Category Archives: human rights

Dear America: Here’s Your Gun Solution — Human Parts — Medium

Here’s some common sense for you. I want gun ownership to be as boring and annoying as car ownership. I want you to go to some Department of Weapons and sit for hours. I want folks who own guns to prove their skill, their mental and physical health, and to be licensed and reviewed over the years just as happens with our driver’s licenses. You earn the right to own and drive a vehicle; earn the right to own and use a gun.Quibble with me over semantics if you want to; what is a “right” vs. what is a “privilege.” I’ll be busy with my friends and colleagues trying to prevent more unnecessary deaths.Gun ownership isn’t some inalienable right granted by God. Remember, the Constitution was written by men coming out of a long and bloody war near the end of the 18th century. It was written for their time.It also included the “right” to own a human being.Things change.Folks evolve.

Source: Dear America: Here’s Your Gun Solution — Human Parts — Medium

GunTV shopping network for firearms to launch in US | News | DW.COM | 04.12.2015 Insanity and profit greed – make way to mass shooting as easy as channel surfing!

Television viewers in the US will soon be able to buy firearms and ammunition from the comfort of their sofas. A new shopping network called GunTV is set to launch on January 20 and will be available to 34 million satellite television subscribers.The channel, the first of its kind, promises “extraordinary access to purchasing the most diverse representation of firearms in the world.”GunTV’s promotional Web page says, “This 24-hour live shopping network brings to life a vast array of firearms and related consumer goods in a groundbreaking format that inextricably fuses the social responsibility message with the traditional shopping channel format.”

Source: GunTV shopping network for firearms to launch in US | News | DW.COM | 04.12.2015

Why the Planned Parenthood shooting was always about Black lives

I craved an intersectional framework that acknowledged a linkage between these incidents. When it was reported that Dear had been taken into police custody alive – a harsh juxtaposition to the way McDonald and so many other Black people like him have been killed by police authorities almost on sight – a connection was made: in an anti-Black nation, white privilege and power dictates who lives and who dies. This is a necessary connection that cannot be understated. But it is an observation that reroutes us back to a discourse of Black Lives Matter that does not consider how an attack on Planned Parenthood is always also an attack on Black lives.The history of the problematic divides between race activism and gender activism, particularly the fight for access to reproductive health, is just as rich as the history of said movements themselves. It is no secret that despite the contributions of women and queer folks to strengthen their reach and impact, prominent racial justice movements – including the Abolitionist, Civil Rights, and Black Power movements – maintained male-dominated leadership structures and recognition. And even more disturbing, cases of sexual violence and assault against Black women have also been documented within those movements. From Clarence Thomas to Bill Cosby to R. Kelly, Black leadership and iconicity are continuously sheathed in male privilege and dominance, often at the expense of Black women. Even in the midst of the Chicago protests against the murder of McDonald, several Black women activists were physically and verbally assaulted by Black male elders and activists.Along a similar vein, eugenics supporter Margaret Sanger has left a nasty stain on the legacy of Planned Parenthood. It’s a stain that Planned Parenthood has let settle and concretize by failing to address how this history has residually lingered. Cecile Richards, a liberal white woman, is the current president and public face of Planned Parenthood. But Richards’ individuality aside, the political face of Planned Parenthood has also always been that of white, liberal femaleness. Creating a narrative that protects the reproductive rights of liberal, white women has often resulted in the erasure of the experiences, labor, and activism of the poor people of color that need the affordable services of Planned Parenthood the most. As a former patient, clinic escort, and employee of Planned Parenthood, I know firsthand just how alienating, discouraging, and violent this history can be for Black women attempting to do intersectional reproductive justice work.Intersectionality mattered then and it matters now. When we talk about Black lives mattering we are talking about the right and access of all of us (women, queer, and trans Black folks included) to seek the health treatment and care that determines whether or not we survive. When we talk about reproductive rights, we are talking about providing access and resources to those most economically and politically marginalized. So an act of domestic terrorism against an organization that provides reproductive health care services to economically disadvantaged communities is absolutely an attack on Black lives. If you think there can be a movement for Black lives while not supporting reproductive rights, you’ve missed the mark. If you think you can advocate for reproductive rights without a framework that prioritizes Black women, you have missed the mark.Before we knew that one of the victims was a Black veteran; and before we learned that Dear was given a choice to live – a choice that is too often denied to Black folks – the shooting at the Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood was about race.  There’s levels to this shit and we have to engage them all.

Source: Why the Planned Parenthood shooting was always about Black lives

Islamic State Uses Satellite Internet To Spread Message – SPIEGEL ONLINE

The answer to this question is an extremely problematic one for Europe, for it is European companies that provide the terrorists with access to the platforms they use to spread their propaganda. It remains unclear whether the companies knowingly do so, but documents obtained by SPIEGEL ONLINE show that they may very well know what’s going on. And the documents show that the companies could immediately cut off Islamic State’s Internet access without much effort.If you need to get online in Syria or Iraq, the technology needed to do so can be purchased in the Hatay province — a corner of Turkey located between the Mediterranean Sea and the Syrian border. In the bazaar quarter of the regional capital of Antakya, peddlers hawk everything from brooms and spices to pomegranates, wedding dresses, ovens, beds and all kinds of electronics. Antakya has served as a crossroads for numerous trade routes for thousands of years. Wares continue to flow through the region’s relatively porous borders even today.Thousands of dishes have been installed in the region allowing users to access the Internet by satellite. There has been a huge surge in recent years in the satellite Internet business. Instead of the usual landline cable connection, all one needs is a satellite dish with a transmission and reception antenna and a modem. The result is top-speed Internet access, with downloads at a rate of 22 Megabits per second and uploads of 6 Megabits.

Source: Islamic State Uses Satellite Internet To Spread Message – SPIEGEL ONLINE

Afghan Women’s Writing Project | Welcome My Baby

When I was born no one was happyNo one smiledNo one said, “Welcome my baby,Welcome my sister.”Why? What is my sin?I am a human, a girl.A woman is brutally beatenon the street without reasonA girl is slanderedStoned by the peopleA woman is forced to have illicit relationsoutside of her marriage.She cannot defend herselfA man burns his wife’s bodyNo one defends herWhy? What is her sin?I can’t be silent.I can’t accept that.I want to say, “Welcome my babyWelcome my sister.” By Manizha

Source: Afghan Women’s Writing Project | Welcome My Baby

Berkeley City Council Approves Laws Targeting Homeless: SFist

In a contentious public meeting that went well into the night, the City Council of Berkeley Tuesday passed a set of laws specifically designed to target the city’s homeless population. The laws, which include a ban on occupying more than 2-square-feet of sidewalk space, are an attempted response to the city’s growing population of homeless. Several members of the city council vocally opposed the new laws, and at least one Councilmember decried the measures as punitive.In an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, Berkeley City Councilmember Jesse Arreguin explained his opposition to the new laws.

Source: Berkeley City Council Approves Laws Targeting Homeless: SFist

NY Post Changes San Bernardino Massacre Cover To Emphasize “Muslim” Over “Murder”: Gothamist {NY Post Encouraging hate and harm to people who are believers in Islam}

Fourteen people were killed and over a dozen more were seriously injured in yesterday’s horrific shooting in San Bernardino, California. The two main suspects, a married couple, were killed during a gun battle with police, and authorities are now piecing together the details of the case. But things like investigations and facts didn’t stop the NY Post from making the decision to change their initial front cover headline—”Murder Mission”—to “Muslim Killers” with all the subtlety of high school teens bullying each other on Snapchat.

Source: NY Post Changes San Bernardino Massacre Cover To Emphasize “Muslim” Over “Murder”: Gothamist

Israel arrests members of ′Jewish terror group′ over killing of Palestinian family | News | DW.COM | 03.12.2015

Israeli police did not say how many far-right extremists were arrested, their names, or any details of the case, due to a restriction by the court.The July 31 attack in Duma, a village outside Nablus in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, ignited smoldering Palestinian anger over a frozen peace process and illegal Jewish settlement building in land Palestinians claim for a future state.Tensions have also arisen over the al-Aqsa Mosque compound, the third most holy site in the Islamic world and most holy site for Jews, who call it the Temple Mount.The international community, Israeli and Palestinian leaders condemned the attack as Israeli authorities vowed to crack down on Jewish extremism.Daily attacksViolence has spiraled out of control, claiming the lives of 19 Israelis and one Jewish US citizen in near daily stabbing, shooting and car ramming incidents.Israel blames the Palestinian media and leadership of inciting the violence.At least 97 Palestinians, 58 claimed by Israel to be assailants, have been killed since October. The others have been killed mainly in protests and clashes with Israeli security forces.Earlier this week the Israeli rights group B’Tselem accused Israel of carrying out a “shoot-to-kill policy,” – charges denied by Israeli authorities.

Source: Israel arrests members of ′Jewish terror group′ over killing of Palestinian family | News | DW.COM | 03.12.2015

Paul Ryan Throws Down G.O.P. Gauntlet for 2016 – The New York Times No interest in serving public or governing just seeking advantage for GOP? Loser/Fail!

“Our No. 1 goal for the next year is to put together a complete alternative to the left’s agenda,” Mr. Ryan said, speaking in the Great Hall at the Library of Congress, a setting designed to highlight the importance he placed on the speech. “Only government that sends power back to the people can make America confident again.”

Source: Paul Ryan Throws Down G.O.P. Gauntlet for 2016 – The New York Times

It’s funny now, after nearly three years of… – One Costume A Day

http://onecostumeaday.tumblr.com/post/134471232099/its-funny-now-after-nearly-three-years-of

It’s funny now, after nearly three years of working on this project, I find that whenever I’m upset, I become strongly, almost viscerally compelled to paint my face. After learning of the San Bernardino and Savannah shootings yesterday, this is what came out. Go be a force of beauty in the world today. And then call your senator, your representative, and support your local organizations working for stricter gun control laws.