, Daily Mail March 27, 2013 7:29PM
THE mother of a seven-year-old girl with Down syndrome who was thrown out of a cinema for laughing too loudly has called for a boycott of the company.
Ema Louise Brown, 28, said she was “disgusted” that her daughter Sienna was asked to leave a Cineworld venue for disrupting the film.

Sienna, who has the mental age of a three-year-old, was laughing at The Croods along with other children when she was ‘rudely” asked to leave by a member of staff, her mother said. Miss Brown said the man approached them last Saturday while they were watching the children’s comedy at Cineworld in Birmingham.

She wrote on Facebook: “I said to him that she has Down’s and is quite loud at times but was only laughing. He said: “Well I need you to leave”. I said: “I want to speak to your manager”.

“The manager came over, I told her what happened and she said for me to leave. I said you’re discriminating against my child and targeted only her. She laughed at me and walked off and the man said: “You shouldn’t take your child to the cinema”.

“I shouted: “So because my child has Down’s and is loud with her laugh, because she doesn’t understand to laugh quietly that I shouldn’t take her out. He laughed again.”

Miss Brown then called for a boycott of the company and complained to them. Hundreds of parents have since taken to Cineworld’s Facebook page to complain about the way the family was treated.

A Cineworld spokesman said: “We were extremely sorry to hear about Ema Louise Brown’s experience with her family.

“We are arranging for her to meet our senior management team and share views on how we can handle these situations more sensitively.”

The policy with any noisy customer is to “respectfully” ask them to leave the auditorium, the cinema said. Because it was dark, it is understood people were unaware of Sienna’s disability.

“It’s always frustrating when you hear about instances like this” Catherine McAlpine from Down Syndrome Australia told news.com.au.

“Certainly we would agree that people with Down sydrome need to adhere with the same social structures as everyone else, but the simple fact is that they take longer to process information that other people.

“There was an incident here in Australia where a young person was threatened on a train by an officer for not having a ticket, and kept saying talk to my dad talk to my dad, and was obviously very confused and afraid. It took other passengers to step in before the officer laid off, they had to convince him to just wait until they got to the station to talk to the father, and those passengers actually made a complaint.

“There was also an incredibly tragic situation in the US where a young man in a cinema was watching a movie, and he liked it so much that he decided to stay and watch it again. Three off-duty police officers came to convict him, handcuffed him, pushed him to the ground and he actually died.

“It’s just unacceptable for people not to make some adjustment in making sure the person with Down syndrome understands what the problem is. Once they understand the problem they will behave, but it just takes time.”

Child Marriages: 39,000 Every Day – More than 140 million girls will marry between 2011 and 2020

Joint press release by UNFPA, UNICEF, WHO, UN Women, the United Nations Foundation, World Vision, Girls Not Brides, Every Woman Every Child, World YWCA and The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health.

NEW YORK, 7 March 2013 – Between 2011 and 2020, more than 140 million girls will become child brides, according to United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

If current levels of child marriages hold, 14.2 million girls annually or 39,000 daily will marry too young.

Furthermore, of the 140 million girls who will marry before the age of 18, 50 million will be under the age of 15.

Despite the physical damage and the persistent discrimination to young girls, little progress has been made toward ending the practice of child marriage. In fact, the problem threatens to increase with the expanding youth population in the developing world.

Tahani, 8, is seen with her husband Majed, 27, and her former classmate Ghada, 8, and her husband, outside their home in Hajjah, Yemen, 26 July, 2010. Photo Credit: © Stephanie Sinclair/VII/Tooyoungtowed.org
“Child marriage is an appalling violation of human rights and robs girls of their education, health and long-term prospects,” says Babatunde Osotimehin, M.D, Executive Director, UNFPA. “A girl who is married as a child is one whose potential will not be fulfilled. Since many parents and communities also want the very best for their daughters, we must work together and end child marriage.”

Girls married young are more vulnerable to intimate partner violence and sexual abuse than those who marry later.

“Complications of pregnancy and childbirth are the leading cause of death in young women aged 15-19. Young girls who marry later and delay pregnancy beyond their adolescence have more chances to stay healthier, to better their education and build a better life for themselves and their families,” says Flavia Bustreo, M.D., Assistant Director-General for Family, Women’s and Children’s Health at the World Health Organization. “We have the means at our disposal to work together to stop child marriage.”

On 7 March, a special session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) will focus on child marriage. The Governments of Bangladesh, Malawi and Canada will jointly sponsor the session. It is held in support of Every Woman Every Child, a movement spearheaded by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that aims to save the lives of 16 million women and children by 2015.

The session will address the problems created by early marriages and ways to prevent them. Mereso Kiluso, a Tanzanian mother of five now in her 20s, who was married at 14 to an abusive man in his 70s, will describe her experience.

If child marriage is not properly addressed, UN Millennium Development Goals 4 & 5 – calling for a two-thirds reduction in the under-five mortality rate and a three-fourths reduction in the maternal deaths by 2015 – will not be met.

Child marriage – defined as marriage before the age of 18 – applies to both boys and girls, but the practice is far more common among young girls.

Child marriage is a global issue but rates vary dramatically, both within and between countries. In both proportions and numbers, most child marriages take place in rural sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

In South Asia, nearly half of young women and in sub-Saharan Africa more than one third of young women are married by their 18th birthday.

The 10 countries with the highest rates of child marriage are: Niger, 75 per cent; Chad and Central African Republic, 68 per cent; Bangladesh, 66 per cent; Guinea, 63 per cent; Mozambique, 56 per cent; Mali, 55 per cent; Burkina Faso and South Sudan, 52 per cent; and Malawi, 50 per cent.

In terms of absolute numbers, because of the size of its population, India has the most child marriages.

What progress has been made to stop the practice has been in urban areas where families see greater work and education opportunities for young girls.

A violation of the rights of girls

“No girl should be robbed of her childhood, her education and health, and her aspirations. Yet today millions of girls are denied their rights each year when they are married as child brides,” says Michelle Bachelet, M.D., Executive Director of UN Women.

Child marriage is increasingly recognized as a violation of the rights of girls for the following reasons:

•Effectively ending their education
•Blocking any opportunity to gain vocational and life skills
•Exposing them to the risks of too-early pregnancy, child bearing, and motherhood before they are physically and psychologically ready
•Increasing their risk of intimate partner sexual violence and HIV infection
“Child marriage is a huge problem in poor communities,” says Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda, General Secretary of the World YWCA. “Early marriage and child marriage robs the future. Girls lose the opportunity for education. They lose the opportunity to choose their partner and must live with that pain for the rest of their lives.”

The World YWCA will present a petition to CSW urging the group to pass a special resolution calling for an end child marriage. Signatories believe that by working collaboratively, member states and concerned groups can end child marriage by 2030.

Despite the fact that 158 countries have set the legal age for marriage at 18 years, laws are rarely enforced since the practice of marrying young children is upheld by tradition and social norms.

The detrimental effects of early child marriage

“Child marriage is not only wrong, it is dangerous. It exposes a young girl to profound health risks from early pregnancy and difficult childbirth and it exposes her baby to complications of premature birth,” says Anthony Lake, Executive Director of UNICEF.

According to the UN, complications from pregnancy and childbirth are the leading causes of death for girls aged 15-19 years in developing countries. Of the16 million adolescent girls who give birth every year, about 90 per cent are already married. UNICEF estimates some 50,000 die, almost all in low- and middle-income countries. Stillbirths and newborn deaths are 50 per cent higher among mothers under the age of 20 than in women who get pregnant in their 20s.

In many poor countries, most young girls, regardless of age, are forced to demonstrate their fertility once they are married.

“These children, because that’s what they are, are discouraged from using contraceptives or might have to ask their husbands’ permission, or they have no knowledge of or access to what they need,” says Carole Presern, PhD, Executive Director of The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health and a midwife.

Violence common in child marriages

Loss of girlhood and health problems related to early pregnancy are not the only hazards confronting young brides.

Even though some parents believe early marriage will protect their daughters from sexual violence, the reverse is often true, according to UN studies.

Young girls who marry before the age of 18 have a greater risk of becoming victims of intimate partner violence than those who marry at an older age. This is especially true when the age gap between the child bride and spouse is large.

“Child marriage marks an abrupt and often violent introduction to sexual relations,” says Claudia Garcia Moreno, M.D., of WHO, a leading expert in violence against women. “The young girls are powerless to refuse sex and lack the resources or legal and social support to leave an abusive marriage.”

A complex issue with deep roots

Child marriage, which has existed for centuries, is a complex issue, rooted deeply in gender inequality, tradition and poverty. The practice is most common in rural and impoverished areas, where prospects for girls can be limited. In many cases, parents arrange these marriages and young girls have no choice.

Poor families marry off young daughters to reduce the number of children they need to feed, clothe and educate. In some cultures, a major incentive is the price prospective husbands will pay for young brides.

Social pressures within a community can lead families to wed young children. For example, some cultures believe marrying girls before they reach puberty will bring blessings on families. Some societies believe that early marriage will protect young girls from sexual attacks and violence and see it as a way to insure that their daughter will not become pregnant out of wedlock and bring dishonour to the family.

Too, many families marry their daughters simply because early marriage is the only option they know.

“Many faith leaders and their communities are already working to end child marriage and other forms of violence against children. Changing stubborn behavior is immensely challenging, so we must go further to positively influence beliefs and actions,” says Tim Costello, Chief Executive of World Vision Australia.

Malawi’s work to end child marriage

In Malawi, one of the world’s poorest countries, at least half of young women are married before the age of 18. The country is working to end the practice “to allow the girl child to continue with education, to become a learned citizen who can contribute to the development and economy of the country,” says Ms. Catherine Gotani Hara, Malawi’s Minister of Health.

Another reason for Malawi’s effort is the high teenage pregnancy rate and the fact that teen pregnancies contribute to 20-30 per cent of maternal deaths in the country. “By ending early marriages we can avert up to 30 per cent of maternal deaths and also reduce the neonatal mortality rate,” she says.

The Minister reports that Malawi has taken a number of steps aimed at ending the practice of child marriage. These include:

•Providing free universal access to primary education;
•Working with chiefs to sensitize their communities on the importance of sending children to school, with an emphasis on the girl child;
•Implementing a policy that allows girls who become pregnant during school to go back to school after delivery to continue their education;
•Working with parliamentarians to raise the age at marriage to 18 years by 2014; and
•Providing Youth Friendly Health Services. This outreach empowers youths with the information that would enable them to make informed choices about their reproductive health.
UN Millennium Development Goals

Ending child marriage is closely related to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Every Woman Every Child initiative and to efforts to reach Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 3, 4 and 5 to promote gender equality, to reduce child mortality and to improve maternal health.

The continued occurrence of child marriage has hindered the achievement of these MDGs, especially in sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia.

“I urge governments, community and religious leaders, civil society, the private sector, and families—especially men and boys—to do their part to let girls be girls, not brides,” says the Secretary-General.

Ending child marriage would also help countries achieve other MDGs aimed at eradicating poverty, achieving universal education and combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, and should also figure within a renewed development agenda.

“The needs of adolescent girls were overlooked in the Millennium Development Goals; they must have a central place in any new goals set by the international community,” said Lakshmi Sundaram, Global Coordinator of Girls Not Brides. “By using the rate of child marriage as an indicator to monitor progress against new goals, we can make sure that governments address the practice and focus on ensuring the welfare of their girls.”

Strategies for ending child marriage recommended to the Commission on the Status of Women include:

•Supporting and enforcing legislation to increase the minimum age of marriage for girls to 18 years;
•Providing equal access to quality primary and secondary education for both girls and boys;
•Mobilizing girls, boys, parents and leaders to change practices that discriminate against girls and to create social, economic, and civic opportunities for girls and young women;
•Providing girls who are already married with options for schooling, employment and livelihood skills, sexual and reproductive health information and services (including HIV prevention), and offering recourse from violence in the home;
•Addressing the root causes of child marriage, including poverty, gender inequality and discrimination, the low value placed on girls and violence against girls.
Participants at the special session on child marriage will include: Margaret Mensah-Williams, Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Namibia; Michelle Bachelet, M.D., Executive Director of UN Women; Babatunde Osotimehin, M.D., Executive Director of UNFPA, Lakshmi Sundaram, Global Coordinator of Girls Not Brides; and Tim Costello, CEO, World Vision Australia. Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda, General Secretary of the World YWCA, will moderate the session. Comments will be provided by government co-hosts of the event: H.E. Catherine Gotani Hara, Minister of Health of Malawi; H.E. Dr. A. K. Abdul Momen, Permanent Representative to the UN, Bangladesh, and Guillermo Rishchynski, Permanent Representative to the UN, Canada, Carole Presern, Executive Director, The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health will introduce government representatives.

Contacts:
Fadéla Chaib, WHO: +41 22 791 3228, +41 79 475 5556 (mob); chaibf@who.int
Mandy Kibel, UNFPA: +1 212 297-5293; + 1 917 310-8219 (mob); kibel@unfpa.org
Sarah Crowe, UNICEF: +1 212 326-7206, +1 646 209-1590 (mob); scrowe@unicef.org
Marshall Hoffman, H&H: +1 703 533-3535, +1 703 801 8602 (mob); marshall@hoffmanpr.com
Nils Hoffman, H&H Video: +1 703 967-1490 (mob); nils@hoffmanpr.com

As the door closes on the Sistine chapel, will the doors open or close for victims of pedophile priests?

As abc7 goes to adverts and we see the doors close on the papal conclave in the Sistine chapel many talk, will the next pope be a manager of the funds?, will he be an evangelical pope or will he be sympathetic to the survivors of pedophile priests?
Really will he be sympathetic? Does he have a choice? If I assault you The police don’t get a choice I the perpetrator do not get a choice my ass ends up in jail. So for the papal conclave to assume it is but a mere option goes to the very core of the problems with the catholic church.
If the holy Roman catholic church wants to keep one micron of respect, one scrap of validity in a modern world it must be a condition of the new popes election and holding office that the Vatican clean house.
If they want to keep any respect the rules must be the following,If a priest touches a child he is handed over along with all proof to authorities and kicked out of the priesthood, if a bishop covers up he is stripped of office and he is handed over to authorities. Any bishop or arch bishop guilty of either molestation of children or covering it up if by some miracle is still in their church position must never I repeat never be eligible for cardinal .
For a pedophile cardinal to become pope would be the equivalent of replaying the court of the roman emperor Caligula who married his sister and played soccer with human heads.
When organized crime groups such as the mafia are arrested under rico laws in the united states and it is proved that for long periods of time they committed covered up and profited from those crimes, all their money bank accounts vehicles and homes and all properties are seized by the government.
Why should the catholic church be any different? for over at least the last 100 years there is documented proof that the church as high as pope Benedict himself (when he was appointed to the position of inspecting and researching all cases of suspected molestation he made the ludicrous statement “I don’t understand the fuss when I was younger sex with children was a normal part of the world no one made a fuss”)
Have committed the act of molestation on a major scale, in some cases even killed children to cover up the crime.
Then in many cases if that wasnt bad enough their bishop have covered for them and sometimes promoted the accused to positions where they are in charge of even more children,( in the 1960′s in the american mid west a priest was found guilty of molesting over 200 children so he was promoted by the diocese to run orphanages for boys in new mexico where he is suspected of over 400 more molestations) These men have moved upwardly through the ranks to even become pope. If the above is not profiting from crime what is? So why are not all their properties and funds seized in any country or city where it is discovered they are after all organized crime at its most text book example.

All that said this should apply to any religious organization which by design has control over the lives of children and families and horrendously abuses that trust and control.When some eastern belief system carries out such atrocities we call the leader a monster and the group a cult when catholic do it we call them your eminence?

We wonder why we have such twisted people wearing robes and the collar of priesthood, they for all intents and purpose do no background check. A written reference from your parish priest will get you accepted to seminary. Our last pope was in Hitler youth as an eager volunteer, and cardinal Scherr from brazil is the son of German post world war 2 immigrants (as the war in Germany was obviously lost hundreds of Nazis fled with their families to south America to the point where when you travel in the mountains of Brazil there are whole cities built to look straight out of the Bavarian country side) and this man could be our next pope he leads the largest catholic diocese in the world.
If I as a young woman applied to the federal government, my fingerprints would be taken my photograph would be taken and my family and friends are interviewed and any criminal record is thoroughly investigated. The same in these modern times must be the standard for the priest hood if it has any chance to survive and be in any way relevant to the faithful.
I don’t hate religion, I do not describe myself as christian but what I am against as any decent human should be, is the organised and ritualised molestation of children and belittlement of women in the name of some unseen deity. Children are precious and women are like any human to only be respected. So until the catholics and other old boy pederist fraternity are removed from this earth like the boils on society they are, we will not be safe and I will keep shining a light on their disgusting excuses for lives.

Bailey O’neil 11 years of age,from darby pennsylvania dies after being beaten by school bully

Bailey o’neil A Delaware County student was taken off life support and has died, weeks after a fight at Darby Township School.

Family members say Bailey O’Neill died after he was taken off life support on Sunday morning

Boy, 11, in two-week coma after schoolyard fight with ‘bullies’ caused seizures
Bailey O’Neil was involved in a fight four weeks ago and suffered seizures days later
Doctors decided to put the sixth-grader into medically induced coma
BELOW IS THE STORY ORIGINALLY REPORTING THE INCIDENT
Reposted from a story By Leon Watson PUBLISHED: 05:38 EST, 8 February 2013 | UPDATED: 06:27 EST, 8 February 2013

..
A schoolboy who was placed in a medically induced coma after a fight with classmates who he and his family claim were bullying him has died .
Sixth-grader Bailey O’Neil, from Darby Township, Pennsylvania, was involved in a fight four weeks ago at the Darby Township School.
The honors student was struck several times in the face by another student and left with a fractured his nose before falling to the ground.

Sixth-grader Bailly O’Neil is in a medically induced coma after a schoolyard fight with classmates who he and his family claim were bullying him has died
Bailey’s parents brought their son, who had a concussion, to the A.I. DuPont hospital in Wilmington, Delaware, where he was treated and released.
But his father Rob saw that something wasn’t quite right with their son when they returned home.

‘He was sleeping. He was moody. He wasn’t himself. He was angry a little bit. He wasn’t really eating,’ Mr O’Neil told ABC News.

Just a few days later, Bailey started having violent seizures and needed to be hospitalized again.

The seizures were so bad doctors at A.I. DuPont were forced to put Bailey in a medically induced coma nearly two weeks ago.

Darby Township School’s yard where Bailey was struck several times in the face by another student

Bailey’s father Rob was concerned that something wasn¿t quite right with their son when they returned home

The school has turned the investigation over to local police and is cooperating fully with their efforts
‘Every day I’m trying to stay strong for him,’ Mr O’Neil said. ‘When you get into that hospital room and you’re looking at him, I would trade places in a heartbeat. It’s my buddy, you know.’
Southeast Delco School District Superintendent Stephen Butz said the school has turned the investigation over to local police and is cooperating fully with their efforts.
‘We take bullying seriously,’ he said. ‘We are very concerned about the medical condition of the student and our thoughts and prayers are with the family and students.’
According to Bailey’s father, the boy who struck his son was suspended for two days following the incident, but police have not filed any criminal charges in the case

WHY HASN’T THE BULLY BEEN CHARGED WITH MURDER?

Olympian Oscar Pistorius Charged With Murder of Girlfriend

Runner Oscar Pistorius Arrested in Girlfriend’s Killing
Reposted froma story by By KEVIN DOLAK (@kdolak)
Feb. 14, 2013
Oscar Pistorius, the Olympic and Paralympic athlete known as the “blade runner,” was taken into custody in South Africa today and charged with the murder of his girlfriend, who was fatally shot at his home.
Police in the South African capital of Pretoria received a call around 3 a.m. today that there had been a shooting at the home of 26-year-old Pistorius, Lt. Col. Katlego Mogale told The Associated Press. When police arrived at the scene, they found paramedics trying to revive 29-year-old Reeva Steenkamp, the AP reported.
At a news conference early today, police said Pistorius was arrested and had requested that he be taken to court immediately.

Mogale said the woman died at the house, and a 9-mm pistol was recovered at the scene and a murder case opened against Pistorius, the AP reported.
Police said this morning that there were no other suspects in the shooting, and that Pistorius is at the police station.

The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said Pistorius’ hearing will be Friday at 9 a.m. local time. His court hearing was originally scheduled for this afternoon but has been postponed to give forensics investigators time to carry out their work, NPA spokesman Medupe Simasiku said.
The precise circumstances surrounding the incident are unclear. Local reports say he might have mistaken her for a burglar, according to the AP.
Police said they have heard reports of an argument or shouting at the apartment complex, and that the only two people on the premises were Steenkamp and Pistorius.
Police confirmed there have previously been incidents of a domestic nature at the home of Pistorius.
Pistorius, a sprinter, had double below-the-knee amputations and a part of his legs has been replaced with carbon fiber blades. In 2012, he became the first double-leg amputee to participate in the Olympics, competing in the men’s 400-meter race.
He also competed in the Paralympics, where he won gold medals in the men’s 400-meter race, in what became a Paralympics record. He also took the silver in the 200-meter race.
Steenkamp, according to her Twitter bio, is a law graduate and model. She tweeted
Steenkamp recently appeared on the cover of FHM magazine, in commercials and was due to appear on a reality-TV show, “Tropika Island of Treasure.”

NRA responds to call for stricter gun laws by promoting a call for succession and civil war!

NRA Convention Helps Distribute Literature Calling For Secession And Civil War
Reposted from a story By Scott Keyes on Feb 12, 2013 at 9:00 am

Photo of The Reality News, which calls for secession and civil war, being distributed at Wisconsin NRA convention
WAUSAU, Wisconsin— At a state conference this past weekend, the NRA helped distribute a newspaper that called for Wisconsin secession and a new civil war.

The article, which appeared in a Wisconsin-based conservative publication called “The Reality News”, was among the literature being distributed at the NRA’s Wisconsin State Convention on February 9th.

In “What Would Davy Crockett Say?”, author Karl P. Koenigs calls for liberating “our home country of Wisconsin.” If that doesn’t work, Koenigs advocates “a combo Civil/Re-Revolutionary War” to “restore the Rule of OUR Laws on our elected, non-elected and wannabe elected Republican and Democrat Federal servants through the refreshment of the Tree of Liberty by its natural manure.” The last part is a reference to the Thomas Jefferson quote that “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”

If you understand the Constitution you throw-up every single time you turn on the TV and hear about another thing or program the U.S. Government is ‘going to do for (TO) the American People’. This is a most heinous disease that can only be cured by the constitutional De-Centralized power of our home country of Wisconsin restoring our “supreme Laws” on our Federal public servants within our borders; OR otherwise by a combo Civil/Re-Revolutionary War with the very same goal to restore the Rule of OUR Laws on our elected, non-elected and wannabe elected Republican and Democrat Federal servants through the refreshment of the Tree of Liberty by its natural manure.

Koenigs also used the article to lambaste what he saw as the failed experiment of American democracy. “At the Federal level, until the rule of law is restored, this is an absolute Pipe Dream. At this juncture of ‘Democracy’ of Mob Rule, most feared by our Founding Fathers, and utter 10th Amendment CONTEMPT for The Constitution; ELECTIONS ARE NOT THE SOLUTION TO OUR PROBLEM; ELECTIONS ARE THE PROBLEM!”

To be clear, the NRA did not write the article in question. But, by enabling its distribution to conference attendees, the NRA acts as a megaphone for the fringe views of secessionists and helps them gain new followers.

Katheryn L. Carmean, Teacher’s Assistant, Had Sex With 14-Year-Old Boy ’40 Times’

Reposted from a story on the Huffington post By Simon McCormack Posted: 02/08/2013 11:14 am EST

Katheryn L. Carmean A 35-year-old paraeducator is accused of repeatedly raping a 14-year-old boy during a 10-month period who was friends with her son.

Katheryn L. Carmean, 35, was arrested in Seaford, Del. on Wednesday and charged with ten counts of third-degree rape, continuous sexual abuse of a child and endangering the welfare of a child, according to a press release from the Delaware State Police.

Delaware Online reports that Carmean was arrested at Seaford Middle School where she works as a paraeducator who assists children with disabilities. She has been suspended from her position.

Carmean allegedly admitted to police that the two had sex about “40 times” from November 2011 to August 2012, according to Delaware Online.

Delaware State Police learned of the allegations after the boy told a family member about the relationship and she alerted authorities. The boy was a friend of Carmean’s son, according to the release.

The alleged victim told police he would “periodically” sleep over at Carmean’s house, the release said.

Carmean is being held on a $57,000 secured bond

A Harrowing Day on NYC Subways .. in a Wheelchair (again)

This is Ella (Mia’s better half aka She Who Must Be Obeyed)

Yesterday was going to be a busy day from the word GO. I had to head to work and Mia had a variety of doctors appointments. So as per the norm, on a day like that, we were up by 6 am (mind you I’m still running on crap myself thanks to a cold), double checked our appointments, made sure all the NYC subways we had to catch were running and our corresponding elevators were not on the MTA’s repair list. All looked fine so we set off and the trip into Manhattan was fairly uneventful. Then there was the first appointment filled with the usual stresses of doctors and logistics, then the second.
Before leaving work I checked on the status of the subways again and learned that the station we were going to use had its elevator out so we made other plans. Low and behold, we find that the elevator at 14th and 8th avenue was broken too. We stepped in and its door wouldn’t close. Pressed the little emergency button to have an MTA staff member come on and tell us “oh it just went out and I just called someone.” He had no idea when it would be working and offered zero assistance to a person stuck in a wheelchair needing subway access. This isn’t the first time this has happened so we wheeled over the the stairs and I prepared to help Mia undertake the overwhelmingly embarrassing and inhumane experience of sliding herself down the stairs while I carried the wheelchair. Thankfully a nice person informed us that if we used another access point through the lobby of an office building the stairs would be fewer and with less foot traffic. And thankfully so because as we began to make our way there a variety of New York’s most rudest folks walked by and commented saying “hey why don’t you get out of the way and use the elevator” as if a disabled person would rather be attempting to worm their way down the stairs vs. taking a working elevator. One “lovely” resident shoved by mumbling something under their breathe and gave me a dirty glare. So we made our way down into the station via the other staircase, with thankfully the help of a couple of nice New Yorkers only to arrive in Flushing, Queens to find yet another broken elevator!

When we encountered this next obstacle we were directed to speak to the station manager who happened to be manning the token booth. When asking what we should do his response was for us to take the train back 5 miles out of our way to the next station with a supposedly working elevator and then take a bus back to Flushing, Queens (which was ludicrous), OR take the escalator up (which is highly highly against their policy and dangerous). His only response should have been to offer to send assistance our way.

Now, this morning I took a video of the station to give you an idea of what the escalator ride entailed… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9usaPPEwoM

Mia in her usual daredevil self decided she would undertake it. I was terrified but we made it all the way up without “much” of an issue. Terrifying and more importantly 100% unnecessarily if NYC would simply remember that disabled people exist and the frequency with which these elevators break down and the unpredictability of the MTA website for updated information is a joke.