Meanwhile, At The Huffington Post:

Sorry, I may have misread what you meant. Regardless, they must have had something, as I'm sure it's a law that the prosecutor would have been aware of. It was a calculated risk that backfired.

She looks 18 to me.

Senate Republicans have been slow-walking President Barack Obama's judicial nominees all year. It looks like things are about to get even less productive.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Thursday that he doesn't expect to confirm any of Obama's circuit court nominees for the remainder of his time in office, a blow to White House efforts to fill empty federal court seats despite working with a Republican-controlled Senate.

In an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, McConnell was asked about judicial confirmations.

"So far, the only judges we’ve confirmed have been federal district judges that have been signed off on by Republican senators,” McConnell said. Asked if he expects that to be the case through 2016, McConnell said, "I think that's highly likely, yeah."

Somebody get the catnip -- and step on it! Ms. Mittens means business.

A Stamford, Connecticut, man called 911 this week for help as a standoff with his house cat entered its third hour, leaving him stuck outside the house.

Audio of the 911 call, placed at around 1:30 a.m. on Wednesday, makes it clear the man wasn't kitten around, either.

"My cat was getting too aggressive," Mohammed Lokman can be heard telling the 911 operator. "I was inside and he attacked me and he started scratching my leg and biting me. So me and my wife went outside and now we cannot go in for like three, four hours."

The operator responds, sounding a bit confused, "You said this was a cat?”

"Yes," the man replied, later adding, "We cannot move. We cannot do anything. It's so aggressive and so mad."

Police told News12 that the 7.5-pound feline had given birth the night before and that she apparently became aggressive when the man left the house and then attempted to return. (Yes, Lokman was having some pronoun trouble in referring to his cat as "he.")

Officers responded and, we guess, helped talk down the animal.

In an off-camera interview with CBS New York, the man said that he and his wife eventually made it back into the house and went to bed. They're now getting along fine with the cat and her new kitten.

At least Lokman and his wife were able to escape the house. Last year, a cat "freaked out" on a woman in Florida, trapping her inside.

"I got her out of the bedroom, and now she's in my living room and I can't get out," the woman said in a 911 call. "She's got us trapped in our bedroom."

WASHINGTON -- If at first you don't succeed, turn, turn again. The revolving door in the nation's capital took another spin last week, when Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) hired Sam Mahler, a lobbyist from Fidelity Investments, one of the country's largest asset managers.

At Fidelity, Mahler lobbied against a key new Department of Labor rule requiring investment advisers to manage investment accounts in the best interests of their clients, rather than their own, according to the company's most recent lobbying disclosure form. The rule prohibits investment companies from steering retirees into holdings based on fees or other perks that accrue to the advisers. These kickbacks cost American savers a combined $17 billion a year, according to an Obama administration analysis.

Kirk and seven other Republicans sent a letter to the Office of Management and Budget in March voicing opposition to the rule, saying it would limit access to affordable investment advice. The Obama administration expects to finalize the regulation by May 2016, giving hostile Republicans plenty of time to defang it with legislation. The country’s largest financial firms, including Fidelity, the big banks, and BlackRock, the world’s largest investor, are lobbying fiercely for Congress to block it.

Now, they’ll have one of their own on the Hill. Although President Barack Obama would likely veto a standalone bill scrapping the rule, he has been willing to cede ground on Wall Street deregulation when Republicans package it within must-pass legislation to fund the federal government.

Kirk's office did not respond to a request to comment for this article.

Although congressional aides make comfortable middle-class incomes, the real money in Washington is in lobbying. Kirk serves on the Senate Banking Committee, which, like its House counterpart, the Financial Services Committee, is a breeding ground for future bank lobbyists, who, in turn, often return to the government to accept powerful positions. The phenomenon is know as the revolving door, and has been sharply criticized by academic experts and anti-corruption advocates for encouraging elected officials to do the bidding of wealthy corporate interests.

Mahler has been through the revolving door before, serving as an aide to Rep. Tom Graves (R-Ga.) before joining Fidelity's lobbying team. His move back to a congressional office likely comes with a pay cut. But a host of new connections from a high-profile Senate office could come in handy if he decides to return to K Street.

According to Fidelity's federal lobbying disclosure form, Mahler was also registered to lobby Congress and the White House on securities trading and systemic risk regulation. Top regulators had considered subjecting Fidelity to tougher rules reserved for Systemically Important Financial Institutions -- a designation shared by too-big-to-fail banks. Fidelity, BlackRock and other big asset managers launched a lobbying blitz, which thus far has successfully prevented regulators from including them.

WASHINGTON, June 8 (Reuters) - Since retiring from the U.S. Army in 2000, Dr. John Henry Hagmann has helped train thousands of soldiers and medical personnel in how to treat battlefield wounds. His company, Deployment Medicine International, has received more than $10.5 million in business from the federal government.

The taxpayer-funded training has long troubled animal rights activists, who contend that Hagmann's use of live, wounded pigs to simulate combat injuries is unnecessarily cruel.

But an investigation by Virginia medical authorities alleges that pigs weren't the doctor's only training subjects.

During instructional sessions in 2012 and 2013 for military personnel, Hagmann gave trainees drugs and liquor, and directed them to perform macabre medical procedures on one another, according to a report issued by the Virginia Board of Medicine, the state agency that oversees the conduct of doctors.

Hagmann, 59, is accused of inappropriately providing at least 10 students with the hypnotic drug ketamine. The report alleges Hagmann told students to insert catheters into the genitals of other trainees and that two intoxicated student were subjected to penile nerve block procedures. Hagmann also is accused of conducting "shock labs," a process in which he withdrew blood from the students, monitored them for shock, and then transfused the blood back into their systems.

The report alleges that Hagmann also "exploited, for personal gain and sexual gratification" two participants who attended a July 2013 course at his Virginia farm.

The allegations against Hagmann have not been previously reported. They are administrative in nature, detailed in a 15-page dossier compiled by two assistant attorneys general for the board. The group temporarily suspended Hagmann's license in March. A hearing is set for June 19 before the full medical board, which could revoke Hagmann's medical license. During the hearing, Hagmann and state lawyers are expected to present their respective cases, which may include testimony from students or other witnesses.

In a statement Hagmann provided on Friday to Reuters, he said: "The mechanisms and protocols utilized in the training all comply with standard practices for training medical students and are, in fact, utilized in medical schools in Virginia."

Hagmann said the "claims of sexual misconduct cause me the most anguish. Absolutely no 'sexual gratification' was involved and there is no evidence of such."

Hagmann said "the courses and procedures in question were all reviewed and approved" by officials at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, a government-run medical school that trains and prepares health professionals to support the military.

The university disputes that. "The procedures used during the training were not authorized by USU faculty," said Sharon Holland, a spokeswoman for the Uniformed Services University.

Holland said a student there raised concerns about Hagmann's training in July 2013. "The moment the department and USU leadership were informed that these events occurred, the institution immediately suspended the relationship with Dr. Hagmann, his course, and his company," Holland said. "We launched an investigation and those findings prompted a report to the Virginia Medical Board."

Holland said the university also alerted the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, a law enforcement agency that oversees the Department of Defense. A spokesman for the service was not immediately available for comment Monday.

Cynthia Smith, a U.S. Army spokeswoman, said she could not comment on the case because the records were not readily accessible. But, she added, "We certainly don't condone that type of behavior."

"DIABOLICAL MAD SCIENTIST"

Medical health professionals familiar with trauma training say they were stunned to hear about Hagmann's techniques. Virginia state lawyers, investigating complaints by some students who attended the sessions, wrote in the report to the state's medical board that "these procedures were not undertaken or provided in good faith for medicinal or therapeutic purposes."

One doctor who offers trauma training, Harvard Medical School professor David King, said that "some of what is described in these allegations is wildly unheard of and perhaps unsafe."

Dr. Howard Mell, a spokesman for the American College of Emergency Physicians, said he could not comment on any specific case. But speaking generally about "shock labs," Mell said subjecting students to such problems during training would be absurd.

"I treat people in the ER everyday for things I have never experienced," said Mell, a Cleveland doctor who trains emergency medical workers and police officers. "I certainly don't need to experience shock to know how to treat it. If that logic was true, men couldn't be obstetricians."

Hagmann said that the Virginia board is applying the wrong standard in assessing his conduct: He said that his trainees are "students," not "patients" as the board calls them, and therefore he may have them perform procedures on one another as part of the educational process.

He told Reuters the allegations are amplified by "animal rights advocates or those with an anti-military agenda."

Hagmann has drawn fire from animal rights groups for years because he is a leading practitioner of "live-tissue training," which involves teaching students by using wounded live animals as patients. Often, pigs are the subjects.

Under pressure from animal rights groups, the U.S. military has reduced live-tissue training. But groups including People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals have called for an outright ban, long complaining to the Pentagon about DMI's "senseless shooting and stabbing of live animals," said Justin Goodman, PETA's laboratory investigations director.

"We are absolutely disgusted to learn that the company's cruel, violent and abusive behavior apparently targets service members as well," Goodman said.

Earlier today, PETA sent to U.S. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter a summary of an undercover video it says it took during a 2013 training session by Hagmann's company. The group also asked the Pentagon to cease contracting with DMI. Goodman said the video depicts gratuitous violence against the wounded pigs, and racist and sexist jokes by course instructors.

PETA posted the video, which includes graphic violence, at http://youtu.be/qXwN8ItF3fE

U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson, an Armed Services Committee member who has introduced legislation to ban live-tissue training, said he was disturbed by the video and charges leveled against Hagmann by the Virginia Board of Medicine.

"It seems like this is a renegade contractor visiting abuse on military personnel and live animals," said Johnson, a Georgia Democrat. "It's mind-boggling. It's like a diabolical mad scientist at work in a horror movie."

AMONG PIONEERS IN TRAUMA

In the Army, Hagmann practiced emergency medicine for two decades. He rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel and co-authored an influential combat treatment manual.

After retiring, Hagmann founded DMI - also known as Deployment Medicine Consultants. It is based in Gig Harbor, Washington. Following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, demand for his courses grew and DMI emerged as a preeminent trauma-response trainer. The majority of DMI's government contracts are with the U.S. military - in particular, Army and Navy special operation units.

"The mission of DMI is to train you to save lives in the combat environment, no one matches our ability to do this," the company says on its website. "We are the single largest trainer of US military forces in operational medicine throughout world, and our record for excellence stands unchallenged."

To demonstrate the positive impact of his training, Hagmann provided to Reuters testimonial emails from two former students. One, deployed in North Africa, wrote last month: "You forever changed my approach to combat medicine Please know you have made a tremendous impact in countless lives." Reuters could not immediately reach the former students for comment.

Such testimonials stand in stark contrast with the board of medicine's report.

In one case detailed by investigators, Virginia authorities allege that Hagmann boasted to a student "about his proficiency with rectal exams" and took the student to a warehouse on his property. There, the report claims, the two "continued to consume beer" and Hagmann asked the student "about the effect (the student's) uncircumcised penis had on masturbation and sexual intercourse." The student told investigators "that he was inebriated and felt that he could not refuse Dr. Hagmann's request  to examine, manipulate and photograph his penis."

In his statement to Reuters, Hagmann connected his comments on circumcision to his live-tissue trauma training course this way: "The debate on the value and impact of circumcision is a current medical and social issue. The historical link between circumcision and masturbation is a fact dating since Victorian England and is still a current topic subject to scientific research."

The Virginia medical board report also says Hagmann conducted what board investigators described as "ketamine labs," "alcohol labs," and "cognition labs." The labs, officials wrote, "involved the dosing of ketamine and consumption of alcohol, at times in combination or in quick succession, so that he (Hagmann) could *** the effects of these substances on their cognition."

During a July 2013 course in North Carolina, authorities say, participants were provided eight shots of rum in 10 minutes. About an hour later, they were allegedly injected with ketamine. Officials allege that one intoxicated participant received a penile nerve block, a type of anesthesia. When other students stepped in to prevent a second intoxicated student from receiving the procedure, the report says, Hagmann volunteered himself, and students performed a penile nerve block on him.

"I have been working in trauma centers for 30 years and I have never done a penile nerve block," said Dr. Mark Brown, an emergency room physician in Lancaster, California. "And why would you ever mix alcohol and drugs? It's very puzzling."

Hagmann told Reuters the medications were all dispensed properly. He also said that procedures performed by students on other students are acceptable.

"For a future or current medical care provider," Hagmann said, "having practice in a safe, controlled, voluntary setting has a huge value and benefit in improving self confidence and self image." (Reporting By John Shiffman.; Edited by Blake Morrison.)

ketamine is NOT a fun drug.

Agree to disagree.

On another note:

Agree to disagree.

On another note:

Long ago I used to shave my 'pits and legs.

Today its only from the knees down and then only in the summer.

I could care less about what men think.

Even less about what women think.

White supremacists on Thursday quickly tried to distance themselves from the suspect in the mass shooting at a historically black church in Charleston, worried that a white man killing nine people in a black church in South Carolina looked bad for their movement.

"This is going to be really bad, I'm afraid," wrote WhiteNationhood in a discussion thread on the white nationalist site Stormfront. "Condolences to the families."

"The media and the left will use this to support their narrative that whites are slaughtering blacks," added MattwhiteAmerica. "It will not matter what the truth is."

The gunman opened fire during a weekly Bible study meeting at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston. Police have identified the shooter as 21-year-old Dylann Roof, who is now in police custody. Roof reportedly told churchgoers before the shooting, "I have to do it. You rape our women and you're taking over our country. And you have to go."

Stormfront commenters continued to hold out hope Thursday morning that perhaps Roof wasn't motivated by racism -- maybe it was anti-Christian hatred instead -- and their movement could keep what they think of as their good name.

"Lets not jump to conclusions and call him a WN [white nationalist] until there is an indication as such... The fact that he targeted a church gives me an inkling that it was religion-related," wrote WhiteVirginian.

"The media and the left will use this to support their narrative that whites are slaughtering blacks," added MattwhiteAmerica. "It will not matter what the truth is."

This is literally a white guy slaughtering black people. What, is he holding out hope that the guy "identifies as black"?

I think you're overlooking the main point of the article. What this kid did was considered too hardcore even by white supremacist groups.

It's still hilarious though in a horrible way to see someone in a white supremacy organization have the stones to be like "naw man, this is outrageous."

I think many white supremacists like the idea that they're better than *somebody* which in this case are *insert minorities here* but most of them don't actually want to slaughter those races.

Well it's certainly true that hate groups recruit the young and aimless, preying on their insecuries and uncertainty. But there are still people doing the leading who actually do hate for some *reason*, albeit an idiotic or twisted one.