What's in the news?

Started by Beorning, September 21, 2014, 07:02:11 AM

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Cycle

#2325
Quote from: TaintedAndDelish on December 07, 2015, 03:59:52 PM
Not sure if that was a rental or if he owned it. Either way, it doesn't sound like he was doing all that bad financially.

I recall reading something that said he was making like $70k a year, as a health inspector.  That's pretty decent income.

Scratch that. He was making $52k a year.

TheGlyphstone

Except for the little detail that his wife joined him in the 'suicide by cop'. The question is who persuaded who, and vice versa.

Cycle

Another food contamination issue at Chipotle.  Normally I wouldn't consider this news, but that's what?  The third time this year?  Yeah, someone's not doing their job...


Skynet

So many Republican members of Congress are cutting funding for 9/11 first responders for no good reason.  This same thing happened years ago, and it took some public shaming by Jon Stewart and the negative publicity that followed to reverse their decision.

Now it's happened again, and Stewart personally goes to the capitol to confront them:



He's convinced one person, let's hope the rest follow.

Lustful Bride

#2329
Quote from: Skynet on December 08, 2015, 07:07:45 PM
So many Republican members of Congress are cutting funding for 9/11 first responders for no good reason.  This same thing happened years ago, and it took some public shaming by Jon Stewart and the negative publicity that followed to reverse their decision.

Now it's happened again, and Stewart personally goes to the capitol to confront them:



He's convinced one person, let's hope the rest follow.

You know I honestly thought congress could not get any lower, i guess i was wrong.....Wish martians would come down and wipe the slate clean.


Darn, now I really want to blast some martians :P

Cycle

The more they dig the worse it gets...

QuoteMichael G. Stone, a friend of Marquez [the man who bought the assault rifles for the San Bernardino shooters] ... remembered Marquez had said something at a party months ago that took on a new light after the attack last week.

“He said something along the lines of, ‘There’s a lot of Muslims in our own backyard, just ready to go haywire and attack,’”

Farook's mom and dad are now on the watch lists.  Good thing that won't impair their 2nd Amendment Right to go buy all the modified AR-15s they want.  Thanks, Congress!  Glad you're watching out for our best interests!

Mithlomwen

Video link showing the outbursts of the Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood shooter during his primarily court date.

That man is seriously batshit crazy.  He claims to be a 'warrior for the babies' but none of the three people who were killed that day were there to get abortions.  Two of the three were men for crying out loud. 

Baby, it's all I know,
that your half of the flesh and blood that makes me whole...

Oniya

Of course he wouldn't shoot a woman who was there for an abortion.  That would terminate the pregnancy, which would be bad.  By shooting up random other people in the clinic, he scares the pregnant women away from the baby-killers so that they end up carrying to term.

...

I'm not sure if that was sarcasm, or an actual glimpse inside his head.  >_>
"Language was invented for one reason, boys - to woo women.~*~*~Don't think it's all been done before
And in that endeavor, laziness will not do." ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think we're never gonna win this war
Robin Williams-Dead Poets Society ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think your world's gonna fall apart
I do have a cause, though.  It's obscenity.  I'm for it.  - Tom Lehrer~*~All you need is your beautiful heart
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Lustful Bride

You cant negotiate with crazy.

Beorning

This guy is obviously paranoid. But is he crazy in the clinical sense? I wouldn't risk saying that. He might simply be brainwashed...

BTW. The lawyer (?) on the left is rather hot :)

gaggedLouise

Quote from: Oniya on December 10, 2015, 10:29:23 AM
Of course he wouldn't shoot a woman who was there for an abortion.  That would terminate the pregnancy, which would be bad.  By shooting up random other people in the clinic, he scares the pregnant women away from the baby-killers so that they end up carrying to term.

...

I'm not sure if that was sarcasm, or an actual glimpse inside his head.  >_>


Tries to figure out what it would mean to terminally punish a woman seeking abortion but spare her unborn child - the methods I can imagine belong in mythology, not morality.  >:(

Good girl but bad  -- Proud sister of the amazing, blackberry-sweet Violet Girl

Sometimes bound and cuntrolled, sometimes free and easy 

"I'm a pretty good cook, I'm sitting on my groceries.
Come up to my kitchen, I'll show you my best recipes"

Oniya

Quote from: gaggedLouise on December 10, 2015, 12:47:57 PM

Tries to figure out what it would mean to terminally punish a woman seeking abortion but spare her unborn child - the methods I can imagine belong in mythology, not morality.  >:(

I didn't see him volunteering to have the fetus sewn under the skin of his calf, if that's the one you're thinking of...
"Language was invented for one reason, boys - to woo women.~*~*~Don't think it's all been done before
And in that endeavor, laziness will not do." ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think we're never gonna win this war
Robin Williams-Dead Poets Society ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think your world's gonna fall apart
I do have a cause, though.  It's obscenity.  I'm for it.  - Tom Lehrer~*~All you need is your beautiful heart
O/O's Updated 5/11/21 - A/A's - Current Status! - Writing a novel - all draws for Fool of Fire up!
Requests updated March 17

gaggedLouise

Quote from: Oniya on December 10, 2015, 01:03:33 PM
I didn't see him volunteering to have the fetus sewn under the skin of his calf, if that's the one you're thinking of...

*nods* Exactly, that's one of the first that came to mind for me too.  :D

Good girl but bad  -- Proud sister of the amazing, blackberry-sweet Violet Girl

Sometimes bound and cuntrolled, sometimes free and easy 

"I'm a pretty good cook, I'm sitting on my groceries.
Come up to my kitchen, I'll show you my best recipes"

Beorning

In Polish news (sorry, I don't think there are English-language articles for this stuff):

1. The Constitutional Tribunal crisis gets depressing. Basically, the Tribunal rules that the recent attempts by the ruling party to swear in new Tribunal members are unconstitutional. The ruling party's response is, basically, "We don't give a damn".  :-(

2. The new Minister of Culture continues to look into theatres. Currently, the Ministry is vetting one particular state-funded theatre to examine the "artistic value" of its recent productions. Apparently, they want to kick out the theatre's head, one Jan Klata, who is known for some controversial productions.

3. Since a few days, a cross is hanging in the room where the new cabinet holds its sessions. State-church separation, anyone? I guess the new cabinet doesn't care for it - not very surprising, considering that one of their MPs has recently gone on record that Poland is not a really a "religion-neutral" state...

4. Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs compared Poland to ISIS...  :-(

Beorning

Link to the article about the situation with Russian MoFA comparing Poland to ISIS:

http://www.thenews.pl/1/10/Artykul/232553,Russia-compares-Polish-authorities-to-%E2%80%98terrorists%E2%80%99-in-monument-row-

The article isn't entirely accurate, though. The monument dismantled wasn't, AFAIK, commemorating Red Army soldiers, but one particular Red Army general. One who, aside from fighting against Nazi forces, also took part in oppressing Poles...

consortium11

Quote from: Beorning on December 11, 2015, 03:03:28 PM
Link to the article about the situation with Russian MoFA comparing Poland to ISIS:

http://www.thenews.pl/1/10/Artykul/232553,Russia-compares-Polish-authorities-to-%E2%80%98terrorists%E2%80%99-in-monument-row-

The article isn't entirely accurate, though. The monument dismantled wasn't, AFAIK, commemorating Red Army soldiers, but one particular Red Army general. One who, aside from fighting against Nazi forces, also took part in oppressing Poles...

Without particularly wanting to defend Russia's claim here, I do think there is perhaps something worth discussing within it.

The Islamic State is rightfully criticised for their destruction of historic sites. Their justification for doing so is that such sites are generally considered blasphemous; in essence, they offend the members of the Islamic State deeply.

Yet to give some examples from the US relatively recently there have been calls (sometimes successfully) to remove statues on the basis that some people consider the people they depict offensive.

Now, there are differences of course; the Islamic State destroys historical sites while the statues in the US are generally only removed and, as is the case with the Jefferson Davis and Woodrow Wilson statues, may well simply be re-sited (although that does rather leave the question as to what happens if someone finds them offensive at their new location open). Moreover while the Islamic State are destroying historical sites most of the calls for removal have been of relatively modern statues depicting historical figures which I think is quite clear and defined difference.

But what if the two cross over? There are statues which are of historical relevance in their own right which depict historical figures who had beliefs and committed acts that some would find offensive today (and as each year passes there will be more). Even if they are not destroyed would it be right to remove them and hide them from public view?

Beorning

#2341
Quote from: consortium11 on December 11, 2015, 04:15:21 PM
Without particularly wanting to defend Russia's claim here, I do think there is perhaps something worth discussing within it.

The Islamic State is rightfully criticised for their destruction of historic sites. Their justification for doing so is that such sites are generally considered blasphemous; in essence, they offend the members of the Islamic State deeply.

Yet to give some examples from the US relatively recently there have been calls (sometimes successfully) to remove statues on the basis that some people consider the people they depict offensive.

Now, there are differences of course; the Islamic State destroys historical sites while the statues in the US are generally only removed and, as is the case with the Jefferson Davis and Woodrow Wilson statues, may well simply be re-sited (although that does rather leave the question as to what happens if someone finds them offensive at their new location open). Moreover while the Islamic State are destroying historical sites most of the calls for removal have been of relatively modern statues depicting historical figures which I think is quite clear and defined difference.

But what if the two cross over? There are statues which are of historical relevance in their own right which depict historical figures who had beliefs and committed acts that some would find offensive today (and as each year passes there will be more). Even if they are not destroyed would it be right to remove them and hide them from public view?

Well, why not? Of course, there has to be moderation in everything, but one nation's people can't be expected to accommodate the monuments that are, basically, promoting this nation's forced subjugation...

In other news from Poland - tens of thousands protested today against our new government:

http://www.thenews.pl/1/9/Artykul/232640,Fifty-thousand-protest-in-Warsaw-against-ruling-party
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35083561?SThisFB

Personally, I applaud this. The situation *is* serious.

Mithlomwen

*facepalm* 

So, as if the Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood shooting wasn't enough, we now have Ohio Attorney General Mike Dewine making claims that Planned Parenthood has been improperly disposing of fetal tissue by disposing of it in landfills. 

Planned Parenthood's response to the allegations.

That's all we need.  More conservatives making baseless and inflammatory accusations against the organization so we end up with more nut jobs like the one in Colorado Springs taking up arms and killing more people to 'protect unborn babies'. 

Lovely.   
Baby, it's all I know,
that your half of the flesh and blood that makes me whole...

Blythe

Quote from: Beorning on December 12, 2015, 12:47:04 PMIn other news from Poland - tens of thousands protested today against our new government:

http://www.thenews.pl/1/9/Artykul/232640,Fifty-thousand-protest-in-Warsaw-against-ruling-party
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35083561?SThisFB

Personally, I applaud this. The situation *is* serious.

Can your elaborate a bit? I'm very interested in this news out of Poland, but I don't know a lot about the Polish government or its process. Some of the disquiet seems to be over the selection of judges, yes? How are they normally selected? (My apologies if the articles explained it pretty well--I skimmed through them and should read them more fully later tonight)

I'd also welcome a thread detailing more of the political atmosphere in Poland and what's going on? It really does seem like the democracy of your country is genuinely threatened, Beorning.  :-(

Cassandra LeMay

Quote from: Sherlock on December 12, 2015, 05:18:18 PM
Can your elaborate a bit? I'm very interested in this news out of Poland, but I don't know a lot about the Polish government or its process. Some of the disquiet seems to be over the selection of judges, yes? How are they normally selected? (My apologies if the articles explained it pretty well--I skimmed through them and should read them more fully later tonight)

One of the articles Beorning linked to earlier has some more details: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/reuters/article-3344680/Tussle-judges-turns-constitutional-crisis-Poland.html

But, as some of these events have made it into the German media, I'll try my hand at a summary of events and perhaps Beorning can correct me if I'm wrong:

The key players are the old governing party Civil Platform (PO), the new ruling party Law and Justice (PiS) that came to power in October, the Constitutional Tribunal, and the President (head of state) Andrzey Duda, the candidate of the PiS in the presidential elections earlier this year.

This summer the PO nominated 5 new judges for the Constitutional Tribunal. As I understand it they changed the law so they could nominate 5 candidates when normally they would have only nominated 3. President Duda refused to swear those candidates in, even after the Tribunal ruled three of the five nominations were constitutional.

After the recent parliamentary elections, the PiS threw out the nomination law PO had created earlier and made their own law to grant itself the power to nominate 5 candidates to the Tribunal, which they promptly did (of course appointing judges close to their party). Then - while the Tribunal was still deliberating the legality of the new law - Duda swore in the candidates nominated by the PiS. But now the Tribunal has found that those nominations were unconstitutional.

End result: 3 judges who should be on the Tribunal have not been sworn in, while 5 judges who should not be on the Tribunal have been sworn into office, thanks to a president close to the governing party who thinks the constitution is something that he can ignore or interpret as he sees fit.

The reasoning for all this PiS has to offer (from what I can gather) is (a) that the parliament represents the current will of the people and that that is what should be most important, and (b) that the Tribunal had ruled too much in favor of the PO in the past anyway and that it's time to right this wrong.
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Beorning

This is, actually, a very good summary of the situation, Cassandra :)

Let me add two things:

1. Yes, President Duda refused to swear the PO-nominated judges in - and it's important to realize that he had zero right to do something like that. The law and the constitution don't give the president any say in the process of the selection of the Tribunal judges. The parliament chooses them, the president is obligated to swear them in. Duda's refusal to do so may well be a case of him openly breaching the constitution.

2. Yes, the new parliament (which PiS has majority in) annulled the the previous parliament's choice of the Tribunal judges - and again, many commentators say that it's actually an act that violates the current laws in that matter. Many commentators say that the parliament just cannot execute a move like that, that annulling the judges' nominations in such a way is illegal.

3. There was a new development this Friday - this time, it's the government that quite probably violated the law and the constitution. Basically, for the Tribunal's ruling to come into effect legally, it has to be printed in this special government publication. Aaaand... it seems that the government is actually sabotaging the printing of the ruling that says that the three of the PO-nominated judges should be sworn it. The ruling came on December 3th and it still has not been printed. At first, the government wasn't commenting on this - but, on Friday, the minister that's responsible for these things sent an official letter to the Tribunal saying that she decided that the ruling is invalid (because of some formal excuse) and she's not going to print it unless the Tribunal provides explanations. And again, it's a case of PiS officials making something they have no right of doing: the Tribunal's rulings are considered final and uncontestable, the government is obligated to print them. Meanwhile, the government seems to be openly contesting the Tribunal's ruling, trying to stop it from coming into effect.

What all of this means? In my opinion, it's quite obvious: PiS is trying to take control of the Tribunal by any means necessary, even by breaking the law. The party's leader, Jarosław Kaczyński, doesn't respect the notion of modern democracy, with all the checks and balances that limit the government's power. He wants to have the absolute power over the country, so he keeps putting his representatives into every institution he can. First, he designated Duda to be the president, then he designated Beata Szydło to be the prime minister - with both of them just being Kaczyński's pawns. Now he wants to put his pawns into the Tribunal, so that the Tribunal wouldn't oppose any of his decisions.

Kaczyński actually made his intentions regarding the Tribunal clear today, during a pro-government manifestation. During his speech, Kaczyński said the Tribunal sold out to foreign interests (as well as to the interests of shady Polish groups that don't have the society's good in mind), a "rampart of everything bad that has been happening in the country for the last 26 years". He openly said that he needs to take control of the Tribunal, because, otherwise, it will stop his party from implementing all these amazing new projects he has planned.

He has also said other interesting things today, as well as during a big TV interview he gave on Friday. For example, a few days ago, there was a talk of possible debate over Poland's current situation over at the EU parliament - and Kaczyński said that the Polish EPMs who were in favour of this debate are basically traitors to the nation, "Poles of the worst sort". Today, he said that people who organized yesterday's protests are Communists and thieves. As for all those thousands of people who attended them? Well, they are "weak in the heads". His exact words...  >:(

TheGlyphstone

From what I understand, the Constitutional Tribunal is a separate entity from the Polish Supreme Court, correct? The USA's Supreme Court is both the court-of-final appeal and the deciding judicial body for constitutional matters/legality of legislation, but if I'm reading correctly, in Poland those duties are separated into two bodies?

Beorning

You are correct. The Supreme Court is the "final appeal" institution, while the Constitutional Tribunal is for the control of legislation.

Cycle

So Army deserter Bowe Bergdahl does an online interview where he explained he saw himself as a Jason Bourne type asskicker.  He claims he left his base to "expose leadership failures" and then after he was wandering around a few hours, decided he should go spy on the terrorists too.

Yeah.  Sorry, no.  I'm not buying any of this nonsense.

gaggedLouise

Finally! Saudi Arabia is committing to creating and leading a league of Muslim states against (among other things) terrorism. A whopping thirty-four states are set to become founding members, including Egypt, Sudan, Turkey, Qatar, Pakistan, Palestine (west bank) and many in northern and western Africa. Several more are supporting the idea, such as Indonesia. The aims of the organization will include to resist sin, aggressiveness and terrorism, and promote justice, piety, mercy and righteousness. Fighting terrorism is mentioned several times in a statement from the Saudi government quoted by their news bureau SPA,. and terrorism is called "a reprehensible crime". ISIS is not mentioned specifically, but it sounds fairly impossible to avoid as a main offender.

This is really encouraging, even if terrorism is a label some governments like to stamp on any armed resistance movement that they themselves do not like. And it's good to see the Saudis pledging to take a lead in promoting justice and some human improvement in the region.

(Cannot find any English-speaking news sources for this yet, I just saw it in a fresh article in an upmarket Stockholm daily, but they are linking to a short article at the al-Arabiya news/tv channel, which is here - perhaps Formless could translate some of it later?)

Good girl but bad  -- Proud sister of the amazing, blackberry-sweet Violet Girl

Sometimes bound and cuntrolled, sometimes free and easy 

"I'm a pretty good cook, I'm sitting on my groceries.
Come up to my kitchen, I'll show you my best recipes"