1. Globe investigation: The Ford Family’s Narcolegacy

    Well before the events of the past week, The Globe and Mail began to research the Ford brothers in an effort to chronicle their lives before rising to prominence in Canada’s largest city. Over the past 18 months, it has sought out and interviewed dozens of people who knew them in their formative years.

    What has emerged is a portrait of a family once deeply immersed in the illegal drug scene. All three of the mayor’s older siblings – brother Randy, 51, and sister Kathy, 52, as well as Doug, 48 – have had ties to drug traffickers.

    In recent years, the Ford family home has become known for the annual barbecue, attended by hundreds of neighbours and a Who’s Who of Conservative luminaries – including Prime Minister Stephen Harper and federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty. But in the 1980s, the finished basement at 15 Weston Wood Rd. was one of the many places Doug Ford did “business”, the sources said.

    Link →

    (via tumblngtoronto)

     
  2. pleatedjeans:

cat falls asleep in water. [via][video]

    pleatedjeans:

    cat falls asleep in water. [via][video]

    (via afternoonsnoozebutton)

     
  3. thepoliticalnotebook:

This Week in War. A Friday round-up of what happened and what’s been written in the world of war and military/security affairs this week. It’s a mix of news reports, policy briefs, blog posts and longform journalism. Subscribe here to receive this round-up by email.
This round-up will be on hiatus the next two weeks (sorry), but will return! 
Fierce fighting is ongoing in the Syrian town of Qusair. 
Palestinians are delaying joining UN agencies, conventions and treaties in order to preserve the current peace effort. 
A former Israeli border policeman killed himself and four others in a bank in Beersheba after being refused an overdraft and cash by an ATM. 
Multiple days of clashes between Sunni and Alawite residents in Tripoli, Lebanon have left at least 11 dead. 
Rami Khouri asks if Hezbollah is at a turning point. 
Yemenis in the southern city of Aden rallied in support of an independent south.
Six Egyptian policemen and a border guard who were abducted on the Sinai peninsula last week have been released by their captors, who remain unknown.
In Tunisia, 200 Islamist protesters were arrested and one killed in clashes with security.
Karim Mezran at The Atlantic Council worries that Algeria is a powder keg. 
300,000 people have been displaced by fighting in the Darfur region this year. 
18 soldiers and four Islamists were killed in a gun battle in Agadex, Niger. 
M23 rebels in the Congo have declared a ceasefire for the UN Secretary General’s visit. 
With the executions of five Yemenis, the total number executed in Saudi Arabia this year is 47.
A wave of car bombings across Iraq on late Sunday and early Monday left 76 dead and 250 injured and on Tuesday explosions in Baghdad, Kirkuk, Tarmiyah and Tuz Khurmato added at least another 23 to the death toll. 
Iranian presidential candidates Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, a former  Ahmadinejad aide, and former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani have been disqualified from elections. 
Iran executed by hanging two men accused and convicted of spying for the CIA and the Israeli Mossad.
Kim Jong-un sent an envoy to China. 
North Korea reportedly has a new military chief. 
The drug war is ramping up in the Mexican state of Michoácan.
Guatemala’s top court threw out former leader Efrain Rios Montt’s genocide and crimes against humanity convictions. 
Guantánamo’s WiFi was shut off after the hacker collective Anonymous threatened disruption at the base. 
The transcript for President Obama’s speech on drone policy and Guantánamo Bay is in full here. 
Prior to the speech Attorney General Eric Holder publicly acknowledged what was already known: the US had killed Americans abroad with the drone program (four, to be specific).
The US State Dept’s annual International Religious Freedom Report  found discrimination and bigotry against Muslims and Jews on the rise around the world [PDF]. 
A former friend of Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, Ibragim Todashev, implicated Tsarnaev in a 2011 triple murder and then was himself killed when he reportedly attacked FBI agents during questioning. 
The word terrorism is being used to describe a brutal attack on a London street that left a British soldier dead. One of the attackers recorded a video statement directly following the murder.
One attacker has now been identified as Michael Adebolajo, and has been connected on some level to the extremist group al-Muhajiroun. 
The University of Kent has created a Rendition Flights Database, cataloging 11,000 individual flights to create a picture of the global renditions network. 
If you would like to receive this round-up as a weekly email, you can sign up through this form, or email me directly at torierosedeghett@gmail.com.
Photo: Ramallah, West Bank: A Palestinian protester during clashes with Israeli troops near the village of Deir Jarir. Mohamad Torokman/Reuters

    thepoliticalnotebook:

    This Week in War. A Friday round-up of what happened and what’s been written in the world of war and military/security affairs this week. It’s a mix of news reports, policy briefs, blog posts and longform journalism. Subscribe here to receive this round-up by email.

    This round-up will be on hiatus the next two weeks (sorry), but will return! 

    If you would like to receive this round-up as a weekly email, you can sign up through this form, or email me directly at torierosedeghett@gmail.com.

    Photo: Ramallah, West Bank: A Palestinian protester during clashes with Israeli troops near the village of Deir Jarir. Mohamad Torokman/Reuters

    (via randomactsofchaos)

     
  4. randomactsofchaos:

Matt Wuerker/Politico (05/20/2013)

    randomactsofchaos:

    Matt Wuerker/Politico (05/20/2013)

     
  5. Hold back a little…

    alimaashfaq:

    She’d done it again. She’d said something which was insensitive, sighing she pushed it aside, hoping no-one would notice. But deep down she felt bad, imagine if she’d hurt them, or perhaps they had judged her intent? She didn’t mean it, really it was a passing comment, a badly articulated judgement, but now - finally after contemplating perhaps it wasn’t that wise? Alone she wondered, wishing they wouldn’t judge her based on her careless words. 

    We all say things we don’t mean, judge based on what we perceive and others do to. Don’t cut someone off due to their careless words, they may not mean it, nor do they see it as deep as you. It may not because they don’t care, rather they don’t know that you care so much. 

    As Al-Ahnaf ibn Qays said: “The right of a friend is three things should be put up with from him: offences when he is angry, offences due to familiarity and offences made in error. Someone else said: I never abused anyone, because if a dignified person abused me, it is more incumbent on me to adopt a forgiving towards him, and if an ignoble person abused me, I would not give him any extra reason to insult my honour.” -  [Ihya’ ‘Uloom al-Deen; 2/183-186] 

    This statement holds deep lessons for us all.

     
  6. kumamonfan:

in my defense, i fell on purpose.

    kumamonfan:

    in my defense, i fell on purpose.

    (via savagemike)

     
  7. nitanahkohe:

around this time last year people finally started taking notice of the food-related issues in the upper northern reaches of Canada; consider this your reminder that even since then, juice is still $26 in Pangnirtung, Nunavut, and that the predominately indigenous communities in Canada’s North are forced to pay extraordinarily exorbitant prices for basic groceries due to structural inequity and the contemporary effects of ongoing settler occupation.

    nitanahkohe:

    around this time last year people finally started taking notice of the food-related issues in the upper northern reaches of Canada; consider this your reminder that even since then, juice is still $26 in Pangnirtung, Nunavut, and that the predominately indigenous communities in Canada’s North are forced to pay extraordinarily exorbitant prices for basic groceries due to structural inequity and the contemporary effects of ongoing settler occupation.

    (via savanna)

     
  8. fuckyeahtoronto:

    Toronto’s Catholic school board has removed Mayor Rob Ford as head football coach at Etobicoke’s Don Bosco Catholic Secondary School, ending a decade-long affiliation that has brought Ford personal joy and political praise and criticism.

    The school board’s decision does not appear to be related to the crack cocaine scandal Ford is now facing — which centres around a video in which an intoxicated Ford appears to refer to Don Bosco players as “just f—ing minorities.” The board had been reviewing Ford’s role at Don Bosco since March.

    The review was prompted by an interview with Sun News in which Ford made comments that were called inaccurate by Don Bosco’s parent council, many teachers there, and even the offensive coordinator on Ford’s coaching staff. Among other contested statements, Ford said that Eagles players would not attend school if not for the football program, that many players “come from gangs” and from “broken homes,” and that Don Bosco is a “tough school” in a “tough area.”

    “Mr. Ford has helped our students rise to the challenge and realize their potential as both football players and young men,” Bruce Rodrigues, the board’s director of education, is quoted as saying in a Wednesday statement. “This decision was based on what is best for our students, our school and the Don Bosco community.”

    (via tumblngtoronto)

     
  9. art-of-swords:

    Sword-Catching Parrying Dagger

    • Dated: 1600
    • Culture: Italian

    This unusual fencing dagger demonstrates the way in which the artistic qualities of a weapon could be influenced by the practical concerns of the swordsman. The Renaissance duel was usually fought with rapier and dagger. The rapier, as the main weapon of attack, was complemented by a parrying dagger held in the left hand, used primarily for defensive movements.

    However, by 1600 fighting with the rapier alone was becoming the latest fashion. The opposing blade could still be parried or beaten away with the left hand. The free left also allowed the duellist to grab hold of his enemy’s swordblade, temporarily immobilising it to expose him to a lethal counter-thrust.  

    This distinctive fencing weapon is designed to provide the blade-grabbing ability of the free left hand, while retaining the dagger for defensive action. The arrow-like barbs allowed a sword blade to enter the ‘jaw’ of the dagger, but made it difficult to free it again. With his weapon ensnared, the enemy was exposed, if only for an instant.

    The practical challenges of creating such a specialised weapon were considerable. The hardened and tempered steel blade had to be carefully cut with the series of dramatically barbed teeth, a laborious process. The spaces between the teeth have been elegantly filed with ornamental edges, while the base of the blade has been finely etched and gilt- an unusual feature, even for high-quality weapons. In this way, despite its very specific function as a fighting tool, the weapon’s artistic merit is evident.

    Source & Copyright: The Wallace Collection

    (via savanna)

     
  10. nprfreshair:

Hey, Wednesday afternoon, we’re trying.

    nprfreshair:

    Hey, Wednesday afternoon, we’re trying.

    (Source: pushthemovement, via nuold)

     
  11. artmonia:

Boooooooom by  Merve Morkoç

    artmonia:

    Boooooooom by  Merve Morkoç

    (via nuold)

     
  12. It’s like watching an episode of The Simpsons, quite frankly. Although I think Mayor Quimby actually has more integrity.
    — Councillor Adam Vaughan on Rob Ford (via tramampoline)

    (via tramampoline)

     
  13. iaryl:

    A piece quite rightly filed under ‘other countries’ embarrassments’. How the fuck has this guy stayed in office since 2000?!!!

     
  14. thepensivebrony:

    “you shouldn’t be depressed, people have it worse than you”

    finally, after years of searching, the person with the worst life ever is found. formally, they are granted permission to be sad. but only them. only they have earned it. no sads for anyone else at all ever

    (via stateless1972)

     
  15. 10knotes:

trugazi:
this is the internal anatomy of cows as far as i’m concerned

    10knotes:

    trugazi:

    this is the internal anatomy of cows as far as i’m concerned

    (Source: spatula, via lightspeedsound)