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You'll Shoot Your Penis Off

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Here's something to consider for those who think that arming more people is the route to take to put an end to gun violence; a security guard in the city of San Fernando in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago was hospitalized this week when the handgun that he was carrying accidentally discharged, and shot off his penis.

Police said around 8 am they received a call from a resident that a gunshot was heard coming from a parked car. The police responded and found a 33-year-old man slumped behind the steering wheel.

He was bleeding from his groin area and a .38 firearm with four rounds of ammunition was found in his right front pocket. The man, who said he lived in Lopinot, was taken to the San Fernando General Hospital where he remains warded under police guard.

It seems he didn't possess a license for his handgun or ammunition, and now faces charges of illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition. Perhaps shooting off his penis will be punishment enough?

Raw Story reports that men accidentally shooting themselves in the penis is not uncommon:

"The Digital Journal listed reports of accidental gunshot wounds to the penis and testicles in Arizona and Washington state, as well as an incident from September in Port Lucie, Florida in which a man cleaning a newly purchased gun at a party shot himself in the genitals."

So, lock and load at your own peril.



Jon Stewart on Our 'Remarkable' Inauguration Coverage

Crossposted from Video Cafe

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Jon Stewart took his viewers though some of the "highlights" of this week's Presidential inauguration, whether it was the media freaking out over whether or not Beyonce was lip syncing the national anthem, to Chuck Schumer overseeing the activities, to the media's reaction to President Obama's speech.

MSNBC was full of praise, Fox was doing their usual and broadcasting from some alternative universe where the likes of Peter Johnson, Sean Hannity, Stuart Varney and racist "Uncle Pat" Buchanan reside and then we had CNN, who had their anchors on fashion patrol.



Watch The Untouchables on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE.

In "The Untouchables," Frontline investigates why Wall Street's leaders have escaped prosecution for any fraud related to the sale of bad mortgages. Are Wall Street's big bankers untouchable?

Producer Martin Smith joined HuffPo Live on Tuesday to discuss his investigation into the lack of prosecution of Wall Street executives for any fraud related to the sale of bad mortgages:

Commenting on clips from the episode showing former home loan underwriters explaining how they would laugh as they pushed through mortgages that were too expensive for the borrowers, Smith said this type of behavior was "very frequent and common."

"There are lawsuits that name 35 -- easily 36, 37 -- of these kind of testimonies," Smith told HuffPost Live host Jacob Soboroff. "And these guys are joking about it at this point, but of course it's not really funny in the end because it all resulted in the collapse of 2008, a million people losing their houses, many people out of work and businesses seeing demand sink."

"It was like a party," one former loan underwriter tells Frontline's" Martin Smith. "We were getting through these loans as quick as we can. They were not being looked at like they should've been looked at."

A full transcript of the report is available here.



Morning Open Thread

virgil

Good morning, today is Wednesday, January 23, 2013. On this day in 1973, President Richard M. Nixon announced an accord had been reached to end the Vietnam War.

Your morning open thread begins below.



McCain Jokes About 'Waterboarding' John Kerry

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Video thanks to Scarce and Heather!

During a press conference Tuesday discussing Syria, Senator John McCain (R-AZ) said he spoke with Senator John Kerry (D-MA) this morning and looks forward to "interrogating" the nominee for Secretary of State at his confirmation hearing next week, joking that "we will bring back, for the only time, waterboarding to get the truth out."

McCain was joking, of course, (Recall this "hilarious" moment in 2007?) but I hope Senator Kerry takes some security along with him to the confirmation hearing.



The Debt Limit Explained

This short, animated video explains the United States debt limit.



Pundit: Planned Parenthood Like Hitler

On Liberty Counsel’s “Faith and Freedom” radio show Sunday, host Mat Staver honored the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade by likening federal funding for Planned Parenthood to “enriching Hitler.” Funding abortion, he said, is no different from funding a “Hitler kind of killing machine, or Pol Pot, or some of these other genocide tyrants.”

Staver's views fall in line with other extremists who have issues with women's rights to privately consult with a doctor to make their own health care choices without some nutjob executing their physician in the middle of a crowded Sunday church service, or being assaulted with "holy water" while entering their medical clinic.

Or this at another women's health center in Alabama recently:

"Pro-choice marchers recalled a particularly painful event last month when a woman whose baby had died en utero was coming to the clinic to have it removed. In an awful coincidence, that was the day, Watters said, when the pro-life demonstrators collected a children’s choir on the sidewalk to sing “Happy Birthday, Dead Baby” to anyone driving in."

Staver and other anti-women's rights extremists do nothing to further their views with such expressions or actions, as a new poll makes clear.

For the first time since the groundbreaking Roe v. Wade ruling in 1973, a majority of Americans want abortion to stay legal—and seven in 10 respondents oppose overturning the case. According to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released Tuesday, the intense rhetoric about abortion and rape by Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock and the debate over contraception have caused attitudes to shift toward abortion. Fifty-four percent of adults said abortion should be legal in all or most cases, and a combined 44 percent said it should be illegal with no exceptions. And 70 percent said Roe v. Wade should not be overturned—with 57 percent backing that sentiment strongly.



NYPD Allegedly Commit Hate Crime at Gay Pride Party

A Brooklyn man has filed papers to sue the city over an alleged hate crime committed by the NYPD. The Daily News reports that on Sunday night around 2:50 a.m., two officers came to Jabbar Campbell's Crown Heights apartment following a noise complaint. Campbell was hosting a gay pride party for about 80 people and some of the party-goers were dressed in drag. Those officers left after telling guests outside the apartment to keep it down, but about ten minutes later another group of officers arrived and rang the buzzer. Campbell saw an officer turn a security camera in his vestibule, and when he went downstairs, they were banging on his door with flashlights. "There was a sergeant, he yelled ‘get him!’ and that’s when I got attacked," Campbell told the Post. “They kept saying, ‘stop resisting’ but I wasn’t resisting. I didn’t have any time to respond.”

Campbell claims that two officers held his arms back while one pushed his head down, and another officer repeatedly punched him in the face. “They were yelling ‘you f---ing fag!’ and ‘homo!’” he said. “I couldn’t block the blows. I was fighting to stay conscious but I was blacking out because of the hits I was taking.” Campbell was left with a concussion, a black eye, a split lip, and a bloody mouth, and was taken to the hospital for treatment.

According to the NYPD's account, Campbell refused to "discontinue a party," pushed an officer, attempted to flee, and behaved "belligerently" while police tried to take him into custody. He was charged with resisting arrest, attempted assault, and pot possession. Campbell has released footage of the officer tampering with his surveillance camera. “They were trying to conceal the evidence by turning the camera away,” says his lawyer, Herb Subin. “They committed a hate crime inside a gay pride event.”



Crossposted from Video Cafe

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Although it wasn't as bad as the carping over at Fox, Stephen Colbert's character wasn't taking the inauguration of President Obama this Monday all that well to say the least. After complaining about why they needed to even have another ceremony and wondering what Romney was doing while the festivities were going on, Colbert decided to re-inaugurate himself as the Commander-in-Opposing-the-Chief on a mound of bibles.



Morning Open Thread

inaugurationball

Good morning, today is Tuesday, January 22, 2013. Beautiful couple, aren't they?

Your morning open thread begins below.