Have you ever heard Gary Habermas, Michael Licona or William Lane Craig defend the resurrection of Jesus in a debate by saying that the resurrection is the best explanation for the “minimal facts” about Jesus? The lists of minimal facts that they use are typically agreed to by their opponents during the debates. Minimal facts […]
(CNN)Sergeant 1st Class Charles Martland, the Green Beret being separated involuntarily from the U.S. Army for kicking and body slamming an Afghan police commander he describes as a “brutal child rapist,” began telling his side of the story Monday.
Martland is under a gag order imposed by the Pentagon, but at the request of Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif, he wrote a statement detailing his actions on Sept. 6, 2011, which was obtained by CNN.
“Kicking me out of the army is morally wrong and the entire country knows it,” Martland writes. Last week the Army rejected his appeal.
Martland and former Captain Daniel Quinn were disciplined by the Army after they beat a powerful local police official who they concluded had been raping a small boy. They say they had been encouraged by higher-ups that there was nothing to do about such horrific acts, that these were Afghan problems for the Afghan authorities to work out.
But the Afghan authorities wouldn’t do anything about it, the two soldiers say.
“Our ALP (Afghan Local Police) were committing atrocities and we were quickly losing the support of the local populace,” Martland writes in his statement. “The severity of the rapes and the lack of action by the Afghan Government caused many of the locals to view our ALP as worse than the Taliban.”
Quinn and Martland were told by a young Afghan boy and his mother, through an Afghan interpreter, that the boy had been tied to a post at the home of Afghan Local Police commander Abdul Rahman and raped repeatedly for up to two weeks. When his mother tried to stop the attacks, they told the soldiers, Rahman’s brother beat her. Quinn says he verified the story with other ALP commanders from neighboring villages. Then they invited Rahman to the camp.
“After the child rapist laughed it off and referenced that it was only a boy, Captain Quinn picked him up and threw him,” Martland writes. Martland then proceeded to “body slam him multiple times,” kick him in the rib cage, and put his foot on his neck. “I continued to body slam him and throw him for fifty meters until he was outside the camp,” Martland writes. “He was never knocked out, and he ran away from our camp.” The incident lasted no more than five minutes, he says.
Quinn told CNN’s “The Lead” last week “We basically had to make sure that he fully understood that if he ever went near that boy or his mother again, there was going to be hell to pay.”
“While I understand that a military lawyer can say that I was legally wrong, we felt a moral obligation to act,” Martland writes.
Quinn told CNN that they took the action they took because otherwise nothing would be done by the Army or local authorities. “The reason we weren’t able to step in with these local rape cases was we didn’t want to undermine the authority of the local government,” he said. “We were trying to build up the local government. Us acting after the local government fails to can certainly undermine their credibility.”
The Pentagon denies that telling soldiers to look the other way is official practice.
“We have never had a policy in place that directs any military member, or any government personnel overseas to ignore human rights abuses,” Defense spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis said. “Any sexual abuse, no matter who the alleged perpetrator and no matter who the victim, is completely unacceptable and reprehensible.”
-You want an American hero, you got him! Beat a child molester and kill him and you have my vote for fucking life! These trash are not able to be rehabilitated and need swift execution and anyone who believes that one of these putrid fucks can pay a debt to society needs to get extensive shock therapy!
The best thing for a molester is a bullet to the back of the head, and that means an adult and a little child, not an 18yr old with a 16yr old! It is a well known fact in the military that soldiers from the Middle East as well as civilians commonly molest little boys and as long as they aren’t public about it, then it isn’t an afront to Islam. Ask the people who have been there, they have a frame of reference, not asshole liars who pontificate about things they don’t have the slightest idea about!
Josh Duggar enters rehab, family says
Josh Duggar information turned up in Ashley Madison hack
Duggar apologized last week; family released statement Wednesday
(CNN)Josh Duggar, the eldest of the Duggar children, is going into rehab, the family said in a statement Wednesday.
“Yesterday Josh checked himself into a long-term treatment center,” the family said in a posting on duggarfamily.com. “For him it will be a long journey toward wholeness and recovery. We pray that in this he comes to complete repentance and sincere change.
“In the meantime, we will be offering our love, care and devoted support to Anna and our grandchildren as she also receives counsel and help for her own heart and future,” the statement continued.
It’s unclear what type of rehab the former reality TV star has entered.
Josh Duggar: ‘I have been the biggest hypocrite ever’ 01:36
Last week, Josh Duggar apologized after his name turned up in the data of the cheating website Ashley Madison.
“I have been the biggest hypocrite ever. While espousing faith and family values, I have secretly over the last several years been viewing pornography on the internet and this became a secret addiction and I became unfaithful to my wife,” Duggar said August 20.
“I brought hurt and a reproach to my family, close friends and the fans of our show with my actions that happened when I was 14-15 years old, and now I have re-broken their trust,” Duggar said.
The Ashley Madison hack, which included information on 32 million users, was released to the public last week.
It’s been an embattled year for Duggar, 27, who is married to Anna Duggar and is the father to four children.
He also apologized back in May after reports emerged alleging he molested girls as a teenager, including his sisters. He said then that he “acted inexcusably.”
His family’s TLC show, “19 Kids and Counting,” was canceled in May.
The Duggar family is known for its adherence to strict religious beliefs, including no sex outside of marriage. For two years, Josh Duggar was head of the Family Research Council’s FRC Action arm, a division of the conservative interest group. He resigned in May after the reports about his sisters emerged.
In the statement, the family said “we continue to look to God”
“He is our rock and comfort,” the statement said. “We ask for your continued prayers for our entire family.”
CNN’s Dana Ford, Steve Almasy and Laurie Segall contributed to this story.
-So Josh Duggar is goin’ ta rehab huh? For WHAT? Sex addiction? There isn’t any such animal, he is who he is because he was told that sexual urges were sinful and that he would burn in Hell for flogging his log! Not that he is a pinnacle of purity, NO! Is he an asshole carbon copy of his fucktard father? YES! Is he an adult person denying science and teaching further generations to be myth-believing throwbacks? YES!
This asshole stood at rallies condemning certain secular and pro-choice issues, trying to force his stupid myth onto those who were firmly grounded in reality and science, HE is a complete shitbird and a hypocritical jackass! And while I am chortling mightily at the Duggar downfall, I also understand that he is a child born of people sooo ignorant that they believe the Earth to be only 6.000 years old, and believe that a 900 year old man built an ark that saved all of the animals that we see today.
I surely hope that Josh finds it within himself that flogging his log and watching a little porn is actually healthy, and that worshiping a fairy godfather in the sky is actually akin to kneeling to My Little Pony
NOVEMBER 04, 2013 NEWS » CITYDESK
ACLU Sues City of Boise Over Anti-Panhandling Ordinance
“The three members of the City Council who voted in favor of the ordinance are getting today exactly what they voted for—a federal lawsuit.”
By George Prentice @georgepren
The process is very simple. The issue is anything but.
At approximately 10:30 a.m. on November 4, process server Tony Roque took a number and waited in line in the lobby of Boise City Hall. When his number was called, he stepped up to a window where a representative of the City Clerk’s office was seated and Roque handed the representative a 19-page document.
And with that, the City of Boise was served.
The ACLU of Idaho officially launched a federal lawsuit this morning, arguing that the city’s recently-passed anti-panhandling ordinance was in violation of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
“The ACLU specifically warned the Boise City Council that this ordinance was unconstitutional,” said ACLU of Idaho legal director Ritchie Eppink, who added that the suit was a “clarion call.”
“This lawsuit should come as no surprise to anyone and especially not the city,” said Eppink.
After listening to hours of public testimony, overwhelmingly opposed to the ordinance, the Boise City Council voted 3-1 in favor of the measure which prohibits solicitation for donations colored by intimidation, obstruction of right-of-way or repeated attempted at solicitation after a negative response.
Voting in favor of the measure were Council President Maryanne Jordan and Council Members Ben Quintana and T.J. Thomson. The only Council Member voting against the ordinance was Lauren McLean.
Boise Weekly asked Eppink about the significance of launching the lawsuit one day before Election Day when Jordan, Quintana and Thomson would be running for reelection.
“A lot of issues wrapped up in this case are directly relevant to issues going on in the city and the city council election,” said Eppink. “All three city council members who voted in favor of this ordinance are, coincidentally, the three who will be standing for election tomorrow. These issues are something that, hopefully, everyone in the City of Boise should be keeping in mind before going to the polls tomorrow.”
As early as June, the ACLU of Idaho was telling Boise Weekly that it was prepared to launch a legal challenge if the ordinance was passed (BW, News, “Out of the Panhandle, Into the Fire,” June 5, 2013).
“The three members of the City Council who voted in favor of the ordinance are getting today exactly what they voted for—a federal lawsuit,” said Erika Birch, ACLU of Idaho board member. “The ordinance criminalizes certain speech and expression and specifically restricts words that a person can use in the City of Boise, particularly in the downtown core area. It goes too far and violates constitutionally-protect speech.”
In statement from the office of Boise Mayor Dave Bieter, spokesman Adam Park wrote, “The ordinance was carefully crafted to prevent aggressive solicitation while still ensuring the protection of all citizens’ speech. The City will defend the ordinance and is confident it will withstand this legal challenge.”
Ritchie Eppink, legal director of ACLU of Idaho, announces lawsuit against City of Boise on steps of City Hall.
GEORGE PRENTICE
Ritchie Eppink, legal director of ACLU of Idaho, announces lawsuit against City of Boise on steps of City Hall.
-Yeah, congrats ACLU for supporting a lazy motherfucker’s right to accost a taxpayer and to further his fucking ‘right’ to eventually pass out drunk on said taxpayers lawn and have the owner get sued for running this reprobate asshole off! AWESOME! A testament to making ALL of the wrong choices and getting rewarded for them! Boise is beautiful and Portland, OR is infested with nere do well asshole homeless pieces of shit panhandling at all fucking corners of the city! Fuck that for the future here! Does anyone still believe in hard work and making your own way? Or does everybody feel sorry for the flotsam shitbags of society who should be forced to make the right choices?
Fuck the ACLU and fuck those who feel responsible and sorry for the bums that blight our cities! These weak links would be the first to die in a zombie apocalypse because they are unmotivated superfluous shitpiles! Support your middle class and educate to prevent poverty! If you reject an education or a vocation, then you deserve to be where you are and if you are a bum who is able, then you don’t deserve fucking shit you worthless asshole!!
hitchens67 Atheism WOW!! Logic and reason campaign 