Google has a new feature called Google Street View that’s causing a bit of a stir. Read more about it and see photos and a video of images captured by Google Street View below.
The European Union is not enthusiastic about Google Street View coming to Europe. In fact, they are seeking to ban it in Europe. Google understands that their cameras are catching a little bit more than they should and are taking steps to blur faces and/or take the people out of the photos.
Lori Drew has been indicted in the case of Megan Meier, a Missouri teen who committed suicide following a MySpace hoax. Read about the case, see photos, a video and the indictment below.
Lori Drew was indicted today on federal fraud and conspiracy charges for her role in an internet hoax that allegedly contributed to the suicide of a Missouri teenager in 2006.
You might remember the case of Megan Meier. She was the 13-year-old Missouri teenager who hung herself in her closet on the evening of October 16, 2006. Following her suicide, it was discovered that she had been subjected to a cruel hoax on the internet after she’d had an argument with one of her friends. It was discovered that the mother of that friend had created a fictitious account on MySpace and created the persona of a handsome boy who liked Megan. She allegedly did this to find out what Megan was saying about her daughter online and to ‘teach Megan a lesson’. She then had the persona she had created, Josh Evans, break up with Megan and start calling her names. This triggered a torrent of abusive messages to Megan.
The messages that Megan was receiving on her MySpace account the night of her death included calling her a ‘whore’ and a ‘fat ass’ among other things. The last message she got was from the ‘Josh’ persona that read:
“the world would be a better place without you, and have a s**t rest of your life.”
There is a new Starbucks logo and some people are upset about it saying its vulgar. See photos of the old and new logo and a video below. You tell me, is it perverted or not?
A Christian group out of San Diego called ‘The Resistance’ is VERY upset with Starbucks new logo. They are so upset that they are calling Starbucks ‘Slutbucks’. Oh! That’s cold! Well, it seems that Starbucks decided to serve up $4 cups of coffee latte with a little porn in the morn. Of course, its a brilliant marketing tool. Look at all of the free advertising they’re getting! And, the logo is subtle enough that guys are drinking more cups of expensive coffee with bigger smiles on their faces and don’t even know why. Its just absolutely brilliant.
Even better for Starbucks, or Slutbucks, this group out of San Diego is drawing tons of attention to the little slutty mermaid on the logo.
The Resistance says the new image “has a naked woman on it with her legs spread like a prostitute,” Mark Dice, founder of the group, said in a news release. “Need I say more? It’s extremely poor taste, and the company might as well call themselves Slutbucks.”
Apparently the mortgage crisis is leading to a “mental health crisis.” Read the story here. Here is my favorite section:
“They’re depressed, anxious. It’s affected marriages, relationships,” says Richard Chaifetz, CEO of ComPsych, a Chicago-based employee-assistance firm that is counseling homeowners over mortgage fears. “People tend to catastrophize, and that leads to depression. Suicide rates go up. We see an increase in drinking, outbursts at work, violence toward kids. Before, their houses were like ATMs,” as they rose in value. “Now, they feel trapped like a rat in a corner.”
Look, I feel for people who are struggling financially, I’ve been there and in some respects I still am (over 100 grand in student loans will do that to you). However, at risk of sounding like a mean old conservative, I am having a hard time feeling too sorry for these people. People who have their houses foreclosed on have no one but themselves to blame. If you sign an ARM, they are very clear (they have to be by law) that at the end of the ARM period, your rate can go up or down depending on the prime rate. This means when your 3 or 5 year ARM is up, it is likely that your payments are going to go up as well. Is there something wrong with taking some personal responsibility and owning up to your debt? Even if things get so bad that you can’t afford your mortgage payment there are many options. Move out of the house, get an apartment that you can afford and start working off that debt that you will owe. Bankruptcy is another option. The bottom line is that the mortgage crisis is no one’s fault except for the person who purchased the house that they could not have afforded in the first place. If you get an interest only loan and the market bottoms out, guess what, your screwed. That is the risk you take when you make a $500 monthly payment on a $300,000 house. The lack of personal responsibility in this country is remarkable.
The other insidious aspect of this story is the way the media creates something out of nothing. We all know that foreclosures are up, but 96% of us are still making our mortgage payments. We were the people who didn’t buy a house that we couldn’t afford and hopefully bought it with a fixed interest rate. However, the media uses this kind of crap to scare everyone into thinking we are in a huge crisis, so huge that they have to set up crisis hotlines to prevent people from killing themselves over their house. This is not a crisis, it is a market correction that I predicted would happen about 5 years ago. When you have house prices going up 25% per quarter in some parts of the country (Summerlin, NV was like that) you have to know that the market can not possibly sustain that kind of off the charts growth. The bubble has to burst. This “crisis” is just another fabrication created by the media.
Just when the old media tells us that its all over but the crying for Hillary Clinton’s presidential aspirations she goes and gets herself a great big ol’ win in West Virginia. They’ve been telling us that its hopeless for her since before she started running because, after all, she’s running against the Obamessiah! As the drums of defeat have beat louder and louder she garnered another win under her belt. It doesn’t matter, of course, because West Virginia is nothing but a bunch of Bible thumping, gun hugging, xenophobics held in disdain by the Anointed One. He didn’t bother with them at all. He didn’t even look in their direction. Just. Wasn’t. Important.
While Barack Obama ignored West Virginia, Hillary was here, there and everywhere eating ice cream and relating to the common man (and woman). So, for her efforts, her supporters get to be the subject of this weeks Caption Contest! And so, without further ado, I present to you Hillary supporters celebrating her victory in West Virginia.
Welcome to the weekly Right Pundit caption contest! If it were legal to say definitively that we have the best Caption Contest on the web then we’d tell you that. But its not so we’ll let you come to your own conclusions.
I know the photo is more than a little bit scary … but caption it if you can!
Meet Pastor James David Manning of Harlem who has become famous by very publicly challenging Barack Obama and Reverend Jeremiah Wright and the ministry of churches like Trinity Church of Christ in Chicago. Read his biography and see photos and a video of his sermon on The Trinity of Hell below.
Pastor James David Manning has been speaking out LOUDLY against presidential hopeful, Barack Obama for some time now. Lately, he has expanded his rhetoric to include Reverend Jeremiah Wright and Oprah Winfrey. He is the pastor of the Atlah World Ministries based in Harlem. Manning originally came to the attention of the media when he called Obama ‘a good Negro’, ‘white trash’ and ‘a pimp’. As you can see in the video below, he is now calling both Obama and Rev Wright ‘homosexuals’ and Oprah a ‘lesbian’. Yikes! He calls them all ‘The Trinity of Hell’. Yikes again! He has also called Barack Obama a ‘Mack Daddy‘ and been highly critical of Jeremiah Wright and others who he says use their positions to keep Black people in a victim mentality.
I’ve read a lot of blogs and comments about Pastor James David Manning. People seem outraged that he uses his pulpit to say such vile things about these leaders in the Black community. The problem that I have is that those same people didn’t seem outraged that Reverend Jeremiah Wright used his pulpit to preach hate. I’m not making a statement about who is right or wrong, I’m just wondering why one is okay and the other isn’t.
Pastor James David Manning Biography
Pastor James David Manning, PhD is the pastor of the Atlah World Missionary Church in Harlem. He has pastored there since 1981. He received his undergraduate degree from The College of New Rochelle. From there he went to Union Theological Seminary in New York City and earned a Master of Divinity Degree. He received a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the Atlah Theological Seminary.
Pastor Manning is married to Elizabeth Sarah Manning who also works as part of the Atlah ministry. They are parents and grandparents.
ZiPingPu Dam in the Min River
Photo Courtesy of www.InternationalRivers.org
I have been harshly critical of the Chinese government and their handling of dissidents, reporter, religions, forced abortions, and just about everything else that the communist cadre hyperventilate over.
However, the stark contrast between the open and humanitarian handling of the earthquake in China by its government and the horrible lack of compassion for the cyclone victims in Burma by the dictatorial junta could not be more evident. About the only tangible thing they have done besides beat up monks is to change the name of the country to Mayanmar.
There have been comments that the Chinese are putting on a show for the Olympics, but as some of my previous posts have showcased, the Olympics have not stopped the Chinese from banning internet connections and running reporters out of hot spots. The fact is, the Chinese are doing all they can to help their citizens (short of allowing other militarizes in to help distribute aid). The soldiers have been digging for victims with their bare hands and flights of food aid, medicines and other essentials are getting into the hard-hit areas. Large numbers of soldiers have been deployed to shore up the huge ZiPingPu dam, which stands to flood millions if it breaches. We know this because China has not found a way to stop outbound communications and the pictures and texting coming out of China by real citizens and reporters in the affected areas have told us the story firsthand without the government propaganda machine burying the story with self-serving platitudes.
Is the Chinese government doing this out of the goodness of their hearts? Probably not, although I do earnestly hope so. They have learned that disasters have a way of overthrowing governments. George Bush is still hurting from the Katrina response. Rightly or wrongly, people expect their government to be there when disasters strike. Local elections in this country can be lost due to a slow response to an unexpected snowstorm.
Burma’s leaders are too busy trying to stop any aid from getting in because they are afraid their people might figure out that the rest of the world really does care about them and their leaders do not. Hundreds of thousands are dying while the junta leaders re-tag the paltry amount of spoiled food they are giving out with the Generals’ pictures on them. The rest of the aid is being stolen by the military or stored in military warehouses.
Regardless of the reasons, China’s leaders have been more transparent and responsive than they have ever been in a disaster. Let’s hope they have moved on from the days when they used to deny what everyone’s Richter detectors were telling them. Regardless of the reasons, I hope that the Chinese government’s response to this disaster is a first step in being responsive to the needs of the citizens of China. The citizens of China, deserve much better treatment than they have received in the past. Of course, the Burmese deserve a lot better.
Meet Travis Childers, new Mississippi Congressman elected today in a Mississippi special election. Read his biography and see photos and a video of him below.
Conservative Democrat Travis Childers won the north Mississippi special election for Congress on Tuesday. He defeated Republican Greg Davis to in a special election runoff to claim a Congressional seat that has been held by Republicans since 1994.
The Mississippi special election was necessary when Republican Roger Wicker was appointed to the U.S. Senate in December when Trent Lott retired. Childers will hold the seat for the remainder of Wicker’s two-year term that started in January 2007.
Travis Childers Biography
Travis Childers was born on March 29, 1958 in Booneville, Prentiss County, Mississippi. He is 50-years-old. Childers worked throughout his high school years in a convenience store to support his mother and sister. He had to take responsibility for the family when his father died when Childers was just 16-years-old. Childers earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration in 1980 from the University of Mississippi.
Childers began working as a Realtor while he was still a student at Ole Miss. After graduation he worked full time as a Realtor and eventually opened his own real estate firm, Travis Childers Realty & Associates. He and his wife also own a personal care home, Landmark Community, and an 80-bed skilled care facility and Alzheimer’s unit, Landmark Nursing Center.
He entered politics in 1991 when he was elected Prentiss County chancery clerk and held that position through five terms. He served as president of the Mississippi Chancery Clerks Association in 2001 - 2002.
Childers and his wife Tami have two children. Their son Dustin is a student at Mississippi College School of Law. Their daughter is a student at the University of Mississippi.
Meet Cindy McCain, wife of Presidential candidate John McCain. Read her biography and see photos and a video of her below.
Many people feel that Cindy McCain will be one of the most beautiful and glamorous First Ladies we have ever had. She has often been compared to Jacquelyn Kennedy in terms of her grace, sophistication and dignity. Cindy McCain is all of that and more. She’s intelligent and articulate as well as a savvy businesswoman, a devoted mother, a patriot and a true partner to her husband. Her smile is real, not forced. Her eyes twinkle when she smiles. She and her husband look at each other with expressions of genuine affection. She plays a strong role behind the scenes in his campaign and adds a softness to his public persona.
Many of John McCain’s opponents use his wife’s beauty as a weapon against him and her. They refer to her in a derogatory manner as a ‘Stepford Wife’ and a ‘Barbie Doll’. Anyone who thinks that Cindy McCain is shallow and doesn’t have a mind of her own doesn’t know her at all.
The same adjectives that are often used to describe John McCain can be used to describe Cindy. She is tough, strong, charitable, ethical, values honor and integrity and in many ways is fearless. She and John both don’t try to hide their flaws and are endearing in a self-deprecating way. Cindy is an heiress who declined an offer to work in her family business so that she could go to work for disabled children. The McCain’s second daughter, Bridget, would have probably died had Cindy not taken her home with her from Mother Theresa’s orphanage in 1991. Cindy became addicted to pain medications following a back injury and kicked her addition years ago. She’s had several miscarriages and had to have a hysterectomy. She had to have surgery on her right arm after shaking so many hands during the 2000 campaign and had a stroke in 2004. Both of their sons are in the military and one has just recently completed a rotation in Iraq.
Read a biography of Cindy McCain and see photos and a video.
Here are the latest Democrat Oregon polls as the primary approaches on May 20th 2008. We will update this thread with the latest polls each day, but visit the comments for all recent news.
52 delegates are at stake.
The polls suggest that Barack Obama beats Hillary Clinton rather handily in the state. The contest pits the transplanted feminists from California against the cool young native hippies of the north. So far the Obama hippies are ahead.
All of the Democrat polls for Oregon are below.
Here are the latest Democrat Kentucky polls as the primary approaches on May 20th 2008. We will update this thread with the latest polls each day, but visit the comments for all recent news.
51 delegates are at stake.
The polls suggest that Hillary Clinton will beat Barack Obama by a landslide even before her decisive victory in West Virginia. Hillary Clinton will win, but it no longer matter whether that victory is 10 points or 30.
I expect Hillary Clinton to “suspend” her campaign after the Kentucky primary. That means she will effectively quit while reserving the moral right to resurface later if needed.
Obama’s strategy is to focus on John McCain. So although Hillary continues to be nominally in the race, he has already moved on to the general election. He is the nominee, after all.
All of the Democrat polls for Kentucky are below. The state has largely been ignored by the pundits and the campaigns with only two major polling companies working in the state.