Tag Archives: Safer:

America Still Has Hundreds of Military Bases Worldwide. Have They Made Us Any Safer?

by ModestoRoland Posted on November 14, 2014

Mother Jones

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This story first appeared on the TomDispatch website.

With the launch of a new US-led war in Iraq and Syria against the Islamic State (IS), the United States has engaged in aggressive military action in at least 13 countries in the Greater Middle East since 1980. In that time, every American president has invaded, occupied, bombed, or gone to war in at least one country in the region. The total number of invasions, occupations, bombing operations, drone assassination campaigns, and cruise missile attacks easily runs into the dozens.

As in prior military operations in the Greater Middle East, US forces fighting IS have been aided by access to and the use of an unprecedented collection of military bases. They occupy a region sitting atop the world’s largest concentration of oil and natural gas reserves and has long been considered the most geopolitically important place on the planet. Indeed, since 1980, the US military has gradually garrisoned the Greater Middle East in a fashion only rivaled by the Cold War garrisoning of Western Europe or, in terms of concentration, by the bases built to wage past wars in Korea and Vietnam.

In the Persian Gulf alone, the US has major bases in every country save Iran. There is an increasingly important, increasingly large base in Djibouti, just miles across the Red Sea from the Arabian Peninsula. There are bases in Pakistan on one end of the region and in the Balkans on the other, as well as on the strategically located Indian Ocean islands of Diego Garcia and the Seychelles. In Afghanistan and Iraq, there were once as many as 800 and 505 bases, respectively. Recently, the Obama administration inked an agreement with new Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to maintain around 10,000 troops and at least nine major bases in his country beyond the official end of combat operations later this year. US forces, which never fully departed Iraq after 2011, are now returning to a growing number of bases there in ever larger numbers.

Map: The US Military Footprint, Worldwide

In short, there is almost no way to overemphasize how thoroughly the US military now covers the region with bases and troops. This infrastructure of war has been in place for so long and is so taken for granted that Americans rarely think about it and journalists almost never report on the subject. Members of Congress spend billions of dollars on base construction and maintenance every year in the region, but ask few questions about where the money is going, why there are so many bases, and what role they really serve. By one estimate, the United States has spent $10 trillion protecting Persian Gulf oil supplies over the past four decades.

Approaching its 35th anniversary, the strategy of maintaining such a structure of garrisons, troops, planes, and ships in the Middle East has been one of the great disasters in the history of American foreign policy. The rapid disappearance of debate about our newest, possibly illegal war should remind us of just how easy this huge infrastructure of bases has made it for anyone in the Oval Office to launch a war that seems guaranteed, like its predecessors, to set off new cycles of blowback and yet more war.

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America Still Has Hundreds of Military Bases Worldwide. Have They Made Us Any Safer?

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Controversial Former College President Mansplains Alleged Rape Victim

by PARTomaskgfaeb Posted on September 10, 2014

Mother Jones

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Two weeks ago, Stephen Trachtenberg, the former president of George Washington University, made headlines when he appeared on NPR’s The Diane Rehm Show to discuss sexual assault on college campuses and said that women had “to be trained not to drink in excess” so they could defend themselves against men who “misbehave.” Critics accused him of placing the burden on victims and equating sexual assault with misbehavior, claims that Trachtenberg contended did not represent his views.

In the midst of this controversy, a woman who says she was raped when she was a George Washington student in the early 2000s and was “extremely traumatized” by how the university handled her case confronted Trachtenberg via email to share her experience and denounce his remarks. In an email response, Trachtenberg, now a professor at the school, said her story “surely entitles you to your anger” and implored her to “tell me exactly what I said that you think I need to be ashamed of.” The exchange was obtained by Mother Jones.

Following the NPR show, the woman—who asked not to be named—emailed Trachtenberg about her case and said:

…Your recent remarks on the Diane Rehm show disgust me. Shame on you. Shame on the message that you have just sent to millions of women, millions of daughters, and millions of us survivors. I hope you can take the time to reflect on your statements and understand the impact of your words.

In interviews with Mother Jones, the woman recounted what happened to her. She said she was raped on campus by a fellow student, in the middle of the day, with no alcohol or drugs involved. She didn’t immediately report the assault, but after she began to experience depression and symptoms of PTSD, she decided to take a leave of absence. According to documents she provided to Mother Jones, a counselor recorded the account of her rape and an associate dean examined her records in order to approve the leave. “No one ever talked to me about my options,” she said. “No one suggested reporting to the police or going through the student judicial process.” Maralee Csellar, a George Washington spokeswoman, said she can’t comment on the case due to privacy laws.

After the woman returned to school, she filed a case against the alleged rapist with student judicial services. But she said she was not provided a victim’s advocate or any other support, and was “blindsided” by the legal defense mounted by the alleged assailant. She had an emotional breakdown and was unable to finish the trial. After that “extremely” traumatizing experience, she said she was not interested in going to the police.

Replying to the woman, Trachtenberg wrote:

Yours is a dramatic story of a dreadful experience and it surely entitles you to your anger. I like to think that today the university would serve you better. Your frustration with what happened seems sound. That said there are limitations to what the university can do. We can regret that but it cannot be denied. I believe that cases like yours need to be dealt with by the state. They have police and prosecutors and courts that have an expertise which exceeds that of the university. Rape by a student is no less rape than that by any other citizen and all need to be treated like crimes and adjudicated as such. My remarks on the Diane Rehm show are what they are. They do not define all that I think about the matter but they stand for a portion of my view that educating women–men too–about the dangers of drinking would make them safer. Being sober make one less vulnerable. And helps with driving too. Similarly I think it empowers women to know something about self defense if attacked. So go back and think about what I said beyond the strong memories of your personal experience and tell me exactly what I said that you think I need to be ashamed of. Educated empowered women strike me as a good idea.

In an email to Mother Jones, Trachtenberg—who noted that he does not speak on behalf of the university—writes, “This is a tragic story that seems to go back about a decade. I tried to be as responsive as I could to this abused woman when she wrote but to some agendas there is no reply.” He added, “My heart goes out to her.”

More than 75 schools are being investigated by the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights to determine whether they botched sexual-assault investigations. George Washington is not one of those schools. Still, in January 2014, a victim complained to the student newspaper, the GW Hatchet, about the school’s response to her accusation of sexual assault, noting, “It was this constant battle with GW.” Csellar said that the university issued new sexual-violence policies last year and is “committed to fully supporting survivors of such acts and treating appropriately those who are found to have committed them.”

Trachtenberg insists that his original comments have been misconstrued and that he’s being unfairly maligned. “I thought I was speaking good and prudent truth on behalf of women when I was on the Diane Rehm Show,” he writes. “I said don’t blame the victims and I proposed two modest and hardly radical ideas.” He later adds, “Because my effort to candidly address part of a problem fell short of perfection and neglected to deal with all aspects of the rape culture agenda I was abused.”

“Look what happened to me, look at my case,” the woman told Mother Jones. “I’m sure this is happening to other people. With the attitude of people like this, whom we put our trust in, no wonder.”

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Controversial Former College President Mansplains Alleged Rape Victim

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When Adding Bike Lanes Actually Reduces Traffic Delays

by RositaRCOdtxyl Posted on September 6, 2014

Mother Jones

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This story originally appeared in CityLab and is republished as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.

A big reason for opposition to bike lanes is that, according to the rules of traffic engineering, they lead to car congestion. The metric determining this outcome (known as “level of service”) is quite complicated, but its underlying logic is simple: less road space for automobiles means more delay at intersections. Progressive cities have pushed back against this conventional belief—California, in particular, has led the charge against level of service—but it remains an obstacle to bike lanes (and multi-modal streets more broadly) across the country.

But the general wisdom doesn’t tell the whole story here. On the contrary, smart street design can eliminate many of the traffic problems anticipated by alternative mode elements like bike lanes. A new report on protected bike lanes released by the New York City Department of Transportation offers a great example of how rider safety can be increased even while car speed is maintained.

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When Adding Bike Lanes Actually Reduces Traffic Delays

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Here’s how Obama is preparing the country for climate change

by TinaDelong Posted on July 16, 2014

looks like rain

Here’s how Obama is preparing the country for climate change

By

White House

The good news is that President Barack Obama wants the nation to do a better job of bracing itself for the wild changes afoot in the weather. The better news it that he realizes that bolstering infrastructure and reimagining how we design our cities and electrical grids are among the best ways of doing that.

“Working together, we can take some common-sense steps to make sure that America’s infrastructure is safer, stronger and more resilient for future generations,” Obama said on Wednesday. Here are some of the steps his administration is taking:

A nearly $1 billion competition, announced last month, will provide funds to help communities recover and rebuild following disasters. Technical details of the competition were outlined on Wednesday, indicating that many of the 67 communities affected by recent disasters could receive funds to support risk assessment and planning efforts. A smaller number of those communities will be selected to receive additional money to design and implement novel ideas for minimizing future risks.
The Department of Interior will spend $10 million on a training program that will help tribes prepare for climate change.
The Department of Agriculture announced $236 million worth of funding to improve rural electric infrastructure using smart grid technology in eight states.
A 3-D mapping program will be developed to help identify and manage risks of flooding, storm surges, landslides, coastal erosion, and water supply shortfalls. The program will be funded with $13.1 million.
FEMA has established a task force to figure out ways of better protecting disaster-affected communities from future disasters.
FEMA will release guidelines that call on states to consider climate variability in planning efforts.
Houston, Colorado, NASA’s Johnson Space Flight Center, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory will work together on pilot projects geared toward preparing for climate change.
NOAA is making changes that will require greater consideration of climate change in the management of coastal areas.
At least 25 communities will receive EPA funding to help them use urban forests and rooftop gardens to better manage stormwater.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released guidelines that will help public health departments assess local health risks associated with climate change.

Kenneth Kimmell, president of the Union of Concerned Scientists, told The Washington Post that state and local officials are beginning to calculate how much it will cost to prepare for more intense and frequent storms, rising seas, and changing temperatures. “People are scared,” he said. “They’re just starting to put a price tag on how much it costs to adapt, and they’re going to need help from Washington.” At least that help is starting to come.


Source
FACT SHEET: Taking Action to Support State, Local, and Tribal Leaders as They Prepare Communities for the Impacts of Climate Change, White House
Obama takes steps to make roads, bridges more resilient to climate change impact, The Washington Post

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

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Here’s how Obama is preparing the country for climate change

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Loving Sex – Laura Berman

by Myrna Posted on July 5, 2014

READ GREEN WITH E-BOOKS

Loving Sex

The book of joy and passion

Laura Berman

Genre: Self-Improvement

Price: $2.99

Publish Date: July 18, 2011

Publisher: DK Publishing

Seller: Penguin Group (USA) Inc.


Sex in a loving relationship can be the deepest and most meaningful experience a couple can share. And yet many couples find themselves too time-starved and intimacy-shy to enjoy it to the full. Loving Sex helps couples to overcome these barriers with advice from a renowned sexual health counselor. Loving Sex offers a friendly, frank exploration of what sex means as part of a loving relationship, and how you and your partner can experience it to its full potential. Free from unrealistic media representations of perfect bodies and porn-star practices, Loving Sex shows you the positions that work, helps resolve common problems without blame or embarrassment, and explains just how important sex can be to long-term loving happiness. Each of the 11 chapters explores a different aspect of sexuality, from the anatomy and physicality of arousal and orgasm, to the psychology of lust, love, and partnership. Candid explanations of sexual practices and positions are supported by photography and illustrations, allowing couples to relish foreplay, explore new positions and techniques, and experiment with exotic practices, from dressing up to Tantra. The final chapters offer tips on safer sex, and explore the ways in which an enduring sexual relationship can be the foundation for a lifetime of loving intimacy.

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Loving Sex – Laura Berman

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Condom Companies: Twitter Is Censoring Us

by BBWWilbert Posted on June 13, 2014

Mother Jones

Most businesses that accept advertising—from magazines and television networks to news websites and Facebook—accept ads for condoms. But earlier this year, Melissa White, the CEO of Lucky Bloke Condoms, learned that there’s one major exception: Twitter.

For months, Twitter had spammed White with emails encouraging her to try sending a promoted Tweet—a paid advertisement that shows up in other users’ tweet streams. But when she finally sent one—a relatively anodyne message asking readers if they were “tired of lousy condoms”—it was quickly rejected. “Your account is ineligible to participate in the Twitter ads program at this time based on the Twitter Ads adult sexual products and services policy,” Twitter wrote to her. Baffled, White wrote a piece for RH Reality Check complaining about how her company was treated.

A Twitter spokesman says the company “allows and encourages ads from condom companies and safer sex education organizations,” noting that condom giant Durex and a number of HIV and STD awareness campaigns have advertised on the social network. But several condom companies and safe-sex advocates say that the Durex campaign was the exception, not the rule—and that in practice, Twitter bans most condom advertising and safe-sex advocacy from its promoted tweets program.

Courtesy of Melissa White

Courtesy of Melissa White

Twitter’s advertising policy, which says the company bans “the promotion of adult or sexual products and services,” including “contraceptives,” only confuses the issue. The multi-page policy goes on to clarify that Twitter allows condom ads, but only if they are targeted at Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, the United Kingdom, or the US—and then only if they “comply with all local laws,” and “do not contain or link to any sexual content.” (That can be a challenge, given that condoms are used for sex.) White says she “was aware” of the geographical restrictions in Twitter’s condom ad policies and “was very careful to select only countries approved in that section.” She only targeted users who were over 18 and followers of “sex and relationship personalities,” such as Dan Savage and Emily Morse. But she was blocked from the program anyway—and Twitter won’t explain why, either to White or to Mother Jones.

White isn’t the only person complaining that Twitter’s rules about sexual content in ads are too strict. Last October, Jenelle Marie, founder of The STD Project, a site that offers resources for people suffering from sexually transmitted diseases, tried to use the promoted tweets program to send out a link to her site. Her first promoted tweet, which Marie recalls saying “STD? It’s Ok! We can help,” was deleted. Marie says she was “surprised” and “disconcerted” that Twitter wasn’t allowing her to promote safe sex. Third party ads on her site—which occasionally include condom ads—might have been to blame, she says. Twitter rejects sexual content if it’s in either the tweet itself or on the landing page of the link.

Several other small companies have similar complaints. Momdoms, a company that sells vintage tins with sex jokes for a “less awkward birds and bees talk,” was booted from the promoted tweets program after tweeting out a YouTube video advertising its products. Bedsider, a “birth control support network” that provides information and support on birth control topics and options, still tweets, but has twice been temporarily banned.

White’s negative experience is preventing other companies from trying the ad program in the first place. Jason Panda, the head of b condoms, a condom manufacturer that aims to promote healthy lifestyles among minority populations, says he “heard about what’s happened with Lucky Bloke” and decided investing in promoted tweets wasn’t worth the hassle. “We were interested in shifting our advertising to begin promoting tweets and advertising on Twitter because it’s a powerful way to connect with the underserved communities that we target,” Panda wrote in an email. “However, it’s hard to promote safe sex when awesome tools like Twitter block companies like ours from reaching the communities that need the information the most.”

Condoms, which the US Food and Drug Administration classifies as medical devices, may be considered scandalous on Twitter, but they’re widely available in stores. There is no federal age restriction on the purchase of condoms in the United States; anyone, even a child, can legally walk into a pharmacy and purchase a condom.

White sees this moment as an opportunity for Twitter. “Twitter’s current policies are out-dated, irresponsible and even dangerous,” she says. “For Twitter, this presents a chance to demonstrate an enlightened, mature, up-to-date understanding of user safety and extend their global reach to their users on matters of sexual health—by providing info with true life-saving potential.”

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Condom Companies: Twitter Is Censoring Us

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Missing the Point With Statistics

by Rudolph8843 Posted on June 12, 2014

Mother Jones

I just caught a few minutes of the Brazil-Croatia World Cup opener (“patient possession football” said the announcer, which apparently means kinda slow and humdrum), and before I knew it, it was halftime. So I switched over to CNN to see if anything was going on, and caught a pretty good example of how to miss the point with statistics. The chart at issue is on the right. According to James Alan Fox of Northeastern University, mass shootings aren’t on the rise, even though it might seem that they are. But there’s something missing from this analysis, and regular readers who know my hobbyhorses should be able to guess what it is.

Is it the fact that the yellow line does, in fact, seem to be rising steadily? No. An eyeball analysis suggests that it is, but it’s not a big rise, and anyway, it’s probably accounted for by population growth.

Nope, it’s this: Since 1993, the rate of violent crime in America has plummeted by half. That’s the background to measure this against. In general, America has become a much safer, much less lethal place, and yet mass shootings have remained steady. Compared to the background rate of violent crime, mass shootings have doubled. Why?

And here’s an equally interesting question: between 1976 and 1993, violent crime increased by a significant amount, but mass shootings remained steady. Again, why?

Raw numbers are a starting point, but they don’t tell the whole story. If Americans, on average, are considerably less violent than they were 20 years ago, shouldn’t mass shootings be down? The answer presumably, is that mass shootings are actually up when you measure them correctly, or else that mass shootings have nothing to do with violent tendencies in general. My guess is the latter, and it would be genuinely interesting to hear from experts about why this is.

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Missing the Point With Statistics

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GOP Governors Paying Big Bucks to Contoversial Marriage Therapist to Defend New Abortion Laws

by MaryannPHIE Posted on June 12, 2014

Mother Jones

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Over the past two years, at least four Republican-controlled states have paid nearly $200,000 in taxpayers funds to Vincent Rue—a marriage therapist whose testimony has been repeatedly disregarded by judges—to help defend ultra-strict abortion laws in court.

Rue, who holds a doctorate in family relations from the University of North Carolina School of Home Economics, has claimed that “abortion reescalates the battle between the sexes” and “abortion increases bitterness toward men.” For decades, he has strived to convince mainstream researchers to recognize “post-abortion syndrome,” a supposed mental illness resulting from abortion.

But “after submission for peer review by scientists with the Center for Disease Control, the National Center for Health Statistics and other scientific institutions, Rue’s study was found to have ‘no value’ and to be ‘based upon a priori beliefs rather than an objective review of the evidence,'” according to Daniel Huyett, a federal judge who disregarded Rue’s testimony in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, a landmark 1990 abortion case that eventually ended up before the Supreme Court. “His testimony is devoid of…analytical force and scientific rigor,” Huyett added. “Moreover, his admitted personal opposition to abortion, even in cases of rape and incest, suggests a possible personal bias.” Rue “possesses neither the academic qualifications nor the professional experience of plaintiffs’ expert witnesses,” another federal judge wrote in 1986 after hearing Rue’s testimony in another landmark abortion case, Hodgson v. Minnesota.

Rue “has been really thoroughly discredited by trial courts,” says Priscilla Smith, who faced Rue many years ago as a litigator and now directs the Yale Law School’s reproductive justice studies program. (Rue said he couldn’t comment for this story without the permission of the state attorneys general who’ve hired him.)

But Rue’s history hasn’t prevented Republican administrations in Alabama, North Dakota, Texas, and Wisconsin from giving him lucrative work as a legal consultant. These days, though, he rarely testifies himself. Instead, he works behind the scenes to handpick expert witnesses, write reports, and guide states’ legal strategies for defending abortion restrictions. From 2012 to 2014, North Dakota paid Rue $19,936 to help defend its six-week abortion ban—which legal scholars criticized as patently unconstitutional. (A federal court struck down the ban in April; the state is appealing.) In the same time period, Alabama paid Rue $79,087.50 to defend a law that requires abortion providers to obtain admitting privileges with a local hospital. (The law threatens to shut down three of Alabama’s five abortion clinics; the case, brought by Planned Parenthood, is ongoing.) In 2014, Texas paid Rue $36,392 in “other witness fees” for work on an unspecified lawsuit.

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GOP Governors Paying Big Bucks to Contoversial Marriage Therapist to Defend New Abortion Laws

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SunnyD’s New Teen Energy Drink Has More Calories Than Coke

by u60uurf Posted on June 11, 2014

Mother Jones

From the people who brought you the “fruit-flavored beverage” SunnyD comes a brand new product: SunnyD X, a caffeine- and taurine-free energy drink just for teens. For now, it’s available only in convenience stores in Boston, Philadelphia, and Washington D.C. But Sunny Delight Beverages Co. said in a press release that it has big plans to market it at “venues and locations of interest to teens, such as concerts, sporting events, skate parks and beaches.”

David Zellen, the company’s associate marketing director, touted the beverage as “carbonated energy that is uniquely provided by a combination of three carbohydrates, as well as seven B-vitamins to help metabolize the carbohydrates into energy.” He added, “Simply put, SunnyD X offers the energy teens crave without the ingredients moms tell us concern them, such as caffeine and taurine. It’s a win-win.”

Here’s what he didn’t mention: SunnyD X’s mega-dose of sugar, a whopping 50 grams per 16-oz. serving. That adds up to a lot of calories: SunnyD X has 200 calories per 16-oz. serving, while an equal amount of Coca-Cola Classic has 187 calories and 52 grams of sugar.

I asked company spokeswoman Sydney McHugh whether the company was at all concerned about the teen drink, which contains just 5 percent juice, contributing to childhood obesity. “I can tell you that we chose to use sugar as a safer source of energy,” she wrote to me in an email. Then, she pointed me toward a press release in which Ellen Iobst, the company’s chief sustainability officer, bragged that the company had reduced its average calories per serving from 92 to 48 since 2007. “Socially, we need to be taking care of the communities where we do business and our employees,” she said. “This is a way to help alleviate the obesity epidemic.” Mind you, the calorie count in SunnyD X is more than quadruple that average.

Here’s the nutritional information for SunnyD X’s orange flavor. Check out the tongue-twisting list of ingredients, too.

Image from Sunny Delight Beverage Co.

HT Consumerist.

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SunnyD’s New Teen Energy Drink Has More Calories Than Coke

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These 7 GOP Governors Are Refusing to Crack Down on Prison Rape. Now the Obama Administration Is Calling Them Out

by THEZulmakdhb Posted on May 28, 2014

Mother Jones

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Seven states, all led by Republican governors, are defying a federal law aimed at cracking down on the nationwide epidemic of prison rape—and on Wednesday, the Obama administration started calling them out.

The law in question, the Prison Rape Elimination Act, was passed by a Republican Congress and signed by President George W. Bush in 2003. In 2012, after years of study by a bipartisan federal commission, President Barack Obama’s Justice Department finalized the law’s requirements, and gave states about two years to start trying to comply. Forty-three states did. But today, nearly two weeks after the May 15 deadline, Arizona, Idaho, Indiana, Nebraska, Texas, Utah, and Florida are still not complying with the law—and several GOP governors say they’re ignoring the law on purpose.

So far, at least five Republican governors have notified the Justice Department that they aren’t going to try to meet the new prison-rape reduction rules. The mandatory standards, “work only to bind the states, and hinder the evolution of even better and safer practices,” Indiana Governor Mike Pence wrote to Attorney General Eric Holder on May 15. Idaho Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otterâ&#128;&#139; missed the deadline, then wrote a letter to the administration complaining the law had “too much red tape.” And in a letter dated March 28, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a possible contender for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, called the law “counterproductive” and “unnecessarily cumbersome.” The prison rape rules “appear to have been created in a vacuum with little regard for input from those who daily operate state prisons and local jails,â&#128;&#139;” Perry wrote.

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These 7 GOP Governors Are Refusing to Crack Down on Prison Rape. Now the Obama Administration Is Calling Them Out

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