A really interesting article tying the 'zombie' attack in Miami to the US's failure to attend to mental health issues. ›

What the actual fuck you guys. This shit really happens in real life. Naked homeboy completely mauled off the other guy’s face. You guys. HE ATE HIS FACE. (x)

(via botulizard)

motherjones:

This video of a student being shocked for hours at the Judge Rotenburg School for psychologically and mentally troubled kids could be the thing that finally shuts it down.

Jennifer Gonnerman’s 2007 devastating exposé led to local and state investigations, but so far it’s been able to stay open.

tw3news:

US Kills 5 Afghan Kids

The way in which the U.S. media ignores such events speaks volumes about how we perceive them

May 08, 2012 “Salon“ — Yesterday, I noted several reports from Afghanistan that as many as 20 civilians were killed by two NATO airstrikes, including a mother and her five children. Today, the U.S. confirmed at least some of those claims, acknowledging and apologizing for its responsibility for the death of that family:

The American military claimed responsibility and expressed regret for an airstrike that mistakenly killed six members of a family in southwestern Afghanistan, Afghan and American military officials confirmed Monday.

The attack, which took place Friday night, was first revealed by the governor of Helmand Province, Muhammad Gulab Mangal, on Monday. His spokesman, Dawoud Ahmadi, said that after an investigation they had determined that a family home in the Sangin district had been attacked by mistake in the American airstrike, which was called in to respond to a Taliban attack… . The victims were the family’s mother and five of her children, three girls and two boys, according to Afghan officials.

This happens over and over and over again, and there are several points worth making here beyond the obvious horror:

(1) To the extent these type of incidents are discussed at all — and in American establishment media venues, they are most typically ignored — there are certain unbending rules that must be observed in order to retain Seriousness credentials. No matter how many times the U.S. kills innocent people in the world, it never reflects on our national character or that of our leaders. Indeed, none of these incidents convey any meaning at all. They are mere accidents, quasi-acts of nature which contain no moral information (in fact, the NYTarticle on these civilian deaths, out of nowhere, weirdly mentioned that “in northern Afghanistan, 23 members of a wedding celebration drowned in severe flash flooding” — as though that’s comparable to the U.S.’s dropping bombs on innocent people). We’ve all been trained, like good little soldiers, that the phrase “collateral damage” cleanses and justifies this and washes it all way: yes, it’s quite terrible, but innocent people die in wars; that’s just how it is. It’s all grounded in America’s central religious belief that the country has the right to commit violence anywhere in the world, at any time, for any cause.

At some point — and more than a decade would certainly qualify — the act of continuously killing innocent people, countless children, in the Muslim world most certainly does reflect upon, and even alters, the moral character of a country, especially its leaders. You can’t just spend year after year piling up the corpses of children and credibly insist that it has no bearing on who you are. That’s particularly true when, as is the case in Afghanistan, the cause of the war is so vague as to be virtually unknowable. It’s woefully inadequate to reflexively dismiss every one of these incidents as the regrettable but meaningless by-product of our national prerogative. But to maintain mainstream credibility, that is exactly how one must speak of our national actions even in these most egregious cases. To suggest any moral culpability, or to argue that continuously killing children in a country we’re occupying is morally indefensible, is a self-marginalizing act, whereby one reveals oneself to be a shrill and unSerious critic, probably even a pacifist. Serious commentators, by definition, recognize and accept that this is merely the inevitable outcome of America’s supreme imperial right, note (at most) some passing regret, and then move on.

(2) Yesterday — a week after it leaked that it was escalating its drone strikes in Yemen — the Obama administration claimed that the CIA last month disrupted a scary plot originating in Yemen to explode an American civilian jet “using a more sophisticated version of the underwear bomb deployed unsuccessfully in 2009.” American media outlets — especially its cable news networks — erupted with their predictable mix of obsessive hysteria, excitement and moral outrage. CNN’s Wolf Blitzer last night devoted the bulk of his showto this plot, parading the standard cast of characters — former Bush Homeland Security adviser (and terrorist advocate) Fran Townsend and its “national security analyst” Peter Bergen — to put on their Serious and Concerned faces, recite from the U.S. Government script, and analyze all the profound implications. CNN even hauled out Rep. Peter King to warn that this shows a “new level” of Terror threats from Yemen. CNN’s fixation on this plot continued into this morning.

Needless to say, the fact that the U.S. has spent years and years killing innocent adults and children in that part of the world — including repeatedly in Yemen — was never once mentioned, even though it obviously is a major factor for why at least some people in that country support these kinds of plots. Those facts are not permitted to be heard. Discussions of causation — why would someone want to attack a U.S. airliner? – is an absolute taboo, beyond noting that the people responsible are primitive and hateful religious fanatics. Instead, it is a simple morality play reinforced over and over: Americans are innocently minding their own business — trying to enjoy our Freedoms — and are being disgustingly targeted with horrific violence by these heinous Muslim Terrorists whom we must crush (naturally, the solution to the problem that there is significant anti-American animosity in Yemen is to drop even more bombs on them, which will certainly fix this problem).

Indeed, on the very same day that CNN and the other cable news networks devoted so much coverage to a failed, un-serious attempt to bring violence to the U.S. — one that never moved beyond the early planning stages and “never posed a threat to public safety” — it was revealed that the U.S. just killed multiple civilians, including a family of 5 children, in Afghanistan. But that got no mention. That event simply does not exist in the world of CNN and its viewers (I’d be shocked if it has been mentioned on MSNBC or Fox either). Nascent, failed non-threats directed at the U.S. merit all-hands-on-deck, five-alarm media coverage, but the actual extinguishing of the lives of children by the U.S. is steadfastly ignored (even though the latter is so causally related to the former).

This is the message sent over and over by the U.S. media: we are the victims of heinous, frightening violence; our government must do more, must bomb more, must surveil more, to Keep Us Safe; we do nothing similar to this kind of violence because we are Good and Civilized. This is how our Objective, Viewpoint-Free journalistic outlets continuously propagandize: by fixating on the violence done by others while justifying — or, more often, ignoring — the more far-reaching and substantial violence perpetrated by the U.S.

(3) If one of the relatives of the children just killed in Afghanistan decided to attack the U.S. — or if one of the people involved in this Yemen-originating plot were a relative of one of the dozens of civilians killed by Obama’s 2009 cluster bomb strike — what would they be called by the U.S. media? Terrorists. Primitive, irrational, religious fanatics beyond human decency.

(via adoseofrevolution)

lifeisliterallylimited:

A non-government school teacher shouts slogans during a protest in Dhaka May 15, 2012. Bangladeshi police on Tuesday used water cannon and batons to disperse hundreds of non-government school teachers who were taking part in the protest while detaining at least fifteen. The protesters were demanding for the nationalization of their jobs and a pay rise in line with government primary school teachers, according to the Non-Government Primary Teachers’ Association. 
REUTERS/Andrew Biraj

(via adoseofrevolution)

theblacksophisticate:

87% Of People Stopped And Frisked By The NYPD In 2011 Were Black And Hispanic

The Wall Street Journal reports that NYPD’s Stop-and-Frisk reached an all time high last year (2011) with just about 684,330 stopped and questioned.  What is more alarming is that 87% of those folks happen to be Black and Hispanic Latino.  Here are some stats:

And who was it that got stop-and-frisked the most? 92 percent of those stopped were males, and 87 percent of those stopped were black or Hispanic, a glaring disparity considering blacks and Hispanics make up only 59 percent of the city’s population.

Just 12 percent of those stopped were arrested.

“Last year alone, the NYPD stopped enough totally innocent New Yorkers to fill Madison Square Garden more than 30 times over,” NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman said in a statement. “It is not a crime to walk down the street in New York City, yet every day innocent black and brown New Yorkers are turned into suspects for doing just that. It is a stunning abuse of power that undermines trust between police and the community.”

(via kemetically-ankhtified)

Go ahead. Please try to tell me that racism in American society isn’t relevant anymore.

(via mohandasgandhi)

California State Universities are planning to drastically restrict enrollment for Spring 2013 ›

Loggers in Brazil captured an eight-year-old girl from one of the Amazon’s last uncontacted tribes and burned her alive as part of a campaign to force the indigenous population from its land, reports claimed on Tuesday night.

George W. Bush cancels visit to Swiss charity gala over fears he could be arrested on torture charges ›

hobbitswizardskitties:

End of Occupy Charlotte encampment

(via the The Charlotte Observer)

(via adoseofrevolution)

chroniclesofmankind:

*101-year-old woman evicted from home, government won’t let her return

Who says you can’t go home? In the case of 101-year-old Detroit resident Texana Hollis, the federal government. The woman, who lived in her home for 60 years, was evicted from her home in September by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development after she was unable to pay property taxes on her reverse mortgage. A couple days later, she was told she could return home, but HUD later said her home was in such disrepair that they wouldn’t allow it. But all is not lost; other agencies might be able to help fix the home up. Hollis, meanwhile, is staying with a friend who offered her a free room.

(photo by John T. Greilick/Detroit News/AP)

(via chroniclesofmankind-deactivated)

Day of shame in the Middle East: Female protesters beaten with metal poles as vicious soldiers drag girls through streets ›

therealscumbagsteve:

latimes:

As last U.S. troops exit Iraq, they leave a troubled land behind: With little understanding of each other, Iraq and the U.S. collided in a long, brutal war that exacted a terrible price from both. They separate with very different understandings of what happened.

Photo credits: Times staff and wire photos

(via de-volada)

onearetwoesses:

stfusexists:sonicbloom11:

This just happened.

via @BreakingNews, @jon_wertheim, @DailyCollegian

*Trigger warning for my graphic commentary on this absurdity*

So let me get this straight…a colleague is caught anally raping a 10 year old and turning a blind eye is totally copacetic. But if the Board of Trustees removes an accessory to rape from the payroll, that’s worth rioting over?

It’s funny how we never see these spirited defenses of people who are actually raped, only those who wish to ignore rape and keep their jobs. Unbelievable. Every Penn State student rioting tonight should be goddamn ashamed of themselves. You assholes have made it that much harder for every abuse victim on your campus to ever seek help. 

I saw one response to this already that really needed a rape apologism TW but just to add:

Allowing and defending the rape of teens and children should not be described as “harmless” and is accessory of rape. A person who knows that abuse is occuring and defends in order to allow abuse to continue and deny the abuse they KNOW is hapenning? How is that not punishable? How is that not accessory to rape? 

Society is fucked. People are assholes.

lrenkl:

kar3bearrr:

ramirezdahmerbundy:

On November the 5th, 2006 in Cherokee county, Georgia a horrific crime occurred. A single mom of 3 was in her kitchen cleaning up dishes and her youngest daughter was on the computer in the next room. Her daughter was building a Build A Bear she wanted online. She asked her mom to come and see. Her mother, named Sue White went to go and see her daughters creation. As she entered the room to see she heard glass shatter in the kitchen. She ran to see a masked man busting through her window and unlocking her door. After he got into the home he put a gun to her head and pulled the trigger. It was jammed. He beat her with the gun and brutally raped and stabbed Sue at least 25 times. Her seven-year-old daughter witnessed most of the crime. He then moved Sue into the bedroom and put her daughter in a closet. The closet however did not have a door. She left the closet and went into the bathroom. Once he realized she had moved, he went to see what she was doing. He was naked and covered in blood. He told the little girl she better stay in the closet until he told her otherwise. Once the attacker thought that Sue was nearly dead he ordered her to call her daughter in so he could also have his way with her and finish the job. Sue then lay there and pretended she was dead.  Once he thought he had killed her, he got up and went after the daughter. After he was out of sight Sue pulled herself up and got a knife.

The attacker heard her and turned around, as soon as he turned around Sue stabbed him in the chest. He stumbled out the back door and then Sue told her daughter to go upstairs, get under her bed, lock the door and do not come out until the police or her come in to get her. Sue then heard the attacker coming back in the front. The battle continued for some time. He had gained control again and asked Sue “Where is your God now?”. She managed to turn around and push him off her, she then managed to stab her attacker in the chest one more time.

This was one of the bloodiest crime scenes experienced in 25 years and the first time in Cherokee county history that a rape ended with the female killing her attacker at the scene. How the female survived only god knows. She said she knew she couldn’t die because her baby needed her.

Holy fucking shit

These pictures. I can’t.

(via lrenkl-deactivated20120320)