Category Archives: human rights

Jeremy Clarkson and Ukip are not mavericks, but the bullying face of the establishment | Suzanne Moore | Comment is free | The Guardian

What is asked of Clarkson and his posse is no more than we ask of primary-school pupils. Don’t name-call. Respect difference. I don’t pretend all sorts of stuff doesn’t happen outside the classroom, but it is not a bad ideal. Even small children know which discourses are legitimised by the grownups.

Clarkson and the grownup schoolboys know also that every shocking remark is shrapnel. It scatters and wounds multiple targets. If you can say nasty stuff about gay people, then why not about black people? Once you voice the idea that women ask for rape and can’t have careers, the next stage is to get rid of naggy old human rights because women don’t count as human anyway.

We have not been conned by Europe, feminism, political correctness or even bloody wind farms. The biggest con of all is that this coalition of “mavericks” is not seen for what it is. The establishment: in bullying, red-faced self-pitying mode. This is the rich and powerful deriding the powerless while pretending to be heroic victims. It is a revolting, sweaty lie. Let them slap each other’s back into oblivion. Decent blokes do not monetise their ability to pick on those weaker than them, never mind make entire careers out if it.

via Jeremy Clarkson and Ukip are not mavericks, but the bullying face of the establishment | Suzanne Moore | Comment is free | The Guardian.

Conservative Women Argue Sexual Assault Numbers Are Overblown – The Wire

Now, some female conservative pundits are questioning the facts that the White House based its recommendations on — namely, that one in five women will be sexually assaulted by the time they leave college.

via Conservative Women Argue Sexual Assault Numbers Are Overblown – The Wire.

Now can anyone explain why this would be a liberal v. conservative or GOP v. Democrat issue? Are conservatives and GOP so hyper-anti-female rights that they will try and discount seriousness of problem of rape?

Saudi hospital head sacked as MERS death toll hits 117 | News , Middle East | THE DAILY STAR

Saudi Arabia’s acting health minister has announced the sacking of the head of a Jeddah hospital where a spike in MERS infections among medical staff sparked panic among the public.

The move, which Adel Fakieh published on Twitter late Tuesday, came after he inspected King Fahd Hospital’s emergency department in the Red Sea city.

Hours after the news, health officials announced two more deaths from the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus, bringing the toll to 117.

The victims were a 68-year-old woman in Jeddah, the kingdom’s commercial capital, and a 60-year-old man died in Medina.

The Jeddah hospital was temporarily shut last month after several medics were infected by MERS.

And panic at the Red Sea city’s main hospital prompted at least four doctors to resign in mid-April after they refused to treat MERS patients for fear of infection.

via Saudi hospital head sacked as MERS death toll hits 117 | News , Middle East | THE DAILY STAR.

The Open-and-Shut Assault Case Against Occupy Activist, Cecily McMillan: Just Look at the Pictures — BagNews

Officer Bovell (surely unjustly accused in an assault charge by another Occupier) certainly not continuing to mete out justice for the elbow, his right hand still nowhere in the vicinity of McMillan’s chest, in this shot from the Lanyon photos published at Gawker.

via The Open-and-Shut Assault Case Against Occupy Activist, Cecily McMillan: Just Look at the Pictures — BagNews.

The Gun Report: May 6, 2014 – NYTimes.com – NYTimes.com

Cherry Allen, 56, an anti-violence and neighborhood watch activist, was struck in the chest by a stray bullet while sitting outside her home in Wilmington, Del., Monday afternoon. Police said two gunman had opened fire on someone. The victim is in stable condition. “For this to happen to her, when this is what she does for the community, is just sad,” her niece said.

—CSNPhilly.com

via The Gun Report: May 6, 2014 – NYTimes.com – NYTimes.com.

Sotomayor Finds Her Voice Among the Justices – NYTimes.com

Last month’s dissent, in Schuette v. BAMN, was a mix of legal analysis, historical overview and policy arguments. It looked closely at the governing precedents, reminded readers of the legacies of slavery and Jim Crow, decried recent “discriminatory changes to voting procedures” and reproduced graphs on declining enrollment rates for black and Hispanic students at public universities in states that have banned race-conscious admissions. But what stood out was a fairly brief reflection about what it was like to grow up Puerto Rican in New York City.

“Race matters to a young woman’s sense of self when she states her hometown, and then is pressed, ‘No, where are you really from?’ regardless of how many generations her family has been in the country,” she wrote. “Race matters to a young person addressed by a stranger in a foreign language, which he does not understand because only English was spoken at home.”

via Sotomayor Finds Her Voice Among the Justices – NYTimes.com.

On Independence Day, Netanyahu caves to right wing – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East

The meaning of this is simple: Netanyahu is prepared to gamble on the democratic nature of the State of Israel to stay in office and reap political benefits. The very person who came out in his previous term against the uninhibited laws proposed by Knesset members from the right, who attempted to cause harm to the legal system, has abandoned all that is left of revisionist Zionist leader Ze’ev Jabotinsky’s respectful and honoring manner and the heritage of the late Prime Minister Menachem Begin in the Likud.

via On Independence Day, Netanyahu caves to right wing – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East.

Hotel Boycott Grows Over Brunei Penal Code – NYTimes.com

The response here to the planned imposition of Islamic law in Brunei, with extreme penalties for adultery and gay sex, has become more pointed in recent days as two Hollywood-related charities moved events from the Beverly Hills Hotel, which is owned by the Brunei Investment Agency.

According to the Deadline Hollywood news site, a fund-raiser on Wednesday for the youth organization Teen Line will be moved from the hotel to the Sony lot in Culver City, Calif. The event will honor Amy Pascal, co-chairwoman of Sony Pictures Entertainment, and Jenny Pascal, her sister.

Separately, the Hollywood Reporter wrote that the annual “Night Before the Oscars” fund-raiser for the Motion Picture and Television Fund, usually held at the Beverly Hills Hotel, will now be held elsewhere.

The sultan of Brunei, Hassanal Bolkiah, last week began phasing in a new penal code based on Islamic law, or Shariah, that by 2015 will make gay sex and adultery punishable by stoning to death. The sultan’s investment agency owns the Dorchester Collection, which manages a chain of hotels that includes the Beverly Hills Hotel, the Hotel Bel-Air and other luxury hotels.

via Hotel Boycott Grows Over Brunei Penal Code – NYTimes.com.

Retired Army Colonel Plans Militia-Backed ‘Operation American Spring’ to Force Obama Out of Office | Hatewatch

(Sedition, terrorism and rebellion are the words that come to mind, after extreme self-delusion and self-hatred!)

“The militia groups and the others stood up for Bundy and the government thugs stood down,” Riley said.  “I hope people feel the same way about Operation American Spring.”

In fact, Riley said he hopes members of Congress will “come to their senses,” leave their offices and join in the demonstration set to begin in two weeks.

“It’s a sacrificial effort by patriots who believe our nation is in jeopardy,” Riley told Hatewatch today from his home in Crestview, Fla.   “Our government at the federal level is totally lawless.  Our nation is in grave danger right now of internal implosion.”

While the event is attracting interest from various antigovernment and militia groups, those who join Riley will have to leave their guns behind or face arrest in the District of Columbia.

The group will not apply for a U.S. Park Service demonstration permit “because we are just a bunch of individual patriots who plan on visiting Washington, D.C., exercising our constitutional rights, all at the same time,” Riley told Hatewatch.

Operation American Spring already has delivered its “declaration of revision” demand packets to all 535 members of Congress, Riley said.  The packets call for the impeachment or resignations of President Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., the Senate majority leader; Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the Senate minority leader; House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., the House minority leader, and Attorney General Eric Holder.

via Retired Army Colonel Plans Militia-Backed ‘Operation American Spring’ to Force Obama Out of Office | Hatewatch.