All posts by nedhamson

Activist, writer, researcher, addicted to sharing information and facts.

Electronic Village: Taser Death: Daniel Satre (Ballston Spa, NY)

It happened again! This time an unarmed man was electrocuted by 50,000 volts from each of the taser guns used on him by some or all of the six unidentified Ballston Spa (NY) police officers called to his home on Saturday, September 20, 2014.

The police officers were coming to arrest 43-old Daniel Satre for ‘disorderly conduct’. I’m not a lawyer … but, I’m fairly certain that the death penalty is not the legal penalty for ‘disorderly conduct’. Again, we see a case of overzealous police officers using their not-quite-lethal taser guns when they feel the slightest bit of disrespect from a citizen.

via Electronic Village: Taser Death: Daniel Satre (Ballston Spa, NY).

(I guess no one except relatives cares and that news organizations and people figure “tough luck” you got killed because “you” were not cooperative with police – which is an excuse for “oops” killing someone. Nothing will be done, I expect, until some 5-year old, white girl from a “good” family is killed for having a tantrum in a school, or someone famous or an elected official is killed for being disrespectful and not following “order.” )

It’s on us to go beyond ‘It’s On Us’

(Photo credit: Larry Downing/Reuters)

“Identify situations in which sexual assault may occur.

If you see something, intervene in any way you can.

If something looks like a bad situation, it probably is.

Get someone to help if you see something.

Get in the way by creating a distraction.”

The White House’s flashy new bystander intervention campaign, It’s On Us, makes sexual assault sound a lot like a bad thunderstorm — unfortunate, inevitable, striking seemingly out of nowhere, and devoid of human agents. The solution, then, is easy and comfortable: “Identify situations in which [a-tornado-I-mean-sexual-assault] may occur” and guide your friend to safety; remember: “If something looks like a bad situation, it probably is.”

Gender-based violence is not like the weather. It has direct, immediate human agents and is structural and systemic at its core. But the new campaign de-politicizes and de-genders sexual assault, portraying it as an easy-to-avoid problem solely between individuals, and making perpetrators out to be vague “someones” who do “something” to other “someones.” In reality, perpetrators are disproportionately likely to be men and their victims are disproportionately likely to be women (particularly queer and trans women, women of color, and women with disabilities), queer men, and gender non-conforming folks.

The It’s On Us campaign’s failure to conceptualize of violence as systemic and structural guts meaningful responses to it. While bystander intervention more broadly may be usefully integrated into a more comprehensive anti-violence approach, it has serious limitations. And the way it’s framed in It’s On Us, it offers a strategy to avoid violence, not meaningfully reduce it. The campaign’s tips — like guiding your friends away from perpetrators at parties — might help an individual woman avoid a rapist in an individual instance but it won’t stop that rapist from turning to the next girl down the bar. It makes the problem seem discrete and manageable, with a quick fix that fits comfortably within an existing structure of how our world works, who has power, and who doesn’t. It enlists men, for instance, to protect their female friends at a bar but not to recognize their own power and privilege, the subtle ways in which they enact violence all the time.

via It’s on us to go beyond ‘It’s On Us’.

Photos: Fearless “Daredevil Caulker” Risks It All For The Love Of Caulk: Gothamist

Tipster “angelmay1978” sent us photos this morning of a man she describes as a “Daredevil Caulker,” observed in the building across the street from her. “He’s on the 10th floor standing/squatting on the window sill caulking the outside of the window frame…no harness,” our witness reports, noting the building in question is located at Madison Avenue and 49th Street. “I’m about to have a panic attack,” she adds.

Yes, this definitely seems dangerous, but the caulker’s courageous work this day will be remembered in that office for generations. Fortune favors the bold.

via Photos: Fearless “Daredevil Caulker” Risks It All For The Love Of Caulk: Gothamist.

Avian Flu Diary: WHO Ebola Roadmap Update – September 22nd

While the news continues to run good out of Nigeria and Senegal, where earlier introductions of the Ebola virus appear to have been successfully contained, today’s report shows a jump of over 500 cases since last Thursday’s report from Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea.

via Avian Flu Diary: WHO Ebola Roadmap Update – September 22nd.

I have seen all types of friends but … & Bütün dostları gördüm ama ……by Umar ibn Al-Khattab

YA BAKİ ENTEL BAKİ

semsem2semrasworld

semsem2

I have seen all types of friends but I never found a friend better than safeguarding the tongue.

I have seen all types of clothes but I never found clothes better than Allah -consciousness.

I have seen all types of wealth but I never found wealth better than contentment.

I have seen all types of good deeds but I never found a good deed better than giving good advice.

And I have seen all types of food and I never found food more delicious than patience.

sem1

Bütün dostları gördüm, dili muhafaza etmekten daha iyi dost görmedim.

Bütün elbiseleri gördüm, takvadan daha güzel bir elbise görmedim.

Bütün malları gördüm, kanaatten daha güzel bir mal görmedim.

Bütün hayırları (iyilikleri) gördüm, nasihatten daha efdal (üstün) olanını görmedim.

Bütün yemekleri gördüm, sabırdan daha lezzetlisini görmedim.

by Umar ibn Al-Khattab (radiAllahu anhu)

semsem2

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As Sunni Tribes Sit on Sidelines, U.S. Airstrikes Don’t Halt ISIS – NYTimes.com

“The Sunnis in Anbar and other provinces are facing oppression and discrimination by the government,” said Mohamed el-Bajjari, a tribal sheikh and spokesman for a coalition of tribes. “This government must be changed to form a technocratic government of nonsectarian secular people, or the battles and the anger of the Sunni people will continue.”

via As Sunni Tribes Sit on Sidelines, U.S. Airstrikes Don’t Halt ISIS – NYTimes.com.

Tory MPs turn crackpot and adopt crackpot BNP policy on English Parliament

“Now it seems it’s the crackpots at the top of the Tory Party too.” This is *news*?

Pride's Purge

(not satire – it’s the Tories!)

The biggest supporters of an English parliament used to be the far-right skinheads of the neo-nazi British National Party and the equally crackpot English Democrats.

Here’s a quote taken from a BNP leaflet called ‘The Need For An English Parliament‘:

"Our party believes that England 
should have its own Parliament. This 
straightforward constitutional policy 
motion was debated and passed by a 
substantial majority at the BNP's 
Annual Conference in Blackpool last 
month."

And here’s how crackpot the English Democrats are:

Could this be the worst party political broadcast ever?

But now some Tories – such as Tory MP Graham Brady – are openly calling for exactly the same policy as the BNP and the English Democrats.

Brady’s no outcast. He’s chair of the powerful Tory 1922 Committee. And Cameron has invited Brady to Chequers to discuss the idea of an English parliament with him tomorrow.

Not long ago…

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