Patrick Stewart often talks about his childhood and the torment his father put him and his mother through. However, how he answered this vulnerable and brave fan's question is one of the most eloquent, passionate responses about domestic violence I've ever seen. WARNING: At 2:40, he's going to break your heart a little.
31 May 2013
Secret Nazi Space Program
In science fiction, conspiracy theory, and underground comic books, stories or claims circulate linking UFOs to Nazi Germany. These Nazi UFO theories describe supposedly successful attempts to develop advanced aircraft or spacecraft prior to and during World War II, and further claim the post-war survival of these craft in secret underground bases in Antarctica, South America or the United States, along with their creators.Within the canon of media various code-names or sub-classification of UFO craft are identified: Rundflugzeug, Feuerball, Diskus, Haunebu, Hauneburg-Geräte, V7, VRIL, Kugelblitz, Andromeda-Geräte, Flugkreisel, Kugelwaffen, Reichsflugscheiben.
Accounts appear from as early as 1950, likely inspired by historical German development of specialized engines such as Viktor Schauberger‘s “Repulsine” around the time of WWII. Elements of the claims have been widely incorporated into various works of fictional and purportedly non-fictional media including video games and documentaries, often mixed with more substantiated information.
Australian billionaire calls for sterilization of the poor
Conservative billionaire Gina Rinehart called for the sterilization of the poor today, arguing that the only way to alleviate poverty is to stop the "underclasses" from multiplying. In a video uploaded to her official YouTube account, the Australian mining heiress said that income inequality is caused by differences in intelligence, and eugenics is the only answer.
"Our nation faces a grave economic crisis as the combination of a strong Australian dollar and falling commodity prices sap our ability to compete globally," she explained, "the only logical solution to this crisis is to strengthen the quality of our most precious resource: human capital.
"I believe that any couple making less than $100,000 a year should be forcibly sterilized through a vasectomy or fallopian tubal ligation. Those earning more than $100,000 a year should be encouraged to have as many as 10 or 12 children.
Rinehart is the richest person in Australia and ranks as one of the wealthiest women in the world. Most of her fortune comes from a mining company she inherited from her father and later built into a leading exporter of iron ore.
30 May 2013
Mashup pour tous !
On this forum , bootleggers have never had need laws to celebrate non-standard unions: marriage of rap, blues, marshmallow, bossa, pop, r'n'b, with dead singers, others in the process of becoming (media-speak, I do not want to hurt anyone!) girls hoarsely, guys who sing high-pitched, all under the guidance of producers you start to know well.
Animals You Didn't Know Existed
The pink fairy armadillo is approximately 3.5-4.5 inches long, excluding the tail, and is pale rose or pink in color. It has the ability to bury itself completely in a matter of seconds if frightened. It is a nocturnal animal and it burrows small holes near ant colonies in dry soil, and feeds mainly on ants and ant larvae near its burrow. It uses large front claws to agitate the sand, allowing it to almost swim through the ground like it is water. It is torpedo-shaped, and has a shielded head and back.
Protest against warlords in Amsterdam
Picket line at shareholders meeting EADS in Amsterdam.. shareholders arrive at the hotel in Amsterdam for the meeting.. European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company is one of the biggest European arms producers.. due to inadequate arms export regulation the company can export its weapons all over the world, also to dictatorships.. moreover the company is a nuclear weapons producer..
29 May 2013
First gay couple wed in France amid tight security
Two men have become the first gay couple to wed in France, just days after President Francois Hollande signed the same-sex marriage bill into law. Vincent Austin and Bruno Boileau tied the knot in the southern city of Montpellier amid tight security.
Mr Hollande had warned he would not accept any disruption to the ceremony. The new legislation has proved controversial and sparked violent protests. The anti-gay marriage lobby, backed by the Catholic Church and conservative opposition, argues the bill undermines an essential building block of society. Extra police were drafted in, with fear that the extreme-right might also attend, our correspondent added.
Erdal Inci
"Artist and photographer Erdal Inci has created a hypnotic series of GIFs that takes the concept of cloned motion to a truly eerie level. Often using images of himself in mundane situations, Inci transforms simple snapshots into entrancing video loops. Believe us, these clips will haunt your computer screen while you attempt to decipher the unique patterns."
The Huffington Post - Erdal Inci Website - Beautiful/decay
British forces are detaining dozens in Afghanistan
Philip Hammond, the British defence secretary, has confirmed that dozens of people are being detained by British forces at Camp Bastion in Afghanistan following allegations that the army is running a secret detention facility at the base.
Hammond said 80 or 90 people were being held at the site. He said many of them posed a danger to British troops, and reiterated that they could not yet be handed over to Afghan authorities because of concerns that they would be mistreated.
UK lawyers acting for eight of the men, some of whom they say have been held for up to 14 months without charge, have launched habeas corpus applications in the UK high court in a bid to free them, raising comparisons with the outrage over the Guantánamo Bay prison camp.
The International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) rules dictate that British forces are only allowed to hold suspects for 96 hours. But in November last year, Hammond halted plans to hand suspected insurgents captured by British troops to Afghan security forces on the grounds they risked being abused and tortured.
28 May 2013
Jailed Pussy Riot Member in Hospital on Seventh Day of Hunger Strike
A jailed member of the Russian punk group Pussy Riot was hospitalized Tuesday on the seventh day of a hunger strike to protest what she calls a persecution campaign against her.
Maria Alekhina was transferred to a hospital in her prison colony in the Ural Mountains town of Berezniki. Alekhina went on a hunger strike last Wednesday after she was barred from attending her own parole hearing. The court, which is across the street from the colony, denied her release.
Three members of the band — Alekhina, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Yekaterina Samutsevich — were convicted last year of “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred” for an impromptu punk protest against Vladimir Putin in Moscow’s main cathedral and given two-year sentences.
The closing statements from Maria Alyokhina in trial 8 august 2012, Khamovnichesky Courthouse, Moscow
Please turn subtitles on.
Chinese teenager exposed as Egypt’s temple graffiti vandal
The parents of a Chinese teenager who scratched his name into a 3,500-year-old Egyptian artwork have apologised for his actions after internet users tracked down the boy to name and shame him. The 15-year-old, from Nanjing, was identified after a photo of his graffiti – which said “Ding Jinhao was here” in Mandarin – at the Temple of Luxor was posted online on Friday.
A microblogger named Shen, who visited the temple on the banks of the River Nile three weeks ago, cited the graffiti as an example of shameful behaviour by Chinese tourists abroad. The posting attracted a torrent of replies, including suggestions that the perpetrator be tracked down.
Investigators used the internet (known in China as “the human flesh search engine”) to trace Ding Jinhao and released his age, his school and other personal details. Hackers even compromised his former primary school’s website, forcing visitors to click on a sign parodying Ding’s graffiti before they could enter the site, the Global Times newspaper reported.
27 May 2013
The New Crime of Eating While Homeless
Whenever one of the US cities gets a star turn as host of some super-sparkly event, such as a national political gathering or the Super Bowl, its first move is to tidy up — by having the police sweep homeless people into jail, out of town, or under some rug. But Houston’s tidy-uppers aren’t waiting for a world-class event to rationalize going after homeless down-and-outers. They’ve preemptively outlawed the “crime” of dumpster diving in the Texan city.
In March, James Kelly, a 44-year-old Navy veteran, was passing through Houston on his way to connect with family in California. Homeless, destitute, and hungry, he chose to check out the dining delicacies in a trash bin near City Hall. Spotted by police, Kelly was promptly charged with “disturbing the contents of a garbage can in the [central] business district.” Seriously. “I was just basically looking for something to eat,” he told the Houston Chronicle. But, unbeknownst to both this indigent tourist and the great majority of Houston’s generally generous citizens, an ordinance dating way back to 1942 says that “molesting garbage containers” is illegal.
Also, in 2012, city officials made it a crime for any group to hand out food to the needy in the downtown area without first getting a permit. It’s a cold use of legal authority to chase the homeless away to…well, anywhere else.
Such laws are part of an effort throughout the country to criminalize what some call “homeless behavior.” And, sure enough, when hungry, the behavioral tendency of a homeless human is to seek a bite of nourishment, often in such dining spots as dumpsters. The homeless behavior that Houston has outlawed, then, is eating. The good news is that when Houstonians learned of Kelly’s situation, many reached out to help him get through his hard times. Now they need to reach out to local politicos and get the city to stop cracking down on this abuse of homeless people.
26 May 2013
Obama Expands Militarization of American Police
Among items transfered to US local law enforcement agencies have been assault rifles and grenade launchers, even Blackhawk helicopters and .50 caliber machine guns ; In fiscal year 2011 alone, the Pentagon transferred almost $500 million worth of materials to domestic law enforcement -- near double the previous year's total
Israel’s Hand in Guatemala’s Genocide
The Guatemalan genocide of the 1980s does not just implicate President Ronald Reagan and his senior aides but the Israeli government which secretly supplied helicopters, guns and computers that were used to hunt down and exterminate Ixil Indians and other perceived enemies of the state, reports Robert Parry.
At the height of Guatemala’s mass slaughters in the 1980s, including genocide against the Ixil Indians, the Reagan administration worked with Israeli officials to provide helicopters that the Guatemalan army used to hunt down fleeing villagers, according to documentary and eyewitness evidence. During testimony at the recent genocide trial of former Guatemalan dictator Efrain Rios Montt, one surprise was how often massacre survivors cited the Army’s use of helicopters in the scorched-earth offensives. Journalist Allan Nairn, who covered the war in Guatemala and attended the Rios Montt trial, said in an interview, “one interesting thing that came out in the trial, as witness after witness testified, was a very substantial number of them talked about fleeing into the mountains and being bombed, attacked and machine gunned from U.S. planes and helicopters.
On Aug. 1, 1983, NSC aides Oliver North and Alfonso Sapia-Bosch reported to National Security Advisor William P. Clark that his deputy Robert “Bud” McFarlane was planning to exploit his Israeli channels to secure the helicopters for Guatemala, according to a document that I discovered at Reagan’s presidential library. McFarlane’s approach to Israel for the helicopters was successful, according to former Israeli intelligence officer Ari Ben-Menashe, who described some of the history behind Israel’s activities in Guatemala in his 1992 memoir, Profits of War.
Ben-Menashe traced the Israeli arms sales to Guatemala back to a private network established in the 1970s by Gen. Ariel Sharon during a gap when he was out of the government. Sharon’s key representative in Guatemala was a businessman named Pesach Ben-Or, and through that channel, Israel supplied military gear to Guatemala’s security services in the 1980s, Ben-Menashe wrote.
Vatican corrects Pope: Atheists are still going to hell
The Vatican issued an “explanatory note on the meaning of “salvation,” on Thursday, May 23, after media reports circulated indicating that Pope Francis” promised heaven for everyone engaged in good works, including atheists.
In response to the media attention, the Rev. Thomas Rosica, a Vatican spokesman, said that people who know about the Catholic church “cannot be saved” if they “refuse to enter her or remain in her.” (Translation: Atheists are going to Hell if they don’t accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour.)
Rosica also said that Francis had “no intention of provoking a theological debate on the nature of salvation,” during his homily on Wednesday. The current theological confusion began after the leader of the world's 1.2 billion Roman Catholics made comments during the homily of his morning Mass on Wednesday, May 22, indicating that atheists would enjoy the fruits of eternal salvation if they were good people. Francis said:
The Lord has redeemed all of us, all of us, with the Blood of Christ: all of us, not just Catholics. Everyone! ‘Father, the atheists?’ Even the atheists. Everyone!
25 May 2013
U.S. plans to move Iranian exile group out of Iraq hit snag
The US State Department's decade-long effort to find a new home for a controversial Iranian opposition group has ground to a near halt only days after the announcement that the exiles had begun moving from Iraq to permanent homes in Europe.
Fourteen members of the Mujahedin Khalq militant group, or MEK, were flown from the outskirts of Baghdad to Albania on May 15, in what was expected to be the first step in the departure of 3,100 members of the group that has long opposed the government of clerics in Tehran and is also at odds with the government of Iraq.
The Marxist-Islamist group, described by some critics as a cult, moved from Iran to Iraq in the early 1980s, and fought with Saddam Hussein against Iran's Islamist government during the Iran-Iraq war. The current Iraqi government views the group with suspicion, and U.S. and United Nations officials have been trying to resettle them abroad since 2003.
Government corruption: Made in China - By prison labor
It's easy to produce cheap goods when you don't have to pay your workers anything. (Brasscheck tv)
Eton College's Exam Asks Boys To Justify The Army Shooting Protesters Dead
British Eton College asked 13-year-old boys competing for a scholarship to pretend to be Prime Minister and justify the army shooting dead 25 protesters as a "necessary and moral" decision, it has emerged. The public school set the question as part of an exam to win one of 14 King's Scholarships, which is worth one tenth of Eton's £10,689 termly fees.
The question, which was posed to students in 2011, tells the teenagers: "The government has deployed the Army to curb the protests. After two days the protests have been stopped but 25 protesters have been killed by the Army. "You are the Prime Minister. Write the script for a speech to be broadcast to the nation in which you explain why employing the Army against violent protesters was the only option available to you and one which was both necessary and moral."
24 May 2013
Greek gov’t seeks military camp to serve as prison for state debtors
Gradually, Greece turns into the 21st century version of the dark and gloomy world of Charles Dickens: with households burning wood for heating, with workers working for nothing, … and to put the icing on the Greek cake, soon also with debtors’ prisons. What we reported in January, turns into reality: tax prisons! The government seeks a military camp to turn it into a prison for those unable to pay their debts: to tax office or social security funds, for example.
However, this prison conditions will not be as harsh as in the Marshalsea prison, where Willam Dorrit spent long time. Modern Greek imprisoned debtors, for owing the state more than 5,000 euro will “live in humane conditions,” as the ministry of Justice told members of the Parliament on Thursday.
“The state is seeking a military camp within the limits of Attica prefecture for the housing of state debtors charged with prison penalties, ” deputy Justice minister Kostas Karagounis told MPS adding that the special prison for debtors will improve their detention conditions that will be more humane.
Iran moves to legalize marriage for girls under 10 years old
When Saudi Arabia announced three months ago that girls as young as 10-years old would now be allowed to marry, Iran decided to drop the age limit even further.
Iranian Christian news service Mohabat News reports a member of the Iranian Parliament (Majiles) Mohammad Ali Isfenani, "we must regard 9 as being the appropriate age for a girl to have reached puberty and qualified to get married. To do otherwise would be to contradict and challenge Islamic Sharia law."
He argues,"Before the revolution girls under 16 were not allowed to marry. Parents determined to get around the law would often tamper with their daughter's birth certificate. Under the previous constitution, people were legally regarded as adults when they were 18. After the revolution the age at which children were regarded as going through puberty was lowered to 9 for girls and 15 for boys.
Mohabat News reports statistics that show over the past few weeks, over 75 female children under 10 were forced to marry much older men. And in nearly 4000 cases, both the bride and groom were under 14.
23 May 2013
What Would You Do?
In this segment, this examines how people will react when they see a jerk harass a waitress played by Carmen Carrera who used to be a man and denounces the waitress after finding out they are transgender. How will the people react when they see someone be insulted?
Atheists Rising: Wolf Blitzer Learns a Lesson
You’d think by now CNN would have learned to stop treating their assumptions and as truths. But when Wolf Blitzer made a casual comment Tuesday, it turned out to be a teachable moment both for the newsman and television viewers.
Speaking live to a survivor of the deadly tornado in Moore, Okla., Blitzer declared the woman “blessed,” her husband “blessed,” and her son “blessed.” He then asked, “You’ve gotta thank the Lord, right? Do you thank the Lord for that split-second decision?” But as she held her 18-month-old son, Rebecca Vitsmun politely replied, “I’m actually an atheist.” A flummoxed Blitzer quickly lobbed back, “You are. All right. But you made the right call,” and Vitsmun graciously offered him a lifeline. “We are here,” she said, “and I don’t blame anyone for thanking the Lord.” Nicely done, Rebecca Vitsmun.
One in five American adults – and a third of Americans under age 30 — now declare no religious affiliation. We are less religious now than at any other point in our history, and our secularism is rising at a rapid pace. Get used to it, Lord thankers.
22 May 2013
Dumbass
Song by Ai Weiwei
Translation:
Dumbass (Explicit Lyrics)
When you're ready to strike, he mumbles about non-violence.
When you pinch his ear, he says it's no cure for diarrhea.
You say you're a mother-fucker, he claims he's invincible.
You say you're a mother-fucker, he claims he's invincible.
Fuck forgiveness, tolerance be damned, to hell with manners, the low-life's invincible.
Fuck forgiveness, tolerance be damned, to hell with manners, the low-life's invincible.
Oh dumbass, oh such dumbass! Oh dumbass, oh such dumbass!
Oh dumbass, oh such dumbass! Oh dumbass, oh such dumbass!
Lalalalala, lalalalala Lalalalala, lalalalala
Lalalalala, lalalalala Lalalalala, lalalalala
Stand on the frontline like a dumbass, in a country that puts out like a hooker.
The field's full of fuckers, dumbasses are everywhere.
The field's full of fuckers, dumbasses are everywhere.
Fuck forgiveness, tolerance be damned, to hell with manners, the low-life's invincible.
You say you're a mother-fucker, he claims he's invincible.
You say you're a mother-fucker, he claims he's invincible.
The field is full of fuckers, dumbasses are everywhere.
The field's full of fuckers, dumbasses are everywhere.
Abuse of prison regulations against imprisoned human rights defender in Belarus
On 16 May 2013, the wife of Belarus human rights defender Mr Ales Bialiatski went to the Bobruysk colony No.2, where her husband has been held since February 2012, in order to bring him a food parcel. However, the food parcel was refused by prison officials, who informed her that in March 2013 Ales Bialiatski's right to receive food from visitors had been suspended for six months.
Ales Bialiatski is the Chairman of Human Rights Centre Viasna. On 24 November 2011, he was found guilty of tax evasion on a large scale by the Pervomayski District Court of Minsk following an unfair trial, and was condemned to four and a half years imprisonment as well as the confiscation of all property including belongings registered in the name of other persons. The court also fined the human rights defender 721 million Belarusian Rubles (approx 82,700 USD) for alleged unpaid taxes and 36 million Belarusian Rubles (approx 4,100 USD) for state costs.
This incident is not the fist time that disciplinary measures have been used against Ales Bialiatski. Between March and June 2012, he received three reprimands, one of which resulted in the loss of visitation rights. Following the three reprimands, in June 2012 the human rights defender was named a 'malicious disturber', which resulted in his exclusion from the 2012 amnesty for economic crimes.
More on Front Line and on Viasna
21 May 2013
Bizarre Video: Pope Performs "Exorcism"
Pope Francis appears to have been captured on video performing an exorcism in St Peter's Square.
British MP Attacks 'Aggressive Homosexuals'
Gay weddings moved a step closer on Monday evening after David Cameron was forced to accept Ed Miliband's help to defeat an attempt by backbench Tory MPs, who complained about the "aggressive homosexual community", to derail the legislation. Anti-gay marriage Conservatives had tabled an amendment to the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill that, if passed, would have introduced civil partnerships for heterosexuals at the same time as gay marriage.
However the government had warned that to do so could cost up to £4bn and significantly delay the implementation of the entire bill. A vote in the Commons saw the amendment overwhelmingly defeated by 375 votes to 70. Pro-gay marriage campaigners cautioned MPs that the amendment, tabled by Tim Loughton, was a cynical attempt to kill the legislation rather than a genuine desire to allow straight couples to have civil partnerships in the interets of equality. On Monday morning it appeared as if Loughton and his colleagues would be successful after the Labour Party, which backs gay marriage, indicated it would vote with the Tory backbenchers to defeat the government and secure equal civil partnerships.
20 May 2013
Bilderberg Fringe Festival
Every year politicians, royalty and CEO’s meet in secret to discuss the fate of the world. This year, you are all invited! 2013 welcomes the first ever Bilderberg Fringe Festival. Taking place between 7th – 9th June in Watford, the festival is a unique, FREE event which will nurture dialogue and discourse about Bilderberg in a peaceful, fun environment – alongside a jam-packed weekend of speakers, comedy, music, workshops, arts and entertainment!
Seeking to stimulate hearts and minds and unite the politically conscious, the event will be a positive platform which harmonises fun with enlightened idea exchanges. The Bilderberg Fringe Festival is an unmissable occasion for conscious citizens from all over the world to join together and have a fantastic party. We are expressing our outrage at this travesty of democracy the only way we know how. By hula-hooping in the sunshine and dancing barefoot in the grass. Except where cows have been. Where Bilderberg is closed, dark and joyless, we are open, happy and free. They may have better spa facilities, but we have better chai.
The Bilderberg conference is an annual, unaccountable, off-the-record summit attended by royalty, politicians, intelligence, Big Pharma, tech, banking and corporate CEOs plus policy-makers and media moguls from all over the world. The press are not invited, nor given any details beyond a participant list and a sketchy agenda. The group was established in 1952. Their first conference took place in 1954, taking its name from the Hotel De Bilderberg which hosted the first meeting.
The group is run by a Steering Committee (which is the Bilderberg Group proper). The Bilderberg Group’s own website is incorrect as it maintains that the conference is the group’s only activity through-out the year, when in fact the 39-strong Steering Committee meets four times a year.
19 May 2013
Gitmo Lawyer Speaks Out
David H. Remes is an American lawyer who has served as a pro bono attorney for several of the prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay prison. He was involved in litigation surrounding the Detainees Treatment Act of 2005, which denied prisoners the ability to submit habeas corpus petitions. In this interview with WeAreChange, Remes gives us a look at the current situation in gitmo, the start of the hunger strike and some of the personal stories of the detainees he represented.
Putin's Patriotism: Duma May Make Criticism of WWII Illegal
The Russian State Duma has ordered an evaluation of a comment made by opposition politician Leonid Gozman in which he compared a Soviet intelligence agency to Adolf Hitler's SS on the grounds that the comment may hurt the image of Russia's military history. Gozman wrote an op-ed on the Echo Moskvy website last week in which he criticized a TV show about a Soviet security agency that worked during World War II called Death to Spies, or SMERSH in its Russian abbreviation. The show portrayed the officers of the agency, which in Soviet times focused on counterintelligence, as heroes helping the coalition to win the war.
"I'm sure there were honest officers in SMERSH but they were unfortunate to work for an agency that was as criminal as the SS," he wrote. "The word SMERSH must fall into the same category as such words as the SS, NKVD and Gestapo, and cause horror and disgust, but not be a part of the headline for a patriotic movie." The Duma's sharp reaction to Gozman's words comes amid a drive by President Vladimir Putin to bolster patriotism among Russians, including through the glorification of Russian military exploits. Following Putin's lead, pro-Kremlin politicians have aggressively targeted critical views on certain aspects of Russia's past, and the government plans to create a single set of textbooks for Russian schoolchildren to present a "canonical" version of the country's history.
Litvinenko Inquest Could Be Abandoned Over UK Foreign Office Ruling
The widow of poisoned spy Alexander Litvinenko on Friday accused a coroner of abandoning "his search for the truth about Russian state responsibility for her husband's death". Marina Litvinenko's fierce criticism comes after Sir Robert Owen, the coroner presiding over her husband's inquest, revealed he cannot hear in public evidence linked to the alleged involvement of the Russian government.
The ruling was published after the coroner accepted an application by the UK Foreign Office to keep certain information under wraps. A statement from Mrs Litvinenko's solicitors said: "This is a very sad day for Mrs Litvinenko, a tragedy for British justice which has until now been respected around the world, and it is a frightening precedent for all of those, around the world, who have been trying so hard to expose the crimes committed by conspiracy of organised criminals that operate from the Kremlin."
The statement from Mrs Litvinenko's solicitors went on: "Mrs Litvinenko is utterly dismayed by the coroner's decision to abandon his search for the truth about Russian state responsibility for her husband's death. The effect of today's ruling is to protect those responsible for ordering the murder of a British citizen on the streets of London, and to allow the Russian government to shield behind a claim for secrecy made by William Hague with the backing of the Prime Minister David Cameron."
18 May 2013
Crowd Led by Priests Attacks Gay Rights Marchers in Georgia
A throng of thousands led by priests in black robes surged through police cordons in downtown Tbilisi, Georgia, on Friday and attacked a group of about 50 gay rights demonstrators. Carrying banners reading “No to mental genocide” and “No to gays,” the masses of mostly young men began by hurling rocks and eggs at the gay rights demonstrators.
The police pushed most of the demonstrators onto yellow minibuses to evacuate them from the scene, but, the attackers swarmed the buses, trying to break the windows with metal gratings, trash cans, rocks and even fists. At least 12 people were reported hospitalized, including three police officers and eight or nine of the gay rights marchers.
17 May 2013
Videla is dead
Jorge Rafael Videla; born 2 August 1925 - died 17 May 2013) was a former senior commander in the Argentine Army who was the de facto President of Argentina from 1976 to 1981. He came to power in a coup d'état that deposed Isabel Martínez de Perón. After the return of a representative democratic government, he was prosecuted for large-scale human rights abuses and crimes against humanity that took place under his rule, including kidnappings or "forced disappearance", widespread torture and extrajudicial murder of activists, political opponents (either real, suspected or alleged) as well as their families, at secret concentration camps.
Some 10,000 of the disappeared were guerrillas of the Montoneros (MPM), and the People's Revolutionary Army (ERP). The accusations also included the "theft" of many babies born during the captivity of their mothers at the illegal detention centres. He was under house arrest until 10 October 2008, when he was sent to a military prison. In his defence, Videla maintains the female guerrilla detainees allowed themselves to fall pregnant in the belief they wouldn't be tortured or executed. On 5 July 2010, Videla took full responsibility for his army's actions during his rule. "I accept the responsibility as the highest military authority during the internal war. My subordinates followed my orders," he told an Argentine court. On 22 December 2010, Videla was sentenced to life in a civilian prison for the deaths of 31 prisoners following his coup d'état. On 5 July 2012, Videla was sentenced to 50 years in prison for the systematic kidnapping of children during his tenure.
UK Father dies in a fireball after being hounded by payday loan companies over debt
A debt-ridden father doused himself in petrol and turned himself into a human fireball after being harassed for money by payday loan firms. Antony Breeze, 36, died after setting himself alight, telling passers-by who tried to extinguish the flames: ‘I’ve had enough.’
In the hours before the tragedy Mr Breeze, who owed around £1,600, was bombarded with text messages about his arrears, an inquest heard. The next day he went out, telling his girlfriend he was getting petrol for a lawnmower. Minutes later he was found screaming and in flames on a pathway. He had been so worried about the debts that he lost a stone in weight in just two weeks, relatives said.
16 May 2013
Bilderberg 2013: Visiting The Grove
Samuel William took a stroll through the grounds of The Grove hotel where the Bilderberg meeting 2013 is being held. As I headed through the golf course it seemed that it was actually the security operation that was in full swing.
Samuel William's Truth You Can Wake Up To YouTube (We like Sam, a new Charles Veitch)
Bill Oddie's BankWatch
The UK's biggest bank has so far made around £100 million by providing loans and services to some of the most destructive logging companies in the world, often in violation of its own policies.
15 May 2013
SEAL team 6 families believe helicopter shootdown in Afghanistan was government planned
The August 6, 2011 Chinook shootdown in eastern Afghanistan is considered the worst loss of U.S. military life in the war-torn country since the Operation Red Wings in 2005. The crash killed all 38 people on board– twenty-five Navy SEALs, five U.S. Army National Guard and Army Reserve crewmen, seven Afghan commandos, one Afghan interpreter, and a U.S. military dog. For the families of the fallen special operations personnel, all they want is for Congress to investigate the tragic incident; but why is it so hard to make that happen?
On Thursday, three families of the Navy SEALs killed in the attack took their case to the public via a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. The families felt their sons were purposely targeted by the Taliban after the Obama administration confirmed that it was the Navy SEALs Team 6 who killed Osama bin Laden three months earlier. WND reported that the families also questioned the sudden replacement of seven Afghan commandos on board the helicopter just before take-off. As it turned out, the seven Afghan commandos killed in the helicopter shootdown were not the seven listed in the flight manifest. To this day, none of them know who those dead Afghans were.
14 May 2013
China's anti-prostitution policies 'lead to increase in abuse of sex workers'
China's high-profile crackdowns on prostitution have made sex workers more vulnerable to abuse by police and clients while failing to curb the trade, a new report says.
Women described being assaulted by police and other security officials until they admitted to being sex workers, leading to them being fined or detained for up to two years without trial. One told Human Rights Watch: "I was beaten until I turned black and blue, because I wouldn't admit to prostitution." Another told the group: "They attached us to trees, threw freezing cold water on us, and then proceeded to beat us."
Ray Comfort Interview onThe Atheist Experience
Matt Dillahunty and Russell Glasser interview with professional apologist Ray Comfort. (also see Scumbag Ray Comfort)
The World According to Monsanto
Thanks to these intimate links between Monsanto and government agencies, the US adopted GE foods and crops without proper testing, without consumer labeling and in spite of serious questions hanging over their safety. Not coincidentally, Monsanto supplies 90 percent of the GE seeds used by the US market. Monsanto's long arm stretched so far that, in the early nineties, the US Food and Drugs Agency even ignored warnings of their own scientists, who were cautioning that GE crops could cause negative health effects. Other tactics the company uses to stifle concerns about their products include misleading advertising, bribery and concealing scientific evidence.
The World According to Monsanto is a 2008 film directed by Marie-Monique Robin. Originally released in French as Le monde selon Monsanto, the film is based on Robin's three-year long investigation into the corporate practices around the world of the United States multinational corporation, Monsanto The World According to Monsanto is also a book written by Marie-Monique Robin, winner of the Rachel Carson Prize (a Norwegian prize for female environmentalists). Wikipedia
Horrifying Revelations About Force-Feeding at Guantanamo
The practice of force-feeding prisoners at Guantanamo Bay as a response to the mass hunger strike there has been increasingly criticized. But the military has continued to carry it out. Now, Al Jazeera has revealed in detail how the practice is takes place--and it’s not pretty.
The document states that prisoners who are force-fed are restrained by being shackled to a chair. Prisoners are also required to wear masks over their mouths to “prevent spitting and biting.” In some cases, Guantanamo prisoners are shackled for two hours. The masking and shackling of the prisoners is done to facilitate the tube that is snaked through prisoners’ nostrils until an X-ray or test dose of water confirms that the nutritional supplement reached their stomach.
Once the forced feeding process is over, a prisoner is placed in a cell that does not have running water. A guard then observes the prisoner to make sure he does not vomit up the nutritional supplement that was forced inside him. If the prisoner does vomit, he is punished. “Participation in the dry cell will be revoked and he will remain in the restraint chair for the entire observation time period during subsequent feedings,” the document reads.
More on Alternet - UN calls force-feeding at Guantanamo 'torture' (RT) - Gitmo hunger strike: Timeline
13 May 2013
Space Oddity
A revised version of David Bowie's Space Oddity, recorded by Commander Chris Hadfield on board the International Space Station.
Homophobic Killing Sparks Outrage in Russia
The brutal killing of a gay man in the southern city of Volgograd has sparked outrage among Russia's LGBT community, with activists calling authorities "accomplices" in the killing for stigmatizing sexual minorities.
The body of the 23-year-old man was found early Friday morning in the courtyard of an apartment building on Rossiiskaya Ulitsa in one of Volgograd's sprawling suburbs, investigators said in a statement. The victim, identified by gay rights activists as Vladislav Tornovoi, was badly beaten and found with wounds to his genitals, the statement said. Local media reported that Tornovoi's attackers raped him with an empty beer bottle and set fire to his corpse.
Investigators believe that Tornovoi was attacked after coming out to his drinking companions during alcohol-fueled Victory Day celebrations.
12 May 2013
Cornish Councillor Compares Disabled Children To Deformed Lambs
The Cornish councillor who was re-elected despite saying that disabled children "should be put down because they cost too much money" has again insisted that there may be a case for killing some disabled children with high support needs.
Speaking to Disability News Service, Colin Brewer said he was not the "ogre" he had been made out to be, adding that constituents in his rural ward had shaken his hand and congratulated him, despite his controversial comments.
Looking for analogies to support his view, Brewer compareddisabled children to farmers' treatment of animals, telling the agency: “If they have a misshapen lamb, they get rid of it. They get rid of it. Bang!” He continued: "We are just animals. He [the farmer] obviously has got a point… You can’t have lambs running around with five legs and two heads.” Brewer said: “It [the lamb] would be put down, smashed against the wall and be dealt with.”
Cornwall councillor Collin Brewer resigns over saying disabled children should be 'put down' (The Independent)
11 May 2013
Respect for Religion Enables Religious Extremism
Satellite interview with Richard Dawkins - Royal Society of New Zealand
10 May 2013
Iranian man granted mercy by victim’s family during execution
A man sentenced to death for murder in Mashad, northeastern Iran, was granted mercy at the very last moment just as he was being hung from the scaffold.
According to Iranian Mehr news agency, Vahid Zare had been charged with killing a young person doing his military service. He was granted mercy by the victim’s family when he started choking, seconds after the executioner pulled the gallows from beneath his feet.
Once the members of the victims’ family confirmed that they were pardoning the culprit, the officials took Zahe down and sent him to the hospital.
9 May 2013
Israel approves plan to displace Negev Bedouins
Israel approved a draft law on Monday to implement a plan which will displace thousands of Bedouins in the Negev desert, an Israeli rights group said.
The Ministerial Committee on Legislation approved a bill which outlines a framework for implementing the Prawer-Begin plan, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel said.
"Today the government approved a plan that will cause the displacement and forced eviction of dozens of villages and tens of thousands of Bedouin residents," ACRI lawyer Rawia Aburabia said.
"All of this while the government simultaneously promotes the establishment of new Jewish communities, some of which are even planned to be built on the fresh ruins of Bedouin villages," she added.
The Israeli government approved the plan in 2011, in what it says was an attempt to address the problem of unrecognized Bedouin villages in the Negev desert of southern Israel.
The 2011 proposal was formulated without any consultation with the Bedouin community and rights groups slammed it as a major blow to Bedouin rights.
8 May 2013
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