A black man has died after demonstrating the proper way to shoot yourself in the head police say

African-American James Gagum, 43, was watching a movie at his home when a witness said that he began to argue about a character's handling of a gun. He said, "that's not how it's done," before pulling the trigger three times while holding it to his head, according to the witness. Police say that the death was an accident and Gagum didn't realize the handgun was loaded, firing off on the third squeeze. He was pronounced dead at the scene, according to Emergency Medical Services.

Scientists estimate that the proportion of Neandertal ancestry in Europe is 24% lower than in eastern Asia and South America

Some new insights into human origins.

Race and the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) figures for 2010

Blacks are the most numerous group on welfare with 31.9% of recipients. Whites are right behind them at 31.8%. Hispanics comprise 30% of those on the dole. In 2000, the racial breakdown of welfare was: blacks 38.6%t, whites 31.2% and Hispanics 25%. Though still disproportionally represented on the welfare rolls, black usage has gone down relatively during the last decade. But Hispanics’ usage has surged. Whites have remained remarkably consistent at around 31% of those on welfare. Hispanics comprised 34.7% of recipient children in 2010. Some 31.4% of TANF recipient children were black and 27.1% were white. The rising Hispanic welfare proportion should raise some red flags. Thanks to out-of-control immigration, the Hispanic population is booming. Their use of welfare is almost at black rates – raising the specter of a growing number of welfare recipients to support even while economic austerity is being called for. Isn’t it likely that another amnesty will swell the welfare rolls — as 11-12 million mostly-poor Hispanics will then be eligible for government assistance?

A white man has been beaten to a pulp by blacks for dating an African-American woman in Georgia

The interracial couple were strolling through Ellis Square, a public space in Savannah, shortly before midnight when three black men began taunting them. The provocation began as racial slurs, then the black males started blowing kisses and suddenly the trio jumped the boyfriend, Andrew Quade - who is white, beating him and leaving him barely conscious. I wonder what Barack Obama, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and the NAACP will say about this? Probably nothing.

New York: A powerful Hispanic lawmaker accused of sexual harassment told a young female employee that he would like it better if she didn’t have a bra on

Brooklyn Democrat Vito J. Lopez, 71, leered over the shirt the woman was wearing and gave special treatment to those who he said were well endowed. He even asked one woman to wear button down tops so he could get a better look at her cleavage. The claims emerged after Lopez - one of the most powerful officials in the city - was found by the city Assembly’s ethics committee to have sexually harassed two employees. The board slammed Lopez's unwelcome verbal and physical conduct. In one incident he was said to have groped a woman’s thigh on a trip to Atlantic City and forced himself on staff. Following the findings, five women who worked with Lopez spoke out about the atmosphere of intimidation in his office. They said that there was a culture where behavior like that was acceptable and they said that they did not dare to complain because of Lopez’s power and network of allies. The claims add to the growing sex scandal engulfing the once-powerful Latino politician, who was first elected in 1984. Lopez has announced that he would not seek re-election as Brooklyn Democratic Party chairman. But despite calls for him to resign, Lopez has insisted on remaining on the state Assembly. Lopez additionally made inappropriate comments about the staffers’ bodies, clothes and personal relationships, urging some to reveal details about their boyfriends. He was censured by the Assembly and ordered not to employ women under 21 years old.

Brittany Killgore was kidnapped and held against her will and then murdered during violent bondage sex games planned by a Latino to whom she had turned for help moving back home to her parents

The 22-year-old wife of a U.S. Marine, whose naked, mutilated body was found in an ditch in April 2012 in San Diego, California, was an unwilling participant in the sadomasochistic torture committed by Louis Perez, Dorothy Maraglino and Jessica Lynn Lopez - all of whom were in a master-slave sex ring. Court documents reveal that police seized whips, sex toys, rope and pulleys, a document titled Slave Rules, duct tape, a stun baton and other bondage instruments from the house that the three suspects shared. Investigators found Killgore's blood and hair on several of the items. Killgore was tricked into getting into a car with Perez and then abducted. Killgore was taken to Perez's house, where he summoned Maraglino and Lopez to participate in bondage torture. Following the torture, she was strangled to death and her naked body dumped in a ditch, where she was found four days later. Previously, Perez had bragged on an online bondage group the same day that Killgore disappeared that he was he was planning to have a bondage session that weekend. Police seized a host of bondage equipment from Perez's house during a search. The items seized included: nylon rope with hairs on it, open container of latex gloves, a rope/pulley system in plastic bag, two saws, a stun gun, a baton and several rolls of tape.

African-American Eric McGowen has been sentenced to 99 years in prison after a jury found him guilty of aggravated sexual assault of a child in the first trial stemming from the horrific gang-rape of a Texas 11-year-old - but the 20-year-old black male is still missing after brazenly escaping from court

McGowen has been convicted of aggravated sexual assault of a child and faces up to life in prison for his part in the shocking attacks, which saw the girl, now 13, gang-raped by 20 black males on multiple occasions in an abandoned trailer. McGowen is one of 14 adults accused of having sex with the girl. Six boys also are charged in the case. There is a belief among many in the predominantly black neighborhood where several of the suspects live that the arrests were racially motivated. All of the suspects are black, while the female victim is Hispanic. Two other adults have previously pleaded guilty, with one receiving a 15-year prison term and the other awaiting sentencing. Six juveniles who were charged have also previously pleaded guilty. They received 7-year prison terms, but their sentences were suspended and they were put on probation for that amount of time. Most of the adult defendants in the case face charges of aggravated sexual assault of a child, while four face a charge of continuous sexual abuse of a child.

Asian-American men are less likely to date interacially than men of other races

Marriage rates across the United States are generally declining. But they’re still high for Asian-Americans. As one of the smallest racial minorities here, it’s not that surprising that Asians have some of the highest rates of interracial marriage. But Asian-American women are twice as likely as their male counterparts to marry outside their race. Asian-American men are second only to black women for having the lowest rates of interracial marriage. Latino men have to make something like $70,000 more than a comparable white man for a white women to be open to dating them. For African-American men, that figure is closer to $120,000. An Asian-American would have to make $250,000 more than a comparable white male. Intermarriage rates differ from one Asian group to another. For example, Koreans are less likely than Japanese or Indian people to marry outside their ethnic groups. The fact that white women find Asian men less attractive than blacks and Latinos may have something to do with the possibility that women are attracted to men that they find dangerous.

Should we really be worrying all that much about the Hispanic vote?

It is projected that in November 2012, Hispanics will comprise 17.2% of the total U.S. population, 15% of adults, 11.2% of adult citizens and 8.9% of actual voters. In 2012, non-Hispanic whites are expected to be 73.4% of the national vote and non-Hispanic blacks are expected to be 12.2%. To place the Hispanic share of the electorate into perspective, eight percentage points of the Hispanic vote nationally equals slightly less than one percentage point of the non-Hispanic white vote. The 8.9% Hispanic share of voters compares to veterans (12% of the electorate), those with family incomes above $100,000 (18%), seniors 65 and older (19%), married persons (60%) and those who live in owner-occupied housing (80%). In terms of voter turnout, it is projected that 52.7% (± 0.6) of eligible Hispanics will vote in the upcoming election, an increase from 49.9% in 2008 and a continuation of the past decade's long upward trend. The projected Hispanic voter participation rate of 52.7% compares to 66.1% for non-Hispanic whites and 65.2% for non-Hispanic blacks in 2008.

Israel: Police are examining the possibility of opening a criminal investigation into a Jewish group distributing flyers warning Arab males they could get hurt if they go to downtown Jerusalem or to the capital's Malcha Mall to pick up Jewish girls

"Just like you would do anything to prevent a Jew from dating your sister, so too would we," reads the flyer being distributed by the Lehava group, a Hebrew acronym for "For Preventing Assimilation in the Holy Land." The flyer ties in the threats with the nearly fatal group beating of an Arab teenager in downtown Jerusalem recently. Dozens of Jewish teens are thought to have been involved in beating the victim, who had to be resuscitated by an emergency medical crew, as well as three others who escaped the August 17, 2012 assault with slight injuries. Police have asked the Justice Ministry for guidelines to determine whether they should investigate allegations that Lehava is inciting Jerusalemites to racism by distributing the flyers in the capital, in both Hebrew and Arabic. "If you're thinking of going to the pedestrian mall or the Jerusalem mall in order to go out with Jewish girls, this isn't the place," the flyer states. "You can walk around your village and find girlfriends there. Not by us! Last week an Arab who thought he'd find some Jewish girls got hurt. We don't want you to get hurt." The tone of the flyer is reminiscent of the messages sent by the extremist Kach movement, which used to call for punishing Arab men who were friendly to Jewish girls. Lehava, on its website, is also asking Israelis to call a hotline to report any incidents in which a Jewish girl is in contact with, or thinking of being in contact with, minorities. "We ask you to open your eyes and be our emissaries wherever you are," the group's site says. Lehava says that its goal is "to save girls from the nation of Israel who were enticed into being in contact with a non-Jew." The group portrays inter-ethnic dating as a widespread trend in Israel, saying that Jewish girls "from secular, [non-Haredi] religious and ultra-Orthodox families," as well as at-risk girls and those "in normative homes," have been found cavorting with non-Jewish men, including Arab men and foreign laborers.

The host committee for the Democratic National Convention is raising a number of eyebrows after choosing to proceed with featuring Islamic “Jumah” prayers for two hours on the Friday of its convention

Up to 20,000 people are expected to attend the Friday prayers and Jibril Hough, a spokesman for the Bureau of Indigenous Muslim Affairs (BIMA), said that the purpose of the event is to hold political parties accountable for the issues faced by Muslim-Americans. In particular, the event will target the Patriot Act, the NYPD, the National Defense Authorization Act, and anti-Shariah sentiment. This is why the GOP, even though it panders to Jews, Hispanics and other non-whites, is still preferable to the Democrats.

A Nebraska preschool is asking a three-year-old deaf boy to change his name because it violates the school board's weapons policy

Hunter Spanjer signs his first name by making what looks like shooting gestures with both hands. He crosses his fingers when he does it - a modification to show it's his proper name. But the Grand Island Public Schools board says that its "Weapons in Schools" policy bans "any instrument ... that looks like a weapon." The school wants him to change the sign, a request Hunter's family says is both unfair and silly. "Anybody that I have talked to thinks this is absolutely ridiculous. This is not threatening in any way," Hunter's grandmother Janet Logue said. "It's a symbol. It's an actual sign, a registered sign," said Hunter's father, Brian Spanjer. The school board wants to work out a compromise. "We are working with the parents to come to the best solution we can for the child," said school board spokesman Jack Sheard. But the Spanjers say that they aren't interested. They're bringing in lawyers from the National Association of the Deaf to fight for their son's right to sign his own name. Meanwhile, local residents say that the school is overreacting and Hunter poses no danger. I think the local residents are right.

When traveling in India make sure you have access to powerful antibiotics

Frequent diarrhea is an unpleasant fact of life for people visiting India.

A black man has been jailed after he threatened to kick a paralyzed police officer from his wheelchair

Even the physically-handicapped are not safe from the threat of black violence.

Britain: An Algerian asylum seeker who financed a suicide bomber using illegally claimed benefits has been jailed for seven years

Nasserdine Menni was living in Glasgow, Scotland and sending cash to Taimour Abdulwahab, whose botched attempt to kill Christmas shoppers in Sweden in 2010 led only to his own death. Police investigating the Muslim bomber's background discovered the connection with Menni, who was arrested under the Prevention of Terrorism Act at his 19th floor flat in Whiteinch in 2011. During an 11-week trial, the High Court in Glasgow heard that he gave Iraqi-born Abdulwahab a total of £5,725, accrued from benefits and low paid jobs. He also sent the Islamic bomber's widow £1,000 after the explosion in Stockholm.

National differences in female partner violence

At 71%, Ethiopia has the highest percentage of physical and/or sexual assault by a partner in a WHO study. Which country has the lowest? Japan at 15%.

A 49-year-old white woman married a 39-year-old black con artist and career criminal she had met online, knowing nothing of his past

Lawrence Auster writes about a black monster:

A year after their marriage, he subjected her to several days of inconceivable torture, including sexual torture, virtually destroying her as a human being. He is now in prison, raising money for a “anti-domestic violence” charity of his invention. A moral and civilized society, such as the West once arguably was but can no longer claim to be, would have removed such a monster from the earth. But we, in the name of morality, keep such monsters alive at public expense, also allowing them to carry on all sorts of interesting and fun activities including raising money for fraudulent charities.

A Thai woman accused of butchering and eating her two young sons has claimed that she was hallucinating and thought they were pigs

She cooked and ate her sons aged one and five and was found by police sleeping in her home surrounded by body parts. The woman is a member of the Musur hill tribe who live in the mountainous region of Chiang Main near the Burmese border. The woman, whose name has been withheld for her family’s protection, has been charged with murder, although details of the charge have yet to be released. An unusually large number of crimes involving acts of cannibalism have occurred across the globe in recent months. Well publicised cases include African-American Rudy Eugene who was shot and killed after eating homeless Ronald Poppo’s face, gay porn star cannibal Luka Magnotta who filmed himself chopping up his male lover before posting parts of the body to politicians and 29 members of a New Guinean cult charged for butchering and eating seven people including making soup from their genitals.

Muslim insurgents have beheaded 17 civilians in a Taliban-controlled area of southern Afghanistan, because they attended a dance party that flouted the extreme brand of Islam embraced by the militants

The killings, in a district where U.S. Marines have battled the Taliban for years, were a reminder of how much power the Islamic insurgent group still wields in the south - particularly as international forces draw down and hand areas over to Afghan forces. The victims were part of a large group that had gathered in Helmand province's Musa Qala district for a celebration involving music and dancing, said district government chief Neyamatullah Khan. He said that the Taliban slaughtered them to show their disapproval of the event. All of the bodies were decapitated but it was not clear if they had been shot first, said provincial government spokesman Daoud Ahmadi. Information was only trickling out slowly because the area where the killings occurred is largely Taliban controlled, Khan said. Many Afghans and international observers have expressed worries that the Taliban's brutal interpretation of Islamic justice will return as international forces withdraw. Under the Taliban, who ruled the country from 1996 to 2001, all music and film was banned as un-Islamic, and women were barred from leaving their homes without a male family member as an escort.

Black actor Samuel L. Jackson has tweeted that it was "unfair" that Tropical Storm Isaac had spared the GOP convention in Tampa and appeared to be heading for New Orleans

Jackson said in a profanity-filled tweet that he was "not understanding God's plan" given the fact that the storm was not disrupting the Republican gathering. "Unfair s---," the Oscar-nominated actor known for his colorful language said on Twitter. "GOP spared by Isaac! NOLA prolly f----- again!"

Teenagers who regularly smoke cannabis are putting themselves at risk of permanently damaging their intelligence

Researchers found persistent users of the drug, who started smoking it at school, had lower IQ scores as adults. They were also significantly more likely to have attention and memory problems in later life, than their peers who abstained. Furthermore, those who started as teenagers and used it heavily, but quit as adults, did not regain their full mental powers.

Genes and voting

New evidence suggests that a handful of genes may be influencing election outcomes more than we think. Genetic studies show that nature plays a significant role when it comes to political traits. New gene studies indicate that people may have natural tendencies when it comes to political ideology and partisanship, voting behavior and engaging in political violence. Studies that looked at twins suggest how genetics comes into play. Comparisons between identical and fraternal twins found that once teenagers left home, only identical twins maintained similar viewpoints, while fraternal twins were more likely to hold divergent views. This suggests that genetics plays a major role in shaping political ideology and partisanship. Because the human genome is very complex, political traits are likely influenced by thousands of genetic markers. In other words, there is no specific gene tied to a specific political opinion. It may be that certain genetic propensities may influence our emotions, which, in turn, influence political beliefs. For example, a tendency for high pathogen avoidance and phobias may manifest itself as xenophobia and ethnocentrism. In particular, researchers have found specific genes that seem significant. Genes that have to do with dopamine and serotonin - two chemicals in the brain known to influence emotion - appear to have an effect on socialization, voter turnout and political participation. For example, researchers have already identified a gene on a dopamine receptor that causes people to have a large number of friends. Interestingly, these people tend to be more liberal.

A black man stole a friend's identity and posed as a doctor for six months, treating up to 500 senior citizens across Columbia, South Carolina

Ernest Addo, 48, of Austell, Georgia, has been arrested and charged with unlawfully practicing medicine.

Predominantly non-white Camden, New Jersey, the deadliest place in America, is disbanding its entire police force and firing 270 cops in an effort to deal with a massive budget crunch

The Camden Police Department will be replaced with a force run by the county, which supporters say will cost significantly less and allow more officers on the streets. Some citizens worry, though that the new officers, many of them from the county police force, won't be prepared for the tough, violent work of patrolling an overwhelmingly black and Hispanic city. The murder rate in racially diverse Camden, a decaying city of 77,000, continues to skyrocket. There have been 41 homicides in the city so far in 2012, including 13 in July alone. That puts Camden well on pace to break its record of 58 killings, set in 1995. The murder rate in ten times higher than it is in New York City, 30% higher than New Orleans, the deadliest large city in the country, and three times higher than nearby Philadelphia. Nearly one in five Camden residents is unemployed - the highest rate in New Jersey.

The average IQ for 40 African nations is 75

Chuck at the Occidentalist blog has some interesting information on African intelligence.

Mexican-Americans with an ancestral link to Amerindian tribes were found to have higher insulin resistance levels, which is an indication of several chronic conditions such as type 2 diabetes

More evidence that racial and ethnic differences affect health.

A 25-year-old black male has been charged with aggravated criminal sexual abuse in connection with a St. Louis teenager who was held captive in his home for three years

St. Clair County State's Attorney Brendan Kelly said that Steven Elliot Johnson had sex with the then underage girl. Johnson's mother, 54-year-old African-American Owida Johnson, was charged with two misdemeanor counts of child endangerment. Both are in St. Clair County Jail. Steven Johnson was being held on $2 million bond, his mother on $15,000 bond.

A black New York state senator has said that she expects to be arrested in the state's continuing investigation into the use of pork-barrel grants by legislators

Sen. Shirley Huntley, a Queens Democrat, didn't indicate what the charge against her might be. Huntley founded a nonprofit social service and education group that Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is investigating, and she funded it in part with state grants. Indictments accuse some of the groups' executives of theft. Huntley is facing New York City Councilman James Sanders Jr. and community activist Gian Jones in a tough September 13, 2012 Democratic primary. In December 2011, four people were indicted on charges that they schemed to pocket pork-barrel grants from Huntley, who was close to two of the suspects and who later covered it up. Two officials with the nonprofit, The Parent Workshop Inc., were accused of grand larceny and filing false documents to get $29,950 for work they never did teaching parents how to navigate the New York City school system. Huntley founded the nonprofit in 2006. She wasn't charged in December 2011 in the probe by Schneiderman and state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, who had both said that one of those indicted was a Huntley staffer and another shared her home. Schneiderman and DiNapoli are Democrats and Schneiderman had served in the Senate with Huntley. Huntley's statement comes a day after Democratic Assemblyman Vito Lopez of the Bronx was stripped of his committee chairmanship after the Assembly ethics committee ruled that he violated the chamber's sexual harassment policy.

What is a major difference between Christians and Jews?

One important difference is that while Christians are supposed to pray for their enemies, Jews pray for the destruction of theirs. A special request asking God to destroy Israel’s enemies in Iran and their Hezbollah proxy in Lebanon should be included in the prayers for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef has said. “When we say the blessing over the dates at our Rosh Hashanah meal this year,” said the rabbi in his weekly address “and we ask God to ‘bring an end to our enemies,’ we should be thinking about Iran, those evil ones who threaten Israel. May the Lord destroy them. ”Many religiously observant Jews celebrate the Rosh Hashanah meal with a ceremonial blessing over several different foods. Each blessing contains a play on words to express a hope for the coming year. The blessing over the date, tamar in Hebrew, is that the Lord “finish off”, yitamu, the Israelites’ foes. The ultra-Orthodox party Shas is a key faction in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition. Can you imagine the uproar in the Jewish media if a Christian leader were to publicly call on Jesus Christ to destroy the enemies of Christianity?

Two black thugs have been arrested for murdering a young white woman

Murder charges have been filed against two 18-year-old black males for the slaying of Megan Boken, a 23-year-old Wheaton native who was shot in her car while in St. Louis for a volleyball game. Keith Esters and Johnathan Perkins, who are cousins, targeted Boken because they saw her talking on her cell phone in the city’s Central West End neighborhood, according to documents from the City of St. Louis circuit attorney’s office. Esters shot Boken twice, in the chest and the neck, while trying to steal the phone, according to the court records. Boken was talking to her mother at the time of the shooting. Perkins drove Esters to and from the murder scene and told police that Esters told him he shot Boken. Esters has been charged with first degree murder, first degree attempted robbery and two counts of armed criminal action. Perkins has been charged with second degree murder, second degree attempted robbery and two counts of armed criminal action. Bond for both black males was denied.

Jews and slavery in the South

Hunter Wallace on the role that Jews played in the Old South:

Historically speaking, there wasn’t a Jewish Question in the Deep South. Jews did not develop their present reputation as a threat to white supremacy until the Civil Rights Movement in the mid-twentieth century. Jews in the South participated in the slave trade, owned slaves, profited off slavery as merchants (Lehman Brothers was founded in Montgomery), identified with the White majority, served in the Confederate government, fought for the Confederacy, and even crafted many of the segregation laws of the Jim Crow South.

Jews only help blacks when they feel that it furthers their own agenda.

The relative poverty of the non-European world is not due to European colonialism

Europe, and Western Europe in particular, had already overtaken the rest of the world by 1500 A.D. and would likely have continued to do so even without colonialism.

Mixed race man murders former co-worker in New York City

Jeffrey Johnson, 58, the son of a Japanese mother and an American father, gunned down a former co-worker near the Empire State Building. Johnson had held a grudge against his victim for years and the two had filed police complaints against one another in 2011 after getting into a scuffle in their office. The shooter was shot dead by New York police officers stationed outside the popular tourist destination after he killed his former co-worker Steven Ercolino, 41, with a .45 calibre semiautomatic pistol.

Britain: A black man who raped and sexually assaulted a 13-year-girl after plying her with drugs and alcohol has been jailed for eight years

Rawad Bastawi was found guilty of abusing the underage teen over a number of days at an address in Whitehawk, Brighton. Bastawi, who has no fixed address, was arrested in January 2012 and charged with rape and sexual activity with the 13-year-old girl. Bastawi has been described as a despicable individual who abused the trust of his victim over a number of days by plying her with alcohol and cannabis.

A black male porn star is to blame for the syphilis outbreak that has closed down the adult film industry in Los Angeles

After Mr Marcus contracted the bacterial infection on set, he altered his syphilis-positive test so he could continue performing. The 18-year veteran black actor’s admission came after the industry’s self-imposed 10 day moratorium which has seen more than 1,000 performers in the Los Angeles area get tested and administered preventative antibiotics. At least nine porn stars have revealed that they have contracted syphilis. The number of syphilis cases in California has jumped 18% according to a recent report from the California Department of Public Health. The results showed that a much higher rate of men had contracted the infection and that African Americans were affected more than any other racial demographic.

Hispanic beats 3-year-old girl to death

The last words of a three-year-old girl who was taken to the emergency room covered in bruises and bite marks were, "Papa, I hate you," according to court documents. Carmen Ellis, a beaming little girl with big brown eyes, was taken off life support after succumbing to her injuries. Jose Cruz, the boyfriend of Carmen Ellis’ mother, told investigators that he lost his temper with the girl, beating the toddler repeatedly with a belt and shaking her, the documents read. Cruz said that he blanked out and lost it after Carmen began vomiting. Her mother, Samantha Ellis, told investigators that Cruz insisted her daughter would heal on her own and did not want to take her to the hospital. He is charged with murder, and will next appear in court in November 2012. Until then, he is being held in solitary confinement.

The tortured body of an 11 year old Christian boy has been found in a town in Punjab, Pakistan, days after a young Christian girl was arrested on blasphemy charges

Detectives in Faisalabad, around 60 miles from Lahore, said that they were investigating whether accusations of blasphemy had also been made against the boy. Human rights campaigners condemned the killing of Samuel Yaqoob whose burned and tortured body body was discovered on Eid, the celebration which marks the end of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan. His lips and nose had been sliced off, his stomach removed and there was evidence that his legs had been mutilated too. His death comes just days after the arrest of Rimsha Masih, an eleven year old girl with Down's Syndrome, after Muslims in Islamabad accused her of burning pages from the Koran for cooking.

Obama's America: American incomes declined more in the three-year "expansion" that started in June 2009 than during the longest recession since the Great Depression, according an analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data by Sentier Research LLC

Median household income fell 4.8% on an inflation-adjusted basis since the recession supposedly ended in June 2009, more than the 2.6% drop during the 18-month contraction, the research firm’s Gordon Green and John Coder wrote in a report. Household income is 7.2% below the December 2007 level, the former Census Bureau economic statisticians wrote. “Almost every group is worse off than it was three years ago, and some groups had very large declines in income,” said Green, who previously directed work on the Census Bureau’s income and poverty statistics program. “We’re in an unprecedented period of economic stagnation.” While gains in hourly earnings and average hours worked per week may have had “a minor mitigating effect” on income declines, they couldn’t offset a jobless rate that hasn’t fallen below 8% since February 2009 and a record duration of unemployment, according to the Annapolis, Maryland-based firm. The average duration of unemployment increased to a record 41 weeks in November 2011 and remains at 39 weeks, Labor Department data show. Almost 5.2 million Americans have been out of work for at least six months. Men living alone experienced the worst drop in income, losing 9.4%, while married couples fared best with a 3.6% decline, the report shows. “Median annual household income declined significantly for both family and non-family households,” Green and Coder wrote. “Real median annual household income declined more significantly for younger households.” Incomes for those 55 to 64 fell the most, losing 9.7%, followed by the 8.9% decline for 25- to 34-year-olds. By education, Americans with some college lost the most, with incomes falling 9.3%, followed by an 8.6% slump for those with associate degrees, the report said. Those without high school degrees lost the least, falling 5.3%. Green is a former chief of the governments division at the Census Bureau, the report said. Coder was chief of the Income Statistics Branch at the bureau, where he oversaw collection and processing of income data and developed new survey methods.

Black men needing surgery for advanced prostate cancer seem to have worse outcomes than white men

Based on data collected from hospitals in three states, black men who had their prostates removed were more likely to need blood transfusions, stay in the hospital longer and die while hospitalized compared to white men. According to the American Cancer Society, over 241,000 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in the U.S. in 2012, and over 28,000 will die from it. Black men seem to be disproportionately represented in both of those numbers. They are 59% more likely to develop prostate cancer and more than twice as likely to die from it compared to white men.

Another fake hate crime: A former University of Nebraska women’s basketball star faked an attack in which she carved anti-gay slurs into her skin because she felt it would spark change

Four days before Charlie Rogers crawled naked and bleeding from her Lincoln home, screaming for help, she outlined in a Facebook posting what investigators believe was her motive for faking the July 22, 2012 attack, Police Chief Jim Peschong said at a news conference. “So maybe I am too idealistic, but I believe way deep inside me that we can make things better for everyone. I will be a catalyst. I will do what it takes. I will. Watch me,” read the July 18, 2012 posting, according to police. Furthermore, genetic testing on evidence gathered at the crime scene undermines Rogers’ account of what happened, Peschong said. Charlie Rogers, 33, has pleaded not guilty to making a false police report and was released on her own recognizance. Rogers, a lesbian who ranks second all-time in blocked shots for the Cornhuskers, reported the attack amid a charged debate in Lincoln over the city’s proposed “fairness ordinance,” which would ban discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. The City Council approved the ordinance in May 2012, 5-0, but two conservative groups gathered enough signatures to force a popular vote on it before it can take effect. According to police, Rogers said that three masked men broke into her home, and that one of them pinned her down while another sliced a cross into her chest, cut the front of her thighs and shins and carved derogatory words in her arms and abdomen. She said they then rolled her onto her stomach and cut her buttocks, the back of her thighs and the back of her right calf. She also said that they tried to burn down her house. Rogers crawled from her home naked, bleeding and screaming for help, a neighbor told police. The community’s gay community responded swiftly, and hundreds turned out for a rally that weekend outside the state Capitol. Four Nebraska gay-rights groups that followed the case released a joint statement crediting police for conducting what they believe was a balanced and thorough investigation. “It is important not to focus on the actions of any single individual,” the groups said in the statement. “As residents of Lincoln we must continue to bring our community together to declare that violence and hate are not the values of our city.” According to Peschong, police found a pile of clothes, white knit gloves and a red box cutter on the living room floor after the alleged attack. Rogers said that the gloves didn’t belong to her, but investigators determined that a lot of the DNA found inside the glove was Rogers’ and that none of it came from a male. Peschong said investigators discovered that Rogers deleted numerous text messages that she had sent the evening of the alleged attack, and that she bought cotton gloves, a box cutter and zip ties from an Ace Hardware Store in Lincoln on July 17, 2012. All of the items were later found in her house, he said. When confronted about the evidence weeks later, he said, Rogers admitted to purchasing all of the items except the gloves. She also sent a photo of a cross-shaped cut on her chest to a friend a few days before the reported attack, Peschong said. Investigators say that they found no apparent sign of a struggle in the living room where Rogers said she was attacked, and no blood on the sheets where the cutting allegedly took place. An FBI forensic pathologist concluded that Rogers either cut herself, or allowed someone else to do it. Peschong said that the department spent thousands of dollars investigating the case, but he stressed that the case will not undermine the department’s trust in people who report hate crimes. “The FBI, the Bureau of Fire Prevention and the Lincoln Police Department have spent an exorbitant amount of time and personnel resources investigating this,” he said. “We aggressively investigated this. Every day since this incident has happened, there have been investigators working on trying to identify who these assailants were.”

Race, genes and cannabis

Scientists have found a switch in the brain which may explain why smoking cannabis causes psychosis and addiction in more than one-in-ten users. The team, at Aberdeen University found a genetic difference in the switch, probably inherited from early humans who smoked the drug in prehistoric times. The difference may also explain why some people could be more susceptible to conditions such as obesity. The researchers, at the university’s Kosterlitz Center for Therapeutics, studied genetic differences around a gene called CNR1, which produces what are known as cannabinoid receptors in the brain which control parts of the brain involved in memory, mood, appetite and pain. Cannabinoid receptors activate these areas of the brain when they are triggered by naturally-occurring chemicals in the body known as endocannabinoids. Chemicals found in the cannabis and "skunk" mimic the action of endocannabinoids. It is known that cannabis has pain-relieving and anti-inflammatory properties which can help treat diseases such as multiple sclerosis and arthritis. However, developing drugs from cannabis to treat these conditions is hampered by the fact that such drugs will have psychoactive side effects - and smoked cannabis can cause addiction and psychosis in up to 12% of users. Dr Alasdair MacKenzie, who led the research, said: "We looked at one specific genetic difference in CNR1 because we know it is linked to obesity and addiction. What we found was a mutation that caused a change in the genetic switch for the gene itself - a switch that is very ancient and has remained relatively unchanged in over three hundred million years of evolution, since before the time of the dinosaurs. These genetic "switches" regulate the gene itself, ensuring that it is turned on or off in the right place at the right time and in the right amount. It is normally thought that mutations cause disease by reducing the function of the gene, or the switch that controls it. In this case however, the mutation actually increased the activity of the switch in parts of the brain that control appetite and pain, and also, and most especially, in the part of the brain called the hippocampus, which is affected in psychosis. We know that this overactive switch is relatively rare in Europeans, but is quite common in African populations. But we were all once African, so something must have decreased it in our early ancestors who left Africa and migrated through Central Asia towards Europe and the north. One possibility we are keen to explore is that once in Central Asia these early migrants came into contact with the cannabis plant, which we know was endemic across that area at that time. It is possible that the side effects of taking cannabis were such that people with the mutation were not so effective in producing and raising children. Therefore, over the generations the numbers of people with the mutation decreased."

Scientists have found two variants of genes that help to explain why some lucky individuals do not develop severe malaria

The two variants were netted in a comparison of 1,325 people in the West African state of Ghana who had fallen ill with severe falciparum malaria and of 828 counterparts who were otherwise healthy. One variant is found in a gene called ATP2B4. The gene's function is to help the passage of calcium through the membrane of red blood cells, which are targeted for infection by the malaria parasite. The other variant is located near a gene called MARVELD3, controlling a protein on the lining of blood vessels. The gene could play a part in reducing damage that occurs when colonized blood cells stick to tiny blood vessels, according to the research. The results of the study were compared with a similar survey among children in Gambia. A fast-growing tool in basic research, genomic comparison entails sifting through the human genetic code and looking for tiny changes that signify why some people are likelier to fall sick from disease and others less so or maybe not at all. The goal is to provide diagnostic tools, helping to identify people who are at greater risk, and develop new drugs inspired by the pathways which confer immunity. Previous work has found that people with the blood group O have a protection against falciparum malaria, the severest form of the disease. People with sickle-cell disorder, in which blood cells with an abnormal sickle shape can trigger anaemia, have also been found to be resistant to malaria. In 2010, malaria infected about 216 million people and claimed an estimated 655,000 lives, particularly in Africa and among small children, according to the UN's World Health Organization (WHO). Other experts say that the toll is at least double that estimate.

Camden, New Jersey: A black mother decapitated a 2-year-old son whom she only recently regained custody of before stabbing herself to death

Chevonne Thomas, 33, and her son, Zahree Thomas, were found dead by police who stormed their home after responding to a 911 call after midnight from the woman saying that someone had harmed her son. The headless child was found on the first floor, his mother in her second floor bedroom. The boy's head was found in the freezer. When police first arrived, Chevonne Thomas was still on the phone with emergency operators. Not knowing if she was armed or if anyone else was still in the home, police retreated and formed a perimeter. By the time cops broke a second floor window and entered the residence, the woman was found dead from a self-inflicted stab wound to her neck. The shocking crime stunned cops hardened from decades of experience in one of the country's most violent cities. African-American Chevonne Thomas was previously arrested in November 2010 for endangering the welfare of a child. She left Zahree unattended in a vehicle for an unspecified amount of time. Thomas told officials that she had smoked "wet," a mixture of PCP and marijuana, before blacking out and forgetting where she had left her then-10-month-old son.

Older men are more likely than young ones to father a child who develops autism or schizophrenia, because of random mutations that become more numerous with advancing paternal age

Research provides support for the argument that the surging autism diagnoses rate over recent decades is attributable in part to increasing average age of fathers, which could account for as many as 20% to 30%. The risk of chromosomal abnormalities, such as Down syndrome, increases for older mothers. Researchers have found that the average child born to a 20-year-old father had 25 random mutations that could be traced to paternal genetic material. The number increased steadily by two mutations a year, reaching 65 mutations for offspring of 40-year-old men.

An analysis from the University of Colorado that has correctly predicted the outcome of presidential elections since 1980 is forecasting Mitt Romney as the frontrunner, with voters in Colorado helping the presumptive Republican nominee unseat Barack Obama

Political science professors Kenneth Bickers, of CU's Boulder campus, and Michael Berry, of CU's Denver campus, found that the ailing economy spells trouble for Obama's re-election bid. The professors conducted a state-by-state analysis, incorporating economic data such as unemployment figures. The results of their analysis show that Obama will win 218 votes in the electoral college, short of the 270 that he would need to be re-elected. While their study focuses on the electoral college, the political scientists predict that Romney will win 52.9% of the popular vote compared to 47.1% for Obama when considering only the two major political parties. The economy is a main driver in elections, said Bickers, who also runs the "CU in DC" internship program. "If the economy were just average, we would be forecasting Obama to win," Bickers said. "But the economy is below average, and he is struggling." Bickers said that this election cycle has some parallels with 1980 - a period when the economy was slumping and inflation was skyrocketing - and voters chose Republican Ronald Reagan over Democratic incumbent Jimmy Carter. In Colorado, which turned blue for Obama in 2008, the model predicts that Romney will receive 51.9% of the vote to Obama's 48.1%, again with only the two major parties considered. Joel Champion, former chairman of the Boulder County Republican Party who stepped down recently due to health reasons, said that Obama has lost some support among the voter base that helped elect him in 2008. He said that he would like to see a repeat of 1980, when Reagan gained the support of many Democrats. "Obama hasn't been what he said he would be, and we need a change," Champion said. "I think it's not going to be as close as a lot of people believe." Bickers said that Obama risks losing almost all of the states now considered swing states, including Colorado, North Carolina, Virginia, New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida. The CU model has accurately predicted the winner for the last eight presidential elections.

Three members of Jordan's paralympic squad have been charged with sex offenses in Northern Ireland and released on bail after their embassy promised that they would return to court

The two wheelchair-bound power lifters and a trainer have been arrested and accused of sexual offenses involving two women and two underage girls, the court heard. "The embassy in London wishes to reassure the courts of its continued cooperation and maintains utmost respect for the due process of the law," the Jordanian embassy in London said in a statement. King Abdullah has taken a personal interest in the case, a representative of the embassy said during the proceedings in Coleraine, County Londonderry. Weight lifter Omar Sami Qaradhi has been charged with three counts of sexual assault and one of voyeurism. Two of the assaults were against children. His colleague Motaz Al-Junad faced one sexual assault charge. Trainer Faisal Hammash has been charged with two counts of causing a child to engage in sexual acts. The 19-strong Jordanian squad was one of several from the Middle East and Africa training in Northern Ireland's Antrim Forum sports center ahead of the London games. The Jordanian embassy representative told the court that her country would provide guarantees that the men would return from bail to face trial.

Jewish privilege: 46% of American Jews - and 55% of Reform Jews - report family incomes of over $100,000 compared to 19% of all Americans

While 27% of Americans have had college or postgraduate education, 59% of American Jews - and 66% of Reform Jews - have, the second highest of any religious group after American Hindus. Remember this the next time you hear a liberal going on about "white privilege."

Black and Latino children are more likely than white children to report everything from witnessing violence to engaging in less exercise to riding in cars without wearing seat belts

Black children are four times more likely and Latino children are two times more likely than white children to see a threat or injury with a gun. Black children are more likely to smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol than Latino and white children. Rates of obesity are nearly twice as high among black and Latino children, who also report less vigorous exercise than white children. Black and Latino children are much more likely to report worse overall state of health. Black and Latino children are less likely than white children to wear a seat belt or a bike helmet. Violence is the leading cause of death for black male adolescents and one in five black children have witnessed violence by the fifth grade.

Obama's America: The middle class is struggling to survive and shrinking before our eyes

America's middle class has endured its worst decade in modern history. It has shrunk in size, fallen backward in income and wealth, and shed some of its characteristic faith in the future. In a survey, 85% of those who identify themselves as middle class say that it is more difficult now than it was a decade ago to maintain their standard of living. The middle class is also a much smaller part of the population than it used to be, while the poor and rich extremes of society are expanding. The biggest issue facing the middle class is that their wealth is deteriorating. The housing crisis eroded much of the middle class' net worth, creating a "lost decade" in terms of economic well-being for this group. For middle-income households, a lot of wealth was in their home, so the housing bust really impacted their nest eggs. Middle-income families are the only ones whose nest eggs have plummeted. The mean net worth (assets, such as a home or retirement account, minus debt) of middle-class families plunged 28% to $93,150 in 2010 from $129,582 in 2001. The middle class also took a big hit on the pay front. While incomes across all class levels declined for the first time since World War II, the middle class saw the biggest decline, with a median income for a four person household declining to roughly $70,000 in 2010 from about $73,000 in 2001. The median income for the lower class is $23,000 and about $113,000 for the upper class. Just more than half - 51% - of the population was middle class in 2011 compared to 61% in 1971. At the same time, the segments of the population who consider themselves lower or upper class have grown. Even though the middle class has shrunk, it has grown more diverse over the past 40 years. Whites are less dominant, comprising 70% of the middle class in 2011, compared to 80% in 1971. Hispanics have made significant gains in joining the middle class in that time, climbing to 13% of the group, up from 8%. Blacks, too, have made gains, albeit smaller. They now comprise 11% of the middle class, compared to 9% in 1971. Asians and Pacific Islanders made up 5% of the middle class in 2011, compared to 3% in 1971. The "other" category rose from 1% to 2%. Going forward, less than one-fourth (23%) of the middle-class are very confident that they would have enough money to get through retirement. Some 43% believe that their children's standard of living would be better than their own, compared to 51% in a 2008 survey. Some 26% believe that their children's standard of living would be worse than their own, compared to 19% in a 2008 survey.

ESPN’s Skip Bayless: White sports fans prefer white athletes and black sports fans prefer black athletes

In sports, as in everything else, people generally prefer their own kind.

A 38-year-old Latina has been accused of dumping hot coffee on the leg of a black nursing assistant at UC Irvine Medical Center in an alleged hate crime

Rose Mary Ayala, a Hispanic woman, has been charged with a felony count of hate crime battery. The alleged victim — a black certified nursing assistant — was serving coffee to patients in a medical center lounge when Ayala allegedly taunted the black man with racial slurs. Having ignored Ayala's verbal abuse, the assistant proceeded to grab sugar for another patient, and that's when Ayala walked up behind him and dumped hot coffee on his right leg. If convicted, Ayala could face up to three years in prison.

Pakistani police have arrested a Christian girl, known only by her first name, Ramsha, after accusations that she burned pages of the Koran, Islam's "holy" book

In Pakistan, it is a crime to utter derogatory statements or insult the Prophet Muhammad or the Koran in any way. Blasphemy convictions carry an automatic death sentence. The girl is only eleven. More evidence - if such evidence was needed - that Islam is a sick and evil religion practiced by sick and evil people.

0% of black voters support Romney

Can you imagine the outcries of racism in the Jewish media if 0% of white voters supported Obama? Obama enjoys the support of 94% of black voters and a significant majority of Hispanic voters.

US government and politics no longer run by WASPs

Neither of the top leaders in Congress nor any member of the US Supreme court is a WASP – a white, Anglo-Saxon Protestant. And now, for the first time in US history, none of the major party candidates for president or vice president is a WASP. How long will it be before both candidates for president are not only non-WASPs but also non-whites?

There are about 900 Jamaicans and nearly 600 Nigerians serving prison sentences in Britain

It costs around £38,000 a year to incarcerate someone in a British jail. If all the Jamaicans and Nigerians had been transferred immediately after being convicted to prisons in their home countries, it would have saved the British Exchequer £57 million a year. And if all the 11,127 foreigners who are now serving sentences in British prisons were to do their time in the jails of the countries where they were born, the annual savings would be more than £420 million. Of course, the British would not have to worry about these sort of costs if they had kept the troublesome foreigners out of the country in the first place.

Muslims gang rape Colorado woman

Court documents reveal that the victim of a vicious sexual assault remembers some of the suspects telling her about being unhappy with the way that they were treated in the United States. Five Iraqi nationals were arrested in connection with the case. Two are charged with the crime while all five are charged as accessories with the crime. Some of the victim’s injuries were described by police as being rarely seen. "I can tell you this is one of the most horrific sexual assaults I've seen in my career as a police officer," said Lt. Howard Black with the Colorado Springs Police Department. According to police, the victim reported overhearing a scuffle involving several people at about 1:30 a.m. at the Wildridge Apartments on July 21. 2012. She works the night shift and was out checking her mailbox at the time. She decided to stand between the two groups of men in an attempt to calm them down. Following the fight, the victim told police that she was invited inside an apartment by one of the men. There, she met three other men who were about 20 years old. According to the affidavit of probable cause, the victim described a conversation with the men that centered on how unhappy they were with the treatment that they received in the United States. The men also spoke about “the Untied States oppressing them and calling them terrorists.” The victim told police the men reminded her of her own son and she wanted to help calm them down. She also sympathized because she had been in the military and previously lived in foreign countries. During their conversation, the victim was given what she believed was lemonade. Police say she has no recollection of what happened after that. On July 22, 2012 officers found a significant amount of blood throughout the apartment where the attack occurred and also in the victim's apartment. One officer also spoke to a neighbor who lives directly below the victim’s apartment. According to the affidavit, the neighbor described speaking to the victim and described her as out of it. The neighbor also saw her bleeding. As the investigation continued, the affidavit says that the victim was able to identify Sarmad Fadhil Mohammed in a photographic lineup. Looking at the photo, the victim identified him as the male who held a knife during the original disturbance. She also remembered that he had exposed himself to her before she lost consciousness. When a search warrant was executed at the apartment where the assault occurred, tactical officers found Ali Mohammed Hasan Al Juboori, Yasir Jabbar Jasim, Sarmad Fadhi Mohammed and Mustafa Sataar Al Feraji inside. The affidavit details Sarmad Fadhil Mohammed’s interview first. It says he admitted to carrying a kitchen knife during the fight, but said he was trying to assist a friend named “J.” When they all returned to the apartment, Mohammed said that he offered the woman a drink of rum and asked her if she was there to have sex. He says that she refused, said she twice stopped “J” from performing oral sex on her. Mohammed also told police that he was falling asleep on the couch when he awoke to hear the woman groan. He asked her to leave, he said, because he did not want the blood stains in his apartment. The next two interviews detailed in the documents involved of Yasir Jabaar Jasim. During the second interview, he admitted having lied previously about what he witnessed in the apartment. According to the papers, Jasim said he saw “J” force oral sex on the victim and violently assault her. Jasim also told police that there was blood everywhere and that “J” told him, “Man, she’s going to die.” Jasim, Mohammed and Mustafa Sataar Al Feraji all told officers that the man they knew as “J” was probably named Jaseen Ramadan. Officers investigated and found a photo of Jasim Mohammed Hassin Ramadon that each man identified as the being the same person. A warrant was issued for Ramadon on July 26, 2012 and he was arrested the next day. According to the affidavit, he admitted that the victim was in the apartment but denied having any sexual contact with her. He claimed it was Al Feraji who sexually assaulted her and caused the injury. The detective also wrote in the affidavit that Ramadon claimed he was the one who helped the victim home after she was injured and bleeding. In the following days, several of the suspects were re-interviewed. In the end, Sarmad Fadhi Mohammed and Jasim Mohammed Hassin Ramadon were arrested for both the sexual assault and being accessories to the crime. Mustafa Sataar Al Feraji, Ali Mohammed Hasan Al Juboori and Yasir Jabbar Jasim were also arrested and charged as accessories. All of the suspects obtained a lawful permanent resident status within the past five years. A spokesperson from the District Attorney’s office said that if the men are convicted they will serve their time here and then be deported. If they're found not guilty they will likely still be sent back to Iraq.

Non-Hispanic whites get more and better-quality sleep than people of other races

Blacks are the most likely to get shorter, more restless sleep. Doctors say that unlocking the secret to racial sleep disparities might yield insights into why people in some minority groups experience higher rates of high blood pressure, obesity and diabetes. In one study, whites from the Chicago area were found to get an average of 7.4 hours of sleep per night; Hispanics and Asians averaged 6.9 hours and blacks 6.8 hours. Sleep quality — defined as ease in falling asleep and length of uninterrupted sleep — was also higher for whites than for blacks. When adjusted for risk factors like cardiovascular disease, sleep apnea and obesity, blacks and members of other minorities, who are statistically more prone to experience such problems, still got less and more disruptive sleep than whites. In another study, white women were found to have the best sleep. Another study revealed that being divorced or widowed was particularly detrimental to the sleep of Hispanic men, while never being married was more likely to take a toll on the sleep of Asian men. Asian women lacking in education were more likely to report sleep problems than similarly educated white women. And men of all races who were in relationships slept better than single men, regardless of relationship quality; for women, the quality of the relationship was more likely to affect sleep. Black and Hispanic children in America are far less likely to have regularly enforced bedtimes than white children, according to a 2010 study. White children were also more likely to have “language-based” bedtime routines — those that involve reading or storytelling — both of which are associated with a wide range of cognitive and behavioral advantages.

Democratic lawmaker called on to resign for having oral sex with boy, 17, in bushes at public rest stop after meeting him on Craigslist

After police revealed that a Minnesota lawmaker had a sexual encounter with a 17-year-old boy, both Republicans and Democrats have banded together to ask Representative Kerry Gauthier not to seek re-election. Representative Gauthier had been hospitalized in the wake of the scandal. Charges will not be pressed against the high-profile politician as the sex, which occurred at a Duluth rest stop, was found to be consensual. "I am deeply disappointed with Rep Kerry Gauthier’s conduct," Minnesota House Minority Leader Paul Thissen said. "The conduct was wrong and no one in the DFL House caucus condones the behavior. I expect he will address these issues publicly and soon." Previously, Republicans lobbied for his resignation. "I believe we have given Rep. Gauthier and the Democrat caucus a respectful amount of time to address this situation on their own," House Speaker Kurt Zellers, R-Maple Grove, said. "Rep. Gauthier’s actions are not becoming of a member of the House of Representatives, and today I am calling on him to resign from the Legislature." Somehow I think the media would be making a bigger deal over this story if Gauthier were a Republican.

Despite differences in rituals and beliefs among the world's major religions, spirituality often enhances health regardless of a person's faith, according to University of Missouri researchers

The MU researchers believe that health care providers could take advantage of this correlation between health particularly mental health - and spirituality by tailoring treatments and rehabilitation programs to accommodate an individual's spiritual inclinations. "In many ways, the results of our study support the idea that spirituality functions as a personality trait," said Dan Cohen, assistant teaching professor of religious studies at MU and one of the co-authors of the study. "With increased spirituality people reduce their sense of self and feel a greater sense of oneness and connectedness with the rest of the universe. What was interesting was that frequency of participation in religious activities or the perceived degree of congregational support was not found to be significant in the relationships between personality, spirituality, religion and health." The MU study used the results of three surveys to determine if correlations existed among participants' self-reported mental and physical health, personality factors, and spirituality in Buddhists, Muslims, Jews, Catholics and Protestants. Across all five faiths, a greater degree of spirituality was related to better mental health, specifically lower levels of neuroticism and greater extraversion. Forgiveness was the only spiritual trait predictive of mental health after personality variables were considered.

Blacks who survived a stroke caused by bleeding in the brain had higher blood pressure than whites a year later, according to a new study

The finding might help explain why blacks have a greater risk of suffering a second stroke than whites. The research was designed to examine racial and ethnic differences in strokes known as intracranial hemorrhage or ICH. ICHs account for 10% of all strokes, but carry a death rate of about 40% in the first month after the stroke, much higher than other types of stroke. High blood pressure is the most important modifiable risk factor associated with ICH. The study included 162 patients (the average age was 59, 53% were male, and 77% were black) who were treated for their initial stroke at hospitals in the Washington, D.C. area. Researchers say that half of those individuals in the study had high blood pressure a year after their stroke, even though most were taking medication to help lower their blood pressure. At 1 year, 63% of black patients had high blood pressure compared to 38% of whites.

Is this really a hate crime or just another example of the NYPD pandering to Muslims?

Police are investigating an unusual "bias crime" on Staten Island. Muslims who gathered for prayer to celebrate the end of Ramadan in a city park found bacon scattered on the ground. With Ramadan just ending, Muslims celebrated the end of fasting with prayer. On Staten Island an outdoor service was held on a New Dorp football field, attracting some 1,500 Muslims. But before most of the faithful arrived for Morning Prayer, it was discovered that someone had scattered a quantity of raw bacon on the field. “This has been determined to be a bias event on the part of our Hate Crimes Task Force,” NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly said. “On a website associated with this celebration was some derogatory comments and at the site itself, three packages of raw bacon were found,” Kelly added. Followers of Islam are forbidden to eat pork. Even before the bacon was located, someone left offensive messages on the organization’s website. “…That he or she was going to do something with a fat pig right at the time of morning prayer,” said Hesham El-Meligy of the Islamic Civic Association of Staten Island. “The statement came from someone who identified himself as ’007Midland,’” Kelly said. “Obviously, we’re conducting an investigation to determine who put the message on the website.” Personally, I think we would be a lot better off if the NYPD ignored nonsense like this and instead spent more time going after real criminals such as Muslim terrorists.

Finally some sanity from Newsweek

Apparently even some on the left think that Obama should go:

Blacks were 62% of New York City's murder victims in 2011, even though they are only 23% of the population and also made up a disproportionate share of the city's criminals, committing 80% of all shootings, nearly 70% of all robberies and 66% of all violent crime

Whites, on the other hand, committed a little over 1% of all shootings, less than 5% of all robberies, and 5% of all violent crime in 2011, even though they are 35% of New York City's population.

At the university level, introversion predicts academic performance better than cognitive ability

Extroverts get better grades than introverts during elementary school, but introverts outperform extroverts in high school and college. At the university level, introversion predicts academic performance better than cognitive ability. Introverts receive disproportionate numbers of graduate degrees, National Merit Scholarship finalist positions, and Phi Beta Kappa keys. They outperform extroverts on the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal test, an assessment of critical thinking widely used by businesses for hiring and promotion.

How smart are the Chinese?

Anatoly Karlin says that China's average IQ is around 102.

A forensic psychiatrist says that a Brooklyn rabbi accused in a murder-for-hire plot is faking symptoms of mental illness to avoid a trial

Victor Koltun is awaiting trial on charges that he hired a pair of felons to kill a former policeman and his nephew. At a court hearing, psychiatrist Alan Tuckman testified that Koltun was malingering. He said that during one evaluation, the rabbi appeared to be faking symptoms of mania, psychosis and memory problems. The two men Koltun is accused of having killed were found shot to death inside an abandoned building.

A jailed sex offender in Ireland has brought a High Court challenge against prison authorities to compel them to meet his kosher dietary demands

At Dublin’s High Court, Ivan Peter Gan, aka Peter Ivan Dunne, sought to bring judicial review proceedings against the Governor of Arbour Hill Prison, the Prison Services, and the Minister for Justice, ordering them to provide him with kosher food. Gan, who is originally from England and who converted to Judaism several years ago, complained to the court that prison authorities were not complying with his kosher dietary "needs". He is serving a five-year jail term in Ireland after he was convicted in Kilkenny Circuit Criminal Court of having sex with a mentally impaired woman in 2001 while working in the city. He fled to England, but was extradited to Ireland in 2009. Gan previously brought up his dietary requests to an English court in 2009 to oppose his extradition on human rights grounds claiming that Irish prison authorities would not provide him with food free from onions, which he is allergic to. Apparently, you can be a good Jew even though you molest the mentally impaired as long as you eat the right foods.

The lower house of Australia’s Parliament has passed sweeping changes in immigration policy that are meant to deter asylum seekers who try to reach the country by the thousands each year on rickety, overcrowded ships and boats

In a major reversal, the measures would reopen a chain of offshore detention centers that the Labor government of Prime Minister Julia Gillard had largely abandoned when it came to power in 2007.

A twin study has shown that hair is, on average, lighter-colored in women than in men, with red hair being especially more frequent in females

Women also show greater variation in hair color. This may mean that selection has acted more strongly on European women than on European men to diversify the palette of human hair colors.

African witchcraft and child abuse in Britain

The Daily Mail reports on the barbaric rituals that Africans and other non-whites are bringing to Britain.

Stupid people are simply far, far more likely to be criminals than more intelligent people

Anatoly Karlin has an interesting take on IQ and crime.

New Black Panther leader wants to skin white people

And liberals wonder why white people don't like blacks.

Chlamydia rates in California

The rates were highest for men and women between 20 and 24 years old, with the exception of African American women, with whom the highest rate is women between 15 and 19 years old.

Black and Latino students were arrested in 95% of the 882 total arrests in city schools in 2011, while blacks and Latinos make up about 71% of the city’s student body of about a million pupils

Nearly three-quarters of the students arrested were male. Of course, liberals will say that it was racist that so many of the arrested were racial minorities but I doubt that few will say that it was sexist that so many were male.

Selfish Obama won't even help his brother or his nephew

Dinesh D'Souza on the real Barack Obama:

A few days ago I received a call from a man I recently met named George. He was a bit flustered, and soon informed me that his young son was sick with a chest condition. He pleaded with me to send him $1,000 to cover the medical bills. Since George was at the hospital I asked him to let me speak to a nurse, and she confirmed that George’s son was indeed ill. So I agreed to send George the money through Western Union. He was profusely grateful. But before I hung up I asked George, “Why are you coming to me?” He said, “I have no one else to ask.” Then he said something that astounded me, “Dinesh, you are like a brother to me.” Actually, George has a real life brother who just happens to be the president of the United States. (George Obama is the youngest of eight children sired by Barack Obama Sr.) George’s brother is a multimillionaire and the most powerful man in the world. Moreover, George’s brother has framed his re-election campaign around the “fair share” theme that we owe obligations to those who are less fortunate. One of Obama’s favorite phrases comes right out of the Bible: “We are our brother’s keeper.” Yet he has not contributed a penny to help his own brother. And evidently George does not believe, even in times of emergency, that he can turn to his brother in the White House for help. So much for spreading the wealth around. Obama’s refusal to help George is especially surprising because George doesn’t just live in American-style poverty but rather in Third World poverty. He lives in a shanty in the Huruma slum in Nairobi. He gets by on a few dollars a month. Obama also has an aunt named Hawa Auma, his father’s sister, who ekes out a living selling coal on the streets of a small village in Kenya. She says she would like to have her teeth fixed, but she cannot afford it. Obama hasn’t offered to help her either. What’s going on here? Why is President Obama so hesitant to help family members in need?

Obama likes to spread other people's wealth around but not his own.

The population-weighted average unemployment rate in states with Republican governors is 7.6% while the number for states with Democratic governors in 8.8%

In other words, you are more likely to be unemployed if you live in a state with a Democratic governor.

Close to 90% of states saw their unemployment rates rise in July 2012

The Labor Department has reported that 44 states in all saw their jobless rate go up, with four states seeing no change at all. Only Idaho and Rhode Island — along with Washington, D.C. — saw their rates drop in July 2012. Nevada, which continues to have the highest unemployment rate in the country, saw its rate jump back to 12%, up from June 2012’s 11.6%. New Hampshire (now 5.4%), Pennsylvania (7.9%) and Wisconsin (7.3%) each saw rises of 0.3 percentage points.

Pro-gay activist shoots security guard at conservative group

Jewish media largely downplays it.

A prominent Saudi Arabian Islamic cleric has said that Jewish people consume the blood of children during a wide-ranging interview with an Arabic television station

Saudi cleric Salman Al-Odeh, a well-known scholar revered by millions of Muslims globally, went on a lengthy tirade against the Jews during an interview in which he stated that the role of the Jews is to wreak destruction, to wage war, and to practice deception and extortion.

Deceased homosexual Gore Vidal defended Jewish pedophile Roman Polanski

He actually called Polanski's 13-year-old victim "a young hooker". Burn in Hell, Vidal, it is where you belong.

The San Francisco Police Department has underreported the arrest rates of the city's two largest minority groups for years, misclassifying Latino arrestees as "white" and Asian arrestees as “other"

According to the reported data, African Americans are arrested at a much higher rate than whites. But by misclassifying Latinos, the department has inflated the number of whites arrested, indicating that the gap between the arrest rates for whites and blacks is even wider. In San Francisco, African Americans make up 6% of the population but account for 40% of all arrests.

Gallup survey: Only 23% of Americans say that they are satisfied with the way things are going in the country while 75% are dissatisfied

The current level of satisfaction is now similar to what it was in early August 1992 (17%), prior to George H.W. Bush's re-election defeat. It is significantly lower than what it was in mid-August 1996 (38%) and mid-August 2004 (44%), years in which incumbents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, respectively, were re-elected. Economic growth has never been weaker in a postwar recovery. Consumer spending has never been so slack. Only once has job growth been slower. The economy shed a staggering 8.8 million jobs during and shortly after the recession. Since employment hit bottom, the economy has created just over 4 million jobs. So the new hiring has replaced 46% of the lost jobs, by far the worst performance since World War II. In the previous eight recoveries, the economy had regained more than 350% of the jobs lost, on average.

Long after they were ordered out of the country, thousands of criminal aliens from places like China, Cuba, Vietnam and Pakistan remain free in the United States to commit new crimes because their home countries refuse to take them back

For years, this unique problem percolated under the political radar. But recent crimes by immigrant felons have lawmakers scrambling to punish nations that refuse to repatriate their own citizens. The Obama administration and many Democrats in Congress, however, are blocking punitive legislation, preferring to let the State Department handle the issue diplomatically. Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, is leading the charge in Congress to change the law, pushing to withhold visas to nations that refuse to take back their own. Under a 2001 Supreme Court decision, U.S. immigration officials are only permitted to hold someone for six months after their incarceration. So when a home nation refuses to take back their national, the United States is required to release them - no matter what they've done. The issue recently came to Poe's attention after three especially heinous crimes were committed by men ordered deported years ago. In June 2012, a judge sentenced 22-year-old Shafiqul Islam, a Bangladeshi national, for the murder of 73-year-old Lois Decker. "This man was a dangerous criminal," said Hudson New York District Attorney Paul Czajka. "He should not have been in the United States. At the very least, he should have been in detention." Islam murdered Decker after serving a year for sexually assaulting a child. After his release from prison, a judge ordered Islam deported. Bangladesh, however, refused to take him back. Because of the 2001 high court ruling, Islam stayed in the country. More than 50,000 criminal alien immigrants ordered deported remain in the United States. Those nations with the highest numbers, in order, are: Cuba, China, India, Pakistan and Vietnam.

A staggering 51% of those who graduated from college since 2006 don't have a full-time job

Ironically, these are the same voters who mobbed the polls for Obama in 2008, giving him a significant part of his winning margin. A whopping 66% of voters under 30 gave Obama their votes in 2008, making the disparity between young voters and other age groups larger than in any presidential election since exit polling began in 1972. But now, four years older, many of them have entered their 30s, and a full 50% say that Obama has failed to change the way Washington works. The under-40 generations who were sold on Obama's brand of hope now face a frightening future by just about every economic measure. Many live according to a month-to-month mentality, afraid to make even the smallest economic commitment, because they fear losing a job, or never finding one. Will they be foolish enough to vote for Obama again in November 2012?

Six Jewish companies own 96% of the world’s media

The directors of the three largest media conglomerates, Walt Disney, Time Warner and Viacom, are Jews; as were the three largest TV channels ABC, CBS and NBC before they joined the conglomerates.

A female Belgian politician of Moroccan origin accused Jewish men in Antwerp of harassing females and behaving like machos

“In Brussels, women get harassed on the street and get called names,” Fatima Bali, 46, said. “Our city has the same problem, and it’s always Arabs and Jews who do this.” Bali, a well-known political figure and member of the Green Left Party, was the first Muslim member of Antwerp’s City Council.

A Belgian woman who made a film about being harassed on the streets of Brussels has been accused of racism because the men she secretly recorded pestering her are of immigrant origin

The fact that these immigrant men have such a low opinion of women seems to be unimportant to the politically-correct critics.

A 20-year-old black man attempted to rape his grandmother after complaining to her that he could not get a girlfriend

Samuel Dye beat his grandmother with a hammer before launching the sex attack. He had complained about not being able to find a girlfriend and told her he was going to get some. Police said that Dye's assault was stopped by his father after he heard the screams of his 61-year-old mother. He found his son on top of his mother with his trousers pulled down and hitting her in the head with a hammer. The father pulled his son away and detained him until police arrived. The attack took place after Dye turned up at his grandmother's home in Chester, South Carolina. Dye is being held at the Chester County Detention Center having been charged with attempted murder and attempted sexual contact.

A Latino has pleaded guilty to killing his girlfriend's 21-month-old daughter

Victor Noriega, 29, has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the May 2011 death of Danielle Martinez. Noriega is scheduled to be sentenced on September 7, 2012 and faces between 10 and 22 years in prison. Authorities found the child not breathing and without a pulse. She was later pronounced dead at a hospital. The girl's mother wasn't at home at the time. Police say that Noriega was the only person with the girl at the time of the incident. An investigation revealed that the girl had suffered internal trauma that day, in addition to serious injuries in the past consistent with continuous child abuse.

There has been no recovery since the theoretical ending of the recession in June 2009

The most dismaying signal of a weakening economy came from the American consumer, as retail sales fell a stunning 0.5% in June 2012, far below the expectation for a 0.2% increase. An astounding 70% of retailers missed their sales targets in June 2012, reflecting the most difficult month since November 2009. The retail weakness was broad-based, and indicators were down dramatically from the first quarter, as June 2012 represented the third month in a row that retail sales have weakened. In the past when retail sales were down three consecutive months, it was a signal of an oncoming recession. The result is that the underlying trend in GDP growth is barely above 1%. Fifty percent of the jobs created since the recession have been part time, which generally means that these workers receive no benefits and that their pay is inadequate to enter the middle class. All the net jobs created during the Obama administration have been part-time jobs. An estimated 35 million Americans are trapped in jobs they would have left in better times. Fewer Americans are working today than in 2000, despite the fact that our population has grown by 31 million and our labor force by 11.4 million since then. The unemployment rate under Obama has averaged over 9%. Under George W. Bush, his predecessor, the jobless rate averaged 5.3% and was at 6.8% in the month his party lost the 2008 election. Job seekers are only one third as likely to find a job as before Obama was elected. A record number have been out of work for over six months. Hiring plans have sunk to the lowest reading since the third quarter of 2009, and only 26% of American companies plan to boost their compensation, the lowest since the depth of the last recession. The great American dream is no longer a house in the suburbs. It is now a secure job and any job will do. Can Obama persuade voters to let him keep his job when so many of them have lost theirs?

A San Diego police sergeant has warned underage Irish J-1 students not to venture across the Mexican border for nights out

Irish students, some as young as 18-years, are venturing across the border to the city of Tijuana where they are being targeted by criminals. Over 500 homicides occurred in the city in 2011 alone, making it the fifth most deadly year in Tijuana’s crime history. Sgt JJ Salinas, a member of the border crime suppression team in southern San Diego said that muggings and kidnappings are common, especially when revelers leave busy nightclubs in the early hours of the morning. “Sometimes people are naive in that they don’t recognize the high level of violence that’s occurring right now in Mexico,” he said. He added: “There have been incidents where people were taken to an ATM and forced to take out all their money.” According to the US Bureau of Diplomatic Security’s website, visitors traveling in border areas have been victims of armed robberies, sexual assaults, auto thefts, and kidnappings.

Since 2008, more than 530 people under the age of 21 have been killed in Chicago and virtually all the perpetrators were black or Hispanic

Nationally, the picture is no better. The homicide rate among males between the ages of 14 and 17 is nearly ten times higher for blacks than for whites and Hispanics combined. During the 2009–10 school year, the rate at which schools that were over 50% minority reported gang activity was five times as high as the rate at schools where minorities constituted 5% to 20% of the population. More than 11 times as many schools in the first category as in the second reported widespread weekly disorder in classrooms; more than four times as many reported weekly verbal abuse of teachers.

Obama's America: Black male unemployment is 14.8%

The black male unemployment rate has now been over 10% for 49 consecutive months. That 10% figure is for men who are in the labor market and actively seeking work. It doesn’t include, for example, the 5% of black men who are currently in jail. The black female unemployment rate is 11.5% and has now been over 10% for 42 consecutive months.

Hispanic wants white people put in internment camps

Of course if white people were put into internment camps who would be around to pay the taxes that support the welfare, food stamps, Medicaid and public housing that so many black and Hispanics are dependent on? Ironically, if white people were put into internment camps, they would quickly become the best places in America to live. In a way, gated communities could be seen as white internment camps.

The Obama brothers

Barack Obama's half-brother George lives in a notorious African slum. George Obama has battled addictions to drink and drugs - such as cocaine, heroin and marijuana - for most of his life. The two men may share the same father, but while Barack Obama was born to his father’s American second wife, George — born in Kenya — was the product of Obama Senior’s fourth marriage. Barack Obama would probably be living a similar life to that of his brother if it wasn't for the fact that he was raised by his white grandparents.

Jackson County prosecutors have accused an 18-year-old black man of beating and raping an elderly woman after the victim and her husband interrupted a burglary in their Kansas City home

Prosecutors have charged African-American Tony L. Putman of Kansas City with forcible rape, felonious restraint, tampering, resisting arrest and two counts of robbery. Police arrested Putman and three others in the couple’s stolen vehicle shortly after the crime. The 93-year-old husband and his 84-year-old wife reported the attack about 1:15 p.m. in the 7300 block of Campbell Street. The husband was taking a nap when an intruder barged into his bedroom. The intruder hit him in the face and bound him with belts. The wife arrived home from running errands, saw the intruder coming down their staircase and heard her husband moaning upstairs. The intruder bound the wife’s hands with a belt and demanded money. She gave him $5 from her pocket but he said that it wasn’t enough. He forced her downstairs, where she gave him $400 she had just withdrawn from the bank. The intruder then forced her into a bedroom, where he raped her on a twin bed. When he was finished, he pushed the victim to the floor and fled in their vehicle.

Britain: Two evil South Asian brothers face long jail terms after they were convicted of grooming schoolgirls for sex and selling them as prostitutes

Ahdel Ali, 24, groomed a 13-year-old girl from the day he met her and later raped her. He also had sex with two other 15-year-old girls who he later pimped out with his brother Murbarek Ali, 29. A court heard that the teenagers were driven to the rear of a shop and forced to climb through a window because they were white girls. Murbarek got one of them to have sex with two restaurant workers when she was four months pregnant. The brothers links with South Asian restaurants and fast food shops provided them with a network of punters who paid £20 to £50 for sex, Stafford Crown Court heard. The girls, from Telford, Shropshire, regularly failed to attend school or went missing from home and were easy prey for the brothers, who are both married. The pair controlled their victims by offering them lifts and mobile phone top-ups, urging them to drink vodka and smoke cannabis and giving them cigarettes and food.

In 2011, 60% of black teens said that they have had sex

For all races and ethnic groups, 47% of teenagers in 2011 said that they have had sex. The data also showed that in 2011, 25% of black teenagers who were sexually active have had four or more sexual partners.

A new national survey indicates that the number of Americans who say that things are going badly in the country is on the rise, as a growing number of people believe that economic conditions are getting worse

Only 36% of Americans are optimistic about how things are going in the country. And 63% of Americans say that things are going poorly. Only 19% of people say that the economy is starting to recover. The number who say that the economy is still in a downturn is 39%.

Australia doesn't believe in free speech

Facebook is under pressure in Australia to take down a page that insults Aborigines with the government accusing the social networking company of using its U.S. base to avoid Australian anti-discrimination laws. Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said that his office had called on Facebook's Sydney office to take the page down. Conroy said that the creator of the page, whom he believed was a 16-year-old Australian living in the west coast city of Perth, was getting around Australian anti-discrimination laws through U.S. guarantees of free speech. "We don't live by American laws here in Australia; we live by Australian laws and this is an Australian who is using the fact that Facebook is based in the U.S. to get away from Australian laws," Conroy told Australian Broadcasting Corp. television. "Facebook should take this site down," he added. The controversy comes after Australia's advertising watchdog ruled that companies were responsible for comments left on their Facebook pages by members of the public. The ruling has far-reaching consequences for companies' use of social media and raises questions about the culpability of enterprises outside Australia that inadvertently breach Australian laws via the Internet.

Timothy Douglas, the estranged father of black Olympic superstar Gabby Douglas, has broken his silence following a string of revealing reports about his parenting

Douglas visited London, but did not witness any sport as his daughter refused to offer him, or his family tickets to the competition. As Gabby Douglas was training hard for her future Olympic victory in London, her father was getting into trouble with the law. Douglas, an Air National Guardsman, was arrested on March 8, 2012 for contributing to the delinquency of a child. Little is known about Douglas' life apart from his estranged wife Natalie Hawkins, and since the documents are sealed, the identity of his victim may be related to a family friend or even a new girlfriend. Gabby has spoken out about her father at length following her first place finish in the women's all-around competition. She said that he abandoned her mother and her three siblings at an early age, leaving the family to struggle financially for years. The news of the arrest comes just days after U.S. gold-medal-winning gymnast Gabby Douglas slammed her father as a deadbeat dad, claiming he left her mother with mountains of bills. The 16-year-old - who failed in her final bid to win a medal after she fell off the balance beam - said that her father, Staff Sergeant Timothy Douglas, who served for the Air National Guard in Afghanistan, abandoned her and her three older siblings years ago and rarely paid child support. It left her mother, Natalie Hawkins, struggling to provide for Gabby, her two older sisters and brother - and often got the gymnast so down that she considered quitting her Olympics dream. Even after winning two gold medals - the individual and team titles - she revealed that she had not been in touch with him, though he resided in a home just 10 miles away from her mother's Virginia Beach property. Hawkins battled to raise the money to support her daughter's dreams and identifies as a single mother. Earlier in 2012, with debts nearing $80,000, she filed for bankruptcy.

Mexican authorities have found an abandoned van containing 14 bodies along a highway in the central city San Luis Potosi

The victims - all men - appeared to have been kidnapped and killed, said Gabriela Gonzalez Chong, a spokeswoman for San Luis Potosi state prosecutors. Investigators believe that the men were kidnapped in the northern border state of Coahuila, she said. "Everything points to this being an incidence of organized crime," she said.

U.S. authorities have extradited one of the most high-profile women accused of connections with Mexico's drug trade

Mexican police have handed over Sandra Avila Beltran, known as "The Queen of the Pacific," to U.S. marshals at an airport in central Mexico, Mexico's Attorney General's Office said in a statement. She will face cocaine trafficking charges in a federal court in Florida, prosecutors said. Avila was once a key drug trafficking link between Colombia and Mexico, prosecutors have said. She was arrested in Mexico City on September 28, 2007, smiling before cameras as authorities trumpeted her detention. Since then, her life has been the subject of a best-selling book and a popular ballad. "The more beautiful the rose, the sharper the thorns," says one line in "The Queen of Queens," Los Tigres del Norte's song describing Avila. Her eye-catching nickname has regularly made headlines as Mexico's case against her made its way through the nation's courts. A judge convicted her on money laundering charges, but ruled that Mexican prosecutors didn't provide enough evidence to convict her of drug trafficking. For more than two years, Avila has tried to block a U.S. extradition request. A Mexican judge ruled that she could be extradited in June 2012. According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Avila was suspected of conspiring to smuggle cocaine into the U.S. along with Juan Diego Espinosa, a Colombian national who was also known as "The Tiger." U.S. authorities extradited Espinosa from Mexico in 2008.

Marin County, California has one of the highest rates of breast cancer in the world, a fact that scientists know has nothing to do with the land itself but with some other, unknown factor

A new study that analyzed mouth buccal cell samples stored frozen at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) suggests what this factor may be: a genetic trait present among women within the county's predominantly white population. Scientists found that, in a small, retrospective pilot study involving buccal cells from 338 women living in Marin, slight variations within the DNA of a human gene for vitamin D receptor were associated with breast cancer risk. Researchers found that women who were at high risk for breast cancer were 1.9 times more likely to have a specific vitamin D receptor variation than the general population.

Hermansky-Pudlak Syndrome, a rare genetic disease whose most common symptoms are albinism, bleeding disorders, gastrointestinal difficulties and sometimes fatal pulmonary fibrosis is most prevalent in people of Puerto Rican descent, and one in every 1,800 Puerto Rico natives carries the HPS gene

Another interesting fact about this group is that as of 2010, Connecticut had the highest percentage of Puerto Rican-American residents of any state, at 7.1%, and the city of Hartford has a thriving Hispanic population — about 45% — many of whom are Puerto Rican-American.

Blacks, whites and the Olympics

Black men have dominated the sprints again. All the finalists in the 100m were black, as they have been at every Olympic final for more than a quarter of a century. The past 25 holders of the world record for the 100m have been black and data compiled in 2007 revealed that 494 of the 500 best-ever 100m times were recorded by black athletes. The 200m will doubtless be won by a black man, too. Usain Bolt is the hot favourite and Yohan Blake, his countryman from Jamaica, could take silver, as he did in the 100m. Christophe Lemaitre, of France, who qualified for the final with a time of 20.03, is, perhaps, the only white man in with a possibility of making the top five. And even that is a long shot. The preponderance of blacks in the sprints led to a curious exchange on the BBC on the night of the 100m final. Allan Wells was asked to describe his emotions when he won the Olympic 100m final in Moscow in 1980. The Scot started a sentence, reconsidered, started once more, and then paused again. If he had been as indecisive on the start line, he would not have made the final. Eventually he said: "Well, that was the last time a white man was in the Olympic final. And I managed to win it as well."

Lincoln wanted to free the black slaves and return them to their African homeland

If Abraham Lincoln were alive today he would probably be denounced as a racist.

Joe Soptic and Barack Obama

Did Mitt Romney really cause the death of Joe Soptic's wife?

A new Gallup poll shows that Utah is the most pleasant state in the United States to live in

More than half a million Americans were asked to assess the states using a range of metrics from availability of good jobs to workplace relations to standard of living to optimism about the future, health, and education quality. Utah does best in part because it is among the top two best-performing states for low smoking habits, ease of finding clean and safe water, having supervisors who treat workers like a partner rather than a boss, learning something new or interesting on any given day, and perceptions that your city or area are “getting better” rather than “getting worse.”