I know, it's Monday. Monday sucks when you work.
Just saying I'm completely retired as of now and am sooooooooooooooooooo happy.
Watch this video and you will be too. Hope your Monday is a good one.
Sunday, September 28, 2014
Wednesday, September 24, 2014
Justice? No Freaking Way!
There have been SO many stories published about police brutality in the past few months that it's been difficult to keep up with them.
The incident I'm referencing is about a young man in Ohio who was shot down in a (where else) WALMART for holding a toy gun .
Update September 25, 2014:
Federal investigators to review Ohio Walmart shooting Let's hope they come up with a different outcome.
John Crawford III
Here's the story from Daily Kos
Stunning news out of Ohio. Special prosecutor Mark Piepmeier has announced that after three days of grand jury testimony, there will be no indictments in the shooting death of John Crawford III, which took place inside an Ohio Walmart in August.
Video taken from Walmart surveillance cameras were released at the press conference and they still don't seem to tell the whole story. I SEE THE WHOLE STORY!!! THIS MAN WAS JUST PLAYING WITH A TOY, DAMMIT! WATCH THIS VIDEO, NO PEOPLE WERE THREATENED!!!!
Based on the video they released, Crawford does not appear to be pointing the air rifle at anyone. Ronald Ritchie was the 911 caller who alerted police and claimed: Ronald Ritchie said Crawford "was just waving [the gun] at children and people...I couldn't hear anything that he was saying. I'm thinking that he is either going to rob the place or he's there to shoot somebody. Just how does Mr. Ritchie know this? Here's more from the scared eye witness: "He didn't really want to be looked at and when people did look at him, he was pointing the gun at them. He was pointing at people. Children walking by," Ugh Mr. Ritchie, you have been playing too many obscenely horrific games when you look at a lone man in a toy aisle in Walmart and think he was going to go on a mass shooting spree. Update 9/29/14: Ritchie changes his story and could possibly charged with manslaughter>
The incident I'm referencing is about a young man in Ohio who was shot down in a (where else) WALMART for holding a toy gun .
Update September 25, 2014:
Federal investigators to review Ohio Walmart shooting Let's hope they come up with a different outcome.
Here's the story from Daily Kos
Stunning news out of Ohio. Special prosecutor Mark Piepmeier has announced that after three days of grand jury testimony, there will be no indictments in the shooting death of John Crawford III, which took place inside an Ohio Walmart in August.
Video taken from Walmart surveillance cameras were released at the press conference and they still don't seem to tell the whole story. I SEE THE WHOLE STORY!!! THIS MAN WAS JUST PLAYING WITH A TOY, DAMMIT! WATCH THIS VIDEO, NO PEOPLE WERE THREATENED!!!!
Based on the video they released, Crawford does not appear to be pointing the air rifle at anyone. Ronald Ritchie was the 911 caller who alerted police and claimed: Ronald Ritchie said Crawford "was just waving [the gun] at children and people...I couldn't hear anything that he was saying. I'm thinking that he is either going to rob the place or he's there to shoot somebody. Just how does Mr. Ritchie know this? Here's more from the scared eye witness: "He didn't really want to be looked at and when people did look at him, he was pointing the gun at them. He was pointing at people. Children walking by," Ugh Mr. Ritchie, you have been playing too many obscenely horrific games when you look at a lone man in a toy aisle in Walmart and think he was going to go on a mass shooting spree. Update 9/29/14: Ritchie changes his story and could possibly charged with manslaughter>
Sunday, September 21, 2014
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
How Cold Can You Get???
Urban Outfitters (where I never shop, way overpriced) is selling "Vintage" Kent State sweatshirts complete with blood and bullet holes .
I was a sophomore in high school when the Kent State shootings (AKA the May 4 massacre) occurred.
The National Guard had been called out to an anti-Cambodia protest and fired 67 rounds over a period of 13 seconds, killing four students and wounding nine others, one of whom suffered permanent paralysis..
I'm hoping that the kids buying these shirts are unaware of the history of Kent State shootings and just think the blood and bullet holes are "cool". Me, I'm sick.
I was a sophomore in high school when the Kent State shootings (AKA the May 4 massacre) occurred.
The National Guard had been called out to an anti-Cambodia protest and fired 67 rounds over a period of 13 seconds, killing four students and wounding nine others, one of whom suffered permanent paralysis..
I'm hoping that the kids buying these shirts are unaware of the history of Kent State shootings and just think the blood and bullet holes are "cool". Me, I'm sick.
Saturday, September 13, 2014
Police Brutality
I used to do scuzzbuckets of the week, which focused on regular citizens doing ugly things. Now with all the stories about Police Brutality, I just may start a series taken from the treasure trove of horrific actions of the nations police force on a regular basis.
from Addictinginfo.org, the story of police brutally arresting a terminally ill man
From the above link, here is the story:
Jeffery Brian Bane, 39, was arrested Saturday, Sept. 6, and charged with disorderly conduct, obstructing an officer and battery on an officer.
This is actually a story about police harassing and assaulting a terminally-ill man. They simply confused his symptoms for intoxication.
A statement to the Free Thought Project by his nephew, Josh Banes explains that he actually suffers from Huntington’s Disease, which he described as being “very similar to Parkinson’s.”
“Assuming because of his appearance he was high on narcotics with out reason they began to sub due him, macing and beating him in the head as he fell to his face were he was then held with a great amount of force by two officers double his size as a third one landed on his torso,” the statement read. “For the the next ten minutes as my cousins watch unattended, my uncle pleads and cries out in pain for the lack of breath and agony being applied to him.”
According to the Huntington Disease Society of America, (HDSA) the disease, which is hereditary and incurable, prompts deterioration of nerve cells in the brain.
“As the disease progresses, concentration and short-term memory diminish and involuntary movements of the head, trunk and limbs increase,” the HDSA states on its website. “Walking, speaking and swallowing abilities deteriorate. Eventually the person is unable to care for him or herself. Death follows from complications such as choking, infection or heart failure.”
A female bystander came upon the arrest and was so disturbed by what she saw that she called an ambulance and started filming with her mobile phone. After a short while she is approached by an officer and herself threatened with arrest.
“How are you involved with this guy?” he asks.
“I just was driving by,” she replies. “This is insane. I’m not doing anything wrong, either, and I’m on private property,”
She demands to know why the officers are refusing to handcuff the suspect even though he is bleeding and gurgling.
“He is choking on his own blood,” she says. “I can hear it from my car.”
“Okay, but these aren’t your kids and you don’t know –” the officer says. But she cuts him off with:
“No, I don’t,” she says. “But this is wrong.”
“If you want to continue filming, that’s okay,” the officer says. “If you continue to be loud and boisterous, I will arrest you for obstructing, okay?”
“Just leave me alone,” she replies.
The Bane’s family have launched an online campaign to have the charges against him dropped.
from Addictinginfo.org, the story of police brutally arresting a terminally ill man
From the above link, here is the story:
Jeffery Brian Bane, 39, was arrested Saturday, Sept. 6, and charged with disorderly conduct, obstructing an officer and battery on an officer.
This is actually a story about police harassing and assaulting a terminally-ill man. They simply confused his symptoms for intoxication.
A statement to the Free Thought Project by his nephew, Josh Banes explains that he actually suffers from Huntington’s Disease, which he described as being “very similar to Parkinson’s.”
“Assuming because of his appearance he was high on narcotics with out reason they began to sub due him, macing and beating him in the head as he fell to his face were he was then held with a great amount of force by two officers double his size as a third one landed on his torso,” the statement read. “For the the next ten minutes as my cousins watch unattended, my uncle pleads and cries out in pain for the lack of breath and agony being applied to him.”
According to the Huntington Disease Society of America, (HDSA) the disease, which is hereditary and incurable, prompts deterioration of nerve cells in the brain.
“As the disease progresses, concentration and short-term memory diminish and involuntary movements of the head, trunk and limbs increase,” the HDSA states on its website. “Walking, speaking and swallowing abilities deteriorate. Eventually the person is unable to care for him or herself. Death follows from complications such as choking, infection or heart failure.”
A female bystander came upon the arrest and was so disturbed by what she saw that she called an ambulance and started filming with her mobile phone. After a short while she is approached by an officer and herself threatened with arrest.
“How are you involved with this guy?” he asks.
“I just was driving by,” she replies. “This is insane. I’m not doing anything wrong, either, and I’m on private property,”
She demands to know why the officers are refusing to handcuff the suspect even though he is bleeding and gurgling.
“He is choking on his own blood,” she says. “I can hear it from my car.”
“Okay, but these aren’t your kids and you don’t know –” the officer says. But she cuts him off with:
“No, I don’t,” she says. “But this is wrong.”
“If you want to continue filming, that’s okay,” the officer says. “If you continue to be loud and boisterous, I will arrest you for obstructing, okay?”
“Just leave me alone,” she replies.
The Bane’s family have launched an online campaign to have the charges against him dropped.
Thursday, September 11, 2014
http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/history/2013/09/danny_lewin_the_first_victim_on_9_11_and_an_architect_of_the_internet.html?wpsrc=fol_fb
linking from Slate.com, this is the story of Danny Lewin, the first victim of September 11, 2001.
Danny was the founder of , one of the world's largest distributed-computing platforms, responsible for serving between 15 and 30 percent of all web traffic.
Rather than paste the details of his death here (which is easier for the reader), I'm posting a teaser here, with the link to the rest of the story.
Until now, Lewin’s story has remained untold—mainly out of respect for friends and family who closely guarded their memories of the brilliant commando turned computer scientist. In addition, the official reports of what happened on Flight 11 were, for some time, conflicting and confusing. A memo mistakenly released by the Federal Aviation Administration stated that terrorist Satam al-Suqami shot and killed Lewin with a single bullet around 9:20 a.m. (obviously inaccurate, as the plane crashed at 8:46 a.m.). But almost as soon as the memo was leaked, FAA officials claimed it was written in error and that Lewin had been stabbed, not shot. The 9/11 Commission concurred in its final report, issued four years later, offering a more detailed summary: Based on dozens of interviews with those who spoke with two of the plane’s flight attendants during the hijacking, the commission determined that al-Suqami most likely killed Lewin by slashing his throat from behind as he attempted, single-handedly, to try to stop the hijacking. The time of his death was reported to be somewhere between 8:15 and 8:20 a.m.
“He was the first victim of the first war of the 21st century,” says Marco Greenberg, Lewin’s best friend.
But that act of heroism was not the only way Lewin made his presence felt on that terrible, unique, awful day. In a tragic twist of irony, the algorithms he helped develop, and the company he co-founded—Akamai Technologies—helped the Internet survive that day’s crush of traffic— the Web equivalent of a 100-year flood.
Born in Denver, Lewin moved to Israel with his family in 1984. The move happened totally against his will; his father, Charles, had become an ardent Zionist and relocated his family to “make aliyah,” a term used to describe the repatriation of Jews to Israel. Lewin was just 14 years old, and he was furious at his family’s sudden uprooting. During his first few months in Israel he struggled to learn the language and make friends. Instead of rebelling, however, Lewin turned to his two greatest assets—his physical strength and superior intellect. Sailing through his classes at a Jerusalem technology school and spending all his spare time at a local gym, Lewin fought to fit in with the tough sabras, and in time he succeeded. By age 18 he was signing up for military service in the IDF, where he joined the ranks of the country’s most elite counterterrorism unit, Sayeret Mat’kal.
Here is the
Even if you're not religious, please have positive thoughts for the 2000+ victims and their families.
Danny was the founder of , one of the world's largest distributed-computing platforms, responsible for serving between 15 and 30 percent of all web traffic.
Rather than paste the details of his death here (which is easier for the reader), I'm posting a teaser here, with the link to the rest of the story.
Until now, Lewin’s story has remained untold—mainly out of respect for friends and family who closely guarded their memories of the brilliant commando turned computer scientist. In addition, the official reports of what happened on Flight 11 were, for some time, conflicting and confusing. A memo mistakenly released by the Federal Aviation Administration stated that terrorist Satam al-Suqami shot and killed Lewin with a single bullet around 9:20 a.m. (obviously inaccurate, as the plane crashed at 8:46 a.m.). But almost as soon as the memo was leaked, FAA officials claimed it was written in error and that Lewin had been stabbed, not shot. The 9/11 Commission concurred in its final report, issued four years later, offering a more detailed summary: Based on dozens of interviews with those who spoke with two of the plane’s flight attendants during the hijacking, the commission determined that al-Suqami most likely killed Lewin by slashing his throat from behind as he attempted, single-handedly, to try to stop the hijacking. The time of his death was reported to be somewhere between 8:15 and 8:20 a.m.
“He was the first victim of the first war of the 21st century,” says Marco Greenberg, Lewin’s best friend.
But that act of heroism was not the only way Lewin made his presence felt on that terrible, unique, awful day. In a tragic twist of irony, the algorithms he helped develop, and the company he co-founded—Akamai Technologies—helped the Internet survive that day’s crush of traffic— the Web equivalent of a 100-year flood.
Born in Denver, Lewin moved to Israel with his family in 1984. The move happened totally against his will; his father, Charles, had become an ardent Zionist and relocated his family to “make aliyah,” a term used to describe the repatriation of Jews to Israel. Lewin was just 14 years old, and he was furious at his family’s sudden uprooting. During his first few months in Israel he struggled to learn the language and make friends. Instead of rebelling, however, Lewin turned to his two greatest assets—his physical strength and superior intellect. Sailing through his classes at a Jerusalem technology school and spending all his spare time at a local gym, Lewin fought to fit in with the tough sabras, and in time he succeeded. By age 18 he was signing up for military service in the IDF, where he joined the ranks of the country’s most elite counterterrorism unit, Sayeret Mat’kal.
Here is the
Even if you're not religious, please have positive thoughts for the 2000+ victims and their families.
Thursday, September 04, 2014
Payback, Bitches
Justice moves slowly, but in one week two rulings have been against the BP and Halliburton
from Reuters)
- A U.S. judge has decided that BP Plc (BP.L) was “grossly negligent” and “reckless” in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill four years ago, a ruling that could add nearly $18 billion in fines to more than $42 billion in charges the company took for the worst offshore environmental disaster in U.S. history.
BP said it would appeal Thursday’s ruling by U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier in New Orleans, Louisiana, who held a trial without a jury last year to determine who was responsible for the April 20, 2010 rig explosion and spill that killed 11 workers and spewed oil for nearly three months onto the shorelines of several states.
There you go, BP. Keep whining about people being mean to you
Photo courtesty of Reuters
This comes on the heels of Halliburton being ordered to pay $1.1 billion to Gulf Coast residents, local governments and businesses affected by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, moving to limit its liabilities ahead of a court ruling that could have increased its costs.
The settlement announced Tuesday by the company and plaintiffs' lawyers includes claims for punitive damages brought by the commercial fishing industry and others affected by the spilled crude.
The amount is less than the $1.3 billion Halliburton has set aside for its costs stemming from the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history. Some legal analysts say the settlement will eliminate most of the oil-field-services company's liability from the incident. (source WSJ http://online.wsj.com/articles/halliburton-to-settle-deepwater-horizon-claims-for-1-1-billion-1409664524)
Four years after that horrific accident there are still signs that the Gulf still isn't right. From" MNN.com:
Findings from the NWF's report include the following:
More than 900 bottlenose dolphins have been found dead or stranded in the area of the spill since April 2010, which is more than scientists have seen in the past decade. Area dolphins are also underweight and anemic and show signs of liver and lung diseases.
About 500 dead sea turtles have been found in the region annually since 2011. All five species of sea turtles in the Gulf are listed as threatened or endangered.
Nearly 1,000 brown pelicans have been collected since the spill and half of them have died.
Other coastal birds have increased concentrations of toxic oil compounds in their blood.
Sperm whales that swam near the spill have higher levels of DNA-damaging metals, such as nickel and chromium, in their bodies than they did before the spill.
Despite these findings, BP, the British oil company responsible for the spill, says the report "is a piece of political advocacy — not science."
Read more: http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/wilderness-resources/stories/4-years-after-gulf-oil-spill-wildlife-still-dying#ixzz3COFzmYX0
from Reuters)
- A U.S. judge has decided that BP Plc (BP.L) was “grossly negligent” and “reckless” in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill four years ago, a ruling that could add nearly $18 billion in fines to more than $42 billion in charges the company took for the worst offshore environmental disaster in U.S. history.
BP said it would appeal Thursday’s ruling by U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier in New Orleans, Louisiana, who held a trial without a jury last year to determine who was responsible for the April 20, 2010 rig explosion and spill that killed 11 workers and spewed oil for nearly three months onto the shorelines of several states.
There you go, BP. Keep whining about people being mean to you
This comes on the heels of Halliburton being ordered to pay $1.1 billion to Gulf Coast residents, local governments and businesses affected by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, moving to limit its liabilities ahead of a court ruling that could have increased its costs.
The settlement announced Tuesday by the company and plaintiffs' lawyers includes claims for punitive damages brought by the commercial fishing industry and others affected by the spilled crude.
The amount is less than the $1.3 billion Halliburton has set aside for its costs stemming from the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history. Some legal analysts say the settlement will eliminate most of the oil-field-services company's liability from the incident. (source WSJ http://online.wsj.com/articles/halliburton-to-settle-deepwater-horizon-claims-for-1-1-billion-1409664524)
Four years after that horrific accident there are still signs that the Gulf still isn't right. From" MNN.com:
Findings from the NWF's report include the following:
More than 900 bottlenose dolphins have been found dead or stranded in the area of the spill since April 2010, which is more than scientists have seen in the past decade. Area dolphins are also underweight and anemic and show signs of liver and lung diseases.
About 500 dead sea turtles have been found in the region annually since 2011. All five species of sea turtles in the Gulf are listed as threatened or endangered.
Nearly 1,000 brown pelicans have been collected since the spill and half of them have died.
Other coastal birds have increased concentrations of toxic oil compounds in their blood.
Sperm whales that swam near the spill have higher levels of DNA-damaging metals, such as nickel and chromium, in their bodies than they did before the spill.
Despite these findings, BP, the British oil company responsible for the spill, says the report "is a piece of political advocacy — not science."
Read more: http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/wilderness-resources/stories/4-years-after-gulf-oil-spill-wildlife-still-dying#ixzz3COFzmYX0
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
-
Although it has been open for over four years now, there really wasn't a lot of hoopla about the reopening of the "Bay Bridge"... -
New Orleans will soon be welcoming home a New Orleans native and his wife. Jeff St. Romain is leaving his post as president of Volunteers...