UNC-Chapel Hill library drops Christmas trees

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — There will be no Christmas trees this year at the two main libraries at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

The News & Observer of Raleigh reports trees have been in the lobby of the Wilson and Davis libraries for years.

Associate provost Sarah Michalak decided against them this year.

Michalak said she eliminated the displays after getting questions and complaints from employees and library users about the Christian display.

Michalak says she acted after finding there are no Christmas trees in the libraries at Duke and North Carolina State University.

She says it doesn’t seem right to celebrate one particular set of customs. She says libraries contain information from around the world about all belief systems and offer it without judgment.

Student Derek Belcher complained the decision is just political correctness

http://www.wral.com/news/state/story/4082345/

This from the same “university’ (we State alumni use that term loosely when talking about UNC) that had soom doofus try to run down the ‘white devils’ in the name of Islam.

http://www.americanthinker.com.....after.html

This is happening now. Our new “government” is silent on it’s approval and ratification. Somebody better pay attention, or posting anything negative about Islam could land you in jail. Legally.

The “camel” is almost completely in the tent…..

U.S. mulls using 1988 drug law on Blackwater

By Matt Apuzzo and Lara Jakes Jordan – The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Dec 4, 2008 20:45:29 EST

WASHINGTON — Blackwater Worldwide guards involved in the deadly 2007 Baghdad shooting of Iraqi civilians could face mandatory 30-year prison sentences under an aggressive anti-drug law being considered as the Justice Department readies indictments, people close to the case said.

Charges could be announced as early as Monday for the shooting, which left 17 civilians dead and strained U.S. relations with the fledgling Iraqi government. Prosecutors have been reviewing a draft indictment and considering manslaughter and assault charges for weeks. A team of prosecutors returned to the grand jury room Thursday and called no witnesses.

Though drugs were not involved in the Blackwater shooting, the Justice Department is pondering the use of a law, passed at the height of the nation’s crack epidemic, to prosecute the guards. The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988 law calls for 30-year prison terms for using machine guns to commit violent crimes of any kind, whether drug-related or not.

http://www.marinecorpstimes.co.....on_120408/

Given the new administration, expect more of the same. And don’t even think about defending yourself. Either way, if someone wants to attack you, you’re dead. But the Justice department and Obama understand that the perp is just a victim of society, which will make your actions even more heinous.

From New York Newsday:

Cops: Crowd confrontation sparked Black Friday stampede

By Keith Herbert

A no-cutting-in-line conflict between two large groups of shoppers helped to spark the Black Friday stampede in which a Wal-Mart worker was trampled to death, Nassau police said yesterday.

Shoppers who remained inside their vehicles in the parking lot until the Valley Stream store’s special 5 a.m. opening apparently clashed with people who had stood in line for hours outside Wal-Mart, police said.

When the store’s doors opened, the conflict between the two groups – with “a considerable amount of people” who had stayed in their vehicles rushing to enter the store without waiting in line – fostered “mob mentality,” Nassau Police Lt. Kevin Smith said.

“A whole lot of people started getting out of their cars and made a beeline for that door,” Smith said, referring to the one set of doors open to shoppers.

“It’s definitely a contributing factor – the mentality of ‘They’re not going to cut in front of me.’”

In the crush of an estimated 2,000 people, the set of doors was broken and Jdimytai Damour, 34, of Jamaica, a temporary security worker, was trampled, dying of asphyxiation, police said. No one has been charged in connection with the death, though police are investigating possible criminal charges.

Meanwhile, an attorney for Damour’s family yesterday filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Wal-Mart in state Supreme Court in the Bronx, The Associated Press reported. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Elsie Damour Phillipe, the victim’s sister.

In a written statement, Hank Mullany, president of Wal-Mart’s Eastern Division, said the company is working to implement stronger safety measures.

“We consider Mr. Damour part of the Wal-Mart family, and are saddened by his death,” Mullany said. “We have been in communication with members of his family to do what we can to help them through this difficult time. Our associates know that when incidents like this occur, we take care of our own.”

The statement did not address the family’s lawsuit.

Police reports on the Black Friday disturbance showed a total of five cases requiring medical attention, with people suffering injuries ranging from a broken ankle to complaints of pain, along with three reports of harassment and Damour’s death, Smith said. …

http://www.newsday.com/news/lo.....3434.story

Yes, it wouldn’t be the shoppers, it’s Wal-Mart.

The fact that shoppers entered every other Wal-Mart in the country without killing anyone notwithstanding.

From Fox News:

Lego-Style Islamic Terrorist Figurine Sparks Outrage

A Lego-style figurine resembling an Islamic terrorist strapped with explosives and made by a small American company has caused an uproar among Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

The controversial miniature figure, created by Seattle-based Will Chapman as part of his BrickArms military fighters line, is a bearded militant with a face-covering hood, a tiny toy assault rifle, a little grenade launcher and plastic bombs that can be attached to an explosives belt.

The character is called “Bandit — Mr. White” and sells for $14.

The jarring toy has outraged the British Muslim organization known as the Ramadhan Foundation, which called the figurine “absolutely disgusting,” according to Sky News.

The foundation’s chief executive, Mohammed Shafiq, complained that the toy is “glorifying terrorism.”

“I don’t think there’s any difference between someone that shouts hatred through a megaphone and someone that creates a doll that glorifies terrorists,” he told Sky.

“As a parent myself, I’m going to teach my children respect for the law and respect for each and every community. These are the lessons parents should be giving to their children — not lessons about weapons and violence.”

Chapman, a father of three who operates the company from the Seattle suburb of Redmond, Wash., bristles at the notion that he is celebrating terrorism.

“We do not sell an ‘Osama bin Laden’ miniature figure,” he wrote in an e-mail to FOXNews.com. “We sell a generic bad guy minifigure with a Ninja scarf head wrap, the same minifigure that we have been selling for over a year now, with no associated ‘outrage.’

“It does not represent anything; it is simply a bandit — a bad guy for the good guys to battle. Attempt to assign it a ‘personality’ only serves to create controversy that does not exist.”

On his Web site, he explains that his 9-year-old son gave him the idea for the toy line, which includes 31 different Lego-style weapons and a variety of military figurines.

He told FOXNews.com that BrickArms is a “family-owned and family-run business.”

“We started in 2006, when one of our sons expressed an interest in military history and weaponry of the WW2 era,” he wrote. “He wanted to recreate scenes from history, with his LEGO bricks and figures, so he and I designed the first of many of our BrickArms miniature toy weapon replicas.”

Other figurines in the line are World War II fighters, U.S. Marines and even a Nazi SS officer. …

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,461647,00.html

Man, with the deed to the Brooklyn Bridge, you could really clean up on eBay.

British Balance Gain Against the Cost of the Latest Drugs

By Gardiner Harris

RUISLIP, England — When Bruce Hardy’s kidney cancer spread to his lung, his doctor recommended an expensive new pill from Pfizer. But Mr. Hardy is British, and the British health authorities refused to buy the medicine. His wife has been distraught.

“Everybody should be allowed to have as much life as they can,” Joy Hardy said in the couple’s modest home outside London.

If the Hardys lived in the United States or just about any European country other than Britain, Mr. Hardy would most likely get the drug, although he might have to pay part of the cost. A clinical trial showed that the pill, called Sutent, delays cancer progression for six months at an estimated treatment cost of $54,000.

But at that price, Mr. Hardy’s life is not worth prolonging, according to a British government agency, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence. The institute, known as NICE, has decided that Britain, except in rare cases, can afford only £15,000, or about $22,750, to save six months of a citizen’s life.

British authorities, after a storm of protest, are reconsidering their decision on the cancer drug and others.

For years, Britain was almost alone in using evidence of cost-effectiveness to decide what to pay for. But skyrocketing prices for drugs and medical devices have led a growing number of countries to ask the hardest of questions: How much is life worth? For many, NICE has the answer.

Top health officials in Austria, Brazil, Colombia and Thailand said in interviews that NICE now strongly influences their policies.

“All the middle-income countries — in Eastern Europe, Central and South America, the Middle East and all over Asia — are aware of NICE and are thinking about setting up something similar,” said Dr. Andreas Seiter, a senior health specialist at the World Bank.

Even in the United States, rising costs have led some in Congress to propose an institute that would compare the effectiveness of new medical technologies, although the proposals so far would not allow for price considerations. At the present rate of growth, medical costs will increase to 25 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product in 2025 from 16 percent, with half of the increase coming from new drugs and devices, according to the Congressional Budget Office. …

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12.....3nice.html

Where will those who complain about evil, greedy HMOs go when the Government is the one that decides that your life just isn’t worth the cost?

It took 90 minutes for Daily News to ’steal’ the Empire State Building

By William Sherman

In one of the biggest heists in American history, the Daily News “stole” the $2 billion Empire State Building.

And it wasn’t that hard.

The News swiped the 102-story Art Deco skyscraper by drawing up a batch of bogus documents, making a fake notary stamp and filing paperwork with the city to transfer the deed to the property.

Some of the information was laughable: Original “King Kong” star Fay Wray is listed as a witness and the notary shared a name with bank robber Willie Sutton.

The massive ripoff illustrates a gaping loophole in the city’s system for recording deeds, mortgages and other transactions.

The loophole: The system – run by the office of the city register – doesn’t require clerks to verify the information.

Less than 90 minutes after the bogus documents were submitted on Monday, the agency rubber-stamped the transfer from Empire State Land Associates to Nelots Properties LLC. Nelots is “stolen” spelled backward. (The News returned the property Tuesday.)

“Crooks go where the money is. That’s why Willie Sutton robbed banks, and this is the new bank robbery,” said Brooklyn Assistant District Attorney Richard Farrell, who is prosecuting several deed fraud cases.

Of course, stealing the Empire State Building wouldn’t go unnoticed for long, but it shows how easy it is for con artists to swipe more modest buildings right out from under their owners. Armed with a fraudulent deed, they can take out big mortgages and disappear, leaving a mess for property owners, banks and bureaucrats.

“Once you have the deed, it’s easy to obtain a mortgage,” Farrell said. …

http://www.nydailynews.com/mon.....o_ste.html

You’ve got to love Big Government.

Rastafarian Can Bring Religious Discrimination Suit Against Jiffy Lube for Grooming Policy

BOSTON — The highest court in Massachusetts has ruled that a Rastafarian man who refused to shave his beard or cut his hair to comply with Jiffy Lube’s employee grooming policy can take his religious discrimination case to trial.

The Supreme Judicial Court on Tuesday reversed a decision by a Superior Court judge who had dismissed Bobby Brown’s lawsuit against Jiffy Lube.

Brown worked as a technician at a Jiffy Lube in Hadley. After the company began a new grooming policy in 2002, Brown told management that his religion does not permit him to shave or cut his hair.

Jiffy Lube then told Brown he could work only in lower bays where he did not have contact with customers.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,460765,00.html

Granted, I think he has a case as the policy was implemented after he was hired.

Unfortunately, I don’t think that matters at all to the courts.

From a depressed AP:

Obama Ditches Oil Company Tax After Price Crash

President-elect Barack Obama is not planning to implement a windfall profit tax on oil companies because prices have dropped below $80 a barrel, an aide said on Tuesday.

“President-elect Obama announced the policy during the campaign because oil prices were above $80 per barrel,” an aide on Obama’s transition team said. “They are currently below that now and expected to stay below that.”

Oil prices have fallen from a record $147 a barrel in July to under $50 this week.

Obama, who signaled early in his campaign for the White House that he would take an active approach to oil markets as president, had planned to use the revenue from a windfall profits tax to fund a tax rebate for low- and middle-income families struggling with high energy prices.

But the aide said Obama’s presidential campaign had already taken the price drop into account six weeks ago. When Obama laid out his economic plan for the middle class in mid-October, revenue from a windfall profit tax was not included because of the price change, he said.

Oil companies steadfastly opposed a tax, saying it would stifle exploration and innovation.

The switch drew applause from industry.

“The judgment to withdraw the concept of a windfall profits tax is an important recognition that developing America’s oil and natural gas would be seriously damaged by such a tax policy,” said Lee Fuller, vice president of government relations for the Independent Petroleum Association of America, which represents independent oil and gas producers.

“A windfall profits tax is bad policy at any price,” said Thomas Pyle, president of the Institute for Energy Research, calling the move “a heartening development — both for consumers and an economy struggling to claw its way out of recession.”

Many energy experts warned that imposing a windfall profits tax would discourage energy companies from drilling for oil in the United States, which would exacerbate U.S. reliance on foreign suppliers.

But environmentalists support a tax and want oil companies to invest more in renewable fuels.

Obama has made revamping U.S. energy policy a key priority of his upcoming presidency, promising to increase production of renewable energy sources and start a carbon trading system to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

He said recently that the fall in gasoline prices was not an excuse to put off tackling U.S. dependence on foreign oil.

Oil Tycoon T. Boone Pickens, who met with Obama during the campaign to discuss energy policy, said he was against a windfall profits tax but did not believe the decision not to implement one would affect domestic oil production.

“The windfall profits tax won’t have anything to do with killing any oil projects,” Pickens told reporters in Washington.

http://www.foxnews.com/politic.....ice-crash/

Has Pickens lost it that badly, or is it just he sank way too much into Natural Gas to see the value of his investment fall because oil is less expensive?

St. Louis City Leader Says Police Ineffective, Tells Residents to Get Armed

ST. LOUIS — A St. Louis city leader frustrated with the police response to rising crime called Tuesday on residents to arm themselves to protect their lives and property.

Alderman Charles Quincy Troupe said police are ineffective, outnumbered or don’t care about the increase in crime in his north St. Louis ward. St. Louis has had 157 homicides in 2008, 33 more than last year at this time.

“The community has to be ready to defend itself, because it’s clear the economy is going to get worse, and criminals are getting more bold,” Troupe, 72, said Tuesday.

Troupe said that when he and residents approached a district police commander last year, they were told “there was nothing he could do to protect us and the community … that he didn’t have the manpower.”

Police did not immediately return requests for comment. Chief Dan Isom told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch he understands Troupe’s frustration but doesn’t support citizens arming themselves.

Carrying guns, he said, is not a “recipe for a less violent community.”

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,460725,00.html

However it often is a recipe for defending one’s life and loved ones.