Category: Society

Kent State 43 Years Later

Kent_State_massacre

Respectfully submitted by Lawrence E. Rafferty (rafflaw)-Guest Blogger

Yesterday was the 43rd anniversary of the day when time stood still for me.  As a freshmen in college at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale,  Illinois, I was stunned to learn of the killing of 4 young people by the Ohio National Guard during protests on the campus of Kent State University.  The protestors were using their First Amendment rights to voice their opinion on the United States participation in the Vietnam War and the military’s recent incursion into Cambodia upon orders from then President Richard Nixon.   Those events not only scarred me, but they also opened my eyes to the power of the government and more importantly, the power of the people.  Continue reading “Kent State 43 Years Later”

You Say You Want a Revolution?

Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger

Eugène_Delacroix_-_La_liberté_guidant_le_peupleMy opinion of the situation in this country is obviously grim if one looks at the themes I tend to write on. As I see it we are either fast becoming a Corporate Feudal Police State, or already have achieved that dubious distinction. I am in favor of a movement towards reversing this situation. There are some issues that can resonate with most Americans and any movement seeking to reverse the anti-Constitutional trends afoot in the U.S. today must find the means to go beyond the falseness of the Left/Right, Liberal/Conservative ideological inanity. We have a corporate two party system, run by an oligarchic elite, whose base disagreement is how to treat those 99% of us, who in their view are the American Peasantry. The Republican Corporatists in effect believe that the majority of Americans should be left to their own devices, while the Democratic Corporatists mildly look for palliatives that won’t disturb their benefactors who are really in charge. Some may say my viewpoint is a radical one and this is possibly so, though the definitions of “radical” have blurred through the years. In my life I’ve spent a number of years as a political activist in one form or another and as I approach the age of 70, I think that my experiences have taught me much about political activism and the potential dangers it brings to the people at large. Right now I find two issues that frighten me for the sake of the future and how my progeny will experience it. The first is the notion of a coming police state and the second is the prospect of a violent, revolutionary upheaval in reaction to it. In other words I see we the People of the United States being between the proverbial “rock and a hard place”. Continue reading “You Say You Want a Revolution?”

Bring Out Your Reds, Bring Out Your Reds: Florida Sheriff Invites Neighbors To Turn In People Who “Hate The Government”

Home_Bradshaw140px-Palm_Beach_County_Sheriff_OfficePalm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw has reached $1 million for a new violence prevention unit and has used it to call on neighbors to inform the police if any neighbors have been saying hostile things about the government.  “We want people to call us if the guy down the street says he hates the government, hates the mayor and he’s gonna shoot him . . . What does it hurt to have somebody knock on a door and ask, ‘Hey, is everything OK?’ ” I have no problem with calling police if someone says that they are going to shoot someone. However, expressing hate for the mayor or government is a core part of free speech and the visit by the police can be viewed as having an obvious chilling effect on speech. He wants $3 million to expand the program.

Continue reading “Bring Out Your Reds, Bring Out Your Reds: Florida Sheriff Invites Neighbors To Turn In People Who “Hate The Government””

Chinese Traders Found To Be Selling Rat Meat As Mutton

220px-Rat_in_a_suburban_Vancouver_driveway220px-Barbecued_lamb_sticksJust when you thought that you could not get more shocking news from China’s environmental and food safety scandals, like thousands of dead pigs floating down a major river, you stand corrected. Chinese officials have found dozens of traders in Eastern China selling huge amounts of rat and mink flesh as mutton. This is not a couple pounds. The meat was sold for $1.6 million. Six suspects in Guizhou Province were found with 8.8 tons of “toxic chicken feet.”

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Head of Chinese School Confesses To Killing Students In Rival School With Poisoned Yogurt

170px-Yakult_(Yakult_Honsha)There are school rivalries and then there are Chinese school rivalries. In Beijing, two girls are dead after the head of a rival school allegedly poisoned yogurt and put the food outside of the kindergarten where children play. The two schools have been competing for students. (The picture is a common yogurt drink in China and not necessarily the brand used in this crime).

Continue reading “Head of Chinese School Confesses To Killing Students In Rival School With Poisoned Yogurt”

Moroccan Student Reportedly In Hiding From Police After Posting With Sign Saying “I Am Proud To Be An Atheist.”

600649_10151427078759483_81319987_n-520x550Various atheist sites are reporting that Moroccan student Imad Eddin Habib, 22, is in hiding from police who are seeking him for rejecting Islam and espousing atheism. A Pew poll just showed overwhelming support among many Muslims nations — and allies of the United States — for executing people like Habib for apostasy. The Casablanca paramedical student has gone public as an atheist and police have now interviewed his family on his whereabouts and any foreign connections.
Continue reading “Moroccan Student Reportedly In Hiding From Police After Posting With Sign Saying “I Am Proud To Be An Atheist.””

Pew Poll Finds Overwhelming Support For Executing People For Apostasy In Afghanistan and Other Muslim Nations

stoningA new poll by the Pew Research Center offers an disturbing insight into the views of the majority of Muslims in some countries on the subject of apostasy. With blasphemy, apostasy remains one of the greatest threats to human rights and free speech in the world with people continuing to be arrested for rejecting Islam. Some 78 percent of Afghan Muslims support putting former Muslims to death for rejecting Islam. Our Afghan “allies” actually had the highest support for this basic denial of human rights — a system that we prop up with American lives and treasure. In Egypt and Pakistan, 64 percent support executing for apostasy.
Continue reading “Pew Poll Finds Overwhelming Support For Executing People For Apostasy In Afghanistan and Other Muslim Nations”

Rational or Hysterical? Oregon Police Burst Into School Wearing Hoodies and Firing Weapons In Unannounced Drill

300px-Bullet_coming_from_S&WTeachers were in a meeting in the Pine Eagle Charter School in Halfway, Oregon when two hooded figures burst into the room and sprayed screaming teachers with gunfire. It turned out to be blanks and they turned out to be cops. This was viewed as a useful drill to prepare the teachers for school massacre scenarios.

Continue reading “Rational or Hysterical? Oregon Police Burst Into School Wearing Hoodies and Firing Weapons In Unannounced Drill”

Aviation President Allegedly Attacks Muslim Cabbie (and Iraqi War Veteran) At Country Club

edcnn_nr_salim_130501a-230x105Mohamed A. Salim, 39, served this country in Iraq in intelligence and as a linguist. He served at the Guantanamo Bay detention center. Yet, he allegedly still suffered a beating and a broken jaw in his own country because of his Somali ethnicity and religion. Salim is a cab driver who picked up Emerald Aviation President Ed Dahlberg at the Country Club in Fairfax, Virginia. Dahlberg proceeded to accuse him of being a jihadist and allegedly attacked him. Emerald Aviation’s website is down for “scheduled maintenance” in the aftermath of Dahlberg’s arrest.

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Scientology Invokes Clergy-Penitent Privilege To Refuse Discovery In Forced Abortion Case

488px-scientology_symbolsvgThere is an interesting case brewing between Scientology and one of the many former members alleging abuse by the church. While not attracting much attention in the main stream press, Anti-scientology sites have been following an important case out of California where an appellate court has turned down a claim of the church that it can refuse discovery under clergy-penitent privilege. The church is using the privilege to deny a demand for a “pc folder” containing notes from interrogations of Laura DeCrescenzo by church officials. The case is important not only in the understanding of the privilege but a potential breakthrough for alleged victims of the church who accuse Scientology of being a cult or criminal organization.

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Museum Burka: Greece Demands Ancient Statues Returned From Qatar After Museum Covers Them To Protect Muslim Sensibilities

qatargreeceart2The only problem that Qatar has with ancient history is that its pre-Islamic art falls to comply with Islamic sensibilities. An exhibit has been touring the world on the beauty and grace of “The Olympics — Past and Present.” Two ancient statues showed this expression in artistic form but the Islamic nation decided to obscure the statues behind a black screen because their naked bodies were considered indecent under Islamic values.

Continue reading “Museum Burka: Greece Demands Ancient Statues Returned From Qatar After Museum Covers Them To Protect Muslim Sensibilities”

A Fool and His Money . . . and His Banana: Man Loses Life’s Savings To Carny and Gets Over-Sized Banana

mqdefaultHenry Gribbohm is apparently irate. He went to a carnival and played Tubs of Fun hoping to win an Xbox Kinect. The 30-year-old man from New Hampshire continued to play until he had spent his entire life savings, $2,600, in a game that he now claims is rigged. When he complained the next day, he was given $600 back plus an over-sized banana. He was not satisfied and has filed a complaint.

Continue reading “A Fool and His Money . . . and His Banana: Man Loses Life’s Savings To Carny and Gets Over-Sized Banana”

Rational or Hysterical? Minnesota Schools District Buys Bulletproof Whiteboards

article-2313299-196FFE9A000005DC-484_634x352While schools in Arizona are adding armed posses and schools in Connecticut are arming janitors, a Minnesota school has turned to bulletproof whiteboards as its last ditch defense against attackers. Two students died in a shooting in the Rocori School District in 2003 so the school has purchased 18-by-20-inch whiteboards that can be used by teachers for instruction or bullet protection.

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Hospital Sued Over Refusal To Accommodate Applicant With Shy Bladder Syndrome In Drug Test

220px-Vial_examplesThere is an interesting case out of Des Moines, Iowa where Jennifer Conner is suing Iowa Methodist Medical Center over the alleged refusal of the hospital to make relatively small accommodations for her disability: shy bladder syndrome. Conner fears urination in public restrooms and could not complete the required drug test for a position with the hospital.

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Karzai’s Bag Men: CIA Dropped Off Monthly Bags Of Cash To Karzai

225px-hamid_karzai_2004-06-14We have previously discussed reports of billions disappearing in Afghanistan and the long record of corruption surrounding the family and friends of President Hamid Karzai. Now a new report details how for more than a decade, the CIA has been dropping off monthly suitcases, backpacks and even shopping bags filled with cash to Karzai at his office. Despite these reports of grotesque corruption, the money continues to flow into Karzai’s pockets even as he attacks the U.S. and Americans as “demons”, and moves to shift alliances to Iran and China.

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