Source: MoveOn.org
Linda: The Most Heroic Response To The Susan G. Komen Foundation You Will Ever See
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Category Archives: News
[More Police Brutality] in Oakland: 400 Arrests, Tear Gas, Flash-Bang Grenades
Downtown Oakland turned ugly once again on Saturday, as Occupy activists attempting to squat in a long-abandoned city building were met by lines of heavily-armored riot police. . .
It was, once again, a tale of two protests. Accounts in the corporate media relied primarily on police statements to paint protesters as wild animals running amok in the city, while those following the day’s events via a small group of “citizen-journalists” broadcasting raw, unedited footage from their cell-phones and flip-cams got a wildly divergent view of exactly how things escalated. . .
Police declared the protest an unlawful assembly, and soon afterward, a series of explosions could be heard on the livestream as police deployed either teargas canisters or “flash-bang” grenades to disperse the crowd. This appears to be a violation of the Oakland Police Department’s (OPD) own crowd-control guidelines . . . The guidelines state that less-lethal munitions “may never be used indiscriminately against a crowd or group of persons, even if some members of the crowd or group are violent or disruptive.”
. . . Protesters, including peaceful protesters, weren’t given an opportunity to disperse. OPD’s crowd control manual states that an order to disperse, “shall also specify adequate egress or escape routes. Whenever possible, a minimum of two escape/egress routes shall be identified and announced.”
. . . While the main body of protesters were being “herded” by OPD and eventually kettled at 23rd street, a smaller group broke into City Hall, where “they burned flags, broke an electrical box and damaged several art structures,” according to Oakland Mayor Jean Quan speaking at a press conference. Quan, blaming a small “very radical, violent” splinter group for the mayhem, called on the Occupy movement to “stop using Oakland as its playground.”
. . . But Michael Davis, a visitor from Occupy Cincinnati, told the Associated Press that a day of action which began peacefully escalated when police began using “flash bangs, tear gas, smoke grenades and bean bags,” in apparent violation of OPD policy.
The chronology is important to get right. By definition, protesters feel angry and aggrieved, and when force is applied indiscriminately on a crowd – and not directed at a handful of people seeking confrontation – it ratchets up the tension to a point where more confrontations become almost inevitable.
Bill Maher: Republicans MUST Answer The Question . . . Who The Fuck Is Saul Alinsky?
Student Faces Town’s Wrath in Protest Against a Prayer
CRANSTON, R.I. — She is 16, the daughter of a firefighter and a nurse, a self-proclaimed nerd who loves Harry Potter and Facebook. But Jessica Ahlquist is also an outspoken atheist who has incensed this heavily Roman Catholic city with a successful lawsuit to get a prayer removed from the wall of her high school auditorium, where it has hung for 49 years. . .
For Jessica, who was baptized in the Catholic Church but said she stopped believing in God at age 10, the prayer was an affront. “It seemed like it was saying, every time I saw it, ‘You don’t belong here,’ ” she said the other night during an interview at a Starbucks here. . .
New England is not the sort of place where battles over the division of church and state tend to crop up. It is the least religious region of the country, according to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. But Rhode Island is an exception: it is the nation’s most Catholic state, and dust-ups over religion are not infrequent. . .
Does she empathize in any way with members of her community who want the prayer to stay?
“I’ve never been asked this before,” she said. A pause, and then: “It’s almost like making a child get a shot even though they don’t want to. It’s for their own good. I feel like they might see it as a very negative thing right now, but I’m defending their Constitution, too.”
Do Harsh Pot Laws Create a Dangerous Drinking Culture? Five Reasons to Get Stoned Instead of Drunk
Myths about marijuana convince people that alcohol is safer, but science shows pot is the healthier choice.
Alcohol kills approximately 70,000 people per year. Prescription pills, which have helped overdose become the leading cause of accidental death in America, result in more than 20,000 deaths per year. Marijuana has never killed anybody.
1. Marijuana is not a gateway drug.
[T]he truth is that marijuana is not a gateway drug, and the vast majority of people who smoke pot will never move onto harder drugs.2. Pot smoke is relatively benign and does not cause lung cancer.
Researchers studied the effects of marijuana smoke on lung function, and found that smoking pot does not cause the same irreversible breathing problems as cigarettes.
3. Pot does not cause schizophrenia.These mental health issues are generally as baseless and misleading as past prohibitionist claims . . . the rates of schizophrenia in society have not increased as marijuana use has become widespread.
4. Driving high is not very dangerous.
A study by the Institute for the Study of Labor, a research center for science, politics, and business in Bonn, Germany, showed that in states where medical marijuana is legal, adults were smoking more marijuana and drinking less alcohol, and the result was a 9 percent decrease in traffic fatalities.
5. Pot does not make you lazy.
The technical name for marijuana-induced laziness is “amotivational syndrome,” and research suggests it has a lot more to do with other factors than with pot. A study on marijuana use and amotivational syndrome shows circumstances unique to a person, or some underlying problem, are more to blame for amotivational syndrome than the drug itself.
6. You get this one for free.
More than 30,000 Americans die every year from the health effects of alcohol. The comparable number for marijuana is zero.
Monthly Change in Total Private Employment: January 2008 to December 2011
Low IQ & Conservative Beliefs Linked to Prejudice
There’s no gentle way to put it: People who give in to racism and prejudice may simply be dumb, according to a new study that is bound to stir public controversy. . . Low-intelligence adults tend to gravitate toward socially conservative ideologies, the study found. Those ideologies, in turn, stress hierarchy and resistance to change, attitudes that can contribute to prejudice.
Controversy ahead
Polling data and social and political science research do show that prejudice is more common in those who hold right-wing ideals that those of other political persuasions.
Brains and bias
As suspected, low intelligence in childhood corresponded with racism in adulthood. But the factor that explained the relationship between these two variables was political: When researchers included social conservatism in the analysis, those ideologies accounted for much of the link between brains and bias.
A study of averages
[T]here is reason to believe that strict right-wing ideology might appeal to those who have trouble grasping the complexity of the world.
“Socially conservative ideologies tend to offer structure and order,” Hodson said, explaining why these beliefs might draw those with low intelligence. “Unfortunately, many of these features can also contribute to prejudice.”
Simple viewpoints
Prejudice is of particular interest because understanding the roots of racism and bias could help eliminate them, Hodson said. For example, he said, many anti-prejudice programs encourage participants to see things from another group’s point of view. That mental exercise may be too taxing for people of low IQ.
Quote: Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz, (born August 13, 1926)
Cuban Revolutionary, Prime Minister of Cuba 1959 – 1976,
President of Cuba 1976 – 2008
The selection of a Republican candidate for the presidency of this globalized and expansive empire is – and I mean this seriously – the greatest competition of idiocy and ignorance that has ever been.
Sunday Morning Talk Shows Featured Twice As Many [Reactionary Obstructionists] As Democrats Last Year
In 2009 and 2010, [Reactionary Obstructionists] Members held a small advantage over Democratic Members in appearances on these programs, getting 52 percent of the invites in both years. In both years, CBS had more Democrats as guests than [Reactionary Obstructionists] by a narrow margin; in the same period, Fox News had more [Reactionary Obstructionists] guests by a wider margin. [Shocking I say! Who’da thunk it?]
But in 2011, the [White-wing] lawmakers captured 64 percent of the Congressional appearances on the five shows that Roll Call tracks, and every network featured more [Reactionary Obstructionists] lawmakers than Democrats. . .
The finding also undercuts the pervasive [White-wing] myth about the media possessing a liberal bias.
Ariane Noelle Patterson, Student, Dies After Tweeting ‘Thank You God for Another Year Of Life’
It was Ariane Noelle Patterson’s 21st birthday, and she was grateful to be alive. The Gardner-Webb University student took to her Twitter account on Jan. 17 and posted the message: “Thank you God for another year of life.” Hours later, she collapsed during a religion class and was rushed to nearby hospital, where she was pronounced dead, the Associated Press reports. The senior at the North Carolina Christian college was originally from Delaware and majored in religious studies, the Shelby Star reports.
The university released the following statement on its Facebook page: We are deeply saddened and in shock by this monumental loss. We pray for Ariane’s family and friends during this difficult time . . .
Another peer acknowledged he had never met Patterson in person, but recalls her cheerful character: Her presence on the quad and at certain events I attended was joyous and positive . . . I bet she got the greatest birthday present of all-time. To make it to heaven with our heavenly father.
Always Question Authority 