The Hangover News

Backwards Rallies
LOTS OF PEOPLE RALLIED AGAINST GAY MARRIAGE IN PARIS
But don't call them homophobes

(via)

Hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets of Paris over plans to give gay couples in France the right to get married and adopt children.

For a country that's forward-thinking, sensitive and all-inclusive enough to ban burqas in public, this rally came as a real shock to most.

But don't worry; protesters claim they're not homophobic, so it's totally fine – they just think the idea of same-sex people falling in love with each other and wanting to demonstrate it through marriage and raising children is completely abhorrent.

While this was happening, four topless women from Ukrainian activist group Femen were protesting in St Peter's Square in the Vatican in support of gay rights, until a worshipper attacked one with her umbrella and the police took them away.

Deaths
A LEADING INTERNET ACTIVIST COMMITTED SUICIDE
Aaron Swartz co-founded Reddit and helped fight SOPA when they threatened to ruin the internet

(via)

Aaron Swartz, a much-respected internet campaigner and early developer of Reddit, committed suicide in his New York apartment at the age of 26.

Swartz was a co-founder of the Demand Progress campaign group, which lobbies against internet censorship, and rallied opposition against SOPA when they were planning on completely ruining the internet.

Mr Swartz was facing charges at the time of his death that related to downloading millions of academic papers from online archive JSTOR, which he allegedly planned to distribute for free.

If convicted, he could have faced a $1 million (£620,000) fine and 35 years in jail, which I suppose seems reasonable for the completely victimless crime.

Aaron's family released a statement, saying, "Aaron's death is not simply a personal tragedy. It is the product of a criminal justice system rife with intimidation and prosecutorial overreach."

Angry Mobs
A LOAD OF LOYALISTS RIOTED IN BELFAST OVER THE UNION FLAG CONTROVERSY
The flag is only going to be flown 17 days a year rather than 365, so people threw petrol bombs at the police

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Violence over the union flag controversy flared up again this weekend in Belfast, after loyalists returning from a rally clashed with nationalists.

Loyalists claim they were attacked first, nationalists complained that the loyalist march shouldn't have been routed past their homes, the police kept the two groups apart and used water cannons and rubber bullets when rioters began throwing bricks and petrol bombs at them.

The police reported 29 officers being injured during the sectarian clash.

On Sunday, over 1,000 people turned up at Belfast city hall to stage a peaceful protest against the earlier violent protests.

Embarrassing Mistakes
THIS GUY STABBED A DEAF MAN AFTER CONFUSING SIGN LANGUAGE WITH GANG SIGNS
Frankly, it's surprising that this doesn't happen more often

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Robert Jarell Neal, a 22-year-old from North Carolina, stabbed a deaf man several times after confusing his sign language with gang signs.

The victim – 45-year-old Terrance Ervin Daniels – was having a conversation in sign language with another deaf man, when Neal appeared and attacked him with a kitchen knife.

Although a man was stabbed, the world laughs, because it's childish enough to stab someone for making a sign with their hand if they live in a different neighbourhood to you, but excruciatingly embarrassing if you get that confused with a method of communication used by approximately 500,000 Americans.

Daniels is in a stable condition, Neal is being held in jail and presumably kicking himself for never paying attention to that guy in the bottom corner of terrible late-night BBC programming.

Patriotic Idiocy
TWO MEN WALKED AROUND PORTLAND COVERED IN AUTOMATIC WEAPONS
Because it advocates gun rights or something equally stupid

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Two men in Portland, Oregon attempted to raise awareness for gun rights by walking around the city with assault rifles strapped to their backs and no banners or placards explaining what they were doing.

After the recent influx of gun-related tragedies in America, the public is outraged at the fact the two men – Warren Drouin and Steven Boyce – thought it was a good idea to walk around looking like they were going to start spraying bullets everywhere.

Drouin is apparently well-known to local authorities – records show the police have received at least 67 complaints about the 22-year-old carrying a semi-automatic rifle or handgun in a wide range of public settings between June 2011 and December 2012.

What's maybe more confusing is that the public don't seem to be outraged that it's actually legal to walk around openly carrying guns.

But – going by local reaction – until they actually start firing, who cares? It's their God-given right to needlessly freak everybody out.