February 7, 2010
Dictator Kids Still Living Obscenely in the US, Report Says [Money Talks]
via Gawker by Ravi Somaiya on 2/4/10
Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, son of the Equatorial Guinean dictator managed to move $110 million into the US between 2004 and 2008, a senate investigation shows. Here's a picture we were given of him and his "million dollar watch."
Obiang, who is the subject of a criminal investigation, had help help circumnavigating post-9/11 laws designed to stop nefarious figures abusing US hospitality, according to the Associated Press. He "used two lawyers who helped him with shell company accounts, two real estate agents who helped him purchase a $30 million home in Malibu, Calif., and an escrow agent who assisted in buying a $38.5 million Gulfstream jet."
Obiang is not the only one flouting the rules. Pierre Falcone, an Angolan arms dealer kept $60 million in US bank accounts here and bought a $9.6 million house in Arizona. Omar Bongo, the president of Gabon for 41 years until he died last year, bought armored vehicles and transport planes from the US. His daughter had $1 million in shrink-wrapped hundred-dollar bills in a New York safety deposit box. Atiku Abubakar, former vice president of Nigeria, used his wife, a US citizen, to smuggle in more than $40m of 'suspect funds'. We are living in a Frederick Forsyth novel.
Yale Gets $3.9-Million Federal Grant to Develop ‘Avatar’ Video Game to Teach...
via CNSNews.com Headlines on 2/4/10
The federal government is giving an assistant professor at the Yale School of Medicine $3.9 million to develop a video game to teach "sex, drug and alcohol negotiation" skills to children 9-14 years of age.Anonymous Pledge to Fight Scientologist Efforts in Haiti [Declarations]
via Gawker by Ravi Somaiya on 2/5/10
Anonymous, the internet-based group that has waged sporadic wars on Scientology over the last two years, has released a new letter. Prompted, apparently, by the fawning Today Show piece on Scientologists in Haiti they intend to act.
The group, given to wearing V for Vendetta Guy Fawkes masks, and pictured above during widely publized protests against the church in 2008, released this message.
Hello [audience]. We are Anonymous.
We wish it it were under more favorable circumstances that we have chosen to address the world. However, after the demonstrably inaccurate interpretation handling of the victims of the Haiti earthquake as per the work of the Scientology 'Volunteer' Ministers, Anonymous could not remain silent.
The Volunteer Ministers are volunteers only in name. Their self-proclaimed humanitarian efforts have been shown to be harmful and self-serving time and time again. In the wake of the September Eleventh attacks at the World Trade Center, they impeded the work of the New York City Fire Department, and falsely claimed to have been given a reward for their efforts. These efforts involved little more than handing out pamphlets for the works of L. Ron Hubbard, while intentionally hindering the work of mental health professionals aiding the victims.
This same pattern of self-promotion at the expense of victims of disasters does not end there. Following the tsunami at Sri Lanka, the Volunteer Ministers attempted to convert the vulnerable and suffering victims into their cult, promising them aid and salvation at the expense of their livelihood***. These actions were repeated following the terrorist attack at the Ramada Inn in India*** and the Subway bombings in London, England.
In short: Scientology does not see a disaster as a tragedy, but rather, as a business opportunity.
First-hand accounts [[LINK TO GAWKER ARTICLE]], condemnations from legitimate aid groups [[SCREENSHOTS OF ARTICLES]], and even leaked documents from Scientology's corporate heirarchy itself [[SCREENSHOTS OF DOX]] all confirm the cowardly and parasitic nature of the self-proclaimed Volunteer Ministers.
The very same self-serving, opportunistic proselytizing has been taking place in Haiti. Scientology has taken every opportunity to release their own manufactured press releases, taking credit for the work of legitimate relief groups. They arrived completely unprepared [[SCREENSHOTS OF THE COWBOY BOOTS REPORT HERE]], and were told to leave by the United States military [[SCREENSHOT HERE]].
An untrained Scientologist was alleged to be assisting a surgeon, using tools that had not been sterilized. This is blatant medical malpractice. John Travolta has also left several trained medical professionals behind at an airport, instead making it his priority to bring untrained Scientologists into the country with the sole intent of disseminating L. Ron Hubbard materials to an already vulnerable and suffering population.
Know this, Scientology: We are watching you. With every move you make, every victim you exploit, and every piece of choreographed propaganda you release into the mainstream media, the public already knows the truth about your organization. You are not fooling anyone, and no amount of proselytizing will change this. You have already been convicted in the court of public opinion. It is now only a matter of time before you are convicted in a court of law.
We are Anonymous.
We are Legion.
We do not forgive.
We do not forget.
Expect us.
On a separate note, we hear rumors that the church may be starting an orphanage in Haiti. The rumblings come from chatter activists have flagged up on Scientology messageboards and remain unconfirmed.
13-year-old quarterback commits to USC - Stupid!
via Guyism by A. Isaac on 2/5/10
Trust me, I wish this was a piece from The Onion but sadly, its not.
Thursday evening Kiffin received a verbal commitment from 13-year old wunderkind quarterback David Sills of Bear, Del.
Too young?
Not according to his personal coach Steve Clarkson, who has mentored some of the game’s best quarterbacks including current USC starter Matt Barkley.
“His skill set is off the chart,” Clarkson said. “I’ve never seen anyone at his age do what he’s been able to do.”
Allow me a moment to digest some of this information…
At 13 you are in the 8th grade right? Well, let me tell you a quick story. I was a pretty good athlete when I was young, even started on the 7th grade basketball team, played football, ran track….Did the things a normal kid in middle school does.
And then right around the age of 14, I saw my first pair of real boobies. No, not the ones in that porn I lifted from my friends dad….real, live boobies.
Let’s just say my focus turned elsewhere after that. In what started as a promising athletic career quickly transformed into horny, sex-driven teenager.
Fast forward a decade or so later and I’m an overweight, out of shape blogger.
So my advice to quarterback extraordinaire David Sills, unless you want to end up like me, keep the boobies at bay. They’re more powerful thank you think.
Religious right selfishly turns boy into pawn in gay-adoption battle
via Planet Atheism by Ian on 2/6/10
Religious right selfishly turns boy into pawn in gay-adoption battle
On the left is the picture that the Florida Family Policy Council of Orlando, used to illustrate the gay couple that was awarded custody of a relative. It appeared under the headline: "FL judge violates law, places child in homosexual adoption" (on the right) is the actual couple.
The judge’s ruling said exactly what most people would want to hear in an adoption case.
It said that the 1-year-old boy who had been living with his foster parents was “happy and thriving” — and that a permanent adoption made perfect sense.
It should be a simple story with a happy ending.
Except it is not.
That judge’s ruling — which focused solely on the child’s well-being — enraged some on the religious right.
Why? Because the little boy’s adoptive parents are gay.
So now those who profit from division are pouncing.
They aren’t the people who have cared for this little boy, who have nursed his wounds and tucked him in at night. In fact, they haven’t done a thing for him.
They haven’t consulted the experts — everyone from a child psychologist to a Guardian ad Litem — who say the parents provide precisely the loving environment that this child needs.
All these critics know is that they don’t want gay people to have the same rights as straight people.
So they want him separated from the parents who love him.
“Arrogant judicial activism” was how the finger-waggers at Orlando’s Florida Family Policy Council described the ruling in an alert it sent out to its members last week.
And to make their point about just how frightening this ruling was, the Policy Council included a photograph of the couple — a strange and androgynous-looking duo, one with bleached skin and both with mullet haircuts. The couple look so odd (you literally can’t tell whether they are male or female) that one might wonder how any judge could place a young child with such a disturbing-looking duo.
Except the judge didn’t.
The abnormal-looking couple that the Policy Council chose to illustrate this story is not the same couple granted the right to adopt the child.
No, the two-woman couple awarded custody of the 1-year-old — South Florida trade-show executive Vanessa Alenier and her partner, Melanie Leon — look more like J.Crew models: all-American with catalogue clothes and smiles.
The picture that the Policy Council chose was a grotesque caricature.
These are the dirty tactics of Christianity’s far-right warriors.
Not the majority of mainstream Christians, mind you. Not those who are focused on caring for their own families and practicing their own faith — but those who are obsessed with homosexuality.
These extremists wage their campaigns of intolerance based on deception and misrepresentation.
Cat Owners Are More Educated Than Dog Owners
via Neatorama by Alex on 2/6/10
Here’s a study that will surely pour more gasoline into the debate of dog vs cat: turns out that cat owners are more likely to have college degrees than dog owners.
A poll of 2,524 households found that 47.2% of those with a cat had at least one person educated to degree level, compared with 38.4% of homes with dogs.
The study said longer hours, possibly associated with better qualified jobs, may make owning a dog impractical.
Believe what you will, but the study authors made one big error: cats don’t have owners. They have staff 
Photography by Kemal Uysal
by Kemal Uysal
via Design You Trust by kemaluysal on 2/7/10
Kemal Uysal is a young Photography lover who curtenly lives in Istanbul. He loves to capture the emotions and naturel beauties in life. His hard style is getting softer in these days and working on new projects and ideas about fashion and fashion photography….
For more please visit the website www.kemaluysal.com
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Weekly Fix of Inspiration
via Design You Trust by Casanovargh on 2/7/10
For the full post check out, Weekly Fix of Inspiration | KeepInspiring.Me. Similarly, you can find subscribe to the feed to receive great design & illustration on your reader.
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Awesome Works by Valp Maciej Hajnrich
via Design You Trust by bdgiga on 2/7/10
Via TutorArt
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Witch-hunt victim recounts torture ordeal
via Planet Atheism by Ian on 2/7/10
Witch-hunt victim recounts torture ordeal
A woman has been tortured by her neighbours for two days and forced to eat human waste before she finally gave in and confessed to practising witchcraft.
Those who beat, punched and kicked Kalli Biswokarma, 47, accused her of casting evil spells on a schoolteacher who had fallen ill in the village of Pyutar, 40 kilometres south of Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu.
“I was victimised because I am a poor woman,” said Ms Biswokarma, who belongs to the Dalit community – the untouchables on the lowest rung of Nepal’s rigid Hindu caste hierarchy.
“Around 35 people came to my home and took me away. They trapped me in a cow shed and forced me to eat faeces and drink urine.
“The next day they cut my skin with blades. I could not bear the torture and I confessed to being a witch just to save my life.”
Hundreds of Dalit women are thought to suffer a similar ordeal every year in Nepal, where superstition and caste-based discrimination remain rife and where most communities still operate on strict patriarchal lines.
Human rights campaigners say the perpetrators of such crimes are rarely brought to justice, with police viewing the persecution of Dalit women as a matter for the community itself to sort out.
Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal has pronounced 2010 the year to end violence against women, but authorities in the impoverished nation admit they face an uphill struggle.
“Superstitions are deeply rooted in our society, and the belief in witchcraft is one of the worst forms of this,” said Sarwa Dev Prasad Ojha, minister for women and social welfare.
“Such traditional practices cannot be wiped away overnight.”
The Women’s Rehabilitation Centre says it has documented at least 82 cases in two years in which women who were tortured by neighbours on charges of witchcraft.
Experts say superstitions about witchcraft are often merely a pretext for victimising women.
For Ms Biswokarma and her family, now back in their home village after a stay in a women’s refuge in Kathmandu, the stigma of being accused of witchcraft persists.
“I am still afraid because some of the people who tortured me are still in the village,” she said.
“I have lost my dignity, but I have not given up hope. I will fight for justice.”
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