Category Archives: Fail!

wtf! How could this be happening without thousands on the streets! Trending: Prosecutions of Pregnant Women Continue in Wisconsin | National Women’s Law Center

How do you care for a pregnant woman with a history of drug use? Well, according to Wisconsin, you throw her in jail and administer no prenatal care. You deny all her requests to keep scheduled prenatal visits. When she experiences stress-induced cramping, you require her to visit a doctor who is not an OB-GYN. When she refuses to take a pregnancy test, you toss her in solitary confinement and threaten her with a taser. When she fears she will miscarry, you tell her “there [is] nothing [you can] do about it anyway.”

As ruthless as it sounds, this is exact treatment Tamara Loerstcher, a pregnant woman in Wisconsin, endured after doing the right thing and admitting prior drug use to her doctor, even though she had already stopped using drugs when she suspected she could be pregnant.

While drug use during pregnancy is a serious public health concern, it should not be handled as a criminal matter. Nonetheless, Wisconsin’s fetal protection law, also known as the “cocaine mom” law, gives the state power to detain any pregnant woman who is using drugs. Although Tamara was not using drugs, she was thrown into jail for 17 days for refusing treatment.

Sadly, Tamara’s ordeal is not just bad luck. In Tennessee, for example, a pregnant woman can now spend up to 15 years in prison for pregnancy complications after she has used illegal drugs. Throughout the rest of the country, hundreds of women have been arrested on pregnancy-related charges and new arrests occur each week.

via Trending: Prosecutions of Pregnant Women Continue in Wisconsin | National Women’s Law Center.

Richard Mack Announces Plan to Take Over Arizona’s Navajo County as a “Constitutional” Haven | Hatewatch

Richard Mack, the leader of the so-called “Constitutional sheriffs” movement and a longtime figure in the antigovernment “Patriot” movement, made a somewhat startling announcement near the end of his speech Saturday December 13 to the gathering of fellow gun-rights enthusiasts at the “We Will Not Comply” rally in Olympia, Wash.

via Richard Mack Announces Plan to Take Over Arizona’s Navajo County as a “Constitutional” Haven | Hatewatch.

Record numbers at German anti-Islam rally | News | DW.DE | 22.12.2014

German society and the political establishment has for weeks grappled with the emergence of the “Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the Occident,” or PEGIDA, whose ranks in the city of Dresden have quickly grown from just a few hundred in October.

Around 4,000 counter-demonstrators marched through Dresden under the slogan “Nazi-free,” warning there was no place for racism and xenophobia in a country marred by racial hatred during World War II.

Most PEGIDA followers insisted they had no connection to Nazis, calling themselves “patriots” concerned by the “watering down” of Germany’s Christian-rooted culture and traditions. They often accuse mainstream political parties of betraying them, and the media of lying.

Former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, of the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), called Monday for citizens to launch a “rebellion of the decent” against the anti-foreigner movement, telling a weekly magazine “that’s the kind of public reaction we need now.”

via Record numbers at German anti-Islam rally | News | DW.DE | 22.12.2014.

Two NYPD cops get killed and ‘wartime’ police blame the protesters. Have we learned nothing? | Steven W Thrasher | Comment is free | The Guardian

Six years ago, I went for a run in New York City. I’d left my watch and phone at home, so when I saw two NYPD cops on a corner, I stopped and said, “Excuse me, officers, can you tell me the time?”

One officer reached for his gun, pulled it out of his holster, and – when he saw the terror in my eyes – started laughing.

“Just kidding,” the white cop said as he put away his gun. “Gotcha!”

He didn’t kill me, obviously. But I was going to die. What little faith I had in the most powerful police force in America died in that moment, too. I felt “social death” in the humiliation and shame of being too frightened to go back and get his badge number. I felt powerless when I tried to report the cop’s threat to a civilian accountability board and was told there was nothing they could do.

via Two NYPD cops get killed and ‘wartime’ police blame the protesters. Have we learned nothing? | Steven W Thrasher | Comment is free | The Guardian.

The killing of earth begins in India: Chandigarh avian flu: Authorities begin to cull birds | Read Health News & Articles at TheHealthSite.com

No cases of lethal bird flu from wild birds to human have ever been recorded – only from those raising birds for profit. And so the killing of wild birds as “something to do” to “protect profits” not people has begun. Avian influenza is a product of intense human cultivation of poultry and the disease is sometimes passed on to wild birds. But by killing wild birds, government can pretend to be protecting humans but if industrial poultry industry is not changed, the new pandemic will still get us while the environment is damaged in ways that may harm us even more. May God have mercy on us, because, we certainly have none for ourselves!

Chandigarh, Dec 18: Authorities in Chandigarh Thursday evening started culling of all birds in and around the city’s famous Sukhna lake after a dead goose was confirmed with the H5N1 (avian influenza or bird flu) virus. ‘On communication received from the central government, culling of all birds in the vicinity of Sukhna lake — ducks and geese, live or dead — will be done and buried as per the action plan and bio-security measure set up by the WHO,’ said a spokesman of the Chandigarh administration. ‘The operation started at 4 p.m. with the help of all the concerned departments, primarily animal husbandry, wildlife and Municipal Corporation, Chandigarh, director health services and engineering department. The operation will go on till midnight and no bird will be left unburied,’ the spokesman said. The area around the lake was cordoned off by police and the forest department.

‘At this stage, public is advised not to panic and cooperate with the administration. The administration has taken all possible steps to ensure the containment of virus and will continue to monitor the situation closely. The lake and its vicinity “shall remain out of bounds for general public till further orders’, he said. ‘At present, there is no assessment regarding any outbreak of bird flu in Chandigarh. The situation is, however, being very closely monitored,’ he said

via Chandigarh avian flu: Authorities begin to cull birds | Read Health News & Articles at TheHealthSite.com.

Peta releases images of ‘dog leather’ gloves made in China – Asia – World – The Independent

Skins were then made into women’s fashion gloves, men’s work gloves and other products which were exported around the world.

A dog slaughterer told Peta’s investigator that the facility skinned between 100 to 200 dogs each day.

A further 300 dogs are kept in a compound, awaiting death.

The charity has warned consumers across the world to avoid buying cheap leather gloves from stores.

“PETA is calling on shoppers worldwide to remember the terror that dogs and other animals endure at slaughter and make the safe, vegan choice in clothing and accessories for the holidays and every day,” said PETA founder Ingrid Newkirk.

via Peta releases images of ‘dog leather’ gloves made in China – Asia – World – The Independent.

If anyone still thinks this is about religion, and…

Applies to all the politicized “religious fundamentalists” in all the movements claiming to be protecting their “religion/power/control.”

If anyone still thinks this is about religion, and not a political struggle with the barest patina of religion as justification for this war, they need only come to Peshawar to attend the funerals of the children, who will be buried before the sun goes down, in the Islamic tradition. They have only to hear what their parents will say, the customary response to the news of a Muslim’s death: to Him we belong and to Him we will return. The children who were killed are of the same religion as the attackers claim to follow. This is not about religion: this is about power, intimidation and revenge.

If anyone still thinks this is about religion, and not a political struggle with the barest patina of religion as justification for this war, they need only come to Peshawar to attend the funerals of the children, who will be buried before the sun goes down, in the Islamic tradition. They have only to hear what their parents will say, the customary response to the news of a Muslim’s death: to Him we belong and to Him we will return. The children who were killed are of the same religion as the attackers claim to follow. This is not about religion: this is about power, intimidation and revenge.

claiming If anyone still thinks this is about religion, and not a political struggle with the barest patina of religion as justification for this war, they need only come to Peshawar to attend the funerals of the children, who will be buried before the sun goes down, in the Islamic tradition. They have only to hear what their parents will say, the customary response to the news of a Muslim’s death: to Him we belong and to Him we will return. The children who were killed are of the same religion as the attackers claim to follow. This is not about religion: this is about power, intimidation and revenge.

Bina Shah, The Guardian on the Taliban massacre of school children in Peshawar, Pakistan.  (via politicsalamericana)

(via randycwhite)

via If anyone still thinks this is about religion, and….

Gun control has turned Australia into a nation of defenceless victims, says nutcase Aussiessenator | Australia news | The Guardian

How many folks would be “carrying” in a candy store? What a fool to make such a foolish cruel remark!

Australia has been turned into a “nation of victims” by gun control laws, Liberal Democratic senator David Leyonhjelm believes.

He says this week’s Sydney cafe siege would have been less likely to happen if the gunman thought his hostages might be carrying concealed weapons.

“That nutcase who held them all hostage wouldn’t have known that they were armed and bad guys don’t like to be shot back at,” Senator Leyonhjelm told ABC radio on Thursday.

via Gun control has turned Australia into a nation of defenceless victims, says senator | Australia news | The Guardian.

http://www.570news.com/2014/12/15/table-egg-layer-barn-in-langley-b-c-becomes-10th-farm-infected-with-avian-flu/

Workers may well be transmitting from place to place without realizing – the need to use procedures as if dealing with ebola.

http://www.570news.com/2014/12/15/table-egg-layer-barn-in-langley-b-c-becomes-10th-farm-infected-with-avian-flu/.