The Loveshade Family Blog

13-year-old Alfie Patten, who got front-page recognition as the father of his 15-year-old girlfriend's baby, is not the father.

While mother Chantelle did apparently did have sex with Alfie when he was 12, she was impregnated when 14 by someone else.  DNA tests that were released today, Tuesday, May 19, said the father isn't Alfie.  It's apparently a youth who is now 15 years old.

This case has opened a big debate about the virtual lack of sex education in England.  The nation has one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in Europe.  It seems that kids can learn to do things they aren't taught in a classroom.  Who would have thought it?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30819938/?GT1=43001

For our blog entries on Alfie Patten, click on http://www.loveshade.org/blog-mt/mt-search.fcgi?IncludeBlogs=1&search=alfie+patten

Posted by Reverend Loveshade at 12:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (10)

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The most effective censorship is the censorship you don't know about. If what you can learn is controlled by a government, corporation, religion, you won't know what you're missing. You will likely believe what you're told.

The Internet has been censored by various groups and nations for years.  At first, the censorship was quite obvious.  Now, it's getting more subtle.  You may head for a website that's not blocked, but just takes a really long time to load.  Too long, so you head somewhere else.  But is the delay due to poor website design, heavy bandwidth usage, or subtle censorship?

Want to know if your internet provider that claims to only be blocking hate speech and child pornography is also blocking politics they disagree with and the competition?  Check out Herdict.  It's run by the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University.  You can go there to learn of blocked websites, and also report your own suspicions.  You can also sign up for alerts, and download a browser add-on you can use when you can't access a site.  It's at  www.herdict.org

Posted by The Loveshade Family at 01:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (12)

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America is a nation with access to some of the best medical professionals, equipment and treatment in the world.  It's also a nation where an increasing number of people are refusing to be treated because they can't afford it.

Increasing unemployment and health care cutbacks during the current recession mean more people are without medical insurance.  As doctors and hospitals demand payment or proof of insurance, more people are going to emergency rooms for care.  (An ER can't turn down a patient because of inability to pay).

How will this help the economy if more people aren't getting the medical care they need?  More may be unable to work, support themselves and their families, and disease may become more rampant.  And more workers may die.

See an article about the problem at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30628634

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To see more entries related to health care, click http://loveshade.org/blog-mt/mt-search.fcgi?IncludeBlogs=1&search=health+care

Posted by The Loveshade Family at 05:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (16)

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Texans love five things: barbecues, football, guns, executions, and registering sex offenders.  It's a good-old-boy state where you can get lifetime registration as a sex offender and 20 years in prison for downloading photos that have appeared in several art museums.  But leaving a loaded gun where a kid gets it and shoots and kills his cousin can get you a fine.

But every once in a while, a good old boy get caught with his hand in the cookie jar.  Or in this case, the nookie jar.

William E. "Bill" Keating was sheriff of Montague County from 2005 to 2008.  He'd moved up in law enforcement over many years, then took a break to run a barbecue place before returning.  The widely respected lawman was doing what good old boy Texas lawmen do--until someone turned him in.  That someone was, ironically, a convicted felon.

Longtime felon Luke Bolton blew the whistle in September 2008.  W. E. Keating was arrested and, in January, pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a woman after telling her it was the only way to avoid a drug charge.  He faced a likely 10-year sentence in federal prison.  In addition, in February the state of Texas indicted him on official oppression and having sex with female inmates.

The state filed a total of 106 counts involving 15 people, including former jailers.  (Remember the saying, "Who guards the guards?")  Charges included having sex with inmates and giving/selling them drugs and cell phones.  In this jail, drugs flowed and some cells and bathrooms could be locked from the inside.  There was even a kind of rack made out of nails.  Bolton said Keating gave him cigarettes to beat up fellow inmates that Keating didn't like.

A spokesperson said Keating had planned to plead guilty to the state charges against him.  But being a Texan with 35 years as a lawman, he didn't go down peacefully.  He avoided prison in the grand, traditional way of the Wild West: he died.  Keating, age 62, apparently ended his last roundup with a heart attack.  It's not as dramatic as being outdrawn on a dusty street at high noon, but it will do.

And because he died after pleading guilty to the federal charge but being sentenced, his case will be dismissed.  The 35-year-lawman will go down in the legal books as an innocent man.

God bless Texas.

http://www.star-telegram.com/804/story/1367904.html Keating's rise and fall

http://www.timesrecordnews.com/news/2009/jan/29/keating-plead-guilty/ Keating pleads guilty

http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/050409/obi_436073426.shtml Keating dies

http://bill-keating.com/ Keating thanks you for electing him

http://bill-keating.com/message.htm Keating tells you how great he did during his first six months, and promises to have "a listing of all registered sex offenders in the county...."  Now Keating's name will not be going on that list.

To those who will accuse me of insulting Texans and their small backwater counties out of ignorance, check out the below.  Some friends and I had our own troubles that began in a small backwater Texas county.

WARNING: The links below contain some words and descriptions you aren't likely to hear in Sunday school

http://discordia.loveshade.org/xtra/interviewan and especially http://discordia.loveshade.org/xtra/interviewan/interviewan3.html

Posted by Reverend Loveshade at 04:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (16)

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A friend and I were talking about how the possible retirement of U. S. Supreme Court justices, and their replacements, could change the nature of the Supreme Court.  A few hours later, I read that David Souter would be retiring.

Already, opponents of President Barack Obama are claiming he's lining up liberal justices and he and Vice President Joe Biden will violate their promise of bipartisanship.  Obama and Biden haven't made comments, and Obama specifically said he will not answer questions about possible appointees.  But that hasn't stopped the accusations.

Obama had made a statement in 2007 about what he would look for in a justice if elected president.  "We need somebody who's got the heart, the empathy, to recognize what it's like to be a young teenage mom. The empathy to understand what it's like to be poor, or African-American, or gay, or disabled, or old. And that's the criteria by which I'm going to be selecting my judges."

How will Souter's leaving affect the balance of the court?  Ironically, probably not very much.  While Souter was appointed by conservative-but-relatively-moderate Republican President George H. W. Bush, he has been classified as "liberal."  Sometimes, Supreme Court appointees surprise those who appointed them.  Once they become part of America's final court, they no longer have to worry about re-elections, and can freely make decisions based on their own conscience.

But it's highly unlikely that anyone Obama appoints will turn out to be highly "conservative."  What would really change the court would be the unexpected: the retirement of formalist, Ronald Reagan-appointed conservative Antonin Scalia, or of the conservative George H.W. Bush-appointed Clarence Thomas.  Replacing either one of them with even a moderate would be a major change.

See an article at http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20090501/pl_politico/21972

For all our blog entries dealing with the U. S. Supreme Court, click http://www.loveshade.org/blog-mt/mt-search.fcgi?IncludeBlogs=1&search=Supreme+Court

Posted by Alden Loveshade at 07:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)

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In 1920, America approved a constitutional amendment that meant the prohibition of alcohol.  In 1929, the stock market crashed into the Great Depression.  In 1933, America revoked the amendment, and made alcohol legal again.  By 1936, the American economy (with the exception of still lower employment) had improved so much it was back to pre-crash levels.

Now, there's a debate about the legalization of marijuana.  Marijuana is already legal for medical purposes in several states, although until recently the federal Drug Enforcement Administration would still raid it.  Possession for non-medical use is only an infraction in a few states.  What if it were generally legal, and the federal and state governments could make money taxing it?  in California alone, the estimate is that taxes could raise $1.3 billion.

And that's not mentioning the money that could be saved.  Approximately a third of all prison inmates are there because of "illegal substance" violations.  In Texas, that percentage is about two thirds.  Billions and billions of dollars are spent enforcing laws and punishing people for victimless crimes.

Opponents are claiming the old "gateway drug" theory.  If you smoke pot, soon you'll be snorting cocaine and then shooting heroin.  Your life will be destroyed.  It's like the still-gasping-for-its-last-breath pornography theory.  If you look at pornographic pictures, whatever you see you'll go out and rape.

The problem is, the theory doesn't hold water.  According to the latest National Survey on Drug Use and Health, there are 15 million current marijuana users in the US, and more than 100 million Americans have tried it at least once.  In fact, the last three America presidents admitted they smoked it (although Clinton said e didn't inhale.)  Pot didn't stop them, or keep them from winning the most prominent position in the United States.

Marijuana is effective in helping many patients deal with pain.  It's more effective than many legal drugs that are much more harmful to a person's body.  And it's natural and easy to raise, meaning you can grow your own--and not be dependent on huge drug companies.

Is it a surprise that their lobbyists have been working against legal bud?  Why is that, for every anti-drug ad on America television, you'll see dozens of ads promoting (big corporation) drugs?

See "A budget cure: Marijuana taxes?" that appeared today (30 April 2009) at http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/StockInvestingTrading/a-budget-cure-marijuana-taxes.aspx#pageTopAchor

For all our entries dealing with marijuana, click http://www.loveshade.org/blog-mt/mt-search.fcgi?IncludeBlogs=1&search=marijuana

Posted by Reverend Loveshade at 12:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (12)

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