This is actually a luxurious delicacy in Ghana… According to the BBC, the meat is illegal in the UK and Europe due to health and safety reasons. Concerns are being raised again after a popular market, which is usually smuggled in via ferries and planes, sold the meat to undercover investigators. Bush meat is wild terrestrial animals hunted for commercial gains. It is considered the opposite of livestock, which is raised for the express purpose of being slaughtered for food. The Ridley Road Market in Dalston, in east London, is apparently known to be a hotbed of illegal activity. It is reported that butchers there conduct sales of illegal “smokies,” a delicacy made by charring goat and sheep with a blowtorch. At least two stores were found to sell “grass cutter” or cane rats, possibly imported from Ghana, where they are a luxury. The practice of “smokies” has been outlawed due to public health and animal welfare concerns. The practice has also been linked to mafia-style gangs in Wales, who steal sheep and goats and slaughter them in unlicensed houses. Bush meat has been a consistent problem for authorities in the UK. The illegal meat products are often smuggled in at the airports or ferries. They fear that the meat could pose risks to consumers, either through eating it or via contamination. A BBC reporter found several stores and butchers selling the meat easily, however. Though not every store participated in the practice, some were easily uncovered. All have knowledge that the practice is illegal. One butcher who sold the meat to the reporter said, “Don’t tell anyone; otherwise, there will be trouble.” Contaminated rat meat??? Sounds like that Zombie epidemic isn’t an impossibility! Images via wordpress
It’s a great day for Brooklyn. As the Barclays Center opens up for the first time today, the borough with the most pride in the city has even more to stick their chest out about. Led by a ton of investors, none more famous than one Jay-Z, Brooklyn, New York will never be the same again with the opening of the Barclays Center… Continue
Well it took long enough!!! And even though Robney’s shady azz released them to the public, the dude still gets a side-eye from us because what millionaire Presidential Candidate doesn’t have his prior year taxes wrapped up before April 15th like the majority of us normal folk?!?! Here’s the breakdown on Money Mitts numbers: The Robneys earned $13.69 million in 2011, mostly income from his investments, and paid $1.9 million in taxes for an effective tax rate of 14.1 percent. Romney earned $6.8 million from capital gains and another $3.6 million in interest. ZERO percent of his income came from wages which, you know, is the primary source of income for most Americans. Capital gains are taxed at a substantially lower rate than wages and salaries for high-earners. Romney earned about $190,000 in author and speaking fees, as well as $260,390 for sitting on the board of Marriott International. The Robneys donated $4.02 million to charity in 2011, nearly 30 percent of their income, helping to reduce their tax obligation AND the majority of Romneys’ charitable contributions went the Tyler Charitable Foundation (Romney’s own foundation). Romneys trustee released a statement saying that the Romneys only claimed a tax deduction for $2.25 million of those charitable contributions to engineer a higher tax rate than they otherwise would have paid. This move was to “conform” to the candidate’s statement in August that he paid a federal income tax rate of at least 13 percent of his income in each of the last 10 years. According to The Washington Post… At a Republican presidential debate in January, on the same night he released his 2010 tax returns, Romney scoffed at the notion that he would pay more taxes than he is legally required. “You’ll see my income, how much taxes I’ve paid, how much I’ve paid to charity,” Romney said. “I pay all the taxes that are legally required and not a dollar more. I don’t think you want someone as the candidate for president who pays more taxes than he owes.” In case you didn’t know, Romney’s 2011 return is 379 pages long however, the 2011 return of VP candidate Paul Ryan is only 32. One other note–Romney’s 2011 income and tax obligation are significantly less than what his campaign estimated earlier in January. They released an estimate saying that Romney earned $20.9 million in 2011 and would pay about $3.2 million in taxes–for an effective rate of 15.4 percent. “The Romneys’ income can vary significantly from year to year, depending primarily on what investments are sold and how much they have appreciated or depreciated,” Davis said…the couple filed for an extension in April, as they had in prior years, because the investment information required to prepare their tax returns was not available by the April 15 tax deadline. She said, however, that all taxes owed for 2011 were paid by April 15 and that they filed their returns on Friday. Romney, like many other Americans with large investment portfolios, pays a lower tax rate than those whose incomes come from wages. Investment profits are taxed at a flat 15 percent rate, way below the highest rates taxed on “regular” wages. One last round of facts for you to take in: Barack released his 2000-2011 (Federal and Illinois) returns, Biden submitted his taxes from 1998-2011 (Federal, Delaware, and Virginia), and before that, Clinton released his taxes from 1992-1999. As far as Republicans are concerned, their release record is astounding. Mitt, Lyan, McCain, and Crazy Palin only released two years worth of taxes (Newt released one). Before that George Dubya and Shady Cheney both released 2000-2007 but…Bush only released partial returns. For tax year 2000, Bush released only his Form 1040; Cheney provided a summary of his taxes, but released no forms. SMH…Let the shadiness ensue. This is making us real happy that election season is almost over! Images via WENN
Coming off of his new book release, we wonder whether or not Zimmerman’s “friend” is looking for publicity?? According to The Miami Herald Trayvon Martin grabbed his killer’s gun just moments before he died and uttered a profanity-laced threat. In a desperate life-or-death struggle, George Zimmerman clutched Trayvon’s wrist, broke his grip on the semi-automatic firearm and shot him once in the chest. That account appears in a new book written by Zimmerman’s best friend and confidante. There’s just one problem: Zimmerman never said that to the police. Now the book, Defending Our Friend: The Most Hated Man in America, and author Mark Osterman’s two television interviews have landed on the prosecution evidence list, as more versions of Zimmerman’s story emerge. A man who wrote a book calling Zimmerman “the kindest and most sincere” person will wind up in court — for the prosecution, experts agree. “It was emotionally draining for George as he relived that awful moment when he managed to control the gun, then fired out of fear for his life,” Osterman wrote. Osterman, U.S. air marshal who lives in a Central Florida, was among the first people Zimmerman’s wife called on Feb. 26 when she learned her husband had just shot someone. Osterman rushed to the scene that night, and accompanied his best friend every step of the way through the investigation, including his first three interrogations by Sanford police. Afraid for the Zimmermans’ safety, Osterman took the couple in from the very first night of the shooting. His 172-page book describes how Zimmerman told the story of the killing over and over again until he was physically drained. When he told it to police, Osterman said, Zimmerman threw up. No sympathy here…we’re still feeling sick to our damn stomach’s every time we hear new “evidence” from this tragic case. Images via twitter
The Romney Robot…better known as Ann took to the media yesterday defending her boo-thang Mitt Robney after he insulted almost half of the nation. In an interview with Radio Iowa, she was forceful about her hubby’s goals… “Stop it. This is hard. You want to try it? Get in the ring,” she said. “This is hard and, you know, it’s an important thing that we’re doing right now and it’s an important election and it is time for all Americans to realize how significant this election is and how lucky we are to have someone with Mitt’s qualifications and experience and know-how to be able to have the opportunity to run this country.” Obama’s leading Money Mitt in the polls and after all of the damage the Republican candidate has done this past few weeks, we’re interested to see how October will end up as far as numbers are concerned. Images via WENN
Bianca Jones has been missing since December 2, 2011. And her Dad insists she was abducted in a carjacking. According to The Huffington Post… A Detroit man was so obsessed over toilet training that he fatally beat his 2-year-old daughter for having an accident, a prosecutor said Wednesday in an opening statement to jurors at the man’s first-degree murder trial. D’Andre Lane also is charged with child abuse in the Dec. 2 disappearance of Bianca Jones, whose body has never been found. Lane told police the toddler was abducted during a carjacking. The car was found less than an hour later, but the girl wasn’t in it. Lane, who has fathered seven children with seven women, is accused of beating Bianca to death with a stick with a towel wrapped in duct tape, and disposing of her body. Lane told officers during questioning that he had spanked the child for wetting herself. “He believed that if 2-year-olds had accidents they should be physically punished,” Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor Carin Goldfarb told jurors. “The defendant staged a carjacking to cover up the death of his baby.” Lane put the child’s body in the car the next day as he was going to take an older daughter and a nephew to school, Goldfarb said. “The defendant staged a carjacking to cover up the death of his baby,” the prosecutor said. SMH…we still don’t understand how parents can do this to their kids like this. Images via The Huffington Post
100% our azz… Mitt’s trying to clean up his controversial “47%” comments aired in an undercover vid we showed you earlier this week. Problem is, he just keeps digging himself into a deeper grave! The Repub candidate tried to redeem himself tonight, but it fell on deaf ears. During a live forum on Univisions “Meet the Candidate”, Mitt had this to say in disguise as an apology for insulting those who “feel entitled” to health care, food, and housing: “My campaign is about the 100 percent of America, and I’m concerned about them…I know I’m not going to get 100 percent of the vote, and my campaign will focus on those people we can think we can bring in to support me…”But this is a campaign about helping people that need help.” B*tch please. The “forum” was also Mitt’s chance to address the Latino community that he’s struggling to win over. Robney was asked serious questions on immigration, the main focus of the night, and gave his usual aloof answers when it came to self-deportation, the Dream Act, and undocumented immigrants (or illegal immigrants as he likes to call them). Mitt’s solution to that “little” problem; veto the Dream Act and encourage “self-deportation”, which basically causes “attrition through enforcement,”; making life so difficult that “they” would choose to leave. SMH Refusing to give a solid answer on the problem, Mitt dodged the questions left and right. “I’m not in favor of a mass-deportation effort, rounding up 12 million people and taking them out of the country…I believe people make their own choices as to whether they want to go home and that’s what I mean by ‘self-deportation.’” Oh ok…now we get it. According to The Huffington Post: Romney has been evasive on how he would deal with undocumented immigrants currently living in the country. Obama has said he would support giving some immigrants legal status if they meet certain requirements, including paying a fine. Romney has refused to say whether he would end Obama’s new deferred action policy that removes the deportation risk faced by some undocumented young people who would be helped by the Dream Act. Romney was repeatedly pressed to say whether he would end the policy, but only said he doesn’t need to answer because he would fix the issue through legislation. That was no comfort to many immigration advocates, who know the difficulties of passing immigration legislation in Congress. “Are you going to deport them or not? Yes or no?” Salinas asked Romney, as translated to English by Univision. “We’re not going to round up people around the country and deport them, that’s not — I said during my primary campaign, time and again, we’re not going to round up 12 million people … and have them deported. Our system isn’t to deport people.” Salinas pressed on. “That’s your answer, that you’re going to allow them to stay?” she asked. “I’m not going to be rounding people up and deporting them out of the country, we’re going to put in place a permanent solution,” Romney replied. Robney’s on a sinking ship and no amount of SOS’ are going to get us to throw this idiot a life jacket. Images via Facebook/WENN
She made over $85,000 a year in tips from her job as an exotic dancer… but this hot mess still used the aid from ‘Uncle Sam’ for plastic surgery and a custom pink paint job for her whip! A former exotic dancer and paralegal accused of spending nearly $24,000 worth of federal aid on plastic surgery, a car stereo system and a pink paint job for her car has been jailed for food stamp fraud. Appearing in Florida courtroom, Brenda Charlestain, 28, testified to being homeless and unemployed when she applied for the aid to help her and her five children. Thanks to her later work dancing, however, she made over $85,000 a year in tips. Charlestain argued that of the accused total a large portion were gifts from male customers at various adult entertainment clubs in Southern Florida, the Sun Sentinel reports. She said $9,187 was gifted to her for cosmetic enhancements and $1,100 for a sound system for her 2008 Dodge Charger – made a bright pink with government money according to prosecutors. Between March of 2010 and June of 2012, court records show she was provided $900 to $1,100 in government aid every month. She said out of her aid and tips she paid $1,200 a month in rent and $326 in monthly car payments. Having pleaded guilty to the federal fraud charges earlier this year, as well as in providing a firearm to a convicted felon, her husband, on Thursday she was sentenced to 1 1/2 years in a federal prison. Begging for leniency from the judge, Charlestain asked for a downgraded sentence to house arrest while stressing various obstacles she has overcome in life, starting with her father’s death when she was 10 and becoming pregnant at the age of 14. SMH Source Images via dailynews
What the hell??? Can we go a month without some angry athlete assaulting his girl ? According to TMZ… Former NFL wide receiver Antonio Bryant was arrested Tuesday morning … for allegedly strangling his baby mama back in April. A warrant was issued for Bryant’s arrest in South Florida on Tuesday … stemming from a domestic violence incident that allegedly occurred April 10 between Bryant and the mother of his child, Dianne Helne. According to reports … Helne told the police Bryant pushed her in the face … put his hands around her neck while she was holding their young child … and then continued to kick and punch her, after she put the child down. Shortly after the warrant was issued, the 31-year-old turned himself over to police. He was charged with domestic battery by strangulation, domestic violence and culpable negligence. Bryant — who played in the NFL from 2002 to 2009 for the Cowboys, Browns, 49ers and the Buccaneers — was later released on $15,000 bail. Bryant had a workout with the Seattle Seahawks this summer, but was released after suffering a leg injury. Images via twitter
Are you f-ing kidding?? Somehow this bigot delegate got votes and now he’s one of many lawmakers trying to tell women what to do with their bodies. On Thursday, Virginia State Delegate Bob Marshall (R) spoke at a press conference against state funding for Planned Parenthood. He blasted the organization for supporting a women’s right to choose, saying that God punishes women who have had abortions by giving them disabled children: “The number of children who are born subsequent to a first abortion with handicaps has increased dramatically. Why? Because when you abort the first born of any, nature takes its vengeance on the subsequent children,” said Marshall, a Republican. “In the Old Testament, the first born of every being, animal and man, was dedicated to the Lord. There’s a special punishment Christians would suggest.” Marshall is also fighting against health care reform, saying that “Obamacare” is trying to take “your soul.” Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin has been pushing back against high-profile figures and entities who have been attacking people with disabilities. Will she speak out against someone in her own party? Sounds like his looney azz needs to work on his own soul and step down off of his soap box. Source Images via Facebook
