Duty to Warn

Many people all over the world watch television series based on the commercials, promotional media hype, interviews that the cast members, promoters and sponsors give and, of course, by word of mouth.  Another way that people are influenced into watching a particular show is through the television content rating systems.

Gena Smith is a 30-something Army combat veteran of Iraq. She suffers from both PTSD and MST, a roller-coaster of pain and emotions you never want to ride. She’s currently a veteran advocate who pens the blog “Regular Fury.” She is sometimes asked, especially by the media, Why didn’t you turn in your rapist?

It was one heck of a David and Goliath moment.

As the world’s nuke reactors begin to fall, none crumbles faster than FirstEnergy’s infamous Davis-Besse, near Toledo.  But Ohio citizens now have a good chance to shut it down---if we act quickly. You can start by contacting the PUCO directly, as below.
  Those of you who want Davis-Besse shut can write the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio at docketing@puc.state.oh.us. Use this label in the subject line of the email, as well as the body of the email message, so PUCO can route the public comments to the correct proceeding: OPPOSITION COMMENT UNDER CASE # 14-1297-EL-SSO.
  FirstEnergy wants the PUCO to rubber-stamp a $3 billion-plus bailout for Davis-Besse and a decrepit 50-year-old coal burner.
  It’s a scam.
  The company says DB is needed for “baseload” power. But it’s a nonsensical smokescreen rooted in obsolete models meant only to profit the utility.

Over fourteen hundred international election experts gathered data last year and pronounced the United States last in election integrity among long-standing democracies. On a 100-point scale, the U.S. received an integrity rating of 69.3 percent -- one notch ahead of the narco-drug state Colombia at 69.1 percent and just behind the nearly-narco-drug state of Mexico at 69.8 percent, neither country with a long-standing democracy.

Cities and states across the United States have been taking various actions against drones, while the federal government rolls ahead with project fill the skies.

Robert L. Meola has been working for years now to get Berkeley to catch up with other localities and claim its usual spot at the forefront of movements to pass good resolutions on major issues. Now Berkeley has acted and Meola says "This is NOT what I/we asked for."

Here's what they asked for:

Establishing a Two Year Moratorium on Drones in Berkeley
From: Peace and Justice Commission
Recommendation: Adopt a Resolution adopting a two year moratorium on drones in Berkeley.
Financial Implications: Unknown

And what they got:

Texas Baptists confirm Obama’s comments about Christian crimes

The American torture president and self-professed Christian, George W. Bush, gratefully accepted an honorary Doctor of Humanities degree from the Christian-ideology-based University of Mary Hardin-Baylor in Belton, Texas, on February 11, in a “public” event that was closed to most of the public. The only direct media coverage allowed for the event was by Fox News and the college public relations team.

Even though it might have been headlined as “Christians Honor War Criminal,” there were apparently no national news stories about the former president’s award. Five days after the fact, the Washington-insider publication, the Hill ran a short summary noting that Bush had said, “Evil is evil.” 

Sexual practices involving bondage, dominance, sadism and masochism are sometimes lumped together under the acronym BDSM. Whatever you call them, they’re all the rage at the multiplex.

  It was just a week ago that Fifty Shades of Grey started steaming up movie screens nationwide. And now the Gateway Film Center is offering a curtain call in the form of The Duke of Burgundy.

  The eccentric British film is about a lesbian couple whose sex life follows a rigid pattern of domination and punishment.

  The pattern begins when Evelyn (Chiara D’Anna) arrives to clean house for Cynthia (Sidse Babett Knudsen), a scholar who specializes in the study of butterflies and moths. Evelyn appears to take her chores seriously, but the poor girl invariably leaves something undone, and Cynthia finds it necessary to punish her.

  Though the pattern is cut-and-dried up until this point, what happens next isn’t—dried, I mean. Listening from the other side of the bedroom door, we realize that Cynthia is showering Evelyn with something, and it definitely isn’t praise.

On February 26th, the Federal Communications Commission (better known as the FCC) will be voting on whether to classify broadband internet as a Title II service - something that would give it the same open legal status as telephone lines, a concept called net neutrality. For those of us who regularly read, stream and, yes, even torrent from online sources, this is more than just a vague formality. Losing net neutrality could have a massive and possibly permanent impact on how we get not just entertainment but news and other information. And while some in Washington are speaking out on the side of an open internet, Republicans are already tossing out meaningless reactionary phrases like “Obamacare for the internet” to try to secure the tubes for their corporate sponsors.

  The concept of net neutrality is a simple one: Your internet service provider is not allowed to filter, throttle or otherwise meddle with what you’re accessing. They can’t block sites or slow down streaming from certain sources.

Greetings my friends, relatives and supporters:
I know that many of you have concerns about the status of my situation and have been wanting an
update about what is going on. A lot has been happening in the last few months and I am sorry I
have not written in a while. The deaths over this last year have been hard to accept, including the
recent loss of my Sister Vivian. I want to deeply thank everyone for your loving words, prayers
and also for helping my son Chauncey pay for her funeral expenses, I am humbled beyond what
my words can express.

We are coming up on 40 years of my being in prisons. Sometimes, I honestly cannot believe it,
sometimes I just don’t want to believe it. You have been here with me through many dark times. It
is not possible for me to respond to each of you personally, I sure wish I could.

The reality is that I am not getting any younger, I feel my body every day. My hip hurts, I cannot
see very well, my body aches and my diabetes makes me feel uneasy a lot of the time. I do not say
these things so you’ll feel sorry for me, I just want to share because I would like for you to