Eideard

Dangerous couple — way too happy to be allowed to join church

A tiny church in rural Kentucky has voted to ban interracial couples from joining its congregation, pitting members against each other in an argument over race. Members at the Gulnare Free Will Baptist Church in Kentucky voted on Sunday on the resolution, which says the church “does not condone interracial marriage”.

The church member who crafted the resolution, Melvin Thompson, said he is not racist and called the matter an “internal affair”…

Dean Harville, the church’s secretary, disagreed – he said the resolution came after his daughter visited the church this summer with her boyfriend from Africa. Stella Harville and Ticha Chikuni, now her fiancé, visited the church in June and Chikuni sang a song for the congregation. The two had visited the church before.

Harville said he was counting the church offering after a service in August when he was approached by Thompson, who told him Harville’s daughter and her boyfriend were no longer allowed to sing at the church.

“If he’s not racist, what is this?” Harville said…

The resolution says anyone is welcome to attend services, but interracial couples could not become members or be “used in worship services or other church functions”…

The National Association of Free Will Baptists in Tennessee has no official position on interracial marriage for its 2,400 churches worldwide, executive secretary Keith Burden said. The denomination believes the Bible is inerrant and local churches have autonomy over decision making.

“It’s been a non-issue with us,” Burden said, adding that many interracial couples attend Free Will Baptist churches. He said the Pike County church acted on its own. Burden said the association can move to strip the local church of its affiliation with the national denomination if it’s not resolved.

There are additional legal avenues that must be considered if these fools can’t sort their bigotry in a timely fashion. Since they continue to define themselves as a body open to the public, racist policies cannot be condoned. That means all and every benefit they take advantage of as a church must be ended. Tax, zoning, political advantages must be withdrawn by local, state and federal bodies.

Part of separation of church and state is that all parties live up to civil law, the law of the land. Religion is an unsatisfactory excuse for bigotry practiced in a public context. You can be an idiot on your own anytime.

Dr. Roberto Bolli

Stem cells from heart-attack patients helped improve blood-pumping ability and restore vitality in cardiac muscle, according to a small trial published on Monday.

It is the first time patients have been given an infusion of their own cardiac stem cells in the aim of solving the impact of heart failure rather than simply treating the symptoms of it. The findings are so promising that the study’s chief investigator said a potential “revolution” was in the offing if larger trials succeeded…

The new study, published online in The Lancet, tested cardiac stem cells on 16 patients who had been left gravely ill as a result of an acute myocardial infarction…

Within four months of treatment, the [capacity of the left ventricle to expel blood in the space of a heartbeat] LVFV rose by 8.5 percent and after a year by 12 percent — four times what the researchers had expected.

Scans of the patients’ hearts also showed a reduction in the area of tissue that had been scarred by the infarction, a discovery that challenges conventional belief that once scarring occurs, heart tissue is permanently dead.

The volunteers also reported a substantial improvement in quality of life, and there were no significant side effects…

“The results are striking,” said lead investigator Roberto Bolli of the University of Louisville, Kentucky.

“While we do not know why the improvement occurs, we have no doubt now that [LVFV] increased and scarring decreased.

“If these results hold up in future studies, I believe this could be the biggest revolution in cardiovascular medicine in my lifetime.”

Bravo!

The singularity approaches. While know-nothings prepare for a rapturous return to lifespans and quality of life considered normal in the Dark Ages. I’ll take science over superstition any day.

Evangelist and revival leader Ernest Cadick passionately preached God’s word, according to pastors in Indiana and Kentucky. But salvation wasn’t the only thing he was selling.

Approaching potential investors in churches, the ordained minister solicited $719,150 over 15 years for oil and gas ventures, then spent the money on himself, according to a federal indictment.

Cadick also used the apocalyptic prophecies in the Book of Revelation to fleece additional churchgoers at Louisville’s Evangel World Prayer Center, according to another indictment returned in state court, allegedly telling them that when President Barack Obama was elected, the dollar’s value would plummet to 3 cents as it was replaced with a new currency.

If they gave him their saving, the indictment alleges, he would fly it to Switzerland, where it would earn double their investment back each month.

Now the 60-year-old traveling evangelist is facing two separate trials — one in state court and another in federal — on those allegations.

He will be tried July 11 in Jefferson Circuit Court on three counts of theft for allegedly taking $29,500 from elderly victims in the Swiss investment scheme.

And he is scheduled to be tried today in Louisville federal court on 16 counts of fraud for allegedly taking money for oil and gas ventures and foreign currency investments and spending the money on himself, according to his indictment…

Long detailed article. Another Christian hustler who would kneel down and pray with his victims to convince them to fork over their savings in return for God’s guarantee of salvation – and more profits.

Investors sometimes make dumb decisions. Investors who make decisions based on “revealed word” and scripture written by a King’s committee in the 17th Century are beyond dumb.

Now, where the crap did Dad put Texas?

Flocks of birds falling en masse from the sky in Arkansas, Louisiana, Kentucky and even Sweden is strange, but these mysterious mass deaths don’t hold a candle to the “Kentucky Meat Shower” of 1876 when it comes to avian oddities.

“Flesh Descending in a Shower. An Astounding Phenomenon in Kentucky – Fresh Meat Like Mutton or Venison Falling From A Clear Sky,” read the headline in the New York Times on March 10, 1876.

A second Times article the next day provided more detail on the strange occurrence.

“Mrs. Crouch, of Olympian Springs, Ky., was employed in the open air and under a particular clear sky, in the celebration of those mysterious rites by which the housewife transmutes scraps of meat, bones and effete overshoes into soap,” it said. “Suddenly, there descended upon her a gentle shower of meat.”

For a couple of minutes, it continued, big pieces of meat, three or four inches square, fell all over Mrs. Crouch’s yard. The meat “appeared to be perfectly fresh.”

The incident was corroborated for the New York Times by two sources – one Mr. Harrison Gill “whose veracity is unquestionable” and a correspondent of the Louisville Commercial newspaper…

After examining several specimens of meat, one scientist determined what fell out of the sky was in fact of “animal origin” (apparently he didn’t trust the taste buds of the locals). Therefore “the Kentucky shower was a veritable ‘meat’ shower.” Beyond that, he admitted that he had no explanation.

However, he relayed the most popular local theory: a large pack of buzzards must have flown over the area after having eaten some dead horses, then one of the buzzards disgorged himself and the others followed suit, (as is their custom, according to the journal).

The scientist reported that similar occurrences with buzzards had been known to happen in the past, so “it would seem that the whole matter is capable of reasonable and simple explanation, and we may expect to hear of similar downfalls in other localities.”

If you add the religious fervor of some vegans to the festering sump of bible-thumping True Believers, you probably could come up with a revival movement to counter the KoolAid Party.

A Kentucky man accused of strangling his wife is poised to claim excessive caffeine from sodas, energy drinks and diet pills left him so mentally unstable he couldn’t have knowingly killed her…

Woody Will Smith, 33, is scheduled for trial starting today on a murder charge in the May 2009 death of Amanda Hornsby-Smith, 28.

Defense attorney Shannon Sexton filed notice with the Newport court of plans to argue his client ingested so much caffeine in the days leading up to the killing that it rendered him temporarily insane — unable even to form the intent of committing a crime…

A legal strategy invoking caffeine intoxication is unusual but has succeeded at least once before, in a case involving a man cleared in 2009 of charges of running down and injuring two people with a car in Washington state…

I am never surprised over silly-ass defenses accepted as legit by a court. Responsibility for your own acts, decisions, means nothing.

Prosecutors, meanwhile, said their own expert may testify there was no evidence Smith had consumed diet pills or energy drinks as he claimed before his wife died.

Prosecutor Michelle Snodgrass said Smith tested negative for amphetamine-type substances shortly after the killing…

Reports and case records say during that time, he was drinking five or six soft drinks and energy drinks a day, along with taking diet pills; it all added up to more than 400 milligrams of caffeine a day.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders — published by the American Psychiatric Association showing standard criteria for the classification of mental disorders — defines overdose as more than 300 mg. That’s about three cups of coffee.

More than three cups of coffee classifies you as loony, overdosed on coffee?

Har! That explains the behavior of half the geeks in the world.

A man enraged over how his wife cooked his eggs in rural eastern Kentucky shot and killed her, his stepdaughter and three witnesses with a shotgun before killing himself on Saturday, a relative of two of the victims said.

Trooper Jody Sims of the Kentucky State Police said 47-year-old Stanley Neace killed the five people in two mobile homes around 11:30 a.m., then went to his home and turned the gun on himself.

Sims said that when state police arrived about an hour after the gunfire began, they heard a single gunshot and found Neace’s body on the porch of his home in the mobile home park outside Jackson in Breathitt County. The county is home to about 16,000 people in the rugged eastern part of the state.

Sherri Anne Robinson, a relative of two of the victims, said witnesses to the shootings told her that Neace became enraged when his wife did not cook his breakfast to his liking…

”He just got mad at his wife for not making his breakfast right and he shot her,” said Robinson, who answered at a phone listing for Neace. ”She tried to run to tell my family and he shot them too because they found out about it…”

Robinson says Neace had never appeared threatening to her, but that he was known to have a violent history. Trooper Jody Sims with the Kentucky State Police could not confirm that Neace had a criminal record.

Hardly anyone appears threatening until they try to kill you. At least if they’re your ordinary run-of-the-mill nutball homicidal maniac.

Or buy some more eggs.

Just another example of how democracy is not permitted in the U.S. Senate.

Bunning of Kentucky says “No” – once again
Daylife/AP Photo used by permission

Resorting to an old-fashioned one-man filibuster, Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) is blocking an extension of unemployment benefits and health insurance payments for hundreds of thousands of out-of-work Americans because of his concerns over the federal budget deficit.

The programs are set to expire at midnight Sunday, and the Senate’s inaction could delay payments.

Democratic and Republican leaders had agreed to pass a one-month extension through a process known as unanimous consent, in which no formal vote was required. But Bunning’s objection means the bill can’t go forward. The extension had been passed by the House and was ready to be signed into law…

“The simple fact of the matter is that this is an emergency situation and should be treated as such,” said Senate Assistant Majority Leader Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.).Bunning has refused to yield as a wave of senators criticized him…

The White House joined in Friday, with spokesman Robert Gibbs saying, “These are the type of games that the American people fail to understand.”

Bunning is retiring to country club life in Kentucky. I think he has enough stashed from his career in Congress to skip the typical lobbyist gig after he’s out of office.

OpenSecrets.org says he’s worth between $½ million an $1 million. Think that’s enough for him to feel comfortable?

Teaching in a local school

When Bill Sparkman told retired trooper Gilbert Acciardo that he was going door-to-door collecting census data in rural Kentucky, the former cop drew on years of experience for a warning: “Be careful.”

The 51-year-old Sparkman was found this month hanged from a tree near a Kentucky cemetery with the word “fed” scrawled on his chest…and the FBI is investigating whether he was a victim of anti-government sentiment.

“Even though he was with the Census Bureau, sometimes people can view someone with any government agency as ‘the government.’ I just was afraid that he might meet the wrong character along the way up there,” said Acciardo, who directs an after-school program at an elementary school where Sparkman was a frequent substitute teacher.

The Census Bureau has suspended door-to-door interviews in rural Clay County, where the body was found, until the investigation is complete, an official said…

The Census Bureau has yet to begin door-to-door canvassing for the 2010 head count, but thousands of field workers are doing smaller surveys on various demographic topics on behalf of federal agencies. Next year, the Census Bureau will dispatch up to 1.2 million temporary employees.

No doubt the Beck/Limbaugh brigade will praise their God for the death of another ordinary human being who chose to work for his country.

Obviously part of the Socialist Conspiracy.

Welcome to Otter Creek

Hawaii prison officials said Tuesday that all of the state’s 168 female inmates at a privately run Kentucky prison will be removed by the end of September because of charges of sexual abuse by guards…

Otter Creek is run by the Corrections Corporation of America and is one of a spate of private, for-profit prisons, mainly in the South, that have been the focus of investigations over issues like abusive conditions and wrongful deaths. Because Eastern Kentucky is one of the poorest rural regions in the country, the prison was welcomed by local residents desperate for jobs.

Hawaii sent inmates to Kentucky to save money. Housing an inmate at the Women’s Community Correctional Center in Kailua, Hawaii, costs $86 a day, compared with $58.46 a day at the Kentucky prison, not including air travel.

Hawaii investigators found that at least five corrections officials at the prison, including a chaplain, had been charged with having sex with inmates in the last three years, and four were convicted. Three rape cases involving guards and Hawaii inmates were recently turned over to law enforcement authorities. The Kentucky State Police said another sexual assault case would go to a grand jury soon.

How to go, folks! You saved the state of Hawaii how much money?

Of course, that was before the lawsuits that should be rolling down the surf.

Paleontologists watching nutball video – trying to keep a straight face

Tamaki Sato was confused by the dinosaur exhibit. The placards described the various dinosaurs as originating from different geological periods — the stegosaurus from the Upper Jurassic, the heterodontosaurus from the Lower Jurassic, the velociraptor from the Upper Cretaceous — yet in each case, the date of demise was the same: around 2348 B.C.

“I was just curious why,” said Dr. Sato, a professor of geology from Tokyo Gakugei University in Japan…

But here in the Creation Museum in northern Kentucky, Earth and the universe are just over 6,000 years old, created in six days by God. The museum preaches, “Same facts, different conclusions” and is unequivocal in viewing paleontological and geological data in light of a literal reading of the Bible…

The worlds of academic paleontology and creationism rarely collide, but the former paid a visit to the latter last Wednesday. The University of Cincinnati was hosting the North American Paleontological Convention, where scientists presented their latest research at the frontiers of the ancient past. In a break from the lectures, about 70 of the attendees boarded school buses for a field trip to the Creation Museum, on the other side of the Ohio River.

“I’m very curious and fascinated,” Stefan Bengtson, a professor of paleozoology at the Swedish Museum of Natural History, said before the visit, “because we have little of that kind of thing in Sweden…”

“I’m speechless,” said Derek E.G. Briggs, director of the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale, who walked around with crossed arms and a grimace. “It’s rather scary…”

“I think they should rename the museum — not the Creation Museum, but the Confusion Museum,” said Lisa E. Park, a professor of paleontology at the University of Akron.

“Unfortunately, they do it knowingly,” Dr. Park said. “I was dismayed. As a Christian, I was dismayed.”

Dr. Bengtson noted that to explain how the few species aboard the ark could have diversified to the multitude of animals alive today in only a few thousand years, the museum said simply, “God provided organisms with special tools to change rapidly.”

“Thus in one sentence they admit that evolution is real,” Dr. Bengtson said, “and that they have to invoke magic to explain how it works.”

Makes an interesting read for a short while. I’m not certain I’d want to waste part of a free day – wandering through the bowels of ignorance.