Germanwings 9525

Recently, there was a tragic accident where 150 passengers on Germanwings flight 9252 were all killed. After taking the time to mourn, a sudden question began to arise from the accident; that question being how mentally sane the co-pilot of the plane was.

Sadly, following a string of investigation and review, it was revealed that the accident in the French Alps was not entirely an accident. Instead, co-pilot Andreas Lubitz had taken intentional action to destroy the plane.

While the primary pilot of the plane left to go to the restroom, the co-pilot was left alone in the cockpit of the plane, and intentionally began a steep descent. this information was discovered after citing the so-called "black-box" audio recorder in the cockpit of the plane.

The pilot, in an attempt to save the plane, began to hack away at the door with an axe kept near-by for this purpose. However, he did not make it in time, and after an 8 minute descent the passengers can be heard screaming moments before the crash.

Although this sort of tragedy is undoubtedly heartbreaking, there is a dangerous path that can be followed from the retaliation of airlines. It would be truly concerning if, in some knee-jerk reaction style of thinking, airlines limited the control of a flight from the pilots.

While it is shocking when events like this take place, we must not forget that the vast majority of the time, pilots are qualified, mentally-healthy workers who enjoy what they do, and federal or privatized restriction to those people would be truly destructive to passenger safety.

That's all I have to say today, but I'll be back tomorrow.

"Where they make a desert, they call it peace." -Tacitus

The CEO of the Associated Press Calls for International Protection forJournalists

On Monday, the CEO of the Associated Press, Gary Pruitt, called for a new framework of international law to be set up which would make it a war crime to kill or take journalists hostage. Pruitt suggested this following a surge of murders and captures of journalist by extremist groups. He continued;

"It used to be that when media wore PRESS emblazoned on their vest, or PRESS or MEDIA was on their vehicle, it gave them a degree of protection."

He stated that, contrary to today, both sides of a conflict use to see reporters as independent citizens telling both sides of the issue at hand.

However, there is a sad truth at hand. According to the Reporters Without Borders, in 2015 alone, 18 professional journalists have been killed (no doubt, we remember all too well the tragedy of the Charlie Hebdo shootings), 160 professional journalists have been imprisoned, and 175 netizens (Citizen-journalists) have been imprisoned.

 "But guess what: That labeling now is more likely to make them a target," Pruitt continued in a speech to Hong Kong's Foreign Correspondence Club.

Extremist groups like the Islamic State have evolved to using social media to tell their mission and story, instead of traditional press. Therefore, extremist groups view reporters as expendable hostages who can provide leverage in a negotiation. (Yes, despite the slogans, America does negotiate with terrorists.)

However, despite this shift in attitude, the rest of the world most definitely still needs the traditional reporters and press. Although the Internet has been revolutionary and has given the public a voice for (in a lot of cases) the first time, the average man can't and does not desire to travel to Syria or revolutionary Ukraine.



That's all I have to say today, but I'll be back tomorrow.

"If someone would like to know why their own government has decided to go on a fishing expedition through every personal record or private document - through library books they've read and phone calls they've made - this legislation gives people no rights to appeal the need for such a search in a court of law. No judge will hear their plea, no jury will hear their case. This is just plain wrong." -Barack Hussein Obama

Rand Paul Says Religion Should Play Factor in Government Decisions

Earlier this week, Kentucky Republican and presidential candidate Rand Paul made a comment on gay marriage that has some stepping back from supporting him.

Rand Paul has been known to not support gay marriage and, considering his Conservative outlook, is not particularly shocking. However, Rand commented that there is a;

"moral crisis that allows people to think there would be some other sort of marriage"

A bit aggressive in the way of policy. Anything else to add that could have some push back? Paul also added;

"The First Amendment keeps government out of religion. It doesn't say keep religion out of the government." 

Although it may be understandable what Paul is trying to say, he's wrong. Religion is notoriously a dangerous factor to be involved in government. Taking a step back in time, religion was the direct cause of the excommunication of Galileo, and the burning of Nicolaus Copernicus and Giordano Bruno.

Despite this, Paul called for a new " Great Awakening, with tent revivals.". While a large portion of the Conservative population (which, in itself, is only 26% of the population) would be inclined to defend these comments, Paul has effectively cut out a large number of moderate voters from his favor.

That's all I have to say today, but I'll be back tomorrow.

"Someone needs to explain to me how wanting clean water makes you a terrorist, and why proposing to destroy clean water with chemical warfare doesn't make a corporation a terrorist." -Winona LaDuke

The Pentagon Has Lost $500 Million of Weapons Given to Yemen

As of now, the Pentagon is unable to account for over $500 million in weapons, equipment, and aircrafts which is at risk of being controlled by Iranian-backed rebels or al-Qaeda. This development came following the crisis in Yemen which, according to U.S. officials, has disrupted the success of U.S. counterterrorism operations.

Consequently, the U.S. Department of Defense is now unable to account for a variety of small arms, ammunition, night vision goggles, patrol boats, air vehicles, and other supplies.

The United States has long been carrying out a series of counterterrorism movements in Yemen, however the tension grew much heavier last month, when the U.S. closed its embassy in the capital of Sanaa and withdrew a large portion of its military personnel.

via Washington Post

“Even in the best-case scenario in an unstable country, we never have 100 percent accountability,” one defense official said

In January, the Yemen government was toppled by Shiite Houthi rebels who have been heavily critical of U.S. drone strikes in the country.

As a result, the U.S. government has halted much of the supplies that was scheduled to go to Yemen this year.

The instability of knowledge as to where, exactly, a $500 million dollar supply of weaponry is is, in itself, a comment on the nature of fight-fire-with-fire methods of foreign policy (and overall mindset) the West is always ready to wield as the loaded gun.

That's all I have to say today, but I'll be back tomorrow.

"Intelligence is knowing Frankenstein was the doctor. Wisdom is knowing Frankenstein was the monster." -Unknown

You Mean Ted Cruz Is Giving NASA A Headache? There's A New One.

There is no doubt that when Texas Senator Ted Cruz was made the head of the Senate committee on Science, there were those (admittedly, myself included) who were disgusted. After all, Ted Cruz has been a long time foe of science and, more specifically, NASA.

Very particularly, Cruz has issues with NASA's work with global warming, saying that there is not enough evidence to support climate change as a legitimate issue. He then told CNN that he was skeptical of NASA's "so-called scientific theory".

However, there is a heavy amount of evidence showing climate change is a legitimate issue (including rising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, oceanic acidity, a 6.7 inch increase in sea levels in the past century, rising temperatures, shrinking ice sheets, a rise in oceanic temperatures, and disappearing glacial caps). Now, of course there are counter arguments to these proposed issues (such as a 50% rise in glacial ice since 2012 and that global warming "stopped" in 1988) however these have rebuttals as well, and so forth and so on. Although this is an important social and scientific topic, it is not my primary topic today. However, if you would like to read more on the issue, I would recommend reading from OSS, who is devoted to speaking pure scientific evidence without a pull from either political perspective.

Regardless, Cruz regularly denies the science behind climate change (while having little education on the matter) by simply pointing at snow.

While Cruz may not be able to directly affect NASA's budget, he can certainly try to apply a significant amount of pressure to the program and push others to change it.

He showed his discontent with the program last week when he held a meeting with NASA's administrator, Charles Bolden. He opened the meeting by asking Bolden what NASA's primary focus was, an obvious shot at NASA's current agenda. Throughout the meeting he regularly spat on the importance of Earth science and stated that NASA had lost its exploration focus.

Asking NASA to continue its primary focus of space exploration and study (which has, no doubt, not been lost i.e. Space Launch System rocket and SpaceX [along with other privatized space exploration programs]) with less than half its 2011 budget and still produce the same results is utter ridiculousness!

Senator John Culberson is a friend of NASA, especially after fighting for their budget on multiple occasions, however even he showed a misplaced fantasy during this meeting about the current direction of the program.

Bolden: "Had we gotten the funding that was requested when I first became the NASA administrator, we would have been all joyously going down to the Kennedy Space Center later this year to watch the first launch of some commercial spacecraft with our crew members on it. That day passed. And I came to this committee and I said over and over, if we don’t fund commercial crew…"

Culberson: "Had NASA not canceled the Constellation program we’d be ready to fly within 12 months."

Bolden: "Mr. Chairman that is not correct … whoever told you that, that is not correct."

This is overwhelmingly aggravating to hear from Culberson, considering the Constellation program was cancelled by President Obama due to it being far behind schedule and far over NASA's budget.

NASA's primary concern will always be space. However, the disgusting bureaucracy that is gridlock, partisan politics is disturbing the process of scientific endeavour. As long as non-scientific people repetitively disturb the march of science, there will be issue for programs such as NASA.

That's all I have to say, but I'll be back tomorrow.

"Nobody remembers who tried to obstruct Galileo, they just remember Galileo." -John Fugelsang

Sigma Alpha Epsilon Students Expelled Following Racist Remarks

On Tuesday, the University of Oklahoma announced that its president had expelled two students in the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity who were identified as the primary figures in an obscenely racist video filmed by one of the frat members.

In the video, the frat brothers can be heard chanting;

"There will never be a n****r in SAE."

Caution: Obscene


The president said that the couple were expelled for "creating a hostile learning environment for others".

"I have emphasized that there is zero tolerance for this kind of threatening racist behavior at the University of Oklahoma," he said in a statement. "I hope that the entire nation will join us in having zero tolerance of such racism when it raises its ugly head in other situations across our country."

A video, later, resurfaced of the fraternity's house mother being as vulgar as the students, sparking the revelation that this video was not a one-time event of idiotic teenagers. This is the sort of behavior that should be expected of Oklahoma University's chapter of SAE.


This issue sparks a controversy that has no definitive answer. The boys expulsion has been cited as a violation of free speech. However, those in favor of the decision believe that this act of discrimination has been done justice by removing them from the school.

Personally, I find the conclusive answer very hard to reach. Although these boys are nothing but discriminatory pricks, freedom of speech is written out to apply to those we agree and disagree with. They clearly do not belong in an open-minded learning environment, but is that for the president of the school to decide or is it simply a flaw in the college-education system?

That's all I have to say today, but I'll be back tomorrow.

"Of all the words of mice and men, the saddest are it might have been." -Kurt Vonnegut 

Nemtsov Suspect Likely Confessed Under Torture

The murder of Boris Nemtsov sparked outrage amongst Russian and European citizens. At first sight, the case looked like an obvious case for government corruption since Nemtsov was a leading opposition party leader. That was, until Chechen Zaur Dadayev allegedly confessed.

It would not have been overreaching to assume that Chechnya had taken part in the assassination of a political figure in Russia. The Chechens have been in constant conflict since the fall of the Soviet Union in an attempt to gain independence. However, Boris Nemtsov was a rather progressive figure in Russia, so even this would have wreaked of blood in the water.

Dadayev was charged following the incident with the murder of Nemtsov, however new details have surfaced showing that he may have admitted to the crime under duress.

“There are reasons that lead us to believe Zaur Dadayev confessed under torture,” Babushkin told AFP after a visit to the suspect’s Moscow prison cell on Tuesday.

If this revelation was true it would not only discredit his confession, but only further the idea that this overflowing corruption in Russia is more than a simple rumor.

“We cannot confirm that he was tortured as we are not investigators but we did find numerous wounds on his body,” said Babushkin, who was swiftly rapped over the knuckles by investigators for meddling in their probe.

This incident is not an outlier of strange circumstances. Instead, it is a glance at the current, twisted situation of Russian politician where the third-term (in a country where Presidents can "only serve two terms") President is acting more like a dictator than a leader of a free people.

That's all I have to say today, but I'll be back tomorrow.

"The greatest crimes in the world are not committed by people breaking the rules but by people following the rules. It's people who follow orders that drop bombs and massacre villages." -Banksy

Wikipedia to sue the N.S.A. and U.S. Department of Justice

The National Security Agency has long been in the public spotlight ever since Edward Snowden leaked the existence of government mass surveillance in 2013. Following this revelation, citizens and corporations were outraged at the idea of such a program. However, it is rather difficult (and to some, undesired) to implement the necessary change to correct a program that is so overreaching.

Now, however, the Wikimedia foundation sued the National Security Agency on Tuesday on the grounds that the NSA's mass surveillance program violates the privacy of citizens and makes individuals worldwide more fearful to share information with each other.

This lawsuit could be the push that privacy advocates have been looking for in their assault on government surveillance.

the plantiff includes the Wikimedia Foundation (who created Wikipedia, Wikiquote, etc.), Rutherford Institute, Amnesty International USA, The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and several other groups.

The group says that this new usage of surveillance ("upstream surveillance") harms them by causing individual or public faces to share sensitive information with their groups.

President Obama commented saying;

"We've been very clear about what constitutes a valid target of electronic surveillance. The act of innocuously updating or reading an online article does not fall into that category."

However, in contrast, the executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation said;

"By tapping the backbone of the Internet, the NSA is straining the backbone of democracy." 

The issue of overreaching mass surveillance is one that will not go away without the pressure of the public and knowledge bases like Wikimedia.

That's all I have to say today, but I'll be back tomorrow.

"The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that oyur very existence is an act of rebellion." -Albert Camus

India Wants To Globally Ban A Documentary. Sigh.

Note: This entry contains mildly-NSFW content, including the accounting of rape and murder.

In 2012, a physical therapy student (Her name cannot be released, as Indian law states that the names of rape victims cannot be revealed. However, her father did state that her first name was Jyoti, hoping it would empower the women of India to take action.) was on her way home from the theater with a male friend of hers.

While on the bus, six drunken men (one; only a teenager) attacked them, then took turns raping her. During the vicious two-hour-long assault, the girl was repetitively violated with a metal rod before her and her friend were discarded on the side of a road near Delhi's airport. She died of her injuries two weeks later.

A new controversial documentary on the subject has been released by BBC called India's Daughter. The documentary includes an interview with one of the attackers, Mukesh Singh. The interview reveals that Singh blames the victim for the rape, saying women are more responsible for men in situations of sexual assault.

During the trial, Singh stated;

"When being raped, she shouldn't fight back. She should just be silent and allow the rape. Then they'd have dropped her off after 'doing her' and only hit the boy."

India's government has asked that the film be internationally banned after putting a (rather ineffective) ban on the film within their own borders.

"We can ban the documentary in India but there is a conspiracy to defame India and the documentary can be telecast outside," India's Parliamentary Affairs Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu said.

This documentary deals with the injustices and mistreatment of women. This subject matter (which is a notoriously touchy subject for India) led the government to ask YouTube to pull the movie and all its links from their website.

I would like to propose that if the government of India does not like its citizens protesting and speaking out on the injustices of women, it could, perhaps, work to fix the injustices it places on them socially and politically. Naturally, there is a path (or, more appropriately, there's a desire for one) toward this kind of debate. However, the issue is not being handled swiftly enough and has reignited the demonstrations that sparked up following the rape of the victim.

I put my whole-hearted support toward BBC's documentary, the citizens of India attempting to push change, and the family of the victim who is, no doubt, disgusted at the treatment of the issue.

Also, to whomever it may concern, banning any film is the greatest way to ensure that it will be watched by every person in the world.\

Jyoti was 23 years old.

"The world is not beautiful, therefore it is." -Kino's Journey

I will not be posting a story today. Unfortunately, I have a great deal of work to catch up on. I'll be back tomorrow.

"We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion." -Dead Poets Society

American Blogger Hacked to Death in Bangladesh, One More Unnecessary Death

Avijit Roy, a prominent American blogger of Bangladeshi origin was found after being hacked to death by machetes by Dhakan assailants. This attack, which left Avijit dead  and his wife severely injured and without a finger, was supposedly a follow-up  to a string of threats he received from Islamic terrorists.

Avijit was the co-founder of Mukto-Mona (Free Mind), which champions liberal secularist writing within the Muslim-majority nation of Bangladesh. His body was found covered in blood and his wife was immediately taken into the hospital.

Reportedly, the two were on a bike rickshaw on the way back from a book fair before they were stopped by the two attackers, who dragged them onto the pavement and repetitively beat them with machetes.

Thousands have sinced gathered in the streets of Dhaka chanting slogans such as "We want justice" and "Raise your voice against militants".

Roy's daughter posted this Facebook status 15 hours after the incident;

credit to /u/thanhn67

Sadly, Roy is only the most recent in a string of injustices to journalism. A disgustingly large amount of people are forced to be martyrs in order to carry the truth in one hand and a pen in the other. This includes the Charlie Hebdo victims, Steven Sotloff (beheaded by ISIS while covering the Syrian conflict [1 of 70]), Austin Tice (missing in Syria, but likely alive being held capture), Serhiy Nikolayev, Adam Juma, Musa Mohamed, Dalia Marko, Randa George, and Boutros Martin who were all killed recently in the line of journalism, and 347 journalists, assistants, and netizens (citizen journalists, particularly on the Internet) imprisoned.

This war on truth is one that cannot be overlooked. If you would like to learn more about this persecution, the Reporters Without Borders are always on the lookout for these injustices, and, naturally, I will speak on behalf of any arising issues.

That's all I have to say today, but I'll be back Monday.

Top Hamas General Says Group Is Preparing For War With Israel

The media world is more than uncomfortably aware of the Palestinian (Hamas-ruled) - Israel feud that has raged on since the 1940s. Although it is not particularly uncommon for a people to hate Israel (*cough* Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Iraq *cough*), Palestine has always been one of the most frequent and brutal subjects for Israel's Public Relations.

However, in a rather uncommon act of public appearance, the leader of Hamas's military wing, Marwan Issa, has stated that they are actively stockpiling missiles in the event of a military confrontation with Israel.

"We are not seeking confrontation with Israel, but we continue to strengthen our capabilities by producing more rockets” he said, and assured participants that “Israel’s statements on this matter are of no interest to us.”

This statement came following questions regarding Hamas's recent testing of rockets by firing them into the Mediterranean Sea. Hamas stated that they were looking for regional alliances that would assist them in building their defenses, but warned it would not align itself with any group or country.

This attitude of Hamas's presents further (likely) isolation and social issues for the citizens of Palestine, beyond the hardships which they have already suffered from Israeli force, social outcast, and, well, being ruled by a terrorist organization.

That's all I have to say today, but I'll be back tomorrow.

"Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of a cancer cell." -Edward Abbey

Russia.

In recent months, Russia has been a particular subject of interest (and conflict), and reasonably so. They have invaded Ukraine, prejudiced against homosexuals, suffered economic downfall, and lied to international authorities.

On Friday, a Russian politician named Boris Nemtsov was shot dead in the streets of Moscow. However, this was not a coincidental, cold-blooded murder. Nemtsov was a leading opposition politician who advocated against the War in Ukraine. Hours before his death, Boris was interviewed calling for "honest elections".

Following his death, tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets of central Moscow in support of the opposition politician. Mr. Nemtsov's allies and friends demanded that the Kremlin was involved, despite Putin calling the murder "vile" while vowing to find the killers.

Opposition supporters marched from the Kremlin past the Great Moskvoretzky Bridge while chanting "Russia Without Putin" and holding up portraits of Nemtzov saying "I Am Not Afraid".

This event and the following protests spell out issues for the Kremlin, particularly following a public opinion poll by the Institute of Priority Regional Projects showed that over 73% of Russian citizens believe that Russia is in a period of legitimate crisis.

Ilya Yashin, a mutual opposition politician stated;

"a political murder aimed at frightening the... part of the population that supported Nemtsov and did not agree with the government. I hope we won't get scared."

That's all I have to say today, but I'll be back tomorrow.

"What is the face of a coward? The back of his head as he runs from the battle." -Frank Underwood