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New York woman arrested for driving with a handmade license plate. On Friday, CBS News reported that Amanda Schweickert, 28, of Sardinia is in trouble for using a fake license plate. She is not supposed to be driving because she has a suspended registration and no car insurance. However, it did not stop her from using a little creativity. She decided to create her own license plate. Authorities say she used a piece of cardboard and painted blue text on it. Although the plate didn’t look too dreadful, it fooled no one. On Wednesday, a police officer pulled Schweickert over...

Is this the worst police sketch ever? Police release likeness of armed robbery suspect that looks more like a CARTOON than a person • Texas police release 'cartoon' e-fit sketch of suspected robber • The person on the sketch lacks lips, irises and even eyebrows • It depicts a suspect in an armed robbery which took place last week • A man held two women at knife point in Lamar County, Paris Police in Texas have released a sketch of a suspected robber, but unless they are looking for Morph, they might struggle to locate him. The e-fit was sent...

The Weirdest Monuments Of The Communist Era That Are Still Standing After the fall of the Soviet Union, many Communist statues and sculptures were destroyed, while others were moved to statue parks or museums. But many of them remained in the same place for the last 20 years, while the former Soviet areas were transformed into modern countries. Here are thirteen of the most incredible ones. Click to enlarge images below. 1. Lenin's giant head, Ulan-Ude, Republic of Buryatia, Russia The 42 ton, 25 foot tall head of former Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin is standing in Ulan-Ude. Built in 1970,...

The truth about North Korea's glittering 'Hotel Of Doom' built to symbolize country's supremacy: There's nothing but a derelict shell inside From the outside, its shiny windows and soaring towers make it look decidedly futuristic and luxurious. But after visitors walk through the doors of North Korea's Ryugyong Hotel - which has taken twenty years to build - they see it is just a concrete shell. The interior of the 105-story, pyramid-shaped resembles a multi-storey car park, with its concrete floors and bare columns. Beijing-based Koryo Tours got a peek at the vast interior of the hotel in Pyongyang, the...

An Extremely Creepy Tour of an Abandoned Soviet Monument in Bulgaria Remember those derelict Bulgarian war memorials that resemble space fortresses? Well, it turns out they're just as otherworldly inside. Here's one intrepid urban explorer's journey into the shadowy corridors of the shuttered Bulgarian-Soviet Friendship memorial in Varna, Bulgaria. It's also a case study on why you never tour old Soviet monuments alone. In its Communist heyday, the "Park-Monument of the Bulgarian-Soviet Friendship" contained an eternal flame, a bomb shelter, and a tourism center. Loudspeakers would also blast Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No. 7 on constant loop. The center opened in...

Chicano Park gets makeover SAN DIEGO— Artists restore cultural paintings in Chicano Park. “As a young artist I remember coming to San Diego and thinking ‘gosh I wish I could have a mural up at Chicano park,’” painter Mario Chacon said. The bright art pieces have brought people to Chicano Park since the 1970’s, but time has taken it’s toll. Thanks to a $1.6 million grant from the federal government, 18 of the murals are being restored. The artists working on the restoration said each painting has significant symbolism. “What was placed at the top of the mural was a...

Post Columnist Says King Monument is Stalin-like A Washington Post columnist has criticized the new Martin Luther King, Jr. monument, while his paper is publishing a 24-page special supplement hailing the unveiling of the “Stone of Hope” in the memorial that includes the 30-foot tall statue of the civil rights leader. Black columnist Courtland Milloy writes, “Let’s face it: There really is something peculiar about having an artist from communist China sculpt the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial statue. And, yes, it would have been fantastic had an African American sculptor been chosen instead.” He adds, “The sculpture is based...

Mural Ignites Debate on Race, Censorship in Arizona (June 5) -- An Arizona school mural designed to promote environmentally friendly transportation has ignited a debate about race and censorship of the arts. Officials at Miller Valley Elementary School in Prescott, Ariz., asked the painters of the mural to lighten the skin of children depicted after a city councilman denounced its prominent portrayal of ethnic minorities. Following protests, the principal apologized today for making the request. "Miller Valley made a mistake when we asked them to lighten the mural. We made a mistake," said Principal Jeff Lane. The mural shows children...

The Degradation of Women by Feminist Extremists by Bridget Geegan Blanton The empowerment of women materialized only after a hard fought liberation... ...from the repressive identity that reduced a woman’s worth to her body parts. Those tough-minded Suffragettes, pioneers of the women’s movement, risked everything in the fight for rights and equal treatment under the law for American women. Feminist Extremists have squandered that legacy with an assault on the dignity of women and a dark retreat to the repressive past by claiming that a woman’s worth is defined by and limited to her body as propagandized in the demeaning...

Artist defends Osama-as-Jesus ELIZBETH FORTESCUE, SYDNEY August 30, 2007 02:15am THE Queensland artist behind a controversial work depicting terrorism mastermind Osama bin Laden morphing into Jesus today invited those considering her work to look a little more deeply than the obvious comparison of good and evil. Priscilla Bracks denied she had deliberately set out to be offensive. "Absolutely not, no, no. I am not interested in being offensive. I am interested in having a discussion and asking questions about how we think about our world and what we accept and what we don't accept," she told ABC radio. The Prime...