What the F*** Is Wrong With People?

Boehner Says Out Loud He Hopes Blacks and Latinos ‘Won’t Show Up’ This Election

House Speaker John Boehner is the most prominent Republican to admit, out loud, that his party’s strategy for winning in November doesn’t suppose that the GOP can win over some black and Latino voters, but hopes they won’t vote at all. Boehner wasn’t talking about voter I.D. laws, which are being pushed by Republicans and criticized as disenfranchising minority and poor voters, he did tell a luncheon hosted by the Christian Science Monitor in Tampa Monday that the Republican Party was counting on apathy from the Latinos and blacks who are choosing Democrats over Republicans by record margins in recent polls. As Talking Point Memo’s Benjy Sarlin reports, Boehner said:

“This election is about economics… These groups have been hit the hardest. They may not show up and vote for our candidate but I’d suggest to you they won’t show up and vote for the president either.”

Perhaps he meant those groups would vote third-party, but it doesn’t seem all that likely. Less prominent Republicans have made essentially the same case in other terms. Doug Priesse, chair of the Franklin County, Ohio, Republican Party, indicated restrictions on early voting hours and voter ID laws were meant to keep blacks from voting. In an email sent earlier this month to The Columbus Dispatch‘s Darrel Rowland, Priesse said

“I guess I really actually feel we shouldn’t contort the voting process to accommodate the urban — read African-American — voter-turnout machine… Let’s be fair and reasonable.”

Priesse is on the elections board and voted against keeping polls open in the weekends. In June, Pennsylvania House Republican leader Mike Turzai conceeded the point of voter ID is to help Republicans win when he said, “Voter ID, which is gonna allow Governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania, done.”

Tom Cruise divorce raises question: What is Scientology, anyway?

By Dan Gilgoff, CNN.com Religion Editor

(CNN) – News of Tom Cruise’s split with Katie Holmes and questions about any role that Cruise’s status as a Scientologist may be playing in the divorce have a lot of people wondering: What is Scientology, anyway?

In a series of tweets on Sunday, News Corp. boss Rupert Murdoch called the religion “a very weird cult” and said that Cruise is the “number two or three” man in the church’s hierarchy.

Here are the basics about the religion. What other questions do you have?

What is Scientology?

Scientology describes itself as a religion that was founded in the 1950s by L. Ron Hubbard.

At the core of Scientology is a belief that each human has a reactive mind that responds to life’s traumas, clouding the analytic mind and keeping us from experiencing reality. Members of the religion submit to a process called auditing to find the sources of this trauma, reliving those experiences in an attempt to neutralize them and reassert the primacy of the analytic mind, working toward a spiritual state called “clear.”

The process involves a device called E-meter, which Scientologists say measures the body’s electric flow as an auditor asks a series of questions they say reveals sources of trauma.

“Auditing uses processes – exact sets of questions asked or directions given by an auditor to help a person locate areas of spiritual distress, find out things about himself and improve his condition,” according to the Church of Scientology’s website.

The church goes on to to say, “Science is something one does, not something one believes in.”

Auditing purports to identify spiritual distress from a person’s current life and from past lives. Scientologists believe each person is an immortal being, a force that believers call a thetan. “You move up the bridge to freedom by working toward being an ‘Operating Thetan,’ which at the highest level transcends material law,” says David Bromley, a professor of religious studies at Virginia Commonwealth University. “You occasionally come across people in Scientology who say they can change the material world with their mind.”

Bromley and other scholars say the church promotes the idea of an ancient intergalactic civilization in which millions of beings were destroyed and became what are known as “body thetans,” which continue to latch onto humans and cause more trauma. Advanced Scientologists confront body thetans through more auditing.

Bromley says the church discloses that cosmic history only to more advanced Scientologists. The church’s media affairs department did not respond to requests for comment on Tuesday.

In a 2008 CNN interview, church spokesman Tommy Davis was asked whether the basic tenet of the Church of Scientology was to rid the body of space alien parasites. “Does that sound silly to you?” laughed Davis. “I mean, it’s unrecognizable to me. … People should really come to the church and find out for themselves what it is.”

Who was L. Ron Hubbard?

L. Ron Hubbard was the founder of Scientology. Born in Nebraska in 1911, Hubbard was the son of a U.S. Navy officer who circled the globe with his family, according to Scientology expert J. Gordon Melton, a fellow at Baylor University’s Institute for Studies in Religion who writes about Scientology on the religion website Patheos.

Hubbard attended the George Washington University in Washington, D.C., but left before graduating to launch a career as a fiction writer, gravitating toward science fiction.

After serving in World War II, Hubbard published a series of articles and then a book on a what he described as a new approach to mental health, which he called Dianetics. His book by the same name quickly became a best-seller.

The success provoked Hubbard to establish a foundation that began to train people in his auditing techniques. In 1954, the first Church of Scientology opened in Los Angeles, with other churches opening soon after. Hubbard died in 1986. The church is now led by David Miscavige.

Why is the church so controversial?

Many groups and individuals have challenged Scientology’s legitimacy as a religion.

Scientologists have faced opposition from the medical community over the religion’s claims about mental health, from the scientific community over its claims about its E-meters and from other religious groups about its status as a religion.

“It’s part therapy, part religion, part UFO group,” says Bromley. “It’s a mix of things that’s unlike any other religious group out there.”

For a long time, the Internal Revenue Service denied the Scientologists’ attempts to be declared a church with tax-exempt status. But the IRS granted them that status in 1993.

Many members say the church is largely about self-improvement. “What I believe in my own life is that it’s a search for how I can do things better, whether it’s being a better man or a better father or finding ways for myself to improve,” Tom Cruiserecently told Playboy magazine. “Individuals have to decide what is true and real for them.”

What does Scientology teach about psychiatry?

L. Ron Hubbard rejected psychiatry and psychiatric drugs because he said they interfered with the functioning of the rational mind. Scientologists continue to promote that idea.

The Church of Scientology’s website says that “the effects of medical and psychiatric drugs, whether painkillers, tranquilizers or ‘antidepressants,’ are as disastrous” as illicit drugs.

How many Scientologists are there?

That’s a matter of considerable dispute.

The Church of Scientology says it has 10,000 churches, missions and groups operating in 167 countries, with 4.4 million more people signing up every year.

Scholars say that, despite the global proliferation of church buildings, the membership numbers are much lower than the church claims, likely in the hundreds of thousands. Some of the church’s followers are celebrities.

What The F**K is Wrong With People?

‘Zombie Apocalypse Continues?’ Man Eats 40-Pound Pet Dog

A man who was high on synthetic marijuana reportedly ate his family dog alive. Just as the “zombie apocalypse” hysteria began to subside, another man in a psychotic meltdown makes national news.

Waco Police Department

Michael Daniel, a Texas man from Waco, was arrested for eating his family’s nearly 40-pound pooch, on Monday. He faces felony animal cruelty charges, according to police.

Daniel allegedly was “on his hands and knees and chased a neighbor while barking and growling like a dog,” according to KWTZ.

After his deranged behavior frightened his neighbors, he turned to his black dog that was sitting on the porch and beat and strangled the dog. When he had sufficiently injured the pup, Daniel began to eat him.

Waco Police Sgt. Patrick Swanton told KWTZ that he “began to bite into the dog, ripping pieces of his flesh away.”

By the time officers arrived at the scene Daniel had “blood and fur around his mouth,” Swanton explained to KXXV.

He allegedly pleaded with officers for them to use a stun gun on him so he could get off his “bad trip.”

Officer Swanson explained that the police did not fight or stun Daniel, but instead they took the blood-drenched man to the hospital, according to the Daily News.

The dog did not survive the brutal attack, KAIT reported.

Daniel explained to his neighbors that he was high on synthetic marijuana, sometimes called K-2, or Spice.

The psychoactive drug can actually be bought legally. It’s made up of natural herbs and then sprayed with chemicals. The drug gives the user a quick high, but it often triggers paranoia and anxiety.

In Daniel’s case, it made him psychotic enough to devour his dog.

What The F*** Is Wrong With People?

Violent Attack in Scott, Man Accused of Biting Off Chunk of Victim’s Face

http://www.katc.com/videoplayer/swf/flowplayer.commercial-3.2.5.swf

A violent attack in Scott is eerily similar to a case out of Florida connected to the dangerous drug known as bath salts.

The disturbing attack in Florida ended when police shot and killed the suspect after he would not stop biting and chewing at another man’s face.

Now, a similar case over the weekend in Lafayette Parish.

“During the attack, the suspect bit a chunk of the victim’s face off,” said Scott Assistant Police Chief, Kert Thomas.

Police say 43-year-old Carl Jacquneaux knew the victim, Todd Credeur, and was upset over a domestic issue. Credeur declined an on-camera interview, but told KATC he was working in his front yard when Jacquneaux showed up at his house and attacked him. Credeur said he was shocked when Jacquneaux bit him on the face.

That’s when Credeur said he sprayed wasp spray in Jacquneaux’s face to try and stop the attack. Police said he then left Credeur’s house and showed up at another acquaintance’s house in Carencro where he held him at knife point and stole a hand gun. It was there that deputies caught up with Jacquneaux and arrested him.

“Very unusual, it’s not something we see everyday,” said Thomas.

That unusual behavior could be due to drugs. Sheriff’s deputies said Jacquneaux was clearly under the influence of some kind of drug. A friend of the victim said she believes he was using bath salts, a drug police said can cause a state of excited delirium and dangerous behavior.

“Extremely dangerous, a lot more dangerous than some of the drugs on the street,” explained Thomas.

But police said we may never know if Jacquneaux was under the influence of bath salts, because no blood tests were performed before he was booked into jail.

Jacquneaux is charged with aggravated burglary, simple battery of the infirm, violation of probation, aggravated second degree battery and violation of protective orders. He remains in the Lafayette Parish Jail with a $312,500 bond.

Credeur was released from the hospital and is recovering at home.

What The F*** Is Wrong With People?

Pregnant Woman Who Was Kidnapped, Set on Fire and Shot Gives Birth

Antonio Mathis, left, and Jamal Rogers (Warren Police Department/AP Photo)

A pregnant woman who was kidnapped, set on fire and shot in the back in what police say was an horrific attempt to kill her unborn baby, gave birth to a boy today, hours before her ex-boyfriend and another man were charged in the attack.

Latonya Bowman, 22, was only eight months pregnant, but doctors performed an emergency Caesarean section this morning.

Jamal Rogers, the child’s father, and his roommate Antonio Mathis, both 22, were arraigned today on kidnapping, attempted murder and conspiracy charges and could face life in prison. Both requested court-appointed lawyers. They were denied bail.

Rogers allegedly began planning the attack in March, when he found out Bowman was pregnant with his third child. He enlisted Mathis, who did not even want money to participate, according to police.

The attack occurred early Saturday morning when Bowman was dropping her ex-boyfriend at his new girlfriend’s Warren, Mich., home after seeing a drive-in movie, the woman told police. After they pulled into the garage and got out of the car, the garage door closed unexpectedly, she said.

“She was grabbed by the throat and a gun was put to her head. She was ordered to the ground, duct taped, her feet, her hands and her mouth, ordered into the backseat of the car,” Warren Police Commissioner Jere Green said.

She was blindfolded before being put back into her car and driven to an alley in Detroit, Green said.

The man who kidnapped her indicated that it was because of her pregnancy.

“[The suspect] said, ‘You know why this is happening,’ and then he asked her about how far along she was,” Green said.

The woman told police she felt liquid being poured on her, heard a match strike and then was set on fire.

“She was able to get out of the car and start rolling on the ground, trying to put the fire out,” Green said. “And when that happened, two shots were fired and she was struck once in the back.”

After being shot, the woman played dead, and the man left, police said. She was able to free herself and drove to her mother’s house in Detroit. Her mother took her to the hospital.

Police took Rogers into custody on Saturday and named him a person of interest in the case. He had not called 911 when she was kidnapped, police said.

ABC News affiliate WXYZ contributed to this report.

NAACP Endorses Gay Marriage

Less than two weeks after President Barack Obama announced his public support forgay marriage, a prominent African-American civil rights organization is following suit.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s board of directors voted to endorse gay marriage on Saturday, according to a tweet from NAACP officerMaxim Thorne:

 

@Maximthorne 
Maxim Thorne

The NAACP Board of Directors has just endorsed marriage equality unequivocally. Only two opposed! An historic moment.

May 19, 2012 4:55 pm via web

 

Metro Weekly procured the full resolution from the 64-member unit, which is highlighted by an affirmation of the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause:

“The NAACP Constitution affirmatively states our objective to ensure the ‘political, education, social and economic equality’ of all people. Therefore, the NAACP has opposed and will continue to oppose any national, state, local policy or legislative initiative that seeks to codify discrimination or hatred into the law or to remove the Constitutional rights of LGBT citizens. We support marriage equality consistent with equal protection under the law provided under the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. Further, we strongly affirm the religious freedoms of all people as protected by the First Amendment.”

The NAACP decision comes at a time where diverse opinions on same-sex marriage are present within black churches. Following Obama’s announcement, Bishop Timothy Clarke of the First Church of God in Columbus, Ohio, summed up his congregation’s mixed feelings on the issue.

“No church or group is monolithic,” Clarke told USA Today. “Some were powerfully agitated and disappointed. Others were curious — why now? to what end? Others were hurt. And others, to be honest, told me it’s not an issue and they don’t have a problem with it.”

From the government end of the spectrum, dozens of politicians have paralleled Obama’s words since the May 9 announcement. GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney stands on the other side of the issue, telling KETV-TV on May 10 that “as a society, I think we’re better off if we encourage the establishment of homes with a mother and a father.”

UPDATE (5:15 p.m. ET): National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Executive Director Rea Carey released a statement acclaiming the NAACP’s decision as a “truly historic moment.” More from Carey:

“We are proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with the NAACP working together on the many issues that affect all of our lives. Whether it be fair access to education and jobs, an end to voter suppression and racial profiling, the right to love and be who we are free of discrimination — these issues affect all of us, our families and our country. Today the NAACP did what it does so well — inspires and affirms our common humanity.”

North Carolina Anti-Gay Marriage Amendment 1 Reportedly Written To Protect ‘Caucasian Race’

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The wife of a North Carolina state senator reportedly told poll workers during early voting Monday that an amendment sponsored by her husband was intended partially to protect the Caucasian race.

Jodie Brunstetter is the wife of state Sen. Peter Brunstetter (R), a supporter of Amendment 1, which would change North Carolina’s Constitution to permit only heterosexual marriage.

According to the alternative Yes! Weekly, writer and campaigner Chad Nance spoke to a pollworker who told him that Jodie Brunstetter said, “The reason my husband wrote Amendment 1 was because the Caucasian race is diminishing and we need to uh, reproduce.”

Nance has volunteered for a group working to defeat the marriage amendment and was until recently the campaign manager for a Democratic candidate for Congress. Nance resigned from the campaign to speak about Jodie Brunstetter’s alleged remarks, according to Yes! Weekly.

Nance also spoke to Jodie Brunstetter, who said that she had used the word “Caucasian” in discussing the amendment, but that her remarks were taken out of context.

“We are looking at the history of the United States and it is already law about what marriage is,” Brunstetter told Nance, according to Yes! Weekly. “Between a man and a woman.”

“I’m afraid they have made it a racial issue when it is not,” Brunstetter said of the poll workers. Pressed on whether she had used the word “Caucasian,” she said, “I probably said the word,” but that she hadn’t used it in a race-related manner.

The blog said Brunstetter’s campaign could not be immediately reached for comment.

Click here to read the full transcript of Nance’s video.