shortformblog:

A Guatemalan court has convicted former dictator Efrain Rios Montt on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity, sentencing him to 80 years in prison.

The 86-year-old former general is the first former Latin American leader ever found guilty of such a charge.

A three-judge tribunal issued the verdict after the nearly two-month trial in which dozens of victims testified about horrific atrocities.

Rios Montt denies having knowledge of the massacres that happened involving indigenous people while he was in power.

(via fylatinamericanhistory)

fuckyeahfeminists:

rhrealitycheck:

Cost Of Birth Control Higher In Some Low-Income Neighborhoods Than In Wealthy Ones

Researchers focused on the price of seven commonly-used contraceptives — including various forms of the pill as well as transvaginal options like the ring. They cross-referenced the price information across various counties with median household incomes from the 2010 census.

Nearly every prescription contraceptive was more expensive in low-income zip codes, the researchers found.

In most cases, price differed by just a few dollars. For two of the contraceptives, the cost was significantly less in the wealthiest zip codes.

Researchers said they don’t know the reason for the price discrepancies. Certain neighborhoods may not have a large, chain pharmacy that offers lower prices and runs specials, Zite speculated.

“There is other research that has shown that a lot of needs for health, like fruits and vegetables, are more expensive in lower-income neighborhoods,” Zite added.

uh oh is this going to start another fight that healthy food isn’t actually expensive and poor people just dont try hard enough to eat well because “duh my family eats sooo many veggies with little money, so everyone is able to do it!”

(Source: The Huffington Post)

nationalpost:

Sperm donor fights attempts to force him to pay child support to lesbian couple
A sperm donor is fighting an effort to force him to pay child support for a child conceived through artificial insemination by a lesbian couple.

William Marotta told The Topeka Capital-Journal newspaper he’s “a little scared about where this is going to go, primarily for financial reasons.”

When the 46-year-old donated sperm to Angela Bauer and Jennifer Schreiner in 2009, Marotta relinquished all parental rights, including financial responsibility to the child. When Bauer and Schreiner filed for state assistance in Kansas this year, the state demanded the donor’s name so it could collect child support for the now 3-year-old girl. (AP Photo/The Topeka Capital Journal, Jeff Davis)

Lol I wonder how many MRAs are actually going to talk about this in an informed and level-headed way instead of throwing shitfits filled with slurs and death threats and take this opportunity to get on their “real lesbians are disgusting” soapbox

In 3

2

1

(via thepoliticalfreakshow)

thepoliticalfreakshow:

President Obama is casting the fiscal cliff deal as a fulfillment of his campaign pledge to ask for more in taxes from the wealthiest 2 percent, while Mitch McConnell is boasting that 99 percent of his constituents won’t be hit with tax increases. How can that be? As with so much in the fiscal cliff—er, fiscal crisis—negotiations, it’s a matter of semantics. The top income tax rate will rise only on households earning $450,000 or more, but those earning more than $250,000 will see some loopholes phased out, so they’ll end up paying more as well.

To simplify matters a bit, here is a rundown of some of the agreement’s key specifics, as reported by the Washington Post and others:

Taxes

• For couples earning more than $450,000 (or individuals earning more than $400,000), Bush-era tax cuts will expire, and the top income tax rate will rise from 35 percent to 39.6 percent
• For couples earning less than $250,000 (or individuals earning less than $200,000), Bush-era tax cuts will be made permanent
• For households earning between those two figures, some exemptions and deductions will expire
• Investment taxes and estate taxes will rise, though with big exemptions
• Stimulus tax credits for college tuition and the working poor will be extended for five years
• Benefits for the long-term unemployed will be extended for one year
• The alternative minimum tax will not go into effect for some 30 million taxpayers, but the payroll tax cut will expire, hitting most taxpayers
• Some stimulus tax credits for businesses, including in the renewable energy sector, will be extended for one year

Revenues

• The deal will raise about $600 billion over the next decade compared to a pre-fiscal cliff baseline, less than the $1.6 trillion* Obama first sought
• Compared to a post-fiscal cliff baseline, meanwhile, the deal is a huge tax cut that will slash revenue by some $3.7 trillion

Spending cuts

• Sequestered cuts to defense and other budgets will be delayed two months, with a plan to replace them with equal measures of targeted cuts and revenue increases

Miscellaneous

• Doctors who provide Medicare won’t face scheduled pay cuts
• A nine-month farm bill fix will avoid the “dairy cliff”
• Congress will have its pay frozen again

So: You say 2 percent, I say 1 percent. You say tax hike, I say tax cut. But let’s not call the whole thing off.

Note: This post was adapted from a previous Slatest post, available here.

*Correction: This post originally misstated the amount of the revenue increase Obama had initially sought. It was $1.6 trillion, not $1.6 billion.

oceanicsteam:

Because our 24/7 news media can’t actually do journalism, CNN, MSNBC, FOX and others have all just helped ruin someone’s life because they posted headline pictures of the wrong fucking Ryan Lanza.

Facebook groups calling for his death have already been created. Apparently it’s now open season on anyone named Ryan Lanza. Share this so people stop having blood vengeance for whoever this guy is.

Update: apparently the shooter may not have been named Ryan Lanza at all. Great job media. Apparently it may have been his brother Adam instead. Great, so his mother and brother are now dead and the media ruined his life during it all.

(via descomic)

nezua:

queennubian:

boston:

FDA approves pill to prevent HIV infections

The drug, Truvada, is the first medication intended to prevent HIV infections in people having sex with infected individuals.

(JEFF CHIU/AP)

IT JUST GOT REAL

What good news for the world.

(via chauvinistsushi)

fuckyeahlatinamericanhistory:

Raul H. Castro (not that Raul Castro), was governor of Arizona from 1975 to 1977 before Jimmy Carter named him ambassador to Argentina. He is the oldest-living former US governor and the only Hispanic governor Arizona has ever had since it became a state in 1912.

A 96-year-old former Arizona governor and former U.S. diplomat says he holds no grudges against the U.S. Border Patrol agents who he says detained him at a checkpoint for more than a half-hour in stifling heat after his pacemaker apparently set off a radiation sensor.

Raul H. Castro says although he wasn’t mistreated, agents could have been more sensitive to his age and condition.

“I feel they’ve got a job to do and I don’t condemn them for doing a job,” he told msnbc.com on Thursday, “but once I was identified and I was 96 years of age and told them I had medical treatment the day before, I expected a little more.”

A friend who was driving the former governor at the time wasn’t so forgiving. Anne Doan, who teaches as the University of Arizona, called the treatment of Castro “humiliating” and “absolutely ridiculous.”

“I was embarrassed as I watched the governor being needlessly treated like a nuclear threat, especially because they knew he had just had a treatment at Tucson Heart Hospital the day before,” Doan wrote in an opinion column in the Nogales International.” I felt he was being disrespected as a senior citizen, much less the amazing statesman that he is.”

The Border Patrol says Castro was “delayed” for only 10 minutes and that it “regrets any inconvenience” caused by the stop.

Castro was governor of Arizona from 1975-77 before serving as U.S. ambassador to Argentina from 1977-80 under President Jimmy Carter. He was U.S. ambassador to El Salvador from 1964-68 and U.S. ambassador to Bolivia from 1968-69 under Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon.

The checkpoint incident happened on June 12. Doan, the daughter of former Nogales, Ariz., Mayor Arthur Doan and a family friend of the Castros, was driving Raul Castro from his home in the border town of Nogales to a luncheon in Tucson, about 70 miles north, to celebrate his 96th birthday.

Their car was stopped at a Border Patrol checkpoint on Interstate 19 near Tubac, Ariz., about 24 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border, after triggering a radiation sensor. Castro had a medical procedure for his heart and pacemaker the day before and he believes that’s what set off the sensor.

…

Doan continued: “They just kept humiliating him, I felt. They never asked me who I was. I was driving the car and they never asked me for my name, my ID. Why they didn’t they ask me, if there was a nuclear threat in that car?”

Doan and Castro estimated they were held up for more than 30 minutes.

“When we were leaving he (Castro) said, ‘Well at least they didn’t send me to Cuba,’” Doan said. (The Mexican-born Castro is not related to the Cuban president of the same name.)

At least he has a sense of humor. Click on the title to read more (from MSNBC).

(Source: fylatinamericanhistory)

denverpost:

PHOTOS: Waldo Canyon fire aerial photos by Denver Post staff

Aerial photos, Thursday June 28, 2012, of the Waldo Canyon fire in Colorado Springs shows the destructive path of the fire in Mountain Shadows Subdivision area.

(via thepoliticalfreakshow)

think-progress:

More details at ThinkProgress

(via newwavefeminism)

shortformblog:

Check your e-mail: Facebook may have changed it without asking

You might want to check your Timeline, and make sure that your listed email address(s) is the one you actually use. Without warning, or apparent reason outside of possibly trying to force Facebook e-mail adoption, the social networking giant altered many users’ profiles to display the Facebook e-mail address they’ve never used, which redirect to a user’s inbox and chat functionality. The company has not released any information on the change, and has yet to acknowledge what happened. Either way, now might be a good time to review the information you have posted, particularly if you run a business or want to ensure your privacy. source

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(via thepoliticalfreakshow)