Current TV
previously & previously, the media company founded by Al Gore after the 2000 election, has picked up the kinds of in depth long form journalism being rapidly dropped by major networks, but has been tantalizingly unavailable for those without cable; until now. They have been putting their Vanguard episodes up on their website and on YouTube.
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posted by Blasdelb
on Apr 30, 2011 -
24 comments
Jack Conway, a
candidate for United States Senate, is catching flak from Democrats and Tea-Partiers alike, for airing an
attack ad against his opponent,
Rand Paul that brings up some
bizarre dirt published in GQ a few months back. At a debate between the two candidates Sunday, Paul refused to shake Conway's hand at the end. Today, the National Republican Senatorial Committee released a
response to the
Aqua Buddha ad.
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posted by krysalist
on Oct 20, 2010 -
68 comments
International Adoption may not necessarily be helping the disadvantaged in Third World countries as advertised. In some countries, like
Guatemala and
India, children are simply stolen from their families. The
Hague Convention governs the rules for International Adoptions, but like all rules, they aren't always followed. Many adoptive parents believe that their children have been given up, but in some countries, "
orphanage" doesn't mean what you think it means.
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posted by grapefruitmoon
on May 10, 2009 -
18 comments
Colombia's
FARC rebels hold over 3000 current hostages, including soldiers,
lawmakers,
presidential candidates,
Americans,
Canadians,
Japanese, a
Turk, 291 children (including one born in captivity who is the
youngest hostage in the world), and a disillusioned
Dutch convert whose diary was recently discovered. Family members of the kidnapped can send messages to their loved ones on a
popular radio show. More about Colombian kidnappings in Silvana Paternostro's captivating memoir
My Colombian War.
posted by mert
on Nov 26, 2007 -
8 comments
At last, someone is going to take the legal route. Italian authorities have issued arrest warrants for 22 CIA Agents suspected of involvement in the US kidnap/torture policy.
"The new warrants allow for the suspects' detention anywhere in the 25-nation EU, a prosecutor said." That's more lost clients for the European tourist industry.
posted by cassbrown1
on Dec 24, 2005 -
45 comments
Runaway bride pulls kidnapping hoax -- She was "scared and concerned about her impending marriage and decided she needed some time alone," Albuquerque Police Chief Ray Schultz said. "She's obviously very concerned about the stress that she's been through, the stress that's been placed on her family."
posted by NickDouglas
on May 1, 2005 -
59 comments
Juan Gelman. An Argentinian poet's search for remains of his daughter-in-law, kidnapped in Buenos Aires in 1976.
posted by plep
on Mar 17, 2005 -
2 comments
Joseph P. Smith had a criminal record dating back to 1993, now suspected of kidnapping and murdering eleven year old Carlie Brucia in Sarasota. According to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Smith had a history of "
second chances." How typical is this, or is this just a case of hindsight being everything?
posted by SentientAI
on Feb 6, 2004 -
23 comments
Won't somebody think of the children? Wired News reports that a
Mexican
company has launched a service
to implant RFID
verichips
(Technology That Cares)
into children as an anti-kidnapping device.
"The company envisions placing walk-through scanners -- similar
to metal-detector portals used in airports --
in malls, bus stations and other areas where a missing child may appear."
Similar plans have been
proposed
before by the UK's Kevin
"Captain Cyborg" Warwick, but while his plans to use the mobile phone
network are implausible, this method seems more feasible. So, why not
sign up to
get
chipped today!
posted by TheophileEscargot
on Oct 10, 2003 -
14 comments
Kidnapping women and children is a justifiable action, says Col. David Hogg, commander of the 2nd Brigade of the 4th Infantry Division when his troops picked up the wife and daughter of an Iraqi lieutenant general. They left a note: "If you want your family released, turn yourself in." A quick glance at the
Geneva Conventions and Protocols would suggest that this is illegal. "The ends justifies the means" seems to be the current Conservative meme, but how well will these tactics serve us in the long run?
posted by dejah420
on Jul 28, 2003 -
61 comments
Tired of extreme sports? Need a new thrill? Extreme Kidnapping, the brainchild of
Mr. Scrillian, a rap artist from Detroit, is looking to provide thrill-seekers with
the ultimate in adrenaline rushes. For as little as $500 you can experience a "No-Frills Adrenaline Amp Kidnapping", or go whole hog with a custom videotaped "Standard Kidnapping" complete with restraints and mock torture.
Is this the next wave of extreme sport?
posted by greengrl
on May 19, 2003 -
25 comments
Just how crazy is Kim Jong-Il? The North Korean dictator is also an uncompromising movie producer whose casting tactics make
Bowfinger look tame. In
In 1978, the North Korean dictator kidnapped his favorite director from South Korea, and forced him to make a terrible, Communist-themed monster movie called
"Pulgasari." Keep in mind, the Bush administration considers this guy saner and more level-headed than Saddam Hussein.
(registration req'd)
posted by inksyndicate
on Mar 14, 2003 -
31 comments
Rabbit Proof Fence is a movie about Australia's "
stolen generation," the 100,000 Aboriginal and "half-caste" children kidnapped between 1910 and 1970 and raised in institutions, as part of a policy to "breed out" their Aboriginal blood and integrate them into white society. The
movie is the true story of three girls who ran away and walked 1500 miles back home. Molly, the oldest one, walked it again years later when they captured her and her children. Here's a
teacher's guide (pdf) based on the gov't report about the stolen generation. (book by Molly's daughter
Doris Pilkington, movie soundtrack by
Peter Gabriel. It's getting a lot of press despite its low profile -- go support your local indie theater)
posted by fotzepolitic
on Feb 11, 2003 -
13 comments
"everyone knows the consequences of killing three Americans" from the guy who hung out with the taleban - and one of the few who actually makes the
right call on al queda: "But instead of just always knowing that it was a small Mickey Mouse outfit, now they made it into this huge global conspiracy, which it isn't. Which has created all kinds of problems in the Muslim world because we're sort of demonizing the wrong people. The bad guys are living in America and Saudi Arabia and Germany and the U.K.; they're not sitting in caves in Afghanistan." - say what you will about the guy, hes got b*lls that clank when he walks.
posted by specialk420
on Jan 30, 2003 -
26 comments
Japanese
abducted by North Korea in Japan for brief visit.
After many years of denying accusations, North Korea finally came clean last month and admitted to
having kidnapped a number of Japanese civilians. Of the thirteen they admit to abducting, they say
only five are still alive, and these five have been allowed a visit to Japan this week. On a less
encouraging note, however, the five survivors were not allowed to bring their children or spouses and
arrived donning pins bearing an image of the Great Leader.
Is Kim Jong Il genuinely
turning over a new leaf, is this just another part of a heartless
cash grab scheme, or did the "axis of
evil" speech
intimidate
them into softening up for a moment?
posted by shoos
on Oct 16, 2002 -
22 comments
Well, they've been found. The remains of Ashley Pond and Miranda Gaddis, the highly-publicized first victims of the "summer of child kidnappings," have been found at the [former] home of the FBI's main "subject of interest."
Damn, damn, damn.
posted by wdpeck
on Aug 25, 2002 -
102 comments
Kidnapped for Kicks! "Brock Enright, a 25-year-old artist, has created a business where people pay him thousands of dollars a time to be violently abducted." Brings a new meaning to escapism...
posted by hmgovt
on Aug 1, 2002 -
12 comments
Ideas have consequences. On the subject of the Daniel Pearl kidnapping, an interesting letter to Media News today (scroll down to the "Journalists as Political Operatives" item), reads in part, "I would not want to trivialize it for all the world, but I am constrained to point out that it was only recently that Mr. Pearl's newspaper, the Wall Street Journal, felt compelled to praise the book "Bias" which perports to lay bare the 'liberal bias' of mainstream journalism. In fact, the WSJ editorial board has for years persisted, along with other conservative commentators, to label journalists as political tools in service of a larger political agenda. The kidnappers of Mr. Pearl insist that he is a political tool, a spy, for some foreign government (one day the U.S., the next day Israel.) Where could they have possibly gotten the idea that journalists are not the dedicated professionals they claim to be but are instead something else in disguise?" Thoughts?
posted by nance
on Jan 31, 2002 -
35 comments
Wall Street Journal bureau chief is kidnapped. Hostage-takers demand better treatment of prisions at Guantanamo Bay. But my questions are, (1) Since when do journalists make good hostages and (2) Isn't there any way more creative than the ole hostage-holding-today's-paper as a way to prove that he is alive?
posted by tsarfan
on Jan 28, 2002 -
26 comments
Judge May Reject Olson Guilty Plea "A day after Sara Jane Olson pleaded guilty to attempted bombing charges and then denied her guilt outside the courtroom, a Los Angeles judge announced he will hold a hearing next week to decide whether to toss out the plea."
Even if she's actually innocent, I can't help but think the former Symbionese Liberation Army fugitive should've kept her mouth shut until after the sentencing at least.
The
LA Times isn't very sympathetic, either.
posted by phartizan
on Nov 2, 2001 -
6 comments
Your worst nightmare come true. "Bound hand and foot and gagged, a 27-year-old English woman tourist cowered for seven hours in the vast loneliness of the Northern Territory night, stalked by a gunman who is feared to have killed her companion."
posted by Neale
on Jul 15, 2001 -
22 comments
This is just disturbing. A baby boy "was stolen from his slain mother's womb by another woman, who passed the baby off as her own until she killed herself under police scrutiny." The references to similar cases at the bottom of the article, especially the one involving the car keys, are quite messed up as well.
The content is somewhat graphic - be advised.
posted by Hankins
on Oct 4, 2000 -
8 comments
This story of a whiz kid who vanished raises all kinds of questions. Sufiah, a 15-year-old student at Oxford University, disappears; then, her father receives an e-mail, supposedly from her.
The e-mail claims that she ran away from her father's abusive high-pressure learning techniques;
the father claims that she must have been kidnapped and brainwashed. The police aren't sure how to handle this situation, as there's no way to
prove that the mail is really from the daughter. Finally, the father has called in the media to present
his side of the story, since Sufiah has threatened to go to the media with hers.
posted by harmful
on Jul 6, 2000 -
11 comments
