Archive for the ‘Crime’ Category
Pregnancy Center Burned: Domestic Abortion-Rights Terrorists Suspected?
Thursday, December 31st, 2009A pregnancy assistance center was attacked:
Whiteriver, AZ (LifeNews.com) — A pregnancy center in rural eastern Arizona that serves a predominantly native American population was severely burned in what appears to be an arson attack. The Living Hope Women’s Center clinic has closed indefinitely as a result of a fire that gutted a portion of the building on December 20.
And this will adversely affect the community:
The center president told the newspaper that ATF officials asked her if the pregnancy center was involved in anything controversial that might have sparked a hate crime.
“The agent very gingerly asked if we were involved in ‘anything controversial’ in our ministry,” she said. “You can imagine what they hear about Crisis Pregnancy Centers, abortion clinic bombings and the like. I assured him that even though we are a CPC ), our work was mostly pre-natal and parenting and that the culture in Whiteriver is very pro-life.”
She told the newspaper the apparent arson will set the pregnancy center back quite a bit financially and logistically.
“When we think of everything we had in there it is a bit overwhelming. We had just gotten two new computers, a new ultrasound machine, a very large screen TV and of course our beautiful, huge Mommy Store. But these are things that can be replaced. One greater challenge will be where do we go from here?” Monahan asked.
She is concerned because the availability of buildings in Whiteriver is very scarce.
Monahan indicated the Whiteriver pregnancy center had 400-600 visits every month from the low-income people who live in the community.
“As our staff stood outside the building, clients would come and cry as they looked at the devastation,” she said. “This ministry is so loved by so many there. We are looking at our options, one which is to lease a large lot and build or place a modular on it. Whatever we do, build, remodel or use a modular, we feel strongly that the people of Whiteriver are the ones who should do it.”
Well, the crime, since it was on a reservation, is a federal crime. It will be interesting to find out who committed this attack.
ACORN: A Money Laundering Scheme?
Tuesday, December 1st, 2009Matthew Vadum of the American Spectator investigates:
I have just discovered that three senior ACORN officials have recently given wildly divergent accounts of the size of ACORN’s budget.
ACORN current CEO and chief organizer Bertha Lewis claimed in October that ACORN had an “average budget” between “$20 [million] and $25 million a year for everything, all of the offices combined.”
ACORN national president Maude Hurd reported in the ACORN entry of Erica Payne’s handbook for liberal activists, The Practical Progressive, that ACORN’s annual budget last year was $50 million.
That’s double the figure quoted by Lewis, yet even $50 million seems impossibly low given ACORN’s lucrative ongoing corporate shakedown rackets and other revenue sources. The four main ACORN affiliates alone — ACORN Housing Corp. Inc., Project Vote, American Institute for Social Justice Inc., and ACORN Institute Inc — took in a total of at least $106.9 million in donations from foundations and individuals from 1993 through 2008. And ACORN takes in untold millions every year in member dues from its 400,000 members — a figure that has crept up to 500,000 in Bertha Lewis’s recent public statements.
Well, it does seem curious that a company can be off by $50 million dollars in talking about operating budgets. Then again, these don’t seem to be the brightest people, either–just wise in the ways of manipulating the system. One suspects that those shady operators at the bottom are representative of the institution. That is, if any of these people spent real effort to get a real job, they might actually add value. Instead, ACORN’s prime goal seems to be gaming the system. They might want to try to get in the system and fix it one person at a time. But then, if they did that, they’d be conservatives.
Podcast: Tigers, And Crashers, And Climate, Oh My!
Tuesday, December 1st, 2009John Hawkins joins me to discuss the latest culture and politics stories.
Download MP3
To subscribe on iTunes, just click here!
When Melissa isn’t on the radio, you can find her at melissaclouthier.com and on Twitter. Her username is MelissaTweets.
Tiger Woods Can’t Win This Game
Tuesday, December 1st, 2009Tiger Woods is in the deep rough today. He’s avoiding talking to the police. They’re seeking search warrants for his medical records. This is a disaster of monumental proportions for the golf star. No matter what he loses.
He was either under the influence of some controlled and crashed his vehicle. Or, he was beat by his jealous wife and trying to escape. If it’s the former, his squeaky image is tarnished (though less so if it’s by pain medication). If it’s the latter, he’ll have the ignominious reputation for being an abused husband.
Women initiate physical contact in relationships but rarely do the damage a man does..unless the woman is wielding a golf club, say. Glenn Reynolds writes late yesterday about the implications of the abuse:
Rosin also writes: “It is impossible to imagine Tiger occupying the same cultural brain space as Rihanna, with Nordegren playing Chris Brown. If Tiger had been chasing down his wife with a golf club and she had shown up with bruises, even if she had cheated with, say, K-fed, we would be a lot less ambivalent and complacent.” That’s probably correct, for certain values of the word “we,” but why is that, exactly? Cheating men deserve to be beaten, even with weapons, while cheating women do not?
Or could it be, you know, sexism? But that’s not possible, because Hanna Rosin can’t be sexist, and neither can those who agree with her. If you’re Hanna Rosin, “sexist” is a name you call other people. You know, bad people who believe in stereotypes and stuff.
Here’s the thing: While it’s just as bad for the woman to beat the man as vice versa, the consequences for this story coming out will not benefit the victim. In fact, the victim will be re-victimized. Tiger Woods will be the butt of jokes; he is already. Again, this is wrong. And maybe his case will help change the culture around husband abuse, but I doubt it. The more likely outcome will be further humiliation.
In this case, Tiger Wood’s fame works against him. As others have pointed out, a regular guy would have answered the police questions. The wife would be arrested. It would be her first offense. Very likely the charges would be dropped. And this would go away.
But Tiger Woods didn’t talk to the police after promising he would and now, irritated at his elite star status, they’re going after him….ostensibly to come to justice, but just as likely because they don’t like being put off by the star.
Howard Kurtz blames the media for the circus and asks this:
Is all this, well, news? Edwards’s romance with Rielle Hunter, which he initially denied, took place during a presidential campaign. Is there a compelling public interest in the private life of the world’s top-ranked golfer?
The public is interested because Tiger Woods has everything: fame and fortune. Does he have the same sort of messy life as average Americans? Inquiring minds want to know.
Can Woods hit a miracle shot and save his reputation? That remains to be seen, but I’m doubtful.
Cop Killer in Washington Pardoned By Governor Mike Huckabee? Update: Yes.
Sunday, November 29th, 2009Looks like a violent, life-long criminal is responsible for the four police officer murders in Washington and that Governor Huckabee is the reason this man is on the streets. From the Seattle Times:
Nine years ago, then-Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee granted clemency to Clemmons, commuting his lengthy prison sentence over the protests of prosecutors.
“This is the day I’ve been dreading for a long time,” Larry Jegley, prosecuting attorney for Arkansas’ Pulaski County said Sunday night when informed that Clemmons was being sought in connection to the killings.
Clemmons’ criminal history includes at least five felony convictions in Arkansas and at least eight felony charges in Washington. The record also stands out for the number of times he has been released from custody despite questions about the danger he posed.
Clemmons had been in jail in Pierce County for the past several months on a pending charge of second-degree rape of a child.
This via Confederate Yankee who says:
If Huckabee—now a Fox News personality—did set this man free, his aspirations for a future White House run may be over.
I’d say so.
Updated:
Michelle Malkin has more.
