Just Freaking Stupid

"PUEBLO, Colo. -- A Pueblo man faces charges after police say he tried to steal a car, then told officers the car wouldn't start and asked for a ride home. Police arrested 29-year-old Brandon Ortiz on suspicion of auto theft early Friday after getting a call reporting he tried to steal a car belonging to the owner of the Anchor Bar. Police said he was visibly drunk." - Elena from Bookmarklet

"State lawmakers in the capital of country music have passed a groundbreaking measure that would make it a crime to use a friend's log-in — even with permission — to listen to songs or watch movies from services such as Netflix or Rhapsody. The bill, now awaiting the governor's signature, was pushed by recording industry officials to try to stop the loss of billions of dollars to illegal music sharing. They hope other states will follow." - Steven Perez from Bookmarklet

"Members of Orlando Food Not Bombs were arrested Wednesday when police said they violated a city ordinance by feeding the homeless in Lake Eola Park. Jessica Cross, 24, Benjamin Markeson, 49, and Jonathan "Keith" McHenry, 54, were arrested at 6:10 p.m. on a charge of violating the ordinance restricting group feedings in public parks. McHenry is a co-founder of the international Food Not Bombs movement, which began in the early 1980s. The group lost a court battle in April, clearing the way for the city to enforce the ordinance. It requires groups to obtain a permit and limits each group to two permits per year for each park within a 2-mile radius of City Hall. Arrest papers state that Cross, Markeson and McHenry helped feed 40 people Wednesday night. The ordinance applies to feedings of more than 25 people. "They intentionally violated the statute," said Lt. Barbara Jones, an Orlando police spokeswoman." - Steven Perez from Bookmarklet

I would not even try to parse the mental process that makes ****feeding the homeless**** a fucking crime. - Steven Perez

"Appealing the conviction, McGacken argued that, once police knew the noise was consensual sex, they no longer had reason to search his home. But the appellate panel at the Superior Court of New Jersey disagreed. On Monday, they dismissed McGacken's appeal, stating that "the potential for harm was too severe for the police to accept an explanation for loud screaming that could have been a cover-up of its true source." The ruling stated in part: The police are not required to accept the explanation that a person answering the door gives for a distress call. While loud sex may have been a plausible source of screaming, that explanation was not so reliable that the police acted unreasonably in investigating further.... Moreover, by first questioning defendant and his girlfriend, the troopers discounted the possibility that someone may have made a false report of screaming. Defendant did not deny that screaming had occurred in his residence. His admission made it unnecessary for the police to seek corroboration to establish the reliability of the anonymous 911 call." - Steven Perez from Bookmarklet

>.< eeeesh - Prosey BUTTONS!

"Tom Shaw was travelling on a South West Trains when he began writing a list of song titles which his band The Magic Mushrooms would play at a forthcoming gig. But the 25-year-old was approached by two security staff employed by the train company and asked to leave the train at Fareham railway station. Mr Shaw, who works with young people with learning difficulties, said that they told him he had been behaving suspiciously and asked him to explain the list he had been writing." - Steven Perez from Bookmarklet

Remember when if you didn't feel comfortable around someone, *you* were the one who left the area? - Andy Bakun

"Imagine that you're a homeowner who has managed to stay current on all your mortgage payments. And then you find out that the bank has not only foreclosed on your house, but they've also sold it at auction. That's exactly what happened to to a couple in Georgia." - Steven Perez from Bookmarklet

Isn't this what title companies and title insurance is for? - Andy Bakun

"Bill Nye, the harmless children's edu-tainer known as "The Science Guy," managed to offend a select group of adults in Waco, Texas at a presentation, when he suggested that the moon does not emit light, but instead reflects the light of the sun. As even most elementary-school graduates know, the moon reflects the light of the sun but produces no light of its own. But don't tell that to the good people of Waco, who were "visibly angered by what some perceived as irreverence," according to the Waco Tribune. Nye was in town to participate in McLennan Community College's Distinguished Lecture Series. He gave two lectures on such unfunny and adult topics as global warming, Mars exploration, and energy consumption." - Steven Perez from Bookmarklet

please - VALZ/TEAM TRAVIS

"“How many more American citizens are going to have to die?” Perry asked. The border state governor then turned to the chaos created by Mexico’s drug wars. “There have been 34,000 Mexicans killed directly attributable to the drug wars. It is a very dangerous place,” he said. Perry then pointed out that “Juarez is reported to be the most dangerous city in America.” After an aide informed the governor of his mistake, Perry clarified that Juarez indeed belongs to Mexico, not Texas." - Steven Perez from Bookmarklet

I guess technically, it is in America. :D - Victor Ganata

Indeed. :-D Texas is big, but not that big. - John (bird whisperer)

"OCTOBER 28--After accusing his girlfriend of cheating on him, a Nebraska man allegedly tied the woman to a couch in their apartment and waterboarded her, according to police. Trevor Case, 22, has been charged with domestic assault, false imprisonment, and making terroristic threats in connection with the bizarre incident early Saturday morning at the Lincoln home he shared with the 22-year-old victim. Police allege that Case stuffed "hospital socks" into Danielle Stallworth's mouth and bound her wrists with belts and hair ties before placing a shirt over her head and dousing it with water, according to a Lincoln Police Department report. “He poured a pitcher of water on her head, and she started freaking out and thought she wasn’t able to breathe,” cops noted." - Steven Perez from Bookmarklet

"A US man has killed himself after shooting dead five people, including his wife and stepdaughter, in an argument about his breakfast. Stanley Neace, 47, went on the killing spree in a trailer park in Jackson, rural Breathitt County, Kentucky. He chased his wife into a neighbouring trailer where he shot her, her daughter and three witnesses, reports say. State troopers found Mr Neace dead at the porch of his trailer, slumped over his own gun. Mr Neace flew into a rage when his wife Sandra, 54, brought him some eggs for breakfast, a relative of the neighbours he killed said. Mrs Neace's daughter Sandra Strong, 28, was also killed." - Steven Perez from Bookmarklet

Open Letter to Homicidal Maniacs: Guys, feel free to use the gun on yourselves first. Thanks. - cdogzilla | downgraded

"Ortiz, who was wearing a jersey from a Mexican soccer team, said the teacher told him to sit in the front row. She proceeded to single him out repeatedly, Ortiz said, pointing at him as she made comments like, “The Mexicans with their attitudes are the racist ones.” Continuing to point at Ortiz, she allegedly told the class that Mexicans always “expect handouts” and “soon it's going to be the United States of Mexico,” according to Ortiz. Efforts to reach the teacher, who has been placed on administrative leave, were unsuccessful. “I'm afraid she has no comment,” said a man who answered at a phone number listed under the teacher's name." - Steven Perez from Bookmarklet

"No idea if this is real or not, but it is an insult to all McDonald employees who use integral calculus to do their job." - Steven Perez from Bookmarklet

"A high-speed chase in Cleveland ended when four suspects abandoned their car on the side of the road and took off on foot. Police say they quickly tracked down three of the men. The fourth, however, managed to scale a 30-foot chain-link fence topped with barbed wire, jumped and landed -- in a state prison for women. Ricky Flowers, 20, found himself standing inside the grounds of the prison, where he was apprehended, according to local station Fox News 8. "It doesn't happen every day, that's for sure," a Garfield Heights police spokesman said. "They're not always this easy to catch."" - Steven Perez from Bookmarklet

"A federal appeals court says three Seattle police officers did not employ excessive force when they repeatedly tasered a visibly pregnant woman for refusing to sign a speeding ticket. The lawyer representing Malaika Brooks said Monday the court’s 2-1 decision sanctioned “pain compliance” tactics through a modern-day version of the cattle prod. “To inflict pain on a person if that person is not doing what the police want that person to do is simply outrageous,” said Eric Zubel, the woman’s attorney. ” I cannot say that loud enough.”" - Steven Perez from Bookmarklet

So the court asserts that failing to sign a form is a torturable offence? What a world. - Mark H

"Rose Martin has been visited by police some 50 times in eight years, stemming from her involvement in crimes ranging from robbery to murder. Of course, she's not actually involved, but the NYPD's computers continue to think otherwise. Police have regularly visited to Martin's home in Brooklyn, where she lives with her husband Watler, for nearly a decade. She never has any information on the criminals in question, but police continue to be dispatched to her address nonetheless." - Steven Perez from Bookmarklet

"The Texas Board of Education has been meeting this week to revise its social studies curriculum. During the past three days, “the board’s far-right faction wielded their power to shape lessons on the civil rights movement, the U.S. free enterprise system and hundreds of other topics”: – To avoid exposing students to “transvestites, transsexuals and who knows what else,” the Board struck the curriculum’s reference to “sex and gender as social constructs.” – The Board removed Thomas Jefferson from the Texas curriculum, “replacing him with religious right icon John Calvin.” – The Board refused to require that “students learn that the Constitution prevents the U.S. government from promoting one religion over all others.” – The Board struck the word “democratic” from the description of the U.S. government, instead terming it a “constitutional republic.”" - Steven Perez from Bookmarklet

*facepalm* - MikeAmundsen

"The theater was packed for a 9 p.m. Saturday screening of the Martin Scorsese film when the moviegoer complained about a woman near him using a cellphone. The woman and two men with her left the theater. But sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said two men returned a few minutes later and stabbed the victim. "It was a vicious and cowardly attack," Whitmore said. The victim, who was not identified, was hospitalized with serious wounds. Two moviegoers who came to the victim's aid were also hurt during the fight, officials said. The suspects are still at large." - Steven Perez from Bookmarklet

"For being caught with just over a quarter pound of pot, 54-year-old Henry Walter Wooten will likely spend the rest of his life behind bars, thanks to a jury in Tyler, Texas. His prosecutor, Smith County Assistant District Attorney Richard Vance, originally sought a sentence of 99 years over the 4.6 ounces of marijuana police found in Wooten's vehicle. Wooten was reportedly caught smoking pot within 1,000 feet of a day care center. Tipped off by the smell, police would later search the man's vehicle, only to discover his cannabis stash and a digital scale, according to The Tyler Morning Telegraph." - Steven Perez from Bookmarklet

"Deputies with their guns drawn handcuffed two men they thought were selling drugs, only to learn they were at the wrong address." - Steven Perez from Bookmarklet

"LOS ANGELES - Three Los Angeles elementary school teachers accused of giving children portraits of O.J. Simpson, Dennis Rodman and RuPaul to carry in a Black History Month parade have been removed from their classrooms, a school district spokeswoman said Wednesday. Children from other classes at the school displayed photos of more appropriate black role models, such as Nelson Mandela, Harriet Tubman and President Barack Obama, Los Angeles Unified School District spokeswoman Gayle Pollard-Terry said." - Steven Perez from Bookmarklet

++ tiffany - RuPaul is awesome -- successful, interesting, intelligent, and seems like a genuinely good person in the interviews I've seen. You could have worse role models. - Jennifer Dittrich

RuPaul is the one that overreactive parents and administrators should check themselves on. I get being concerned about having children celebrate Rodman -- amongst his athletic achievements, he's also an addict and been arrested for violent acts, including domestic violence if I'm not mistaken -- but Ru is the bomb.com. I'd want to know the motivations of those teachers, though. The grouping or selection of those particular people suggests mockery rather than uplift. - Jason Toney

"Atlanta Progressive News has parted ways with long-serving senior staff writer Jonathan Springston. Apparently, Springston’s affinity for fact-based reporting clashed with Cardinale’s vision. And, no, that’s not sarcasm. In an e-mail statement, editor Matthew Cardinale says Springston was asked to leave APN last week “because he held on to the notion that there was an objective reality that could be reported objectively, despite the fact that that was not our editorial policy at Atlanta Progressive News.” Cardinale says he has no plans to fill the position left vacant by Springston’s exit." - Steven Perez from Bookmarklet

I don't know that I have heard of employers canning people for epistemological differences before. Cool. - Steele Lawman

""I believe that the CD will out-survive me as a format," Mr. Grainge said in an interview." - Steven Perez from Bookmarklet

"Philadelphia TSA screeners forced the developmentally delayed, four-year-old son of a Camden, PA police officer to remove his leg-braces and wobble through a checkpoint, despite the fact that their procedure calls for such a case to be handled through a swabbing in a private room. When the police officer complained, the supervising TSA screener turned around and walked away. Then a Philadelphia police officer asked what was wrong and "suggested he calm down and enjoy his vacation."" - Steven Perez from Bookmarklet

but nooo, the TSA are never abusing their authority! fucking thugs. - Joe Silence

"Anne Frank's adolescent curiosity about sexuality is too much for a Virginia school district that has pulled the complete version of the young Jewish girl's diary off its curriculum and off its shelves over a parent's complaint about sexually explicit passages. Culpeper County Public Schools has pulled Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition off the shelves because parents complained "over the sexual nature of the vagina passage in the definitive edition," reports the Culpeper, Virginia, Star-Exponent. The complaint has to do specifically with an expanded version of the diary published in 1995. Frank's father, Otto, had excised large parts of his daughter's diary prior to publication in the late 1940s. Anne was killed at the Auschwitz concentration camp in March, 1945. Her diary has made her arguably the most famous Holocaust victim." - Steven Perez from Bookmarklet

they're afraid of little murdered Jewish girls writing about vaginas. - Joe Silence

"Police arrested a Canton man accused of walking into a local Wal-Mart store early Friday morning and urinating on the counter containing steaks. Robert T. Jenkins, 21, of 2021 Holland Ct. SW, was arrested at 1:30 a.m. at the store at 3200 Atlantic Blvd. NE on charges of felony vandalism and disorderly conduct, Stark County Jail records said. Jail records said he entered the store, walked to the steak counter and began urinating on the food, causing more than $600 in damage to the meat and surrounding counters. He remained in the jail later Friday, held in lieu of $25,000 bond." - Steven Perez from Bookmarklet

Further markdowns in the meat department, folks.... - Baffled from Android

"In its haste to sort out the state’s social studies curriculum standards this month, the State Board of Education tossed children’s author Martin, who died in 2004, from a proposal for the third-grade section. Board member Pat Hardy, R-Weatherford, who made the motion, cited books he had written for adults that contain “very strong critiques of capitalism and the American system.” Trouble is, the Bill Martin Jr. who wrote the Brown Bear series never wrote anything political, unless you count a book that taught kids how to say the Pledge of Allegiance, his friends said. The book on Marxism was written by Bill Martin, a philosophy professor at DePaul University in Chicago." - Steven Perez from Bookmarklet

Banning the dictionary, I thought it was a joke but sadly both these stories are true - comix aka martha

"A school district in Riverside County has pulled the Merriam-Webster's 10th edition dictionary from school shelves because it includes the term "oral sex." The Menifee Union School District took the action last week after a parent complained about the dictionary. The Press-Enterprise reported that some parents are angry about the move and want the dictionaries returned to classrooms." - Steven Perez from Bookmarklet

Offerfuxaches - Joe Silence

"Oh, the frustrations of homeowner association rules, or freaky neighbors, or both....Here it's a snow shovel that's causing a potential conflict. And Dave, the owner of the shovel, isn't too sympathetic to the complainer, Kevin. Aren't there more important things to be concerned about? Like curb set-offs or noise level regulations or ... world hunger, war, recession, unemployment? Apparently not." - Steven Perez from Bookmarklet

"These days, joking about anything illegal while in an airport security line will likely land you in a holding cell, and might even result in criminal charges. But this column from the Philadelphia Inquirer has some wondering whether that rule applies to TSA employees themselves. Inquirer columnist Daniel Rubin reports that a 22-year-old University of Michigan student fell victim to a particularly cruel "joke" at the hands of a TSA employee at Philadelphia International Airport on Jan. 5. As Rebecca Solomon passed through security on her way to boarding a Detroit-bound flight, a TSA agent pulled a small baggie filled with white powder out of her carry-on and asked, "Where did you get it?"" - Steven Perez from Bookmarklet

"A panicked Solomon suffered for 20 seconds before the guard cracked a smile and said, 'Just kidding.'" WHAT THE FUCK? - Joe Silence