Jesus Malverde
Jesus Malverde's JournalIsraeli LGBT activists mobilize online after gay rights bill fails
'My country defines me by my sexual orientation,' laments campaign leader. 'It defines me as unacceptable. As unequal to my brothers or friends.'LGBT rights activists have taken to Facebook to protest and vent over the failure of a bill that would ban discrimination based on sexual orientation.
When the bill was blocked from reaching the Knesset plenum for a vote, gay rights activist Yonatan Vanunu started a Hebrew-language Facebook page on Tuesday under the banner “LGBTs Demand Equality." By Wednesday evening, it garnered nearly 4,000 likes.
In a post on his Facebook page, Vanunu lashed out against what he sees as a general and pervasive rejection of LGBT people by the government.
“I did full military service, I am an independent business owner who pays taxes, I pursued academic studies and I am also gay," he wrote. "Many people say that sexual orientation does not define the person; that being gay is only in bed; that no one cares what I do behind closed doors. And there's nothing that annoys me more than this attitude. Homosexuality is not just in bed! It’s a relationship, it’s a family, it’s a community.
“Surprisingly enough, my country actually does define me by my sexual orientation. It defines me as unacceptable. As unequal to my brothers or friends. Although I’m single now, someday I also want to get married and start a family in Israel."
http://www.haaretz.com/misc/article-print-page/.premium-1.563186
Why Is Saudi Arabia Buying 15,000 U.S. Anti-Tank Missiles for a War It Will Never Fight? Hint: Syria
Source: Foreign Policy
— No one is expecting a tank invasion of Saudi Arabia anytime soon, but the kingdom just put in a huge order for U.S.-made anti-tank missiles that has Saudi-watchers scratching their heads and wondering whether the deal is related to Riyadh's support for the Syrian rebels.
The proposed weapons deal, which the Pentagon notified Congress of in early December, would provide Riyadh with more than 15,000 Raytheon anti-tank missiles at a cost of over $1 billion. According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies' Military Balance report, Saudi Arabia's total stockpile this year amounted to slightly more than 4,000 anti-tank missiles. In the past decade, the Pentagon has notified Congress of only one other sale of anti-tank missiles to Saudi Arabia -- a 2009 deal that shipped roughly 5,000 missiles to the kingdom.
"It's a very large number of missiles, including the most advanced version of the TOWs [tube-launched, optically tracked, wire-guided missiles]," said Jeffrey White, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and a former intelligence analyst at the Defense Intelligence Agency. "The problem is: What's the threat?"
That's a tough question to answer. A military engagement with Iran, the most immediate potential threat faced by Riyadh, would be largely a naval and air engagement over the Persian Gulf. Saudi Arabia has fought a series of deadly skirmishes with insurgents in northern Yemen over the years, but those groups have no more than a handful of military vehicles. And Iraq, which posed a real threat during Saddam Hussein's day, is far too consumed by its internal demons and the fallout from the war in Syria to ponder such foreign adventurism.
Read more: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/12/12/why_is_saudi_arabia_buying_15000_us_anti_tank_missiles_for_a_land_war_it_will_ne
U.S. general who opened Guantanamo prison says shut it down
Source: Reuters
The U.S. general who opened the Guantanamo detention camp said Thursday it was a mistake and should be shut down because "it validates every negative perception of the United States."
"In retrospect, the entire detention and interrogation strategy was wrong," Marine Major General Michael Lehnert wrote in a column published in the Detroit Free Press.
Lehnert, now retired from the military and living in Michigan, was the first commander of the task force that opened the detention camp in January 2002 at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base in Cuba.
He said the United States opened it "because we were legitimately angry and frightened" by the September 11 hijacked plane attacks in 2001 and thought the captives sent there would provide "a treasure trove of information and intelligence."
Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/u-general-opened-guantanamo-prison-says-shut-down-164444821.html
Wonder if he's worried about war crime trials or really has come around...
Key Democrat Caves to White House on Iran Sanctions
Source: Foreign Policy
A last-minute effort to introduce new Iran sanctions legislation before the Christmas recess collapsed on Thursday morning following intense pressure from the White House and State Department.
Ever since Iran and six world powers signed an interim agreement to restrain Tehran's nuclear program, the Obama administration has opposed any new sanctions legislation against the Islamic state, saying it would derail delicate nuclear talks in Geneva. In defiance of that position, Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer, the No. 2 Democrat in the House, huddled with House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), Rep. Ed Royce (R-Calif.) and Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) to craft a non-binding resolution that outlines the terms of a final nuclear deal with Iran and calls for additional sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
A congressional aide tells The Cable that Hoyer personally made edits to the resolution and all four lawmakers agreed on the final language as of Wednesday night. However, on Thursday morning, Hoyer backed off unexpectedly.
"Mr. Hoyer decided now was not the time to move forward with a resolution given implementation talks have not yet wrapped in Vienna," Hoyer spokeswoman Stephanie Young tells The Cable, referring to upcoming talks in Austria.
Read more: http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/12/12/key_democrat_caves_to_white_house_on_iran_sanctions
Thank you Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer for your incredible courage.
Report: VA lobotomized 2,000 disturbed veterans
The U.S. government lobotomized roughly 2,000 mentally ill veterans — and likely hundreds more — during and after World War II, according to a cache of forgotten memos, letters and government reports unearthed by The Wall Street Journal.
“They got the notion they were going to come to give me a lobotomy,” Roman Tritz, a World War II bomber pilot, told the newspaper in a report published Wednesday. “To hell with them.”
Tritz said the orderlies at the veterans hospital pinned him to the floor, and he initially fought them off. A few weeks later, just before his 30th birthday, he was lobotomized.
Besieged by psychologically damaged troops returning from the battlefields of North Africa, Europe and the Pacific, the Veterans Administration performed the brain-altering operation on former servicemen it diagnosed as depressives, psychotics and schizophrenics, and occasionally on people identified as homosexuals, according to the report.
The VA’s use of lobotomy, in which doctors severed connections between parts of the brain then thought to control emotions, was known in medical circles in the late 1940s and early 1950s, and is occasionally cited in medical texts. But the VA’s practice, never widely publicized, long ago slipped from public view. Even the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs says it possesses no records detailing the creation and breadth of its lobotomy program.
http://www.armytimes.com/article/20131211/NEWS/312110013/Report-VA-lobotomized-2-000-disturbed-veterans
Scientist create 'robotic sperm' to help with fertilisation and drug delivery
Scientists have created the first ever “sperm-based biobots” by trapping single sperm cells inside metal nanotubes and remotely controlling their direction using magnets.
The resulting biobot (a ‘biological robot’, referring to a bacterium or cell which has been programmed to behave in a certain way) could be put to a range of uses, including delivering drugs to a specific target in the body or fertilising an egg, reports New Scientist.
The experiments have been led by Oliver Schmidt at the Institute for Integrative Nanosciences in Dresden, Germany. Schmidt and his team created magnetic nanotubes 50 microns long by 5 to 8 microns in diameter and dropped these into a fluid containing bull sperm.
The tubes, which are narrower at one end to stop the sperm from escaping, can then be rotated by using magnetic fields. The tail-like flagellum of the sperm cell sticks outside the end of the tube and powers the biobot around the fluid like an outboard motor.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/scientist-create-robotic-sperm-to-help-with-fertilisation-and-drug-delivery-8999796.html
Medical Test Surprises: What Should You Be Told?
It's a growing side effect of modern medicine: A test for one condition turns up something completely unrelated. It might be a real danger, or an anxiety-provoking false alarm.
Doctors dub this the dreaded "incidentaloma" — so-called incidental findings that tell people more than they bargained for, things they might not need or want to know.
A presidential advisory council said Thursday it's time to be more up-front about that risk with patients before their next X-ray or gene test turns up a disturbing surprise.
"Incidental findings can be life-saving, but they also can lead to uncertainty and distress," cautioned Amy Gutmann of the University of Pennsylvania, who chairs the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues.
It's an issue that "will likely touch all of us who seek medical care, participate in research, or send a cheek swab to a company for a peek at our own genetic makeup," she said.
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/medical-test-surprises-told-21197307
The bioethics panel is urging better anticipation of and communication about how they handle these surprises. Among the recommendations:
—Doctors, researchers and direct-to-consumer companies alike should inform potential patients about the possibility of incidental findings before they undergo a medical test. They should clearly explain what will and won't be disclosed, so patients can make an informed decision about whether and how to proceed.
Professional groups should develop guidelines about incidental findings common to different tests, and how to handle them.
—The government should fund more research into the costs, benefits and harms of identifying, disclosing and managing different incidental findings.
—Health workers should explore the pros and cons of test results with patients ahead of time, in what's called shared decision-making, to learn what they don't want to be told.
The opt-out provision differs from guidelines issued earlier this year by the American College of Medical Genetics. That group says laboratories should automatically notify doctors if genetic tests turn up any of about 50 genes linked to two dozen diseases that might be treatable or preventable if discovered early.
Chinese protesters drink pesticide
A dozen residents of a central Chinese city protested the demolition of their homes by drinking pesticide in Beijing in a desperate bid for attention that underscores the failures of a decades-old petitioning system.
The 12 survived the protest Tuesday near a historic watchtower in the heart of China's capital after police sent them to a hospital, where they were being treated Wednesday for poisoning, said Wang Yuping, one of the residents.
Chinese petitioners sometimes are driven to extreme measures as their frustration boils over after years of unresolved grievances and routine beatings by local authorities.
Wang, 40, and the others had traveled to Beijing from a district in Wuhan, the provincial capital of Hubei province, to draw attention to their complaints. Wang described the protest as a group suicide attempt.
"We have been petitioning for so many years, but either we have been dragged back home or locked in secret jails and beaten, and no one has been willing to help us," Wang said by telephone. "We felt like there was no hope left."
http://www.sfgate.com/world/article/Chinese-protesters-drink-pesticide-5056655.php
California prostitutes win victim compensation
California officials have voted to allow prostitutes to receive money from a victim compensation fund if they have been raped or beaten.
The vote by the Victim Compensation and Government Claims Board on Thursday changes a 1990s-era anti-crime regulation.
The rule had excluded prostitutes from the list of people who could be reimbursed for medical costs and related expenses if they were harmed during violent crimes, because their activities are illegal.
Chairwoman Marybel Batjer called the rule "repugnant" and said "rape is rape, period."
http://www.sfgate.com/news/crime/article/California-prostitutes-win-victim-compensation-5057249.php
Police not feeling the love for 'snuggle' business
Wisconsin's ultra-liberal capital city is a place where just about anything goes, from street parties to naked bike rides. But city officials say a business is pushing even Madison's boundaries by offering, of all things, hugs.
For $60, customers at the Snuggle House can spend an hour hugging, cuddling and spooning with professional snugglers.
Snugglers contend that touching helps relieve stress. But Madison officials suspect the business is a front for prostitution and, if it's not, fear that snuggling could lead to sexual assault. Not buying the message that the business is all warm and fuzzy, police have talked openly about conducting a sting operation, and city attorneys are drafting a new ordinance to regulate snuggling.
"There's no way that (sexual assault) will not happen," assistant city attorney Jennifer Zilavy said. "No offense to men, but I don't know any man who wants to just snuggle."
http://www.sfgate.com/nation/article/Police-not-feeling-the-love-for-snuggle-business-5046929.php
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Name: Jesus MalverdeGender: Male
Hometown: SF
Current location: Japan
Member since: Fri May 17, 2013, 11:44 PM
Number of posts: 10,274