Lord Baden-Powell, inventor of the Boy Scouts: Would you entrust your burgeoning lad to this man? Would you want your burgeoning lad anywhere near this man?"President Obama praised the Boy Scouts of America's decision to lift its ban on openly gay youth, but added he hopes the organization will take further action to allow openly gay Scout leaders, according to the White House." "Allowing gay scouts but not adult scout leaders . . . was a step backward, because it reinforced the most vile stereotypes and misconceptions deliberately peddled by anti-gay activists." by KenThe president's take on yesterday's vote by the Boy Scouts of America overturning the ban on membership by openly gay boys but maintaining the ban on openly gay Scout leaders, is the moderate middle-of-the-road position enun...

The Seraphim LP issue of the c1961 Colin Davis disc of Mozart overtures I keep going on about, as in this July 2012 previewby KenI've spent a lot of time and effort trying to find a path into Mozart's two mature efforts to resurrect the opera seria, Ideomeneo and La Clemenza di Tito. Though the operas themselves remain for me massive expenditures of genius effort which came to not a whole lot, I love both overtures with an abiding passion. What's more, in the case of the Clemenza Overture in particular, when I finally saw the opera in the flesh for the first time, I was surprised by how effective a theatrical overture it was. If only what followed had lived up to that promise.MOZART: Idomeneo, K. 366: OvertureMOZART: La Clemenza di Tito, K. 621: OvertureRoyal Philharmonic Orchestra, Colin ...

Rep. Mike McIntyre (D-NC) told North Carolina television station WECT that he's unhappy the Boy Scouts of America lifted its ban on gay youth. "I'm very disappointed," McIntyre said. "I know my church has a long history of producing Eagle Scouts including my son and I know that many organizations that sponsor scouting are quite concerned about that and did not feel like it was an appropriate step. I know I'm concerned about it and did not think it was an appropriate step." McIntyre is a member of the Blue Dog Coalition, which is identified on its website as a group of "fiscally conservative Democrats that are deeply committed to the financial stability and national security of the United States and dedicated to finding bipartisan solutions to the nation's biggest challenges." The congres...

By Agence France-PresseFriday, May 24, 2013 21:00 EDT   Like Raw Story on FacebookTweetWhen Michael Adebolajo was filmed clutching the bloodied knives he apparently used to butcher a soldier, Britons were chilled by the strong London accent in which he spoke of his Islamist motives. How could one of their own have become so radicalised? A picture is slowly emerging of the 28-year-old, one of two men of Nigerian descent who were shot by police shortly after soldier Lee Rigby was hacked to death on a London stree...

By Arturo GarciaFriday, May 24, 2013 21:14 EDT   Like Raw Story on FacebookTweet An activist whose two-year prison sentence is the focus of a new documentary outlined the difference between “climate justice” and environmentalism for Bill Moyers on Friday. “We don’t want Walmart to be a greener, corporate citizen,” Tim DeChristopher said on Moyers & Company. “We want Walmart to be subservient to human interests. We don’t think corporations should be masters of men. And you know, that’s really, that’s the di...

By Agence France-PresseFriday, May 24, 2013 21:45 EDT   Like Raw Story on FacebookTweetA Zambian truck driver who was forced to kick, bite and stab his way from the clutches of a giant python, said Friday he was lucky to be alive. Kelvin Katoka, 25, unknowingly ran into the giant snake, while driving his excavator in the bush at a copper mine in north western Zambia. “Within no time, the python was all over my body and it then threw me on the ground,” he told AFP by phone from his hospital bed, where he has bee...

By Arturo GarciaFriday, May 24, 2013 22:12 EDT   Like Raw Story on FacebookTweet The stars of the classic Pac-Man video game series get a noir makeover in a new video parody by animator Chris Weller. “Goodnight Sweet Pakman” begins with a sweet moment between Mr. & Mrs. Pac-Man before the stakes are dramatically raised, as Blinky, Inky, Pinky and Clyde — now not just floating beasties but hitghosts armed to the (metaphorical) teeth — come tearing down their block guns a-blazing, literally. Of course, the c...

By Agence France-PresseFriday, May 24, 2013 22:30 EDT   Like Raw Story on FacebookTweetAn explosive comparison made by a liberal Russian politician between Stalin’s agents and Hitler’s secret police has provoked a storm of abusive criticism in Russia that has been tinged by anti-Semitism. The controversy erupted when anti-Kremlin liberal politician Leonid Gozman, who is himself Jewish, criticised a television series aired on the May 9 World War II victory day about Stalin’s counter-intelligence police Smersh. G...

By The Christian Science MonitorFriday, May 24, 2013 22:47 EDT   Like Raw Story on FacebookTweet[Image by Ryan Somma via Flickr Creative Commons]     ...

By Agence France-PresseFriday, May 24, 2013 23:15 EDT   Like Raw Story on FacebookTweetA British zoo worker mauled in a tiger attack has died of her injuries, police said Saturday. Sarah McClay, 24, was attacked Friday in the big cats enclosure at South Lakes Wild Animal Park in Dalton-in-Furness, northwest England. The woman, who is from the local area, was flown by air ambulance to a hospital where she later died. Cumbria Constabulary police force and the local authorities are investigating the circumstances ...

By Arturo GarciaFriday, May 24, 2013 23:30 EDT   Like Raw Story on FacebookTweet President Barack Obama addressed the rash of sexual assault criminal cases against U.S. military servicemembers on Friday, exhorting the graduating class at the Naval Academy to do better. “Those who commit sexual assault are not only committing a crime, they threaten the trust and discipline that makes our military strong,” Obama said during the annual naval commencement ceremony in Annapolis, Maryland. “That’s why we have to be ...

By Arturo GarciaSaturday, May 25, 2013 0:08 EDT   Like Raw Story on FacebookTweet Rachel Maddow examined what she described as a spectacle on Friday behind the three candidates picked by Virginia Republicans through an unusual set of circumstances. “Heading into the November election, Virginia Republicans may look like a slow-motion disaster,” Maddow said. “But Virginia Republicans hand-picked all these guys. Maybe they don’t see these guys as a problem.” At the top of the ticket, she explained, is current sta...

By Ian Sample, The GuardianSaturday, May 25, 2013 1:31 EDT   Like Raw Story on FacebookTweetLight from TVs, computers, tablets and smartphones may disrupt sleep and raise risk of obesity, heart disease and depression Watching TV or using computers, tablets or smartphones after dark may cause sleep loss and resultant health problems, a leading doctor has warned. Peering at brightly lit screens at night disrupts the body’s natural rhythms and raises the risk of medical conditions linked to poor sleep, including o...

To commemorate Memorial Day, which is Monday, DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz released the following statement: “This Memorial Day, we are reminded once again of the great commitment and sacrifice of all those who’ve given their lives in service to our country. Since our nation was founded, brave Americans have answered the call to serve, doing so with honor and pride. We owe an immeasurable debt of gratitude to those who have devoted their lives and made the ultimate sacrifice to protect our way of life and ensure we live in a free and prosperous America. “On Memorial Day, while we honor those who have died in service, we are also reminded of the families who mourn for loved ones lost while serving in our Armed Forces. We must remain committed to these husbands and wives and sons a...

by Brad Johnson, campaign manager for Forecast the Facts The nearly $300 million climate-resiliency initiative established by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg using Sandy relief funds will not address climate pollution, according to a city official. The New York City Special Initiative for Rebuilding and Resiliency (SIRR), formed in November 2012, will release a report this month indicating how $294 million in federal funding from the Superstorm Sandy relief act should be spent to increase the city’s “climate resiliency.” The report “will present policy recommendations, infrastructure priorities, and community plans, and identify sources of long-term funding” in addition to the emergency federal funds — but it apparently will not include an accounting of the carbon footprint of that ...

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH)House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) said on Wednesday that he does not think there needs to be a special select committee to investigate the Obama administration’s handing of the terror attacks in Benghazi, Libya last year. Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) is leading the House Republican effort for a select committee and Boehner has said in the past that the lower chamber’s established committees can handle Benghazi oversight. On Fox News Wednesday night, the Ohio Republican, despite pressure from his own caucus, said he continues to stand by that position: HOST GRETA VAN SUSTEREN: Would you be in favor of a select committee at this point to try to sort of narrow it, so it’s not several committees that are doing this investigation? BOEHNER: Four committees that are h...

In 2012, more people subject to the New York Police Department’s controversial stop-and-frisks were arrested for marijuana than for anything else, according to a new analysis by the New York Civil Liberties Union. While NYPD’s stated purpose for its aggressive and racially disproportionate stop-and-frisk program is to target guns, the number of people arrested for marijuana was more than six times the number of guns recovered. While 729 guns were recovered, 5,000 people were arrested for marijuana. Overall, more than 26,000 people were stopped for marijuana possession. The marijuana arrest rate is particularly alarming because only “public view” possession of marijuana is a crime in New York City. It is reportedly a common practice to ask suspects to take everything out of their pockets a...

Commodity Futures Trading Commissioner Mark Wetjen Three years after Congress passed sweeping reforms of Wall Street, the industry has successfully widened a variety of cracks in the Dodd-Frank law. But credit for the industry’s success at watering down the landmark legislation doesn’t just go to well-heeled lobbyists – regulators and lawmakers are helping. The New York Times’s Dealbook blog reports this morning on the most predictable sort of industry subversion of the law’s intent: Citigroup essentially wrote a bill that would keep taxpayers on the hook for banks’ bets on the complex, high-stakes financial products known as derivatives. The derivatives market was central to the financial collapse. Added together, the total on-paper value of the derivatives bets outstanding in 2010 was ro...

Back in 2004, in a video addressed to the American people, Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden described his “bleed until bankruptcy” strategy. “All that we have to do is to send two Mujahedin to the farthest point east to raise a piece of cloth on which is written al-Qaeda in order to make the generals race there to cause America to suffer human economic and political losses without their achieving for it anything of note other than some benefits to their private companies,” bin Laden taunted. “So we are continuing this policy in bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy.” The twin goals of this strategy were to drain the U.S. of resources by baiting it into expensive, open-ended military interventions like those in Iraq and Afghanistan, with the resulting anger over those interventions cau...

A Human Rights Watch (HRW) study released this week found that 85,000 immigrants were prosecuted for illegal entry or re-entry in 2013. The three main reasons that HRW found for illegal entry or re-entry were “to seek work, to reunite with family…, or to flee violence or sometimes persecution abroad.” Illegal entry is a misdemeanor punishable with a maximum six-month jail sentence, but illegal re-entrants can receive sentences that vary between two years and twenty years for immigrants who have prior aggravated felonies. The study recommends that immigration violators to be given criminal charges only when they are convicted for serious, violent felonies. Desperation to reunite with family often drives immigrants to risk death and attempt border crossings. The sobering reality of why ille...

The Yale Project on Climate Change Communication and George Mason University released their most recent survey this week: The Yale survey, “Public Support for Climate and Energy Policies in April 2013,” dates back to 2008 and is an important barometer for public opinion on clean energy and climate issues. In general, the year’s survey finds that support for prioritizing clean energy remains high, albeit with a recent dip, due in part to the increasing polarization of the American electorate. Still, strong majorities support renewable energy and regulation carbon dioxide as a pollutant. Here is more from what’s in the report, by the numbers: 87 percent say President Obama and Congress should make developing sources of clean energy a priority. While there are some programs at the federal l...

The 104-year-old Anna Louise Inn in Cincinnati, Ohio, has long provided a refuge for women struggling to overcome drug addictions or prostitution, escape abusive husbands, or simply get back on their feet. When Western & Southern Insurance Group initially approached them with plans to purchase the safe house several years ago and turn it into a hotel, the Anna Louise declined. Western & Southern sued over a zoning issue, and, after a costly 2-year legal battle, the Fortune 500 company finally bought the house last week for $4 million. The insurance company initially sued to keep the Anna Louise from using a windfall of tax credits to renovate the home. The federal low-income housing credits required the Anna Louise to use the funds over 30 years, finally giving the struggling hous...

Black passengers trying to hail a cab in the District of Columbia are 25 percent less likely to get picked up, according to a hidden camera investigation by local DC news program WUSA 9. Over the course of three weeks, WUSA 9 anchors examined almost 100 taxis on Saturday night between 6:00 pm and 2:00 am. Anchors followed several black customers, both actors and real people, as they tried to hail a cab around DC. Of those passengers who were picked up, the investigation revealed that white customers got a cab in as little as 15 seconds, while black passengers sometimes waited for almost 15 minutes. In a few cases, black passengers were ejected from the cab in favor of white passengers, or because the cab wouldn’t go to the black person’s destination. Watch it: (HT: Huffington Post) ...

Well, this video by comedian Rachel Bloom is pretty wonderful. And it’s a reminder that the next time someone complains about the brutality in Game of Thrones, you can always tell them that torturing Theon Greyjoy may be unpleasant, but at least Westeros isn’t constantly getting wiped out by plagues: Original linkOriginal author: Alyssa Rosenberg

Arguing that Michigan women should be forced to buy separate insurance coverage for abortion services, even in the cases of rape or incest, a prominent anti-choice leader in the state claimed that paying extra money to terminate a pregnancy resulting from rape is the same thing as paying extra money for car insurance. Right to Life of Michigan is currently pushing to prohibit the state’s insurance providers from covering elective abortion services, which would force women to pay additional money to purchase a separate insurance rider to terminate a pregnancy. If the group collects enough signatures, the issue will appear on the 2014 state ballot. This week, when reporters asked Right to Life president Barbara Listing why the proposed insurance ban doesn’t include an exception for rape or ...

China and Iran have shared a position as cyber-bogeymen over the past year, but a new report from the Wall Street Journal about Iranian infiltration of U.S. energy firms shows why their cyber-assaults could pose a greater immediate threat to U.S. national security. While China pursues aggressive cyber-espionage campaigns against major U.S. companies and news sources, Iranian-backed hackers are more overtly hostile — targeting critical infrastructure vulnerable to sabotage or engaging in disruptive economic actions, like when Iranian-backed hackers leveraged data centers to wage a massive distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack against financial institutions. From a strategic standpoint, the differences between the Chinese and Iranian strategies make sense. The Chinese government is in...

Fast food workers strike in New York (Credit: Salon)Workers in the service industry have taken action against their large employers, conducting walk out strikes in six cities, the latest on Tuesday in Washington, DC. Fast food workers are now also speaking out about the abuses they say they have experienced on the job. A new Tumblr that started on May 14 called “fast food crime wave” depicts workers holding handwritten signs with messages about employer abuses. Common complaints include having to pay when the register is short, being denied overtime pay or working off the clock, and not being allowed to take any breaks. One woman pointed out that she doesn’t get a break even though she’s pregnant: A man who appears to work at Domino’s says he’s only paid $5.65 an hour, below minimum wage:...

The National Organization for Marriage has joined other anti-gay conservatives in condemning the Boy Scouts of America for voting to allow gay Scouts. The statement from Brian Brown notably does not mention the word marriage — despite the group’s mission — and also reveals how NOM buys into hackneyed stereotypes about gay people and people of faith: BROWN: Today is a sad day for the Boy Scouts of America. They have succumbed to political pressure and abandoned their historic roots in what will prove to be a failed attempt to appease gay activists and corporate donors. Unfortunately, what they have done is said to the world that their oath no longer means much. Their decision to admit openly gay scouts will end up sexualizing the organization. I am certain that having changed their policy o...

Following CAP’s piece yesterday that details exactly what it means to use gasoline to travel this Memorial Day weekend, here is an infographic that shows the cost of Big Oil. Gas prices are rising in the Midwest and spot crude oil prices for the West Texas Intermediate benchmark is nearly $5 per barrel higher than last year at this time. The oil industry uses high prices to make big profits, spends them to keep their tax breaks, and then pushes for more dirty, unconventional oil like Canadian tar sands — which will not have any impact on gasoline prices. Original linkOriginal author: Andrew Breiner

Bob FitzSimmonds and Ken Cuccinelli IIRepublican Party of Virginia Treasurer Bob FitzSimmonds, a former aide to and “very close friend” of gubernatorial nominee Ken Cuccinelli II (R), told Virginia blogger Ben Tribbett that he is “not a big fan of contraception, frankly.” FitzSimmonds — who was Cuccinelli’s legislative director during his time in the Virginia Senate, as well as a multiple-time state senate candidate himself — is the former executive director of what is now the Care Net Pregnancy Help Center and the former chair of the Virginia Crisis Pregnancy Center Directors Association. Crisis Pregnancy Centers are faith-based operations that seek to discourage pregnant women from considering abortion. He created an abstinence-only curriculum for area schools called the “Keep It Simple...