Social Issues

A 75-year-old disabled veteran has been sentenced to death due to a mandatory sentence involving marijuana possession.  Lee Carroll Brooker grew marijuana plants in his son’s backyard in Alabama for his own medical use. When Alabama officials found out, they arrested Brooker, and sent him to prison for life without the possibility for parole. Vox.com reports: How did this happen? Jesse Wegman explained for the New York Times: [Brooker] said the plants were for his own medicinal use only — he suffers from multiple chronic ailments — and prosecutors did not dispute that.

Submitted by Claire Bernish via TheAntiMedia.org,

Utah isn’t exactly known as a hotbed of socially lenient legislation, but Governor Gary R. Herbert plans to chisel in stone the state’s erstwhile Puritanical reputation by signing two pieces of legislation to combat the “sexually toxic environment” ostensibly induced by pornography.

Pornography isn’t doing a whole lot of good for your brain, contrary to what you may have heard. Collective Evolution reports: I’m not arguing against masturbation or sexual play, but the fact remains a large percentage of people visit pornography sites every single day, and science is now shedding light on how watching it so frequently can impact us biologically. Naomi Wolf of New York Magazine explains: After all, pornography works in the most basic of ways on the brain: It is Pavlovian. An orgasm is one of the biggest reinforcers imaginable.

The Pope has taken 12 Syrian refugees, including six children, on his plane back to Rome following a visit to the Greek island of Lesbos, according to the Vatican. All the asylum seekers rescued by Pope Francis were Muslims They were among thousands of people trapped on the Greek island of Lesbos following the controversial EU-Turkey deal, which sees all asylum seekers arriving over the Aegean detained as they await their fate.

Thousands of people from across the UK are expected to gather in central London on Saturday in protest against the government’s austerity measures. They will also be calling for the resignation of Prime Minister David Cameron over recent revelations of offshore investment funds linked to his family. This will not be the first call for Cameron to step down following the Panama Papers leak;  there was a protest in London last week where demonstrators chanted “Resign! Resign!” outside 10 Downing Street.