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Thomas Paine

To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead.
Showing posts with label Crime and Justice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Crime and Justice. Show all posts

Monday, October 18, 2010

18 October - Op-Eds & News

United States criminal justice system flowchart.Image via Wikipedia

A Super Hornet’s Nest

Labelled the “Ferrari” of the skies, the Super Hornet jet fighter-bomber has a range of some 2,000 kms and has a speed of 1,900 km/h.  It’s nimble and holds a vast array of weaponry.  It has two engines, not one, and has the capacity to serve in long-range functions such as touring coastlines or the Arctic.  At $50 million per plane, it’s a far cheaper alternative to the expensive F-35. 

Laughter Yoga

 

My God Is Not a Pimp

The man is standing behind a pink mom mobile SUV with a Mary Kay cosmetics sticker on the back.  He appears to have been putting gas in the car when interrupted by a small woman carrying a very large leather bound Bible.  The man appears to be Middle Eastern and is wearing tennis clothes.  He IS yelling loudly at the small woman wearing church lady clothes of an out-of-style skirt suit. 

. . . you actually believe that my God is a pimp!  That I want virgins in the sky when I die?  For you religion is like penicillin. [rolls up sleeve and pretends to give himself a shot]  You inject it and everything is fine. The infection is gone.  You want to give me your penicillin to fight an infection you don’t understand.  I am Iranian.  I fought against those extremists.  I left my country.  You think you can fix me with your Bible?  I don’t need to be fixed.  I AM NOT AN INFECTION AND YOU ARE NOT A DOCTOR.

Messages From A Skypixie

The best argument against the existence of a god is the kind of people who believe in one.

No one is more threatening to us than he who would dispel our cherished beliefs with truth.
How often it is that he who is sceptical of your beliefs will become enraged should you be sceptical of his…
The politicians of today gladly accept the authority we hand them. They also work darn hard to increase that authority, sometimes to a ridiculous degree. But what about the other side of the equation? What about the “responsibility” side?  This, I’m sorry to say, seems to have become lost in the shuffle of power and self-aggrandizement among our politicians.  
Police now act as they pretty well wish, arresting anyone whom they wish, and showing no responsibility for the population whom they are sworn to protect and serve. Mentioning your “rights” to a cop will, at best, get a laugh and at worst a severe beating or a deadly tasering. 

The Disenfranchisement of Communities through the Criminal Justice System

 Overcriminalization and the lack of a federal standard for disenfranchisement rules exacerbates the criminal justice system's inherent racial and economic biases that affect the quality of life of both the released convicted felons as well as the communities to which they return.

Where is the outrage?

People who protest or support one position or another are often disingenuous. It's not really because they are for or against an issue. It's because their guy is or isn't in office making the decisions.

For the third time, a federal judge has upheld the indefinite holding without due process a detainee at Guantanamo. 

 Fox News: 9/11 Commission "a whitewash"

 

Latest News

Best of the Web: 
Obama is worse than Bush: International gulag system tortures more Muslims today than ever before
Best of the Web: 
British government heralds liquidation of social welfare programs into state terrorism apparatus with another fake terror scare  
Flashback: Big Pharma Genocide: Bayer has been dumping AIDS-infected drugs all over the globe for decades 
US officials told me to 'get lost', says Headley's wife  
The Way We Forget 
BP Attorney Suggests That the Oil Giant Might Seek to Cap Spill Claims at $75 Million

 Suppressed History: The Morgan Fascist Coup Plot and How FDR Defeated It

iran forgives iraq [but not the usa]

Iran brokers behind-the-scenes deal for pro-Tehran government in Iraq

 The Real Republican Pledge To America  - Oct 14

 Confidential Infographic from Republicorp

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Thursday, January 14, 2010

Law

Representation of the Declaration of the Right...Image via Wikipedia


Related articles by ZemantaFormer GM auto dealers launch class action lawsuit against GM Canada and national law firm (newswire.ca)
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Wednesday, January 13, 2010

13 Jan - BlogNews

Jail cell in the Brecksville Police Department...Image via Wikipedia
The Parent Trap  Cassie Frequels
http://motherjones.com/media/2010/01/parent-trap
Cassie Frequelz is the nom de plume of a high school senior from Central Texas. She blogs at Political Teen Tidbits. 

Although I never blurted anything out on national television that led to the arrest of one of my parents, I think I may know how 6-year-old Falcon Heene and his brothers feel as their dad begins a 90-day sentence for his role in the infamous "Balloon Boy" hoax. I am sure they blame themselves, and I know they're worried about what will happen to them after their father (and then their mother) goes to jail.
My mother was incarcerated more than seven years, so I’ve often written about this topic on my blog. I've also been a regular caller into Bob Kincaid's radio program on the Head-On Radio Network since I was 14 and serve as its teen correspondent. I try to call in whenever something comes up relating to imprisonment, especially when an inmate's children are in the news. Bob refers to Americans' preoccupation with incarceration as our national punishment fetish, and it seems that the national media has viewed the Heene story with punishment in mind rather than looking at the story the way I do, from the perspective of a child whose parents have been convicted of a crime.
My dad left town when I was six and I have never seen him again. My mom went to prison when I was 11 and I have only seen her twice. The state of Texas may be glad it got a minor-league drug user and occasional dealer off the streets, but it never gave me or my brother a second thought.
( Texas is a case all its own : the state with the nation's highest incarceration rate in the country with the same sad distinction. If I'm slightly wrong on the particulars...visit Texan Len Hart's The Existentialist Cowboy for reams of data on state and national disgraces. )


  • Slammed: The Coming Prison Meltdown

    We're locking up 1 in every 100 American adults—and going bankrupt in the process. Are there alternatives to a total meltdown? Inside America's broken—and broke—prison system.


  • World map showing number of prisoners per 100,...Image via Wikipedia
    Slammed: Welcome to the Age of Incarceration

    What happens when you lock up 1 in every 100 American adults?


  • Hard Time Out

    Five-year-olds in handcuffs, eighth-graders detained for doodling: The prison boom comes to the schools.

    Hat Tip drinking liberally in new milford

    This is what motivated healthcare activists look like:

    Would you drive this car?

    TN State Prison 28Image by Exothermic via Flickr
    Baby Prius to debut next week in Detroit 

    http://polizeros.com/2010/01/06/baby-prius-to-debut-next-week-in-detroit

    US denies 'absurd' claim of role in Iran bombing
    http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hSjgxEK4048YIb_Yu4WxqS-tKrCw


    Canadian Cynic

    It was only a shoe! Get over yourself!


    It's amusing to watch the historical revisionism of Canada's wankers when they're trying to downplay the recent allegations of Afghan detainee torture (that is, when they're not embracing it wholeheartedly, but that's a whole 'nother post).

    Let's set the stage regarding the single incident of a detainee and some shoes, shall we (emphasis depressingly added)?

    PROOF OF DETAINEE ABUSE EXISTS, DESPITE MACKAY’S DENIALS

    Uncensored documents and sworn testimony indicate one prisoner was beaten so badly, Canadians intervened to take him back and treat him
    Paul Koring
    From Monday’s Globe and Mail
    Published on Sunday, Dec. 06, 2009 10:30PM EST
    Last updated on Sunday, Dec. 06, 2009 11:14PM EST

    Sworn testimony by senior Canadian officers and rare uncensored documentary evidence contradict Defence Minister Peter MacKay’s repeated assertions that no proof exists of even a single case of a Canadian-transferred detainee abused by Afghan security forces.

    In one well-documented case in the summer of 2006, Canadian soldiers captured and handed over a detainee who was so severely beaten by Afghan police that the Canadians intervened and took the detainee back. Canadian medics then treated the man’s injuries. The incident is documented in the field notes of Canadian troops, recounted in a sworn affidavit by a senior officer and confirmed in cross-examination by a general...
    Molly's Blog

    CANADIAN LABOUR-SUDBURY:
    VALE INCO STRIKE APPROACHES 6 MONTHS:

    The strike of the United Steel Workers Against Vale Inco in Ontario and Newfoundland is now approaching six months duration. As such it seems set to become a record breaker in terms of duration. Molly has blogged many times about this strike. The following items both come Molly's way via the strike support site Fair Deal Now. The first is originally from the Sudbury Star.
    http://mollymew.blogspot.com

    CANADIAN ANARCHIST MOVEMENT-ONTARIO:
    FACTORIES WITHOUT BOSSES ONTARIO SPEAKING TOUR:
    Since Molly last reported on the Québec speaking tour of an anarchist comrade from the Argentinian Red Libertaria group, speaking on how ordinary people responded to an earlier economic crisis in that country, plans have been put together for an Ontario section of the tour. Here are the details from the Ontario Common Cause website.
    @@@@@@@@@@@@
    Workers Without Bosses - Speaking Tour:
    The popular response to the Argentine economic crisis of December 2001 and lessons for us in Canada - a Québec and Ontario speaking tour presented by the Union Communiste Libertaire (UCL) and Common Cause.

    We are going through one of the worst economic crises in the history of capitalism and the answers provided by the state and its lackeys are illusory. In addition, faced with this impasse, our leaders are trying to shift the entire burden of the crisis to workers and their communities.
    How can we respond differently to this economic crisis ? Can we learn from the experiences of struggles that have happened elsewhere in the world ?

    To consider these issues, the UCL and Common Cause are organizing a Québec and Ontario speaking tour this winter on the response of the Argentine popular classes in the face of a serious economic crisis that shook the country in the late 2001.
     
    Leadership, Obama Style, and the Looming Losses in 2010: Pretty Speeches, Compromised Values, and the Quest for the Lowest Common Denominator
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/drew-westen/leadership-obama-style-an_b_398813.html 
     
    The UK media is abuzz over a Friday afternoon announcement that Susan Greenfield, the Royal Institution's director, has been made redundant. Greenfield is a neuroscientist at Oxford University with a reputation as a charismatic and sometimes controversial promoter of science to the public. It was just those credentials that made her a good fit for the Royal Institution, Britain's oldest independent scientific society. When she was hired in 1998, the Institution was suffering from an image as a stodgy academic society with little public appeal.

    Greenfield sought to make the Institution more accessible, creating the Science Media Centre, which promotes science news in the national press, and planning a major renovation of the organisation's central London headquarters. That refurbishment ultimately ended up costing some £22 million pounds, well over the original budget.  

     
    *During the Third Reich, Germany had a small black community, yet relatively little is known about their life in the Nazi era. Deutsche Welle takes a look at survival strategies under Hitler's oppressive r...
    *" ... The director ... said his intention was to broaden minds, delving into the funding of the Nazi party and how American corporations were involved in it. ... "* *Oliver Stone, the controversial fil...

    "Vigilance is at a medium level. This is not 9/11, but the information we have received is of concern and we need to have heightened vigilance," said Mr. Baird. But the attempted airliner bombing on Chr...

    A tourist enjoying a swim yesterday off of Fish Hoek beach in Cape Town, South Africa, was suddenly pulled under the surf and dragged out to sea by what onlookers have called a "dinosaur-sized shark," acco.. 
    From out of the western forest comes a new study that challenges one of the more comforting assumptions about our changing climate -- as carbon dioxide increases in the atmosphere, trees will absorb more o...
    Iranian scientist Massoud Ali-Mohammadi, a particle physicist at the University of Tehran, was assassinated today, according to multiple media reports. The Guardian said that "the manner of his death was a..
    A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti just ten miles from the country's capital city, Port-au-Prince, this evening. This is a strong one, folks, and its proximity to a major popu...
    A recently discovered set of tombs outside of Cairo is believed to be the final resting place for many who built Egypt’s Great Pyramids. The workers’ skeletons were discovered with their heads pointing Wes..
    Recently at Discovery News I told you about Neanderthal-made shell jewelry that suggests these hominids were as smart and creative as modern humans were at the time the jewelry was made, 50,000 years ago. ...
    Miep Gies, the office secretary who defied the Nazi occupiers to hide Anne Frank and her family for two years and saved the teenager's diary, has died.
    Apparently there is a halo of dark matter surrounding the Milky Way galaxy -- as there is, indeed, surrounding many other galaxies -- and it bears the improbable shape of a giant beach ball that's been par...
    2010 AL30 as imaged remotely from Australia on Jan. 11, 2010 (Ernesto Guido & Giovanni Sostero) On Wednesday (Jan. 13), an object called 2010 AL30 will fly by Earth at a distance of just 130,000 km (80,000...
    To some astronomy enthusiasts the phrase "big bang" seems awfully superfluous. It's the shortest of shorthands for describing the origin of everything: stars, planets, people and petunias. Astronomers thin...
    Move over Cape Canaveral. There's a new player in town able to launch people into space. Jacksonville, Florida's Cecil Field became the country's eighth commercial spaceport on Monday, after a four-year ef...
    One of the world's most controversial paintings, "La Belle Ferronnière," will go on the Sotheby's auction block in New York on January 28. Many viewers are wondering: Is she or isn't she? A Leonardo, that ...
    January is National Stalking Awareness Month and 2010 marks the 15th anniversary of the Violence Against Women Act. To commemorate both events, the Department of Justice held a panel discussion today on ho...
    Are men in the job market being hit harder in this recession than in previous economic downturns? On Friday, the Labor Department reported that 85,000 jobs were lost in the United States for the month of D...
     
     
    Its expensive to buy a $20,000 solar system for your home... even though you know its worth it in the long run because you end up saving money. The problem is the initial start up cash. Cali...
    While there are lots of hybrids out there available, there's only one manufacturer who is actually known for them: Toyota. And for anyone who is still a naysayer of hybrid technology here is some i...
    In addition to being the world's biggest economy, China is now the world's biggest exporter. China is also the biggest auto market and steel maker. According to figures released yesterday by Ch...
    These are the remains of the earliest building ever found in Tel Aviv, according to Israel's Antiquities Authority. Located on the northern bank of the Yarkon River, the building consists of at least three...
    Over the holidays, an Ohio man named Dennis Bort cut a potato in half and was surprised to find the image of a cross inside. Any other time this might not have been remarkable, but during the Christmas sea...
     
    *Suddenly my article from July 26, 2008* regained actuality seeing the current Las Vegas "Consumer Electronics Show". No revolution can be expected from electronic gadget makers, rather some dusting off a... 
     
    Despite their political popularity, carbon tariffs will be next to impossible to implement effectively, and as such will do little to solve the climate problem.
     
    UK press gets ‘Mr Global Warming’ hot under the collar
    http://blogs.nature.com/climatefeedback  
    Climate computing heats up
    Expect increasingly realistic climate models from several recently launched supercomputers, including the Earth Simulator II in Yokohama, Japan, and Blizzard in Hamburg, Germany. As some of the world's 40 most powerful computers, they will improve on two of the largest uncertainties of current simulations: resolving local eddies in ocean circulation, and providing long-term forecasts of cloud behaviour. Blizzard will also incorporate Earth's carbon cycle into its climate models.
    You can read Richard's full list here.

    It seems that a Singapore outfit, HORIZON FUEL CELL TECHNOLOGIES, has developed some really practical hydrogen fuel cells that people like you and me can actually afford. Not only that, but you won't need cryogenic H2 storage and an account with your local compressed gas supplier. Their stuff looks neat, too.

    Horizon's HYDROPAK provides significantly more energy stored at a lower cost, reduced weight, and smaller size then today's existing battery-based portable emergency power devices. Its recyclable dry fuel cartridge overcomes the logistics and supply infrastructure for hydrogen, since the HydroPAK system is able to generate its own hydrogen when needed, once users add water to the cartridge. No hydrogen is ever stored in the HYDROPAK or its cartridges since the HYDROPAK produces hydrogen on request. When the system is turned off, there is no hydrogen in the system.
    The unique HYDROPAK water-activated cartridge system:
    Provides long shelf life when stored dry, with no self-discharge
    Can run indoors with no harmful emissions (no carbon monoxide, no carbon dioxide)
    Is quieter, lighter and smaller than generators
    Stores significantly more energy than batteries at a lower cost and less weight
    At 30W-50W the HydroPAK is the world's lowest cost fuel cell portable device

    The suggested retail price has been set at $650/unit initially, and $40 for each cartridge.


     
    Powershop is a subsidiary of Meridian Energy, an SOE. It is the most highly rated power retailer by its customers, with 92% satisfaction. On the Powershop website, there’s a blog. On this blog, the CEO of Powershop, Ari Sargent, wrote a post on the Government’s proposed electricity sector reforms. It’s insightful, adroit, politically neutral, and scathing of ironically titled Energy Minister Gerry Brownlee’s reforms. It is called: Proposed energy sector reforms likely to increase electricity prices.
    Peggys CoveImage via Wikipedia
    Brownlee, stepping miles beyond his power as minister, insisted that the post be removed because it didn’t suit Naitonal’s political purposes for the truth to be told. In contravention of the legal checks on his power, Brownlee orderd that Sargent and Powershop be muzzled for daring to speak truth to power.

    Boyd (also Chairman of Telecom) failed to stand up to his minister, probably in justified fear of his job, and called Sargent telling him (in excess of Boyd’s own power) to take down the post that had so offended Brownlee. Sargent, probably in fear of his job, complied. Although he cleverly left up the comments, so we can see him rationally, responsibly and intelligently discussing the problems with the reforms with various commenters.


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