Random News Stories

[Junkenstein]

The spillover angle from Syria is well worth watching, I'd guess. If nothing else it starts sowing seeds for future conflicts. Will once again read more and try and get better ideas here.

This is, well, It's something:
http://allafrica.com/stories/201311140217.html

Decades after its formation, the Occult-Related Crime Unit (ORCU, founded by Kobus "Donker" Jonker in 1992) continues to waste public resources, misdirect police attention, and stigmatise young people who are by and large more misunderstood than malignant.

Amongst all the crimes that we can speculate police in this unit might have seen, there's one we can be sure of - and it's one that they are complicit in. The crime in question is against common sense and morality, and is vested in the reinforcing of a Christian evangelical "Satanic Panic".

In the context of South Africa's constitutionally-protected freedom of religion, restricting membership of a police unit to only Christians - and dedicating that unit to protecting a Christian version of reality - is itself worthy of special attention as an occult-related crime.

Because a unit can't investigate itself, I'd ask the Minister of Police to consider funding a new Occult-Related-Related Crimes Unit, which I volunteer to lead. Our mission? To be ruthless in pursuing crimes related to simplistic, moralising, and religiously prejudiced views of crime, society at large, and especially the youth.

Even on the very fuzzy definition of "occult" used by ORCU, too few such crimes occur to merit the existence of a dedicated unit. But it is in the definition of these crimes, as well as the background metaphysics and psychology, that ORCU starts to appear just as spooky as the crimes and motivations ORCU exists to combat.

More at the link.

[Junkenstein]

How not to get away with it # 3533:

http://wtkr.com/2013/11/18/court-documents-man-accused-of-murder-had-handwritten-confession-note-in-his-wallet/

ames City County, Va. – NewsChannel 3 combed through court records surrounding the case against Nace Houchin. He's accused of murdering a fellow soldier's wife.
Paperwork from James City County shows Houchin had a handwritten note in his wallet confessing to the murder of Dana Mackay.

[Junkenstein]

The "You should have seen this shit coming" files:

http://www.opposingviews.com/i/society/crime/student-attacked-during-school-meeting-about-bullying

The official legal complaint states the following: "During the meeting, Avery Brooks was becoming visibly agitated while her behavior was being discussed - shortly thereafter, she got up and went to Imani Batista, and punched her in the head and face approximately seven times; none of the defendants, who were sitting near and next to Avery Brooks, did anything to restrain her prior to or during the attack; defendants had a duty to protect Imani Batista at all times during the meeting, including before the attack and during the attack, by restraining Avery Brooks, as soon as she stood up and approached Imani Batista, rather they sat and viewed Avery Brooks repeatedly punch Imani Batista in her head and face, leaving only her mother to attempt to physically stop the attack."

October was the School District of Philadelphia's Bullying Prevention Awareness Month, during which it held numerous events to expose the issue.

This is quite an impressive failing in the duty to care.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

The "You should have seen this shit coming" files:

http://www.opposingviews.com/i/society/crime/student-attacked-during-school-meeting-about-bullying

The official legal complaint states the following: "During the meeting, Avery Brooks was becoming visibly agitated while her behavior was being discussed - shortly thereafter, she got up and went to Imani Batista, and punched her in the head and face approximately seven times; none of the defendants, who were sitting near and next to Avery Brooks, did anything to restrain her prior to or during the attack; defendants had a duty to protect Imani Batista at all times during the meeting, including before the attack and during the attack, by restraining Avery Brooks, as soon as she stood up and approached Imani Batista, rather they sat and viewed Avery Brooks repeatedly punch Imani Batista in her head and face, leaving only her mother to attempt to physically stop the attack."

October was the School District of Philadelphia's Bullying Prevention Awareness Month, during which it held numerous events to expose the issue.

This is quite an impressive failing in the duty to care.

Well, it was an anti-bullying meeting.  That should have prevented it on its own merits.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

WTF http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/11/19/2966371/hawaii-homeless-smash/

So this lunatic finds shopping carts that belong to businesses in the area and destroys them so homeless people can't use them, rather than returning them to the businesses or leaving them so that the usual shopping-cart-roundup people can take them back to where they belong. And local businesses are OK with this? ANYONE is OK with this?

What a sociopathic dumbfuck.

[Cain]

Republicans - the party of PROPERTY RIGHTS and stopping the state INTERFERRING IN PEOPLE'S LIVES.

[Junkenstein]

Hey Cain, Vice but worth a look:
http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/why-are-indian-authorities-ignoring-the-deaths-of-nuclear-scientists

Indian nuclear scientists haven't had an easy time of it over the past decade. Not only has the scientific community been plagued by "suicides", unexplained deaths and sabotage, but those incidents have gone mostly underreported in the country, diluting public interest and leaving the cases quickly cast off by police.

Last month, two high-ranking engineers – KK Josh and Abhish Shivam – on India's first nuclear-powered submarine were found on railway tracks by workers. They were pulled from the line before a train could crush them, but were already dead. No marks were found on the bodies, so it was clear they hadn't been hit by a moving train, and reports allege they were poisoned elsewhere before being placed on the tracks to make the deaths look either accidental or like a suicide. The media and the Ministry of Defence, however, described the incident as a routine accident and didn't investigate any further.   

This is the latest in a long list of suspicious deaths. When nuclear scientist Lokanathan Mahalingam's body turned up in June of 2009, it was palmed off as a suicide and largely ignored by the Indian media. However, Pakistani outlets – perhaps unsurprisingly, given relations between the two countries – kept the story going, noting how quick authorities were to label the death a suicide considering no note was left.

Five years earlier, in the same forest where Mahalingham's body was eventually discovered, an armed group with sophisticated weaponry allegedly tried to abduct an official from India's Nuclear Power Corporation (NPC). He, however, managed to escape. Another NPC employee, Ravi Mule, had been murdered weeks before, with police failing to "make any headway" into his case and effectively leaving his family to investigate the crime. A couple of years later, in April of 2011, when the body of former scientist Uma Rao was found, authorities ruled the death as suicide, but family members contested the verdict, saying there had been no signs that Rao was suicidal.   

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

The 80's were pre-Nickelback, I'll give them that.
Stella
developing a belated appreciation of Hey Mickey 

NOPE.

With the exception of The Talking Heads, the entire decade of the 80s can kiss my diseased and festering arse.

Even Elton John sucked in the 80s.

I still like a lot of the music that came out in the 80's, like Cyndi Lauper and Peter Gabriel.

Cyndi is profoundly AWESOME.
But Madonna became the Huge Big Deal Of The 80's and got inducted in the R&R Hall of Fame, which says a lot about the 80's.

There WAS music made then that I liked, and some that I still listen to. I just hated the 80's. I hated putting crap in my hair to make it stick up, I hated the Reagans, I hated wearing pants up to my ribs, I hated seeing conservative shit in Rolling Stone and hearing it on fucking ROCK stations, FFS, I hated shoulder pads, I hated the "We ALL used to be hippies and now we ALL cut our hair and chase the almighty dollar!" trope, I hated neon orange with lime green and purple ON THE SAME GARMENT, I hated pointy shoes, I hated Huey Lewis and WHAM and Human League and a fuckton of others whose names I have mercifully forgotten, I hated "Thirtysomething", and that talk show host with the big teeth, and that live action Beauty and the Beast TV show, I hated big plastic Sally Jesse Raphael glasses, the whole decade was just 1000 kinds of hideous and brain-washy.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

The 80's were pre-Nickelback, I'll give them that.
Stella
developing a belated appreciation of Hey Mickey 

NOPE.

With the exception of The Talking Heads, the entire decade of the 80s can kiss my diseased and festering arse.

Even Elton John sucked in the 80s.

I still like a lot of the music that came out in the 80's, like Cyndi Lauper and Peter Gabriel.

Cyndi is profoundly AWESOME.
But Madonna became the Huge Big Deal Of The 80's and got inducted in the R&R Hall of Fame, which says a lot about the 80's.

There WAS music made then that I liked, and some that I still listen to. I just hated the 80's. I hated putting crap in my hair to make it stick up, I hated the Reagans, I hated wearing pants up to my ribs, I hated seeing conservative shit in Rolling Stone and hearing it on fucking ROCK stations, FFS, I hated shoulder pads, I hated the "We ALL used to be hippies and now we ALL cut our hair and chase the almighty dollar!" trope, I hated neon orange with lime green and purple ON THE SAME GARMENT, I hated pointy shoes, I hated Huey Lewis and WHAM and Human League and a fuckton of others whose names I have mercifully forgotten, I hated "Thirtysomething", and that talk show host with the big teeth, and that live action Beauty and the Beast TV show, I hated big plastic Sally Jesse Raphael glasses, the whole decade was just 1000 kinds of hideous and brain-washy.

I just ran around in the woods and did what I wanted. I wore pegged old man pants and oversized men's shirts with the sleeves cut off, or miniskirts with saddle shoes and suspenders. Because fuck it. If you hated it, why do it?

Also, the A-Team and MacGyver and David Letterman were AWESOME.

[P3nT4gR4m]

The 80's were pre-Nickelback, I'll give them that.
Stella
developing a belated appreciation of Hey Mickey 

NOPE.

With the exception of The Talking Heads, the entire decade of the 80s can kiss my diseased and festering arse.

Even Elton John sucked in the 80s.

I still like a lot of the music that came out in the 80's, like Cyndi Lauper and Peter Gabriel.

Cyndi is profoundly AWESOME.
But Madonna became the Huge Big Deal Of The 80's and got inducted in the R&R Hall of Fame, which says a lot about the 80's.

There WAS music made then that I liked, and some that I still listen to. I just hated the 80's. I hated putting crap in my hair to make it stick up, I hated the Reagans, I hated wearing pants up to my ribs, I hated seeing conservative shit in Rolling Stone and hearing it on fucking ROCK stations, FFS, I hated shoulder pads, I hated the "We ALL used to be hippies and now we ALL cut our hair and chase the almighty dollar!" trope, I hated neon orange with lime green and purple ON THE SAME GARMENT, I hated pointy shoes, I hated Huey Lewis and WHAM and Human League and a fuckton of others whose names I have mercifully forgotten, I hated "Thirtysomething", and that talk show host with the big teeth, and that live action Beauty and the Beast TV show, I hated big plastic Sally Jesse Raphael glasses, the whole decade was just 1000 kinds of hideous and brain-washy.

I just ran around in the woods and did what I wanted. I wore pegged old man pants and oversized men's shirts with the sleeves cut off, or miniskirts with saddle shoes and suspenders. Because fuck it. If you hated it, why do it?

Also, the A-Team and MacGyver and David Letterman were AWESOME.

So much this! I loved laughing at all those things Stelz mentioned. I loved pushing past the bouncers into clubs full of those twats and turning the dance floor into a mosh pit with the assistance of half a dozen of my equally scruffy and equally shitfaced mates. I loved it because we were 18 and immortal and Saturday night wasn't Saturday night unless we smashed up a bunch of stuff and got arrested!

Nowadays, when I hear Bananarama or Duran Duran, I'm transported right back to that time and that place where we left a pile of bodies blocking the fire exits before they got the better of us, kicked the living shit out of us and left us for dead, bleeding in the gutter and pissing ourselves laughing.

I remember thinking "I don't belong in this decade and I'm going to make it pay for that" Then the 90's rolled along and I thought the exact same thing.

Still waiting...

[minuspace]

The 80's were pre-Nickelback, I'll give them that.
Stella
developing a belated appreciation of Hey Mickey 

NOPE.

With the exception of The Talking Heads, the entire decade of the 80s can kiss my diseased and festering arse.

Even Elton John sucked in the 80s.

I still like a lot of the music that came out in the 80's, like Cyndi Lauper and Peter Gabriel.

Cyndi is profoundly AWESOME.
But Madonna became the Huge Big Deal Of The 80's and got inducted in the R&R Hall of Fame, which says a lot about the 80's.

There WAS music made then that I liked, and some that I still listen to. I just hated the 80's. I hated putting crap in my hair to make it stick up, I hated the Reagans, I hated wearing pants up to my ribs, I hated seeing conservative shit in Rolling Stone and hearing it on fucking ROCK stations, FFS, I hated shoulder pads, I hated the "We ALL used to be hippies and now we ALL cut our hair and chase the almighty dollar!" trope, I hated neon orange with lime green and purple ON THE SAME GARMENT, I hated pointy shoes, I hated Huey Lewis and WHAM and Human League and a fuckton of others whose names I have mercifully forgotten, I hated "Thirtysomething", and that talk show host with the big teeth, and that live action Beauty and the Beast TV show, I hated big plastic Sally Jesse Raphael glasses, the whole decade was just 1000 kinds of hideous and brain-washy.

I still maintain that purple should hardly ever be used for garments, except, of course, for fools thinking that they deserve it.  They can even wear it with black on Friday, for all I care, fashion is even more passé than superstition.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I look great in purple.

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

The 80's were pre-Nickelback, I'll give them that.
Stella
developing a belated appreciation of Hey Mickey 

NOPE.

With the exception of The Talking Heads, the entire decade of the 80s can kiss my diseased and festering arse.

Even Elton John sucked in the 80s.

I still like a lot of the music that came out in the 80's, like Cyndi Lauper and Peter Gabriel.

Cyndi is profoundly AWESOME.
But Madonna became the Huge Big Deal Of The 80's and got inducted in the R&R Hall of Fame, which says a lot about the 80's.

There WAS music made then that I liked, and some that I still listen to. I just hated the 80's. I hated putting crap in my hair to make it stick up, I hated the Reagans, I hated wearing pants up to my ribs, I hated seeing conservative shit in Rolling Stone and hearing it on fucking ROCK stations, FFS, I hated shoulder pads, I hated the "We ALL used to be hippies and now we ALL cut our hair and chase the almighty dollar!" trope, I hated neon orange with lime green and purple ON THE SAME GARMENT, I hated pointy shoes, I hated Huey Lewis and WHAM and Human League and a fuckton of others whose names I have mercifully forgotten, I hated "Thirtysomething", and that talk show host with the big teeth, and that live action Beauty and the Beast TV show, I hated big plastic Sally Jesse Raphael glasses, the whole decade was just 1000 kinds of hideous and brain-washy.

I just ran around in the woods and did what I wanted. I wore pegged old man pants and oversized men's shirts with the sleeves cut off, or miniskirts with saddle shoes and suspenders. Because fuck it. If you hated it, why do it?

Also, the A-Team and MacGyver and David Letterman were AWESOME.

Yeah, I wore 501's because you couldn't even BUY low pants. I tore the shoulder pads out of jackets and if nothing hung right, fuck it. I wore a lot of cut up t-shirts. No woods where I was, though - Houston, mostly. UNNNNNGGGGGGGH.

[minuspace]

I look great in purple.

Of course you do, but that is beyond a question of merit or entitlement, and you know that because it's true.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I look great in purple.

Of course you do, but that is beyond a question of merit or entitlement, and you know that because it's true.

What does merit or entitlement have to do with wearing purple? Are you just bein' zany again?