Dr. C: The Unpleasant Exclusivity in Our Educational System
Wolraich: The Grim Possibility Of War With Iran
dag Observes the 19th Anniversary of the Low-Speed Chase in LA
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Dr. C: The Unpleasant Exclusivity in Our Educational System Wolraich: The Grim Possibility Of War With Iran dag Observes the 19th Anniversary of the Low-Speed Chase in LA |
Shuts & |
Rumor has it that the Pope faces arrest.
Reuters:
Pope will have security, immunity by remaining in the Vatican
http://itccs.org/ has several blurbs; apparently, an arrest warrant was issued on Feb. 4; six days later Ratzinger resigned; and then the PR spin began: pity the poor old man who is physically degenerating; he can hardly stand up!
Apparently, a European nation and its courts have issued said arrest warrant for crimes against humanity and demanded the arrest of Ratzinger.
I bet it's Ireland.
It's old; and hardly news...and I don't think I've seen it here, so in case it's interesting:
http://www.anncoulter.com/columns/2013-01-16.html
GUNS DON'T KILL PEOPLE, THE MENTALLY ILL DO
I really don't like that whole "play the nazi/fascist card" thing. But sometimes, statements like this specific one by Coulter seem to exhibit a willingnes of the speaker to walk right up to the boundary between "other stuff" and outright fascist-like eugenics.
It's as if the sub-text in her narrative can be accurately described as a variation of Lebensunwertes Leben.
Race and "My body, not yours.": Virginia DA Cuccinelli falls down, spins on back: TPM
Race: Virginia Senate apartheids the dance floor. [Read more]
FYI: I recently discovered the Blogs at the WP under She the People.
Several of the recent entries there concern the issue in the subject line, mental health. I think it's recommended reading.
For instance:
The NRA’s school safety plan: Round up the sick and arm the children
and:
After Newtown: What mental health system?
Earlier this week, I noted that no one had yet gone over the line and scapegoated the mentally ill.
I have just finished reading Wayne LaPierre's remarks, and I'm here to let you know that Wayne has done just that: put out the cat's paw or trial balloon to scapegoat the mentally ill:
Page 3, first paragraph:
"A dozen more killers? A hundred? More? How can we possibly even guess how many, given our nation's refusal to create an active national database of the mentally ill?" [Read more]
What's the difference between a child soldier in, say, Africa and Adam Lanza?
While the child soldier in Africa is at least as heavily armed as Lanza, he's killed fewer people.
That's not intended to be a joke.
Since I'm usually interested in sarcasm as a means to, metaphorically, slap people who are in a panic I can ask this:
Since at least one group in Africa cites the bible as a source for fielding child soldiers, will those people scapegoating video games commission an equivalent investigation into the bible? [Read more]
This time, it's about the scapegoats people are trying to find and, IMO, pathologically require as a part of some fake grieving process and, allegedly, change[1].
It's pretty clear that part of the "process" of the upcoming conversation is well underway so I'm engaging in more wishful thinking and trying to stomp, using sarcasm, on the relevant flailings that I've seen here at DB and elsewhere. Here's my so-far list:
1) Video games
2) Quentin Tarantino
3) SSRI
4) Almost, but not quite, the mentally ill; IMO, the "conversation" has moved close to using (as scapegoats) consumers of mental health services, but the "conversation" has not quite gone over the line.
Yet. [Read more]
I'd intended to make no post on this topic. While I won't go into my views on the overall topic, my opinion is that nothing will change; not one single thing. Not two days from now; not two years; not in the next decade.
But the usual thing that is said is starting to show up, again, from various sources and I (in a flash of wishful thinking) hope to stomp on it early in its appearance, whatever its variation:
We need to have a conversation about gun control. [Read more]
Tonight, while I was at a bookstore and again while I was washing dishes, I mulled the events of the past week and was thankful that America rejected the bully.
As I was thinking of this, I was also thinking of how to remind people that Romney is a bully, and a blood-heir to the bullying politics of the GOP.
I almost decided to post about his bullying of a gay fellow student, the story that made no small amount of ripples a few months past. Or maybe that story about the 47% crowd? [Read more]
I did not watch the debates. I have read the reviews; and I can just about feel the clenching vocal cords as people draw in their breath, silently asking: "What is Obama doing?"
As if he's some sort of performance artist who seems to have recently gained weight, shock-horror!
Me? For some reason, all I can think is: Rope-a-Dope.
I could be wrong; but that's my call.
By George Packer, Daily Comment @ newyorker.com, June 18, 2013
The word “HACK” is painted across the main square of Facebook’s campus in letters so large that they can be seen from space. The term has lost its negative connotation in Silicon Valley; freewheeling coding sessions and virtual breaking and entering have become the same thing. The culture of hacking is rebellious, idealistic, and militantly anti-bureaucratic—fitting for an age that glorifies entrepreneurship—and it marks a stark shift from the recent history of scientists in American life. During the heyday of the space program, rocket scientists and computer engineers worked closely with NASA officials. The bureaucrat and the geek were not polar opposites but...
Where else but Maricopa County, ArpaioLand: 'A Maricopa County Superior Court jury on Monday found Michael Turley guilty of knowingly giving a false impression and endangerment steeming from hoax in which he sent his 16-year-old nephew into a street with a fake grenade launcher where he pointed it at oncoming traffic. While Turley, 40, filmed the incident, the 16-year-old draped his body in a sheet and wrapped his head in a scarf. The action was suppose to evoke a stereotype of a Middle Eastern terrorist.' .....

Ma'an News Agency, June 16, 2013
CAIRO (Ma'an) -- Egypt has declared a state of alert in the Sinai after extremist Islamist fighters set up a military base in the peninsula, Egyptian security officials said Monday. Egyptian forces and police have imposed curfews on Sinai cities el-Arish, Sheikh Zuweid and Rafah. Military helicopters were seen hovering over the cities, a Ma'an reporter said.
Militants from Egypt, Palestine and Mali affiliated to Jihadist groups and al-Qaeda have deployed heavily in bunkers in a desert area in central Sinai, Egyptian security officials told Ma'an. Around 30 "dangerous" militants affiliated to Jihadist and Takfiri groups entered Sinai through tunnels from the Gaza Strip to join the camp,...
In the aftermath of the 2011 Libya intervention, the White House’s recent decision to step up aid to the Syrian uprising, and the appointment by President Obama of two so-called “humanitarian hawks” to high-level positions, the “Responsibility to Protect” (R2P) is on the lips of...
By Matt Compton, White House blog, June 17, 2013
Before leaving for this week's G-8 summit in the United Kingdom, President Obama sat down with Charlie Rose in the White House Library for a 45-minute interview on topics ranging from Syria to the National Security Agency.
That discussion will air tonight at 11:00 PM on PBS stations across the country. For more specifics, check your local listings.