Tuesday, December 4, 2012
JAMES FRANCO AND BRIAN BUTLER TO PERFORM ALEISTER CROWLEY RITUAL IN LOS ANGELES ART GALLERY
Monday, December 3, 2012
CBSNEWS.COM: TRAYVON MARTIN CASE. ZIMMERMAN'S LAWYERS RELEASED BLOODY NOSE PHOTO
opics
This photograph shows George Zimmerman, accused of killing unarmed teen Trayvon Martin, the night of their confrontation. It was made public by Zimmerman's lawyers on December 3, 2012.
/ GZlegalcase.comThe defense team for George Zimmerman, charged with killing unarmed black teen Trayvon Martin in February, released a color photo of Zimmerman with a bloody nose.
Zimmerman's lawyers say the photo was taken by a police officer on February 26, the night 17-year-old Martin was shot and killed nearby his father's home in Sanford, Fla. The 29-year-old has pleaded not guilty to the second-degree murder charges and was released from Seminole County Jail on $1 million bond in July.
The photo was published on GZlegalcase.com, a website created by Zimmerman and his defense attorneys. Although the same picture was made public earlier this year as black-and-white photocopy, this high-resolution version comes shortly after the same website announced a"thank you" card defense fund to raise money for Zimmerman.
Lawyers on both sides of the case disagree on the picture's significance.
"It's not a game changer," Zimmerman lawyer Mark O'Mara told Reuters, adding its only importance was how it vividly showed the injuries Zimmrman sustained during his confrontation with Martin.
"Does it really show what happened that night to George? Yes," O'Mara said.
An attorney who represents Martin's family, Ben Crump, told Reuters the photo adds nothing new to the case.
"Trayvon Martin was defending himself. He had every right to stand his ground to defend himself," Crump said.
THEROOT.COM: CDC to African Americans: Get the Flu Vaccine
Tom Le Goff/Digital Vision/Getty Images
(The Root) -- It's National Influenza Vaccination Week, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is encouraging everyone to get vaccinated but especially African Americans, who officials say are more likely to have the chronic diseases that that can lead to flu complications, hospitalization and even death.
The good news, the CDC said in a release today, is that it's simple to get protection through a yearly flu vaccine. The bad news: Many African Americans simply aren't not doing this.
"We've seen an increase in the number of children getting the flu vaccine," says Dr. Anne Schuchat, assistant surgeon general of the U.S. Public Health Service and the CDC's director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. "However, we are concerned that vaccine coverage rates remain low in the United States for adults, particularly in African Americans."
What's behind the vaccination disparity? The CDC speculates that some may have concerns about vaccine safety. So it's spreading the message that flu vaccines (both the shot and the nasal spray) actually have excellent safety records and are constantly being monitored, and that any minor side effects are far outweighed by the vaccine's benefits.
Still skeptical? Check out all the CDC's flu information at cdc.flu.gov.
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BRIETBART.COM: CNN BLAMES CULTURE OF 'MANLINESS' FOR BELCHER MURDER/SUICIDE
CNN BLAMES CULTURE OF 'MANLINESS' FOR BELCHER MURDER/SUICIDE
On Saturday, a rich 25-year-old man, Jovan Belcher, murdered
his 22-year-old girlfriend, the mother of his child. First,
columnist Jason Whitlock of Fox Sports suggested that
this “25-year-old kid” wasn’t responsible for his actions
– it was the “gun culture” that was to blame.
Then, Bob Costas of NBC repeats this idiotic notion, even though
the 6’2”, 228 lb. linebacker for the Kansas City Chiefs could easily
have murdered his girlfriend with a knife.
Now CNN is getting in on the act. Leading their website this afternoon
is an op-ed from Kevin Powell, former Democratic Congressional
candidate in New York, and cast member on MTV’s original season
of “The Real World.” Powell’s contention: it’s America’s culture
of manliness that led Belcher to blow away his girlfriend and
then turn the gun on himself. That culture of manliness includes
men hiding their emotion, machoness, and homophobia. Seriously.
He begins:
Since the killing and suicide are so fresh, so recent, we do
not really know what might have driven Belcher to such
extreme and horrific actions.
But the knee-jerk reactions have been rampant on the
social networks. "Coward" is a term being used to describe
Belcher. But that is too easy, far too simplistic, and name-calling
never solves a problem.
Belcher was a man living in the supersized macho world
of football, a world in which many of us American males reside,
be it football or not. Too many of us have been taught manhood
in a way that is not healthy. Be tough, men do not cry, man up --
these are the things I've heard my entire life, and I now cringe
when I hear this relayed to boys or younger men by teachers,
coaches, fathers, mentors and leaders.
Or we use derogatory and sexist or homophobic words to
describe men or boys who do not meet the "normal" of what a
male is supposed to be. Some of these male authority figures
mean well, or are simply repeating what they were socialized to
be or to do, and do not realize that they are unwittingly teaching
that manhood has little room to express hurt, disappointment
and sorrow.
Somehow, it is doubtful that Belcher decided to put a bullet through
his girlfriend’s brain because of homophobia. It is also doubtful that
Belcher, who grew up in a home with a single mother, had too
much influence from “male authority figures.”
That is the problem for so many of us. We do not talk about
much of anything, except sports, women and sex. Everything
else is routinely ignored. Or repressed. Until we explode.
Belcher had problems. But to express that it is society’s fault –
the most feminized society in the history of civilization – that
Belcher couldn’t express his feelings, is moronic.
For the past several years, I have privately advised and
counseled several professional and amateur athletes, and
entertainers, all men, all grappling with very warped definitions
of manhood. The recurring theme over and over is fear of
expressing themselves fully, fear of letting others down, fear
of not being the tough and rugged men they were told they
had to be. And on the inside so many of them are damaged
as a result. The very definition of manhood they've embraced is more an emotional prison than anything else.
This is probably why the one scene that is locked in for me
is of Belcher thanking his coach and general manager for
what they did for him. Then walking away and shooting
himself in the head.
We must struggle, harder than ever, as men, as boys, as a nation,
to reach the point where a heart-to-heart conversation is the
first and only option, not a gun, not gun violence. The lives of
Jovan Belcher and Kasandra Perkins will have been in vain
completely if we do not go deeper within ourselves to teach
and show our sons, our husbands, our boyfriends, our fathers,
our men and boys, that there is another way.
What is this other way? Less male role models? Belcher had none.
Less manliness? Belcher wasn’t manly – he never married his girlfriend
and clearly didn’t care enough about his child not to murder her mother.
Less traditional values? Belcher didn’t do this because he was gay,
and put upon by the traditional values establishment. He did this
because he had no traditional values.
If we are going to blame society for Belcher, let’s look at some real
societal problems: single motherhood, tolerance for antisocial
behavior, lack of behavioral standards, multicultural acceptance
of sexism. But the media is intent on blaming conservative ideals
, from gun rights to traditional manliness, for what is very clearly
a breach with any conservative ideals whatsoever.
NYPOST.COM: Chiefs linebacker Belcher struggled with head injuries, alcohol and painkillers before he snapped and killed girlfriend: report
- Kansas City Chiefs linebacker and former Long Island high-school star Jovan Belcher was allegedly battling football-related head injuries and booze, painkiller and domestic problems when he snapped and murdered his girlfriend before killing himself in front of two coaches Saturday.
A pal of Belcher’s told the Web site Deadspin.com that Kasandra Perkins, the mother of Belcher’s 3-month-old daughter, had threatened to leave him for good amid fighting between the pair.
The couple had only recently reconciled after Perkins left their rented house in Kansas City with the baby at one point to stay with friends. Perkins had returned, but friends said the relationship was still volatile.
It didn’t help that he was drinking every day and taking painkillers while dealing with the effects of debilitating head injuries, the friend said.
Chiefs chairman Clark Hunt said today that Belcher was "a player who had not had a long concussion history.’’
Belcher, 25, and Perkins, 22, had argued for the last time when she returned home late from a concert Saturday morning. But the Belcher friend said the concert was only a “tipping point.”
“This was the result of a long-term conflict,” the pal said. “She made it clear that she was leaving and would contact a lawyer’’ to fight for custody and child support.
Cops today revealed that Belcher shot Perkins nine times before committing suicide with a different gun. His mother witnessed the slaying; she had been in town to help Perkins with the new baby, sources have said.
Belcher’s mother, Cheryl Shepherd, will now take custody of the couple’s infant daughter and plans to return with the child to the family’s West Babylon home, where her troubled son grew up, his relatives said.
The kin said the baby was in another room when Belcher snapped and unloaded on Perkins.
“[Shepherd’s] taking it as anyone else would've taken it,” said Belcher’s cousin, Eric Oakes, 20, who lives in the mom’s renovated house where Belcher grew up. “She just lost a son. We're all coming together.”
Oakes, wearing a game-warn Chief’s jersey with Belcher’s number 59 on it, said his cousin was his role model.
"[He's] always trying to steer me right. That's the only person I wanted to be like. A role model, basically my father. He's the person who made me play football,” said Oakes, who played running back for West Babylon HS.
In Kansas City, relatives trickled in an out of the home that had become a murder scene.
“I think she was home alone a lot,” said Kristen Van Meter, 31, a neighbor who went to community college with the victim. “He was kind of quiet. he would come and go.”
When he was there, she said, there were lots of parties.
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