Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) militants have crucified dozens of Syrian men and boys for breaking the Ramadan fast, according to reports.
Eyewitnesses told the Syrian ARA News, “Those who break Ramadan are being crucified on electricity poles in Deir ez-Zor,” in eastern Syria.
“The roads are filled with crucified men who violated the group’s strict regulations during Ramadan. There are dozens of victims who remain hanged on electricity poles across the province,” they said.
I wonder if my liberal friends who like Bernie Sanders realize that he is a proponent of gun owner rights, & has voted against certain gun control measures.
Bumping the followup on my daily comments to the political thread …
🙂
A little more positive spin in this article which notes that cultural “overreach” will most likely galvanize the other side. (Although strictly speaking, I still believe this will be a challenging time forward for the church specifically.)
… Notice how a triumphalist Left can go from reasonable to totalitarian in what seems like five minutes. Should we take down the Confederate flag at the South Carolina statehouse? You will get a lot of Republicans to agree, including Gov. Nikki Haley. So the Left immediately demands that every last vestige of the Confederacy be wiped from history, from public sculptures to “Gone With the Wind” to educational Civil War games in iTunes. From now on, apparently, only re-educational games will be permitted. Or the Supreme Court mandates gay marriage and #lovewins—followed by an immediate hatefest, with people spitting on priests and demanding we revoke the tax exemption for churches.
… There is significant potential for a new, diverse coalition that responds to this overreach. The religious Right, libertarians, and even the moderate Left are already being drawn together by their refusal to be cowed into conformity by social justice warriors.
….. Yes, this can be a dangerous time to be active in the culture. But it’s very hard to make speech codes, safe spaces, and other anti-thoughtcrime measures work in the long term. Sometimes all it takes for the whole apparatus to come crashing down is a handful of people brave enough to speak their minds without fear.
_______________________________________________
______________________________________________
… Trump is partly right. Illegal immigration is a crime. Those who illegally enter the United States should be brought to justice in accordance with U.S. law. The next president of the United States needs to be tough on illegal immigration. And some illegal immigrants have committed crimes here and at home. But Christians must not forget that God created illegal immigrants in His image, and they are not outside of God’s redemption in Christ. We should speak to, of, and about them in ways that are consistent with the gospel of Jesus Christ. …
_______________________________________________
Walkers official announcement isn’t until Monday, but his first ad is out now. Given the current climate of leftists gone wild, this is gonna resonaye with a lot of folks on the right.
e Mobile is often called the City of Six Flags because of successive rule of the French, British and Spanish. It also has flown the flags of the Republic of Alabama, the Confederate States and the United States.
The local city council just voted to remove all but the American flag. We are erasing our history.
Michelle, I went down to tetrieve 1984 from the throw away stack. I tried to research the subject, but couldn’t find it immediately. So, as I recall.
. The story was not pornographic, but sex was important in 1984. Certain women were sterile, and proud of it. They were called, if I eemember correctly “Freemasons”. They were free and couldn’t get pregnant. It was almost impossible to commit a sexual crime/sin in 1984 because everybody belonged to everyone else.
The Ministry of Truth was in charge of education. The theme repeated was:
WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
1. As my comment stated, views on the confederate flag depend on one’s own context. In southern Ontario the context is different than in Alabama. And thus my perception of a person who flies the confederate flag who also depend on where they fly the flag.
Interesting side note: I was flipping through Youtube watching old punk videos and saw one band play with the Confederate flag hanging behind the drummer. It was a local punk band known for its anarchist politics — for them to hang the flag simply was one more way of rejecting middle class 1980s Ontario. I doubt they would hang the flag today which also tells you how perception has changed over time. (I’ve seen them play live not too long ago, the rebel flag was nowhere to be found)
The historiography surrounding the CSA is interesting. There’s a continuous process of revision upon revision. States rights, culture, slavery, etc are held up as a central difference or breaking point and like most historical arguments it will never end. But one can say the CSA was founded in part to protect a way of life which included slavery and a social hierarchy.
As to the legitimacy of its independence — the idea of what makes a nation legitimate is never certain. Taiwan and Somaliland are interesting points in the modern era of two land masses governed by a central authority but has limited recognition. The latter is not considered legitimate by hardly any nation yet runs an airline, a postal service, internet domain, etc and has secured its borders, has elections, a legislative assembly etc yet the world community considers Somaliland a province of Somalia and the government illegitimate.
2. The school has a role in health education including growth and development. Thus providing information and education materials is necessary but handing out condoms, birth control and IUDs is not. Many schools do hand out condoms and birth control and thus some may view handing out IUDs as nothing different. I wouldn’t do it as its not in the schools mandate (and the liability issue is huge) — I would point out the direction to the nearest public health clinic if a student asks about accessing contraception. I would also point out the risks, drawbacks, etc of various types but thats an educational role.
As I noted earlier, I do inform students that condom effectiveness depends on proper application and use — which no 15 year old boy should be trusted with. I would hope thats standard practise with health teachers. To say condoms work and no worries is not the correct information nor is it part of the standard health curriculum in most North American jurisdictions. As for the pill, its a prescription which should be dispense and monitored by the family doctor. Pills are available at the public health clinic here but they generally cut the girl off after there months as the family physician needs to be involved. Many teenage girls use the pill for non-contraceptive purposes and different pill brands have different hormone levels etc. I’m sure you know that but my point and the point I make when teaching health is that the pill can be appropriate it needs to be done in consultation with a physician to see if its appropriate and what type is appropriate.
Sanders. — The NYT has an article stating he has no hope after Iowa and NH and the Democrats will fall in line with Clinton. The basis to their claim is that minorities and the uneducated are not familiar with Sanders and thus will follow mainstream Democrats. A bit pretentious of them and probably a sign the Clinton camp is worried.
There’s a surprising number of left/liberals who own guns and oppose gun restrictions — outside of urban areas, the New England and upper midwest leftist (Michigan/Wisconsin/Minnesota) generally oppose gun restrictions (Michael Moore has a similar position as Sanders)
Culture war — A massive distraction — gay marriage, the flag wars, etc — the real issue is the gap between rich and poor. As Buffet points out there is a class war and his side is winning. However, maintaining the fiction that the culture war is a left/right issue is good for Republican politicians. Once in power, they make perhaps small favours to social conservatives but spend most of their time kowtowing to the economic elite and collecting their fundraising dollars. This is easily seen in the Republican Congressional record over the last decade.
Brave New World/1984 — Michelle, I think you’re book reference is more likely Brave New World than 1984. In either case, when reproduction and reproductive rights are intruded onto by the state, we run dystopian risks.
I live in Alabama. I was born and raised here. I do not have in my possession, nor have I every had a Confederate flag. I cannot imagine a circumstance in my life that would require one. However, I am opposed to what is currently going on about the Confederate flag. First, I think it is a diversion. Second, I was born with that strong southern, stubborn, individualist streak, and if you tell me I can’t do or have something I will harelip a mule to prove you wrong.
To me this smacks of erasing history and rewriting it. I have long been an opponent of “revisionist history”.
People are a product of their times and what was acceptable then isn’t acceptable now. What is acceptable now may not be acceptable in the future we have to acknowledge that and judge them by their times, but I warn all of you….keep this up, keep poking at the South and you will stir up a hornets nest the likes of which you have never seen, because while I really don’t give two hoots about the Confederate flag, it is part of our Southern history and I will join whoever is in the fight to have the right to hang it, fly it, wear it, or anything else. Just don’t expect me to wear it, fly it, or tattoo it on anything belonging to me.
Question: Would it be offensive to dress as Ricky Ricardo as long as one didn’t dye one’s skin? If so, is the offense the act of recognizing that a given Hispanic had darker skin than a given white boy? Is it shameful to have darker skin, or just shameful to darken one’s skin unnaturally? or shameful to portray someone of a different race than one’s own?
I don’t think our ancestors would have recognized this thin-skinned nation! (I see there are some replies to me on here, but I have not yet read them.)
Brave New World & 1984 are two books with the same theme approached from different directions. I have read both, and I may have confused the sexual situation. It may have been Brave New World in which everyone belonged to everyone else.
I read both of them before 1984. 🙂
HRW, where are your stats on white on white violence. I believe it is higher but only because there are more whites. Percentage-wise not only are black on black murder rates higher but black on white is higher than white on black .
kbells — the stats bear you out i.e. white on white is higher but not percentage wise. As for white on black vs black on white, its a toss up. Female white is There are numerous difficulties with crime stats — reporting rates are higher in poor urban areas, poor vs rich, etc. My motivation in bringing it up wasn’t entirely serious — in the last few months my newsfeed etc has been full of stories mocking the typical media narrative of black thugs, black community responsibility, etc., as if this somehow mitigates white cop on black civilian violence. They compare it to stories on sport riots or even a pumpkin festival gone awry. They ask where is the white leadership community when the youth riot over pumpkins, a coach’s firing, etc. Its obvious the media treats a sports riot as acceptable vs a riot over police brutality. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kerry-coddett/white-on-white-crime-an-u_b_6771878.html http://mic.com/articles/105198/9-photos-of-white-people-rioting-put-the-ferguson-demonstrations-in-perspective
Kim — I agree its a distraction. Most Americans from the south, north or west, east don’t like being told they can’t do something or even worse say something. Personally I want people to be free to express themselves then I know who I don’t want to hang out with. A local southern themed restaurant hung a confederate flag as part of the decor and spark a ton of debate and anger. Some friends thought he should be forced to take it down but its his restaurant his business. Don’t like it, don’t eat there. As I said to a colleague, at least this way, your money wouldn’t go to a person you probably wouldn’t like. He went broke — hard to say if the flag was the reason, most restaurants go broke anyway but it probably didn’t help.
HRW, yours is the true liberal position — why have those on the left become so controlling and illiberal when it comes to speech and other issues? It’s really becoming an irritant.
And I still don’t get why the Cosby Show reruns are being dumped. Are we going to stop airing old shows of all actors who have personal skeletons? Good grief, that will really clear out the airwaves.
The measure would affect two elementary schools — one in Long Beach and another in San Diego — which were named after Robert E. Lee, commander of the Army of Northern Virginia for the Confederate States of America.
Lumping all these police shooting together is like comparing apples and oranges and grapes and potatoes. It runs from from Michael Brown, who was a violent thug resisting arrest to Tamir Rice, a little boy with a BB gun. Some were justified, some were excessive and some were criminal. But almost all were resisting arrest. How long do we expect a cop to beg someone to follow orders before they are allowed to take action.
kBells – I understand your point, but were any of those young men (or boys) resisting arrest for a crime worthy of capital punishment? Does the action they take have to be deadly? What about using a taser, or shooting someone in the leg to stop them? I understand that we ordinary citizens do not really understand the stress that police officers are under, but they are supposedly trained to deal with those high tension situations. I also have seen that fatal shootings by police officers have skyrocketed over recent years.
Just so you know “where I’m coming from”, for most of my adult life, I have had the greatest respect for police officers, & always tend to believe their side of a story first. But lately I’ve been reading of the rising rate of shootings by officers, along with other matters, such as the militarization of the police in many towns, & I see that something is not right. It has been said that many officers today have an “us against them” mentality, & all of us citizens are the “them”. I don’t know if that comes from how they’re being taught in the police academies or what, but it’s scary what’s going on. There has also been a huge increase in the number of SWAT-type raids.
And it’s not only liberal writers who are writing about these things.
Karen, I suspect there’s always been an “us and them” mindset for officers. The concern about militarization has some merit, I think, although I’d sure like to see SWAT arriving if I were in trouble …
Kbells, the point is that police and media treat blacks differently than whites.
Guess who? Who changed their name? I’m not a liberal. I’m a democratic socialist. American politics (and to a lesser degree Canadian) has a moral streak to both the left and right. It’s annoying and distracting and the only ones who benefit are the economic elites. They continue to profit and the poor stay poor.
Polanski is an interesting case. In north america we would throw him in jail and register him as a sex offender. In Europe they (mostly) shrug their shoulders and say it was consenual. Traditionak Poles will say the girls family should have been involved and if not its consenual. I find the attitude paternalistic and old school but they think its the fathers responsibility to protect the girls virtue not the state.
As for the Cosby show, is it no longer wholesome family entertainment now that we know hes a rapist? Did people stop listening to Michael Jackson because he was a paedophile? Does someone’s music become bad when you dislike their politics? Hard to say, I never did like the Cosby show or Michael.Jackson but I do like Polanski’s movies. I don’t like the Dixie Chicks but like their politics. Really shouldnt make a difference. I do think Cosby show reruns will begin to tank anyway so let the market decide.
“After nearly 35 years of silence, the 13-year-old girl Roman Polanski raped in 1977 is finally telling her full story in The Girl: A Life in the Shadow of Roman Polanski.
The Hollywood Reporter’s exclusive first look at the cover of the book reveals Samantha Geimer’s determination to reclaim her own story.
The cover is a haunting close-up shot of the teenage Geimer (then known by her maiden name, Samantha Gailey), taken on Feb. 20, 1977, less than three weeks before Polanski drugged and raped her at Jack Nicholson’s Mulholland Drive home during a modeling shoot when he also gave her alcohol and a quaalude.”
He did the same thing Cosby has been doing, but Cosby’s victims were over 18.
Wandering Views 
From Brietbart via Drudge:
Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) militants have crucified dozens of Syrian men and boys for breaking the Ramadan fast, according to reports.
Eyewitnesses told the Syrian ARA News, “Those who break Ramadan are being crucified on electricity poles in Deir ez-Zor,” in eastern Syria.
“The roads are filled with crucified men who violated the group’s strict regulations during Ramadan. There are dozens of victims who remain hanged on electricity poles across the province,” they said.
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I wonder if my liberal friends who like Bernie Sanders realize that he is a proponent of gun owner rights, & has voted against certain gun control measures.
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HRW, I made some comments to you on yesterday’s news post.
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Bumping the followup on my daily comments to the political thread …
🙂
A little more positive spin in this article which notes that cultural “overreach” will most likely galvanize the other side. (Although strictly speaking, I still believe this will be a challenging time forward for the church specifically.)
http://thefederalist.com/2015/07/06/welcome-to-culture-war-4-0-the-coming-overreach/#.VZw93wAaHlY.facebook
______________________________________________
… Notice how a triumphalist Left can go from reasonable to totalitarian in what seems like five minutes. Should we take down the Confederate flag at the South Carolina statehouse? You will get a lot of Republicans to agree, including Gov. Nikki Haley. So the Left immediately demands that every last vestige of the Confederacy be wiped from history, from public sculptures to “Gone With the Wind” to educational Civil War games in iTunes. From now on, apparently, only re-educational games will be permitted. Or the Supreme Court mandates gay marriage and #lovewins—followed by an immediate hatefest, with people spitting on priests and demanding we revoke the tax exemption for churches.
… There is significant potential for a new, diverse coalition that responds to this overreach. The religious Right, libertarians, and even the moderate Left are already being drawn together by their refusal to be cowed into conformity by social justice warriors.
….. Yes, this can be a dangerous time to be active in the culture. But it’s very hard to make speech codes, safe spaces, and other anti-thoughtcrime measures work in the long term. Sometimes all it takes for the whole apparatus to come crashing down is a handful of people brave enough to speak their minds without fear.
_______________________________________________
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Balanced piece on Trump’s comments on illegal immigration:
http://www.worldmag.com/2015/07/god_created_illegal_immigrants_in_his_image
______________________________________________
… Trump is partly right. Illegal immigration is a crime. Those who illegally enter the United States should be brought to justice in accordance with U.S. law. The next president of the United States needs to be tough on illegal immigration. And some illegal immigrants have committed crimes here and at home. But Christians must not forget that God created illegal immigrants in His image, and they are not outside of God’s redemption in Christ. We should speak to, of, and about them in ways that are consistent with the gospel of Jesus Christ. …
_______________________________________________
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Walkers official announcement isn’t until Monday, but his first ad is out now. Given the current climate of leftists gone wild, this is gonna resonaye with a lot of folks on the right.
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I am probably late to the party but did anyone see this?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/us-patent-office-cancels-redskins-trademark-registration-says-name-is-disparaging/2014/06/18/e7737bb8-f6ee-11e3-8aa9-dad2ec039789_story.html
So if you won’t do what we want you to do we will go around you and force you to do what we want you to do.
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Ah yes, the mascot wars. Another example. 😦 The thought-police are out of control.
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I wonder if they’ll ban 1984 next . . . wasn’t there something in there about reproductive technology? It’s been a long time since I read it.
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Thank you for that comment on yesterday’s news thread, Cheryl. You pulled together a lot of the troubled thoughts I had, but couldn’t articulate.
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“We gave the Republicans both the House and Senate in 2014. What do we have to show for it?”
rush Limbaugh, 7/8/15.
Good point.
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Michelle, that would be rich. 🙂
At least Jimmy Carter was honest about his “feelings” that Jesus would support gay marriage, adding that he really had no Scripture to back that up ….
🙄
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e Mobile is often called the City of Six Flags because of successive rule of the French, British and Spanish. It also has flown the flags of the Republic of Alabama, the Confederate States and the United States.
The local city council just voted to remove all but the American flag. We are erasing our history.
http://modmobilian.com/2013/07/the-battle-of-mobile-the-revolutionary-war-battle-youve-probably-never-heard-of/
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Michelle, I went down to tetrieve 1984 from the throw away stack. I tried to research the subject, but couldn’t find it immediately. So, as I recall.
. The story was not pornographic, but sex was important in 1984. Certain women were sterile, and proud of it. They were called, if I eemember correctly “Freemasons”. They were free and couldn’t get pregnant. It was almost impossible to commit a sexual crime/sin in 1984 because everybody belonged to everyone else.
The Ministry of Truth was in charge of education. The theme repeated was:
WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
It’s an interesting book.
LikeLike
Cheryl,
1. As my comment stated, views on the confederate flag depend on one’s own context. In southern Ontario the context is different than in Alabama. And thus my perception of a person who flies the confederate flag who also depend on where they fly the flag.
Interesting side note: I was flipping through Youtube watching old punk videos and saw one band play with the Confederate flag hanging behind the drummer. It was a local punk band known for its anarchist politics — for them to hang the flag simply was one more way of rejecting middle class 1980s Ontario. I doubt they would hang the flag today which also tells you how perception has changed over time. (I’ve seen them play live not too long ago, the rebel flag was nowhere to be found)
The historiography surrounding the CSA is interesting. There’s a continuous process of revision upon revision. States rights, culture, slavery, etc are held up as a central difference or breaking point and like most historical arguments it will never end. But one can say the CSA was founded in part to protect a way of life which included slavery and a social hierarchy.
As to the legitimacy of its independence — the idea of what makes a nation legitimate is never certain. Taiwan and Somaliland are interesting points in the modern era of two land masses governed by a central authority but has limited recognition. The latter is not considered legitimate by hardly any nation yet runs an airline, a postal service, internet domain, etc and has secured its borders, has elections, a legislative assembly etc yet the world community considers Somaliland a province of Somalia and the government illegitimate.
LikeLike
2. The school has a role in health education including growth and development. Thus providing information and education materials is necessary but handing out condoms, birth control and IUDs is not. Many schools do hand out condoms and birth control and thus some may view handing out IUDs as nothing different. I wouldn’t do it as its not in the schools mandate (and the liability issue is huge) — I would point out the direction to the nearest public health clinic if a student asks about accessing contraception. I would also point out the risks, drawbacks, etc of various types but thats an educational role.
As I noted earlier, I do inform students that condom effectiveness depends on proper application and use — which no 15 year old boy should be trusted with. I would hope thats standard practise with health teachers. To say condoms work and no worries is not the correct information nor is it part of the standard health curriculum in most North American jurisdictions. As for the pill, its a prescription which should be dispense and monitored by the family doctor. Pills are available at the public health clinic here but they generally cut the girl off after there months as the family physician needs to be involved. Many teenage girls use the pill for non-contraceptive purposes and different pill brands have different hormone levels etc. I’m sure you know that but my point and the point I make when teaching health is that the pill can be appropriate it needs to be done in consultation with a physician to see if its appropriate and what type is appropriate.
LikeLike
Sanders. — The NYT has an article stating he has no hope after Iowa and NH and the Democrats will fall in line with Clinton. The basis to their claim is that minorities and the uneducated are not familiar with Sanders and thus will follow mainstream Democrats. A bit pretentious of them and probably a sign the Clinton camp is worried.
There’s a surprising number of left/liberals who own guns and oppose gun restrictions — outside of urban areas, the New England and upper midwest leftist (Michigan/Wisconsin/Minnesota) generally oppose gun restrictions (Michael Moore has a similar position as Sanders)
Culture war — A massive distraction — gay marriage, the flag wars, etc — the real issue is the gap between rich and poor. As Buffet points out there is a class war and his side is winning. However, maintaining the fiction that the culture war is a left/right issue is good for Republican politicians. Once in power, they make perhaps small favours to social conservatives but spend most of their time kowtowing to the economic elite and collecting their fundraising dollars. This is easily seen in the Republican Congressional record over the last decade.
Brave New World/1984 — Michelle, I think you’re book reference is more likely Brave New World than 1984. In either case, when reproduction and reproductive rights are intruded onto by the state, we run dystopian risks.
LikeLike
I live in Alabama. I was born and raised here. I do not have in my possession, nor have I every had a Confederate flag. I cannot imagine a circumstance in my life that would require one. However, I am opposed to what is currently going on about the Confederate flag. First, I think it is a diversion. Second, I was born with that strong southern, stubborn, individualist streak, and if you tell me I can’t do or have something I will harelip a mule to prove you wrong.
To me this smacks of erasing history and rewriting it. I have long been an opponent of “revisionist history”.
People are a product of their times and what was acceptable then isn’t acceptable now. What is acceptable now may not be acceptable in the future we have to acknowledge that and judge them by their times, but I warn all of you….keep this up, keep poking at the South and you will stir up a hornets nest the likes of which you have never seen, because while I really don’t give two hoots about the Confederate flag, it is part of our Southern history and I will join whoever is in the fight to have the right to hang it, fly it, wear it, or anything else. Just don’t expect me to wear it, fly it, or tattoo it on anything belonging to me.
LikeLiked by 2 people
http://www.juno-news.com/news/read/category/Entertainment/article/the_associated_press-paula_deen_distances_herself_from_posted_i_love_lu-ap/
Question: Would it be offensive to dress as Ricky Ricardo as long as one didn’t dye one’s skin? If so, is the offense the act of recognizing that a given Hispanic had darker skin than a given white boy? Is it shameful to have darker skin, or just shameful to darken one’s skin unnaturally? or shameful to portray someone of a different race than one’s own?
I don’t think our ancestors would have recognized this thin-skinned nation! (I see there are some replies to me on here, but I have not yet read them.)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Brave New World & 1984 are two books with the same theme approached from different directions. I have read both, and I may have confused the sexual situation. It may have been Brave New World in which everyone belonged to everyone else.
I read both of them before 1984. 🙂
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HRW, where are your stats on white on white violence. I believe it is higher but only because there are more whites. Percentage-wise not only are black on black murder rates higher but black on white is higher than white on black .
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I think you’re right, HRW and Chas; it’s been a long time since I read those books.
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A new California bill would ban naming state and local sites after Confederate leaders
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And California fought on which side? Just how many monuments to and honors to the Cobfederacy do you have that you need a bill to ban it. Lol
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kbells — the stats bear you out i.e. white on white is higher but not percentage wise. As for white on black vs black on white, its a toss up. Female white is There are numerous difficulties with crime stats — reporting rates are higher in poor urban areas, poor vs rich, etc. My motivation in bringing it up wasn’t entirely serious — in the last few months my newsfeed etc has been full of stories mocking the typical media narrative of black thugs, black community responsibility, etc., as if this somehow mitigates white cop on black civilian violence. They compare it to stories on sport riots or even a pumpkin festival gone awry. They ask where is the white leadership community when the youth riot over pumpkins, a coach’s firing, etc. Its obvious the media treats a sports riot as acceptable vs a riot over police brutality.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kerry-coddett/white-on-white-crime-an-u_b_6771878.html
http://mic.com/articles/105198/9-photos-of-white-people-rioting-put-the-ferguson-demonstrations-in-perspective
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Kim — I agree its a distraction. Most Americans from the south, north or west, east don’t like being told they can’t do something or even worse say something. Personally I want people to be free to express themselves then I know who I don’t want to hang out with. A local southern themed restaurant hung a confederate flag as part of the decor and spark a ton of debate and anger. Some friends thought he should be forced to take it down but its his restaurant his business. Don’t like it, don’t eat there. As I said to a colleague, at least this way, your money wouldn’t go to a person you probably wouldn’t like. He went broke — hard to say if the flag was the reason, most restaurants go broke anyway but it probably didn’t help.
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🙂 Well, kbells, this for one: Robert E. Lee Elementary School
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-petition-robert-e-lee-elementary-long-beach-20150706-story.html
HRW, yours is the true liberal position — why have those on the left become so controlling and illiberal when it comes to speech and other issues? It’s really becoming an irritant.
And I still don’t get why the Cosby Show reruns are being dumped. Are we going to stop airing old shows of all actors who have personal skeletons? Good grief, that will really clear out the airwaves.
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OK, so the bill would only affect 2 schools:
The measure would affect two elementary schools — one in Long Beach and another in San Diego — which were named after Robert E. Lee, commander of the Army of Northern Virginia for the Confederate States of America.
.
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Are these stations going to continue to air Roman Polanski movies?
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K bells that’s differ nt Polanski was an artiste
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Lumping all these police shooting together is like comparing apples and oranges and grapes and potatoes. It runs from from Michael Brown, who was a violent thug resisting arrest to Tamir Rice, a little boy with a BB gun. Some were justified, some were excessive and some were criminal. But almost all were resisting arrest. How long do we expect a cop to beg someone to follow orders before they are allowed to take action.
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Did I get the right spelling of Violent? I don’t think Michael Brown was purple.
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kBells – I understand your point, but were any of those young men (or boys) resisting arrest for a crime worthy of capital punishment? Does the action they take have to be deadly? What about using a taser, or shooting someone in the leg to stop them? I understand that we ordinary citizens do not really understand the stress that police officers are under, but they are supposedly trained to deal with those high tension situations. I also have seen that fatal shootings by police officers have skyrocketed over recent years.
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kBells – Yes, you spelled violent correctly. 🙂
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Just so you know “where I’m coming from”, for most of my adult life, I have had the greatest respect for police officers, & always tend to believe their side of a story first. But lately I’ve been reading of the rising rate of shootings by officers, along with other matters, such as the militarization of the police in many towns, & I see that something is not right. It has been said that many officers today have an “us against them” mentality, & all of us citizens are the “them”. I don’t know if that comes from how they’re being taught in the police academies or what, but it’s scary what’s going on. There has also been a huge increase in the number of SWAT-type raids.
And it’s not only liberal writers who are writing about these things.
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For anyone interested, here are the FBI homicide stats for 2013.
https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2013/crime-in-the-u.s.-2013/offenses-known-to-law-enforcement/expanded-homicide/expanded_homicide_data_table_6_murder_race_and_sex_of_vicitm_by_race_and_sex_of_offender_2013.xls
Twice as many Black on White 409-189.
White on White was 2509 out of 3009.
Black on Black was 2245 out of 2491
Also it should be noted that in the case of another 1528 Whites and 1608 blacks the ethnicity is unknown.
Hispanic and female breakdown at the link.
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Karen, I suspect there’s always been an “us and them” mindset for officers. The concern about militarization has some merit, I think, although I’d sure like to see SWAT arriving if I were in trouble …
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Kbells, the point is that police and media treat blacks differently than whites.
Guess who? Who changed their name? I’m not a liberal. I’m a democratic socialist. American politics (and to a lesser degree Canadian) has a moral streak to both the left and right. It’s annoying and distracting and the only ones who benefit are the economic elites. They continue to profit and the poor stay poor.
Polanski is an interesting case. In north america we would throw him in jail and register him as a sex offender. In Europe they (mostly) shrug their shoulders and say it was consenual. Traditionak Poles will say the girls family should have been involved and if not its consenual. I find the attitude paternalistic and old school but they think its the fathers responsibility to protect the girls virtue not the state.
As for the Cosby show, is it no longer wholesome family entertainment now that we know hes a rapist? Did people stop listening to Michael Jackson because he was a paedophile? Does someone’s music become bad when you dislike their politics? Hard to say, I never did like the Cosby show or Michael.Jackson but I do like Polanski’s movies. I don’t like the Dixie Chicks but like their politics. Really shouldnt make a difference. I do think Cosby show reruns will begin to tank anyway so let the market decide.
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Anon,
You’re way off base with your Polanski comments. Consenual? The man’s a pig who drugged and raped a minor. There was nothing consenual about it.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/roman-polanski-rape-victim-unveils-591015
“After nearly 35 years of silence, the 13-year-old girl Roman Polanski raped in 1977 is finally telling her full story in The Girl: A Life in the Shadow of Roman Polanski.
The Hollywood Reporter’s exclusive first look at the cover of the book reveals Samantha Geimer’s determination to reclaim her own story.
The cover is a haunting close-up shot of the teenage Geimer (then known by her maiden name, Samantha Gailey), taken on Feb. 20, 1977, less than three weeks before Polanski drugged and raped her at Jack Nicholson’s Mulholland Drive home during a modeling shoot when he also gave her alcohol and a quaalude.”
He did the same thing Cosby has been doing, but Cosby’s victims were over 18.
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