I’m Smart
by Kazzy · November 5, 2012
by Kazzy · November 5, 2012
Kazzy
One man. Two boys. Twelve kids.
February 22, 2010
March 1, 2009
June 9, 2016
From CNN:
Comment →In the end, four people were shot dead at the intersection in Miramar, authorities said, including two robbery suspects, a bystander, and hostage UPS driver Frank Ordonez -- a man who relatives say had been substituting for a colleague who had called out from work that day.
The slain robbers and hijackers were Lamar Alexander, 41, and Ronnie Jerome Hill, 41, both of Miami-Dade County, the FBI said. Authorities haven't released the name of the bystander who was killed.
Numerous questions about the chase and its finale remain, including who shot Ordonez and the bystander.
[caption id="attachment_322423" align="aligncenter" width="709"] Creator: Trikosko, Marion S., photographer; Related Name: O'Halloran, Thomas J. , photographer [Public domain][/caption]
The House Judiciary Committee will be kicking off their portion of the impeachment inquiry, with coverage and live stream you can watch here:
The House Judiciary Committee is taking the reins of the impeachment inquiry, holding its first hearing with testimony on the constitutional grounds for impeachment.
The committee, which will be responsible for drafting potential articles of impeachment, is hearing from four constitutional law experts: Noah Feldman, Pamela Karlan, Michael Gerhardt and Jonathan Turley, who is also a CBS News legal analyst.
What say you? The commentareum is raring to go on this topic, join in.
Comment →[caption id="attachment_323188" align="aligncenter" width="750"] Photo by Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia Commons[/caption]
Senator Kamala Harris' once promising campaign for the Democratic nomination for president has ended.
To my supporters, it is with deep regret—but also with deep gratitude—that I am suspending my campaign today.
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) December 3, 2019
But I want to be clear with you: I will keep fighting every day for what this campaign has been about. Justice for the People. All the people.https://t.co/92Hk7DHHbR
Comment →Harris told aides of her intentions in an all-staff call. A person familiar with the call said she sounded distraught. While Harris had qualified for the December debate in her home state, she was running dangerously low on cash — lacking the resources to air TV ads in Iowa — and her staff was gripped by long-running internal turmoil.
Story Continued BelowStill, the news came as a shock to some of her biggest supporters. Just as Harris was announcing the news internally, a super PAC had cleared more than $1 million in TV ads in Iowa to boost her struggling campaign. The ad, which argued she was the best-equipped candidate to take on Trump, was canceled.
“Eleven months ago at the launch of our campaign in Oakland I told you all: ‘I am not perfect.' But I will always speak with decency and moral clarity and treat all people with dignity and respect. I will lead with integrity. I will speak the truth. And that’s what I have tried to do every day of this campaign. So here’s the truth today,” Harris wrote in a note to supporters. “I’ve taken stock and looked at this from every angle, and over the last few days have come to one of the hardest decisions of my life. My campaign for president simply doesn’t have the financial resources we need to continue ."
Harris, who spent Thanksgiving in Iowa with family, took a deep look at the campaign’s resources over the holiday and decided she did not have a path to the nomination. A Harris campaign aide said the expected impeachment trial in January further complicated the situation.
She made the decision Monday after discussions with her family and senior aides. Harris will travel to the early states this week to thank staff and supporters for their dedication to the campaign.
[caption id="attachment_323152" align="aligncenter" width="750"] Photo by Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia Commons[/caption]
No, not Katie Hill, who made a good run at the biggest scandal in the Cali delegation but fell short to Duncan Hunter. The still Representative of CA-50 will reportedly change his "not guilty" plea Tuesday in court.
The change of plea, if entered and accepted by the judge, also would close the complicated appeal that Hunter filed earlier this year. In an unusual move, the East County congressman appealed his prosecution in July to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal even before his trial opened.
Hunter, who will turn 43 on Saturday, and his wife were charged in August 2018 with 60 criminal counts related to their use of Hunter’s campaign contributions and each faced decades in prison if convicted on all charges.
Both pleaded not guilty to the charges when they were arraigned.
Margaret Hunter, 44, changed her plea in June to guilty to a single count of conspiracy and agreed to testify against her husband. She faces up to five years in prison when she is sentenced in April, but is likely to serve substantially less time.
The couple has three children.
According to the indictment, the Hunters relied for years on campaign contributions to pay routine family expenses such as dental bills, home repairs and fast-food meals. They also used the donations to pay for exotic vacations, private-school tuition, video games and plane tickets for Margaret’s mother to travel to and from Poland.
The Hunters used more than $500 in campaign funds to fly the family’s pet rabbit, Eggburt, across the country with them, Margaret Hunter admitted in her plea agreement.
The initial indictment also alluded to several unnamed “individuals” who appeared to have more than professional relationships with Duncan Hunter.
Earlier this year, as the congressman continued to deny his guilt and prosecutors disclosed more of their evidence in public court filings, it became clear that Hunter had extramarital affairs with at least five different women over many years -- and paid for them with campaign funds.
Though never identified publicly, three of the women were noted to be lobbyists and two others were reported to be congressional staffers.
Hunter is still in Congress but has been stripped of all committee assignments and is not being endorsed or supported by the Republican Party, drawing strong candidates looking to take his seat.
Comment →[caption id="attachment_322780" align="aligncenter" width="750"] AG William Barr meets with DOJ officials. Photo by The United States Department of Justice [Public domain][/caption]
Attorney General William Barr said he initially had his own suspicions about financier Jeffrey Epstein’s death while behind bars at one of the most secure jails in America but came to conclude that his suicide was the result of “a perfect storm of screw-ups.”
In an interview with The Associated Press, Barr said his concerns were prompted by the numerous irregularities at the New York jail where Epstein was being held. But he said after the FBI and the Justice Department’s inspector general continued to investigate, he realized there were a “series” of mistakes made that gave Epstein the chance to take his own life.
“I can understand people who immediately, whose minds went to sort of the worst-case scenario because it was a perfect storm of screw-ups,” Barr told the AP as he flew to Montana for an event.
Barr’s comments come days after two correctional officers who were responsible for guarding the wealthy financier when he died were charged with falsifying prison records. Officers Tova Noel and Michael Thomas are accused of sleeping and browsing the internet — shopping for furniture and motorcycles — instead of watching Epstein, who was supposed to be checked on every 30 minutes.
Epstein took his own life in August while awaiting trial on charges he sexually abused girls as young as 14 and young women in New York and Florida in the early 2000s.
His suicide cast a spotlight on the federal Bureau of Prisons, which has been plagued by chronic staffing shortages and outbreaks of violence. The indictment unsealed this week against the officers shows a damning glimpse of safety lapses inside a high-security unit
This will, of course, have precisely zero effect in settling down those pesky "Epstein Didn't Kill Himself!" feelings many folks have.
Comment →Andrew Donaldson // 45 Comments
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I've heard of feeling like a million bucks, but a billion just sounds greedy.
I know it’s merely a trend, but if the amount one drank was a sign of intelligence, I would be the dumbest person on this site since my total lifetime alcohol consumption to this date is still less than what any one of you guys drink in a week.
As far as hypotheses that explain the trend go, my bet is on frat parties in the university.Report
I’m not mych of a drinker either, really a beer or two once in qReport
… a while.Report
Says the guy too drunk to type “while.”Report
I can’t type drunk or sober.Report
I’m in the same boat as Murali.Report
I’m a freaking genius 😉Report
As if we didn’t already know!Report
I agree. I’m drunk right now, of course, but I don’t think that should be a determining factor in my judgment. Er, judgment.Report
I’m Double Einstein.Report
I am smart! S-M-R-T smart!Report
I’m extremely not smart.
But I do have a lot of fun watching all the smart folk act stupid.Report
Beautiful.Report
Why do I have a feeling this is one of those cases where a scientific study is being reported by the press in a way that completely misunderstands the point and the findings of said study?Report
Have a drink and re-read it; not only will it start to make more sense, but we will all become better-looking*.
Win-win!
* Perhaps this is the reason – good-looking doofi (plural of doofus) don’t need alcohol to reproduce; but average-looking nerds still need to get laid somehow – hence, alcohol.**
** on a more serious note, I believe I have seen similar study results before, linking not only increased alcohol use, but also increased incidence of drug experimentation, to intelligence. Both can possibly be at least partially explained as novelty-seeking behavior – a curious mind may be more likely to engage in those activities which alter consciousness and lower inhibitions, so as to increase novel experiences.
This novelty-seeking propensity may also partially explain how smart people can sometimes be so spectacularly stupid.Report
Being intelligent leads to alcoholism, kids. Ignorance is bliss. It’s what’s hot in parenting today.Report
I am going a different route.Report
Why do I have a feeling this is one of those cases where a scientific study is being reported by the press in a way that completely misunderstands the point and the findings of said study?
Because you don’t drink enough, obviously.
Seriously though, I haven’t read the study, but since the press misrepresents findings in the social sciences 99.999999999999% of the time (how’s that for significant digits, George?), I think it’s a safe assumption that they are doing so here. If I were a betting man, I’d say that the study showed a small but, across a large sample, statistically significant difference between broadly defined groups, and that small difference has led to a report saying that smart people drink more. I’d bet that if you plotted the distributions for the groups, though, they’d overlap almost completely.Report
” but since the press misrepresents findings in the social sciences 99.999999999999% of the time (how’s that for significant digits, George?)”
That damn media war against social science!Report
I do wonder if there might be a real relationship here, even if the arrow of causation is off. I can’t really articulate my theory well, but it is based on the anecdotal observation that more of the folks whom I know that don’t drink are of a lower SES. Given what we know about the relationship between SES and education (and I believe the arrow of causation goes in both direction), it seems like there might be something there.Report
Mensa member level drinker here!Report
Well, this study was conducted in the UK. The smarter folks in that study are likely drinking to cope with life in the UK.Report
I’m basically expecting my MacArthur Grant any year now.Report
Drinking: Ankle-weights for the brain.Report
I’m at the point now where I’m more like a Venice Beach powerlifter than a mom with a jogging stroller and ankle weights.Report