In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today...

[Content Note: Airline crash; death] Terrible news: "An Airbus operated by Lufthansa's Germanwings budget airline crashed in a remote snowy area of the French Alps on Tuesday and all 150 on board were feared dead. French President Francois Hollande said he believed none of those on board the A320 had survived, while the head of Lufthansa spoke of a dark day for the German airline. Germanwings confirmed its flight 4U9525 from Barcelona to Duesseldorf crashed in the French Alps with 144 passengers and six crew members on board. Hollande said: 'The conditions of the accident, which have not yet been clarified, lead us to think there are no survivors.' Officials said the plane issued a distress call at 0947 GMT (0547 ET), about 52 minutes after take-off. [Safety experts] said black boxes holding the probable answers to the crash were expected to be retrieved quickly." I hope there will be survivors, but it seems like there is little reason for that hope, unfortunately. My condolences to those who lost family, friends, or colleagues in the crash. I hope they will indeed get answers quickly.

[CN: Police brutality; racism; death] And again: "On Thursday last week, [Brandon Jones, a week shy of his 19th birthday] broke into the nearby Parkway Grocery and stole cigarettes and money, according to the store's owner. Officers responded to a call of a break-in at approximately 2.15am and struggled with Jones after he left the store carrying a bag. One officer fired, striking Jones, who died at the hospital hours later. 'Everybody knows he shouldn't have been there,' [his mother, Tonya Brown] said. 'Everybody knows what he did was wrong–we're past that. My baby should not be dead.' ...Brown has many questions for the police department, which she said she has barely talked to since the day they told her that her son was dead. She said the only other interaction she has had with them is when a detective came by on Sunday, but he had been off for the days preceding the visit and knew less about the situation than the family did. Her understanding of the moments leading up to her son's death is primarily sourced from the media. And with the police keeping quiet, she is still desperate for answers from the police." Brown is exactly right: It doesn't matter that Brown had shoplifted. The response to that is an arrest and trial. It is not a death sentence on the sidewalk.

[CN: Christian Supremacy; homophobia] The heinous "religious freedom" bill making its way through the Indiana state legislature is likely to become law: "Indiana's Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed Senate Bill 101 Monday on a 63-31 vote, largely along party lines. The state Senate, also Republican-controlled, passed a slightly different version last month, and is expected to give final approval to the House-passed measure as early as Tuesday morning. Indiana's Republican Gov. Mike Pence has already signaled his intention to sign the bill into law." I am so fucking pissed.

[CN: Fat hatred] The LA Times published an article about a study that found "the extent of negative bias toward overweight individuals may be greater than previously assumed" (no shit), and accompanied that article with a photo of headless fatties, one of whom is a black woman using a cane, thus also reinforcing marginalizing narratives about fat and lack of healthfulness. You're really not helping, LA Times. Not at all.

[CN: War; descriptions of violence; eliminationism; dehumanization] This essay by a US Iraq veteran is devastating: "You look around and you see all he contractors making six figure salaries to fix your shit, train Iraqis, maintain the ridiculous SUVs the KBR dicks ride around in. You consider the fact that every 25mm shell costs about forty bucks, and your company has been handing those fuckers out like shrapnel flavored parade candies. You think about all the fuel you're going through, all the ammo and missiles and grenades. You think about every time you lose a vehicle, the Army buys a new one. Maybe you start to see a lot of people making a lot of money on huge amounts of human suffering. Then you go on leave, and realize that Ayn Rand has no idea what the fuck she's talking about. You realize that Fox News and Limbaugh and John McCain don't respect you or your buddies. They don't give a fuck if you get a parade or a box when you get home, you're nothing to them but a prop. Then you get out, and you hate the news. You hate the apathy, and you hate the murder being carried out in your name. You grew up wanting so bad to be Luke Skywalker, but you realize that you were basically a Stormtrooper, a faceless, nameless rifleman, carrying a spear for empire."

Heads-up: There are a few recalls for food products containing organic spinach. "Three recent recalls from Amy's, Wegmans, and Costco show that it may be wise for people who are young, old, sick, or pregnant to stay away from organic spinach." At least for awhile.

[CN: Cancer; surgery] Two years ago, Angelina Jolie wrote about making the decision to have a double mastectomy to reduce her high risk for breast cancer. Now she has written another piece, following her decision to have her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed, for the same reason. Her tenacity is amazing. It's difficult enough to make these personal decisions, without inviting the world to judge you for your choices. But she is making a big difference to lots of women, by talking about this stuff so publicly.

Damn, Jupiter! "According to a study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, our solar system may once have been populated by a whole different set of planets than the ones we know now. And then Jupiter obliterated them. ...Led by Konstantin Batygin (a Caltech planetary scientist) and Gregory Laughlin of the University of California, the new study suggests that certain weird quirks seen in our solar system could be explained by Jupiter coming in like a wrecking ball and smashing its original planetary companions to smithereens."

Headline of the Day: "Nicolas Cage will be buried in a giant pyramid—but why?" Um, because he's Nicolas Cage.

This video of mini horses saving a sightseeing couple from a wild boar is incredible!

And finally: This story about an avowed "dog person" becoming a cat lover, too, after adopting a kitten, got me all choked up. Team cats and dogs! ♥