Parents Move Teen's 36-Year-Boyfriend Into Home

What's a poor Mum and Dad to do?

A couple from Kent, England, Sheila and Paul Garcia, had a problem. Their daughter was unhappy, so Mum and Dad did what they could to cheer the 16-year-old Alison up.

Alison and her Mum, Sheila

Ailson was sad over the fact that her parents didn't quite approve of her newest boyfriend of 4 months, Craig.

"I hate the thought of her sleeping with any man, because I think she is too young to understand the implications of a sexual relationship," she says.

"But I know she is 16 and I can't stop her. If I don't take the softer approach I fear she will take off with Craig and cut ties with us.

"If I forbid it or attempt to ban her from seeing him, I risk losing my precious child.

"Paul has managed to accept the situation far better than I have, because he believes we should let her make her own mistakes."

Even though Alison's Mum believed her 16 year-old daughter "too young to understand the implications of a sexual relationship", when Alison asked her parents if her boyfriend could move in so the couple could save up for flat, Alison's Dad figured the best way to handle the problem was to move Alison's boyfriend, 36-year-old Craig Wright, lock, stock and barrel into their home and daughter's bedroom.

Wright, a divorced double glazing fitter with one child now resides in the Garcia home as Alison's live-in bedroom lover.

Alison believes she knows best.

"I'm not stupid," she says stubbornly. "I know to the outside world such a huge age difference must seem weird and unnatural.

"My mum keeps saying it's a ridiculous phase and I'll grow out of it, but I won't.

"My dad is much more laid-back. He takes the view that it's my life and I have to do what I want.

"After all, I'm 16 and can make up my own mind. He recognises that I'm not a child any more, but my mum doesn't."

Alison likes the fact that Criag isn't "immature" like the boys her age.

"He's the fourth guy I've been with, but the others were all inexperienced teenagers - boys I'd been going out with for a few months.

"It was very different with Craig. He knew exactly what he was doing. He told me how beautiful I was and made me feel really special and cared for."

They met in a pub even though Alison is/was underage and dated for a few weeks when Alison and Craig decided to get a flat but the 16-year-old had a better idea: why not move in with my Mum and Dad and save up.

Sheila said she was horrified, but her husband, Alison's Dad, was okay with the idea of his daughter's older boyfriend moving in because the couple wouldn't have been able to "afford a decent flat".

Sheila made an astute observation about Craig which we doubt she's spent much time mulling over:

"What I can't understand is what a man of Craig's age sees in a girl who is so young. She can't possibly fulfil his emotional needs."

It's as if Sheila has removed herself from the situation with her decision to blame it on "society and not on her own parenting skills:

"Girls no longer get a childhood past about the age of ten when they are asked to make choices on what lipstick to wear or what jeans to buy.

"It's a sad state of affairs, and one from which I fear there is no way back.

"It seems we have raised a generation of children who believe they can do whatever the hell they like, without worrying about the consequences."

As for Craig, he's been set up as a peripheral character in this vignette. The scene revolves around Alison and her parents, of whom is responsible for this situation, the "too-liberal" Mum and Dad or the spoiled teen-aged Alison. But what about a 36-year-old man who feels it's okay to bum off his teenager girlfriend's parents and sleep with their daughter under their roof?

Alison has decided Craig's "the one."

"That will inevitably happen, because I do want to marry Craig and have kids, and he isn't getting any younger."

We not sure whether we should laugh or cry, "not getting any younger." We imagine once the "bloom is off the rose" in this relationship, Craig will begin to look older and older to Alison while she will have aged prematurely, stuck with babies while she's still one herself.


By LBG
Image - Wimpy Parents
Source - The Mail

Waterboarding: Company Used It to "Motivate" Employees

Claims Former Employee in Lawsuit

Prosper, Inc.

About Prosper, Inc.

Prosper, Inc. provides executive-level coaching for individuals. Our mission is to provide our students with the education and hands-on experiences they need to achieve their personal and professional goals. We strive to make the road to personal achievement meaningful, rewarding, and enjoyable.

By understanding our business and by becoming sensitive to our world, we position ourselves to help others become leaders in an ever-changing marketplace. Our products and services are based on proven principles that, when applied, produce positive results in the lives of individuals and families. Source - Prosper, Inc.

So how does a company that "provides executive-level coaching for individuals" motivate its own employees?

A supervisor at a motivational coaching business in Provo is accused of waterboarding an employee in front of his sales team to demonstrate that they should work as hard on sales as the employee had worked to breathe.

In a lawsuit filed last month, former Prosper, Inc. salesman Chad Hudgens alleges his managers also allowed the supervisor to draw mustaches on employees' faces, take away their chairs and beat on their desks with a wooden paddle "because it resulted in increased revenues for the company." Source - Salt Lake Tribune

"[Prosper] allowed the supervisor to draw mustaches on employees' faces, take away their chairs and beat on their desks with a wooden paddle because it resulted in increased revenues for the company." --Chad Hudgens, former Prosper employee

Former Prosper, Inc. salesman Chad Hudgens has filed a lawsuit accusing Joshua Christopherson and Prosper, Inc. of assault and battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress and wrongful termination.

Hudgens claims he volunteered for a "motivational exercise" with his team leader, Joshua Christopherson. Hudgens also claims he volunteered in order to prove his "loyalty and determination" to Prosper, Inc..

Hudgens alleges Christopherson took the sales team outside the office to the top of hill. This is where the story gets bizarre, Hudgens alleges Christopherson told the rest of the sales team to hold Hudgens' arms and legs. Christopherson then took a plastic jug full of water and began pouring it over Hudgens' nostrils and mouth while extolling team members that "he wanted them to work as hard on making sales as Chad had worked to breath".

In his suit Hudgens says he required psychological counseling for emotional trauma.





According to How Stuff Works, waterboarding is known as a controversial form of interrogation that has been used for centuries.

Water boarding has been around for centuries. It was a common interrogation technique during the Italian Inquisition of the 1500s and was used perhaps most famously in Cambodian prisons during the reign of the Khmer Rouge regime during the 1970s (see David Corn: This Is What Waterboarding Looks Like for pictures of a Khmer Rouge water board now in a Cambodian museum). As late as November 2005, water boarding was on the CIA's list of approved "enhanced interrogation techniques" intended for use against high-value terror suspects. In a nutshell, water boarding makes a person feel like he is drowning.

Socrates, you dummies!

Prosper Inc., President Dave Ellis came up with an alternate view of that day's events, that no, it wasn't waterboarding, it was a "dramatization" of a Socrates story, how a young man asked Socrates to become his teacher. Socrates responded by "plunging the student's head underwater and telling him he will learn once his desire for knowledge is as great as his desire to breathe."

The company president claims that what happened to Hudgens was a form of "Socratic thinking" and not good old fashioned waterboarding.

In the end it will be up to a judge or jury to make that determination.

By LGB

Image - Waterboarding
Image - Socrates



Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

Aussies "Grow Trees" into Furniture, Art

Pixelaneous #30
Click on images to enlarge them.


It's called the art of Pooktre, growing and shaping trees into art and furniture. It's the invention of Australian, Peter Cook.

In 1987, he had been at one of his favorite places were three large fig trees nestled under the cliff face. As he was walking home from the cliffs behind the cabin the idea came to him, “I wonder if I can grow a chair”. Telling his partner at the time about his idea, she hated the concept.
The more he thought about it the more logical it seemed. Not deterred he started the very next day. He took 7 cuttings from a willow and planted them in a U shape in the area where he directed the waste water from the cabin. Source - Pooktre

Nine years later Peter joined up with Becky Northey. Located near Brisbane, Peter and Becky tend their garden, Pooktre Tree Shapers.

Future Bed

Pixelaneous #29: Top 10 Fantastic Art Pictures

By LGB
Source - Newsday
Source - Pooktre



Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

Hillary Clinton Video: New Direction for Her Campaign?

Not Suitable for Work



It could happen.

by Mondoreb
source: FarkTV



Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

Can a Good Muslim Be a Good American?

Question Keeps Re-surfacing

Seen in NYC

Can a good Muslim be a good American?

This is obviously a loaded question.

Of course, there are many American Muslims who are Americans first and Muslims only peripherally or in name only.

The question resurfaces in emails that continually circulate on the web: a never-ending eternal forwarding of information in which some emails seem stuck.

One arrived here via email today.

An attempted rebuttal of the email's points by one Dean Esmay, was found at Dean's World. It comes from a 2006 post.

We decided to tag a few of his comments--minus the most of the disdain and insults-- onto the original email writer's points. Also tagged were a few comments and observations from this writer.

It all makes for an interesting discussion: the cold simple points of the email vs. the enlightened interpretations of Dean vs. the occasional two-cents-worth of DBKP.

We're hoping to spark a few comments at the end of this post.

Can Good Muslims be Good Americans?

Let's take a look at the email and responses.

"This question was forwarded to a friend who worked in Saudi Arabia for 20 years.

The following is his reply:"

* Theologically - no. .. . . Because his allegiance is to Allah, The moon God of Arabia.

DEAN: The moon God? Are you kidding me? The word "Allah" means "God." In Arab-speaking lands, Jews and Christians and Muslims all refer to God as "Allah." Because that's what the word means: God.

Muslims believe they worship the same exact God as the Jewish and Christian God. They worship the God of Abraham. They consider the Bible flawed but still a holy book.

Comment: Allah was indeed originally the Moon God of one of an Arabic tribe. It would help Dean's arguments--in this point and elsewhere--if he presented a bit more balanced historical info and less incredulity that someone would pose the questions.

From Wikipedia: "Allah is the Arabic word for "God". While the term is today best known in the West for its use by Muslims as a reference to God, it is used by Arabic speakers of all Abrahamic faiths, including Christians and Jews in reference to "God".

Was Allah the Moon God of Ancient Arab Pagans, by Syed Kamran Mizra: "Pre-Islamic Pagan peoples worshipped Allah as their supreme deity (moon-god). Allah’s name existed in pre-Islamic Arab. In ancient Arab the Allah was considered to be the supreme God/deity (as Moon-God) and Arab Pagans worshipped Allah before Islam arrived."

* Religiously - no. . . . Because no other religion is accepted by His Allah except Islam (Quran, 2:256) (Koran).

DEAN: Gee. The translation I use says this:

[2.256] There is no compulsion in religion; truly the right way has become clearly distinct from error; therefore, whoever disbelieves in the Shaitan and believes in Allah he indeed has laid hold on the firmest handle, which shall not break off, and Allah is Hearing, Knowing.

All this says to me is that religion is voluntary, not compulsory (the Koran says that in more than one place) but if you believe in God and reject Satan then God will know and you'll be in good shape.

Jeez, someone should wipe the drool off of this great scholar's chin, put him in a playpen, and give him some blocks to play with.

Comment: Dean would make an enlightened teacher of Islam.

He would also make a dead teacher of Islam in many countries.

The problems are not caused by the Deans of this world interpreting the Koran for Muslims. Problems arise when less enlightened thinkers do the interpreting.

And that is the vast majority in the Islamic World today. If more enlightened thinkers would step forward to champion their views, then it would be a different story. Fear is a big reason almost no one does.

* Scripturally - no. . . . Because his allegiance is to the five Pillars of Islam and the Quran.

DEAN: First off, not all Muslims follow the "five pillars." Most Sunni do, most Shia do not. But either way, there's nothing particularly sinister about those pillars...

Those who believe in these five pillars say that if you meet them that makes you a Muslim regardless of just about anything else.

Comment: This last comment causes some confusion about Muslims who call for the death of those who leave Islam and convert to Christianity and Judaism.

* Geographically - no. . . . Because his allegiance is to Mecca , to which he turns in prayer five times a day.

DEAN: This is like saying Jews can't be good Americans because their allegiance is to Israel, or Catholics can't be good Americans because their allegiance is to the Vatican in Rome. Tripe, in other words.

Comment: Tripe seems to be the word Dean uses for a fact which he can't refute. Catholics don't daily turn toward Rome five times a day, nor do Jews turn toward Israel in the same way.



* Socially - no. . . . Because his allegiance to Islam forbids him to make friends with Christians or Jews.

DEAN: Here we have not one, but two lies rolled together!

The Koran in parts says don't be friends with treacherous unbelievers, but then in other parts says God may give you friends among the unbelievers. Most Muslims I know interpret that to mean you shouldn't be friends with treacherous or deceitful unbelievers, but if unbelievers treat you honorably then you can be friends with them.

Furthermore, the word "infidel" is a Christian term. It was invented centuries ago by Christians to describe Muslims, Jews, idol-worshippers, and other non-Christians. Indeed, here's a lengthy quote from the King James Bible:

4 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?

15 And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? (emphasis mine.)

16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.

That would be 2 Corinthians:14-17. (See also 1 Timothy 5:8 in the King James).

Gee, that's a pretty good rebuttal to this entire claim, isn't it? Because doesn't that say that Christians shouldn't be friends with unbelievers? Yes, if you take it literally that's exactly what it says. Indeed, it says people who aren't Christians are unclean and shouldn't even be touched, if you read it too literally.

The thing is, very few Christians believe such a thing. Because those verses need to be read in their proper historical context, and in the context of the rest of the Bible. Which is exactly how you have to take anything that's in the Koran: in proper historical context, and in the context of the full book and not just one or two verses. Duh!

Comment: Dean has a leg to stand on here in his argument.

There were over 4.1 million references to "infidel". After looking through the first 200 or so references, except for the etymological origin of the word (from the Latin for "unfaithful"), all referred to Muslims calling members of other faiths "infidel".
I scoured the Internet for a picture or mention of a Christian calling someone an "infidel".

There were none found.

The word, "infidel" may have originated from Latin, but Muslims have, over the centuries, made it their own.

As far as historical context, "infidel" is a word being used every day in the Muslim world and broadcast in Muslim media.


* Politically - no. . . . Because he must submit to the mullahs (spiritual leaders), who teach annihilation of Israel and destruction of America, the great Satan.

DEAN: "Mullah" is not even found in the Koran, and most Muslims don't use that word. But it's not a bad word: it's a Persian term, used mostly in Iran, and it means "religious scholar" or "teacher." In other words, it's virtually identical to the word "rabbi," which is a Hebrew and Aramaic word that basically means: mullah!

There is only one country in the world--Iran--where by law Muslims are forced to obey mullahs, because a vicious group of renegades, led by the Ayatollah Khomeini, seized power in 1979. That is the only country in the world like that.

There are over one Billion muslims in the world. There are only about 68 million muslims in Iran. And by all accounts, most people in Iran hate the mullah regime and wish it would go away.

* Domestically - no. . . . Because he is instructed to marry four women and beat and scourge his wife when she disobeys him (Quran 4:34).

DEAN: The fourth book of the Koran, known as "The Women," says that a man may marry as many as four women, but only if he can do justice to all of them. And if he has any doubts about that, he should marry only one woman (Koran 4:3). Historically, this practice is usually only when a man is very rich, or, when a widow who has children at home needs a new husband and no single man is able or willing to marry her. In primitive, poverty-ridden societies, women and children with no man to provide for them are usually in serious trouble.

As for wife-beating: The Muslim site "Answering Christianity" has a very detailed rebuttal to Christians who claim the Koran endorses wife-beating, citing chapter and verse in the Koran and other Muslim sources. The short answer is that there is one controversial verse, which has multiple interpretations, which MIGHT make it okay to do this in extreme circumstances--MAYBE.

Compare to the bible: If you look through the Bible you'll find that many biblical figures had multiple wives, including Abraham, Jacob (also known as Israel), Judah, David, and Solomon. You'll also find parts of the Bible which say people should be stoned to death for blasphemy or adultery. Most Christians and Jews today don't take such instructions literally, and neither do most Muslims today.

Comment: Dean is obviously on his shakiest ground in this reply. See the video sermon of August 2007, DBKP's "Weekly Multicultural Lesson: How to Beat Your Wife", for a graphic rebuttal of Dean's point.

* Intellectually - no. . . . Because he cannot accept the American Constitution since it is based on Biblical principles, and he believes the Bible to be corrupt.

* Philosophically - no. . . . Because Islam, Muhammad, and the Quran do not allow freedom of religion and expression. Democracy and Islam cannot co-exist. Every Muslim government is either dictatorial or autocratic.

* Spiritually - no. . . . Because when we declare "one nation under God," the Christian's God is loving and kind, while Allah is NEVER referred to as Heavenly father, nor is he ever called love in The Quran's 99 excellent names.

Dean has answers for these last three questions also. If desired, readers can read the rest of Dean's rebuttal at "Fisking the Islamophobes".

Dean's view follows the lines of the Rodney King school of multicultural thought: "Can't we all just get along?"

That is: "This is all just a big misunderstanding."

There are those the world over who have risked their lives to put the lie to that statement. In Europe and the U.K. this daily debate rages about not only the effects of an unassimilated mass of mostly Muslim immigrants, but also the European elitist political weenies with their multicultural apologist cant.

However, that's Europe and the U.K.

We're talking America here, and the question remains. It's doubtful it's the last time this question is raised in the coming months.

Regardless of those like Dean who offer their sneering assurances, it's a valid question.

The hopeful among us might do well to remain hopeful--but gather information and defer any final answers to a later date.

Can a Good Muslim be a Good American?"

What do you think?

UPDATES February 28, 2007 * We just discovered that an earlier DBKP post, "Obama: Sounds of Muslim Prayer "Sweetest Sounds on Earth"" got tagged onto the end of an excellent and lengthy post at Atlas Shrugs, "Obama and Islam: The Third Rail in American Politics". There is a ton of meaty info in this post--information that readers likely won't be able to find in the MSM.

by Mondoreb
images:
* libertypost
* fahad
Sources:
* email- Scott & Vicki
* Fisking the Islamophobes
* Was Allah the Moon God of Ancient Pagan Arabs?
* How to Beat Your Wife



Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

Six-Year-Old Kid Kicked Out of School Over Mohawk

Arbitary Rules is Rules, Man

"Juvenile Delinquent" Bryan Ruda

Yesterday DBKP wrote about Bryan Ruda getting his very first suspension from school... from kindergarten at the ripe old age of six.

Fascist Nation over at Freedom's Phoenix sent us this link to the Columbus Dispatch.

According to the Dispatch, the Cleveland Charter school that Bryan attended had no choice. Byran broke thier "Three Infractions Rule and you're out" as this was the third time that rebel 6-year-old Bryan had come to school wearing the so-called "disruptive" mohawk hairstyle.

Principal Linda Geyer said she felt the school had been "extremely patient" with Brian but when he showed up at kindergarten class for the third time with a new mohawk haircut, the school had no choice but to suspend the six-year-old.

Administrators at Bryan's school immediately contacted his Mom, Michele Barile, to come and get the boy as the school claimed his hairstyle was "extremely disruptive."

Bryan's mother was upset over the school's decision to suspend her son.

"I understand they have a dress code. I understand he has a uniform. But this is total discrimination," she told The Plain Dealer. "They can't tell me how I can cut his hair."

In yesterday's story we chided Ms. Barile and told her she was the one who needed to "grow up" as the school already had a dress code in place.

Today we have a different take on the story. While the school has a right to enforce its dress code, Columbus Dispatch reported that the decision was also an arbitrary one based on the school's criteria of what constitutes "proper grooming."

Mohawks violate the school's policy on being properly groomed, school Principal Linda Geyer said. Also, the school district's dress code allows school officials to forbid anything that interferes with the conduct of education.

The Charter school, based in a Cleveland suburb, obviously had to take a hard line with six-year-old Bryan because, according to the school's officials, if one kid with a mohawk can disrupt the class then imagine what would happen if, say, another kid, followed suit? Planet Earth would fall of its axis and fly willy-nilly through the universe.

The school felt it had no choice to suspend the six-year-old child, in essence, stigmatize and traumatize the child and teach him that if you break our arbitrary rules, you're outta here kid!

What school "lesson" did six-year-old Brian learn?

We'll let you be the judge.

By LBG

Image -Columbus Dispatch



Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

DBKP Today in Weird History: February 28, 2008

WAR, TERRORISM, DISASTER, GOLD, PROGRESS, POLITICS, MAFIA, SCIENCE, ASSASSINATION, POLICE STATE, ATHEISTS, ECONOMY, NANNY STATE, SHOOT OUTS, SLEEPING, WITCHES, EXODUS, PATENTS, SEALS, MAINSTREAM MEDIA, NAZIS, SMOOTH, POPULATION, KILLER WHALES, POGRAMS, DRUG WAR, SPIES, BORN, BIRTHDAYS, DEATH

POLICE STATE

1993 A gun battle erupted at a compound near Waco, Texas, when Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents tried to serve warrants on the Branch Davidians; four agents and six Davidians were killed as a 51-day standoff began.

1994 Brady Law, imposing a wait-period to buy a hand-gun, went into effect.

WAR!

1847 US defeats México in battle of Sacramento.

1917 AP reports México & Japan will ally with Germany if US enters WWI.

TERRORISM

1982 FALN (PR Nationalist Group) bombs Wall Street.

2007 A federal judge in Miami ruled that suspected al-Qaida operative Jose Padilla was competent to stand trial on terrorism support charges, rejecting arguments that he was severely damaged by 3 1/2 years of interrogation and isolation in a military brig.

DISASTER

1704 Indians attack Deerfield MA, kill 40, kidnap 100.

1844 A 12-inch gun aboard the USS Princeton exploded, killing Secretary of State Abel P. Upshur, Navy Secretary Thomas W. Gilmer and several others.

1888 Ferry in San Pablo Bay explodes.

1956 13 die in a train crash in Swampscott MA.

1975 More than 40 people were killed in London's Underground when a subway train smashed into the end of a tunnel.

1997 Earthquake in Pakistan, kills 45.

SLEEPING

1646 Roger Scott was tried in Massachusetts for sleeping in church.

EXODUS

1879 "Exodus of 1879" southern blacks flee political/economic exploitation.

SEALS

1913 6.8-m, 4000-kg elephant seal killed, South Georgia (South Atlantic).

SMOOTH

1935 Nylon discovered by Dr Wallace H Carothers.

POGROMS

1988 Anti-Armenian pogrom in Azerbaijan, 30 killed.

KILLER WHALES

1977 1st killer whale born in captivity (Marineland, Los Angeles CA).

MAINSTREAM MEDIA

1940 1st televised basketball game (college game at NYC's Madison Square Garden-University of Pittsburgh beats Fordham U, 50-37).

1983 Final TV episode of "MASH" airs (CBS); record 125 million watch.

1984 26th Grammy Awards Beat It, Michael Jackson wins 8.

1989 Memo by Bryant Gumbel criticizing Today Show co-workers becomes public.

POPULATION

1940 US population at 131,669,275 (12,865,518 blacks (9.8%)).

SPIES

1997 FBI agent Earl Pitts pleads guilty to selling secrets to Russia.

DRUG WAR

1990 Dutch police seize 3,000 kg of cocaine.

NAZIS

1933 German President Von Hindenburg abolishes free expression of opinion. Hitler disallows German communist party (KPD).

GOLD!

1849 The California gold rush began in earnest as regular steamship service started bringing gold-seekers to San Francisco.

WITCHES

1692 Salem witch hunt begins.

PROGRESS

1827 The first U.S. railroad chartered to carry passengers and freight, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Co., was incorporated by the state of Maryland. It ran from Baltimore to Wheeling, WV (then part of Virginia).

1970 Bicycles permitted to cross Golden Gate Bridge.

POLITICS

1854 Republican Party formally organized at Ripon WI.

1859 Arkansas legislature requires free blacks to choose exile or slavery.

1861 The Territories of Colorado and Nevada organized.

1961 JFK names Henry Kissinger special advisor.

MAFIA

1951 The Senate committee headed by Estes Kefauver, D-Tenn., issued an interim report saying at least two major crime syndicates were operating in the U.S.

PATENTS

1893 Edward Acheson, Pennsylvania, patents an abrasive he names "carborundum".

1956 Forrester issued a patent for computer core memory.

SHOOT-OUTS

1997 In North Hollywood, Calif., two heavily armed masked robbers bungled a bank heist and came out firing, unleashing their arsenal on police, bystanders, cars and TV choppers before they were killed.

NANNY STATE

1871 2nd Enforcement Act gives federal control of congressional elections.

1997 Smokers must prove they are over 18 to purchase cigarettes in US.

1998 In their weekly radio addresses, President Clinton and the Republicans sparred over education, with Clinton describing tests showing American high school students lagging behind those of other industrial nations as a "wake-up call" while the Republicans blamed the disappointing results on a "hungry bureaucracy in Washington" that gobbled up education funds.

2003 The Food and Drug Administration announced that every bottle of ephedra would soon bear stern warnings that the popular herb could cause heart attacks or strokes, even kill.

ATHEISTS

2003 The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals stood by its ruling that reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools was unconstitutional because of the words "under God."

REVOLT

1708 Slave revolt, Newton, Long Island NY, 11 die.

ECONOMY

1982 AT&T looses record $7 BILLION for fiscal year ending on this day.

2007 Wall Street rebounded fitfully from the previous session's 416-point plunge in the Dow industrials as investors took comfort from comments by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke that he still expected moderate economic growth.

SCIENCE

1953 Scientists James D. Watson and Francis H.C. Crick announced they had discovered the double-helix structure of DNA, the molecule that contains the human genes.

2003 NASA released video taken aboard Columbia that had miraculously survived the fiery destruction of the space shuttle with the loss of all seven astronauts; in the footage, four of the crew members can be seen doing routine chores and admiring the view outside the cockpit.

ASSASSINATION

1908 Failed assassination attempt on Shah Mohammed Ali in Teheran.

1986 Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme was shot to death in central Stockholm.

BORN

1824 Charles Blondin France, acrobat/aerialist.

1928 Smokey The Bear.

1943 Donny Iris, singer.

BIRTHDAYS

Actor Charles Durning is 85. Svetlana Alliluyeva, daughter of Josef Stalin, is 82. Actor Gavin MacLeod is 77. Actor Don Francks is 76. Actor-director-dancer Tommy Tune is 69. Auto racer Mario Andretti is 68. Singer Joe South is 68. Actor Frank Bonner is 66. Actress Kelly Bishop is 64. Football player Bubba Smith is 63. Actress Stephanie Beacham is 61. Actress Mercedes Ruehl is 60. Actress Bernadette Peters is 60. Comedian Gilbert Gottfried is 53. Basketball player Adrian Dantley is 52. Actor John Turturro is 51. Rock singer Cindy Wilson is 51. Actress Rae Dawn Chong is 47. Actor Robert Sean Leonard is 39. Rock singer Pat Monahan is 39. Actress Maxine Bahns is 37. Country singer Jason Aldean is 31. Actor Bobb'e J. Thompson is 12.

DEATH

1966 Charles A Bassett II astronaut, dies in a crash of T-38 jet at 34.

1966 Elliot McKay See Jr astronaut, dies in T-38 jet crash at 38.

1977 Eddie "Rochester" Anderson comedian (Jack Benny Show), dies at 71.

2007 Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. died in New York at age 89.

February 28, the 59th day of 2008. There are 307 days left in the year.

compiled by Mondoreb
image: crimtrials
Sources:
* Today in History
* Today in History



Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.