NYC Sports Bar Boxers Comes Out Swinging In Fight To Open Second Location

There are probably more bars and restaurants in New York City than anywhere else in the world but with gentrification spreading across the city, its getting harder and harder for business owners to hang a shingle in the Big Apple.

Boxers NYC is a highly popular gay sports bar in Chelsea that’s become a favorite of sports fans, LGBT athletic teams, Kathy Griffin (who guest-bartendered there once) and even The A List: New York (which has filmed there). So its not surprising the owners decided to open a second location in New York’s other gay ghetto, Hell’s Kitchen. They received provisional approval from Community Board 4, but grumpy residents worry it’ll disturb their tranquility and that the proposed location is too close to P.S. 111 on West 53rd Street. (New York zoning laws forbid bars from being within 200 feet of a school.)

Boxers co-owners Bob Fluet and Rob Hynds have tried to appease residents, but the situation has turned into a long-running saga, even by New York standards. Fluet and Hynds current proposal is to split the building into two businesses, a full-service bar and a no-alcohol taco shop on the side closer to P.S. 111. They’ve also discussed opening the bar at 4pm, after schoolchildren have gone home.

“Should it be a night club? As a gay parent of two, I would never want a nightclub there. Could it be a tavern that sells food? Yes, in my opinion I think that’s fair, Fluet told local news channel NY1. “Other than that, there may be nothing but having a derelict building for three, four years. Is that good for the neighborhood?”

Hynd’s and Fluet’s plans aren’t good enough for P.S. 111 principal Irma Medina, though: She e-mailed parents warning them that if the bar opened as planned, it would have scandalous underwear-only nights (something Fluet denies) and that the bar was “inappropriate for school-age children to be exposed to during the day while they are in a learning environment.”

Hey, this is New York City: We’re pretty sure these kids have seen worse than a few gay sports fans drinking beer.

The Community Board will make its final vote on October 5.

Source http://www.queerty.com/nyc-sports-bar-boxers-comes-out-swinging-in-fight-to-open-second-location-20111003/

Teen rebellion can be a good sign

Your child has just rolled their eyes, informed you they WILL be going to that party whether you like it or not, told you they hate you, burst into tears and then slammed their door - all in the space of two minutes.

Congratulations. You are the proud owner of a teenager. Don't fret though, if your teen is doing these or similar things, they're exactly where they should be.

As challenging as it can be to have a rebellious, moody, obnoxious adolescent take over your house for a few years, experts say it's pretty much par for the course.

In fact, it's the quiet ones you should worry about. According to experts, they are more likely to be masking anxiety.

Perth psychologist Tony White says that while some children naturally have a quieter temperament, for others a lack of rebellion is a sign you need to dig deeper.

"The research says about 75 per cent of teenagers will be rebellious to some degree, and that is a good thing because it means the teenager is standing up to authority and in psychological terms, they're developing their own identity," he says.

"If they don't (rebel) then you start worrying. I have written this thing - 'a happy teenager is not a healthy teenager' - because I have a lot of parents come in and say 'my teenager is fighting, that means he's developing wrongly.' Well, it doesn't. If they don't fight, then you can actually be having a problem."

He says quieter children may take a low profile and conform because they're anxious or scared of something happening in their life. It can be hard to find out what's going on because they don't like making waves.

At school, they may slip under the radar because they are quiet and "good", while the angry, rebellious child is immediately identified and given help.

Whether parents have a fighter or a complier, Mr White says it's important for them to understand their child's temperament and parent accordingly, rather than taking a one-size-fits-all approach.

Those with fighters will need a thick hide and will have to learn how to pick their battles. But whatever kind of teen parents have, experts say they'll fare best if the foundational relationship is strong to begin with.

Jennie Hannon, executive general manager of services at Anglicare, says that means the child knows they can share things with you, that you'll listen and that you are available when they need you to be, even if it's the least convenient time to you as a parent.

"Ultimately, you need to have got to the point when your child is 12 or 13 where your kids may not like everything you say but they do respect you, and respect is what will carry you through even if they don't agree with you," Ms Hannon says.

"It's that foundational relationship that will stand you through those times so you don't have a kid who is going to climb out a window and run away."

Clinical psychologist Kris Giesen, who lectures at Edith Cowan University, agrees. She says there will come a time when the child realises the parent cannot actually stop them from doing things.

"As children learn that, it is the relationship that they have with the parent, if it remains intact, that still has the capacity to influence the choices they make."

Dr Giesen says much of the business of parenting teens comes down to keeping them safe and simply trying to get through it.

"Your task here is to try and survive this stage rather than thinking that everything has a solution and can be resolved."

Source http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/lifestyle/a/-/health/9887333/teen-rebellion-can-be-a-good-sign/

Do not protest, but seek private counsel from leaders

With many Muslims involved in rebellion against their leaders, one has to wonder: Is this rebellion permissible according to Islam?

This question has largely gone unnoticed in the media coverage of the so-called “Arab Spring.” However, Al-Jazeera and Fox News didn’t teach Islam to the world; the Prophet Muhammad did.

The Prophet Muhammad said, “Whoever wishes to advise the ruler, then let him not mention it in public, rather let him take the ruler by his hand. So, if he listens then that is that, and if not then he has fulfilled that which is upon him.”

It becomes clear, then, that protesting in the streets or violently trying to overthrow leaders has no basis in Islam. The Muslim should sincerely communicate his concern in private to the leader and then leave it at that.

Source http://www.dailylobo.com/index.php/article/2011/07/do_not_protest_but_seek_private_counsel_from_leaders

DS sees BJP plan in Jagan rebellion

The PCC chief, Mr D. Srinivas, accused the former MP, Mr Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, and the BJP of entering into a secret pact to conspire against the Congress.

Addressing a media conference on Tuesday, Mr Srinivas said that if Mr Jagan won the Kadapa by-poll, both he and the BJP would try to weaken the Congress in the state.

“We are yet to collect full details of their conspiracy, but according to the information available with us, the BJP, through Karnataka tourism minister, Mr Gali Janardhan Reddy, had entered into a secret pact with Mr Jagan. That was the reason Mr Jagan left the Congress and was attacking Mrs Gandhi,” Mr Srinivas said. “Jagan is anti-Congress now, he also cannot sail with the third front at the national level as Mr Naidu is there, so he will have to support BJP at any cost,” reasoned the PCC chief.

Source http://www.deccanchronicle.com/channels/cities/hyderabad/ds-sees-bjp-plan-jagan-rebellion-656

DiManno: Libya’s rebellion born in 1996 prison revolt

The old, crazed woman can be occasionally spotted scuttling around Liberation Square.

She is one of The Mothers, long ago deranged by grief.

While people are kind to the dishevelled lady, in the Muslim charitable way, her pain had for years been largely ignored, only vaguely acknowledged, in whispers. Now everybody understands, with clarity, and there is much regret, shame even, in not having clamoured for justice earlier.

The source of the woman’s inconsolable lamenting can be found on a wall of photographs displayed inside a tent erected by the Busleem Families Association: Portraits of two young men, her lost sons.

These brothers, along with more than 1,200 other political prisoners, were killed in what’s known as The Massacre of Abu Salim — a horrific crime against humanity, where corralled detainees who’d attempted a jailhouse uprising against their guards were mowed down by military police, all slain within a matter of hours on June 28, 1996, on the orders of Moammar Gadhafi.

Abu Salim is Libya’s Abu Ghraib — a dank, miserable, hellish facility in the suburbs of Tripoli run by the Internal Security Agency. It’s where alleged terrorists, Al Qaeda extremists, Islamists and political dissidents — those Gadhafi’s surveillance apparatus has identified as annoyances for the regime — are incarcerated, usually without trial, and left to rot.

Human rights groups also claim Abu Salim is one of the “third-country” black holes where the U.S. deposited detainees from its “war on terror,” including some transferred in or out of Guantanamo Bay.

For years Gadhafi denied any massacre had ever occurred at the prison, only conceding the fact in 2004, promising an investigation would be conducted, though its scope and results haven’t been released.

In 2005, the regime began informing families of loved ones who perished in the violently repressed revolt. Some death certificates were issued, though cause of death was not filled in and dates of death apparently picked at random. The bodies were never returned to relatives.

“My brother was not an activist, he was just a religious man who prayed five times a day,’’ says Abdulmunem Swairy, 30. “Gadhafi’s militia came to his house in the middle of the night and arrested him. We never saw Adel again.’’

Another brother and sister were also taken into custody at around the same time but released four months later. About Adel, the family heard nothing for years. Neither letters nor phone calls were permitted. Abdel’s father, in despair over his son’s fate, suffered two heart attacks and died.

Only in 2009 did the family receive a certificate confirming Adel’s death. “There was no reason written for why he died and a date long after the massacre,’’ says Abdulmunem. “The certificate is obviously a fake.’’

While not acknowledging responsibility for what had befallen Adel, the regime offered his family 200,000 dinars (about $157,000) in compensation, which they rejected.

“Gadhafi gave the Lockerbie families $10 million each,’’ says Adel, referring to the compensation package negotiated for victims of Pan Am Flight 103, the passenger plane blown up mid-air over Scotland in 1988. The terrorist act was plotted by two Libyan intelligence agents, for which the regime eventually accepted responsibility. “But Libyans are only worth 200,000 Gadhafis.’’

A Gadhafi is sneering slang for the 1 dinar note with the colonel’s face on it.

Since 2008, the “1,200 Families’’ have been holding weekly protests — a word they were never allowed to use for their gatherings, women taping their mouth symbolically — in Benghazi, outside the courthouse, posting obituaries on city buildings, demanding a trial for the perpetrators of the massacre, proper compensation and return of their relatives’ bodies.

Their defiance was a rarity in Gadhafi’s Libya and even here, epicentre of long-simmering resistance to the regime, few of the uninvolved paused to pay attention, most citizens clearly worried about repercussions from supporting the families.

But it was the arrest in February of a civil rights lawyer representing the families, Fathi Terbil, which spawned the revolutionary uprising, at first initiated by Terbil’s lawyer colleagues and then seized upon by thousands of students, academics and the professional class.

Gadhafi’s 42-year dictatorship has been on the bubble ever since.

“My brother was killed (15) years ago but this revolution was given life because of him, because of all the martyrs who were massacred at Abu Salim,’’ says Abdullmunem Swairy.

For Abdelislam Al-Mshaity, the only communication with his cousin over 11 years was a note brought out from Abu Salim in the shoe of another released prisoner.

“My cousin was an educated man, an oil engineer who attended university in England,’’ says Al-Mshaity, pointing out a photo of his relative in the Busleem mourning tent. The picture shows a 30-ish fellow with the full beard of a conservative Muslim.

“He was never politically active. Was he an Islamist? If by Islamist you mean someone who prays five times a day and has memorized all of the Qur’an. That means he was religious, not radical. He never went to fight with the militants in Afghanistan or anywhere else.’’

The cousin was imprisoned at Abu Salim twice; the first time for seven years, at which point he was briefly released before being arrested again, though no charge was ever specified.

“They gave us a death certificate, too, which means nothing,’’ Al-Mshaity continues. “That was during the period when the regime was trying to calm everybody down and Gadhafi was presenting himself to the world as a reformed leader, an ally in the war on terror. We were even allowed to sue the government for compensation but all the family was offered in the beginning was 80,000 dinars (about $64,000).’’

They didn’t accept it, as indeed more than 300 families have rejected the compensation outright.

Abduhamid Mahdi calls it, bluntly, “blood money,” saying his family wanted no part of the compensation. His brother, 60-year-old civil servant Edris, disappeared in 1995, sucked into the maw of Abu Salim, leaving behind a wife and eight children.

“He was a political activist,’’ says Mahdi. “We all tried many times to persuade him to be quiet but he wouldn’t be convinced. He spoke publicly about the crimes and corruption of the Gadhafi regime and in this country, that’s more than enough to get a man in trouble.’’

Dissent was in Edris’ blood, Mahdi adds. Their grandfather had been arrested and imprisoned by Italian authorities in 1917, when Libya was an Italian colony, for promoting Libyan independence.

“In all the years he was at Abu Salim, we only had news once, from another released prisoner. He told us Edris was always kept alone in an isolated cell. We don’t believe he would have been able to participate in the revolt.’’

Almost all that’s known of the 1996 uprising came from a former inmate, Hussein Shafai, who worked in the prison kitchen and was interviewed by Human Rights Watch in 2004 and 2006.

As detailed in a “legacy report’’ published by the agency, the prison rebellion began with detainees demanding better living conditions, hearings on their cases, and the right to see their families. The inmates took two guards hostage.

Senior government officials arrived to manage the crisis. Prisoners agreed to return to their cells and release the hostages (one of whom had died) in exchange for negotiations. They asked for clean clothes, outside recreation, better medical care and family visits.

But in the morning, hundreds of inmates from five cellblocks were herded into several courtyards, with security forces arrayed on the prison roof.

Shafai’s account: “At 11 a.m., a grenade was thrown into the courtyard. I did not see who threw it but I am sure it was a grenade. I heard an explosion and right after a constant shooting from heavy weapons and Kalashnikovs from the top of the roofs. The shooting continued from 11 to 1:35.

“I could not see the dead persons who were shot but I could see those who were shooting. They were a special unit wearing skaki military hats . . . and green bandanas.

“At 2 p.m., they used pistols to finish off those who were not dead.’’

Shafai estimated the dead by comparing the number of meals he was told to prepare before and after the massacre.

The next day, said Shafai, the bodies were removed in wheelbarrows. The dead were allegedly thrown into a trench 1 metre wide and 100 metres long.

Salah Mahashash, whose teenage brother was arrested in 1988, told the Star his family actually received a casket from the government three years ago.

“It was empty, of course. We’ll never get my brother’s body back. And none of the men who committed the massacre will ever stand trial for their crime.

“I pray some day Gadhafi will himself be imprisoned in Abu Salim. But even that would be too good for him.’’

Source http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/969577--dimanno-libya-s-rebellion-born-in-1996-prison-revolt

Rebel Libyan Finance Minister Admits Mistakes

A U.S.-based economist appointed finance minister in the Libyan rebels' first attempt at a government admits they have made mistakes, missed opportunities and shown disorganization — but he says they aren't short of cash, and they'll get better at their jobs.

Ali Tarhouni told reporters Wednesday that in trying to begin governing themselves, the rebels have to counter the effects of a decades-long ban on a basic element of self rule: Dictator Moammar Gadhafi banned public groups, so now the rebels have to start organizing from scratch.

Tarhouni, who teaches economics and finance at the University of Washington, was appointed to the post by the rebels' national council as part of an interim administration headed by another U.S.-educated academic, Mahmoud Jibril.

Tarhouni, who received his doctorate in finance and economics from Michigan State University, left Libya first in 1973 and then three years later for good. He returned to the country only after the rebellion against Gadhafi started on Feb. 15.

He acknowledged that the rebels have struggled with a slew of issues, including basic organization and putting forward a clearly defined image of the rebellion for the world.

"So far, we didn't do a good job of defining who we are," Tarhouni told reporters in Benghazi, the rebels' de-facto capital. "I think the (transition) process was and still is very chaotic."

As the top financial official for the rebels, Tarhouni, 60, will also oversee oil affairs. He said oil is not an immediate issue because the only significant yields are coming from the Sarir and Sidra fields, which amount to roughly 130,000 barrels per day, a relatively small total.

"Right now, there is no immediate crisis kind of need for cash. We have some liquidity that allows us to do the basic things," he said, such as paying salaries and immediate needs.

He added that many countries have agreed to provide credit backed by the Libyan sovereign fund, and the British government has also agreed to give the rebels access to 1.4 billion dinars ($1.1 billion) that London did not send to Gadhafi.

Tarhouni said the national council, made up of representatives of the eastern cities that have torn themselves free of Gadhafi's rule, has "in general dropped the ball many places, although not by intention."

He attributed the occasional stumbles to the Libyans' lack of experience with any form of independent public associations, which were banned by Gadhafi.

"There was a total vacuum," Tarhouni said, pledging that the new interim executive administration that is being formed will help streamline things. "We will clean it up, that I promise you."

Part of the lingering disarray stemmed from an initial expectation that Gadhafi would quickly crumble and flee after the uprising's initial success, Tarhouni said.

"We were betting 24 hours and he's gone from the country," he said. "Now we're looking at longer. He's much more armed, and we're not as organized as we thought or can be."

Tarhouni acknowledged the rebel military is still weak and in the process of organizing itself.

"I think (it has) a very small number, the number of tanks is also limited, and there are no heavy armaments," he said. Because of that, he suggested that rebels will still be dependent on the young, untrained ragtag crew of fighters that have spearheaded the uprising's fighting force so far.

The rebels are "actively seeking, look for armaments," although Tarhouni said the political leadership realizes that just as pressing a need is better organization of the territory already under the uprising's control.

"You need a political body that defines what this revolution is about, and an army on the ground," Tarhouni said, but "we need to put our own house in order first."

Source http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=13207480

Remorse brings Libyan, too late, to the rebellion

Abdullah, a lean young Libyan in a soldierly blue beret, knows he came to the uprising against Moammar Gaddafi one day late. Unlike many members of the Libyan army, he didn't immediately defect to the rebel cause - he surrendered to it, racked with remorse, the morning after he obeyed orders to fire as protesters stormed the gates of his military base.

He hit at least one of them.

"I can still picture his face. He was very young," said Abdullah, who agreed to talk about his experience on the condition that he be identified only by his first name. He sat in a spare room of Benghazi's old courthouse, which now houses the rebels' provisional government. Officials agreed to let him speak but not to be photographed.

Abdullah came to the courthouse the morning after the shooting and turned himself in. "My life was miserable," he said. "I couldn't eat. I couldn't sleep."

Abdullah is one of nearly 40 detainees housed by the rebels in three packed cells. Thirteen are Libyan soldiers who didn't switch sides fast enough. The rest are immigrants from elsewhere in Africa who were arrested out of fear that they might be mercenaries.

Given the state of the rebellion's fledgling justice system, the men are not likely to learn their fates soon. An official at the temporary attorney general's office said the Libyan fighters would face a military trial, but not until the contest for control of the country is over.

For the Africans, most of whom have been cleared of being part of Gaddafi's mercenary army, the future is even less clear. Most were swept up without passports, and the rebel council has no way to get them back to their home countries. But it could be disastrous to release them when tales of atrocities by hired soldiers, whether true or not, have fueled public rage.

"At least they are safe in here," said Sabah Eltwel, a lawyer investigating detainee cases for the attorney general's office. She wears a floral scarf over her hair and a somber black wool coat to protect against the sea wind that rattles the old windows. "If they go outside, the Libyan people would hurt them. It's not safe to have black skin in Libya right now."

One of the foreign detainees, Abdullah Mousa, agreed to be interviewed. Mousa, a 23-year-old construction worker from Niger, entered Libya illegally eight months ago after a 20-day trip across the desert in the backs of pickups.

When the fighting broke out in Libya, he joined thousands of foreign workers fleeing to the borders. But he and two friends were arrested in Benghazi.

"They asked me if I was a soldier," said Mousa, who can hear revolutionary crowds roaring each night in the nearby square. He held out rough and calloused palms. "See, I am just a worker. I did not carry a gun. They take any black person from Africa."

Mousa is in the cell next to Abdullah, the soldier who freely admits to a role in the fighting. But Abdullah said he stayed with the army only out fear for his life. His commanding officer told the soldiers that he would have any man who refused to fight the protesters killed and burned, Abdullah said.

But when the shooting began, he did his best to avoid hitting anyone. "I fired into the air, into the ground," he said. "I was afraid."

Then he saw a protester go down, hit in the leg. He knew the bullet had come from his rifle.

"It was an accident," he said, raising his hands to his drawn cheeks. "I didn't want to shoot a Libyan."

Abdullah says he has been told the protester survived. He hopes that, and the fact he turned himself in, will work in his favor at trial.

In the meantime, he wears a filthy white T-shirt with "Libya Is Free" emblazoned across the chest in Arabic. A wrinkled plastic patch of the red-green-and-black rebel flag is stuck to the back.

"I am part of the revolution now," he said as the guards led him away.

Source http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/08/AR2011030805363.html