January 15, 2014

Virginia GOP candidate: Spousal rape isn’t a crime if she is ‘wearing a nightie’

(Looks Like a real winning Strategy they have here...not for them though


After losing all major statewide races to Democrats for the first time in 24 years, Republicans in Virginia are pushing to replace a moderate GOP congressman with a candidate so conservative that he doesn’t even believe that spousal rape should be a crime.

On Wednesday, Mother Jones pointed out that state Sen. Richard H. “Dick” Black, who is running to take over retiring Rep. Frank Wolf’s seat, had fought against making spousal rape a crime because the woman was “sleeping in the same bed, she’s in a nightie.”

Democrat Shawn Mitchell had uncovered the 2002 video of Black talking about spousal rape for an attack ad during the 2011 campaign for Virginia state Senate.


“I do not know how you could validly get a conviction of a husband-wife rape, when they’re living together, sleeping in the same bed, she’s in a nightie and so forth,” Black says. “There’s not injuries, there’s no separation or anything.”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/01/15/virginia-gop-candidate-spousal-rape-isnt-a-crime-if-she-is-wearing-a-nightie/

January 14, 2014

Swift Boat Veterans For Truth Clear John Kerry After Exhaustive 9-Year Investigation

An Onion Video

January 14, 2014

Spectacular blue lava flows at this Indonesian volcano

He and his friend Régis Etienne have gone back repeatedly to photograph and film this incredible unearthly patch of glowing blue lava. A recent 52-minute documentary film is the result of 30 nights in hazardous conditions.

But it's the sulfur mine workers who are constant toiling among the flames. Here is the description Olivier sent to us:

For over 40 years, miners have been extracting sulphur from the crater of Kawah Ijen in Indonesia. To double their meagre income, the hardiest of these men work nights, by the electric blue light of the sulphuric acid exhaled by the volcano.

As the light of day recedes, an eerie incandescence appears to rise from the depths of the Kawah Ijen crater. The high-temperature liquid sulphur that flows from an active vent at the edge of the world's largest hydrochloric acid lake flares in blue flames that can reach up to 5 metres.

At the foot of the glow, miners bustle amidst the toxic fumes. They are monitoring the flow of molten sulphur as it pours out of pipes at 115 °C, and its subsequent crystallisation. Breaking up, gathering up, loading up and transporting the coagulated blood of the earth earns them a living. By the blue light of the flare, they extract hunks of sulphur, then carry them up the flank of the crater to sell for 680 roupees per kilo (about €0.04). But the loads they carry, weighing between 80 and 100 kilos, cost them their health—and sometimes their life. By working nights, they manage to haul out two loads every 24 hours, doubling their salary, avoiding the daytime heat of the Kawah Ijen cauldron, and despite the condition remaining independant

The sulphur, among the purest in Indonesia, is destined for the food and chemical industry. Whitening sugar, at the price of their health and youth, such is the destiny of these serfs to sulphur.
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http://sploid.gizmodo.com/spectacular-blue-lava-flows-at-this-indonesian-volcano-1498816568

January 14, 2014

Ted Cruz crowd loves blogger’s jokes about opening fire on cars with California plates

A conservative blogger drew big laughs at a rally for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) when he suggested that Texans open fire on cars bearing California license plates.

“I’ve said this several times in Texas before and I’ve said it to Mr. Cruz as a representative of the Texas government, I’ve said it to Gov. (Rick) Perry directly, and now I’m going to say it to you as individual Texas citizens,” said Bill Whittle, a Fox News guest, Pajamas Media commentator and former National Review Online contributor.

Whittle told the crowd at Saturday’s “Freedom Rally,” sponsored by Texans for Freedom and Liberty, that the issue he wanted to discuss should involve the state Highway Patrol, the National Guard and private citizens.


“You will see a lot of cars coming west heading east on Interstate 10, and they’re going to have California license plates on them,” Whittle said, as the crowd begins to laugh. “Now, if you see these cars pull into rest areas or hotels or restaurants, that’s fine; wave goodbye, make sure they go out on the Louisiana end.”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/01/13/ted-cruz-crowd-loves-bloggers-jokes-about-opening-fire-on-cars-with-california-plates/

January 14, 2014

Indiana House chamber bursts into laughter after speaker calls LGBT people ‘intolerant’

(Background Note: Jim Bopp is one of the legal advisors of the Citizens United SCOTUS case. A very dangerous individual, that should not be discounted)

Those attending the Indiana House Judiciary Committee’s hearing on a same sex marriage ban erupted into laughter on Monday when one of the speakers claimed that opponents of the ban were “intolerant.”

Jim Bopp, an anti-LGBT attorney who was forced out as Indiana’s representative to the Republican National Committee in 2012, told the committee that he was perplexed as to why opponents would be against a constitutional ban if same sex marriage was already illegal in Indiana.

“It can only be because [the existing ban is] vulnerable,” he insisted. “They want the option of getting what they actually want, which is to change the definition marriage. And the very vulnerability of a statute as opposed to a constitutional amendment affords them a greater opportunity to get that job done.”


“Even more troubling though was an argument made by one who said that the simple debate on the marriage amendment will do the damage,” Bopp added. “Well, what does that tell you? That there are some people that are so intolerant of other people’s views that a simple debate…”

With that, the chairman was forced to call the committee to order as the gallery burst into laughter.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/01/13/indiana-house-chamber-bursts-into-laughter-after-speaker-calls-lgbt-people-intolerant/

January 14, 2014

Republican Senate candidate: Welfare programs are ‘all sin’ and ‘legalized plunder’

Welfare programs that help the poor are based on sin, according to South Carolina state Sen. Lee Bright (R-Spartanburg).

Bright, who is challenging U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham in the Republican primary, was speaking at an event hosted by the Summerville 912 Group in December when he was asked about his view on the tax code. He said that he supported a flat tax.

“The tax code is where they control us,” Bright added. “I mean, you can point it all back to the income tax for much of our problems. It plays on coveting, you know what I mean? It is all sin. I want what my brother has, so why don’t I and my other brother get together and we’ll vote away what my brother has. I mean, it is legalized plunder, it is theft. That’s what it is.”


“And this entitlement to other people’s property because you want their stuff is just wrong,” he continued. “And I think most of our problems in our country are spiritual problems, but there again it is about liberty. And liberty is just the right to keep what is yours. And when you raise taxes and put that burden on people you take away their freedom. And what they do is that is how they control us, with that tax code. I mean, it is obscene. And I’m getting beat up on this and I actually made [Chris Matthews' show]. I made his show last Friday.”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/01/13/republican-senate-candidate-welfare-programs-are-all-sin-and-legalized-plunder/

January 14, 2014

Fox refuses to comment after guest calls for Satanists to be gunned down

The Satanic Temple has issued a press release demanding that Fox Business News publicly apologize for the remarks made by one of its commentators.

On January 9, 2014, one of the participants in Fox Business New’s “Mensa Meeting,” Bernard McGuirk, said that members of the Satanic Temple who want to erect a monument in Oklahoma City should be executed.

“They should be able to put the statue up, and then they should be shot right next to it, and then we take it down,” McGuirk said.


Lawyers for the Satanic Temple say that “[s]uch incitement to violence is reckless and possibly criminal. Advocacy of the murder of American citizens based on their religious beliefs is intolerable and sickening. For [Fox Business] to disseminate such a position as part of a televised debate on a national network strikes at the heart of this country’s founding principles and potentially places the Temple’s members in imminent danger.”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/01/13/fox-refuses-to-comment-after-guest-calls-for-satanists-to-be-gunned-down/

January 12, 2014

Tipping Point? Vermont governor confronts deadly heroin crisis as public health problem

JUDY WOODRUFF: A governor broke with tradition yesterday and devoted his entire state of the state address to drug addiction.

Peter Shumlin, the governor of Vermont, urged residents to open their eyes to the growing problem in their front yards, rather than leaving it only to law enforcement, medical personnel and addiction treatment providers. Shumlin argued the facts speak for themselves.

In Vermont, since 2000, there has been a 770 percent increase in treatment for all opiates. He stated: "What started as an OxyContin and prescription drug addiction problem in this state has now grown into a full-blown heroin crisis" and -- quote -- "Last year, we had nearly double the number of deaths in Vermont from heroin overdose as the previous year."

It turns out Vermont is not the only state facing this crisis. According to the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy, the number of deaths involving heroin surged 45 percent between 1999 and 2010.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/01/12/vermont-gov-confronts-deadly-heroin-crisis-as-public-health-problem/

January 11, 2014

The Dude Abides: Jeff Bridges Is Publishing a Book of Zen Teachings

It’s not only Jeff Bridges’ most iconic character who wishes we would just take it easy, man. While his stint as The Dude inspired a religion of its own, Bridges himself is a practicing Buddhist who meditates for a half an hour before starting work on set and aspires to infuse Zen sensibilities into his movies. So perhaps it’s not too surprising that Blue Rider Press, an imprint of Penguin, has acquired the rights to a book about Zen from Bridges that will explore ”the meaning of life, laughter, the movies and trying to do good in a difficult world.” Tentatively titled The Dude and the Zen Master, the book will be an informal exchange of sorts, co-written by Bridges and his longtime friend Bernie Glassman, an American Zen Buddhist roshi and co-founder of the Zen Peacemakers. It will also feature several hand-drawn illustrations by the Dude himself.

“On a movie set I do my best to keep my head and heart open,” Bridges said in a press release. “My favorite part of the whole deal is jamming with the other artists, getting to know them, sharing the excitement of what we’re up to, and inspiring each other. That means intimacy. I look for that in life as well. That’s why I hooked up with Bernie, to make the most of this wonderful experience called Life.” Sounds good to us, El Duderino. The book is slated to hit shelves in November. Until then, we suggest you make some White Russians, hit the lanes, and try to keep that mind limber, man. [via Shelf Life]
http://flavorwire.com/268946/the-dude-abides-jeff-bridges-is-publishing-a-book-of-zen-teachings/

January 11, 2014

Satanic group mocks Oklahoma lawmaker for pushing new Ten Commandments bill

An Oklahoma legislator is sponsoring a bill that would allow the state to erect Ten Commandment monuments on all public grounds.

According to the Associated Press, in the wake of the Satanic Temple’s plan to erect a goat-headed Baphomet figure sitting cross-legged on a stone slab on public land, Republican state Representative John Bennett authored a bill that would declare “historically significant documents [to be] treasures that should be displayed proudly and resolutely in public buildings and on public grounds.”

The bill specifies that “[t]he Ten Commandments, Magna Carta, Mayflower Compact, Declaration of Independence, United States Constitution, Bill of Rights, Constitution of the Great State of Oklahoma, and other such historically significant documents are recognized throughout the world,” and are therefore worthy of display.


Satanic Temple spokesman Lucien Greaves told Raw Story that this “unlettered little bill” is an attempt to “codify certain opinions into law.” After acknowledging that Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf is a “historically significant document” that meets Representative Bennett’s criteria for displaying on a monument, Greaves said that this is yet another attempt to establish the Ten Commandments as something “uniquely American” that played a “pivotal role in the establishment of the Constitution and constitutional law.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/01/10/satanic-group-mocks-oklahoma-lawmaker-for-pushing-new-ten-commandments-bill/