South Park creator Matt Stone on the ever-expanding boundaries of comedy

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South Park creator Matt Stone on the ever-expanding boundaries of comedy

3 Male Lions Eating a Screaming Warthog - Kruger National park

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3 Male Lions Eating a Screaming Warthog - Kruger National park

Feds Treated Senior Citizens Like Terrorists During National Park Shutdown

“Gestapo tactics” used to place tourists under armed guard

Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
October 8, 2013

Feds used “gestapo tactics” to treat senior citizens like terrorists during the shutdown of Yellowstone National park, placing them under armed guard in a locked hotel as panicked tourists thought they had been arrested, vowing never to return to America.

Image: National Park Service.

Pat Vaillancourt was part of a tour group of senior citizen visitors from Japan, Australia, Canada and the United States who were in Yellowstone national park when the government shutdown was announced last week.

When the party briefly exited their tour bus to take photos of a herd of bison, they were aggressively ordered by armed National Park Service rangers to get back in the vehicle on the grounds that they were involved in “recreation,” and that this wasn’t permitted during the shutdown.

The group had booked to stay in a hotel within the park, which soon turned into a prison as the visitors were told to remain in the building until their stay expired, despite the fact that the tour guide had already paid the $ 300 fee to enter the park.

“We’ve become a country of fear, guns and control,” Vaillancourt told the Eagle-Tribune, adding “They looked like Hulk Hogans, armed. They told us you can’t go outside.”

The tourists were placed under armed guard and locked inside the hotel as NPS rangers stood outside the doors.

Asian tourists visiting from more authoritarian countries thought they had been placed under arrest.

“Some of the Asians who were on the tour said, ‘Oh my God, are we under arrest?’ They felt like they were criminals,” said Vaillancourt.

When the tour bus was leaving the park, it was also prevented from stopping at a full service rest room on the way out, which had been threatened with having its license revoked if it allowed the bus to stop there.

Vaillancourt said her father, who had spent 3 years in a Japanese prisoner of war camp, “always said to stand up for what you believe in, and don’t let them push you around,” but that she was now embarrassed, angry and heartbroken for her country as a result of her experience.

Tour guide Gordon Hodgson accused the park service of using “gestapo tactics” to intimidate the seniors.

“The national parks belong to the people,” he told the Livingston Enterprise. “This isn’t right.”

Hodgson added that the foreign tourists vowed never to return to America after the treatment they received.

The incident is yet another example of how the federal government is exploiting the government shut down to punish American citizens as part of a political ploy to make them blame Republicans for the situation.

Last week, an unnamed park services official told the Washington Times that they had been ordered to, “make life as difficult for people as we can. It’s disgusting.”

Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/paul.j.watson.71
FOLLOW Paul Joseph Watson @ https://twitter.com/PrisonPlanet

*********************

Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Infowars.com and Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a host for Infowars Nightly News.

This article was posted: Tuesday, October 8, 2013 at 9:26 am

Tags: domestic news, police state

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Infowars

Feds Treated Senior Citizens Like Terrorists During National Park Shutdown

Park rangers ordered to keep visitors out of privately run businesses...

The National Park Service has closed privately run marinas, restaurants and inns throughout the country and in some cases even posted guards to keep people from using them during the government shutdown, arguing that it doesn’t have the money, manpower or authority to let them operate.

But the moves, which likely have thrown thousands of people out of work, are drawing scrutiny from Congress and don’t rest well with many voters who believe the administration is making the effects of the shutdown worse than necessary.

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SEE ALSO: Debt fight to escalate shutdown showdown; Boehner attaches Obamacare strings

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On Friday, the Pisgah Inn on the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina decided it would buck the Park Service’s order and remain open — only to find park rangers come and block the driveway to the inn to prevent anyone from entering. The parkway itself remained open, but the administration said all concessions in national parks must shut.

“I’m questioning their authority to shut me,” Pisgah Inn owner Bruce O’Connell told The Washington Times on Friday as he fought to stay open.

Several congressional committees have said they would look into the Park Service’s decisions, accusing the Obama administration of trying to make the shutdown as painful as possible for Americans.

In the meantime, Americans across the country have embraced the chance to flout the closures as a defiant act of civil disobedience.

The Internet has been flooded with photos of people going around traffic cones and vehicle barricades to get to parking lots, bicycle paths and hiking trails.

Still, campgrounds, ski areas and basic services have been closed at all parks, the monuments the Park Service runs in Washington have been barricaded, and rangers are doing their best to keep folks away.

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SEE ALSO: Treasury Secretary Jack Lew: Obama can’t stop default if debt ceiling is hit

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In Philadelphia, the park closures have shuttered the City Tavern.

On Cape Cod, the Nauset Knoll Motor Lodge is closed.

But not all private companies on park land have been shut down. Two high-profile places in San Francisco, the Argonaut Hotel in San Francisco Maritime National Park and Cavallo Point, a luxury hotel in Golden Gate National Park, are open.

The Park Service says those are operating under lease agreements rather than as concessions, which means they are allowed to stay open.

“Concessions operations are required to close; leases are permitted to remain open,” Mike Litterst, a spokesman for the parks, said in an email to The Washington Times.

The discrepancies are difficult for some to understand.

One man wondered why Skyline Drive, the road running through Shenandoah National Park, was closed but the Blue Ridge Parkway remained open.

Drudge Report Feed

Park rangers ordered to keep visitors out of privately run businesses...

Chicago grieves horrific park shooting

Semecha Nunn, the grandmother of a 3-yearold shot in the face during a basketball game on Chicago’s South Side, makes an emotional plea for the violence to stop in her neighborhood.

By Elizabeth Chuck and Alexander Smith, NBC News

The grandmother of a 3-year-old who was among 13 people injured in a shooting Thursday night in Chicago made a tearful plea Friday for an end to gun violence in her city.

“It needs to stop. It needs to stop,” Semecha Nunn told reporters the day after a gunman with an assault rifle opened fire at a basketball court on Chicago’s South Side. “Y’all out here killing these innocent people, kids, parents, grandmothers, mothers, fathers — it’s got to stop.”

Three-year-old Deonta “Tay-man” Howard was in serious but stable condition after being shot in the ear after Thursday’s shooting, which occurred at about 10:15 p.m. on Thursday.

“He had an entry wound and an exit wound in his jaw. He’s heavily sedated and resting [after surgery],” the family’s pastor, Corey Brooks of Chicago’s New Beginnings Church, said.

Chicago spate of gun violence — which this week earned the city the title of being the nation’s murder capital in 2012, according to the FBI — has already shattered Nunn’s family once, just three weeks ago when Chicago suffered a deadly Labor Day weekend. 

According to Brooks, Deonta’s uncle, Jerome Wood, 21, was shot and killed on Sept. 2 in what “was believed to be a retaliation shooting” — one of eight people who died that weekend and 20 who were injured. 

“I just buried my son and now I’m going through something else,” Nunn said. “[God does] not send me through nothing he don’t want me to go through.”

The family does not believe there is a connection between Wood’s death and Thursday night’s shooting, but is shell-shocked after being hit by tragedy twice.

“It’s very hurtful. They’re really traumatized,” Brooks said.

Chicago’s top police officer said it was a “miracle” no one was killed Thursday night. 

“A military-grade weapon on the streets of Chicago is simply unacceptable,” a visibly frustrated police superintendent Gary McCarthy said at a news conference Friday. “We should not accept assault-style weapons in our communities.”

Read more about the shooting from NBCChicago.com

Sixteen rounds were fired in the shooting, McCarthy said.

Chicago had more than 500 homicides in 2012, according to FBI data, more than any other American city. Chicago’s total exceeded that of New York City, which recorded 419, and Los Angeles, which saw 299. Both cities have populations greater than that of Chicago.

The latest of violence prompted Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who was in Washington, D.C., to cut short his trip and cancel a planned visit to New Jersey to stump for Newark Mayor Cory Booker.

“Senseless and brazen acts of violence have no place in Chicago and betray all that we stand for,” Emanuel said in a statement. 

“The perpetrators of this crime will be brought to justice and prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”

Chicago police confirm that a shooting which injured 13 people is believed to have been gang-related, and that it was carried out with an assault-style rifle with a high-capacity magazine.

The shooting occurred at in Cornell Square Park in the Back of the Yards neighborhood in Chicago, police spokesman Ron Gaines told NBC News.

The others wounded ranged in age from 15 to 41. Their injuries included gunshot wounds to the stomach, arm, leg, knee, wrists and buttocks. Their conditions ranged from serious to good early Friday, according to police.

Four victims were listed in a serious condition early Friday. McCarthy said all of the injuries were non-life-threatening.

“It’s a miracle in this instance that there have been no fatalities based upon the lethality of the weaponry used at the scene,” he said. “What is needed in Chicago and in cities across this country is real action on reasonable gun laws on the state and federal level.”

Authorities are saying that a gang-related shooting spree in Chicago has left 13 people shot, including a 3-year old. Across the city yesterday, more than 23 people were wounded, with 2 fatalities. NBC’s John Yang reports.

Detectives were interviewing witnesses and believe the shooting was gang-related. One to three suspects are believed to be at large, according to McCarthy.

Chicago’s police department has touted gains in the city against violence. The department has said that its anti-gang program, narcotics initiatives, and community policing have resulted in fewer shootings and murders over the same period than the year prior. 

Scott Olson / Getty Images

Police investigate the scene of the shooting in Cornell Square Park in Chicago late Thursday.

Related:

• More on this story from NBC Chicago


• ‘No rules any more’: Chicago violence hits hard at suburban hospital


• Crime-weary Chicago sees progress, but some kids still caught in crossfire

This story was originally published on Fri Sep 20, 2013 4:28 AM EDT

Chicago grieves horrific park shooting

TV host Julie Chen reveals she"s had plastic surgery and we"re supposed to cheer? | Patricia Park

Chen was told her ‘Asian eyes’ were holding back her career. One again, women need to slice, dice, and diet to succeed

CBS television personality Julie Chen has generated quite the buzz since confessing that she’s had plastic surgery on The Talk on Wednesday. As a young news reporter in Dayton, Ohio, Chen was informed by her boss that her “Asian eyes” made her look “disinterested” and “bored”. She then met with a high-powered agent, who handed her a list of plastic surgeons specializing in blepharoplasty (pdf) – the procedure for creating double-creased eyelids, which at least 50% of Asians are not born with naturally —and told Chen if she got the surgery, she’d go “straight to the top.” And so she did.

After the American Big Brother host “outed” herself on-air, the women round The Talk table immediately voiced their support. Sharon Osborne let out an exuberant, “Fabulous!” followed by a slightly more tempered, “It was the right thing to do.” Sheryl Underwood said, “You represented your race, you represented women, and your colleagues.” Sara Gilbert told Chen:

I think you were beautiful before, you’re beautiful now, and it’s really whatever makes you happy.

These rallies of “You go, girl!” have not only been limited to Chen’s fellow co-hosts. The Asian American Journalists Association “applaud[s] Chen for sharing this personal moment with her audience“. The popular women’s lifestyle site BlogHer discusses how Chen’s decision was motivated by racism. Even the ever-cantankerous Angry Asian Man blog offers up some sympathetic words for Chen. And in what must feel like the ultimate “booyah” moment for Chen, she received a public apology from WDTN-TV, the Dayton station where she first got her start.

Overall, Chen’s big reveal has been met with a positive response. I’m sympathetic to the challenges Chen faced in her decision to go under the knife. I’m also heartened that issues of racism and workplace discrimination are being brought to light. But we need to take this issue one step further. While everyone acknowledges the motivations that led Chen to undergo the surgery, what no one seems to be addressing is the enormous pressure young women face in meeting a certain standard of beauty.

Chen’s decision, along with the overwhelming public support, sends an ambivalent message to women grappling with their own physical identities and offers a troubling solution as to how to “fix” the problem in order to achieve success.

After hearing the remarks about her eyes, Chen admits she “started developing a complex. I got very insecure about this”. Over and over she watched video reels of herself, fixating on what she began to perceive as her glaring flaws.

All I could see is my eyes, and does [my boss] have a point. And all I’m doing is watching my eyes. Do I look bored or disinterested?

Chen’s words are unsettling at best; her increasing dissatisfaction with her appearance, coupled with her repetitive, obsessive language, sound like the makings of a body image disorder. Chen’s solution: electing to have the double eyelid surgery. Chen herself notes that after she had the procedure done, “the ball did roll for me”. (For what it’s worth, speculations abound that her eyes are not the only thing Chen’s had “fixed”.)

Carol D Gray, a clinical psychologist from Newton, MA who specializes in girls’ development, says we live in a society that “promotes a completely unrealistic standard of beauty which makes all women feel flawed, particularly girls and young women who are especially vulnerable to media images. This ultimately leads to 51% of Americans walking around feeling like there’s something wrong with them. The only sadder reality is that we’re also led to believe that if we just try hard enough we can fix what’s wrong.”

In a time where women already face enormous pressure to have – and achieve – it all (we are, after all, living in the age of Sheryl Sandberg and Marissa Mayer), Chen’s revelation adds to that yet one more expectation: that we are expected to “fix what’s wrong” and that fix might be one scalpel incision away.

Harriet Brown, associate professor at the Newhouse School of Public Communications and author of, most recently, Brave Girl Eating: A Family’s Struggle with Anorexia, has also spoken extensively on the subject of female body image.

I’m glad Julie Chen gave voice to the kind of pressure she faced to conform to the very narrow, and narrow-minded, cultural norms around her appearance. I do worry that her story will inadvertently reinforce the notion that women need to slice, dice, and diet themselves as close as possible to those norms if they want to succeed.

It is a worry that echoes my own. We take our cues from popular figures in media, especially those being celebrated for their actions and achievements. And yes: there is something laudable about Chen “coming clean.” But the conversation should not stop there. Before we echo Osborne’s cries of “Fabulous!”, we should look to deeper solutions beyond a trip to the plastic surgeon’s clinic. Chen’s next steps – as well as our own – should be to address this implicit message sent to young women: that their the physical shortcomings – perceived or otherwise – need only be “fixed” in order to achieve success.

• Beauty


• Race issues


• Television


• United States

Patricia Park

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TV host Julie Chen reveals she"s had plastic surgery and we"re supposed to cheer? | Patricia Park

Assaults Against Federal Park Rangers Up 38

Park rangers, wildlife refuge workers and U.S. Park Police experienced more assaults and threats from visitors last year than in 2011, according to a group that represents federal resource workers.

A total of 591 incidents were reported by six land and water agencies in 2012, up 38 percent from the previous year, the group says. More than one-quarter of the incidents involved some sort of violence against the employee or officer, the report by the advocacy group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility says.

More than half of 100 reported incidents against U.S. Park Police involved violence, the report said, including an incident where a suspected drunk driver tried to run over a police officer.

The report is set to be released on Monday. The Associated Press obtained a copy in advance. The report is based on figures obtained from the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management and other agencies.

The report says 2012 began violently, with the New Year’s Day shooting death of a park ranger at Mount Rainier National Park in Washington state, the first ranger killed in the line of duty in a decade.

That same month, a note was a left at a Texas wildlife refuge visitor center that included racist remarks and a threat to burn down the center. In September, someone took a shot at a land management worker driving an agency vehicle at an Arizona recreation area.

Other incidents include assaults on law enforcement officers, resisting arrest and threats of violence, including at least one that resulted in a court-imposed restraining order.

Jeff Ruch, executive director of PEER, said the report shows that incidents of violence and abuse directed against rangers and other federal employees are becoming more common.

“The saying `it’s not easy being green’ is becoming truer with each passing year,” said Ruch.

Employees cited a number of factors for assaults or threats, including conflicts over federal land-management policies, growing use of public lands for meth labs and marijuana plantations, and deeper penetration of remote backcountry areas by off-road vehicles.

The figures do not show a clear pattern reflecting rules allowing loaded firearms in national parks and refuges starting in 2010, Ruch said. PEER opposed the law that allowed loaded guns, saying it could increase dangers for park rangers and visitors.

The U.S. Park Police, which patrols national parkland in Washington, D.C., New York and San Francisco, experienced a 43 percent jump in assaults and threats.

© Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Newsmax – America

Assaults Against Federal Park Rangers Up 38

Hold The Hot Dog: National Park Visitors Can Feast On Bison Burgers

Stefan Larrson serves up bison sloppy Joes and juniper-smoked bison tenderloin, which will be offered at the Yellowstone National Park this summer. Each park will have different menus featuring local foods.

Maggie Starbard/NPR

The director of the National Park Service doesn’t have anything against hot dogs or pizza being served in eateries in national parks.

“But I wanted more options, and more healthy choices,” Jonathon Jarvis told me at a tasting event this week to unveil new standards for the concessionaires who operate more than 250 food and beverage operations in national parks.

“There is no reason that you should have to take a vacation from eating well when you visit a national park,” Jarvis told a group that had gathered on the National Mall to sample some of the most innovative new menu options.

As Jarvis announced details of the initiative, the crowd was distracted by the wafting aromas of sauteing crab cakes, a creation of chef Steven Sterritt of Skyland Resort in Shenandoah National Park.

“These are fresh jumbo lump Maryland crab with a roasted garlic béchamel sauce. … It’s pure crab, no filler at all,” Sterritt told me. Wow. That’s a far cry from fried chicken tenders.

Enlarge image i

Jonathon Jarvis, the director of the National Park Service, announced a new initiative to offer more healthful food choices at national parks starting this summer.

Maggie Starbard/NPR

Jonathon Jarvis, the director of the National Park Service, announced a new initiative to offer more healthful food choices at national parks starting this summer.

Maggie Starbard/NPR

And instead of fries or potato chips, there were house chips made from beets and other vegetables.

“We are changing to a healthier fare, of course,” Stefan Larrson of Yellowstone National Park told us as he served up things I’d never seen in national parks before.

“This is bison tenderloin,” served with a dollop of horseradish sauce, Larrson told us. “Bison is flavorful and lean meat.” Also on the menu: regional huckleberries, a rhubarb gazpacho, and a brie-style cheese produced in the Yellowstone region.

“So are park visitors surprised to see these kinds of dishes?” I asked. “Yes, I think so,” Larrson told me. But folks are also usually impressed to find all the regional cuisine and the fresh approach, he says.

Turns out there’s only one flop, so far. Apparently, park visitors are not too keen for his take on ostrich meat. Hmmm. Perhaps the pace of change can come too fast.

The new standards are based, in part, on changes already in place in parks like Yellowstone, where concessions are run by Xanterra. As part of its Healthy and Sustainable Cuisine program, the company has pledged to adhere to naturally raised meats, cheeses from regional farms, no high-fructose corn syrup and baked goods sweetened with 30 percent less sugar than traditional preparations.

To usher in the new Park Service food initiative, the White House sent over Sam Kass of the Let’s Move campaign, who noshed on an almond-crusted baked chicken with a fennel salad.

“You know, baked is the new fried, so that looks delicious,” he told the chef.

Kass told the group that the new initiative is “an important step towards making the healthier choice, the easy choice for parents and kids.”

And after tasting the baked chicken, thumbs up?

Enlarge image i

Low-fat yogurt parfaits with berries are currently sold in kiosks along the National Mall in D.C. The version served at the tasting event came topped with cinnamon wonton crisps.

Maggie Starbard/NPR

Low-fat yogurt parfaits with berries are currently sold in kiosks along the National Mall in D.C. The version served at the tasting event came topped with cinnamon wonton crisps.

Maggie Starbard/NPR

“Absolutely delicious!” Kass said, congratulating the chefs from Guest Services, Inc and Aramark, two additional companies that operate park concessions. “That’s really innovative.”

Aramark’s vice president for food and beverage, Brian Stapelton, told us that his company has worked with regional wholesalers to procure more local produce and meat.

And how does the new, healthful park food initiative influence the bottom line of the companies serving up the food?

Well, Rick Abramson, president of Delaware North, which has a contract to run eateries at Shenandoah National Park, didn’t hold back in answering me when I asked.

“We’re a commercial company, and we’re in this to make money,” he told me.

Abramson says there’s demand for these new options. “What the market wants is what we deliver.”

So does this new initiative mean park visitors will pay more? Not for basic concession-stand foods like pizza or ice cream, which will be staying on the menu.

But the Park Service says even the newer, fancier offerings will still be affordable.

News

Hold The Hot Dog: National Park Visitors Can Feast On Bison Burgers

South Park Bush´s Conspiracy, 9-11 was an inside job !

South Park Bush´s Conspiracy, 9-11 was an inside job !