June 2011
May 2011
“
In a marked shift from the Bush administration, President Obama’s Justice Department is aggressively investigating several big urban police departments for systematic civil rights abuses such as harassment of racial minorities, false arrests, and excessive use of force.
In interviews, activists and attorneys on the ground in several cities where the DOJ has dispatched civil rights investigators welcomed the shift. To progressives disappointed by Eric Holder’s Justice Department on key issues like the failure to investigate Bush-era torture and the prosecution of whistle-blowers, recent actions by the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division are a bright spot.
In just the past few months, the Civil Rights Division has announced “pattern and practice” investigations in Newark, New Jersey and Seattle. It’s also conducting a preliminary investigation of the Denver Police Department, and all this is on top of a high-profile push to reform the notorious New Orleans Police Department — as well as criminal prosecutions of several New Orleans officers.
” —Obama cracks down on abuses by big-city police departments (via ryking)
“We have no future because our present is too volatile.
We have only risk management. The spinning of the given moment’s scenarios.
Pattern recognition.” —William Gibson (via neuromaencer)
We have only risk management. The spinning of the given moment’s scenarios.
Pattern recognition.” —William Gibson (via neuromaencer)
“OHHH IT WOULD BE A BLAST IF THEY WERE THIS LOUD AND IF THEY SMELLED THIS GOOD. I LOVE THAT SMELL OF THE EMISSIONS.”
—
Sarah Palin, when asked by Fox News if the events on her upcoming tour would all be as loud as today’s motorcycle-filled procession.
(via reallyfoxnews)
“I understand that fear is my friend, but not always. Never turn your back on fear. It should always be in front of you, like a thing that might have to be killed.”
—
Hunter S. Thompson. (via bonestobones)
BABY!
(via armer)
Unemployment is a terrible scourge across much of the Western world. Almost 14 million Americans are jobless, and millions more are stuck with part-time work or jobs that fail to use their skills. Some European countries have it even worse: 21 percent of Spanish workers are unemployed. →
nytimes.com
Yet a strange thing has happened to policy discussion: on both sides of the Atlantic, a consensus has emerged among movers and shakers that nothing can or should be done about jobs. Instead of a determination to do something about the ongoing suffering and economic waste, one sees a proliferation of excuses for inaction, garbed in the language of wisdom and responsibility.
So someone needs to say the obvious: inventing reasons not to put the unemployed back to work is neither wise nor responsible. It is, instead, a grotesque abdication of responsibility.
This is happening because, in Western “democracies”, the government does not work for or care about actual people, but are wholly-owned subsidiaries of corporate oligarchs.
The sooner people realize this and burn the whole fucking thing to the ground, the better.
FBI targeting political activists as terrorists →
rt.com
Anti-terrorism resources are being used to target environmentalists, peace, animal and political activists who hold different views than the government.
It was recently revealed that a counter-terrorism firm spied on individuals who attended film screenings of the documentary Gasland. The film focuses on the practice of natural gas fracking and what impact it has on the environment and in the communities where it is used.
Read more:
Law enforcement decides to take resources given to the to fight terrorists and turns them on the citizens of their own country? I am shocked, just shocked to find this happening.
“
Manufactured offense is not the same as pretend offense (which Yvain talks about in his article). Manufactured offense is very real – just as a manufactured couch is real. The reactions are genuine, and a person is not practicing any form of deception in claiming that they have these reactions. However, the reaction is learned and, more importantly, taught. This means that we have the opportunity to ask the question of how we should regard this practice of manufacturing this particular offense. Is the manufacture of this offense worthwhile? Should there be limits on the offenses that people are (at least socially) permitted to manufacture?
I think it would be quite easy to manufacture offense over the eating of pork. One could argue that the public displays of pork-eating, putting pork on the menus of restaurants, and having grocery stores sell pork products in the open is an insult to the beliefs of those who hold that it is wrong. It “rubs their nose” in the fact that others think that their beliefs are not only mistaken, but are not worthy of respect.
However, we say jointly as a community to any who would manufacture this offense, “Don’t go there. That’s an industry that we do not need. You may tell your people not to eat pork, but also tell them that they live among others who do not share their views, and to expect to encounter pork products on the store shelf and on the menus at restaurants. Tell your people not to take our decision to eat pork as an insult to your beliefs – one that demands violent retribution. Take it as expressing a difference of opinion, and you need to learn to live in peace with those who do not share your beliefs.”
” —Manufacturing Offense (via eddieatthegov)
Rep. Anthony Weiner Sends Lewd Picture to Woman on Twitter →
directorblue.blogspot.com
“Protector of the uteri” Rep. Anthony Weiner is now under scrutiny as a late-night picture of an aroused man in his underwear was sent to a woman on Twitter. Weiner claims that his Facebook was hacked, but none of his pages seem to have been edited. His office could not be reached for comment.
Because I especially dislike Anthony Weiner for his nasty comments and disrespectful tactics, I decided to call him myself to see if there was any explanation. Nobody answered his Washington phone the two times I called, and neither the times I called his Brookyln, Kew Gardens and Rockaway offices. I finally called his Washington office once again and left a message.
To make things more interesting (and a bit more complicated), Rep. Weiner married long-time Hillary Clinton assistant Huma Abedin recently on Long Island. Stay tuned, I’ll make sure to update what his official statement is concerning the events.
Blup shop :) > http://www.blup.hu/hu/babzsakfotel_relax.php
What are these crazy chairs?! Some sort of cybernetic beanbags? XD
“A new biomaterial designed for repairing damaged human tissue doesn’t wrinkle up when it is stretched. The invention from nanoengineers at the University of California, San Diego marks a significant breakthrough in tissue engineering because it more closely mimics the properties of native human tissue.”
—New biomaterial more closely mimics human tissue (via eddieatthegov)
I suppose my entire blog is filled with "isolated incidents" involving "just a few bad apples."
It goes beyond that shit. “Isolated incidents” mean that it happens once or twice a month at worse.
I’d say there’s a case of really shitty police work weekly.
Imagine how cool it would be if we elected the police officers who patrolled our neighborhoods. To Protect and Serve would be more than some stupid fucking motto at that point!
Shit man, weekly? I think that’s being generous.
“Isolated incident” is a dark joke at this point. And why do people continually forget that the entire phrase is “a few bad apples spoil the bunch.” If they’re going to use the cliche, they might as well use the whole thing.
High School Student Stands Up Against Prayer at Public School and Is Ostracized, Demeaned and Threatened | Belief | AlterNet →
alternet.org
Why is it the most religious people usually end up being the most hateful and vindictive?
(Maybe their god taught them that.)
