Professional Documents
Culture Documents
- http://54.174.32.164
1 / 92
Table Of Contents
Qatar's World Cup Bribery Scandal ......................................... 4
Rand Paul vs Dick Cheney ................................................ 6
Razors Edge: Female Genital Mutilation ..................................... 7
Religion of Peace? Part 1: Sri Lanka ........................................ 10
Religion of Peace? Part 2: Burma .......................................... 13
Revisiting the Arab Spring: Tunisia Wins .................................... 16
Reward for Dead Jihadists: Iraq is on its way to becoming a failed state ............... 18
Russia Claims It Stole a U.S. Drone In Crimea ................................. 20
Russian Warship Arrives in Cuba, 200 Miles from U.S. ........................... 21
Saudi Arabia and the NSA Take on Gay Terrorists .............................. 22
Saudi Arabia Classifies Muslim Brotherhood as Terrorist Group .................... 24
Saudi Arabia Cracks Down on Activists ...................................... 26
Saudi Arabia Threatens Siege on Qatar ...................................... 27
Saudi Arabia's New Anti-Terror Law Criminalizes Free Speech ..................... 29
Saudi Newspaper Appoints First Female Editor ................................ 31
Saudi-Egyptian Allegiance ............................................... 32
Say No to Plants? ..................................................... 33
Scarlett Johansson & SodaStream vs The World ................................ 34
Security Searching Your Cell ............................................. 36
Selena Gomez vs Taylor Swift ............................................. 37
Sen. Dianne Feinstein: Hypocrite .......................................... 38
Sentencing Journalists .................................................. 40
Shakira and Rihanna Spark Lesbian Debate Around the World ..................... 41
Shia Militias and the Policy of Flip-Flopping .................................. 43
Signs of Global Warming ................................................ 45
Sisi & Egyptian Women ................................................. 46
Sochi Olympics: 1936 in the Modern Day .................................... 47
Sometimes, Irony Isn't Funny ............................................. 49
Steven Seagal is Putin's New Chum-Buddy .................................... 51
Suey Park's Pyrrhic Victory .............................................. 52
Tear Gas Ends Protest Against Albuquerque Police Shooting ....................... 55
Teens, Weeds, and the Seeds of Knowledge ................................... 57
Thai PM Yingluck Shinawatra's Political Future ............................... 59
Thailand's Military Declares Martial Law .................................... 60
Thailand's Unrest Claims Four More Lives ................................... 62
The Day We Fight Back: Google and Microsoft Protest the NSA .................... 64
The End of an Era ..................................................... 65
The Glass Bowl Doctrine: Nuking Arabs ..................................... 67
The Gun Control Debate Needs to End Already ................................ 70
The Islamic State is Wrong About Cannabis ................................... 72
The Myth of Non-Lethal Weapons .......................................... 74
The Need to Legalize Lebanese Weed ....................................... 76
2 / 92
79
81
83
86
87
88
89
91
3 / 92
London's the Sunday Times broke the story on June 1. Citing leaked documents such as e-mails, the
Times claimed former FIFA vice president Mohamed bin Hammam, who is currently Qatar's top football
official, used 10 slush funds and other forms of payment to bribe key members of 30 African football
organizations.
The e-mails reveal exchanges of large sums of money, anywhere between $10,000 and $200,000. One
from a Gambian official to bin Hammam stated, "I write to find out about the progress of my appeal
concerning the Vehicle. I have already got in my possession a colosal (sic) sum of ten thousand US
dollars... and any assistance will be of immense value to me."
In another e-mail to John Muinjo, Namibia's football chief, bin Hammam agreed to pay $50,000 to the
African official for "once-off financial assistance."
Bin Hammam's no stranger to bribery scandals. In 2011, he was banned from FIFA for life after the
association's Ethics Committee found him guilty of illicitly moving funds. After a failed appeal, bin
Hammam resigned from FIFA in 2012.
On June 5, reports of a secret meeting between bin Hammam and a European football official
complicated matters.
The president of the UEFA, Michael Platini, was implicated by association in the scandal because he had
an unannounced lunch with bin Hammam. Earlier this week, Platini demanded a review into Qatar's 2010
bid to host the World Cup, and now he's claiming his opponents are trying to destroy his character by
connecting him to the Qatari businessman.
"I don't regret anything at all," Platini said, according to the Telegraph. He reiterated a second round of
votes was "the right choice for FIFA and football worldwide. But if corruption is proved, there will need
to be a new vote and sanctions."
Platini wouldn't confirm if he believed Sepp Blatter, the current president of UEFA, is behind the
purported rumors connecting him to the bribery scandal. In an interview with L'Equipe, Platini said he
was like St. Thomas, unwilling to accept any gossip without direct evidence.
Some insiders speculate Platini, who is set to succeed Blatter as Europe's next football chief, pushed for a
revote in order to unseat the current president.
Blatter opposed Platini's position. The UEFA president announced Friday he would defend Qatar's right
to host the 2022 World Cup. During a conference in Brazil on Thursday, he said, "The executive
4 / 92
committee of FIFA said that the 2022 World Cup in Qatar was not in question."
Blatter also stated the public should wait for the investigation to complete before making any conclusions.
Although Blatter's now upholding the decision hold the 2022 games in Qatar, a few days earlier he piped
a different tune. According to Business Insider, he said the decision to pick Qatar was a "mistake," largely
due to the extreme heat during the summer months. The nation's average temperatures in the summer are
a dry 50C (120F), which could be lethal to the athletes.
Qatar is the first Middle Eastern country to ever win a bid to host the World Cup. Because of this, some
football officials called racism against those leaking the bribery documents.
Sheikh Ahmad al-Sabah, a president of Asia's Olympic associations, told the International Sports Press
Association that the allegations were "racist actions towards Qatar and Arabs, revealing the malice of
those parties in a way that has no justification."
Officials from Australia and Japan have been most vocal in support of a revote. Both nations competed
with Qatar and lost - for the 2022 bid.
The investigation will be led by U.S. attorney Michael Garcia. He's set to meet with the heads of various
football associations over the next week.
http://youtu.be/1XMtM5aUKgs
_______________________________________________
5 / 92
6 / 92
7 / 92
The lack of anesthesia may be due to the cost for such drugs, but it also stems from folk beliefs that the
girl must endure excruciating pain to strengthen her resolve as a good wife. The agony of the
circumcision is seen as a preparation for child bearing. In many cases, a circumcised female may
experience more pain from childbirth due to the circumcisions effect.
Without anesthesia, severe psychological trauma or, yet again, death can occur. Last June, Suhair alBata'a, a 13-year-old Egyptian girl, died during a botched circumcision in Cairo. Even though a trained
doctor performed the circumcision on Suhair, the shock alone caused the girl's blood pressure to drop
until her heart stopped.
With female circumcision, the girl rarely has any choice. She does not volunteer herself. And, most
telling, it is almost always a girl not a woman but a child who in nearly every culture is devoid of the
full rights that adults take for granted.
Egypt: A national plague
Suhair was not alone. Egypt has the worst record when it comes to female genital mutilation. According
to a recent UNICEF report, 80 percent of girls in Egypt have been circumcised, indicating that the
practice is slowly but steadily losing popularity compared to 96 percent in past years.
Female genital mutilation was outlawed by President Hosni Mubarak, and the ban only reduced the
female circumcision rate by a third. After Mubarak's ousting, Mohammed Morsi and the Muslim
Brotherhood, in full defiance of the ban, urged mothers to subject their daughters to the procedure.
In 2012, Azaa al-Jaraf, a female parliament member and a representative of the Brotherhood, argued for
the establishment of full sharia law in Egypt. She not only supported enforced female circumcisions, but
also fought to prevent women from divorcing their husbands, and to outlaw the teaching of English in
Egypt's schools.
The policies pushed by the Muslim Brotherhood, and other misogynistic agendas under Mubarak,
garnered Egypt a "Worst for Women" title from a Reuters poll. The poll gave the country the lowest
ranking out of 22 other Arab states regarding women's rights. Although female circumcision was a major
factor for Egypt's lowest ranking in the poll, other women's rights issues such as assault, harassment, and
access to public services also contributed to the placement.
The ritual of circumcision and its cultural value
When most Westerners think of female genital mutilation, they imagine a cruel practice that simply
mutilates a young girl to cater to the wishes of savage men. But theres more to it than that.
Surprisingly, the fiercest supporters of female circumcision in the Middle East and Africa are typically
women. Mothers, grandmothers, wives, and aunts often believe that circumcision is a sacred practice that
slices away a girl's childhood and elevates her into full adulthood. The ritual is almost always
accompanied by dance, prayer, singing, chanting and even parties or festivities to celebrate the girl's rite
of passage.
8 / 92
Female circumcision is also believed to reduce a girl's sexual libido thereby preserving her virginity
and, later in life, her loyalty to her husband.
Despite popular misconceptions, female circumcision is not an Islamic practice per se. The procedure, or
verses affirming it, are listed nowhere in the Quran. There are some hadiths that suggest Muslims should
practice female circumcision, but these hadiths meet a lot of disagreement in scholarly circles. Most
Islamic theologians consider these hadiths to be weak.
Christians, Jews, and animists throughout the Middle East and Africa also practice and enforce female
circumcision. Religion is a flimsy indicator for female circumcision; specific communities and ethnic
groups are more reliable indicators as to whether or not a local girl will undergo the rite.
Even in America...and Europe, too
A recent report from
9 / 92
10 / 92
Locations of Sri Lanka's 2014 anti-Muslim riots. For you geographically-challenged Americans,
India's located just off the upper-left corner of the map. (Source: Wikipedia)
But modernization always triggers an existential crisis. Something about all that industrial alienation...or
something.
To preserve their once endangered cultural identity, Sri Lanka's Buddhist government decided to take a
cue from World-Wars Europe: adopting rabid nationalism. You read that correctly. A nation that
supposedly follows the religion of compassionate, critical thought is now fevered from the selfish,
simplistic mob-mentality of jingoism.
As with all nationalist crazes, the Sri Lankan government also needs a new enemy, an ubiquitous "other"
for the nationalists to rally around and throw rotten tomatoes at. And from this they took their cue from
War-on-Terror America: blame the Muslims.
Just a couple of months ago, riots exploded between extremist Buddhists and Sri Lanka's local Muslim
population. Supposedly, the riots started because of a murder of a Buddhist allegedly committed by two
Muslims. From there, the Islamaphobic madness spread like ebola in Liberia, leading to the deaths of four
Muslims and leaving dozens seriously injured. Thousands of Muslims were displaced because of arson
and other wanton acts of destruction on small businesses (how's THAT for transcending materialism?).
The Badu Bala Sena (BBS) spearheads the anti-Muslim campaigns in Sri Lanka. Founded in 2012, the
nationalist movement incites violence and hatred against Muslims. They've even campaigned against
halal slaughter of livestock under the pretense that halal is cruel to animals (where have we heard that
before?).
Further, the BBS and its allies in the government are considering bans on marriages between Muslims
and Buddhists, much like Myanmar has done. They "fear" the Muslims specifically select Buddhist
women to marry-rape in an attempt to divide the nation.
It probably hasn't helped either that the group calling itself the Islamic State (IS) threatened to blow up
Borobudur, the largest Buddhist temple in the world.
YouTube Video
11 / 92
12 / 92
This isn't a scene from some dystopian sci-fi novel. This is real, and it's happening right now.
In this June 24, 2014 photo, seven-years old Mubari Khuson, left, his mother, Anwor Begum and a sister,
three-year old Haleda Begum stand by their makeshift tent at Dar Paing, a camp for Rohingya Muslims in
north of Sittwe, Rakhine state, Myanmar. More than 140,000 have been trapped in crowded, dirty camps
since extremist Buddhist mobs began chasing them from their homes two years ago, killing up to 280
people. The others are stuck in villages isolated by systematic discrimination, with restrictions on their
movement and limited access to food, clean water, education and health care. (AP Photo/Gemunu
Amarasinghe)
For the Rohingya people of Burma (aka Myanmar), this scenario threatens their very existence. Residing
primarily in the northern state of Rakhine, the Rohingya aren't Buddhists like the other 95% of Burma's
population. They're Muslim, and this little fact poses a multitude of obstacles for them. Poverty,
negligible access to health care, practically non-existent rights they have no place to go and no home to
call their own.
According to the UN, the Rohingya are the most oppressed people on the planet. The Burmese
government stripped them of citizenship in 1982, and riots in 2012 led to a harsh crackdown on the
minority group. Today, the "hardline" Buddhists of Burma are tossing around the idea of granting limited
citizenship to the Rohingya, under the stipulation that the Rohingya classify themselves as Bangladeshi
immigrants (which they aren't) and can produce the required birth documents (which most of them can't).
13 / 92
14 / 92
_______________________________________________
15 / 92
16 / 92
Turkey: Erdogan's conservative Islamic party seems to be spending a lot of energy gassing and beating
up protesters. I guess that's what happens when your greedy government's more focused on building the
world's largest airport and not serving the public's interests.
Egypt: The first mistake Egypt made during the Arab Spring was voting in the Muslim Brotherhood. The
second mistake was supporting the military dictatorship that ousted the Brotherhood. The new boss looks
a lot like the old one.
The point is, "God's will" is merely an interpretation. I would never trust corrupt, misogynistic religious
"leaders" with any country's laws.
Stop voting for Islam. Stop voting for Christianity or Judaism or any other religion.
Let the people decide how they want to live their own lives, and be sure to protect their choices. Give
your women and children a voice. Let the workers unionize. Stop imprisoning people for victimless
"crimes."
It's 2014. The modern world evolves too quickly for the immutable, inviolable "word of God" to keep up.
YouTube Video
Poll: Has the Arab Spring been successful, or has it failed?
_______________________________________________
17 / 92
18 / 92
I really want Iraq to pull out of this and mature as a new, "democratic" nation. But I don't see it happening
any time soon.
Poll: Should Iraq offer rewards for dead militants?
_______________________________________________
19 / 92
20 / 92
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jy2CsYJaKgY
_______________________________________________
21 / 92
22 / 92
It doesn't stop there, either. Last year, another Snowden revelation exposed one of the NSA's character
assassination programs. This particular program spied on the porn habits of Islamic "radicalizers" who
recruited militants through YouTube and social media. The NSA aimed to discredit said radicalizers by
publicizing porn-consumption behaviors that would either reveal the radicalizer as a hypocrite (e.g. gay
porn) or a criminal (e.g. child porn).
I don't think it's a huge leap from the NSA's "discredit through porn" program to its "let's help the humanrights violators violate some human rights" program. If the NSA specializes in digging up dirt on
dissidents by seeing what vids those dissidents click on PornHub, then it shouldn't surprise anyone that
Saudi authorities could apply these strategies to gays hiding in the Kingdom. Or lesbians. Or atheists. Or
even your typical grassroots activist. Basically anyone the Saudi government doesn't like who may enjoy
dabbling in kink, gayness, or critical thought.
This means gay men using their cell phones, Twitter, Facebook, etc. to hook-up or even gasp to find
"The One" risk incriminating themselves. Worse yet, they risk incriminating anyone they contact,
regardless of whether or not the contact is gay.
The most frightening part of all this anti-gay mass surveillance is that sodomy can catch someone a death
sentence in Saudi Arabia. The maximum punishment for homosexuality could effectively silence a
dissident or activist forever at the Kingdom's virtual whim.
Although there's no hard numbers for this, Saudi Arabia is believed to have a rather sizable homosexual
population. In 2012, "studies" claimed nearly half of all university students in Riyadh and a quarter of
college-age students in Jeddah "suffered from homosexuality."
And guess who tends to participate in social uprisings?
http://youtu.be/eqZLrtpp9t0
_______________________________________________
23 / 92
24 / 92
_______________________________________________
25 / 92
26 / 92
27 / 92
The Egyptian government was the first Arab nation to brand the Muslim Brotherhood a "terrorist
organization" in December 2013. Last week, Saudi Arabia joined Egypt by also classifying the
Brotherhood as a criminal jihadist group.
Qatar's government publicly supported the Muslim Brotherhood during 2011's Arab Spring protests.
When Brotherhood candidate Mohammed Morsi won Egypt's presidency, Qatar provided $8 billion in
aid.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmmRmT2SZ28
_______________________________________________
28 / 92
29 / 92
30 / 92
31 / 92
Saudi-Egyptian Allegiance
by Randy Robinson - Monday, August 11, 2014
http://54.174.32.164/poll/saudi-egyptian-allegiance/
_______________________________________________
32 / 92
Say No to Plants?
by Randy Robinson - Monday, August 11, 2014
http://54.174.32.164/poll/say-plants/
_______________________________________________
33 / 92
34 / 92
35 / 92
36 / 92
37 / 92
38 / 92
When regular folks were getting hacked by the NSA, Feinstein defended it. Now that she's getting
hacked, spying on Americans magically became treason.
Well, at least Feinstein knows how it feels now. Welcome, Dianne: you're one of us.
...Sort of.
YouTube Video
Poll: Is Sen. Feinstein taking the Hypocritical Oath, or is she just doing her job?
_______________________________________________
39 / 92
Sentencing Journalists
by Randy Robinson - Monday, August 11, 2014
http://54.174.32.164/poll/sentencing-journalists/
_______________________________________________
40 / 92
41 / 92
straight? Bisexual has almost become a byword for anything goes, and more often than not bisexuals are
thought of as attention-seeking. Two superstars frolicking to get the attention of a man certainly doesn't
help the bisexual cause, which is why I have beef with Shakira and RiRi.
There's even been a backlash in Shakira's home country of Colombia. Marco Fidel Ramirez, a Colombian
politician, not only blasted Shakira for her sexual displays but for her tobacco use in the video, too. "Our
Shakira with her erotic video is promoting tobacco usage and has become the worst example for our
youth," he tweeted, according to NY Daily News.
Regardless of all the uproar, some critics were just fine with Shakira and Rihanna's newest video,
touching-on-the-bed and all.
"A music video should be surreal, it shouldn't be real," Wissam Mandil, a Middle Eastern music video
producer, told Al Arabiya. "Whether we accept it or not lesbians exist in the Arab world and elsewhere."
Warning: The following video is probably NSFW.
YouTube Video
Does Shakira and Rihanna's video promote lesbianism, or is it just selling sex as usual?
_______________________________________________
42 / 92
43 / 92
The prisons where these Sunnis are held are veritable hells. In February, Human Rights Watch released a
report documenting torture, intimidation, and systematic rape of the women held by Iraq's security forces.
The majority of these women, unsurprisingly, were Sunni. The men don't get it any easier, either.
The rise of the Islamic State is no fluke. It's a reaction. A response. After years of torment by Shia
governments in Syria and Iraq, the local Sunnis rose up. After the Sunnis protests were forcibly shut
down again and again, the Islamic State swarmed into Fallujah, absorbing any downtrodden Sunnis to
join the cause. Over the months, they steamrolled the countryside, taking city after city with their simple
yet effective shock-and-awe tactics.
Shia militants linked to Iran march through Baghdad. (Source: AfricanGlobe.net)
We're basically working with thugs to stop another group of thugs. Last week, an unidentified Shia militia
murdered 76 Sunnis visiting a Mosque near Kirkuk. These Sunnis weren't terrorists; they were civilians
attending weekly services. Most of them were gunned down while they rushed to save their family
members from the slaughter.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, these are the goons the Americans are teaming up with to take on the evil
empire of the Islamic State. Things must be bad. Really, really bad. Then again, the United States never
had much trouble in the past forging alliances with undemocratic regimes rife with human rights abuses.
But I also must wonder what the Shia will get out of this? After all, they're still bragging about defeating
the imperialist Americans. They must be getting something out of the deal if they're accepting help from
the enemy....
_______________________________________________
44 / 92
45 / 92
46 / 92
47 / 92
heroism.
I can't wait to see the world's LGBT athletes bring in some medals. And I'd really, really love to see
Putin's face when a gay olympian wins the gold.
Poll: Should Putin be allowed to censor his nation's athletes if they speak about LGBT issues?
_______________________________________________
48 / 92
49 / 92
_______________________________________________
50 / 92
51 / 92
52 / 92
53 / 92
If you're a comedian and you're relying on these schticks for cheap laughs, you're fucking fail. Yeah, that
means you, Colbert, even if you're just mirroring Bill O'Reilly. Make some Asian friends, learn about us,
and come up with something new, fresh, and engaging.
After all, don't you want our hard-earned money?
YouTube Video
Did Suey Park make her point that liberals feel entitled to marginalize minorities?
_______________________________________________
54 / 92
55 / 92
56 / 92
57 / 92
58 / 92
59 / 92
Since the start of anti-government protests last November, 28 people have died, hundreds have been
injured, and an assassination attempt was made on the demonstrators' leader, Suthep Thaugsuban.
Early Tuesday morning, military personnel entered several privately-owned TV stations. At 3:00 a.m., a
special announcement was broadcast informing Thailand of the nation's martial law status. Army units set
up patrols at the capital's busiest intersections.
The military denied a coup was taking place. Colonel Winthai Suvari, a spokesperson for the army, told
Reuters, "This martial law is just to restore peace and stability. It has nothing to do with the government.
The government is still functioning as normal."
"As normal" may not appease the anti-government movement. Former parlimentarian Thaugsuban and his
People's Democratic Reform Committee want the Shinawatra dynasty completely ousted from Thailand's
politics.
The former prime minister, Yingluck Shinawatra, is the sister of billionaire telecom tycoon Thaksin
Shinawatra. In 2006, the military deposed then-Prime Minister Thaksin on corruption charges, and he's
lived in Dubai in self-exile ever since.
In 2008, Yingluck introduced legislation to the Parliament which would've effectively pardoned Thaksin
for his alleged crimes. This move ignited mass demonstrations against the Shinawatras. Rivals publicly
accused Yingluck of acting as Thaksin's puppet, abusing her government position to grant her brother
political influence from another country.
Last November, the demonstrations surged to hundreds of thousands of people in Bangkok. The protests
shut down traffic around the downtown area, and government buildings closed. Within a few days,
protesters raided and occupied a number of government offices. On May 7, a tribunal found Yingluck
guilty of abusing her position, and she, along with nine of her ministers, were removed from office.
Thailand's military, however, is known for staging coups when public unrest can't be controlled. Since
1932, Thailand has experienced 18 coups; 11 of those coups, including the one against Thaksin, were
successful.
The interim prime minister and former commerce minister, Niwatthamrong Boonsongphaisan, refused to
resign on Monday, despite complaints from anti-government protesters. The Reform Committee claims
he is too closely aligned with the Shinawatras to push the reforms they demand.
The current political conflict in Thailand is divided primarily along class lines. The anti-government
60 / 92
protesters receive the most support from Thailand's middle class. Thaksin Shinawatra still has broad
support from the country's rural population after he instated a number of socialist programs including
universal healthcare.
Pro-government protesters, known as the Red Shirt movement, were cautious but supportive of the
military's move. "We will see what the army wants," said Jatuporn Prompan, the leader of the Red Shirts.
He added a coup would "never solve the country's crisis and will plunge Thailand deeper into trouble."
Under martial law, the military has full authority over any of the nation's security concerns. The
government, which is currently only made up of the Senate, may operate independently of the military.
Under a true coup, the military would govern both security and government affairs.
YouTube Video
_______________________________________________
61 / 92
62 / 92
The "Shutdown Bangkok" protests began last October when Yingluck Shinawatra pushed an amnesty bill
for her brother, Thaksin, so that he could return to the country cleared of any charges brought against him.
Thaksin, a billionaire telecommunications tycoon, was forcibly deposed by the military in 2006 after he
deployed armed groups to shoot and lob bombs at anti-government protesters. He's lived in exile ever
since.
Suthep and his protesters accused Yingluck of abusing her power to circumvent Thailand's justice system.
The opposition groups believe Thaksin is quietly controlling the government through his sister and
corporate networks.
Although Yingluck approved emergency re-elections, Suthep and his allies shut down the polls to prevent
any votes out of fear of vote-tampering. "Shutdown Bangkok" has called for the immediate resignation of
Yingluck and her administration.
The total death count since the protests began has reached 21 after this weekend.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYzdPldd7rY
_______________________________________________
63 / 92
The Day We Fight Back: Google and Microsoft Protest the NSA
by Randy Robinson - Wednesday, February 12, 2014
http://54.174.32.164/day-fight-back-google-microsoft-protest-nsa/
On Tuesday, Feb. 11, Google and Microsoft joined scores of others for "The Day We Fight Back"
campaign, a worldwide protest against the NSA's mass surveillance program.
The protest intersected the "real" world and the digital world. Across the Internet, Facebook and Twitter
users changed their cover photos in support of the protest. On the streets, activists picketed at
telecommunication and government buildings.
Google and Microsoft, two international corporations caught in the NSA's surveillance scandal, pledged
their opposition to the US government's unchecked data gathering program.
Google's vice president of public policy, Susan Molina, wrote on the search engine's blog, "Google
recognizes the very real threats that the U.S. and other countries face, but we strongly believe that
government surveillance programs should operate under a legal framework that is rule-bound, narrowly
tailored, transparent, and subject to oversight."
Microsoft took a slightly different approach from Google, noting loss of credibility between corporations,
the government and the people. "[P]eople wont use technology they dont trust," wrote Fredrick
Humphries, Jr., a Microsoft vice president of government affairs. "Governments have put this trust at risk,
and governments need to help restore it. Microsoft will keep advocating for change until that day comes,
and in the meantime will continue to take direct action to protect our customers."
Both Internet giants have been "strong armed" by the NSA into giving up massive amounts of user data,
according to MIT computer scientist Scott Aaronson. The two companies' push-back against the security
agency may be a move toward greater corporate autonomy from the government, or, as some have
charged, a PR campaign for damage control.
Google's position against the NSA comes nearly a year after former CIA agent Edward Snowden released
documents implicating the US government's global surveillance reach. Snowden's leaks show the NSA's
MUSCULAR program exploited Google networks to spy on intelligence targets.
Microsoft, too, is a company involved with the NSA's mass surveillance projects. In December 2013,
additional revelations by Snowden showed Microsoft was under contract with the NSA to produce a
quantum computer capable of cracking any encrypted data.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBM2IvvnFLI
_______________________________________________
64 / 92
65 / 92
Americans. Comedian and writer Amer Zahr penned a piece congratulating the engagement, wherein he
welcomed the American-born Clooney as a soon-to-be Arab convert.
YouTube Video
_______________________________________________
66 / 92
67 / 92
1. Jihadist zombies.
Zombies are in the Quran. I'm not joking. Check out verse 2:243.
Uh, hello, did I even need to mention this one? There's bound to be survivors among the nuclear fallout,
and you better believe they'll be unholy terrors: jihadi zombies.
68 / 92
Shooting militants is easy; it's as easy as blocking a street and parking your gunship over it. But shooting
zombified militants in the head every single time could be a task for US forces, even for a generation
raised on Call of Duty and The Walking Dead.
And just for shits-n-giggles, here's a bonus reason not to melt the Middle East's face off the map:
_______________________________________________
69 / 92
70 / 92
But if we're going to make a Constitutional argument, well here goes: the Founding Fathers never
envisioned AK-47s or AR-15s. They never imagined, one day, we'd have automatic weapons capable of
holding over a hundred rounds. Laser sights. Sound suppression. Exploding bullets. Hollow-points. Fullmetal jackets. 50-caliber pistols capable of knocking out tanks.
None of this shit existed back in 1776.
Back then, they had single-shot muskets requiring a full minute to reload. I'm sure if Thomas Jefferson
saw an issue of Guns & Ammo, he would've rethought the Second Amendment.
The times have changed. There's no debate there, yet gun-control supporters and the gun lobby never
discuss this part of history. Instead, the UCLA harps on about "state militias" while the NRA cries about
"overthrowing tyranny."
We need to reevaluate the Second Amendment, and we need to do it now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gfFclLtPDo
_______________________________________________
71 / 92
72 / 92
So here we have, yet again, another example of the Islamic State's complete fucktardery. They don't even
understand the basic precepts of the their holy book.
Christian prohibitionists in the U.S. rely on a similar tactic, misrepresenting the Bible to justify a racist
and classist drug war. They'll ramble on about our bodies being our "temples," but will ignore God's
words in Genesis 1:29: "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree
that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food." Cannabis bears seeds and has awesome
nutritional value, therefore God's totally cool with it.
It's possible I.S. isn't going after cannabis because they think it's sinful. There's also a military strategy
here: by burning cannabis fields, they're cutting off a major source of revenue (and stress relief) from
their Syrian enemies. In which case, they're just blowing smoke up our asses with all this haram B.S.
Toke on, Muslims. As long as you're keeping up on your prayers and living a decent, humble life you
can smoke as much weed as you please.
YouTube Video
_______________________________________________
73 / 92
74 / 92
75 / 92
76 / 92
themselves with heavy machine guns and rocket launchers. They have the firepower and manpower to
repel government forces from their land.
http://youtu.be/qTM6siUyTzQ
It probably also helps that, within the Bekaa Valley, the Internal Security Forces (ISF) don't really call the
shots; Hezbollah does.
Hezbollah, the Islamist organization that acts as both a political party and a militant group, controls
the Valley. Cannabis produced there which is always converted into hashish goes through the hands
of the self-titled "Party of God" in some way, shape, or form.
http://youtu.be/Bpb0p6d1Mw4
The sad part is, Hezbollah claims it doesn't smoke the stuff. That would be, according to them, haram (a
sin). Yeah, right. Suuuure you don't smoke it.
Hezbollah controlled territories in Lebanon.
77 / 92
78 / 92
79 / 92
Despite the NSA's efforts to be the first to get their hands on a quantum computer, successfully designing
such technology may be several years away. Seth Lloyd, a quantum mechanical engineer at MIT,
expressed his doubts.
"I don't think we're likely to have the type of quantum computer the NSA wants within at least five years,
in the absence of a significant breakthrough maybe much longer," he said to the Washington Post.
_______________________________________________
80 / 92
81 / 92
And soon, our banks and all their grubby little shareholders will technically be guilty of the same
conspiracy crimes.
Cannabis Prohibition: Ending Sooner Than You Think
Of course, I don't think the House members actually violated kingpin statutes yesterday. Cannabis
sativa's a fucking plant, for crying out loud. It has a whole host of medicinal properties, and yeah, it's the
safest way to get high. We have a right to access it as a medicine, and goddamn it, we have a right to get
ripped.
http://youtu.be/IHBsxfbgrbY
Regardless, if banks begin taking money from legal weed businesses, that spells the end of cannabis
prohibition. It's over. The uncertainties over whether or not this or that investor can cash-in on legit weed
will be gone. Seed money will pour in. Shares will swap as long as the markets are open. Investment
firms can finally buffer some of those gaping wounds created by their risky global Ponzi schemes.
Banks are the most powerful entities on the planet. Once they're sitting on the piles of cash-money
generated by legal green, this chapter of the War on Drugs is over. We'll no longer have to claw through
courtrooms to get legal access to the sacred herb. JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Citigroup will
do it for us.
_______________________________________________
82 / 92
1. Laundry Pods
Be honest: they look delicious. (Screen capture from ABC News)
So convenient! So fresh! So deadly!
83 / 92
Sure, prohibitionists can cite dozens of cases of kids going to the hospital from edibles. But according to
CBS:
"The first comprehensive study on the dangers of laundry pods, published Monday in the journal
Pediatrics, found that 17,230 children younger than 6 years old - an average of one child every hour swallowed, inhaled or suffered skin or eye injury from the products in 2012-2013."
Holy fuck! One child every hour? Compare that to one or so kids a month in Colorado who end up in the
ER because of pot candy.
2. Diaper Cream
Christopher Ingraham at The Washington Post recently wrote an article titled, "Your kid is 136 times
more likely to be poisoned by diaper cream than by weed."
Sensational, you say? I think not:
The stuff you put on your baby's butt is more dangerous than cannabis. Stick that in your pipe and smoke
it.
3. Guns
About 10,000 kids are shot in the US each year. About 7,000 of those kids go to the ER due to injuries;
the other 3,000 kids die.
Three. Thousand.
Let's see what that looks like graphically:
Oh, I hear some of you red-blooded Americans saying, "But guns are my constitutional right! Wacky
tobacky ain't no right!"
The right to bear arms is protected by the 2nd Amendment. However, the Constitution doesn't grant the
federal government the power to regulate cannabis, either.
For a historical example, consider the 18th Amendment. Haven't heard of it? That's because it's no longer
in the Constitution. It was the amendment that banned alcohol.
Back in 1920, the US government had to create a constitutional amendment to outlaw booze. Why?
Because the feds couldn't legally regulate it without the amendment. Yet where is the amendment banning
weed?
84 / 92
So if you really believe in the Constitution, and you're okay with 3,000 kids dying for no-good-fucking
reason other than your precious 2nd Amendment you'd better be voting to legalize in 2016.
And please stop exploiting children to further your illegal, unethical cause: a lot of kids need cannabis
medicines. It's not the legalization activists who're killing kids - it's the prohibitionists.
http://youtu.be/j1HGgZzBxW8
_______________________________________________
85 / 92
Thor vs Batina
by Randy Robinson - Sunday, August 10, 2014
http://54.174.32.164/poll/thor-vs-batina/
_______________________________________________
86 / 92
YouTube Video
_______________________________________________
87 / 92
88 / 92
89 / 92
be chewed, snorted, or injected. It's basically clean, pharmaceutical-grade smack, and you can pick it up
at your local Walgreens if you've got a 'script.
In 2007, the federal government sued Purdue Pharma the creators of OxyContin for lying to everyone
about oxycodone's insane addiction potential. It was one of the biggest pharmaceutical settlements in
history: $600 million. Purdue's president, head attorney, and chief medical officer were individually fined
under criminal charges for misbranding, totaling $35 million.
Of course, Purdue stacked a cool $3 billion in OxyContin sales just in 2011. So $600 million is a drop-inthe-bucket for these glorified smack pimps.
Profit Over Peeps
When we consider the treatments for opioid addiction Suboxone, Naloxone, methadone, etc. the
scheme's up. Suboxone alone netted $1.5 billion in 2012, surpassing Adderall and Viagra's sales. Yeah,
you read that right: more money's spent on overcoming opioid addiction than on ADHD or limp dicks.
And these "alternatives" are fairly dangerous themselves, as they can also cause addiction and overdose.
It's time we reevaluate what we're doing and how we're spending our public funds. Purdue Pharma and
any generics manufacturer should be paying for every incarceration, every rehab session, every drug
awareness class related to their homicidal product. They should be fined into humility. They've created an
empire off of shattered families and broken hopes; it's the least they could do.
See, Purdue doesn't just make OxyContin. They make a topical antiseptic and a name-brand laxative
two products most opioid addicts need to deal with their addiction. Antiseptic prevents infections from
needle punctures. Laxatives relieve the constipation caused by depressed gastrointestinal muscles.
Yeah, Purdue's that dirty. They don't just make money off their "blockbuster" drug; they make extra
dough selling meds to control its side effects. But hey, that's capitalistic medicine, right?
If Purdue really cared about patients, they'd fix this. But they won't, because they don't.
At least OxyContin has an excuse: it's just a pill. It doesn't know any better. Purdue's board of directors is
made up of living, breathing human beings who're supposed to have consciences.
May they all suffocate under their piles of filthy money.
YouTube Video
90 / 92
91 / 92
92 / 92
Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)