Super 'Dela

somepolitics:

In a significant decision, the Punjab and Haryana High Court last week ruled that the right to abort a pregnancy in a marriage rests with the wife and not husband.

“A woman is not a machine in which raw material is put and a finished product comes out. She should be mentally prepared to conceive, continue the same and give birth to a child. The unwanted pregnancy would naturally affect the mental health of the pregnant woman…” said the court.

Stressing that marital intimacy between a couple does not automatically translate to the woman’s consent to child bearing, Justice Jitendra Chauhan said, “Mere consent to conjugal rights does not mean consent to give birth to a child for her husband.” Welcoming the judgement, Jagmati Sanwan, All India Democratic Women’s Association national vice-president said, “If the family conditions are unsuitable, no woman would like to give birth to a child because after all, she is the one who takes care of the children for all practical purposes. We see around us that fathers often desert their families after a couple of deliveries. But children become a part and parcel of the mother’s physical and emotional world. She invests much into their well being and she alone suffers. Hence, the rights of whether to give birth or not, should be with her.”

Take note, America.

politicsd00d:

The birth control skirmish is not the only regressive, anti-woman, anti-science battle being waged in this country.

- - - - - -

February 18, 2012  |  It’s been an exhausting few weeks for reproductive rights supporters. Most recently, we’ve been treated to a new round of a battle over birth control, as the debate over whether employees at religiously affiliated institutions should be required to receive insurance that covers birth control without a co-payment — a right employees of all other U.S. companies will have under the Obama administration’s new healthcare law — rages on in Washington.

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Many of us can’t believe we’re having a conversation, let alone a full-blown debate, about this issue in the year 2012, but here we are, watching women get shut out of this week’s hearing on the subject, listening to men wax poetic about the “good old days” when low-cost birth control meant holding an aspirin between one’s knees and enduring childish rants from a cabal of overly powerful Catholic bishops who, in the astute words of Jon Stewart, have “confused the war on…religion with not always getting everything [they] want.”

(Link opens in new window.)

Article © 2012 AlterNet / By Sarah Seltzer and Lauren Kelley

Hungary has taken a bold stand against biotech giant Monsanto and genetic modification by destroying 1000 acres of maize found to have been grown with genetically modified seeds, according to Hungary deputy state secretary of the Ministry of Rural Development Lajos Bognar. Unlike many European Union countries, Hungary is a nation where genetically modified (GM) seeds are banned. In a similar stance against GM ingredients, Peru has also passed a 10 year ban on GM foods.

Read More

velocicrafter:

Banned 500 Years of Chicano History offered free to AZ students by ABQ publisher

500 Years of Chicano History in Pictures, edited by Elizabeth Martinez and published by the SouthWest Organizing Project (SWOP), is included in a set of primarily Chicano and Native American books that have been banned by the Tucson Independent School District. The school district says it’s not a ban, but the books were removed from classrooms after the Mexican-American Studies program was eliminated, and teachers in that program have been instructed to not teach these books through the lens of ethnic studies. To us, this is a ban.

The SouthWest Organizing Project, in response to the current ban and the overall climate of fear and scapegoating of people of color in Arizona, is offering the book at a 50% discount to Arizona residents, and will give it for FREE to any Arizona Student who requests the book by sending a letter describing why they think the teaching of Chicano and Native American history accurately to young people is essential. Many Arizona students have already shown their disapproval of the ban, as hundreds walked out of class and marched on the Tuscon Unified School District’s headquarters earlier this week.

read more

politicsd00d:

charlieusername:

Gary Friedrich, the creator of Marvel Comics’ demonic motorcyclist Ghost Rider, has been ordered by a judge to renounce his creator credit and pay $17,000 in damages to his former employer following a court battle that began in 2007 disputing legal ownership of the character. The news comes…

youth-in-politics:

The toll of tar sands development has been largely hidden hundreds of miles to the North. Canadian forests once provided the last undisturbed refuge in North America for migrating songbirds, ducks and geese, and the vast stretches of wilderness in northern Alberta have been ideal for wild wolves and caribou that have thrived in balance with nations of native Canadians for countless generations. But that was all before oil companies moved in and took control of the Albertan government.

Alberta’s carefully constructed web of secrecy was pierced this week by news that Canada is planning to poison thousands of wolves in a desperate effort to save caribou decimated by oil development. Recent scientific studies have proved that Canada’s Woodland caribou herds are heading toward extinction due to habitat destruction from tar sands and other oil development.

I feel like I should put in an opinion here, but I really don’t know what to say.  What should be done [or should have been done] to save the decimating caribou population?  Do you agree with the Canadian Government’s decision to poison the wolves?

I think we don’t need oil, especially of such poor quality. We should have already moved away from it. I don’t agree with the stupid idea of decimating one species in hopes to save another that prior species poses no threat to naturally. Oil companies destroy the earth and life on it. Passing the buck to the wolves wont change that fact.

sarahlee310:

New Hampshire’s GOP legislature has come up with all manner of absurd bills recently, including a proposal making public school curriculum optional, another to prevent police from protecting domestic abuse victims, and even a measure mandating that new laws be based on the Magna Carta. Some of the Granite State’s GOP lawmakers have even proposed doing away with the law that requires employers to give their workers time off for lunch, under the rationale that all employers will simply grant lunch breaks out of the goodness of their hearts

Seriously?!?!?!  You have nothing better to do with your time and positions?  How it is not clear to most citizens that Republicans care nothing - ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! - about average citizens, I just don’t get.

Dx uhg.

moniquill:

sixtyforty:

Rhode Island Cranston High School West student Jessica Ahlquist successfully sued her school to have a Christian prayer mural removed from the state-funded public establishment. Her argument, a textbook case of separation of church and state, was sufficient to win U.S. District Court Judge Ronald R. Lagueux over, who praised her for her courage in his decision:

“The Court refrains from second-guessing the expressed motives of the Committee members, but nonetheless must point out that tradition is a murky and dangerous bog. While all agree that some traditions should be honored, others must be put to rest as our national values and notions of tolerance and diversity evolve. At any rate, no amount of history and tradition can cure a constitutional infraction. The Court concludes that Cranston’s purposes in installing and, more recently, voting to retain the Prayer Mural are not clearly secular.”

Jessica Ahlquist may have won her legal battle to remove an unconstitutional prayer banner from her public school, but that doesn’t mean she can finally resume her everyday life. No, now she’s receiving horrible comments from fellow classmates, community members, and other angry Christians who are very, very offended that their religion no longer has the special status to be forced upon others:

“May that little, evil athiest teenage girl and that judge BURN IN HELL!”
“yeah, well i want the immediate removal of all atheists from the school, how about that?”
“Jessica Ahlquist may have won her case, but she’s going straight to hell. #Godovereverything”
“I hope there’s lots of banners in hell when your rotting in there you atheist fuck #TeamJesus”
“If this banner comes down, hell i hope the school burns down with it!”
“U little brainless idiot, hope u will be punished, you have not win sh..t! Stupid little brainless skunk!”
“Fuck Jessica alquist I’ll drop anchor on her face”
“definetly laying it down on this athiest tommorow anyone else?”
“Nothing bad better happen tomorrow #justsaying #fridaythe13th”
“Let’s all jump that girl who did the banner #fuckthatho”
“literally that bitch is insane. and the best part is she already transferred schools because shes knows someone will jump her #ahaha”
“”But for real somebody should jump this girl” lmao let’s do it!”
“Hmm jess is in my bio class, she’s gonna get some shit thrown at her”
“hail Mary full of grace @jessicaahlquist is gonna get punched in the face”
“When I take over the world I’m going to do a holocaust to all the atheists”
“gods going to fuck your ass with that banner you scumbag”
“if I wasn’t 18 and wouldn’t go to jail I’d beat the shit out of her idk how she got away with not getting beat up yet”
“nail her to a cross”
“We can make so many jokes about this dumb bitch, but who cares #thatbitchisgointohell and Satan is gonna rape her.”

Those comments are all verbatim, taken from Facebook, Twitter and comments threads. For the record, police are taking them very seriously. At least one student has been disciplined, and all of the students making threats are under investigation.

Christian Love, folks.

Christianity… Some people are such asses. -_-

Moments before Josh Powell ignited a gas-fueled explosion at his home, killing himself and his two children, a locked-out child services worker pleaded with a 911 operator to get police to the home because she feared for the two boys’ lives.

Elizabeth Griffin-Hall, who had brought the boys…

cultureofresistance:

1929: Monsanto began production of PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) in the United States. PCBs were considered an industrial wonder chemical - an oil that would not burn, was impervious to degradation and had almost limitless applications. Today PCBs are considered…

Imagine you’re a middle-school science teacher, and you get to the section of the course where you’re to talk about climate change. You mention the “C” words, and two students walk out of the class.

Or you mention global warming and a hand shoots up.

“Mrs. Brown! My dad says global warming is a hoax!”

Or you come to school one morning and the principal wants to see you because a parent of one of your students has accused you of political bias because you taught what scientists agree about: that the Earth is getting warmer, and human actions have had an important role in this warming.

Or you pick up the newspaper and see that your state legislature is considering a bill that declares that accepted sciences like global warming (and evolution, of course) are “controversial issues” that require “alternatives” to be taught.

Incidents like these have happened in one or more states, and they are likely to continue to happen. Teachers are encountering pushback from many directions as they try to teach global warming and other climate science topics.

anonymissexpress:

As we’ve noted multiple times, it appears the entertainment industry still does not recognize what kind of beast it awoke with its efforts to shove through SOPA and PIPA. While it still believes it was the “tech community” that caused those bills to be shelved, it’s been ignoring that a very large segment of internet users have been activated on these issues… and they’re angry and willing to be proactive. We’ve pointed out that lots of attention has turned towards ACTA — and while it’s late in the process, don’t underestimate the power of an awful lot of pissed off people who recognize that their internet is being messed with in a way that may harm their ability to communicate. 

A bunch of folks have been setting up February 11th as a global day of protest against ACTA, and if the entertainment industry thought that the anger would simmer down after the SOPA/PIPA fight, they may have miscalculated again. Just take a look at the live map showing the planned February 11th protests across Europe

More on Techdirt

anglophonicblog:

Hire private cops operated by a non-union “Christian values” security company, call them “safety ambassadors” and let them interfere with the important day-to-day duties of your actual department.

According to the East Bay Express:

“A document entitled ‘The SMS Holdings Way,’ available on the company’s website, reveals the Christian beliefs of its owners and executives: ‘From our company’s beginning, our business philosophy has been God-centered and faith-based. While we will always show tolerance and acceptance of the personal beliefs of others, we recognize that there is a higher order that provides a basis for all of our core values.’”

So when you’re walking downtown and find yourself being questioned rudely by some douche in a yellow vest, as happens to me regularly…say hello to the new Christian face of Oakland’s militarized police department. 

I’m pretty sure that our safety is the last thing on their mind.

http://www.eastbayexpress.com/ebx/private-cops-on-teh-public-dime/Content?oid=3108768

(via akagoldfish)

theyoungradical:

astrangerdanger:

stay-human:

I’m not even going to add any comment to this. I’m just not.

“the BBC said the word Palestine isn’t offensive, but ‘implying that it is not free is the contentious issue”

…

…

…

mass license cancellations are needed, assholes are wayyy out of their ‘public good’ remit

epicwinbook:

twilight zone

the-zeitgeist-movement:

By Andrew Jones
Wednesday, February 1, 2012 16:17 EST

U.S. Capital Hill police arrested an award winning filmmaker at the request of House Republicans Wednesday afternoon, according to The Huffington Post.

Josh Fox, the director of the Oscar nominated film “Gasland,” were arrested and his crew were detained for trying to film the GOP’s hearing attacking the Environment Protection Agency (EPA)’s oversight on water pollution and fracking.

“I’m within my First Amendment rights,” Fox shouted, according to Politico. “And I’m being taken out.”