Category Archives: Fail!

It Looked Like a Stabbing, but Takata Air Bag Was the Killer – NYTimes.com

Hien Tran lay dying in intensive care this month after a car accident, as detectives searched for clues about the apparent stab wounds in her neck.

An unlikely breakthrough arrived in the mail a week after she died from her injuries. It was a letter from Honda urging her to get her red Accord fixed, because of faulty air bags that could explode.

“The air bag,” said Tina Tran, the victim’s twin sister. “They said it was the air bag.”

Ms. Tran became at least the third death associated with the mushrooming recalls of vehicles containing defective air bags made by Takata, a Japanese auto supplier. More than 14 million vehicles from 11 automakers that contain the air bags have been recalled worldwide.

via It Looked Like a Stabbing, but Takata Air Bag Was the Killer – NYTimes.com.

PressTV – Press TV reporter in Turkey killed in suspicious car accident

Shim was killed on Sunday as she was on a working mission in Turkey to cover the ongoing war in the strategic Syrian town of Kobani.

She was going back to her hotel from a report scene in the city of Suruç in Turkey’s Urfa Province when their car collided with a heavy vehicle. The identity and whereabouts of the truck driver remain unknown.

Shim, an American citizen of Lebanese origin, covered reports for Press TV in Lebanon, Iraq, and Ukraine.

On Friday, she told Press TV that the Turkish intelligence agency had accused her of spying probably due to some of the stories she has covered about Turkey’s stance on the ISIL terrorists in Kobani and its surroundings, adding that she feared being arrested.

Shim said she was among the few journalists obtaining stories of militants infiltrating into Syria through the Turkish border, adding that she had received images from militants crossing the Turkish border into Syria in World Food Organization and other NGOs’ trucks.

Shim flatly rejected accusations against her, saying she was “surprised” at this accusation “because I have nothing to hide and I have never done anything aside my job.”

via PressTV – Press TV reporter in Turkey killed in suspicious car accident.

Wisconsin attorney general candidate says fast food workers should get a “real job”

In fact, Walker recently said he doesn’t think the minimum wage “serves a purpose” at all, saying he wants to create jobs that pay “two or three times that.” The sentiment expressed by Schimel and Walker is a common conservative talking point–and a huge scam. The idea that instead of ensuring that low-wage jobs give people enough money to pay rent and fucking eat we should just get them better jobs is nothing more than a way for conservatives to pretend they care about poor people by ignoring reality. Let’s talk about some real facts…

It’s a real fact that there about 3 million fast food workers in this country, and there is no indication that Americans’ love of fries and processed burgers will wane anytime soon.

It’s a real fact that few of these workers are teenagers “flipping burgers” as a summer job–two thirds are women, disproportionately women of color, and their medium age is 28.

It’s a real fact that these workers are usually supporting kids, often by themselves, with their apparently not-real fast food jobs.

via Wisconsin attorney general candidate says fast food workers should get a “real job”.

Avian Flu Diary: Saudi Arabia – A MERS Surge?

Avian Flu Diary: Saudi Arabia – A MERS Surge?.

Recent MoH announced infections in Taif:

September 2014:
740) #861 – Male, 43, Saudi, hospitalized in ICU – Taif, Saudi Arabia
744) #865 – Male, 27, Saudi, hospitalized in ward – Taif, Saudi Arabia
745) #866 – Male, 65, Saudi, in stable condition – Taif, Saudi Arabia
763) #884 – Male, 37, health care worker, hospitalized in ward – Taif, Saudi Arabia
765) #886 – Male, 40, health care worker, Expat, hospitalized in ICU – Taif, Saudi Arabia
October 2014:
769) #890 – Male, 60, Saudi, hospitalized in ICU, camel exposure – Taif, Saudi Arabia
770) #891 – Male, 69, Saudi, hospitalized in ICU – Taif, Saudi Arabia
772) #893 – Male, 77, Saudi, hospitalized in ICU – Taif, Saudi Arabia
774) #896 – Male, 70, Saudi, hospitalized in ICU – Taif, Saudi Arabia
777) #899 – Female, 42, Expat, health care worker, hospitalized in ward – Taif, Saudi Arabia
778) #900 – Male, 60, Saudi, died – Taif, Saudi Arabia Death
780) #902 – Male, 66, Saudi, hospitalized in ICU – Taif, Saudi Arabia
781) #903 – Male, 65, Saudi, hospitalized in ICU – Taif, Saudi Arabia

Meshaal calls on Muslims to defend Al-Aqsa Mosque

He added, “Al-Aqsa is worth us becoming martyrs for, and anyone who can carry a weapon in the region should go and defend it, as this is the true meaning of jihad.”

via Meshaal calls on Muslims to defend Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Trying to light fuse to violence without being at risk himself and trying to be tough guy, when what is needed is leader guy.

When black women die from street harassment

You’ve read this piece before. You’ve read it a dozen times over. I’ve written it before. I could have written it a dozen times over. It’s the piece where someone complains about how little outrage there is surrounding something which deeply affects them, and then the reader is left to wonder, “Well, if it means that much to you, what are YOU doing about it?” You may have written that piece before. And we keep writing them because I don’t think any of us are quite sure what to do.

Where black women are concerned, we aren’t just talking about mounting the evils of misogyny, or even racism. We compete with the sacrifices black women make for their community.

I understand that there’s an impulse to not make black men the faces of street harassment, given all of the ideas that already exist around black male hypersexuality, as well as the disproportionate amount of police violence that black men face as the result of the constant criminalization of behaviors associated with black men. But black women have been allowed to suffer too much for the protection of black men. They have paid with their lives.

And here I am, writing another blog post wondering why no one seems to care.

Street harassment is vile. It makes women feel unsafe in public. But when black women die because we have failed to teach boys and men to keep their thoughts and hands to themselves, that they are not entitled to the sexual attention of any and every woman, or that their attempts at proving their masculinity through verbal and physical assaults on women are failures, the concern fades before it has a chance to actually surface. Black women are expected to keep sacrificing.

Who cries when black women die? Nobody. No damn body.

via When black women die from street harassment.

Anti-right to work moment has passed in Michigan?

“They have the issues on their side, in right to work and other attacks on union rights. If they can’t motivate their members now, they never will.”

What political observers are watching for but haven’t seen yet is evidence that labor is constructing coordinated absentee ballot and get out the vote drives.

If it’s happening, it’s not as visible as it has been in past elections, although there’s certainly time for such efforts to emerge between now and Nov. 4.

To remain politically relevant, labor must not only sway the race for governor, but also the legislative campaigns. It was Republican lawmakers, after all, who passed right to work. If big labor can’t use its muscle to punish anti-union legislators in Michigan, of all places, why would lawmakers anywhere be afraid to take up similar measures?

It’s an overstatement to call this labor’s last stand. But unions did promise to hang right to work around GOP necks in 2014, and so far they haven’t delivered.

via Anti-right to work moment has passed.

Settlers raid Ibrahimi mosque under armed guard | Maan News Agency

Jewish settlers raided the Ibrahimi mosque in Hebron late Thursday under armed guard, a local Palestinian official said.

Head of Hebron’s endowment directorate, Taysir Abu Snineh, said mosque guards were held in the al-Jawliya area during the raid, which he labeled a “dangerous act” that could have “serious consequences” for the mosque.

Israeli authorities requested access to the mosque, referred to by Jews as Isaac’s Hall, late Thursday but endowment officials refused as it violates a previous agreement on access days, which is limited to 10 visits per year.

The agreement came into place after a Brooklyn-born Jewish settler massacred 29 Palestinians in the mosque after opening fire at worshipers in 1994.

Abu Snineh said the raid was a “dangerous escalation” in tensions at the holy site.

via Settlers raid Ibrahimi mosque under armed guard | Maan News Agency.

Sierra Leone now but where next? Law in a time of Ebola — New Internationalist

Just this week, a woman was arrested for failure to wash her hands. There are chlorinated hand-washing buckets across Freetown these days and it is common to have to wash your hands several times a day before you enter any premises. This woman refused to wash her hands as she said she had just done so and was afraid of the effect of the chlorine. Not everyone is aware of how much chlorine to add to the water; some hand-washing points can make your hands burn or smell of chlorine all day. The woman said she was afraid of developing cancer from all the chlorine – a common fear. Our paralegal was able to advise her at the police station and contacted the woman’s family, who assisted with paying her fine.

It is a difficult time for Sierra Leone. These laws are put in place to try to halt this tragic epidemic as quickly as possible. We recognize and value this, but also want to make sure that we play a role in monitoring the current State of Emergency and ensuring that it is enforced in a proportionate way that respects people’s rights. It is easy for law-enforcement officers to assume that rights are done away with and that anything can be done just because we are under a State of Emergency.

The Ebola epidemic has impacted all areas of life in Sierra Leone and has had a significant impact on the justice system. The courts have scaled down the number of hearings per day and adjournments can be lengthy. Many magistrates and lawyers have left the country. Others cannot return from abroad due to flight cancellations caused by the epidemic. Still others cannot attend court because of the quarantines. So women may spend much longer in pre-trial detention than usual, which negatively impacts on their families: women are the main caregivers and often the main income-earners. Many women have young children in prison with them. So we try very hard to ensure our clients get bail.

via Law in a time of Ebola — New Internationalist.

Senator Paul calling for banning ship and passengers? Health Worker Who May Have Had Contact With Ebola Is on Cruise Ship – NYTimes.com

Adding a new and troubling dimension to the search for Americans possibly exposed to the Ebola virus, the State Department said Friday that an employee of Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital who might have had contact with specimens of the disease had left the United States aboard a cruise ship.

The employee and a traveling partner, who were not identified by name, agreed to remain isolated in a cabin aboard the vessel, the State Department said, and “out of an abundance of caution” efforts were underway to repatriate them. A physician aboard the cruise ship told the authorities that the employee was in good health.

via Health Worker Who May Have Had Contact With Ebola Is on Cruise Ship – NYTimes.com.