News Stories

[Urzu 7]

Originally Posted by Ithekro

Just for giggles, and because no one talks about them at all, how about I list the non-Republican and non-Democractic choices for President in this election year:



So, Roseanne Barr is running for the Green Party.....

I could definitely see at least some of them being better than Santorum.

Terry Jones, pastor known for publicly burning Qurans, of Florida

Not this guy though. He is just as bad as Santorum. I remember that guy. Book burnings are never good.

[Tom Bombadil]

The price of a life? In Afghanistan, it's as little as $210

The United States usually pays up to $2,500 for civilians killed in lawful operations such as air strikes, according to an investigation by CIVIC, a rights advocacy group. The study, compiled two years ago, has been regularly updated.

I am a bit shocked to see that Reuters actually post articles like this. I have considered them lap dogs of the defense industry for quite some time.

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by Tom Bombadil

The price of a life? In Afghanistan, it's as little as $210



I am a bit shocked to see that Reuters actually post articles like this. I have considered them lap dogs of the defense industry for quite some time.

Maybe they owned too many short positions in Feburary due to the Singapore Airshow, and they can't liquidate the positions without a loss?

[Autumn Demon]

Last week was a bad one for public radio in America.

First up, This American Life retracted their story about Apple's Foxconn factory in China. Regardless of the inaccuracies in the story, it's important to remember what working conditions are like in other factories in China.

Second, NPR's Melissa Block invited three commentators to "consider solutions in Syria". All three of the commentators want to go to war with Syria.

Originally Posted by AntiWar's John Walsh

For Slaughter time is of the essence, because there is “brutality on an extraordinary scale” in Syria (There are indeed 7000 dead in Syria – thousands on each side of the civil war there.) Enter the second guest Paul Wolfowitz whose Iraq war has resulted in the deaths of 1.4 million Iraqis and the displacement of 4 million. That, however, is not to be considered “brutality on an extraordinary scale.” Of course the U.S. was not killing its own people in Iraq but other people – which seems to make it OK. Block and her editors apparently were clueless about the irony of this juxtaposition of Slaughter’s claim and Wolfowitz’s appearance.

As an avid listener of NPR and PRI programs, it's depressing to me how statist public radio is.

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by Autumn Demon

Last week was a bad one for public radio in America.

First up, This American Life retracted their story about Apple's Foxconn factory in China. Regardless of the inaccuracies in the story, it's important to remember what working conditions are like in other factories in China.

OTOH... you don't see retractions on commercial news like this (and they certainly get it wrong a LOT). I don't even consider TAL to be a "hard news" source, its more slice-of-life and yet they're going to great pains to correct their error.

Second, NPR's Melissa Block invited three commentators to "consider solutions in Syria". All three of the commentators want to go to war with Syria.

As an avid listener of NPR and PRI programs, it's depressing to me how statist public radio is.

It isn't "statist" , it is *corporatist* because the US government defunded public radio (GOP pressure at supposed bias in reporting). Public broadcast in the US is almost entirely in the hands of corporate funding now. So follow the money, who stands to profit from committing military forces to Syria (as if we had the resources to sustain that as well as Iraq/Iran/Afghanistan/NorthKorea/etc)

OTOH, I'm betting Melissa just messed up with her selection of commentators ... she seems to get caught flat-footed more often than other people on staff, errrrrr.

[Kokukirin]

Originally Posted by Autumn Demon

Last week was a bad one for public radio in America.

First up, This American Life retracted their story about Apple's Foxconn factory in China. Regardless of the inaccuracies in the story, it's important to remember what working conditions are like in other factories in China.

The worst thing about this debacle is that from now on legitimate claims of worker abuses in Chinese factories will be more easily cast aside, all because of some guy inventing stories of abuse and duping a reputed program into broadcasting it.

Second, NPR's Melissa Block invited three commentators to "consider solutions in Syria". All three of the commentators want to go to war with Syria.

As an avid listener of NPR and PRI programs, it's depressing to me how statist public radio is.

Well, I wouldn't trust the writing of "antiwar.com". Just a brief glance of the article makes me feel like reading Fox News. It tries to downplay the "brutality on an extraordinary scale" by comparing it to the bloated number of deaths in Iraq War, which has absolutely nothing to do with the Syria Crisis. It grossly overstates the number of deaths in Iraq (1.4 mil deaths instead of 100k~200k in most figures) and cleverly words the sentence such that US army seems responsible for all of the deaths. It calls one guest (Serwer) an interventionist but his analysis looks pretty objective to me - that any military action will be very involved and the US have no stomach for it, and that Russia and China won't go along after what happened in Libya. Its only legit complain is that none of the guests is an active non-interventionist.

I am not in favour of military intervention in Syria, but that is a very poor article.

[GundamFan0083]

$100 to Fly Through the Airport

http://online.wsj.com/article/the_middle_seat.html

So for $100.00 in protection money, you can skip the TSA grope.

[Xellos-_^]

Originally Posted by Kokukirin

The worst thing about this debacle is that from now on legitimate claims of worker abuses in Chinese factories will be more easily cast aside, all because of some guy inventing stories of abuse and duping a reputed program into broadcasting it.

he is claiming artist license.

[ganbaru]

Many willing to cut Afghan shooting suspect slack
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...03-18-19-47-06

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by ganbaru

Many willing to cut Afghan shooting suspect slack
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...03-18-19-47-06

Yet... many military personnel who have experienced the same over-use and over-deployment don't appreciate that "slack" being offered since THEY managed to avoid mass murder execution style behavior.

Really.. talk about "apologist" bull shit...

[ChainLegacy]

I just don't think the human mind is meant for these types of conflicts. Saying that doesn't solve anything, but it's kind of one of those things where I shrug my shoulders... If you're going to go to war and twist the minds of these people, what can you expect? Yeah, there are some badass/psycho/tough mofos out there that can come out of war unscathed... and most people keep the mental scars to themselves... but I see people going completely nuts as inevitable.

[ganbaru]

There's almost always some ''apologist'' to such even, what would be more interesting would be who is giving him ''slack'' and why they do so.

[Ithekro]

Justification or not, it would still be good to find out "why". Even lunatics have reasons, as demented as they might be.

The crime is still there. It won't disappear. It may be forgotten, but it won't go away.

Though they still need to prove he did it, and isn't just covering for someone else (like an officer, or a larger group of people). Or that he wasn't following orders (illegal ones) designed to instill fear in the locals.

[Urzu 7]

I'm sure most of the people in this nation that want him to be given some slack are people that view middle easterners as sub-humans and don't see the massacre being as bad as it is.

Yeah, the guy got messed up psychologically, but that never justifies shooting up innocents. And yeah, like Ithekro said, what if this guy is covering up for someone or some people? That'd be real messed up.


Virginia teacher under fire for racism

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...6pLid%3D144482


Yeah, that teacher is a dumb ass.

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by Urzu 7

Virginia teacher under fire for racism

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/18/george-c-marshall-high-sc_n_1358044.html?icid=maing-grid7|aim|dl1|sec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D144482


Yeah, that teacher is a dumb ass.

Some days it is pretty hard not wanting to slap the shit out of people of my own pigment range because so many of them are dumb as rocks.

[Ascaloth]

Originally Posted by Vexx

Some days it is pretty hard not wanting to slap the shit out of people of my own pigment range because so many of them are dumb as rocks.

Now that is just racist, Vexx-jiji. Dumbasses comes in all pigments, and are all equally deserving of a bitchslap. Let's not fall into the "some are more equal than others" treatment here.

*runs*

[Ithekro]

Originally Posted by Ascaloth

Now that is just racist, Vexx-jiji. Dumbasses comes in all pigments, and are all equally deserving of a bitchslap. Let's not fall into the "some are more equal than others" treatment here.

*runs*

Even gender doesn't stop the amount of facepalming that requires.


So. Many. Uses.

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by Ascaloth

Now that is just racist, Vexx-jiji. Dumbasses comes in all pigments, and are all equally deserving of a bitchslap. Let's not fall into the "some are more equal than others" treatment here.

*runs*

That is animalist; why are you specifically picking out donkeys? And with the punishment "bitchslap", aren't you also being sexist by administering a punishment related to the female gender?

[ganbaru]

Originally Posted by Ascaloth

Now that is just racist, Vexx-jiji. Dumbasses comes in all pigments, and are all equally deserving of a bitchslap. Let's not fall into the "some are more equal than others" treatment here.

*runs*

The thing is than some are showing their ''dumbassness'' than others, especialy on racial matter, and they happen to be on the same pigment range .

[GundamFan0083]

Brazil Oil Spill: Chevron Executives Barred From Leaving Country

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...n_1355923.html

4 killed in shooting at French Jewish school

http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/19/world/...ing/index.html