In the hotly contested debate over whether “Sesame Street” characters Bert and Ernie are homosexual, the iconic puppets have apparently come out of the closet on the latest cover of the New Yorker magazine.
The famous characters are depicted snuggling up together in front of a TV while looking at an image of the Supreme Court justices in their black robes.
“It’s amazing to witness how attitudes on gay rights have evolved in my lifetime,” said Jack Hunter, the artist behind the cover. “This is great for our kids, a moment we can all celebrate.” Hunter calls the image, “Moment of Joy.”
There have long been rumors about the nature of Bert and Ernie’s relationship.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-06-29 03:58:432013-06-29 03:58:43Bert and Ernie Come Out in New Yorker Magazine (+video)
Canadians in the High River area of Alberta – many already “irate” at not being able to return to their homes after massive flooding last week – were shocked to learn late Thursday that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police have seized a “large quantity of firearms” from their evacuated houses.
RCMP Sergeant Patricia Neely said that “Firearms that were unsafely stored in plain sight were seized for safekeeping,” but Sgt. Brian Topham told the National Post that officers forced their way into many of the homes because of “urgent need.”
“We just want to make sure that all of those things are in a spot that we control, simply because of what they are,” Sgt. Topham said. “People have a significant amount of money invested in firearms … so we put them in a place that we control and that they’re safe.”
They will be returned to residents with proof of ownership after the evacuation order — which is now into its eighth day — is lifted, authorities say.
Business owner Brenda Lackey told the Globe and Mail: “Now what they’re doing is looking for firearms and ammunition. How do they have the right to do that? What does that have to do with the disaster? …This is martial law. What has happened to our country?”
The ever accepting, open minded socialists and Islamists at Portland State University have taken their bullying tactics to a new level. (Remember last year’s uber fail of a “protest” at Erick Stakelbeck’s presentation?)
The College Republicans hosted a showing of the film “Obsession”, which focuses on radical Islam’s obsession with western civilization. Several people from PSU’s muslim and socialist groups, such as Students United For Palestinian Equal Rights (SUPER) and the International Socialist Organization (ISO), decided they would crash the event. And crash iScreen Shot 2013-05-31 at 3.42.37 AMt they did.
Before the event even started, they began to shout and tried to take over. The film played as planned, with a few random heckles, but immediately afterward, the counter attendees began to shout down, intimidate, and bully the College Republicans out of the room. Despite the fact that the documentary specifically said several times that it only focused on the radical Islamists, and even featured a segment where the moderates who denounced the terrorists were praised, the played out shouts of “Shame!” and “Hate speech!” rang through the room, as the Republicans fled, feeling their personal safety was in jeopardy.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-06-28 05:43:182013-06-28 05:43:18Intolerant Oregon Muslims Bully College Republicans Out Of Their Own Event (+videos)
From the witness stand Wednesday, the state’s star witness in the George Zimmerman murder trial, Rachel “Diamond” Jeantel, gave her account of Trayvon Martin’s last seconds — and they were dramatic.
While on the phone with Trayvon, he told her a man was following him, someone he described as a “creepy-ass cracker,” Jeantel said. He got close enough to Trayvon that she could hear the man say, “‘What are you doing around here?'”
Jeantel then heard a “bump,” followed by something she described as “grass sound.” Trayvon said, “Get off. Get off,” then the phone went dead, she testified.
Jeantel’s account, though, was nearly lost amid the problems and spectacle she created. She used street slang, was sometimes defiant and talked so fast and so softly that it was often impossible to make out her words.
The court reporter interrupted her a dozen times, asking her to repeat herself. Jurors interrupted, too, although not as often, and stopped when Circuit Judge Debra S. Nelson told them, “You can’t ask questions. If you can’t understand, just raise your hand.”
MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry joined anchor Thomas Roberts on Wednesday to react to the Supreme Court’s rulings on the cases relating to gay marriage rights in the United States. Harris-Perry threw cold water on the celebrations ongoing at 30 Rock when she lamented the Court’s decision to not rule in the case against Proposition 8. She said that this ruling, along with other decisions the Court handed down this session, “gut the power of the federal government” and prevent Washington D.C. from declaring gay marriage the law in all 50 states.
“It’s been kind of a rocky week for rulings from the Supreme Court,” Roberts opined.
Harris-Perry agreed and apologized for being the cautious voice in the room and interrupting the “celebratory” atmosphere on MSNBC.
“As much as those of us who are allies of this movement, and those of us how’ve been working hard on the question of marriage equality would like to read this in the broadest sense,” Harris-Perry began. “What they did, all week long – from the beginning to the end of this week so far – is to gut the power of the federal government.”
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-06-27 04:59:372013-06-27 04:59:37Gay Marriage Rulings Make MSNBC Sad Because They Gut ‘Power Of Federal Government’ (+video)
For the second time this week, a gun owner is under investigation for shooting at a criminal who unlawfully invaded his property.
Tony DiSanto, 84, known simply as Mr. Tony, discovered a would-be robber stuffing stolen items into a Volkswagen parked in his driveway in Bradenton, Fla. After retrieving his firearm, Mr. Tony reportedly issued several warnings to the robber.
According to witnesses, the robber then rammed his car into a fence and into DiSanto’s vehicle in a bid to escape. When the criminal refused to listen to his multiple warnings, he shot at the vehicle multiple times.
One of the rounds missed its target and hit an SUV across the street, WFTS-TV reports. Police are still looking for the robbery suspect, who escaped by riding across a next-door lawn and backing all the way down the street.
DiSanto is cooperating with police, however, Dave Bristow, a spokesman with the Manatee Sheriff’s Office, said the case is under investigation and will likely be turned over to the State Attorney’s Office to determine if the man broke the law.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-06-26 03:35:582013-06-26 03:35:5884 Year Old Shoots At Robber, Now Under Investigation Himself for Assault (+video)
A woman who was with a group of children playing a late-night game of hide-and-seek when a Texas teen impaled himself on the horn of a bull statue says she isn’t exactly sure how it happened but that the boy’s death was a “pure accident.”
Marenda Podhorksy, a mother of four who was one of two adults nearby when 14-year-old Miguel Martinez impaled himself on the statue’s horn as he played in a park early Saturday near the National Ranching Heritage Center on the Texas Tech University campus in Lubbock, said she’s not sure if the boy slipped, tripped or was trying to hurdle the horn.
“There are a hundred scenarios that could have happened,” said Podhorksy, whose son Jeremy Warren was friends with Martinez. The teenager was spending the night with Warren and the boys and some other children were awake well past midnight after eating sweets to celebrate her boyfriend’s birthday.
There is gravel around the statue and light fixtures surround it, so the teen could have slipped on the gravel, tripped on a light fixture or been trying to jump the horn as Warren had done a short time before the accident, the woman said.
“Maybe we shouldn’t have been out that late,” she said. “It was pure accident. We’d been playing for like an hour.”
By Willian Avila and Tony Shin. An Ontario resident shot and killed an intruder who broke into his apartment in the middle of the night and attacked his sleeping son, police said.
Officers said the suspect, identified as 24-year-old Thomas Gilbert Manzano, entered the home in the 2500 block of East Riverside Drive (map) about 3 a.m. when the resident opened fire.
Manzano and a friend had been drinking alcohol for several hours when they decided to go to what they thought was a vacant apartment where the friend had been squatting, police said. Manzano’s mother lives in the same complex.
When Manzano came to the door, the resident turned him away, police said. That’s when Manzano allegedly threatened the resident, forced his way into the home through a bedroom window and confronted the resident’s adult son. Police said Manzano began to threaten and attack the son.
The father, who heard the commotion from another bedroom, armed himself with a firearm before coming to his son’s aid. He fired several rounds at Manzano and struck him. Read more from this story HERE.
Man Who Protected his Sleeping Son from Drunk Intruder Now Subject to Homicide Investigation
By Jason Howerton. Police are investigating a potential homicide in Ontario, Calif., after a resident shot and killed a drunk intruder who broke into his apartment and attacked his sleeping son.
In California, citizens have a right to protect themselves and their families, however, there are stipulations in the state.
“The homeowner, the citizen, has to be able to articulate or apply the appropriate amount of force that was done against them,” Ontario Police Sgt. David McBride told NBC Los Angeles, later adding that Manzano was unarmed at the time of the shooting.
Thomas Gilbert Manzano, 24, forced his way into the California residence at around 3 a.m. on Monday, according to police. Manzano had been drinking alcohol for several hours with a friend when they decided to break into an apartment they thought was vacant. They had reportedly been squatting in one of the apartments but got confused as to its location. Read more from this story HERE.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-06-25 02:13:432013-06-25 02:13:43California Resident Shoots, Kills Drunk Intruder, Now Target of Murder Investigation
By Patrick Howley. A prominent African-American legal scholar is criticizing the prosecution’s tactics in the trial of half-Latino neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman, and says that a conflict-of-interest in the case could earn Zimmerman a re-trial if he is convicted.
Zimmerman is charged with second-degree murder for shooting unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in 2012. Zimmerman, whose fate will be decided by an all-female jury in Florida, claims he feared for his life and shot Martin after a violent fistfight.
“I think the prosecution clearly believes the all-female jury is not going to be interested in the law or the facts of the case,” Horace Cooper, co-chairman of the conservative Project 21, told The Daily Caller.
Opening arguments in the Zimmerman case began Monday morning, with prosecutor John Guy portraying Zimmerman as a pistol-toting vigilante who used the term “fucking punks…they always get away” when approaching Martin, who was “armed” merely with iced tea and Skittles. Defense lawyer Don West, meanwhile, opened with a joke criticizing media bias surrounding the case. Read more from this story HERE.
Jurors hear F-bomb, knock-knock joke as George Zimmerman murder trial begins
By Fox News. The prosecutor cursed and the defense attorney told a joke as both sides laid out opening arguments in the murder trial of George Zimmerman, the man who killed Florida teen Trayvon Martin in what his lawyers say was self-defense and authorities say was a case of fatal profiling.
The all-female jury of six took in both unconventional statements, alternately stunned, taking notes and at times appearing to nod in agreement. Jaws in the jury box dropped when prosecutor John Guy electrified the courtroom with a short, but profanity-laced and impassioned argument that sought to paint the defendant as an angry and out-of-control vigilante who was stalking Martin when he shot the teen in the gated community in Sanford, where he lived.
“F—ing punks,” prosecutor John Guy said in open court, quoting Zimmerman’s own words to a non-emergency police dispatcher. “These a–holes, they always get away.”
The language — rare for open court — appeared to stun the six female jurors who must decide whether Zimmerman shot and killed the 17-year-old African-American teen in self defense, or if he stalked the youth and provoked the deadly 2012 confrontation. Read more from this story HERE.
By Jack Cashill. During his opening statement in the case of Florida v. George Zimmerman Monday, Assistant State Attorney John Guy linked Trayvon Martin to the screaming that was heard on one 9-1-1 telephone call from a witness.
There were some 40 seconds of screams heard on the tape, and a witness when police arrived documented how he heard one man screaming while another man, a black man in a hoodie, was on top of him and beating him.
“You will hear screaming in the background,” said Guy, who added, “Trayvon Martin was silenced immediately when the bullet fired passed through his heart.”
The juxtaposition of the comment about screaming and Martin’s “silence” may have been intended to link the two in the minds of jurors, a maneuver used often by defense attorneys to create “reasonable doubt.”
But in his opening for the defense attorney Don West told the jurors that one thing all the witnesses could agree on was that they all heard “the screams of someone in a life-threatening situation needing desperately for someone to come to their assistance.” Read more from this story HERE.
Zimmerman parents barred from courtroom, Trayvon’s parents allowed to stay
By Ben Shapiro. In an exclusive to Breitbart News, the family of George Zimmerman has stated the Zimmerman’s parents have been barred from the courtroom by the State of Florida, even though under Florida law, the alleged victim’s family – the family of Trayvon Martin – has been allowed to stay. The state claims that because the Zimmermans may be witnesses for the state, they must be barred from the courtroom.
Defense attorney Don West “made it abundantly clear to the jury the limitations the rule of sequestration places upon Mr. and Mrs. Zimmerman’s ability to support their son George with their presence”…Read more from this story HERE.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-06-25 02:11:312013-06-25 02:11:31Conflict-Of-Interest Could Earn Zimmerman a New Trial (+video)
By Jason Howerton. Highly debated immigration legislation cleared a key Senate hurdle with votes to spare on Monday, pointing the way to near-certain passage within days for $38 billion worth of future security measures along the border with Mexico and an unprecedented chance at citizenship for millions living in the country illegally.
The vote was 67-27, seven more than the 60 needed, with 15 Republicans agreeing to advance legislation at the top of President Barack Obama’s second-term domestic agenda.
By Breanna Edwards. Arizona Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio scoffed at lawmakers’ attempts at showing that the border could be secured, saying that it would never happen – at least not without enforcing some immigration laws.
“[Undocumented immigrants] are very, very innovative. You’ll never secure the border,” Arpaio said on Fox News on Monday. “To say you’re not going to enforce the illegal immigration laws in the interior and blame it on the border, that’s just a copout.” Read more from this story HERE.
