The sCoop

A VERY SPECIAL EVENT TONIGHT INWORLD

2011-10-22T12:02:00.001-04:00

I copied this from my friend Jared's Facebook wall.......

TADD'S CABARET AND DANCE CLUB IS HONORED TO BE HOSTING ON OCTOBER 22nd AND OCTOBER 23rd

'BE A WARRIOR-WARRIORS FOR JAMEY !!!!!!!!!!!!!

This event is too celebrate the life of Jamey Rodymeyer who ended his life on September 17th and also to raise awareness about Teen Suicide in the LGBT Teen Community and also create a Outreach for the LGBT teens that have migrated into the main grid since the ...closure of the Teen Grid

Jamey's death has created a firestorm because of the bullying and taunting he had to endure.This is a SP event with a theme for awareness
October is also National Bully awareness month as well

This is a 2 day event with 6 of the best DJ's in SL.Jared is kicking off a 2 day event

Saturday October 22nd 7-9 pm
DJ Jared
Presents Be a Warrior!!!!
with Jamey's Warriors

Sunday October 23rd 3-9pm
DJ's
InysX Piranha 3-4
DJ Loki 4-5
Queen Edman 5-6
Johny Alderton 6-7
TinaMaire Beck 7-8
Jared Palianta 8-9

Be A Warrior, Be a Warrior For Jamey.Let's fight the fight for Jamey

PAWS UP FOR JAMEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!See More

You, Tadd Rives, Loki Kahanamoku and 2 others like this.
- Cooper Drammond YAY !!!
  Thursday at 10:50am · · 1 personLoading...
- CooperDrammond it's soooo important and an amazing priveledge to be able to show our support for this, as a whole, undivided global communty!! I remember very clearly what it was like to be a lost 15 yr old gay boy in a world I believed I had no place in and I wasn't welcome. Having 100% of my life, my thoughts, my feelings over-powered by fear that terrified me every minute, feeling worthless & evil all the time..I remember at age 15 the way I felt the day I swallowed a bunch of mom's heart pills, and how I was even more of a failure when I woke up the next day, I couldn't do ANYTHING right....I survived the years by learning to compartmentalize the parts of my life and that made it possible for me to lie to myself much more effectively. I survived. and I LEARNED ... ALOT! and everything got sooo much better!! NOW, I know damned well that I'm not the only one that went thru this, in fact I'm just a typical gay boy from Anytown, USA. And I learned. Now to get an opportunity to say something to the little gayboys of today is an amazing honor!! I guess what I'm trying to say is THANK YOU Jared Palianta and Loki Kahanamoku and all the rest who are giving of your hearts and allowing this opportunity for me and all the other ex-scared little gay-boys!! It really means ALOT :))
  Thursday at 11:29am · · 2 peopleLoading...
- Jared Palianta Hugs Cooper and thank you for sharing your story,you are not alone,since the birth of this event so many people have shared their stories with me, Because of my beliefs and being out spoken I so want to make positive changes to make this world better for future generations,and if all of us in the LGBT community stands together as one,united as one we can make positive changes for a better and brighter tomorrow
  Thursday at 1:46pm · · 3 peopleLoading...
- Cooper Drammond I love and fully support your thoughts on a united approach. I too have been behind this movement since I first learned of Jamey. But, I'm ashamed to say, I've mostly been bitching about "where were all the supportive people who actually knew that boy when he was alive? Instead of offering my skills & strength to the situation as it stands, I was condemning people I dont even know at a time when I would have been a much more valuable steward by meeting the needs that existed rather than haughtily taking the role of judgement. Jared, you humble me. Thank you for giving of yourself proactively and bringing this matter inworld to a situation that empowers it to touch others who may not know of it and having this event where we can all gather together and share our hearts together and learn and love. Rock on Jared Palianta
  Thursday at 8:20pm ·
- Cooper Drammond I also badgered my entire inworld FL with info on this event, and guilted the ones who naively IM'd back lol
  Thursday at 8:26pm · · 1 personLoading...
- Cooper Drammond I make my FL's WORK hehehe
  Thursday at 8:26pm ·
- Jared Palianta lol you rock Cooper
  Yesterday at 3:22am · · 1 personLoading...
- Jared Palianta From what I have read about Jamey,The Principle of the High School felt they had the bullying and taunting under control.The Superintendent of the School System who is a total IDIOT has now said that he needs to review the school policy on Bullying and Taunting and enforce tougher punishment,his idea of punishment was a slap on the wrist and 3 day suspension.WOOHOO no school for 3 days.The Police have no clue how to charge the 3 bully's because they don't feel Jamey's death was a hate crime.GET REAL PEOPLE.Their bullying lead to his death.
  Yesterday at 3:57am ·
- Loki Kahanamoku Cooper, thank you so much for sharing your story. It was for the same feelings that you had that I did not come out to anyone as being gay until a couple of years ago. I always felt like something was wrong with me. I felt like I was trash. I myself tried to commit suicide several times because I was miserable. I remember growing up thinking I was disgusting because I was attracted to boys. I remember feeling so dirty for having the thoughts of even kissing a boy. I tried to pray it away. I even went to counselors - one of which told me that I wasn't gay. It was just a phase I was going through. I will have to say the moment I TRULY accepted it was when Lady Gag released her song Born This Way. By that time, I had already come as being gay. But, I still didn't feel right about myself. That song was my answer because I had always been taught it was a choice and I felt I never made the choice.
  
  So, this is why I am so passionate about this. I don't want another gay person to grow up thinking they are nasty and dirty. I don't want another one to be bullied because they say they are gay. I want them to know it is okay. You were truly born that way and you are perfect just the way you are. I had a miserable childhood. I don't want that for others.
  Yesterday at 10:25am · · 1 personLoading...
- Jared Palianta Well said Loki .We are BORN THIS WAY ,and if we listen to what others are saying and allow them to make us feel any different then we will crumble and believe what others say
  21 hours ago · · 2 peopleLoading...
- Cooper Drammond Thank you Loki, Thank you :)) I'm sorta speechless and at a loss for words (wow!! that's never happenned before lol) so with no muss or fuss, a TRULY heartfelt and VERY grateful THANK YOU
  20 hours ago · · 1 personLoading...
- Cooper Drammond the hugs are great, but...I think if we nude up they'll be much nicer :))
  14 hours ago · · 1 personLoki Kahanamoku likes this.
- Jordyn Carnell We are all "born this way" One of the hardest things for people to do is accept yourself as you would want others to accept you. (Great stories guys.. thanks for sharing a piece of yourselves.)
  12 hours ago · · 1 personLoki Kahanamoku likes this.

IRELAND: Gay Man Up For Presidency

2011-09-29T04:21:00.000-04:00

IRELAND: Gay Man Up For Presidency Openly gay Sen. David Norris has won the nomination for the presidency of Ireland, a largely ceremonial post. The independent politician won the support of Dublin city council last night and will run against six other candidates next month. He said he was “absolutely thrilled” at the news. Mr Norris 67, pulled out of the race in August over controversy surrounding a letter of support he had written for a former partner who was convicted of raping a 15-year-old boy. But earlier this month, he announced he would stand after receiving a “consistent outpouring of public support”. He told the Irish Times: “If I can make this kind of comeback I hope to God as president I’ll be able to help the country make the kind of comeback that it and its people deserve.”

14 yr old Jamey Rodenmeyer bullied to death

2011-09-28T21:24:00.001-04:00

Pediatric Cancer 101

2011-09-27T15:46:00.000-04:00

STATE OF THE FIGHT: CHILDHOOD CANCERKIMBERLY STEGMAIER, M.D. Though pediatric cancer is perceived as rare, it is the second most common cause of death in children 5 to 14 years of age in the United States. With a growing number of childhood cancer survivors, the impact of toxic therapies on long-term health is even more palpable. One in 250 people in the United States were childhood cancer survivors in 2010. While great progress has been made in treating children with cancer, there is still much more work to do. Morbidity from our current treatments is significant, and new approaches to treating children suffering from these diseases are still sorely needed. My hope is that targeted therapy, a promising new avenue of research, will offer improved efficacy and decreased toxicity compared to current chemotherapy treatments currently used to treat most pediatric cancers. The most frequent type of cancer affecting children is leukemia, which accounts for 27 percent of all cancers in children younger than 20 years of age and 32 percent of all cancers in children under 15. Approximately 3,540 children younger than 20 years old are diagnosed with leukemia in the United States each year. There are different types of childhood leukemia with ALL being the most common, accounting for 73 percent, acute myeloid leukemia (AML) accounting for 18 percent and chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) accounting for less than 4 percent. Malignant lymphomas are the third most commonly diagnosed group of malignancies in children after leukemia and brain tumors, accounting for 4 percent of cancer diagnoses in children under age 5 and up to 15.5 percent in children under 20 years in the United States. Central nervous system (CNS) tumors account for 25 percent of pediatric cancers. Each year, there are approximately 2,820 new diagnoses of CNS tumors in U.S. children younger than 15 years old. These tumors of the brain and spinal cord are second behind the leukemias in incidence but are the number one cause of cancer-related mortality in children. Here, the presence of the blood-brain barrier makes drug delivery to the tumor difficult, and the need to modify therapies to spare neuro-cognitive development has further compounded the challenge of therapy development for this class of pediatric cancers. This is one area where the need for improved therapy is all too apparent. While brain tumors are the most common form of solid tumors in children, there are many other types of solid tumors afflicting children. The most common extra-cranial solid tumor in children is neuroblastoma, accounting for 7.5 percent of cancer diagnoses in children younger than 15 years old, with approximately 650 new U.S. cases diagnosed each year. Neuroblastoma is a very heterogeneous disease as seen in the biological and genetic features of the tumor itself, as well as in the variable prognosis. For example, prognosis can vary from over 90 percent long-term survival to less than 50 percent long-term survival depending on a complexity of tumor and patient features. In parallel, treatment can range from observation only for those with the most favorable prognosis to a combination of high-dose chemotherapy, surgery, radiation, double autologous stem cell transplantation, and biological agents for those with the most unfavorable disease. Other common solid tumors of childhood include Wilms tumor, rhabdomyosarcoma, retinoblastoma, osteosarcoma, and Ewing sarcoma (EWS), each generally treated with a combination of systemic chemotherapy and either surgery or radiation therapy for local control of the primary site of disease. Again, prognosis for each of these diseases varies depending on many features, such as the stage of disease and the molecular characteristics of the tumor. The specifics of therapy for childhood cancer vary from one type to another. However, a common theme is that of combination chemotherapy using cytotoxic drugs and, in the case of the solid tumors, surgery and/or radiation therapy. The notion of combination chemotherapy began with the treatment of children with ALL in the 1960’s and marked the first success story in cancer-directed therapies. What then followed was the identification of effective combinations and doses of cytotoxic drugs for the majority of pediatric malignancies. Dose intensification and the addition of newer cytotoxic drugs have improved tumor response in many pediatric cancers. Moreover, with advances in supportive care, such as growth factor support to improve normal white blood cell count recovery, antibiotic prophylaxis to prevent infection, and drugs to protect against cardiac toxicity, there has been a reduction in chemotherapy-related mortality and morbidity. With improved predictors of response to therapy, we have also been able to reduce the intensity of therapy for good prognosis patient populations in some diseases.Even with this progress in treatment, for many high-risk disease subtypes, and even for a well-treated disease such as childhood ALL, survival curves have reached a plateau, suggesting that novel, out-of-the-box approaches beyond the current armamentarium are needed to continue to make progress and minimize children’s suffering. One of the major challenges we as researchers face is in identifying new targeted treatments for pediatric and other cancers stems from the very nature of the cancer-promoting proteins responsible for these diseases. Sometimes genetic mutations driving cancer create abnormal proteins that are specific to the cancer cells but are not present in normal cells. This raises the possibility of developing drugs that kill only the cancer cells by targeting these cancer-promoting proteins. However, many of these cancer-promoting proteins have been difficult to target with standard approaches to drug discovery. The primary goal of our SU2C project is to develop and apply new drug discovery approaches to target these cancer-promoting proteins previously considered “undruggable.” To overcome this challenge, we developed a gene expression fingerprint approach for discovering potential new cancer therapies, called Gene Expression-based High-throughput Screening (GE-HTS). Like a fingerprint, which provides uniquely identifying information beyond a simple measurement, GE-HTS provides a complex, unique measurement of a cellular response. We are applying GE-HTS to the cancer-promoting protein EWS/FLI in the pediatric solid tumor Ewing sarcoma, the second most common primary tumor of the bone diagnosed in U.S. children. Because genetic inactivation of the EWS/FLI protein leads to impairment of Ewing sarcoma growth in the laboratory, we hypothesize that chemicals that inactivate the EWS/FLI gene expression signature will also impair cell growth. We have already identified very interesting chemicals that inactivate the EWS/FLI signature, including several drugs FDA-approved for another indication. We will now use these chemicals as tools in the laboratory to further dissect the molecular origins of Ewing sarcoma and the role of EWS/FLI in this disease. This research should shed light on the molecular origins of pediatric cancers and may also lead to new therapies, reaching beyond Ewing sarcoma and impacting other types of pediatric and adult cancers. For my laboratory, the SU2C Innovative Research Grant funding has been transformative, facilitating the collaborative development of our generic approach to drug discovery that can be applied broadly to cancer. On a very personal level, it has welcomed me into a passionate community of researchers and advocates united in the fight against cancer. And as a pediatric oncologist who sees firsthand the losses and the limitations of our current therapies, it has empowered this painfully obvious notion that we need to speed up the pace of discovery for the countless children and adults afflicted with cancer. In contrast to our thinking about adult malignancies, we do not yet know of strategies to prevent pediatric cancers. There are unfortunately not preventative screening tests that exist for children as they do for some adult cancers. With this being said, one of the things I encourage parents to remember is that habits learned in childhood are frequently carried forward into adulthood. Though we may not be able to prevent childhood cancers, the prevention of adult cancers begins in childhood. Early teaching of the importance of smoking prevention, exercise, maintenance of an ideal body weight, sunscreen, and routine medical examinations can go a long way in the prevention of cancer in adulthood. In terms of “what to look out for,” I tend to believe that parents know their children best and often have a sixth sense when something is simply just not right. Listening to this gut feeling and bringing the concern to the attention of the child’s pediatrician is very important. Though there generally may not be a “catching the cancer early” in pediatrics, starting treatment in a timely manner before the cancer injures normal organs is important. Funding opportunities for pediatric cancer research are very limited, but we must keep this kind of research going for a multitude of reasons. Research involving pediatric cancer has also helped to inform research on adult cancers. This is because pediatric cancers tend to be less genetically complex than adult malignancies making it easier to distinguish the real cancer-promoting, driver events from the passengers. Moreover, as the adult cancers are subdivided into finer and finer categories based on molecular features, even “lung cancer” can become a rare disease if defined by a specific genetic lesion. There is a lot to be learned from the pediatric history of treating “rare” cancers. Most importantly, though, the loss of a life of a child is an utter tragedy.Despite the battle we were engaged in, children have an uncanny resiliency. I am often asked, “How can you do this?” I would answer, “How can you not!” The last 20 years have seen steady, progress in the treatment and survival of children diagnosed with cancer, but there is still much work to be done. Though our fight to defeat childhood cancer against is still raging, this is an incredibly exciting time in cancer research. I look to the future with great hope and cherish each success that I see.

This Is The MOST IMPORTANT Thing In The World

2011-09-25T10:53:00.000-04:00

----------- In Treatment: A Conversation with Shawn McCann, Sept 22, 2011 ----------------On December 10, 2010 Shawn McCann, 38, of Cranberry Twp., Pennsylvania went in for a colonoscopy that revealed a tumor located in the lower portion of his colon. A CT scan later revealed that the tumor was stage three. As his treatment cycles began Shawn knew he would be in biggest fight for his life, not only for himself but for his family in the hopes he can be around to watch his young daughter grow up.----What was your initial reaction when you learned you had Stage 3 colon cancer? Quite honestly when the doctor told me it was cancer I was still high from the drugs so it didn't quite register in my mind. I remember looking at how upset my wife was across the room, and I didn't understand. Then when the nurse told me that she hoped I was still able to have a good Christmas things started to sink in. It's hard to explain but I hope it's a feeling that you never have to go through. I felt like I had received a death sentence. I was 38 years old, a husband, and a father with a 15-month-old daughter and I had cancer. I was devastated. ----Had there been cancer in your family before? Yes, my grandmother had colon cancer and died from it. My other grandmother and my mother also died from cancer. In my family, cancer has always equaled death. What made you believe you could survive?After I got past the initial fear and devastation I started to talk to my nurses and other cancer survivors and realized that cancer is something that you can survive. A few weeks after my diagnosis I found out that the tumor hadn't spread. That gave me hope. Then it was two months of tests before I started treatment, which was really difficult because I wanted to fix it immediately and I felt helpless again. The waiting was the worst part. But, once the radiation and the first round of chemotherapy started I was more than ready to fight and survive. ----How has your treatment gone so far?Once my treatment finally started it went pretty well. I went through radiation and took chemo pills. Then after the surgery to remove the tumor my diagnosis changed from stage three to stage one. Afterwards, the first round of chemotherapy overall went pretty well. The second round was the hardest. I didn't eat, couldn't sleep, and my doctors told me I was in bad shape. I'm not sure how I survived, but I knew deep down that I had no choice but to keep fighting. I will have my last chemo treatment on September 27th and I honestly can't wait. I've been feeling pretty good so far and I think that both the weather and being able to get on the golf course has really helped to improve my strength and spirits. ----What has helped you stay strong during treatment? There were many days after the second round of chemo that I sat on the couch and didn't eat or sleep for 10 days. There were days when I didn't know how I kept fighting. But, then I would look across the room you at my 19-month-old daughter and I knew I couldn't give up. I knew I couldn't let my wife down and that my daughter needed her father. Did you see a change in how you went about your daily life and your relationships with those you're close with? When I was first diagnosed I went into a depression and didn't want to talk to anyone. But, once I was able to talk to my surgeon and focus on what I would need to do to survive things got better. I've gotten to spend a lot of time with my wife and my daughter. My relationships with my entire family have gotten stronger. I don't know why but with cancer it seems like you enjoy each day a little more because you don't know how many days you have left. I feel really grateful for all the people I have supporting me. It helps to remind me that I can win these battles I go through during treatment, and that I will win the war against my cancer. ----What advice would you give fellow patients to help them stay positive and move forward with their lives? Find a support system. I don't think it's possible to go through this alone. You'd have to be a much stronger person than me. If you don't have a family support system find a support group you can join to help you through it. There are plenty of people out there who know what it's like to go through something like this. I've found that just talking about it has really helped me. I didn't to want to talk about it at first but when I started to I noticed that something different comes out every time I do, and it helps. Cancer gave me a completely different outlook on life. I would encourage others to stay positive and make the best of everything, even the bad days. Live life to the fullest and don't take anything for granted.From Stand Up To Cancer.org

Playing piano with penis

2011-09-25T00:03:00.001-04:00

Best Divorce Letter Ever

2011-09-23T19:20:00.001-04:00

Dear Wife, I’m writing you this letter to tell you that I’m leaving you forever. I’ve been a good man to you for 7 years & I have nothing to show for it. These last 2 weeks have been hell. ... Your boss called to tell me that you quit your job today & that was the last straw. Last week, you came home & didn’t even notice I had a new haircut, had cooked your favorite meal & even wore a brand new pair of silk boxers. You ate in 2 minutes, & went straight to sleep after watching all of your soaps. You don’t tell me you love me anymore; you don’t want sex or anything that connects us as husband & wife. Either you’re cheating on me or you don’t love me anymore; whatever the case, I’m gone. Your EX-Husband P.S. don’t try to find me. Your SISTER & I are moving away to West Virginia together! Have a great life!

—— Dear Ex-Husband Nothing has made my day more than receiving your letter. It’s true you & I have been married for 7 years, although a good man is a far cry from what you’ve been. I watch my soaps so much because they drown out your constant whining & griping Too bad that doesn’t work. I DID notice when you got a hair cut last week, but the 1st thing that came to mind was ‘You look just like a girl!’ Since my mother raised me not to say anything if you can’t say something nice, I didn’t comment. And when you cooked my favorite meal, you must have gotten me confused with MY SISTER, because I stopped eating pork 7 years ago. About those new silk boxers: I turned away from you because the $49.99 price tag was still on them, & I prayed it was a coincidence that my sister had just borrowed $50 from me that morning. After all of this, I still loved you & felt we could work it out. So when I hit the lotto for 10 million dollars, I quit my job & bought us 2 tickets to Jamaica But when I got home you were gone.. Everything happens for a reason, I guess. I hope you have the fulfilling life you always wanted. My lawyer said that the letter you wrote ensures you won’t get a dime from me. So take care. Signed, Your Ex-Wife, Rich As Hell & Free! P.S. I don’t know if I ever told you this, but my sister Carla was born Carl. I hope that’s not a problem...

WATCH!!!

2011-08-28T15:19:00.001-04:00

It only takes one act of kindness to change a persons life

2011-08-24T16:18:00.000-04:00

I just saw this vid for the first time a moment ago and as I type this tears are rolling down my cheeksI certainly experience the behavior shown here.....did you?

Observations...Ten Years After

2011-08-15T13:01:00.002-04:00

REFLECTING ABSENCE ~ Comments on Growth, Unity and Spirit
~ "Crossing Bridges With Lessons We've Learned..."
Some things I've seen over the 10 years that have past since 9/11/2001:

~ REBIRTH ~
All across the America millions of people have a renewed spirit and sense of "the other person"
we are more caring, more considerate.
There is more "us", "we", "our" and "you"
and less "me", "I", and "mine"
An attitude of "selflessness" and "helpful willingness" prevails
There's a sense of "community" and "how can I help?" I see and feel in neighborhoods all across the country
The attitude of "leave me alone" between neighbors has been replaced
with one of "hello, may I invite you over for a cup of coffee?"

I know I've already used one phrase stolen from a pop song here but another even more cheesy one keeps invading my thoughts as I type this... "Reach Out And Touch Somebody's Hand, Make This World A better Place If You Can" { I'm sorry for that, I hate when people quote from songs, but I just can't get it out of my head at this moment...please forgive me :)) }
I watched a decumentary a short time ago on the opening of the 9/11 memorial "Reflecting Absence" scheduled for Sept 11 2011 at Ground Zero and it just kinda got me to doing a little reflecting of my own, so I decided to share it with you

Anyways, that's how I see it...thanks for reading :))
Sometime soon a movie called "Rebirth" will be released..this is the trailer for it
"We're all gonna be good at the end of the day, we'll teach our children and the world will be a better place"~Amen to that~

I've always been a butt-man

2011-07-04T11:08:00.003-04:00

My Lucky Day!! Scored "Citizen Cope" concert tickets

2011-06-13T16:51:00.001-04:00

What luck....This morning me and my buddy Tyrese were walking past the Theater Of The Living Arts (The TLA) on South Street and we decided WTF lets just TRY. we stopped in to see if there were any tickets available still for the Citizen Cope concert next week. We felt foolish as we walkedup to the window.

Surpise!! We got two tickets together on the floor in the fifth row on the aisle!!! Apparently really good tickets are set aside for promos and radio stations, etc.and the un-used ones are given back at the last minute. The two tickets Ty and I got had just become available less than an hour before!!

We paid a steep price for them, but I am very excited at our dumb-luck and I can't wait til next Tuesday night!!

Enjoy the vids!! I just love these guy's swag too!!

Why wasn't this done years ago.....too little, too late

2011-06-13T16:20:00.000-04:00

irishtimes.com - Last Updated: Monday, June 6, 2011, 16:58
Calls for Magdalene investigation

JAMIE SMYTH, Social Affairs Correspondent

The Government should set up a statutory investigation into allegations of torture and degrading treatment against women committed to Magdalene Laundries.

It should also punish the perpetrators and provide redress to the women who suffered, the United Nations Committee Against Torture has recommended.

In a report detailing its "concluding observations" on Ireland's record of protecting the rights of those in detention, the committee has also strongly criticised the State's "inadequate" response to alleged reports that it cooperated with rendition flights.

The report, which was published this morning following two days of hearings before the committee in Geneva last month, also criticises the conditions in Irish prisons, the treatment of asylum seekers and the State's failure to prosecute anyone from evidence gathered in the Ryan report into abuse of children in residential institutions.

In a series of recommendations regarding the alleged committal of women to Magdalene Laundries, the committee says it is "gravely concerned" at the failure by the State party to protect the girls and women. It criticises the State for failing to regulate or inspect the laundries, where it is alleged physical, emotional abuses and other ill-treatment were committed. These may have amounted to violations of the UN convention against torture, according the report.

"The Committee also expresses grave concern at the failure by the State party to institute prompt, independent and thorough investigation into the allegations of ill-treatment perpetrated on girls and women in the Magdalene Laundries," it says

The committee recommends the State institute "prompt, independent, and thorough investigations into all allegations of torture, and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment".

It says in appropriate cases, it should prosecute and punish the perpetrators with penalties commensurate with the gravity of the offences committed. It should also ensure that all victims obtain redress and have an enforceable right to compensation including the means for as full rehabilitation, says the report.

Minister for Justice Alan Shatter is expected to announce later this week how the Government plans to respond to the Magdalene Laundry issue.

At the committee hearing in Geneva last month Department of Justice secretary general Seán Aylward said the State couldn't "rewrite its history" with regard to the Magdalene laundries.

"Some of the issues that are raised and looked at in the Ryan report and that have been raised in relation to the Magdalene laundries relate to a very distant, far-off time," said Mr Aylward in his initial response to the committee's questions and observations.

"Many of the people who suffered in that period or were victims of it are no longer with us and it would be very difficult for the State to rewrite its history or right the wrongs that were done," he said.

Imagine.....

2011-06-09T23:13:00.000-04:00

Wow!! I got to say, being a gambler myself, I just LOVE this guy, Ashley Revell!! I am not saying it wasn't absolutely INSANE to do this, it deffinately was. But I can relate to how Ashley felt making the bet, and winning the bet!!

I only wish he had bet on 7 and been paid 35 to 1 instead of 1 to 1 on a color bet.

Even more, I love what he did with his winnings!!!

For my Sweet P

2011-05-18T00:16:00.001-04:00

Dear Pookie,
You once told me that I inspire you and make you want to be a better man.
You freaked me out that night and gave to me a responsibility I did not want.
You cannot improve on perfection and you Sweet P have a perfect heart and a perfect soul...I am firmly convinced that you are pure love!
You have the best spirit of anyone I know and you bring happiness and joy to everyone who interacts with you everyday.
The fact that you don't even realize this is what makes you so charming and warm. It's also such a tragedy for you. For this reason I intend to do my very best to point this out to you and help you to see this wonderful part of yourself. I think this will be a very simple task as well as an extremely enjoyable one.
Below is a video I want you to watch. It's a man named Tom Stroup sorta explaining his life and how it came to be the way it is.
I want you to watch this because Tom Stroup is MY inspiration, you could even say he is my hero. I hope you enjoy it.
And in closing I just want to express my gratitude to you for all that you are and for being a part of my world.

Tom Stroup from ROMEY DEH on Vimeo.

Danny & Annie "I walked in with you alone, I'll walk out with you alone"

2011-05-05T13:05:00.002-04:00

"I pray. many many tearful prayers that God will allow me to live long enough to see the day that this disease becomes a thing of the past"
Then, after I'm gone there will come a day when people no longer know what cancer is !!!

Please remember to toss a couple lindens in a kiosk to support Relay For Life in SL

And, if you're so inclined, please join me in my prayer
There is no doubt in my mind that we can do this.

Happy 4-20 to the world!!!!!

2011-04-20T17:30:00.002-04:00

that's it

19 year old Iowan speaks quite eloquently on family

2011-03-20T22:31:00.001-04:00

Gloryhole Etiquette

2011-03-19T16:05:00.000-04:00

A Letter From Mom And Dad

2011-03-15T03:00:00.000-04:00

This lady has Spirit, This lady is Soulfull. This Lady is HOT!!!!

2011-03-13T22:33:00.001-04:00

Today,I was lucky enough to score tickets for me and my little gang (Tommy. Keith. Tyrese and Janis) to go see and hear one of my very favorite performers, Miss Janelle Monae at the Roseland Ballroom in NYC. I am so excited, I can't wait!!!

This vid is of her doing an old standard originally done by Charlie Chaplain, but covered by all the old greats at one time or another, "SMILE" by Janelle Monae.

And here she is on Letterman making her TV Debut performing her hit song "Tightrope"

I just LOVE, LOVE, LOVE her!! From her funky cartoon-like dance to the sexy cocky way she bops her head, and of course her singing too. I can't wait till the show!!!

I hope you enjoy Tightrope....

A Few Of My Favorite Things

2011-03-11T10:37:00.001-05:00

Recently I was in a waiting room and I was extremely sad and upset over something...A woman approached me and kindly asked if I was OK and we chatted briefly, no more than 60 seconds.

After mentioning why I was so upset, I waited for the typical sympathetic response, but it didn't come. Instead the woman looked at me with a scowl of contempt,and replied with disgust "Shame on you!" she said with a raised voice "Shame on you!". She went on to say "You are sitting there in your fancy clothes, in a beautiful leather coat and beautiful shoes with a fancy watch and ring and feeling sorry for yourself.I suggest you pull yourself together and Count Your Blessings and stop being such an ingrate!" Then she walked off shaking her head.

I took to heart this strange woman's comments and I got a new attitude and I have felt great ever since

So...it is in that spirit that I chose to share some of my favorite things with you. So here is a small taste of what I think is some of the best things in life....

1 Laughing tilI cry

2 Holding a beloved friend's hand while she gave birth to her son

3 Riding a really great roller coaster over and over

4 Seeing the expression on someone's face as they unwrap a highly desired gift from me

5 Being in a room full of people I love and hearing them all laughing together

6 Swinging on Swings with someone special

7 Forgetting what I am saying, going all stupid and feeling the butterflies in my stomach when I see that one person enter the room

8 Playing with a puppy

9 Accidently over-hearing someone I respect and admire saying nice things about me

10 Having someone tell me I am beautiful

11 Coconut Milkshakes

12 Running through a sprinkler with someone I love

13 A "special glance" from someone

14 Warm towels just out of the dryer

15 Great old Jewish Delis

We are Winning!!!! Lets REALLY kick it in gear now!!!!!

2011-03-08T18:35:00.000-05:00

The It Gets Better Project has changed many people’s lives.

We hear it every day – LGBT youth are beginning to feel the change, the acceptance. They are beginning to believe that it does get better. With your help, we’ve grown to a community of over 10,000 videos, we’ve funded resources at GLSEN and the Trevor Project, and raised awareness about teenage bullying and ways to help, but our work is not done.
Our next goal is to get the It Gets Better Book into every school library across the country so that every bullied child has access to resources and can know that it does get better.

Help us reach our goal. Buy a book (or several!) for us to donate to schools across the country. Each donation of $25 covers one book and if you like, you can pick where we send it:

For kids who don’t have access to YouTube or whose schools block web surfing, we needed a different delivery method – so we created the It Gets Better book featuring nearly 100 stories from people who have either made videos or have written essays just for the book.

Send a copy of the It Gets Better Book directly to the high school or community library of your choice: click here to do so

Thank you so much for your support.

P.S. You can pre-order the It Gets Better Book due out March 22nd by clicking here.

This makes me sad...also makes me wanna re-read a favorite book too

2011-03-07T17:55:00.000-05:00

Che's motorcycle companion dies

Sunday March 06 2011

Alberto Granado, who accompanied Ernesto 'Che' Guevara on a 1952 journey of discovery across Latin America that was immortalised in Guevara's memoir and on-screen in The Motorcycle Diaries, has died in Cuba. He was 88.

Granado, an Argentine who had lived in Cuba since 1961, died of natural causes on Saturday, according to Cuban state-run television, which gave no other details.

Granado and Guevara's road trip, begun on a broken-down motorcycle they dubbed La Poderosa, or The Powerful, awoke in Guevara a social consciousness and political convictions that would help turn him into one of the most iconic revolutionaries of the 20th century.

The two travellers both kept diaries that were used as background for the 2004 movie, produced by Robert Redford and directed by Walter Salles.

Granado was born on August 8 1922, in Cordoba, Argentina, and befriended Guevara as a child. As young medical students, the two witnessed deep poverty across the continent - principally Chile, Colombia, Peru and Venezuela - and their stay at a Peruvian leper colony left a particularly deep impression.

They parted ways in Venezuela, where Granado stayed on to work at a clinic treating leprosy patients. Guevara continued on to Miami, then returned to Buenos Aires to finish his studies. Guevara would later join Fidel and Raul Castro as they sailed from exile in Mexico to Cuba aboard a yacht called the Granma in 1956. Their small band of rebels ultimately toppled dictator Fulgencio Batista on New Year's Day 1959.

Granado visited Cuba at Guevara's invitation in 1960 and moved to Havana the following year with his family, teaching biochemistry at Havana University. He had lived in Cuba ever since, maintaining a low profile.

In his authoritative biography of Guevara, Jon Lee Anderson wrote that Granado was "barely five feet tall and had a huge beaked nose, but he sported a barrel chest and a footballer's sturdy bowed legs; he also possessed a good sense of humour and a taste for wine, girls, literature and rugby".

According to Cuban television, Granado requested that his body be cremated and his ashes spread in Cuba, Argentina and Venezuela. Funeral arrangements were not announced.

Guevara was captured and killed by soldiers in Bolivia in 1967 as he tried to foment revolution in the Andean nation.

Good bye you remarkable and amazing man...you have served as a hero, a role model and a fine example of what we should all strive to become. We all will suffer for your departure. You truly made the world a better place with your presence and we Thank you so much for that, brave sir.

Now it's time for you and Che to once more climb onto The Ponderosa and ride off into your destiny. God bless you, Alberto.

My Baby Boy and My Mistake In Judgement

2011-02-24T16:05:00.000-05:00

On a beautifully sunny day resently I did my favorite daily activity, taking my german shepherd "Booker" to the local dog park.

Booker LOVES going to the park and playing and visiting with his buddies and pals each day...not to toot my own horn but Booker is one of the most well-liked and popular dogs at the park becuase of his wonderfully warm and affectionate personality.

On this day there was a new and unknown dog at the park, a very beautiful pitbull girl. She came over to me to say hello and receive her petting and scratch behind the ear from me and then rewarded me with some kind kisses.
As is his custom anytime I show affection to another dog, my Booker came over to see what was up. After the usual butt-sniffing, Booker and the pit approved each other and began happily chasing each other around and occassionally plafully wrestling in the grass happily. Normally I am a little apprehensive with a new dog at the park, but the pit's gentle and friendly demeanor put me at ease.

After a few minutes, Booker's long time girlfriend Phoebe the beagle arrived and as always Booker dropped everything and ran over to greet his favorite girl.

This brought a shocking reaction in the pitbull - she was enraged at being snubbed and viciously attacked my Booker. Booker is no weakling and at 90 plus pounds, he is a big strong boy, but the viciousness in the pit's attack was too much for him and in seconds the pit had him helpless on the grass with his belly clamped tightly in her jaw and blood everywhere.

I ran to seperate the two dogs but I was unable to break the very strong pit's grip on Booker's belly. I was terrified and horrified. To my disbelief the pit's owner, a guy in his mid thirties, sat on a parkbench watching and laughing. He was laughing!! I wanted to kill him, but I kept my focus on the dogs and tried to save my baby-boy. All the while screaming at the pit's owner to get up and help me.

Eventually he did get up, but instead of helping he picked up a bat-sized fallen tree branch and began beating my dog with it.

This made me go nuts and I started punching and kicking the pit as hard as I could...This made the pit turn her attack onto me, and Phoebe's mom, Tracey got my Booker to safety

The pit had torn the flesh on my leg very severely in a matter of seconds, the taste of my blood seemed to fuel her rage

I was able to somewhat subdue the pit as she seemed to tire out a bit and get away from her...Tracy who lives just a few feet from the park got Booker and I into her car and drove us the four blocks to my home.

I immediately drove Booker to the vet's and Booker received emergency surgery to reset three broken ribs and a ruptured spleen, an often fatal injury in humans. The surgery was successful and Booker is on the road to recovery

I later learned that after Booker and I left the park the pitbull went on the rampage again and a sweet loving golden retriever named Duke was killed viciously. DUke's owner is an elderly man who is all alone except for Duke who he had for 12 years....This breaks my heart

Booker remained at the animal hospital for a few days in a medically induced coma to help his healing and spare him alot of pain

The next morning I went to the emergency room to have my own wounds attended to... I recaived fourteen stitches and four staples on the wound to my right leg which runs from my mid calf to my lower thigh and they sent me home with a old lady-style walker to help me get around as I cant walk very well

I was unable to sleep a wink for several days without my baby-boy in his usual spot curled up between my legs.

A few days ago they allowed me to bring Booker home YAY!! He is on pain meds and antibiotics and a sedative all of which i give him in injection form to help him heal... He is slowly regaining his appetite, I can only pray that his spirit will come back soon

I live on the top floor of a three storey walk up building and the only way I can get up or down the steps in to sit on them and scoot myself along little kid-style...this makes it nearly impossible to take my dog outside...Phoebe's mom Tracy has been coming over each day to visit along with Phoebe...this seams to cheer up Booker very much, it is so sweet to watch Phoebe lick Booker's wounds so gently and lovingly for him. Booker has great taste in girlfriends!!

As for the pitbull and her owner....I learned later that the owner was arrested and is being charged criminally and the pit was put down by police order ( when I got home from the vet's there was a note on my door from the police to call them )

I am continually playing these events over and over in my head and seeing all the things I could have done to prevent all of it...there are now two dead dogs Booker is suffering very badly and an elderly man's only love has been taken from him..If only I could have that moment back to do differently....

I realy want to know what you think of this

2011-01-29T15:56:00.000-05:00

An Indiana school district that told a black teenager to perform "The Star-Spangled Banner" in a "traditional way" after receiving complaints about her performance is drawing questions now about whether the complaints and directive were racially motivated.
Shai Warfield-Cross, 16, has performed the national anthem at sports events at Bloomington High School North over the last year without incident. But school officials said they received complaints about her performance during a game in Martinsville.

Some who complained after the game in Martinsville - a predominantly white community about 30 miles southwest of Indianapolis - also said they felt the rendition was disrespectful to current and former members of the military, Henderson said.

Warfield-Cross' family says athletics director Jen Hollars told the teen last Friday that she would not be allowed to sing the anthem unless she modified her version and sang in a more traditional way. Hollars declined to comment and referred questions to Henderson, who said school officials told Warfield-Cross the performances should be more "traditional" to ensure the song's tune is recognizable.

I'm refraining from giving my thoughts on this because I don't want to influence what you might think.....

Please comment and let me know your thoughts about whether this young lady's way of singing our National Anthem could offend our military. or anyone else. I'm very interested

Rudolph Meets Sarah Palin

2010-12-23T13:20:00.002-05:00

FINALLY THE END OF DADT

2010-12-18T23:24:00.000-05:00

Click HERE for the story from the horse's mouth

DADT....DO SOMETHING

2010-12-08T18:15:00.000-05:00

Does the ban on gays and lesbians serving openly in the military impact LGBT youth?
Yes, it does.
For many young Americans, military service is a way up and out of poverty and a way to pay for college. Those options are currently closed to LGBT youth who are living in poverty or need help paying for college. So the ban on openly gay service members does impact LGBT kids in real and sometimes profound ways.
And, of course, government-sanctioned discrimination against LGBT people -- adults and youth -- legitimizes anti-gay attitudes and empowers the bullies.
DADT may come up for a vote TONIGHT in the U.S. Senate. If you live in Maine, Indiana, Massachusetts, Ohio, Missouri, West Virginia, Arkansas and Illinois, we need you to contact your senators as soon as possible.
Call 202-224-3121 RIGHT NOW and ask to be connected to your senator.
Below are the key senators who need to hear from repeal supporters now. Please spread the word to everyone you know in these states:
--Susan Collins (R-ME)
--Olympia Snowe (R-ME)
--Richard Lugar (R-IN)
--Judd Gregg (R-NH)
--Scott Brown (R-MA)
--George Voinovich (R-OH)
--Kit Bond (R-MO)
--Joe Manchin (D-WV)
--Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)
--Mark Kirk (R-IL)
Call 202-224-3121 and ask to be connected to your senator:
http://www.itgetsbetter.org/dadt
Thank you.

It Gets Better

2010-12-01T13:17:00.001-05:00

Everyone deserves to be respected for who they are. I pledge to spread this message to my friends, family and neighbors. I'll speak up against hate and intolerance whenever I see it, at school and at work. I'll provide hope for lesbian, gay, bi, trans and other bullied teens by letting them know that "It Gets Better."
That is the It Gets Better Project Pledge and today I was honored and pleased to take that pledge.
The It Gets Better Campaign that has been going on throughout the USA recently blows me away!! Now that campaign also exists within Second Life in an effort to bring more global awareness to it
What an incredible idea this campaign is and what an incredible idea to bring it to SL where zillions of people from all over the world can learn about it and hopefully continue it
To WHomever is responsible for that you have my sincerest respect and gratitude

You Have A Debt -- Remember To PAY YOUR BILL!!!

2010-11-13T13:41:00.000-05:00

Each and every one of us owes a debt to society for what we all take from it, such as education, community, friendships, safety and more. because these things are freely provided to us, it is easy to forget that people are behind them working to ensure they are there. We gotta remember to say THANK YOU and give a little back,so volunteer today to do something worthwhile to serve or improve your community.

There's a zillion different areas and opportunities where help is needed and "I don't have the time" is just such a ridiculous bullshit excuse I won't even comment

It's the only bill you'll ever have that is SO MUCH FUN TO PAY!!

What happened on DADT Mr Obama?

2010-09-24T15:53:00.000-04:00

Cudos to David Mixner RE DADT and the case of the disappearing president...
Live From Hell's Kitchen

STRAIGHT - It's The New Gay

2010-09-21T12:49:00.000-04:00

Repeal Of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Paves Way For Gay Sex Right On Battlefield, Opponents Fantasize

2010-07-13T15:48:00.006-04:00

WASHINGTON—As Congress prepares to allow gay individuals to serve openly in the military, those against the proposed change voiced their concerns Monday, warning the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" could soon lead to strong, strapping American soldiers engaging in mind-blowing homosexual intercourse right on the battlefield.

"We're sending our soldiers out there with a mission, and that mission is to protect this country," said Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX), one of many conservative politicians who staunchly oppose the change. "If this is repealed, what's to stop all-night sex romps from breaking out while U.S. servicemen are hiding in a bunker, or crawling around an irrigation ditch bathed only by the light of the moon, or, say, the dozens of other situations I've already thought through in elaborate detail?"

"We can't allow this to happen," Gohmert added as beads of sweat collected on his brow. "It's wrong. Sweaty male sex—no matter how erotic and uninhibited—is so wrong and so, so naughty."

Despite its support from the defense secretary and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, the repeal has been condemned by many military officers who worry it could disrupt troop cohesion and endanger the lives of the taut young soldiers who have dedicated their lives to serving America with "every rippling muscle in their rock-hard bodies."

Others have argued that allowing gay soldiers to push their lifestyle on others, testing the limits of pleasure a man can take before he erupts in uncontrollable ecstasy, would seriously damage morale.

"Our men need to know they can count on each other in battle, and we can't have them getting distracted by illicit romantic dalliances," said Gen. James T. Conway, commandant of the Marine Corps. "Especially if one's a little blond Adonis farm boy and his buddy's a real tough street kid straight out of Brooklyn. I mean, think about it: What if they lock eyes and abandon their post to start ripping each other's fatigues off, revealing twin sets of glistening washboard abs and at last fulfilling their hidden passions?"

Continued Conway, "Is this the message we want to send to our enemies?"

Many active-duty service members told reporters allowing gay individuals to be open about their sexuality would result in great discomfort among platoons overseas.

"The last thing I need after a 12-hour reconnaissance patrol is to know I'm hitting the showers with some guy who might be checking me out and who might, after seeing what I have to work with, find himself wondering if I too long for the firm yet tender embrace of another man," Army Cpl. Dale Montgomery said. "So, in conclusion, what were we talking about again?"

Earlier efforts to repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell have failed, including a notable 2007 bill to end the policy that was filibustered by Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK), who over the course of several days repeatedly screened the gay pornographic film Thrill Sergeant and demanded to know if his colleagues liked that sort of thing.

This May, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) promised voters he would do everything in his power to prevent gays from serving openly in the armed forces, and on Thursday, he told reporters that the role of the military is to defend American freedoms, not "the rights of, you know, those people some of us stay up all night thinking about as we toss and turn."

"Imagine you've got a boat full of sailors out cruising the Gulf of Aden when all of a sudden they're attacked. Some of the homosexuals lock themselves below deck and begin touching themselves," said the 73-year-old senator and Vietnam War veteran, his breath quickening. "One of their names is Ricardo. Unbuttoning his pants, he throws his gunner's mate down on the cot and penetrates him, his big, beautiful dick shimmering with power, his dog tags bouncing up and down as he's pounding, and pounding, and pounding."

Added McCain, "What I'm trying to say is: It all boils down to combat effectiveness."

When asked about his views on lesbians serving openly in the military, McCain made no secret of his position on the issue.

"Female soldiers being intimate with one another?" McCain said. "Gross! No, thank you."

The Onion

McDonald's Apologizes For Condoms In Happy Meals

2010-07-09T00:37:00.004-04:00

PROVINCETOWN, Mass. (CAP) - McDonald's executives were left with egg (McMuffin) on their face this week, when over 5,000 Happy Meals were distributed with colored condoms instead of a plastic toy from the movie The Last Airbender.

The condoms were intended for the Provincetown, Mass. school system, which recently established a policy making them available for students of all ages; they were delivered to McDonald's distribution center in Barnstable, Mass. in error.

"They were so bright and colorful, they were mistaken for Happy Meal toys," explained McDonald's vice president of public relations Robin Anderson. "Unfortunately most of the workers there don't read English, and they thought 'Ribbed Latex' was a character from The Last Airbender."

"Who ever heard of The Last Airbender anyway?" added Jose Estevez, president of McDonald's Distribution Union 8801, in defense of his fellow workers.

The mistake led to an incident in a Brewster, Mass., McDonald's, where more than a dozen 8-year-olds attending a birthday party all opened their condoms at once, and immediately blew them into balloons and started batting them around the restaurant.

Shrieks of horror ensued from several other patrons, and one elderly woman fainted when a condom balloon landed in her Filet O' Fish.

"She'd apparently never seen one that size before," explained Brewster Police Chief Bradley Heffernan, who noted that there were some similar concerns when Congress instituted its "Cash For Condoms" program.

The McDonald's incident also caused problems in Provincetown, where the schools accidentally received the restaurant's shipments of Last Airbender toys, and several were released to students who went into their school's nurse's office seeking condoms.

"This was actually very successful among the younger grades, where students would much rather get a stuffed 'Momo' doll than a condom," admitted School Superintendent Beth Singer, who in recent weeks has had to defend the school district's policy of distributing condoms to any student who asks, and not notifying parents.

"But unfortunately there was an issue with Last Airbender Aang Water Cannons being distributed to high school students, resulting in several unwanted pregnancies," said Singer.

"Dude, I followed the directions and everything," said Provincetown High School sophomore 'Josh,' who convinced his girlfriend 'Jennifer' that everything would be okay if they assembled the Water Cannon correctly and used it according to the specifications on the accompanying instruction sheet. "It was fun, but no way did it keep her from getting knocked up."

Parents in Provincetown have been understandably upset at the mix-up, particularly coming off the controversy about the condom distribution.

"It was bad enough to hear my first grader could get a condom in school, but to hear they could be given that plastic McDonald's crap and the school wouldn't have to let me know, well, that's just unacceptable," said parent Sally Cooper. "At least a condom has some practical use to it."

Meanwhile, the producers of The Last Airbender have issued a formal thank you to the Post Office, McDonald's and the Provincetown School System for "doing something that might actually get somebody to notice our lame movie."

Are You Lonely?

2010-07-06T14:15:00.006-04:00

One of my favorite bloggers, Jordyn Carnell, posted the following blog on his Midcourt blog. I hope you enjoy it and find it as interesting as I do

I don't judge people.. or at least I try hard not to. (Cooper: that's what Jordyn said. I, on the other hand, judge everyone constantly and I am very good at it too). So the poster below isn't a commandment, but rather a found image to draw your attention. I don't know how many times I've heard/read something similar. I don't agree with this idea, at least not completely.

Yes getting sucked "inside the box" can be dangerous. (I just re-read this and thought about re-writing it to remove the joke potential, but where's the fun in that?) (Cooper: puhleese...that boy's sucked inside so many boxes he keeps a stash of bottled water and snacks in there in case of emergencies) But being disconnected from people is more dangerous.

The main content of this post is the talk by John Cacioppio below (36min) that explores loneliness and the bio-social value of relationships and companionship. I like this in the context of a Second Life blog. Second Life being a powerful alternate way to connect and/or stay connected to other people.

I always knew the power Second Life was in the connections, but it was interesting for me to think that the concept of "hyper-vigilance" provided by loneliness might be where "drama" comes from. And it was also interesting to me to hear how loneliness is actually needed by the society. Lonely people provide our humanity.

Still, loneliness isn't healthy for the individual. That's where Second Life comes in. In Second Life you can visit, play, share, lust for, love. Finding people people like yourself isn't that difficult (at least in the abstract, in the practical it can take some doing). It's not a perfect substitute for human connectedness, so be careful to maintain your real world relationships. But in my opinion it is a healthy addition

A note from Cooper...
Jordyn Carnell is the first SL blogger I started really following. He writes about SL, perceptions of things SL, he provides fascinating insight and fodder for great discusions on a regular basis. He tempers all this with bits of RL, current events, interesting stuff on the internet and lots of other groovy stuff.
You should really check him out which you can do by clinking either of the two pink links at the top of this post or clicking the link on the right of this blogs under the grouping "Groovy SLinkages - Interwebs" Look for "Midcourt - Things That Bounce"
Oh yeah...He's realy cute too!

The Golden Gays Take Miami

2010-07-03T17:54:00.002-04:00

ORIGINAL COUGARS: Do the words Rusty Anchor, St. Olaf or "hey, pussycat" bring anything to mind? If so, put on your best cardigan, grab your bamboo purse and head out to the Colony Theater on Miami Beach. Tonight through Sunday, they will present The Golden Gays, a musical drag spoof of our favorite senior citizens. Even though these queens hail from Los Angeles, they're making their first stop of their short tour in the original ladies hometown. To bring out the golden girl in all of us, they are promising a lot of shoulder-pads, gossiping on the lanai and silver cougars doing what they do best, being a friend. 8 P.M. Tickets.

Jon Stewart shows Obama putting his foot in his mouth.....again

2010-06-22T19:27:00.003-04:00

and then we have an eye-opening explanation.....

"The Politics Of Oil"
(also known as....."fool me 8 times)

Terrible quality...but you'll get the point

Soccer Officially Announces It Is Gay

2010-06-20T17:06:00.003-04:00

Soccer Officially Announces It Is Gay

I Am The Nephew Of An Innocent Man!!!

2010-06-17T12:14:00.000-04:00

On June 15th, 2010 Lord Chief Chustice Lord Saville Proclaimed ALL the victims of the Bloody Sunday Massacre INNOCENT! The history books will now reflect this 100s of years after we are all gone.

British Prime Minister David Cameron gave a deeply felt and sincere apology, calling the actions of the British PARA's "unjustified and unjustiiable". What a wonderful day it is to hear and read these words, at long last. It is a rather short distance from the Bogside to Guildhall...but it took us 38 years to walk it.

I have no words to describe this barrage of feelings. I thought some other folks, some of whom Icall family and many others whom I have come to love could do a better job......

and here is THE BEST PART OF THE DAY...

Jack Duddy - An innocent man
Paddy Doherty - An innocent man
Gerard Donaghy - An innocent man
Hugh Gilmour - An innocent man
John Johnston - An innocent man
Michael Kelly - An innocent man
Michael McDaid - An innocent man
Kevin McElhinney - An innocent man
Bernard McGuigan - An innocent man
Gerard McKinney - An innocent man
William McKinney - An innocent man
William Nash - An innocent man
Jim Wray - An innocent man
John Young - An innocent man

Your lives were not lost in vain, Rest in peace our beloved ones. Now you sleep with the angels

INNOCENT!!!!!

2010-06-15T17:27:00.000-04:00

Bloody Sunday Killings "Unjustified and unjustifiable" says David Cameron

It is right to pursue Truth with vigor

Saville's Report Is Hours Away...tick-tock-tick-tock

2010-06-14T18:37:00.000-04:00

It's late in the afternoon of Monday June 14th at my home in Philadelphia, USA but in the town of Derry, Northern Ireland it is already The Day. In the pre-dawn wee hours I've been on the phone for hours with various members of my Irish family in their home town of Derry.

They've now retired to their beds for what will surely be a sleepless, uneasy night filled with the kind of emotional upheaval that causes your hands to tremble, uncontrollable tears that never end, the inability to hold-down any food you manage to eat. You know what I refer to - we've all been there.

I should be there with them. It is where I belong. It is my place to be at their sides. I have no words to describe the frustration I feel at not being with my family on this of all nights. I am here, in the US, an ocean away from where I ought to be because the thousands of dollars, and time off from my job, are beyond my capabilities at this time...a piss-poor excuse.

I find myself sitting here, alone in my living room, filled with a mixture of rage, hatred, fear, shame, guilt and I don't even know what else - And then I feel selfish for having these feelings.

June 15th, 2010 the second Saville Inquiry into the events of January 30th, 1972 will be made public. First it will be available for private viewing by the families of the victims of the Bloody Sunday Massacre, then it will be made known to all the citizen of Derry and to the world.

For 38 years I have lived with the lies, political manipulations, cover-ups and bullshit from the British Government.

I remember clearly that day, the spirit of Christmas still in the air, when I learned that my mother's oldest brother had been murdered. I remember clearly my mother & father running off to my mother's family home and the feelings of helpless panic I experienced for the first time. I remember clearly joining my family in Derry - being forbidden to go outside or to look out a window, hearing gunshots, hollering and upheaval outside. I remember very clearly the day the British soldiers came into our family's house with their guns drawn and tore everything apart and hit my father and pushed my grandmother to the floor.

I didn't understand. It would be some time before I would understand and in many ways I still don't.

As time went on I remember Derry coming together, our IRA brothers protecting the town from British intrusion and terror.

The British propaganda machine was in full operation claiming that they had shot dead thirteen "gunmen" and "bombers", in an attempt to justify the planned, cold-blooded murder of peaceful, unarmed civil rights protesters. All as their soldiers ran through our streets killing, injuring and terrorizing innocent citizens. The Irish Republican Army was now the last resort of the nationalist people. To protect them from the combined official and unofficial actions of the British, and go on the offensive to rid Ireland once and for all of British interference and tyranny, the IRA was forced to reorganize from near extinction. With nothing available but a few old and unreliable weapons, the ranks of the IRA were nonetheless swelled by a risen people who would no longer wait to be crushed by the British State.

Many people hear "IRA" and think of a terrorist organization - but that is far from the reality. "Free Derry" remained free and the path of a country changed in ways that allowed Ireland to flourish thanks to the bravery and courageous efforts of our IRA brothers.

I've digressed - my anger got the best of me, but writing this has, as I hoped it would, made it possible for me to clear my mind just a little bit and now hopefully that will lead to a little relaxation.

The very little information that the press has been able to obtained seems to hint that the reveal of Saville's report is fair and accurate and should be a great relief to the families and the citizens of Ireland. I sorely hope it is.

How wonderful it will be to see our fallen ones vindicated - to finally have the truth set free.

How wonderful it will be to hold the photo of my beloved uncle to my chest and know that the truth has been told. I pray for that.

The Bloody Sunday Murder Victims:

Jack Duddy RIP
Paddy Doherty RIP
Gerard Donaghy RIP
Hugh Gilmour RIP
John Johnston RIP
Michael Kelly RIP
Michael McDaid RIP
Kevin McElhinney RIP
Bernard McGuigan RIP
Gerard McKinney RIP
William McKinney RIP
William Nash RIP
Jim Wray RIP
John Young RIP

It's time for quiet now. It's time for peace. It's time for the truth.

The Saville Tribunal To Be Released June 15, 2010

2010-05-27T18:35:00.000-04:00

I spent a great part of today in tearful conversations with my family. I prayed with my aunt, her in Derry, Northern Ireland and me in Philadelphia, USA.

Today it was announced that The Saville Tribunal into the events of Bloody Sunday January 30, 1972 would be published and released on June 15, 2010

Even now as I type these words tears roll down my cheeks - That is partially why I chose to write this entry into a blog that no one reads - I have to be online at SL soon and serve as host for my SL partner Colwyn's DJ gig at Starfall and I'm hoping that writing this might help me develop a clear head. In addition, due to personal health reasons I haven't spent any time with Colwyn in several days and I miss him and I know he misses me, so 'd rather not be bawling like a fool when I finally will get to see him in a couple hours.

If you ask your average American citizen what 'Bloody Sunday' means, they'll tell you it's a song by U2, and that's about all...If you ask them what the song is about they'll shrug and have no answer.

To me, my family, my loved ones and the family and loved ones of the 14 victims of the Bloody Sunday massacre it means something very different though.

In earlier posts to this blog written on or near January 30th I've described the events of Bloody Sunday - January 30th, 1972...I hope you'll take a look at those posts to learn a little bit more about that day that changed the future forever for thousands of people and changed a country forever.

My uncle was one the the 14 people murdered that day by the British Parachute Regiment...Like all the other victims he was an unarmed, passive civilian. A peaceful civil rights demonstration was scheduled to be held in the Bogside
of Derry (Londonderry) that day. My uncle, an aspiring photo-journalists was hoping to get some photos of the demonstration which he could provide to the local newspaper for publication. He didn't get the chance.

Shortly after the events of Bloody Sunday a so-called investigation was performed and the alledged results were published in what would be commonly referred to as The Widgery Report.

Lord Chief Justice Lord Widgery's report was a work of fiction which served as a complete whitewash vindicating the actions of the British Paratroopers, some of whom were honored and given medals for their actions. Today it is not argued whether or not Widgery's report is accurate - the whole world knows it was not.

In 1998, 12 years ago, then British Prime Minister Tony Blair commissioned Lord Saville to conduct an accurate and factual investigation. We, the families of the victims, have been waiting since for Saville to publish his findings. Interviews, conducted in Derry's Guildhall concluded in 2005, and we waited. The report was scheduled for release twice in 2006, and we waited, in 2007, 2008 and 2009, we waited.

Most recently Savilles report was to be released on March 22, 2010, but for reason that are unclear that didnt occur.

The report contains 160 volumes and over 30 million words with interviews with more than 900 witnesses. Lord Saville's Report with be lengthy and complex to say the least

The families of those murdered on Bloody Sunday have fought a long and difficult campaign for the truth about the events in Derry 38 years ago. The lies of Widgery need to be exposed and buried and the truth of what happened when the British Parachute Regiment came to Derry and murdered people on our streets needs to be told.

Opinions differ among the families of those killed and injured, many of whom regularly attended the years of hearings of the Saville Tribunal at Londonderry's Guildhall.

The main demand of some is a declaration of innocence for those who were shot, ideally from Lord Saville and Prime Minister David Cameron. Other families are seeking the prosecution of paratroopers and leaders.

These differing views mean that while publication of the report will be a major milestone, it is not expected to satisfy everyone and draw a line under the affair.

Speaking solely for myself and my family: ackowledging the innocense of our dead loved ones, having the truth, as we already know it, publish, and set free - that's all we really want

The Saville Report is to be opened for inspection by the families of the victims prior to it's release the the public. Appropriately, it will be opened for inspection at Londonderry's Guildhall

I pray there will be no further delay and come June 15th, 2010 the truth shall be set free.

My family and I have waited the majority of my life for the vindication of my beloved uncle and others, please please please do not make us wait any longer.

June 15, 2010

Meet An Emerald Developer

2010-04-12T11:42:00.001-04:00

The Wrong Hands group, who uncovered the JLU (Justice League Unlimited) vigilante group secret SL surveillance wiki and leaked it to the world has now set their sites on the Emerald development team and the barrage of rumors of unsavory conduct.

"Fractured", an Emerald developer, now a part of the infamous Onyx Project, which has most of the same features as the notorious SL Pro griefer client was questioned by Cam, a Wrong Hands group member recently. Fractured admitted that his many alternate accounts had been banned from SL for ToS violations but claims that his "Fractured" account has never committed a violation and is in good standing with LL. This is interesting given that the banning of his alt accounts basically says, and I paraphrase, that he cannot log in to SL anymore and he is no longer welcome - so simply by logging in the Fractured account, he is violating ToS.

But I digress - What I wanted to accomplish with this post is simply to give you the chance to hear from one of the Emerald folks with whom, if you're using Emerald, you have entrusted your password(s) as well as your banking information.

This is the last few minutes of a Q&A between Cam Scientist of the Wrong Hands group and Fractured Crystal of the Emerald Development team...

Now that you've heard from one member of the Emerald team, not to mention good ol' Skills Hax and the shady CDS scam and the makers of CryoLife who are also a part of the Emerald team, I ask you...Are you comfortable with folks like this having your private personal and financial data? I'm just saying...

Like Sands Thru The Hourglass...The Saga Of Second Life

2010-04-12T11:36:00.000-04:00

We miss you dearly Philip Rosedale

Second Life Viewer 2 is available in Beta

2010-02-23T18:16:00.000-05:00

I downloaded the beta version a few minutes ago but as of yet I haven't had time to test it out. There's been some positive feedback on the blogs and forums on it though...the complaints I saw seemed to have alot to do with the resistance to change that most of us (especially me) have built into to our psyches.

If you wanna check out the Beta Version of Viewer 2 you can go HERE and get it right now!!

It appears to have some pretty cool features that will enhance the Second Life experience (once we get used to it) but keep in mind, it is a beta so there's bound to be a glitch or two.

But wait! There's more!! It's been a busy day for those Lindens today. In addition to announcing the release of the Viewer 2 Beta they've also introduced a new Third-Party Viewer Directory And Policy which is geared to help with issues such as ensuring personal security, protecting Intellectual Property, involving the community in the evaluation process and offering some protection from griefing (as someone who, from time to time has been a happy little griefer and trouble-maker I am not too happy about that part, but I'll survive)

Now I am well aware of the favorite pasttime of Linden Bashing and I will admit to having wanted to stop by the Lab and pimp-slap Phil and the boys once or twice myself, but let's give credit where it is due...these are some really great changes and a nice sign that the Lindens DO listen to the residents.

Here's a video from the Lindens about the new Viewer 2 Beta that you can take a look at. I am looking forward to checking it out myself

Avatars United. I'm not paranoid, but....

2010-02-17T17:58:00.000-05:00

I'm really not paranoid but I Do believe that knowledge is power and that we all need to excercise a little bit of personal security online.

There's been alot of chatter over the past few days regarding security issues on the Avatars United social networking site so i decided to do a little research to see what I could learn.

It appears there have been a few issues brought to the attention of Fredrik Björk, Co-founder & CTO of Avatars United regarding security flaws. Mr Björk claimed these concerns were addressed and resolved, but it turns out that is not the case at all.

While I believe most of the problems to be trivial, there is clearly a problem in the Shout function on the site. The heart of the problem is allowing javascript in the text areas of "shouts". By permitting these javascripts it makes Cross-Site Scripting exploits, such as automatic redirecting to malicios sites possible. Given the nature of the beast this is very likely to occur in the near future. In addition there's been a bit of chatter on SLapt.me Forums about a similar exploit in Avatars United's blogging tool.

Ms Isoz Bioworm has created a video which clearly demonstrates.
(I reccomend viewing "full screen" so you can see)

avatarsunited security hole 12 feb 2010 from Isoz Bioworm on Vimeo.

Rubbers!!!

2010-02-12T17:54:00.000-05:00

Varla Jean's Nanny Service For Gay Dads

2010-02-06T13:50:00.000-05:00

Just for giggles

2010-02-03T21:08:00.000-05:00

I just love funny and/or cute animal vids...

"Digital Nation" on Frontline PBS Feb 2, 2010

2010-02-01T19:34:00.000-05:00

This looks like it's gonna be a good one so I thought I'd share
(thanks to Jordyn Carnell)

Bloody Sunday 38 years later..

2010-01-30T19:41:00.000-05:00

RIP our innocent ones~

- Patrick Doherty, age at death: 31
- Gerald Donaghy, age at death: 17
- Jackie Duddy, age at death: 17
- Hugh Gilmore, age at death: 17
- John Johnston, age at death: 59
- Michael Kelly, age at death: 17
- Michael McDaid, age at death: 20
- Kevin McElhinney, at at death: 17
- Bernard McGuigan, age at death: 41
- Gerald McKinney, age at death: 35
- William McKinney, age at death: 26
- William Nash, age at death: 19
- John Young, age at death: 17
- Jim Wray, age at death: 22

These extracts are taken from the book:

Those Are Real Bullets, Aren't They?
Bloody Sunday, Derry, 30 January 1972
by Peter Pringle and Philip Jacobson (2000)

"Don’t Move, Pretend You’re Dead"
Advice from a sixteen-year-old schoolboy, Malachy Coyle, to Jim Wray, who had just been shot in the back by the paratroopers in Glenfada Park.

As MICHAEL KELLY LAY dying on the pavement at the gable wall of Glenfada courtyard there was nothing Father Bradley, Father O’Keeffe and a small group of terrified citizens around his body could do to help. They were pinned down by gunfire from the paratroopers. A few feet away, bullets were bouncing off the rubble barricade and chipping the stucco walls. Across the street, people in the flats were shouting warnings that the paratroopers were moving up into Glenfada; the twenty or so men and one woman would soon be surrounded.

It was a diverse group of priests, professional types, workers and youths out for some aggro. Some were bound to be arrested because they had been in the mêlée at William Street and were drenched with purple dye from the water cannon. One of those was Jim Wray, the tall twenty-two-year-old with the dark woolly hat who had protested peacefully at Barrier 14 by sitting down in the middle of the road. Another was Michael Quinn, who had just turned seventeen and was still in school; his back was soaked with dye.

At least one youth was apparently running the risk of being shot on sight. He was carrying a biscuit tin lid on which lay a number of bomb-like objects. The youth was crying his eyes out. ‘Mister, what do I do with these?’ he sobbed.

‘Get your arse out of here,’ an onlooker told the youth, kicking the tray out of his hands.
(It was never clear what the objects were. ‘They looked like fireworks [but] whatever was on that tray never got used,’ said the onlooker.)

One member of the group was already known to the security forces, not as a troublemaker but because he worked for the government. Joseph Friel was a twenty-year-old tax officer with the Inland Revenue. He worked in the Embassy building in the Strand Road where the army had an observation post on the top floor and he needed an official security clearance to get into the building.

In fact, Friel came of a family who had long served the Crown. His father, who had been in the British army, now worked in Ebrington Barracks as a civilian maintenance man. His grandfather had fought in the First World War and his great-grandfather had also served with the British forces.

Friel was on his way to the meeting at Free Derry Corner when he was caught in the gunfire. After lunch at home on the eighth floor of the Rossville flats he had decided to go to Free Derry Corner for the meeting. His father told him to look after himself.

None of the lifts in the flats would come to the eighth floor so he ran down the stairs, leaving block 1 at the entrance by the rubble barricade, and headed across Rossville Street.

He could hear shouting from the crowd there and loud bangs coming from Little James Street, which he took to be rubber bullets and CS gas. He could also hear Bernadette Devlin’s distinctive voice over the loudspeaker, but he could not see her because of the crowd around the lorry.

As Friel reached the speakers at the corner, the shooting broke out and shots came down Rossville Street. ‘The crowd was squealing, crying, roaring and shouting,’ he would recall. ‘I saw sheer unadulterated terror on people’s faces. I froze momentarily and thought where to go. From where I was standing I could have gone in any direction.’

Bernadette Devlin, standing on the back of the lorry, saw the Pigs drive up Rossville Street, and thought they were coming right to Free Derry Corner and everyone at the meeting would be arrested. As she was about to speak, there was a hail of fire and the shots went whizzing overhead. She threw herself flat on the lorry, looked up, covered in coal dust, and saw Lord Brockway, still on his way down, as if in slow motion. She pulled the old man’s ankles from under him. Ivan Cooper was already curled up like a dormouse and she wedged herself in between him and Brockway.

Kathleen Meenan and Helen Young, whose brother John was shot dead at the barricade in that first fusillade of bullets, crouched down for cover beside the coal lorry. Someone said the soldiers were firing from the walls, and Famonn McCann came up with another man and they covered the two women with their bodies.

When McCann said it was safe, they all began crawling away on their hands and knees. Meenan wore Out the toes of her boots before she had reached the safety of her aunt’s house in St Columb’s Wells.

As the paratroopers opened fire, Dr Donal MacDermott, the Bogside GP, was walking down Rossville Street towards the meeting. He had been told there was a wounded man in the flats but had been unable to find him. Now he was worried because he had left one of his sons, Eamon, in his car near Free Derry Corner. Devlin was telling the crowd, ‘Sit down. If you sit down they won’t shoot you.’

Then MacDermott saw Eamon by his car, jumping up and down, crying ‘Daddy, Daddy, they’re firing real bullets.’ MacDermott packed him into the car and drove home.

Eriel ran back to the flats, thinking he would also go home but when he arrived at the entrance to block 1 the doorway was packed with people taking cover and he couldn’t get in. The shots were coming faster and louder, it seemed, but he still had no real impression where they were coming from.

There was complete chaos on Rossville Street. People were running in every direction and bumping into each other, leaping over the barricade and stumbling as they did so. A woman with a child in a pram got stuck, but people ran on too panic-stricken to stop and help her.

Realizing he could not get through the door, Friel crossed over at the rubble barricade into Glenfada Park and reached the gable wall where Father Bradley and others had been attending to Michael Kelly.

In the group now was Gerry McKinney, a thirty-five-year-old businessman (among other things he had run the roller-skating rink in Strand Road), and William McKinney (no relation), a printer at the Derry Journal. The paratroopers were closing in and they knew they would be arrested, but of the thousands on the march that day the two McKinneys were among the least likely Bogsiders ever to cause the army any trouble.

Gerry had never had anything to do with the IRA, or even the civil rights organization, and he had never thrown a stone in his life. His only brushes with the law were tickets for parking and speeding.

Gerry had no intention of being on the march. He had left home after Sunday lunch to go over to his mother’s house in Beechwood Street at the back of Glenfada. Like all Bogsiders, Gerry was bitter about the treatment of Catholics — because of his religion he had been turned down for several jobs for which he was well qualified, or so he had concluded, and he had found work outside Derry several times. At the start of the Troubles in 1969, he had sent the family south to Dublin for a spell, and since internment, he would not let his wife Ita go into the centre of town — he did all the shopping and ran the errands. But he did let her go to bingo once a week across the border in Buncrana.

He had never been unemployed and for the last six months had been working for John McLaughlin, a local builder, and was making a steady £3 5-40 a week, topped up by his management consultancy. Gerry was a generous man, always helping neighbours down on their luck by lending them a few quid and asking every day, as he left home, whether Ita was OK for cash.

That afternoon he was due to go into the office to meet his boss McLaughlin to discuss a few business matters and ideas he had for a job in Dublin. The papers were in his car, but he couldn’t get out of the Bogside because the army had closed off the exits. Gerry’s brother-in-law, John O’Kane, and some other friends were at his mother’s and they were going on the march, so Gerry decided to join them.

Willie McKinney was twenty-seven, the eldest of ten children. He was a quiet young man who still lived in the family home in the Creggan, where he pursued his two obsessions of photography and the accordion. He had always been studious and, since a child, had worn thick glasses. The other children had teased him, calling him ‘the professor’, or sometimes ‘four-eyes’. When he went to Friday night hops he used to take off his glasses to give himself a better chance to get a girl, and his brothers and sisters would watch him spin round the floor wondering how on earth he could see his partner.

Willie started work at the Derry Journal when he was fourteen, first as a tea boy and then as an odd job man. On Journal outings to Bundoran, a seaside resort in Donegal Bay across the border, Willie would play the accordion on the bus, mostly Irish folk songs. But his favourite from the hit parade was ‘Where Would You Like to Be? Under the Bridges of Paris with Me.’

He wanted to be a printer but, in those days, first you had to be a member of the printers’ union. McKinney badgered union officials, writing them letters, and they eventually gave in; if the other printers agreed, he could become a member. The others did, because they liked him.

When he got the job the family were very proud. He would come home for lunch each day on his bike, and his brothers and sisters would be sitting down at the table, waiting for him. He started dating Elizabeth O’Donnell from the Waterside and they got engaged, but they never married.

By chance, he had been arrested once by the army. It had happened late one evening after he had been out with his fiancée. She had gone home, but Willie had stayed to watch a few young lads stoning an army patrol. They were all arrested and held at the barracks until five in the morning. Anyone with dirty hands — showing they had been picking up stones — was charged with riotous behaviour. Willie’s hands were clean and he was not charged with anything.

Recently, he had bought a good camera second-hand from the Journal because they had no use for it any more. He was mad about it and used to develop his own film at home, after the family had gone to bed. He kept all his chemicals in old lemonade bottles in the kitchen.

The week before he had been to the protest march at Magilligan and had taken pictures there, and this Sunday he was out again with his camera. He had left the house looking smartly turned out, as he always liked to be, with a shirt and tie, a black blazer, his corduroy cap and his dark-grey mohair three-quarter-length coat under his arm, and carrying his camera. He could have been mistaken for a reporter.

One of the last to seek refuge in Glenfada Park was Danny Gillespie, who lived in the Creggan, was thirty-two and unemployed. He had been with the march since the Bishop’s Field and found himself standing next to a man who was hit in the mouth with a rubber bullet at Barrier 14 and had to have several stitches in his lip. Gillespie then made his way into Glenfada, warning a group of youths clutching broken-up bits of flagstones that they would be wise to clear off; the paratroopers were firing live rounds.

At Father Bradley’s urging, three men in the Glenfada group at the gable agreed to carry Kelly’s body across the courtyard and through a passageway into Abbey Park. As they were lifting Kelly, Gregory Wild, a fourteen-year-old schoolboy, was looking towards the garages at the north end of the courtyard and spotted the paratroopers coming in. ‘Watch out,’ he shouted, ‘there’s a limey.’

Joe Friel looked round to the north of Glenfada. He was without his glasses; that day they were being repaired. Even so, he could see paratroopers standing by the garages at the north end of Glenfada, three or four of them.

‘The one in front was firing,’ Friel would recall. ‘He had his gun at just above waist height and was moving it from side to side, not swinging it, just moving it a few inches from left to right. The other soldiers were not firing their weapons. The soldier was not picking me out. The fire was random.’

Friel started to run towards the alley leading into Abbey Park. Suddenly, he felt a thump in his chest. He thought he had been hit by a rubber bullet; he couldn’t believe it was a real bullet because he thought that must feel different — ‘like a red-hot wire boring into you’. He looked down and saw the gash in his jacket and the blood starting to come through his clothing. There was also blood in his mouth. ‘I’m hit, I’m hit,’ he cried. He collapsed into the hands of three men taking cover in the alley.

One of them was Leo Young. He was looking for his brother John who was lying dead or dying behind the rubble barricade in Rossville Street. Friel was fully conscious and scared he was going to die, but he had been incredibly lucky. The bullet was ‘an almost near miss’, as the doctor at Altnagelvin would later say. It was a flesh wound; no vital organs or blood vessels had been hit. The bullet had gone clean through the front of his chest, entering on the right side, cracking the breastbone and exiting on the left.

If he had not turned slightly to see the paratrooper who shot him when Gregory Wild shouted his warning, the bullet would almost certainly have hit him in the back and probably would have killed him.

Young and others carried Friel into the Murrays’ house in Lisfannon Park. He was treated by the young paramedic, Eibhlin Lafferty, who tore open his shirt and put a sterilized pad on the wound. There was a crowd in the house, mostly older women who knelt around him and started saying the rosary. Mrs Murray ran upstairs, unable to take the drama. Joe Friel was convinced he was going to die.

When Danny Gillespie first saw the paratroopers come into the courtyard, one of them was directly in front of him, aiming his gun at him from the shoulder. Gillespie turned and ran across the yard and there was a sharp crack. His head was stinging and burning. He fell forwards with his face down on the tarmac. Everything went black.

When he regained his senses Gillespie found two of the youths he had told off about carrying stones asking him if he was all right and trying to help him up. He had almost made it to the cover of the alley leading out of Glenfada into Abbey Park when there were more shots and one young man let out a grunt and fell on top of him, pinning his legs to the pavement. Gillespie managed to push him off and run through the alley into Abbey Park.

There were now four paratroopers from the anti-tank platoon of Support Company in Glenfada Park, led by Corporal E and including Lance Corporal F, and Private G and Private H. Their plan was to cut off those who had been on the barricade and were fleeing through the courtyard. Father Bradley’s group was trapped.

Seventeen-year-old Martin Hegarty was scared stiff. ‘How do I get out of this one?’ he was asking himself. Several in the group had given up, accepting that they would be arrested, at best. They were squealing and some had their hands over their ears, trying to shut out the commotion and the reality of their plight. Hegarty proposed dashing south into the next courtyard of Glenfada; others were in favour of running across the yard into the alley that led into Abbey Park. ‘Jesus, don’t go out there,’ someone said.

But Michael Quinn, a seventeen-year-old schoolboy, was ready to run. Ahead of him he saw a youth shot in the right thigh on the west side of the park. The next moment he looked up he had gone. He was wearing a black anorak and had brown hair. Quinn now ran towards the alley, doubled over. He had taken only a few paces before he was hit. The bullet ripped the right shoulder of his jacket before blowing away a chunk of his cheekbone and came out through his nose.

Quinn staggered through the alley into Abbey Park and saw the youth who had been shot in the leg lying on the ground. Someone helped Quinn towards Fahan Street and across open ground to Blucher Street, where he was treated by the paramedics, Pauline Lynch and Eibhlin Lafferty.

Others from Bradley’s group now dashed for the alley into Abbey Park. One of them was John McLaughlin, supervisor at the National Coal Board’s yard in the Waterside. Ahead of him was a young lad sprinting for the alley. One of the paratroopers spotted him and swivelled round, aimed at the boy and called out for him to stop, but the boy kept running. McLaughlin took his chance and ran for the alley. The same soldier shouted at him to stop and he saw him swing his rifle round to aim at him, but McLaughlin put his hands on his head, bent double, and just kept going. More people followed.

In a fusillade of bullets Joseph Mahon was hit in the thigh and fell, and behind him Willie McKinney, clutching his precious camera, was cut down by a bullet in his back.

The four paratroopers would later say they shot at gunmen, petrol bombers and nail bombers.

Corporal E said when the paratroopers arrived in Glenfada there were about forty or fifty people who started to throw missiles and he saw a man throwing a petrol bomb which landed ten yards from him. He then saw that the same man had a nail bomb and as he was lighting it he shouted to him to drop it, but as he had already lit it, Corporal E fired two shots. The second hit him and he fell down. According to Corporal E, the nail bomb exploded but no one was hurt, but none of the civilians saw or heard any explosion in the confined courtyard.

Lance Corporal F, who fired five rounds from Glenfada, would say that he spotted three men who had left the rubble barricade move into the courtyard. ‘One of them turned and was about to throw what appeared to be a bomb (because it was fizzing) in our direction. Myself and "G" dropped down on one knee. I took an aimed shot. The first shot seemed to hit the man with the bomb in the shoulder, the second in the chest. The man fell to the ground.’ The bomb did not explode, Lance Corporal F said.

His partner, Private G, said he fired three rounds at two gunmen who were standing on the same footpath leading to the alley into Abbey Park where Friel, Gillespie, Wray, Mahon and Willie McKinney were shot.

. . . We moved quickly into the alleyway and I remember looking round for F who was just behind me. There is an archway into the courtyard of Glenfada Park. There was a car parked close to the mouth of the archway and I went round to the right-hand side of the car with F close beside me. As I got round the end of the car two men attracted my attention in the opposite corner of Glenfada Park. These men were armed. I cannot identify their weapons exactly but I think they were short rifles like an Ml carbine. They both had weapons of this sort. I immediately dropped to one knee and fired three aimed shots at one of the men. F was firing beside me and I saw both men fall.

Private H fired a total of twenty-two rounds in Glenfada Park, more than any other paratrooper’s total for any of the killing grounds. (Lance Corporal F fired the second highest total of thirteen, five of them from Glenfada.)

Private H’s first target in Glenfada, he would say, was a youth who he thought was about to throw a nail bomb.

I saw a lad . . . he had an object like a Coca-Cola tin in his hand. He was drawn back in the throwing position. I fired two shots at him and he fell to the ground. The bomb just thudded to the ground without rolling or bouncing. I am still sure it was a bomb. It did not explode. There was an alleyway at the opposite corner of the square from which a youth ran. He picked up the bomb, I think with his right hand, and I thought he was about to throw it. I fired one round at him and think it hit him in the right shoulder or upper arm. He was able to stagger away. He did not drop the bomb.

Private H’s next target, he said, was a gunman who was pointing a rifle from behind a frosted window-pane in a house on the north side of the courtyard. He said he pumped nineteen rounds into this bathroom window, but no window was found punctured with nineteen bullet holes and none of the other paratroopers saw or heard Private H firing nineteen shots at one target. The bullets that Private H fired clearly went somewhere else.

Sheltering in the doorway of 7 Abbey Park, the house of Mr and Mrs O’Reilly, was John William Porter, a quartermaster sergeant in the Irish army. He ran through the alley and a woman in number 8 said, ‘Mister, quick. Come in here.’ He slipped in and hid behind the door, keeping it slightly open so that he could see down the alley.

Porter saw Jim Wray fall and hit his head on the sidewalk. Then there was a volley of shots. He closed the door and went to the window. ‘My God, there’s a man been shot,’ he told the people in the house. He went back to the door and opened it. He saw Wray lying half on, half off the pavement. His left arm was limp and there was blood on his wrist.

Wray raised his head up off the ground and looked towards where Porter was standing in the doorway. Wray then tried to press himself up with his right hand, but he couldn’t move. Porter ran out of the door towards Wray and three bullets smacked into the wall in front of him. He ran back into the house and slammed the door.

Malachy Coyle, a sixteen-year-old schoolboy, also saw Jim Wray fall on to the pavement. Coyle had been running away from the paratroopers as they came into Glenfada and had almost reached the alley into Abbey Park when he was grabbed by a man who pulled him to safety into the backyard of a house. It had a slatted wooden fence through which Coyle could see the Paras moving into the courtyard. He was scared stiff. He thought of hiding in the dustbin but it was full of rubbish, so he just crouched down behind the fence.

Wray was looking directly at Coyle, raised his head off the pavement and said, ‘I can’t move my legs.’ The bald man who had pulled Coyle to safety told Wray, ‘ Keep calm, keep calm.’

Coyle said, ‘Don’t move. Pretend you’re dead.’

More shots rang out from the north end of the courtyard and the pavement around Wray exploded in sparks. Wray was still trying to raise himself up. From the house he was in, John Porter saw Wray’s brown corduroy jacket jump twice four or five inches in the air and his head went down slowly on to the pavement. Wray had been shot in the back, for the second time.

The first bullet, which had apparently caused him to fall so that he couldn’t move, entered Wray’s back from the right and travelled to the left almost horizontally across his back — from the direction of the paratroopers. The bullet damaged the spine at the tenth and eleventh thoracic vertebrae, fractured the tenth and eleventh left ribs and bruised, but did not penetrate, the left lung. The spinal injury meant that Wray could not lift himself up.

The second bullet was the one that killed him. It entered Wray’s back, just above the first bullet. Then it passed through muscle tissue, damaged the eighth thoracic vertebra, fractured parts of five left ribs by which time it was tumbling through the tissue of the left lung before leaving the body. The gaping exit wound exposed lacerated muscles. Death, which was not instantaneous, was caused by bleeding and the escape of air into the left chest cavity from the damaged lung.

The wounded Joe Mahon watched, terrified, as Wray was shot while on the ground. Mahon was lying behind Wray and saw his desperate efforts to get up. He heard him calling for help to Porter, Coyle and others sheltering in the alley.

After Wray was shot the second time, Mahon could hear the soldiers coming closer. He lay still, pretending he was dead. Behind him, Willie McKinney was moaning.

Mahon was seriously wounded, but he would live. The bullet had entered the right pelvic bone and tossed through the intestines, splitting up into tiny bits that bored twelve holes in the small intestine and made six separate perforations of the mesentery — the membranes that hold the intestines to the abdominal cavity — before embedding itself in the muscle beyond the bone. (The surgeon who operated on Mahon noted in his report, ‘The bullet was a high-velocity one and such missiles when they penetrate the abdominal viscera, carry a notoriously bad prognosis.’)

However, Mahon’s medical report would give no accurate description of the entry wound, as was done for all the other dead and wounded and, although the bullet was found intact, the government forensic staff, while agreeing it had been fired from an army SLR, could not match it to any of the twenty-nine rifles the army would submit for examination. The mystery was why it had split up so readily into tiny fragments without hitting a bone.

Behind Mahon, lying face up on the pavement, Willie McKinney was still conscious after being shot, also in the back. One bullet had caused four surface wounds and multiple internal injuries. The entrance wound was on the right side of his back. As it travelled through his body, it fractured some ribs, lacerated the diaphragm, the right lung, the liver, colon, stomach and spleen and then made a hole in his left side big enough for his guts to be hanging out. The bullet then ripped holes in the back and front of his left forearm before leaving his body.

A paratrooper, whose footsteps Mahon could hear coming closer, left McKinney alone and walked forward towards the alley. He then fired three more rounds into the alley and Mahon heard him say, ‘I’ve got another one.’ Mahon did not dare move to see what he was firing at. Another soldier said, ‘OK, we’re pulling out.’ Before they left, Mahon saw the first soldier remove his helmet to wipe his brow.

The paratroopers’ last shots into the alley before leaving killed the businessman, Gerry McKinney, and a youth in blue jeans named Gerald Donaghy. The bullet that killed Donaghy came from Private G’s rifle.

After the rush out of Glenfada through the alley into Abbey Park, people took shelter in and behind the houses there. John O’Kane had run through the alley with his brother-in-law, Gerry McKinney, and they had dived for cover. Through the alley they could see where Wray had fallen in Glenfada Park and wondered how they could reach him.

Donaghy was seventeen and an ardent Republican who had just completed six months in jail for rioting. He said he would be able to get to Wray if he crawled on his stomach but as he started out O’Kane and McKinney pulled him back saying it was too risky. There was more shooting and then all three started to move out across the mouth of the alley. People on the other side shouted, ‘Get back, get back.’

O’Kane turned back, but McKinney and Donaghy kept edging out. O’Kane shouted, ‘Come back, it’s not worth it.’ But it was too late.

The paratrooper spotted them.

Gerry McKinney’s arm was stretched out across Donaghy’s chest, holding him back. He said to Donaghy, ‘Just a minute, son, ‘til we see if it’s clear.’ As he turned his head into the alley to see if it was safe to cross, he spotted the paratrooper aiming at him, his hands shot up in the air and he cried out, ‘No, no.’

Two shots rang out. McKinney and Donaghy fell to the ground. Donaghy was clutching his stomach.

A thirteen-year-old schoolboy, John Carr, saw Gerald McKinney shot. He lived with his family at 8 Abbey Park.

John’s father, Peter, had let the group with Kelly’s body inside the house, then herded all the children upstairs and put four or five of them, including John and the one-year-old baby, in an empty wardrobe, closed the door and told them to stay there.

After a minute, John’s curiosity got the better of him, and he came out of the wardrobe and went into his brother’s bedroom at the front of the house. As he looked out of the widow through the alleyway into Glenfada several shots rang out and he saw Jim Wray’s head fall slowly on to the pavement.

Then he saw a soldier come through the alleyway and face a group of people who ran away — except for one man who threw his hands up in the air and looked directly at the soldier. The bedroom window was closed and John could not hear whether the man said anything, but as his hands went up, the soldier shot him and he fell on his back. John saw him bless himself with his right hand across his face. It was Gerry McKinney. John screamed out, ‘They’ve shot a man and he had his hands up.’

His father ran into the room, saw John standing at the window, grabbed him and told him to get down on the bed and to stay there while he checked the other children.

When the shooting stopped people came out of the houses in Abbey Park and tried to get to the wounded. The first to go to Donaghy and Gerry McKinney were shot at. Eibhlin Lafferty came out of the Murrays’ house, where she had been treating Joe Friel.

Another paramedic, Robert Cadman, joined her.

Looking through the alley, Lafferty saw the bodies of Wray, Mahon and Willie McKinney lying on the pavement. There was blood coming from McKinney’s mouth.

Cadman saw the barrel of a rifle appear at the Glenfada end of the alley and shouted to Lafferty to stay still but she didn’t hear him. She was bending over Gerry McKinney and Donaghy, and only had time to see they were still alive when there was a shot. The bullet, apparently, hit the cobblestones behind Leo Young and he ducked down on one knee. Lafferty lay flat and shouted, ‘Don’t shoot, don’t shoot, Red Cross.’ Cadman joined her and they moved towards the alley into Glenfada.

At the same moment Mahon, who was still pretending to be dead, turned his head to see if the paratroopers had gone and looked straight at one. The soldier got down on one knee and took aim. Just then Lafferty shouted again, ‘Don’t shoot, Red Cross.

The soldier shouted back, ‘Your white coats are great targets but your red hearts are even better.

She shouted, ‘Are you mad?’

He didn’t fire and Mahon would later credit Lafferty’s intervention with saving his life.

When Leo Young reached Donaghy’s body he was lying on his back, with his right leg tucked up underneath him and his guts hanging out. He grabbed Donaghy by the legs and hauled him into the open door of Raymond Rogan’s house.

More people came out to help carry in the wounded. Jim McLaughlin helped get Willie McKinney into 7 Abbey Park. There was a first-aid man with a deformed hand who treated him, and he was struggling with the oxygen equipment and couldn’t put the rubber pipe into the cylinder.

They brought James Wray into Peter Carr’s house and put him on the floor in the living room beside Kelly.

Malachy Coyle would later describe the actions of Corporal E, Lance Corporal F and Privates G and H. He did not know which regiment they were from — they were all dressed alike, except one who was without a helmet.

The soldier without a helmet acted differently from the rest. He entered the car park ahead of the other soldiers and I noticed him immediately because he stood out from the rest by his dress and his manner. He was bareheaded and I could see he had blackish-coloured hair. He was not particularly tall, but he had a wiry build and looked to be very fit and strong. I think he had black streaks on his face.

While the other soldiers adopted a defensive position . . . this soldier ran on ahead of them to the south gable end...

[There] he discovered between twenty and thirty people all hunched down for cover beside the wall . . . the crowd of people there started squealing. I saw the bareheaded soldier turn around to face the crowd. . . and I heard him shout, ‘I’ll shoot you, you Irish bastards. You Irish scum!’ He shouted this three or four times, very loudly. All the time he was standing with his gun pointing towards the crowd at the south gable wall... I remember hearing a woman’s, or young boy’s, voice crying out, ‘Please don’t shoot us! Please don’t shoot us!’

The bareheaded soldier’s behaviour was weird . . . he was acting completely irrationally and he could not stand still. He kept jerking about in a strange manner. He was very angry. He was obviously totally out of control and he could not stop shouting and screaming and moving about. It was very, very frightening to see him so full of anger and pointing his rifle at innocent civilians . . .

I became deeply afraid of leaving the safety [of the backyard] . . . I said to the bald man, ‘They’ll see us soon. We’d better get out and give ourselves up before that happens.’ I remember that the man stood up and went out of the backyard first and I followed him with my hands behind my head. We tensed ourselves as we stood up because we were expecting to be shot.

The bareheaded soldier fired again and Coyle ‘lost it’. He panicked and bolted through the alley to the south, ran across the old Bog Road and took refuge with others by a fence. When the others asked him what was going on in Glenfada, he was in such a state of shock he couldn’t get the words out. He broke down and wept.

Remeber Bloody Sunday January 30, 1972

2010-01-24T16:13:00.000-05:00

The inexcusable delays in releasing the Saville report.

The falsehoods in the Lord Widgery report.

The lies continue.

My uncle was one of 14 unarmed civilians murdered by British soldiers during a peaceful demonstration for civil rights and against internment in the town of Derry, Northern Ireland on January 30th, 1972

The Bloody Sunday Program "Set TheTruth Free" is currently underway in Derry. It began Tuesday, January 19, 2010 at 1:00pm and will continue through Sunday, January 31, 2010 at 9:30pm

Bloody Sunday Program 2010
‘Set the Truth Free’

Today as people here, throughout Ireland and more generally those concerned with human rights and justice everywhere wait to hear what the second inquiry into the events of Bloody Sunday under Lord Saville have to say the families of the dead and surviving wounded raise the call for the British government to “Publish the report and Set the Truth Free”.

Last year we were informed of yet another delay to the publication of the inquiry’s report. At that time we were told it was to be late Autumn 09. This date has now passed and still we wait, more than 38 years on after the events it inquires into. Certainly for the relatives of the dead, many who have since died, and those of the wounded who are no longer with us justice delayed has been justice denied.

It is for this reason the center point of this year’s rally will see representatives of the Blood Sunday families and wounded address the gathering in a choreographed series of personal statements calling for the British Government to publish the report now and ‘Set The Truth Free’.

We say if peace is to take hold then it needs to be nurtured and tended with due attention and care and part of building that peace is being able to say with confidence that we are all now moving into a new and more just society. For that to truly happen justice needs to be done and needs to be seen to be done and it is within this context that Lord Saville urgently now needs to publish his findings into the events of Bloody Sunday.

The greatest contribution the British Government can make to promoting peace and reconciliation with regard to the conflict in and about ‘Northern Ireland’ is to come clean about the events of Bloody Sunday and ‘set the truth free’.

BLOODY SUNDAY PROGRAM OF EVENTS

Tuesday 19 January

1.00pm: Launch ‘Launch of the Bloody Sunday Black Ribbon’ by Martin McGuinness, Deputy First Minister and Paul Fleming, Mayor of Derry
"With the report of the Bloody Sunday Inquiry expected this year it is important that everyone shows their support for the families. We have campaigned for many many years to get the full truth about Bloody Sunday acknowledged and even now, thirty-eight years on, there are still a number of potentially major stumbling blocks in our way. We hope to see Lord Saville's report this year, and we hope that it finally acknowledges the full truth of what happened that day, but we still have serious concerns around when and how the report will be published and who will have advance sight of it. We will be using the commemoration this year to highlight those concerns." John Kelly, whose brother Michael was the youngest fatality of Bloody Sunday, speaking before the launch.
Venue: Stormont, Belfast.

Monday 25 January

8.00pm: Film ‘The US vs. John Lennon’ Documentary (2006)
Written/directed by David Leaf & John Scheinfeld. Taking over 15 years to produce this documentary focuses on a part of Lennon's life often overlooked: his politicisation both during and after the Vietnam War as he transformed from a Beatle into a peace activist. Inspiring testimony to the power of non-violence the film expands upon the known brilliance of a remarkable figure. “Of all of the documentaries made about John, this is the one he would have loved.” Yoko Ono
Venue: The Nerve Centre, Magazine Street. Adm £2.00.

Tuesday 26 January

8.00pm: Film & Discussion ‘Five Minutes of Heaven’ Drama (2009)
written by Guy Hibbert (OMAGH) & directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel (DOWNFALL). In 1975, 11 year old Catholic Joe Griffin witnessed the killing of his brother by a young Ulster Volunteer Force member, Alistair Little. The murder changed their lives forever. Starring Liam Neeson and James Nesbitt the film explores the enormity of the difficulties faced by a violently divided society coming to terms with its past. Joe Griffin will be present at the screening and will speak about his own story and involvement with the film and the impact that has had on his life.
Venue: The Nerve Centre, Magazine Street. Adm £2.00.

Wednesday 27 January

8.00pm: Film & Discussion ‘Not In Our Name’ Documentary (2009)Produced/Directed by Gabrielle Tierney this film tells a Derry story with global significance. When Israel launched a major bombing offensive on Lebanon on 12 July 2006 it had implications in Derry. The international arms company Raytheon provided much of the high-tech weaponry used in the attack. Raytheon had a software facility in Derry. On 9th August 2006 a group of Derry Anti War Campaign activists occupied the facility and disabled its mainframe computer. The 9 were arrested, charged with criminal damage, but subsequently were acquitted. After the screening some of the ‘Raytheon 9’ will be present to take questions.
Venue: The Nerve Centre, Magazine Street. Adm £2.00.

10.00pm Pub Quiz Fundraiser, Bloody Sunday Memorial Shield.A general knowledge quiz with entertainment, video and audio rounds. All welcome.
Venue: The Beechtree Bar, Participating teams of five £10 per team

Thursday 28 January

8.00pm Drama ‘Raiders Of The Lost Archives’
The Pat Finucane Centre carries out regular ‘raids’ on the Public Record Office in London in search of declassified official documents that shed a light on what the British Government was thinking but didn’t want us to know! This event, first staged at the West Belfast Feile to critical acclaim, is an opportunity to take a journey through the early 1970s in the company of local actors Gerry Doherty, Pat Lynch and Seamus Heaney, who will provide dramatic readings from declassified documents with Paul O’Connor as tour guide! Why was the British government so anxious to hide the true extent of sectarian assassinations? What was the response in London to widespread loyalist infiltration of the UDR and just what did Harold Wilson tell Margaret Thatcher about the RUC? So come along to hear all this and more from Lt Colonel Gerry Doherty, Permanent Secretary Pat Lynch and NIO securocrat Seamus Heaney.
Venue: Cultúrlann Uí Chanáin, Gt James St. Adm by donation.

Friday 29 January

12.00pm Walking Tour Eyewitness Bloody Sunday
A unique educational tour around the site of Bloody Sunday using contemporary photographs and eyewitness statements to explain the events of the day and connections to current events around the world. Exclusive to visitors to the Museum of Free Derry. Min. and max. numbers apply.
Venue: Departs Museum of Free Derry 12.00pm.

1.30pm. Film & Discussion ‘Justice Denied: Voices from Guantanamo’ (2009) An American Civil Liberties Union film. The Bloody Sunday Weekend Committee is delighted to be able to host this film in the company of Moazzam Begg, one of the five men featured in the film. Now, finally free, this is their story. Following the screening Moazzam will answer questions and speak of his current involvement with the human rights organisation ‘Cage Prisoners’ whose purpose is to raise awareness of the plight of prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay, and other detainees held in US prisons as a part of that government’s ‘war on terror’. The event will be chaired by Tommy McKearney (EXPAC) a former Republican Prisoner and Hunger Striker.
Venue: Pilots Row. Adm Free.

6.00pm/9.00pm Music Fundraiser ‘Acoustic Set’Declan McLaughlin, Gary Og, Tina McLaughlin plus a host of other artists.
Venue: Mason’s Bar, Magazine Street. Adm Free.

7.00pm Photo Exhibition ‘Images of the Bloody Sunday Inquiry’
This is a unique look back at the inquiry through the eyes of Charlie McMenamin who attended many of the sessions both in Derry and in London.
Venue: Cultúrlann Uí Chanáin. Adm Free

7.30pm Panel Discussion
‘The Bloody Sunday Inquiry - Set The Truth Free’This is an important year for Derry. It is highly likely that the report from the Bloody Sunday Inquiry will be made public at some stage in 2010. It is even possible its release may occur prior to Easter. The families of those killed on Bloody Sunday, those who were physically wounded, as well as the general populace of Derry have waited and campaigned for almost 40 years to hear the truth being uttered and accepted as such by a British Government. This side of the report being made public there are many concerns and anxieties shared among the families and others as to the report's content and implications. Two family representatives, Tony Doherty and John Kelly, along with Bloody Sunday Trust members Eamonn McCann and Christine Bell will discuss a range of important issues relative to these concerns regarding the release and content of the report.
Venue: Cultúrlann Uí Chanáin. Adm by donation.

9.30pm Film Screening, Followed by Music/Social EventScreening of Jimmy McGovern’s film ‘Sunday’, followed by music from Gary Og and Cruncher O’Neill
Venue: Sean Dolan’s GAA, Creggan. Adm Free.

Saturday 30 January

10.00am – 11.30am Film ‘Octobre a Paris’ Documentary (1962)
Irish Premiere of previously lost 1962 film by Jacques Panijel. This film consists of eyewitness accounts, re-enactments by the community and archive footage from the day itself. On 17 October 1961, Algeria's National Liberation Front, the FLN, defied France's Emergency Powers Act and called tens of thousands of Algerian immigrant workers onto the streets of Paris, to take part in a peaceful demonstration calling for recognition of Algeria's right to self-determination. French police, under the orders from De Gaulle's appointed Police Chief Maurice Papon, attacked marchers with indiscriminate brutality. During this attack, the demonstrators were “kettled”, thousands were savagely beaten and dozens killed, having been thrown or forced to jump in the river Seine. The French state, which to this day denies any responsibility, admitted 4 deaths at the time but now say that 40 people were killed. More credible estimates, from eyewitnesses, archives and the number of bodies found in the river put the number at 200+. This is a crime that has never been recognised by the French Republic, and since the general amnesty declared at the Evian accords in 1962, one that has not been a concern of the Algerian authorities. Accompanied by photographic exhibition of events in Paris, October 1961
Venue: Cultúrlann Uí Chanáin, Great James Street. Adm Free

10.30am – 3.45pm All Day Training Workshop ‘Non-violent action for Social Justice’
What is non-violence? Why do we need to train ourselves to be non-violent? This workshop will explore these issues through the experience of the participants. It’s open to all, veterans, novices and the curious but places are limited so you’ll need to book your space. After defining terms the workshop will move on to explore ‘gender and violence’ and conclude with a very practical focus on tactics to resolve the issues of concern raised by participants. The workshop is organised by FEIC and will be facilitated by Rob Fairmichael, who is the Coordinator of the Irish Network for Nonviolent Action Training and Education (INNATE).
Venue: Pilot’s Row. Tea/Coffee/Registration 10.10am. As each participant’s input is important please come in good time for 10.30am start. Participation by donation and includes soup lunch.

12.00pm – 1.30pm Panel Discussion ‘Losing Their Memory’
Discussion on how states cover-up their own violent actions. Chaired by Professor Christine Bell, with historian Jean Luc Einaudi on the October 1961 massacre, human rights activist and Relatives for Justice director Andree Murphy on the August 1971 massacre of civilians in Ballymurphy, and journalist, activist and civil rights veteran Eamonn McCann on the events of Bloody Sunday.
Venue: Cultúrlann Uí Chanáin, Seomra 2.

12.00pm – 1.30pm Panel Discussion – Irish Basque Solidarity Committee
Panel discussion on censorship in the Basque Country. Ainara Mendiola, the coordinator of the international campaign in favour of Egunkaria will be the main speaker.
Venue: Cultúrlann Uí Chanáin, Performance area.

2.00pm – 3.45pm Panel Discussion ‘Youth for Truth’
This event will discuss the on-going campaigns in the search for truth for victims of State violence and state sponsored killings such collusion, shoot –to-kill etc. Panel will include Raymond McCartney MLA, John Kelly, whose brother Michael was murdered on Bloody Sunday and Mark Thompson, director of Relatives for Justice.
Venue: Cultúrlann Uí Chanáin, Performance area.

4.00pm A Minute’s Silence
The minute’s silence, held every year to mark the moment when British Paratroopers opened fire on civil rights marchers fleeing before them as they entered the Bogside. All welcome.
Venue: Bloody Sunday Monument, Rossville Street.

4.30pm – 6.00pm Panel Discussion ‘Can We Handle the Truth?'
In the wake of the Report of the Consultative Group on the Past Co-Chaired by Lord Eames and Denis Bradley being effectively side tracked or quietly binned this event is designed to provoke discussion on 'Where to now?' with regard to the legacy of the conflict and truth recovery. Panel speakers include: Dennis Bradley (Consultative Group on the Past), Sandra Peake (Wave Trauma Centre), Jim Clinton (Relatives for Justice) and journalist and writer Suzan McKay.
Venue: Pilot’s Row. Admission Free.

7.30pm Music Event Fundraiser ‘Craic, Music & Performance’ – Please B.Y.O.
An evening of craic and music featuring Declan McLauglin, Gary Og, Tina McLaughlin, Cruncher O’Neill, Barry Kerr, Joe Mulheron and Eileen Webster.
Venue: Cultúrlann Uí Chanáin, Performance area. Adm £5.00. Space limited so come early.

8.00pm. Film & Discussion ‘Sunday’ Drama-documentary (2002)
Written by Jimmy McGovern, directed by Charles McDougall. Filmed primarily in Derry and co-produced for the 30th anniversary of Bloody Sunday by local company Gaslight Productions, ‘Sunday’ tells the story of that day primarily from the perspective of the local community. The screening will be followed by a Q & A with Stephen Gargan and Jim Keys the film’s local producers together with two of the main protagonists depicted in the film, Leo Young, whose brother John was murdered on the day and Geraldine McBride (nee Richmond) who witnessed many of the killings.
Venue: The Nerve Centre. Adm £2.00.

10.30pm Music Event Gary OgVenue: Telstar, Central Drive. Adm Free.10.30pm Music Event Cruncher O’NeillVenue: Dungloe Bar, Waterloo Street. Adm Free.

Sunday 31 January

11.00am: Wreath laying ceremony and prayer service.All welcome.
Venue: Bloody Sunday Monument, Rossville Street.

2.30pm: Bloody Sunday Commemorative March and Rally.
As a centre point of this year’s rally representatives of the Blood Sunday families and wounded will each address the gathering in a choreographed series of personal statements calling for the British Government to publish the report now and ‘Set The Truth Free’. There will also be speakers from Sinn Fein and the SDLP. This year’s march will again stop in William Street, at the point where the original march was stopped by the British Army on its way to the Guildhall, to signify how the families’ demand for justice is still being denied by delays in the publication of the report of the Bloody Sunday inquiry. Assemble Creggan Shops.After the march:6.00pm MusicAll the usual team, with tea, coffee and soup.
Venue: Sandino’s, Water Street.

6.00pm MusicGary Og
Venue: Telstar. Adm Free.

6.00pm MusicCruncher O’Neill
Venue: Dungloe Bar. Adm Free.

6.00pm/8.00pm MusicBarry Kerr
Venue: Mason’s Bar. Adm Free.

9.30pm MusicGary Og, Cruncher O’Neill
Venue: Sandino’s. Adm. £6

The Bloody Sunday Murder Victims:

Jack Duddy
Paddy Doherty
Gerard Donaghy
Hugh Gilmour
John Johnston
Michael Kelly
Michael McDaid
Kevin McElhinney
Bernard McGuigan
Gerard McKinney
William McKinney
William Nash
Jim Wray
John Young

Bloody Sunday Leaked Tape
TOM News 1/17/2010
A fascinating program "Call Sign GI3 GGY" was broadcast 1/17/10 on BBC Radio Ulster in which Derry radio ham Jimmy Porter was interviewed.

You can listen to a recording of the program at http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b00q0h42.

A few minutes into the program Mr Porter speaks of the tapes he recorded of British army and police conversations during the shootings on Bloody Sunday in Derry in 1972 and his subsequent confrontation with Lord Widgery who warned him he had made powerful enemies and that he should destroy the tapes.

The leaked tape can be downloaded at http://fastfreefilehosting.com/file/32070/sundayLeakedTape-mp3.htmll.

Welcome to The sCoop

2010-01-09T17:03:00.000-05:00

Hello and welcome to The sCoop!

I'll be talking about my experiences, adventures, impressions and opinions of my encounters in the great and vast world of Second Life.

This isn't a gossip blog and it never will be. I'm not going to waste my time or your commenting on senseless wars, cat-fights and pissing contests that nobody really cares anything about, other than the very few who are in the battle or writing about the battle. There're way too many wonderful sims, amazing builds, gifted artisists, talented performers, incredible shops & merchandise, excellent scriptors & content creators, really fun events & activities, and so much more to talk about. So if you want gossip, there are a few blogs and publications out there who can fullfil your desires, just not this one. However, if you, like 90% of SL's population don't really care who got there panties in a bunch because of whom or whatever other nonsense is going on with the "Ladies Who Lunch" crowd, I will try to provide you with an entertaining, informative, insightful and catfight-free blog and some positive energies to help make all of our SL's a little bit better than they already are.

Much respects to the select few SL blogs and publications out there that have maintained a standard of ethics and an air of dignity. They have improved my SL ten-fold and I am taking my lead from your examples. As much as I really want to mentioned those people here & now, I haven't yet asked for their permission to do so, and that would be disrespectful.

I'm sort of obsessed with men's fashion in SL so I plan on doing some reviews and commentaries on that as well as some other topics I hope you'll find interesting and helpful. Besides, I get tried of looking at bunch of fugly avies :))

That's really all I have to say at the moment. I'll be making regular posts of interesting content real soon. Meanwhile if you'd like to know a little bit more about me, take a peek here http://www.slprofiles.com/slprofiles.asp?id=34168

Oh yeah, I've been playing around with my new Fraps software so I hope to be making some half decent SL videos soon for your viewing pleasure...more info to follow on that after I figure out what I'm doing...