Jilly_in_VA
Jilly_in_VA's JournalLA shooting deaths of two women and girl highlight 'invisibility of Black life'
Three recent killings in the Los Angeles area have put the spotlight on the disparate impact of American gun violence on Black women and the lack of attention their stories receive, as the country reckons with some of the most intense spates of gun violence in years.
Both killings took place on weekends, a mere two weeks apart. On 8 January, California officials found the body of Tioni Theus, a 16-year-old girl who was found shot at a busy onramp of the 110 freeway. On 23 January, sisters Breahna Stines and Marneysha Hamilton were among four people shot dead during a mass shooting at a birthday party in Inglewood.
Neither incident received much coverage outside of local news, raising questions about which stories are elevated in the national spotlight and which mass shootings grasp the country’s attention. While discrepancies between the attention for white victims of violence and Black victims of violence is nothing new, community organizers and researchers worry about the message this phenomenon continues to send to young Black girls about their worth and potential.
“This image of a young Black girl on the side of a highway with cars driving by speaks to the invisibility of Black life,” said Nikki Jones, a professor of African American studies at UC Berkeley. “Black girls are contending with the messages that their life is disposable, and that’s an extremely dangerous message.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jan/27/los-angeles-killings-black-women-violence
Parents who kept kids at home for fear of Covid are reported for neglect
Paullette Healy can tick off the ways her family’s life has been disrupted over the last three months: her younger child’s nightmares, the hours she has poured into collecting evidence to prove she’s a fit parent and an arduous legal process that still looms to clear her name.
From early November through 1 January, the Brooklyn family was under investigation by the administration for children’s services, or ACS, the New York City agency tasked with looking into suspected cases of child abuse and neglect. Healy had been reported for “educational neglect” for not sending her two children to school amid Covid fears, though she says her kids kept up with their work remotely.
Last fall, the city government issued guidance discouraging educators from reporting parents who kept kids home out of fear when schools reopened. But that has not been enough to stop families motivated by Covid concerns from getting caught up in the web of child protective services – a blunt instrument that disproportionately targets low-income families of color who have already suffered the most harm during the pandemic.
The report that spurred the investigation into the Healy family was one of more than 2,400 that New York City school personnel made to the New York statewide central register for child abuse and maltreatment during the first three months of the 2021-22 school year, according to data obtained by the 74 through a public record request – about 45% more than were reported over the same time span a year prior, when most of the city’s nearly 1 million students were learning remotely.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jan/27/covid-kids-school-reported-for-neglect
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Appalling and discriminatory
Steelers QB Roethlisberger retires from NFL after 18 years
Nearly two weeks after a season-ending loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in the wild-card round of the AFC playoffs, Ben Roethlisberger confirmed what others had reported and he had indicated was coming: His NFL playing career is over.
The Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback officially announced his retirement Thursday in a social media post, bringing to an end an 18-year career – the longest of any quarterback who played with only one team – that included two Super Bowl titles and six Pro Bowl selections.
"The time has come to clean out my locker, hang up my cleats, and continue to be all I can be to my wife and children,” Roethlisberger said in the video. “I retire from football a truly grateful man.”
Roethlisberger had made no secret of his plans in recent weeks, saying in the lead-up to a Week 17 matchup with the Cleveland Browns that the game was likely his last at Heinz Field. Steelers fans rained down chants of "Let's go, Ben" and "Thank you, Ben" from pregame until well after the 26-14 victory, after which he took a lap to thank those in the crowd who had stayed.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/steelers/2022/01/27/ben-roethlisberger-retires-nfl-pittsburgh-steelers-career/9149099002/
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IMO, he kinda overstayed his welcome by a couple of years.
Childless QAnon Influencer Ron Watkins Is Berating 'Communist' School Boards
Ron Watkins is worried about his children, his parental rights, and the dangers posed by “communist creeps” on school boards.
“The communist creeps at our school boards are now taking our parental rights away by teaching our children that they can be vaccinated without parental consent,” Watkins shouted at a school board meeting in Scottsdale, Arizona on Tuesday evening, adding that “communist school boards are now indoctrinating our children with transexual propaganda and teaching them to be racist against white people, by teaching racist Biden’s racist critical race theory.”
Of course schools are not teaching their kids to be racist or spreading “transexual propaganda,” whatever that means. Perhaps Watkins would know that if he had a child enrolled in an Arizona public school, which he doesn’t. Because he doesn’t have a child at all.
But for the QAnon influencer, and many within the conspiracy movement, actually having children is only a minor detail compared to the scale of the war they believe they are fighting against everything from vaccine mandates, critical race theory, and gender politics in schools all across the country.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/g5qddx/qanon-attack-school-boards-ron-watkins
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Does this assclown even LIVE in this district? We know he doesn't have kids.
Gun Owners in San Jose Outraged They'll Have to Buy Insurance, Like Drivers
Owning a gun in the city of San Jose will soon have a lot in common with owning a car.
In two landslide votes Tuesday night, the San Jose City Council approved a first-of-its-kind law that mandates gun owners buy and maintain liability insurance and pay an annual fee. The vote for the annual fee passed 8-3 while the insurance vote passed 10-1.
“Now, we know that law-abiding drivers might benefit from auto insurance because it incentivizes us all to drive more safely, invest in safer cars, anti-lock brakes, and a host of other measures,” San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo told the Los Angeles Times.
The two measures are aimed at encouraging safer gun ownership and reducing gun violence, according to Liccardo. Gun liability insurance would cover unintended firearm-related accidents and damages, according to the ordinance. Among the costs of emergency response, victim assistance, and more, gun violence runs city taxpayers as much as $442 million a year, according to the mayor’s office.
While many insurance companies and firearm associations offer some kind of coverage for gun owners, it’s unclear how many Americans actually have it.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/k7wgnw/gun-insurance-law-san-jose-california
Tennessee school board bans teaching of Holocaust graphic novel Maus
A school board in Tennessee has banned a Pulitzer prize-winning novel about the Holocaust from being taught in its classrooms.
Board members voted in favour of banning the novel because it contained swear words and a naked illustration.
The graphic novel Maus: A Survivor's Tale depicts how the author's parents survived Auschwitz during the Holocaust.
Author Art Spiegelman said he was "baffled" by the decision.
Six million Jewish people died in the Holocaust - Nazi Germany's campaign to eradicate Europe's Jewish population.
Mr Spiegelman's parents were Polish Jews who were sent to Nazi concentration camps during World War Two.
His novel Maus, which features hand-drawn illustrations of mice as Jews and cats as Nazis, won a number of literary awards in 1992.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-60153696
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These fools apparently think most 13 year olds have never heard swearing or seen a pic of a nude woman. 
TBI: Man charged with murder and arson in death of Robertson Co. deputy (update)
One man was arrested and charged Monday for the death of a Robertson County deputy who was found shot in her home over the weekend, according to officials with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.
Officials stated that multiple agencies, including the TBI and the Smyrna Police Department, served a search warrant that led to the arrest of 27-year-old James Jackson Conn.
Police officials initially said they were in the midst of an “active response” on Odom Court and advised drivers to avoid the area for their “safety and the safety of personnel.” The situation has since been resolved, the TBI said.
Conn was charged with first-degree murder and one count of aggravated arson. As of Monday night, he was booked into the Robertson County Jail and being held without bond, according to officials with the TBI.
https://www.wvlt.tv/2022/01/25/tbi-man-charged-with-murder-arson-death-robertson-co-deputy/
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Doesn't say, but I'm still betting this was either an ex or wannabe BF. As for her being with the sheriff's dept for 4 years at such a young age, she likely started out at a desk job, possibly while attending criminal justice classes at the local community college (a 2 year course). This is not uncommon in TN.
Polish state has 'blood on its hands' after death of woman refused an abortion
The family of a Polish woman who died on Tuesday after doctors refused to perform an abortion when the foetus’s heart stopped beating have accused the government of having “blood on their hands”.
The woman, identified only as Agnieszka T, was said to have been in the first trimester of a twin pregnancy when she was admitted to the Blessed Virgin Mary hospital in Częstochowa on 21 December. Her death comes a year after Poland introduced one of the most restrictive abortion laws in Europe.
According to a statement released by relatives, the 37-year-old was experiencing pain when she arrived at the hospital but was “fully conscious and in good physical shape”.
The first foetus died in the womb on 23 December, but doctors refused to remove it, quoting the current abortion legislation, and Agnieszka’s family claim “her state quickly deteriorated”. The hospital waited until the heartbeat of the second twin also stopped a week later, and then waited a further two days before terminating the pregnancy on 31 December.
Agnieszka died on 25 January after weeks of deteriorating health. Her family suspect that she died as a result of septic shock, but the hospital did not identify the cause of her death in statement issued on Wednesday.
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/jan/26/poland-death-of-woman-refused-abortion
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This is going to happen here, perhaps sooner than we think. Probably in Texas.
You Are Not Owed a Reason for Somebody's Abortion
Kaia was nearly 42 when she learned her fetus had a chromosomal abnormality that would likely lead to a painful death. Liz found out she was pregnant right after a long-distance relationship ended. Ophelia, already perimenopausal, was raising two children with mood disorders. Natalie wanted to be homecoming queen. Dima knew the dude wasn’t right. Layidua was undocumented and attempting to change her immigration status after getting married. Yas was about to start her senior year of high school. Deb had just graduated college.
I have interviewed dozens and dozens of people who had abortions for dozens of articles. I have spoken to people who chose to self-manage their medication abortions at home, who chose first-trimester abortions in hospitals and clinics, who got later abortions, multiple abortions, secret abortions, people who got abortions as minors, whose fetus wouldn’t survive, who did it to protect their health, who didn’t want to be parents ever or just not right now, and who couldn’t afford the procedure. Every one of these safe and wanted abortions was a good abortion.
After each interview I come away with profound disbelief that this is my life’s work: chronicling the stories of people who decide to divulge their private health information in service of others. They spill their abortion secrets in the hopes that their public honesty might mean those in power finally realize people who have abortions are simply that: people. I am so grateful for them. I wished I could offer them a better outcome than an accurate record of events. All I can offer them now is my own honesty.
It took me years to make so bold yet so fundamental a statement as “every safe and wanted abortion is a good abortion” on behalf of these people, because the notion of capital-J Journalism still had a hold over me. The profession has sworn, from William Randolph Hearst to Marty Baron, to not bring a point of view to practice; journalism forgets that Ida B. Wells was a reporter, too. I trained at newspapers in New Orleans, Seattle, and Phoenix. Even when I moved into political reporting, it was still a toe-the-line liberal blog. When I got to outlets that could take a bit more bite, I held back. I wrote about the fight for abortion access without explicitly mentioning the goodness of these choices. And I was fair, always trying to find the balance between pro- and anti-abortion sources and stories.
https://jezebel.com/you-are-not-owed-a-reason-for-somebodys-abortion-1848317442
New Kid Rock Song Is Actual Worst Piece Of Sh*t Ever Made, Click Here To Laugh At It
Good morning, humble patriotic people of the Lord! Put down your morning Bible devotionals and pay attention, because it's time to listen to Kid Rock's new song. Yes, we know we've never made you listen to a Kid Rock song before. The thing is, Kid Rock has created the worst song ever made, and we need you to laugh at it with us.
Don't believe us?
Well, did you think you could make an entire chorus that just says "We The People Let's Go Brandon" over and over again, like somebody who doesn't speak English but heard those words were good pleasure buttons for goosing the prostates of idiots who think the 2020 election was stolen? You didn't think that was even musically possible.
Let the virtuoso show the way!
Did you think you could meekly and mildly ask listeners for "love and unity" and also to "suck on deez nuts"? Because that's creative, you see, jokes about "deez nuts." What's great about it is how awkwardly he crams it into the rhyming cadence of the song:
https://www.wonkette.com/new-kid-rock-song-is-literally-worst-piece-of-sh-t-ever-made-click-hear-to-laugh-at-it
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Couldn't decide where to put this, so I plunked it here.
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Gender: Do not displayCurrent location: Virginia
Member since: Wed Jun 1, 2011, 07:34 PM
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