particle409 posted:

lancemantis posted:

quote:

PHOENIX -- As the word "guilty" filled the silence of a Phoenix courtroom, defendant Michael Marin closed his eyes, put his head in his hands and appeared to put something in his mouth. He then took a swig from a sports bottle.

Minutes later, the 53-year-old Marin was dead.
...
Prosecutors said he torched his home when he couldn't keep up with the payments. Marin, an attorney and father of four, faced seven to 21 years in prison.
...
Marin, a former Wall Street trader, had summited Everest and wrote on his Facebook page that he had scaled six of the world's seven tallest mountains. He also was an art collector who had original Picassos.

Prosecutors painted him as a desperate man who had $50 in his bank account in July 2009, down from $900,000 a year earlier. He also had a monthly mortgage payment on the mansion of $17,250 and an upcoming balloon payment of $2.3 million.

Marin also owed $2,500 a month on a different home and owed $34,000 in taxes, prosecutors said.

On July 5, 2009, Marin told investigators that he escaped a blaze in his 10,000-sqaure-foot mansion in a posh part of Phoenix using a rope ladder and wearing scuba gear to avoid inhaling smoke.

Fluoride Jones posted:

For some dumb reason the Lorax popped into my head, and then I remembered these:

Neptr posted:

quote:

In a letter released Friday, Randi Shannon informs supporters of her new position as “U.S. Senator in the Republic of the United States of America.” You see, according to Shannon, the U.S. government has been acting unlawfully as the “‘official government,’ which clearly it is not!”

The libertarian-leaning group she joined claims it “re-inhabited” the government on March 30, 2010. The group claims the “United States Corporation” unlawfully formed in 1871 without the American people’s consent. “Since 1871, the abuses of this corporation upon both the international community as well as the American people are inestimable and unconscionable,” the group’s website claims.

In her announcement letter, Shannon outlined her political plans. As someone who home schooled her own children, Shannon supports abolishing the Department of Education. She opposes unnecessary foreign wars. She believes life begins at conception. And she blames government abuse, invasive TSA screenings, “Obamacare,” and the 14th amendment on the corrupt “United States Corporation.”

quote:

July 12: A girl runs by a mural with a hole where the face of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak’s face used to be, in Sharm el-Sheikh.(Photo: Amr Abdallah Dalsh, Reuters)

ReidRansom posted:

Well, they're products from a time when people had black help, so I guess you could say it's pining for a time when Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben were your servants. But I dunno, we've kind of moved beyond that. I don't see anything particularly wrong with it either vv Black mascot, white mascot, who gives a poo poo? Maybe it was worse back in the day, like this Cream of Wheat ad.

quote:

For 15 years, Stubbs the cat has held the top office in Talkeetna, Alaska. And his approval ratings have never been higher.

"He doesn't raise our taxes -- we have no sales tax. He doesn't interfere with business. He's honest," said Lauri Stec, manager of Nagley's General Store, which doubles as the mayor's office.

Earth posted:

Thank you so much! As thanks I give you one of the greatest comics ever which celebrates individualism with gusto!

FreudianSlippers posted:

This looks very similar to the style of A. Wyatt Mann and as far as I know he did most of his stuff in the 90's. But it's not as that makes it any better.

quote:

On Nov. 12, 1988, Skinheads in Portland, Ore., who had been influenced by a war operative, beat an Ethiopian student to death. The murderers, (Tom) Metzger said later, had done their "civic duty." In addition to criminal convictions, the killing brought a civil lawsuit by the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League that resulted in a $12.5 million verdict against the Metzgers, their organization and two of the killers.

quote:

Mercer, who’s running in a primary to face long-time incumbent Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), shot down detractors on Facebook. ”By reposting that quote,” she wrote, “all I wanted to do was to make a statement that aligns with my beliefs.

“It is ironic that the left go on a ‘feeding frenzy’ when they see a comment that they can spin and put their own analogy into it,” she continued. “The comment does not compare people on food stamps to wild animals. As I read it, it addresses an issue in which we need to focus on instead of useless rhetoric.”

Enjoy posted:

Impressive, but can they be used with satellites to fire laser beams like a mini Death Star?

Polymerized Cum posted:

Highspeeddub posted:

And whoever made that infographic forgot about the $5.00 per gallon for gas we were paying in 2008 when Bush was president.

quote:

July 23, 2012. Artist Pyotr Pavlensky, a supporter of jailed members of the female punk band “Pussy Riot,” with his mouth sewn up as he protests outside the Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg.

quote:

Lead singer of the Red Hot Chili Peppers Anthony Kiedis performs at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow. During the concert the musician wore a T-shirt with the caption “Pussy Riot” to show his support for the members of the feminist rock band, taken into custody after a controversial performance in the cathedral of Christ the Saviour. Source: RIA Novosti/Vladimir Astapkovich

Fried Chicken posted:

Holy poo poo, no. Let's talk the War of 1812, why we did it, and the cultural legacy of it.

quote:

DAVIS, CA - The UC Davis officer accused of pepper spraying 11 student protesters in November no longer works on the police force.

Spokesperson for the UC Davis Chancellor Barry Shiller said John Pike's employment ended on July 31, 2012.

Shiller released the following statement:

Consistent with privacy guidelines established in state law and University policy, I can confirm that John Pike's employment with the University ended on July 31, 2012. I'm unable to comment further.

Pike and another officer were caught on cell phone video using pepper spray against students protesting tuition increases at the university.

A report released by a task force in April, assigned to investigate the incident and suggest recommendations for future actions, said the use of pepper spray was uncalled for.

About a week after the report was released, UC Davis police chief Annette Spicuzza resigned.

One of the recommendations by the task force included using mediators, instead of police, at campus demonstrations.

Deanna Johnson, a 3rd year student at UC Davis, was among the demonstrators pepper-sprayed.

"I was sitting near front. I had burns on my hands after the event," said Johnson. "It's nice to know that a little bit of my tuition is no longer going to his salary. But in reality, it doesn't change much at all. Police still have access to these military grade weapons. The chancellor and assistant chancellor, who ordered this event, are still running this university. They haven't had any backlash toward them whatsoever. This really isn't enough. "

Student Sarena Grossjan was also pepper-sprayed.

"It's frustrating that people are only focusing on the pepper spray (incident) and not on the students who were involved in the bank protests and have to go through those trials," said Grossjan.

Many of the pepper sprayed student protestors are involved in two lawsuits- a civil one and a criminal one. The pending civil lawsuit involves the ACLU charging the university of illegally pepper spraying and arresting peaceful student protestors said Johnson.

Meanwhile, the Yolo County DA is charging 11 students and 1 professor with criminal charges. Several of them were pepper sprayed students. The DA alleges that the students obstructed the entrance to an on-campus bank branch in a separate protest.

Barometer posted:

Those hands look awfully familiar. Something about a 'goat', I think.

Dr Christmas posted:

No one is asking them to martyr themselves or give up their mansions or piles of money

OMG JC a Bomb! posted:

quote:

Dhaka, Bangladesh: Socialist Party of Bangladesh (SPB) demonstration to mark Anti-Imperialist Day on the 67th anniversary of the U.S. bombing of Hiroshima, August 6, 2012.

ekuNNN posted:

Which should be illegal/taxed into non-existence.

A Misandrist Duck posted:

This was published in a Chicago newspaper today and sparked a little discussion on Twitter today. I'm curious on D&D's read on it: is it encouraging racial profiling? is it doing an informative service?

GENUINE CAT HERDER posted:

quote:

“Bat Boy is from West Virginia and really understands the struggles that the middle class is going through,” said a Romney advisor. ”With Bat Boy on the ticket, the Republicans should be able to carry the south, the midwest and all the Hollywood who all love mutants."

Barometer posted:

quote:

Captain George Walling was assigned to carry out one of the warrants. He arrived at City Hall by himself and was allowed to speak with Mayor Wood in his private office. Explaining the purpose of his visit, Wood refused to accompany Walling who then attempted to take him out of the building by force. With over 300 Municipal officers stationed at City Hall, Walling was stopped before he could take the Mayor out of the his office and was then thrown out into the street. He remained at City Hall, attempting several times to reenter the building, arguing with Captain Abraham Ackerman until the arrival of Captain Jacob Sebring and Coroner Perry with a 50-man Metropolitan detachment to serve the second warrant.[1][2]

Instantly the Municipals charged out of the building and, for over a half hour, the police fought on the steps and in the corridors of City Hall. The Metropolitans were eventually forced from the building and fled in a disorganized retreat. Both sides had suffered 53 men injured including one officer from the Seventeenth Precinct, a Patrolman Crofut, whose injuries resulting in his becoming an invalid. The wounded Metropolitans were brought to the office of Recorder James M. Smith and treated by physicians while Mayor Wood and his supporters celebrated their victory barricaded in his private office

Augster posted:

Hey I recognize that