- Welcome back to everyone’s favorite fake medical bigot.
Yes, it’s time for “Grey’s Anatomy” to welcome back none other than Isaiah Washington,
who was infamously fired from the ABC drama seven years ago for making anti-gay
comments to his co-star T.R. Knight. So has ABC decided that Knight has paid
the price for his sins and earned a second chance? Is there a storyline about
tolerance and forgiveness that he will play a central role in? Umm….no. His
character, Preston Burke, is involved in the plotline of another character,
Cristina Yang, played by the departing Sandra Oh. In order to give Oh the
send-off she deserves, show runner Shonda Rhimes decided that it was necessary
to bring Washington back for a one-off appearance. "It's important to me
that Cristina's journey unfolds exactly as it should," showrunner Rhimes
said in a statement. "Burke is vital to that journey -- he gives her story
that full-circle moment we need to properly say goodbye to our beloved Cristina
Yang." Not only did Washington unleash an ugly and memorable gay slur to
his co-star, he also used one backstage at the 2007 Golden Globes. Afterward,
he expressed the appropriate amount of public contrition for his sins by doing
a public service announcement in the aftermath of the controversy.
"I unbelievably regret that. I wish I could take that back," Knight
said at that time of his hate speech. "If I could take that moment back...
I would." Yes, he would take it back because it took a blowtorch to his
career and made him look like a hateful piece of crap who had a dark heart and
no awareness of what a bigot he was…….
- Who’s a big fan of malaria? If that sounds like your
particular brand of fun and suffering, then keep cheering for global warming
and everyone doing their part to heat our planet up. According to a new study
led by Menno
Bouma, an honorary clinical lecturer at the London School of Hygiene &
Tropical Medicine, future global warming could lead to a significant increase
in malaria cases in densely populated regions of Africa and South America - unless
disease monitoring and control efforts are increased, that is. Bouma led a
joint team of researchers from Britain and the United States in a study of the
mosquito-born disease that infects around 220 million people a year and found what
they characterized as the first hard evidence that malaria creeps to higher
elevations during warmer years and back down to lower altitudes when
temperatures cool. This "suggests that with progressive global warming,
malaria will creep up the mountains and spread to new high-altitude
areas," Bouma said. People living in these areas have no protective
immunity because they are not used to being exposed to malaria, meaning they
would be particularly vulnerable to more severe and fatal cases of infection. According
to figures provided by the World Health Organization, malaria infected around
219 million people in 2010, killing around 660,000 of them. Most of those
deaths occurred in sub-Saharan Africa, but accurate totals are difficult to
compile in poor communities in rural areas of developing countries. Bouma's
study reached back more than 20 years to when his school first collected data
on malaria and climate in the Debre Zeit area of central Ethiopia. Malaria is
closely linked to climate change because both the Plasmodium parasites that
cause it and the Anopheles mosquitoes that spread it thrive as temperatures
warm, Bouma explained. Experts hope that mosquito-control efforts and
socio-economic improvements in such regions could alleviate many concerns and because
this study was limited to two countries on two continents, its findings are not
necessarily an irrefutable prognostication of doom……
- Ruh-roh, France. This does not seem like positive news.
For the rest of the world, it could be a lot of fun to see the unfolding of a potentially
explosive state scandal involving telephones belonging to former President
Nicolas Sarkozy being bugged by judges investigating his alleged financial
links with the late Libyan dictator Moammar Gaddafi. News of the alleged phone
tapping broke just two days after it emerged that dozens of Sarkozy’s private
conversations while in office had been recorded by a right-wing political
adviser. The first alleged tapping scandal was immediately tagged with the
unsightly moniker “Sarkotapes” and the second, possibly wider-reaching, is
expected to have far-reaching political, legal and constitutional implications
for both Sarkozy and the present center-left French government. Already,
Sarkozy supporters are accusing the government yesterday of “quasi-Soviet”
behavior despite the fact that nvestigating magistrates are independent of
political control. The supposed bugging of Sarkozy’s phone began in April of
last year and reportedly uncovered alleged attempts by the former president and
his lawyer to obtain secret information on the inner workings of France’s
highest appeal court, the Cour de Cassation. Sarkozy is suspected of attempting
to obtain a cushy retirement post in Monaco for one of the most senior judges
in the court in exchange for confidential information. Investigators in the
case raided the offices and home of Sarkozy’s lawyer, Thierry Herzog, on
Thursday along with the chambers within the Cour de Cassation of Gilbert
Azibert, the judge suspected of passing information to the Sarkozy
administration. An official investigation is underway into alleged “influence
peddling” and “breach of judicial secrecy.” Herzog has accused the police of trampling
on constitutional freedoms to “persecute” his client for political reasons……
- Crisis is on the sports horizon, America. A potential
disaster is in the offing and the theme is a familiar one for sports fans in
the United States. A professional sports league is preparing for the start of
its season and its regular officials are not going to be on hand for it. The
one key difference this time is that approximately 17 people not employed by
this particular league will actually give a damn about replacement referees
possibly screwing up the outcome of games. When the NFL turned to replacement
refs in 2012, the result was a near-riot thanks to mangled penalty calls, blown
replay decisions and general incompetence that left fans, media and owners
alike pining for the regular refs. Now that the shoe is on Major League
Soccer’s foot, the significance is much smaller. As MLS begins its season this
weekend with
replacement referees after an impasse between the league's referees and their
employer, the Professional Referees Organization, let’s just say the American
sporting public is not exactly hitting the panic button with a sledgehammer. MLS
and PRO said the lockout of referees belonging to the Professional Soccer
Referees Association took effect at 11 a.m. on Friday. "Although it is
regrettable that the Professional Soccer Referees Association rejected PRO’s
offer to continue with the current referees while negotiations continue, we
have great confidence in the plan for replacement referees that PRO has put in
place," said Mark Abbott, MLS president and deputy commissioner. The two
sides have been working on a collective bargaining agreement since last year,
but both sides seem willfully ignorant of the fact that their sport doesn’t
really matter and they should just accept whatever paltry sum of money is on
the table and get back to it before they burn bridges with the zeroes and
zeroes of fans whose lives revolve around the league. The union voted last
month 64-1 to authorize its board to call a strike whenever it deemed it to be
appropriate and is also pursuing a bad faith bargaining claim against the
league through the National Labor Relations Board. According to the league, the
replacement referees will come from a group that includes FIFA referees who
have moved to North America from overseas, retired MLS referees, and referees
from other professional leagues in the United States. Those replacement
referees attended a training camp last week, so you know they are thoroughly
prepared for what lies ahead…….
- Way to take a cue ball and a sock to the American dream,
Florida
Supreme Court. The justices of the court have successfully squashed the dream
of a Tampa immigrant who wanted to practice law in Florida and had seemingly
gone through all of the necessary steps. Jose Godinez-Samperio graduated from
Florida State's law school, passed the bar exam and its moral character test,
but his immigration status is the one hurdle this border crasher could not
overcome. Following a lengthy legal battle, the state’s highest court delivered
a solid legal left hand to the jaw, KO’ing Godinez-Samperio and leaving him at
a loss. "Mostly frustration at the ineptitude of President Obama and the
federal congress," he said of his feelings after hearing the news. Godinez-Samperio's
parent brought him to the United States from Mexico at the age of 9, they could
not abide by the laws of their new home country, overstayed their visas and
never returned after they were booted. In 2012, Godinez-Samperio was granted
re-entry under President Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, better
known as the Dream Act. He received a social security number, a driver's
license and a work permit, but that wasn’t enough for this Mexican moocher. "He
issued the policy saying I could get a work permit and he's OK with me working
construction and doing whatever, but doing legal work - that's a problem for
Obama," Godinez-Samperio said. In announcing the court’s ruling, Justice
Jorge Labarga, who is Cuban born, wrote that he "reluctantly" agreed
to deny Godinez-Smaperio admission to the bar based on his immigration status
"only because the present state of federal and Florida law compels me to
reach such an inequitable conclusion." Faced with this stark reality, Godinez-Samperio
plans to lobby lawmakers to change the law that forbids him from practicing his
desired trade. "I'm still hoping to practice law. This is not the end
because we're going to go to the Florida legislature,” he said. Whatever you
say, amigo……
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