All-purpose news and politics thread

[Gryphon]

Police identify suspect in mailed body parts case.

The sick bastard dated Karla Hamolka. She probably taught him much.

[7thangel]

The sick bastard dated Karla Hamolka. She probably taught him much.

link?

10char

[Ship]

link?

10char

http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/05...karla-homolka/

There's nothing confirming that they dated, but it's been reported a few times.

[snarkbunny]

http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/05...karla-homolka/

There's nothing confirming that they dated, but it's been reported a few times.

It's also suspected that Magnotta started that rumour, possibly in an attempt to generate attention to himself.

[Charles RB]

Tory rising star Nick Herbert MP is gay and not too pleased with some of his party's cabinet ministers saying same-sex marriage isn't a "priority".

"Since when was equality not a priority?"

There are twelve openly gay Tories, which the party boasts is more than its rivals. Bet they love some of the no-reform talk...

[Alan Lynch]

Cameron says that Hunt didn't break the ministerial code, even though the evidence today at Levenson suggests he didn't just break it, but smash it into tiny little pieces.

Andy Coulson has come out fighting suggesting there might not even be a trial for his now obvious perjury during the Tommy Sheridan trial. the word is there won't just be a trial, but that a conviction is very probable and seeing as this refers to part of the time he was working for Cameron then this could get very messy.

If there is a downside to Andy Coulson getting the conviction he so richly deserves, it's that the whole thing has given Tommy Sheridan a platform to protest his innocence again. It doesn't - just because Coulson perjured himself doesn't mean that Sheridan didn't.

[Iangould]

The Irish electorate has voted to ratify the European stability pact.

[the4thpip]

The Irish electorate has voted to ratify the European stability pact.

I was expecting the stock markets would show a positive reaction to that... But they remain in a rather brutal slide.

[Iangould]

"Markets are only rational on average and in the long term."

But, yes, they appear especially irrational today.

[dupersuper]

The sick bastard dated Karla Hamolka. She probably taught him much.

She does seem to have a type...

[Charles RB]

The Irish electorate has voted to ratify the European stability pact.

That goes against the narrative we were having, a lot of implications that austerity was Dead and Germany would have to rethink. Whoops.

Meanwhile, Spanish manufacturing has shrunk further than Greece's.

[Iangould]

The sick bastard dated Karla Hamolka. She probably taught him much.

A "reality check" on Luka Rocco:

A Much-Needed Reality Check About the Luka Rocco Dismemberment-Murder-Kitten Case:

1. Luka is neither a porn "star," NOR a porn actor, NOR a model. He has never made a film or a professional video in any capacity.

He aspired these things, but he was never employed by, or worked with, any movie company-- his efforts in front of his own camera are the only evidence of his moving image in public.

Luka paid pro photographers to take head shots; he published his own videos and stills on the his own web sites.

The only videos anyone has seen of him (so far) are of sadistic animal and human murder, not "sex scenes" as one would describe a in an erotic movie.

2. Luka was a prostitute, albeit an unsuccessful one. He was starving, literally.

3. To call this man "gay," or "bi," suggests some kind of consummated adult sexual life with other people.

But that doesn't seem to be the case. The rare "customers," and even rarer people he dated, report that Luka didn't have sex with them, and was seemingly paralyzed or too catatonic to do anything sexual in bed.

To his short-lived friends, he reported traumatic incest with his mother, and mental illness. Everyone who met him casually noticed he was disturbed.

He is alienated from his family and it seems that the one man who knew him slightly, he killed.

I don't know any word for this except "extremely dangerous and damaged adult, history of severe childhood abuse."

3. Investigators and magistrates are talking about inate evil, about a man lacking "a moral gene," and "serial killer DNA."

But there is no proof, not remotely, of any of these things. There never has been. That's like saying the devil made him do it.

4. There is no evidence Luka knew Karla Homolka, let alone dated her. The Montreal police have taken back that first reckless statement. His celebrity obsessions were entirely of his own imagination.

Aside from the shock of this case, and the tragedy, I know that gay and bisexual people, and sex workers and erotic actors/models, EVERYWHERE, are cringing.

So are mental health pros and seasoned reporters, the few that are left.

We are all hoping that the sensation of these murders will not be exploited by political opportunists and the con-artists of the right. So far, not so good.

I say "reality check" because I know nothing about the author and she doesn't source any of her statements.

[Iangould]

So the leader of Syrtiza says he'll cancel the bail-out, keep Greece in the Euro, cancel all sales of state assets, increase welfare payments, cut taxes on basic items and pay for it all by "taxing the rich".

Oh and he's also going to nationalize Greece's entrie banking system - a banking system that's already on the verge of collapse and needs billions if not tens of billions in additional capital to cover bad debts and a bank run caused by fears of Greece leaving the Euro (fears which he's largely responsible for).

link

Meanwhile, the Greek power system is on the verge of collapse since Greeks haven't been paying their power bills which means the power companies can't pay the state-owned natural gas company which, in turn, can't pay its foreign suppliers.

link

[Iangould]

At least 14 developing countries including China, India, Brazil, Indonesia and Mexico are either considering or preparing to implement emissions-trading.

[king mob]

If there is a downside to Andy Coulson getting the conviction he so richly deserves, it's that the whole thing has given Tommy Sheridan a platform to protest his innocence again. It doesn't - just because Coulson perjured himself doesn't mean that Sheridan didn't.

True, but Sheridan has done his time for that crime. Coulson is desperately trying to get away with it when it's plastered there for all to see.