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iemanja
iemanja's Journal
iemanja's Journal
May 31, 2013
http://www.nationaljournal.com/nationalsecurity/gun-deaths-since-newtown-now-surpass-number-of-americans-killed-in-iraq-20130530
Gun Deaths Since Newtown Now Surpass Number of Americans Killed in Iraq
I found this quite a shocking fact. Despite the tragedy of foreign war, the true battle is at home, where deaths from gunshot wounds outpace war casualties. How do we end this war on American soil? What responsibility does each of us have to bring this to an end?
The number of gun deaths in the U.S. since the Newtown elementary school massacre has exceeded the total number of U.S. troops killed in the Iraq war.
According to a tally of gun deaths from Slate, the number of people killed since the Dec. 14 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary is now 4,499. The number of U.S. armed forces killed during the Iraq war was 4,409, according to the Defense Department.
The Slate data comes from crowdsourcing and warns that it is “necessarily incomplete.” Authors of the tally call on readers to submit news stories to @GunDeaths.
This comparison of the five months since the tragedy that redefined the debate for further gun control in this country and the nine-year conflict the U.S. has recently ended is now being used by Americans United for Change, a progressive political group. Already, the group has targeted several Republican lawmakers, including Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, to support background checks, among other gun-control measures.
Republicans successfully stalled gun-control legislation, arguing that further measures would not prevent gun violence but merely stifle the Second Amendment rights of lawful Americans. But Democratic lawmakers and progressive groups have signaled that they will continue this fight.
According to a tally of gun deaths from Slate, the number of people killed since the Dec. 14 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary is now 4,499. The number of U.S. armed forces killed during the Iraq war was 4,409, according to the Defense Department.
The Slate data comes from crowdsourcing and warns that it is “necessarily incomplete.” Authors of the tally call on readers to submit news stories to @GunDeaths.
This comparison of the five months since the tragedy that redefined the debate for further gun control in this country and the nine-year conflict the U.S. has recently ended is now being used by Americans United for Change, a progressive political group. Already, the group has targeted several Republican lawmakers, including Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, to support background checks, among other gun-control measures.
Republicans successfully stalled gun-control legislation, arguing that further measures would not prevent gun violence but merely stifle the Second Amendment rights of lawful Americans. But Democratic lawmakers and progressive groups have signaled that they will continue this fight.
http://www.nationaljournal.com/nationalsecurity/gun-deaths-since-newtown-now-surpass-number-of-americans-killed-in-iraq-20130530
May 13, 2013
For years, residents of Steubenville covered up rape by football players because of the reverence they had for local athletes. They sheltered rapists and shamed victims. Now some on the "left" are doing the same to the women who have lodged rape allegations against Julian Assange. Assange has fled prosecution of unlawful coercion and two counts of sexual molestation. He escaped extradition from the UK by seeking shelter in the Ecuadorian embassy. So-called leftists insist the Swedish women are part of a CIA plot, or that the rape charges amount to nothing more than his "personal life" or a private sex scandal on the order of Clinton-Lewinsky. Tell me how are they different from the community in Steubenville that protected football players? Both shelter men they admire from charges of sexual assault. If not for the video on Facebook, the Ohio rapists would never have been prosecuted. Swedish prosecutors did move against Assange, but the accused has defenders across the globe willing to shield him--physically, in the case of Ecuador, and through moral support in the blogosphere. Are the apologists for Assange any different from those who allied themselves with the Steubenville rapists? If only men people don't admire are subject to prosecution for violence against women, there can be no protection from sexual assault. Through the defenders of the Steubenville rapists and Assange, we see rape culture in action.
Assange and Steubenville: Excusing Rape
"One of the Swedish women who accused Wikileaks founder Julian Assange of sex crimes has spoken out about the ordeal she said she suffered at the hands of her alleged abuser’s mother and other supporters.
The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said that she became a target for both her former allies and opponents who, along with her alleged abuser’s acolytes, turned against her and presumed she was lying about the allegations she made.
“Three years ago I was the victim of an assault. Former allies, political opponents, the Sweden Democrats, anti-feminists, Jew-haters, the man’s friends and mother quickly decided that there was something fishy. That I lied,” she wrote on her blog."
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/i-was-targeted-after-i-made-assange-sex-crime-claim-says-accuser-of-wikileaks-founder-8613006.html
The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said that she became a target for both her former allies and opponents who, along with her alleged abuser’s acolytes, turned against her and presumed she was lying about the allegations she made.
“Three years ago I was the victim of an assault. Former allies, political opponents, the Sweden Democrats, anti-feminists, Jew-haters, the man’s friends and mother quickly decided that there was something fishy. That I lied,” she wrote on her blog."
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/i-was-targeted-after-i-made-assange-sex-crime-claim-says-accuser-of-wikileaks-founder-8613006.html
For years, residents of Steubenville covered up rape by football players because of the reverence they had for local athletes. They sheltered rapists and shamed victims. Now some on the "left" are doing the same to the women who have lodged rape allegations against Julian Assange. Assange has fled prosecution of unlawful coercion and two counts of sexual molestation. He escaped extradition from the UK by seeking shelter in the Ecuadorian embassy. So-called leftists insist the Swedish women are part of a CIA plot, or that the rape charges amount to nothing more than his "personal life" or a private sex scandal on the order of Clinton-Lewinsky. Tell me how are they different from the community in Steubenville that protected football players? Both shelter men they admire from charges of sexual assault. If not for the video on Facebook, the Ohio rapists would never have been prosecuted. Swedish prosecutors did move against Assange, but the accused has defenders across the globe willing to shield him--physically, in the case of Ecuador, and through moral support in the blogosphere. Are the apologists for Assange any different from those who allied themselves with the Steubenville rapists? If only men people don't admire are subject to prosecution for violence against women, there can be no protection from sexual assault. Through the defenders of the Steubenville rapists and Assange, we see rape culture in action.
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