Tuesday, November 18, 2014


News Clips For The Day


Three U.S. citizens killed in deadly attack on Jerusalem synagogue
CBS/AP November 18, 2014, 1:36 AM

JERUSALEM -- Two Palestinians stormed a Jerusalem synagogue on Tuesday, attacking worshippers praying inside with meat cleavers and a gun, and killing four people before they were killed in a shootout with police, officials said.

Three of the victims -- Aryeh Kopinsky, Calman Levine, Moshe Twersky -- were dual American-Israeli citizens, a police official confirmed to CBS News. The fourth, Avraham Shmuel Goldberg, was a dual British-Israeli citizen. All four were also rabbis.

It was the deadliest attack in Jerusalem in years and was bound to ratchet up fears of sustained violence in the city, already on edge amid soaring tensions over a contested holy site.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that Israel will "respond harshly" to the attack, describing it as a "cruel murder of Jews who came to pray and were killed by despicable murderers." U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said he spoke to Netanyahu after the assault and denounced it as an "act of pure terror and senseless brutality and violence."

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the attack on the Kehilot Yaakov synagogue in the Har Nof neighborhood, the first time he has done so since a recent spike in deadly violence against Israelis began. He also called for an end to Israeli "provocations" surrounding the sacred site.

In a statement, Abbas' office said he "condemns the killing of the worshippers in a synagogue in west Jerusalem." The statement called for an end to the "invasion" of the mosque at the holy site and a halt to "incitement" by Israeli ministers.

The attack was the deadliest in Jerusalem since a Palestinian assailant killed eight students at a Jewish seminar in March 2008.

Police spokeswoman Luba Samri identified the assailants as Ghassan and Oday Abu Jamal from the Jabal Mukaber neighborhood in east Jerusalem, the section of the city captured by Israel in 1967 and claimed by the Palestinians as their capital.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a militant group, said the cousins were its members. A PFLP statement did not specify whether the group instructed the cousins to carry out the attack.

Hamas, the militant Palestinian group that runs the Gaza Strip, praised the attack. In Gaza, dozens took to the streets to celebrate, with some offering trays full of candy. In the southern town of Rafah, women and schoolchildren waved green Hamas flags and a loudspeaker praised the attack.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said six people were also wounded in the attack, including two police officers. Four of the wounded were reported in serious condition. He said police were searching the area for other suspects.

Associated Press footage from the scene showed the synagogue, in Jerusalem's ultra-Orthodox Har Nof neighborhood, surrounded by police and rescue workers following the attack.

Wounded worshippers were being assisted by paramedics and a bloodied meat cleaver lay near the scene of the attack. Initially, police had described the weapons used as knives and axes.

Both Palestinian and Israel leaders have accused each other of fueling the recent spate of violence with confrontational rhetoric.

"I tried to escape. The man with the knife approached me. There was a chair and table between us ... my prayer shawl got caught. I left it there and escaped," Yossi, who was praying at the synagogue at the time of the attack, told Israeli Channel 2 TV. He declined to give his last name.

Yosef Posternak, who was at the synagogue at the time of the attack, told Israel Radio that about 25 worshippers were inside when the attackers entered.

"I saw people lying on the floor, blood everywhere. People were trying to fight with (the attackers) but they didn't have much of a chance," he said.

A photo in Israeli media from inside the synagogue showed what appeared to be a body on the floor draped in a prayer shawl, with blood smattered nearby.

Police spokeswoman Luba Samri said the attackers were Palestinians from east Jerusalem, which has been the scene of relentless clashes between Israeli police and Palestinian protesters in recent months. She identified the assailants as Ghassan and Oday Abu Jamal from the Jabal Mukaber neighborhood.

Soon after the attack, clashes broke out outside the Abu Jamals' home where dozens of police had gathered to carry out arrests in connection with the attack. Residents hurled stones at police who responded using riot dispersal weapons.

Neighborhood residents, speaking on condition of anonymity for fears for their own safety, said 14 members of the Abu Jamal family were arrested.

Mohammed Zahaikeh, a social activist in Jabal Mukaber, said a relative of the cousins had been released in a 2011 prisoner swap and re-arrested recently by Israeli police. He did not say why.

The attack comes amid spiking tensions in Jerusalem, which has seen a spate of attacks by Palestinians against Israelis. At least six people have been killed in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Tel Aviv in recent weeks, prior to Tuesday's casualties.

Jerusalem residents have already been fearful of what appeared to be lone wolf attacks using cars or knives against pedestrians. But Tuesday's early morning attack on a synagogue harkened back to the gruesome attacks during the Palestinian uprising of the last decade.

Israel's police chief said Tuesday's attack was likely not organized by militant groups, similar to other recent incidents, making it more difficult for security forces to prevent the violence.

"These are individuals who decide to do horrible acts. It's very hard to know ahead of time about every such incident," Yohanan Danino told reporters at the scene.

Tensions appeared to have been somewhat defused last week following a meeting by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Jordan's King Abdullah II in Jordan. The meeting was an attempt to restore calm after months of violent confrontations surrounding a sacred shrine holy to both Jews and Muslims. Israel and the Palestinians said then they would take steps to reduce tensions that might lead to an escalation.

In his statement, Netanyahu blamed the violence on incitement by both Hamas and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and said the international community ignores the incitement.

Kerry blamed the attack on Palestinian calls for "days of rage," and said Palestinian leaders must take serious steps to refrain from such incitement. He also urged Palestinian leaders to condemn the attack "in the most powerful terms."

"Innocent people who had come to worship died in the sanctuary of a synagogue. They were hatcheted, hacked and murdered in that holy place in an act of pure terror and senseless brutality and murder," Kerry said.

The FBI routinely investigates attacks abroad in which U.S. citizens are killed and is expected to be involved in this investigation as well, a U.S. official in Washington said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak on the record about the investigation.

British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, speaking alongside Kerry, also condemned the violence.

Hamas' statement praised the synagogue attack, saying it was a "response to continued Israeli crimes, the killing, desecrating al-Aqsa (mosque)," a reference to a recent incident at the holy site.

Abbas, at a meeting later with security officials, called for calm.

"We call for a complete calm and a halt to all these attacks to enable us to move ahead with our political work," he said, according to the Palestinian official Wafa news agency.

Much of the recent violence stems from tensions surrounding the Jerusalem holy site referred to by Jews as the Temple Mount because of the Jewish temples that stood there in biblical times. It is the most sacred place in Judaism; Muslims refer to it as the Noble Sanctuary, and it is their third holiest site, after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia.

The site is so holy that Jews have traditionally refrained from going there, instead praying at the adjacent Western Wall. Israel's chief rabbis have urged people not to ascend to the area, but in recent years, a small but growing number of Jews, including ultranationalist lawmakers, have begun regularly visiting the site, a move seen as a provocation.




“The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a militant group, said the cousins were its members. A PFLP statement did not specify whether the group instructed the cousins to carry out the attack. Hamas, the militant Palestinian group that runs the Gaza Strip, praised the attack. In Gaza, dozens took to the streets to celebrate, with some offering trays full of candy. In the southern town of Rafah, women and schoolchildren waved green Hamas flags and a loudspeaker praised the attack.”

And so the war of illicit actions on both sides goes on, this time with mayhem and bloodshed. Interestingly the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the attack, but he also criticized the Israeli “provocations.” It's just like the Hatfields and the McCoys in West Virginia and Kentucky, USA. The US should withdraw support of the Israelis until they stop incursions into Palestinian territory and recognize them as a nation. The Palestinians, meanwhile, cry out piteously about the Israelis and commit one attack after another on Israeli citizens. With vengeance as the only justice, I'm getting tired of reading about it on both sides. I think I will stop clipping these stories until they make some honest progress toward peace and mutual fairness.






Can Saudi Arabia keep ISIS out?
By HOLLY WILLIAMS CBS NEWS
November 17, 2014, 8:15 PM

The U.S. military said Monday coalition forces conducted more than 30 airstrikes against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) since Friday. That coalition includes Saudi Arabia.

The Saudis are desperate to keep what's happening in Iraq from happening in their country. CBS News was given an extraordinary look at what they're doing.

We flew over the Arabian Desert to see the new, 600-mile long border fence that's protecting Saudi Arabia from ISIS. On the other side is the chaos of Iraq, where ISIS is waging a brutal war.

The Saudis are using radar and infrared cameras to make sure it doesn't spill across the frontier.

However, the impressive border fence may not be enough to keep ISIS out of Saudi Arabia because hundreds of young Saudi men are fighting with ISIS in Iraq and Syria.
Saudi officials fear that, like al Qaeda before it, ISIS will radicalize Saudis, who'll then target their own government.

Saudi officials took us to the maximum security prison where they hold convicted terrorists. "Some of them are coming from Syria, some from Iraq," one Saudi official said.

And Saudi Arabia's special forces showed us their ability to repel terrorist attacks -- including plane hijackings and villages infiltrated by violent extremists.

Dozens of Saudis have blown themselves up in ISIS suicide bombs. With the explosives rigged up at a safe distance, Lt. Col. Husam Al-Shethry showed us the devastation they cause.

Gen. Mansour Al-Turki told us ISIS is a bigger threat than al Qaeda ever was.

"The reality is, they have their ambitions to have a larger area under their control," Al-Turki said. "Including Saudi Arabia, of course."

The Saudi authorities have cracked down on mosques and Muslim clerics that were radicalizing young men. But that hasn't stopped hundreds of Saudis from joining ISIS. Saudi officials told us the recruitment has moved online and claim they're sometimes powerless to stop it.




“We flew over the Arabian Desert to see the new, 600-mile long border fence that's protecting Saudi Arabia from ISIS. On the other side is the chaos of Iraq, where ISIS is waging a brutal war. The Saudis are using radar and infrared cameras to make sure it doesn't spill across the frontier. However, the impressive border fence may not be enough to keep ISIS out of Saudi Arabia because hundreds of young Saudi men are fighting with ISIS in Iraq and Syria. Saudi officials fear that, like al Qaeda before it, ISIS will radicalize Saudis, who'll then target their own government.... Gen. Mansour Al-Turki told us ISIS is a bigger threat than al Qaeda ever was. 'The reality is, they have their ambitions to have a larger area under their control,' Al-Turki said. 'Including Saudi Arabia, of course.' The Saudi authorities have cracked down on mosques and Muslim clerics that were radicalizing young men. But that hasn't stopped hundreds of Saudis from joining ISIS. Saudi officials told us the recruitment has moved online and claim they're sometimes powerless to stop it.”

Saudi Arabia is one of our strongest allies in the Middle East, and if they go under we will be in even worse danger. So far I haven't seen any articles about ISIS fighters or plots actually occurring on US soil, but that will come soon, I fear. We have had some Americans who have gone to Syria to join ISIS, and they could just as easily plot some actions here. I personally think we should send in combat troops in Syria and Iraq and also, I say again, arm the Kurds. Maybe when the Republicans take over the Senate they will vote for doing those two things.





Obama Orders Review Of U.S. Hostage Policy – NPR
Eyder Peralta
November 18, 2014

President Obama has ordered a full review of the process the United States uses to try to recover Americans taken hostage overseas.

In a recent letter to a lawmaker, Christine Wormuth, under secretary of defense for policy, said Obama ordered the review as a "result of the increased frequency of hostage-taking of Americans overseas, and the recognition of the dynamic threat posed by specific terrorist groups."

The Daily Beast first reported on the review on Tuesday, shortly after the Islamic State claimed responsibility for killing a third American, the aid worker Peter Kassig.

CNN reports that the White House said it ordered the review over the summer:

"'President Obama directed relevant departments and agencies, including the Departments of Defense and State, the FBI, and the Intelligence Community, to conduct a comprehensive review of how the U.S. government addresses these matters,' Alistar Baskey, a National Security Council spokesman wrote.

"'While we are not in a position to detail every effort or every tool we are using to try to bring American hostages home, we will continue to bring all appropriate military, intelligence, law enforcement, and diplomatic capabilities to bear to recover American hostages,' Baskey said. 'Those efforts continue every day.'"

If you remember, the family of American journalist James Foley, who was also beheaded by Islamic State militants, criticized the Obama administration's handling of his case.

"There's more that could have been done directly on Jim's behalf," James' dad, Michael Foley, said. "I really, really hope that Jim's death pushes us to take another look at our approach to terrorist and hostage negotiations."

Foley said one of the problems with U.S. protocol on hostages is that it does not negotiate with terrorists, shunning ransoms and prisoner swaps.

It is unclear whether the U.S. will rethink that position as part of this review.

ABC News reports that in a speech on Tuesday, Secretary of State John Kerry explained why the U.S. doesn't pay ransom.

"As for kidnapping, the United States has set a heart-rending but absolutely necessary example by refusing to pay ransom for captured Americans," Kerry said. "Last year the U.N. Security Council and the G8 firmly endorsed an identical policy, and all of the evidence shows that where and if a country is paid a ransom, there are many more people who are taken hostage."




“'As for kidnapping, the United States has set a heart-rending but absolutely necessary example by refusing to pay ransom for captured Americans,' Kerry said. 'Last year the U.N. Security Council and the G8 firmly endorsed an identical policy, and all of the evidence shows that where and if a country is paid a ransom, there are many more people who are taken hostage.'” I do understand the US stance on this matter. I also think that any US citizen who chooses to go into Syria and other ISIS held areas right now is running an obvious risk of being kidnapped or attacked. Teachers, health care workers, missionaries, etc. are easy targets, as they don't have a security detail protecting them, and their whereabouts and activities are easily discoverable by ISIS, al-Qaeda or other terrorist groups. I am so sorry that a very innocent American was again sacrificed at the altar of fear and hatred, but unless US forces are committed to that area and we arm the plucky Kurds with more effective weapons, we will undoubtedly continue to have such incidents. ISIS needs to be thoroughly and permanently defeated.





Toxic Tau Of Alzheimer's May Offer A Path To Treatment – NPR
Jon Hamilton
November 17, 2014

After years of setbacks, Alzheimer's researchers are sounding optimistic again. The reason: a brain protein called tau.

At this year's Society for Neuroscience meeting in Washington, D.C., there are more than 100 papers on tau, which is responsible for the tangles that form in the brains of people with Alzheimer's. In the past, tau has received less attention than another protein called amyloid beta, which causes the sticky plaques associated with Alzheimer's.

"Many people focused on amyloid beta for many years," saysJulia Gerson, a graduate student in neuroscience at the University of Texas Medical Branch, who presented a paper on tau at the neuroscience meeting. "Now it's coming out that tau might be more important."

"Clearly both are working together, conspiring if you will, to bring down cell functions and cell survival over the years as the disease unfolds," says Dr. Lennart Mucke, a neurologist who directs the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease at the University of California, San Francisco.

In the past decade, several promising drugs that merely lower amyloid have failed to stop Alzheimer's. Those failures, Mucke says, helped persuade scientists to take a closer look at tau, which has produced some surprising findings.

"Initially it was thought that tau was purely inside brain cells," he says. "But now we recognize that it can actually exist outside of cells and even transfer from one cell to the next."

The idea that tau can spread from cell to cell like an infection suggests a new way to treat Alzheimer's, Mucke says. "If we could figure out how to stop that spread, maybe one could limit the disease to just some brain regions, instead of having it go everywhere."

Some researchers are already trying to interrupt the process, using the immune system to mop up toxic forms of tau. A similar strategy has proved effective for reducing amyloid.

The closer look at tau also revealed that the protein comes in different forms. In its most common form, tau actually helps brain cells function, Gerson says. "But in disease, for various reasons that we don't entirely understand yet, it takes on this other, toxic form," she says.

This toxic tau, known as a tau oligomer, occurs not only in Alzheimer's patients but also in people with traumatic brain injury. In both groups, Gerson says, the protein appears to build up over time and lead to memory problems.

To find out more about this process, Gerson and a team of scientists injected tau oligomers from people with Alzheimer's into the brains of healthy mice. Within a week the mice developed memory problems; tissue samples showed toxic tau throughout the animals' brains. "What we believe is happening is that the toxic form [of tau] induces the healthy form in the brains of these mice to take on that toxic conformation," Gerson says.

The new research suggests that treating Alzheimer's will require drugs that affect both tau and amyloid, and perhaps other factors that are less well understood, Mucke says. That means doctors will need a lot of different tools.

"The problem," he says, "has been that the toolbox was nearly empty." Thanks to the sort of research presented at this year's neuroscience meeting, Mucke says, that toolbox is starting to fill up again.



Tau Protein
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tau proteins (or τ proteins, after the Greek letter by that name) are proteins that stabilize microtubules. They are abundant in neurons of the central nervous system and are less common elsewhere, but are also expressed at very low levels in CNS astrocytes and oligodendrocytes.[1] Pathologies and dementias of the nervous system such as Alzheimer's disease can result when tau proteins become defective and no longer stabilize microtubules properly.

The tau proteins are the product of alternative splicing from a single gene that in humans is designated MAPT (microtubule-associated protein tau).[2][3] They were discovered in 1975 inMarc Kirschner's laboratory at Princeton University.[4] Some aspects of how the disease functions also suggests that it has some similarities to prion proteins.[18]





“'Many people focused on amyloid beta for many years,' says Julia Gerson, a graduate student in neuroscience at the University of Texas Medical Branch, who presented a paper on tau at the neuroscience meeting. 'Now it's coming out that tau might be more important.'... 'Initially it was thought that tau was purely inside brain cells,' he says. 'But now we recognize that it can actually exist outside of cells and even transfer from one cell to the next.' The idea that tau can spread from cell to cell like an infection suggests a new way to treat Alzheimer's, Mucke says. 'If we could figure out how to stop that spread, maybe one could limit the disease to just some brain regions, instead of having it go everywhere.'... This toxic tau, known as a tau oligomer, occurs not only in Alzheimer's patients but also in people with traumatic brain injury. In both groups, Gerson says, the protein appears to build up over time and lead to memory problems. To find out more about this process, Gerson and a team of scientists injected tau oligomers from people with Alzheimer's into the brains of healthy mice. Within a week the mice developed memory problems; tissue samples showed toxic tau throughout the animals' brains. 'What we believe is happening is that the toxic form [of tau] induces the healthy form in the brains of these mice to take on that toxic conformation,' Gerson says.”

This article, while interesting, tells only the role of tau in causing cell degenerative disease and doesn't list attempted treatments. One other Internet article on prion diseases is concerned with research on embryonic stem cells which may enable the replacement of diseased cells with new ones. Hopefully new treatments will emerge soon, as these conditions are fairly common, and cause not merely death, but a miserable death.





http://www.salon.com/2014/11/13/pope_francis_unbridled_consumerism_will_have_destructive_consequences/


Pope Francis: “Unbridled consumerism” will have destructive consequences for the planet
Luke Brinker
THURSDAY, NOV 13, 2014 09:08 AM EST

In letter to host of upcoming G-20 summit, the pope decries free market fundamentalism

Free market fundamentalism poses a grave threat to both economic security and the health of the planet, Pope Francis warns in a letter to Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, the host of this weekend’s Group of 20 leaders’ summit in Brisbane.

The letter touches on such issues as fair taxation, hunger, unemployment, financial regulation, climate change, terrorism and poverty. Francis, leader of the globe’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics, urges leaders to remember that “many lives are at stake behind these political and technical discussions” in Brisbane. “[I]t would indeed be regrettable if such discussions were to remain purely on the level of declarations of principle,” the pope adds.

Francis outlines a turbulent state of global affairs, warning that economic insecurity and social exclusion risk violence and decrying the destructive consequences of “unbridled consumerism.”

“Throughout the world, the G20 countries included, there are far too many women and men suffering from severe malnutrition, a rise in the number of the unemployed, an extremely high percentage of young people without work and an increase in social exclusion which can lead to criminal activity and even the recruitment of terrorists,” he writes. “In addition, there are constant assaults on the natural environment, the result of unbridled consumerism, and this will have serious consequences for the world economy.”

Drawing attention to human rights challenges like the dire situation confronting religious and ethnic minorities in the Middle East, the pope writes that leaders must also acknowledge “forms of aggression that are less evident but equally real and serious.”

“I am referring specifically to abuses in the financial system such as those transactions that led to the 2008 crisis, and more generally, to speculation lacking political or juridical constraints and the mentality that maximization of profits is the final criterion of all economic activity,” he continues.

Rather than allowing the free market to go unchecked, the pope calls on leaders to place the poor and vulnerable at the heart of their agenda.

“A mindset in which individuals are ultimately discarded will never achieve peace or justice,” he writes. “Responsibility for the poor and the marginalized must therefore be an essential element of any political decision, whether on the national or the international level.”



http://www.longviewinstitute.org/projects/marketfundamentalism/marketfundamentalism

Market Fundamentalism

Longview's project on Market Fundamentalism is intended as a resource to explain what Market Fundamentalism is, examine its impact on politics and policy, and provide powerful critiques of its key arguments. We plan to keep expanding and developing this resource over time.

Market Fundamentalism—Definition
Market Fundamentalism is the exaggerated faith that when markets are left to operate on their own, they can solve all economic and social problems. Market Fundamentalism has dominated public policy debates in the United States since the 1980's, serving to justify huge Federal tax cuts, dramatic reductions in government regulatory activity, and continued efforts to downsize the government’s civilian programs. While Republicans and conservatives have embraced Market Fundamentalist ideas, many Democrats and liberals have also accepted much of this mistaken belief system.

Why is it so important to identify and challenge Market Fundamentalist ideas?

Market Fundamentalism is a huge barrier to progressive change in the United States.  Its ideas have been used to discredit taxes, regulation of business, and good quality public services. We cannot solve any of our most pressing problems—from global climate change to our dysfunctional health care system to our flawed foreign policies—as long as Market Fundamentalism restricts our policy choices.      

Over the last twenty years, progressives have usually avoided directly taking on Market Fundamentalism because it has persuaded so many people. For example, in mounting campaigns for a living wage or to increase the statewide minimum wage, progressives have made powerful moral arguments without addressing directly the question of whether markets do an adequate job of setting wage levels. The hope is that winning a concrete reform would gradually erode the public’s support for Market Fundamentalist ideas. But bad ideas don’t simply go away; they have to be challenged and defeated. 

Chipping away at Market Fundamentalist policies is important, but to win lasting victories, we need to change the way that people think about the economy.  It is important that people see the economy not as an impersonal mechanism that churns out efficient outcomes, but as a set of institutions that can be shaped to serve our needs. Unless we can change the basic assumptions that lead many people to be hostile to taxation or doubt the ability of government to provide quality services, then our political options will remain very restricted.




This article from Longview Institute is too long to clip here, but very interesting. I suggest you go to the website and read the whole thing. It certainly does sound like the American dilemma as this ultra rightist philosophy sweeps our country. Of course it's not new, but a return to the heartless and amoral principles of the old Robber Barons of the 1890's has just newly arisen to popularity with Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, and now the Tea Party. Our country needs to adjust to the inevitable need to give support to the poor, especially as their jobs have been shipped overseas to countries where labor is cheaper and increased use of high technology from computers to robots is eliminating jobs that required an intelligent human in the past. There is also the unwillingness of these rightists to raise the federal minimum wage, though a number of states lately have raised theirs.

From the Pope's letter the situation is summarized: “'I am referring specifically to abuses in the financial system such as those transactions that led to the 2008 crisis, and more generally, to speculation lacking political or juridical constraints and the mentality that maximization of profits is the final criterion of all economic activity,' he continues.... 'A mindset in which individuals are ultimately discarded will never achieve peace or justice,” he writes. “Responsibility for the poor and the marginalized must therefore be an essential element of any political decision, whether on the national or the international level.'”

One thing I noticed in the fifties and sixties as I was growing up was the utter conformity of many people and therefore the loss of respect for the individual citizen – “individuals are ultimately discarded.” There is an absolute need for government to protect the poor and the socially disenfranchised as a result. In this country we have so lost our gentler qualities that the love of our neighbor as ourselves is largely gone. If this Pope is assassinated it will be because he is standing up for the original teachings of Jesus at every turn, and the assassin will be a religious zealot and a conservative.

Unless he turns out to be a closet child molester, which is not in my opinion highly likely, he deserves to be elevated to sainthood after his death, but the conservative wing of the Catholic Church may not go that route. While I delight in the changes he is making, I fear for him. Already our American political conservatives don't like him, and some in the Catholic Church have been grumbling, too. I pray a Unitarian prayer for his safety.





"Social experiment" captures reaction to abuse
CBS NEWS November 17, 2014, 10:51 AM

A Swedish group behind a series of online gags took on the very serious topic of abusive relationships with their latest video, and the results were revealing.

The organization, called STHLM Panda, says it routinely does "social experiments, joking with people and documenting the society we live in," but they were left disappointed by their latest experiment, for which they put a hidden camera in an elevator and had actors portray a couple in an abusive relationship.

In total, 53 members of the public rode the elevator as the male actor pretended to verbally and physically abuse his partner.

Konrad Ydhage, one of the actors and people behind STHLM Panda, said before the experiment, he expected about half of the people who witnessed the behavior to try and intervene, or at least to say something.

But of the 53, only one woman spoke up, warning the man, "I'm gonna call the police if you touch her again."

"We were expecting that about 50% would intervene," Ydhage told Britain's "The Guardian" newspaper. I was prepared to take a hit by the bigger lads who entered the lift. But sadly enough they walked out on the girl."

Nobody else tried to intervene on the woman's behalf. One woman who rode the elevator even seemed keen to leave the couple to it.

"I'm here, too. Please let me get off first," she said.




“In total, 53 members of the public rode the elevator as the male actor pretended to verbally and physically abuse his partner. Konrad Ydhage, one of the actors and people behind STHLM Panda, said before the experiment, he expected about half of the people who witnessed the behavior to try and intervene, or at least to say something. But of the 53, only one woman spoke up, warning the man, 'I'm gonna call the police if you touch her again.'”

I can't stop asking questions about this experiment. Are we tacitly approving of men abusing women? Are we too chicken hearted to speak up? Are we, like the one woman who asked to get off first, simply free of empathy and any sense of connectedness with other life forms? Whatever caused this result, I despise it and also fear it. We have become less than fully human, I'm afraid. Being human includes caring and courage. Thank goodness for the one woman who spoke up and threatened the man with arrest. She is psychologically normal and a good citizen. She deserves an award.