Pre-massacre videos likely to be better after shooting with Hunger Games connection, mental health care improved

A FANTASY
Now that Hollywood has gotten involved in the nation’s gun massacres the nation can expect an improvement in explanatory videos made by killers.
In the incident near Santa Barbara on Saturday, six people and the killer died. In many previous massacres videos were recorded by the shooters, all the way back to Columbine High School.
The killer’s father, Peter Rodger, a Hollywood movie director, announced in record speed that the 22-year-old was his son, Elliot Rodger. Peter Rodger, a Briton, was assistant director of “The Hunger Games.”
Elliot had a script, a 137-page manifesto that media obtained.
The senior Rodger's lawyer said his client would spend the rest of his life making sure Americans had decent care for mental illness.
“My clients’ mission in life will be to try and prevent any such tragedies from ever happening again. This country, this world needs to address mental illness and the ramifications from not recognizing these illnesses.
It also become clear from the start that Rodger had received mental health care not available to most Americans.
It was also clear that police had been warned, and cleared the younger Rodger of being a threat.
Police interviewed Elliot Rodger, finding him, a "perfectly polite, kind and wonderful human.”
It appeared Elliot Rodger had given enough warning of his plans to doctors just as the psychiatrist who treated the Aurora theater shooting killer had done her duty. She had even suggested he be arrested. He was not, and the death toll in Aurora was higher, 12 killed and 70 wounded.
 Not only did Rodger have the mental health problems being treated by psychologists and psychiatrists, he also had a record of posting hateful comments about women and blacks, the Southern Poverty Law Center, according to Ryot.org. His comments were posted on a site with the URL PuaHate.com.
It wasn't clear what would be the tipping point to get someone like this arrested or committed.
 Law enforcement again congratulated itself on its quick response, preventing more deaths.
Investigators said the multiple guns and hundreds of rounds of ammo were all purchased legally, which the NRA likely will say shows that gun control laws do not work. Of course the guns were the usual suspects, including a Glock. The NRA also will point out that three died from stabbings.
The gun rights group, which has had perhaps the most successful lobbying record of any in the nation, also probably will try to obfuscate the questions by arguing over whether weapons were automatic or semi-automatic.
Some network news reporters said the video Elliot Rodger recorded in his BMW as cryptic. He said he would get “retribution” for all those who had wronged him and would “annihilate” anyone he encountered. To some it seemed fairly clear. He not only felt bullied but also was horny.
Sources:
AP
ABC
Video transcript

Short changing veterans an age old tradition

The script du jour this Memorial Day weekend is the failure of the US to treat its veterans honorably. But once again, it is not just an American story, it goes all the way back to Julius Caesar.
In 46 B.C., the legendary soldiers of iron discipline marched on Rome to demand their just rewards for plundering the known world and filling the city’s coffers with cash and Caesar’s villa with Cleopatra.
The illustrious Roman general and erstwhile king was able to disarm them morally by declaring them merely citizens, no longer his soldiers. They begged to be taken back.
The bipartisan US scandal of failing to justly reward veterans goes all the way to the Revolutionary War.
It has become the Republican scandal of the day in their war against President Barack Obama.
The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart, and even GOP stalwart Bill O’Reilly, couldn’t miss the chance to exploit the historical fact that the mistreatment of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans began under former President George Bush.
“On this Memorial Day weekend eve, we can finally admit that America has had for over 200 years a great bipartisan tradition of honoring those who have fought for our freedom by f*ing them over once they give their guns back," Stewart said.

The increasingly long waits for care in veterans’ hospitals is the symbol of the problem but that also is not new. It has been going off and on at least since the Vietnam War.
Reporters who watched eager recruits preparing to head off for war at Fort Carson, Colorado, in 2003 couldn’t help but wonder if the soldiers realized the they were getting themselves into a pile of feces.
Retired veterans, now hired as civilians, grimaced when they heard disparaging remarks from the Bush Administration about Vietnam War soldiers.
Thinking back about their eagerness to ultimately join the long lines waiting for care, if they survived, brings to mind “Short Change Man.”
The British band “Heavy” was thinking of something else when they wrote:
“This ain't no place for no hero.
This ain't no place for no better man.
This ain't no place for no hero
To call ‘home.’”
Marvin Gaye was already dead or he would have asked “What’s going on?” and warned that “war is not the answer.”
Who would have thought that at the end of day these would-be veterans not only would have to wait for care, but also hear that the war they fought was for a mirage, much like Vietnam vets learned was their just desserts.
Who would have thought Marvin Gaye was considered a “soul” singer and not an anti-war prophet? It is hard to get anything right the first time.

Thai military admits it staged coup

By the way, did we mention the martial law imposed a few days ago was accompanied by a coup? Perhaps the Thai military tired of relentless questions by the BBC about how their martial law and takeover were anything but a coup.
A coup by any other name is still a coup. An asymmetrical war, as the US military loves to call it, is still a guerrilla war.
A Red Shirt is a rural-based opposition group, not a term for describing a college football player who takes a year away from the game to study, and grow bigger and stronger and train at the same time with few rules.
But coups have gotten a bad reputation, particularly after what has happened in Egypt. Is there anyone who is a Muslim “militant” who is not in prison and/or sentenced to die?
Of course Thailand had had at least 11 so why not make it an even dozen?
Martial law only lasted three days.
What better way to describe what is happening than in a nationwide televised address, though Thailand is not very wide at all.
The usual media censorship has been imposed.
Apparently the US practice of washing the extremely dirty laundry of a war against terrorism in full public view is not the way most nations do business.
“It is necessary for the Peace and Order Maintaining Command which includes army, navy, armed forces and police to take control of governing the country,” said Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha. It was in a statement. He didn’t personally appear to tell his story.
Still, it was necessary to assure the country and the world that Thailand, a beloved tourist haven, is still open for business.
“We ask the public not to panic and to carry on their lives normally. And civil servants stay in every ministry, carry on your responsibilities as normal,” said the general, who had made it clear the military really didn’t want to get too involved.
The general and the rest of the command did try. For at least two days it talked with the seating government and opposition groups. Little progress was reported.
Opposition leaders got their wrists slapped publicly but apparently were not getting the Egyptian treatment.
A few of those apparently feared by the military were still able to get word out. The government leaders themselves, who met with the military, were being held.
It bears mentioning that TV stations went off the air and the constitution suspended.
Russian President Vladimir Putin blamed the CIA and said his troops had pulled back.
“The rest of us who are outside are still fine and in the safe places. However, the situation is very worrying. We have to monitor it closely and don’t know what else can happen,” government official Paradorn Pattanathabutr told the BBC.
Sources:
The Indian Express
AP
BBC

Nigeria headed to second civil war since independence as thousands die

Nigeria may be headed to its second civil war since independence. Seven years after independence from Britain in 1960, a nearly three-year war partly caused by religious tensions claimed one million lives.
Ethnic and cultural differences, just as now, were an important factor in the Biafran War. And it was, just as now, largely Muslim northeastern Hausas against southerners.
The Igbo people of the southwest claimed they suffered most of the deaths, which largely resulted from starvation.
Apologists for the fighting of recent years have tried to minimize the role of religion. This week several hundred deaths in separate attacks in central and northeast Nigeria are being blamed on the Islamic fanatic group called Boko Haram.
It would be foolish to assume Christians were not fighting back. Boko Haram had not hesitated to claim responsibility for earlier bombings and the kidnapping of several hundred schoolgirls.
So far they haven’t said they were responsible for bombings in the “Tin City” of Jos in the country’s middle belt that divides Christian from Muslim areas. It is close to tin mines, largely unregulated like most things in Nigeria. The hilly city of nearly 1 million is about as cosmopolitan as any in the country with the altitude of 4,200 feet making the climate pleasant for an Equatorial region. Some call it the nation’s most beautiful city.
The OsunDefender of Nigeria said the latest massacres moved Nigeria up to the very pinnacle of the worst governments in the world.
There were fresh massacres Wednesday.
An estimated 1,300 people have died this year as a result of bombings and other killings blamed on Boko Haram. The group, which was created by a Muslim self-proclaimed prophet named Maitatsine. He died in police custody in 1980.
A follower, Musa Makaniki, killed hundreds if not more, in a revolt in the Cameroon border town of Yola. He told his followers they were bullet proof. He died with them when police attacked.
There has always been something different about Boko Haram, although they claim to be following Muslim law.
Today’s terrorists are well-armed, allegedly by al-Qaida, and the Nigerian Army has been no match for them.
US, British and French soldiers were called in to help suppress the group. The US, in particular, has been hesitant to rush forces in because of the brutal reputation of the country’s army.
There also are questions about the military’s motivation.
US Air Force Chief of Staff General Mark Welsh III told Congress: "We're now looking at a military force that is, quite frankly, becoming afraid to even engage. The United States doesn't have the capacity, the capability to go rescue every kidnapped person around the world."
Amnesty International reported the military was warned four hours before the girls were kidnapped but did nothing. Several villages armed themselves and drove off Boko Haram fighters.
Sources:
New York Times
Wikipedia Biafran War
BBC
OsunDefender

Remembering is more important for Google than the right to forget

Lately much has been made about whether Google must observe the right to be forgotten, meaning delete outdated information. The European Court of Justice has ruled the communications giant must.

“There’s no more practical obscurity with search engines,” Laura Handman, a first amendment lawyer said.

The half-life of an Internet item may be longer than plutonium.

Even Gatsby, in his day, was never able erase all his past data, meta, or otherwise.

There will be paper files somewhere, or someone will have downloaded it elsewhere.

All the court ruling can possibly do is make it less convenient to get the information.

It is truly the definition of a Don Quixote mission with no rules of engagement.

And some people want help remembering things past and present.

Of much more concern than “le droit à l’oubli” or right to oblivion, is the right to be remembered, when the issue is whether Google will continue to provide for free the vast array of services from Gmail to Google Voice to Google Earth to free blogs.

Soon they will be offering Google Self Drive. What it the service stopped in the middle of a drive.

Currently the only charges consumers are likely to have to pay to Google are to download music and movies from Google Play or YouTube.

And it is not only Google. In a cartoon this week in the New Yorker, a new arrival at the pearly gates is told that or his experience to really “be heavenly” he will have to upgrade to the premium service.

One measure of how powerful Google is can be seen in Apple stores. Staff, when asked how to solve a problem, frequently type in a query in the Google search engine.

Some people have been storing their emails in Gmail for a decade. It would be very difficult, if not impossible, for most people to save these emails elsewhere if Google decided to end the free service.

Not included in things that might be missed are the imaginary products “Google Trust,” a data insurance; “Google Bee,” your own personal drone; “Google Hug, a crowd-sourced hug matching service, and “Google Bye,” an online profile for the afterlife.

Much has been made of the unofficial Google motto, “Don’t be evil."

But will it be remembered?






Sources:


New York Times


Stanford Law Review


Medium.com


Guardian

New Hampshire town calls halt to racial slurs on Presidient Obama

The nation won’t have to wait until the first Tuesday in November to hear what the Granite state has to say. The summer resort town of Wolfeborn has said enough racial attacks on the President of the United States.
The 82-year-old police chief of the summer resort resigned Monday, under pressure for calling Prsident Obama a nigger.
Obama’s presidential opponent, Mitt Romney, is a resident of the Lake Wentworth resort, and he led the drive to get Bob Copeland to resign.
"The vile epithet used and confirmed by the commissioner has no place in our community: He should apologize and resign,” Romney said Sunday in a statement given to CNN.
Copeland admitted using the racial slur, and initially refused to resign. There was no way for the town council to fire him, or any recall procedure.
Evidently threats to boycott the town of 6,300 as the summer tourist season approached, and verbal attacks by town residents and council members, convinced Copeland to leave.
As far as is known, no one called him a “cracker,” “honkie” or “poor white trash.”
Not surprisingly, in this era of talking or tweeting before thinking, it appeared that comments to New Hampshire news sites appeared to support Copeland’s right to insult his commander-in-chief.
By this afternoon the voice of rapid right-wing radio will be heard.
But even the racist owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, barred from the NBA, had not used the “N” word.
Copeland picked a bad time to show his ignorance. The black community, and many supporters, have recently been calling into question whether 60 year after schools were desegregated and Johnny Crow laws mostly removed from the books, where blacks have equal rights.
Facts indicate otherwise. The nation’s outdated drug laws are still largely imposed on blacks, and “stand your ground” laws used to protect white castles.
But this is bad business. Redneck towns, where gays also are often hated, lose out when companies looking for new homes for startup businesses seek a home. If anything, the melting pot, sexual diversity and good universities have draw dispropornately large numbers of the “creative class.”
Sources:
Manchester Union Leader
Concord Monitor
Guardian

Dozens die in worst Balkans flooding in decades, thousands displaced

More than 50 people have been killed in the worst flooding in decades in the Balkans and officials fear a major Serbian power plant is in danger.
The River Sava, swollen by torrential rains, has overflowed its banks and threatens the Nikola Tesla power plant, named for the renowned Serbian scientist.
Serbian Emergency Director Predrag Maric said the power plant was turned off after water broke through a 100-mile stretch of a dyke.
There are also reports that signs-designating areas where land mines were planted have been knocked over. The mines were planted during the 1992-1995 war, and the floodwaters have caused landslides that could move some of the mines.
Once the floodwaters go down experts will have to survey the areas where mines were known to have been planted.
The floods are affecting Serbia, Bosnia and Croatia.
Thousands have fled their homes in boats, buses and helicopters as water rose up to the second-floor levels in buildings in some areas. Thousands were also without potable drinking water. Hundreds of homes were destroyed.
"Bosnia is facing a horrible catastrophe," said Bakir Izetbegovic, the chairman of the Bosnian three-man presidency. "We are still not fully aware of actual dimensions of the catastrophe ... we will have to take care of hundreds, thousands of people."
Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said a new wave of flooding would hit Sunday evening.
"Our primary concern is to protect the power plant," Vucic said. "We are doing all we can."
Bridges were washed out, making access to the flooded areas difficult.
On his Twitter feed, tennis player Novak Djokovic said, “This is a catastrophe of biblical proportions. Half of the country is in danger of electricity cuts. Unfortunately, the awareness is lacking as to what is really happening in the areas. We need help.”
Sources:
Tanjug
The Guardian
BBC