Evil Triumphs

Reuters is reporting that the entire trial against Guatemalan dictator Rios Montt has collapsed. A verdict that was hailed as a triumph for human rights has effectively been vacated. People familiar with "justice" in Guatemala are unsurprised.

Geoff Thale, program director at the Washington Office on Latin America, a human rights group, said legal technicalities should not be allowed to derail due process in Guatemala.

"Endless appeals, shopping for friendly justices, and seeking to delay verdicts and sentencing are classic techniques of those seeking to avoid justice in Guatemala," he said in a statement after the Constitutional Court's decision.

It is not surprising that US media has been reluctant to cover this human rights trial. The fact is that after the CIA deposed democratically-elected president Arbenz, one dictator after another waged a genocidal war against Mayan civilians under the guise of "anti-Communism." These efforts were carried out on the US taxpayer's dime by an officer corps trained in the US.

Given that administrations of both parties were complicit partners in a genocidal war against people of Mayan ancestry, neither party has shown much interest in exposing the history behind the civil rights trial in Guatemala.

Did Cleveland Police Dismiss Domestic Disturbance Complaints?

ORIGINALLY POSTED 8 May 2013:

Police response to domestic violence complaints are a subject that has to be raised in the wake of the rescue of the Cleveland kidnap victims.

The BBC is reporting that several neighbors say that they had complained to the police about domestic disturbances, but that the Cleveland police department failed to take the complaints seriously:

Elsie Cintron told the BBC her granddaughter had seen a naked woman crawling in the backyard last year and called police, but they did not take it seriously.

Another resident, Israel Lugo, said that in November 2011 he heard pounding on doors of the house and his sister saw a girl at the house holding a baby and crying for help.

He said he had called police and officers knocked several times on the front door, but left when no-one answered.

The reports were disputed by Police Chief McGrath.

This would not be the first time that a police department failed to take domestic disturbance complaints seriously. Domestic violence is often seen as a private matter, and police are leery of the high risk of injury that can come from walking into an emotionally charged situation. Half-hearted attempts to "contact" residents, like what is reported by Lugo, are all too common.

It is still early days in this investigation, and more facts will emerge. So far, the stories that are emerging are not painting a complimentary story about the level of importance that the Cleveland police place on curbing domestic violence.

UPDATE, 12 May 2013:
The Washington Post reported on the previous allegations along with another time that Cleveland police were alerted about a problem at the Castro house:

...Israel Lugo says, a group of elderly women who were exercising in the area called police. According to Lugo, the women and his sister had all seen a naked woman on all fours with a dog collar around her neck in Castro’s back yard. Cleveland police say they have no record of the calls.

NCoV Confirmed Capable of Human to Human Transmission

The most recent coronavirus to emerge has been confirmed to be capable of human-to-human transmission. The virus is known as NCoV, or Novel Coronavirus.

This virus is related to the SARS virus, but is distinct from it.

Out of 33 confirmed cases so far since 2012, 18 have resulted in fatalities.

Conservative Reality Warp: Impeach Obama for "Wrecking" Record-Setting Stock Market

Conservatives are suggesting an impeachment proceeding against Obama on the basis of his having wrecked the stock market. Reality appears not to have any impact on their proposal, which was unveiled on the day that the stock market hit new record levels. During the Obama administration, the stock market has risen by 90%. Perhaps there is some new definition of the word "wreck" that I am not familiar with?

3-d Printer Gun Hysteria

Quite a few people have been flipping out over the 3-d printing pattern that is available to print out a gun.

I'm not sure that I see the reason for all the excitement. Basically, this is a new manufacturing method for producing a makeshift firearm from otherwise easily available materials. This isn't even a particularly good gun, since it appears to only be usable for a single shot.

Simple, easily manufacturable guns have been around for quite some time. One of the more interesting historical examples is the Sten gun manufactured in small, improvised machine shops during the Battle of Britain after the British army lost a significant portion of its armory during the Dunkirk evacuation.

This is not the revolution in gun availability that is being proclaimed by gun nuts nor is it the catastrophe that is feared by gun control advocates. It is just another improvised firearm, like those that have been available for a very long time.

Domestic Terrorist Arrested in MN

A person characterized as a "domestic terrorist" was arrested in Minnesota with a large cache of arms and explosives that were evidently targeted at fellow Americans who disagreed with him.

While little information is available, news reports have pointed out that he had displayed an upside-down flag earlier this year, which was associated with right-wing protests against Obama's re-election. I guess this is what the 44% had in mind.

Finger Pointed to Heaven = Excessive Celebration?

A Texas high school relay team was denied the chance to participate in the state track meet when a team member pointed to heaven after anchoring his team to an impressive victory. In what has to be considered a bizarre interpretation of the excessive celebration rule, officials ruled that pointing a single finger to heaven was a "hand gesture" worthy of barring the team from the state championships.

While I can think of some hand gestures (eg flipping off the other teams) that could be considered as poor sportsmanship, I don't see how you can go so far as to interpret something like pointing to heaven (or even crossing oneself) as excessive celebration.

I also don't see a "separation of church and state" issue here, as long as the school is not requiring or encouraging kids to engage in a particular ritual.

These are kids, for crying out loud. If they did something remarkable, like getting a new personal best, they should be allowed to celebrate within the bounds of good sportsmanship. As long as they aren't taunting the other teams or engaging in a prolonged celebration that is keeping them from shaking the other teams' hands in a timely way, I just don't see what the big deal is.

Kansas Takes Science out of Science Class

The new Kansas state science guidelines have significantly watered down portions of the science curriculum in response to public comment.

If we were talking about comments by people who actually know what they are talking about (eg, scientists), I would have less of a problem. Instead, a lot of the comments appear to be coming from ignorant people who believe stupid things.

Mario Molina, deputy director at the Alliance for Climate Education, told The Guardian that 35 percent of the sections devoted to climate change were cut in response to public comments.

Heaven forbid that we teach kids in science class that the way to examine the world is through the scientific method. We could just let the wacky wing of the conservative movement get their way by telling kids to get their science from Fox News and Rush Limbaugh.

The Absurdity of Zero Tolerance

Officials here in Florida have decided once again to demonstrate just how absurd it can be to enforce a principle where it really doesn't apply.

Kiera Wilmot, a student in good standing, decided to mix some "chemicals" in a soda bottle, which resulted in an explosion. No word on exactly what got mixed, but I have to imagine it is something pretty easily available to a student. There are a lot of choices here, from Mentos and soda to vinegar and baking soda. (Googling "How to make a soda bottle bomb" this morning got me 2,060,000 hits.)

Please, please, do not try this at home! As Kiera discovered, the resulting explosion is quite a bit stronger than you think it is going to be. People get injured fiddling with these.

This was stupid and dangerous, and deserved a response. I'm thinking a suspension, calls to the parents, maybe a misdemeanor rap with some community service in an extreme case with a repeat offender. But Florida firmly believes that nothing succeeds like excess.

Polk County officials have expelled the girl and charged her with a felony firearms charge. They're going to ruin this girl's life for a stupid teenager trick inspired by approximately 2 million online videos (by actual count).

Kelly Welch, a criminal justice professor from Villanova University, describes this action as:

just another example of schools handling normal acts of juvenile misbehavior with extraordinarily harsh measures that more closely resemble the exclusion inherent to criminal justice rather than restorative discipline in school.

A change.org petition calling for charges to be dropped has already received 29,000 signatures.

There are unfortunately a lot of stories about children being caught between inflexible school officials and police departments and the reality of childhood. You may remember that a Pennsylvania kindergartner was threatened with a terrorist threats charge for telling a classmate that she was going to shoot her with her Hello Kitty bubble gun. (I don't think there is any truth to rumors that al Qaeda is stocking up on pink plastic bubble guns.)

I'd have to say that the real terrorists here are school officials who appear to forgotten that they are dealing with children.

Barry West is a Bigoted Pinhead

Coffee County Commissioner Barry West from Tennessee is the latest bigoted pinhead to display his ignorance and prejudice to the world. Perhaps he had an urge to demonstrate that Democrats could be bigoted pinheads just as well as Republicans can.

In his latest exploit, Barry posted a picture of a man aiming a shotgun with the words "How to Wink at a Muslim." When this went viral, he was so kind as to take it down, but he didn't understand what the problem was:

I’m prejudiced against anyone who’s trying to tear down this country, Muslims, Mexicans, anybody.

As it happens, Mr West, I am prejudiced against bigoted pinheads. No offense intended, of course.

44% of Republicans Believe Armed Revolution Needed

A PublicMind Survey recently found that 44% of Republicans think that an armed revolution might be necessary in the near future.

Evidently, they are so distressed that people disagree with them that almost half of Republicans feel that the only solution is to shoot everyone else.

I've posted before on the counter-intuitive and ridiculous things that people believe. It isn't entirely clear to me why such a congregation of these people is occurring in the GOP, which I remember from my childhood as a party that valued common sense and fact-based analysis.

A recent Scientific American article discussed conspiracy theories and how people could believe in them. One of the more interesting phenomena discussed in the article is how people could believe in two contradictory conspiracy theories at the same time, for example believing both that Bin Laden was dead before the "Zero Dark Thirty" raid, and also believing that the raid had failed and Bin Laden had escaped. The authors suggested that the key factor was the level of distrust that the conspiracists had for traditional authority figures.

This distrust has certainly been well-earned by politicians of all stripes, but I would think that would lead people to look at actual facts from multiple sources and to think critically about them. Unfortunately, that does not seem to be the case.