Mom admits making disabled teen son sleep on porch

A 17-year-old with mental and physical disabilities is in protective custody after police say his mother admitted to making the teen sleep on the front porch in a tent in 30-degree weather.

When the mother and her son went to Catawba Family Center for an appointment Tuesday, the mother gave the center’s director a four-page, handwritten letter that said she’d made her son sleep on the back porch in a tent the night before because he’d been banging on the wall and on his bed, according to a Rock Hill police report.

The boy also said he’d been beaten several times, the report states.

The mother said she gave her son a tent, sleeping mats, blankets and a sleeping bag the night she made him sleep on the porch, the report states. The teen was taken into emergency protective custody, according to the report.

Rock Hill police are investigating.

*****

Momma should be horse-whipped! Irregardless of the boy's disabilities no one should be forced to sleep in 30 degree temperatures.

Serves the wanker right!

The sheriff of Richland County, South Carolina, is deeply saddened to announce that after making at least eight arrests, he lacks the evidence to prosecute anyone for the smoking of marijuana at a party where Olympic many-medallist Michael Phelps was photographed bonghuffing.

More here.

Speaking of health

Since most Americans who have health insurance are getting it through their employers, the current economic collapse means that many thousands of Americans are losing their health coverage when they their jobs ... to the tune of 14,000 people per day.

More at ThinkProgess.

Health News

In today's health news:

Decoy molecules drive cancer cells to suicide

Food counterfeiting, contamination outpace international regulatory systems Michigan State University analysts find growing threat

Vitamin D: Doctors urge women to show more skin

She talks to angels

The Black Crowes
(A rare acoustic version)

Peace in Darfur

A possible peace deal has been brokered in Darfur, so maybe the death toll (300,000 or so) will slow down.

More in The Guardian.

Items in the News

ACORN is leading rallies and political pressure to stop evictions of homeowners who are behind on their mortgage payments.
Some local sheriffs are refusing to carry out such evictions.
More in the New York Times.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is rationing water, for the first time in decades.
More at Reuters.

As a going-away boondoggle, the shrub and the cabal left a late-running order to build 28 new Presidential helicopters, each more expensive than Air Force One.
Question: Do we have 28 Presidents?
More at the Associated Press.

Liars and Fools

Today's Liars and Fools are:

Bachmann (r-Minnesota) continues offering evidence of her stupidity, ignorance, and delusions
Enough all ready, we get it - you're a lunatic moron.

Faux News panel discusses foreclosure crisis without any reps for "deadbeat" homeowners' interests
Typical.

Bozell's Newsbusters accuses Media Matters of "defamation"; doesn't seem to know what the word means
Open a dictionary sometime!

George Will makes up facts in his column denying global warming
As he usually does.

Pat Robertson thinks Lush Dimbulb has gone too far
Whoa, pot and kettle, pot and kettle ...

Typical repugicans

Remember the repugicans' behavior in Congress in recent weeks, basically doing all they could do to prevent any aid from reaching the economy?
They're doing the same thing to California.
"With the state budget $41 billion in deficit, repugicans held out for corporate tax cuts, and then aren't even supporting the resulting bill."
More in Washington Monthly.

And Kansas is following California's lead -- suspending income tax refunds, and the state might not make its next payroll.
More at KSN-TV.

And I Quote

"Republicans doubled the debt in eight years and produced no new jobs doing it, they gave us an economic record that was totally bereft of any productive result are now criticizing Obama for spending money. You know, I balanced the budget, I ran surpluses. If I were in his position today, I would be doing what he's doing. This stimulus is our bridge over troubled waters till the bank reforms kick in. He did the right thing, he did everything he could to get Republican support."

~ President William Jefferson Clinton, listing the facts,

What Now?

For more check out whatnowtoons.com

Guess who has a tax problem

Sarah Palin must pay income taxes on thousands of dollars in expense money she received while living at her Wasilla home, under a new determination by state officials.

More in the Anchorage Daily News

That gut feeling may actually reflect a reliable memory

A new study from Northwestern University offers precise electrophysiological evidence that such decisions may sometimes not be guesswork after all.

The research utilizes the latest brain-reading technology to point to the surprising accuracy of memories that can’t be consciously accessed.

During a special recognition test, guesses turned out to be as accurate or more accurate than when study participants thought they consciously remembered.

“We may actually know more than we think we know in everyday situations, too,” said Ken Paller, professor of psychology at Northwestern. “Unconscious memory may come into play, for example, in recognizing the face of a perpetrator of a crime or the correct answer on a test. Or the choice from a horde of consumer products may be driven by memories that are quite alive on an unconscious level.”

The study links lucky guesses to valid memories and suggests that people need to be more receptive to multiple types of knowledge, Paller said.

Full Story at Physorg

Emailing while asleep

According to a case described in the medical journal Sleep Medicine, a 44-year-old sleepwalker logged onto her computer and emailed out party invitations to friends. Fortean Times magazine looks at this case and several other bizarre episodes of somnambulism.

From Fortean Times:

The mails themselves were perhaps not up to the woman’s waking standard; each was in a random mix of upper and lower case characters, badly formatted and containing odd expressions. One read: “Come tomorrow and sort this hell hole out. Dinner and drinks, 4.pm. Bring wine and caviar only.” Another said simply: “What the…”

The writers of the report have dubbed this new variation of sleepwalking ‘zzz-mailing’. They say: “We believe writing an email after turning the computer on, connecting to the Internet and remembering the password displayed by our patient is novel. To our knowledge this type of complex behaviour requiring coordinated movements has not been reported before in sleepwalking. She was shocked when she saw these emails, as she did not recall writing them. She did not have any history of night terr­ors or sleepwalking as a child.”

Unlike simple sleepwalking, they argue, the activities the woman engaged in required complex behaviour and coordinated movement, as well being able to remember her login details. She had no memory of the events next day. It’s thought that the somnambulistic episode may have been triggered by prescript­ion medication.

Somnambulism in the Internet Age

Welcome new readers

We would like to say welcome to all our readers over at alwritenow.com

Americans' Standard of Living Permanently Changed

Because of the shrub, the cabal and the repugicans ... the "Worst Is Yet to Come:"

There's no question the American consumer is hurting in the face of a burst housing bubble, financial market meltdown and rising unemployment.

But "the worst is yet to come," according to Howard Davidowitz, chairman of Davidowitz & Associates, who believes American's standard of living is undergoing a "permanent change" - and not for the better as a result of:

• An $8 trillion negative wealth effect from declining home values.
• A $10 trillion negative wealth effect from weakened capital markets.
• A $14 trillion consumer debt load amid "exploding unemployment", leading to "exploding bankruptcies."

"The average American used to be able to borrow to buy a home, send their kids to a good school [and] buy a car," Davidowitz says. "A lot of that is gone."

Going forward, the veteran retail industry consultant foresees higher savings rate and people trading down in both the goods and services they buy - as well as their aspirations.

The end of rampant consumerism is ultimately a good thing, he says, but the unraveling of an economy built on debt-fueled spending will be painful for years to come.

*****

So, keep who did this to our country in mind come the next elections!

The Uncler

Nice take on the current state of affairs in America.
(Funny, too.)

Radical cleric to be deported

Britain's highest court rejected suggestions that an extremist Muslim preacher once described as Osama bin Laden's ambassador in Europe faced torture if sent home to Jordan, clearing the way for his deportation.

Abu Qatada, who was jailed in 2002 over allegations he played a key role in raising money for extremists and advised militants planning terror attacks, has previously been convicted in Jordan for his role in two bombings. But lower courts said he couldn't be deported because of the torture risk — rulings reversed Wednesday by Britain's Law Lords.

Britain's Home Office moved immediately to expel him.

"I have signed Abu Qatada's deportation order, which will be served on him today," Britain's Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said in a statement. "I am keen to deport this dangerous individual as soon as I can."

Read more here.

And I Quote

Share your knowledge. It's a way to achieve immortality.

~ Dalai Lama

A Fractured Leghorn

Foghorn Leghorn

Most People Believe Dreams Are Meaningful

Dreams might mean nothing, but many people take them seriously nonetheless, as Sigmund Freud did, new research finds.

People in at least three countries, including the United States, believe dreams contain important hidden truths, said researcher Carey Morewedge, an assistant professor Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

In six different studies, Morewedge and his colleagues surveyed nearly 1,100 people about their dreams. The results are detailed in the February issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Read the rest here.

New Readers

Carolina Naturally would like to welcome our newest readers in Kyrgyzstan


Kyrgyzstan

Our 160th country.

'Backward' comet makes its one and only appearance

An odd, greenish backward-flying comet is zipping by Earth this month, as it takes its only trip toward the sun from the farthest edges of the solar system. The comet is called Lulin, and there's a chance it can be seen with the naked eye — far from city lights, astronomers say. But you'll most likely need a telescope, or at least binoculars, to spot it.

The best opportunity is just before dawn one-third of the way up the southern sky. It should be near Saturn and two bright stars, Spica and Regula.

On Monday next week (February23rd) at 10:43 p.m. EST, it will be 38 million miles from Earth, the closest it will ever get, according to Donald Yeomans, manager of NASA's Near Earth Object program.

The story behind the comet is more intriguing than its appearance — the greenish tinge may be hard for many to discern. The color comes from a type of carbon and cyanogen, a poisonous gas.

Lulin was discovered by a Chinese teenager two years ago. It still has many of its original gases — gases that are usually stripped away as comets near the sun. Unlike most comets viewable from Earth, this one hasn't been this close to the sun before, Yeomans said.

While all the planets and most of the other objects in the solar system circle the sun counterclockwise, Lulin circles clockwise, said NASA astronomer Stephen Edberg. And thanks to an optical illusion, from Earth it appears as if the comet's tail is in the front as the comet approaches Earth and the sun.

"It essentially is going backwards through the solar system," he said.

It came from the outskirts of the solar system, 18 trillion miles away. Once it's made the journey around the sun, Lulin will gain enough speed to escape the solar system, Edberg said.

"If you are interested in comets, make sure you see it," he said. "But it's not going to be a real great blast for the general public."

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Daily Horoscope

Today's horoscope says:

You have to stay true to your idealistic nature.

You got it.