https://www.cpj.org/killed/2014/

http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2014/01/23/more-than-2400-dead-as-obamas-drone-campaign-marks-five-years/

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/07/14/despite-recent-shootings-chicago-nowhere-near-u-s-murder-capital/

http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2014/november/crime-statistics-for-2013-released/crime-statistics-for-2013-released

In today's Sunday Murdograph, Piers Ackerman warns god about all the loonies in his franchises from Islam to Christianity... I do not know what to make of his column. Does Piers believe in god in his own way or is he god himself telling much more important people, from mufties to popes, how to deal with the murderous riff-raff in their ranks?... Reading literally, I am sure the god of the bible would carry on the charade of vengeance and retaliation till the end of time, so no need to tell god what to do... What we've got to do is tell humans to put a lid on their godly idiocy.

"The most perfect shape, the sublimest image that has been recently created in Germany has not come out of any artist's studio. It is the steel helmet."

                     SS Officer Count Baudissin

So much for pencils and ink...

It may sound like an ironic joke, but it isn’t. Less than a week after the massive rallies in defense of “free expression,” following the murders of the Charlie Hebdocartoonists, French authorities have jailed a youth for irony.

The arrest is part of a harsh crackdown on free speech in the country that has prompted criticism from national and international human rights organizations.

A 16-year-old high school student was taken into police custody on Thursday and indicted for “defending terrorism,” national broadcaster France 3 reports.

His alleged crime? He posted on Facebook a cartoon “representing a person holding the magazine Charlie Hebdo, being hit by bullets, and accompanied by an ‘ironic’ comment,” France 3 states.

The teen lives at home with his parents, has no prior judicial record and, according to prosecutor Yvon Ollivier quoted by French media, he does not have a “profile suggesting an evolution toward jihadism.”

The boy told prosecutors that he posted the cartoon because he thought it was “funny.”

The media reports do not include the drawing – presumably that could put journalists afoul of the law. So we do not know for sure what the youth is accused of sharing.

http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/france-begins-jailing-people-ironic-comments

Translation: Charlie Hebdo: it is shit. It does not stop the bullets...

Meanwhile it appears that the Charlie Hebdo website has disappeared from the net...

World leaders are converging on Saudi Arabia to offer condolences following the death of King Abdullah, including US president Barack Obama who is cutting short a trip to India to pay his respects.

Foreign aircraft landed at a Riyadh military base on Saturday where leaders from Africa, Europe and Asia were welcomed by officials and served a traditional tiny cup of Arabic coffee.

Since Abdullah ascended the throne in 2005, Saudi Arabia has been a prime Arab ally of Washington, and last year joined the coalition carrying out air strikes against the Islamic State jihadist group.

The White House said Mr Obama "called King Salman bin Abdulaziz from Air Force One today to personally express his sympathies" ahead of his trip to Riyadh on Tuesday to meet the new king, the White House said.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-01-25/world-leaders-converge-on-saudi-arabia-after-death-of-king/6044954

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Yep, the flotsam and jetsam of the world leadership follows the dead ones, from one Charlie to another... Another photo op is in the bag...

After the Charlie Hebdo attack, dozens of world leaders marched arm in arm with President Francois Hollande during a unity march in Paris. But many of these leaders aren't exactly supporting free speech and a free press back home.

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/1/13/paris-unity-march.html

It may be time to ban artists from creating statues. They have simply lost the ability to do it. The art that once gave us Michelangelo’s David and Rodin’s Burghers of Calais has degenerated into a cynical province of second-rate hacks who are filling up city squares, railway stations and other public spaces all over the world with ugly, stupid and occasionally terrifying parodies of the human form.

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/shortcuts/2015/apr/07/scourge-bronze-zombies-terrible-statues-ruining-art

And some silly town burghers are prepared to pay good money for crap... But we have to admire those artists who fight for the good oil and get no cash for their excellent efforts, not even fame:

Members of New York City's Department of Parks and Recreation have removed a bust of Edward Snowden, secretly installed in Fort Greene Park by a group of anonymous artists at night.

The artists said they intended the bust to be a tribute to Edward Snowden, the former US National Security Agency (NSA) contractor, who fled to Russia in 2013 having revealed extensive internet and phone surveillance by US intelligence.

One park visitor described the officials' decision to remove the bust as "censorship".

Additional footage courtesy of Aymann Ismail/ANIMALNewYork

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-32199039

See sketch of statue by Gus at top to commemorate sumpthin'