Friday, May 17, 2013

WYWTBI vs. Obama says military leaders are 'ashamed' about sexual assault, vows to end the 'scourge'



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IMHO, between this weird imagery and what looks like a girl that got raped by Satan in a different poster for the same movie, among many other images, plus porn and much more sex and violence available than ever before, it's no surprise that our media driven dehumanization is spilling over into our actual individual mental and physical dehumanization. Like this article on sexual assaults in the U.S. military being a big problem. For a long time. With stats and data and everything. Obama says people are feeling ashamed and it will take a long time to solve this problem with a sustained effort. That's too bad. It should be resolved soon.

Just compare the mainstream news article following the alternative news article to see how it's normalized.

This is why I'm pushing my WYWTBI solutions in the face of this. As long as we have and reinforce different values to counter the effects of our culture on our humanity then we may be able to enjoy it better than now. This includes men, women and children finding better ways to re-value each other and casually reinforce it.

Check it out. It's been shelved for a bit, but it's on my mind since I know it's on many, many others as well...

It's Nice To Meet You
Which Is Better Than Not
What You Want To Believe In... Is People

http://whatyouwanttobelievein.com/ 

Best,

Vij

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 Pentagon survey: More than 70 military sexual assaults occur per day

By Stephen C. Webster
Tuesday, May 7, 2013 11:08 EDT
Photo Credit: David Kamm, NSRDEC Photographer, US Army

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Survey data to be released this Tuesday by the Pentagon will explain that every day, more than 70 sexual assaults are carried out against members of the U.S. military, with more than 26,000 in 2012 alone.
Word of the report’s shocking details came by way of Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI), who broke the news during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Monday, according to The Associated Press. The report also comes a day after the sexual assault prevention officer for the U.S. Air Force was arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting a complete stranger amid a drunken stupor.
Additional data from the 2012 survey, sent in advance to USA Today, adds that only 3,374 members of the military actually reported assaults, while just 3,000 pressed charges.
The 2012 Sexual Assault Prevention and Response survey represents a dramatic increase over 2010′s survey results, when just 3,230 sexual assault claims were filed and 19,300 said they believed they were victimized. The 2010 survey (PDF) also found that 71 percent of women and 85 percent of men did not report incidents of sexual assault the year prior, meaning the massive jump seen in 2012 could be due to increased reporting instead of an increase in sexual assaults.
However, it’s also possible that there were far more than 70 sexual assaults per day in 2012. The Pentagon estimated in 2011 that about 86 percent of sexual assaults went unreported.

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Obama says military leaders are 'ashamed' about sexual assault, vows to end the 'scourge'

 By Robert Burns And Lolita C. Baldor, The Associated Press | The Canadian Press – 16 hours ago










WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama is pledging to eliminate the "scourge" of sexual assault in the military while cautioning that it will take a long and sustained effort by all military members.

 "There is no silver bullet to solving this problem," Obama said Thursday after meeting with Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel and the top brass from all the military services.

 "We will not stop until we've seen this scourge, from what is the greatest military in the world, eliminated," he told reporters.

 Senior military officers are speaking about the problem with increasing bluntness and expressions of regret. Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on Wednesday called it a "crisis" in the ranks, and on Thursday the Army chief of staff, Gen. Ray Odierno, publicly acknowledged his service's efforts are "failing."

 "They care about this and they are angry about it," Obama said.

 "Not only is it a crime, not only is it shameful and disgraceful, but it also is going to make and has made the military less effective than it can be," the president said.

 Those summoned to the White House by Obama included not just Hagel, Dempsey and the chiefs of each military service but also the civilian heads of each service and senior enlisted advisers.

 "I heard directly from all of them that they are ashamed by some of what's happened," Obama said.

 The president added that because assault victims may be more likely now to come forward with complaints, the number of reported assaults may increase in the short run.

 "I then want those trend lines to start going down because that indicates that we're also starting to fix the problem and we've highlighted it, and people who are engaged in despicable behaviour, they get fully punished for it," Obama said. 

 Please continue reading at...

 http://ca.news.yahoo.com/obama-says-military-leaders-ashamed-sexual-assault-vows-075348877.html

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posted by Black Krishna at 8:53 PM 7 comments

MayorVij Presents: Rob Ford crack scandal: Toronto mayor calls it ‘ridiculous’ but doesn’t issue denial



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IMHO, in the media and often reflected on the streets, so much of what we all discuss these days is more about how we spin the take on a topic well than anything else we say. This idea seems to apply when it comes to thinking about making  the appropriate comment at the appropriate time to the appropriate parties on the Mayor Rob Ford crack smoking scandal. Or, "Crack Rob" getting caught and many mainstream reporters claiming to have verified a video of it; among other scandals. This looks bad.

Of course, being conservative in your comments after a breaking scandal involving an important political figure or anyone really is to be expected from anyone, especially when it comes to the media questioning other political figures and looking for salacious details to hype. However, when normal people do this in normal conversations it often forces people to try to compete to get more credit for making the obvious sound profound. This is hard to do, give and get. Or it's boring and feels so. This feels worse.

People should definitely try to use humour to resist the thoughtless, banal, friction-less, paranoid and boring politically correct kennel that many in power appear to want to casually herd us into, including the fake left vs. right political paradigm among others that prevent us from thinking differently to decode them. While everybody is innocent until proven guilty, when there's cause for investigation because the evidence is adding up, perhaps it's normal to question why there isn't a speedy end to the process in sight. This feels better.

That'll do for now. I'd still love to get back to work on my WYWTBI Project to finish it for this summer too.

Check it out. It's been shelved for a bit, but it's on my mind since I know it's on many, many others as well...

It's Nice To Meet You
Which Is Better Than Not
What You Want To Believe In... Is People

http://whatyouwanttobelievein.com/

Best,

Vij

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 Rob Ford crack scandal: Toronto mayor calls it ‘ridiculous’ but doesn’t issue denial

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Rob Ford leaves his home May 17, 2013 and reacts to the 'crack cocaine' video scandal.
COLIN MCCONNELL / TORONTO STAR
Rob Ford leaves his home May 17, 2013 and reacts to the 'crack cocaine' video scandal.
By:  Urban Affairs Bureau Chief, Published on Fri May 17 2013

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Mayor Rob Ford is calling allegations that he was videotaped smoking what appears to be a crack pipe “ridiculous” but he has not outright denied the facts in a Toronto Star story.
Ford emerged from his office Friday, said: “Anyways, like I said this morning, these allegations are ridiculous, another story with respect to the Toronto Star going after me, and that's all I have to say.”
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  • Toronto Mayor Rob Ford needs to address allegations about crack cocaine use, Councillor Josh Colle said Friday.zoom
Ford ignored reporters questions and moved to an elevator to go to flag-raising ceremony held by parents of gays and lesbians.
Councillors accustomed to Mayor Rob Ford scandals and gaffes are urging him to address this most explosive allegation head on.
“It’s just shocking stuff,” said Councillor Josh Colle, an influential centrist.
“You hope it’s not true but, either way, I just hope the mayor says something as soon as possible. Because it’s salacious, it will be a massive distraction and we’re dealing with important things.
“I feel for him and his family but also for the city — we all thought the (downtown) casino was a big story but nobody is talking casinos today.”
Councillor John Parker, a former Ford ally who broke with the mayor over transit expansion, said: “I would think the mayor would be wise to address the story head on and put it to rest.
“We all hope that the inferences that are floating around are untrue and the only one who can set us straight on that is the mayor.”
“I think the business of the city hall goes on regardless of all of this but certainly it’s in the interest of all of us that we stick to business and get on with the work that people want us to do.”
Asked how shocked he is by the allegation, Parker said: “It’s at that point now that nothing seems to shock any of us around here any more.”
Deputy Mayor Doug Holyday said he didn’t believe the allegation but hoped Ford would make a full statement as soon as possible.
“Certainly we all know that videos can be altered and we certainly know that drug dealers can’t be trusted so we don’t know what we’re dealing with here and until we do I don’t have much to say,” Holyday said.
Asked if he has full confidence in Mayor Ford, Holyday said: “I do at this point.” Asked what would shake his confidence, the veteran councillor said: “Well, if these accusations were substantiated. That would certainly change a lot of things, I think, but at this point as far as I know the mayor is denying it and until such things change my position doesn’t change.”
Holyday also seemed to suggest Ford’s political enemies might be involved.
“Well, there’s a large contingent of political people that want the mayor out of office. They don’t want him to make the changes that he’s been making,” he said.
“I totally agree with the changes that he’s put forward and the agenda that he’s put forward and I’ve tried my best to support it and I will continue to support it whether he’s here or not here, but the people that are opposed to this seem to be willing to go to any lengths to make a change.”
When the Star reported that Ford was asked to leave a military gala because he appeared impaired, Holyday said he had never seen the mayor impaired and had no reason not to believe the story.
Adam Vaughan, Ford’s most vocal critic on council, said this is just the latest distraction for a mayor who seems disinterested in building a city.
“We’ve been working around the mayor since the day he was elected an on most files we achieve a consensus when we move forward. Politics is tough when you don’t have a mayor who is full-time . . . ,” Vaughan said.
“He’s a bad mayor because he makes bad decisions and he’s leading the city in a direction it shouldn’t be going.”
Councillor Gloria Lindsay Luby, a fellow Etobicoke representative who has known Ford more than a decade, called the allegations “mind-blowing” and urged the mayor to address them as soon
She recommended that Ford address the issue as soon as possible.
“Come out with it,” Lindsay Luby said. “Be honest. Say, ‘Yes it happened,’ or ‘No it didn’t.’ That’s the only way to deal with something like this.
“Don’t run away from it. Just deal with it.”
With files from Kamila Hinkson and Laura Kane


http://www.thestar.com/news/city_hall/2013/05/17/rob_ford_crack_scandal_mayor_must_respond_councillor_says.html



posted by Black Krishna at 2:23 PM 3 comments