Sanctuary cities laws must go. They hurt the community,  It prevents law enforcement fom doing their job like special order 40 by the City of Los Angeles.   Its time that cities need to repeal the laws, the state must do the same if the state have similar laws on the books. I wish Presidential Candidates Senators Barack Obama and John McCain would meet with Jameal Shaw Sr. his wife who is serving this country in Iraq and Mrs. Danielle Bologna  and explain why we need illegals here in America.

Read at article of Frank Kennedy who was brother-in-law to Anthony Bolonga  who killed by Edwin Ramos the illegal immigrant who shot and killed him and his family: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-sanctuary26-2008jul26,0,1134867.story

The madness must stop!

More funnies past the  jump!

Director Darren Aronofsky (The Fountain, Pi, Requiem For A Dream) is teaming with writer David Self (The Road To Perdition and the upcoming redo The Wolfman) to bring back our favorite Motor City cyborg policeman. The announcement came amidst the chaos that is Comic Con 2008. I'm not sure how I feel about this one yet. The pairing of Aronofsky and Self is a pretty good move, no doubt about it. However, I have a funny feeling about this one. Frank Miller took two shots at co-writing both ROBOCOP sequels, and the authored the comic version, ROBOCOP vs. Terminator. Each sequel has been victim to harsh criticism, but ROBOCOP 2 wasn't that bad in my opinion. We'll see what Aronofsky has up his sleeve for the baby food eating gun slinging cyborg as the movie is being given a 2010 release date. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the fourth movie will take place 20 years later after the ROBOCOP project was scrapped in Motor City but will now be transported to L.A.

You can catch that report here

It remains to be seen if this movie will have the same feel as its predecessors managing to take shots at capitalism and corporate cheesedicks, but the idea is getting a whole lot more interesting with Aronofsky and Self on board.

Dr. Randolph Williams, the Winn Parish coroner, told CNN the 21-year-old sawmill worker was jolted so many times by the 50,000-volt Taser that he might have been dead before the last two shocks were delivered.

Will this murderer, Scott Nugent, be charged with murder? Will the victim get justice?

A police officer shocked a handcuffed Baron "Scooter" Pikes nine times with a Taser after arresting him on a cocaine charge.

He stopped twitching after seven, according to a coroner's report. Soon afterward, Pikes was dead.

Now the officer, since fired, could end up facing criminal charges in Pikes' January death after medical examiners ruled it a homicide.

Dr. Randolph Williams, the Winn Parish coroner, told CNN the 21-year-old sawmill worker was jolted so many times by the 50,000-volt Taser that he might have been dead before the last two shocks were delivered.

Williams ruled Pikes' death a homicide in June after extensive study.

Winn Parish District Attorney Christopher Nevils said he will decide on any charges against the ex-officer, Scott Nugent, once a Louisiana State Police report on the case is complete.

"It's taken several months for this case to even be properly addressed, so one has to wonder, why did it take so long?" said Carol Powell Lexing, a lawyer for the Pikes family. "Obviously, a wrongful death occurred."

Nugent's lawyer, Phillip Terrell, said his client followed proper procedure to subdue a man who outweighed him by 100 pounds. But Williams said Pikes was already handcuffed and on the ground when first hit with the Taser, after the 247-pound suspect was slow to follow police orders to get up.

Winnfield, a sleepy lumber town about 100 miles southeast of Shreveport, Louisiana, is best known as the birthplace of legendary Louisiana governors Huey and Earl Long. It's also about 45 miles northwest of Jena, Louisiana, where a racially charged assault case sparked a September 2007 demonstration by an estimated 15,000 people.

One of the teenage defendants in that case, Mychal Bell, is Pikes' first cousin -- and his lawyer was Powell Lexing.

Nugent is white; Pikes was black. His death led to demonstrations that drew several dozen people in Winnfield, where the population of about 15,000 is roughly half African-American.

"The family wants justice," Lexing said. "This is just another example of why it's very important to stay vigilant with these types of cases, on the injustice that's been perpetrated on the disadvantaged."

But Winnfield police Lt. Chuck Curry said race "isn't an issue at all" in the matter.

"This has come down to a police officer that was trying to apprehend a suspect that they had warrants for," he said. "He done what he thought he was trained to do to bring that subject into custody. At some point, something happened with his body that caused him to go into cardiac arrest or whatever."

According to police, Pikes was wanted on a charge of possession of cocaine when police tried to arrest him outside a shopping center January 12.

"He would not stop for the officer," Curry said. "At some point in there, he was Tased to bring him under control, and several hours later, died at the emergency room."

Terrell said Pikes was fighting Nugent "on uneven ground" amid obstructions such as concrete blocks and barbed wire.

"He's fighting, wrestling with an individual who weighs 100 pounds more than him," he said. "His partner had just come back to the police department from triple bypass surgery and could not assist Officer Nugent."

Terrell said his client "used every means possible" to take Pikes into custody before pulling out his Taser, a weapon Winnfield police purchased in 2007.

"The only thing he could have done other than to say, 'OK, we're going to let you go' is to beat him or Tase him. He did the right thing," Terrell said.

Williams, who ruled Pikes' death a homicide in June after extensive study, said Nugent fired his Taser at Pikes six times in less than three minutes -- shots recorded by a computer chip in the weapon's handle. Then officers put Pikes in the back of a cruiser and drove him to their police station -- where Nugent fired a seventh shot, directly against Pikes' chest.

"After he was given that drive stun to the chest, he was pulled out of the car onto the concrete, " Williams told CNN. "He was electroshocked two more times, which two officers noted that he had no neuromuscular response to those last two 50,000-volt electroshocks."

Williams said he had two nationally known forensic pathologists, including former New York city medical examiner Michael Baden, review the case before issuing his conclusions. He said it's possible Nugent was shocking a dead man the last two times he pulled the trigger.

"This fellow was talking in the back seat of the car prior to shot number seven," he said. "From that point on, it becomes questionable [if Pikes was still alive]."

Curry said Pikes told officers he suffered from asthma and had been using PCP and crack cocaine. But Williams said he found no sign of drug use in the autopsy, and no record of asthma in Pikes' medical history.

In the year since Winnfield police received Tasers, officers have used them 14 times, according to police records -- with 12 of the instances involving black suspects. Ten of the 14 incidents involved Nugent, who has no public disciplinary record.

Nugent was suspended after Pikes' death, and Winnfield's City Council voted 3-2 to fire him in May. He is appealing his dismissal, and his lawyer says he followed proper procedures in Pikes' case. He was trained in the use of the Taser by a senior police officer who was present during the incident that led to Pikes' death, Terrell said.

Curry said Taser International, the device's manufacturer, indicates that "multiple Tasings do not affect a person." But he said he could not explain why Pikes was shocked so many times, and said whether Nugent followed proper procedure was "yet to be determined."

But a copy of the Winnfield Police Department's Taser training manual, obtained by CNN, says the device "shall only be deployed in circumstances where it is deemed reasonably necessary to control a dangerous or violent subject." And Williams said regulations regarding the use of Tasers were not followed.

"It violated every aspect -- every single aspect -- of the department's policy about its use," the coroner said.

Winnfield has seen a spate of high-profile corruption cases in recent years. One of Nevils' predecessors as district attorney, Terry Reeves, killed himself amid allegations of embezzlement and extortion. The town's current police chief, Johnny Ray Carpenter, is a convicted drug offender who received a pardon from former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards who himself is now serving a federal prison term for racketeering.

And Carpenter's predecessor, Gleason Nugent -- the father of Pikes' arresting officer -- committed suicide in 2005, after allegations of fraud and vote buying in the race for police chief, an elected position in Winnfield.

Now Nevils is awaiting the state police report on Pikes' death, which will be presented to a grand jury for possible charges against Nugent -- a possibility Curry said would be a blow to the department.

"It's one of these no-win situations," he said. "No matter the outcome, nobody's going to win in this case."

A police officer shocked a handcuffed Baron "Scooter" Pikes nine times with a Taser after arresting him on a cocaine charge. He stopped twitching after seven, according to a coroner's report. Soon afterward, Pikes was dead.

Now the officer, since fired, could end up facing criminal charges in Pikes' January death after medical examiners ruled it a homicide.

Dr. Randolph Williams, the Winn Parish coroner, told CNN the 21-year-old sawmill worker was jolted so many times by the 50,000-volt Taser that he might have been dead before the last two shocks were delivered.

Williams ruled Pikes' death a homicide in June after extensive study...

But Winnfield police Lt. Chuck Curry said race "isn't an issue at all" in the matter. "This has come down to a police officer that was trying to apprehend a suspect that they had warrants for," he said. "He done what he thought he was trained to do to bring that subject into custody. At some point, something happened with his body that caused him to go into cardiac arrest or whatever."

Curry said Pikes told officers he suffered from asthma and had been using PCP and crack cocaine. But Williams said he found no sign of drug use in the autopsy, and no record of asthma in Pikes' medical history.

One of my least-fond memories of Louisiana is a cop explaining to me - eventually with his club - why Freedom of Speech wasn't legal in Louisiana.

Give up?

It's Bobby Sherman's birthday. Maybe you have to be a baby boomer to care, but Bobby turns 64 today. That's right the hearththrob of Here Come the Brides is a senior citizen.

Sherman dropped out of sight, becoming a policeman, after the series faded, but when He sang Julie, Julie, Julie, Do You love me? I substituted Dee dee, Dee dee, Dee dee--and swooned with everybody else.

Sigh. Now Bobby's old enough to get the seniors discount at the movies. I guess it had to happen sometime, but there seems to be something very bizarre in that.

Well, we kicked 5-1s ass and the Shadowlords all in one weekend~! Congratulations to all :) easy sailing from here on. I always feel like that annoying grandpa when i say 'everyone get together for a group photo!' but its always worth it:

CoP static, no more of this:

Just plain ass kicking now :D After our last run we all felt pretty sure we could win next time and we did! 1/4~ HELL YEA! SCREW YOU OURYU! That fight took so much planing it was insane, what sadistic programmer thought this up?! Teamwork prevailed in the end~! woot! Keep on the forum for our next fight :)

This cop saw my military ID and was immediately compassionate.  He probably served in the armed forces or is a passionate supporter of the US military, but either way he connected with me on some level.  He asked questions about my driving record and was actually interested in why I was speeding.  I gave honest and straightforward answers, and he said, "Well, I don't want to ruin your driving record, but you need to slow down."

This wasn't a life changing event, but it made me think about God.  God has laws, and there are consequences in store for those who break his laws.  But God also has a Son.  His Son lived as we live - He was tempted, He suffered pain both physical and emotional, and He prevailed.  God can connect with us because everything we struggle with, He struggled with, and won.  There's nothing that we deal with that is unfamiliar to God.  That is why God is so compassionate even towards those who break his laws - because he knows our situation.

When I left the scene after not getting a ticket I had a new respect for the law because it wasn't against me.  I think God is the same way.  He's rooting for us, and He want's us to choose right.  He gives us so many opportunities and in my experience, He shows compassion every time we mess up.  His compassion makes me want to be more obedient.

In 2005, Officer William Cozzi was captured on a hospital surveillance camera beating Randle Miles about 10 times. Miles, then 60, was a drunk and unruly stabbing victim.

Cozzi, 51, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor battery in state court and got 18 months' probation. The department asked the Chicago Police Board to fire him, but the civilian disciplinary panel decided instead to suspend him last October. The department filed an appeal the following month.

On Friday, Judge William Maki ruled that the department failed to show that the board was "arbitrary and unreasonable" in suspending Cozzi.

Ask yourself if you would have received "probation" for this crime.

Watch the video here.

"A morte... é trágica. Mas também é um grande negócio. Algumas pessoas lidam com a morte espiritualmente, outros lidam com ela legalmente. Mas, o que a maior parte das pessoas não sabe, é que, quando alguém morre em nossa casa, nos cabe... limpar a porcaria."

Primeiro, registrando que esse filme é mais um a mostrar que não precisam alongar para se levar uma boa história. Em "Evidências de um crime" a trama ficou amarradinha. Com princípio, meio e fim. A atenção não se dispersa.

Esse filme, a mim, trouxe algo interessante: a profissão do protagonista. É, é preciso ter estômago forte para limpar aquilo tudo. E ficarei um tempo sem colocar as caldas caramelizadas de morangos, chocolate por sobre o sorvete. Vendo o filme, saberão o porque.

Outro ponto positivo, estar em ver Samuel L. Jackson como protagonista. Por curtir suas atuações. E gostei da dobradinha com Ed Harris. Deu química! Assim como gostei da jovem, Keke Palmer, mostrou que tem futuro.

Agora a história do filme... Mas antes, não vejam o filme já pensando no final. Aproveitem todo o percurso dessa trama.

Tom (Samuel L. Jackson), um tira aposentado, tem uma firma que limpa a cena do crime nas casas, escritórios... Tão logo a justiça libera o local, caso algum responsável pelo imóvel queira, ele entra em ação. Os próprios ex-colegas se encarregam de intermediar o contato. E nossa! Ele limpa mesmo!

Tudo ia bem, até que se vê como o principal suspeito de uma das suas últimas limpeza. Pois em vez de sangue, a polícia encontrou vestígios de fortes materiais de limpeza; algo mais industrializado. Usaram-no para encobrir o crime. Mas quem matou? Quem morreu? O porque daquele assassinato... Ele então começa uma investigação paralela para provar a sua inocência. Havendo muito mais coisas por trás dessa história. Sujeira grossa!

Ainda citaria mais um ponto relevante nesse filme. Que é o dar uma oportunidade de emprego a um ex-detento. Algo ainda visto com receio e no mundo real. Logo, quando isso é mostrado nas telas, fica uma expectativa de que o assunto seja novamente debatido. Que tenha mídia. Levando uma chance de reabilitação a quem de fato merece. Que tenham como limpar suas fichas sujas.

Eu gostei do filme! Nota: 8,5.

Por: Valéria Miguez (LELLA)

Evidências de Um Crime (Cleaner). 2007. EUA Direção: Renny Harlin. Elenco: Samulel L. Jackson, Ed Harris, Eva Mendes, Keke Palmer, Luis Guzmán, Jose Pablo Cantillo. Gênero: Drama, Crime, Thriller. Duração: 88 minutos.

An internal affairs report says a Daytona Beach police officer, Lt. Major Garvin, a 15-year veteran, demanded free coffee and tea from a Starbucks and threatened employees with slower emergency response times if they refused. He was fired July 8 after failing a polygraph test Garvin had insisted on taking.

The coffeehouse's employees claim that since June 2007, Garvin had visited the store as many as six times a night while on duty. Besides demanding free drinks, workers complained that Garvin also cut in front of paying customers.

No more coffee donuts for that mannerless cop.

***Editor's note: The above photo is NOT Lt. Major Garvin

iNPLACENEWS

Once such possible sign happened to me a little over a year ago. I like to photograph the sights, scenes and smells of a city. I was in the middle of shooting quite a few pics around the famed “milk bottle” in the Fort Point channel area when I was approached by one of Boston’s finest.  He's the fellow with the blue uniform and badge approaching me in the photo. I think, but I'm not sure, but if you look close, you can see his trigger finger on his gun...and the very least, he's thinking about it.  In any event, it's not a very good photo, but it is evidence!  He then asked me what I was doing?  "It's a milk bottle". Why was I doing it? "It's a milk bottle".  Where’s my identification?  "It's a milk bottle". And, that I should stop immediately. "It's a milk bottle".  He didn't ask for my film, which is a good thing as I was shooting digital.

What did I learn from this experience?  I learned that the seemingly innocent milk bottle was actually a secret government installation.  Now, what does this has to do with Sinclair Lewis’s book?

Now, there are no DVD's or Downloads for this show, maybe because it's so old and it was short lived, But Hulu and Hulu on AOL Video has one episode, which I took the screencaps that You see that the beginning of the post.

http://video.aol.com/partner/hulu/tequila-and-bonetti-language-of-the-heart/UHf2kc9d-9Hierlm-reLTrX_bfGbMxGr

and Youtube has the opening:

You can see her on the opening sequence since she's a Main chracther and throughout the whole episode.

"Somos policiais, podemos fazer o que bem entender. Não importa o que aconteça, o mais importante é como relatamos."

Antes de mais nada quero salientar que adorei a cara do Keanu Reeves. Ele agora está com cara de homem. Antes tinha carinha de jovenzinho. Parece que o moço 'cresceu'. E isso é com a pessoa dele. Uma mera observação feminina.

Agora o filme... Policial dos bons! Que prende a atenção. E o que traz?

Keanu Reeves faz um policial, Tom Ludlow. Que está em crise por não ter ainda se recuperado da morte da esposa; até pelas circunstâncias da morte dela. Tenta um consolo com garrafinhas de vodka, mas esse lado não abala seu lado profissional. Como diz seu Capitão, Wander (Forest Whitaker) ele é como um míssil - direto ao ponto. Mais, do tipo que se houve um flagrante... para que perder tempo com júri e tudo mais... Por sem bom no que faz, como faz... De repente surge o Capitão Biggs (Hugh Laurie). Um Tira que caça outros Tiras. Fica como uma sombra de Tom.

Tudo seguia como de costume, até que um ex-companheiro seu, Washington (Terry Crews), é assassinado por dois mascarados. E Tom estava no local. A partir dai, parece que Tom pisou numa areia movediça. Tentando apurar, para livrar a sua cara, já que se tornou suspeito, acaba se complicando cada vez mais. Assim, acompanhamos Tom pelo menos sair do atoleiro. Que não é dos pequenos.

Além das outras participações estarem em sintonia, deixo registrado que as duas personagens femininas fogem dos esteriótipos de mulheres na maioria desse gênero de filme - Policial. Great! Falar mais da história, tiraria a surpresa de quem ainda não viu. Assistam! Eu gostei!

Por: Valéria Miguez (LELLA)

Os Reis da Rua (Street Kings). 2008. EUA. Direção: David Ayer. Elenco: Keanu Reeves, Forest Whitaker, Hugh Laurie, Chris Evans, Cedric the Entertainer, Jay Mohr, Terry Crews, Naomie Harris, Common, Martha Higareda, Amaury Nolasco, Cle Shaheed Sloan, Noel Gugliemi, Michael Monks. Gênero: Crime, Drama, Policial, Thriller. Duração: 109 minutos.

Wikipedia and other online research sources were yesterday blamed for Scotland's falling exam pass rates. The Scottish Parent Teacher Council (SPTC) said pupils are turning to websites and Internet resources that contain inaccurate or deliberately misleading information before passing it off as their own work.

The group singled out online encyclopedia Wikipedia, which allows entries to be logged or updated by anyone and is not verified by researchers, as the main source of information.

Standard Grade pass rates were down for the first time in four years last year and the SPTC is now calling for pupils to be given lessons on using the internet appropriately for additional research purposes "before the problem gets out of hand".

Eleanor Coner, the SPTC's information officer, said: "Children are very IT-savvy, but they are rubbish at researching. The sad fact is most children these days use libraries for computers, not the books. We accept that as a sign of the times, but schools must teach pupils not to believe everything they read.

"It's dangerous when the Internet is littered with opinion and inaccurate information which could be taken as fact.

"Internet plagiarism is a problem. Pupils think 'I'll nick that and nobody will notice', but the Scottish Qualifications Authority has robust ways of checking for plagiarism and parents are worried their children will fail their exams."

Ronnie Smith, the general secretary of the Educational Institute of Scotland, said there was a higher risk of inaccurate information on the Internet than in books. He added: "We need to make sure youngsters don't take what they read online as fact."

Several further education institutions have already banned students from using the interactive encyclopaedia. At one college in Vermont in the US, a history professor found several students repeated the same error in exam papers. On discovering the information came from Wikipedia, the college outlawed its future use.

Ms. Coner said overuse of the Internet also meant students did not develop interpretative skills.

She said: "Pupils are in danger of believing what they read. It's part of our short-cut culture, where we will do anything to pass a test, without properly engaging with the information or questions that are being asked.

"It's all very well to glance at a website for research, but you have to check what you are reading is correct. Anything can be untrue. I can claim to be a world expert on anything if I set up a website on the Internet."

Alan Johnson, the UK Education Secretary, was lambasted earlier this year for suggesting the website could be a positive educational tool for children.

He described the Internet as "an incredible force for good in education", singling out Wikipedia for praise.

A disclaimer on Wikipedia states "it is important to note that fledgling, or less well monitored, articles may be susceptible to vandalism and insertion of false information".

Boasting over two million articles, Wikipedia is used by about 6 per cent of Internet users, significantly more than the traffic to more authorised sites, such as those of newspapers. Its articles are mainly edited by a team of volunteers.

'There is a great deal of misinformation on the net'

LAST week I heard the writer Colin Bateman describe how, on looking himself up on Wikipedia, he was dismayed to discover that his young son had gone online and added the sentence: "Mr Bateman is currently suffering from penile dysfunction." Fortunately his dad saw the funny side – and was proud his child could spell "dysfunction" correctly.

In common with students everywhere, I use Wikipedia as a research tool, and so does my son. Occasionally, I come across areas where there is academic dissent – for example on whether Homer was an individual poet, and this is usually clearly indicated.

There are subjects on which I wouldn't trust any open-edit web resource, because I've come across too many conspiracy theorists in my time. But generally I think the biggest risk of using any Internet source is that it leads to plagiarism, intended or unintended.

It is so easy to cut and paste, meaning only to put together some useful notes, and then to draw on them too heavily without acknowledging the source. At the extreme it is all too easy to buy "off the peg" essays on any subject.

When I was studying public health, we were trained to test the reliability of health-related websites, because there is a great deal of subjective misinformation on the net which may appear reliable.

The great strength of the Internet is that it means we can amass information very readily, but it is hard to distinguish between authoritative, scientifically tested information, and something more akin to rumour.

One topic in my son's Higher History course is the civil rights movement in the US. Starting from the simplest of Internet queries, it wasn't long before he got into quite contentious issues, which were presented in very partial terms by organisations with vested interests.

It was hugely useful to him to develop the skill of challenging what was presented as "fact", but it is a skill that has to be learnt, and which many Internet users won't have. Of course, that skill isn't just useful for assessing the reliability of the Internet. Mr Bateman, for example, earns his living by making up stories.

• Miranda Harvey is a parent of a pupil at Boroughmuir High School, Edinburgh.

Politics

POLITICIANS and their parties are among those Wikipedia entries most vulnerable to deliberate misinformation.

During his time in Downing Street, Tony Blair may have been alarmed to find himself slurred as "George Bush's bitch-boy".

The SNP's entry has previously seen the party described as one "influenced by childish Jacobitism", while Scottish Labour has been dubbed a "fascist organisation".

Celebrity

AS WELL as political heavy-hitters, the realm of celebrity is a favourite for Wikipedia's mischief-makers.

At different times, Kylie Minogue has had her genealogical history thrown into doubt after her entry claimed that she was "the more beautiful and talented older sister" of Michael Jackson.

Robbie Williams suffered an even crueller entry – it was at one point alleged on Wikipedia that he made a living from eating hamsters in pubs in and around Stoke.

Fantasists

Wikipedia seen by some as a blank canvas where self-publicists can promote themselves. In 2006, a call centre worker from Glasgow was exposed after concocting an elaborate alter ego through his Wikipedia page, which gave the impression he was a highly decorated war hero.

Alan Mcilwraith, renaming himself Captain Sir Alan, claimed to have been an officer in the Parachute Regiment, who finished top of his class at Sandhurst before going on to become a terrorism expert.

After two years of conducting this charade, someone who knew Mcilwraith revealed the sham.

Wikipedia was really a trailblazer in the current trend of virtual communities of practice, an area of my academic research interests. However, I know full well that whatever I read might not be accurate.

I once heard it said that Wikipedia is a great place to start your research, but a bad place to end it. I feel that is an accurate assessment. I personally enjoy exploring Wikipedia and often find I end up on a page I never imagined I would find.

As an adjunct instructor, I go to great lengths to explain why Wikipedia is not an ideal source for research information -- precisely for the reasons mentioned above.  I explain that they can begin their research at Wikipedia -- as it is usually one of the top five pages to appear following a Google search -- but I tell them to follow the links to the resources cited on the page itself.

However, I am admittedly a bit of a hypocrite as I frequently link to Wikipedia pages in this blog due to the ease with which pages relevant to my topics can be found. Without question, Wikipedia pages are a great clearinghouse of information -- a true crossroads of knowledge -- and for that reason alone the site is a useful tool.

But, its greatest strength is also its greatest weakness -- one that will forever exist so long as the site remains as it is now.

I recently demonstrated how easy it is to change a page on Wikipedia to one of my English classes by changing the Wikipedia page for comedian Carrot Top to indicate that he had died unexpectedly on that date. I was even able to change to biographical information in the box that appears in the upper-right-hand corner of the page.

In fairness to Wikipedia, one of their editors discovered the false entry and deleted it within seven minutes. Still, seven minutes is plenty of time for someone researching comedians to have found the page and added a citation to their paper that Carrot Top had indeed died.

So I really can see both sides of this issue -- though as an educator I make sure my students understand the pros and cons of Wikipedia. Just like the students mentioned in the Scotsman article, I am likely to conduct my research virtually instead of physically in a library. It is hard to not do so with resources such as ProQuest making almost anything you need available at the click of a few keys.

As was explained in the article I think the main issue is to teach students how to properly conduct research and to ensure they understand why certain sources are more credible that others. Sometimes this can be difficult to communicate, especially when it comes to controversial topics for which there might not be a great deal of mainstream research materials available.

Clearly technology offers education an immesurable advantage, but the key is to learn to control it without letting it control us.

Full Article

Today, a judge in The Hague let the former vice-president of the Court of Maastricht walk without any form of punishment. The crime of this former judge? Child pornography. In 2001, an electrician (while doing his job) found a stash of child pornography under the floor of the judge. The material contained boys between 14 to 15 years of age. Fifty one year old Fokke F. was charged with this crime and the D.A.'s idea of proper punishment was a fine of 1000 euro and a suspended sentence of a month. Today, he walked out of the courtroom with no punishment at all.

Less then two weeks ago a police officer, H.W. Wierstra from Bennekom - 45 years old, was charged with 'sexually penetrating' a fourteen year old girl. Well, that Dutch legal lingo for rape apparently. The girl testified against him and there were three eye-witnesses to the crime. He even admitted to the crime in several emails. Open and shut case you might think. He lost his job because of this (and rightfully so, you fucking piece of shit) but that seemed punishment enough for the judge, so he was sentenced to 200 hours of community service. The D.A. agreed with the judge.

The case that same court handled right after this absolutely ridiculously low sentence was a man (not a cop or judge) who had behaved himself very improperly with teenage girls from behind a web cam, him posing as a "model scout". He got 2 years of which 8 months of suspended sentence (which is on its own a perfectly acceptable punishment to me).

Now is it me, or does being a sex offender AND being part of the Dutch judicial system gives you a very good chance to get away with these horrible crimes very easily or without punishment at all? I guess here the perverts who want to molest children should not become clergy, but cops, judges or perhaps attorneys...

Interesting day today what with feeling like crap and working. Actually, I was a bit tired of my hypochondriac self and proceeded with my day as normal. My 1pm interview with Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj was cancelled when he called at 7:30 to say he had to attend parliament. I have been doing this for a long time but even I have to defer to the business of the nation. My second interview with Kevin Ratiram was intact.

I did the makeup thing I hate and went down to the interview when I was called to say he had arrived. It was interesting to say the least. Ratiram is a compatriot of Ramlogan and the entire COP crew but in my research I noted he is also an attorney/actor/model and and the new President of the Rotary Club of Penal. He has led some interesting cases that caught the news and he obviously lost in contesting the seat for the COP as they failed to gain a single seat. I was, however, astounded by his optimism and enthusiasm. Here is a young guy who is also a lawyer who sees the underside of T&T society and yet, if we are to believe him, he really feels he can make a change.  I am a natural cynic but I give him credit for being quite convincing  about his plans for the Rotary Club in Penal. The fact he looked like he came from Bollywood only made the whole experience more bizarre. But I say good for him and if his plans for change are really honest I wish him all the best.

I have been thinking a lot about what Bunny wrote in his blog. I would have never guessed a few years ago that reading something on the net would be a big deal in my life but apparently times have changed. The choice of changing jobs and, by definition, changing friends and environment. can be a serious thing. I  am now, as they say, carefully guided.