SecularCafe - Politics & World Events

Tuesday, 12 June 2012

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Secular Café: Graphic Video: Anthony Sanchez Beats 6 Year Old Stepson for Dropping Baseball

Secular Café

For serious discussion of politics, political news, policy, political theory and economics and events happening round the world

Graphic Video: Anthony Sanchez Beats 6 Year Old Stepson for Dropping Baseball

Jun 12th 2012, 23:31

http://www.opposingviews.com/i/socie...m_medium=email

What a cowardly, bullying scumbag...

Quote:

In El Centro, California, Imperial Irrigation District Director Anthony Sanchez has been arrested on suspicion of child abuse.

Sanchez's neighbor Oscar Lopez recently posted a video online of Sanchez hitting his stepson with a belt after he didn't catch a baseball. After taping the incident, Lopez then shouted at him to stop.

Lopez posted the video online, then gave it to police.

Sheriff's Lt. Scott Sheppeard told the Imperial Valley Press that Sanchez was charged on Friday and is being held on $100,000 bail.

Sanchez's attorney Ryan Childers says there are more details yet to be revealed and is cautioning against a rush to judgement.

However, since the story broke, Sanchez has resigned from his post.

WARNING GRAPHIC VIDEO: (at the site!)

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Monday, 11 June 2012

Secular Café: Oops! Prime Minister leaves child behind.

Secular Café

For serious discussion of politics, political news, policy, political theory and economics and events happening round the world

Oops! Prime Minister leaves child behind.

Jun 11th 2012, 07:32

I expect political opponents will make much of this, but I expect most parents have had moments like this.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18391663

Sunday, 10 June 2012

Secular Café: Quran-Burning Pastor Hangs Obama in Effigy

Secular Café

For serious discussion of politics, political news, policy, political theory and economics and events happening round the world

Quran-Burning Pastor Hangs Obama in Effigy

Jun 10th 2012, 22:57

http://www.care2.com/causes/quran-bu...in-effigy.html

This vermin needs to STFU.....where's that separation of church & state? Also, I thought it was a crime to threaten the president???

Quote:

Terry Jones, the Florida pastor who's drawn criticism and death threats for his highly-publicized public burnings of the Quran, has erected a gallows on the lawn of his church with a hanged effigy of President Barack Obama. Jones claims the display is a response to Obama's support of same-sex marriage, his stance on abortion, and his "appeasing of radical Islam."

When asked if he had any concerns about the message he was sending in "lynching" a black President, Jones told The Pulp:

Quote:

"We are not looking at him as a black man. He is not black; he is not white; he is the president of the United States," he said. "And the noose, of course, was to represent the death of his presidency and political career. Not at all to represent his race… His race has absolutely nothing to do with it."

He also insists the display is not a death threat, but says he understands why the FBI has contacted him twice regarding the effigy.

Apparently, the stunt is part of Jones' strategy to run for President. (They've even included photos of the display as part of their official campaign press releases!) In a recent YouTube video discussing his candidacy, Jones says:

Quote:

It is time for the United States to stand up. It is why we have chosen the hanging of Uncle Sam to represent how Hussein Obama is destroying our nation. And that is why we have now chosen the hanging of Hussein Obama to represent how the American people must, in a peaceful way, stand up and reject President Obama, reject his anti-American policies. It's time for us to stand up.

It is time again for America to become America, for us to hold our government accountable, for us to resist, for us to send a very clear message to Washington, D.C. and President Obama… That is why we have chosen to hang President Obama as a symbol of what America needs to do. We must remove him, we must vote him out of office.

Is anyone actually buying Jones' explanation that there's no racial component to the message he's sending (especially when he refuses to use the President's first name)? Or that this could be reasonably construed as anything other than a death threat?

Secular Café: Even Animals Not Spared in Grisly Massacre in Syrian Town

Secular Café

For serious discussion of politics, political news, policy, political theory and economics and events happening round the world

Even Animals Not Spared in Grisly Massacre in Syrian Town

Jun 10th 2012, 23:01

http://www.care2.com/causes/even-ani...rian-town.html

Wow...they must have been reading the bible....

Quote:

Russia's foreign minister Sergey Lavrov has said that Moscow will no longer oppose the departure of President Bashar al-Assad if that is the wish of Syrians, a comment suggesting that Russian support for Assad is weakening:

If the Syrians agree [about President Assad's departure] between each other, we will only be happy to support such a solution.

Lavrov's statement was made after another week of violence in Syria. Activists report that, just today, Saturday, the Syrian army killed 17 people in the southern city of Deraa, where the uprising started in March of 2011 after some teenagers were arrested for writing anti-regime graffiti on a building. The BBC's Jim Muir, reporting from Lebanon, noted that "despite frequent attempts to subdue Deraa, the city has never really been completely tamed by government forces" and that members of the rebel Free Syrian Army are active in and around it.

Residents of the capital of Damascus described shootings and explosions, with regime tanks in the city's streets shelling buildings for the first time. However, BBC correspondent Paul Danahar said he did not see evidence of street battles after visiting one of the sites.

Danahar visited the village of Qubeir, where reports of a massacre as savage as that previously discovered in the town of Houla have been confirmed. United Nations monitors had at first been barred by the Syrian army from entering Qubeir and reported being shot at. Activists say that at least 80 were killed in Qubeir; UN monitors are still determining the number. Danahar described the smell of burned flesh in the air:

Men walked into this village on Wednesday morning with the intention of killing everything that moved. But butchering the families that lived in this tiny Sunni Muslim community was not enough to quench their bloodlust. So the animals died too, their carcasses left to rot in the summer sun.

If this was an act of mindless violence the fact that the bodies of the people had been removed suggested a very clear-headed attempt to hide the truth.

Condemning the killings, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon spoke of Syria being on the very brink of civil war while UN envoy Kofi Annan stated what has been too long apparent, that his six-point peace plan has not been implemented.

The te Syrian National Council (SNC), the main coalition of Syria's opposition groups, is to elect a new president in Turkey on Saturday, after its Paris-based president, Burhan Ghalioun, resigned. The group has not been able to shake off dissension during the months of the uprising, which has taken over 10,000 lives. If Assad were to step down, no clear successor has yet emerged.

Friday, 8 June 2012

Secular Café: Democrats more honest than republicans?

Secular Café

For serious discussion of politics, political news, policy, political theory and economics and events happening round the world

Democrats more honest than republicans?

Jun 8th 2012, 17:20

http://freethoughtblogs.com/dispatch...han-democrats/

The politicians and pundits, anyway. So they do all lie, but apparently, the R side lies (1) more frequently; and (2) more outrageously.

So the false equvalence fallacy can be put to rest at least.

Accusations of Politifact being liberally biased in 3...2...1....

Secular Café: Lord Owen says EU referendum for UK is inevitable

Secular Café

For serious discussion of politics, political news, policy, political theory and economics and events happening round the world

Lord Owen says EU referendum for UK is inevitable

Jun 8th 2012, 10:56

Before the last election the Tories were talking about one, but now they don't seem keen.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-18350932

Quote:

A referendum on the UK's membership of the EU is "inevitable", former Labour Foreign Secretary Lord Owen has said.

In an article for the Times newspaper to coincide with the publication of his book on the future of Europe, Lord Owen predicted it would happen before 2016.

"I am not a Eurosceptic in the way this term has been used for people hostile to Europe," he wrote.

But there needs to be "limits set to the process of European integration", the former SDP leader argued.

Lord Owen advocated the creation of a two-tier European system: a European Community based on trade that would "hopefully" encompass countries like Turkey and Norway; and a separate, deeper European Union that would feature "to all intents and purposes, though not in name, a single government".

British voters should be asked whether they want the UK to be part of either group, he said, in a two-question referendum...

...EU institutions had left British people feeling that they were unable to influence their own destiny, he lamented.

"The British public do not like to feel they are being pushed around. We are loyal members of clubs, but not afraid to restructure a club to suit different circumstances. We are not afraid of change," he wrote.

"We just want our politicians to uphold our right to democratic self-government in this country."