Society's ChildS


Stop

Court rejects school's desperate effort to dismiss free speech lawsuit

Tyler Cochran
Campus Reform
Fri, 19 Jan 2018 17:06 UTC
stern judge
Pierce College will have to defend the constitutionality of its policies restricting speech to just 0.003 percent of campus after a judge rejected its motion to dismiss a student's lawsuit.

With help from attorneys at the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), student Kevin Shaw sued the school in March after administrators refused to let him distribute copies of the Constitution outside of the school's "free speech zone," which encompasses just 616 square feet of the 426-acre campus.

Shaw was also told he must fill out a permit application to use the free speech zone, and that he would have to leave campus if he refused to comply, which the school's defense attorneys have sought to justify by arguing that the campus is a "non-public forum"

According to the court order, the motion was dismissed in part because "given the traditional purpose of the open, outdoor areas of universities, such as the 'Mall' on Pierce's campus, the Court finds that these areas are traditional public fora, regardless of Pierce's regulations naming them non-public fora."

Comment: Funny how the school claims to be "promoting the free exchange of ideas", yet their actions show that they'd rather constrain the free exchange of ideas - to a tiny spot in some unknown corner. Hopefully Shaw wins his case against the school. See also:

Read More...
Pistol

Afghanistan: Gunmen attack Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul - All 3 attackers killed - UPDATE


RT
Sat, 20 Jan 2018 19:01 UTC
View of the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul
© ReutersView of the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul Afghanistan, Jan. 25, 2016
The Intercontinental Hotel in Afghanistan's capital, Kabul is under attack according Reuters, citing an interior ministry spokesman.

The group of "three or four men," who appeared to include suicide bombers, attacked the hotel Saturday and exchanged gunfire with security forces, according to ministry spokesman, Najib Danish.

The attackers have taken several hostages in the hotel, according to local news agency Tolo News who cited Kabul police.

The gunmen entered through the hotel kitchen, before moving to rooms 104 and 105, according to local journalist Bilal Sarwary, who cited an Afghan special forces commander.

Comment: Update (Jan. 21): All three attackers on the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul have been killed and their hostages released, the Afghan government has said, announcing the end of a long siege. However, gunshots are reportedly still being heard.
Afghan forces regained control of the hotel and killed the three attackers on Sunday morning following a 12-hour siege, local media reported citing the Interior Ministry. One foreign citizen was reportedly among five killed in the attack. At least six others were wounded according to TOLOnews, while Pajhwok says that 10 people were injured.



Despite officials announcing the end of the siege, there were contradicting reports from local media citing witnesses and reporters on the ground, saying that the attack was not over and gunshots were still being heard. Later a spokesman for the Afghan interior ministry clarified that the clear-up operation is ongoing.


Read More...
Bad Guys

Jewish Israeli settlers break into Palestinian school in Bethlehem


Middle East Monitor
Sun, 21 Jan 2018 08:46 UTC
Israeli settlers
Israeli settlers
A group of Jewish Israelis settlers attacked a Palestinian school in the Al-Zawahra neighbourhood of Bethlehem area village Ta'mor on Wednesday, Felesteen.ps reported.

Member of the Palestinian Authority anti-settlement committee in Bethlehem Hassan Brejea said that the settlers broke the door of the school and damaged some of its facilities.
Read More...
Pocket Knife

Police commander blames lack of genital mutilation convictions on 'nuances'

Jack Montgomery
Breitbart
Fri, 19 Jan 2018 00:01 UTC
female genital mutilation
© Getty Images
The police commander tasked with tackling female genital mutilation has excused the lack of convictions for the crime by saying it has "many nuances".

Ivan Balchatchet, the National Police Chiefs' Council's lead on 'honour' violence, female genital mutilation, and forced marriage, was responding to a letter from Jonathan Nicholas, a writer who served as a frontline police officer for 30 years, asking why there has yet to be a single conviction for FGM despite tens of thousands of recorded cases since it was criminalised in 1985.

"Thank you for your letters received dated 10th October 2017 and 12th January 2018 [sic]," wrote Balhatchet.

Comment: Seems like a pretty uncomplicated crime, actually. If someone insists on this horrific and barbaric crime, they're arrested and charged. Not seeing a whole lot of nuance. See also:

Read More...
Jet5

Weapons of mass migration: 77% of Belgians 'no longer feel at home'

Virginia Hale
Breitbart
Thu, 18 Jan 2018 12:00 UTC
Majority Belgians no longer feel at home
© LAURIE DIEFFEMBACQ/AFP/Getty Images
The massive rise in the proportion of Muslim migrants in the country has resulted in two-thirds of Belgians feeling their nation is being "increasingly invaded", according to a new study.

This sentiment was especially marked among respondents to the detailed survey aged 65 and over, 84 per cent of whom likened the influx of migrants and refugees to an invasion.

Overall, two-thirds of the 4,734 people polled believe there are "too many immigrants in Belgium", while 77 per cent agreed with the statement, "Today we no longer feel at home as we did before [mass migration]".
Read More...
Bizarro Earth

SWAT team kill 72yo Grandma during cannabis raid on her son

Matt Agorist
Freethought Project
Fri, 19 Jan 2018 12:00 UTC
72yo Grandma Shot Dead as SWAT Raided Her Home To Arrest Her Son For Marijuana
Michael Anthony Livingston, 50, was suspected of selling a plant that is legal in some form in well over half the country. Becuase the other half of the country still violently and callously kidnaps, cages, and kills people for this plant, however, Livingston is in jail and his mother is now dead.

Geraldine Townsend, 72, was shot and killed this week as a Bartlesville SWAT team executed a search warrant to bust Livingston for the alleged sale of marijuana.

When the heavily armed and likely militarized men kicked in the door to their home, Townsend, likely not knowing who her home invaders were, picked up a pellet gun and fired off two pellets. A Bartlesville officer then shot and killed her.
Read More...
Green Light

N.Korea WILL send team as promised to prep for Olympics in South


RT
Sat, 20 Jan 2018 14:20 UTC
Demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas
© Kim Hong-Ji / ReutersSouth Korean soldiers work on a barricade on the Grand Unification Bridge which leads to the truce village Panmunjom, south of the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas, in Paju, South Korea, January 19, 2018.
Pyongyang has promised to send a delegation to South Korea on Sunday to prepare for a trip by an art troupe during the Winter Olympics. North Korea had raised eyebrows when it abruptly cancelled the entire visit late on Friday.

Pyongyang said it would send its seven-member team to check the venues for its proposed art performances in Seoul and Gangnueng, on the east coast of South Korea, some 260 kilometers east of the capital, Seoul's Unification Ministry said in a statement on Saturday, as cited by Yonhap news agency.

According to the ministry, Pyongyang's team would use a western land route and stay for two days.

The South Korean government has agreed to the visit on Sunday, Reuters reported the ministry saying.
Read More...
Snowflake Cold

Texas shatters record for winter electricity use - grid manages without rolling blackouts

Jeff Mosier
Dallas News
Wed, 17 Jan 2018 18:37 UTC
Snow covers Corpus Christi in Texas on December 8 2017. First time in 13 years. via
© InstagramSnow covers Corpus Christi in Texas on December 8 2017. First time in 13 years
Bitter cold across Texas brought a new winter record for peak electricity use, ERCOT, the state's independent electric grid operator announced Wednesday morning.

At one point, Texans were using 65,731 megawatts, blowing past the previous record by nearly 5 percent. Multiple records were set overnight as temperatures plunged statewide, but the new peak arrived between 7 and 8 a.m.

The peak use was significantly higher than the Electric Reliability Council of Texas' projection of 61,068 megawatts for a peak this winter. It fell short of the "extreme" peak projection by just 1,044 megawatts.

Overnight, the Dallas area recorded a low of 13 degrees, well below the average low of 34. While frigid, that was still far from the record low of 2 degrees in 1930.
Read More...
Cross

Judgment Day: Texas judge tells jury God told him defendant was innocent

Ryan Autullo
American-Statesman
Fri, 19 Jan 2018 18:15 UTC
jack robison
A state district judge in Comal County said God told him to intervene in jury deliberations to sway jurors to return a not guilty verdict in the trial of a Buda woman accused of trafficking a teen girl for sex.

Judge Jack Robison apologized to jurors for the interruption, but defended his actions by telling them "when God tells me I gotta do something, I gotta do it," according to the Herald-Zeitung in New Braunfels.

The jury went against the judge's wishes, finding Gloria Romero-Perez guilty of continuous trafficking of a person and later sentenced her to 25 years in prison. They found her not guilty of a separate charge of sale or purchase of a child.

Robison, who also presides in Hays and Caldwell counties, did not respond to a message left with his court coordinator, Steve Thomas, who said the case is still pending. Robison is scheduled to return to the bench in Comal County on Jan. 31.

The Herald-Zeitung reported that Robison recused himself before the trial's sentencing phase and was replaced by Judge Gary Steele. The defendant's attorney asked for a mistrial, but was denied.
Read More...
Map

Propaganda: Why African Americans are moving to Africa

Azad Essa
Al Jazeera
Sat, 20 Jan 2018 17:46 UTC
Muhammida el-Muhajir
© Muhammida el-MuhajirMuhammida el-Muhajir says as an African American in the US, she felt she could 'never win'
They have come from the big cities of San Francisco, Chicago, and New York. Thousands of them. And many refuse to return.


Comment: How many is many?


A new wave of African Americans is escaping the incessant racism and prejudice in the United States.


Comment: Hardly.


From Senegal and Ghana to The Gambia, communities are emerging in defiance of conventional wisdom that Africa is a continent everyone is trying to leave.


Comment: Not everyone, just hundreds of millions.


It is estimated that between 3,000 and 5,000 African Americans live in Accra, the Ghanaian capital. They are teachers in small towns in the west or entrepreneurs in the capital and say they that even though living in Ghana is not always easy, they feel free and safe.


Comment: And about 51,000 Americans live and work in Tokyo. So what?


Take Muhammida el-Muhajir, a digital marketer from New York City, who left her job to move to Accra.

She says she moved, because despite her education and experience, she was always made to feel like a second-class citizen. Moving was an opportunity to fulfil her potential and avoid being targeted by racial violence.

She told Al Jazeera her story:

Comment: For those so inclined, it's probably a good move for them to move to a community or country that is ethnically conspecific for them.

Read More...