Truth

Five of Cliven Bundy’s Grandkids Pulled From School Because They Can’t Bring Weapons to Class

If you thought you’d never hear this man’s name again, you were mistaken. Five of Cliven Bundy’s grandchildren were pulled from their Clark County, Nevada schools because of a ban on bringing knives on campus.

After officials at Virgin Valley High School in Mesquite told Ryan Bundy, Welfare Cowboy’s son, that his 15-year-old daughter was not permitted to bring her pocketknife to school because Clark County School policy prohibits weapons on campus, Bundy pulled his children from school.

Bundy disputes the claim that knives — sharp, pointy metal objects — are weapons, and explained to administrators that he has always taught his children it is essential to always carry one with them.

“I’ve taught my children a knife is important to have,” Bundy said. “It’s a tool that you use, and you need to have one with you at all times.”

The Bundy children claim that they use their knives for their daily chores on the family ranch, and their father claims that the school district is attempting to make his children look like delinquents just because they are violating school policy by bringing blades on campus.

“They’re trying to make my child a criminal – and any other child a criminal – for simply having something, and that is not right,” Ryan Bundy explained.

Bundy did not explain why his children needed to have their weapons with them at school, but he said that he plans to speak with school administrators in hopes of convincing them to allow his kids to have special privileges — something he likely learned from his father, who thinks he is above paying grazing fees.

Bundy’s daughter hopes that her father resolves this insane conflict soon, as she was excited to begin her freshman year at Virgin Valley High.

“I hope that somehow figures this out because I still would like to go to this school,” she said “I really don’t want to be homeschooled.” 

And who can blame her? Would you want this man teaching you…anything?

NEW JERSEY: Attacker Of Gay NYC Bartender Has Yet To Be Extradited

Two weeks ago New York City Eagle bartender Paul Martone was left in critical condition after a Hell's Kitchen street altercation involving his dog. Martone's attacker, Corey Pohan, 32, fled to his mother's home in suburban New Jersey where he remains in jail pending a hearing on local disorderly conduct charges for climbing onto the top of the Lincoln Tunnel toll plaza after leaping from the car of the NYPD detectives who were transporting him back to Manhattan.

During his appearance on a disorderly conduct charge, no-nonsense Judge Karen Boylan asked the surfer dude if he knew when he was going to be extradited to New York to face an assault rap. “No, I just walked up this ramp and sat here. I haven’t talked to anyone other than the public defender, and he said no,” Pohan whined. Boylan then told him she didn’t have enough information on the Jersey charge to proceed with the case. “It looks like we’re going to have to hold you over until next week“ she said, news that also sent the bruiser’s mom Barbara Pohan into hysterics. “Next week? Can’t we handle this today if he pleads guilty?”she cried out. “Mrs. Pohan, he has criminal contacts in Colorado. He has an extradition here to New York. He hasn’t spoken to the detectives who made the arrest here in Jersey. I have no discovery, so we’ll see you on the screen next week,” the judge replied. Pohan, dressed in green prison scrubs, sobbed uncontrollably as he left the chair in the video room in another section of the courthouse and walked out of view of the monitor.

The judge did not elaborate on Pohan's "criminal contacts" in Colorado. The NYPD has not yet disclosed what charges Pohan may face in Manhattan. Martone remains hospitalized. The incident spawned international headlines and a social media furor on whether Martone instigated the fight.

Classmates For Burned Oakland Teen Wear Skirts To Show Support And Solidarity

Students and staff members at a small private high school in California wore skirts to class on Friday to show solidarity with an 18-year-old senior who suffered serious burns when his clothes were set on fire on a public bus. 

 

Luke "Sasha" Fleischman's classmates at Maybeck High School in Berkeley came up with the idea of trading pants and shorts for kilts and sarongs as a way of condemning the attack and supporting Fleischman while the teen recovers at a San Francisco hospital, school director Trevor Cralle said.

"The students wanted to rally their support for Sasha, so they came up with the idea of wearing skirts because that's what Sasha likes to do and what Sasha was wearing when Sasha was lit on fire," said Cralle, who wore a type of floral sarong known as a "lava-lava" that is worn by both men and woman in the Pacific Islands.

Cralle did not have a count of how many of Maybeck High's 110 students were sporting skirts, but he said there was widespread participation. "Everybody, students and staff, male and female, is wearing skirts," he said.

The school planned to pose for a group photo at lunch so it could be delivered to Fleischman, who remained in stable condition with second- and third-degree burns on his legs. His mother has said the injuries will require massive skin grafts.

Police say Fleischman was wearing a skirt on Monday when a fellow bus passenger set the garment on fire with a lighter. Other people riding the AC Transit bus in downtown Oakland came to the 18-year-old's aid after he tried to put out the flames himself.

A 16-year-old Oakland boy has been charged as an adult with hate crimes in the attack. Richard Thomas, a junior at Oakland High School, was arrested at school Tuesday afternoon based on surveillance video from the bus.

Thomas has not yet entered a plea. The Associated Press is naming Thomas even though he is a minor because of the seriousness of the alleged crime.

During an interview with police, Thomas said "he did it because he was homophobic," Oakland police Officer Anwawn Jones wrote in a court affidavit.
Relatives and friends have said Fleischman identifies as "agender,"a designation sometimes adopted by people who see themselves as neither male nor female.

A Word from the Sponsors of the upcoming Winter Olympics

Victim Who Was Tortured For Being Gay By Russian Neo-Nazi Group Dies

The victim of an anti-gay Russian neo-Nazi group who was tortured for supposedly being gay reportedly has died. The group, “Occupy Pedofilyaj,” which reportedly lures gay men and teens via social media and same-sex hookup ads, and then tortures them to “cure” them of homosexuality came into headlines last week when an image of the victim they tortured, and who is now reportedly dead, went viral.

“According to the human right activist, Dr. Valentin Degtyarev, MD, who closely monitors infamous Neo Nazi group ‘Occupy Pedofilyaj,’ the Uzbek victim shown on this photo tragically died as a result of numerous tortures,” the LGBT rights group Spectrum Human Rights Alliance reports. ”No arrests have been made and no charges were pressed.”

In the official correspondence from the local District Attorney office and Governor’s office it was explained that Russian authorities do not see any wrongdoings in the video clips or photographs posted by Neo Nazi group “Occupy Pedofilyaj.” Actually, the authorities referred to this group as one of the  ”civil movements fighting the sins of the society.”

A Google translation of Degtyarev’s website, which announced the victim’s death states:

…they beat [the victim with] the bat a few hours, cut with a knife and stained with paint, tore his anus and filled his mount back the foam core is said by the bandits, apparently died after torture. He probably screamed and called for help, but since he did not know the Russian language is really no it did not help. A housemates apparently helped gangsters torturing him completely.

The victim’s name and age were not disclosed, nor was it known if in fact he was gay.

 

The New York Anti-Violence Project (AVP) is reporting on what they're calling a bias-motivated assault of three gay men by NYPD officers in Bed-Stuy Brooklyn on June 3.

Writes the AVP:

Three openly gay men, Josh Williams (pictured, below), Ben Collins, and Antonio Maenza, reported that they were walking past the 79th Precinct when an NYPD officer accused one of the men of public urination and attacked him, throwing him against a police car. The officer was joined by other officers who also attacked the man, throwing him to the ground and pepper spraying him while he was in handcuffs. The survivor was handcuffed tightly, causing lacerations. The survivor's injuries were treated at a hospital, where he was again restrained with wrist and ankle cuffs. The group of officers also arrested the other two survivors.

Representatives from AVP, the LGBT Justice Project of Make the Road NY, Streetwise and Safe, the Safe OUTside the System Collective of the Audre Lorde Project, FIERCE, Communities United for Police Reform, Campaign to Stop the False Arrests, and the Brooklyn Community Pride Center is planning to hold a press conference on the incident on Tuesday afternoon.

The Village Voice has more:

The Voice has also learned that NYPD Internal Affairs Bureau started investigating after someone apparently associated with the precinct filed a complaint.

"This case is so extreme in how the encounter escalated so fast over something so silly and turned so violent," says Williams' lawyer Cynthia Conti-Cook. "Based on how the incident started, there's very little to justify such extreme action other than homophobia."

Slurs were used:

Maenza was watching the incident from the sidewalk and videotaping with his phone. "Josh is on the ground, he's surrounded by officers, he's been maced, and they pick him up and take him into the precinct," he says. "At that point, one of the officers called us 'faggots.'"

Collins recalled that the officer called them, "fucking faggots."

Handcuffed, temporarily blinded and bleeding, Williams was dragged into the stationhouse, and left in a holding cell. He was given a charge of resisting arrest. It took several hours for a paramedic to arrive to treat his injuries and by then, his wrists had swelled alarmingly.

While he was finally in an ambulance on the way to the hospital, he says an officer remarked, "We better not tell him where the soap is." After he was treated, he was taken back to the precinct, where he was fingerprinted and then sent to central booking and then arraigned at some point the following day, a Monday, more than 24 hours after the initial encounter.

More at The Voice...

Harry saved me from gay hate attack

Prince in extraordinary showdown with troops who threatened gunner 

A gay soldier told last night how Prince Harry bravely rescued him from a terrifying homophobic attack by squaddies from a rival regiment.
The Prince stepped in to save Trooper James Wharton after he was confronted by six soldiers threatening to ‘batter’ him.

Together as one: Lance Corporal Wharton, circled left, with Prince Harry, circled right, during training in 2008

Trooper Wharton fled to find Harry – who was his tank commander – and tearfully told the Prince what had happened.
‘I told him, “I think I’m going to be murdered by the infantry.” I climbed into the turret and talked Harry through exactly what had happened. He had a complete look of bewilderment on his face.
‘I couldn’t stop the tears from welling up in my eyes. He said, “Right I’m going to sort this s*** out once and for all.”
'He climbed out of the tank and I poked my head out of  the turret a few moments later to see him having a go,’ Wharton said.
Harry, a Troop Commander in the Blues and Royals, confronted the tormentors, warning them they would face severe discipline if they continued their violent threats.
‘I could see he wasn’t holding back,’ said Wharton, who was 21 at the time.
After taking on the gang, Harry briefed a senior officer before returning to assure Wharton the situation had been ‘sorted’.
The soldier, who quit the Army earlier this year, said: ‘I will always be grateful to Harry and I will never forget what happened. Until he went over and dealt with everything I was on track for a battering.’
The remarkable incident reinforces the view of Harry as an officer with unfailing commitment to the troops under his command.
The confrontation came on a training exercise in Canada in September 2008 and is detailed in a book Wharton has written about his ten-year military career, Out In The Army – exclusive extracts from which appear in today’s Mail on Sunday.

Wharton’s book offers the most unvarnished insight yet into Harry’s life as a soldier.
The two shared several weeks together in their tank and became firm friends, even swapping details of each other’s sex lives. Harry revealed details of his ‘first time’.
Wharton, who served in Iraq, also told how Harry said he and Prince William considered themselves to be gay icons.
He said: ‘We were on manoeuvres and talking over the intercom.
‘Harry happened to mention that he and his brother had been told they were gay icons. I laughed and told him that I didn’t think that was the case. He became really adamant saying, “What? What? We are! Our press people told us.”
‘Harry then asked if he couldn’t be a gay icon because he was ginger. It was all very funny.’
Last night, the Ministry of Defence and Buckingham Palace both declined to comment.

 

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2337882/Harry-saved-gay-hate-attack-Prince-extraordinary-showdown-troops-threatened-gunner.html#ixzz2Vfy3UvdH

French religious right: Kid wouldn’t be dead from hate crime if you hadn’t legalized gay marriage

The leader of the French religious right, Frigide Barjot, said today that 18 year old pro-gay college student Clément Méric would not have been killed in a vicious attack by right wing skinheads had France not recently legalized gay marriage.

Comedienne Frigide Barjot (who works under a pseudonym that’s apparently a sexual pun on the name of the French actress, Brigitte Bardot), is the leader of France’s anti-gay right, that includes the Catholic church and the lead conservative party in France, the UMP (for lack of a better comparison, France’s Republican party).

Unlike America, France is not a very religious country.  But like America, France’s right-wing parties have latched on to legislative gay-bashing as a means of unifying the right at the ballot box.  Sadly, in response to the right’s hysteria-building over gay marriage, anti-gay violence – and overall terror threats against the government – have increased of late.

Things have gotten so bad in the French right that Barjot herself refused to attend the latest official anti-gay protest, for fear of the extremists that are attempting to take over her movement.

Today we learned that 18 year old Clément Méric, a pro-gay college student attending the prestigious Sciences Po in Paris, succumbed to injuries recently sustained at the hands of three skinheads at a Paris train station.  (Violent crimes are relatively uncommon in France, as compared to the US, though that’s been changing of late.)

More at AmericaBlog

This Ad Has a Secret Anti-Abuse Message That Only Kids Can See

In an effort to provide abused children with a safe way to reach out for help, a Spanish organization called the Aid to Children and Adolescents at Risk Foundation, or ANAR for short, created an ad that displays a different message for adults and children at the same time. 

The secret behind the ad's wizardry is a lenticular top layer, which shows different images at varying angles. So when an adult—or anyone taller than four feet, five inches—looks at it they only see the image of a sad child and the message: "sometimes, child abuse is only visible to the child suffering it." But when a child looks at the ad, they see bruises on the boy's face and a different message: "if somebody hurts you, phone us and we’ll help you" alongside the foundation's phone number. 

The ad is designed to empower kids, particularly if their abuser happens to be standing right next to them. And while this is a great and worthwhile use of lenticular images, how long will it be before toy companies start doing to the same thing to hawk their products directly at kids?

Controversial Music Video Depicts Bullying/Cruxifiction

A new music video by gay Quebecois director Xavier Dolan for the popular French rock band Indochine features the crucifixion and graphic shooting of a bullied student at a Catholic school. In the clip, a bullied teenage boy is taunted in the hallways of the school before being pursued, thrown down stairs, kicked and pissed on, then nailed to a cross and shot several times by his classmates while others shoot the scene on their mobile phones.

It is being censored in Canada and France.

The video has been banned during daytime viewing hours in France, The Local reports:

Dolan reacted angrily to the prospect of the video being banned during daytime hours on music channels in France.

“That really bothers me. On these kind of channels you see situations that are racist, violent and degrading – particularly to women. “So it seems absurd to me that this video should be censored," he added.

While French regulators may be shocked by the video, Dolan and Indochine have received significant support from French users of social networks.

Radio and TV host Emilie Mazoyer summed up the view of many Twitter users, saying: "Some people find Indochine's music video 'violent.' Yes, it does turn your stomach for six minutes. But bullied students go through that 300 days a year. Imagine that."

Canada's MusiquePlus will not play the clip.

Watch (warning: graphic) below:

OMG Who let her in here?

Ain't It the Truth!

Letter Containing Gunpowder and Gay Marriage Threat Sent to Head of French Parliament

Wow. How Christian of those opposed to marriage equality in France.

From Towleroad:

The head of French parliament is being terrorized over the coming gay marriage vote on Tuesday, The Local reports:

Claude Bartolone, the Socialist president of France’s Assemblée Nationale (lower house of parliament) on Monday received a threatening letter containing gunpowder and demanding he defer a parliamentary vote, expected to definitively legalize gay marriage on Tuesday.

The one-page letter, signed by “an intermediary of law enforcement,” warns Bartolone that “our methods are more radical and more swift than protests”, according to French magazine L’Express.

The document concludes with the statement “You wanted war, and you’ve got it.”

Read more: http://www.towleroad.com/#ixzz2RC2kcsuY