Madness Beckons

Matt Latimer, former speech writer for President George W Bush, said in his book Speech-Less: Tales of a White House Survivor, that some members of his administration believed JK Rowling’s books promoted sorcery.

As a result, she was never presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Cue Monty Python:
What makes you think she’s a witch?
Well, she turned me into a newt!
A newt?
….. I got better
Burn her anyway!

Latimer also says that Senator Kennedy was denied the medal because he was too liberal.

According to discipline and domestic violence expert Murray Straus, spanking children costs them IQ points.

Spanking is causing brain damage?? What are these parents doing? Hitting the kid over the head with a skillet?

FRIDAY, Sept. 25 (HealthDay News) — The bad news is that youngsters who are spanked might lose IQ points.

The good news is that it appears that children’s IQs are on the rise — and at least one expert believes that part of the reason why is that corporal punishment is falling out of favor in the United States and elsewhere.

That’s the view of discipline and domestic violence expert Murray Straus, a professor of sociology and co-director of the Family Research Laboratory at the University of New Hampshire. Straus was scheduled to present the findings from recent research on spanking on Friday at the International Conference on Violence, Abuse and Trauma in San Diego.

The results of a survey of more than 17,000 university students from 32 countries “show that the higher the percent of parents who used corporal punishment, the lower the national average IQ,” Straus wrote in his presentation.

“How often parents spanked made a difference,” Straus said in a news release from the university. “The more spanking, the slower the development of the child’s mental ability. But even small amounts of spanking made a difference.”

I find it difficult to believe that any subject is this black and white.

I have not read the professor’s presentation, but considering his field of expertise and the group he presented to (the violence conference), it’s obvious that he has an axe to grind, and an opinion to justify.

What other factors were taken in to account?
-Education of the parents?
-Availability of good teachers/schools?
-Overall socioeconomic conditions?
-Ability to provide extra study materials?
-Etc.

There is a phrase that goes: Lies, Damn lies and statistics.

Anyone who has ever taken a statistics class will tell you that you can make statistics say anything you want them to say.

AP. SPOKANE, Wash. – A criminally insane killer who escaped during a mental hospital field trip to a county fair remained on the run Friday, and furious residents and officials wondered why such a dangerous person was out in public.

Authorities believe Phillip Arnold Paul, 47, is heading to the Sunnyside, Wash., area, where his parents and many siblings live. The Spokane County Sheriff’s Office used a helicopter to search Friday, and officers also searched transient camps along railroad tracks in the area. The public was urged to call 911.

“He is in a bad mental state,” his brother, Tom Paul, told The Associated Press. “Why would they load him on a bus and take him to a fair?”

Members of an employees union at Eastern State put out a statement saying they had long opposed such field trips.

“They believe he was an extreme escape risk and the administration should never have allowed him on the field trip,” the statement from the Washington Federation of State Employees said. “The workers have unsuccessfully fought to stop the outings for murderers, rapists and pedophiles committed to the hospital as criminally insane.”

The union said workers alerted superiors “within two to three minutes of discovering Paul’s escape.” But administrators waited nearly two hours before calling law enforcement. That gave Paul plenty of time to disappear.

This was the second escape for Paul. In 1991, he walked away during a day trip in Medical Lake.

Peta wants to create a “Chicken empathy museum.”

When they learned that Virginia was closing a prison a PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) official sent a letter Monday to Gov. Tim Kaine asking to rent the Botetourt Correctional Center building in Troutville.

A spokesperson for the Governor said the state doesn’t lease to private entities except for cases grandfathered in when it purchases buildings.

PETA spokeswoman Ashley Byrne said the Norfolk-based group thinks a former prison is the ideal setting for exhibits on what it contends is mistreatment of chickens raised for slaughter.

PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman said the museum also would have displays detailing chickens’ habits and intelligence.

These are the same loonies that want to rename fish “sea kittens” and who’s executive vice president says it’s ok for her to use insulin that has been tested on animals because it enables her to fight for animal rights. Of course they continue to protest any animal related drug tests…. just so long as it doesn’t effect one of them.

This is a real building here in Las Vegas. These pictures are NOT Photoshopped.

The sign reads:
Lou Ruvo Brain Institute
Cure: Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington ’s Diseases, ALS and Memory Disorders.

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