Saturday Morning Reads: A little Rant and Roll

Good Morning!

First up:  Nebraska!  The Buzzkill State. Ask me why the top of my bucket list is to never go back to this awful place again.  They have a history of wasting taxpayer money challenging people’s individual rights so they can inflict their horrible moral codes on people.   They’re suing Colorado claiming “legal weed in the Centennial State is draining the treasuries and placing stress on law enforcement in the others”.   Poor little Puritan NitWits!   More like we never EVER have any fun here so we insist that no one else can because we’re freaking Puritans and idiots to boot.  They probably want to argue uptight white Jesus would never smoke pot but will find some other way to waste taxpayer money.  Maybe it will just free the rest of us from Puritanical state laws in the end.

“The State of Colorado has created a dangerous gap in the federal drug control system,” the lawsuit – which Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning and Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt filed Thursday – alleges. “Marijuana flows from this gap into neighboring states, undermining [our states’] own marijuana bans.”

Colorado Attorney General John Suthers said that the lawsuit was “without merit” in a statement. “Because neighboring states have expressed concern about Colorado-grown marijuana coming into their states, we are not entirely surprised by this action,” he said. “However, it appears the plaintiffs’ primary grievance stems from non-enforcement of federal laws regarding marijuana, as opposed to choices made by the voters of Colorado.”

Bob Ferguson, the attorney general of Washington State – which has marijuana laws similar to Colorado’s – has said he would support the Centennial State if need be. With regard to his own state, he said it would “vigorously oppose any effort by other states to interfere with the will of Washington voters.”

Seven states border Colorado, and Nebraska’s Brunning has said he invited them to join his lawsuit. Kansas’ attorney general office told the Post that the state was assessing its options.

The two states that did file the lawsuit say that Colorado violated the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution when it allowed voters to pass a law that conflicted with federal marijuana prohibition. They also claim that the state has not been active in keeping marijuana from crossing its borders. They’re also upset that Colorado does not perform background checks on people who purchase pot and that it does not track those who do make purchases.

Currently, Colorado’s recreational marijuana retailers can sell up to an ounce of pot to state residents with ID who are over age 21. Adults with out-of-state ID may buy up to a quarter of an ounce. The Post reports that retailers have made more than $300 million in pot sales in 2014 alone.

Speaking of stupid Red States, Louisiana is back in the news again for basically forcing its children into poverty by giving them rotten educations.  When oh when is this backward, puritan approach to public policy going be flushed? Then, I ask myself, why do I keep living in these virtual hellholes?  At least I only spent the first year of my life in Oklahoma and an endless series of weekends in Kansas and Missouri.  All are places that I wouldn’t recommend visiting let alone living in.

If a link exists between poverty and poor educational outcomes, Louisiana’s rate of school-aged children living below the poverty line may explain some of the state’s K-12 education struggles.

Louisiana has the fourth highest rate of school-aged children living in poverty among the 50 United States and Washington, D.C., according to 2013 data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Only Mississippi, Washington, D.C., and New Mexico, respectively, have higher rates of poverty among children ages 5-17.

The national average rate of school-aged children in poverty is 21 percent, but just 10 out of Louisiana’s 64 parishes have a lower rate than that. In Louisiana, 27 percent of school-aged children are in poverty, or 212,904 potential students.

The rate is worse in Orleans Parish, where 39 percent of school-aged children — 20,922 of them — live in poverty. The rate in East Baton Rouge Parish is tied with the state average of 27 percent. Jefferson Parish’s rate is 28 percent.

Within the Orleans Parish School District borders, specifically, 38 percent of children ages 5-17 come from families in poverty, according to data released Wednesday (Dec. 17) from the Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates program.

So, let’s spend a little time with rotten white men that create and benefit from the system.  I’m sure Gawker’s not making social commentary but their headlines seem to indicate you can get away with a lot of you’re rich, powerful, and in the system.  Please tell me that Stephen Collins is not going to make money off of child sexual abuse. We’ve got to put a TRIGGER Warning here because this involves a 12 year old Babysitter.

In an allegedly soul-baring new essay to be released in this week’s issue of People (on newsstands Friday), 7th Heaven star Stephen Collins will explain “in vivid detail” how hesexually abused three underage girls in the span of 40 years.

Collins will have a one-on-one with Katie Couric on Yahoo this Friday as well, and the interview will also air on this week’s edition of 20/20 on ABC. A passage excerpted from Collins’ statement in Friday’s People:

Forty years ago, I did something terribly wrong that I deeply regret. I have been working to atone for it ever since. I’ve decided to address these issues publicly because two months ago, various news organizations published a recording made by my then-wife, Faye Grant, during a confidential marriage therapy session in January, 2012. This session was recorded without the therapist’s or my knowledge or consent.

On the recording, I described events that took place 20, 32, and 40 years ago. The publication of the recording has resulted in assumptions and innuendos about what I did that go far beyond what actually occurred. As difficult as this is, I want people to know the truth.

So, all we keep hearing is how “America’s Dads” are sexual predators.  Is that just special?  So, here’s another TV discussion on Cosby’s career as a serial rapist and sexual predator.  This time Seven of the Cosby accusers commiserate via Dr. Phil.  More trigger warnings because I know many of us need them.

In this video from Dr. Phil airing on Friday, several of the women respond to Cosby’s daughter Evin’s statement questioning the validity of the women’s allegations that they were drugged.

One woman tells Dr. Phil, “A body knows when it’s raped. You’re not only raped physically, but you are raped emotionally. And something in your spirit is gone forever. And he is a serial rapist. We all have that same thing in common. We all feel that.”

Another adds in tears: “I think that the more I personally talk about this, hopefully it will dissipate. And I won’t have to carry the shame anymore. And I would just like to say, Bill and Camille Cosby, shame on you, shame on you shame, shame on you, shame on you!”

So why do guys like these get away with things?  Well, maybe because the criminal justice system identifies with them more than it does victims.  Another shocking Gawker Headline: Ferguson DA Claims He Knew Witnesses Were Lying, Let Them Testify Anyway.

In his first interview since the non-indictment of Darren Wilson, St. Louis County District Attorney Bob McCulloch claims that he was well aware that several witnesses were not telling the truth, and that he allowed them to testify before the grand jury anyway.

Earlier this week, The Smoking Gun reported that Sandra McElroy, known as “Witness 40” in the Michael Brown shooting case, was a serial fabulist who in all likelihood was not even close to the scene of the crime. McElroy’s testimony that she saw Brown “charge at the officer” “in a football position” most closely resembled Wilson’s own version of events.

McCulloch was aware of—and perfectly fine with—such falsehoods masquerading as evidence, he said during an interview with local radio station KTRS.

Excerpts from BuzzFeed:

KTRS: Why did you allow people to testify in front of the grand jury in which you knew their information was either flat-out wrong, or flat-out lying, or just weren’t telling the truth?

McCulloch: Well, early on, I decided that anyone who claimed to have witnessed anything was going to be presented to the grand jury. And I knew that no matter how I handled it, there would be criticism of it. So if I didn’t put those witnesses on, then we’d be discussing now why I didn’t put those witnesses on. Even though their statements were not accurate.

So my determination was to put everybody on and let the grand jurors assess their credibility, which they did. This grand jury poured their hearts and souls into this. It was a very emotional few months for them. It took a lot of them. I wanted to put everything on there. I thought it was much more important to present everything and everybody, and some that, yes, clearly were not telling the truth. No question about it.

McCulloch later added that he was “absolutely sure” that some witnesses lied under oath, but that he would not seek perjury charges. He also blamed the media for “latching on” to one witness who “clearly wasn’t present” at the shooting—a description that likely refers to McElroy.

But of course, white guys get the benefit of any doubt.

The City University’s refusal to act against an adjunct professor caught on video resisting arrest and assaulting a police lieutenant during an anti-cop protest becomes more absurd by the day.

Other employers are tougher in the face of criminality. Chancellor James Milliken can see for himself by comparing CUNY’s stance regarding Eric Linsker with the decisiveness shown in two similarly recorded assaults.

The lieutenant saw Linsker as he was about to heave a garbage can from Brooklyn Bridge walkway onto demonstrators and cops below. Linsker had already hurled two cans, according to the NYPD. He struggled with the lieutenant, throwing at least one punch, the video shows.

CUNY is keeping Linsker in the classroom at full pay, while his union argues that he has “not yet been found guilty.”

Meanwhile, a second of the bridge cop beaters, Robert Murray, is an organizer for 32BJ SEIU. His employer — a union — saw Murray swing away on the same video and suspended him without pay, explaining that it “does not under any circumstance condone violence of any kind, including against police officers.”

Finally, when a video surfaced Friday showing a plainclothes cop twice punching an already restrained young suspect, the NYPD suspended the officer immediately.

The application of justice and laws solely depends on who is involved.

With that, I wish you good day, I’m spending the weekend getting as much sleep as possible!  And yes, all that artwork up there is Robert Crumb’s Mister Natural.   He still has all the answers.  His site is a hoot and seeing his stuff always takes me back to better days.

What’s on your reading and blogging list today?