Don’t ever mistake my silence for ignorance, my calmness for acceptance, or my kindness for weakness.
“
| — | Anonymous (via absinthemakeyouawhore) |
More Afghan Civilians Died In 2011 Than NATO Troops In The Last Decade
Last year’s 3,021 civilian deaths marked the fifth straight year that the toll has risen, UN figures show, while 3,007 NATO soldiers have died since the 2001 US-led invasion, according to icasualties.org.
Meanwhile the number of internal refugees last year hit nearly half a million, the highest for about a decade, part of what Amnesty International has called “a largely hidden but horrific humanitarian and human rights crisis”.
And more than 30,000 Afghans sought asylum abroad last year — another 10-year high. Thousands of others make their way abroad illegally.
“They say you’re defending me.
I’m sick of tying yellow ribbons,
Praying out to sea.”
#fuck NATO
Sir Richard Branson believes that the ideal way for Spain to get out of its current morass of national debt, savage austerity cuts, and social turmoil would be to legalize and tax marijuana.
The billionaire founder of the Virgin Group suggested at the opening of the world’s largest cannabis museum in Barcelona on Wednesday that this policy “would help get the country back on its feet.”
Branson is a member of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, a body “which includes five ex-presidents and Kofi Annan, the former United Nations secretary general, and which concluded last year that the war on drugs had failed and called for experiments in decriminalisation.”
Other members of the commission include former U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz and former Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso.
Branson was invited to Barcelona to receive the Cannabis Culture Award 2012 on behalf of the commission and in recognition of its ground-breaking report. In his speech, his praised the nearby town of Rasquera, whose inhabitants voted to rent land to a Barcelona cannibis-growers’ society as part of an “anticrisis plan.”
The town’s mayor, Bernat Pellisa, explained that the idea to use marijuana to help get the town out of recession was inspired by the global commission’s report.
“It seems like a great idea to me,” Branson stated enthusiastically.
The Hemp Museum Gallery Barcelona was officially opened on Friday. According to ThinkSpain, it “will exhibit paintings, photos and drawings illustrating the use of cannabis throughout history, as well as some antique objects, like tools and instruments used to transform the hemp plant into rope, paper and fabric.”
Declaring that “life must always be protected”, a senior Vatican cleric has defended the Catholic Church’s decision to excommunicate the mother and doctors of a nine-year-old rape victim who had a life-saving abortion in Brazil.
Cardinal Giovanni Batista Re, who heads the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, told reporters that although the girl fell pregnant after apparently being abused by her stepfather, her twins had, “the right to live, and could not be eliminated”.
In an interview with the Italian newspaper, La Stampa, the cardinal added: “It is a sad case but the real problem is that the twins conceived were two innocent persons. Life must always be protected.”
Police believe the girl was sexually assaulted for years by her stepfather, possibly since she was six. That she was four months pregnant with twins emerged only after she was taken to hospital complaining of severe stomach pains.
The controversy represents a PR nightmare for the Vatican. The unnamed girl’s mother and doctors were excommunicated for agreeing to Wednesday’s emergency abortion yet the Church has not taken formal steps against the stepfather, who is in custody. Jose Cardoso Sobrinho, the conservative regional archbishop for Pernambuco where the girl was rushed to hospital, has said that the man would not be thrown out of the Church, because although he had allegedly committed “a heinous crime”, the Church took the view that “the abortion, the elimination of an innocent life, was more serious”.
The Church are scum, and I don’t know why anyone follows them anymore. Likely out of ignorance
#fuck the vatican
And yet the people still say “Why are those spoiled brats protesting?!” Well, if they’re so spoiled, why is their city falling apart all around them? Maybe because of the bribery scandal that’s embroiled all of Quebec the last few weeks, and all the shady deals the city made to line it’s pockets. This is less and less about students demanding that the costs of education stay low, and more and more about how it’s silly to raise those costs in the face of all the other money this country pisses away every fucking day on election tampering, jets we don’t need and pointless wars that don’t benefit us.
From Occupy Frankfurt. May 19, 2012.
The German police took off their helmets and marched with the protest clearing the way for them.
The police coming over to serve and protect the people… Blockupy Frankfurt. Police are escorting, not participating. Reports of an estimated 20,000+ protesters. Nice to see their faces…. and their humanity coming through…
WATCH THIS VIDEO: #blockupy. Frankfurt
German police officers escort an anti-capitalism protest march with some 20,000 people in Frankfurt, Germany, Saturday, May 19, 2012. Protesters peacefully filled the city center of continental Europe’s biggest financial hub in their protest against the dominance of banks and what they perceive to be untamed capitalism, Frankfurt police spokesman Ruediger Regis said. The protest group calling itself Blockupy has called for blocking the access to the European Central Bank, which is located in Frankfurt’s business district.(AP Photo/Michael Probst) - source
This brings a tear to my eye. Police actually serving and protecting, instead of obeying and encroaching.
May 22, 2012
US officials with firsthand knowledge of how the government determines who gets put on the CIA and Pentagon’s lists for ‘targeted killing’ have confessed concern over the implications and nature of the process. In conversations with the Associated Press, one official involved — who spoke with assurances of anonymity — said that some of those carrying out the policy have become leery of “how easy it has become to kill someone,” under the rules established under the Obama administration and orchestrated by Obama’s top counter-terrorism adviser, John Brennan.
Brennan, who last month offered the first public admission by a White House official of the existence of the clandestine drone assassination program in places like Pakistan and Yemen, has amassed unique powers by consolidating the decision-making process to a select and tightly-controlled group of people, according to AP’s reporting.
“Under the new plan, Brennan’s staff compiles the potential target list and runs the names past agencies such as the State Department at a weekly White House meeting,” the report cites officials as describing. “Previously, targets were first discussed in meetings run by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen at the time, with Brennan being just one of the voices in the debate. Brennan ultimately would make the case to the president, but a larger number of officials would end up drawn into the discussion.”
Human rights and civil liberties groups have called for the White House to disclose to the public the legal process by which names end up on the targeting lists, but this report will likely give them little comfort.
[…]
Top Obama Officials, Secretive Process Create ‘Assassination List’ | Common Dreams
An Edmonton-based Mountie has been demoted and fined for disgraceful conduct – including drinking on the job and having sex with subordinates while at work.
An RCMP disciplinary board reprimanded Staff Sgt. Don Ray, who had been a member of the behavioral sciences unit at the RCMP headquarters in Edmonton.
According to an agreed statement of facts, Ray had kept a bar fridge stocked with liquor in his office – and had regularly offered alcoholic beverages to subordinates.
The statement also says he had sex with one subordinate in the RCMP polygraph suite, and also in an unmarked police car, the encounters reportedly dated back to 2006.
Ray also made sexually suggestive comments to other female RCMP members, and female civilian employees – he also admitted to exposing himself to a female employee on one occassion.
In addition, he admitted to having a 12-month relationship with another RCMP employee, the pair reportedly drank and had sex in the polygraph suite at RCMP headquarters in Edmonton – during lunch breaks and after work.
A total of seven women were involved, before reports of the incidents reached Ray’s superiors.
I had a hard time reading that story without wondering what would happen to the average citizen if they were found to be drinking on the job, having sex at work, and carrying on with 7 different women while also working in the behavioral sciences unit. That sounds like a complete and utter abuse of power, and anything less than him losing his job was far too easy on him.
