Lifestyle
Health, Sports & FitnessBy JaguarsJournal
3 weeks ago
University of Florida quarterback Tim Tebow may just be the greatest college football player of all time. If not, he certainly has to be on the short list for that title. Tebow’s football career has been nothing less than a smashing success up to this point. Twice named the Florida High School Player of the Year, as well as being named Florida’s Mr. Football and a Parade All-American, universities all across the nation lined up to throw themselves at the southpaw in an effort to convince Tebow (6′3″, 240 lbs.) to take to the gridiron for their institution. In the end, Tebow chose the Gators over the University of Alabama, and dominated the college game like perhaps no other. As a member of two BCS-champion Gator teams, Tebow chalked up accomplishment after accomplishment. Record after record. He became the first sophomore to win the Heisman Trophy. He also won the Maxwell Award, the Davey O’Brien Award, and the James E. Sullivan Award, among others, along the way. Tebow became the first college player to both rush and pass for 20 touchdowns in a single season. He broke Herschel Walker’s SEC record for career rushing touchdowns. In his last game as a collegiate athlete, the 2010 Sugar Bowl, he accounted for 533 yards of total offense – a BCS game record that may never be broken. |
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World AffairsPolitics & OpinionsBy Robehren
6 weeks ago
I sometimes wonder what legislators are thinking when the are writing laws. Florida is about to embark on another journey into the absurd.
Legislators are working to pass a bill that would make crimes against the homeless a hate crime. The SunSentinal.com reported the following:
Prompted by the 2006 homeless attack in Fort Lauderdale that gained worldwide notoriety, the Florida Legislature is moving to add the homeless as a protected class under state hate crimes laws.
Senate and House committees approved legislation that would make prejudice-driven attacks against the homeless a hate crime, meaning longer jail sentences for offenders. The issue will get more consideration during the legislative session, which starts March 2.
Florida has led the nation for four consecutive years in violent attacks against the homeless– with 30 such incidents in 2008.
Currently, protected classes under Florida’s hate-crimes law are race , color, ancestry, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, mental or physical disability or age.
In 2008, Florida had 182 reported hate crimes. Almost half of those were motivated by race.
Florida had 30 attacks against the homeless and 182 reported hate crimes in 2008. I think those numbers require a little perspective. In 2008 Florida also had 82,825 assaults, 36,273 robberies, 1,168 murders and 126, 265 violent crimes overall (source: Florida Uniform Crime Repots for 2008). If Florida legislators feel that they need to address crime in the state of Florida there are more pressing issues.
I am not a fan of "hate crime" laws in general. The fact that the law provides enhanced penalties for the motivation leading to a crime is absurd. Think about it this way; dirt-bag A beats citizen B into a coma with a baseball bat. In this scenario dirt-bag A did so because he wanted citizen B's wallet.
Now let's change the scenario and say he did it because citizen B was gay, black, Catholic or homeless. Tell me what diference does that make to citizen B who is lying in the hospital in a coma. We should be penalizing the crime not the motivation. To say that in one case they guy in the coma is less a victim than in the other case is flat out ridiculous. This is not equal protection it under the law . Both victims suffered the same injuries but are treated differently based on the motivation of the attacker.
We need to be tougher on crime in general. A battery should be a battery, an assault an assault. What we should do is increase the penalty so that people do not commit batteries and assaults. When you consider that in Florida alone there were over 126,000 violent crimes it is safe to assume that something does have to be addressed. What the legislature is considering is addressing 30 criminal acts while ignoring a 126,000 other criminal acts. In what world does that make any sense?
Each citizen in this country should enjoy the same (equal) protection under the law. The penalty should be commensurate to the crime and not based on what the criminal was thinking. It is safe to assume that a degenerate who kills someone is worthy of prison regardless of why they do so.
As a matter of course these types of crimes are hard to prove anyway. Most criminals are smart enough to keep their mouths shut and would be unlikely to put the noose around their own neck by admitting to something that carries and enhanced penalty. Short of a confession it is hard to generate physical evidence of intent. So why waste the time doing so. Increase the penalty of the base crime and drop the intent requirement. Put the bad guys in prison and let them rot; problem solved.
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EntertainmentHumorBy LadyLight
4 months ago
Okay. This has got to 'take the cake.' Thanks to my illustrious, industrious sister-in-law's sister-in-law (thanks, A.!) in sunny Flawriduh, you are privileged to view this video news report (as seen on WeJew) about Kosher Gasoline, er--Gefilte Fish with Gas (as in, "I'll have some gas with that fish, please).
What's really cute, is people in the know can see immediately that the "reporter" (yeah, right) hasn't a clue of what she is reporting about. Unfortunately, the interview-ees don't seem to, either.
But, hey--just geeve ah keek, and enjoy.
(let's hear it for Borough Park!)
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Law and SocietyCivil RightsBy ausetkmt
4 months ago
Today we talk about the face of craziness and addiction. specifically prescription drugs, such as Oxycontin. yeahhhh we writing about the Oxycontin Express. and yes since it’s thursday you’re right we got a lil somthin for ya to sip on -
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LifestyleHealth, Sports & FitnessBy crenshaws
5 months ago
Obviously the biggest game this weekend in Tennessee at Florida. Florida to this point looks like world beaters. They have not played anyone of stature yet but they are returning all Defensive starters from last year. Rainey and Demps are to of the fastest players in the country. Until Tennessee shows what they have no one can really tell you what to expect. I have heard scores from 42-6 to 35-17 and everything in between. This is a fan driven society and Florida fans want a big win. Anyone can be beat, even Florida, Houston Nutt got ya. I think Florida wins by more than two touchdowns, just because of Tennessee's QB troubles and lack of coaching experience. Eric Berry will have his hands full all day long because he is the only big talent on the Tennessee defense. Florida be glad they fired Phil, he might have given you a run in this game. Georgia at Arkansas |
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