We can argue about the looting and brick-throwing. We can argue about what constitutes a race “riot” these days -- and why in the world we are seeing teargas being shot every other evening in the suburbs, or why Jim Crow-reminiscent police dogs are being released in the year 2014.
Charlie-Bravo-Haji, we see them coming. Arm up the MRAP before they lawyer up.
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There are a lot of things worth arguing about now that the world’s eyes are focused on Ferguson, Missouri, a town where two-thirds of the population is black yet 50 of the 53 police offers there are white and where one of those officers infamously gunned down an unarmed black kid in broad daylight.
But here is something that makes no sense: Ferguson (population 21,135) has about 40 robberies per year, a couple of homicides, almost no arson cases, and a crime rate only a bit higher than the national average. Indeed, the town’s crime rate was going down as of two years ago, when the last major data set is available. Ditto in neighboring St. Louis.
Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicles (MRAP) save military lives while killing lots of bystanders and civilians. Oh well. Survivors share stories. Since it was established in October 2006, the Joint MRAP Vehicle Program has delivered more than 26, 000 MRAP vehicles to Iraq and Afghanistan. This is the largest acquisition program for the Department of Defense since World War II. Video courtesy of Marines TV (player.theplatform.com). Still want to glorify war? Then visit jieddo.dod.mil or why not follow the militants on Twitter (twitter.com/JIEDDO) while being spied by Facebook (facebook.com/TheJIEDDO)?
Now St. Louis isn’t exactly the ideal of safety, but two years ago the St. Louis Police Department acquired a Lenco BearCat armored military vehicle, a “tactical support vehicle,” and a helicopter that’s popular with the Korean Air Force. Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security donated a 22-ton Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle -- the thing the US military used on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan -- to the police department in nearby St. Charles, Missouri (population 66,463). More - Latest - Most Read - Did you miss it...
The Assault Breacher Vehicle (ABV) is a tracked armored engineer vehicle specifically designed for conducting in-stride breaching of minefields and complex obstacles (armyrecognition.com). The ABV is built on the same chassis as the General Dynamics-built M1A1 Abrams main battle tank. The Assault Breacher Vehicle (ABV) is a single platform that will provide deliberate and in-stride breaching capability to the assault force of the Marine Air Ground Task Force. Army Recognition online Defence & Security magazine (eurosatory.com).
America now has a domestic police force that looks, thinks and acts more like an invading and occupying military than a community-based force to protect the public. More
This new documentary highlights worker-owned enterprises in North America and the remarkable Mondragon cooperatives in the Basque region of northern Spain. More
Like other water-related crises this year in West Virginia and Detroit, the poisoning of Toledo's water is tied to corruption at the highest levels of state government by corporate special interests. More
"I’m an engineer, not a politician. I don’t want the stage. I’m terrified of giving these talking heads some distraction, some excuse to jeopardize, smear, and delegitimize a very important movement.” More
Why men use prostitutes: The reasons why many men pay for sex are revealed in the interviews that make up a major new piece of research.
"I don't get anything out of sex with prostitutes except for a bad feeling," says Ben. An apparently average, thirtysomething, middle-class man, Ben had taken an extended lunchbreak from his job in advertising to talk about his experiences of buying sex. Shy and slightly nervous, he told me, "I am hoping that talking about it might help me work out why I do it."
Julie Bindel
I, too, was hoping to understand his motives better. Ben was one of 700 men interviewed for a major international research project seeking to uncover the reality about men who buy sex. The project spanned six countries. And of the 103 customers we spoke to in London -- where I was one of the researchers -- most were surprisingly keen to discuss their experiences.
The men didn't fall into obvious stereotypes. They were aged between 18 and 70 years old; they were white, black, Asian, eastern European; most were employed, and many were educated beyond [high]school level. In the main they were presentable, polite, with average-to-good social skills. Many were husbands and boyfriends; just over half were either married or in a relationship with a woman.
Science: 700 men were interviewed for the research project, which aimed to find out why men solicit and buy sex (Christina Griffiths/Getty Images/Flickr RM).
Research published in 2005 found that the numbers of men who pay for sex had doubled in a decade. The authors attributed this rise to "a greater acceptability of commercial sexual contact," yet many of our interviewees told us that they felt intense guilt and shame about paying for sex.
"I'm not satisfied in my mind" was how one described his feelings after paying for sex. Another told me that he felt "disappointed -- what a waste of money," "lonely still," and "guilty about my relationship with my wife." In fact, many of the men were a mass of contradictions. Despite finding their experiences "unfulfilling, empty, terrible," they continued to visit prostitutes.
I interviewed 12 of the men, and found it a fascinating experience. One told me about his experience of childhood cruelty and neglect and linked this to his inability to form close relationships with anyone, particularly women.
Alex admitted sex with prostitutes made him feel empty, but he had no idea how to get to know women "through the usual routes." When I asked him about his feelings towards the women he buys he said that, on the one hand, he wants prostitutes to get to know and like him. On the other hand, he is "not under delusions" that the encounters are anything like a real relationship. More
(FMT) An illegitimate mixed race daughter of a wealthy British aristocrat, a Royal Navy Admiral... based on a true story, "Belle" follows the story of an Dido Elizebeth Belle (played by Gugu Mbatha-Raw), the illegitimate mixed race daughter of a Royal Navy Admiral. Raised by her aristocratic great-uncle, Lord Mansfield, and his wife, Lady Mansfield, Dido's lineage affords her certain privileges, yet the color of her skin prevents her from fully participating in the traditions of her social standing. Left to wonder if she will ever find love (because she, unlike the women of her time, can afford to marry for love due to her handsome inheritance), Dido falls for an idealistic young [religieux, a] vicar's son bent on change who, with her help, shapes Lord Mansfield's role as Lord Chief Justice to end slavery in England.
An explosive new cover-story in the June 2014 issue of The Atlantic magazine by the famed essayist Ta-Nehisi Coates has rekindled a national discussion on reparations for American slavery and institutional racism.
Levittown, Penn. 1957 (AP/Bill Ingraham)
Coates explores how slavery, Jim Crow segregation, and federally-backed racist housing policy systematically and purposely robbed African Americans of their possessions [recapitulated in the recent Wall Street banking/mortgage housing bubble and foreclosure crisis] and prevented them from accruing inter-generational wealth.
Much of the essay focuses on predatory lending schemes that bilked potential African-American homeowners, concluding: "Until we reckon with our compounding moral debts, America will never be whole." More
"Belle": Romance, Race, and Slavery with Jane Austen style
After the success of movies about the brutality of slavery, the film Belle brings a new perspective. Actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw talks about her role as a mixed-race 18th century heroine.
British actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw was brought up on Jane Austen adaptations. "You know, the Pride and Prejudice with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle was something I watched on a weekly basis with my mum at home in Oxfordshire," she tells NPR's [magnificent but exiting "Tell Me More" host] Michel Martin. AUDIO: LISTEN NOW
(Fourman Films/Counterfire.org) What is "May Day," May 1st? Not much in America, even though it started here. But today is a very big deal in the rest of the world.
Racism is alive and well in America. First the federal government's BLM (Bureau of Land Management), which is eager to get its share of the 25,000,000 gunshot rounds the U.S. government's DHS has requested, used heavy handed tactics on a rural bumpkin who stepped in the poop, then a cosmopolitan white supremacist came down with Foot in Mouth disease.
Ever since 2012 things are being revealed. Last week revealed a racist cattle exploiter and cow killer ("rancher") thinking out loud about how Blacks might not be better off as slaves instead of dependent on government subsidies. Listen to his egregious statements:
Cowboy Cliven Bundy apologized but refused to retract the statements. Why? Because "if a man can't say things like that, then Martin Luther [King Jr.] has failed!"
Now, Commissioner Silver has slammed Sterling, the Jewish "owner" of a "team" of Black men who do what he says...but are not slaves. Don't call them "slaves," not even "wage slaves," because that would be racist. And if there's one thing the mainstream media will not tolerate is racism, when it feels like it.
(TMZ) Magic Johnson, Shaquille O'Neil, and Doc Rivers react. LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling told his "girlfriend" he does NOT want her bringing Black people to his games... including Magic Johnson. It's ALL on tape.
"The one editorial cartoon about Donald Sterling you have to see" says The Washington Post's Missy Khamvongsa: Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist for the Atlanta Journal-ConstitutionMike Luckovich sums up the Sterling debacle pretty succinctly. More
From NY, the commissioner has spoken: The NBA is banning Los Angeles Clippers billionaire owner Donald Sterling from the Clippers' organization for life after racist comments attributed to him went public.
He is also being fined $2.5 million. The penalties come just hours before the Clippers are set to host the Golden State Warriors in Game Five of their playoff series in Los Angeles.
An audio recording of an exchanges, or exchanges, with his "delicate" half-Latina and half-Black "girlfriend" was leaked over the weekend.
In it Sterling is allegedly heard telling her not to associate publicly with African-Americans or bring them to Clippers games. [She seems to bait him into incriminating himself further and revealing his true colors. Many have jumped in to add this was mild in comparison to many things the 80-year-old has said in the past]. More
Who is Sterling? What's his past? CC Liu (ed.) Wisdom Quarterly; KPCC/SCPR.org
He was born Donald Tokowitz in Chicago, Illinois, in 1934,
Left Chicago for Boyle Heights, now a Latino enclave in East Los Angeles but then a poor Jewish enclave (SI).
School: He graduated Cal State Los Angeles near Pasadena and Southwestern Univ. School of Law (SI).
He changed his last name to "Sterling" in his 20s because it “instilled confidence in people” (Dave Zirin, KPCC interview).
Practiced law in Boyle Heights then Beverly Hills (SI).
He became a real estate mogul, buying multiple apartment buildings in L.A. and Sterling Plaza.
He bought the Clippers in 1981 for $12.7 million (ESPN).
Net worth: $1.9 billion, ranks #328 in US (Forbes 2013).
How racist is Sterling's racism? BeforeItsNews.com, April 28, 2014 (edited by Wisdom Quarterly)
Racism is deplorable. Most Americans now will not stand for it. But many of us don't even realize we're doing it.! Yes, some are too sensitive, BUT most of us are too insensitive.
This is not the first time he is accused of race-based discrimination. Sterling was previously sued in a case that revealed that he ran the Clippers like a "Southern plantation owner." This is only the most recent example of Sterling’s well-documented hostility toward other races, particularly Blacks and Latinos. But this time the story and video went viral just as ballplayers and rights defenders wanted.
In a racial discrimination suit, former General Manager Elgin Baylor charged that Sterling ran the Clippers with the “vision of a Southern plantation-type structure” asking him to create a team of “poor black boys from the South and a white head coach.”
When interviewing one prospective white coach, Sterling reportedly asked, “I wanna know why you think you can coach these n**gers.”
Despite complaints from [basketball] players, Sterling has made a disturbing habit of bringing women into the locker room and saying things like “look at these beautiful Black bodies.”
[Remember, White plantation owners used to rape and sell Black children, boys and girls, their mothers and fathers, all of whom were their legal property -- a little discussed consequence of European-style slavery in America.
Billionaire modern-"slave" owner Sterling is a ruthless, bigoted slumlord: In 2009, he settled a case with the Department of Justice after paying out the largest settlement ever obtained in a government housing discrimination suit:
He was accused of systematically denying rental opportunities to prospective Black and Hispanic tenants across his Southern California properties. In court documents, he stated that "Black tenants smell and attract vermin." More
There are singing birds and stinging bees. Sex slavery = domestic human sex trafficking (EB)
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It is doubtful that all people will understand. Wisdom Quarterly is sex-positive, that is, we believe in sex.
We are opposed to sexual misconduct, sex slavery, human trafficking, forced prostitution, and harming (himsa) in all its forms. Yet, we remain sex-positive. People generally paint things in black and white; it is our Judeo-Christian legacy.
When I was raised I was taught I was a born sinner with depraved tendencies utterly incapable of behaving. Then I was told to "behave," to be "good," and more ludicrously to "smile." So every impulse proved the raisers (beyond parents these included uniformed authorities, in loco parentis school officials, relatives, and "go along to get along" neighbors) were right. There was no Kalama Sutra then. I was no better than Alanis Morissette trying to swallow a Jagged Little Pill:
"You know how us Catholic girls can be./Hey, hey!/ We make up for so much time a little too late./ I never forgot it, confusing as it was,/ No fun with no guilt feelings,/ The sinners, the saviors, the loverless priests!/ I'll see you next Sunday.// CHORUS: We all had our reasons to be there!/ We all had a thing or two to learn!/ We all needed something to cling to,/ So we did!// I sang Alleluia in the choir./Oh, hallelu, hallelu, hallelu-yah!/ I confessed my darkest deeds to an envious man./ My brothers they never "went blind" for what they did,/ But I may as well have!/ In the name of the Father, the Skeptic, and the Son,/ I had one more stupid question./ CHORUS/ What I learned I rejected, but I believe again!/ I will suffer the consequence of this Inquisition!/ If I jump in this [holy water] fountain, will I be forgiven?/ We all had our reasons to be there./ We all had a thing or two to learn./ We all needed something to cling to,/ So we did. We all had delusions in our head./ We all had our minds made up for us!/ We had to believe in something,/ So we did.
Sex is all bad. No, sex is all right. No, sex is a sin. Yes, it's all bad and bad is good, it's hot. The morass and mire of confusion never ends. We're raised to have this confusion and be exploited by by it. Look how prissy we are...and how sexy. Look how hypocritical we feel...and how pathetic we are.
Follow the supreme-way-of-living (spiritual celibacy of the brahmacarya with intensive meditation) or be tolerant, inclusive, and kind. Or maybe just shut up and listen. SWAAY once had everyone in L.A. upset about its billboards:
Sex Worker Billboards to Decriminalize Prostitution Roaming Streets of L.A.
We might call them victims or exploited, but a pro-sex-worker group founded in L.A. wants us to know pros are in control of their own bodies.
And it's doing so with mobile billboards that are being driven around town this week. The group, SWAAY (Sex Work Activists, Allies, and You), went mobile after claiming that every billboard company in town turned it down. Here's what the ads say:
Banned (rejected) billboards of L.A.
"Sex worker: a person who consensually exchanges his/her own sexual labor or sexual performance for compensation. Sex work is not the same as forced sex trafficking or sex slavery." Got that, Ashton Kutcher? SWAAY, which wants to decriminalize prostitution, is fuming over the rejection by L.A.'s major outdoor advertisers... More
Sherpas -- members of a Himalayan ethnic group renowned for their skill at high-altitude climbing -- are crucial to operations on Mount Everest.
They earn a mere $3,000-5,000 risking their lives helping others scale the mountain during each two-to-three-month climbing season. They do on a regular basis what others pay to accomplish just once in a lifetime, putting their lives at great risk for affluent clients due to poverty they are never able to emerge from.
Last Friday, an avalanche roared down a climbing route on Everest, killing 13 Sherpa guides and leaving three others missing. When it occurred the Sherpas, who have centuries of history in Nepal's alpine region, were working at 21,000 feet, fixing ropes and preparing the path ahead of peak mountaineering season.
Tibet's Rongbuk Buddhist monastery with Mt. Everest in background (wiki commons)
Who climbs Mt. Everest without a Sherpa?
As the Sherpa community mourns the loss of family members and friends, the group is considering an unprecedented move: a strike.
On Sunday, disappointed by the Nepali government’s offer of 40,000 rupees ($408) as compensation for the families of each of the dead, some Sherpas gathered at Everest’s base camp to propose a “work stoppage” that could disrupt or cancel the 334 expeditions planned for the 2014 climbing season.
Ellen Barry, South Asia Bureau Chief for The New York Times, says while Sherpas have lived with these conditions for many years, last week's accident changed things.
"I think just the magnitude of the loss of life from Friday's accident has prompted very unusual decisions," she says. More
America now has a domestic police force that looks, thinks and acts more like an invading and occupying military than a community-based force to protect the public. More 
This new documentary highlights worker-owned enterprises in North America and the remarkable Mondragon cooperatives in the Basque region of northern Spain. More 
Like other water-related crises this year in West Virginia and Detroit, the poisoning of Toledo's water is tied to corruption at the highest levels of state government by corporate special interests. More
"I’m an engineer, not a politician. I don’t want the stage. I’m terrified of giving these talking heads some distraction, some excuse to jeopardize, smear, and delegitimize a very important movement.” More
