Glenn Beck approves as guest endorses new Osama attack on America

Michael Scheuer as Glenn Beck nods approval:

“Only Osama can execute an attack that will force Americans to demand a government protect them effectively, consistently and with as much violence as necessary. “

Police battle street rioters in Honduras

12 Angry White People: Jury Nullification in a Coal Town

By Walter Brasch

The Schuylkill County, Pa., justice system managed to do something that insurance actuaries do with mixed results–it determined not only the penalty for threats to a human life, but also the value of a human life.

• Norman E. Nickle, 54, who lived in Pottsville, the county seat, was sentenced in April to two life terms, without possibility of parole after he pled no contest to killing two teens the previous year. Nickle’s only defense was that he was high on drugs and alcohol at the time of the murders.
• Jarrid Finneran, of Shenandoah, was sentenced to 2-1/2 to five years in prison after a jury convicted him in December 2007 of pushing his girlfriend in front of a car. Finneran said that the incident was the result of an accident, was not deliberate, and that he and the victim continued their relationship after the incident. The jury, however, convicted him of aggravated assault, simple assault, recklessly endangering another person, and disorderly conduct.
• Kyle J. Bluge, 23, of Frackville, admitted he shook a baby in April 2008 to try to stop the boy from crying. A pediatrician testified that the physical abuse resulted in significant brain injuries. Bluge, who will be sentenced Aug. 5, could face 10 to 20 years in prison and a $25,000 fine for aggravated assault.
• Mark P. Wilner, 40, of Mahanoy City, in June was found guilty of simple assault after a street fight that led to injuries to the victim who, according to court testimony, had begun the fight by punching a woman, causing her to fall to the ground. Wilner, who apparently initially tried to avoid confrontation, could be sentenced, June 29, to one to two years in state prison.

However, the life of Luis Eduardo Ramirez-Zavalo, 25, an illegal Mexican immigrant who lived and worked in Shenandoah before dying in June 2008 after a beating by a gang of about a half-dozen drunken Shenandoah Valley High School football players is worth no more than 23 months in a county jail for his assailants.
(more…)

Happy Birthday, Faera!

Rabbi Michael Lerner of Tikkun responds to “The Exodus Obama Forgot to Mention”

Often forgotten, the some 800,000 Middle Eastern Jews fled or were summarily expelled for being Jewish in the 20th century, were the topic of “The Exodus Obama Forgot to Mention” by André Aciman in an op-ed published by The New York Times, June 8, 2009.
Rabbi Michael Lerner of Tikkun responds.

The article reminds us of another level of complexity in the Middle East — the flight of some and expulsion of others of the 800,000 Jews who had to leave Arab lands in the 20th century, often having their property confiscated, often fleeing with justified fear for their lives, most of whom found refuge in the newly created Zionist state of Israel. (more…)

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