charleshistoryclasses-blog

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:)

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HOUSTON (AP) "Affluenza," the affliction cited by a psychologist to argue that a North Texas teenager from a wealthy family should not be sent to prison for killing four pedestrians while driving drunk, is not a recognized diagnosis and should not be used to justify bad behavior, experts said Thursday. A judge's decision to give 16-year-old Ethan Couch 10 years of probation for the fatal accident sparked outrage from relatives of those killed and has led to questions about the defense strategy.

So that happened...

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I hope I would have the courage to do that too.

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Things that matter. Pass 'em on.

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Since 2006, there have been more than 200 mass killings in the United States. A USA TODAY investigation discovered that they happen far more often than the government reports and can be shockingly predictable.

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Unraveling the story behind the stereotype of video games being for boys.

One of the best things I've read in a while...

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"Only free men can negotiate. Your freedom and mine cannot be separated." —Nelson Mandela to then-South African President Pieter W. Botha, in 1985.

"Fellow South Africans, Nelson Mandela brought us together, and it is together that we will bid him farewell." —current South African President Jacob Zuma, announcing Mandela’s death today.

An article titled “8 Foes of Apartheid Get Life Terms in S. Africa" appeared in the L.A. Times on June 13, 1964. Here’s what the paper’s front page looked like on the day of Mandela’s release from prison, February 11, 1990. In December of that year, he spoke optimistically about South Africa’s future in this interview:

Q: What sort of South Africa do you envisage?

A: Very simple. It is a South Africa based on the Freedom Charter (a manifesto drawn up by the ANC and political allies in the 1950s), which is our basic policy; … a non-racial society where all population groups would enjoy equality before the law, and where all forms of racial discrimination were abolished. It is a South Africa where there will be a bill of rights defining the rights of citizens, a bill of rights that is entrenched by the ability of any person who considers his rights are threatened or violated to have access to an independent judiciary. It is a South Africa in which there will be political parties; where political dissent will not be dealt with in a way that shows a lack of patience and a lack of political tolerance.

Here’s Mandela’s obituary in the L.A. Times, by Deputy Managing Editor Scott Kraft, who covered Mandela as a reporter (you’ll see his byline more than once on the front page linked above); Deputy Washington Bureau Chief Bob Drogin, who described Mandela as “the most remarkable man I ever met” in a tweet today; and Johannesburg correspondent Robyn Dixon (who has also been covering today’s events on Twitter). More recommended reading: a timeline of Mandela’s life; a first-person account of growing up in a changing South Africa by Times photojournalist Jerome Adamstein; a recollection of his 1990 L.A. visit by columnist Patt Morrison; and Mandela’s own address to those assembled at a Cape Town rally upon his release from prison in February 1990. 

Top photo: Mandela and his then-wife Winnie, along with L.A. Mayor Tom Bradley, on the steps of City Hall during a trip to Los Angeles on June 29, 1990. Credit: Los Angeles Times

Middle photo: Mandela holds up the key to the city that he was presented by Mayor Bradley, also on June 29, 1990. Credit: Los Angeles Times

Bottom photo: Mandela visits L.A.’s First AME Church on July 9, 1993. Credit: Los Angeles Times. More photos from Mandela’s life.

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Ok, I take back my statements and instructions about Andrew Jackson, for your papers, BUT IT MUST INCLUDE RIDICULOUS IMAGES LIKE THIS ONE.

Kinky

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The world lost a tremendous mind and spirit today, but no one can say that it wasn't a life well lived.

As I reflect on his legacy, I am reminded that there is no force in the world that can extinguish that which is good in humanity, the drive to love, to be free and to be kind.

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http://www.politiker.co.uk - A collection of funny House of Commons moments showing British politics at its best (or, you may consider, worst)

One of you needs English citizenship so that you may join such a distinguished institution

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They put the thing down your throat so you don’t swallow your tongue, and they put electrodes on your head. That’s what was recommended in Rockland County to discourage homosexual feelings. The effect is that you lose your memory and become a vegetable. You can’t read a book because you get to page 17 and have to go right back to page one again.

Lou Reed quoted in Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk (1996)

In 1956, Reed, who was bisexual,[10] received electroconvulsive therapy as a teenager, which was intended to cure his bisexuality; he wrote about the experience in his 1974 song, “Kill Your Sons.” [Wiki]

(via rainbowbreathingbisexual)

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How I will look at you if you turn something in without evidence.

Or use your phone while I am talking.

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Check out this Wondermark comic!

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I've watched and shared this video so many times that I figured I should blog about it. The poets are Kai Davis (left) and Safiya Washington (right) of the Philadelphia Youth Poetry Movement perfor...

Yes.

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With reduced benefits starting this month, many recipients are buying fewer groceries and planning visits to food pantries to tide them over.

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Snatching Food From the Mouths of Babies: SNAP Cuts

 On November 1, 2013, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits were cut following the expiration of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. These cuts mean that nearly 48 million SNAP recipients nationally—mostly households with children, seniors, and people who are disabled—will have less money for food purchases.

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The adolescent birth rate around the worldONE in five girls in poor countries becomes pregnant before the age of 18, according to a new report by the UN Population...