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[UofMfan]

Pablo Neruda Exhumation Set For Monday As Chile Searches For Answers In Legendary Poet's Death

[Sparkle]

Baroness Thatcher has died

...ironically Thatcherism is alive and well in the UK today.

[Kobi]

Originally Posted by Sparkle

Baroness Thatcher has died

...ironically Thatcherism is alive and well in the UK today.

This woman always intrigued me. More so after I learned that Thatcherism was based on the philosophy and beliefs of Milton Friedman and his colleagues at The U of Chicago. Amazing how the thoughts and philosophy of one man and his group of cronies influenced and continue to influence world leaders even when their planned and actual implementation in unsuspecting countries failed miserably. Works good on paper. Not so good when humanness and human greed come into play.

In case you are wondering, all the economic bullcrap the tea party is spouting is classic Friedmanism.

[Sparkle]

Originally Posted by Kobi

This woman always intrigued me. More so after I learned that Thatcherism was based on the philosophy and beliefs of Milton Friedman and his colleagues at The U of Chicago. Amazing how the thoughts and philosophy of one man and his group of cronies influenced and continue to influence world leaders even when their planned and actual implementation in unsuspecting countries failed miserably. Works good on paper. Not so good when humanness and human greed come into play.

In case you are wondering, all the economic bullcrap the tea party is spouting is classic Friedmanism.

She doesn't intrigue me, she repulses me; much like Ann Coulter repulses me.

I can't watch all the "tributes" to her life today.

The fact that she was the first (and only) woman to rise to the post of PM doesn't impress me, not after having lived with/amidst the consequences of her "reign".

She was not a good leader and not a good person.

She was especially classist and homophobic.

But she was a mother and a grandmother and I am sorry for their loss, I hope she was kind and loving to them.

[lusciouskiwi]

Originally Posted by Sparkle

She doesn't intrigue me, she repulses me. Much like Ann Coulter repulses me.

I can't watch all the "tributes" to her life today.

The fact that she was the first (and only) woman to rise to the post of PM doesn't impress me, not after having lived with/amidst the consequences of her "reign".

She was not a good leader and not a good person.

She was especially classist and homophobic.

But she was a mother and a grandmother and I am sorry for their loss, I hope she was kind and loving to them.

Do you mean the first and only in The UK? Because NZ has had two women PMs (the second one, Helen Clark, was elected, the first one, Jenny Shipley (a Thatcher wannabe), wasn't).

I hope she was good to her family, because she wasn't good to the average person from The UK from what we saw in NZ.

[Sparkle]

Originally Posted by lusciouskiwi

Do you mean the first and only in The UK? Because NZ has had two women PMs (the second one, Helen Clark, was elected, the first one, Jenny Shipley (a Thatcher wannabe), wasn't).

I hope she was good to her family, because she wasn't good to the average person from The UK from what we saw in NZ.

Yes, I'm sorry, the first and only woman to rise to the post of Prime Minister in the UK.

[Kobi]

Originally Posted by Sparkle

She doesn't intrigue me, she repulses me; much like Ann Coulter repulses me.

I can't watch all the "tributes" to her life today.

The fact that she was the first (and only) woman to rise to the post of PM doesn't impress me, not after having lived with/amidst the consequences of her "reign".

She was not a good leader and not a good person.

She was especially classist and homophobic.

But she was a mother and a grandmother and I am sorry for their loss, I hope she was kind and loving to them.

I don't know much about Thatcher per se. I am curious as to why you see her as a poor leader and not a good person who was classist and homophobic.

Most politicians are classists - they are the only ones who can afford to run for office. And most people of her era were homophobic. I don't know much about her leadership except as I mentioned as to the economics of Friedman who advocated breaking unions, making people disappear, selling off the infrastructure which threw millions of people out of work all over the world etc.

I'm also wondering if we hold female politicians and leaders to a different standard than male politicians. Seriously, Churchill did some shitty stuff, Nixon did, Reagan did. I don't ever remember anyone saying anything like - "he was a father and a grandfather and I am sorry for their loss, I hope he was kind and loving to them."

[Greyson]

Stopping Unsolicited Mail, Phone Calls, and Email


This may not be "Breaking News" but it could be new and useful information to you. I recieved this from an emailist that I subscribe to from the FTC. Hope it can help.



http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles...alls-and-email

[Sparkle]

Originally Posted by Kobi

I don't know much about Thatcher per se. I am curious as to why you see her as a poor leader and not a good person who was classist and homophobic.

Most politicians are classists - they are the only ones who can afford to run for office. And most people of her era were homophobic. I don't know much about her leadership except as I mentioned as to the economics of Friedman who advocated breaking unions, making people disappear, selling off the infrastructure which threw millions of people out of work all over the world etc.

I'm also wondering if we hold female politicians and leaders to a different standard than male politicians. Seriously, Churchill did some shitty stuff, Nixon did, Reagan did. I don't ever remember anyone saying anything like - "he was a father and a grandfather and I am sorry for their loss, I hope he was kind and loving to them."

I think this editorial in the Guardian is quite a good and fair summary:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...cher-editorial


Her Homophobia

I agree almost all politicians of her era were also homophobic, especially the gay ones. But Margaret Thatcher, as leader of her party and PM of the UK, instituted laws that made the LGBT community second class citizens, it enshrined that status in to law. Read up on Section 28 (also known as clause 28), it took 15 years to undo that piece of pernicious legislation, alone. I didn't live in the UK during her leadership, but I did work alongside my peers to undo Section 28.

Do I hold her to a higher standard because she's a woman - in regards to her homophobia? No. I hold Bill Clinton to the same high standard and I find him just as lacking. His decision to sign DOMA and DADT, nearly 10 years later, were equally damaging and we continue to try to undo that here.

Her Classism

snip/

"I don't know much about her leadership except as I mentioned as to the economics of Friedman who advocated breaking unions, making people disappear, selling off the infrastructure which threw millions of people out of work all over the world etc. "

She did all of that and then some, including supporting the Pinochet government who did a great job of making people disappear.

She did her very best to institute Friedman's economic philosophies/strategies, actually a much better than Ronald Reagan did.

She created the economic hole the UK is still digging out of.

She decimated the National Health Service, and all other socialized services. She created economic chasms between "classes"; chasms that were deeper than had existed before (and that's sayin' something). She divided and destroyed communities. She did irreparable damage to the most vulnerable sections of the population. People suffered and people died because of her policies: the elderly, the working poor, unionized workers, children...and that was just at home.

I'm going to quote Ken Loach (the film director) who summed up some of the "highlights" of Margaret Thatcher's career today:

"Margaret Thatcher was the most divisive and destructive Prime Minister of modern times. Mass Unemployment, factory closures, communities destroyed – this is her legacy. She was a fighter and her enemy was the British working class. Her victories were aided by the politically corrupt leaders of the Labour Party and of many Trades Unions. It is because of policies begun by her that we are in this mess today. Other prime ministers have followed her path, notably Tony Blair. She was the organ grinder, he was the monkey. Remember she called Mandela a terrorist and took tea with the torturer and murderer Pinochet.

How should we honour her? Let’s privatise her funeral. Put it out to competitive tender and accept the cheapest bid. It’s what she would have wanted."

Women in Politics

To the question of whether "we" hold female politicians to a higher standard, my answer is: maybe.

Maybe, I do.

I certainly hold members of this community (the B-F community, the Queer community) to a higher standard. I believe that you and I, and everyone here, should be "better": smarter, kinder, more compassionate; better educated, more self-aware, more philanthropic, more politically active.

I hold women (regardless of their profession) to the same set of elevated standards.

I believe that because we come from a place of oppression and silencing, because we must overcome the hurdles and challenges (both internal and external) that arise from being "less than", because we must work harder and longer to rise the ranks; because we must be louder and bolder to be heard; I believe we must be better listeners, better managers, better politicians - -- better human beings in whatever realm we live and work.

So yes, I do expect more, from myself and from all of you.
And yes, with that expectation comes disappointment, sometimes.

Regardless, my feelings about Margaret Thatcher have nothing to do with her gender.

In fact, to me, her gender is only notable because she was the first woman to rise to that position of power in the UK. But her gender became secondary to her legacy. And her legacy is not one I am proud of.

And the people who are extolling their admiration for MargaretBloodyThatcher because she was a "strong woman" are driving me 'round the bend because they are correlating "strong woman" with "good leader". And the truth is she was not a good leader. Not by anyone's standards (except the most conservative).

Edited to add a link:

A piece entitled "Not all socialists want to dance on Margaret Thatcher's grave" written last year, it reflects much of what I wish people knew and understood about her legacy. And for the record, I don't want to dance on her grave either. I don't find joy in celebrating anyone's death. Not even Maggie Thatcher's. Or Bin Ladens. Or W.'s when it comes to that.

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/...n-8143089.html

Originally Posted by Sparkle

She doesn't intrigue me, she repulses me; much like Ann Coulter repulses me.

I can't watch all the "tributes" to her life today.

The fact that she was the first (and only) woman to rise to the post of PM doesn't impress me, not after having lived with/amidst the consequences of her "reign".

She was not a good leader and not a good person.

She was especially classist and homophobic.

But she was a mother and a grandmother and I am sorry for their loss, I hope she was kind and loving to them.

I agree with all you've said Sparkle.

For grinding the unions to dust she deserved hanging, drawing and quartering.
Remember that unnecessary damn 'war' with Argentina? Propaganda! If she'd (and the party, although it could be argued she 'was' the party) been running high in the polls I don't believe we'd have been taken into war.


Good riddance Maggie! May you rot in hell.

[Sparkle]

Here is a piece from political activist Peter Tatchell:

http://www.petertatchell.net/politic...-heartless.htm

snip/

“Margaret Thatcher was an extraordinary woman but she was extraordinary for mostly the wrong reasons. So many of her policies were wrong and heartless. Nevertheless, I don’t rejoice in her death. I commiserate, as I do with the death of any person. In contrast, she showed no empathy for the victims of her harsh, ruthless policy decisions,” said human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell.

“Thatcher initiated policies that paved the way for the current economic crisis: the decimation of Britain’s manufacturing base, the get-rich-quick business mentality, the promotion of the free market and the poorly regulated banking sector. This led to imbalances in the economy. The financial sector gained undue influence, with few checks and balances. These distortions were exacerbated by Blair and Brown but Thatcher began the train of events that led to the present economic meltdown.

“In 1988, the Thatcher government legislated Britain’s first new anti-gay law in 100 years: Section 28. At the 1987 Conservative party conference she mocked people who defended the right to be gay, insinuating that there was no such right. During her rule, arrests and convictions for consenting same-sex behaviour rocketed, as did queer bashing violence and murder. Gay men were widely demonised and scapegoated for the AIDS pandemic and Thatcher did nothing to challenge this vilification.

“To her credit, she shattered the sexist glass ceiling in politics and got to the top in a man’s world. However, on becoming Prime Minister she did little for the rights of women. She was a macho, testosterone-fuelled right-wing politician.

“Her political agenda was almost entirely divisive and destructive, including mass unemployment and urban decay. She emasculated local government and boosted police powers to the detriment of civil liberties. The striking miners and their families were ruthlessly crushed on her orders. She oversaw the use of police state methods. Baton-wielding police struck down peaceful miners. People travelling to support the strikers were pre-emptively arrested. Protesting miners at Orgreave were framed on false police evidence."

And another summation of the highlights of Thatcher's career

Margaret Thatcher was the most divisive and polarising politic leader of the last century. This is an incomplete list of why many of us fall on the side that does not regard her with anything other than odium…

1. She supported the retention of capital punishment
2. She destroyed the country's manufacturing industry
3. She voted against the relaxation of divorce laws
4. She abolished free milk for schoolchildren ("Margaret Thatcher, Milk Snatcher")
5. She supported more freedom for business (and look how that turned out)
6. She gained support from the National Front in the 1979 election by pandering to the fears of immigration
7. She gerrymandered local authorities by forcing through council house sales, at the same time preventing councils from spending the money they got for selling houses on building new houses (spending on social housing dropped by 67% in her premiership)
8. She was responsible for 3.6 million unemployed - the highest figure and the highest proportion of the workforce in history and three times the previous government. Massaging of the figures means that the figure was closer to 5 million
9. She ignored intelligence about Argentinian preparations for the invasion of the Falkland Islands and scrapped the only Royal Navy presence in the islands
10. The poll tax
11. She presided over the closure of 150 coal mines; we are now crippled by the cost of energy, having to import expensive coal from abroad
12. She compared her "fight" against the miners to the Falklands War
13. She privatised state monopolies and created the corporate greed culture that we've been railing against for the last 5 years
14. She introduced the gradual privatisation of the NHS
15. She introduced financial deregulation in a way that turned city institutions into avaricious money pits
16. She pioneered the unfailing adoration and unquestioning support of the USA
17. She allowed the US to place nuclear missiles on UK soil, under US control
18. Section 28
19. She opposed anti-apartheid sanctions against South Africa and described Nelson Mandela as "that grubby little terrorist"
20. She support the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia and sent the SAS to train their soldiers
21. She allowed the US to bomb Libya in 1986, against the wishes of more than 2/3 of the population
22. She opposed the reunification of Germany
23. She invented Quangos
24. She increased VAT from 8% to 17.5%
25. She had the lowest approval rating of any post-war Prime Minister
26. Her post-PM job? Consultant to Philip Morris tobacco at $250,000 a year, plus $50,000 per speech
27. The Al Yamamah contract
28. She opposed the indictment of Chile's General Pinochet
29. Social unrest under her leadership was higher than at any time since the General Strike
30. She presided over interest rates increasing to 15%
31. BSE
32. She presided over 2 million manufacturing job losses in the 79-81 recession
33. She opposed the inclusion of Eire in the Northern Ireland peace process
34. She supported sanctions-busting arms deals with South Africa
35. Cecil Parkinson, Alan Clark, David Mellor, Jeffrey Archer, Jonathan Aitkin
36. Crime rates doubled under Thatcher
37. Black Wednesday – Britain withdraws from the ERM and the pound is devalued. Cost to Britain - £3.5 billion; profit for George Soros - £1 billion
38. Poverty doubled while she opposed a minimum wage
39. She privatised public services, claiming at the time it would increase public ownership. Most are now owned either by foreign governments (EDF) or major investment houses. The profits don’t now accrue to the taxpayer, but to foreign or institutional shareholders.
40. She cut 75% of funding to museums, galleries and other sources of education
41. In the Thatcher years the top 10% of earners received almost 50% of the tax remissions
42. 21.9% inflation

[Kobi]

As a social scientist, I am as concerned not only with what people do but why they do it. Thatcher fascinates me because she is the embodiment of Friedman economics. She demonstrated how economic beliefs can permeate every aspect of life and influence every policy decision.

What is unique in the Thatcher situation is she was a non-military leader of a nation implementing these beliefs. Prior "Friedman social experiments" came in countries where the USA overthrew the existing government, installed a military regime, and orchestrated Friedmanomics. The results were consistent. The rich became filthy rich, the poor became filthy poor, and it all fell apart pretty damn fast.

History repeats itself. The tea party, the GOP, and even some democrats are thinking in Friedmanomics. This is not new stuff. It has been slowly and steadily creeping in the consciousness of the country since before Nixon.

Check out this perspective on Thatcher and take a look at why she did the things she did. Sound familiar?

-----------------------------------
LONDON (AP) - Love her or loathe her, one thing's beyond dispute: Margaret Thatcher transformed Britain.

The Iron Lady who ruled for 11 remarkable years imposed her will on a fractious, rundown nation - breaking the unions, triumphing in a far-off war, and selling off state industries at a record pace. She left behind a leaner government and more prosperous nation by the time a mutiny ousted her from No. 10 Downing Street.

For admirers, Thatcher was a savior who rescued Britain from ruin and laid the groundwork for an extraordinary economic renaissance. For critics, she was a heartless tyrant who ushered in an era of greed that kicked the weak out onto the streets and let the rich become filthy rich.

"Let us not kid ourselves, she was a very divisive figure," said Bernard Ingham, Thatcher's press secretary for her entire term. "She was a real toughie. She was a patriot with a great love for this country, and she raised the standing of Britain abroad."

Thatcher was the first - and still only - female prime minister in Britain's history. But she often found feminists tiresome and was not above using her handbag as a prop to underline her swagger and power. A grocer's daughter, she rose to the top of Britain's snobbish hierarchy the hard way, and envisioned a classless society that rewarded hard work and determination.

She was a trailblazer who at first believed trailblazing impossible: Thatcher told the Liverpool Daily Post in 1974 that she did not think a woman would serve as party leader or prime minister during her lifetime.

But once in power, she never showed an ounce of doubt.

Like her close friend and political ally Ronald Reagan, Thatcher seemed motivated by an unshakable belief that free markets would build a better country than reliance on a strong, central government. Another thing she shared with the American president: a tendency to reduce problems to their basics, choose a path, and follow it to the end, no matter what the opposition.

She formed a deep attachment to the man she called "Ronnie" - some spoke of it as a schoolgirl crush. Still, she would not back down when she disagreed with him on important matters, even though the United States was the richer and vastly stronger partner in the so-called "special relationship."

Thatcher was at her brashest when Britain was challenged. When Argentina's military junta seized the remote Falklands Islands from Britain in 1982, she did not hesitate even though her senior military advisers said it might not be feasible to reclaim the islands.

She simply would not allow Britain to be pushed around, particularly by military dictators, said Ingham, who recalls the Falklands War as the tensest period of Thatcher's three terms in power. When diplomacy failed, she dispatched a military task force that accomplished her goal, despite the naysayers.

"That required enormous leadership," Ingham said. "This was a formidable undertaking, this was a risk with a capital R-I-S-K, and she demonstrated her leadership by saying she would give the military their marching orders and let them get on with it."

In deciding on war, Thatcher overruled Foreign Office specialists who warned her about the dangers of striking back. She was infuriated by warnings about the dangers to British citizens in Argentina and the difficulty of getting support from the U.N. Security Council.

"When you are at war you cannot allow the difficulties to dominate your thinking: you have to set out with an iron will to overcome them," she said in her memoir, "Downing Street Years." "And anyway what was the alternative? That a common or garden dictator should rule over the queen's subjects and prevail by fraud and violence? Not while I was prime minister."

The relatively quick triumph of British forces revived Thatcher's political fortunes, which had been faltering along with the British economy. She won an overwhelming victory in 1983, tripling her majority in the House of Commons.

She trusted her gut instinct, famously concluding early on that Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev represented a clear break in the Soviet tradition of autocratic rulers. She pronounced that the West could "do business" with him, a position that influenced Reagan's vital dealings with Gorbachev in the twilight of the Soviet era.

It was heady stuff for a woman who had little training in foreign affairs whe n she triumphed over a weak field of indecisive Conservative Party candidates to take over the party leadership in 1975 and ultimately run as the party's candidate for prime minister.

She profited from the enormous crisis facing the Labour Party government led by Harold Wilson and later James Callaghan. Britain was near economic collapse, its currency propped up by the International Monetary Fund, and its once defiant spirit seemingly broken.

The sagging Labour government had no Parliamentary majority after 1977, and the next year it suffered through a "winter of discontent" with widespread strikes disrupting vital public services, including hospital care and even gravedigging. The government's effort to hold the line on inflation led to chaos in the streets.

Britain seemed adrift, no longer a credible world power, falling from second- to third-tier status.

It was then, Thatcher wrote in her memoirs, that she came to the unshakable, almost mystical belief that only she could save Britain. She cited a deep "inner conviction" that this would be her role.

Events seemed to be moving her way when she led the Conservative Party to victory in 1979 with a commitment to reduce the state's role and champion private enterprise.

She was underestimated at first - by her own party, by the media, later by foreign adversaries. But they all soon learned to respect her. Thatcher's "Iron Lady" nickname was coined by Soviet journalists, a grudging testament to her ferocious will and determination.

Thatcher set about upending decades of liberal doctrine, successfully challenging Britain's welfare state and socialist traditions, in the process becoming the reviled bete noire of the country's leftwing intelligentsia.

She is perhaps best remembered for her hardline position during the pivotal strike in 1984 and 1985 when she faced down coal miners in an ultimately successful bid to break the power of Britain's unions. It w as a reshaping of the British economic and political landscape that endures to this day.

It is for this that she is revered by free-market conservatives, who say the restructuring of the economy led to a boom that made London the rival of New York as a global financial center. The left demonized her as an implacably hostile union buster, with stone-cold indifference to the poor. But her economic philosophy eventually crossed party lines: Tony Blair led a revamped Labour Party to victory by adopting some of her ideas.

Thatcher's personality, like that of so many of her contemporaries, was shaped in part by the traumatic events during her childhood. When World War II broke out, her hometown was one of the early targets for Luftwaffe bombs. Her belief in the need to stand up to aggressors was rooted in the failure of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's attempt to appease Adolf Hitler rather than confront him.

Thatcher said she learned much about the world simply by studying her father's business. She grew up in the family's apartment just above the shop.

"Before I read a line from the great liberal economists, I knew from my father's accounts that the free market was like a vast sensitive nervous system, responding to events and signals all over the world to meet the ever-changing needs of peoples in different countries, from different classes, of different religions, with a kind of benign indifference to their status," she wrote in her memoirs.

"The economic history of Britain for the next 40 years confirmed and amplified almost every item of my father's practical economics. In effect, I had been equipped at an early age with the ideal mental outlook and tools of analysis for reconstructing an economy ravaged by state socialism."

Margaret Thatcher first won election to Parliament in 1959, representing Finchley in north London. She climbed the Conservative Party ladder quickly, joining the Cabinet as education secretary in 1970.

In that post, she earned the unwanted nickname "Thatcher the milk snatcher" because of her reduction of school milk programs. It was a taste of battles to come.

As prime minister, she sold off one state industry after another: British Telecom, British Gas, Rolls-Royce, British Airways, British Coal, British Steel, the water companies and the electricity distribution system among them. She was proud of her government's role in privatizing some public housing, turning tenants into homeowners.

She ruffled feathers simply by being herself. She had faith - sometimes blind faith - in the clarity of her vision and little use for those of a more cautious mien. Success in the Falklands War set the stage for a pivotal fight with the National Union of Miners, which began a 51-week strike in March 1984 to oppose the government's plans to close a number of mines.

The miners battled police on picket lines but couldn't beat Thatcher, and returned to work without gaining any concessions.

Thatcher won a third term in another landslide in 1987, but may have become overconfident.

She trampled over cautionary advice from her own ministers in 1989 and 1990 by imposing a hugely controversial "community charge" tax that was quickly dubbed a "poll tax" by opponents. It was designed to move Britain away from a property tax and instead imposed a flat rate tax on every adult except for retirees and people who were registered unemployed.

That decision may have been a sign that hubris was undermining Thatcher's political acumen. Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets in London and other cities, leading to some of the worst riots in the British capital for more than a century.

The shocking sight of Trafalgar Square turned into a smoldering battleground on March 31, 1990, helped convince many Conservative figures that Thatcher had stayed too long.

"How could a leader who was wise make 13 million people pay a tax they had never paid before? It just showed that she was no longer thinking in a rational way," one of her junior ministers, David Mellor, said in a BBC documentary.

For Conservatives in Parliament, it was a question of survival. They feared vengeful voters would turn them out of office at the next election, and for many that fear trumped any gratitude they might have felt for their longtime leader.

Eight months after the riots, Thatcher was gone, struggling to hold back tears as she left Downing Street after being ousted by her own party.

It was a bitter end for Thatcher's active political career - her family said she felt a keen sense of betrayal even years later.

In 1992, she was appointed in the House of Lords, taking the title Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven.

[imperfect_cupcake]

Whatever else may be true of her, Thatcher engaged in incredibly consequential acts that affected millions of people around the world. She played a key role not only in bringing about the first Gulf War but also using her influence to publicly advocate for the 2003 attack on Iraq. She denounced Nelson Mandela and his ANC as "terrorists", something even David Cameron ultimately admitted was wrong. She was a steadfast friend to brutal tyrants such as Augusto Pinochet, Saddam Hussein and Indonesian dictator General Suharto ("One of our very best and most valuable friends"). And as my Guardian colleague Seumas Milne detailed last year, "across Britain Thatcher is still hated for the damage she inflicted – and for her political legacy of rampant inequality and greed, privatisation and social breakdown."

Thatcher and misapplied death etiquette

I do not celebrate her death because I do not care if she is alive or dead. I grieve all of the harm, crueltly and starvation she inflicted on her own country because of her tory politics and greed.

I personally know people who are scarred from their families suffering in poverty in their youth because of her. Neglectful, cruel, greedy leader with no concern and launguishing in her own comfort.

NEVER FORGET.

Her and Regan should be put in a glass box, arms around each other to rot in public and a list of all their human rights crimes listed underneath.

[jac]

http://www.billboard.com/articles/ne...ger-dies-at-70

The passing of Annette Funicello...

This news is so saddening to me. I grew up with the Mousketeers and loved her Skippy commercials... well, and the Beach Blanket Bingo movies!! I have been wondering where she was when the first bit of news about her multiple sclerosis came out in the 80s and there was no more news on her.

Awwww.... rest easy Annette. - My sister was named after you... but you know this now.

[Andrea]

100 Amazing Trans Americans You Should Know

The inaugural Trans 100 List celebrates groundbreaking work being done by trans people across the country.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/saeedjones/100-amazing-trans-americans-you-should-know?sub=2135553_1056531

[LeftWriteFemme]

WATCH: Elizabeth Taylor’s Grandson Continues Fight Against HIV/AIDS



http://www.queerty.com/watch-elizabe...EFt4s0MIC0X.99

[Kobi]

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Eight days after allegedly being sexually battered while passed out at a party, and then humiliated by online photos of the assault, 15-year-old Audrie Pott posted on Facebook that her life was ruined, "worst day ever," and hanged herself.

For the next eight months, her family struggled to figure out what happened to their soccer loving, artistic, horse crazy daughter, whose gentle smile, long dark hair and shining eyes did not bely a struggling soul.

And then on Thursday, seven months after the tragedy, a Northern California sheriff's office arrested three 16-year-old boys on charges of sexual battery.

"The family has been trying to understand why their loving daughter would have taken her life at such a young age and to make sure that those responsible would be held accountable," said family attorney Robert Allard.

"After an extensive investigation that we have conducted on behalf of the family, there is no doubt in our minds that the victim, then only 15 years old, was savagely assaulted by her fellow high school students while she lay on a bed completely unconscious."

Allard said students used cell phones to share photos of the attack, and that the images went viral.

Santa Clara County Sheriff's Lt. Jose Cardoza said it arrested two of the teens at Saratoga High School and the third, a former Saratoga High student, at Christopher High School in Gilroy on Thursday. The names of the suspects were not released because they are minors.

Cardoza said the suspects were booked into juvenile hall and face two felonies and one misdemeanor each, all related to sexual battery that allegedly occurred at a Saratoga house party.

The lieutenant said the arrests were the result of information gathered by his agency's Saratoga High School resource officers. He said the investigation is ongoing, and Los Gatos police also continue looking into the girl's September suicide.

The Associated Press does not, as a rule, identify victims of sexual assault. But in this case, Pott's family wanted her name and case known, Allard said. The family also provided a photo to the AP.

The girl's family members did not comment and have requested privacy until a planned news conference Tuesday. Her father and step-mother Lawrence and Lisa Pott, along with her mother Sheila Pott, have started the Audrie Pott Foundation (audriepottfoundation.com) to provide music and art scholarships and offer youth counseling and support.

The foundation website alludes to the teen's struggles, but until now neither law enforcement, school officials nor family have discussed the sexual battery.

"She was compassionate about life, her friends, her family, and would never do anything to harm anyone," the site says. "She was in the process of developing the ability to cope with the cruelty of this world but had not quite figured it all out.

"Ultimately, she had not yet acquired the antibiotics to deal with the challenges present for teens in today's society."

The Pott family is not alone.

In Canada on Thursday, authorities said they are looking further into the case of a teenage girl who hanged herself Sunday after an alleged rape and months of bullying. A photo said to be of the 2011 assault on 17-year-old Rehtaeh Parsons was shared online.

No charges initially were filed against four teenage boys being investigated. But after an outcry, Nova Scotia's justice minister appointed four government departments to look into Parsons' case.

[Sparkle]

http://jezebel.com/sweden-introduces-new-gender-neutral-pronoun-makes-bei-472492079

/snip from the Jezebel article:

"But the ever-progressive nation of Sweden has introduced a new gender-neutral pronoun—hen (neither the masculine han nor the feminine hon)—into its official National Encyclopedia. It's a heartening step in broadening the concept of gender and giving institutional validation to those for whom gender is more complicated than the stiff old male/female dichotomy."

[Chancie]

Originally Posted by Andrea

100 Amazing Trans Americans You Should Know

The inaugural Trans 100 List celebrates groundbreaking work being done by trans people across the country.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/saeedjones/100-amazing-trans-americans-you-should-know?sub=2135553_1056531

I love this list!

I also followed a link to a great article by a trans guy describing his first year teaching middle school.

[Sparkle]

http://www.accuweather.com/en/featur...tic_1/10107004

snip/

A solar flare that occurred around 2 a.m. Thursday morning may create a spectacular display of northern lights Saturday evening.

The flare is also expected to cause vibrant northern lights from the Arctic as far south as New York, the Dakotas, Washington and Michigan, with a smaller possibility of it going into Pennsylvania and Iowa, even Kansas. The lights are currently estimated for 8 p.m. EDT Saturday arrival, with a possible deviation of up to seven hours. If the radiation hits much after dark settles on the East Coast the lights may be missed and will instead only be visible for the West.

Viewing conditions will be best in the mid-Atlantic, specifically for parts of Pennsylvania and the Delmarva. Most of the country will have poor to fair views as a result of cloud cover, with areas further south not experiencing the aurora at all. A pocket of fair conditions sits over parts of Oregon into Washington and southern Idaho. A swath of partly cloudy conditions will also spread over a section of the Ohio Valley for parts of Michigan, Indiana and Illinois. Ohio will experience fair to good viewing conditions. For the rest of the country conditions will be poor.

maps included in the link

I'm quite excited!!!