Society's ChildS


Hearts

University football coach pecks away at macho culture - one kiss at a time

Marc Tracy
The New York Times
Sat, 15 Oct 2016 00:00 UTC
Coach kissing
© Credit Matt Roth for The New York TimesHouston Coach Tom Herman kissing wide receiver Isaiah Johnson before a game. Any player who scores a touchdown must hug an offensive lineman.
ANNAPOLIS, Md. — When the University of Houston's football players arrive for a game, they know what to expect as a prelude to the coming hours of brutality as they file into the stadium: a kiss on the cheek from their head coach, Tom Herman.

It is an unusual ritual in a sport that embodies America's most rigid ideals of manhood.

"A kiss on the cheek is when he shows his love for us," Houston safety Garrett Davis said, adding, "No one here is thinking, 'Oh, I shouldn't let him kiss me.'"

Physical expressions of affection certainly exist in big-time sports. Nothing says "Good job!" in baseball like a firm pat on the behind from a coach, and in international soccer it is not uncommon to see teammates peck each other on the cheek after a big play.

But kisses in football's gladiatorial culture seem as incongruous as a Gatorade shower at the ballet.

For Herman, 41, there is no better way to demand the painful sacrifices of the game than to forthrightly convey his affection for his players.

"How do you motivate a human being to do things against his own nature?" Herman said in an interview. "There's two things: love and fear. And to me, love wins every time."

Comment: Perhaps the "crisis of connection" that is so rampant in Western society could and would be ameliorated by more male leaders who have the confidence, love and spirit of guys like Tom Herman.

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People

How Venezuela farmers fought Monsanto seed 'imperialism' - and won!

Quincy Saul
teleSUR
Sun, 16 Oct 2016 21:28 UTC
Guardians of the Seeds in Venezuela
© Quincy Saul
In this historic victory - arguably the biggest thing to happen in Venezuela since the death of Hugo Chavez - a movement of small farmers took on one of the largest corporations in the world, and won.

"Nature will always prevail," says Angel Moreno, a campesino and leader in the National Network of Popular Agroecological Schools, as he points to the grass sprouting through the sidewalk in the mountain village of Monte Carmelo in Venezuela. "But if we're going to fight imperialism, we need seeds."

It is Oct. 29, 2015, the 10th anniversary of the Day of the Campesino seed, and over a thousand people from around the country and around the world have gathered in this humble village, described by the Agujero Negro media collective as "the ecosocialist capital of Venezuela."

The people of Monte Carmelo began these gatherings in 2005, and in 2012 they hosted an international gathering from eight countries throughout Latin America. There, over multiple days of discussions and debates, they wrote the Monte Carmelo Declaration and launched the international network of the Guardians of Seeds.
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Snakes in Suits

Donald Trump and Umberto Eco's 14 ways of looking at a fascist: Trump is more Mussolini than Hitler

Lorraine Berry
Literary Hub
Sun, 16 Oct 2016 23:33 UTC
trump-mussolini
If your Facebook feed looks anything like mine, the comparisons between Donald Trump and Adolf Hitler appear like surreal dreams, with Trump's face Photoshopped so he's standing in front of a rally at Nuremberg. It doesn't take too many comments before someone invokes Godwin's Law and the conversation shuts down. Donald Trump is many things; Adolf Hitler, he is not.

On February 19th, the public intellectual, novelist, essayist, and semiotician, Umberto Eco died in Milan. While the rest of the world has mourned the loss of rock star David Bowie, Eco's death meant the loss of one of our intellectual rock stars, a man who was as comfortable discussing Barbie as he was explaining the aesthetics of Thomas Aquinas. It was Eco who insisted that a "fundamental" reading of a text—an approach espoused by Antonin Scalia, for example—was of little use when trying to understand books. "Books are not made to be believed, but to be subjected to inquiry. When we consider a book, we mustn't ask ourselves what it says but what it means." (How different Italy's intellectual giant from the man who insisted the Constitution means exactly what it meant when it was first written—by rich, white slave-owners).

Comment: The main difference between Trump and Killary is that Trump is bombastic, overt, and in-your-face - he's an easy target. Killary is covert, slick, and underhanded. Psychopaths know how to say the right things in order to manipulate people. It's hard to tell who's really more dangerous, even if one seems more dangerous on the surface. Overall, Killary's track record and her ties to the Western elite indicate she is their pick for Puppet in Chief. Trump may have even been set up as a red-herring, to appear so crazy and scary that many will be corralled into thinking Killary is the sane one, when in reality, she's the one with the most blood on her hands.

What it comes down to is this: no matter who wins, that person was meant to win - they were not elected but selected by the corporatocracy (the banking cartels and military industrial complex). American fascism is a new breed of fascism, much more difficult to identify, and no matter who "wins" the (s)election, we will get more fascism, more war, more chaos. Pick your poison.

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Hearts

Seizing the moment to save a child under attack on the subway

Jim Dwyer
The New York Times
Sun, 16 Oct 2016 21:33 UTC
Jessamine Irwin
© Christian Hansen for The New York Times Jessamine Irwin, 26, saw a man attacking a boy in between cars on a No. 4 train this month. Ms. Irwin opened the door and pulled the boy inside.
Going from one job to the next, and lulled by the No. 4 train as it rolled from the north Bronx toward Midtown Manhattan, Jessamine Irwin settled into a nap. No, maybe it was more of a doze, a nod toward sleep, a floating out of the present tense.

Ms. Irwin, 26, had just finished teaching Intermediate French at Fordham University in the Bronx and was on her way to another class, Elementary French 2 at New York University. She is an adjunct instructor, a member of a vast wandering tribe of academic nomads who hold down many classes at the city's colleges and universities.
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Question

Swedish court allows flying the Islamic State flag


RT
Sun, 16 Oct 2016 20:43 UTC
ISIS flag
© Dado Ruvic / Reuters
A Swedish court has dismissed a case against a Muslim man accused of inciting racial hatred for flying an Islamic State flag because it is not an expression of hate speech.

The now 23-year-old from Laholm, in Halland County posted a photo of himself posing with the flag as his Facebook profile picture in December 2015, but removed it when it was reported to police in March.

The Syrian-born man was facing felony charges of inciting racial hatred, but Prosecutor Gisela Sjovalls said she had made the decision to drop the charges "after careful consideration back and forth," reports Hallandsposten.

Comment: Interesting debate on what the IS flag represents. Here are some clues to the controversy:
ISIS, or the Islamic State
ISIS flag in Iraq
© STR/AP
ISIS's flag features a handwritten, rougher version of the shahada. The top line reads: "La 'ilaha 'illa-llah,"meaning "There is no god but God," and the white seal reads "God Messenger Mohammed." The script is much less elaborate than other flags with similar messages. The white seal is meant to resemble the official seal of the Prophet Muhammad, though experts have debated what the seal actually looked like.
RELIGIOUS SYMBOLISM AND ISLAM
What do symbols represent in religion? For many, it is sacred; for some, it is their identity, or represents their culture, history, practices, beliefs, spirituality, architectural artifacts, buildings and decorations or signifies their place in religious worships and rituals, or a relic of historical values.

Islam is considered to be an iconoclastic religion and strictly speaking does not possess symbols. This derives from the strict monotheistic belief within Islam that there is no creator but God. Muslims believe that the pictorial representation of anything that could be understood to represent divine power is an arrogation of the divine creative power by humans.

Islam has no symbol principally associated with it. The early Muslim community did not really have a symbol. The Holy Qur'an also does not specify any symbol for Islam and current symbols are the results of the understanding and imagination of Muslim artists, politicians or thinkers during the past times. During the early years of Islam Muslim armies and caravans flew simple solid-colored flags (generally black or white without symbols or markings) for identification purposes. In later generations, the Muslim leaders continued to use a simple black, white or green flag with no markings, writings or symbolism on it. There are no official Islamic symbols, but several symbols have a special place in the Muslim community.


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Laptop

WikiLeaks sources facing serious charges following CIA, FBI, DHS hacks


Sputnik
Sat, 15 Oct 2016 21:20 UTC
computer hacker
Two North Carolina men were arrested in September for their alleged roles in a hacking group responsible for breaching the email accounts of CIA Director John Brennan, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper -- and providing the contents to WikiLeaks.

Andrew Otto Boggs, 22, and Justin Gray Liverman, 24, were extradited to Virginia to appear at an Alexandria District Court. Despite the allegations that they belonged to the same hacker group, and the fact that they live so close together, the two men did not know each other offline.

The duo is accused of being part of the hacking group "Crackas With Attitude," which allegedly social-engineered access to Clapper's personal email, home telephone and internet account, as well as his wife's Yahoo email account.

At least three other members of the group, located in the United Kingdom, are currently under investigation by the Crown Prosecution Service. Two, a 16-year-old and a 15-year-old, were arrested earlier this year but have not been identified, as they are minors. One of the minors went by the alias "Cracka," and is alleged to have been behind the bulk of the breaches.
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Bell

The Forgotten War: Anguish, Bloodshed, Forgotten Heroes of Yemen

Vanessa Beeley
21st Century Wire
Thu, 13 Oct 2016 20:10 UTC
sanaa funeral yemen
© Yemen the Forgotten WarYemen civil defence and army recovering bodies from the Saudi coalition bombed ceremony hall in Sanaa
It should be personal to all of us. Yemen, regularly portrayed as the poorest nation in the Arab world, is proving itself to be the richest in courage, resourcefulness and resilience.

Ever since March 2015, some of you may have noticed how oil-rich Saudi Arabia, with the United States at its side, have been waging genocidal war against the Yemeni people.

Yemen are a people under attack by an undeclared super-power coalition comprised of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, US, UK, EU, UAE and Israel. As in Iraq, while the Yemeni people are under attack from super-powers, they are simultaneously being collectively punished by the illegal sanctions imposed by a corrupt United Nations body.

Sanctions imposed by resolution 2216, against 5 named individuals, on the pretext of legitimizing an illegitimate fugitive ex-president, Saudi Arabia and Washington's hand-picked puppet leader, Mansour Hadi, who demanded that neighbouring Saudi Arabia bomb his ownpeople - even after Hadi had resigned twice from an already over-extended presidential term, before fleeing to his alma mater in Riyadh.

UN sanctions imposed upon 5 named individuals yet being exploited by the US/UK/EU backed Saudi coalition to collectively starve and punish 27 million Yemeni people.


Comment: Funny... Hadi is a dictator who is killing his own people. Yet where is the "responsibility to protect" the Yemeni from this illegitimate leader? Instead, they are supporting him in his genocide. Not very funny at all, in fact.

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Fire

"No Nazis Here!": Nazis Stage Massive March in Kiev


Sputnik
Sat, 15 Oct 2016 19:47 UTC
azov nazis
© Sputnik/ Stringer"Nazi and proud."
On Friday, several thousand Ukrainian ultranationalists descended onto the streets of Kiev to mark Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) day, dedicated to the 74th anniversary of the founding of the WWII-era Nazi collaborationist organization.

Ukrainian media reported that up to 5,000 radicals from organizations including the Azov Regiment, the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), Right Sector and the Svoboda Party gathered to celebrate the holiday, which coincides with the Day of Ukrainian Cossacks and Defender of Ukraine Day, the latter holiday invented in 2014 to replace the 'Defender of the Fatherland Day', celebrated in most post-Soviet countries on February 23.

The nationalists walked through the streets, holding torches and flares, throwing smoke bombs, chanting nationalist slogans, beating drums and holding the flags of ultranationalist and neo-fascist organizations.


Comment: There's nothing "neo" about these Nazis. No wonder the U.S. helped put them in power in post-Maidan Ukraine - the CIA establishment has been infested with Nazis ever since Allen Dulles's love affair with the SS during the war.

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Snakes in Suits

Corporate psychopathy: Pharma company raised price of lead poisoning drug 2,700% as Flint water crisis unfolded

Justin Gardner
The Free Thought Project
Sun, 16 Oct 2016 00:00 UTC
flint michigan lead water
The saga of Flint, Michigan, where residents suddenly found themselves drinking lead-poisoned tap water, demonstrated how people become victims of corrupt government. If that weren't enough, those who suffer the worst from lead poisoning find themselves the victim of shameless corporate greed.

As the Flint water crisis unfolded and we began finding out that lead-tainted water is a problem in cities across the country, one notorious pharmaceutical company saw a chance to cash in.

Valeant Pharmaceuticals raised the price of a drug used to treat lead poisoning by 2,700 percent after acquiring the drug in 2013. By 2015 - as the issue of lead poisoning became prominent news - the price for a package of vials rose from $950 to $26,927.

Comment: Children debilitated by lead poisoning: just another profit opportunity to corporate psychopaths.

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Health

Sodomized Guantánamo prisoner recovers after surgery

Carol Rosenberg
Miami Herald
Sat, 15 Oct 2016 01:03 UTC
Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi
© www.welt.deMustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi
An alleged accomplice in the Sept. 11 terror attacks underwent reconstructive surgery for decade-old damage from his "sodomy" in CIA custody and was to be returned to his clandestine prison to recuperate, his attorney said Saturday. "All they said is there was minimal bleeding and he is recovering," attorney Walter Ruiz, a Navy Reserve commander, said Saturday morning. His client, Mustafa al Hawsawi, 48, was scheduled to begin surgery at 9 p.m. Friday and Ruiz said he was informed that it was over by 10:45 p.m.

Hawsawi, a Saudi, and four other men are awaiting a death-penalty trial for allegedly orchestrating the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people. He voluntarily missed Friday's hearing to rest up for the procedure.

An unclassified portion of the Senate Intelligence Committee's investigation of the CIA's Black Site program showed allegations that Hawsawi was subjected to rectal exams with "excessive force" before his 2006 transfer to Guantánamo and that at one point he had a "medical emergency" that the agency considered having treated in a foreign hospital.

Comment: Torture: The government's 'terrorists' within are just as bad, maybe worse, than the terrorists in the field. For Hawsawi, it took more than 10 years to repair this ongoing, painful damage.

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