purplesofa
JoinedPosts by purplesofa
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purplesofa
@wobble.... sorry I didn't get the link posted. Pics of burnt out buildings (homes and businesses) this am are very sad. Reading about lots of volunteer help with cleanup crews, although some places are still not safe to enter. Hoping for a quiet night. I did see a facebook campaign to attack Mosques, here is hoping these people have been reported and cannot follow through. Saw a very sad video of an injured boy, bleeding profusely being mugged. Very sad images.
Panic on the streets of London
http://pennyred.blogspot.com/2011/08/panic-on-streets-of-london.html
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purplesofa
Probably the more accurate reason for riots in London.
Panic on the streets of London.
I’m huddled in the front room with some shell-shocked friends, watching my city burn. The BBC is interchanging footage of blazing cars and running street battles in Hackney, of police horses lining up in Lewisham, of roiling infernos that were once shops and houses in Croydon and in Peckham. Last night, Enfield, Walthamstow, Brixton and Wood Green were looted; there have been hundreds of arrests and dozens of serious injuries, and it will be a miracle if nobody dies tonight. This is the third consecutive night of rioting in London, and the disorder has now spread to Leeds, Liverpool, Bristol and Birmingham. Politicians and police officers who only hours ago were making stony-faced statements about criminality are now simply begging the young people of Britain’s inner cities to go home. Britain is a tinderbox, and on Friday, somebody lit a match. How the hell did this happen? And what are we going to do now?
In the scramble to comprehend the riots, every single commentator has opened with a ritual condemnation of the violence, as if it were in any doubt that arson, muggings and lootings are ugly occurrences. That much should be obvious to anyone who is watching Croydon burn down on the BBC right now. David Lammy, MP for Tottenham, called the disorder 'mindless, mindless'. Nick Clegg denounced it as 'needless, opportunistic theft and violence'. Speaking from his Tuscan holiday villa, Prime Minister David Cameron – who has finally decided to return home to take charge - declared simply that the social unrest searing through the poorest boroughs in the country was "utterly unacceptable." The violence on the streets is being dismissed as ‘pure criminality,’ as the work of a ‘violent minority’, as ‘opportunism.’ This is madly insufficient. It is no way to talk about viral civil unrest. Angry young people with nothing to do and little to lose are turning on their own communities, and they cannot be stopped, and they know it. Tonight, in one of the greatest cities in the world, society is ripping itself apart.
Violence is rarely mindless. The politics of a burning building, a smashed-in shop or a young man shot by police may be obscured even to those who lit the rags or fired the gun, but the politics are there. Unquestionably there is far, far more to these riots than the death of Mark Duggan, whose shooting sparked off the unrest on Saturday, when two police cars were set alight after a five-hour vigil at Tottenham police station. A peaceful protest over the death of a man at police hands, in a community where locals have been given every reason to mistrust the forces of law and order, is one sort of political statement. Raiding shops for technology and trainers that cost ten times as much as the benefits you’re no longer entitled to is another. A co-ordinated, viral wave of civil unrest across the poorest boroughs of Britain, with young people coming from across the capital and the country to battle the police, is another.Months of conjecture will follow these riots. Already, the internet is teeming with racist vitriol and wild speculation. The truth is that very few people know why this is happening. They don’t know, because they were not watching these communities. Nobody has been watching Tottenham since the television cameras drifted away after the Broadwater Farm riots of 1985. Most of the people who will be writing, speaking and pontificating about the disorder this weekend have absolutely no idea what it is like to grow up in a community where there are no jobs, no space to live or move, and the police are on the streets stopping-and-searching you as you come home from school. The people who do will be waking up this week in the sure and certain knowledge that after decades of being ignored and marginalised and harassed by the police, after months of seeing any conceivable hope of a better future confiscated, they are finally on the news. In one NBC report, a young man in Tottenham was asked if rioting really achieved anything:
"Yes," said the young man. "You wouldn't be talking to me now if we didn't riot, would you?"
"Two months ago we marched to Scotland Yard, more than 2,000 of us, all blacks, and it was peaceful and calm and you know what? Not a word in the press. Last night a bit of rioting and looting and look around you."
Eavesdropping from among the onlookers, I looked around. A dozen TV crews and newspaper reporters interviewing the young men everywhere ‘’’
There are communities all over the country that nobody paid attention to unless there had recently been a riot or a murdered child. Well, they’re paying attention now.
Tonight in London, social order and the rule of law have broken down entirely. The city has been brought to a standstill; it is not safe to go out onto the streets, and where I am in Holloway, the violence is coming closer. As I write, the looting and arson attacks have spread to at least fifty different areas across the UK, including dozens in London, and communities are now turning on each other, with the Guardian reporting on rival gangs forming battle lines. It has become clear to the disenfranchised young people of Britain, who feel that they have no stake in society and nothing to lose, that they can do what they like tonight, and the police are utterly unable to stop them. That is what riots are all about.
Riots are about power, and they are about catharsis. They are not about poor parenting, or youth services being cut, or any of the other snap explanations that media pundits have been trotting out: structural inequalities, as a friend of mine remarked today, are not solved by a few pool tables. People riot because it makes them feel powerful, even if only for a night. People riot because they have spent their whole lives being told that they are good for nothing, and they realise that together they can do anything – literally, anything at all. People to whom respect has never been shown riot because they feel they have little reason to show respect themselves, and it spreads like fire on a warm summer night. And now people have lost their homes, and the country is tearing itself apart.
Noone expected this. The so-called leaders who have taken three solid days to return from their foreign holidays to a country in flames did not anticipate this. The people running Britain had absolutely no clue how desperate things had become. They thought that after thirty years of soaring inequality, in the middle of a recession, they could take away the last little things that gave people hope, the benefits, the jobs, the possibility of higher education, the support structures, and nothing would happen. They were wrong. And now my city is burning, and it will continue to burn until we stop the blanket condemnations and blind conjecture and try to understand just what has brought viral civil unrest to Britain. Let me give you a hint: it ain’t Twitter.
I’m stuck in the house, now, with rioting going on just down the road in Chalk Farm. Ealing and Clapham and Dalston are being trashed. Journalists are being mugged and beaten in the streets, and the riot cops are in retreat where they have appeared at all. Police stations are being set alight all over the country. This morning, as the smoke begins to clear, those of us who can sleep will wake up to a country in chaos. We will wake up to fear, and to racism, and to condemnation on left and right, none of which will stop this happening again, as the prospect of a second stock market clash teeters terrifyingly at the bottom of the news reports. Now is the time when we make our choices. Now is the time when we decide whether to descend into hate, or to put prejudice aside and work together. Now is the time when we decide what sort of country it is that we want to live in. Follow the #riotcleanup hashtag on Twitter. And take care of one another.
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purplesofa
Attack' on teenage girl blamed for start of Tottenham riot
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Phillip Garrido's Release Spurs California DA to Seek Parole Changes
by purplesofa injust got my copy of jaycee dugards book today: a stolen life .
phillip garrido's release spurs california da to seek parole changes.
http://abcnews.go.com/us/phillip-garridos-release-spurs-california-da-seek-parole/story?id=14213297.
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purplesofa
Just got my copy of Jaycee Dugards book today: a stolen life
Phillip Garrido's Release Spurs California DA to Seek Parole Changes
http://abcnews.go.com/US/phillip-garridos-release-spurs-california-da-seek-parole/story?id=14213297
But he says a big issue in the Phillip Garrido case was an "overreliance upon psychiatric professionals who were all too willing to listen to what Phillip Garrido was telling them and ignore the documented evidence that overwhelmingly established that he is a sexual predator."
Something very bad has happened to the law in the state of California regarding parole, the DA says.
Since 2008, when the State Parole Board is deciding whether to release an offender, they don't look at the initial crime the offender committed. Instead they look at how he or she has been coping in jail and the predictions provided by psychologists and psychiatrists about the offender's danger to the community.
Pierson wants the parole board to look at the seriousness of the initial offense when trying to determine whether to release someone on parole.
He has released a report today with findings concerning the facts and circumstances of the Jaycee Dugard case. Garrido was convicted of kidnapping and raping Dugard, holding her for 18 years. Despite his string of violent crimes Garrido is still considered by the state to be a "moderate to low risk for reoffending."
He is working with Sen. Ted Gaines, R-Roseville, to change the existing law.
They are working together on a new bill to introduce to the legislature next week in which they would permit the parole board to look at the seriousness of the committing offense in parole decisions.
Pierson and Gaines also want to strengthen California's public safety protection in light of the circumstances surrounding Jaycee Lee Dugard's kidnapping and captivity.
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Please help
by rebel8 inhttp://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/child-abuse/213724/1/victoria-australia-steven-unthanks-press-release-jws-hierarchy-formally-charged-today-with-child-abuse.
call to action.
bad publicity is a proven effective method to decrease recruitment and encourage current members to think/leave.
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purplesofa
About halfway down this internet paper Religion Everyday Sunday, Jul. 31, 2011,
the story was picked up by a tweet of mine from jwnews.net, which I got from JWN.
I also sent the article to NYTimes. (btw) JWorg and JWMedia are on twitter.
Religion Everyday Sunday, Jul. 31, 2011
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Recognizing the Deadly Influence of Authority
by purplesofa inthe verdict shows that the jury understood that sometimes people are actually not responsible for their own decisions when they are under the powerful psychological influence of authority figures.. kent greenfield: the sweat lodge guru guilty verdict: recognizing the deadly influence of authority.
http://eyelidsflorida.com/2011/06/24/kent-greenfield-the-sweat-lodge-guru-guilty-verdict-recognizing-the-deadly-influence-of-authority/.
two years ago, three people died in a sweat lodge near sedona, arizona, during a so-called spiritual warrior retreat led by self-help guru james arthur ray.
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purplesofa
very good point Judge Dread. I guess for myself that did not impress me, but for many that would. That Oprah and Larry King interviewed and was thought of as big player in self-help.
purps
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Recognizing the Deadly Influence of Authority
by purplesofa inthe verdict shows that the jury understood that sometimes people are actually not responsible for their own decisions when they are under the powerful psychological influence of authority figures.. kent greenfield: the sweat lodge guru guilty verdict: recognizing the deadly influence of authority.
http://eyelidsflorida.com/2011/06/24/kent-greenfield-the-sweat-lodge-guru-guilty-verdict-recognizing-the-deadly-influence-of-authority/.
two years ago, three people died in a sweat lodge near sedona, arizona, during a so-called spiritual warrior retreat led by self-help guru james arthur ray.
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purplesofa
The verdict shows that the jury understood that sometimes people are actually not responsible for their own decisions when they are under the powerful psychological influence of authority figures.
Kent Greenfield: The “Sweat Lodge Guru” Guilty Verdict: Recognizing the Deadly Influence of Authority
Two years ago, three people died in a sweat lodge near Sedona, Arizona, during a so-called “Spiritual Warrior” retreat led by self-help guru James Arthur Ray. Earlier this week, Ray was pronounced guilty of negligent homicide by an Arizona jury. The verdict is the correct one. Despite the nation’s ballyhooed emphasis on so-called “personal responsibility,” the verdict shows that the jury understood that sometimes people are actually not responsible for their own decisions when they are under the powerful psychological influence of authority figures.
Some background. In his early 50s, tan, and ruggedly handsome, Ray had appeared on Oprah and Larry King and penned a best seller. He was a big player in the self-help world — participants paid almost $10,000 to spend five days with him during the Spiritual Warrior retreat.
Toward the end of the retreat, the “warriors” were to stay alone in the desert without water or food for thirty-six hours, followed by a return to camp for a two-hour “purge” in a sweat lodge, vaguely modeled after structures used in some Native American religious ceremonies. There was barely space for the fifty participants to squeeze in around a fire pit, kept hot by fresh coals brought in by Ray’s assistants. Ray sat outside the tent flap, keeping it sealed.
About halfway through the ceremony, some of the participants started to become ill. Ray urged them to press on. As the heat grew more oppressive, one man tried to lift up one of the walls of the lodge to allow fresh air to circulate, but Ray chastised him. When some people vomited, Ray explained that vomiting was good for them. Ray hovered by the door, intimidating people if they tried to leave. A few people struggled out, but most stayed. “Play full on,” Ray insisted. “You are not going to die. You might think you are, but you’re not going to die.”
At the end of the ordeal, several of the participants were indeed near death. Two died that evening; another fell into a coma and died a few days later. In all, almost half of the participants ended up in the hospital suffering from injuries as severe as scorched lungs and organ failure.
What happened? Why did people stay in the lodge, risking their lives? Any of them could have left at any time, but did not. Ray did not exert physical force.
The answer can be found in the famous Milgram studies of 50 years ago. You may recall that in Stanley Milgram’s experiments, people willingly followed the orders of an authority figure to administer electric shocks to people who were doing poorly on a memory test. Over 80 percent of Milgram’s subjects willingly administered multiple shocks even after the recipient cried out in pain and demanded to be released. More than 60 percent administered shocks they believed to be lethal.
Milgram’s experiments have long been cited to show how humans can be manipulated by authority figures to the detriment of others. What Ray’s sweat lodge case shows is that humans can be manipulated by authority figures to their own detriment. In both cases, the psychological power of authority was immense.
The people in the sweat lodge desired Ray’s approval more than they feared death. The police report explains: “Participants thought highly of James Ray and didn’t want to let him down by leaving the sweat lodge.”
The horrible irony of the sweat lodge deaths is they occurred at a self-help event ostensibly designed to help participants take control of their lives. Instead, they were physically and emotionally weakened and then intimidated by an authority figure whose validation they cherished.
The “warriors” may have seen the sweat lodge purge as a test of courage. In hindsight, we understand that the purge was seen that way only because Ray had identified it as such. Staying in the lodge was in fact dangerous and harmful, with no real benefit. It was courageous only in the way that forcing yourself to break your own finger with a hammer is courageous. The genuine act of courage was to question Ray’s methods, ask about the risks, demand care for those in distress, and leave the lodge. But that demanded wherewithal to challenge the authority figure. It is a measure of the difficulty of such a challenge that most people in the lodge were more willing to risk death than push their way through the tent flap.
And it is a measure of the jury’s understanding of human nature that they held Ray responsible, rather than the victims themselves.
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Diane Sawyer interviews Jaycee Dugard 7/10/11, ABC 2-hr. Special, 9PM EST: Jaycee was kidnapped by Garridos, supposedly one-time JWs
by AndersonsInfo inpreview: http://abcnews.go.com/us/jaycee_dugard .
diane interviews jaycee.
chris como tracks the police investigation.. authorites called at garrido home 60 times and didn't find jaycee in back yard..
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Diane Sawyer interviews Jaycee Dugard 7/10/11, ABC 2-hr. Special, 9PM EST: Jaycee was kidnapped by Garridos, supposedly one-time JWs
by AndersonsInfo inpreview: http://abcnews.go.com/us/jaycee_dugard .
diane interviews jaycee.
chris como tracks the police investigation.. authorites called at garrido home 60 times and didn't find jaycee in back yard..
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purplesofa
There are so many issues with Jaycees story, its unbelievable, I am in awe at her inner peace. I have sparked the interest of an old JW friend asking about the JW connection. I have always been highly concerned about Nancy preaching in prison and any woman going to a prison to preach. I understand initially she was with her Uncle, but I want to know more. How did this go on, how was it supervised. Did the congregation know? What was there part? Hi Watson and Berengia ;) Will try to pop in more, thanks.