August 24, 2016


News and Views


http://www.cbsnews.com/news/american-university-of-afghanistan-in-kabul-attack/

American University of Afghanistan in Kabul under attack
CBS NEWS
August 24, 2016, 11:08 AM

Photograph -- Afghan security forces rush to respond to a complex attack on the campus of the American University of Afghanistan in Kabul on Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2016. AP PHOTO/RAHMAT GUL


KABUL, Afghanistan - The American University of Afghanistan is under attack, according to multiple accounts.

CBS News’ Ahmad Mukhtar reports from Afghanistan that several American professors are inside, along with possibly hundreds of students. Many appear to have escaped through emergency doors.

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Ahmad Mukhtar ✔ @AhMukhtar
#AUAF under attack. I along with my friends escaped and several other of of my friends and professors trapped inside.
11:10 AM - 24 Aug 2016
329 329 Retweets 171 171 likes

Witnesses say they heard gunshots, then a blast, and many believe it was the gate blown open, letting the attackers inside.

American University President Mark English confirmed an attack to the Associated Press but did not provide details.

Police spokesman Sediq Sediqqi told the AP police and intelligence agency personnel are at the campus, on the western outskirts of Kabul. He said police believe there is just one assailant.

Pulitzer Prize-winning Associated Press photographer Massoud Hossaini had tweeted that he is trapped inside along with others, saying: “Help we are stuck inside AUAF and shooting flollowed by Explo this maybe my last tweets.”

His tweets about the incident were later deleted, and in an interview with his company, he said he was in a classroom with 15 students when he heard an explosion on the southern flank of the campus.

“I went to the window to see what was going on, and I saw a person in normal clothes outside. He shot at me and shattered the glass,” Hossaini said, adding that he fell on the glass and cut his hands.

The students then barricaded themselves into the classroom, pushing chairs and desks against the door, and staying on the floor.

Hossaini and about nine students managed to escape from the campus through a northern emergency gate.

“As we were running I saw someone lying on the ground face down, they looked like they had been shot in the back,” he said.

Hossaini and the nine students took refuge in a residential house near the campus.


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Ejaz Malikzada @EjazMalikzada
All the students and faculty are stuck inside Bayan building #AUAF, the need someone to save them.
11:12 AM - 24 Aug 2016
9 9 Retweets 3 3 likes


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Samira Hamidi @HuriaSamira
All educated and young boys and girls go to #AUAF after work at this time. Plz Allah safe them all. https://twitter.com/bsarwary/status/768463771425705984 …
11:05 AM - 24 Aug 2016
13 13 Retweets 7 7 likes


Two professors -- an American and an Australian -- were kidnapped recently from the university on the 8th of August. Five gunmen wearing Afghan military uniforms abducted the pair at gunpoint.

The two foreigners were taken from their SUV while driving on Sunday night on a main road near the American University of Afghanistan, according to Sediq Sediqqi, spokesman for the Afghan Interior Ministry.

Though kidnapping is sometimes the work of criminal gangs, the fear is that the hostages could be “sold up” to the Taliban, or the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which has been fighting to gain hold in Afghanistan.

Kidnappings are not uncommon in Afghanistan. Three other foreigners who were kidnapped in Kabul over the past year have all been released, including an Indian woman, Judith D’Souza who was freed last month after being held for more than a month.

An Australian woman, Kerry Jane Wilson, was abducted in the eastern city of Jalalabad in April. Her whereabouts are unknown.



“Police spokesman Sediq Sediqqi told the AP police and intelligence agency personnel are at the campus, on the western outskirts of Kabul. He said police believe there is just one assailant. …. Two professors -- an American and an Australian -- were kidnapped recently from the university on the 8th of August. Five gunmen wearing Afghan military uniforms abducted the pair at gunpoint. …. Though kidnapping is sometimes the work of criminal gangs, the fear is that the hostages could be “sold up” to the Taliban, or the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which has been fighting to gain hold in Afghanistan.”


Tweet from Samira Hamidi, “All educated and young boys and girls go to #AUAF after work at this time. Plz Allah safe them all.” This is a shocking story to me, because there are several vivid personal narratives in here by people who are clearly terrified, and this level of sheer lawlessness is not for me.

I wonder why American young people choose to attend American University in Kabul when they could go in Washington, DC? At that age they often want to do something exciting, of course, and living in Kabul certainly fits the bill, but I have never really wanted to do “exciting” things to the point of being afraid. I do sometimes characterize “exciting” as “interesting,” which shows that I have a tendency in that direction.

I can only hope that there have been few or no deaths in this case, and no kidnappings. Being “sold up” to ISIS would be absolutely horrific. There was no report of a conspiracy, so it probably was a “lone wolf” attacker. I’ll look for more information tomorrow.



A HAPPIER SIDELINE TO THE SUBJECT OF LIVING AN EXCITING LIFE –

Speaking of living in Kabul, see the very interesting article below on the personality trait of “sensation seeking.” Many rowdy kids are in this category and serial killers are as well. Most “sensation seekers,” however, are simply easily bored and annoying for their teachers and parents. Most of us do grow out of it by the time we are 25 years old or so.

Judging from the scale below, I am clearly in the Experience-seeking category rather than one of the more psychotic groups. I am not particularly prone to being easily bored by repetition or “boring” people. I look for deeper levels of interaction with people than most extroverts, so I don’t find ordinary conversation to be a negative factor, but warm and pleasant. I do want to talk about something other than the latest fashions or the price of the status symbols which some find so important, however. Even if I do win the Lotto someday, I will not buy a Rolex watch when a nice-looking Timex is available. I will, though, go with a tour group to the Congo to visit one of the gorilla families who are popular now with the Eco-tourist organizations.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensation_seeking

Sensation seeking
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sensation seeking is a personality trait defined by the search for experiences and feelings, that are "varied, novel, complex and intense", and by the readiness to "take physical, social, legal, and financial risks for the sake of such experiences."[1] Risk is not an essential part of the trait, as many activities associated with it are not risky. However, risk may be ignored, tolerated, or minimized and may even be considered to add to the excitement of the activity.[1]

The concept was developed by Marvin Zuckerman of the University of Delaware.[2] In order to assess this trait he created a personality test called the Sensation Seeking Scale. This test assesses individual differences in terms of sensory stimulation preferences. So there are people who prefer a strong stimulation and display a behavior that manifests a greater desire for sensations and there are those who prefer a low sensory stimulation.

The scale is a questionnaire designed to measure how much stimulation a person requires and the extent to which they enjoy the excitement. Zuckerman hypothesized that people who are high sensation seekers require a lot of stimulation to reach their Optimal Level of Arousal. When the stimulation or sensory input is not met, the person finds the experience unpleasant.[3]


Components[edit]

Sensation-seeking can be divided into 4 traits:[4]

***Thrill- and adventure-seeking: Desire for outdoor activities involving unusual sensations and risks, such as skydiving, scuba diving, high-speed driving and flying.

***Experience-seeking: Referring to new sensory or mental experiences through unconventional choices, also including psychedelic experience, social nonconformity and desire to associate with unconventional people.

***Disinhibition: Preference of "out of control" activities such as wild parties, drinking and illegal activities

***Boredom susceptibility: intolerance of repetition or boring people, and restlessness in such conditions.

The most recent version of the Sensation Seeking Scale (SSS-V) has demonstrated moderate validity and reliability.[5] It has been adapted for use with children.[6]

Relationship to personality models[edit]

Zuckerman began researching the personality trait he came to call "sensation seeking" in 1969. Zuckerman argues that sensation-seeking is one of a handful of "core traits" that can be used to describe human personality.

Although, other researchers including Eysenck, and Costa and McCrae considered the trait to be related to extraversion, factor-analytic studies conducted by Zuckerman suggested that sensation seeking is relatively independent of other major dimensions of personality.

A number of studies have found positive correlations between sensation seeking, especially the experience seeking component, and openness to experience.[7] Additionally,negative correlations have been found between agreeableness from the NEO-PI-R and total sensation seeking, and the boredom susceptibility and disinhibition subscales.

In Zuckerman's alternative five model of personality, sensation seeking has been incorporated as a facet of the broader trait of impulsive sensation seeking.[8] Within Eysenck's "Big Three" model of personality, impulsive sensation seeking is most strongly related to psychoticism and within the Big Five personality traits it is primarily related to (low) conscientiousness. Sensation-seeking has a strong correlation with the Novelty Seeking scale of Cloninger's Temperament and Character Inventory.[1] Furthermore, he presents convincing evidence that this characteristic has a strong genetic component nearly as strong as that for intelligence. So, sensation-seeking parents are likely to have sensation-seeking children.



Now to a scandalous situation

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/doctors-sex-abuse-cases-not-disciplined-newspaper/

Doctors in sex abuse cases often not disciplined, newspaper finds
AP August 24, 2016, 9:24 AM


ATLANTA -- Doctors who engage in sexual misconduct with patients are routinely treated as having “impairment” issues and may not be reported to law enforcement, according to new findings in an investigation by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

In the latest installment in its ongoing series “Doctors & Sex Abuse,” the newspaper details how some doctors with egregious violations were able to participate in treatment programs and return to practice, while others quietly retired without facing police scrutiny.

As a result, the physicians avoided criminal charges at a time when society demands punishment for most sex offenders, whether they are college students, teachers, priests or coaches.

“Too often, I think, it’s cronyism,” said Pauline Trumpi, whose book, “Doctors Who Rape: Malpractice and Misogyny,” describes how her psychiatrist drugged and raped her in 1963. “It takes a lot of money and it takes a long time to become a doctor. So they feel empathy for the doctor rather than the victim.”

The Journal-Constitution’s series, which started in July, is based on a review of thousands of physician disciplinary documents.

According to the newspaper, it’s now common across the country for medical regulators to send doctors accused of sexual abuse to treatment.

In virtually every state, regulators use education and treatment programs in which physicians cited for sexual misconduct are evaluated and managed - sometimes with as little as a three-day course on appropriate doctor-patient “boundaries,” other times with inpatient mental health treatment that may include yoga and massage.

Therapists who run the programs say the physicians can be safely returned to practice if they meet certain standards and are subject to intervention and monitoring.

“That aberrant behavior is not the entire person,” said Philip Hemphill, who for more than a decade oversaw a program for troubled professionals at Pine Grove Behavioral Health and Addiction Services in Mississippi.

But some patients who have experienced sexual abuse by doctors are skeptical.

The Journal-Constitution also reported on how some doctors who lose their licenses for sexually abusing patients avoid criminal investigations.

According to the newspaper, 39 states and the District of Columbia do not have laws requiring medical regulators* to notify police or prosecutors about potential criminal acts against adults. Even in states that require reporting of adult victims, regulators do not always call law enforcement to investigate, the newspaper found.

John Banja, a medical ethicist at Emory University, called the lack of notification to law enforcement “deplorable.”

“One of the things that you’re going up against here is the historical, traditional sensibility of doctors to protect one another - to give their peers an excessive benefit of the doubt,” Banja said.

David LaBahn of the Association of Prosecuting Attorneys said medical regulators should call in police and prosecutors.

“The moment they open that investigation, I see no downside that the criminal investigation ought to open at the same time,” LaBahn said.

In one case cited by the newspaper, the Maryland medical board revoked the license of Dr. Raafat Y. Girgis after three patients complained that the doctor had sexually abused them during medical appointments. Law enforcement officials, however, said they never received the case even though Maryland has a law that requires its medical board to report possible crimes to police.

Now retired in Florida, Girgis told the newspaper in a brief conversation that the allegations were false. He called the medical board “a bunch of animals.”

The Journal-Constitution’s national investigation found that more than 3,100 doctors were publicly disciplined since Jan. 1, 1999, after being accused of sexual infractions. More than 2,400 were sanctioned for sexual violations that clearly involved patients, and half still have active medical licenses today, the investigation found.

The newspaper also found that many cases of physician sexual misconduct remain hidden, in some cases because medical regulators discipline doctors in private.



* “Regulators” “do not have laws requiring medical regulators* to notify police or prosecutors”

http://bestlawfirms.usnews.com/administrative-regulatory-law/overview

ADMINISTRATIVE/REGULATORY LAW DEFINITION

Federal, state and local agencies are granted their powers through Constitution or statutes. These agencies promulgate complex rules and regulations to execute this delegated authority. Administrative and regulatory attorneys assist individuals or corporations in understanding and complying with these legal requirements. Or under more limited circumstances, administrative and regulatory attorneys may assist a client in challenging a government action. Therefore, the broad classification of administrative and regulatory law often encompasses government regulation, legislation, rulemaking and adjudication.



“In the latest installment in its ongoing series “Doctors & Sex Abuse,” the newspaper details how some doctors with egregious violations were able to participate in treatment programs and return to practice, while others quietly retired without facing police scrutiny. As a result, the physicians avoided criminal charges at a time when society demands punishment for most sex offenders, whether they are college students, teachers, priests or coaches. …. “That aberrant behavior is not the entire person,” said Philip Hemphill, who for more than a decade oversaw a program for troubled professionals at Pine Grove Behavioral Health and Addiction Services in Mississippi. But some patients who have experienced sexual abuse by doctors are skeptical. …. According to the newspaper, 39 states and the District of Columbia do not have laws requiring medical regulators* to notify police or prosecutors about potential criminal acts against adults.”


"To the Victor Go the Spoils." Money and power always protect their own, no matter what ethical or moral matters are involved. The average person, even the well-educated and supposedly highly ethical, are not honest and courageous enough to stand up against evil if they are likely to receive any blowback as a result of it.

“John Banja, a medical ethicist at Emory University, called the lack of notification to law enforcement “deplorable.” “One of the things that you’re going up against here is the historical, traditional sensibility of doctors to protect one another - to give their peers an excessive benefit of the doubt,” Banja said.”

This statement could be used, almost word for word, to explain what happens when police shootings occur. The union steps in immediately if “the brass” haven’t done so, and starts to protect the offender. Likewise, when a priest sexually abuses an altar boy. The Catholic Church has been been in the spotlight often enough now that they are beginning to punish the members of their brotherhood when it is appropriate. Of course, that’s probably temporary. I hope if this study on doctors gets some legislative attention, that a law with more teeth in it which covers the whole country will be put in place.

This situation of state control over federal is the cause for many of our more stupid legal setups. “States’ rights” is the origin of it, and of course it was written that way into the Constitution at the beginning, but it lets everything from legally sanctioned racism to, in this case, one of the most necessary protector classes -- the medical profession -- to be corrupted. Thank goodness this news article came out. A little sunshine on the matter may/will hopefully improve the situation.



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/italy-earthquake-dante-inferno-kills-dozens/

Italy earthquake described as "Dante's Inferno" kills dozens
CBS/AP
August 24, 2016, 8:47 AM

Play VIDEO -- Rescue crews survey damage
Play VIDEO -- Dozens killed after earthquake strikes Italy
Photograph -- A man is carried away after having been rescued alive from the ruins following an earthquake in Amatrice, Italy, Aug. 24, 2016. REUTERS/REMO CASILLI
Play VIDEO -- Earthquake leaves homes in rubble
Play VIDEO -- Aftermath of earthquake that hit Italy
Photograph -- italy-earthquake-rescue-amatrice.jpg, A man is rescued alive from the ruins following an earthquake in Amatrice, central Italy, Aug. 24, 2016. REUTERS
Play VIDEO -- Rescue crews search for survivors after earthquake rocks Italy
Play VIDEO -- Aftermath of Italy earthquake
Photograph -- italy-earthquake-amatrice.jpg, Rescuers work following an earthquake that hit Amatrice, central Italy, August 24, 2016. REUTERS
Play VIDEO -- Rescue crews in Italy
Photograph -- First aid is provided to injured people outside a hospital in the Italian town of Amatrice in central Italy, which was heavily damaged by an earthquake, Aug. 24, 2016. AP/ANSA


AMATRICE, Italy -- A strong earthquake in central Italy reduced three towns to rubble as people slept early Wednesday, with at least 73 people killed and hundreds injured as rescue crews raced to dig out survivors.

The toll was likely to rise as crews reached homes in more remote hamlets where the scenes were apocalyptic “like Dante’s Inferno,” according to one witness.

“The town isn’t here anymore,” said Sergio Pirozzi, the mayor of Amatrice. “I believe the toll will rise.”

The magnitude 6 quake struck at 3:36 a.m. and was felt across a broad swath of central Italy, including Rome, where residents felt a long swaying followed by aftershocks. The temblor shook the Lazio region and Umbria and Le Marche on the Adriatic coast.

Premier Matteo Renzi planned to head to the zone later Wednesday and promised: “No family, no city, no hamlet will be left behind.”

CBS News correspondent Seth Doane reports the winding rural roads were making it difficult for rescuers and heavy equipment to reach the remote mountain communities.

The hardest-hit towns were Amatrice and Accumoli near Rieti, some 100 kilometers (80 miles) northeast of Rome, and Pescara del Tronto some 25 kilometers further east. Italy’s civil protection agency said the preliminary toll was 73 dead, several hundred injured and thousands in need of temporary housing, though it stressed the numbers were fluid.

The ANSA news agency said 35 of the dead were in Amatrice alone, with another 17 dead in the province of Ascoli Piceno, which includes Pescara del Tronto.

The center of Amatrice was devastated, with entire buildings razed and the air thick with dust and smelling strongly of gas. Amatrice, birthplace of the famed spaghetti all’amatriciana bacon-tomato pasta sauce, is made up of 69 hamlets that rescue teams were working to reach.

Rocks and metal tumbled onto the streets of the city center and dazed residents huddled in piazzas as more than 40 aftershocks jolted the region into the early morning hours, some as strong as 5.1.

“The whole ceiling fell but did not hit me,” marveled resident Maria Gianni. “I just managed to put a pillow on my head and I wasn’t hit luckily, just slightly injured my leg.”

Another woman, sitting in front of her destroyed home with a blanket over her shoulders, said she didn’t know what had become of her loved ones.

“It was one of the most beautiful towns of Italy and now there’s nothing left,” she said, too distraught to give her name. “I don’t know what we’ll do.”

As daylight dawned, residents, civil protection workers and even priests began digging out with shovels, bulldozers and their bare hands, trying to reach survivors. There was relief as a woman was pulled out alive from one building, followed by a dog.

“We need chain saws, shears to cut iron bars, and jacks to remove beams: everything, we need everything,” civil protection worker Andrea Gentili told The Associated Press. Italy’s national blood drive association appealed for donations to Rieti’s hospital.

But just a few kilometers to the north, in Illica, the response was slower as residents anxiously waited for loved ones to be extracted from the rubble.

“We came out to the piazza, and it looked like Dante’s Inferno,” said Agostino Severo, a Rome resident visiting Illica. “People crying for help, help. Rescue workers arrived after one hour... one and a half hours.”

The devastation harked back to the 2009 quake that killed more than 300 people in and around L’Aquila, about 55 miles south of the latest quake. The town sent emergency teams Wednesday to help with the rescue.

“I don’t know what to say. We are living this immense tragedy,” said a tearful Rev. Savino D’Amelio, a parish priest in Amatrice. “We are only hoping there will be the least number of victims possible and that we all have the courage to move on.”

Another hard-hit town was Pescara del Tronto, in the Le Marche region, where the main road was covered in debris. The ANSA news agency reported 10 dead there without citing the source, but there was no confirmation.
This still image taken from video shows rescuers recover a victim from a crumbled building in Amatrice, central Italy, where a 6.1 earthquake struck just after 3:30 a.m., Aug. 24, 2016. AP

Residents were digging their neighbors out by hand since emergency crews hadn’t yet arrived in force. Photos taken from the air by regional firefighters showed the town essentially flattened; Italy requested EU satellite images of the whole area to get the scope of the damage.

“There are broken liquor bottles all over the place,” lamented Gino Petrucci, owner of a bar in nearby Arquata Del Tronto where he was beginning the long cleanup.

The Italian geological service put the magnitude at 6.0; the U.S. Geological Survey reported 6.2 with the epicenter at Norcia, about 105 miles northeast of Rome, and with a relatively shallow depth of 6 miles.

“Quakes with this magnitude at this depth in our territory in general create building collapses, which can result in deaths,” said the head of Italy’s civil protection service, Fabrizio Curcio. He added that the region is popular with tourists escaping the heat of Rome, with more residents than at other times of the year, and that a single building collapse could raise the toll significantly.

The mayor of Accumoli, Stefano Petrucci, said six people had died there, including a family of four, and two others. He wept as he noted that the tiny hamlet of 700 swells to 2,000 in the summer months, and that he feared for the future of the town.

“I hope they don’t forget us,” he told Sky TG24.

In Amatrice, the Rev. Fabio Gammarota, priest of a nearby parish, said he had blessed seven bodies extracted so far. “One was a friend of mine,” he said.

The mayor, Pirozzi, estimated dozens of residents were buried under collapsed buildings and that heavy equipment was needed to clear streets clogged with debris.

A 1997 quake killed a dozen people in central Italy and severely damaged one of the jewels of Umbria, the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi, filled with Giotto frescoes. The Franciscan friars who are the custodians of the basilica reported no immediate damage from Wednesday’s temblor.

Pope Francis skipped his traditional catechism for his Wednesday general audience and instead invited pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square to recite the rosary with him.



The Mediterranean is one of those points on the globe where two continental plates are grinding into each other, and the result is frequent and often massive volcanoes and earthquakes. It is an ideal place for people to live, however, and has ocean ports for sea going vessels, just like in Homer’s day.

This quake was in the 6.5 range, which is not the strongest quake I’ve seen reported, but the buildings were old – centuries old, probably – and they crumbled under the stress. It is even worse that it happened at night while people were asleep and unable to get out. I feel sad, not just for the people who live there, but also for the cultural elements which are the origins of modern Western Civilization.



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/video-catches-seal-escaping-orcas-on-a-boat/

Video catches seal escaping orcas on a boat
CBS NEWS
August 24, 2016, 10:36 AM

Orcas hunting! seal jumps in the boat by kirk fraser on YouTube -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beZvsgqbMMQ


A YouTube user caught a dramatic escape on video.

In the video, posted below (WARNING: some users may find language used in the video offensive) a small seal is seen scrambling up onto the rear deck of a boat as orcas swim nearby.

Orcas hunting! seal jumps in the boat by kirk fraser on YouTube
YouTube user “kirk fraser” writes: “I was out with my parents and a family friends when we were looking for whales and a pod of 12 trainsient [sic] killer whales where chasing the seal. It ripped towards the boat in a desperate escape and scrambled on the deck. It fell of three times in panic and finally stayed on untill [sic] the whales gave up after about 30-45 minutes. Most intense epic experience ever. Love you Nature. What a lucky seal filmed on my boat.”

CBS Los Angeles reports the scene was filmed in British Columbia.

Seals are one of the favorite prey [sic] for killer whales. Interesting, scientists in Alaska recently observed humpback whales protecting seals from attacking orcas.



I was so glad to see the adorable seal, not a very large one, which was smart enough to jump out of the water to escape the killer whales. It was probably only lucky that the boat contained men who were going to try to protect it until the Orcas left the scene. I can’t believe the seal would actually know humans would do that, so it was probably an act of blind fear when it jumped in.

The video lasts in the range of 10 minutes and is full of suspense as the big old Orca bullies circle the boat over and over. They finally decided that they either couldn’t get into the boat, or it wasn’t worth the effort for one measly seal, and swam away. The video is labeled as having some adult content in it, for the fact that one of the men kept dropping the “f bomb,” but he did that out of surprise and awe at their unexpected adventure.



Zigzagging from subject to subject again, I noted something that's fun for me -- the intricacies of the English language. The following sentence within the caption above, catches my eye, and annoys me somewhat. “Seals are one of the favorite prey for killer whales.” Not to be picky, of course, but this sentence isn’t constructed quite correctly. Prey is not a singular noun, or even a specific entity, but a category or type of entity, with the word meaning based on its’ function as a food source. If it is wanted exclusively for its skin or other bodily parts, however, then prey can refer to a number of animal types. We could say “the deer is usually prey in the animal kingdom.” Tigers are not usually prey, but to Chinese hunters they are, as tiger parts are considered to have medicinal properties – hence the near demise today of wild tigers worldwide.

“Prey” can’t stand alone in that sentence, in other words, but needs either the word “types” or “animals” after it, in order for the sentence to make perfect sense. It’s functioning as an adjective. In the case of a sentence like “the hunters are out looking for ‘prey,’” that is plural and it does not specify what kind of prey. It’s, therefore, “generic.” If the poor creature is edible, they will kill it and dress it for supper.

When we say “I’m going to hunt deer,” that is also a generic and presumably plural word in that sentence. It’s not referring to a specific deer or a type of deer. Any deer will do, and a group of hunters very likely don’t want just one. They want one for each of them so they can fill their freezers for the winter.

The word usage I hear that annoys me most, however, (aside from “aren’t I?”) is when people use the word “species” as plural and then try to say “specie” as the singular. Not!! Specie is a kind of Chinese money, and has nothing to do with life forms. “Species,” just like “deer,” is either singular or plural, according to context. See http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/prey.”

See also https://www.grammarly.com/handbook/grammar/nouns/9/generic-nouns/ for “generic” versus “collective nouns.”

Generic Nouns

Generic nouns are nouns which are part of a generic statement. They’re different from definite nouns (e.g. the book) and indefinite nouns (e.g. a book) in that the sentence they’re must be a blanket statement or question. Generic nouns can be singular or plural. Make sure the verb which is modifying the generic noun agrees with the generic noun (e.g. the gang of boys was, the gangs of boys were)

The opposite of generic nouns is collective nouns (see Collective Nouns). If it refers to a specific group, it’s not generic.

The pride of lions are cats.
Pride is a collective noun which is modifying lions; cats is generic.

Cats are animals.
Both cat and animals are generic nouns.


http://grammarist.com/grammar/nouns-as-adjectives/

Nouns as adjectives

Nouns sometimes function as adjectives. For example, in each of these phrases, the first word is usually a noun but here functions as an adjective modifying the second word: city government, article writer, bicycle thief, Sunday picnic, pumpkin pie.



HILLARY’S PROBLEMS TODAY

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/koch-backed-group-uses-hillary-clinton-to-attack-ohio-senate-candidate/

Koch-backed group uses Hillary Clinton to attack Ohio Senate candidate
By EMILY SCHULTHEIS CBS NEWS August 23, 2016, 7:00 PM


Hillary Clinton is making her first appearance in a Republican attack ad this week—a move that will test Republicans’ arguments that she is just as toxic for down-ballot Democrats as GOP nominee Donald Trump is for his party’s candidates.

The new ad, part of a new $1 million buy from the Koch-backed group Freedom Partners Action Fund, targets Democratic Senate candidate Ted Strickland in Ohio, uses Clinton’s comments about putting coal miners “out of business” against him. Strickland is challenging incumbent GOP Sen. Rob Portman.

“Every day, I really wonder if I’m going to have a job the next day,” says Josh, a coal miner, in the TV ad. “Any day I can come in and they tell me to go home—it’s happened to a lot of people around here.”

Josh by Freedom Partners Action Fund on YouTube

The ad then plays video footage of Clinton’s comments about the coal industry, which Republicans across the country have used against her in recent months. “We’re going to put a lot of coal miners out of business,” she said in March.

“Seeing Ted Strickland stand with Hillary Clinton after what she said really hurts us here in the coal industry,” the ad’s narrator continues. “I don’t think you can trust Ted Strickland to stand up for coal. There’s no way he’s going to stand up for us.”

The ad comes as some Republicans are discussing the possibility of shifting resources toward Senate and other down-ballot races, a move that would in their view help the GOP hold the Senate and U.S. House even as Trump looks to be fading in the presidential race.

Republican leaders have argued that Clinton, with her low favorability ratings and continuing headlines over her private email server, is just as much a drag on the Democratic ticket as Trump is on the Republican one. This, however, is the first time a GOP outside group is putting serious money behind an ad tying the Democratic candidate to Clinton.

A CBS News Battleground Tracker poll released Sunday found Portman outperforming Trump by a fair bit in Ohio: he’s leading Strickland by 7 points in the state, even while Trump is down six points to Clinton.

Freedom Partners also released another ad Tuesday, this one a $1.2 million digital and TV ad buy in the battleground state of Nevada targeting Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto over a guardianship program for senior citizens in the state.



“The new ad, part of a new $1 million buy from the Koch-backed group Freedom Partners Action Fund, targets Democratic Senate candidate Ted Strickland in Ohio, uses Clinton’s comments about putting coal miners “out of business” against him. Strickland is challenging incumbent GOP Sen. Rob Portman. “Every day, I really wonder if I’m going to have a job the next day,” says Josh, a coal miner, in the TV ad. “Any day I can come in and they tell me to go home—it’s happened to a lot of people around here.” Seeing Ted Strickland stand with Hillary Clinton after what she said really hurts us here in the coal industry,” the ad’s narrator continues. “I don’t think you can trust Ted Strickland to stand up for coal. There’s no way he’s going to stand up for us.”


I do wish Hillary hadn’t said anything like that, because it makes the Right-leaning poor concerned to a potentially dangerous degree. We tend to think to think that “Revolutions” tend to come from the left, but it can as easily come from the Right as it is today. The problem with coal and oil use as a blatant danger to our whole environment, causes me to stand, though unwillingly, against people who are unable to get a better job than working in a coal mine. I feel very sad about that, but the only thing they can do is to improve their education and fit themselves for a new kind of work.

There really is no reason why, with a high school education or somewhat less, they should be unable to get a construction or a manufacturing job. Even better would be a community college 2 year or even 4 year degree to allow them to do office work like accounting or the paralegal field.

The simple fact that computers and robots are taking over work formerly done by humans is already causing the same problems. One of the reasons why we actually do need a basically socialistic economy in this country is the fact that getting a job of any kind that will pay a living wage is getting harder and harder. There was a book some 30 or so years ago on the subject called “The Leisure Society.” It discussed the idea that fewer and fewer society members will actually work for a living. It’s not that they’re rich or lazy, but that there just aren’t enough jobs.

The trouble is, we are not set up to take care of people who don’t have jobs. People have expenses, and must somehow pay for them. If I think much about that, I’m going to be really worried. The best that could happen to us is for a socialist system to emerge. Unfortunately, it probably won’t.


PAY TO PLAY?

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/clinton-foundation-state-department-ties-revealed-associated-press-investigation-donald-trump/

Clinton campaign dogged by new donor allegations
CBS NEWS
August 24, 2016, 8:46 AM

Play VIDEO -- Latest political headaches for the Clinton campaign


Hillary Clinton’s campaign is rejecting an Associated Press story on her meetings with Clinton Foundation donors while she was secretary of state. Documents show more than half of the people from outside the U.S. government who spoke with Secretary Clinton also gave money to the foundation.

This report is creating new perception problems for the Clinton campaign and the State Department, which have both been arguing for days that foundation donors got no special treatment by the secretary, reports CBS News correspondent Nancy Cordes.

Clinton herself hasn’t weighed in on the controversy because she’s spent most of the past three days out of the public eye, at high-dollar fundraisers in California.

Donald Trump claimed the report is proof of a “pay-for-play” scheme. In Austin, Texas, he accused the Clintons of running a criminal enterprise.

“Lie after lie after lie, Hillary Clinton is totally unfit to hold public office,” Trump said. “It is impossible to figure out where the Clinton Foundation ends and the State Department begins.”

He cited the new analysis by the Associated Press, which examined Hillary Clinton’s daily schedules as secretary of state and found 85 of the 154 private individuals who got meetings or phone calls with her had donated to the foundation – either personally or through their organization.

“This is why I have called for a special prosecutor into this mess,” Trump said.

The Clinton campaign fired back, saying the AP report relied on “utterly flawed data,” which gave a “distorted portrayal” of the secretary’s schedule. They also added that meetings with humanitarians like Melinda Gates and Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus are “squarely in the purview of America’s top diplomat,” and rejected Trump’s call for a special prosecutor.

“It is an act of desperation on his campaign, given the turmoil that we’ve seen from his campaign in recent weeks,” Clinton campaign spokesman Brian Fallon told MSNBC.

Newly released emails from Clinton aide Huma Abedin show foundation donors -- like Slim-Fast founder Danny Abraham -- were able to nab last-minute meetings with Clinton with one call to her aide. But State Department officials said there’s no evidence those donors got any special favors.

The FBI director declined to say last month whether agents had looked into the foundation connection.

“I’m not going to comment. I’m not going to answer that,” James Comey said at a congressional hearing.

The term “special prosecutor” strikes fear in the hearts of longtime Clintonites, who still recall when one of them – Kenneth Starr – was appointed to look into the Whitewater controversy – an investigation that grew to include Paula Jones, Monica Lewinsky and eventually led to former President Bill Clinton’s impeachment.


“Documents show more than half of the people from outside the U.S. government who spoke with Secretary Clinton also gave money to the foundation. …. The Clinton campaign fired back, saying the AP report relied on “utterly flawed data,” which gave a “distorted portrayal” of the secretary’s schedule. They also added that meetings with humanitarians like Melinda Gates and Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus are “squarely in the purview of America’s top diplomat,” and rejected Trump’s call for a special prosecutor. …. But State Department officials said there’s no evidence those donors got any special favors. The FBI director declined to say last month whether agents had looked into the foundation connection. “I’m not going to comment. I’m not going to answer that,” James Comey said at a congressional hearing.”


I think that AP should be required to show the “flawed data” which they used to construct their story. Maybe we shouldn’t have complete freedom from inspection in such matters. That’s a long and “time honored” tradition since I’ve been reading the news, but it may not be written into the Constitution as such, and in cases like this it isn't producing a good result. I wonder. I don’t think people should be exempt from the responsibility to prove their case, when it is their business to tackle individuals, sometimes in ways that are spurious and other times to courageously expose the deceit of people or entities in the public eye. Total freedom from supervision leads to lazy, sloppy work in offices, and I think in this case the same principle applies.