Sheriff's estranged wife mauled by Bakersfield police K-9
While sleeping in her bed, the estranged wife of Kern County Sheriff is mauled by a police dog whom the cops turned loose inside her home with an order to engage.…This is the same police department that beat David Silva to death last week.
(Source: thinksquad)
While teaching a unit on harassment and prevention to a health class of 11-and-12-year-olds, Salisbury asked her students to work in groups to define three words: respect, boundaries and consent. During the next class, they were given different scenarios illustrating sexual harassment and asked to imagine what could be done differently. She then asked them each to write a reflection on how best to prevent sexual harassment.
Out of 26 students, 22 said that the best way to prevent sexual harassment was to avoid dressing inappropriately. But this idea hadn’t come up in class once.
“I tried to debunk it with them, but they were so quiet. Because no one had ever told them that this actually wasn’t an acceptable way to frame sexual harassment. All of the messaging they had gotten up to this point was, you have to protect yourself, and this is how,” she said.
The question why I would LET Willow cut her hair. First the LET must be challenged. This is a world where women, girls are constantly reminded that they don’t belong to themselves; that their bodies are not their own, nor their power or self determination. I made a promise to endow my little girl with the power to always know that her body, spirit and her mind are HER domain. Willow cut her hair because her beauty, her value, her worth is not measured by the length of her hair. It’s also a statement that claims that even little girls have the RIGHT to own themselves and should not be a slave to even their mother’s deepest insecurities, hopes and desires. Even little girls should not be a slave to the preconceived ideas of what a culture believes a little girl should be.
—Jada Pinkett Smith (via julicious)
(Source: princesslilitu, via julicious)
If there is a God, He will have to beg my forgiveness.
—A phrase that was carved on the walls of a concentration camp cell during WWII by a Jewish prisoner (via loveyourchaos)
(Source: notclarissa, via loveyourchaos)
Do you ever think about the fact that the US has created and legitimized a system of institutionalized inequality by funding schools through property taxes? That basically a child’s education is only as good as the value of the property in their neighborhood. Funny how education is so often viewed as an equalizing factor when there is nothing equal about it.
(via loveyourchaos)
(Source: amypoehler, via loveyourchaos)
(Source: lilithspellofdestruction, via ex0skeletal)
Being alone is better than sitting next to a lover and feeling lonely.
—Richard Linklater (via hellanne)
(via pistis-elpis-agape)
*This is a post that is not intended to speak for every single American Jew.*
Thank you.
Biggest Question Made By Non-Jewish Pro-Palestinians: Why is it that the majority of the Jewish community in the USA and Israel and other parts of the world Pro-Israeli?
I am a Jewish anti Zionist Pro Palestinan and I live in the second largest Jewish community in the USA, and let me tell you something: If I never joined Tumblr, I would probably still be Pro-Israeli.
Jews are not born as Pro-Israelis because that would be really ridiculous, actually. We are made into Pro Israelis. Why? Well, let me give you a few reasons why, and they all make sense. The whole process is a very long one that goes throughout your Jewish life and it’s really effective and it lets you not ask any questions whatsoever because you’re so confident that Israel is the best because everyone keeps telling you so.
- Propaganda is provided by our synagogues. Talk about how amazing Israel is is quite constant. You hear rabbis giving sermons about how Israel has given the Jewish people as a whole strength. You are offered trips to Israel with your rabbis or by others in the temple. You are shown beautiful photographs of Israel. You are told that without Israel, the Jewish people would all be gone. You are told to be proud of an army that is not even yours (ya know, the IDF). You are encouraged to make Aliyah. You are encouraged to study in Israel. You are encouraged to visit Israel after your bat/bar mitzvah. It’s all there, in your face. You really can’t escape it ever.
- In many of our prayers, the word “Yisrael” is mentioned. Some people will lie to you and say that it means “The State of Israel” when it truly refers to that simple region of the world and/or the Israelites. The Jewish people are often referred to as Israelites, and we make up Israel. Simple? Yes? Okay. In prayers, we will refer to our ethnic group which is the Jewish people. People will actually lie to you and tell you that it is a true message from G-d that the state and the land is meant to be ours. As if it was destiny.
- We are encouraged to make the “birthright” trip. The “birthright” trip to Israel is usually spread around in synagogues and you make this trip when you are about 18. When you go on this trip, it’s a whole full week of brainwashing done by the IDF and by the Israeli government. It’s the perfect motive to make Jews from the USA feel like they’re actually Israelis and to make them feel powerful and patriotic towards a nation they aren’t even citizens of. On this trip, they are not shown or told about the Palestinians or the occupation that is going on. The young Jews who go on this trip are taken to places which make Israel look beyond perfect of perfect.
- In synagogue, you will rarely ever hear someone acknowledge another religious group living in Israel. This also contributes to “Never talk about the Palestinians. They don’t even exist” thing that constantly goes around in the Jewish communities. People only mention the Jews in Israel, so you’re left thinking as a child, “There are only Jews? Well, I know that the entire world wants to kill me because I’m Jewish, so that sounds like a paradise! A Jew-Only paradise!”
- They repeat that Israel is our “saviour-land” and that we were blessed by G-d because we have it. We are constantly kept in this fear that without Israel, we would all be dead by now. Without Israel, we would be nothing.
- In the Jewish communities, a large amount of racism against Arabs is widespread and dangerously serious. In the Jewish community, it’s a racism that has gone way beyond the barrier of “okay” (well, there isn’t even an “okay” barrier when it comes to racism). So, when we hear something about an Arab nation doing something, there’s an eruption in the community and the racism against Arabs increases.
There are so many more ways that Pro Israeli lifestyles of the Jewish community comes about, but those are the simple ones. Those go on, still go on, and will continue to go on until a different kind of education takes place in the religious places.
I was a Pro-Israeli until the end of the summer of 2012. I was in Israel for the first time of my life and I felt so amazing, it’s a bit difficult to explain. I felt the proudest when I stood at Kotel and made all of my prayers to G-d, thanking Him for providing me with a happy and healthy life. Israel made me feel safe. The solders walking around with their riffles sling on their shoulders made me feel safe, and those soldiers were all over the place.
It was night time in Tel Aviv and I was walking with my father and we were both eating ice cream. I asked him, out of simple curiosity, “So, what’s going on with the Palestinians? Why do they hate us? Well, actually… who even are Palestinians? What are they?”
The propaganda had worked so well on me that I didn’t even know WHO Palestinians were until I had arrived to Israel, nor did I know why they were there.
My father and I took a long walk in the small town square, and we took a little walk along the shore, then on the board walk. The time it took for him to explain the Israeli occupation of Palestine to me was about two hours and thirty minutes. I had already eaten my ice cream. I had already drank all my water. I had gotten tired, but I was still interested in this group of people I had never heard of before in my life.
My father explained everything to me. He explained the entire timeline to me, starting from 1914 all the way to the summer of 2012. He gave me information on both Fatah and Hamas, and he even explained some of the inner workings of the Israeli government.
I was horrified.
I was horrified and utterly disappointed. I look back now thinking, “How could I be to disgustingly ignorant? How could I be so uninformed?” but then I realise, “You didn’t know any better. How could you?”
My father is a liberal Zionist who wants a 2 State Solution (which really makes no sense at this point, but whatever do what you want).
I went from being a full on proud Pro Israeli to being an Anti Zionist Pro Palestinian in the timespan of about eight months. I crammed myself with history and news on the region, and I became more informed than ever.
So, why are Jews in the USA so Pro Israeli?
The real answer is simple: They keep us in a state of constant fear that everyone wants to kill us. They keep us in a community which has everyone in a tight cocoon of racism. They want us to be uninformed. They want us to keep spending our money on Israel. They want us all to go to Israel and fight for Israel. They scare us into loving Israel. They scare us so much and tell us, “We’re only scaring you to tell you the truth.”
The Jewish community has every single right to be traumatised by the Holocaust. We have every damn right to be angry at Anti Semitic comments done by “Pro Palestinians”. We have every fucking right to be scared.
Because we’re so scared, they know to use that.
But you know what the real truth is?
“We’re scaring you because we’re scared, too.”
“We’ve reached the point of great power that we’re so convinced we can keep it that way and never share it with anyone.”
“We’re so scared that we need to keep you scared. We need to scare others so they can understand how scared we are.”
The answer, really, is simple.
This is a great write up by Aitana, I think anyone that wants to gain a little bit of insight into the massive propaganda machine that targets American Jewish communities should read it.
This is an amazing write up that many people will find extremely useful.
Glasperlenspiel | Nie vergessen
Mexico: Ground Zero in the fight against Monsanto for the future of maize
May 13, 2013In the 2011 action-thriller “Unknown”, scientists are persecuted by the biotech industry because they plan the open release of a drought- and pest-resistant strain of maize that could help eradicate world hunger.
There are certain parallels with the situation today in Mexico, the birthplace of maize, which is at the centre of the global fight to protect the crop’s diversity from the onslaught of genetically modified varieties.
“It’s the first time in history that one of the most important harvests in the world is threatened in its centre of diversity,” Pat Mooney, the head of the Action Group on Erosion, Technology and Concentration (ETC Group), an international NGO, told IPS.
“If we let the companies win, there will be no chance to defend them in other parts. What is happening here is of key importance for the rest of the world.”
Civil society organisations are raising their guard against the possibility that the government of conservative President Enrique Peña Nieto of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) may approve commercial cultivation of transgenic maize, a move widely condemned by environmentalists and other activists, academics, and small and medium producers due to the risks it poses.
In September, the U.S. corporations Monsanto, Pioneer and Dow Agrosciences presented six applications for commercial plantations of transgenic maize on more than two million hectares in the northwestern state of Sinaloa and the northeastern state of Tamaulipas.
Moreover, in January these companies and Syngenta presented 11 applications for pilot and experimental plots to grow transgenic corn on 622 hectares in the northern states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, Sinaloa and Baja California. And Monsanto has applied for an additional plantation in an unspecified area in the north of the country.
Since 2009, the Mexican government has issued 177 permits for experimental plots of transgenic maize covering an area of 2,664 hectares, according to the latest figures provided by the authorities.
But large-scale commercial release of GM maize has not yet been authorised.
“They are going to serve up transgenic maize on every table in spite of the fact that food sovereignty depends on growing native corn,” said Evangelina Robles, a member of Red en Defensa del Maíz (Maize Defence Network) which campaigns against GM corn. “As a result, we have to demand its prohibition by the state,” she told IPS.
Mexico produces 22 million tonnes of maize a year, and imports 10 million tonnes, according to the agriculture ministry. The country purchased about two million tonnes of GM maize from South Africa over the last two years, and is set to import another 150,000 tonnes.
Three million maize farmers cultivate about eight million hectares in Mexico, two million of which are devoted to family farming. White maize is the main crop for human consumption, while yellow maize, for animal feed, is largely imported.
The National Council for the Evaluation of Social Policy (CONEVAL) estimates the country’s annual consumption of maize at 123 kg per person, compared to a world average of 16.8 kg.
The historical link with pre-Columbian indigenous cultures gives maize a strong symbolic and cultural significance throughout Mesoamerica, the area comprising southern Mexico and Central America, where it was domesticated, producing 59 landraces or native strains and 209 varieties.
In the state of Mexico, adjacent to the capital city’s Federal District, small farmers have found their native maize to be contaminated with GM maize, according to tests carried out by students at the state Autonomous Metropolitan University.
“We swapped seeds and decided to do some tests. Now we are more careful when exchanging, and over who participates in the fair, although we still have to carry out confirmation tests,” activist Sara López, of the Red Origen Volcanes (Volcanoes Origins Network), an association of small farmers that has been organising producers’ fairs since 2010, told IPS.
Environmental, scientific and small farmers’ organisations have discovered GM contamination of native maize in Chihuahua, Hidalgo, Puebla and Oaxaca.
Contamination is “a carefully and perversely planned strategy,” according to Camila Montecinos, from the Chile office of GRAIN, an international NGO that works to support small farmers and social movements in their struggles for community-controlled and biodiversity-based food systems.
Transnational food companies “chose maize, soy and canola because of their enormous potential for contamination (by wind-pollination),” said Montecinos, one of the experts participating in the preliminary hearing on transgenic contamination of native maize at the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal, an international opinion tribunal which opened its Mexican chapter in 2012 and will conclude with a non-binding ruling in 2014.
“When contamination spreads, the companies claim that the presence of transgenic crops must be recognised and legalised,” in order to pave the way for marketing the GM seeds, to which they own the patents, she said.
Mexico’s environment minister, Juan Guerra, has said that all available scientific information will be examined before a decision is made.
But that will not be easy. The National Confederation of Campesinos (Small Farmers), one of the main internal movements in the ruling PRI, has had an agreement with Monsanto since 2007 under which the company is to “conserve” native varieties.
Meanwhile, the Peña Nieto government still has not approved regulations for the format and contents of reports on the results of releasing GM organisms, and the possible threats to the environment, biodiversity, and the health of animals, plants and fish.
“For 18 years, corporations have been unsuccessful in convincing the people that their products are good. Maize is being used as a means of political and economic control. People need maize to be alive,” the ETC Group’s Mooney said.
The transgenic seeds on the market are herbicide-resistant Roundup Ready and Bt (for the Bacillus thuringiensis gene they carry for pest resistance) versions of cotton, maize, soy and canola. While they are legally grown in Canada, the United States, Argentina, Brazil and Spain, they are banned for example in China, Russia and the majority of the EU countries.
Recent studies published in the United States show that transgenic crops do not significantly increase yield per hectare, do not reduce herbicide use, and do not increase resistance to pests, in contrast to biotech industry claims.
“We are analysing what legal action to take against the new applications (to plant GM maize),” said Robles, of the Maize Defence Network.
Monsanto KILLS.
