links for 2009-09-10

"Hindus and Jews have come out in support of MADONNA after she was booed and jeered by thousands of fans at a show in Romania on Wednesday night (26Aug09) when she protested the treatment of Roma gypsies in the country onstage.
The pop superstar was playing to a sell-out crowd of 60,000 in Bucharest as part of her ongoing Sticky & Sweet world tour when she paused to address issues of discrimination in eastern Europe, urging fans to fight prejudice against the travellers."

"And Holder’s new directives? To expand the department’s reach, to hire more attorneys, and, as he told the New York Times, to “get back to what it has traditionally done,” like protecting people’s voting rights and access to housing, employment and fair lending practices."

"Culture has a large affect on mental illness – it influences our symptoms and how we describe them to doctors, it impacts our treatment and whether or not we seek help at all. It also leads people to dismiss someone like Maia as “crazy” or a “crack head” without acknowledging the mitigating factors that cause someone with a mental illness to exhibit dangerous behavior."