Rags 'n' Bones

22:13 20th May 2013

Notes: 4279

A Health Ministry inspector poured bleach over pots full of food in a Sudanese restaurant in Tel Aviv Sunday night.

The inspector, from the ministry’s district office for Tel Aviv, was participating in a raid by police and municipal inspectors on illegal businesses owned by African migrants. Altogether, the raid shut down 10 businesses in the city’s Neveh Sha’anan neighborhood, confiscating their equipment and welding the doors shut. The equipment was then loaded onto vans by other African migrants who had been hired as contract workers.

Many diners saw the inspector pouring bleach on the food, and one, asylum-seeker Aladin Abaker from Sudan’s Darfur region, posted photos of the incident on his Facebook page. He also described his feelings of humiliation.

“Everyone − except the destroyers − was in tears from the humiliation,” he wrote. “The waitress told us, ‘I’ve seen very harsh things in my life, like torture in Sinai, but this humiliated me more than what happened to me in Sinai.”

Abaker accused the inspector of “insensitivity to people and their culture, which sees food as a sacred thing that must be respected,” and said the raid was aimed at “embittering our lives so we’ll return to Africa ‘voluntarily.’”

Altogether, he said, more than 200 kilograms of meat, chicken and fish and over 500 prepared meals were destroyed.

The inspectors said they didn’t know where the meat came from and therefore feared for the diners’ health, Abaker wrote. “We told them: But this is the only place we’ve eaten all our meals for four years now, and none of us ever had stomach problems. Even whites eat here.”

The Health Ministry responded that inspectors had discovered “deplorable sanitary conditions, food stored under unsuitable conditions and temperatures, and food from unknown sources. In order to preserve the public’s health and that of the diners themselves, it was decided to destroy the food immediately. As part of the process of destroying the food, chemicals suitable to this purpose are used. It should be noted that this was a routine process of food destruction that is no different from other destructions of food/meat.”

Tel Aviv’s deputy city manager, Ruby Zelof, said the raids were carried out “to eradicate the undesirable phenomenon of businesses operating illegally, with sanitation and safety problems and illegal connections to electricity and water, and sales of alcoholic beverages without permits.”

Haaretz | Photo credit: Aladin Abaker

Israel is deporting Africans and also planning to put tens of thousands into detention camps.

Knesset Member Miri Regev — a member of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Likud Party — called the refugees “a cancer in our body” and Danny Danon — also a Likud Knesset Member — wrote on his Facebook page referring to the Africans as “infiltrators”. Interior Minister Eli Yishai said the African asylum seekers threaten “the Zionist dream,” adding, “Jobs will root them here.”

See also:

Why is the birth rate in Israel’s Ethiopian community declining? Ethiopian women who immigrated to Israel were coaxed into agreeing to injections of long-acting birth control drugs, or told they would not be allowed into the country

Israeli woman has her photo taken with Africans, titles the Facebook album: “Late night tour of the Tel Aviv Safari”, captions the photo: “There are no signs forbidding taking pictures with the animals. There were no signs that forbid feeding, but we passed on that.”

10:01

Notes: 10

Reblogged from nezua

"Star Trek Into Darkness": Too many dicks on the Enterprise

nezua:

“In 2009’s Star Trek, JJ Abrams successfully made the effort to appeal to new viewers as well as dyed-in-the-wool Trekkies. This time round, he seems to be going further afield— and alienating the original fanbase entirely.

The publicity for Into Darkness has been solidly high school: Don’t worry—it may be Star Trek, but it’s not for nerds anymore! In an interview with Jon Stewart this week, Abrams made it very clear that he’d never liked the show as a kid, because it was “too philosophical.” “I stopped listening when you said you didn’t like Star Trek,” Stewart joked. “I saw your mouth moving, so I assume you apologized.”

—-

It is a bit offensive to me that a man is going to go out of his way to disembowel the spirit of such a long running and popular show. Also he just sounds kind of like a dick himself—his take on the characters and the messaging of the original show is juvenile.

I don’t understand how you can not care for the philosophical elements of Star Trek…but still claim to love Star Trek. These kinds of searching themes have always been an integral part of the show’s script.

I used to love the show when I was like six years old (1975) and I would watch it after All in the Family. Even as a young boy, I always loved that very element. How Kirk could outsmart and destroy robots by twisting logic back on itself; how so many of the central dilemmas revolve around conundrum and conflict that needed to be thought through and ultimately revealed enlightening and or bizarre truths about the universe.

How could you not like that? And if you don’t, why would you direct a Star Trek film? Go make a big titty, car crashy, male-bonding, blow em up flick, if that’s your yen. Leave Star Trek’s socially-subversive (though admittedly imperialist and colonialist), intelligent soul alone.

22:02 19th May 2013

I just unlocked the Star Trek Into Darkness Box Office sticker on GetGlue

872 others have also unlocked the Star Trek Into Darkness Box Office sticker on GetGlue.com

Beyond darkness lies greatness. Thank you for seeing Star Trek Into Darkness in theaters and for checking-in. Share this one proudly. It’s from our friends at Paramount Pictures.

21:36 18th May 2013

I just unlocked the My Goatee is Happy sticker on GetGlue

4713 others have also unlocked the My Goatee is Happy sticker on GetGlue.com

It’s YouTube Comedy Week. Tune-in at YouTube.com/ComedyWeek and watch the funniest, most epic and culturally significant comedy acts on the Internet. Share this one proudly. It’s from our friends at YouTube.

22:18 17th May 2013

I just unlocked the Superfan sticker on GetGlue

271089 others have also unlocked the Superfan sticker on GetGlue.com

You’re a Superfan! That’s a like and 15 check-ins!

21:35

Notes: 109

Reblogged from howtobeterrell

image: Download

blackcontemporaryart:

Joe Overstreet
The New Jemima, 1964

21:15

Notes: 13929

Reblogged from howtobeterrell

image: Download

(Source: westcoastchris)

20:28

Notes: 65

Reblogged from flipyeahrichardayoade

British cult hit ‘The IT Crowd’ to return for finale special | EW.com

funsizenightmare:

WHY DIDN’T ANYBODY TELL ME ABOUT THIS

yessssssss!

13:30 16th May 2013

Notes: 31

Reblogged from sinidentidades

Nursing home chain accused of billing gov't for excess care, holding patients against their will

sinidentidades:

Each year, Americans spend hundreds of billions of dollars on unnecessary medical tests and treatments. It’s one reason why health care costs are so high.

In recent months, “CBS This Morning” has been looking into the rehab practices of Life Care Centers of America. It is the third largest nursing home chain in the country, with more than 30,000 beds in 28 states.

Half-a-dozen former employees tell “CTM” that the company is giving patients rehab they don’t need, and billing the government for money they’re not entitled to.

“The mission statement that they have is no longer true, which is to serve their residents in a Christian based atmosphere,” says Helen Toomey, a former assistant manager and speech therapist at the company’s Plymouth, Mass., facility.

Among other services, Life Care provides speech and physical therapy. But Toomey, who worked at multiple Life Care locations between 1998 and 2012, says by the time she left, 40 percent of the work she was being told to administer was not reasonable or necessary. “They felt that no one was watching them and so every patient that came through the building they could charge the highest rate of reimbursement, regardless of their diagnosis or need.”

Toomey says it got so bad that she resigned. But on her way out, she took some patient notes with her. She says they show how Life Care would not let patients leave, so the company could continue to bill Medicare. On Dec. 30, 2011, for example, they indicate that Toomey tried to discharge four patients. All four of those requests were denied. She provided a copy of the notes to “CTM.”

13:00

Notes: 62656

Reblogged from theprophetlilith

image: Download

biyuti:

pyrrhiccomedy:

milk-chiller2:

Reminder of: reason for eggplant’s name

OH MY GOD I HAVE WONDERED ABOUT THIS MY WHOLE LIFE

everything suddenly makes sense… (fuck I love eggplant…)

12:57

Notes: 1

Tags: substitute teaching bad teachers wow

Adventures in subbing:

On Tuesday I started my day in a class of 2nd graders and their teacher introduced them to me by telling me who all the “bad” ones who “get on her nerves” were.

She told me the worst ones were in the back of the classroom so they were as far away from her as possible and wouldn’t “annoy her.”

She huffed and said “this is what it’s ALWAYS like” and yelled at students to sit down and be quiet when they jumped up trying to be helpful.

When I introduced myself (as I always do) as “Ms. Smith, or <first name>, whatever you’re comfortable with” she interrupted me after my first name and snapped “No; MS. SMITH”.

At the end of the period when she asked how they were while she was gone (and prefaced it with like a “see what I mean about them??” kind of thing) and I told her they were good overall, she rolled her eyes.

I had to bite my tongue not to tell her it was time she should retire.

12:48

Notes: 21

Reblogged from sinidentidades

Victory for Seattle Teachers’ Testing Boycott: High School MAP Test Optional Next Year - COLORLINES

sinidentidades:

Four months after staging a boycott against their own school district’s testing regime, Seattle high school teachers and their student and parent supporters have won a huge victory. On Monday Seattle Superintendent Jose Banda announced that come the next school year, the controversial Measures of Academic Progress test will no longer be a required high school assessment, the Seattle Times reported.

Banda’s decision was informed by the recommendations of a specially assembled task force formed to deal with the fallout of the testing boycott, which began with teachers at Garfield High School in Seattle, and ultimately spread to five area high schools altogether. Some 600 students refused to take the assessment, which teachers, parents and students said was a waste of precious instructional time which tied up library and computer labs for weeks on end. Educators demanded that the district scrap the twice yearly administered test, but all other schools in the district must continue to give the test. And high schools must come up with their own assessments for students.

The Seattle teacher testing boycott is but one pocket of the resistance to high-stakes tests. Part of the resistance is a reaction to new state educational standards which have given rise to yet more new testing regimes, but much of it is a reflection of educators, parents, students and now lawmakers who are sick of overtesting. Check out Erin Zipper’s infographic mapping the backlash to high-stakes tests.

12:41

Notes: 4

Reblogged from childrenofthewildone

childrenofthewildone:

I feel very conflicted watching Firefly because Mal is awesome, but the first place I saw Nathan Fillion was as Caleb on Buffy and I just hated him so much.

Frankly you might want to watch Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-long Blog first then. If there’s anything that will get you to reframe Nathan Fillion in your head it’s him as Captain Hammer. Mal will be easy after that….