ONTD Political

WASHINGTON -- Since mass shootings in places like Aurora and Newtown, lawmakers have been searching for answers for how to stop future massacres, examining issues like gun control and mental health. But in a speech this month, Rep. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) pointed to different culprits: the legalization of abortion and a demise in religious values.

Cramer made his remarks during a commencement address at the University of Mary on May 4. He decried a local TV anchor who was fired after accidentally swearing on air and then became an internet sensation, as well as the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision.

From his speech:

"Just in the last several days, a Bismarck news anchor mistakenly uttered vulgarity on live television. He's been heralded by celebrities from New York to California as some sort of pop icon. His bosses have been called goons because they fired him.

We learned this week that the Pentagon is vetting its guide on religious tolerance with a group that compared Christian evangelism to rape, and advocated that military personnel and colluding chaplains who proselytize should be court-marshalled.

Forty years ago, the United States Supreme Court sanctioned abortion on demand. And we wonder why our culture sees school shootings so often."

Cramer also mentioned the 9/11 and Boston Marathon attacks, saying, "Innocent people in New York have airplanes flown into their places of work, and marathoners in Boston are victims of bombs, yet Christianity is singled out as bigotry in our public institutions because politicians and academics lack the courage to speak truth. We've normalized perversion and perverted God's natural law to the point where the only thing not tolerated anymore is a stand for truth."

He added that he expected to face criticism for his remarks, stating, "I was asked recently by a reporter if I'm afraid that some people would attack me if I speak like this. And I said, 'No, I'm not afraid they will, I'm quite certain they will."

Cramer's office declined to comment further.

James Dobson, evangelical pundit and founder of Focus on the Family, made comments similar to Cramer's in December after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

"I mean millions of people have decided that God doesn't exist, or he's irrelevant to me and we have killed fifty-four million babies and the institution of marriage is right on the verge of a complete redefinition," he said, adding, "I think we have turned our back on the Scripture and on God Almighty and I think he has allowed judgment to fall upon us. I think that's what's going on."

In March, Cramer attracted attention for getting into a heated discussion with Native American victim assistance leaders during a conversation about the Violence Against Women Act. The congressman reportedly said he wanted to "wring the Tribal council’s neck and slam them against the wall". Cramer later apologized for his remarks.

By Amanda Terkel. Posted: 05/16/2013 12:08 pm EDT. Updated: 05/16/2013 8:33 pm EDT.

Source. Full video of Cramer's remarks here, with the aforementioned portion starting around 1:13:00.

More controversy for Japan party as lawmaker accuses Koreans of involvement in prostitution

An emerging Japanese nationalist political party whose co-leader outraged many with remarks about Japan’s wartime and modern sexual services became embroiled in more controversy Friday when a party lawmaker accused ethnic Koreans of involvement in prostitution.

The Japan Restoration Party urged the lawmaker, Shingo Nishimura, to retract his comments suggesting many ethnic Koreans are engaged in prostitution in Japan. Nishimura withdrew his remarks, but the party forced him out anyway.

Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto, a founder and co-leader of the party, angered Japan’s neighbors by saying this week that the Japanese military’s wartime practice of forcing Asian women into prostitution was necessary to maintain discipline and provide relaxation for soldiers. He also angered the U.S. by suggesting that American troops based in southern Japan should patronize legal adult entertainment establishments to reduce sex crime there.

The uproar over Hashimoto’s comments, and Nishimura’s predicament, typify the difficulties Japanese politicians can create for themselves when commenting on sensitive topics without considering how those outside their own circles might react.

Nishimura made the comments during a Restoration Party meeting Friday that was discussing the remarks made by Hashimoto, who continues to insist that other countries also commonly impressed women into military brothels during World War II and that Japan is being unfairly singled out.

Defending Hashimoto, Nishimura objected to media reports describing the women impressed into wartime military brothels as “sex slaves.” Video footage of the meeting was broadcast by the TBS TV network.

“’Comfort women’ is erroneously translated as ‘sex slaves,’ which might encourage anti-Japanese riots and conspiracies,” Nishimura said. “We better fight back by telling them that the words ‘comfort women’ and ‘sex slaves’ are completely different and that there are numerous South Korean prostitutes roaming around Japan.”

( Nishimura said jokingly that he might return to his hometown of Osaka, go to crowded entertainment districts and tell them, 'Hey, you South Korean comfort women!'Collapse )

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OH MY GOD, EVERY MEMBER OF THE ISHIN NO KAI NEEDS TO SHUT UP.

CRACK COCAINE
JOHN COOK
Yesterday 8:28pm

For Sale: A Video of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford Smoking Crack Cocaine
Rob Ford, Toronto's conservative mayor, is a wild lunatic given to making bizarre racist pronouncements and randomly slapping refrigerator magnets on cars. One reason for this is that he smokes crack cocaine. I know this because I watched him do it, on a videotape. He was fucking hiiiiigh. It's for sale if you've got six figures.

It began like this: We've made fun of Ford before for his bizarre pronouncements and nude pictures. Last week, we got a tip from someone claiming to have a videotape of Ford smoking crack. Would we like to buy it?

The tipster made the following claims:

• Toronto Mayor Rob Ford smokes crack cocaine.

• There is a video of Rob Ford smoking crack cocaine, taken within the last six months.

• Rob Ford purchases his crack cocaine from a crew of Toronto drug dealers that service a veritable who's who of A-list...Torontonians? Torontites? Anyway, a lot of prominent people in Toronto purchase and enjoy crack and powder cocaine, and they all buy it from the same folks. The same folks Ford buys it from. Ford's longtime friend, people on his staff, his brother, a prominent hockey analyst, and more.

( Read MoreCollapse )
Gawker Media 2013

Source


I was aware that he had an alcoholism issue, but this? I hope he can be talked into rehab. He needs to step down and go to rehab.

Female lawmakers blast Hashimoto, call him the 'shame of Osaka'

A multipartisan group of female lawmakers demanded that Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto retract his remark about wartime “comfort women,” saying he has embarrassed Japan and shown the world he does not understand human rights.

Ten Diet members held a news conference on May 16 at the Upper House members’ building in Tokyo to express their outrage and seek an apology from the mayor.

Criticism around the world erupted after Hashimoto said earlier this week that “comfort women,” a euphemism for women sent to front-line brothels, were necessary for battle-weary Japanese soldiers during World War II.

The lawmakers said Hashimoto’s comment could not be overlooked because it was a major statement that trampled on human rights.

( Hashimoto is the shame of Osaka.Collapse )

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This is a day or so old, sorry - LJ hated me so no posting. :( Since this came out, Hashimoto has continued to open his big mouth and is not backing down. It has been a wild couple of days in regards to this.

Politicians here have been all but falling over themselves to distance themselves from Hashimoto's idiotic remarks. Also, it's been interesting to see the cultural divide, as it were, on social media in Japan. The Japanese twitterverse has been full of people blasting Hashimoto, while 2chan (where the netoyou haunt) have defended him.

Donning vintage outfits from the 1960s, a group of North Carolina women sent the message to state lawmakers on Wednesday that while they enjoy watching AMC's "Mad Men," they don't want to live in an episode of it.

The costumed protest, organized by Planned Parenthood of Central North Carolina, took place at a House Judiciary Committee hearing on a bill that would allow employers and pharmacists to refuse to cover or dispense contraception for moral reasons. If passed, the law would violate President Barack Obama's contraception mandate, which requires employers to cover birth control at no cost to women, and would effectively reverse a 14-year-old state law requiring all employers who cover other prescription drugs to also cover contraception.

Planned Parenthood supporters showed up at the hearing wearing 1960s garb to suggest that lawmakers are turning back the clock on women's reproductive rights.

“We love a good vintage look -- but not when it's running the state legislature," Melissa Reed, Vice President of Public Policy for Planned Parenthood Health Systems, said in a statement. "That is why we are here to remind these politicians and bosses who continue to insist that they should be the ones who decide if and when women can access birth control.”
north carolina birth control

Despite the protest, the Republican-controlled committee approved the bill by a vote of 8 to 6, continuing the North Carolina General Assembly's streak of advancing bills that limit reproductive rights.

The House Health and Human Services Committee approved a bill earlier this month that would require teenagers to present a notarized parental consent form in order to access sexually transmitted disease testing and treatment, mental health counseling, pregnancy care or substance abuse treatment. And a bill approved by the Senate Health Committee last week would require North Carolina’s health instructors to teach that abortions can cause premature births in later pregnancies, a statement that was strongly disputed by medical health experts at the bill's hearing.

“We’re here to say to state legislators who want to turn the clock back to the 1950s: We like watching Mad Men -- but we don’t want to live in it,” Paige Johnson, Vice President of Public Affairs for PPCNC, said in a statement on Wednesday. “Women's preventive care — including birth control -– is basic health care. Politicians and bosses have no business denying women access to this basic health care. This shouldn't be a revolutionary idea, but unfortunately it is to some.”

( Committee meeting aricleCollapse )

( On the NC House floor -- stripped of birth control provisionCollapse )

( Passes, sent to NC SenateCollapse )

HuffPo & WRAL 2 3

Many different articles and it's a long read but this bill was and still is very harmful. It was a very sneaky move of the GOP to slip this bill through on the day before crossover. And sorry for yesterday, LJ went off the rails and used me for their antics.

Source One:

“I really like your idea. If we had guns that shot chocolate, not only would our country be safer, it would be happier. People love chocolate.”

– Joe Biden in a handwritten response to a 7-year-old Milwaukee boy named Myles, who wrote the vice president a letter a few months ago suggesting that gun injuries could be prevented if bullets were made of chocolate. His teacher shared the letter with reporters after it arrived in the mail at their Montessori school on Monday, reports AP.

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Source Two:

MILWAUKEE — It might not be unusual for schoolchildren to write to the president or vice president. But one Wisconsin boy got an unexpectedly personal response.

The 7-year-old, second-grade student at Downtown Montessori Academy wrote a letter to Vice President Joe Biden and other officials a few months ago with a simple idea for making the world safer.

His teacher Jenny Aicher says his letter suggested that if guns shot chocolate bullets, no one would get hurt.

The student — and the rest of the school — got a surprise Monday when Biden’s handwritten response arrived in the mail.

In the note, the vice president says he agrees that chocolate bullets would make the country safer and happier. The note concludes: “People love chocolate. You are a good boy, Joe Biden.”

Source has a great picture of the original note

Source

OP: Those aren't tears. It's just raining on my face.

Matt Barber "Progressives and lefists are to blame" for drug-resistant STD

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of treatment-resistant gonorrhea infections is on the rise due to a new strain of the virus that is resistant to all previously prescribed treatments.

While this news may be troubling, it is also the unfortunate trend in medicine. Viruses constantly require new vaccines and treatments because the next generation will have spawned from whatever strains did resist the prior treatment.

This is not some great revelation. In medicine, it's common knowledge. This is the reason you require a flu vaccine every year -- because next year's flu virus will have originated from a strain of the virus that was resistant to the previous vaccine.

( More...Collapse )

When a patient arrives at Bayonne Hospital Center in New Jersey requiring treatment for the respiratory ailment known as COPD, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, she faces an official price tag of $99,690.

Less than 30 miles away in the Bronx, N.Y., the Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center charges only $7,044 for the same treatment, according to a massive federal database of national health care costs made public on Wednesday.

Americans have long become accustomed to bewilderment and anxiety when confronting health care bills. The new database underscores why, revealing the perplexing assortment of prices for medical care, with the details of bills seemingly untethered to any graspable principle.

Even within the same metropolitan area, hospitals charge prices that differ by staggering degrees for the same procedures. People without health insurance pay vastly higher costs for care when less expensive options are often available nearby. Virtually everyone who seeks health care winds up paying inflated prices in one form or another as these stark disparities in price sow inefficiencies throughout the market.

( While this basic picture has emerged as the consensus reality among health care experts, their evidence has been primarily anecdotal. Hospitals have protected their price lists -- documents known as charge masters -- as closely guarded secrets.Collapse )

Video at Source.

Army investigates sergeant for alleged sexual assault

The Army announced Tuesday that a sergeant first class assigned to an assault prevention program at Fort Hood, Texas, is under investigation for sexual assault.

The soldier, who was not named in an Army statement, has been suspended from all duties.

Specifically, the soldier is under investigation for "pandering, abusive sexual contact, assault and maltreatment of subordinates," the statement said. Special agents from the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command are conducting the probe.

No charges have been filed.

"This is so contrary to everything upon which the Army was built," Secretary of the Army John McHugh said during testimony before the House Appropriations Committee Defense subcommittee, according to the statement. "To see this kind of activity happening in our ranks is really heart-wrenching and sickening."

( This just happened in Virginia, too... TW for some description of groping.Collapse )

Source.

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