A New York hedge fund manager allegedly swindles $12 million from a prominent Baltimore family. An Indiana couple is accused of bilking hundreds of customers by charging for free trials of cosmetic products. A financial manager in Texas promises 23-percent returns but absconds with $33.5 million of his investors’ money in a classic Ponzi scheme.
All three cases have one thing in common: money that ended up in offshore accounts and trusts set up in tax havens around the world.
They have more than one thing in common: They all have the American Republican Party written all over them.
Among the 4,000 U.S. individuals listed in the records, at least 30 are American citizens accused in lawsuits or criminal cases of fraud, money laundering or other serious financial misconduct.
"It seems to me that now they're fighting for the name, and I worry that it means somehow we debase, or we change, what marriage is. I just worry about that."
But wait—there's more!
"I mean tax-wise is an interesting one because, you see, could a father not marry his son?"
Irons has now responded—not apologized, but responded—and in what can only be described as an offensive and groveling manner. Which is quite a trick.
Lee Halpin, 26, was found dead in a disused hostel in Newcastle where overnight temperatures fell below -4C. Local media reported he had likely frozen to death, although the exact cause of death has not yet been determined. [...]
Halpin recorded a video describing his plan to experience street life as part of an application for a journalist position with the UK's Channel 4.
In the video, Halpin said he hoped his willingness to sleep rough would demonstrate the "fearlessness" required by selectors for the channel's investigative journalism program.
There appears to be some kind of drug link as well. Just terrible.
This is the video he made explaining his decision to spend a week on the streets:
CHICAGO—Calling the overall human experience “poignant,” “thought-provoking,” and a “complete tour de force,” film critic Roger Ebert praised existence Thursday as “an audacious and thrilling triumph.” “While not without its flaws, life, from birth to death, is a masterwork, and an uplifting journey that both touches the heart and challenges the mind,” said Ebert, adding that while the totality of all humankind is sometimes “a mess in places,” it strives to be a magnum opus and, according to Ebert, largely succeeds at this goal.
A federal judge ruled Friday that the government must make the most common morning-after pill available over the counter for all ages, instead of requiring a prescription for girls 16 and younger. In his ruling, he also accused the federal government of “bad faith” in dealing with the requests to make the pill universally available, and said its actions had been politically motivated.
This is opposed by abortion-rights foes as a kind of abortion. It's unfortunate that this still has to be pointed out, but that is not true. A video:
A point about the anti-abortion forces that cannot be made too often: They cannot claim to be about "saving babies" or "protecting the sanctity of life" when they are also against contraception.
If you're against abortion, and you're also against contraception - and that's you, Pope and Catholic Church, as well as a lot of non-Catholic Christians in the anti-abortion forces - then you prove that this is aboutyour religion, not about "babies." You have every right in the world to put up a fight against a woman's right to and access to abortion, however misguided I and others find it, but we should not have to put up with lies about "saving babies" or "protecting the sancity of life," when it is clearly proven by your opposition to contraception that it is not about that. This is about your religious beliefs—and how those beliefs relate to women, and what they're "supposed" to do in this world. If you'd admit that (perhaps to yourself?), we'd all be in a lot better shape.
Update: Oh for - errrg: Obama and his administration are still backing the restrictions! What the hell?
A 14-year-old Detroit girl is mourning the loss of her pet Chihuahua after her neighbor shot and killed it.
The teenage owner had let 1-year-old Jojo outside earlier, and went back to retrieve him when the shooting occurred.
The neighbor is claiming self-defense saying the dog charged him.
The guy was a licensed gun owner. The dog was a 1-year-old Chihuahua. It had to weigh about 5 pounds, maybe less. God almighty. That should bring charges, but it apparently did not:
Rudolph said police responded to the scene but after interviewing both the owner and the neighbor, officers concluded that he was within his right to use his firearm.
Put whatever feelings you have or don't have about the dog aside - how is it legal to discharge a firearm in a crowded neighborhood - to kill a chihuahua? Especially given that the owner was standing right there? Are we supposed to believe the guy actually believed he was in danger - to the point where he needed to defend himself with a firearm?
That is gun culture gone completely, cowardly, nuts.
Hey, who knew, Jeremy Irons is an asshole. When asked about his feelings on gay marriage, Irons answered:
"It seems to me that now they're fighting for the name, and I worry that it means somehow we debase, or we change, what marriage is. I just worry about that."
But wait—there's more!
"I mean tax-wise is an interesting one because, you see, could a father not marry his son?"
Um, what?
Jeremy Irons, first: In what sensible way does a question about gay marriage lead to a question about sons marrying fathers? The answer is that it makes no good sense, it makes only the obvious bad sense—it is the kind of remark so often used to slur gay people by associating them with things like incest (and bestiality).
Hard to understand why he didn't play what followed immediately after the audio of the Yoshi's show he did play:
If someone would be so gracious as to please tweet out, 'Michelle Shocked just said from stage "God hates faggots".' Would you do it now?
That came right after what Morgan aired. Why not play that?
Anyway, she defends her words by saying the audience "requested reality." As I said here, she has apparently given "reality" a new meaning. And that makes all this the audience's fault.
For what it's worth, her last line, "The apple tree's got some strange fruit
Even Adam would not try," is from her own song, "Peachfuzz," which has the line, "...called them fags 'cause that's what they was." I don't know exactly what the song means, just wanted to note that.
TONIGHT, @mshocked speaks to @piersmorgan in an exclusive interview after her anti-gay remarks sparked nationwide outrage. She explains at 9
— Piers Morgan Live (@PiersMorganLive) April 1, 2013
