Silliness, being snotty, and stupidity often accompany “security” checks. Most can be denied because there are no records kept on who is chosen and why in random, as well as targeted border checks. Others are “explained” away as just being “cautious” about frequent travelers – except brokers and bankers (grin) to active hot spots around the world.
Monthly Archives: July 2015
Trump Your Cat – Anyone Can Join the Race
15-year-old schoolboy develops test for Alzheimer’s disease
Afghan Women’s Writing Project | My Pen, My Pride
Men of my country!
Fathers, brothers, husbands!
What can I write about you?
I am restless, impatient, tired
From telling my story and yours
Men! Throw away your knives
Don’t give me more scars
I am not among the devastated Afghan women
I don’t want my head covered by your cruelty
I live beside you — yet how far we are from one another
Hide your knife — I am afraid
Let me show you my golden heart.
Covered in my burqa, you make the world blind to me
In front of you, I am a woman, your slave, a tired face of fear
What do I mean to you?
I know the answer: A victim of tolerance, a friend of silence
Don’t make me known by your violence
I am not a picture of punishment
Never deceive me with your kindness
I am not a stone
I own my life, my soul, my body
I am empty of the love you took from me
I am still strong, a lonely mountain
I carry my pen, my pride.
By Pari
Go Set a Watchman on Fire: Reddit and Ellen Pao’s Resignation
Then there was what many, myself included, hoped was the beginning of a new approach to harassment on Reddit. The site announced that it was formally banning five subreddits for fomenting targeted harassment that spilled beyond the subreddits’ borders. This included the fat-shaming forum r/FatPeopleHate (which does what it says on the tin) and r/ShitNiggersSay. In a move that surprised no one, these particularly odious forums became martyrs for the cause of “free speech” on the site. Their closure, further, led to the cresting of misogynist and racist hatred for Pao — rape and death threats, as well as fantasies of violence, came pouring in, and the “Chairman Pao” meme was generated, which quickly cluttered the front page and even became its own subreddit, r/ChairmanPao.
via Go Set a Watchman on Fire: Reddit and Ellen Pao’s Resignation.
Momentous times for democracy in Europe | openDemocracy
We know we need reforms – we need to end the sclerosis of the nation-state. But reforms cannot mean cuts in pensions, increasing the precariousness of work, and declines in income that lead to even more debt.
Yet even though this is said over and over again, the creditors and their political associates don’t seem to get it.
Nevertheless, this debate about austerity and reforms is beginning to be reproduced in the media. Indeed the solidarity shown by people all over Europe towards Greece perhaps marks the beginning of a European public space. It is a debate we need to have – how to reduce inequality, how to reduce unemployment and homelessness, how to save the planet’s resources, how to bring peace to the Middle East. How we get out of the current impasse depends on our contribution to that debate.
We need to recapture the European project, to take it back from the global market, to reinstil the original values and more. That’s how we can construct institutions that are different in kind – relevant for the world we live in. It is a huge responsibility.
via Momentous times for democracy in Europe | openDemocracy.
Egyptian Aak 2015 – Week 28 ( July 6-12)
Top Headlines
- Egypt’s Sisi approves new parliamentary election law. (Thursday)
- The Egyptian-born actor Omar Sharif died on Friday at the age of 83. (Friday)
- Car bombing at Italian Consulate in Cairo kills one
Main Headlines
Monday
- Egypt’s State Security Prosecution to probe top prosecutor’s assassination
- Egypt PM Mahlab visits troops in North Sinai
- 241 ‘terrorists’ killed in North Sinai in 5 days
- Egypt’s central bank governor says pound depreciation is not worrying
- Egypt’s foreign debt drops by 12 percent during the 3rd quarter of 2014-2015 fiscal year
- Coptic activists call for a Christian political party
- Tagammu slams anti-terror bill as “unconstitutional”
- Egypt’s purchase of hacking software documented in new leaks
Tuesday
- Sisi: Ending Israeli-Palestinian conflict would stabilize the Middle East
- Five injured in explosion near court in Egypt’s Nile Delta governorate of Beheira
- Egypt’s political parties slam anti-terror draft law
- Domestic debt surpasses two trillion pounds
- Four more journalists
View original post 804 more words
+++ Greece debt crisis – live updates +++
Heads of state from eurozone countries meet for a summit to discuss a possible bailout for Greece that would prevent the country from going bankrupt. DW follows the latest on the Greek debt crisis.
Cold snap lingers across eastern Australia
Much of eastern Australia remains in the grip of cold and wild weather, with strong winds and heavy rain expected to batter eastern Victoria while towns in southern Queensland mark their coldest day of the year.


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