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Afghan women: The kill list we don't talk about

Sahana Dharmapuri
Portside
Thu, 22 May 2014 08:57 UTC
In the world of pen vs. gun, we would all benefit from putting the Arab proverb "The enemy of my enemy is my friend" to good use. If women's rights are a security threat to violent extremists, then women's rights must be the asset we protect.

Image
© UN Photo/Eric Kanalstein
Afghan women
Osama bin Laden, Al-Zarqawi, Mullah Omar: we know these names because they were on a kill list, a targeted roster the United States uses to pursue and kill people who are a threat to our national security.

But have you heard of Najia Sediqi, Hanifa Safi, or Malalai Kakar? They were on a list we don't talk about, the one that violent extremists use to target people who are a threat to their security.

Sediqi, Safi and Kakar have three things in common: they were women, they were Afghan public officials and they refused to participate in a political project that does not recognize the human rights of everyone. Instead, they held prominent public positions in the new Afghan government as ministers and police.
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Newspaper

US House Bill would stop door-to-door mail for millions

Pauline Jelinek
Yahoo News
Wed, 21 May 2014 08:13 UTC
Image
© Unknown
Millions of Americans would no longer get mail delivered to their door but would go to communal or curbside boxes instead, under a proposed law.

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform debated Wednesday a bill to direct the U.S. Postal Service to convert 1.5 million addresses annually - 15 million over the next decade - to the less costly, but also less convenient delivery method.

"I think it's a lousy idea," said Democratic Rep. Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts. He was joined by some other lawmakers in saying it wouldn't work in urban areas where there's no place on city streets to put banks of so-called "cluster boxes" that have compartments for multiple homes. Under the proposal, waivers could be given to people with disabilities who have difficulty leaving their homes, and people who still want door delivery could pay extra for it - something Lynch derided as "a delivery tax."
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Oscar

Matrix star denounces 'racist' La Marseillaise at Cannes festival opening


The Connexion
Wed, 14 May 2014 07:40 UTC
Image
© Thetimes.co.uk
Actor Lambert Wilson has waded into La Marseillaise controversy, branding the words of France's national anthem "racist".

The Matrix actor, who will host the opening ceremony at the Cannes Film Festival later today said he thought the lyrics to the anthem were "appalling".

He told RTL Radio: "I am extremely upset that nobody says it's time to change the lyrics of La Marseillaise, which are from another time."

Mr Wilson described the lyrics as "terrible" and "bloodthirsty", and said: "When I hear the line, Let impure blood water our furrows, I am amazed that we continue to sing it."
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Bad Guys

Hysteria! Polish professor fired for daring to criticize US, EU support of neo-Nazis in Ukraine


RIA Novosti
Wed, 21 May 2014 07:25 UTC
Image
© Unknown
Professor Anna Razny
Poland's Jagiellonian University has sanctioned Professor Anna Razny for criticizing US and EU policies toward Ukraine.

After it was discovered that Razny had signed an open letter in support of the Russian policy in Ukraine, she was forbidden to do research at the university, the polish professor explained in an interview with the Voice of Russia radio station.

"I work in one of the oldest universities. Yesterday the Faculty Council has applied a serious 'punishment' to me by secret ballot, that is not supported the request for an extension of my research work at the Jagiellonian University," Razny said.

"However, I hope that the rector of our university will cancel the decision of the council and thus show that the Jagiellonian University, one of the oldest universities in Poland, is the place where people with different points of view can successfully work and collaborate," Razny added.

In a civilized world, people should have the right to defend different points of view, and even more so they should be able to voice them publicly and discuss them with impunity, the professor said.

Comment: Andrej Lobaczewski and the Polish professors who witnessed the Nazis and later the Soviets come into their institutions and indoctrinate whole generations of students with propaganda must be turning in their graves. The origins of political ponerology come full circle as Poland falls ever deeper into a spellbound coma, this time induced by "not quite conspecific people" in the West...

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Arrow Down

The US shale oil miracle disappears overnight - new estimate just 4%

Chris Martenson
Peak.prosperity.com
Fri, 23 May 2014 02:51 UTC
Monterey shale lands
© Unknown
The US shale oil "miracle" has about as much believability left as Jimmy Swaggart. Just today, we learned that the EIA has placed a hefty downward revision on its estimate of the amount of recoverable oil in the #1 shale reserve in the US, the Monterey in California.

As recently as yesterday, the much-publicized Monterey formation accounted for nearly two-thirds of all technically-recoverable US shale oil resources.

But by this morning? The EIA now estimates these reserves to be 96% lower than it previously claimed.

Yes, you read that right: 96% lower. As in only 4% of the original estimate is now thought to be technically-recoverable at today's prices:
EIA Cuts Monterey Shale Estimates on Extraction Challenges

May 21, 2014

The Energy Information Administration slashed its estimate of recoverable reserves from California's Monterey Shale by 96 percent, saying oil from the largest U.S. formation will be harder to extract than previously anticipated.

"Not all reserves are created equal," EIA Administrator Adam Sieminski told reporters at the Financial Times and Energy Intelligence Oil & Gas Summit in New York today. "It just turned out it's harder to frack that reserve and get it out of the ground."

The Monterey Shale is now estimated to hold 600 million barrels of recoverable oil, down from a 2012 projection of 13.7 billion barrels, John Staub, a liquid fuels analyst for the EIA, said in a phone interview. A 2013 study by the University of Southern California's Global Energy Network, funded in part by industry group Western States Petroleum Association, found that developing the state's oil resources may add as many as 2.8 million jobs and as much as $24.6 billion in tax revenues.

(Source)
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Bad Guys

Anti-Smoking Fascism: You now have to be 21 years old to buy cigarettes in New York City

Brigitte Dusseau
Agence France Presse
Thu, 22 May 2014 21:37 UTC
cigarette display
© Mark Lennihan/AP Photo
New York raised the minimum age to buy cigarettes to 21 on Sunday, in its latest initiative to encourage healthier behavior among residents.

The law, signed November 19 shortly before former mayor Michael Bloomberg finished his third term, had a six-month waiting period before it came into effect -- but its impact can already be clearly felt.

"Under 21, no tobacco," warned a small sign at the entrance of a small shop that sells smokes, newspapers, candy, coffee and cakes, in the Nolita neighborhood (North of Little Italy).

No tobacco, either, for anyone who can't present a valid ID proving their age. Shopkeeper scan IDs to test their authenticity before handing over the box of cigarettes.

The measure -- unprecedented among America's big cities -- raises the legal age to buy cigarettes from 18. It also applies to other forms of tobacco and to e-cigarettes.

It's the latest of New York's efforts to reduce smoking in the city, which bans cigarettes and, as of April 29, e-cigarettes in restaurants and bars, in parks or squares, and at the city's public beaches. Some private residential buildings have also banned smoking.

Cigarette taxes in the city are also the highest in the country: $5.85 a carton, which brings the overall price to around $12. In addition, the city has established a minimum price of $10.50 a box for cigarettes.
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Red Flag

Drone crazy! Pizza air-delivery in Mumbai


The Times of India
Thu, 22 May 2014 12:18 UTC
Drone
© Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP Images
An unmanned U.S. Predator drone
Would you like your pizza home-delivered by an unmanned drone? That may not be impossible in future, for a little-known pizza chain in Mumbai last week succeeded in making a test-delivery less than 3km away from its outlet in Lower Parel by using a remote-controlled, GPS-enabled drone.

The 'customer' was actually a friend of the chain's CEO, so it was technically not a sale, as commercial deliveries by drones are not allowed in India. Yet, in a way, it was a first for a product delivery Amazon has only planned. On May 11, the drone took off from the Lower Parel outlet and, flying at a speed of 30km an hour, manoeuvred its way atop the city's mill district to reach its destination, a high-rise in Worli, in nearly 10 minutes.

The drone dropped the 13-inch plain margherita pizza, weighing half a kilo, on the 21st floor rooftop (where it was collected by the 'customer') before taking off again for the return journey. The speed with which the delivery was made thus beat the record for most leading pizza chains, which manually deliver pizzas within 30 minutes.
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Display

Ponerizing sexuality: Porn isn't harmless for either those watching or partaking

Michael Thomas
Exposing the Truth
Thu, 22 May 2014 13:58 UTC
linda lovelace

Linda Lovelace, just one of countless 'porn stars' forced into what can only be called sex slavery. It has only gotten worse.
The profits of the porn industry in the United States alone is about $13.3 billion dollars. To put that in perspective, that's more than the NFL, NBA and MLB combined.

The global market power of the porn industry is roughly $97 billion, incidentally, just in case 13.3 billion wasn't scary enough. To put that in perspective: the Dominican Republic has a GDP of $99 billion (according to the IMF). Keep in mind, this is based primarily on the registered pornography operations and estimations, excluding some or much of the gray-area online world.

If this industry was a country, it'd be ranked about 36th in the world.

Now, this industry is almost entirely unregulated. There are no unions. There are no oversight committees, no major industry watchdogs. There's no real government oversight whatsoever on a global basis. It is in many ways a free market.

Although some sites report 66% as having sexually transmitted diseases within the pool of actors in the industry, this number is fictitious and disproved through data. Despite that, the fact remains that the incidence of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases is far higher than officially reported.


Comment: WARNING: This article contains some graphic descriptions of sexual violence that may disturb some readers.


Comment: Psychopaths view their sexual partners as objects to be used, often abused, and discarded, regardless of age, health, or emotional well-being. Knowing that, it should be painfully obvious that the porn industry is psychopathic at its root. By engaging with such pathological sexuality through visual media, we basically train our brains to experience sex the way psychopaths do, and thereby become a little more like them.

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Alarm Clock

British Columbia mother filmed pummelling woman on bus after alleged assault on baby, other children

Josh Visser
Nationalpost.com
Thu, 22 May 2014 11:12 UTC
Image
© Youtube
A B.C. mother was filmed pummelling another woman on a bus in manner reminiscent of a UFC fight, after the woman boarded the bus without fare, swore loudly, and attacked the mother's kids when asked to watch her language.
A B.C. mother was filmed pummelling another woman on a bus, after the woman allegedly boarded the bus without fare, swore loudly, and attacked the mother's kids when asked to watch her language.

The incident began at about 10:20 a.m. Tuesday in Langley, B.C., when a female passenger began fighting with a bus driver over her non-payment of the bus fare.
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Cow Skull

Symbolic? Madrid's Corrida bullfight canceled after all matadors gored


Voice of Russia
Thu, 22 May 2014 10:01 UTC
Spanish matador fortes is gored by a bull
© AFP
Spanish matador Jimenez Fortes is gored by a bull during a bullfight of the San Isidro Feria at the Las Ventas bullring in Madrid on Tuesday, May 21, 2014.
Madrid's famous San Isidro had to be cancelled for the first time in 35 years after a bull skewered, trampled and gored three matadors. Half-tonne fighting bulls skewered or trampled all three matadors in an extraordinary upset at Madrid's prestigious Las Ventas bullring, forcing the entire spectacle to be cancelled.

"Drama in Las Ventas" ran the front page headline of conservative daily ABC over a full-page photograph of a huge bull plunging its right horn into the side of the most seriously injured matador, David Mora, before he fell to the ground.

Spanish media devoted broad coverage to the bloody turning of the tables in Las Ventas, reputed to be the most important bullring in the world.

"The festival had to be suspended .. because of the gorings suffered by the three matadors," said a statement issued by the Las Ventas bullring.

Comment: Is this a little symbolic of what is happening in Spain where austerity measures and EU bully dictates have stampeded and gored the population into submission?

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