Sabine is a failed whiskey drinker, expat, enthusiastic home cook, wife and mama to two little ones. Our little family of four live in a 100-square-metre apartment in the heart of Berlin. This is us.

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Is the New York Post Edited by a Bigoted Drunk Who Fucks Pigs?

Headline of the year.

(via nedhepburn) 

This gawker article is brilliant.

Never before has an event been so public. It used to be that names of victims were withheld until family members released them. Now, family members are identifying their wounded from photos that go viral within hours after an event. And then that becomes a scoop. Reddit and 4chan have their “own investigations” on the event. People weren’t just calling their loved ones to see if they were ok, they were tweeting it, they were posting it on tumblr, they were posting messages on Facebook for everyone to see. 

And I can’t help but think that the events that are following today/tonight in Boston are a result of all this. Notoriety is being achieved easier than ever thanks to the mass proliferation of information. And its this kind of information that people consume quickly and readily. Suddenly, we all need to know what is happening, and the news organisations are just doing what they can to keep up, to keep feeding a machine that is feeding itself. 

And that’s how the New York Post happens. 

Family to be sued for costs of flight diverted after they smoked in the bathroom

Not being reported by most outlets: Allegedly, one of the passengers, when accused, replied “You assholes, I pissed on the floor!”

Gawker has that bit at least. 

CBC lays out the American gun problem by the numbers.  Consider this: In 2009, there were almost 12 times more people killed by guns in the U.S. than in Italy, Canada, Germany, France, Australia, the United Kingdom and Japan combined. That is despite the fact that the combined populations of those seven countries is nearly 50 percent higher than that of the United States (451 million vs. 309 million).  Click through for more. 

CBC lays out the American gun problem by the numbers. 

Consider this: In 2009, there were almost 12 times more people killed by guns in the U.S. than in Italy, Canada, Germany, France, Australia, the United Kingdom and Japan combined. That is despite the fact that the combined populations of those seven countries is nearly 50 percent higher than that of the United States (451 million vs. 309 million). 

Click through for more. 

"Newtown wasn’t a tragedy; Newtown was a policy decision. We can do nothing for the children who are dead; weeping for them like they’re our own is partly ridiculous, and partly obscene. What’s even more ridiculous and obscene is not preparing for the next one. What’s needed now isn’t warmhearted empathy; it’s cold-blooded reason. America needs its leaders to look at the numbers of mass murders, look at the most effective policies for reducing mass murder, and apply those policies. And if they don’t do that, the blood of the next batch of children is on their heads. Bloomberg gave a statement, too, but he didn’t cry. He didn’t talk about “our children.” Instead, he spoke about specific policies that work to curb gun violence. Bloomberg doesn’t need to cry. He’s doing his job."

—

Stephen Marche for Esquire.

(via nedhepburn)

(via nedhepburn)

Conrad Black: Newsnight interview in full

This is amazing. The gall of this man. 

Photo credit: DPA 250-kg (550 lb) bomb left over from the Second World War safely detonated in central Munich. The whole area was evacuated. Windows were blown out. Some roofs caught on fire. No injuries.  More about the bomb here (in English)  Click through for more images. 

Photo credit: DPA

250-kg (550 lb) bomb left over from the Second World War safely detonated in central Munich. The whole area was evacuated. Windows were blown out. Some roofs caught on fire. No injuries. 

More about the bomb here (in English) 

Click through for more images. 

Romney energy plan aims to expand drilling on federal land

The push is part of what Romney touted as an effort to achieve energy independence by 2020, a plan that also includes expanding offshore energy development along the coast of Virginia and North and South Carolina as well as approval of the Keystone energy pipeline linking Canada to the United States.

Last I checked, Canada was not the 51st American state, thus making the approval of the Keystone XL Pipeline not a step to American energy independence in the future. Also, few outside the industry would argue that less regulation of the oil, gas, and coal industry is a good idea. 

"But facts and reason don’t matter in modern American politics, and Romney senses the public can be made to believe Obama has insulted America’s treasured myth about the American dream and the self-made man."

— Neil Macdonald for the CBC: The fact-free campaign for the U.S. presidency

On Assange (Again)

squashed:

Julian Assange has demanded that the U.S. end its “witch hunt” against WikiLeaks. The problem is that there is a bit of an evidence problem.

  • There is evidence that the U.S. has investigated the illegal leak of classified information. This is not a witch hunt. This is what you do when classified information gets out.
  • There is evidence that the U.S. has investigated whether Assange or somebody else from WikiLeaks violated law by actively assisting in the illegal leak of this classified information. This is not a witch hunt. This is what you do when classified information gets out.
  • There is really no evidence that the U.S. government is engaged in a broad “witch hunt” against WikiLeaks.
  • There is no evidence that the U.S. has requested Assange be extradited to the U.S. to answer for anything.
  • There is evidence that Julian Assange is a vindictive megalomaniac.
  • There is evidence that Julian Assange sexually assaulted two women in Sweden.

I’ll take my transparency without a side helping of sexual assault.

What he said. Especially the last points.

Other persecuted Putin dissidents whose monikers don’t make as attention-grabbing headlines

Mikhail Khodorkovsky
Imprisoned since: February 2003

Khodorkovsky once owned Russia’s largest oil company and was considered the country’s richest man. When Putin came into power, he claimed many private enterprises were holding state properties illegally. Khodorkovsky spoke against the nationalization of the then-private enterprises. Since, many of his former partners have exiled themselves from their homeland and Khodorkovsky himself has been in various prison labour camps for the last nine years. 

Read more: 

Artyom Savyolov
Imprisoned since:  May 2012

Savylov was at a government-sanctioned rally at Moscow Bolotnaya Square on the eve of Putin’s inauguration. He was one of 400 arrested, one of 16 that remain in custody, and one of 12 that is being charged with calling for mass disorder and assaulting police officers. His parents say he suffers from a life-long stutter and there is no way he could be guilty of shouting anti-Putin propaganda. 

Police made further arrests of well-known political activists, Alexei Polikhovich and Nikolai Kavkazsky, in July 2012 on charges related to the Bolotnaya Square protests. 

Read more: 

Alexei Navalny 
Currently not imprisoned but ordered to stay in Moscow on embezzlement charges. 

Navalny is a well-known Russian lawyer, blogger, and anti-corruption activist. He first hit the international radar when he published documents on his LiveJournal account accusing the nationalized Transneft’s leaders of stealing about $4 billion while building a pipeline that ships oil from Eastern Siberia to the Asian markets. A few months later, Navalny was fined nearly $1000 for calling Putin’s United Russia party “crooks and thieves”. 

July 31, 2012, Navalny was arrested for embezzlement charges. Russian authorities say he acted as a an unofficial advisor on a loss-making deal with a state-owned Alktimber company. Navalny is currently out of jail, but the investigation against him is ongoing and he has been ordered not to leave Russia. Navalny calls the charges “strange and absurd”.   

It’s also worth noting that two weeks before Navalny’s arrest, Russia blocked all LiveJournal access, affecting some 60,000 account holders. 

Read more: 

Sergei Udaltsov
In custody since: August 17, 2012.

Udaltsov is a left-wing politician and vocal Putin critic. His attempts at registering an official political party have so far been rejected, though he is the leader of the Left Front movement. Has been arrested approximately 100 times for organising unauthorized protests and petty crimes, such as jaywalking and leaving a hospital before ending treatment. He was arrested again amidst the protests outside the courts after the Pussy Riot sentencing, along with political dissident and retired chess great, Gary Kasparov. 

Read more: 

 

VOINA
Members have been subjects to more then 20 criminal investigations, some of which are still ongoing. 

VOINA is a performance art group active since 2006 sometimes called “art terrorists” in Russia. It’s leader, Oleg Vorotnikov, was arrested in 2010 for a performance art piece that involved turning over a police officer’s car. They were charged with the same charges as Pussy Riot, but the case was dismissed when courts determined the police were not considered a “social group”. In 2011, authorities arrested him, his wife and then two-year-old son, after breaking into the apartment posing as a German television crew. They are being investigated for their involvement with the Strategy 31 protest movement. Vorotnikov and another prominent member are out on bail paid for by Banksy. 

Read more: 

This is by no means an exhaustive list.