The North Carolina Legislature on Monday, July 2nd, 2012, overrode the state Governor's veto of legislation that rolls back a state law giving "death row" inmates an avenue to seek as reduced prison sentence because of racial bias.
The original law (the Racial Justice Act) directed North Carolina state judges to reduce a death sentence to life imprisonment if they found that the defendant's race was a significant factor in a death sentence or in the composition of a jury.
Many district attorneys and Republicans said the original law went too far. With the veto override, the scaled-back version now prevails.
[www.nytimes.com/2012/07/03/US/north-carolina-bias-law-scaled-back.html; The Associated Press (AP), July 2, 2012, "North Carolina: Bias Law Scaled Back"]
In addition, this same North Carolina Legislature overrode the Governor's veto of another blatantly discriminatory bill. The bill, pushed by the Republican-dominated Legislature, is designed to strip Planned Parenthood of all state funding.
[takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/05/north-carolina-regresses-on-race-and-gender]
Friday, July 6, 2012
TOM CRUISE, SCIENTOLOGY, KATIE HOLMES, CATHOLICISM, and CULTS
What do you think?
Tom Cruise is the highest paid actor in the world.
Katie Holmes, his estranged wife, is a successful actress in her own right.
Katie has sued Tom for divorce after 5 years of marriage. The couple has one child, a daughter Suri, age 6.
Tom Cruise is a devout Scientologist.
Katie Holmes was raised a Catholic.
According to media reports, Cruise wants to familiarize the couple's daughter, Suri, with Scientology beliefs and principles; but Holmes, the Catholic, is uncomfortable with that plan, perhaps desiring to raise Suri in the Catholic faith.
It is my observation that both Cruise and Holmes are nice people who love their daughter Suri, and both seem to want the best for her.
Protagonists and antagonists on both sides of the couple's highly-publicized marriage, and now divorce action, have called each other's religious practices a "cult" from time to time.
Let's take a look at these 3 general belief systems:
CULTS
The word "cult" in current popular usage generically and usually refers to a relatively new religious movement or other group whose beliefs or practices are considered different, unusual, strange, abnormal, ritualistic, or even bizarre.
[Collins English Dictionary (10th Edition, 2009); Online Etymology Dictionary, Douglas Harper (2010); OED, citing American Journal of Sociology 85 (1980), p. 1377; Marybeth Ayella, "They Must Be Crazy: Some of the Difficulties in Researching 'Cults'", American Behavioral Scientist 33 (5): 562-577 (1990); T. Jeremy Gunn, "The Complexity of Religion and the Definition of 'Religion' In International Law", www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/hrj/iss16/gunn.shtml#fn33; Thomas Robbins, "Combating 'Cults' and 'Sects'," Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 40 (2): 169-176 (2002); Marion Goldman, "Review Essay: Cults, New Religions, and the Spiritual Landscape: A Review of Four Collections", Journal of the Scientific Study of Religion 45 (1): 87-96 (2006)]
SCIENTOLOGY
"Scientology" in current popular usage refers to a body of beliefs or practices created as a relatively new religious movement by L. Ron Hubbard (1911-1986), beginning in 1952 as a successor to his previous self-help system called "Dianetics". Hubbard incorporated his new body of beliefs or practices into the Church of Scientology in Camden, New Jersey in 1953.
Scientology espouses the belief, inter alia, that people are "immortal" beings who have forgotten their true nature. Its method of "spiritual rehabilitation" is a type of counselling known as auditing, in which practitioners of Scientology such as Cruise seek to consciously and ritualistically re-experience painful or traumatic events in their past in order to free themselves of their limiting effects, etc.
Scientology also espouses the belief that souls ("thetans") reincarnate and have lived on other planets before living on Earth, and that the practice of psychiatry is destructive and abusive and must be abolished, etc.
Practicing Scientology and rising to its highest levels can be expensive.
[Alan W. Black, "Is Scientology A Religion?" (January 24, 1996) Church of Scientology, www.newrelgion.de/ENG/Black/index.htm; Shamus Toomey, "'TomKat' Casts Spotlight Back on Scientology", (June 26, 2005), Chicago Sun-Times, web.archive.org/web/20050629002146/http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-scientology26.html; The Church of Scientology (Studios in Contemporary Religions, 1) by J. Gordon Melton Publisher (September 2000), ISBN 978-1-56085-139-4; "What is Scientology?", published 1998, Bridge Publications, ISBN 978-1-57318-122-8, http://www.whatisscientology.org; L. Ron Hubbard, "Why Doctor of Divinity?", Professional Auditor's Bulletin, No. 32 (August 7, 1954); "Scientology.org-Introduction to Scientology", www.scientology.org/enUS/religion/index.html, Church of Scientology]
CATHOLICISM
"Catholicism" in current popular usage refers to the "Catholic Church", also known as the 'Roman Catholic Church". It is one of the world's oldest institutions, as well as the world's largest Christian church with more than one billion members worldwide.
The world-wide headquarters for the Catholic Church, and "Catholicism", is oddly the landlocked sovereign city-state of the "Vatican", whose territory consists of 110 acres with a population of just over 800 within a walled and highly-guarded enclave in the Italian city of Rome. The "Vatican" is the smallest independent state in the world in both area and population.
Catholic hierarchy is led by the Pope and includes cardinals, patriarchs and diocesan bishops. The church teaches that it is the one true Church founded by Jesus Christ, that its bishops are the successors of Christ's apostles and that the Pope is the sole successor to Saint Peter. The central governing body of the church is known as the "Holy See", referring to the jurisdiction of the Pope as the Bishop of Rome.
Catholic doctrine maintains that the Church (ie, the Pope) is infallible when it dogmatically teaches a doctrine of faith or morals.
The Church holds the Blessed Virgin Mary as mother of Jesus Christ in special regard. The church has defined four specific Marian dogmatic teachings, namely her Immaculate Conception without original sin, her status as the Mother of God, her perpetual virginity and her bodily Assumption into Heaven at the end of her earthly life. Numerous Marian "devotions" are also practiced, inter alia.
[Catechism of the Catholic Church, para. 77 and 890; Declaration on the Unicity and Salvific Universality of Jesus Christ and the Church "Dominus Jesus", para. 17; Zenit News Agency, April 27, 2010, www.zenit.org/rssenglish-29058; "The Roman Catholic Chruch, and Illustrated History", by Norman (2007); Geography of Religion, by Hitchcock (2004); "General Essay on Western Christianity", Overview of World Religions, Division of Religion and Philosophy, University of Cumbria, ELMAR Project (1998), www.philtar.ac.uk/encyclopedia/christ/west/westessay.html]
Thursday, July 5, 2012
"LIVING WILLS" FOR BIG BANKS!
Traditionally, the American public is accustomed to the following definition of a "living will": a legal document that sets out the medical care an individual, or the principal, wants or does not want in the event that he or she becomes incapable of communicating his or her wishes.
[www.investopedia.com/terms/livingwill.asp]
Now, however, in an effort to end the era of "too big to fail", the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, on Tuesday, July 3rd, 2012, released new so-called "living wills" guidelines for megabanks which seek to deal with the issue of "unwinding" 9 of the largest banks doing business in the United States.
On Monday, July 2nd, 2012, these nine big banks were required to give regulators copes of their living wills, which these regulators will use to guide themselves on how to resolve a failing but systematically important bank (that is, a "megabank"). Summaries of these living wills were released on Tuesday, July 3rd, 2012.
The purpose of these living wills is to detail exactly how the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) would halt (stop) business operations and sell-off parts of the bank should the bank spiral downwards the way Lohman Borthers and Bear Stearns did in 2008.
The bank generally state in their resolution that -- in the unlikely situation they don't have enough capital in subsidiaries to cover claims -- money could be raised "by divesting in any of our lines of business," as the summary for JPMorgan Chase stated.
The nine banks that were first to turn in their wills have more than $250 billion in assets. U.S. banks in the group are Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500), Citigroup (C, Fortune 500), Goldman Sachs (GS, Fortune 500), JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500) and Morgan Stanley (MS, Fortune 500). International banks that also had to submit living wills are Barclays (BCS), Credit Suisse (CS), Deutsche Bank (DB) and UBS (UBS).
By December 2013, some 125 banks will have given regulators living wills, according to an FDIC official.
[money.cnn.com/2012/07/03/news/economy/bank-living-wills/index.htm]
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
DRUG FRAUD UPDATE: GlaxoSmithKline Forced To Pay $3 Billion In Drug Fraud Settlement
British-based GlaxoSmithKline PLC, one of the world's largest drug companies, has agreed to plead guilty to 3 criminal misdemeanor charges of drug fraud and to pay $3 billion as part of an effort to settle a wide range of fraudulent drug marketing cases.
It is the largest settlement of its kind, and it is one of a series of expensive settlements and agreements to resolve the company's many criminal and civil investigations.
The three criminal please relate to the giant drug maker's promotion of two popular drugs for unapproved uses, and the company's failure to report important safety information about a diabetes drug to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The criminal pleas in this massive settlement involve the following GlaxoSmithKline drugs: Paxil, Wellbutrin, and Avandia.
Prosecutors say GlaxoSmithKline encouraged use of Paxil for children although it was not approved for anyone under 18. The company also promoted Wellbutrin for uses besides major depressive disorder, its only approved use. And they say that between 2001 and 2007 it failed to report on two studies of the cardiovascular safety of Avandia, a diabetes drug.
When the company announced the payments in 2011, it said they would cover not only the Avandia case, but also a Justice Department investigation of its Medicaid pricing practices and a nationwide investigation led by the United States attorneys in Colorado and Massachusetts into the sales and marketing of nine of its drugs from 1997 to 2004.
Of the penalties, $1 billion covers criminal fines and forfeitures and $2 billion is for civil settlements with the federal and state governments.
In a separate case in 2010, GlaxoSmithKline agreed to pay $750 million, including a $150 million criminal penalty, to resolve federal complaints about manufacturing quality at a plant in Cidra, P.R., since closed.
Company Information
GlaxoSmithKline plc (GSK) is global healthcare group, which is engaged in the creation and discovery, development, manufacture and marketing of pharmaceutical products, including vaccines, over-the-counter (OTC) medicines and health-related consumer products.
[http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/glaxosmithkline/07/03/2012; The New York Times, Tuesday, July 3, 2012, "Business Day"]
BARCLAYS BANK FRAUD: The Fallout Continues
Yesterday (Monday, July 2nd, 2012) we reported that the London based Barclays Bank had been slapped with trans-Atlantic fines of $453 million for bank fraud: i.e., price-fixing of interbank borrowing rates between 2005 and 2009 in London. As a direct result of the banking scandal, Barclays' chairman of the board, Marcus Agius, resigned immediately.
Today, (Tuesday, July 3rd, 2012), one day later and as demanded, Barclays' chief executive officer Bob Diamond quit his job as well. A technical description of the price-fixing bank fraud that Barclays Bank was caught engaging in is as follows:
Barclays and other international banks currently under investigation by U.S. and United Kingdom bank regulators conspired to "rig Libor and Euribor", the interest rates at which banks lend money toe ach other and which undergirds trillions of pounds (and dollars) worth of financial transactions.
[marketday.msnbc.msn.com/news/2012/07/03/barclays-chief-executiveBobDiamond...; Thomson Reuters, 07/03/2012]
Monday, July 2, 2012
BARCLAY'S: ANOTHER BANK SCANDAL
"Barclay's chairman, Marcus Agius, steps down after price-fixing bank rates scandal."
Agius, the bank's chairman of the board, announced his resignation today (Monday, July 2nd, 2012) after accepting and announcing his responsibility for a price-fixing scandal that saw the London-based bank slapped with trans-Atlantic fines of $453 million.
Agius was paid 751,000 pounds ($1.18 million) by Barclay's bank in 2011.
U.S. and British agencies imposed the fines on Barclays for submitting false data on interbank borrowing rates between 2005 and 2009. The bank's executives have been under fire since then and the calls are growing for chief executive Bob Diamond to quit, too.
Several other major banks including Citigroup, Royal Bank of Scotland, and HSBC are also being investigated for possible manipulation of London interbank offering rate.
[bing.com/news, 07/02/2012/Barclay's Bank News; Associated Press (AP), 07/02/2012, 'Barclay's chairman steps down after rates scandal"; www.omaha.com/article/20120702/AP(London)]
NEW LAWS EFFECTIVE JULY 1st, 2012: THE QUIRKY, STRANGE, AND UNUSUAL!
It's that time of the year again: July 1st... the first day of the second half of the year. The date a whole new group of laws go into effect... just like January 1st of every year.
Many of these new laws, as customary, can be considered by some to be quirky, strange, and weird.
[For some historical legal background, see the book: UNDERSTANDING THE LAW: A PRIMER, by Attorney Charles Jerome Ware, iUniverse Publishers (2008), New York]
OR, maybe these new laws are NOT so quirky, or strange, or unusual:
1. "Feral" Hogs in Kentucky can no longer be released into the wild. A "feral" hog is a hog or pig that was once domesticated but is now considered wild.
2. "Shackling" of incarcerated women in Florida is now unlawful during their pregnancies and immediately after their giving birth.
3. The Illinois "Vomit" Fee is now in effect. Taxi drivers can now charge passengers an extra $50 cleanup fee for vomiting in cabs.
4. "Made in America" becomes more important in Kentucky. It is now the law in Kentucky that "Prisoner of War" and "Missing in Action" flags purchased by or displayed by public institutions must be made in the United States.
5. "More veggies for school children in Punxatawney, Pennsylvania". School guidelines in this groundhog school district now require an increase from 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup the "minimum" serving of vegetables for students in kindergarten through 8th grade.
6. "Truth in Chili Peppers Advertising in New Mexico". Grocery stores, restaurants and other vendors are prohibited from claiming that their fresh chili peppers are New Mexico chilies unless they were grown in the state.
7. What do you think of this one?
"Did you get the fax? You are under arrest!" In the great state of Idaho, law enforcement officers can now issue arrest warrants by FAX!
8. "Where's your gun?" In Virginia, a concealed handgun permit is now considered a valid form of identification.
9. "Privacy is golden" in Florida. A law prohibits people from videotaping a person without his or her knowledge in a residential dwelling.
10. "Look at me! Look at me!" In Virginia, a local ordinance requires electronic messages on outdoor advertising to remain in place for at least eight seconds to avoid driver distractions.
[war1057.wordpress.com/2012/07/02/new-laws-as-of-july-1st-2012; www.extremeskins.com/showthread.php/CNN-July-1-brings-new-sometimes... 7/2/2012]
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