text:
Richard Cohen is acting out again
My two-year-old has become very interested in what I call "We Don'ts." He likes to articulate all the rules of our household, even those he has so far honored only in the breach. "We don't climb the bookcase," he will intone solemnly. "We don't take off our diaper." "We don't throw food on the floor."
One way of looking at Richard Cohen's recent output, in his role as perhaps the least well-loved of Washington Post opinion columnists, is as an elaborate cry for help, a testing-of-boundaries familiar to parents of young children. Kids test their parents' resolve because, deep down, they need to know that there are secure limits in place. There are things we don't do, and it's not up to the kid to decide what they are. But poor Richard Cohen has been publishing his inane and shockingly out-of-touch commentary for decades, and there seems to be no one at the Post willing to lay down the law. "Now, Richard," someone surely ought to have said long before now, "we don't defend racism. We don't get all huffy when people point out that we're saying something racist. And we don't mistake our very narrow, totally incurious point of view for 'conventional wisdom.'"
We don't, but Cohen does, over and over. And today he managed to say something horrifying in an otherwise totally ignorable column about how, based on some Googling, he doesn't think Chris Christie would do well in the Iowa caucuses.
Today's GOP is not racist, as Harry Belafonte alleged about the tea party, but it is deeply troubled — about the expansion of government, about immigration, about secularism, about the mainstreaming of what used to be the avant-garde. People with conventional views must repress a gag reflex when considering the mayor-elect of New York — a white man married to a black woman and with two biracial children. (Should I mention that Bill de Blasio's wife, Chirlane McCray, used to be a lesbian?) This family represents the cultural changes that have enveloped parts — but not all — of America. To cultural conservatives, this doesn't look like their country at all.
Actually, Richard Cohen, we don't gag when we think about biracial families. And if we do, then in fact we are racist. That's what racism is.
Cohen is not wrong that many cultural (and political) conservatives find Bill de Blasio alarming. He is wrong to think that "Ew, gross, a white man married to a black woman and their half-white, half-black kids, how disgusting" is in any way a "conventional" view. Someone (Fred Hiatt) really ought to fire Richard Cohen already. We don't benefit from his take on current events. We really don't.
Update: Please also read Jason Linkins: Here's a Crazy Idea I Just Had: Someone Should Maybe Edit the Washington Post
About the Author
Mollie Wilson O'Reilly is an editor at large and columnist at Commonweal.
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MWR: Are you really shocked that Richard Cohen, and the ever increasingly corporate-dominated Washington Post by implication, mouths the latent racism just below the surface of our political discourse in the public commons? Where have you been?
I cut my "reading" teeth back in the days of being a newspaper boy delivering the WP every morning growing up in suburban Maryland - I know that really dates me. But the WP has always had room for hacks like Cohen. If you think his domestic political commentary is racist, you should read over the years all the nasty things he has said about Palestinians, Arabs and muslims in general. Cohen is a shill for the right-wing Israeli lobby - he never has uttered a bad word about Bibi Netanyahu and his lust for the destruction of Iran.
It is amazing how the media just doesn't know how to deal with the complicated relationships and configurations of most American families when presented with a Bill de Blasio and Chirlane McCray, and their extraordinary children.
Hey Cohen, you should travel out here to white-minority California. You need a real dose of the coming reality of America.
Mollie - just basing this on the context of the rest of his column: I think (I think), by "conventional views", he means, "the conventional views of someone who votes in the Iowa GOP caucuses". While we don't have any reason to suppose that his familiarity with the attitudes of actual Iowans runs any deeper than the newspaper column results of a Google search (presumably that is how they were taught to research a column when he was a young man), I don't think he meant the conventional views of the country as a whole.
FWIW, I think that de Blasio's raised public profile will help shape the conventional views of Americans as a whole, in a way that we would view as positive.
The whole column comes across as lazy/breezy. He spends most of it overestimating the importance of the Iowa GOP caucuses (whose only real function is to give unwarranted and temporary credibility to Christian conservative candidates who haven't a prayer of succeeding in a GOP primary, much less a general election), but then comes to a reasonable, or at least defensible, conclusion - it wouldn't hurt Christie to skip Iowa. (So maybe he's overrating Iowa's importance?) Now, as it happens, my expectation would be that, should Christie decide to run, he'd make a beeline for Iowa, because when it comes to retail politicking, he's the undisputed heavyweight champ. If Cohen can somehow be motivated to do just a bit more Googling, he might come around to my way of thinking.
I find Cohen to be almost unreadable (I'm reminded of the late George Fraizer's description of William Safire as" the New York Times' practicing illiterate") but I didn't read this quite as harshly as you did. When I read the full column I read the selection you posted as being attributed to Iowa GOP voters and the reference to conventional views meant conventional among those voters. Not well written I concede, though. For what it is worth, I think the entire basis of the modern conservative Republican movement is largely racist, so thinking that its members would gag at the thought of a Black woman and a white man having biracial children hardly seems a bridge too far.
Agree that the GOP is racist. That accounts for the hatred of Obama. For a columnist (even one who would stoop so low as to use Google) to take that for granted should not surprise anyone.
Paul Farhi embarrasses himself here:
Though God knows Hamilton Nolan will lose a meal ticket if Cohen goes the way of the dodo.
More disturbing is "Three Studies of Lucian Freud" being sold for $142,405,000. It is a definitive act of a gilded age which cares more about money and vanity than about people.
Thanks for this terrific post. I don't think this point can be made too emphatically: "...we don't gag when we think about biracial families. And if we do, then in fact we are racist. That's what racism is."
Richard Cohen has made his living based on his ability to express opinions via the written word. And he's certainly entitled to make mistakes, just as much as anyone else.
But here's the thing: when confronted with the undeniable fact that he called racism not-racism, Cohen's response is not to apologize, but to attack his critics in (what seems to be) a perverse attempt to avoid having to reckon with what he actually wrote.
Did anyone read Cohen's column? Mollie, I think you owe him an apology.
As I read Cohen he is just presenting some racist thinking that he himself disapproves of. To say that someone says or thinks something is not to agree with it. Or do you all find Cohen ambiguous?
I've read the column 3 times, each time coming to the same conclusion--it's racist. Perhaps the reason so many people believe it racist was Cohen's use of the words conventional and gag. I also wonder if his paranthetically noting Chirlane McCray's homosexuality, added fuel to the fire.
@Ann Olivier (11/13, 1:16 am) Thanks for your question. I have no idea what's in Cohen's heart or his head, so I'm not saying (and I don't think Mollie, nor most critics of Cohen's column) that Cohen "is a racist".
But there is (in my view) no disputing the excellent point Mollie makes: "...we don't gag when we think about biracial families. And if we do, then in fact we are racist. That's what racism is." This is, I think, the heart of the matter.
Cohen wrote a column in which he called racism "not-racism". People are (appropriately) criticizing him for that. His reaction (so far) is to defend himself, rather than acknowledge his (egregious) mistake. For which he can (in my opinion) appropriately be criticized even more harshly.
Mollie: In the spirit of playing the Devil's Advocate here, I would suggest that the following words in square brackets clarify what Richard Cohen meant to say:
"People with conventional [Tea Party] views must repress a gag reflex when considering the mayor-elect of New York -- a white man married to a black woman with two biracial children."
Next, we should consider whether or not people with conventional Tea Party views have a gag reflex to biracial children.
President Barack H. Obama is a biracial child -- the child of a white woman who was married to a black man.
Now, could we say that people with conventional Tea Party views have a gag reflex to Barack Obama?
Or is it unfair to people with conventional Tea Party views to characterize them as having the kind of gag reflex that Richard Cohen evidently attributes to them?
The Jason Linkins piece makes a good point, but takes an entire column to ask a question for which I need just four words: Where was the editor?
@Jim Pauwels (11/13, 10:06 am) The editor, Fred Hiatt, has since said, "I erred in not editing that one sentence more carefully to make sure it could not be misinterpreted."
"I think he is a terrific columnist," Hiatt added. "I'm very happy to have him in the Post."
Cohen's publisher, Katherine Weymouth, thought the column was "brilliant".
"Actually, Richard Cohen, we don't gag when we think about biracial families. And if we do, then in fact we are racist."
I think you may have misunderstood the paragraph. Cohen was ascribing those reactions to Republicans, not to everyone with "conventional views."
Columnists (and bloggers) often exaggerate a little or a lot to make a point. Imho, the best way to avoid swallowing the bait is to avoid the columnist. There are several at the WP that I can't stand and don't read: Sally Quinn (for many reasons), Eugene Robinson (for joining the Obama campaign's calumny against Hillary Clinton in 2008), Kathleen Parker (yuck), et al.
Cohen got a lot of publicity from that column. He must be thrilled with all who joined the
"willful-seeming, mob-like misreading of a piece of writing in the service of self-satisfied smugness, . . ."
That was from J. Bryan Lowther at Slate.
It was just one of nearly a million leads that come up from Googling (eeww) "richart cohen racist."
Stephanie --
Yes, the words are racist, extremely so, but as I read them in context Cohen is saying "See -- this is the way those Republicans think: . . . " It's as if I had said, "Stephanie thinks that Cohen thinks that the moon is made of cream cheese". That oesn't mean *you* think the moon is made of cream cheese.
Slate reporter/columnist Dave Weigel's view: "...the problem with Cohen's column was that he made an assertion about an entire class of people being racist, and did no work to prove it."
And from The Atlantic's Ta-Nehisi Coates: "The problem here isn't that we think Richard Cohen gags at the sight of an interracial couple and their children. The problem is that Richard Cohen thinks being repulsed isn't actually racist, but "conventional" or "culturally conservative." Obstructing the right of black humans and white humans to form families is a central feature of American racism. If retching at the thought of that right being exercised isn't racism, then there is no racism."
Dave Weigel's ageism is shocking. Where was his editor?
And why should Cohen have to "prove" that "an entire class of people" is racist? Haven't they made that abundantly clear with birtherism, gerrymandering, vote suppression, etc., etc., etc.?
The fact that Cohen has defendors here shows how crafty he is. Yet as the Huffinton Post points out the use of the phrase "Gag Reflex" with reference to racism gives him away. Cohen defended himself against the charges that the article was not offensive. Too late he should have know better. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/12/richard-cohen-racist-defends-interracial-marriage_n_4262215.html
Thanks to the magic of syndication, Cohen's column was published in local newspaper this morning.
Meant to say, "our local newspaper". Where was my editor?
There are a couple of overlapping problems with Cohen's column, and I am going to try to explain again what they are and what they are not. Cohen did not say "I find interracial families disgusting." He did, however, say that Republican voters with conventional views are disgusted by interracial families. Which is a big, surprising claim for a columnist to make, to put it mildly. If Cohen really believes that to be true, and if he is aware that it is 2013 and not, say, 1860, he should be writing a whole column exposing that appalling strain of racism in American society, not tossing it in as if it were a known fact that needs no establishing.
Cohen went further, though; he not only said something quite inaccurate about social conditions in contemporary America; he said that the people who think that way are "not racist." He said so explicitly. He even scoffed at Harry Belafonte -- there's a link in the original, to a squib about Belafonte using the term "white supremacist" while stumping for de Blasio. Whatever the facts may be about that incident, "white supremacist" happens to be the correct term for someone who objects to the mingling of the races. Not "cultural conservative." So, in addition to being totally wrong about popular opinion in America generally, Cohen also has trouble identifying racism, even as he seems to believe that textbook racism is far more commonplace than most of us would suggest. And this is not a one-time slip, as Coates pointed out. It's a theme that occurs again and again in Cohen's columns. He should be fired for being irredeemably clueless about many of the things an opinion columnist must be good at, especially an opinion columnist who wishes to write about race.
This is another edition of "What Mollie Said".
(More, please.)
A columnist should be fired for doing his job?
An opinion writer should lose his livelihood for expressing his opinion?
Sure, why not? "Columnist" isn't exactly a sacred vocation, and a whole slew of factors should go into assessing whether a writer is satisfactory on the job. Being a racist crank whose finger is too shaky to find a culture's pulse, and who can't be bothered to express himself coherently or adequately represent others should be enough to get someone canned.
Just saw this piece from Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo, which does a very good job explaining the things I tried to explain above. It's called "Is Richard Cohen a Racist?" but it notes, correctly, that that isn't really the right question to ask.
The issue isn't that Cohen is a racist. It's that he holds his position of vast influence while living in some older white man's cocoon, liberalish in a way but not much, in which he's either indifferent or unconcerned with the actual America around him and routinely jumps at the chance to normalize and legitimize retrograde views about race. The problem with the article isn't racism but inaccuracy, both descriptive and moral. And the complacent inaccuracy makes it worthy of criticism and contempt.
Another ageist blogger who lifts a sentence out of the paragraph in which it appeared, making it seem that Cohen was talking about all people who hold conventional views instead of the group he specified, "Today's GOP."
(But I don't think Marshall should be fired.)
Mollie, you wrote:
Cohen went further, though; he not only said something quite inaccurate about social conditions in contemporary America; he said that the people who think that way are "not racist." He said so explicitly. He even scoffed at Harry Belafonte -- there's a link in the original, to a squib about Belafonte using the term "white supremacist" while stumping for de Blasio. Whatever the facts may be about that incident, "white supremacist" happens to be the correct term for someone who objects to the mingling of the races. Not "cultural conservative."
This is very much in line with Ta-NeHisi Coates' take:
"The problem here isn't that we think Richard Cohen gags at the sight of an interracial couple and their children. The problem is that Richard Cohen thinks being repulsed isn't actually racist, but "conventional" or "culturally conservative." Obstructing the right of black humans and white humans to form families is a central feature of American racism.
While I would not go very far to defend Cohen, and as I noted above, there are other reasons to dismiss the column, I do think that both you and Coates are misreading him in this, or at least reading him in a light that is not the most charitable.
Here is the passage in question:
Today's GOP is not racist, as Harry Belafonte alleged about the tea party, but it is deeply troubled — about the expansion of government, about immigration, about secularism, about the mainstreaming of what used to be the avant-garde. People with conventional views must repress a gag reflex when considering the mayor-elect of New York
This requires a fair bit of disentangling. There are three separate subjects/groups here, named in quick succession. Here they are, with the way that I think Cohen is categorizing them:
* The GOP - according to Cohen, not racist
* The tea party - according to Cohen, racist in Harry Belafonte's view, although from what I can tell, Belafonte actually seems to have said that about the Koch Brothers, not the tea party
* Folks who live in a culture in which it is conventional/normative to gag when considering the mayor-elect of New York - presumably racist in Cohen's view, although he doesn't explicitly say so
Now, it's conceivable that all three of Cohen's assertions, as I've broken them out here, are wrong. The third one, about cultural conventions, almost certainly is wrong. But what I don't see Cohen claiming in this passage is that people who gag at the thought of a white man marrying a black woman aren't racist.
Anyway, that's plenty by me on this topic.
Cohen's metier is writing. He is a writer, and his work load is pretty light -- a couple of columns per week. He also has editors who are paid to peruse his work and find and at least ask him about perceived "ambiguities." So I think the ordinary reader is more than justified in not cutting Cohen slack for "indelicate" phrasing.
Second, here is the logic string of Cohen's thinking: The tea infused Republican party ISN'T RACIST --- Cohen said that -- but is "troubled." (When I hear the word troubled as a defense to bad behavior my mind wanders to juveniles being tried as adults who would be only too happy to be granted the benefit of such doubts.) Only after stipulating "no racism" does Cohen then state how "conventional people" must "gag" and so on. How can such conventional people, even if they are the subset of Iowa tea party voters Cohen is talking about, not be racist if they are gagging at dark and light people marrying each other?
Third, he specifically identifies DeBlasio's family by name and circumstance -- a tactless and really gratuitous example in my view that probably tells us as much about Cohen as it does about Iowa tea partiers.
Cohen's best defense is that he was phoning it in and isn't really thinking too deeply when he writes this stuff, basically relying on editors to make his thoughts less offensive. Okay Richard, here's how I give people like you the benefit of the doubt: when the question calls for a choice between stupid and malicious, stupid is usally the correct answer. You're stupid because you say stupid things. So retire already.
Barbara - you've nailed it.
Many have expressed outrage at an opinion column by an opinion columnist. But that's what op-ed writers (and bloggers) do. They write stuff to get a reaction, to get hits on the web site, to get comments, to keep their moribund periodicals alive.
Old man Cohen's editors must be delighted with the attention.
I didn't like his column because I don't like columns in which thoughts or words are ascribed to others. Let the columnist or blogger say what S/HE thinks or feels. Creating a puppet to say the ventriloquiest's words is cowardly. E.g., Ta-Nahisi Coates wrote new words for Cohen and put them in quotation marks.
"Right. I'm not racist. I just don't recognize my country. Also, the sight of you, and your used-to-be-lesbian black wife, and your brown children make me sick to my stomach. It's not like I want to lynch you or anything."
Do those who disapprove of Cohen's lame column approve of Coates's piggybacking on it with her version of what he didn't say?
(Imho, the most amusing thing about the tempest is how many who are howling about racism have revealed their own AGEISM.)
Gerelyn is right. Cohen clearly suffers from a disease (Yelling at Clouds Sydrome, or YACS for short), otherwise known as old-white-manititis, and he deserves our sympathy, not scorn.
Gerelyn - just speaking for myself, I thought Coates' piece was flawed - not to mention overly profane - and those flaws undercut its effectiveness.
Regarding ageism - maybe I'll say something here that will make you think I'm ageist, too. Most white people haven't walked in a black person's shoes, and unless our powers of empathy are above-average, we find it difficult to grasp what it must be to like to live on the other side of the racial/social/cultural divide, every single moment of every single day. I think this difficulty may be more pronounced for older white people (I'm no spring chicken myself), as we've seen tremendous changes in social attitudes over the course of our lives, which we don't have the advantage of viewing completely objectively, because we live in the midst of them ourselves.
Also, white people of a certain age are encumbered by the history we've lived through. I am not referring here to the great events of the civil rights movement write large, although they intersected our lives, and Cohen's life spans those times. I'm referring more to our personal histories, the reality of living through times of heightened racial tension. Cohen may have deplored race riots and the attitudes and customs that spawned them, but it's one thing to think about such things as they're described in a book that one reads in the comfort and safety of one's study years after the fact, and it's another to actually live and go about in a city where black people and white people cross paths all the time and fought one another very recently. I grew up in the 1960s in a white family of good will, in which the n-word was never spoken, but whenever we drove through a black neighborhood, my parents told us to roll up the windows and lock the car doors. How can something like that not make an impression on a kid in some way?
Every white American who lived through those days was affected by the reality of racial tension in some personal way. Reading some of Cohen's columns over the years that Coates linked to, the fear of black persons seems to jump off the screen. How many older white people share that fear? All of us?
For many of us, our journey toward more racial enlightenment has been one of recognizing that we carry this baggage, confronting it, figuring out how to cast it aside, and finding something better to carry about with us. Some of us do this better than others. I believe our society is filled with older white people of good will who want to live and do and think what's right. If we white people were more imaginative and empathetic and less stupid, maybe we'd be less prone to say and do stupid and hurtful things.
Richard Cohen has been criticized for writing a number of things on racial topics that miss the mark (see Coates' column for some examples; Cohen's Wikipedia page has others). I think Cohen is a white person of good will whose racial views aren't perfectly enlightened - they're not fully formed. Probably like a lot of white people of good will, it's not self-evident to him that a black person who goes into a jewelry store shouldn't be suspected of being a thief, or that Travyon Martin should have been entitled to the benefit of the doubt.
Thanks, Abe!
Click the link below to see the 152 million results that come up from Googling "richard cohen old." (And notice in the sidebar the OTHER old men "People also search for" when thinking of Cohen.
Coates is a he not a she. There is no question that Coates is putting in quotes what, from his perspective, he "heard" Cohen saying.
I don't buy that Cohen's age means anything. What I find offensive about this column is that he feels the need to state what he considers not to be racist -- for reasons that have no real bearing on the substance of what he is saying -- and also for using the image of "gagging." I don't even think that's accurate. I assume what he really meant -- and shame on him for being such a poor writer -- is that for some people interracial couples are sort of like turning on the lights in your house by remote control when you didn't even have electricity when you were growing up. Or maybe the football coach watching his grandchildren playing soccer with enthusiasm. It's a reminder of how much has changed, and for some people, ANY change is reflexively bad. Some people react to this like children throwing tantrums over their lack of control over their environment, however, good people can and do accept that some change has been for the better or at most just doesn't really matter to THEM.
Moreover, why is it that people who accept the arguably much greater changes wrought by technology on their lives -- after all, they are not adopting the Amish model for reacting to technology -- so unable to accept greater participation of "others" in society, participation that inevitably leads to things like marriage? This isn't just a here and now story -- my mother's generation was the first generation in her family that married people with non-German heritage. Everyone got over it, probably even before the wedding had occurred. This is about maintaining an order in which certain people are considered being worthy members of "our" tribe (or as Cohen said rather infelicitously "our country").
It's the continuing focus on THIS kind of change being particularly and maybe even uniquely unacceptable to certain cohorts of people that carries the charge of racism.
Also, white people of a certain age are encumbered by the history we've lived through.
Hi, Jim.
I don't regard the history I've been fortunate enough to live through as an encumbrance, but rather as a great gift. Being old, having seen a lot and had time to read and hear about a lot more, is great.
During the years I observed the changes in attitudes about race, women, gay people, etc., I also observed the change in the attitude toward the old. It has deteriorated to the point where it is today, as demonstrated so vividly in the vicious slurs about old white men, old uncles at Thanksgiving, etc., etc.
(I guess I've been most shocked by the hatred of old nuns expressed on various Catholic message boards and displayed so powerfully by the Vatican's investigation.)
(Just a suggestion to the young: instead of hating the old, talk to them. You might be amazed, as I was a few weeks ago when I called a 92-year-old cousin, at the family history they know, the details they recall about your parents and grandparents, etc. that will be forever lost when they are gone.)
Gerelyn, I'm sure you're right about the worsening attitude toward the old., and that it does even descend to viciousness on occasion. Apparently, Pope Francis agrees, as he named it one of the chief problems of our time.
Good news: The Colbert Report did a segment on the Cohen controversy (with "Stephen Colbert" taking Cohen's side against the liberal-media attack mob, of course). It's wonderful.
There's a very highly regarded 1953 Japanese movie, Tokyo Story, directed by Yasujiro Ozu, that's about the indifference of a trio of adult children to their elderly parents. "Attention must be paid," says Willy Loman's wife to their children in Death of a Salesman, but here the children are too preoccupied with their own lives to make the time.
The larger themes are the transience of life, loneliness and selfishness. Its very poignant.
You can watch it with English subtitles here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLTjojvakf4
^Oh yeah, Dick Cohen makes me think of Ozu, too. It's their shared understated natures.
^Who's Dick Cohen? Somebody I should know?
Sorry, not interested in beating the crap out of Cohen, but be my guest.
But what Gerelyn and Jim Pauwels were talking about in their last comments did catch my attention.
Gerelyn ==
I agree with much of what you say about ageism. But highly negative views of the old began in the '60s. Remember the slogan, "Never trust anyone older than 30". Sort of ironic, isn't it.
@Ann Olivier:
In the 60s? I hope you don't mean the 1960s. The stock character of the senex in Plautus and Terence did not often invite respect. Ditto for the ridiculous viejo in Spanish comedies of the age of Lope and Calderón. Then there's Shakespeare, who admittedly expressed quite varied attitudes to those of mature years, but to whom the "crabbed age and youth" verses were (questionably) attributed: "...Age, I do abhor thee; Youth, I do adore thee..."
As for the supposed slogan about not trusting those over 30, the real irony is the original context. Some opponents of the Free Speech Movement, who saw a Commie behind every countercultural statement, tried to dismiss the unsettling college students as dupes of sinister and older ideologues. Jack Weinberg, then only six years away from the fatal birthday, came up with the formula in exasperation during an interview with a reporter: http://www.bartleby.com/73/1828.html .


text:
AG John Swallow made mistakes in dealings with businessman, Utah GOP says
SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Republican Party says Attorney General John Swallow made mistakes in his dealings with indicted businessman Jeremy Johnson and called on the state Legislature to "get serious" about ethics reform.
"We need to find out the facts. We won't know the findings from the investigation immediately, but it's clear that while some actions might not have been against the law, some, at a minimum, were mistakes for a state employee and a candidate for attorney general," said state GOP Chairman Thomas Wright.
Wright had been silent about the accusations that surfaced against Swallow, a Republican, nearly two weeks ago. He commended Swallow for asking the U.S. Attorney's Office to look into the allegations against him, saying it was the right thing to do.
"I hope other elected officials will learn from John's experience and make changes to avoid this kind of situation in the future," Wright said.
Specifically, he said "common sense" ethics reform should be applied to the state executive offices of governor, attorney general, treasurer and auditor.
Also, a Democratic-leaning advocacy group asked the Utah State Bar on Wednesday to investigate whether Swallow violated professional conduct rules in his dealings with Johnson.
Meantime, federal regulators turned up the heat on Johnson by seeking to charge his wife and parents for allegedly receiving millions of dollars in "ill-gotten gains," including a mansion and silver bars, from his Internet marketing company.
Johnson claims Swallow, while chief deputy attorney general, helped broker a deal to bribe Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in an effort to thwart a Federal Trade Commission investigation into Johnson's company, iWorks.
Swallow has adamantly denied the accusation, saying all he did was introduce Johnson to a friend who had connections to federal lobbyists who might be able to help for a hefty fee.
The Alliance for a Better Utah says while others have focused on investigations of Swallow's alleged criminal activity, his explanation of his dealings with Johnson raise questions about his ethics and judgment.
"It hasn't been clear from anything reported in the press that the investigation requested by Mr. Swallow would look beyond the question of whether what has occurred might be a violation of the law," said David Irvine, a Better Utah board member and former Republican state legislator.
Based on Swallow's statements surrounding his activities, the complaint filed with the state bar suggestions he might have violated five sections of the rules of professional conduct.
Irvine, an attorney for Utahns for Ethical Government, said Swallow's activities cast doubt over whether the attorney general is able to impartially fulfill his constitutional responsibilities.
Billy Walker of the Utah State Bar Office of Professional Conduct said the association does not comment on complaints.
A spokesman for the attorney general's office said the complaint is a Democratic organization's desperate attempt to keep the story going.
"People are trying to use this for political or other reasons that have nothing to do with truth or justice," Paul Murphy said.
Murphy said it's clear from the information the attorney general's office provided last week that Swallow followed state law, campaign finance laws, the code of ethics and state policy.
"The thing that he did wrong, and the thing that he's admitted doing wrong, was that he was friends with someone who turned out not who he claimed to be," Murphy said.
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
I have an unknown function $\psi(\xi_1,\dots,\xi_n)$, such that $\psi$ satisfy an (unknown) polynomial equation with coefficients polynomials in the $\xi_i$.
The function is homogeneous, that is, $\psi(t \xi_1,\dots, t \xi_n) = t^c \psi(\xi_1,\dots,\xi_n)$. I also know that $|\psi(e^{i \theta_1},\dots,e^{i \theta_n})|=1$ when $\sum_i \theta_i =0$, which implies that $$\psi(e^{i \theta_1},\dots,e^{i \theta_n}) = e^{i A(\theta_1,\dots,\theta_n)}$$ for some real-valued function $A$.
Clearly, one option is that $\psi(\xi_1,\dots,\xi_n) = \xi_1^{p_1} \cdots \xi_n^{p_n}$ such that $p_1+\cdots+p_n = c$, but can one exclude any other form? How do one take advantage of the fact that $\psi$ is algebraic in the $\xi_i$?


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How would we restrict access to the WP admin area to all users except admins?
The users on our site have their own profile pages which do all the functions they need.
So admin should be off limits to all except admins.
How to do that?
We can hook to the
This code, when pasted into your functions.php file, will display a message when a non-admin tries to access the dashboard:
If you prefer, you can provide better user experience by redirecting the user to the home page instead (the
If you want to redirect the user to their profile page, replace
You could write a plugin and hook into
The codex actually gives an example with the feature you are looking for.
Some of the answers given can be fine in most situations but I think none of them warranty to do exactly what is asked because none of the answers check user roles, they check capabilities and capabilities can be assigned and removed form roles. So, to give a exact answer, the user roles must be checked, not capabilities:
If you want to check that the user has "manage_options" capability, you can. In fact, it is the best option in most cases. Although this capability is associated by default to administrator users, the capability can be removed from admin role or it can be assigned to other user roles. That is why, in most cases, checking what the user can or can not do is better than checking the user role. So, in most cases checking for capabilities should be the choosen way but you mush have this concept clear and choose the best option for your situation and purpose:
Try the Adminimize plugin.
You could also try setting access up through htaccess file
Put these lines in your
Try this, never through errors in face of an end user. Against a good UX. This code redirects them to Home.
I would use WP Frontend and set it for everybody expect admins.
Thank you for your interest in this question.
Because it has attracted low-quality or spam answers that had to be removed, posting an answer now requires 10 reputation on this site (the association bonus does not count).
Would you like to answer one of these unanswered questions instead?


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Now that Undermountain Games has gone out of business, that brings an untimely death to one of the easiest dungeon-making software programs I've ever seen. It's sad to lose such a great program, and considering its potential I was wondering if anyone has heard of maybe some other company picking up DTiles and continuing with it where Undermountain failed.
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Its hard to argue "forever" but the company have cut its cord with the printing company that made the tiles for them. They still own the rights, so unless they sell those rights off, we can only hope for someone making a DTiles-like product.
My guess would be to look into some of Paizo publishings latest project. They seem stable in their economy and have several gamemaster-aid products.


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↑ James Franco made a Brad Renfro Forever knife ↑
Over the weekend I was super psyched to spend a part of my afternoon at the L.A. Art Book Fair at MOCA (The Geffen Contemporary). I ran into a lot of faces, both from the past and present, and it was great to be submerged in a world I was once so active in. I wrote a riot grrrl zine for many years in case you were wondering, not to mention my short but prolific years of making art via stone lithography.
Here are my favorite things that I couldn't take my eyes off. S/O to Marco Braunschweiler's terracotta butt cheeks and the Larry Clark wall I stood in front of for at least 10 minutes.


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As I recall, magical weapons can overcome damage reduction. If one were to attack an enemy with a wonderous item, like say attacking with an everfull mug in a barfight would it overcome an enemies damage reduction?
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No, wondrous items such as an Everfull Mug or Piero's Pan of Flameless Frying wouldn't overcome damage resistance (magic) if they were used as improvised weapons.
Damage ReductionSRD is only overcome by magic weapons when the DR is specifically vulnerable to magic weapons and when the weapon in question has at least a +1 magical enhancement bonusSRD. Otherwise, magic weapons' damage is reduced just like any other weapon.
The only exception is if the weapon just happens to satisfy the conditions of the damage reduction some other way, of course; e.g., a silver Everfull Mug that doesn't have a magical weapon bonus would overcome damage reduction (silver) just fine, though not because it was magical.
The interaction of damage reduction and magic weapons is a frequent point of confusion in D&D 3.x, possibly since in the edition prior a creature immune to damage but vulnerable to particular material (like silver) was also automatically vulnerable to any magic weapon. When damage reduction was introduced in D&D 3.0 to fill the same rules function but without producing the same results, that it worked contrary to expectations caused problems for my group and others I knew. Then again, the frequent confusion might have nothing to do with edition changes – the DR rules are generally recognised as one of the more confusingly-written parts of the rules.
Despite the rules saying "no", your GM's game is your GM's game – they can tweak the rules as they see fit!


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5 Movie Heroes Who Caused Their Own Biggest Problems
The lives of our big-screen heroes are full of obstacle upon obstacle, but sometimes the biggest obstacle they have to face ... is themselves. No, we're not talking about some poetic inner struggle bullshit -- we're talking about when coked-up Hollywood writers get lazy and turn the characters' own inexplicably dumb decisions into the bad guy of the movie. Like when ...
#5. Iron Man 3 -- Tony Stark Gives His Home Address to Terrorists, Takes No Precautions Whatsoever
Walt Disney Studios
Early in Iron Man 3, Tony Stark gets pissed at the international terrorist known as the Mandarin and calls him out on live TV. Tony says he isn't scared of no tiny-orange-sounding motherfucker, and to prove it, he even gives the Mandarin the address to his house.
Walt Disney Studios
"But don't come before 12, because I'll be passed out in a drunken, helpless stupor."
A few hours later, Tony is bantering with two of his attractive lady friends when, holy shit, the Mandarin's minions show up in helicopters and blow up his house! Who could have seen that coming?
The Mistake:
Everyone, of course. But let's give the guy some credit. Let's assume Tony was just too angry/intoxicated to think straight when he gave his address to a man who can turn people into bombs -- this is still Tony Stark we're talking about. He's got a super-advanced talking house full of technology, he has literally dozens of flying robot bodyguards (that can attack autonomously, as we see later), and he's friends with a Nordic god and Samuel L. Jackson. So what precautions does he take after voluntarily making himself a target for a terrorist organization? He locks his front door. Which, incidentally, is the one thing he said he wouldn't do.
As a result, a missile blows up in Tony's face and nearly kills his girlfriend, Pepper, which frankly is like the least that could have happened in this situation. If those new Iron Man armors didn't respond to Kinect commands, allowing Tony to put one on Pepper by moving his hands in midair, she would have ended up as a cute splatter on a wall.
Walt Disney Studios
Hell, if he hadn't remembered to stop his torrents the lag might have killed them both.
But maybe Tony was setting up the defenses when the attack happened? Nope: He was getting ready to depart for Tennessee ... thus leaving Pepper completely alone and unprotected in a house that's bound to blow up sooner or later. So this is less a case of "conflicted protagonist with a death wish" and more a case of "protagonist who really, really wants his girlfriend dead, for some reason."
Walt Disney Studios
"Because she wouldn't stop touching my stuff, that's why."
Avoiding the attack would have been as easy as telling his suits to hover around the house looking out for threats, which, again, is a thing he can totally do as of this movie. Or, at the very least, he could have given the Mandarin the address to his other place, the one that Hulk now lives in, and if some terrorists end up getting humped by a giant green wang until their bones disintegrate, so be it.
Walt Disney Studios
#4. The Amazing Spider-Man -- Spidey Writes His Real Name on His Camera, Leaves It With a Villain
Sony Pictures Entertainment
If you've watched a single Spider-Man cartoon or movie, you know that the reason Peter Parker doesn't just cash in on all his fame and powers (those song royalties alone would make him filthy rich) is to protect his loved ones. It's why he wears a mask that doesn't even have breathing holes in it -- protecting his identity to make sure his friends aren't squashed by Doctor Octopus is the #1 thing for him. That's what Spidey is all about.
Sony Pictures Entertainment
Not that any of his friends or family would readily claim the grown man in a colorful onesie.
Anyway, in The Amazing Spider-Man, the ever well-meaning Peter is trying to prove that Dr. Curt Connors has invented a serum that turned him A) evil and B) into a huge-ass mutant lizard threatening New York. Since the police don't believe a word of this (to their credit), Peter decides to take some pictures of Connors in lizard form as proof. To do this, Peter uses the old "sticking a camera to a wall with web fluid while you fight the villain as Spider-Man" technique, which will become his main source of income once he starts working for the Daily Bugle.
The Mistake:
Apparently Peter is still working out some kinks on this technique, because when Connors scares him away and picks up the camera, he sees this written behind it: "PROPERTY OF PETER PARKER."
Sony Pictures Entertainment
"Please return to May Parker, a helpless old lady who lives at ..."
Yep, the secret identity Spider-Man works so hard to protect is openly displayed on the back of the camera he left behind. And it's not like the fucking thing was super well-hidden, or even slightly hidden. Look at the scene again -- how exactly was Connors supposed to miss the thing that's loudly shooting bright flashes at his face in a dark sewer? This is starting to sound like a plot that got cut out of Superhero Movie because it was just too stupid, even for the makers of Meet the Spartans.
Thanks to Peter's oversight, not only did the Lizard find out Spider-Man's identity, but he attacked his school and probably injured several students in the process.
Sony Pictures Entertainment
Look how he left this poor kid's face. Dear God.
And finally, let's say someone who isn't a crazed scientist finds Peter's camera ... how are they supposed to return it? How many Peter Parkers could there be in New York? The answer is at least 30, probably more, since Spidey lives in a world where the name doesn't have the stigma of being associated with a comic book character.
#3. X-Men Origins: Wolverine -- Wolverine's Girlfriend Forgets to Use Her Power on the Bad Guy
20th Century Fox
In X-Men Origins: Wolverine, we learn all the details of the past of everyone's favorite sideburn-having mutant (fuck you, Beast). Halfway through the movie, Wolverine gets so distraught over the murder of his girlfriend, Kayla Silverfox, that he makes some questionable decisions and lets Colonel William Stryker replace his skeleton with metal. Then it turns out that not only is Kayla alive, but she's been working for Stryker the whole time. Their relationship was a plan to make Wolverine so upset that he'd go and put some metal inside him.
20th Century Fox
"Women, amiright?"
In yet another twist, Kayla reveals that she betrayed Wolvie because Stryker had kidnapped her younger sister, promising to free the girl only if Kayla did as he said. Eventually Kayla dies helping to free her sister and other captive mutants, who are left safely in the care of Weirdly Photoshopped Professor X.
20th Century Fox
Yes. "Safely."
The Mistake:
Oh, one thing: Kayla is a mutant, too. Apart from faking orgasms and death, she has the power to persuade anyone to do anything just by touching them. It works on any human ... including Stryker, as we find out right at the end of the movie when she is about to die and tells him to "Walk until you bleed." Which he does.
20th Century Fox
Fortunately he stepped on a nail a few feet after that.
Wait a second ...
Kayla didn't even have to touch his skin to make Stryker obey her. Just lightly putting her hand over his pants was fine. She has one of the most terrifying powers in the entire X-Men universe -- she could trigger World War III if she wanted to, or convince Bruce Willis to release another album. So why the hell didn't she use her power on Stryker before to force him to release her sister? It's not like she didn't have any opportunities: There's a scene where Stryker is shitting his pants because Sabretooth is pissed at him, and Kayla is just standing right behind the guy, not doing anything.
20th Century Fox
"On one hand, I could free my sister ... on the other hand, he really did poop his pants just now."
Instead of doing that, she trusted that this extremely shady military guy who kidnaps teenagers would keep his word (which of course he didn't) and agreed to lend herself for a long plan that involved spending several months having sex with Hugh Jackman. What woman would ... OK, yeah, never mind.


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Since the law of individual molecule is governed by Quantum Mechanics, and the interaction of large number of molecule is governed by Statistical Mechanics, can we derive Statistical Mechanics from Quantum Mechanics?
For a rigorous derivation of statistical mechanics from quantum mechanics see Chapters 8-10 of my book: Classical and Quantum Mechanics via Lie algebras http://lanl.arxiv.org/abs/0810.1019
We certainly apply statistical mechanics to quantum systems. In fact, that is where it most often comes up in a useful way. Consider some canonical examples like the Ising model, blackbody radiation, and Bose-Einstein condensation.
But the power of statistical mechanics is that it is formulated in a manner that is independent of the kinematics of the systems being described. All it relies on an enumeration of the microstates a system can be in, and the energy associated with each microstate. It does not deal with the details of the equations of motion governing the system (i.e., the Schrodinger equation is not used explicitly). Statistical mechanics provides a framework for tracking the flow of information (entropy) in a system using laws of probability, and in that sense it is too fundamental to be derived from a theory like quantum mechanics.
EDIT: I should clarify that the principles of statistical mechanics on their own are not completely sufficient to describe a system of many particles. Some details of quantum mechanics will be needed in order to enumerate the microstates and their energy. The point is that even if the laws of quantum mechanics were slightly different, the principles of statistical mechanics would still be used in the same way to describe the many-particle system.
The basics of statistical mechanics are no more than ordinary probability theory so it's pure maths which can be applied to any abstract system like a set or marbles. In other words, statmech is a handy tool to apply probability theory to a system, but it doesn't contain any new physical law. Therefore you obviously cannot derive it from QM, but you can check if QM satisfies the presuppositions of statistical mechanics and hence apply statmech to QM.
Already in the 1920s Darwin and Fowler started with the Quantum Theory as their basis, and went on to derive the usual statistical mechanical results rigorously. Now in principle, you could do the analogous thing even without the assumption that each microstate had equal probability: you could postulate any rule for «weighting» the micro-states you want, try to imitate their calculations, and compare the results with experiment, which is what they did for their particular rule, the usual one mentioned here, of weighting each state equally (they explained why they would not use the word «probability» but instead the neutral term, «weight».
In the 1940s, Schroedinger complained about the assumption that a microstate was the occupation of an energy level, i.e., that the microstates were (basically) the stationary states. He said that to be really logical, one would have to treat any, even time-varying, pure state given by a wave function as a possible micro-state, and then show that you would get the same answers as you did by making the traditional assumption of a discrete (basis) set of stationary micro-states. But he, plaintively, admitted that that task was still impossible, so he was going to teach the usual method in spite of this defect.
I strongly recommend learning the foundations of Statistical Mechanics from Schroedinger's little volume of Dublin lectures, except the last chapter, (for the physicist's point of view) plus the first half of Khintchine's book (amazingly, published in Moscow in 1943) The Mathematical Foundations of Statistical Mechanics (but skipping almost all the proofs, of course).


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"Regent", a painting by artist Sergey Kolesov, was a winner at this year's Into the Pixel, an annual competition which "brings together experts from the traditional fine art world and the interactive entertainment industry to display and discuss the art of the video game".
It's from Dishonored, and we've featured it here before as part of a larger gallery on the game, but today we're going to be looking just at Kolesov's work. Because it's terrific.
A former freelancer, who recently kicked around a few ideas for a movie project with Half-Life 2 creative director Viktor Antonov, he now works at Vatra Games Studio in the Czech Republic.
You can see more of Sergey's work at his personal site.
To see the larger pics in all their glory (or, if they're big enough, so you can save them as wallpaper), right-click on them below and select "open in new tab".


text: Back again and with another tutorial even. Going to show you how to draw giraffes this time around. I have all you need to know to draw them too. All sort of tips, facts and tricks so that you can draw one too. So bunker down and get out your paper and pencils, your pens, your tablets and your photoshops and we'll go ahead and get started! I'll show you how it's done and then some. I hope you enjoy this tutorial and don't forget to put up your results for all to see!


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Why and by whom was there a yud added to make "ירושלים" instead of the original "ירושלם"?
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My concordance (Even-Shoshan) reports that there are only four places in Tanach where "Yerushalayim" has the yud between the lamed and mem. One is in the book of Esther ("who had been exiled from Yerushalayim"); once in Jeremiah ("v'samti es yerushalayim le'iyim"); once in II Chronicles, and I don't recall the last one off the top of my head. But look it up in a concordance.
Presumably no one went in and "added a yud" in those places -- that was the way it was supposed to be spelled there, for whatever reasons.
(Note that the Aramaic name for the city is "Yerushleim", which wouldn't have a yud; and we say the name "Yerushalayim" may be a compounding of "Hashem Yireh" and "Shalem", which would again explain why there's not usually a yud.)


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'The Science is Settled' is a Mirage
Hold on to your hats. Atomic weights have been changed for five elements shown by the June 12, 2013, announcement "Not So Constant: Atomic Weights Changed for Five Chemical Elements" from the United States Geological Survey. The elements whose atomic weights were changed are magnesium, bromine, germanium, indium, and mercury.
We have been taught for years in chemistry and physics courses atomic weights were always constant and you might say "the science is settled". This is another example where items in science thought to be "settled" are not settled. Perhaps it is foolish behavior to adopt the premise "the science is settled".
For years agencies of the United States government adhered to the climate science hypothesis increased atmospheric carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels is causing catastrophic global warming (CAGW). Government agencies have said "the science is settled" and refused debate on the hypothesis and in most instances refused considerations of or funding for research that may refute CAGW.
Recent examples of United States government positions are shown at a Chicago fundraiser May 29, 2013, when President Obama said "I don't have much patience for people who deny climate change." At his swearing in ceremony May 21, 2013, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz declared he is "not interested in debating what is not debatable." At his speech on climate change at Georgetown University June 25, 2013, President Obama said, "So the question is not whether we need to act. The overwhelming judgment of science — of chemistry and physics and millions of measurements — has put all that to rest." These remarks echo the long-standing plea of climate alarmists "the science is settled" with regards to burning fossil fuels causing CAGW.
There is an encyclopedic amount of peer-reviewed literature challenging CAGW. Paraphrasing poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning "How much information refutes CAGW. Let me count the ways." A good start is the two reports by the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change Climate Change Reconsidered and Climate Change Reconsidered: 2011 Interim Report published by The Heartland Institute. These reports published in 2009 and 2011 contain over 1200 pages and are available online. Recognition of these reports is given by their recent translation into Chinese and distribution by the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Let it be very clear that the reports distribution by the Chinese Academy of Sciences does not imply endorsement of these reports. The Chinese Academy of Sciences does not get into the CAGW endorsement business which unfortunately can not be said of the American Academy of Sciences. These reports were published to provide information contrasting views shown by the four volumes of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (UNIPCC).
Much of the United States government's concern about CAGW is based on future predictions of climate by numerous global climate models (GCM) calculations. A recent paper by Dr. Roy V. Spencer June 6, 2013, "STILL Epic Fail: 73 Climate Models vs. Measurements, Running 5-year Means" compares model predictions with experimental global temperature data. All of the 73 GCM seriously overestimated global temperatures when compared with actual temperature measurements from 1980 to the present. This invalidates GCM as a tool for policy decisions. Perhaps President Obama needs to re-examine his Georgetown University statement "millions of measurements--has put all that to rest."
It is time for all scientists and United States government agencies to agree the science is not "settled" when it comes to CAGW. Debate needs to take place on CAGW and consequences of attempts at its mitigation by curtailing fossil fuels use.


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Crime and NO punishment
Justice hard to come by for dogs, roosters of fighting rings in Ventura County
By Chris O'Neal 03/27/2014
This story has been updated.
Late Saturday morning, just off Briggs Road on the outskirts of Santa Paula, several volunteers took various breeds of dogs through the dusty streets of the industrial neighborhood. A frisky Labrador followed behind a mixed-breed Catahoula leopard/pit bull terrier named Betty as she sauntered alongside her human, ignoring other dogs, cars and people.
Betty hasn't always had such a mild demeanor. In 2011, Betty was found in the backyard of an El Rio home, staked to the ground on a short leash alongside 23 other dogs, mostly other pit bull mixes. Several showed signs of having been involved in fights. The suspect homeowners were arrested, four in total, and 15 of the dogs, some of which were puppies, were confiscated and kept as evidence. Later the dogs were scheduled for euthanasia. It was then that the Canine Adoption and Rescue League (CARL) stepped in.
Finding dozens, if not hundreds of birds for use in fighting
is not a rare occurrence in Ventura County.
"The ones that we got were under the age of 2 and they were basically feral dogs," said Mary Saputo, president of CARL. "It has been probably a year and a half or two to get them socialized enough so that they're now out in the general population."
Several puppies were adopted immediately, but the older dogs, including Betty, remain at the facility, a total of seven in all. This is far from unique — across the county, many dogs rescued from facilities, homes or elsewhere, involved in suspected fighting circles or simply abusive situations, are either not adopted or are subjected to euthanasia.
"We think that maybe sometime we'll get these guys adopted," said Saputo. "If not, they'll lead the rest of their lives with us."
Many animals end up in shelters or rescues around the county after being seized from abusive situations. On March 11, 17 dogs were rescued from a home in Santa Paula. (See sidebar.) Most of the dogs were pit bull terrier mixes and all showed signs of neglect, some with open wounds, others with clipped ears and infected sores. The case is still under investigation.
Incidents involving dogs, however, are rare compared to those involving roosters. Cockfighting in Ventura County — and across the country — is at epidemic proportions, involving not dozens but hundreds of animals in oftentimes cruel and unusual situations. Unlike the fate of Betty and her lot, when roosters are found in similar situations it often means death for the animals.
Regina Wilcox is the veterinary liaison and human resources manager for the Santa Paula Animal Rescue Center (SPARC). In 2012, just one month after SPARC became the official animal control center for the city of Santa Paula, Wilcox was at the Ventura County Fair when she received a disturbing call.
"We knew we were the municipal pound for the city of Santa Paula and we knew that something like this could happen," said Wilcox.
That day in August, the Santa Paula Police Department raided a home after the death of a local man, stabbed during what was believed to be a gambling incident. At the scene, officers discovered 547 birds — a vast majority of them roosters.
"All of these birds had been left for days without water in a greenhouse in sweltering heat. Most of them were already ripped up from the fights," according to Wilcox.
Officers notified SPARC and the Humane Society, who arrived on the scene and, with no other option, euthanized the birds. SPARC, without enough materials to euthanize the animals, acquired syringes and formulas from the Humane Society in order to complete the task.
"There were dozens of them in piles, dead on the ground. They were stacked one on top of another in cages five high. There were quail and they were all diseased with green goo coming out of their beaks. They were stuffed in cages with 10 to 12 per cage."
In order for a rooster to be trained to fight, it must be prepped — much as a dog is. Its comb and wattle, the red fleshy parts of its head, are removed (a dog has its ears and tail clipped); tail feathers are trimmed close to the body; and the spur on the back of the leg is often whittled down to better fit accessories. Attached to some birds are customized blades and razors shaped like miniature scythes (called gaffs) ranging in length and width and varying from crude to professional, depending on the worth of the bird to the owner.
Steroids are often pumped into the birds to promote growth and aggression; during fights, the birds are given cocktails of chemicals to further agitate the animals and promote viciousness.
Often the birds show signs of deep scarring on their breasts, if they survive the fight. Never are they able to be rehabilitated, and they will strike, kick and bite other birds, humans and animals. For these reasons, roosters will more often than not be euthanized regardless of the condition they're found in.
"Fighting cocks cannot be rehabilitated. A fighting dog can be. A fighting cock can't be," said Wilcox.
A selection of weaponry known as gaffs shown here
are attached to a rooster's spur in order to inflict damage.
That hot August day wasn't unique to Santa Paula, and this wasn't the first such find in the year — nor the largest.
Earlier in 2012, more than1,000 roosters were found and euthanized in El Rio; in 2011, 80 were discovered after a fighting ring was uncovered in Fillmore; and in 2013, cockfighting paraphernalia was found in an agricultural field in Camarillo with several dead birds left behind by fleeing spectators, owners or gamblers.
In 2012, a total of 21 people were arrested and booked on charges of animal cruelty in relation to cockfighting. Several years later, none has been prosecuted for those charges by the Ventura County District Attorney's office. In 2011, however, 43-year-old Michael Lim, one of 16 arrested at the scene of a suspected cockfighting ring in Oxnard, was charged with a misdemeanor for his role and sentenced to one year of probation, four days in jail, and was subject to search terms allowing the police department to search his property.
UPDATE: After this story went to press, the Ventura County District Attorney's office informed the VC Reporter that in 2012 a suspect was charged and prosecuted under penal code 597 (b), a subsection of the animal cruelty law. Luis Ziranhua of Oxnard was given 36 months of probation and fined $250 for causing or allowing a cockfight for amusement or financial gain. This brings the total prosecutions for promoting cockfighting to two since 2011, plus a further two prosecutions for being a spectator at a cockfight (penal code 597 (c)), according to Supervising Deputy District Attorney Kevin Drescher.
Prosecution otherwise is rare.
Detective Ray Dominguez with the Ventura County Sheriff's Department major crimes unit says that breeders will often leave behind evidence, including paraphernalia and cages as well as detailed descriptions of regiments and diets the birds are placed on.
"I've found notes and notebooks with training regiments and what type of feed is used, just like someone training for a fight, like a professional fighter," said Dominguez. "It is a bloodsport and people do get enjoyment from it, as sick as it is."
Dominguez says that though he has come across several instances of suspects clearly training birds for fighting or actively engaging in an event, prosecuting those who are arrested remains difficult.
"If they're caught and are actually involved it's much easier than if we simply find the birds," said Dominguez. "We certainly have to find evidence . . . they will claim they are breeding the birds for show purposes. If we're showing evidence to the contrary then that's a different story."
Even if the suspects are arrested, there is no guarantee that the individuals will be prosecuted.
"It can be frustrating at times for me. A lot of time and effort is put into these investigations, and a lot of times you don't get a whole lot of bang for your buck," he said.
The success of a prosecution rests on the finding of fighting instruments. According to Santa Paula's Animal Services Coordinator Adam McPhail, in the case of 2012's rooster bust, no paraphernalia were found on the premises. The case was handed over to the Humane Society, who then charged the suspects with animal cruelty, a power given to them through their use of peace officers. Animal cruelty is a felony in California, but according to SPARC Administrative Liaison John Brockus, who was the Humane Society's director of investigations at the time, the case was presented to the DA but hasn't moved forward.
"We physically make the arrest, present the case and give it to the District Attorney's office," said Brockus. "If the DA chooses not to file the case, nothing happens."
Camarillo Animal Shelter Director Donna Gillespie says that while finding dogs bred for fighting in the County is rare — and in her recollection, she hasn't been part of a bust since the late 1990s — coming across instances of cockfighting is a yearly occurrence.
"That's a whole different story," said Gillespie. "Every year we go out. Usually several times a year we're called out for rooster fighting."
So far this year, Gillespie says that there have been no calls reporting rooster fighting, but she expects that when spring and summer arrive, she'll see an increase in activity, noting that fights tend to take place around other outdoor social activities. Gillespie says that most of these discoveries are made in the unincorporated areas of the county, in places like avocado orchards far from roads.
"The last time we brought roosters in, they came in with knives and gaffs still attached to them, which makes it super-dangerous for my staff."
Particularly dangerous for the animal control officers is the complicated manner in which breeders sometimes build paths to the cages, utilizing small tunnels and trap doors to prevent officers from finding the birds. Gillespie says that while the discovery of birds in poor condition happens, often the opposite is true.
Crude cockfighting rings are not uncommon
to find among other paraphernalia.
"From my experience, they're very well-kept," said Gillespie. "They look good. The losers don't look good."
Gillespie says that when officers are called to a location, it isn't unusual to discover 300 to 400 birds. Though it's illegal to fight the animals and a misdemeanor even to be a spectator at a fight, catching the perpetrators isn't easy, says Gillespie, and proving that the animals were fighting is difficult.
"When we truly think that they're breeding these birds for fighting, if there is no paraphernalia there, then we have a problem with prosecution because they could just be show birds. It's really disheartening."
When asked whether or not any of the suspects caught with cockfighting birds and paraphernalia found in 2013 have been prosecuted, Gillespie said that she would "venture to say none."
Deputy District Attorney Alvan Arzu says that he can't comment on any specific cases, and the DA can only prosecute suspects if the cases have been handed to them by local law enforcement. The last case of animal cruelty Arzu can recall that received full prosecution involved the October 2012 incident of a Camarillo teen setting his family dog on fire. The teen was given a 16-month prison term.
As far as specific cases involving roosters — such as the Santa Paula case involving SPARC and the Humane Society — Arzu says that if the DA were to get the case, it would receive the same treatment as any other animal cruelty case.
"It goes through the process like any other criminal prosecution," said Arzu. "We'd get the evidence, evaluate it and make our determination of what should be done."
A felony charge of animal cruelty can bring up to three years in prison, but Arzu cannot recall any suspects who have been prosecuted in recent years aside from the Camarillo teen. Other attempts to reach the Districty Attorney's office failed to produce any further information.
"There are probably four different locations off the top of my head in Ventura County that I could take you with over 1,000 roosters," said SPARC's John Brockus. "Why would this person need 1,000 roosters and five hens? There's nothing disallowing it so that's why we have that big problem in the County."
Brockus was a part of the raid in 2012, wherein 547 birds were euthanized. Brockus says that cockfighting in the county is a serious problem because the laws in place are rarely enforced, and the zoning codes are either out of date or simply ignored by property owners.
Although in December 2013, the Ventura County Board of Supervisors passed a mandatory spay and neuter ordinance for all cats and dogs in unincorporated areas of the county, as of yet, there are no specific requirements dealing with the problems related to roosters. The only limitations are that in the city of Ventura, homeowners are allowed hens but no roosters, and the same is true for Oxnard.
According to the noncoastal zoning ordinance for Ventura County, roosters count as only one-tenth of an animal. Property owners in unincorporated portions of the County are allowed two animals for up to a 19,000-square-foot property, and those numbers increase as the property size increases. A total of 20 roosters are allowed on the smallest property size.
El Rio, Piru, Meiners Oak and other unincorporated areas of Ventura County fall under this zoning category. According to Winston Wright of the Ventura County Planning Division, those who violate the code are given a 30-day notice to comply with the ordinance.
"When you ask the question, 'Who is responsible for enforcing this?' it comes down to any agency that has law enforcing abilities. In the context of things, they have a lot of things they're tasked with. Fighting animals kind of takes a lower priority."
Brockus has been involved in several cases of animal cruelty leading to convictions, and as the director of investigations at the Humane Society for a time, he was given peace officer powers as they relate to animal law. Gambling, says Brockus, is only one of the reasons why people get involved with fighting roosters.
"There's a lot of money to be made," Brockus says.
According to the Humane Society of America, everything from homicide to illegal immigration and narcotics coincides with busts on cockfighting rings.
In 2013, Brockus was invited to attend an in-progress raid in Compton involving the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) and several Los Angeles-area animal control services. At the scene, 43 arrests were made and more than $100,000 was seized. Twelve of the arrested were illegal immigrants who, once arrested, were almost instantaneously deported, free to continue raising and fighting roosters. The only direct punishment was the seizure of some assets, according to Brockus.
"It's a big business," Brockus said.
At SPARC, an appointment of Brockus as an animal control officer would allow him once again to wield the powers of a peace officer, but cooperation at the District Attorney's office needs to follow suit, said Brockus.
"While I was with the Humane Society, I would be working with a different DA every three months because they'd rotate them out," said Brockus. "They need to become well-versed in this animal law to know what they're looking at, but then the next thing you know they're off to a new division. I think it's really extremely low on their priority list."
In speaking with Deputy District Attorney Arzu, he stated that he had only been in the department for close to 10 months.
At CARL, after returning Betty to the kennels, another volunteer takes one of the dog's fellow pack members on a walk through the streets. Half of the kennels are open to the public for boarding while a large portion of the 110 runs are used for sanctuary.
"They were going to kill all of the dogs that we have," said Saputo. "Animal Reg doesn't have the resources or the time to say, 'Well, even if we don't adopt them we'll keep them until they die naturally.' That's what CARL does."
For roosters, there is no such option.
"The two employees that helped were both young employees in their early 20s who had never seen anything like that," said Regina Wilcox of the August 2012 raid. "They were there for about seven hours holding birds while they were humanely euthanized. It was something I don't think they'll ever forget."
Wilcox says that she hasn't heard anything regarding the prosecution of the individuals involved in the case.
"When your whole job is about proving that animals can be saved and that they don't have to be euthanized for lack of space, behavior or medical problems, it's hard to be a part of things like that," she said.
For more information about CARL, SPARC or any of the animals mentioned, visit www.carldogs.org or www.santapaulaarc.org.
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The 8 Greatest Makeshift Movie Weapons
#6. Lionel's lawnmower from Dead Alive
Towards the end of this very odd zombie movie from director Peter Jackson, our hero dispatches the zombie horde with a lawnmower strapped across his chest:
What ensues is one of the bloodiest scenes involving a lawnmower since 2002's America's Funniest Home Video's $10,000 grand prize winner.
How It Is Useful Against Your Enemies
Lawnmowers are big and clunky and chances are if you're thinking about using one as a weapon, you live in a trailer, consider Steak'ums a Thanksgiving side dish and refer to refined pork treats and warm beer as the breakfast of champions. In other words, carrying and running with a lawnmower on your body is entirely out of the question for someone with your physique. Also, the only time this is an effective weapon is if your enemies are the type who attack slowly in an all-at-once formation, and are incapable of recognizing from the first wave of your chest mower victims that it's a bad idea to just stand there (ruling out pretty much all potential assailants other than non-28 Days Later zombies and the elderly).
#5. The ballpoint pen from Grosse Pointe Blank
Martin Blank, played by John Cusack, decides to put his hit man life on hold in order to attend his high school reunion. While Blank dances and enjoys punch, a rival assassin hired to wipe Blank out for the "Oregon snafu with that dog Boudreaux" makes his move. The two get into a brutal kickboxing match by the lockers. Finally, Blank gets him into submission, whips out the ballpoint pen he got from a schmoozy real estate agent at the reunion and sticks it right in the assassin's jugular:
This accomplishes the duel objectives of giving us a pretty clever little death scene, and distracting us from the fact that we're being asked to believe that John Cusack has just kicked someone's ass in a kickboxing fight.
How It Is Useful Against Your Enemies
What it causes in pain it lacks in distance. You literally have to get right up in your enemy's face for it to really do some damage, which, given the fact that they are your enemies, probably isn't something you want to do. But if you can get past their anchovy breath, large face goiter and glaring evil stare, it can cause some damage and make a huge mess. Bring some Wet Naps.


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By LINDA HARRIS
Staff writer
WEIRTON - After months of legal wrangling, Millsop Community Center has a new digital sign.
Article Photos
NEW LOOK — Crews guide Millsop Community Center's new digital sign into position Monday morning. The old sign was dark for the past year due to glitches in its cabinet design. -- Linda Harris
Board of Parks and Recreation Director Terry Weigel said Monday they'd reached agreement with the vendor, Signs Ltd., to replace the non-working sign. The new digital sign uses a different cabinet manufacturer than the original design, which city officials said had been problematic from the start. The cabinet manufacturer went out of business, however, leaving the vendor liable for any problems that might erupt.
"It's not the same exact sign," said Weigel, who does double-duty as Ward 7 councilman. "It's a different manufacturer. The biggest problem with the old sign was there were problems that were caused by the cabinet, but the cabinet manufacturer went out of business. It was a big problem, they weren't going to cover their warranty."
The sign, commissioned in 2008, was part of Millsop Community Center's extensive facade renovations. The board had planned to use the LED sign, which cost them nearly $61,000, to tout recreational activities in the community, particularly the sports camps, leagues and special events held at Millsop throughout the year.
They were never able to achieve its full potential, however, and in September, the park board authorized legal action after efforts to reach an out-of-court solution fell short. The sign company originally had offered to replace the digital sign with a lesser model at the city's expense, but the park board objected.
"I appreciate them making this right," Weigel said. "I realize they bought the cabinet from the manufacturer, and then they went out of business and , didn't honor warranty. They got stuck."


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23" Duffel Bag - Save $16.12 for $3.87
Grab this bag and go. Plenty of room for gym gear or an overnight trip.
Three large exterior pockets, two end pockets
Mesh pocket lets wet gear dry out
Convenient 47-1/2'' shoulder strap
Overall dimensions: 23''L x 11''W x 12-1/2''H
13 Comments add a comment
Okay the link goes to some expired coupons and I don't see a bag on the page.
Sorry, but Harbor Freight does that.
Here's the actual link:
maybe edit your deal to reflect the correct link~?
$6.99 shipping... I'm good. You can get something similar at almost any chain store for $10.00 or less & not have to wait for it to arrive.
I'm in. I could use another duffel and I really like the 23 inch size. Paid over 20 for a similar bag at walmart.
I live 10 minutes away from Harbor Freight so this is a great deal for me. I'm going to buy three of them and hook up my friends. Thanks for the post!
As a reminder from previous harbor freight posts, the prices on harborfreight.com doesnt always mean the price is the same at their stores. Always call first. (The store's official site is harborfreightusa.com) But good price, I will be calling tomorrow at the Independence, MO and Shawnee, KS stores.
Reviewer #2 of 2 on the website says it smells like oil??
Don't call first on deals it only alerts employees... This is a general rule of thumb...However dunno if duffel bag is such a biggie...just a thought...
Would 8 Heads fit in this duffelbag?
Shipping makes this deal (Thumbs Down)
I've found that if the item is in the store and you show them the deal from on line they've always honored it.
@tjleyle: only if they all came from Beetlejuice...
@tjleyle: It seems boxes are the way to go these days: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/18/us/18heads.html


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Could Jesus save Satan?
Some biblical reference with explanation, would be helpful.
Could Jesus save Satan?
Some biblical reference with explanation, would be helpful.
closed as not constructive by warren, Waggers, wax eagle♦ Dec 12 '11 at 14:05
As it currently stands, this question is not a good fit for our Q&A format. We expect answers to be supported by facts, references, or expertise, but this question will likely solicit debate, arguments, polling, or extended discussion. If you feel that this question can be improved and possibly reopened, visit the help center for guidance.If this question can be reworded to fit the rules in the help center, please edit the question.
There is very little in Scripture directly about Satan, so biblical references aren't really going to exist.
One thing to clarify, however, is the meaning of Satan as opposed to Beelezub, Lucifer, or the Devil. It should be noted that while we all think this is the same bad guy, the primary reference to Satan (and really the only one from which much can be gleaned) is in the first two chapters of Job.*
Ha-Satan literally means "the Accuser." To "save" a (false) accuser, presumably from the results of his lying would mean forcing him to withdraw his charge. Once "the Accuser" is no longer Accusing, what is he? He can be defeated (and will be!), or silenced, but to be "saved" would be to deny the very essence of what he is.
Thus, the answer is "No."
Its not because God doesn't have the power, or even the desire - its because of the law of non-contradiction.
*For completeness' sake, here are all the references, via Wikipedia:
The Bible reveals no provision of salvation for angelic beings, while it speaks quite a bit about the provision of salvation for mankind. It also speaks of "the eternal fire" as a place prepared for the devil and his angels...
Theologically speaking, there is no "first Adam" of the race of angels, because they neither marry nor are given in marriage.
So, without a "first Adam", there could be no "Second Adam", and consequently, no Savior.


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How do I use my Android device as a web server by with an IP address and port? Just like a Wifi file transfer app in the Play Store?
closed as not a real question by Al E., Liam W, ce4, t0mm13b, roxan Dec 23 '12 at 6:44
It's difficult to tell what is being asked here. This question is ambiguous, vague, incomplete, overly broad, or rhetorical and cannot be reasonably answered in its current form. For help clarifying this question so that it can be reopened, visit the help center.If this question can be reworded to fit the rules in the help center, please edit the question.
Android itself does not provide such a facility (as to my knowledge). But there are a bunch of web servers available in the playstore. A German overview on AndroidPIT sums up some of them (grouped into suitable targets): Webserver (Google Translate's English variant: Webserver).
Some examples include static content webservers like e.g. kWS - Android Web Server and ServDroid.web, plain "HTTP file servers" like File Expert and WiFi File Transfer, more complex things even offering scripting support such as PAW Server for Android, or all-in-one solutions like Servers Ultimate.
If you mean enable web server on phone - there a lot of servers on market, but for file transfer (s)ftp is more usable.


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Just started studying tensor products. Let $A$ be a commutative ring with unity and let $M$ be an $A$-module. Now let $k$ be a field, I know that a $k$-module is precisely a $k$-vector space.
My question is the following:
Why $k \otimes_{A} M$ is also a $k$-vector space? here $\otimes$ denotes the tensor product with respect the ring $A$.
Is it because we can give $k \otimes_{A} M$ the structure of $k$-module by just taking:
$f: k \times (k \otimes_{A} M) \rightarrow k \otimes_{A}M$ given by:
$f(c,d \otimes m)=(cd) \otimes m$ ? where $c,d \in k$


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Revaluation under way in Waterbury
Waterbury's property revaluation process, commonly referred to as reval, has been under way for the past several months, with the assessor and his team of appraisers performing property inspections and updating data-assessment tables that will be used for updating property assessments under the current reval. During the next few weeks, the assessor's team will monitor market data and then finalize assessment-value estimates before mailing notices to property owners in late November.
I want to be sure every resident and taxpayer has an opportunity to learn as much as possible about the property revaluation process. To help the public understand this complex process, I will be sharing, through this column, basic information in what is hopefully a format that will be easy to understand.
Read more of this story and more!
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I have a few debdiffs that were created, however, I'd like to apply a small change to all of them. The process of creating the debdiffs from scratch would be easy but very time-consuming.
Is manually editing debdiffs(just open via a text editor) a good practice or does it render debdiffs unusable? Is there a standard good-practice suggestion for this?