SAGINAW, Mich. -- A find of toxic dioxin in one spot of the Saginaw River could be the most concentrated ever found, according to a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency scientist involved in cleanup efforts downstream from Dow Chemical Co. facilities in Midland.
Lefty Frizzell wrote a song about Saginaw, Michigan.
I was born in Saginaw, Michigan.
I grew up in a house on Saginaw Bay.
My dad was a poor hard working Saginaw fisherman:
Too many times he came home with too little pay.
I loved a girl in Saginaw, Michigan.
The daughter of a wealthy, wealthy man.
But he called me: "That son of a Saginaw fisherman."
And not good enough to claim his daughter's hand.
Now I'm up here in Alaska looking around for gold.
Like a crazy fool I'm a digging in this frozen ground, so cold.
But with each new day I pray I'll strike it rich and then,
ll go back home and claim my love in Saginaw, Michigan.
I imagine no one at Dow is singing that song today.
NEW YORK (AP) -- From her baptism in Liberia to Christmas years later in her adopted New York City, Mamie Manneh never lost the longing to celebrate religious rituals by eating monkey meat.
Now, the tribal customs of Manneh and other West African immigrants have become the focus of an unusual criminal case charging her with meat smuggling, and touching on issues of religious freedom, infectious diseases and wildlife preservation.
The case "appears to be the first of its kind relating to that uniquely African product," defense attorney Jan Rostal wrote in a pending motion to dismiss. "Unfortunately, it represents the sort of clash of cultural and religious values inherent in the melting pot that is America."
No no no. It's NOT a "clash of cultural and religious values inherent in the melting pot that is America." It's a case of BREAKING THE LAW and then lying about it.
According to the agents, she initially denied ordering any bushmeat from Africa or ever eating it while in the United States.
But after she consented to a search, the agents came across a tiny, hairy arm hidden in her garage.
"Monkey," she explained, claiming the arm was sent to her out of the blue "as a gift from God in heaven."
Don't go blaming GOD for things He had no part in. She lied, pure and simple.
A criminal complaint cited evidence that the illegal importation of bushmeat encourages the slaughter of protected wild animals.
More ominously, the complaint warned of "the potential health risks to humans linking bushmeat to diseases like Lassa fever, Ebola, HIV, SARS and monkeypox."
Defense attorney Rostal has countered by accusing the government of picking on a poorly educated immigrant.
Her client's only offense, she said, was her inability to grasp Western attitudes and highly technical regulations regarding bushmeat.
Defense papers also argue that the U.S. demand for the meat involved in the Manneh case -- from Africa's green monkey population -- is "too small to have any significance for conservation."
Oh, yes, play the "poorly educated immigrant" card. She wasn't so poorly educated that she couldn't figure out a way to import monkey meat (bushmeat). She's a lot more streetwise than her attorney. And while you're at it, make it a religious persecution case, too. REAL CHRISTIANS do not break the laws of the land, instead they recall Matthew 22:21b Then he saith to them: Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's; and to God, the things that are God's.
Manneh, 39, testified last year that before arriving in the United States more than 25 years ago, monkey meat was critical to her religious upbringing.
At age 7, "I was baptized and they used that for the baptizing ceremony," she told a judge.
Manneh is already serving a two-year sentence in state prison for trying to run over a woman she suspected of sleeping with her husband, Zangar Jefferson. If convicted of the federal charges she faces up to five more years in prison and deportation.
"The government's taking a woman away from her children," complained Jefferson, who's struggling to raise the children alone. "It's very depressing, especially with the holidays right around the corner."
WHAT? She's ALREADY IN JAIL for trying to use her vehicle as a lethal weapon! The "government" isn't responsible for this woman trying to kill someone with her car. This lying lawbreaking woman is responsible for all of the problems she's brought upon herself!
The prosecution also has dampened spirits at the church in Staten Island where Manneh and other African immigrants once packed the pews to practice a religion blending Christianity and tribal customs.
One of the few worshippers left, Leona Artis, says the congregation's appetite for monkey meat is deeply misunderstood.
Take Thanksgiving.
"Where some people have turkey, we'll have monkey meat," Artis said. "I've been eating it all my life. It's delicious."
Baptisms, Easter, Christmas, weddings -- all are occasions for eating monkey, Manneh's supporters said in a sworn statement filed with the court.
The statement was vague about how the meat is obtained, but explains that it always arrives dried and smoked. Once blessed by a pastor, "we usually prepare it by cooking it for several hours into a stew," they said.
For them, the exotic import is more than just food.
"We eat bushmeat," they said, "for our souls."
Wait a second. Her attorney contends she only imports a "small amount" but then there is a congregation which also eats monkey meat at holidays and special occasions? So how much monkey meat and how many people are eating it and how many times in one year? Let's get real here. It's not just about monkey meat, it's about not "melting" into the "melting pot that is America." And how many OTHER congregations are importing monkey meat for their "religious" ceremonies?
Talk about how words can be twisted around to promote the leftist, progressive agenda, which apparently includes law breaking, lying and not being realistic!
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