Tag: California

Christian Lawfare | Activist Christian Lawyer Proposes Law to “Kill the Gays”

by The Age of Blasphemy, posted in Christian Bigots, Christian killings, christian terrorism, Dark ages, Theocracy

Blasphemers, Usurers, and Sodomites, Oh My!

OC lawyer wants to “kill the gays” in California, according to initiative goal

$1 million fine for “sodomistic propaganda,” prison terms and banishment also proposed

Ken Williams  

Matt McLaughlin, 45, who listed his business address as 19744 Beach Blvd., No. 219 in the Newland Shopping Center in Huntington Beach, CA 92648, filed his notice in late February and it was marked as received on Feb. 26 by the Initiative Coordinator in the California Attorney General’s Office.

McLaughlin proposes to kill “sodomites” to prevent God’s “utter destruction” a la Sodom and Gomorrah.

Furthermore, McLaughlin taps into Russian and Ugandan lingo in seeking to ban “sodomistic propaganda” and would fine offenders $1 million per occurrence and/or up to 10 years in prison and/or banishment for life from California.

McLaughlin titled his initiative as the “Sodomite Suppression Act.” He proposes to change Penal Code Section 39:

a) The abominable crime against nature known as buggery, called also sodomy, is a monstrous evil that Almighty God, giver of freedom and liberty, commands us to suppress on pain of our utter destruction even as he overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.

b) Seeing that it is better that offenders should die rather than that all of us should be killed by God’s just wrath against us for the folly of tolerating wickedness in our midst, the People of California wisely command, in the fear of God, that any person who willingly touches another person of the same gender for purposes of sexual gratification be put to death by bullets to the head or by any other convenient method.

c) No person shall distribute, perform, or transmit sodomistic propaganda directly or indirectly by any means to any person under the age of majority. Sodomistic propaganda is defined as anything aimed at creating an interest in or an acceptance of human sexual relations other than between a man and a woman. Every offender shall be fined $1 million per occurrence, and/or imprisoned up to 10 years, and/or expelled from the boundaries of the state of California for up to life.

d) No person shall serve in any public office, nor serve in public employment, nor enjoy any public benefit, who is a sodomite or who espouses sodomistic propaganda or who belongs to any group that does.

e) This law is effective immediately and shall not be rendered ineffective nor invalidated by any court, state or federal, until heard by a quorum of the Supreme Court of California consisting only of judges who are neither sodomites nor subject to disqualification hereunder.

f) The state has an affirmative duty to defend and enforce this law as written, and every member of the public has standing to seek its enforcement and obtain reimbursement for all costs and attorney’s fees in so doing, and further, should the state persist in inaction over 1 year after due notice, the general public is empowered and deputized to execute all the provisions hereunder extra-judicially, immune from any charge and indemnified by the state against any and all liability.

g) This law shall be known as “The Sodomite Suppression Act” and be numbered as section 39 in Title 3 of the Penal Code, pertaining to offences [sic] against the sovereignty of the state. The text shall be prominently posted in every public school classroom. All laws in conflict with this law are to that extent invalid.

Who is Matthew Gregory McLaughlin?

Matthew Gregory McLaughlin is an attorney who lives in Huntington Beach, California. He lists his phone number at 949-285-7902.

He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of California Irvine and his law degree from George Mason University School of Law in Virginia. He was admitted to the State Bar of California in 1998, according to martindale.com

The State Bar of California shows that McLaughlin is on active status with the bar. It also noted that he was listed as “inactive” in 2012. The bar did not list any disciplinary or administrative actions taken against him.

 

Republican Hypocrite Whose Family Takes Government Farm Subsidies, Mocks Food Stamp Recipients

by The Age of Blasphemy, posted in Religious Nutcase, Republican Hypocrite

Rep. Huelskamp, Whose Family Takes Government Farm Subsidies, Mocks Food Stamp Recipients

by Brian Tashman
Religious nutcase Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-KS), who bravely opposed federal aid to all those greedy Northeasterners affected by Hurricane Sandy, is now boasting about his support for a House GOP plan to kick four to six million people off the food stamp program.

As Jonathan Chait details, the GOP’s draconian food stamp cuts were coupled with a push to preserve excessive subsidies for farmers and agribusinesses, which the GOP refused to cut as much as the Obama administration proposed. And, surprise surprise, Huelskamp’s family has greatly benefited from such government aid:

Huelskamp has been able to see a need for federal relief closer to his home. His brother’s farm received $1.6 million in federal subsidies from 1995 to 2011. The federal payouts included more than $30,000 for disaster subsidies.

Huelskamp’s parents’ farm has also received subsidies. Politico reported in 2011 that the farm took in $1.1 million in federal farms subsidies from 1995 to 2009.

While speaking to right-wing talk show host Steve Deace yesterday, Huelskamp had fun sticking it to all those whiney poors trying to receive food assistance for their families.

Huelskamp pointed to Jason Greenslate, a California surfer who has been all over Fox News, as the face of American food stamp recipients. Media Matters points out that “labeling Greenslate a representative of SNAP recipients flies in the face of readily available data, which shows that the fraud and waste rate in the SNAP program is less than 1 percent and that 41 percent of food stamp recipients live ‘in a household with earnings.’”

Huelskamp joked that his two kids always feel “starved” under his watch, but that with his vote to cut food assistance, he only “decided to starve a surfer by the name of Jason in California who has decided that he’s not going to get a job in life because he gets food stamps.”

“Go pick up trash in a road ditch,” Huelskamp said, “you got to do something. There are 3.5-4 million American adults who are able-bodied, have no dependence and what do we require them to do to get a free check for food? Nothing.”

Huelskamp went on to call the food stamp program “out of control” because of its growth in size. Gee, it’s not like America has faced a recession or high unemployment rates or anything that might have driven up enrollment. Maybe all these working families struggling to put food on the table can just buy a big farm and get government welfare that way!

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Denver DA Arrests Psychics For Fraud, Going For Hat Trick

by The Age of Blasphemy, posted in Fraud, Psychics

Denver DA arrests two psychics for fraud, going for hattrick
By idoubtit
Psychic parlor tricks and curses.

2 Psychics Arrested, 3rd Sought « CBS Denver.

One Denver psychic has been convicted of theft, a second was arrested this month in California and Denver prosecutors are still seeking to arrest a third psychic accused of convincing clients she was a “witch doctor.”

“In these cases, where after they’ve paid money for services rendered, they take additional money, I believe through theft and deception, through magic and things like that and then don’t give money back to the victims … that’s when we get involved,” said Stevenson.

Denver psychic Cathy Ann Russo is currently on probation after being pleading guilty last August to felony theft and misdemeanor theft. Over the course of five years, beginning in 2007, Russo conned a Hispanic man out of $35,250. according to court records.

She is still acting as a psychic, although when a CBS4 producer went to see her for a tarot card reading, she identified herself as “Miss Anna.”

Earlier this month, authorities in California arrested Denver psychic Isabel Costello on an arrest warrant for theft and conspiracy to commit theft issued by the Denver DA’s office.

They say the two women conned at least four victims out of thousands of dollars by convincing them their money was cursed, and the more money turned over to the psychics, the easier it would be to remove the curses.

In order to convince clients of their “powers”, they did things like making grapefruits bleed, tomatoes taste like salt and cracking eggs open revealing black yolks. Anyone have info on how these tricks worked?

The psychics took advantage of clients’ belief in black magic and curses.

When will ALL psychics who take money be able to be charged with fraud?

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Genetically engineered virus kills cancer

by The Age of Blasphemy, posted in Genetically engineered virus kills cancer, JX-594, Pexa-Vec

Genetically engineered virus kills cancer

Sixteen patients given a high dose of the therapy survived for 14.1 months on average, compared to 6.7 months for the 14 who got the low dose.

“For the first time in medical history we have shown that a genetically engineered virus can improve survival of cancer patients,” study co-author David Kirn told AFP.

The four-week trial with the vaccine Pexa-Vec or JX-594, reported in the journal Nature Medicine, may hold promise for the treatment of advanced solid tumours.

“Despite advances in cancer treatment over the past 30 years with chemotherapy and biologics, the majority of solid tumours remain incurable once they are metastatic (have spread to other organs),” the authors wrote.

There was a need for the development of “more potent active immunotherapies”, they noted.

Pexa-Vec “is designed to multiply in and subsequently destroy cancer cells, while at the same time making the patients’ own immune defence system attack cancer cells also”, said Kirn from California-based biotherapy company Jennerex.

“The results demonstrated that Pexa-Vec treatment at both doses resulted in a reduction of tumour size and decreased blood flow to tumours,” said a Jennerex statement.

“The data further demonstrates that Pexa-Vec treatment induced an immune response against the tumour.”

Pexa-Vec has been engineered from the vaccinia virus, which has been used as a vaccine for decades, including in the eradication of smallpox.

The trial showed Pexa-Vec to be well tolerated both at high and low doses, with flu-like symptoms lasting a day or two in all patients and severe nausea and vomiting in one.

The authors said a larger trial has to confirm the results. A follow-up phase with about 120 patients is already under way.

Pexa-Vec is also being tested in other types of cancer tumours.

A patient undergoes a scanner as radiology technicians look at the exam on a screen, on February 6, 2013, at a medical unit specialised in cancer treatment in France. A genetically-engineered virus tested in 30 terminally-ill liver cancer patients significantly prolonged their lives, killing tumours and inhibiting the growth of new ones, scientists reported on Sunday.

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Outrage Over US Catholic Sex Abuse Cover-up

by The Age of Blasphemy, posted in Catholic Abuse

Outrage over US Catholic sex abuse cover-up
Roger Mahony
        Photo:       Cardinal Roger Mahony featured prominently in the published documents. (Reuters)

Victims of child sex abuse by Catholic clerics in the US have voiced anger after newly released records showed church leaders discussing how to cover up priests’ alleged crimes in California in the 1980s.

Prosecutors said they wanted to study the previously confidential records, including memos by then Los Angeles Archbishop Roger Mahony – although experts said the statute of limitations would likely prevent any legal action.

Excerpts from the documents were published by the Los Angeles Times, including exchanges between the now retired Cardinal Mahony and a top aide talking about how to conceal paedophile priests from law enforcement.

The records include secret memos between Cardinal Mahony and Monsignor Thomas Curry – his top aide on sexual abuse cases – about how to prevent police from investigating three priests who had admitted to the church that they had abused young boys.

Specifically, Monsignor Curry suggested stopping suspected priests from seeing therapists who might alert authorities about alleged abuse, or keeping them outside of California to avoid police investigations, the Times reported.

One such was Monsignor Peter Garcia, who admitted abusing children in mostly Spanish-speaking parishes for decades. He was sent to a New Mexico treatment centre, and Cardinal Mahony ordered that he stay outside California.

“I believe that if Monsignor Garcia were to reappear here within the archdiocese, we might very well have some type of legal action filed in both the criminal and civil sectors,” Cardinal Mahony wrote in July 1986.

“There are numerous – maybe 20 – adolescents or young adults that Peter was involved with in a first-degree felony manner,” Monsignor Curry wrote in May 1987.

Joelle Casteix of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) said “we were shocked and disgusted to see these documents”.

“[Cardinal Mahony] and other high-ranking [LA clergy]… worked diligently to ensure that men who hurt children, who abused children and who destroyed communities were never going to see a day behind bars,” she said.

A spokeswoman for the LA District Attorney’s office said prosecutors “will review and evaluate all documents as they become available to us” in remarks reported by the Times.

But former DA Steve Cooley, who led a five-year probe into Catholic sex abuse, said a three-year statute of limitations meant that there was little prospect of successful prosecutions.

AFP

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Catholic Priest Indicted In Suspected Crystal Meth Drug Ring

by The Age of Blasphemy, posted in Catholic Priest, Kevin Wallin

Kevin Wallin, Connecticut Priest, Indicted In Suspected Crystal Meth Drug Ring

 Kevin Wallin Crystal Meth
Kevin Wallin, a priest in Connecticut, was arrested and indicted on suspicion of distributing crystal meth.

A prominent and respected Connecticut priest has been indicted along with four other men in an alleged plot to sell crystal meth.

Monsignor Kevin Wallin and another suspect, Kenneth “Lyme” Devries, were arrested Jan. 3, after law enforcement discovered evidence of meth, drug paraphernalia and drug packaging materials at Wallin’s home, reports the San Clemente Times.

The U.S. Attorney’s office claims that Wallin sold shipments of methamphetamine to an undercover cop six times between September 2012 and January 2013. Wallin is believed to have received the meth from California.

Wallin had been pastor of the St. Augustine Parish in Bridgeport, Conn., for nine years, before stepping down last summer, according to NBC.

On Jan. 16, the Diocese of Bridgeport released a statement in response to the indictment. The statement called Wallin “a gifted, compassionate and accomplished priest,” and said that his arrest and indictment by the grand jury both shocked and concerned his colleagues.

Apparently, the Monsignor had gone on sabbatical prior to stepping down as St. Augustine’s pastor. During that time, he stopped talking with his Diocese, worrying his fellow priests.

“As a result, his faculties for public ministry were suspended in May 2012, and he has not been reassigned,” the Diocese of Bridgeport’s statement read. “To date, he has not spoken directly with diocesan officials, though the Diocese stands ready to help as it has throughout the past two years. We ask for prayers for Msgr. Wallin during the difficult days ahead for him.”

During his long career as a priest, Wallin, 61, served as pastor of St. Peter Parish in Danbury from 1996 to 2002 and was an aide to Bishops Walter Curtis and Edward Egan, according to The Connecticut Post. Egan later became a Cardinal.

Wallin was arrested after a joint task force made up of federal DEA agents and the Connecticut State Police used wire taps, drug buys and surveillance to uncover the alleged drug ring, according to the Post.

“The hard work of the DEA and the Connecticut State Police in this case resulted in the dismantling of what we allege was a significant methamphetamine distribution organization that spanned from California to Connecticut,” U.S. Attorney David Fein told the Post.

All five suspects are being charged with participating in a drug distribution conspiracy, according to The Hartford Courant, and all are being held without bail.

If convicted, Wallin faces a minimum of 10 years on the conspiracy charge, plus an additional 20 years on other charges.

The Courant attempted to reach out to Wallin but was unsuccessful.

kevin wallin crystal meth

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Bush Lackey Deflates Catholic Sean Hannity’s Right Wing Absurdities

by The Age of Blasphemy, posted in Catholic Sean Hannity, Faux News, Obama Conspiracies, Sean Hannity

Bush Attorney General Michael Mukasey Deflates Hannity’s Claim That Obama’s Actions Are Unconstitutional
http://mediamatters.org/video/2013/01/16/bush-attorney-general-michael-mukasey-deflates/192293

 

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The Atlantic Is Now Publishing Bizarre, Blatant Scientology Propaganda as ‘Sponsored Content’ (UPDATE)

by The Age of Blasphemy, posted in Atlantic, David Miscavige, Scientology

The Atlantic Is Now Publishing Bizarre, Blatant Scientology Propaganda as ‘Sponsored Content’ (UPDATE)
Taylor Berman

The Atlantic Is Now Publishing Bizarre, Blatant Scientology Propaganda as 'Sponsored Content' (UPDATE)

The Atlantic – the one time publisher of Mark Twain, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edith Wharton – is now publishing blatant Scientology propaganda. The “sponsored content,” which went up Monday around noon, features all sorts of breathless praise for Scientology and its alleged growth last year.

The post is basically one long tribute to David Miscavige, the “ecclesiastical leader of the Scientology religion”:

Mr. Miscavige is unrelenting in his work for millions of parishioners and the cities served by Scientology Churches. He has led a renaissance for the religion itself, while driving worldwide programs to serve communities through Church-sponsored social and humanitarian initiatives.

And focuses on Miscavige’s plans to expand the religion’s already existing churches:

David Miscavige spearheaded a program to build every Church of Scientology into what Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard termed “Ideal Organizations” (Ideal Orgs). This new breed of Church is ideal in location, design, quality of religious services and social betterment programs. Each is uniquely configured to accommodate the full array of Scientology services for both parishioners and the surrounding community. Ideal Orgs further house extensive public information multimedia displays that introduce every facet of Dianetics and Scientology, along with libraries, course and seminar rooms for an introduction to and study of Scientology Scripture. Chapels serve to host Sunday Services and other congregational gatherings.

It is from these Ideal Churches that Scientologists extend their humanitarian programs to mitigate intolerance, illiteracy, immorality and drug abuse.

The post then lists the “unprecedented 12 Ideal Scientology Churches” built around the world last year, including locations in Germany, California, Italy and Israel, with accompanying pictures of each opening’s celebration.

And let’s not forget the comments. Of the 17 comments posted as of this writing, 11 are so pro-Scientology they read as though they’re an extension of the original post. A bold, proud day for The Atlantic and its fine history of journalistic excellence.

For their part, Atlantic staffers seem to be distancing themselves from the post by tweeting about Lawrence Wright’s forthcoming Scientology exposé, Going Clear:

         Jeffrey Goldberg@JeffreyGoldberg

There’s no time like the present to tout my friend Larry Wright’s great new investigation of the Church of Scientology: theatlantic.com/national/archi…

         James Fallows@JamesFallows

MT @JeffreyGoldberg: No time like the present to tout my friend Larry Wright’s great new investigation of Scientology: bit.ly/Um0Gwx

A wonderful new book about Scientology, highlighted by our @JeffreyGoldberg. bit.ly/UM9j1O

UPDATE: The Atlantic took down the post, writing: “We have temporarily suspended this advertising campaign pending a review of our policies that govern sponsor content and subsequent comment threads.”

Here’s a screen grab of the original post, in case you missed it.

[The Atlantic]

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Jihad Watch Is A Deceptive Blog By Race Baiter Robert Spencer That Seeks to Start World War III

by The Age of Blasphemy, posted in Crooks and Liars, David Horowitz Jewish Fascist, Right Wing Fascists, Right Wing Hatemongers, Right Wing Kooks, Right Wing Nuts, Robert Spencer, Robert Spencer Catholic Fascist, Robert Spencer Hate Monger

Jihad Watch Is A Deceptive Blog By Race Baiter Robert Spencer That Seeks to Start World War III.
Via:- pibillwarner

RIGHT WING EXTREMISTS….Robert Spencer crawled out of the wood work and into the relative limelight circa 2003 when he started Jihad Watch http://www.jihadwatch.org/. Ever since then it has been a long journey into the bizarre ranks of the pantheon of right wing blog stars with an occasional foray to bless the mere mainstream mortals with his personal knowledge of Islam (which is limited as he does read Arabic). He receives stupendous applause and adulation from the cult following that has sprung up since his site was created — the little “counter-Jihadis” who in the late middle of their lives have found a new purpose to life; hate of Muslims as defense of the West.

As per the Southern Poverty Law Center: ROBERT SPENCER ORGANIZATION Runs the Jihad Watch website, a project of the David Horowitz Freedom Center. Co-founder with Pamela Geller of Stop Islamization of America and the American Freedom Defense Initiative. Spencer has been known to fraternize with European racists and neo-fascists, though he says such contacts were merely incidental. Benazir Bhutto, the late prime minister of Pakistan, accused Spencer of “falsely constructing a divide between Islam and West” in her 2008 book, Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy, and the West. Spencer, she wrote, presented a “skewed, one-sided, and inflammatory story that only helps to sow the seed of civilizational conflict.”

Robert Spencer posts articles of his gal pal Pamela Geller and follows her where ever she goes, he helped her to set up the phony ‘Muslims Against Sharia’ website run by dirtbag Alex Potter.  Pam Geller of Atlas Shrugs & Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch created the Faux organization called “Muslims Against Sharia” which included no Muslims.

Robert Spencer’s  blog, Jihad Watch, has served as a portal into the realm of propaganda against Islam and Muslims. It works at one and the same time to confuse and conflate issues and news related to Islam and Muslims. A man murders his wife and for Spencer it is not a question of domestic violence but honor killing that derives its roots from the Quran. There are a type of Gobbelsesque Nazi tactic employed by Robert Spencer that highlight the pre-set prejudiced conclusion he begins with; the maxim he seems to be working from is all Muslims are guilty, before proven innocent.

From information obtained from a Federal Subpoena served on Enter.net inc it has been revealed that the owner of the http://www.reformislam.org/  website that used the phony name of “Muslims Against Sharia” with a phony president listed as Khalim Massoud is actually American Starlex Inc run by a Alex Dobin (possibly Alex Porter) out of Omaha NE, see  verification from Enter.Net web hosting company.  There are no “Muslims” at “Muslims Against Sharia”.

The fraudulent Muslims Against Sharia website, reformislam.com, has been terminated, see link http://www.reformislam.org/.  The website hosting company EnterNet has discontinued service TO the phony Muslims Against Sharia website.

“Muslims Against Sharia” and “Terror Free Oil” both appear to have been fronts for the David Horowitz Freedom Center in California, both websites for “Muslims Against Sharia” and “Terror Free Oil” solicited donations to be sent to P.O. Box 55089 Sherman Oaks, CA 91499-1964 for the David Horowitz Freedom Center, so is Robert Spencer’s Jihad Watch he is paid directly form David Horowitz. Dirtbag David Horowitz set up the violent Black Panthers and the BLA in the 1960′s and early 1970′s with a scam organization that sucked money out of the State of California.

The Educational Opportunities Corporation was a California Corp. with registered agent Huey P. Newton. The Panther “Learning Center” at 6118 EAST 14th Street OAKLAND CA 94621 was a scam, the Black Panthers were using the Center as a vehicle by which to embezzle millions of dollars in California education funds set up by David Horowitz.

David Horowitz has written that he recommended that the Black Panther Party hire a bookkeeper, Betty Van Patter, who was then working for David Horowitz at Ramparts. Betty Van Patter (killed December 13, 1974) was a bookkeeper for the Black Panther Party who was raped, beaten and murdered (Stomped). After serving as a bookkeeper for Ramparts magazine, Betty Van Patter became an aide to Panther leader Elaine Brown in 1974, after being introduced to the Black Panther Party by David Horowitz.

After Betty Van Patter disappeared, David Horowitz called a Black Panther Official (possibly Elaine Brown) and said, “ You have to find Betty!”  The Black Panther official said, “That woman? She knew all our secrets.  She knew too much. You told me I could trust her!  Several Days later the same Black Panther official called David Horowitz, “David if you should get run over by a car, I’d be really upset as people would say I did it.”  

The David Horowitz Freedom Center in California is an ultra right wing organization that solicits donations with a variety of websites, Robert Spencer’s “Jihad Watch” is one, to support conservative political candidates around the nation. There is a grass roots campaign run out of the David Horowitz Freedom Center in California that uses an extensive array of direct mail companies to contact like minded individuals around the USA seeking donations to help elect conservative candidates.  This is all very political.

The website http://www.terrorfreeoil.com/ for the ‘Terror-free’ oil scam appears to have been shut down when you click on the link you are directed to the web hosting company ENTER.NET

From a reliable source in the Intelligence Summit, via a phone call to my office last year, Alex Porter the so called CTO of the Intelligence Summit and the spokesperson for the ‘Terror-free’ oil scam has left the USA and is in hiding, possibly in Russia.  I am actively seeking an address location for Alex Porter in the USA, I will find this dirtbag Alex Porter

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Woman Grows Ear on Arm

by The Age of Blasphemy, posted in Science News

US woman grows new ear on arm
Alys Francis, ninemsn
Sherrie Walter grew a new ear on her arm.
Sherrie Walter grew a new ear on her arm.

US doctors have grown a new ear for a woman on her arm after she lost her original ear during a battle with skin cancer.

Sherrie Walter had to have most of her left ear removed, along with parts of her skull and ear canal, in 2010 after she was diagnosed with a basal cell carcinoma, The Baltimore Sun reports.

The 42-year-old mother-of-two, from California, was left disfigured until doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Maryland told her about a groundbreaking new procedure that would enable her to grow a new ear.

The ear was made using cartilage from Ms Walter’s ribs and arteries and from other parts of her body — the structure was then placed under the skin on her arm for four months to grow before it was transferred to her head.

Doctors said the entire process took close to 20 months and it is believed to be the most complicated ear reconstruction completed in North America.

Surgeons performed Ms Walter’s final major surgery last week, fashioning an earlobe and shaping the ear to look more natural.

Speaking before the operation, Ms Walter said: “I am one step closer to the end, to looking normal again.”

Ms Walter first noticed her skin cancer in 2008 when a scab on her ear would not heal.

After drastic surgery to remove the cancer and weeks of radiation, Ms Walter said she became self-conscious of her appearance and grew her hair long to try and hide her face.

She could not wear a clip-on prosthetic ear because parts of her skull had also been removed.

But Dr Patrick Byrne, who led Ms Walter’s surgical team, assured her there were other options and suggested she try the procedure to grow a new ear.

“It seemed a little strange but I was willing to try it,” she said.

Dr Byrne said the new ear should last for years to come.

US scientists are helping pioneer efforts to grow ears, bones and skin in laboratories, with doctors planning to use cutting-edge reconstructive techniques for wounded troops.

Sources: The Baltimore Sun
Author: Alys Francis. Approving editor: Emily O’Keefe

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Arnold Schwarzenegger | Extreme Right Wing Ideological Purge

by The Age of Blasphemy, posted in Arnold Schwarzenegger, Extreme Right Wing, Wingnuts

Arnold Schwarzenegger vs. the Wingnuts
Extremists demanding far right ideological purity
Former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger calls out the ideological extremists who dominate today’s Republican Party: California’s GOP Should Take Down Its Small Tent.

I’ve been writing my memoirs recently, and looking back at how I came to my political identity has reminded me that this election cycle marks my 44th year as a Republican. I can’t imagine being anything else.

That’s why I am so bothered by the party’s recent loss of two up-and-coming Republicans: San Diego mayoral candidate Nathan Fletcher, currently a state assemblyman, and former assemblyman and current Congressional candidate Anthony Adams, both of whom left the party to become independents. On the one hand, I respect their standing up for principle. On the other, I hate to see them go.

I’m sure they would have preferred to remain Republicans, but in the current climate, the extreme right wing of the party is targeting anyone who doesn’t meet its strict criteria. Its new and narrow litmus test for party membership doesn’t allow compromise.

I bumped up against that rigidity many times as governor. Not surprisingly, the party wasn’t always too happy with me. But I had taken an oath to serve the people, not my party. Some advisors whose opinions I respect urged me to consider leaving the party and instead identify myself as a “decline to state” voter. But I’m too stubborn to leave a party I believe in.

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Tabloid Birtherism

by The Age of Blasphemy, posted in Birther Kooks, Birthers, Conspiracism, Conspiracy Crackpots, Conspiracy Crazies, Conspiracy Loons, Conspiracy Theories, Tea Baggers

Tabloid Birtherism

Without a single side to make the looming Presidential election a Manichean battle of good vs. evil for certain segments of the country (since Romney isn’t exactly a paragon of the common man or the folksiness of the Tea Party), the Birthers have taken to stirring up shit the only way they know how: by asking ridiculous questions based only on a vague conspiracy theory. And as the Birthers have proved in their past ability to influence idiots across America (one in four Americans believe Obama is a Muslim), “asking the question” is a form of push-polling. The existence of a largely-publicized “debate” provides ammunition to those who are inclined to use it as such.

My own experience in work as well as life is that it is dangerous to give voice to the fringe and lunatic voices simply because they make for sensationalized headlines. Almost like the Streisand Effect applied to politics, even pointing out that such a position is ridiculous gives it added weight and gravitas (by dignifying it as a question worth focusing on).

So why do media outlets give any focus to these kinds of fringe theories if they patently lack legitimacy? It’s not like anybody is writing stories about people who deny we landed on the moon or about who claim there is a secret Illuminati controlling the government (other than crappy novelists). Presumably, it’s because these new allegations are salacious and potentially important enough to give people the satisfaction of reading further, even if they know the debate is entirely artificial. Like reading the tabloids, or something like that.

One birther explains that Romney’s citizenship is up for debate because his dad was born in Mexico. Thats right, Mitt Romney’s father was born in the Mexican colony that Mitt’s great-grandfather founded after fleeing the United States so he could stay married to Romney’s four great-grandmothers.

Then again, maybe these are questions that can reveal something about the character of the candidates.

Via: – http://thenewprint.com/2012/04/10/tabloid-birtherism/

 

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