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Angry White Men: American Masculinity at the End of an Era by Michael Kimmel

           It happened on August 29, 1786.  Protestors, many of whom were veterans of the Revolutionary War, were angry about the distressed economic circumstance that developed in the aftermath of the war.  Hard currency was in short supply, and this caused a credit squeeze.  The government had come down hard on citizens in an effort to ameliorate the debt problem, and there were court hearings for those who could not or would not pay their taxes or other debts. Led by  Daniel Shays, a veteran, protestors shut down courts in five cities, bringing the hearings to a halt.  Shays’ followers also began raising an army.  When some of the rebels were captured, their colleagues began arming; in response, a militia unit raised a private army and routed most of the rebels.  Although there were scattered protests into the next summer, the rebellion was pretty much over by February 1787.

Universities often stand between rape victims and justice

Photo from Hunting Ground - girl sitting alone and sad on porch

An issue-driven documentary like The Hunting Ground aims to spur viewers into action. A common related goal is to make viewers angry.

On this latter point, director Kirby Dick succeeds.

The film focuses on sexual assault on American college campuses. Even if you come into the theater already convinced that campus rape is a major problem, the featured victims’ stories are guaranteed to make your blood boil.

As more than one interviewee states, the attack itself was bad, but what happened to them afterward was far worse. The victims—mostly women but also a few men—went to school authorities for help, only to be discouraged from reporting the crimes.

The problem, experts on the issue charge, is that officials are more concerned about protecting their schools’ reputations than they are about protecting their students. And sexual assault is clearly not good for a school’s reputation. 

As the documentary proceeds, two students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill emerge as its prime protagonists. Annie Clark and Andrea Pino respond to their individual assaults by banding together, first as friends and later as activists.

Mikhail S. Gorbachev: Initiate a World Peace Conference

From: World Beyond War

To: Mikhail S. Gorbachev

We ask you to initiate a world peace conference for the international coordination of nonviolent resistance to highly dangerous U.S. and NATO actions in Eastern Europe, Ukraine, and elsewhere. Such a conference should seek an end to the practices of bombing, of murdering by drone-warfare, and of deploying troops anywhere in the world. There must be an end to the destabilization of entire countries for the purpose of controlling them. Legal standards must no longer be set aside by arbitrary interpretations.

SIGN HERE.

Urgent 'Musts' Needed for Palestinians to Defeat Apartheid

Waiting on Israeli society to change from within is a colossal waste of time, during which the suffering of an entire nation - torn between an occupied home and a harsh diaspora - will not cease. But what are Palestinians and the supporters of a just peace in Palestine and Israel to do? Plenty.

 

Those who counted on some sort of a miracle to emerge from the outcome of the recent Israeli elections have only themselves to blame. Neither logic nor numbers were on their side, nor the long history laden with disappointing experiences of “leftist” Israelis unleashing wars and cementing occupation. Despite a few differences between Israel’s right and the so-called left on internal matters, their positions are almost identical regarding all major issues related to Palestine. These include the Right of Return and the status of occupied Jerusalem to the illegal settlements.

 

But Palestinians are not without options. Sure, the odds against them are great, but such is the fate of the oppressed as they are left between two options: either a perpetual fight for justice or unending humiliation and servitude.

 

RO and the Funny Numbers Club

Did you know that it is perfectly legal to lie in a political campaign? Sounds false, doesn’t it? Ohio, where weird new concepts like “Responsible Ohio” come to roost, found itself at the nexus of a court decision that made lying and deception perfectly legal. It gave RO card carrying membership in the Funny Numbers Club.

   Last September 2014, a federal judge struck down an Ohio law that permitted the Ohio Elections Commission to regulate political speech, particularly egregious falsehoods. The case centered around a complaint filed by then-Ohio Representative Steven Driehaus that billboards to be erected by the Susan B. Anthony List (SBA) were factually incorrect. Driehaus sued the SBA, which in turn filed a brief in federal court to overturn the law, stating that bars against false political speech violate the First Amendment right to free speech. Even though a lower court and an appeals court turned down this counter intuitive challenge, the U.S. Supreme Court took up the case and, ruling in favor of the SBA, remanded it back to the lower court, where egregious falsehoods – and funny numbers – became A-OK.

Canada, Do Not Follow U.S. Into Permawar

 


Oh Canada, to thine own self be true, not to thine heavily militarized neighbor. Robin Williams called you a nice apartment over a meth lab for a reason, and now you're bringing the drugs upstairs.

We write to you as two U.S. citizens, one of whom moved to Canada when George W. Bush became U.S. president. Every wise observer in Texas had warned this country about their Governor Bush, but the message hadn't gotten through.

We need the message to reach you now before you follow the United States down a path it has been on since its creation, a path that used to include regular invasions of your land, a path impeded a little by your generous sanctuary for those refusing war participation, and a path that now invites you to ruin yourself along with us. Misery and addiction and illegality love company, Canada. Alone they wither, but with aiders and abettors they flourish.

Wisconsin Grandmother Jailed for Opposing Drone Murders

Joy First reports from Mauston, Wisc., that Bonnie Block, a Madison grandmother and long-time peace activist, was found guilty of trespassing in a jury trial in the Juneau County Courthouse on Wednesday, April 1, 2015, and sent to jail.

Sadly, this is not an April Fool's joke. Block, pictured at right, was compelled to either pay $232 or spend 5 days in the Juneau County Jail. Faced with that choice, Block said in court:

"Your Honor, I asked for a jury trial in this matter so I could explain to the citizens of Juneau County my moral, constitutional, and legal reasons for opposing the drone training via handing out a leaflet at the Volk Field Open House. I also wanted to point out the absurdity of being arrested for trespassing at an event to which the public had been invited.

Thailand's Coup Leader Invokes "Absolute Powers"

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Thirteen days after receiving U.S. Air Force
training to strengthen his troops, military coup leader Gen. Prayuth
Chan-ocha toughened his grip by lifting martial law on April 2 and
enforcing a harsher security law which critics say creates a
1950s-style dictator with "absolute powers."

Washington has criticized Bangkok's regime but maintains close links
with its longtime U.S. ally, partly to balance Thailand's excellent
relations with China.

The newly unveiled security law increases the danger of political
clashes in this Buddhist-majority Southeast Asian nation.

"We have lifted martial law," effective immediately, the junta
announced on national television.

It is being replaced with Article 44, which allows Gen. Prayuth to
issue any commands -- unchallenged -- based on his "opinion that it is
necessary," the article says.

The announcement enforcing Article 44 ordered all military officers,
ranked 2nd lieutenant and above, to use their subordinates to

Lower Drinking Age, Raise Killing Age

The United States sends people to kill and die in war that it doesn't trust with a beer.

It trains police in war skills to assault young people it suspects of going near beer.

Here's an idea: Drink At 18, Don't Kill Till 21.

Alcohol prohibition is not working, and creates unsafe drinking by people old enough to vote, drive, and work. A case can be made, and is being made, for returning the drinking age to 18.

But allowing 18-year-olds to join the military has created illegal and immoral recruitment of minors, not to mention deep moral regret, post-traumatic stress, and suicide in young veterans.

Lodestar of Peace

“Deeply sensible of their solemn duty to promote the welfare of mankind . . .”

What? Were they serious?

I kneel in a sort of gasping awe as I read the words of the Kellogg-Briand Pact, a treaty signed in 1928 – by the United States, France, Germany, Great Britain, Japan and ultimately by every country that then existed. The treaty . . . outlaws war.

“Persuaded that the time has come when a frank renunciation of war as an instrument of national policy should be made . . .”

ARTICLE I: “The High Contracting Parties solemnly declare in the names of their respective peoples that they condemn recourse to war for the solution of international controversies, and renounce it as an instrument of national policy in their relations with one another.”

ARTICLE II: “The High Contracting Parties agree that the settlement or solution of all disputes or conflicts of whatever nature or of whatever origin they may be, which may arise among them, shall never be sought except by pacific means.”

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