Land Of The Flea

The Compulsion To Rule

"A system that insists on controlling others through increasing levels of systematic violence; that loots the many for the aggrandizement of the few; that regulates any expressions of human behavior that are not of service to the rulers; that presumes the power to wage wars against any nation of its choosing, a principle that got a number of men hanged at the Nuremberg trials; and finally, criminalizes those who would speak the truth to its victims, has no moral energy remaining with which to sustain itself. The treatment accorded private Manning may have been the final nail driven into the coffin of the American state." Continue reading →

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Taxpayers funding study of link between marijuana, domestic violence

"The National Institute on Drug Abuse, a part of the Department of Health and Human Services, is granting $1.86 million to the University of Buffalo’s Research Institute on Addictions to investigate the drug’s link to aggression. The study will run from 2013 to 2017 and will follow couples in which one or both partners use marijuana to determine whether its use 'results in affective, cognitive, or behavioral effects consistent with partner aggression.' NIDA has a $1.05 billion budget for 2013 and has publicly acknowledged that it does not fund research into the potential benefits of medical marijuana." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingTaxpayers funding study of link between marijuana, domestic violence

California hunger strike: judge approves force-feeding of prisoners

"Jail officials in California have been given permission to force-feed hunger strikers who are entering their seventh week of a statewide protest against prison conditions. The order strikes out directives recently signed by some prisoners that they be allowed to die. US District Court Judge Thelton E Henderson ruled that California prison doctors may force-feed selected inmates who are near death, even if they had previously signed orders asking not to be resuscitated. About 136 California inmates are taking part in a hunger strike that began on 8 July demanding an end to a policy of housing inmates believed to be associated with gangs in near-isolation for years." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCalifornia hunger strike: judge approves force-feeding of prisoners

Federal court upholds California ban on foie gras sales

"A US federal appeals court upheld California’s ban on the sale of foie gras Friday, 13 months after the block on the controversial delicacy came into force. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected claims that the ban interferes with free trade, made in a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles by a group of Canadian and US foie gras producers. California lawmakers agreed the ban in 2004, but gave the western US state’s only foie gras producer seven-and-a-half years to comply before it came into effect on July 1 last year. Restaurants serving the gourmet item — made by force-feeding ducks or geese, a practice some animal rights campaigners regard as cruel — can be fined up to $1,000." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFederal court upholds California ban on foie gras sales

Fleeing Oppression

"The mayor of Los Angeles has declared a 'state of emergency'. Hollywood’s movie industry is being ceded to other states and countries whose favorable tax 'credits' are increasingly luring away movie and television production. As competition both in the US and abroad continues to grow, the state’s market share and longtime stronghold on production jobs and spending are fast evaporating. The main problem is taxes. California’s government has so destroyed the state that its only option to keep afloat is a continued rise in taxes. In response, people with money have been fleeing the state for other states. New York and California have lost the most in the last decade." Continue reading →

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From the Files of the Nineveh PD

"At some point within the last decade or so, American police adopted a modified version of the Assyrian model of law enforcement. This helps to explain why it is now considered permissible for a police officer to assault an uncooperative but non-violent pregnant woman. Rochester, New York Police Officer Lucas Krull was recently captured on videoassaulting a 21-year-old expectant mother. In an earlier incident, a young pregnant girl was kneed in the stomach by one of three Rochester Police Officers who were restraining her during an arrest. A pregnant mother and an elderly woman were collateral victims in yet another episode involving 'tumultuous' behavior." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFrom the Files of the Nineveh PD

Parents from faith-healing church charged in diabetes death of daughter

"On Thursday, authorities in Albany, Oregon arrested the parents of a 12-year-old girl who died because they withheld treatment for her type 1 diabetes. Syble Rossiter, the daughter of Travis and Wenona Rossiter, died at her home from complications related to untreated type 1 diabetes. It is unknown to what degree the couple embrace the doctrine of prayer healing, but as of this moment, they are facing first- and second-degree manslaughter charges in the death of their daughter. The Department of Human Services will look after their two surviving children while the couple awaits trial in jail." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingParents from faith-healing church charged in diabetes death of daughter

Police Groups Furiously Protest Eric Holder’s Marijuana Policy Announcement

"A broad coalition of law enforcement officers who have spent the past three decades waging an increasingly militarized drug war that has failed to reduce drug use doesn't want to give up the fight. Organizations that include sheriffs, narcotics officers and big-city police chiefs slammed Attorney General Eric Holder in a joint letter Friday, expressing 'extreme disappointment' at his announcement that the Department of Justice would allow Colorado and Washington to implement state laws that legalized recreational marijuana for adults. If there had been doubt about how meaningful Holder's move was, the fury reflected in the police response eliminates it." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPolice Groups Furiously Protest Eric Holder’s Marijuana Policy Announcement

Republican Mississippi sheriff indicted on 31 counts for abusing powers

"The charges against Sheriff Mike Byrd include 10 counts of embezzlement, and 10 counts of fraud, two counts of extortion and one count of perjury, among other charges. Authorities contend that Byrd, a Republican currently in his fourth term in office, has used his position to target personal and political opponents and fudge his record to boost his re-election prospects. Byrd is also accused of pressuring a detective in 2007 to deliver an arrest warrant in a murder case against a man the detective did not believe committed the crime, so that Byrd could say during his re-election campaign at the time that there were no unsolved murders in the county." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingRepublican Mississippi sheriff indicted on 31 counts for abusing powers

50 unmarked graves found on segregated reform school campus in Florida

"A century-old Florida state school for troubled boys is now the site of a forensic investigation after more than 50 bodies were discovered, some in unmarked graves, next to a garbage dump on the side of campus where the African-American students were housed. Students like Richard Huntley, who was sent to the school in the late fifties, told Al Jazeera that he and his fellow inmate-students were forced to do farm work under dangerous conditions under threats of worse. 'This, to me, is a form of slavery,' he said, 'because they, damn it, beat you to what they wanted you to be.' Boys who didn’t comply with orders were sent to 'The White House,' which Huntley likened to a 'torture chamber.'" Continue reading →

Continue Reading50 unmarked graves found on segregated reform school campus in Florida