A Republican lawmaker from Arkansas upset both Bostonians and non-Bostonians from both sides of the aisle this morning after he felt the need to tweet a pro-gun message around the time two armed police officers were being shot in their pursuit of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects.
"I wonder how many Boston liberals spent the night cowering in their homes wishing they had an AR-15 with a hi-capacity magazine? #2A," tweeted State Rep. Nate Bell (R-Mena) shortly before MIT confirmed that one of its officers, 26-year-old Sean Collier, had been shot and killed in the line of duty.
MBTA officer Richard H. Donohue Jr. is still recovering in hospital from the injuries he sustained during the shootout with the suspected bombers.
I would like to apologize to the people of Boston & Massachusetts for the poor timing of my tweet earlier this... fb.me/21tgLuP0j
I would like to apologize to the people of Boston & Massachusetts for the poor timing of my tweet earlier this morning. As a staunch and unwavering supporter of the individual right to self defense, I expressed my point of view without thinking of its effect on those still in time of crisis. In hindsight, given the ongoing tragedy that is still unfolding, I regret the poor choice of timing. Please know that my thoughts and prayers were with the people of Boston overnight and will continue as they recover from this tragedy.
The Arkansas Timesnotes that this is far from the first time Bell has made extremely questionable comments through social media sites.
"Sometimes in life you need to step into the unknown," says Dutch director Paul Verhoeven (Robocop, Showgirls, Basic Instinct) in the beginning of Tricked, the half-documentary, half-movie that's playing at the Tribeca Film Festival. He's referring to the crowd-sourced script of the project at hand, for which he rifled through thousands of fan-submitted pages to assemble a cohesive, 50-minute narrative film.
The first part of Tricked documents this interactive process, albeit not as clearly as it should. Screenwriter Kim van Kooten devised four minutes of a script and the rest was left to the audience, who submitted their visions for the established characters in brief episodes. The exact interplay between Verhoeven's crowd of writers and the director isn't really specified. We see Verhooven shooting in bits, pausing to wait for his outsourced plot developments, and we see workshops with a small group of writers, but exactly how the crowd was informed of the decided upon elements so that it could proceed writing the next plot is fuzzy.
The burden of the unknown, though, soon becomes clear. When Verhoeven isn't effusively motor-mouthing about his process and filmography, he is complaining about having to rely on common people for his story. They are shortsighted and don't think about the story as a whole. Not one script draft is perfect throughout, so the main script is stitched together from a range of input. The stop-start filming is "very annoying." When you don't know what's coming next for your characters, it throws your film's coherence into jeopardy. And on and on. Verhoeven is as tense as he is intense, though his time bomb never detonates. Thus, besides the project's exquisite corpse conceit and the complications it causes, there initially seems to be little of note on set that justifies capturing and presenting the process at all, much less before the actual feature.
But showcasing Tricked's crowd-sourced origins ultimately demonstrates that what the people want are smutty dramatics. Or at least, that's what Verhoeven's type of people want — from their ideas that he has assembled a light, Euro family dramaedy along the lines of A Christmas Tale, in which family patriarch Remco's (Peter Blok) habitual cheating provides a comedy of errors that everyone in his immediate radius is part of. Most of them laugh along. Rem's daughter Lieke (Carolien Spoor) openly snorts coke, his son Tobias (Robert de Hoog) Photoshops giant breasts on his sister's friend and Remco's suspected mistress Merel (Gaite Jansen), his wife Ineke (Ricky Koole) plays a card that could end up in murder-by-shears based on a tip from someone she has no business trusting. The plot hinges on a used tampon that is, according to Lieke, "size super — and when I say super, I mean super super."
Perhaps because its script was developed in episodes, Tricked feels more like a TV show than any of the other exuberant, essential trash that Verhoeven has turned out over the past four decades. Cuts punctuate the rhythm between characters in order to reflect the banter-heavy dialogue, and the story breezes from one outrageous development to the next. It's lighter in tone than Verhoeven's usual output, so the camp element is dramatically reduced. But the director of Showgirls knows his farce and despite all the grousing about the unknown, he orchestrates the ridiculousness of Tricked with his usual mastery.
Even at their most bonkers, Verhoven's films have never quite fit into the classic "Notes on Camp" criteria because they do carry with them at least the ambiguity of awareness. (He had to know that people would laugh at Al telling Nomi in Showgirls, "It must be weird, not having anybody cum on you." Right? Right?) The most illuminating offering within the dry first half of Tricked is Verhoven's own ambiguous self-awareness. Not once does he mention Showgirls, surely his most enduringly notorious film. While discussing his inability to repeat himself, he claims that before Basic Instinct, he never made a thriller, which simply isn't true: Not only was his 1983 movie The Fourth Man a thriller, elements of its plot echoed loudly in Instinct. He speaks with the fervor of an expression junkie who's never even heard the words "rock bottom," like his lurid human satires are always just kicking to come out. He is a craftsman of filth, an architect of worlds where everyone just kind of laughs and shrugs at everyone's perversions. His vision is equally titillating and utopian.
At least 13 people drowned when a boat capsized earlier today on a tributary near the mouth of the Amazon river in Brazil. Most of the passengers were asleep below-deck when the overcrowded boat flipped over, due to strong river currents.
Rescuers picked up 46 survivors. Divers are currently searching the hull of the sunken vessel for a least a dozen people who are still missing. Military police Sargent Orivaldo Santos said that divers are uncertain of how many people are unaccounted for:
"We don't know how many people are missing because the captain doesn't know how many were on board."
The boat had a capacity for 25 passengers, but the captain told the police that there were more than 60 aboard. The boat was on the way to the Brazilian city Belém from Marajo Island. The travelers were most likely on their way to a market there to sell shrimp, açaí, and fruit.
As America and the rest of the world continues to mourn the loss of those who died as a result of Monday's bombings at the Boston Marathon and the ongoing efforts to bring the suspects to justice, it's important to remember that, for many of the living victims, the nightmare is far from over.
Of the dozens who remain hospitalized days after the attack, seven are still in critical condition.
And all will need a way to pay their mounting medical bills — bills that will continue to pile up over days, week, months, or even years of rehabilitation.
Campaigns launched through GiveForward.com and GoFundMe.com to assist victims who need donations the most have all exceeded their goals by thousands, and in some cases, hundreds of thousands of dollars.
A GiveForward.com page set up for severely wounded newlyweds Patrick and Jessica Downes has raised over $200,000 in less than 24 hours.
Another page launched on GoFundMe.com for injured mother and daughter Celeste and Sydney Corcoran quickly pushed past its original goal of $20,000, and currently stands at nearly $400,000.
And Bauman likely needs the money more than most, considering his is one of the few Massachusetts residents without health coverage.
"All of those people that were wondering what they could do to help, they suddenly had a resource," said GiveForward CEO Desiree Vargas Wrigley. "Most of these campaigns have exploded because of social media."
There are, of course, several other kinds of efforts to raise cash for bombing victims.
Governor Deval Patrick and Mayor Tom Menino's The One Fund Boston, for instance, which aims to help all those affected by the bombings.
Welcome to Thatz Not Okay, a regular column in which I school inquiring readers on what is and is not okay. Please send your questions (max: 200 words) to caity@gawker.com with the subject "Thatz Not Okay."
I was out to dinner with my boyfriend last night to celebrate some great career related news. We waited 1.5 hours for an outdoor table at our favorite restaurant. Another couple (who I confirmed later were 23 years old) sat down next to us and immediately got in a fight about him wanting to join a country club 15 years from now. She, after their intense 6 month relationship, said that this was outrageous, and that she completely changed her point of view on him. Her reason for hating country clubs was that her dad hated country clubs. This went on. And on. And on. They both listed out every reason why or why not to be in a country club. The whole thing was idiotic. I should note that it was a very intimate setting; I was not trying to overhear them by any means. An hour into the conversation, I asked them half-jokingly if they would like a mediator. They declined, and continued their horrific conversation. I then asked them to kindly hold off their argument until they went home since we were trying to celebrate and they were ruining our evening. They finally stopped. Is that okay?
Thatz not okay.
What was your career-related news? A promotion to Chief of the Restaurant Police? If you want to have complete dominion over dinner ambiance, eat at home. You can't walk into Per Se and slip the maître d' a Toni Braxton mixtape because you've got a real cool night planned, and you can't demand other customers stop talking because you want to tell an entertaining story to tell about how you fixed a printer on the fritz.
Here is that couple's version of the night:
After waiting 1.5 hours for an outdoor table at our favorite restaurant, we sat down to dinner and struck up a lively debate about the merits of joining a country club. We were surprised to learn we had very different views on country club membership, based on our upbringings. After a while, a woman at the table next to us (who had evidently been eavesdropping on our conversation), leaned over and asked if she could mediate. We declined as politely as we could and continued chatting, now uncomfortably aware that a stranger was listening in. Soon, the woman turned to us again and told us she wanted us to stop talking because our private conversation was "ruining" her meal. She started to tell us how she was there celebrating a job development, and we just let her continue rambling because she was obviously nuts. By this point we'd completely stopped talking because we didn't want to agitate her. We didn't stay for dessert hurried out of there as quickly as possible. Yikes.
It was not your place to ruin your fellow patrons' night by asking them to stop talking. If they were being unbearably loud, you might have asked the Blue Ribbon staff to intervene. If they were having an inane conversation, welcome to Earth where people have inane conversations. They were paying customers, not hired set decorations. Sometimes sound happens.
When the couple did stop talking, how did you like the palpable awkwardness simmering between your two tables? Was it less distracting than a couple kids chitter-chattering about tennis whites?
Of course, even before you told these strangers to stop arguing because their boring drama was not on the menu for your perfect evening, your behavior was, frankly, bizarre. What if they had taken you up on your half-joking offer to intervene? You would have spent the rest of your night mediating a silly argument between two strangers. And what was your mediation going to yield? A more nuanced understanding of country clubs' historical context? Were you just going to declare a winner? "I agree with Kara. No country club for you. Check!"
By the way, all of this ignores the fact that that argument was a gift from heaven sent down to Applebee's solely for your amusement. One of the most delightful parts of eating out is discreetly eavesdropping on other people's fights. An hour long dispute about whether or not a couple should join a country club 15 years from now? THAT SOUNDS HILARIOUS. That couple didn't ruin your night. They made your night. They gave you something to talk about. We're talking about it right now. I'd love to know more.
Speaking of knowing more, I'm very curious about the independent research you conducted in order to "confirm later" that both members of the couple were 23 years old. Did you ask to see their driver's licenses so you could "put a name to rudeness?" Did you place a call to a buddy at the FBI? How high does this thing go?
Next time, let them enjoy their Arby's in peace. Don't ruin your good time by ruining someone else's.
Our next door neighbors are Orthodox Jews and keep kosher. They have a pair of charming Corgis who visit our backyard on occasion. Recently, as often happens, I let one of the dogs into our house to visit and was horrified to see my husband feed it a piece of our Easter ham. He says that the dogs aren't Jewish and so it doesn't matter. He's unwilling to talk to our lovely neighbors however and insists that I not raise the issue with them either. Is that okay?
Thatz okay.
The best case scenario is that your neighbors wouldn't care. First, chances are they don't spend a lot of time "rapping" about faith with their dogs, and therefore don't consider them Jewish any more than you consider a squirrel outside your window to be Lutheran. Second, if anything, Corgis (short for Welsh Corgis) are going to be Anglican. Third, if the dogs are Jewish, they're still allowed to eat non-kosher foods according to the Torah. ("You must not eat flesh torn by beasts in the field; you shall cast it to the dogs." [Exodus 22:30]) Fourth, if keeping kosher were important to the dogs, they would have politely turned down the ham when it was offered. Fifth, all dogs go to heaven regardless of earthly deeds, so they can eat whatever they want, including you.
The worst case scenario is that your neighbors become hugely upset that your husband fed their Corgis ham. What are they supposed to do with that information if it does bother them? Murder their ruined dogs? Shun your thoughtless husband every time they pass him at the mailbox?
It's really not worth jeopardizing what sounds like a wonderful neighborly relationship over something so small. Who will you call next, on your Crusade for Truth? Your husband's old junior high school? ("He wasn't really sick on January 29, 1987. He went to McDonald's and then to the arcade!")
What you should do is make sure your husband understands it's a bad idea to give treats or scraps of food to someone else's dog without the owner's permission, because it might be harmful to the dog's health. I would much rather someone attempt to convert my dog to Buddhism than sneak him a treat made of rawhide. The former would broaden his horizons; the latter would make him throw up.
At the end of the day (Sabbath), this is one of those selfish confessions that you're telling for your own benefit, rather than that of the person to whom you are confessing.
And no one likes a tattletale (except, evidently, the man who married you).
Submit your "Thatz Not Okay" questions (max: 200 words) here. Art by Jim Cooke.
A 25-year-old Japanese man confessed this week to slashing as many as 1,000 tires in a bizarre, yet apparently successful scheme to pick up female drivers.
Yoshihito Harada was asked in court about the allegations that he would regularly poke holes in the tires of parked cars so he would have a reason to approach their female owners and hit on them.
"It's true, I did it," Harada reportedly responded.
When the women returned to their cars from the supermarket, Harada would approach, calling out, "Looks like you've got a flat. Let me fix it for you." While changing the tire he would strike up a conversation with the women and exchange phone numbers with them. One woman who fell victim to Harada's scheme told a female friend of hers, "I recently got a flat and a man offered to change it for me." Upon hearing the story the friend exclaimed, "The same thing happened to me!" Suspecting a scam, the women reported the matter to police who launched an investigation.
Though Harada's charges only pertain to a series of five incidents which took place outside various supermarkets between April 2011 and December 2012, Harada's lawyer appeared to claim that his client may have slashed over 1,000 tires before being caught.
Four days after he and his older brother, Tamerlan, allegedly bombed the Boston Marathon, killing three and injuring dozens more, 19-year-old Dzhokar Tsarnaev is finally in custody. The days-long manhunt ended as bizarrely and gruesomely as it started: with Dzhokar trapped on a boat in a Watertown, Massachusetts, backyard, covered in blood—possibly his own—and surrounded by police. After a lengthy standoff and a conversation with a negotiator, Dzhokar turned himself over to the authorities.
With both the Tsarnaev brothers out of commission—Tamerlan was killed in a gun battle with cops last night—a nation that considered itself under attack for a week breathes a sigh of relief. But many questions still remain. For instance, who were the three people recently taken into police custody in New Bedford, Massachusetts, in connection with the bombings?
Check back for constant updates throughout the night and weekend. As we follow the developments here, you can read the backstory from Thursday evening and through Friday afternoon here.
Updates:
12:08 AM: CBS News has a surveillance photo of Dzhokar Tsarnaev on the boat before he was taken into custody.
"He looked and noticed something was off about his boat, so he got his ladder, and he put his ladder up on the side of the boat and climbed up," [Hennesberry's neighbor] George Pizzuto said. "And then he saw blood on it, and he thought he saw what was a body laying in the boat. So he got out of the boat fast and called police."
11:22 PM: CNN is reporting this is a picture of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev being treated after his arrest. The ATF has confirmed the photo is real.
10:25 PM: President Obama gave a press conference shortly after the arrest. "Our nation is in debt to the people of Boston," the president said. "[They] responded with resolve and determination...Obviously there are many unanswered questions, among them, why did young men who grew up and studied here as part of our communities and our country resort to such violence? How did they plan and carry out these attacks and did they have help? The families killed so senselessly deserve answers. The wounded, some of whom have to learn how to stand, walk, live again, deserve answers."
The president also mentioned the victims of the fertilizer plant explosion in West, Texas, saying, ""I want them to know that they are not forgotten."
9:35 PM: CBS is reporting that no Miranda rights will be read to Tsarnaev when he is well enough to be interrogated. The government is invoking the public safety exception.
8:43 PM: An NBC reporter on the scene just said, "It's over." Tsarnaev is in police custody. A wave of applause reportedly broke out amongst the police on the scene.
8:39 PM: Police just took three people into custody in New Bedford, Massachusetts, in relation to the marathon-bombing investigation, according to the Globe.
BREAKING NEWS: Three people taken into custody in New Bedford as part of Boston Marathon terror bombing investigation.
7:24 PM: Boston's WCVB reports that the suspect was hiding in this boat behind a home on Franklin Street. It is also reporting that "a body" was discovered on the boat. No word on whose body it is.
7:19 PM: CBS reporter Tim Williams reports that gunfire broke out after FBI agents went to search a boat in a Watertown backyard and discovered blood on it. Tsarnaev is believed to be hiding in the boat.
7:08 PM: The Boston Police Department is asking residents of Watertown's Franklin Street to stay in their homes. This less than an hour after the city's lockdown was lifted.
Police operations in the Franklin Street Watertown area. Residents shelter in place.
6:58 PM: CNN is reporting shots fired in Watertown.
6:54 PM: The FBI admitted today that it interviewed Tamerlan Tsarnaev two years ago at the behest of "a foreign government," who thought he had extremist ties.
6:49 PM: Tactical teams are being withdrawn from Watertown, but state police support will remain, according to state police representatives.
6:40 PM: A Watertown local tweets a view of what the neighborhood looked like for most of today:
6:25 PM: The press conference ends without much new information being shared, but, again, Boston is no longer on lockdown.
6:18 PM: Alben: "My message to the suspect is to give himself up."
6:15 PM: Alben clarifies that the Tsarnaev brothers were not involved with a 7-Eleven robbery last night, as has been widely reported. They were at a 7-Eleven, but the robbery happened at a different store around the same time. He says the brothers' presence was "coincidental."
6:14 PM: Alben says he believes Tsarnaev is still in Massachusetts.
6:10 PM: The Boston lockdown has been lifted, but Governor Deval Patrick says the public "must remain vigilant."
6:05 PM: State Police Colonel Tim Alben says in a press conference, "We do not have an apprehension of our suspect this afternoon, but we will have one."
There were a lot of dumb, strange and poignant things said this in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing, but one phrase was conspicuous in its absence: "Too soon." Nobody really batted an eye as the expressions of sadness and horror on social media turned to half-baked wisecracks almost as soon as the smoke had cleared. First came the wave of Schrodinger's Cat gags about the confused news reports of a suspect's arrest on Wednesday. When photos of the suspect were revealed, it unleashed another torrent of jokes about the bro-y appearance of the two alleged bombers. And when the two were revealed last night to be Chechen immigrants, the amount of jokes that used "caucasian" as a punchline to mock early reports of a "dark-skinned" subject grew to the point that Foreign Policy's Blake Hounshell issued a preemptive notice this morning: "For those just tuning in, everyone has already made the 'Caucasian' joke." And throughout it all, a never-ending barrage of Good Will Hunting references and Boston accent gags.
CNN confirms: Schrodinger's cat definitely alive... probably. Box still closed. But totally alive for sure. Or dead.
It seems like the "too soon" window has shrunk around national tragedies from about three weeks after 9/11 to roughly three minutes today. Of course 9/11 was an few orders of magnitude greater of an event. But it's hard to imagine that today Gilbert Gottfried could get booed off-stage for a joke three weeks after even the biggest national tragedy, as he did after 9/11, mostly because it's hard to imagine he could come up with a joke that hadn't already been made by one thousand people on Twitter.
The end of "too soon" can be traced to the fact that so much of the conversation around national tragedies happens on a social media populated by millions of moonlighting comedians unfettered by professional concerns to say whatever they're thinking about the news of the moment. There is no stopping the hive mind when it seizes on some detail of any story, no matter how horrific, that can be used as the hook for an easy one-liner. There is probably some evolutionary explanation for the fact that when groups of people come together the unfailingly make dumb jokes to each other. In any case, there's safety in numbers, and you can't really get mad at some respectable journalist for cracking a bro joke about a terrorist when everyone following them is. In fact journalists have always been known for their gallows humor—"If it bleeds, it leads"—but they just kept it in the newsroom. Now that everyone with a Twitter account is a citizen journalist, bleak newsroom humor has become the default sensibility of savvy twitter users.
Social media also has a compounding effect in that it highlights a bunch of bullshit only tangentially related to the core tragedy that people can mock without seeming insensitive to the victims. For example, the ham-fisted hunt by Reddit for a suspect, the tragic cancellation of Playboy's #FriskyFriday or the tone-deaf liberal-bashing of a buffoonish Southern politician.
Younger bro: "I'm bored bro, let's do somethin." Older bro: "I'm down, let's go blow up the #marathon." Younger bro: fist bump.
I'm not complaining here about the end of "too soon." I think it's healthy to joke about even sad and horrible things. And the trend is tied into a more general thawing of discourse around tragedy that lets important political debate flow in the aftermath of shocking news events that might have earlier been hushed up, disingenuously, in the name of respect. The people who most loudly shouted down attempts at humor in the wake of 9/11 were also probably the ones most likely to label you a traitor for opposing the invasion of Iraq.
But the sheer repetitiveness of Boston Marathon-related jokes produced by the internet this week does suggest one compelling reason to hold off on your jokes, whether faced with tragedy or not: To make them funnier.
For her husband Oren's latest birthday animator Leigh Lahav decided not just to give him the best gift he's ever gotten, but the best gift anyone has ever gotten.
"A compilation of re-created TV show intros/opening themes centered around my hubby Oren's life, for his birthday," showoff Leigh writes in the video's description.
Among the title sequences referenced in Leigh's present: Mad Men, Arrested Development, 30 Rock, The Office, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Community.
Oh, and just so there's no doubt that Oren will be spending the rest of their marriage trying to make this up to her with jewelry, here's what Leigh wrote when asked if she used a modified version of the Adventure Time intro for the "Birthday Time" sequence:
Oh man, modifying with photoshop/aftereffecs would've taken forever! (with so-so results). The horrible truth is- I started from scratch with adobe Flash!
The highlights of this week's hate mail are a rag-tag bunch of loveably confused writers seeking to make reservations, give us prizes, and dole out some thoughtful encouragement.
SUBJECT: Your choice of words
Really? Your going to start the homophobic name calling this early in the morning? I could care less what your opinion of other people is, but when you start calling people faggots in the ope ing lines of your story, then you are pathetic.
You should be fired. Your are a far cry from a journalist.
Writers like you and story's like this are what makes me stop reading your blog.
Someone caught on to our secret effort to loosen our readers.
SUBJECT: ad pop ups
Just a note from a daily reader...
I was doing my morning Gawker review, and upon clicking on the 'gun article' got the pop up add. If you pursue the 'pop up ad before you can read an article' strategy, you're going to loose readers... and I'll be the first... I'm just saying!
Book club!
SUBJECT: self education
I've been looking at your site and it seems that you are a little confused about life in general and politics in particular.
I suggest you read Ted Nugent's book, Ted, White and Blue. Although Mr. Nugent's views are a little left of center, you may find some interesting facts about being an American and being a patriot. It seems that you missed a few history classes along the way
[Name Redacted]
Florida
SUBJECT: Reservation.
Good day,
I want to make a Reservation for a group of 4 people coming to your area from 20th to 30th of June 2013. Please do tabulate/write down the total cost of the accommodation for the 10 Nites.
We will prefer 2 double rooms but if is not available then we will go for 4 single rooms OR an apartment that will be ok for the 4 persons for the 10 Nights. Also we will be happy if any special discount is given to us.
Get back to me immediately with the total cost, and kindly confirm if you accept check payment.
Kind Regards.
SUBJECT: What, no profile on Pat Summerall?
Sure, he retired years ago, but he was still a pretty big figure in sports commentary. Come on, show Pat some respect.
We don't know either!
SUBJECT: What were they thinking?
Sent from my iPad
That's a lovely sentiment. Thank you for sharing your hopes and dreams. Continue to do so.
SUBJECT: I wish...
the Gawker site had the ability to like a comment. That would be so cool.
I wish I knew what this correspondent was going on about because he or she maintains a cheerful attitude while spouting all sorts of gibberish.
SUBJECT: (no subject)
hi!
Nothing would be their own thing only I would like to take advantage of the attendance of the blog so that let all two halves have luck. I would not like to write my idea down yet with what it's very simple, and from themselves it would be able to be made. if he interests you then after an entering into a contract I describe everything in detail! the contract would be about nothing only from that direction that let it not be allowed to be made without me ,and from the percentile division!
Thank you. I also agree that it's the thought that counts.
SUBJECT: You won
Your won
Your parenthetical request is granted, dear reader.
SUBJECT: What happened to your site?
Those comments sections, which used to be a lot of funny banter between educated people, have become vile cesspools of racism. It's your site, do what you want - but man, that can't be good for traffic. I mean, I don't really like coming there anymore. (By the way, Mail of Tears is hilarious and you need to go back to that)
Thanks for your time.
As the scene in Watertown, Mass escalated, news channels were, understandably, confused about exactly what was happening. One brave reporter for New England Cable News admitted as much live on the air, albeit accidentally. As Brian Williams cut to the channel, an unidentified reporter can be heard saying "Oh, you're not listening? Well, I don't know shit."
Honest, yet not the most professional reaction. Brian Williams quickly apologized, even managing to place the blame on the local news channel: "Well, that was a fortuitous time to dip into the feed of New England Cable News," he said. "We apologize for the language we inadvertently aired during what was a mix up of communications on their part."
Kansas governor Sam Brownback signed the state's far-reaching anti-abortion bill Friday, surrounded by a smiling group of pro-life onlookers at a Statehouse ceremony. But among them, unseen, was the original anti-abortion power duo.
According to a photo of Brownback's desk shot by the AP, the words "JESUS + Mary" are scrawled across the top of the governor's notes on the bill, like two lovers' names carved into a tree. Some of the key phrases Brownback used in his address just before the signing, such as "building a culture of life" and "All human life is sacred", show up handwritten near the bottom.
The bill is one of the most restrictive in history: it forbids abortion providers from receiving any government money or tax breaks, defines life at the moment of fertilization, and even requires doctors to falsely warn their patients that abortions can lead to breast cancer.
No one's shocked, since Brownback is avidly pro-life (after all, this is the man who was ready to tax rape victims seeking abortions last year.) Much of the bill will go into effect in July, while the tax portion kicks in during 2014.
Brownback's staffers did not immediately respond to the AP's request for more information about the notes.
A fuller portrait of the two brothers suspected of being behind the Boston Marathon bombings is beginning to emerge, and with it a seeming disparity in their attitudes and demeanors.
The younger Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who is now in the custody of authorities after being found hiding in a boat in Watertown last night, was described by friends and relatives as an outgoing, smart teenager, who was a wrestling team captain and would smoke weed and go to parties. The older Tamerlan, on the other hand, was having trouble securing citizenship and had begun to delve more into religion and shown signs, at least on the Internet, of being interested in extremism.
Larry Aaronson, who taught Dzhokhar in high school, told the Boston Globe that,"If someone were to ask me what this kid is like, I would say that he had a heart of gold. He was as gracious as possible … This is all surreal to me."
Dzhokhar attended his senior prom two years ago, and on September 11th, 2012, became a U.S. citizen. After starting at University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, however, his grades began to fall, and a transcript shows that he had failed several classes. Still, a classmate at the University said that Dzhokhar had a group of friends and was well-liked. "He was talking about how he wasn't doing as good as he expected," the classmate told the New York Times. "He was a really smart kid, but having a little difficulty in college because going from high school to college is totally different."
Dzhokhar reportedly even left UMass-Boston before ever taking a class there to apparently "follow the parties." Yushun Tsou, a high school friend of Dzhokhar's, told TPM that, "When I spoke with him, he was interested in switching to UMass Dartmouth just because he was interested in following parties."
Tamerlan had a green card, but his father claims that his attempts at becoming a citizen were being blocked by a domestic violence charge against his girlfriend. An accomplished boxer, Tamerlan had recently spent several months in Russia living with his father, before returning to the United States. Neighbors, family, and friends described Tamerlan as growing both moodier and more religious.
The Boston Globe writes,
A neighbor and family friend in Cambridge said Tamerlan became a devout Muslim within the past few years.
"He started talking about religion," said the family friend, who asked not to be identified. "He grew a long beard."
The friend said Tamerlan urged him to be more observant, asking, "Why don't you become a better Muslim? Why don't you pray, why don't you do your Islamic duties?"
When the friend joked about the beard, he said, Tamerlan became upset, asking "Why are you making fun of my religion?"
Tamerlan's life was also darkened by the murder of Brendan Mess, whom he described as his "best friend" to a local gym owner. The Globe reports that "Two years ago, Mess and two other men were brutally killed in a Waltham apartment where they were found by police with their throats slit and their bodies covered with marijuana. The murders remain unsolved."
The father of the Tsarnaev brothers remains suspicious that his children were behind the bombings, especially the younger Dzhokhar, who he described to the Times as "an angel,"
"He has the character of the best person who could exist. Anyone who sees him falls in love with him. Dzhokhar, he is a gift from Allah, not just because he is my son - he is like an angel, this child. The Americans know him better than I do. They taught him. He was in the newspapers everywhere: he was excellent, good, kind. He worked all the time. In his extra moments, he worked so that things would not be difficult for us, his parents. He didn't keep a penny for himself. This kind of child. You understand."
He said that his older son, Tamerlan, was also a kind man, and does not believe he would have pressured Dzhokhar into committing the bombings:
"Dzhokhar listened to Tamerlan, of course. He also listened to us. From childhood, it was that way. He had his own head on his shoulders. He was a very gifted person. He had a gift of kindness, calmness, fairness, you understand, goodness? For him to do what they're saying, it doesn't fit him at all, it is not possible. Not at all."
The question, especially now that it appears that Dzhokhar will survive his injuries and stand trial, is how much influence and pressure did Tamerlan exert? Was there a moment when Dzhokhar could have stood up against him, or was he complicit in the plan the entire time? The FBI questioned Tamerlan themselves in 2011 about his ties to radicalism, but found no proof of it. Dzhokhar, on the other hand, gave very little sign he was interested in this type of violence. Still, he is alleged of leaving a bomb that killed three people and hurt dozens others, shooting and killing a police officer, and wounding another. How much pressure can a brother exert?
Arizona Senator Jeff Flake felt so bad for Caren Teves, whose son died shielding his girlfriend from bullets in the Aurora theater massacre, that he wrote her a handwritten note in response to a letter she sent him pleading for reform. "I am truly sorry for your deep loss," Flake wrote. "While we may not agree on every solution, strengthening background checks is something we agree on."
Then, Flake gave his surname a nod and voted against Wednesday's gun control legislation strengthening background checks for guns sold online and at gun shows—just days after writing Teves his heartfelt letter.
Though a majority of senators supported the plan, it fell short by six votes.
Flake is close friends with Gabrielle Giffords, but probably not for long—her husband Mark Kelly didn't seem pleased with his vote on Twitter:
@jeffflake heard u say on FOX "I think all of us want to keep guns out of the hand of criminals & those with mental illness. We can do it."
Flake defended himself to the Associated Press by stating that the measure was too vast and that he doesn't support background checks for gun sales between individuals.
"The whole thing was just shameful," Teves said before a protest in front of Flake's office. "What he did was to go against his own words and vote no against comprehensive background checks...I believe he's a coward."
In March of this year, about 7.6 Million Americans were working involuntarily part-time, in that they would rather be working a full-time job instead of the part-time job they have either taken out of desperation or been forced into by their employer. These part-time jobs have fueled the 30-month economic recovery, leading to an unstable economy built on an increasingly uneven labor force.
If you factor in these part-timers, as well as people who want to work but have given up on the bleak job market, the Times points out that the actual jobless rate would be around 13.8 percent, much higher than the current rate of 7.6 percent.
"There's nothing inherently wrong with people taking part-time jobs if they want them," said Diane Swonk, an economist, told the Times. "The problem is that people are accepting part-time pay because they have no other choice."
One out of thirteen jobs is now in the food service industry, where part-time work is concentrated, an all-time high. The Times writes,
Part-time work rose rapidly in the recession and early parts of the recovery, and it has not let up much. Today, 19.1 percent of workers say they usually work part time, defined as fewer than 35 hours a week, versus 16.9 percent when the recession started.
Employers looking to hold on to large amounts of cash reserves have been reluctant to hire full-time workers, worried about the turbulent economy. On top of that, employers are trying to remain under the 50 full-time employees limit that the Affordable Care Act mandates a company must provide health care to. In response, companies like Darden Restaurants, which owns Red Lobster and Olive Garden, have considered shifting more employees to part-time work so they won't have to pay healthcare costs.
Between the fear of a weak economy (part of the fear being that it is built on part-time work) and trying to avoid providing healthcare at all costs, it seems like employers are content to commit themselves to a part-time economy, which screws, you guessed it, poor and middle class Americans.
It's not uncommon to feel the earth move on your wedding day—especially for Chen Ying, an anchor at a local news station in China. She was about to get married when the 7.0 magnitude earthquake (which has so far killed 157 and injured more than 5,000) struck the city where her nuptials were taking place.
Ying grabbed a mic and went on a reportorial rampage, bedecked in wedding dress, veil, and corsage. The image of the bride anchor went viral on Chinese social media, with many posters lauding her "professional spirit." Hopefully she won't need a cameraman on her honeymoon.
Celebrated Spanish Architect Santiago Calatrava (whose WTC PATH station is interminably under-construction and insanely over-budget), has now been asked by a Spanish winery to fix a leaky roof, after his Ysios winery, with its miraculous undulating roof, has failed to keep out rain.
The owner of the winery is so fed up with trying to patch the roof, it wants money from the original architect to pay for hiring someone to build a new roof. This demand comes after another one of Calatrava's buildings, the Palau de Les Art in Valencia, has had its ceramic outer skin begin to slowly wrinkle and "its tiles have started to shake loose." The city also wants some of its money back.
Calatrava said that "his honour was wounded" by these requests. Other projects have also shown signs of structural failure — a bridge in Bilbao is known as the "wipe-out" bridge as people have slipped and fallen on it. Authorities in Bilbabo now have "to spend up to €6,000 a year replacing broken tiles." Cities are constantly complaining to Calatrava about the budget of his projects, which often run double their anticipated price and cannot be altered by anyone but Calatrava.
When you consider appropriate punishments for rape, jail might come to mind, or perhaps castration if you're old-fashioned. But if you ask Occidental College, allegedly, they'll recommend a super-reparative book report.
According to a 250-page federal complaint lodged by 37 students and faculty against the school Thursday, the school harbored a hostile environment for those who had reported being sexually assaulted and mishandled their complaints. When the school found a student guilty, the complaint says, it meted out weak and bizarre punishments, like assigning a five-page book report.
For another student found guilty of rape, his alleged punishment was to apologize to his victim and resign from campus leadership positions. In some cases, students who were deemed guilty of multiple sexual infractions were expelled but allowed to re-enroll once their victims graduated, said Gloria Allred, an attorney for some of the complainants.
By doing so, the group alleges that the college violated Title IX requirements granting freedom from sexual discrimination.
This isn't the first time Occidental has been in hot water for rape. Less than two months ago, the school failed to issue a campus alert about one rape (and several others, if you ask the students who believe that Occidental has a nasty habit of covering up rapes).
"I've seen some of the outputs of these so-called 'educational sanctions' like book reports and apology letters and they're abysmal," said Danielle Dirks, a sociology professor who co-filed the complaint with the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights, to the Huffington Post. "The fact that Occidental has invited rapists back to campus and even told survivors not to worry because 'he's reformed now' after these types of inadequate sanctions is an abomination."
The West, Texas fertilizer plant that exploded on Wednesday, killing dozens, was only supposed to have had less than 400 lbs of explosive ammonium nitrate — instead, it had 270 tons of the substance. 400 lbs is the threshold where the plant would have had to inform the Department of Homeland Security about the amount of explosives it had. Unfortunately, DHS didn't even know the plant existed.
"This facility was known to have chemicals well above the threshold amount to be regulated under the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards Act (CFATS), yet we understand that DHS did not even know the plant existed until it blew up," Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) said in a statement.
On top of that, the plant, whose explosion registered on the Richter Scale, did not have any sprinklers, firewalls, or water deluge systems, according to the AP.
Facilities like the fertilizer plant fall into a regulation-loophole.
The AP writes,
No federal agency determines how close a facility handling potentially dangerous substances can be to population centers, and in many states, including Texas, many of these decisions are left up to local zoning authorities.
The fertilizer plant was less than 3,000 feet from a school. Officials have yet to release a cause for the explosion.
For some, 4/20 is just another day to get high. But for one hardcore trio in Canada, it requires days of preparation, huge amounts of melted butter, and Mrs. Fields-worthy kitchen skills. That's what 8,000 cookies require.
Police were called to a British Columbia residence Thursday on reports of a home invasion. The two intruders fled before the cops could catch them, sending a nearby school into lockdown (just in case you thought this week couldn't squeeze in another one.)
Heroically, the 22-year-old resident of the house had been able to fend off the thieves, even after being bludgeoned in the head with a crowbar. What could possibly be so valuable, so worthy of protection?
Police found out later that evening, when they obtained a search warrant and discovered 8,000 cookies presumed to be of the pot persuasion—a veritable snacktory of stoner sweets. "It's an unprecedented number of cookies," said constable Janelle Shoihet of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to CBC News. "It was a bit like a bakery in there."
The young crowbarred man and two women, ages 20 and 54, were arrested. They're charged with possession of a controlled substance with intent to engage in cookie trafficking, and will be tried in the much less festive month of May.
There were a lot of 
