Scotland Yard Director of Forensic Sciences Gary Pugh is looking to use the UK National Criminal Intelligence DNA Database more effectively. He thinks one way is to use educators and others to screen children for pre-criminal behaviors. Those with criminal tendencies would have their DNA added to the database to await their eventual criminal act.

'If we have a primary means of identifying people before they offend, then in the long-term the benefits of targeting younger people are extremely large,' said Pugh. 'You could argue the younger the better. Criminologists say some people will grow out of crime; others won't. We have to find who are possibly going to be the biggest threat to society.'

Pugh admitted that the deeply controversial suggestion raised issues of parental consent, potential stigmatisation and the role of teachers in identifying future offenders, but said society needed an open, mature discussion on how best to tackle crime before it took place. There are currently 4.5 million genetic samples on the UK database - the largest in Europe - but police believe more are required to reduce crime further. 'The number of unsolved crimes says we are not sampling enough of the right people,' Pugh told The Observer. However, he said the notion of universal sampling - everyone being forced to give their genetic samples to the database - is currently prohibited by cost and logistics.

At present, anyone who is arrested for anything but the most minor of crimes has their DNA taken and stored in the database for 100 years. Whether they are eventually charged with a crime or convicted is irrelevant. An acquittal is not grounds for having one's information removed.

But, forget the kids. I think people should be more worked up that Pugh thinks the only thing standing in the way of nationwide mandatory sampling is "cost and logistics."

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 11:37 PM | Comments (69)
Post contains 326 words, total size 2 kb.

No apologies. Instead, they've gone with the "look over there!" approach.

“AN ATTACK ON OUR SENIOR PASTOR AND THE HISTORY OF THE AFRICAN AMERICAN CHURCH”:

Chicago, Ill. (March 15, 2008 ) — Nearly three weeks before the 40th commemorative anniversary of the murder of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the Reverend Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr.’s character is being assassinated in the public sphere because he has preached a social gospel on behalf of oppressed women, children and men in America and around the globe.

This does not even purport to address the issue. No one is disturbed that Wright tries to better the lives of "the oppressed." People are rightfully angry that he believes it's necessary to tear down "whitey" in the process. Obama spent the last year talking about unity and it turns out that his very good friend, his counsel, his pastor, the man who brought him to Christianity, built a following out of dividing black America from white.

Trinity United, and whoever wrote this release does the same thing by announcing that our scrutiny is an attack on the "African American Church." This is freshman-level victimology. I'm a little embarrassed for them.

“Dr. Wright has preached 207,792 minutes on Sunday for the past 36 years at Trinity United Church of Christ. This does not include weekday worship services, revivals and preaching engagements across America and around the globe, to ecumenical and interfaith communities. It is an indictment on Dr. Wright’s ministerial legacy to present his global ministry within a 15- or 30-second sound bite,” said the Reverend Otis Moss III, pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ.

During the 36-year pastorate of Dr. Wright, Trinity United Church of Christ has grown from 87 to 8,000 members. It is the largest congregation in the United Church of Christ (UCC) denomination.

Well, woohoo for you! It turns out that there are 8,000 like-minded people who want to wallow around in their victimhood once a week. I wouldn't be bragging about that.

“It saddens me to see news stories reporting such a caricature of a congregation that has been such a blessing to the UCC’s Wider Church mission,” said the Rev. John H. Thomas, UCC general minister and president, in a released statement. “ … It’s time for us to say ‘No’ to these attacks and declare that we will not allow anyone to undermine or destroy the ministries of any of our congregations in order to serve their own narrow political or ideological ends.”

What is he talking about? No one's trying to destroy any ministries or any congregations. In fact, I think we'd all appreciate it if Rev. Wright would make his sermon and lecture notes available for wider release. I am genuinely interested in knowing what he's all about, though I don't expect to sympathize or agree with much of it.

Trinity United Church of ChristÂ’s ministry is inclusive and global. The following ministries have been developed under Dr. WrightÂ’s ministerial tutelage for social justice: assisted living facilities for senior citizens, day care for children, pastoral care and counseling, health care, ministries for persons living with HIV/AIDS, hospice training, prison ministry, scholarships for thousands of students to attend historically black colleges, youth ministries, tutorial and computer programs, a church library, domestic violence programs and scholarships and fellowships for women and men attending seminary.

These are all noteworthy and admirable projects. But they're not why Rev. Wright is in trouble. Nor do they negate his efforts to single out blacks, domestically and globally, and convince them of their oppression.

Moss added, “The African American Church was born out of the crucible of slavery and the legacy of prophetic African American preachers since slavery has been and continues to heal broken marginalized victims of social and economic injustices. This is an attack on the legacy of the African American Church which led and continues to lead the fight for human rights in America and around the world.”

"God damn America" is the legacy of prophetic African American preachers? Douglass weeps.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. preached the Christian tenet, “love thy neighbor as thyself.” Before Dr. King was murdered on April 4, 1968, he preached, “The 11 o’clock hour is the most segregated hour in America.” Forty years later, the African American Church community continues to face bomb threats, death threats, and their ministers’ characters are assassinated because they teach and preach prophetic social concerns for social justice. Sunday is still the most segregated hour in America.

It is laughable and shameful that a congregation that has self-segregated thinks that Rev. King's words will be a shield against further examination. By evoking Rev. King, Trinity United only looks worse by comparison.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 01:23 PM | Comments (115)
Post contains 791 words, total size 5 kb.

Wow, I'm like totally blindsided by this.

Wow, Another One I Didn't See Coming, Not Even Nearly: Cindy Sheehan.

Thanks to Conservative Belle.

Posted by: Ace at 12:52 PM | Comments (34)
Post contains 57 words, total size 1 kb.

I've been tipped that Michelle Obama is supposedly visible in the church for this speech. If anyone can track down a long version of it, I'd appreciate it. Obviously I'd like to check to see if this is true or not.

Incidentally, he delivers his "America's chickens are comin' home... to roost" line with such relish and enjoyment there is no question whatsoever he's a fan of 9/11. There is simply no other way to read his vengeful, hateful, delighted tone.

So, if you find a long version of this, not just the sliced and diced clips we're seeing, I'd appreciate it.

Here's that repulsive sermon:

You tell me he doesn't sound positively orgasmic over the payback 9/11 represents in his mind.

Now put Obama in that audience and whoo, doggies.

Posted by: Ace at 11:42 AM | Comments (59)
Post contains 141 words, total size 1 kb.

Not very safe for work, especially if you click to expand the boxes the blow-up dolls come in.

The guy marketing these avoids legal hassles two ways: First, the actresses aren't named properly, instead they're dubbed with a porn parody name; so you can have sex with "Sarah Jessica Porkher." Wit.

Second, the dolls, I'm guessing, look nothing at all like the actresses they're supposed to be. There's only so much you can do with a balloon, a cheap wig, and a set of magic markers after all.

Jen, the Dirt Goddess.

Posted by: Ace at 10:37 AM | Comments (17)
Post contains 102 words, total size 1 kb.

Today's L.A. Times describes the relatively new effort of ICE and the U.S. attorney's office to deter illegal immigration by prosecuting serial border crossers for illegal reentry. Illegal reentry is a felony under the Immigration and Nationality Act, with penalties that start at a fine of $1000 and imprisonment of not more than 2 years for first-time offenders with no prior criminal records and scale up to 20 years imprisonment and a fine of $250,000 for those who have previously been convicted of an aggravated felony. These prosecutions made up more than a third of the caseload for the U.S. attorney's office in L.A. last year.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in Los Angeles are largely responsible for the recent spike in prosecutions. In 2006, they created a nine-person team to scrutinize inmate populations for potential prosecution. ICE officials also placed an officer in the U.S. attorney's office to serve as a liaison with immigration officials on these cases. In addition, ICE agents look for possible defendants -- primarily gang members -- in communities around Southern California.

Prosecutions are likely to continue increasing nationwide as ICE expands its work in jails. Congress recently appropriated $200 million for the agency, which Myers said would be used to develop technology and to work with local and state officials to identify more illegal immigrants behind bars.

The effort in Los Angeles was recently cited by U.S. Atty. Gen. Michael Mukasey, who said Justice Department officials were reviewing it "with an eye toward expanding it to the Southwest border districts" and elsewhere.

Judge Einhorn (the go-to guy for immigration law news articles following his retirement from the L.A. Immigration Court last year) and others quoted in the article doubt that the new strategy will actually deter illegal reentry. I agree. The chances of getting caught are still too small to make much of a difference in illegals' decisionmaking. But that's not the whole point. Punishing people for illegal reentry is a good thing whether it has a deterrent effect or not.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 10:17 AM | Comments (50)
Post contains 343 words, total size 2 kb.

This is in response to Kempermanx, who recently linked a couple of news stories in the comments fields and didn't get any credit for them when posts were put up later.

If you guys want to send story tips directly to Ace's cobloggers, you can still use the moron-tips email that Ace set up ages ago. The address is:

moron tips*AT*g-mail *DOT* com.

Remove all asterisks, spaces, the hyphen in gmail, yadda yadda.

Posted by: LauraW at 10:03 AM | Comments (26)
Post contains 83 words, total size 1 kb.

Ace of Spades Lifestyle (TM), aerial division.

A 21-year-old Harris County woman filed a $200,000 lawsuit against American Airlines alleging employees on a flight to Los Angeles from Dallas/Fort Worth Airport failed to protect her while she slept from another passenger who masturbated to her and ejaculated in her hair, according to a lawsuit she filed last week in Tarrant County.

...

Destined for a Spring Break visit with family and friends March 19, the woman flew from Houston to DFW Airport and had settled into her seat for the last leg of flight 2074 to Los Angeles about 11 p.m., the suit states. The woman slept most of the flight, but awoke about 20 minutes before landing when the pilot announced the plane was on decent into Los Angeles. When the woman opened her eyes, she saw that an unknown man had moved into the seat next to her and was staring at her as he masturbated, the suit states.

The woman turned toward the window in embarrassment and in an act of nervousness began to run her fingers through her hair where she noticed “a substantial amount of an extremely sticky substance in her hair,” the suit states.

The man was arrested.

Squares. In Europe they don't have these childish American hang-ups about assaulting someone with flying genetic material. When I was in France, for example, I sat next to a pleasant grandmother sleeping on a train. Cute as a button; must have been ninety five years young.

Anyhoo, I left more DNA on her than OJ left at Rockingham, and she just stirred a little and said "Touche."

Thanks to LauraW.

Posted by: Ace at 09:39 AM | Comments (38)
Post contains 282 words, total size 2 kb.

Spotted over the weekend, with momentary confusion:

[Allrounder Jacob Oram] will lose 20 percent of his match fee after being found guilty of breaching the International Cricket Council's (ICC) code of conduct.

Oram was cited by on-field umpires Rudi Koertzen and Steve Davis Oram after being adjudged leg before wicket to fast bowler Ryan Sidebottom.

The ICC said in a statement Sunday that after Davis raised his finger, Oram "openly showed dissent at the decision by looking at the bat first and then followed it up by a punch on the bat".

Lorem Ipsum New International Edition™

When they're digging through the ruins of Commonwealth civilization in 500 years, hands will be clenched, lips will be tightened, and heads will knowingly nod when they uncover the International Cricket Code of Conduct.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 09:04 AM | Comments (23)
Post contains 142 words, total size 1 kb.

South Waziristan again. Ed wonders if our intel in the region is improving.

I have mixed feelings about this. One the one hand, I'm elated that another pack of carbon-based terrorist life forms have been turned into carbon-based chunks of refuse mixed in with some rubble. On the other hand I'm a little worried about left-handed guitarist David Cook's chances to go all the way on Idol.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 07:11 AM | Comments (51)
Post contains 111 words, total size 1 kb.