Harsh words, but that’s the way it seems to pan out.
Hazing, under Army Regulation 600-20 (4-20):
“is defined as any conduct whereby one military member or employee, regardless of Service or rank, unnecessarily causes another military member or employee, regardless of Service or rank, to suffer or be exposed to an activity that is cruel, abusive, oppressive, or harmful.“
And that’s what the Major General, former commander of the Combined Arms Support Command at Fort Lee, VA, did when he created the Commander’s Spiritual Fitness Concerts and pressured his commanding officers and non commissioned officers to mandate that soldiers either attend or be punished. “Soliciting or coercing another to participate in any such activity is also considered hazing.”
The Spiritual Fitness Concerts have been going on now for the past two years and in May of this year, a concert was performed by BarlowGirl, an evangelical Christian rock band that describe themselves as “tender-hearted, beautiful young women who aren’t afraid to take an aggressive, almost warrior-like stance when it comes to spreading the gospel and serving God.”
This concert was all but mandatory. Soldiers of a training class in logistics, regardless of their religious beliefs (or lack thereof), were force-marched to the concert, where they were finally given an option to attend or return to the barracks. Those that declined attendance were force-marched back to the barracks and ordered to GI the building. No PX, library, barber shop privileges. They were restricted from electronics (cellphones, laptops, games).
Now, if this were during duty hours, it would be one thing. But this is after evening chow. These student-soldiers should have been able to conduct business as usual instead of being punished for not wanting to be proselytized to. And this wasn’t just a handful of soldiers who declined to attend, nor was it just a couple atheists and Muslims. There were about 80 soldiers (half, according to the account at Talk to Action) who chose not to attend and more among the group that attended who did so out of pressure. Those that abstained their attendance and were punished with a GI party (detailed cleaning of a building -busy work often mandated for screw-ups) included Muslims, atheists, agnostics and Christians. Yes, Christians:
“At that evening, nine of us chose to pursue an EO complaint. I was surprised to find out that a couple of the most offended soldiers were actually Christian themselves (Catholic). One of them was grown as a child in Cuba and this incident enraged him particularly as it brought memories of oppression.”
It was “hazing” because there was an attempt to indoctrinate or initiate subordinates into an in-group within the U.S. Army (that being members of the born-again cult). It was an Equal Opportunity (EO) complaint because it clearly violated section 6-1 of AR 600-20.
The U.S. Army will provide EO and fair treatment for military personnel and family members without regard torace, color, gender, religion, national origin, and provide an environment free of unlawful discrimination and offensive behavior.
… and…
Soldiers will not be accessed, classified, trained, assigned, promoted, or otherwise managed on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, or national origin.
So, Chambers, ultimately responsible for EO under his command as the installation commander, chose instead to abuse his position and initiate or attempt to indoctrinate soldiers into his own superstition. Chambers admits in an article[1] that he is a “born again” Christian and claims the Spiritual Fitness Concerts were “not to be a proponent for any one religion, [but] to have a mix of different performers with different religious backgrounds.” Except this didn’t happen.
And then there’s the cost. These concerts aren’t just small events with local Christian bands. We’re talking about the top, nationally known, award-winning Christian artists, with headline acts costing anywhere from $30,000 to $100,000, and even many of the opening acts being in the $10,000 range.
The cost of these concerts led MRFF‘s research department to start looking at some of the DoD contracts for other “spiritual fitness” events and programs, and what we found was astounding. One contract, for example, awarded to an outside consulting firm to provide “spiritual fitness” services, was for $3.5 million[2].
Money that could be better spent elsewhere to be sure. Barracks improvement, cookouts for soldiers on the weekends, secular concerts, exercise equipment for dayrooms, etc.
I spent many years in the US Army. What improves “spiritual fitness” (whatever that means) is this sort of moral support -not mandatory evangelical nonsense. Give a soldier a plate of barbequed ribs and a beer, let him or her mingle with peers of the opposite sex, play some volley ball or just horse shoes and you’ve got some happy soldiers. And it won’t cost $30,000! Hell, you can even get each soldier to pitch in $20!
Luckily, Mikey Weinstein from the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) is involved in this. It’s left me to wonder if that’s why Chambers is no longer an installation command (as of June 2010) and now a director at some supply dump on an Air Force Base. It’s definitely a step down in the career ladder -going from Installation Commander with hundreds of subordinate commanders to director of logistics on a base that doesn’t even belong to the Army.
I would have parked my car the first place I could and walked. After 12 hours I'd have just given up and found an alternate means of transport to wherever I needed to go.
The New York Police Department has confirmed to TPM that a cab driver in Manhttan was allegedly stabbed by a passenger who asked if the cabbie was Muslim, and says the incident is being treated as a hate crime. The suspect has been charged with attempted murder and other crimes.
According to Detective Marc Nell, at 6:14 pm last night, the driver picked up Michael Enright, 21, of Brewster, NY, at the intersection of 24th Street and 2nd Avenue in Manhattan. The cab proceeded to drive north, and Enright asked the driver, who Nell identified as a 43-year-old Asian male, if he was Muslim. After the driver responded that he was, Enright allegedly stabbed him repeatedly with a Leatherman tool, according to police.
"[Enright] stabbed the driver in the throat, right arm, left forearm, right thumb and upper lip," Nell said.
According to police, the driver called 911, and stopped the cab on 3rd Avenue between 40th and 41st streets, managing to lock Enright inside until police arrived.
Nell told TPM that the cab driver is in stable condition, and that Enright has been charged with "attempted murder two as a hate crime, assault with a weapon as a hate crime, aggravated harassment second degree because of race and religion, and criminal possession of a weapon."
The Associated Press reports that Enright is expected to appear in court today.
Nell could not confirm that Enright had admitted to asking the driver if he was Muslim.
The driver, Ahmed H. Sharif, released a statement through the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, saying "I never feel this hopeless and insecure before."
"I feel very sad," Sharif said. "I have been here more than 25 years. I have been driving a taxi more than 15 years. All my four kids were born here."
The New York Post reports that both Sharif and Enright were taken to Bellevue Hospital after the incident. Police would not confirm to TPM where Enright was currently located.
Allan Fromberg, a spokeperson for the NYC Taxi & Limousine Commission, told TPM that the Commission was aware of the incident, and that an official response was forthcoming, but that he could not comment publicly yet.
"A number of things are sort of in motion on this, as we speak," Fromberg said.
The New York Times reports that an anonymous police source has said Enright was "very drunk" at the time of the incident.
The incident was first reported by NY1.
Editor's Note: This post has been added to since it was first published.
I definitely do not agree with the courts on this. Sure, the manufacturers have no requirement to support the software if it is sold by the user, but it's just like a book or film: you don't own the work but you do own the copy.
I don't think that would make a big difference. People don't pirate because it's illegal, they don't pirate because they either don't know how, or they're afraid of viruses, or they want to support the game company, etc. Certainly some people will pirate if it's made legal, but I doubt it would be a deluge of people.
actually, if pirating became legal, i think the quality of pirated material would increase and free downloads would be much closer to the real deal, or people would be able to buy a really cheap ripped copy of equal quality to the original. That'd definitely encourage more. But, I think there's a huge point that the courts didn't address. A video game is self contained software. You don't download it onto your game system. So if, yous ell it, you no longer have it, it just passes to someone else. It seems they were thinking more about computer software that can be downloaded, then, when you're all done with it and maybe even done using it, you sell it off. You may not be using it anymore, but it's not intended to be used over and over again. It's meant to be loaded onto one or a couple of computers (as specified in the user EULA) and then it's done. So, selling that is wrong. But there's no way they could ban the reselling of console games unless they're ready to ban the reselling of music CDs, DVDs, VHS, records, posters, etc.
TROPHY CLUB, Texas - Administrators at Byron Nelson High School in Trophy Club suspended a 16-year-old boy on Tuesday because his eyes were bloodshot and they thought he might have been smoking marijuana.
The teen said he was not high. Instead his eyes were red because he had been grieving the loss of his murdered father.
Kyler Robertson’s father was stabbed to death on Sunday. His mother honored his wishes and let him go to school on Tuesday to be with his friends.
“I am sure he had a lot on his mind going to school. I had asked him not to go to school,” said Cristy Fritz.
Before returning to class Kyler had to go to the office to get a tardy slip. That’s when school employees accused him of being high because he had red and watery eyes.
Fritz said she got a call from administrators who told her Kyler would be suspended for three days.
“I was pleading with her to understand the severity of the situation, his emotional well being. How could they do this to him at this time? What are the alternatives?” she said.
District spokeswoman Lesley Weaver would not discuss the case with FOX 4, but said when administrators suspect a student is under the influence, a school nurse will observe symptoms like their behavior, odor and their eyes.
The district does not actually test students, though. That’s left to the parents.
Fritz said she was told by the assistant principal that she could have Kyler tested for drugs within two hours and if it was negative he could return to school. She did just that.
Kyler was allowed to return to class after he showed school administrators a copy of his negative test results.
The teen’s mom still wants an apology from administrators and she wants the district to remove the suspension from his permanent record. She is in the process of appealing it.
“We had other things to do this week than worry about a three day window for an appeal, a two hour window for a drug test and my son’s reputation and high school career,” she said.
That's ridiculous. What kind of asshole would still make a kid go through a drug test after he told them his FATHER HAD BEEN STABBED TO DEATH.
I don't even know where Trophy Club is. Texas is too big. Here, I'll go and redeem Texas by posting what food the Texas State Fair is hosting this year (HA!!!).
The United States revealed on Friday that the government conducted medical experiments in the 1940s in which doctors infected soldiers, prisoners and mental patients in Guatemala with syphilis and other sexually transmitted diseases.
The experiments, led by a federal doctor who helped conduct the famous Tuskegee syphilis study in Alabama, involved about 1,500 men and women who were unwittingly drafted into studies aimed at determining the effectiveness of penicillin.
The tests, which were carried out between 1946 and 1948, infected subjects by bringing them prostitutes who were either already infected or purposefully infected by the researchers and by using needles to open wounds that could be contaminated.
"Although these events occurred more than 64 years ago, we are outraged that such reprehensible research could have occurred under the guise of public health," Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a joint statement apologizing for the experiments. "We deeply regret that it happened, and we apologize to all the individuals who were affected by such abhorrent research practices."
President Obama had been briefed about the revelations and called Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom to "personally express that apology," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said."Obviously, this is shocking. It's tragic. It's reprehensible," Gibbs said.
The Guatemalan government planned to investigate, saying it "deeply deplores that these experiments affected innocent people," according to a statement issued late in the day.
In addition to exposing another episode of unethical medical experimentation, officials said the revelations were concerning because they could further discourage already often-suspicious minorities and others from participating in medical research. They also come as U.S. drug companies are increasingly going to poor, less-educated countries to test new drugs and other therapies.
"At a time when so much medical research is global, it behooves us to take account of what has been done in the past by American researchers in other countries," said Susan M. Reverby, a professor in the history of ideas and professor of women's and gender studies at Wellesley College in Massachusetts who discovered the experiments while investigating Tuskegee for a book.
In Tuskegee, perhaps the most notorious medical experiment in U.S. history, hundreds of African American men with late-stage syphilis were left untreated to study the disease between 1932 and 1972. In the Guatemala case, the subjects were treated, but it remains unclear whether they were treated adequately or what became of them.
Reverby discovered the experiments while reading papers in the University of Pittsburgh's archives from John C. Cutler, a doctor with the federal government's Public Health Service who later participated in Tuskegee. He died in 2003.
"I almost fell out of my chair when I started reading this," Reverby said in a telephone interview. "Can you imagine? I couldn't believe it."
The studies were sponsored by the Public Health Service, the National Institutes of Health and the Pan American Health Sanitary Bureau (now the World Health Organization's Pan American Health Organization) and the Guatemalan government. The goal was to assess whether taking penicillin right after sex would prevent sexually transmitted infections.
Cutler, Guatemalan health official Juan Funes and colleagues decided to study men in Guatemala City's Central Penitentiary because its prisoners were allowed to have sex with prostitutes. Some of the prostitutes tested positive for syphilis; in other cases, doctors put infectious material on the cervixes of uninfected prostitutes before they had sex with prisoners.
But because so few men were getting infected, the researchers then attempted "direct inoculations made from syphilis bacteria poured into the men's penises and on forearms and faces that were slightly abraded . . . or in a few cases through spinal punctures," Reverby wrote in a synopsis of the experiments.
They conducted similar experiments involving gonorrhea and chancroid and on soldiers in an army barracks and on men and women in the National Mental Health Hospital. In some cases, the subjects drank "syphilitic tissue mixed with distilled water," Reverby wrote in a synopsis of the testing. Doctors used needles to scrape the arms, faces or mouths of the women to try to infect them.
A number of high-ranking U.S. government officials knew about the research, including Thomas Parran Jr., who was then U.S. surgeon general, the documents show. "You know, we couldn't do such an experiment in this country," Parran said, according to Cutler. Parran died in 1968.
The gonorrhea studies involved 772 subjects, 234 of whom became infected and 233 of whom received treatment, according to an investigation by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The chancroid studies involve 142 subjects, including 138 who became infected and 129 who received treatment. The syphilis experiments involved 497 subjects who were exposed to the bacteria that causes the disease, 427 of whom became infected and 332 of whom received treatment. A total of 443 of the subjects actually developed syphilis; 331 received treatment, although only 85 could be documented to have received full treatment, the CDC found.
Gonorrhea can cause a variety of complications, including infertility. Chancroid can cause painful ulcers. Syphilis can cause blindness, major organ damage, paralysis, dementia and death.
Seventy-one of the syphilis subjects died during the study, including one from a fatal epileptic seizure, but it was unclear whether any were caused by the studies. The fates of the other subjects will be investigated, officials said.
The researchers also took blood samples from 438 children at the National Orphanage, but in that case, they did not purposefully infect anyone, Reverby said.
Cutler discontinued the experiments "when it proved difficult to transfer the disease and other priorities at home seemed more important," she wrote. The results were never published. Cutler died in 2003.
Reverby shared her discovery last spring with David Sencer, a retired director of the CDC, who notified current CDC officials, leading to Friday's public disclosure. Reverby describes the tests in a 29-page paper that will be published in January in the Journal of Policy History.
NIH Director Francis S. Collins condemned the experiment and said strict prohibitions are in place to prevent such abuses from happening today.
"This case of unethical human subject research represents an appalling example from a dark chapter in the history of medicine," Collins told reporters during a telephone briefing Friday.
Although Collins said it was important that the experiments had been made public, he acknowledged that the revelation could deepen entrenched suspicions about scientists and doctors. The Tuskegee experiment continues to be blamed for making many minorities reluctant to participate in medical studies or even seek medical care.
"We are concerned about the way in which this horrendous experiment, even though it was 60 years ago, may appear to people hearing about it today as indicative of research studies that are not conducted in an ethical fashion," Collins said. "Today, the regulations that govern research funded by the United States government, whether conducted domestically or internationally, would absolutely prohibit this type of study."
The National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine will also investigate the experiment and the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues will form a panel of international experts to "ensure that all human medical research conducted around the globe today meets rigorous ethical standards," officials said.
Fucked up news. You live in a third world country, the Police goes on strike because they don't want to lose their precious benefits, the President goes confront the Police and is hurt by a little tear gas. He goes to the hospital and decides not to leave and claims to be kidnaped, takes up the opportunity to say that a coup is being carried out against him and forces all tv and radio stations to broadcast the biased public media content. Not only that, but the strike goes on and looters run around. Fucking socialists.
Socialism means more government, hence a wider margin for government to "go" corrupt. That's bad.
Still, I know what you mean... This particular news story wasn't caused by the fact that the president is socialist but more by the fact that he's a demagogue, populist idiot.
Comments
Oh wait, yeah. She's a cowgirl.
Maj. Gen. James E. Chambers Hazes Soldiers in his Command
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/08/23/china.traffic.jam/index.html
This is why I say that organized religion will get you killed.
http://games.ign.com/articles/112/1120315p1.html
That will never happen.
What about the rest of us?
...RUN AWAY!!!...
I don't even know where Trophy Club is. Texas is too big. Here, I'll go and redeem Texas by posting what food the Texas State Fair is hosting this year (HA!!!).
http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/healthday/643355.html
U.S. Infected Guatemalans for STD tests
What Really Happened in Ecuador.
Corrupt government is.
Still, I know what you mean... This particular news story wasn't caused by the fact that the president is socialist but more by the fact that he's a demagogue, populist idiot.