Archive for October, 2011
Church Mass Moves Italian Man To Tear Out Both Of His Eyes
The Bible’s Gospel of St. Matthew quotes Jesus telling his disciples: ‘If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away.’
A case of literal biblical interpretation gone gruesomely awry. If God spoke to you and told you to do this, would you? NBC New York writes:
An Italian man tore both of his eyes out in the middle of the priest’s homily at a church near Pisa, according to reports.
Fellow parishioners watched in horror as Aldo Bianchini, 46, used his bare hands to pull out both eyeballs. Bianchini later told surgeons, who were unable to save his vision, he heard voices that told him to do it.
“He was in a great deal of agony and he was covered in blood,” Dr. Gino Barbacci told the Daily Mail. “He said that he had used his bare hands to gouge out his eye balls after hearing voices telling him…
Bloomberg Exposes Koch Brothers
The radical commies at Bloomberg have published a sweeping expose of the Tea Party-funding behemoth Koch Industries, claiming that standard practice at the company includes bribing government officials around the world, secretly selling technology to Iran, and general contempt for the legal and ethical constraints by which people normally operate:
In May 2008, a unit of Koch Industries Inc., one of the world’s largest privately held companies, sent Ludmila Egorova-Farines, its newly hired compliance officer and ethics manager, to investigate the management of a subsidiary in Arles in southern France. In less than a week, she discovered that the company had paid bribes to win contracts.
“I uncovered the practices within a few days,” Egorova- Farines says. “They were not hidden at all.”
She immediately notified her supervisors in the U.S. A week later, Wichita, Kansas-based Koch Industries dispatched an investigative team to look into her findings, Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its November…
Occupy Wall Street: College Students Urged To Walk Out Today
Mark Memmott writes on NPR:
As the Occupy Wall Street protests enter their 19th day and continue to spread well beyond lower Manhattan, there’s word from the related “Occupy Colleges” movement that a “nationwide college student walk out” has been called for noon today.
Right now (8 a.m. ET) the website lists 75 colleges where walkouts are expected to happen. The reference to noon is to the local time at each school, the website indicates.
An Undifferentiated Mass of Human Dignity
Occupy: Social Supernova?
It’s an anti-capitalism thing. No, it’s an anti-war thing. No, it’s a civil rights thing. No, it’s a desert topping. No, it’s a floor wax.
Ever since the Occupy movement began garnering mainstream media attention there has been an energetic, maybe even desperate, debate to define the significance of thousands of people from all over the nation spontaneously gathering in America’s large urban centers, decrying the rapacious criminality of the establishment — all sans identifiable figureheads or fixed policy programs.
Yes, from the start it was clear that, in its broadest outlines at least, this thing was a passionate rebuke to parasitic Wall Street types. Whatever that may mean in actual practice, it’s definitely not a formulation consistent with laissez-faire economics a la the Koch brothers’ Tea Party. So not surprising that most right wing analyses approached the topic with a dismissive laziness. They’ve crafted fear into a formidable electoral weapon and are…
A View of Some Occupy DC Protesters (Video)
Paul Joseph Watson writes on InfoWars:
Despite their honest intentions, many of the Occupy Wall Street protesters are being suckered into a trap and calling for the very “solutions” that are part of the financial elite’s agenda to torpedo the American middle class — higher taxes and more big government.
Watch the clip below in which journalist Adam Kokesh talks to Occupy Wall Street protesters.
‘Circumcision Is Barbaric And Stupid’
Photo: dbking (CC)
Well that’s Russell Crowe’s opinion, anyway. IOL Scitech reports from the battlefront over circumcision in the United States:
In the United States, a vocal movement of “intactivists,” or people who oppose male circumcision, is engaged in a fierce debate with doctors over the practice of clipping baby boys’ foreskins.
Actor Russell Crowe may be the most famous of them. Earlier this year he declared on Twitter: “Circumcision is barbaric and stupid,” before swiftly tweeting sorry to anyone who thought he was “mocking the rituals and traditions of others.”
Over the weekend, California’s governor blocked a bid by opponents of circumcision to have voters decide if local governments could make it a crime for doctors to perform the procedure unless medically necessary.
But the movement has vowed to keep fighting against a medical practice that is done to about 57 percent of American boys – down from more than 80 percent in the 1980s…
UK Activists Booted From US
Apparently New York has all the activists “they” want for now, but that won’t stop the British climate change activists from campaigning, via an assist from The Yes Men:
This Wednesday’s Revolutionaries Live! lecture with UK climate campaign activists John Stewart and Dan Glass has been postponed.
A few days ago, Stewart landed in JFK Airport for a month-long US speaking tour, only to be escorted off the plane by 6 police officers; interrogated for six hours by the FBI, Secret Service, NY police, and Immigration; and put on a plane back to the UK. The other tour member, environmental activist Dan Glass, was stopped by the CIA on the UK side.
Stewart and Glass are celebrated environmentalists who have won support from direct action activists and even Conservatives in the UK Parliament for successful efforts to reduce carbon emissions and stop the expansion of Heathrow airport. For some reason, however, our own government isn’t keen on them coming here.
We’re going to bring them to you anyway. Join us on Thursday, November 3rd for a special Skype session with these revered (and reviled?) climate revolutionaries. The best part: no transcontinental air emissions involved!
Thursday, November 3, 7pm
Department of Performance Studies
721 Broadway, 6th Floor
NY, NY 10003
(photo ID required)And now that your Wednesday is freed up, consider joining us at OccupyWallStreet! Wednesday is the biggest action yet, with the Steelworkers, Transit Workers Union, United Federation of Teachers, Working Families Party, MoveOn.org, Rebuild the Dream, and countless economic justice and community organizations taking part in a massive march to the Liberty Plaza encampment. Starts at 4:30pm at City Hall, 250 Broadway Ave
The Rise Of The Drones
Military planners are also pushing for greater autonomy for drones and other unmanned systems. Some are even arguing that the autonomous systems themselves will be better at making the decision about when and where to fire weapons than humans.
New Left Project writes about the inhuman future of how we engage in warfare. Will the decision whether to conduct military strikes eventually be determined by algorithm?
One night last summer Shakeel Khan and his family were at home in North Waziristan when there was a huge explosion. ‘I was resting with my parents in one room when it happened. God saved my parents and I, but my brother, his wife, and children were all killed.’ The children were five and three years old. Khan says, ‘I must support my aged parents now but I earn very little We don’t have enough to reconstruct our house and fear that the drones will strike us…
Rick Perry Bad Lip Reading Speech
“What’s good is to get these goats for our computer industry.”
Finally an inspirational candidate with something exciting to say emerges in the presidential race.
The Fox News #OccupyWallStreet Footage You Won’t See On TV
Respect for Drew Grant and the New York Observer for outing Fox News Channel’s selective editing of their OccupyWallStreet coverage:
Even if Geraldo Rivera was at the Zuccotti Park yesterday, Fox News has generally been a tad dismissive of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Foxnews.com (as of this writing) has no coverage of this national event on their front page stories. (Hard to imagine for a network that was so gung-ho about the Tea Party!) Red Eye‘s Bill Schulz went out to try to “prank” the protesters. Bill O’Reilly sent a producer minion out with the same mission: to belittle OWS’s cause by cutting up interviews to make people sound stupid.
Well, here is an interview that Fox News filmed, but doesn’t want you to see. The segment was shot on Wednesday for Greta van Susteren‘s show, (though it looks like the same producer from this O’Reilly segment questioning Michael Moore‘s anti-capitalist agenda) though the decision was made to leave it on the cutting room floor. The reason should be obvious pretty quickly.
Scientist Working On Cocaine, Nicotine Vaccines
Whatever next – McDonald’s vaccine? Douglas Quenqua reports for the New York Times:
Imagine a vaccine against smoking: People trying to quit would light up a cigarette and feel nothing. Or a vaccine against cocaine, one that would prevent addicts from enjoying the drug’s high.
Though neither is imminent, both are on the drawing board, as are vaccines to combat other addictions. While scientists have historically focused their vaccination efforts on diseases like polio, smallpox and diphtheria — with great success — they are now at work on shots that could one day release people from the grip of substance abuse.
“We view this as an alternative or better way for some people,” said Dr. Kim D. Janda, a professor at the Scripps Research Institute who has made this his life’s work. “Just like with nicotine patches and the gum, all those things are just systems to get people off the drugs.”
Dr. Janda,…
Massive Expansion Of Arctic Ozone Hole
This chart shows the levels of ozone above the Arctic on 19 March 2010 (left) and 2011 (right), the latter showing about a 50% drop. Photograph: OMI/Aura/NASA
Scientists report that ozone holes of similar size have opened up above the Arctic and Antarctic for the first time. Report from Reuters via the Guardian:
A huge hole that appeared in the Earth’s protective ozone layer above the Arctic in 2011 was the largest recorded in the northern hemisphere, though the sudden appearance of the hole was not due to man-made causes, scientists said in a report on Monday.
The ozone layer high in the stratosphere acts like a giant shield against the sun’s ultraviolet (UV) radiation, which can cause skin cancer and cataracts. Since the 1980s, scientists have charted the size of the ozone hole every summer above the Antarctic.
Some years, the holes have been so large that they covered the entire continent and…
Putin Calls For ‘Eurasian Union’
Putin (right) with President Dimitri Medvedev. Photo: Presidential Press and Information Office (CC)
Uh-Oh, this is bound to rile up One World Government conspiracy theory types … from Reuters:
Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said he wants to bring ex-Soviet states into a “Eurasian Union” in an article which outlined his first foreign policy initiative as he prepares to return to the Kremlin as the country’s next president.
Putin said the new union would build on an existing Customs Union with Belarus and Kazakhstan which from next year will remove all barriers to trade, capital and labor movement between the three countries.
“We are not going to stop there and are setting an ambitious goal — to achieve an even higher integration level in the Eurasian Union,” Putin wrote in an article which will be published in Izvestia newspaper on October 4.
Putin said last month he would run in the March 2012 presidential election…
Denmark Becomes First Nation With Tax On Fat In Food
Is Denmark’s new fat tax a just response to the societal problems caused by obesity? Or is it sweet, buttery tyranny? Via the BBC:
Denmark has introduced what is believed to be the world’s first fat tax – a surcharge on foods that are high in saturated fat. Butter, milk, cheese, pizza, meat, oil and processed food are now subject to the tax if they contain more than 2.3% saturated fat.
Some consumers began hoarding to beat the price rise, while some producers call the tax a bureaucratic nightmare.
Danish officials say they hope the new tax will help limit the population’s intake of fatty foods.
However, some scientists think saturated fat may be the wrong target. They say salt, sugar and refined carbohydrates are more detrimental to health and should be tackled instead.
JP Morgan Chase Donates $4.6 Million To NYPD On Eve Of Protests
Wondering how much it costs to buy off the police department? JP Morgan Chase just gave the New York City Police Foundation the largest donation in its history. How the police show their gratitude will presumably determine whether they receive similar donations from companies in the future. Via Naked Capitalism:
No matter how you look at this development, it does not smell right. From JP Morgan’s website, hat tip Lisa Epstein:
JPMorgan Chase recently donated an unprecedented $4.6 million to the New York City Police Foundation. The gift was the largest in the history of the foundation and will enable the New York City Police Department to strengthen security in the Big Apple. The money will pay for 1,000 new patrol car laptops, as well as security monitoring software in the NYPD’s main data center.
New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly sent CEO and Chairman Jamie Dimon a note expressing “profound gratitude”…
Was 14-Year-Old Executed By South Carolina Innocent?
The saddest part is that I’m not 100 percent certain that something like this could never happen again today. Raw Story writes:
Over 67 years after 14-year-old George Junius Stinney Jr. was put to death by the state of South Carolina, he may soon be cleared of the crime that people familiar with the case say he never could have committed.
A lawyer and an activist both told Raw Story recently that new evidence will show that the black boy could not have possibly murdered two white girls, 11-year-old Betty June Binnicker and seven-year-old Mary Emma Thames.
Stinney, the youngest person to receive the death penalty in the last 100 years, was executed on June 16, 1944. At five feet one inch and only 95 pounds, the straps of the electric chair did not fit the boy. His feet could not touch the floor. As he was hit with the first 2,400-volt surge of…
New York Times Alters Its Lead Story About Protests
Tweaking the language to subtly provide a less accurate, more pro-police spin. The Occupy Wall Street protesters in fact did not force their way onto the Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday — they were allowed, even encouraged, by police to enter, and then were arrested en masse. Who is this mysterious Al Baker who edits the news on behalf of the NYPD?
Behead The Banksters!
Behead the banksters?
“I do say that I am in favor of the return of the guillotine and that is for the worst of the worst of the guilty. I first would allow the guilty bankers to pay, you know, the ability to pay back anything over $100 million [of] personal wealth because I believe in a maximum wage of $100 million. And if they are unable to live on that amount of that amount then they should, you know, go to the reeducation camps and if that doesn’t help, then being beheaded,” — Roseanne Barr
Unions Promise Support As #OccupyWallStreet Enters Third Week
There had been rumor on Friday that the band Radiohead would be dropping by the #OccupyWallStreet encampment.
They had just been on the Colbert Report, and their fan base is huge among the very demographic of younger people drawn to the protests now beginning their third week.
And so more people came than organizers expected. Loads of people! Except, alas, for Radio Head. The band had reportedly called to express support that led some to conclude that they were on the way.
This demonstrates again the power of celebrity to draw a crowd. What did impress the activists in Zuccotti Park in the financial district is that the Radiohead fans actually stuck around and took part in the activities and a march that went North to Police Headquarters protesting the pepper spraying of activists.
That police action actually persuaded the media that had convinced itself that this growing assembly was not worth covering to…
