Mother Pleads Guilty To Having Sex With Teen

Becky Jo Tatum, previously arrested for unlawful contact with a minor, insurance fraud, drug possession and weapons possession, among other things, has plead guilty to sleeping with one of her daughters friends at a party.

From 10tv.com:

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A mother accused of having sex with a teenager pleaded guilty to the crime on Wednesday.

Becky Jo Tatum admitted having unlawful sexual conduct with a minor. She said that she engaged in sexual conduct with a 14-year-old girl, her daughter's friend, at a party, 10TV's Maureen Kocot reported.

The teenager told police that Tatum's daughter claimed her mother had sex with other teenage friends, Kocot reported.

Bexley police also found more than one ounce of cocaine and a gun inside Tatum's home. She was not allowed to own a firearm because of a 1999 conviction for attempted drug trafficking and a 1998 conviction for promoting prostitution.

Tatum will be confined by an electronic monitoring device until she is sentenced in September. She could face up to 11 1/2 years behind bars.

Knights Templar sues Vatican

Yes, really.

From the UK Daily Telegraph:

The Association of the Sovereign Order of the Temple of Christ, whose members claim to be descended from the legendary crusaders, have filed a lawsuit against Benedict XVI calling for him to recognise the seizure of assets worth 100 billion euros (£79 billion).

They claim that when the order was dissolved by his predecessor Pope Clement V in 1307, more than 9,000 properties as well as countless pastures, mills and other commercial ventures belonging to the knights were appropriated by the church.

Damn. You can just about hear the popping of conspiracy theorists heads.

National Guard heading toward Chicago?

From the Chicago Tribune:

CHICAGO - Gov. Rod Blagojevich on Wednesday raised the possibility of bringing in state troopers or even the Illinois National Guard to help Chicago combat a recent increase in violent crime -- an offer that Mayor Richard Daley didn't know was coming.

Appearing at signing ceremony for a bill that toughens the penalty for adults who provide guns to minors, Blagojevich said "violent crime in the city of Chicago is out of control."

"I'm offering resources of the state to the city to work in a constructive way with Mayor Daley to do everything we can possibly do to help ... stop this violence," said the governor.

Blagojevich said Daley had not asked for help and he had not talked to the mayor about offering it, adding he would call Daley after he met later in the day with the state police, National Guard and others.

Which seems a bit odd. Daley didn't seem to ask for the help, but there's the Governor offering it.

The role the National Guard would play is apparently undecided. His office did some serious backpedaling:

Blagojevich said it is far more likely that state troopers would be used than guardsmen. In fact, his office moved quickly after the governor's comments to stress in a news release that Blagojevich was not considering bringing in National Guard troops to the city.

"The only way the National Guard would be involved, if they are involved, is with the use of tactical helicopters that are currently used in narcotics operations," spokesman Lucio Guerrero said in a prepared statement.

Likely the prospect of using a military force to keep order in a major city struck some as a little extreme, even if it's so Chicago has a chance at hosting the Olympics in 2016.

Basments flood... with salad dressing?

From 10tv.com:

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Storms and heavy rain usually flood basements with water, but some homeowners on the city's north side are dealing with flooding of a different kind on Wednesday.

At least 10 residents in Clintonville are cleaning up after a combination of storm water and ranch salad dressing seeped into their basements.

According to the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, rain from last week's storms combined with sewage from the T. Marzetti. Co. -- a salad dressing producer located on Indianola Avenue.

Sewage and storm water overwhelmed the city's storm sewer system, resulting in flooding at nearby homes.

"It's creamy-ranch- dressing-looking crap," resident Steven Maiken told the Columbus Dispatch. "It's not toxic waste, but we did have to throw away a lot of stuff. We tried to wash it off over and over again."

Damn. You know, sewage would be bad enough, but sewage with ranch dressing?

So... how's that war on drugs going?

From Reuters:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States leads the world in rates of experimenting with marijuana and cocaine despite strict drug laws, World Health Organization researchers said on Tuesday.

Countries with looser drug laws have lower rates of abuse, the researchers report in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Medicine.

The survey of 54,000 people in 17 countries found that 16 percent of people in the United States had used cocaine in their lifetimes -- far higher than the next highest rate, found in New Zealand, where 4.3 percent of people reported having used cocaine.

More than 42 percent of Americans admitted to having tried cannabis, closely followed by 41 percent in New Zealand, Dr. Louisa Degenhardt of the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia and an international team of colleagues found.

Great. We've got very strict laws on drug use, entire agencies devoted to enforcement of drug laws... and the highest rate of marijuana and cocaine in the world.

Marvelous.

Don Davis, AKA General Hammond, has died

For Fans of Stargate SG-1, today is a sad day.

Don Davis, the actor who played General Hammond has died.

From Gateworld:

With great sadness we must report that veteran actor Don S. Davis passed away on June 29, 2008. He was 65 years old.

Don co-starred on Stargate SG-1 for the show's first seven years, helping to launch the enduring science fiction franchise. Davis played Major General George Hammond, base commander and a father figure to many of the show's characters.

He is also well-known for his portrayal of Major Garland Briggs in Twin Peaks.

Off-screen, Don was beloved by the show's cast and crew. He departed the show in 2003 due to a medical condition that restricted his workload, but returned for several guest appearances on SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis in the following years. Don worked hard to improve his health, and continued to work both on screen and off until his death.

In lieu of flowers or gifts, the family asks for donations to the American Heart Association.

Sexes split over one night stands

This bit of wisdom comes from the BBC:

Many women are left unhappy in the aftermath of casual sexual encounters, a survey has revealed.

Just under half of women who answered the internet poll, published in the journal "Human Nature", said they felt it had been a bad idea.

Four out of five men, in contrast, said they were happy with a brief fling.

Drunken driver gets 43 years for killing mom, kids

Apparently, Ohio can do something right.

From the AP:

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) - A Michigan man was sentenced to 43 years in prison Friday for driving the wrong way on an interstate and slamming his pickup truck into a minivan, killing a Maryland mother and four children who were returning home from a Christmas trip. Michael Gagnon of Adrian, Mich., had a blood-alcohol level more than twice the legal limit and marijuana in his system, authorities said.

Lucas County Judge Linda Jennings called Gagnon a dangerous person. "You have a drinking problem and you don't even know it," she said.

Gagnon, 24, had pleaded no contest to five counts of aggravated vehicular homicide and two counts of aggravated vehicular assault.

2nd Amendment: An Individual right

BooYah!!

The Supreme Court has ruled that the second amendment is an individual right.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Silent on central questions of gun control for two centuries, the Supreme Court found its voice Thursday in a decision affirming the right to have guns for self-defense in the home and addressing a constitutional riddle almost as old as the republic over what it means to say the people may keep and bear arms.

The court's 5-4 ruling struck down the District of Columbia's ban on handguns and imperiled similar prohibitions in other cities, Chicago and San Francisco among them. Federal gun restrictions, however, were expected to remain largely intact.

You can read the full decision here. Note that it's a 157 page .pdf. While large in size, it's also an interesting read.

From my reading of it, the Court seems to be saying that:

• The Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to own firearms.
• People have a right to defend themselves.
• Handguns are a valid tool for self defense, and banning handguns violates the Constitution.
• Some restrictions, such as those preventing felons and the insane from own firearms, are legal.

Note that I'm not a lawyer. I don't even play one on the internet.

The 5-4 margin worries me, but overall it's a good decision.

Congrats America!

George Carlin has died

From MSNBC

SANTA MONICA, Calif. - George Carlin, the frenzied performer whose routine “Seven Words You Can Never Say On Television” led to a key Supreme Court ruling on obscenity, has died.

Carlin, who had a history of heart trouble, went into St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica on Sunday afternoon complaining of chest pain and died later that evening, said his publicist, Jeff Abraham. He had performed as recently as last weekend at the Orleans Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas. He was 71.

Old and busted: Global Warming. New.. erm... hotness: Global Cooling

Yeah, really.

From the News busters blog:

Investor's Business Daily is reporting something we haven't seen much of in the media since the 1970s: concerns about global cooling. You read that correctly: cooling.

Kenneth Tapping, a researcher at Canada's National Research Council, wants to look for evidence of increased sunspot activity, according to IBD. "The lack of increased activity could signal the beginning of what is known as a Maunder Minimum, an event which occurs every couple of centuries and can last as long as a century."

A "solar hibernation" in the 17th Century "corresponded with a period of bitter cold that began around 1650 and lasted, with intermittent spikes of warming, until 1715," IBD reported. "Frigid winters and cold summers during that period led to massive crop failures, famine and death in Northern Europe."

Tapping's concerns fly in the face of the current media drumbeat about global warming, which would have Americans believe the Earth is on course for catastrophic climate changes unless the federal government (i.e. taxpayers) steps in to save the day.

The Investors Business Daily article mentioned above is here.

Britain is the world's biggest arms dealer

From the UK Times Online:

London Britain was the world’s biggest arms seller last year, accounting for a third of global arms exports, the Government’s trade promotion organisation said.

UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) said that arms exporters had added £9.7 billion in new business last year, giving them a larger share of global arms exports than the United States.

“As demonstrated by this outstanding export performance, the UK has a first-class defence industry, with some of the world’s most technologically sophisticated companies,” Digby Jones, the Minister for Trade and Investment, said.

UKTI said that the figures were boosted by orders for Eurofighter Typhoon jets from Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest arms buyer, which has imported $31 billion (£16 million) in weapons over the past five years. There were also orders from Oman and Trinidad and Tobago for offshore patrol vessels.

The US is still the world’s biggest exporter over the past five years, with $63 billion in total arms exports. Britain was second with $53 billion and Russia third with $33 billion.

Interesting... especially considering the UK attitude towards civilian firearms ownership.

Congress and CFs

A little something from youtube...



It's Rep Ted Poe from the 2nd district of Texas speaking on an energy bill in congress, specifically the requirement to use compact fluorescent light bulbs.

He makes some good points, such as there's nothing in the Constitution which gives congress the authority to regulate which light bulbs must be used in US homes and the environmental regulations around disposing of compact fluorescent light bulbs. Since they contain mercury, those regulations are apparently not minimal.

Happy Caturday

First, we interrupt this regularly scheduled Caturday with this:



Tim Russert passed away yesterday from an apparent heart attack. There's a number of memorials on the web to him in respect of his long career in journalism and political talk shows. By all accounts, he was a great guy off camera as well as an excellent interviewer on camera.

He'll be missed.

In the spirit of the common man overcoming adversity with good humor, Caturday now continues.

Preliminary Uniform Crime Reports, 2007 and Columbus, Ohio

Well, the preliminary Uniform Crime Reports for 2007 are out.

You may hear about these statistics on the news, if there's not a celebrity off shaving something while the cameras are watching.

When I see them, I like to compare the stats to past years, relate my local area to regional statistics... yes, it's a moment of geeking out with statistics.

Here's a comparison of Columbus, Ohio, violent crime rates to the Midwest:

The chart shows percentage change; negative numbers indicate a decrease of course.

Note that violent crime in general is down in the Midwest by %1.7, but up in Columbus by %5.

While Columbus has had fewer murders than the Midwest as a whole ( down %8 in Columbus vs. down %3.8 regionally ), rape is on the rise in Columbus by %11 while regionally it's down %7.1 .

Other numbers are similarly bad for Columbus. In robbery, we're up %5 while the Midwest is down %3 and in Aggravated Assault Columbus is up %4 while regionally it's down %0.2.

Rates for Violent Crime per 100,000 in Columbus Ohio are as follow:

Violent Crime	Murder	Rape	Robbery	Aggravated Assault
852	11	90	523	228

That's the problem with statistics... sometimes they tell you things you don't want to hear.

French Army falling apart

No, it's not a joke.

Apparently the French Army is a sad state:

According to confidential defence documents leaked to the French press, less than half of France's Leclerc tanks – 142 out of 346 – are operational and even these regularly break down.

Less than half of its Puma helicopters, 37 per cent of its Lynx choppers and 33 per cent of its Super Frelon models – built 40 years ago – are in a fit state to fly, according to documents seen by Le Parisien newspaper.

Two thirds of France's Mirage F1 reconnaissance jets are unusable at present.

Of course, the timing is a bit suspect:

The disclosure comes just ten days before President Nicolas Sarkozy announces a major reform of the armed forces, with a defence white paper outlining France's military priorities for the next 15 years.

He is expected to argue that the situation can only improve by reducing the number of France's operational troops from 50,000 to 30,000, and its fighter aircraft, as well as closing military bases.

He will also use the occasion to push for greater military integration in Europe, an issue that France will highlight when it takes over the EU's six-month rotating presidency in July.

French proposals circulating in Brussels show that France wants a new EU military headquarters based in the Belgian capital and run by Europe's new foreign policy chief. It is also calling for a bigger rapid reaction force and for countries to spend more on defence.

So France wants to spend less on defense but wants other EU nations to spend more. Nice.

Suicide and the US Army

I'm sure most of you have seen the AP story about the rise in suicides in the US Army.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The number of Army suicides increased again last year, amid the most violent year yet in both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. An Army official said Thursday that 115 troops committed suicide in 2007, a nearly 13 percent increase over the previous year's 102. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because a full report on the deaths wasn't being released until later Thursday.

Finding stats to work with takes some googling. Most of what I could find online was for FY 2005.

From suicide.org I found that the suicide rate in the US was 11.0 nation wide in 2005.

Also in 2005, there were 512,400 Active Duty US Army personnel. Note that I said "Active Duty"; that figure doesn't count the US Army reserve, the National Guard units or any civilian personnel.

That same AP article mentions there were 85 suicides in 2005.

That's a rate of 16.59 suicides per 100,000 for the Army compared to, again, 11 per 100,000 for the United States.

Given that the suicide rate for the Army is higher than the general population, I wonder if there's been a corresponding increase in the suicide rate in the general population which is simply reflected in the Army statistics, or if the Army's experiences in Iraq are becoming more of a factor than they were in past years.

Doctor Dispels Myth that Corpses Spread Disease

Apparently.

I saw this story on NPR. Outside of the brief blurb, there's not much text.

So some googling turned up this link with a bit more detail.
Dr. Claude de Ville de Goyet, MD writes:

The myth that dead bodies cause a major risk of disease, as reiterated in all large natural disasters from the earthquake in Managua, Nicaragua (1972) to Hurricane Mitch, and now to the Turkish earthquake, is just that, a myth. The bodies of victims from earthquakes or other natural disasters do not present a public health risk of cholera, typhoid fever, or other plagues mentioned by misinformed medical doctors. In fact, the few occasional carriers of those communicable diseases who were unfortunate victims of the disaster are a far lesser threat to the public than they were while alive. Often overlooked is the unintended social consequence of the precipitous and unceremonious disposal of corpses. It constitutes just one more severe blow to the affected population, depriving them of their human right to honor the dead with a proper identification and burial. The legal and financial consequences of the lack of a death certificate will add to the suffering of the survivors for years to come. Moreover, focusing on the summary disposal, superficial "disinfection" with lime, mass burial, or cremation of corpses requires important human and material resources that instead should be allocated to those who survived and remain in critical condition.

Our experience in the aftermath of the earthquake in Mexico City showed that health authorities and the media can work together to inform the public, make possible the identification of the deceased, and the return of the bodies to the families in a climate free of unfounded fears of epidemics.

So the doctor seems to be saying that the risk to public health is minimal compared to the emotional and mental strain of seeing their loved ones end up in a mass grave.

Perhaps so; however I think they'd like seeing their loved ones picked apart by critters even less and watching them turn into bloated, gassy bags of slowly liquefying meat would be right out. In those cases where facilities aren't up to the job of storing a large number of corpses, mass burial might be the only option.

Either way, I don't expect I'll be keeping any corpses around. Can't be too careful, you know. ;-)

Ashley Dupre back in the news

The woman who brought down Eliot Spitzer is back in the news:

The woman at the center of the New York governor call-girl scandal is suing "Girls Gone Wild" founder Joe Francis, claiming he exploited her name and image for profit.

Ashley Alexandra Dupre is seeking more than $10 million in damages in the lawsuit filed on Monday.

Dupre alleges that "Girls Gone Wild" representatives approached her while she was vacationing in Florida in 2003 and offered her alcohol before encouraging her to expose her breasts for their cameras when she was just 17.

The suit claims "Girls Gone Wild" has illegally exploited Dupre's name, picture, voice and likeness in a number of deceptive ad campaigns and on Web sites, reports People.com.

Jimmy Carter, Hamas and Israel

So former President Jimmy Carter decided to meet with Hamas while visiting the region.

Now, Israel and Hamas aren't exactly the best of friends. Hamas claims a divine right to the land Israel is composed of:

Hamas considers all of pre-1948 Palestine to be the Palestinian homeland. This includes present-day State of Israel — as well as the Gaza Strip and the West Bank — as an inalienable Islamic waqf or religious bequest, which can never be surrendered to non-Muslims. It asserts that struggle (jihad) to regain control of the land from Israel is the religious duty of every Muslim (fard `ain).

Hamas does not recognize Israel as a sovereign state, unlike the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which has recognized it since 1988, and calls it the "Zionist entity". Its charter calls for an end to Israel.

So it's not like they're open to negotiation with Israel. Kinda hard to when your god is telling you to wipe them out.

In response to this, Israel has refused to provide security for former President Carter.

JERUSALEM, April 14 (Reuters) - Israeli leaders shunned former U.S. President Jimmy Carter during a visit because of his plans to meet Hamas and Israel's secret service declined to assist U.S. agents guarding him, U.S. sources said on Monday.

"They're not getting support from local security," one of the sources said, on condition of anonymity.

Now, for it's part Israel is saying in effect it's a paperwork error:

An Israeli security source said the Shin Bet security service provided no protection to Carter during his visit to the Jewish state because no request was made.

However, if Israel deliberately decided to withhold protection, I wouldn't be surprised.

Negotiation doesn't seem to have a point, as Hamas doesn't seem like they're going to rescind a key part of their identity in order to peacefully coexist with Israel. Given that, what exactly is the point of meeting with Hamas if not to antagonize Israel? If antagonism is the point... why should Israel help Carter?