Special New Year with a blue moon in the Americas and partial eclipse in Asia

right: full moon over the Prairie, from flicker.com

December 30, 2009

from Mercopress.com

The blue moon has long been a subject of poetry and one of those phrases that are used without quite understanding the meaning, but its presence is a scientific marker for a rotating earth that runs by its own clock, ignoring man’s calendar...

Simply put, on Thursday, December 31, 2009, there will be second full moon in a calendar month of December, an occurrence called blue moon and on time for the New Year countdown.

Only once in every 20 years, the blue moon appears on New Year’s Eve, as it is going to do this year.

This New Year's Eve blue moon will be visible in the United States, Canada, Europe, South America and Africa. In Australia and Asia, the full moon does not show up until New Year's Day, making January a blue moon month for them...

read entire article here

Angry shopper uses Taser at Joliet store

December 28, 2009
Chicago Suntimes

SUN-TIMES MEDIA WIRE

...Juan Varges was asked to leave the Gonzales Supermarket in Joliet on Friday, then returned about 5 p.m. with a Taser gun and attacked the store's 33-year-old butcher.

Varges, 18, was arrested Friday and booked into Will County jail on charges of battery, criminal trespassing and unlawful use of a weapon, police said.

No injuries were reported. But it had to hurt. This is what all the taser abuse comes to. Pretty soon kids will be taking them to school.

I'm back...

The Prairie Chicken
December 28, 2009

I've been gone awhile. Thanks for staying with me and hope your having some swingin' holidays.
enjoy!

George Thomas in Nashville, ready to begin life sentence in torture-slayings

No big surprise here.

News Sentinel

knoxnews.com

By Jamie Satterfield
Posted December 10, 2009

KNOXVILLE - George Thomas arrived at a Nashville correctional center this afternoon, hours after a Knox County Criminal Court jury sentenced him to life in prison without parole for the January 2007 carjacking and torture-slayings of a West Knox County couple.

.
Thomas is now at the Charles Bass Correctional Complex, an intake center for new inmates, where he will be evaluated before it's decided where he should serve out his sentence, said Dorinda Carter, Tennessee Department of Correction spokeswoman.

.
That evaluation could take 30 to 60 days, she said...

Read entire article here.

George L. "G" Thomas: The murder of Channon Christian and Chris Newsom--Dec 8, 2009

The Prairie Chicken
December 8, 2009
.

The jury returned a guilty verdict on the seventh day of the double-murder trial of George Thomas on Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2009. Jurors shipped in from Hamilton County found Thomas guilty of multiple counts of first-degree murder and have convicted him on all 47 charges for the January 2007 torture/murder of Channon Christian and her boyfriend Christopher Newsom.
.
Victim impact statements from members of the victims families were pre-approved by the judge and attorney's today, will be read to the jury tomorrow when George "G" Thomas is to be sentenced.

Read entire finding of the jury on all 47 convictions here, at News Sentinel, knoxnews.com

For other articles:
George Thomas guilty; Family: Thomas deserves death
Third of four Christian-Newsom suspects convicted of first degree murder
.

Left: George showing all the emotion he could muster.
.

I predict life without parole. Reading through his police statement (removing all the "you know what I mean" and the other stupid gangland Ebonics slang he uses) he obviously has the intelligence of a slug. Personally I think he was actively involved in every aspect of the crimes, but even if he WAS just a witness, what kind of mentality is it that can just dismiss such violence and cruelty by saying it was none of his business?
.

Why is it more admirable in that culture to avoid being a snitch over any crime? It's ok to steal cars, kill someone, rape them, but not to snitch. It is sickening.