Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/193393269?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Ari Solomon: Does Eating Meat Make You a Bully?
Here is the definition of the word bully: "A person who uses strength or power to harm or intimidate those who are weaker." Many of us know firsthand what it's like to be bullied. We know what it's like to be vulnerable and scared, and to have that be taken advantage of. I never considered animals to be a part of that equation.
Then, a few years ago, a random discussion on a talk show led me to research factory farming, a practice that produces 99 percent of the animals we consume in the U.S. I not only read about the horrors of these places, but, thanks to countless undercover investigation videos posted online, I saw them. I saw baby calves being screamed at and punched in the face by desensitized farm workers. I saw turkeys being kicked and thrown against walls until their wings broke. A saw a baby pig having its head bashed in with a brick. These poor animals were being abused, tormented, and killed by merciless beings many times their size. They were being bullied.
Even though I was never in situations this extreme growing up gay, many LGBT people are. They are regularly verbally abused, physically assaulted, and even killed. And while there undoubtedly is a difference between people and animals, the question must be asked: when it comes to things such as fear, pain, and suffering, aren't animals much more like us than they are not like us?
I know we all love a good burger or turkey sandwich, but isn't our consumption of these foods perpetuating the power-hungry and cruel attitudes we so strongly oppose? Is it really such a stretch to ask that all those who feel be liberated from the suffering caused by bullying? Because whether you want to admit it or not, that's precisely what it is. This realization, subconscious at the time, led me to become a vegan. By choosing to avoid animal foods, I feel I'm sending a strong message that I won't be a party to bullying in any form.
I know it's difficult to imagine giving up some of your favorite foods (you'll discover new ones, trust me) but I invite you to learn the truth about where those foods come from. Really think about it. Sit with it. Be honest with yourself. Does knowing that you pay other people to treat animals this way feel good in your soul?
A brilliant writer, Laura Moretti, once said this about animals:
Animals are the most victimized living creatures on earth; more than children, more than women, more than people of color. Our prejudice enables us to exploit and use them, as scientific tools and expendable commodities, and to eat them. We do to them any atrocity our creative minds can summon. We justify our cruelties; we have to or we can't commit them.
Chew on that.
?
Follow Ari Solomon on Twitter: www.twitter.com/VeganAri
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ari-solomon/eating-meat-bullying_b_1234232.html
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Monday, January 30, 2012
Air Force disciplines airmen over coffin photo (Reuters)
SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) ? The U.S. Air Force will discipline but not criminally charge an unspecified number of airmen over a photograph that went viral showing them clowning around with a coffin used to transport American war dead.
"No criminal conduct occurred. However, members who were involved in the photo received administrative actions documenting that their conduct brought discredit to both the military and themselves," Colonel Gregory Reese, commander of the 37th Training Group at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas, told reporters on Monday.
The photograph, posted on Facebook late last year, shows 16 members of the Lackland-based 345th Training Squadron around one of the metal coffins used to transport U.S. war casualties.
An airman posed inside a coffin in chains playing dead with a noose around his neck. He is surrounded by others, some with their arms crossed. A caption reads: "Da Dumpt, De Dumpt, Sucks to be U."
Reese called it a "graduation photograph" taken as the airmen celebrated the completion of their training, which involved unloading cargo planes and had nothing to do with transporting war dead.
The Air Force placed "discredit letters" in their records, making promotion or re-enlistment difficult for them.
Air Force spokesman Gerry Proctor declined to say how many people were disciplined, who took the picture or whether that person is in the Air Force.
The photo, taken in August, came to light shortly after a U.S. investigation revealed in November the military's main mortuary -- at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware -- lost track of body parts twice and wrongfully removed a limb of a Marine.
The investigation found those who took it intended to remind colleagues they could be killed if they failed to pay attention while loading and unloading aircraft, Reese said.
When the Air Force Times reported on the picture, relatives of service members killed in action reacted angrily.
"How dare you!" said a letter published in the Times in December from Deedy Salie, who described herself as a military widow. "My husband came home in one of those boxes, not on his own two feet like these disgraceful people will. Shame on you!"
(Editing by Corrie MacLaggan and Daniel Trotta)
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Frenchman killed in armed robbery in Red Sea resort (Reuters)
CAIRO (Reuters) ? A Frenchman was killed when armed men raided a currency exchange office Saturday in the Egyptian tourist resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on the Red Sea, security officials and the French embassy said.
South Sinai Governor General Khaled Fouda told Reuters that a German national had also been wounded but was in a stable condition in hospital.
The French embassy confirmed a Frenchman had been killed without giving further details.
Sharm el-Sheikh is on the Sinai Peninsula, home to many popular tourist resorts. However, many people own weapons in inland areas of the peninsula, and analysts say the region has become more lawless since an uprising ousted President Hosni Mubarak last year.
(Reporting by Yusry Mohamed in Ismailia; Writing and additional reporting by Edmund Blair in Cairo; editing by David Stamp)
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Sunday, January 29, 2012
Iraq's Sunni-backed bloc to end parliament boycott (Reuters)
BAGHDAD (Reuters) ? Iraq's Sunni-backed Iraqiya political bloc said Sunday it would end a boycott of parliament, easing the worst political crisis in Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's power-sharing government in a year.
The decision by Iraqiya clears the way for talks among fractious Shi'ite, Kurdish and Sunni blocs, but deep disputes over power-sharing remain unresolved, keeping alive the risk that Iraq could fall back into widespread sectarian violence.
The crisis erupted days after the last U.S. troops left Iraq in December, when Maliki's government sought the arrest of Sunni Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi and moved to sideline one of his Sunni deputies who branded Maliki a dictator.
The political blocs are planning a national conference to try to ease the turmoil.
"As a goodwill gesture, Iraqiya announces its return to parliament meetings to create a healthy atmosphere to help the national conference, and to ... defuse the political crisis," Iraqiya spokeswoman Maysoon al-Damluji told a news conference.
Damluji's announcement followed a meeting of Iraqiya's top officials including bloc leader Iyad Allawi, Parliament Speaker Osama al-Nujaifi, Finance Minister Rafie al-Esawi and Saleh al-Mutlaq, the deputy prime minister Maliki had tried to oust.
She said the leaders would meet again to decide whether Iraqiya ministers would return to cabinet meetings.
Iraqiya's return to parliament could shore up Maliki's position for now, but the Sunni-backed bloc is deeply divided over whether to stay in the fragile power-sharing arrangement.
Maliki says his initiative against Hashemi was judicial and not political, but his moves against two key Iraqiya figures have compounded fears among Iraqi Sunnis that he wants to consolidate Shi'ite control and his own power.
Hashemi remains in Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region where his immediate arrest is unlikely.
BIDEN CALLS
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden has spoken to Allawi and Nujaifi by phone over the past days to discuss "the importance of resolving outstanding issues through the political process," Biden's office said.
Saleem al-Jubouri, an Iraqiya leader, said the bloc had come under international pressure to end the boycott, which he said had forced other countries to recognize the crisis in Iraq.
"The problem still exists and it could blow up again at any minute," Jubouri said.
A senior Iraqiya Sunni leader who asked not to be named said ending the boycott was the only way to keep the bloc together.
"Many factions within Iraqiya would split off if the leaders
insisted on going into opposition or continuing the boycott," the official said.
Since the U.S. invasion toppled Saddam Hussein, a Sunni, in 2003, the Shi'ite majority has ascended, leaving Sunni Muslims feeling sidelined from power. Kurdish political blocs have more often reached political deals with Shi'ite parties.
The power-sharing agreement took almost a year to cobble together and has struggled to work when considering key laws such as a national hydrocarbons bill.
The political turmoil has been accompanied by a string of attacks on Shi'ite targets that have stirred worries Iraq could slide back in the kind of sectarian slaughter that killed tens of thousands of Iraqis a few years after the invasion.
(Writing by Patrick Markey; Editing by Jim Loney and Alessandra Rizzo)
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Saturday, January 28, 2012
AC Milan, Valencia reach semis in domestic cups
updated 5:29 p.m. ET Jan. 26, 2012
MILAN - AC Milan rallied past Lazio 3-1 Thursday night behind goals by Robinho, Clarence Seedorf and Zlatan Ibrahimovic to advance to the Italian Cup semifinals.
Djibril Cisse put visiting Lazio ahead in the fifth minute, but Robinho tied it in the 15th and Seedorf put the Rossoneri ahead three minutes later. Ibrahimovic entered in the 70th and scored in the 84th.
Aiming for its sixth title in the competition, Milan plays Serie A leader Juventus in the semifinals, while Napoli meets Siena.
___
VALENCIA, Spain (AP) ? Valencia defeated Levante 3-0 on Pablo Piatti's two goals, setting up a semifinal with Barcelona in the Copa del Rey. Valencia eliminated Levante 7-1 total goals.
Piatti assisted on Aritz Aduriz's opening goal in the 25th minute and made it 2-0 five minutes later against Valencia's crosstown rival.
Levante played from the 72nd with 10 men after recent signing Oscar Serrano received his second yellow card for fouling Piatti. Piatti scored on a rebound in the 86th minute to complete the scoring.
Valencia will host Barcelona in the first leg next week. Athletic Bilbao visits third-tier Mirandes in the other semifinal.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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More newsAFP - Getty Images'Bad losers' and?'animals'
Barcelona midfielder Xavi Hernandez has labeled Real Madrid's players bad losers and animals after his club won their latest ill-tempered matchup.
Yankee matchup
With the two biggest stars on the U.S. national team facing each other for the first time in 6 years, Landon Donovan?leads Everton past Clint Dempsey's Fulham.
Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/46154092/ns/sports-soccer/
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