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Does gun reform need to be a war on masculinity?

Debra W. Soh
Playboy
Thu, 15 Mar 2018 00:01 UTC
gun control masculinity
© Tithi Luadthong
Whenever a story about male violence dominates the news, it sets off the same range of discussions about how masculinity may be destroying our society. The aftermath of February's horrific mass shooting in Parkland, Florida has been no different. Now the deadliest school shooting since the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in 2012, Parkland has rightfully reawakened contentious debates around gun control and what we need to do as a nation to prevent more tragedies involving gun violence.

But at the same time, an onslaught of think pieces have fingered "toxic masculinity," as the culprit behind America's gun violence epidemic, with some propagating the idea that "the patriarchy" and "white male privilege" promote homicidal behavior. In fact, toxic masculinity has become the scapegoat for just about everything undesirable under the sun, from gun violence to sexual assault to shorter lifespans. But placing overwhelming blame on one sex is precarious territory.

Comment: The concept of toxic masculinity is itself toxic in its denigration of an entire gender, damaging young men by making them ashamed of being born male. Dr. Soh is right - it's time to do away with this damaging concept.

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Attention

Getting his point across: Parent pulls knife on student to demonstrate school's lax security

Dave Urbanski
The Blaze
Sat, 17 Mar 2018 22:17 UTC
School meeting
© YouTube screenshot
A dad got in the face of a high school senior during a Long Island, New York, school board meeting Wednesday night and pulled out what appeared to be a pocket knife to make a point about lack of school security.
For Jade Pinkenburg - a 17-year-old who's against armed school security - the face-to-face encounter with a "considerably larger" man at a Long Island, New York, school board meeting Wednesday night was something he's not likely to forget.

"My legs got weak, and my heart was beating fast," the Rocky Point High School senior told Newsday later on.

Just hours after dozens of Rocky Point students joined the national walkout for stricter gun control, Pinkenburg stood before the school board's health and safety committee and told them there shouldn't be armed guards in school, the paper reported.

With that, a man sporting a bandana who Pinkenburg said he didn't know asked him to return to the front of the room, Newsday said - and cellphone video recorded what happened next.
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Megaphone

Students from Universities of California call on regents to divest from Israeli human rights abuses


Mondoweiss
Thu, 15 Mar 2018 00:01 UTC
israel proteest
© Catharine Krebs
Members of the unified coalition made up of union workers, service workers, and students protesting the UC Regents use of tuition hikes, marginalization against vulnerable campus community members, and blatant investments in Israeli apartheid.
Yesterday, students, campus workers, and allies from across the University of California system were in Los Angeles to call on the UC Regents to listen to student voices and divest university funds from corporations that profit from human rights abuses against the Palestinian people. Following the UC Regents' signing of the United Nations' Principles for Responsible Investments in 2014 and clear votes in support of divestment by the University of California Student Association (UCSA), UC Graduate Student Worker Union (UAW 2865), and Student Governments on eight out of nine UC campuses, students are demanding the UC Regents ensure that the UCs reflect the values we all hold dear: freedom, justice, and equality.

The UCs are invested in the following corporations profiting from rights abuses, as documented by reputable human rights organizations: Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, Caterpillar, Cemex, HP, General Electric, 3M, Perrigo Company, Atlas Copco, Ford and Hyundai. Lockheed Martin, for example, manufactures Apache helicopters that have killed Palestinian civilians, including children, and Caterpillar supplies bulldozers to the Israeli military to demolish the homes of Palestinian families to make way for illegal Israeli settlements. Instead of investing in corporations that harm communities, universities should be investing in corporations that do business ethically.

Comment: See also:

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Handcuffs

Britain First leader Paul Golding 'beaten up in prison'

Joe Roberts
Metro
Fri, 16 Mar 2018 13:04 UTC
Paul Golding Britain First
© Getty
Britain First leader Paul Golding was allegedly attacked inside HMP Elmley, on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent.
Britain First leader Paul Golding has allegedly been beaten up in prison, just days after he was jailed for hate crimes.

Golding was attacked by two inmates at HMP Elmley, on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent, according to sources.

It is believed the 36-year-old has now been separated from other inmates at the category C prison.

Kent Police confirmed it was investigating a report of an assault at the prison between 4.15pm and 4.30pm on Wednesday.

Comment: See also:

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Attention

Jaw-dropping: Illegal alien acquitted of murdering Kate Steinle is suing feds for 'vindictive prosecution'

Joel B. Pollak
Breitbart
Thu, 15 Mar 2018 00:01 UTC
Kate Steinle and accused
© Associated Press
Jose Inez Garcia-Zarate, the illegal alien acquitted last year of murdering 32-year-old Kate Steinle in July 2015, has sued the federal government, demanding that it produce documents "pertaining to vindictive prosecution and collusion" with the state government in its prosecution against him.

In November, a San Francisco jury found Garcia-Zarate not guilty of murdering Steinle, agreeing that although he had the gun from which the fatal shot was fired, the discharge could have been accidental.

The jury did convict Garcia-Zarate of felony possession of a weapon. He had seven previous felony convictions and had been deported five times before finding "sanctuary" on the streets of San Francisco, a noted "sanctuary city."

Comment: As if the verdict in Steinle's case wasn't enough of an injustice, now we can pile this on. The gall and the audacity is just stunning.

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Airplane

Flying crazy air: What's going on with airline travel?

Michelle Gant
Fox News
Sat, 17 Mar 2018 00:42 UTC
airline insanity
The friendly skies are starting to sound downright dangerous. In March alone, stories of rape, fistfights and dead beloved pets have dominated national headlines. And it seems no airline is immune. United, Southwest, American and Alaska Airlines are just a few of the carriers scrambling to explain the behavior of crew members. And tales of passengers gone wild can often be even more harrowing.

In a recent survey of airplane crew members, 67 percent of respondents said they have witnessed passengers behaving aggressively or violently toward each other, and 10 percent have experienced firsthand passenger-initiated violence.

But it's not just the flyers acting out. Things have gotten so bad with their employees, United just rolled out a compassion training program aimed at teaching employees how to be caring, safe, dependable and efficient. This new system will require around 30,000 customer-facing crew members to attend a four-hour training session to ensure all safety standards are met "with a smile."

Comment: Things are getting crazy out there!

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Bacon n Eggs

Empty gesture: Trump's costly military parade could feed homeless veterans for weeks

Matt Agorist
The Free Thought Project
Fri, 16 Mar 2018 22:04 UTC
homeless veteran
President Donald Trump has asked the Pentagon to plan a grand parade of the U.S. armed forces in Washington this year to celebrate military strength and flex the US empire. This display of militarism will proceed in spite of the very people Trump claims to be honoring being vehemently opposed to it. In fact, an unofficial poll conducted by the Military Times found the 90% of people do not want a parade. Nevertheless, it will happen.

While many of Trump's supporters favor the parade, for those who've actually served in the military, the idea of being forced to practice day in and day out for a march through Washington D.C. so civilians can pump out their chests with nationalist pride is terrible. There are far better ways to "support the troops" than forcing them to parade around in front of you.

Here's an idea, end all the wars. If you really want to support the troops, stop using them as pawns in the spread of empire and the expansion of the military-industrial complex. If you really want to support the troops and veterans, how about we address the fact that tens of thousands of them sleep on the streets every single night in the country they offered up their lives for.

Comment: See also:
Use once, then throw away: 40,000 U.S. veterans are homeless
Los Angeles: Number of homeless veterans continues to grow
The US government's war - against its own veterans

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Sheriff

Family sues police for killing their pregnant teen daughter during unwarranted car chase

Rachel Blevins
The Free Thought Project
Fri, 16 Mar 2018 21:57 UTC
Elena Mondragon
A family is suing the city of Fremont and its police department one year after their 16-year-old daughter was shot and killed by police when officers opened fire on the car she was riding in, and the department blamed her death on the driver.

Elena Mondragon, who was pregnant and unarmed, was sitting in the passenger seat of the car with her cousin and two of their friends when they were followed by two undercover police officers dressed in plain clothes.

The officers, who were also driving an unmarked car, claimed that one of the boys in the group, Rico Tiger, 19, was a suspect in multiple armed robberies and the BMW they were in was a stolen car. While the officers were already conducting surveillance around the apartment complex and they claimed they intended to confront their target before he left the area, their plan failed.

Because the officers were in plainclothes and they were driving what appeared to be a regular car, the driver of the car Mondragon was in claimed the group thought they were being followed or robbed, so they began to accelerate to get away from the other car.
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Cell Phone

Chinese woman develops blood clots after lying on her side for 20 hours staring at her mobile phone

Aletha Adu
The Sun
Fri, 16 Mar 2018 21:49 UTC
woman on mobile
© Asiawire
The woman is pictured recovering in the hospital - still glued to her phone
A woman almost died after she spent her entire 20-hour train journey lying on her side and playing on her mobile phone.

Medics say the 47-year-old Chinese migrant worker had developed life-threatening blood clots on her brain.

She was travelling from the central Henan province to the southern city of Guangzhou.

But congestion on the train meant the unnamed woman was unable or unwilling to move from her prone position, reports claim.

As soon as she got off the train at Guanzhou station she fainted on the platform.

Comment: She never even got up to go the toilet?

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Beaker

Terrorist capabilities exposed in Eastern Ghouta chem lab

Sharmine Narwani
RT
Fri, 16 Mar 2018 14:22 UTC
Chem lab Ghouta
© Sharmine Narwani
Canisters contain chlorine, shelves of chemicals, US manufactured Hill-Rom air or gas compressor, chem beakers.
The battle of narratives over the use of chemical weapons in Syria has been raging ferociously for years. But a chemical lab discovered in Eastern Ghouta this week is set to change the parameters of the discourse.

Last December, at a US military hangar near Washington DC, UN Ambassador Nikki Haley showcased an over-sized metal pipe as evidence of Iran's military collusion with Yemen's Houthi rebels. That picture hit every front page in the western hemisphere, drowning out the many objections that a big pipe on an American stage proves nothing.

This week, the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) liberated some Eastern Ghouta farmlands between Shifouniyeh and Douma and discovered a well-equipped chemical laboratory run by Saudi-backed Islamist terrorists. Not a single Western reporter showed up to investigate the facility.

The media disinterest is strange, given that US officials appear poised to green-light military attacks against Syria, which they claim has used chemical weapons (CW) against civilian populations. This charge remains unproven and highly contentious, with other parties arguing that anti-government militants are employing CW munitions to provoke a US military intervention against Syria.

So perhaps it's not so strange that a chemical lab discovered right at the epicenter of a major strategic battle over Syria is being ignored by one side. In the end, it is likely that only one side is right about who is using CWs in Syria. Which is why one side went silent when this lab was revealed.
boiler munition tubes
© Sharmine Narwani
Boilers in basement connected to pressurizing and compression equipment on flour above, piles of munitions suggest lab made substance for warfare use.
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