Sheriff to Spend Christmas In Jail Named After Him

If you find the constant creep forward of Christmas annoying imagine what it will be like for former Arapahoe County Sheriff Pat Sullivan. He is being held in a jail named after him.

A year before he retired in 2002 he had been declared national sheriff of the year.

He is being held on $500,000 bail on charges of providing meth to recovering male addicts for sex. In charge of the third largest county in the state, with a population of more than 500,000, he had been one of the most highly regarded public servants.

Investigators began tracking him after getting a call saying an "old guy" was trying to get his roommates back on drugs. When Sullivan was told the residents would call the police he said,"...I am the police."

A sting was set up and he was caught, possessing meth. He told detectives he was part of a statewide meth drug task force to help druggies clean up. No such task force exists, the Denver Post reported.

Because of his association with so many county employees, in courts, jails, law enforcement, the trial is going to be very difficult.

Even tricker might not be the jail name. It's not like renaming a football stadium when a company that bought the name goes out of business.

Will anyone want to buy the right to rename the Patrick J. Sullivan Jr. Detention Facility?

Read more: http://technorati.com/lifestyle/article/sheriff-to-spend-christmas-in-jail/#ixzz1fFWrTOEX

Psychiatrists Say Norwegian Mass Killer Insane

Courts in Norway have determined that Anders Behring Breivik suffers from paranoid schizophrenia. He killed 77 people and wounded 151 in two attacks July 22 in Oslo and on the nearby island of Utoeya.


 Verden Gang Nett and other Norwegian media reported the decision.

“Paranoid schizophrenia is one of several types of schizophrenia, a chronic mental illness in which a person loses touch with reality (psychosis). The classic features of paranoid schizophrenia are having delusions and hearing things that aren't real,” according to the Mayo Clinic.


 Two psychiatrists compiled a 243-page report for the Norwegian Board of Forensic Medicine.


 The BBC said although the 32-year-old remains insane it is not clear whether his trial will go ahead as planned in April.


 Breivik inhabited his “own delusional universe where all his thoughts and acts are guided by his own delusions.” In the past it was frequently diagnosed as a split or multiple personality, but in fact it is a shattered image or personality.

 In most countries victims of such a psychotic illness end up being hospitalized in mental wards, even if they were convicted of murder.


 A key element in many locations is not whether the defendant can tell right from wrong but whether he or she can control the behavior that resulted in physical violence.


 Years ago psychiatrist Karl Jung said that for every one such sociopath who is known there are ten others not discovered.


 In some cases paranoid schizophrenics are more capable of appearing to act normal than others suffering different symptoms.


 In Breivik’s view he was fighting a cultural Marxist and Islamic invasion.

Many of the dead were youngsters attending a summer political party on the island.

First published on Technorati http://technorati.com/blogging/article/courts-judge-norwegian-mass-killer-insane/

Should Guns Be Allowed in Post Offices

     The issue isn't being tested in a ghetto or other high crime area. A federal court in Denver has allowed two residents of one the wealthiest regions in the nation to file a constitutional challenge to a ban on possession of guns in either post offices or  their parking lots.
     No, there have been no claims that it is particularly dangerous in the Vail or neighboring Avon, home of two of the nation's richest gated communities.
     The lawsuit, filed by Debbie and Tab Bonidy, and supported by the National Association for Gun Rights and Mountain States Legal Foundation, mentions the right of self-defense but it is clear it is the right of unlimited gun possession that is at stake.
     There have been no reports of the couple being attacked on the ten-mile drive from their mountain home to the Avon Post Office.
     Their case was twice turned down, but on Nov. 18, Senior U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch of Denver, who handled the trial of Timothy McVeigh, reinstated their case and ordered a scheduling conference.
     The law seems clear enough. The Supreme Court has ruled that the right to possess arms can be subjected to some restrictions in so far as where they can be possessed. Not in schools, for example.
     The Supreme Court has ruled that guns can be barred from "sensitive areas." Earlier decisions have determined that Post Offices are just such places.
     Can anyone forget where the term "going postal" came from? "The expression derives from a series of incidents from 1983 onward in which United States Postal Service (USPS) workers shot and killed managers, fellow workers, and members of the police or general public in acts of mass murder. Between 1986 and 1997, more than forty people were gunned down by spree killers in at least twenty incidents of workplace rage," according to Wikipedia.
     Part of the issue is that the gun prohibition includes post office parking lots.
     Conflicts are bound to arise in mountainous areas where hunting is popular. There is no legal way to drive into such a parking lot with a gun, no matter how secure it is in a storage area and even dismantled.
     Up to now federal courts have held that "de minimus" restrictions are legal. That means rules of "minor importance."
     In the unlikely event the strict federal laws specifically preventing non-law enforcement officers from bringing guns into Post Offices is declared unconstitutional how many other such areas will also be open to guns?
     Postal workers undoubtedly will protest. As the late Warren Zevon put it: "Send lawyers, guns and money."
   
   

NATO Admits Deadly Attack on Pakistan

Los Angeles Times photo trucks held up by closure of Pakistan-Afghan border

NATO has admitted it is “highly likely” it was responsible for an attack by warplanes and helicopters that killed dozens of Pakistan soldiers on an Afghan border post near Mohmand. Pakistan forces returned fire.

Reuters and Al Jazeera said the toll could reach or exceed 30. It was deadliest attack on Pakistan forces by NATO since it invaded neighboring Afghanistan after 9/11.

"Pakistan's sovereignty was attacked early this morning," said Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani. "This is our Pakistan and we have to defend it," told the Wall Street journal.

“Close air support was called in, in the development of the tactical situation, and it is what likely caused the Pakistan casualties,” Brig. Gen. Carsten Jacobson, a spokesman for NATO said. He apologized.

News reports said NATO forces were involved in an anti-Taliban operation in the Khyber region of northwestern Pakistan near the Afghan border.

Relations between Islamabad have deteriorated as the war seems to drone on without end. And U.S. military and government officials have accused Pakistan of giving some of the ammunition and other aid it delivers to anti-Afghanistan government groups.

In some cases NATO forces allegedly were killed with these munitions.

Pakistan was outraged by the Navy Seal attack inside its territory that resulted in the execution of Osama bin Laden.

Afghan President has simultaneously criticized the U.S. for allegedly killing civilians not involved in the conflict.

In the U.S., support for the war has declined as casualties climb at the same time American commanders say they are winning. Intense pressure to cut government spending adds to the pressure to pull out of the graveyard of empires.

Pakistan, meanwhile, said it returned fire on the attack early Saturday. There was no information on NATO suffered casualties.

“Pakistani troops effectively responded immediately in self-defense to NATO’s aggress with all available weapons,” its military said in a statement.

Fighting Erupts Between Pakistan and NATO

Simmering relations between Pakistan and NATO erupted nto fighting early Saturday when American choppers killed 25 soldiers at a border post near the town of Jamrud.  More Pakistan troops were wounded.

Dawn, the BBC, Los Angeles Times, Reuters, the Times of India and others reported the attack, which was followed immediately by the closure of the main transport route into Afghanistan. They quoted Pakistani TV, military and government officials.

The attack occurred in the same area where Pakistan forces have been fighting the Taliban.

NATO said it was aware an incident had occurred but it didn’t have details.

Relations between Islamabad and Washington have grown increasingly tense. Pakistan is accused of providing some support to anti-Afghan governments.

The U.S. incursion into Pakistan to kill Osama bin Laden outraged our main ally in the Afghan war. In turn the fact that Pakistan had allowed the author of the 9/11 attacks to hide in its territory for years made things even worse.

This was at least the second such incident, but the previous one involved only two dead and the two sides worked it out.

Cops Have Nothing On California Black Friday Shopper

It should be no surprise after so many television viewings, and online parodies, of police pepper spraying Occupy protestors.

A woman used pepper spray to get to the head of several lines at a San Fernando Wal-Mart.

And as one person commented on YouTube it should be even less a surprise that cities that had banned tents being set up by Occupiers allowed plenty of them in front of big box so they could be first into stores for Black Friday. And why the big deal. Fox News says pepper spray is  just food.

The Los Angeles Times said 20 people were injured. The woman, who has not been identified, fled before authorities arrived late Thursday.

"People started screaming, pulling and pushing each other, and then the whole area filled up with pepper spray," said Alejandra Seminario said. With X Boxes and other game consoles one of the main targets of shoppers next year there could be a Black Friday game.

No serious injuries were reported, but victims said they were painful.

"She was competitive shopping," said Los Angeles Fire Capt. James Carson.

The injured, including children, were hurt in the 10:10 p.m. incident. Shoppers complained of minor skin and eye irritation and sore throats, he said.

Joseph Poulose, one of those hit with the spray at the DVD and video games display, said Target had allowed to many people in the building to keep it under control. "Every aisle was full."

Police said store surveillance photos will be available soon and likely will go right on the Internet. Plus if the woman used a credit card she could be caught even faster.

First on http://technorati.com/blogging/article/cops-have-nothing-on-california-black/

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Egyptian Democracy Activists Want Army Ruling Council Out

More than 100,000 Egyptians have been clashing with the Army in Cairo trying to force them to keep their promise to hand over power to civilians.

Following the collapse of the Tunisian dictatorship Egyptians launched their own revolution Jan. 25.

By Feb. 11, President Mubarak had been ousted and taken into custody. The military promised it would hold presidential elections within six months.

Now, nine months later it appears the military council intended to hold the voting late in 2012 or early in 2013.

At least 30 people have been killed in protests. More than 1,500 were wounded. The Obama administration has condemned the military’s violence.
Amnesty International reports that in some cases the army has been more brutal than Mubarak's regime.

The military has dismissed the civilian cabinet, and it was not known when it would be replaced.

On Tuesday, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, head of the council, said presidential elections would be held no later than June or July next year.
The announcement drew jeers from the masses in Tahir Square, the same location where demonstrators drove Mubarak from power. They told the army to leave because they are staying.

Tantawi said if the people want the army out of power sooner a referendum could be held, but it would have to show this is the will of the majority.
“The Armed Forces, represented by their Supreme Council, do not aspire to govern and put the supreme interest of the country above all considerations,” Tantawi said.

The speech came too late, said Abdulrahman al-Zaghimy, a leader of young dissidents who are calling for a second revolution.

Pictured: Field Marshal Tantawi

Read more: http://technorati.com/politics/article/egyptian-democracy-activists-want-army-ruling/#ixzz1eTipEJ2v