So I’m An Anti-Semite? And Immoral?

Strange? I thought Gazan’s were Semite?

Have you noticed that the religious nutcases immediately defend their indefensible killing by lashing out at anyone who questions their rationale? Zionist or Hamas terrorist. I see no difference.

The basis is the same. Where I do draw the line is not falling for the meme that insists that Israel is blameless. I am 47 years old and all I remember about this area is nothing but land grabbing and power mongering.

I watched Bill Moyers last night (see below) and then read at Glenn Greenwald’s place this morning and I am taken even further aback by how accusatory the culprits get. My Dad used to say (after someone farted in the car and a person complained), “Guilty dogs bark first!” It always got a laugh. But this issue isn’t funny and like the neocon apologists did after people began to bitch about Iraq, they accused us of all sorts of shit… most hurtful being that we are unpatriotic or immoral for not going along. Meanwhile the hypocrisy always easily eludes them that bombing people cannot be moral. This is a logical fallacy that these people have been able to brainwash themselves into believing.

From Glenn’s site (please go read the entire article):

UPDATE II:  According to the Report issued on Thursday (.pdf) by the U.N.’s Humanitarian Affairs Office, more than 1/3 of overall Palestinian deaths are children (34% of the almost 800 total deaths), and a similar percentage of the more than 3,000 wounded are also children (34.8%).

To put that in perspective, note that the Russian invasion of Georgia — which was vehemently and universally condemned in the U.S. as an excessive and brutal response to Georgia’s assault on South Ossetia — resulted, according to the Georgian government, in total deaths on the Georgia side of 405 (220 of whom were civilians) and total number of civilians wounded between 200-250 (see page 10 of this Amnesty International Report — .pdf).  The Russians agreed to a cease-fire accord after 5 days; the Israelis explicitly reject the U.N.’s call for a cease fire and continue to “escalate” after 14 full days (and counting) of full-scale air and land attacks on Gaza.

His point is that this indiscriminate bombing, for how else could they begin to “escalate” these atrocities as they are about to do, is killing as many innocents as it is anyone else. What we have done by allowing the Bush Doctrine to flourish without consequence is to say it is ok to other countries to invade and bomb with impunity (as long as it is in the guise of “terrorism”).

When the Military Industrial Complex was looking for a long-term enemy, they sure found one in the war on terror.

Rednecks: the very basis for each and every issue that plagues the world today can be be brought directly and laid at the feet of the MIC and the American people for allowing it to happen. It is us, the once defenders of liberty and peace, that have uncorked the Genie Bottle of rampant murder and carnage.

Now call your preacher and get him to tell you how immoral I am for being against murder.

Baaa

Hyper-Libido’s should be scared lol

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/medical_notes/260459.stm

Vibration White Finger

Vibration White Finger can cause numbness and disabling pain

British miners have been awarded compensation after they developed Vibration White Finger, a condition caused by working with vibrating machinery such as chain saws and drills. The condition is one form of Raynaud’s Disease which affects one in 10 women, usually with mild symptoms. Women are nine times more likely to suffer from the disease as men. What is Raynaud’s Disease?

Raynaud’s is caused by a restriction in the blood supply to the extremities, usually the fingers and toes.

It can also affect the ears and nose. The parts initially turn white and dead-looking and then become inflamed. An attack may be accompanied by significant pain, numbness or a tingling sensation.

With Vibration White Finger (VWF), the fingers may go into spasm.

This is due to an intermittent lack of blood supply to the fingers.

The condition is usually not severe and attacks only cause minor discomfort. But it can lead to skin ulcers and even gangrene.

And it can be progressive over a period of several years.

VWF is triggered by continuous use of vibrating hand machinery, but some forms of primary Raynaud’s have no trigger.

The disease can also be genetically inherited.

However, in these cases, the attacks are usually mild.

Secondary Raynaud’s is less common and more severe. It is linked to underlying diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis.

What triggers attacks?

Prolonged exposure to the cold is a major trigger for the disease.

Smoking and stress are also thought to be factors and the disease can be caused by a reaction to beta blocker drugs.

People who work with vibrating machinery are more likely to develop VWF, which can become irreversible.

Vibration White finger (VWF) causes the fingers to become numb and begin turning white.

Symptoms include:

Tingling and numbness in the fingers which often continues after the machinery has been switched off;

One fingertip temporarily turns white and may start to ache;

The finger turns white with increasing frequency;

Other fingers begin turning white, but the thumb is not usually affected. After several fingers turn white, the disease is probably irreversible;

The person suffers increasingly frequent painful attacks at any time.

Eventually, the person may lose their fingers. This only happens in extreme cases, for example, when people are working with vibrating machinery in very cold conditions, but it is more common in the forestry industry among people working with chainsaws.

Treatment–

Discontinuing the use of vibrating equipment and keeping hands warm and dry.

Let Me Tell You About The Torture

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7821569.stm

 

 

Former guard on Guantanamo ‘torture’

A former guard at the US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay has spoken in his first television interview about the brutality he witnessed to inmates.

Chris Arendt told the BBC what he saw amounted to ”torture” and that some of his fellow guards were so violent as to be ”psychotic.”

 

The Brave Boys In Blue In Chattanooga, TN

I normally don’t dog cops, except when they do stupid shit. Most cops I know are decent folks. (The local police chief is really a good, hard-working guy by all accounts). But, there is a certain portion of police forces who truly believe they are above the law and can do shit like this and get away with it, simply because of that blue (the uniform and the weapon).

This old fella was doing his job and asking the cop to stop to check his receipt at Wal-Mart. Apparently, cops don’t like being held to the same accountability as normal customers in Chattanooga, but even worse is the coverup of the police force. Merry Christmas?

This sure ain’t the police chief I grew up with in Iuka, MS. I saw Jack Rye (now dead police chief from my home town) actually slap an officer once for calling an older woman a bitch. Oh: and you can bet your ass I would have been put in jail after I knocked his dick in the dirt, then sued these sorry-assed f*ckers for everything I could get.

I suppose the Chattanooga officer leadership has a totally different idea about respect and protection than I have. From Jonathon Turley:

Freeman: Chattanooga Police Department Declines to Charge Officer Who Allegedly Threw a 71-Year-Old Man to Floor and a Good Samaritan Through a Glass Door

The Chattanooga Police Department has decided that an officer who assaults two people, including pushing one through a plate glass window, will not be criminally charge. Det. Kenneth Freeman is truly a free man after, on Christmas Eve, shoving 71-year-old Wal-Mart greeter Bill Walker to the ground. Why? Because he was asking for a receipt check. Freeman then reportedly shoved Gholom Ghassedi through a glass door when he tried to assist Walker. The police routinely charge people with battery and resisting arrest if they touch the sleeve of an officer. Even hugging an officer or passing gas near an officer has led to a charge of assault. Yet, the Chattanooga Police Department can’t imagine what it would charge Freeman with after assaulting an elderly man and shoving good samaritan through a glass door.

Collegedale Judge Kevin Wilson has reviewed the complaint filed by Walker and decided that there was no room for an assault charge.

Walker said an alarm went off when Det. Freeman and another city police officer, Edwin McPherson, were leaving the store. He tried to stop Freeman and pushed against a soft drink machine and to the floor. He said the officer then stood over him in a threatening manner as he lay on the floor.

A customer, Gholom Ghassedi, then told Freeman, “You can’t push down an old man” and began struggling with him only to be shoved through a glass door. He was bleeding from his neck when officers arrived.

Cpl. Larry Robbins Jr. of the Collegedale Police said he decided not to bring assault charges against Det. Freeman because the incident was a misdemeanor not committed in the presence of an officer — not counting the officer doing the beating of course. He further insisted that, since Gholom Ghassedi, did not seek medical attention, it did not meet that criteria. Finally, he explained “there were no other crimes committed along with the possible simple assault.”

If that seems a bit ridiculous, it is. There is a host of possible charges here in the abuse of an elderly person and assault on not one but two individuals. The police department had to struggle to find a way not to charge Freeman, insisting that they were “unable to determine at the scene that there was any intent to commit an assault.” Well, whatever his intent, he succeeded in knocking an elderly man to the ground and throwing another through a door. Was that all involuntary muscular reflex?

By the way, Freeman was involved in a scuffle with attorney Lloyd Levitt at the Courts Building in May 2007. What is clear is that the problem is not just Det. Freeman, but the Chattanooga Police Department itself.

For the full story, click here.

Real Love Waits For Marriage…

… But The Itch For Lovin’ Don’t

Again, my home state is rewarded for its backward ass ways. We can now brag about having more teen pregnancies than any other state in the nation (once held by Texas). We can also brag about the fact that we will NOT teach kids about condoms or safe sex… JUST abstinance only.

Why, you ask?

Because we, in general, are a bunch of religious nutcases and we are so desperate for government money that we teach what gets the most hand outs from Uncle Sam… Bush’s favorite sex education (and one of the reasons Texas was Number Uno until recently), abstinence-only. Religious nutcases are causing their own children to suffer the same cycle that many of them went through. A 16 or 17 year old with a baby. That baby, when it turns 15 or 16, has her baby. And the cycle continues. And the Clap, Itch, The Drip… when a “wrap” would do. Click here to see the stats of VD in MS (or any state) and compare. We are #1 or #2 in STD’s (“VD” isn’t used anymore).

Yes, praise God and pop the condoms… another desperately poor and hungry, syphilis rattled baby.

Abortion? In Mississippi? One clinic.

ThinkProgress carries the story:

Mississippi, A Hotbed of Abstinence Education, Now Boasts Highest Teen Pregnancy Rate In America

The Centers for Disease Control released a new report today that found that Mississippi “now has the nation’s highest teen pregnancy rate, displacing Texas and New Mexico for that lamentable title.” The report found that in 2006, the Mississippi teen pregnancy rate was over 60 percent higher than the national average and increased 13 percent since the year before.

While the new report does not explain why the state’s teen pregnancy rate is increasing, one reason may be the poor quality of its sex ed programs. As the Sexuality Information and Education Center explains, Mississippi focuses heavily on abstinence education and teachers are prohibited from demonstrating how to use contraceptives:

Mississippi schools are not required to teach sexuality education or sexually transmitted disease (STD)/HIV education. If schools choose to teach either or both forms of education, they must stress abstinence-until-marriage, including “the likely negative psychological and physical effects of not abstaining.” […]

If the school board authorizes the teaching of contraception, state law dictates that the failure rates and risks of each contraceptive method must be included and “in no case shall the instruction or program include any demonstration of how condoms or other contraceptives are applied.”

A reporter for ABC News’s Jackson, MS affiliate explained, “The Mississippi Department of Human Services says abstinence is the only birth control that is 100 percent effective. And that’s the only message teens need to hear.” Unfortunately, numerous studies show that abstinence-only education is not effective. As one study found:

Teenagers who pledge to remain virgins until marriage are just as likely to have premarital sex as those who do not promise abstinence and are significantly less likely to use condoms and other forms of birth control when they do, according to a study released today.

Further, a review by the House Oversight Committee found that “80% of the abstinence-only curricula…contain false, misleading, or distorted information about reproductive health.”

Pregnant teens in Mississippi face few options. Access to facilities that provide abortions in that state is extremely limited. Indeed, because of an unusually effective anti-choice campaign in the legislature, only a single abortion clinic remains open in the state.

Richard Noggin’ Saturday: Alabama’s Morgan County Sheriff Greg Bartlett

Alabama Morgan County Sheriff Greg Bartlett

I normally don’t add the pics from Jonathon’s site, but in this case, I felt I needed to make an exception by showing the face of evil dressed up as a servant to the people. I read this from Jonathon Turley and thought to myself, “how many of these people are in jail being starved for smoking weed?”

This sounds precisely like something a backwoods redneck sheriff would do. Take in over $200,000 (probably buying his own personal coke) and starve those who are under your care.

My hometown sheriff’s department have a long history of this kind of shit (Tishomingo county, Mississippi).

We had one sheriff who went to prison and got out to become a preacher. Praise Gawd!

Another, Sheriff Bob “Cocaine” Payne, got his nickname for a reason. Can you guess why?

But, as bad as the inmates had it (for about three years I went to the jail every Sunday just to talk to folks who were locked up :under the guise of religion, but I never said religious shit to them) I can never remember it this bad. They just needed someone to talk to from outside, especially when family had given up or they had none. But they had some food, even though other “contraband”  issues were pretty stupid. I can’t tell you how many kids (18 or so) that I spoke with that simply had a dime bag of weed on them and couldn’t even afford the bail or a bail bondsman. Yet, they would languish months and up to a year for such a trivial thing.

I also know Morgan County pretty well (lived there many years ago and have many customers in the town of Decatur). This is a more robust and populated town than most Podunk towns I live around. Right on the river and probably has around 40,000 citizens (my hometown has about 3,000 as a comparison).

So, you would think that they could find a more understanding redneck to run their county. I also wonder if this sorry sob was put into the general population? Can you imagine those he was starving getting their hands on him. What a total piece of shit.

Federal Judge Jails Alabama Sheriff Who Profited After Inmates Went Hungry

U.S. District Judge U.W. Clemon in Alabama took the extraordinary step this week of ordering Morgan County Sheriff Greg Bartlett to be locked up in his own jail after testimony showed that he had deprived inmates of adequate food while profiting from the meager diet. Bartlett personally kept $212,000 in “surplus money” from the meal program.

Judge Clemon held the hearing to determine whether the sheriff was in violation of that agreement with some surprising testimony.
Bartlett is to remain the Morgan County jail until he comes up with an adequate plan for feeding the 300 inmates as required under the 2001 court order.

Clemon correctly questioned the legality of allowing sheriffs to keep the surplus money from such programs, noting “He makes money by failing to spend the allocated funds for food for inmates.”

Yet, 55 of Alabama’s 67 counties are allowed to keep make money operating their jail kitchens. The law pays sheriffs $1.75 a day for each prisoner they house and lets the elected officers pocket any profit they can generate. Alabama should be ashamed of creating such a system that is ripe with abuse and conflicts of interest. I have done prison work for roughly three decades and I have never heard of such a system.

Inmates testified that they had to struggled to buy enough food to survive. They described how they would often received half an egg, a spoonful of oatmeal and one piece of toast most days at their 3 a.m. daily breakfast.

Bartlett insisted that he took steps to vary the meal such as spending $1,000 cost for an 18-wheeler full of corn dogs, which he split with another sheriff. He then forced the prisoners to eat corn dogs twice a day until they were all used. The judge was not impressed with the corn dog diet as a point of pride. “So until they were used up, they became the staple diet for inmates in the Morgan County Jail?” Clemon asked.

Alabama should be subject to a federal investigation for this program and the violation of the constitutional rights of the inmates in their care. Congress should also hold hearings on the matter since these sheriffs received federal funding directly linked to inmate care.

For the full story, click here