The news thread

[Venneh]

In response to Texas blocking Planned Parenthood and abortion providers who provide other services such as pap smears and conctraceptives from participating in the Medicaid Women's Health Fund, violating their Medicaid contract with the federal government, the Obama administration has withdrawn all federal funding for the program (about 90% of it was federally funded).

Ladies and gentlemen, shit just got real.

[slothian]

Daniel Bartlam, 15, detained for mother's hammer murder

Daniel Bartlam had denied murder but admitted the manslaughter of his mother, Jacqueline Bartlam, following a row at their Nottinghamshire home.

Nottingham Crown Court was told she had been beaten seven times with a claw hammer, fracturing her face and skull.

A soap opera murder plot and violent TV clips were found on Daniel's computer.

Reporting restrictions preventing identification of the teenager were lifted by the court following his sentencing.

Mrs Bartlam, 47, was discovered by fire crews at her home in Georgia Drive, Redhill, Nottinghamshire, in the early hours of 25 April 2011.

After being beaten, her body was then padded with paper, covered in petrol and set on fire, the court heard.

Daniel, who was 14 at the time of the killing, told police an intruder had killed his mother but detectives found a written "soap opera plot" on his computer in which he fantasised about his character carrying out a killing.

The court heard he had been particularly interested in a Coronation Street storyline involving the character John Stape.

In the soap, Stape had murdered a woman with a hammer and then left her body in the wreckage of a tram crash.

It was also revealed Daniel had been watching violent horror films since he was eight and had viewed the film Saw hours before killing his mother.

The teenager claimed he had been provoked into violence when his mother called him "a freak" during their argument.

He was found guilty of murder at Nottingham Crown Court on 9 February.

The jury heard authorities raised concerns about the boy's behaviour in the months before the attack.

He told a counsellor voices were telling him to hurt people and that he had had visions of killing people, the court was told.

However, several experts had concluded Daniel was not mentally ill and did not pose a risk.

Judge Julian Flaux described the killing as "grotesque" and "senseless" and said it seemed like the teenager wanted to "get away with the perfect murder".

Det Ch Insp Kate Meynell, who led the murder inquiry, said after sentencing: "The level of violence, degree of planning and extent of his lies is not only shocking, but it is also chilling that a boy of 14 could do this.

Daniel tried to destroy evidence by lighting a fire

"You can only imagine the impact that this has had on Jacqueline's family, and having spent time with them throughout the investigation and subsequent legal proceedings, I know this is going to be very difficult, if not impossible, for them to come to terms with.

"This murder has devastated everyone involved. There is only one person who knows why it happened, and Daniel has lied consistently throughout, making attempts to besmirch Jacqueline's character.

"Everyone who knew her knew she lived for her children and was a warm, loving mother.

"Maybe one day Daniel will tell the truth, as there are several gaps that only he can fill."

A statement issued on behalf of the family said: "We find it so hard to explain what we are going through.

"There are no winners here because not only have we lost Jacqui, but we have lost Daniel too because of what he's done.

"We know it was the right result at court, but trying to understand how a boy you have loved for 14 years can do something like this is so difficult.

"To find out that Daniel planned to kill his own mother and then hear all the details, it is all so hard to believe.

"The most difficult part for us and something that only Daniel can answer is 'why?'"

Link

Wow. And here's me thinking all the crazy shit happened in the USA or Germany, not one county away from where I call home.

You don't often hear of soaps being blamed for influencing violent behaviour - yes, the story did in part blame him watching horror films as he grew up, which sticks to the overall media narrative, but you'd hope it would be born in mind the next time some group campaigns against video games. If every form of media is blamed on a person's psychosis, rather than blaming the person in question, then we'd have nothing left. I'm just a little tired of the scapegoating and blame-apportioning that shifts the focus away from the perpetrator.

[KnightWing]

So this happened today, not too far from me:

Those are trailers being lifted off the ground by a tornado.

[dc20willsave]

Rick Santorum is dropping out of the race.

[Venneh]

I mean, sorry about his daughter's health issues, but thank holy fuck.

[JackFetch]

Now the real fun begins.

[Venneh]

Ladies and gentlemen, SPACE WHISKEY

[Venneh]

This guy committed ten felonies during a nine hour Greyhound Bus layover. What did you do today?

[Molly]

I thought Dubs was taking the train.

[Dan]

That, right there, is commitment to the bit. Wow, that's impressive.

[JackFetch]

A Tea Party tax day protest and counter-demonstration in Boston got testy over the weekend, with the confrontation reportedly leading to a speaker telling a group of LGBT activists that they wouldn't be "silenced by faggots."

Scott Wooledge relays the supposed slur in a lengthy post at Daily Kos breaking down the encounter between Tea Partyers, counter-protesters from numerous progressive groups and police officers.

Reports from attendees were that in response to disturbances by protestors, one of the speakers said from the podium, broadcast across the loud speakers at the Commons, "We will not be silenced by faggots."

The comment reportedly came while police were being dispatched to break up the counter-demonstration against, among other things, the presence and honoring of anti-gay activist Scott Lively at the event.

Photographers also documented at least one instance of police appearing to get physical with the pro-LGBT presence:

The protester in the picture above later wrote in to Back2Stonewall to recount the experience:

Two of our protesters were arrested, and I moved away from the crowd to show solidarity with them and follow as they were arrested. After that, I moved back into the crowd, and a Tea Partier knocked the wig off my head. I picked it up said to him “Why do you think it’s okay to knock my wig off my head?” He replied “Oh, my hand slipped."

I was going to continue talking to him but then the officer in the picture approached me and said “okay, take your shit and get out of here," shoving me back. I said to him “Don’t shove me.” He then said “Don’t shove you!?” and then choked me, for a short period of time. My comrades reacted pretty quick, taking those pictures, getting his badge number, etc. He was rough with several other people, grabbing one of my comrades’ phone out of his hand when he tried to take a picture etc.

Boston police said Monday that they would be reviewing the conduct of their officers following the circulation of the photo above.

"The department will need an appropriate amount of time to properly determine the context of the photo and what took place before and after," Boston police spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll said in an e-mail calling the protesters "unruly and combative," according to the Boston Globe.

"The aggressive nature of these individuals required officers to call for numerous additional units to respond," Driscoll continued. "As we always do after a day of aggressive protests, the department will review all of the activity that took place during the course of the day including the photos that have surfaced from the event."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/16/tea-party-patriots-massachusetts-gay-protest_n_1428679.html

I just don't get the hatred displayed by the Tea Party or the police here.

[Dan]

I love my city, I truly do, but it has a vicious racist and homophobic streak.

[Venneh]

Indian boy uses Google Earth, math, and own incredible memory to find family he was separated from 25 years later

I think I have something in my heart.

[MaxPower]

Wow, just wow. That's amazing, teared up a bit reading that!

[Venneh]

EDIT: Bad link, try the one two posts down.

[Molly]

Australian neighbors decide to settle their differences with a katana and a chainsaw.

Find a better link, me thinks. That one is dripping with Mal-Ware and Ad BS>

[Venneh]

Ah, thanks for the heads-up, my Chrome browser was blocking all that.

Try this one.

[Dan]

Adam "MCA" Yauch dead at 48.

[dc20willsave]

Maurice Sendak, author of Where the Wild Things Are, has passed away.

[Venneh]

Oh man. Where the Wild Things Are was one of my favorite books as a kid.

[JackFetch]

Nick Stahl -- the actor who played John Connor in "Terminator 3" -- is missing ... this according to his wife.

Law enforcement officials confirm ... Stahl's wife filed a missing person's report with the L.A.P.D. on Monday ... saying she last saw the 32-year-old actor on May 9.

Sources tell TMZ ... it is believed Stahl had been frequenting the Skid Row area of Downtown Los Angeles recently ... and there are concerns he may have gotten himself involved in some bad stuff.

Back in February, Nick's wife had filed court papers, expressing serious concerns that Nick may be using drugs ... and sources say she fears drugs may have something to do with his disappearance.

Stahl's rep declined to comment on the situation.

http://www.tmz.com/2012/05/16/nick-stahl-missing-terminator-3/

Is there a John Connor curse? 3 out of the 5 people that played him have had serious drug and alcohol problems after playing the character.

[KnightWing]

Either that or he's on the run from the machines again. Or at least he thinks he is.

[MaxPower]

Easily the best John Connor of the whole serious. And played a pretty good pervert in Sin City as well.

[Dread]

Easily the best John Connor of the whole serious. And played a pretty good pervert in Sin City as well.

Second best.

Linda Hamilton's uterus was amazing in the first movie.

[dc20willsave]

Third Best. The kid in The Sarah Conner Chronicles wasn't half bad. He was almost as good as Linda Hamilton's Uterus. There are few things that are.It's a fact that most people realize with the exception of James Cameron for whom it was a $50 Million dollar mistake.