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kpete

kpete's Journal
kpete's Journal
December 24, 2015

Merry Christmas America!

December 24, 2015

Father Of Drowned Syrian Boy Wants You To Think Of Syria This Holiday Season

"We ask just for a little bit of sympathy from you."




"We boarded the boat to go to Greece aiming to go to Germany or Sweden," Kurdi told Channel 4. "We were in the sea for four or five minutes when the boat capsized and what happened, happened."

Kurdi lost his wife and two sons that day. He later told HuffPost Arabi that he'd been unable to afford flotation devices for his family.

"At this time of year I would like to ask you all to think about the pain of fathers, mothers and children who are seeking peace and security," Kurdi told Channel 4.

"We ask just for a little bit of sympathy from you," he went on. "Hopefully next year the war will end in Syria and peace will reign all over the world."

...........................



MORE:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/abdullah-kurdi-father-drowned-boy_567ab0fee4b06fa6887f7b12
December 24, 2015

"Dad, what's a Schlong?

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My grandmother, were she alive, would have had a choice phrase for such a vulgarian: Shemen zich in dein veiten haldz. Literally, this translates as “you should be ashamed in your far neck,” but that doesn’t quite convey the deep contempt the speaker has for the schmuck who committed such a shandeh un a charpeh (shame and disgrace). Alternatively, my bubbe might have opted to give Trump some classic and colorful Yiddish advice: “Gai kaken oifen yam” — go defecate in the ocean.



http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2015/12/24/1463282/-Abbreviated-Pundit-Round-up-Trump-vulgarity-and-anti-semitism
December 23, 2015

Two Strangers Make Beautiful Music Together In A Paris Train Station



One man had just sat down at the piano and started playing around when the second man, in the white shirt, approaches and observes admiringly. At the 1:10 mark, the second man jumps in, augmenting the original music.

The two men barely look at each other as their composition grows, but more and more travelers stop to watch as it becomes obvious something beautiful is unfolding.

The men really hit their stride around the 2:50 mark, then shake things up again around the 4:30 mark, at which point the entire train station seems to have stopped in awe of them.

After their big finale, they finish with nothing more than some shy shrugs and a high-five, proving once again that music is not only universal, but truly magical.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/two-strangers-make-music-together-paris-train-station_5679f8a9e4b014efe0d780a6
December 23, 2015

S C H L O N G E D

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http://claytoonz.com/
December 23, 2015

WAR Is NOT The Answer: Deaths From Terrorism Increased 4,500% Since Beginning Of War On Terror

Deaths From Terrorism Increased 4,500% Since Beginning Of War On Terror
Between 2007 and 2011, almost half the world’s terror attacks took place in Iraq and Afghanistan -- two countries under active occupation by the United States.

By Kit O'Connell @KitOConnell | December 22, 2015


WASHINGTON — An analysis of terror attacks since 2002 suggests U.S. efforts to combat terrorism — i.e., the “war on terror” — have led to a dramatic increase in death and suffering from terrorism.

Published this year on Sept. 11, Paul Gottinger, a staff reporter for Reader Supported News, analyzed incidents of terrorism from George Bush declaring the war on terror in the aftermath of 9/11 through the present, and found a staggering 6,500 percent increase in terrorism. Gottinger, who used data provided by the State Department in his analysis, found that casualties have increased by 4,500 percent.


Countries occupied by or being bombed the U.S. military seem to fare worst of all:

“From 2007 to 2011 almost half of all the world’s terror took place in Iraq or Afghanistan – two countries being occupied by the US at the time.

Countries experiencing US military interventions continue to be subjected to high numbers of terror attacks, according to the data. In 2014, 74 percent of all terror-related casualties occurred in Iraq, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, or Syria. Of these five, only Nigeria did not experience either US air strikes or a military occupation in that year.”


Further illustrating the devastating impact of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Gottinger’s report showed that terror attacks in that country jumped from 208 in 2002 to 11,000 by 2005.


MORE:
http://www.mintpressnews.com/212244-2/212244/
http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/32339-focus-despite-14-years-of-the-us-war-on-terror-terror-attacks-have-skyrocketed-since-911


December 23, 2015

AWESOME! Hikers Flip Out As Obama Climbs Up Grueling Hawaii Trail

Hikers Flip Out As Obama Climbs Up Grueling Hawaii Trail
Even on vacation, POTUS puts in work.


Some people vacation in Hawaii to sip Mai Tais on the beach and indulge in well-deserved R&R. But not POTUS.
When he visits the Aloha State, he puts in work.

On Tuesday, after the president's early morning gym session, President Barack Obama, his family and a few friends took on the Koko Head Crater Stairs -- a popular Hawaii hike that is so grueling, people often refer to it as the "Stairmaster from Hell" or the "Koko Head Stairs of Doom."

Unsuspecting hikers had to move to the side of the trail's narrow path as a sweaty Obama and his security entourage barreled up the trail's 1,048 wooden steps, which climb a steep 1,208 feet up the crater's ridge.

But the hikers didn't seem to mind the delay.


MUST WATCH:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/obama-koko-head-stairs-hawaii_5679f680e4b06fa6887f6636
December 23, 2015

Powerful Art

Truth !

Nearly half the 184 Georgians shot and killed by police since 2010 were unarmed or shot in the back, an Atlanta Journal-Constitution/Channel 2 Action News investigation has found.




http://investigations.myajc.com/overtheline/ga-police-shootings/
December 23, 2015

Trump-loving conservative calls for armed raids of ‘demonic’ yoga studios to ‘Christianize the land’

An anti-gay extremist who has pledged his support for Donald Trump denied that he was anything like Islamic State militants — and to prove it, he called for armed raids of yoga studios to “Christianize the land.”


.........

“We need a Christian supremacist society or else these things are going to continue to happen,” Shoebat said of a Muslim judge sworn in on the Koran instead of a Bible. “God willing, if Donald Trump wins, and I think he will win, he will put a cap on things like this.”

He turned his attention this week to the more than 1 billion Hindus living in India.

“You need to Christianize the land,” Shoebat said. “We need to destroy these false religions, end of story. Hinduism is an evil, demonic, anti-Christ religion. It needs to be uprooted from the earth and it has no place in the world.”

Shoebat, who was recently named a “pro-family hero” by another anti-gay extremist, said the U.S. should invade India to rid the world of Hindus — and he urged U.S. officials to crack down on American yoga practitioners.

..........

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/12/trump-loving-conservative-calls-for-armed-raids-of-demonic-yoga-studios-to-christianize-the-land/#.Vnoi5fHJt8Y.twitter
December 23, 2015

Memo To Donald Trump: Everybody Pees But bathroom breaks take longer for women.

Everybody pees. But it’s the rare man-child who finds that worthy of ridicule.
And it’s up to voters: Is that the kind of exceptionalism you want in the White House?


*******************


Jonathan Cohn
Senior National Correspondent, The Huffington Post

.................

Women need to use bathrooms more often and for longer periods of time because: we sit to urinate (urinals effectively double the space in men’s rooms), we menstruate, we are responsible for reproducing the species (which makes us pee more), we continue to have greater responsibility for children (who have to use bathrooms with us), and we breastfeed (frequently in grotty bathroom stalls). Additionally, women tend to wear more binding and cumbersome clothes, whereas men’s clothing provides significantly speedier access.


This shouldn’t surprise anybody who’s ever attended a concert or sports event, and noticed long lines for the women’s rooms while men walk in and out of their facilities easily. In just the last few years, local governments have taken steps to address this problem, passing “potty parity” ordinances that require that builders of stadiums and other large venues add enough women’s bathrooms to avoid creating those long lines.

Even the U.S. Congress finally came around in 2011, opening a women’s restroom near the Speaker’s Lobby in the House. Previously, female members of Congress had to walk down the hall, through tourists, to find a bathroom.




http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-clinton-potty_5679d550e4b06fa6887f49f0?gbv2huxr


a kidney doctor I know was baffled by his latest outburst:

“Urine is sterile,” Maya Rao, an assistant professor of nephrology at Columbia University, pointed out. “It’s not ‘disgusting.’ Wow. I literally feel like I’m dealing with an elementary-school child and we’re talking about cooties.”

Trump is routinely — and rightly — tagged as a playground bully, but that phrase doesn’t do full justice to his arrested development, his potty mouth and the puerile nature of his vulgar bleats.

He taunts people for being unpopular, for being unattractive, for physical disabilities. The altitude of his debate vocabulary is only millimeters above “I know you are but what am I,” words that he’ll surely utter before this is all over.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/23/opinion/blood-sweat-and-trump.html?smid=tw-share

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