Category Archives: human rights

In Maine, Local Control Is a Luxury Fewer Towns Can Afford – The New York Times

{Self-delusion is very attractive when the present is so unattractive. In a nearby – to me – Kentucky town that devolved, is has meant the self-destruction of many streets within the community as the county ends up not having the money either to maintain streets and small cars end up getting beat up and garbage and emergency services end because the roads are too bad. And drugs in the community – whew – no law enforcement to prevent a new market!}

 

But some in Cary say deorganizing is a way to give the community a new lease on life, not to abandon it.“I think it’s going to bring more people in,” said Kai Libby, 55, a retired Border Patrol agent who became the town’s first assessor last year to help shepherd the deorganization effort through the multistep process (and thus eliminate his own position).Mr. Libby and his wife, Tina, who led the withdrawal of Cary from its school district, live in the only house on their road, with four dogs and stacks of documents related to deorganization near their kitchen table.“There’s privacy, and it’s so quiet,” said Ms. Libby, 51. “We want to stay here. And to do that, it needs to be affordable for us to stay here.”

Source: In Maine, Local Control Is a Luxury Fewer Towns Can Afford – The New York Times

Anglican Archbishops Discipline U.S. Episcopal Church Over Gay Marriages – The New York Times

The resolution adopted by the Anglican Communion’s archbishops said the Episcopal Church’s decision at its general convention in 2015 to allow a marriage rite for same-sex couples was a “fundamental departure from the faith and teaching held by the majority of our provinces on the doctrine of marriage.”For the next three years, the Episcopal leaders will not be allowed to represent the Anglican Communion at meetings with other churches or other faiths, will not be appointed or elected to internal committees and will not be allowed to participate in decisions in the Anglican Communion “relating to doctrine or polity.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main storyAdvertisementContinue reading the main storyThe presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, Michael Curry, said before the vote that “this decision will bring real pain” for all Episcopalians, but especially for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender members, according to the Episcopal News Service.“For many who have felt and been rejected by the church because of who they are, for many who have felt and been rejected by families and communities, our church opening itself in love was a sign of hope,” Bishop Curry said. “And this will add pain.”The archbishop of Canterbury permitted the participation at the gathering this week of Archbishop Foley Beach, who leads the Anglican Church in North America, a breakaway group formed in the United States and Canada to protest the moves there to ordain gay bishops and recognize same-sex marriages. The Anglican Church in North America counts just over 100,000 members.A group of conservative primates said in a statement that they were “pleased” at the sanctions and the inclusion of Archbishop Beach, but that they were disappointed the meeting did not call for “repentance” from the provinces that support same-sex marriage and gay bishops.The Rev. Susan Russell, a senior associate rector at All Saints Church in Pasadena, Calif., was among the Episcopalians who said sanctions would not change their position: “As a lifelong Episcopalian and a married lesbian priest, I think it’s not only an acceptable cost, it’s a badge of honor in some ways.”But the sanctions may be more than a temporary measure. The Rev. Canon Andrew K. Gross, a spokesman for the conservative Anglican Church in North America, said the sanctions were imposed for three years because that is when the Episcopal Church holds its next general convention and could reconsider its actions on gay marriage.

Source: Anglican Archbishops Discipline U.S. Episcopal Church Over Gay Marriages – The New York Times

New York City Council Member Shuts Down Victim Blaming in Two Minutes Flat

Cumbo — without missing a beat — explained:That’s typical of just what I spoke about: that individuals often talk about the woman, they rarely talk about the individuals who actually committed the rape. Those are the individuals that need to be focused on right now [….] We shouldn’t talk about whether she was drunk, we shouldn’t talk about whether she was properly dressed, we shouldn’t talk about the time of evening that it happened. That is too typical of how we discuss rape in the city, the nation, and really the world. We need to focus in this situation on those five individuals that committed this heinous crime and what were the bad decisions that they made all throughout the day.Cumbo goes on to speak eloquently about the systematic neglect and marginalization that Black folks — particularly Black women — suffer, and concludes with an affirmation that “whether you are on the Upper East Side or in Brownsville, all women matter, and we’re here to make sure that message is sent loud and clear.”

Source: New York City Council Member Shuts Down Victim Blaming in Two Minutes Flat

Suicide Bomb Near Polio Center in Pakistan Kills at Least 16 – The New York Times

At least 16 people were killed on Wednesday in a suicide bombing outside a polio vaccination center in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta, officials and witnesses said.Thirteen of the victims were police officers, said Syed Imtiaz Shah, a senior official with the Quetta police. He said the officers were there to guard polio workers, who are often targeted by Islamist militants in Pakistan.The attack came on the third day of a vaccination campaign in the province of Baluchistan, of which Quetta is the capital. The bomber, who was also killed, walked up to police officers and detonated what Mr. Shah said amounted to more than 20 pounds of explosives.A spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, Muhammad Khurrasani, claimed responsibility for the attack on the militants’ behalf. Two civilians and a paramilitary police officer were also killed, and 10 police officers and nine civilians were wounded.

Source: Suicide Bomb Near Polio Center in Pakistan Kills at Least 16 – The New York Times

SUV Driver Who Killed Woman On Fort Greene Sidewalk Gets To Keep His License: Gothamist {RIP and who is paying off the prosecutors and judges?}

A report issued last month by Transportation Alternatives found that drivers who failed to yield caused 5,966 crashes resulting in death or injury—excluding DWIs—in 2015. Fewer than 40 of them were prosecuted for it.Mayor de Blasio signed the Right of Way Law in 2014, which makes failing to yield and striking pedestrians and cyclists a misdemeanor. According to the Mayor’s Office on December 9th, 24 drivers had been charged with misdemeanor failure to yield for injuring or killing pedestrians in 2015.Transportation Alternatives director Paul Steely White said of today’s decision, “Brooklyn DA Ken Thompson and Judge Marguerite Dougherty are both failing to keep this demonstrably dangerous and deadly driver from killing more innocent people.”Councilwoman Laurie Cumbo told mourners at a recent vigil for Nicodemus, “We cannot tolerate little fines, a slap on the wrist. That is not appropriate, that is not relevant to the crime that happened at this corner. This crime destroyed a life.”

Source: SUV Driver Who Killed Woman On Fort Greene Sidewalk Gets To Keep His License: Gothamist

Police: Cologne gangs attack foreigners | News | DW.COM | 11.01.2016

Cologne tabloid “Express” reported on Monday that a group of “bikers, hooligans and bouncers” had used Facebook to plan a “human hunt” to “clean up” Cologne’s city center. Early on Monday, a police spokesperson was unable to confirm the reports.On Sunday afternoon, police had received tipoffs about “groups,” which were “specifically looking for provocation,” police said. Officers were deployed in the city center and Cologne’s “Altstadt” quarter in large numbers. As the result of several identity checks, four people were briefly detained, reported a police spokesman. Whether they were among the attackers is yet to be determined. Two people also faced criminal charges.

Source: Police: Cologne gangs attack foreigners | News | DW.COM | 11.01.2016

Who benefits when the police allow white German and “immigrant” thugs to take charge of law and justice? Anyone buying brown shirts in bulk?

Israel Faces New Brand of Terrorism, This Time From Young Settlers – The New York Times

Shin Bet, says the younger Mr. Meyer belongs to a Jewish terrorist network, some of whose members have been charged with grave crimes, including the July arson attack that killed a Palestinian toddler and his parents in the West Bank village of Duma. The two suspects in that case also spent time in these hills.The existence of the network, known as the Revolt for the title of its manifesto, became known about six months ago, after the arrest of several suspected members. This latest manifestation of Jewish terrorism is the creation of young extremists rebelling against what they view as the inertia of the Israeli establishment, and it has fermented in lawless outposts like Baladim, a tiny encampment outside Maale Shlomo, and Geulat Zion to the north.PhotoMr. Meyer at his lawyer’s office in Jerusalem. Mr. Meyer was held in administrative detention for five months as a suspect in arson attacks before being released last week, and remains under house arrest at night. Credit Rina Castelnuovo for The New York TimesShin Bet says the group poses a continuing danger of violence, and the authorities have gone after it using extraordinary methods that were previously reserved for Palestinians accused of terrorism. Suspects have been imprisoned without charge under administrative detention orders, and have been denied meetings with lawyers for as long as three weeks.

Source: Israel Faces New Brand of Terrorism, This Time From Young Settlers – The New York Times

Mohamed Sheka: The Young Egyptian Behind the Hurghada Attack | Nervana

In sum, regardless of the truth behind what happened in Hurghada, there is no doubt that Mohamed Sheka was a radicalized youth full of hate toward his country and the Western world, even rejecting any lenient explanations of Islamic texts. Sheka is now dead; the question, however, is how many of our youth are radicalized like him? And how can Egypt reverse such a disturbing phenomenon? I am not sure there are any easy answers to those questions.

Source: Mohamed Sheka: The Young Egyptian Behind the Hurghada Attack | Nervana

The white man pathology | US news | The Guardian

Sanders’s exasperation was the principal fact to be communicated, more than any political content. Trump was about winning again. Sanders was about having lost. The vagueness of American politics is what astonished the outsider. It’s all about feelings and God and bullshit. Sanders actually uttered the following sentence out loud: “What we’re saying is when millions of people come together to restore their government we can do extraordinary things.” Nobody asked what he meant. Nobody asked for numbers. They applauded. Better to take it in the spirit in which it’s given, like a Catskills resort comedian.Sanders reminded me of a line from Seinfeld, maybe because Larry David’s SNL parody was only a few days’ old. “The sea was angry that day, my friends, like an old man trying to send back soup at a deli.” When Ben and Jerry make a Bernie Sanders ice cream, I hope it’s chili and ginger: the delicious hot flavour of nasal-passage clearing outrage.

Source: The white man pathology | US news | The Guardian