Breaking News Events

[MsTinkerbelly]

Originally Posted by Beachcomber

Is there a thread here on gun violence? I wanted to start a discussion but if there is an existing thread I would like to check that out first. Thanks

Yes there is, but my linking skills are crap! Someone will help you out soon!

[*Anya*]

Russia says drivers must not have 'sex disorders'

Russia has listed transsexual and transgender people among those who will no longer qualify for driving licences.

Fetishism, exhibitionism and voyeurism are also included as "mental disorders" now barring people from driving.

The government says it is tightening medical controls for drivers because Russia has too many road accidents.

"Pathological" gambling and compulsive stealing are also on the list. Russian psychiatrists and human rights lawyers have condemned the move.

The announcement follows international complaints about Russian harassment of gay-rights activists.

In 2013 Russia made "promoting non-traditional lifestyles" illegal.

Valery Evtushenko at the Russian Psychiatric Association voiced concern about the driving restrictions, speaking to the BBC Russian Service. He said some people would avoid seeking psychiatric help, fearing a driving ban.

The Association of Russian Lawyers for Human Rights called the new law "discriminatory". It said it would demand clarifications from the Russian Constitutional Court and seek support from international human rights organisations.

But the Professional Drivers Union supported the move. "We have too many deaths on the road, and I believe toughening medical requirements for applicants is fully justified," said the union's head Alexander Kotov.

However, he said the requirements should not be so strict for non-professional drivers.

Mikhail Strakhov, a Russian psychiatric expert, told BBC Russian that the definition of "personality disorders" was too vague and some disorders would not affect a person's ability to drive a car safely.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-30735673

[Cin]

Originally Posted by *Anya*

Russia says drivers must not have 'sex disorders'

Russia has listed transsexual and transgender people among those who will no longer qualify for driving licences.

Fetishism, exhibitionism and voyeurism are also included as "mental disorders" now barring people from driving.

The government says it is tightening medical controls for drivers because Russia has too many road accidents.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-30735673

I suppose it's ridiculous to suggest that in order to cut down on road accidents the government should enforce existing laws. I read how driving in Russia would require "major survival skills in order to combat the lawlessness regarding traffic and road regulations. For example, a painted line down the middle of the road divides on coming and going traffic. However, you will find that most people cross the line without so much as a thought. Therefore you must be extremely careful while driving and try to avoid rush hour."

Also if they are really serious about cutting down on deaths by traffic accident then I would think that raising the speed limit by 20km on both regular roads and highways in 2013 is a strange way to go about it. So on the highway you can now drive 130km and, since there is no fine as long as you don't exceed the speed limit by 20 km, in theory you can drive up to 150 km and not get a ticket. So the plan to cut down on road accidents is to drive faster, just don't be transsexual or transgender about it. Apparently people can't drive fast or even well, when they are not the sex or gender assigned at birth. And don't even get me started on those exhibitionists' driving skills, not to mention the voyeurs who love them.

[Ravenouss]

If they really want to cut down on the number of traffic accidents they should not allow people to drink and drive. I've never lived in a country where so many people drunk and drove, drunk and operated machinery, etc. Saturday night was throw up night, everywhere: subway, buses, sidewalks, tunnels, while driving out of car windows, in freaking restaurants!

Their anti-LGBT laws are really going the way of Muslim countries.

[*Anya*]

The Huffington Post | By Curtis M Wong

GOP presidential hopeful Ben Carson reportedly slammed lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights advocates at a Jan. 24 press conference following his speech at Congressman Steve King's Iowa Freedom Summit.

Carson, a Fox News commentator and former Johns Hopkins University pediatric neurosurgeon, seemed to hint at a series of disputes that have erupted between same-sex couples hoping to tie the knot and bakeries and other wedding-related venues operated by opponents of same-sex marriage.

"What I have a problem with is when people try to force people to act against their beliefs because they say, 'They’re discriminating against me,’" he told reporters, according to The Hill. "So they can go right down the street and buy a cake, but no, let’s bring a suit against this person because I want them to make my cake even though they don’t believe in it."

He then added, "[That] is really not all that smart because they might put poison in that cake.”

Carson has been outspoken in regard to his opposition to same-sex marriage rights.

"Marriage is between a man and a woman. No group, be they gays, be they NAMBLA, be they people who believe in bestiality, it doesn't matter what they are," he told Sean Hannity in 2012, as cited by Slate. "They don't get to change the definition."

He shared similar sentiments in his 2012 book, America the Beautiful: Rediscovering What Made This Nation Great, noting that attempts to "redefine marriage" would bring about a "disastrous ending" for the U.S. that would mirror "the dramatic fall of the Roman Empire," according to Media Matters.

Interestingly, Carson may have been in the minority when it came to discussing same-sex marriage at the Iowa Freedom Summit this year. As The Huffington Post's Igor Bobic reported, the subject "remained conspicuously absent from the lips of many speakers who took the stage, demonstrating how dramatically politics around the issue has shifted in just a few years."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/0...n_6547226.html

[Allison W]

Originally Posted by *Anya*

[Ben Carson] then added, "[That] is really not all that smart because they might put poison in that cake.”

He's a shitty person and pretty dumb to boot, but this is the stopped clock phenomenon in action. I don't think I'd want to trust someone who hates my guts with something I'm going to eat. Actual poisoning is unlikely, given the threat of criminal prosecution for that kind of thing, but I wouldn't put it past them to contaminate it in less obviously actionable ways.

[LeftWriteFemme]

.lgbt — Internet’s first top-level domain for the LGBT community launches



http://www.lgbtqnation.com/2015/02/l...nity-launches/

[LeftWriteFemme]

http://www.towleroad.com/2015/02/pflag-china-film.html

[*Anya*]

Homan Square

#Gitmo2Chicago: protests target police 'Black Ops Site'

Homan Square abuse allegations encircle mayor Rahm Emanuel as Anonymous, Occupy and Black Lives Matter take to social media and streets beyond Chicag

Zach Stafford in Chicago
Saturday 28 February 2015 09.17 EST

The Chicago police facility Homan Square was becoming the focus of an organized protest movement this weekend, as the hacktivist collective Anonymous and organizers associated with the Black Lives Matter movement seized on allegations of unconstitutional abuse at the secretive warehouse.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the former top adviser to Barack Obama suddenly facing a runoff for re-election, remained at the political fulcrum of a mounting campaign both on social media and the streets of Chicago, where demonstrations were planned for Saturday outside what coordinated campaigners described as mirroring a CIA “black site”.

Organizer Travis McDermott said Saturday’s “Shut Down Homan Square” protest was one of several being planned as far away as Los Angeles.

“Hopefully with the presence we expect to have, that will put a little bit of pressure to say, ‘Hey, look – this isn’t going to go away,’” he said.

On Friday night, campaigners associated with the Occupy and Anonymous collectives took to Twitter, Instagram and other social-media platforms with the hashtag #Gitmo2Chicago to decry allegations of what users alternatively labeled as a “secret prison” and “torture soon coming to a city near you”.

Six people and multiple Chicago attorneys came forward to the Guardian this week with detailed accounts of police holding suspects and witnesses for sustained periods of detention inside Homan Square, without public records, access to attorneys or being read their most basic rights – involving what they said included shackling, physical abuse and being “disappeared” from legal counsel and family.

The Guardian’s recent investigation into Chicago police brutality began the week before, with a two-part account of the tactics of Detective Richard Zuley, who went from Chicago homicide investigator to Guantánamo Bay torturer.

The Chicago police department, in its only official statement on the swirling allegations, denied the Guardian’s reporting on Tuesday, without giving specifics. In a report on the Guardian’s reportingpublished on Friday night, the Chicago Tribune characterized local attorneys’ perception of the statement as “laughable”.

Local and national organizers, meanwhile, have zeroed in on Emanuel, who on Thursday night – two days after being forced into an extended campaign in which policing has been a major issue – made his first statements about the Homan Square row.

“That’s not true,” Emanuel said of the Guardian’s reporting, on the local public television program Chicago Tonight. “We follow the rules.”

Emanuel has not responded to detailed questions from the Guardian, sent on Wednesday. Another set of questions sent on Friday, requesting comment on human-rights group requests for access to the site and an elaboration of Emanuel’s comments on Homan Square, did not receive a response despite repeated requests.

Emanuel’s press office has been directing queries on Homan Square to the mayor’s deputy director of communications, Adam Collins.

A representative for Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, Emanuel’s challenger in the runoff election, said his campaign was planning to address the Homan Square allegations.

The activist group Progress Illinois said several more people were expected to tell their stories of being detained at the west-side holding and interrogation compound at Saturday’s protest.

“This rally is being organized to remind the mayor and every politician who has a stake in this runoff that they are answerable to the people,” the group wrote in a statement.

Representatives from the Chicago branch of Black Lives Matter, the movement closely associated with the killings of Trayvon Martin in Florida and Michael Brown in Missouri, said they were backing the Homan Square demonstrations as part of a pattern of long-time Chicago police violence.

“In order to uproot the systemic embedded abuse that has allowed for the creation of such ‘black sites’ like that of Homan Square as well as police torturers like that of Jon Burge, transparent and persistent investigation is the first step of many,” a statement attributed to the group read.

Local civil-rights groups have long sought reparations relating to the notorious practices of Burge, the former Chicago police commander who was released from home custody this month and is estimated to have cost the city upwards of $100m stemming from settlements and judgments in civil-rights cases.

The Chicago police facility Homan Square was becoming the focus of an organized protest movement this weekend, as the hacktivist collective Anonymous and organizers associated with the Black Lives Matter movement seized on allegations of unconstitutional abuse at the secretive warehouse.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the former top adviser to Barack Obama suddenly facing a runoff for re-election, remained at the political fulcrum of a mounting campaign both on social media and the streets of Chicago, where demonstrations were planned for Saturday outside what coordinated campaigners described as mirroring a CIA “black site”.

Organizer Travis McDermott said Saturday’s “Shut Down Homan Square” protest was one of several being planned as far away as Los Angeles.

“Hopefully with the presence we expect to have, that will put a little bit of pressure to say, ‘Hey, look – this isn’t going to go away,’” he said.

On Friday night, campaigners associated with the Occupy and Anonymous collectives took to Twitter, Instagram and other social-media platforms with the hashtag #Gitmo2Chicago to decry allegations of what users alternatively labeled as a “secret prison” and “torture soon coming to a city near you"

Local and national organizers, meanwhile, have zeroed in on Emanuel, who on Thursday night – two days after being forced into an extended campaign in which policing has been a major issue – made his first statements about the Homan Square row.

“That’s not true,” Emanuel said of the Guardian’s reporting, on the local public television program Chicago Tonight. “We follow the rules.”

Emanuel has not responded to detailed questions from the Guardian, sent on Wednesday. Another set of questions sent on Friday, requesting comment on human-rights group requests for access to the site and an elaboration of Emanuel’s comments on Homan Square, did not receive a response despite repeated requests.

Emanuel’s press office has been directing queries on Homan Square to the mayor’s deputy director of communications, Adam Collins.

A representative for Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, Emanuel’s challenger in the runoff election, said his campaign was planning to address the Homan Square allegations soon.

Protesters on the ground and online weren’t wasting any time.

The activist group Progress Illinois said several more people were expected to tell their stories of being detained at the west-side holding and interrogation compound at Saturday’s protest.

“This rally is being organized to remind the mayor and every politician who has a stake in this runoff that they are answerable to the people,” the group wrote in a statement.

Representatives from the Chicago branch of Black Lives Matter, the movement closely associated with the killings of Trayvon Martin in Florida and Michael Brown in Missouri, said they were backing the Homan Square demonstrations as part of a pattern of long-time Chicago police violence.

“In order to uproot the systemic embedded abuse that has allowed for the creation of such ‘black sites’ like that of Homan Square as well as police torturers like that of Jon Burge, transparent and persistent investigation is the first step of many,” a statement attributed to the group read.

Local civil-rights groups have long sought reparations relating to the notorious practices of Burge, the former Chicago police commander who was released from home custody this month and is estimated to have cost the city upwards of $100m stemming from settlements and judgments in civil-rights cases.

FacebookTwitterPinterest
A second demonstration – promoted on Facebook with the title “Reparations Not Black Sites” – was set for Monday evening near Emanuel’s office and endorsed by Black Lives Matter Chicago, which was seeking “unrestricted access” to Homan Square.

Another event, in Los Angeles on Sunday, cited the Guardian’s reporting as a spark for further action.

“Some fear this may be a ripple effect,” the event’s Facebook page read, “caused by the National Defense Authorization Act, which allows local police departments as well as the US military to detain Americans indefinitely should the state label you a ‘homegrown terrorist’.”

Politicians from Washington to Chicago called for inquiries by the US justice department and Emanuel’s office into the allegations at Homan Square after the Guardian’s investigation surfaced earlier this week.

The local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) told the Guardian on Friday that it was still “vetting” allegations as more people came forward to both the Guardian and the Intercept late this week.

“Right now what we are looking to do is establish credibility by getting others who have been affected, and the protest will allow for others to come forward,” said Chicago attorney Billy Mills, who said he found the Chicago police statement on Homan Square to be “vague” and “missing specific details”.

“This will not stand,” Anonymous said in a video message.

Oliver Laughland and Spencer Ackerman contributed reporting from New York

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2...e-homan-square

[LeftWriteFemme]

Mexico’s Quiet Marriage Equality Revolution






http://www.buzzfeed.com/lesterfeder/...ion#.vd8zraRGv

[*Anya*]

CIA hacked iPhone, iPad and Mac security – Snowden documents reveal extent of privacy invasion

By David Gilbert
March 10, 2015 09:28 GM

The CIA has spent almost a decade attempting to breach the security of Apple's iPhone, iPad and Mac computers to allow them secretly plant malware on the devices. Apple announced on Monday, 9 March, that it had sold over 700 million iPhones since the first version was announced in 2007, giving some idea of the scope of the CIA tactics.

Revealed in documents released to The Intercept by Edward Snowden, the CIA's efforts at undermining Apple's encryption has been announced at an secret annual gathering known as the "Jamboree" which has been taking place since 2006, a year before the first iPhone was released.

According to the documents, the spies have been looking at physical and non-invasive methods of cracking iPhone and iPad security, targeting the essential security keys used to encrypt data store on the Apple devices. The ultimate goal was to decrypt Apple's firmware which would allow them to penetrate the devices and surreptitiously plant malware on the phones and tablets without the user's knowledge.

While the report details the efforts the CIA undertook to crack Apple's security measures, it or the documents don't say how successful the efforts were at undermining the security of iPhones, iPads and Macs.

Poisoned Xcode

As well as targeting the iPhone and iPad directly, the CIA also claims to have developed a poisoned version of Xcode, the software development tool used by app developers to create the apps sold through Apple's hugely successful App Store. It is unclear how the CIA managed to get developers to use the poisoned version of Xcode, but it would have allowed the CIA install backdoors into any apps created using their version.

"The modified version of Xcode, the researchers claimed, could enable spies to steal passwords and grab messages on infected devices. Researchers also claimed the modified Xcode could 'force all iOS applications to send embedded data to a listening post,'" the Intercept report said.

The CIA also looked to breach the security of Apple's desktop platform, claiming they had successfully modified the OS X updater. If this is true it would allow the CIA to intercept the update mechanism on Apple's Mac laptops and desktops to install a version of the updated Mac OS X with a keylogger installed.

The CIA has spent almost a decade attempting to breach the security of Apple's iPhone, iPad and Mac computers to allow them secretly plant malware on the devices. Apple announced on Monday, 9 March, that it had sold over 700 million iPhones since the first version was announced in 2007, giving some idea of the scope of the CIA tactics.

Revealed in documents released to The Intercept by Edward Snowden, the CIA's efforts at undermining Apple's encryption has been announced at an secret annual gathering known as the "Jamboree" which has been taking place since 2006, a year before the first iPhone was released.

According to the documents, the spies have been looking at physical and non-invasive methods of cracking iPhone and iPad security, targeting the essential security keys used to encrypt data store on the Apple devices. The ultimate goal was to decrypt Apple's firmware which would allow them to penetrate the devices and surreptitiously plant malware on the phones and tablets without the user's knowledge.

While the report details the efforts the CIA undertook to crack Apple's security measures, it or the documents don't say how successful the efforts were at undermining the security of iPhones, iPads and Macs.

Poisoned Xcode

As well as targeting the iPhone and iPad directly, the CIA also claims to have developed a poisoned version of Xcode, the software development tool used by app developers to create the apps sold through Apple's hugely successful App Store. It is unclear how the CIA managed to get developers to use the poisoned version of Xcode, but it would have allowed the CIA install backdoors into any apps created using their version.

"The modified version of Xcode, the researchers claimed, could enable spies to steal passwords and grab messages on infected devices. Researchers also claimed the modified Xcode could 'force all iOS applications to send embedded data to a listening post,'" the Intercept report said.

The CIA also looked to breach the security of Apple's desktop platform, claiming they had successfully modified the OS X updater. If this is true it would allow the CIA to intercept the update mechanism on Apple's Mac laptops and desktops to install a version of the updated Mac OS X with a keylogger installed.

The research into Apple's products was presented to CIA agents by researchers from Sandia National Laboratories which is owned by Lockheed Martin, seen as a privatised wing of the US national security state, earning over 80% of its revenue from the US government.

The presentations provided "important information to developers trying to circumvent or exploit new security capabilities," as well as to "exploit new avenues of attack" the leaked documents claimed

Apple critical of US government

Apple and Tim Cook have not commented on this specific story, but in the past have been critical of the level of surveillance carried out by government organisations: "Security and privacy are fundamental to the design of all our hardware, software, and services," Tim Cook said in an open letter last year.

Apple is part of the Reform Government Surveillance coalition which includes Facebook, Google, Twitter and Microsoft and which last year called on the US government to curb the surveillance powers of the NSA and called for more transparency on government data requests.

Matthew Green, an expert on cryptography told The Intercept: "If US products are OK to target, that's news to me. Tearing apart the products of US manufacturers and potentially putting backdoors in software distributed by unknowing developers all seems to be going a bit beyond 'targeting bad guys.' It may be a means to an end, but it's a hell of a means."

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/cia-hacked-...vasion-1491258

[Cin]

This article cracked me up.

Ted Cruz9h&dfxqqqqqqq
Tuesday, 24 March 2015
By William Rivers Pitt

Life, I have been repeatedly told, is not fair. I accept this, and do not resent it most of the time, because it is axiomatic, and so any effort spent resenting it is a waste of calories. One may as well resent gravity, or thunderstorms, or giant potholes on Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge. They happen, they hit, you move on ... and if you should have a limp on the far side of the encounter, well, that's what the good folks of Wisconsin would call "tough cheese."

Most of the time, I said. Every once in a while, though, there is an event so bombastically preposterous that you are left staring at the sky with fearful eyes waiting for the locusts and the rain of frogs. Ever yell at a tree? I did, just this morning. I had to yell at something, because five minutes before I shouted at the utterly indifferent birch bark, I'd found out that Texas Sen. Ted Cruz had announced his run for the presidency, which means I'm going to be required to write about him for at least another year.

In a just and decent world, all that would be required of me in such an effort would be to slam my face into the keyboard, resulting in a work-product that read:

" ... 9h&dfxqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqq qqq ... "

...because that is all this utter, blithering, obnoxious waste of my time deserves. But it is not a just and decent world, evidenced vividly by the fact that a greasy huckster fraud cretin Batman-villain-looking human clown car is not only running for President of the United States, but is actually being taken seriously by the "news" media. That does not mean I have to take him seriously - with every fiber of my being, I do not - but now that he is officially on the board, I am no longer able to enjoy the comfortable fiction of pretending he doesn't exist.

In the aforementioned non-existent just and decent world, one would think that some essential bedrock personal flaws would disqualify a person from attempting to reach the Oval Office ... say, for example, galloping publicly displayed ignorance of a depth and breadth seldom seen on the North American continent. Once again, however, this is not a just and decent world, evidenced vividly by a presidential candidate unable to grasp the basic theme of a children's story.

Back in September of 2013, as part of the GOP's endlessly fruitless quest to submarine the Affordable Care Act, Cruz spent more than twenty-one hours yipping and yapping like a poorly-trained seal on the Senate floor. In the midst of this mind-numbing aria, he read "Green Eggs And Ham" by Dr. Seuss, and drove home the point as he understood it to all and sundry: this story means "Don't try new things" like the ACA.

My daughter will be all of two years old in a couple of weeks. She can't read, she can't write, she falls down for no particular reason at least a couple of times a day, her vocabulary is measured in minutes, and she poops in her pants without thinking twice about it. This is all fine - she's a toddler, and that's what toddlers do - but my illiterate, clumsy, incomprehensible poop-factory of a child has a better grasp of the moral behind "Green Eggs And Ham" - Try new things, duh! - than the Senator from Texas who would presume to sit in the most important chair in the land.

And he voted against the Violence Against Women Act, and denies the established science behind climate change, and opposes the minimum wage, and wants to privatize Social Security, and opposes not only marriage equality but the very existence of gay pride parades, and supports incredibly racist and restrictive voter ID laws, and wants to drill for oil and frack in Native American reservations along with basically everywhere else, and was an original supporter of the Keystone XL pipeline, and opposes all campaign finance regulations, and opposes net neutrality because capitalism is so awesome you guys, and oh, yeah, he does not believe in the separation of church and state.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but Ted Cruz is - to all intents and purposes - the true demon spawn of Joe McCarthy, Phyllis Schlafly, several small rocks and an under-watered cactus that nobody ever really loved... and now he is going to be in my kitchen for at least a year. Life is not fair, and this is not a just and decent world, and if I ever needed affirmative, irrefutable proof of this, now I have it.

The 2016 Republican presidential race is officially underway.

9h&dfxqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqq qqq
http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/ite...z9h-dfxqqqqqqq

[Oiler41]

Just remember, they took Rick Perry serious for a minute too. Cruz doesn't stand a snowballs chance in hell. He will fade, just like Perry did.

[Cin]

One can only hope.

But the article is still hilarious.

[*Anya*]

Texas has the third highest rate of HIV infections in the country, but that didn’t stop lawmakers from passing an amendment that defunds HIV/STD prevention programs Tuesday. The amendment to the House budget proposal—offered by Rep. Stuart Spitzer (R-Kaufman)—diverts $3 million over the next biennium to abstinence-only sexual education programs.

House Democrats fought against the amendment in a debate that rapidly devolved into awkward farce, with Rep. Spitzer revealing details of his own sexual history as proof of the effectiveness of abstinence. For those keeping tabs at home, he was a virgin until marrying his wife at age 29, although he declined to answer a question from Rep. Harold Dutton (D-Houston) on whether she was the first person he propositioned. “Decorum,” shouted state Rep. Jason Isaac (R-Dripping Springs).

Rep. Sylvester Turner (D-Houston) asked Spitzer just how much money is needed for abstinence education in Texas, which receives more federal funding than any other state. Spitzer responded that additional funds are needed as long as people are still having sex before marriage. His goal, he said, was for everyone to know that “abstinence is the best way to prevent HIV.”

“My goal is for everyone to be HIV/AIDS free,” Turner said.

Turner said that while he thinks abstinence programs are valid, HIV and STD prevention programs are too.

“Does it make sense if you have two children to take food from one to feed the other?” Turner said. “You’re taking from one valid program in order to go to the other and I think that is wrong.”

Spitzer is a doctor, but some legislators suggested he needed a refresher course in the basis of STD-transmission. When some Democrats pointed out that STDs could be spread without having sex, Spitzer replied: “You can, but it’s awful hard through your clothes.”

Spitzer’s amendment was adopted 97 aye votes and 47 nays on a largely party-line vote.

https://www.texasobserver.org/house-...nce-education/

[Cin]

In one month (March 2015) the US police have killed more people than police in the entire United Kingdom in 115 years!
http://www.alternet.org/american-pol...ve-killed-1900

My goodness that does seem excessive. Or perhaps it's just that people in the US have been very bad over the past month. Which makes sense since in raw numbers and by percentage of the population, the United States has the most prisoners of any developed country — and it has the largest total prison population of any nation in the world. United States citizens are clearly a lawless bunch. They would have to be to justify murdering them in the streets in such large numbers and at such an alarming rate.

I wouldn't be concerned though I'm sure those 111 people killed in one month by the police deserved it. It would never happen to law abiding people like you or me.

[LeftWriteFemme]

The National Center for Transgender Equality just won April Fools' Day





http://www.vox.com/2015/4/1/8327503/...pril-fools-day

[Gemme]

Anti-Gay Pizzeria Gets Massive Donations for Discriminating Against LGBT3Q2I Community

Memories Pizza, the Indiana establishment, which sparked national outrage over its owner's anti-LGBT comments made Wednesday during a local news broadcast, has raised a whopping $842,387 in donations from supporters.

Following Indiana's contentious Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the Walkerton, Indiana restaurant became the subject of harsh criticism after co-owner Crystal O'Connor said she would refuse to cater gay marriages.

"If a gay couple came in and wanted us to provide pizzas for their wedding, we would have to say no," she told a local ABC affiliate. "We are a Christian establishment."

Following the backlash over the remarks, supporters of Memories started a GoFundMe campaign, and the owners of the pizzeria were flooded with donations from more than 29,000 people.

[Rockinonahigh]

Originally Posted by LeftWriteFemme

The National Center for Transgender Equality just won April Fools' Day





http://www.vox.com/2015/4/1/8327503/...pril-fools-day

Every time I go into a public bathroom I have this feeling like I need to be very careful I don't get hauled out by the store security and it has happened a few times. When it dose I go thru the showing of my dl or who ever I am with will back me up, once I ask them if they wanted me to take off my shirt then was told "no, go ahead and do what you need to do, then leave. Over the years it has become a bit less of an issue but I still get some hard looks and a comment or two. I still keep my guard up cause you never know when some A-hole will start something or go running to their red neck boy friend or there homophobic daddy.. then all hell will break loose cause I don't have much faith that the police will do much cause by time they get there it will all be over but the crying.

[Kobi]

The House-passed rider to the Commerce, Justice and Science Appropriation Bill is nothing less than a reckless sneak attack on America’s birds. By barring enforcement of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, migratory birds would be vulnerable to almost unlimited harm from industrial activity, poorly sited energy projects, and even deliberate killing.

In fact this rider is so sweeping, if it had been in effect when the 2010 Deepwater Horizon blowout occurred, BP would not have been subject to prosecution for the killing of millions of birds.

For nearly 100 years the Migratory Bird Treaty Act has been a pillar of Americans’ collective resolve to make a place in our world for birds and their habitats. We call on the US Senate to reject this dangerous rider and to uphold the timeless bipartisan commitment to conserving our nation’s wildlife for future generations.

---------------------



Protect our feathery friends. Write your Senators today.

Bird Act explained.