Society's ChildS


Heart - Black

Mother of gay teenager who committed suicide outraged at FDA ban on gay organ donation

Scott Kaufman
Raw Story
Mon, 18 Aug 2014 00:00 UTC
A.J. Betts
© Unknown
A mother who tried to bring meaning to her gay son's tragic suicide by having his organs donated was shocked to learn that Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations prevent gay men from donating non-lifesaving organs, The Des Moines Register reports.

Sheryl Moore's 16-year-old son, A.J. Betts, took his own life after facing years of being bullied for being openly gay. She kept his body alive for four days after he was declared brain dead specifically so his oxygen-deprived organs could recuperate enough to be viable for transplants. His heart, lungs, and kidneys were all eventually harvested for transplantation, but his bone, tendons, heart valves, and eyes were not.

When she asked the Iowa Donor Network why those organs had not been harvested, she was told it was because of an FDA policy barring sexually active gay men from donating non-lifesaving organs.
Read More...
Pistol

Tennessee police cadet opens fire on ex-girlfriend's family, is killed by her brother


Raw Story
Mon, 18 Aug 2014 15:56 UTC
hand gun
© Unknown
A Tennessee police cadet shot and killed another man at his ex-girlfriend's house before the woman's brother shot and killed him. Cadet Michael William Little, of Knoxville, gunned down 28-year-old Travis Wegener at the home of Little's ex-girlfriend. Little also shot his ex-girlfriend and her mother, seriously wounding the older woman, shortly before 11:30 p.m. Friday.

Ashley Womack, 18, was treated and released from a hospital with a gunshot wound to her leg. Her mother, 47-year-old Rhonda Womack, was hospitalized in serious condition with a gunshot wound to her shoulder. Police said 22-year-old Joshua Womack grabbed a .22-caliber rifle to defend his family and killed Little during a shootout.
Read More...
Eggs Fried

Sainsbury supermarket removes Jewish (kosher) food amid anti-Israel protests


RT
Mon, 18 Aug 2014 12:41 UTC
Image
© Reuters/Justin TallisDemonstrators march through the streets from outside the Israeli embassy in central London on July 26, 2014, calling for an end to violence in Gaza.
A central London branch of a major UK supermarket emptied its kosher food shelf after its manager feared anti-Israeli protesters outside would attack the store, the grocery giant has confirmed.

Meats, cheeses and sauces were removed and placed into cool storage at a Sainsbury's Local branch in Holborn as it was picketed by demonstrators calling on the grocer to boycott Israeli goods.

There followed uproar on social media as opponents of the move said many of the removed items were not actually from Israel. They also pointed out the distinction between Israeli exports and kosher dietary goods.
GIVES IN TO FEAR: UK supermarket, Sainsbury, REMOVES kosher food, fearing protesters http://t.co/6dGomqTCWv#tcotpic.twitter.com/17w3pejwU5
- slone (@slone) August 18, 2014
Despite the Sainsbury family's Jewish ancestry, the supermarket was accused of anti-Semitism for its actions. Sainsbury's insisted the decision was taken to protect the food from damage. However, one opponent made a formal complaint against the grocer.

Comment: "Those of us who dare to criticize Israel's centrality in American life are at a real disadvantage. We are disgusted by what we see, but contemporary protocol requires us to show respect and tolerance to the very people who inspire the disgust in the first place. Worse still, our tormentors have no reciprocal obligation for civility. The deck of cards in this dispute is stacked. Saying the wrong word, uttering an incorrect phrase, and one can be tarred as a disreputable 'Anti-Semite', which has become the scarlet letter of our time.

Have Jews been mistreated, shunned, defamed and killed? Certainly. Have Jews done the same? Most definitely."

The virtue & necessity of deconstructing 'anti-semitism'

Read More...
Bullseye

National Guard troops in Ferguson will only serve to escalate tensions, not bring peace

Kyle Sullender
1-800-Politics
Mon, 18 Aug 2014 13:19 UTC
Ferguson protests
© unknown
After eight straight days of unrest in Ferguson, MO, following the shooting of 18 year-old Michael Brown, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon has called the National Guard to attempt a restoration of peace in the city. However, the action will likely result in the opposite.

While protests have grown more violent since they started the night after Brown was shot, the number of injuries resulting from them is still relatively low. Protesters have been escalating their attacks though and the police's use of tear gas has become a daily headline. So far it appears only one to two people have been seriously injured from protest related incidents but it would seem that that number could be increasing very soon.

The state's first attempt to calm protesters was to remove the Ferguson Police Department's responsibility of containing the protests. Instead, the responsibility was given to the Missouri Highway Patrol and Capt. Ron Johnson. Because the police were the target of their protests and because Capt. Johnson is an African American; like 70% of Ferguson, many hoped only peaceful protests would continue.
Read More...
Pistol

The police have become a militarized murder machine

Paul Craig Robers
RINF
Mon, 18 Aug 2014 15:03 UTC
Ferguson police
© Reuters / Mario AnzuonA police officer holds his riot gun while demonstrators protest the shooting death of teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri August 13, 2014
I wasn't surprised at some of the crude comments and hatred expressed toward blacks that came from a few white male anti-immigration Republicans in response to my article Cops Gone Wild. A few were so choked with rage over a "f*** pinko-liberal-commie" who would take the side of a "black bully thief" over the police that they never read beyond the introductory comment about Ferguson. Criticizing police can ignite the same kind of hysterical hatred as criticizing the Israeli governments murders of Palestinians.

As readers know, I often emphasize that a significant percentage of the population is incapable of thought and rational response. They want to hear what they want to hear and go into a rage when they don't. They read not to learn but to have their ignorant biases substantiated.
Read More...
Pineapple

European food producers trying to get around Russian food embargo by going through Switzerland


RT
Mon, 18 Aug 2014 16:32 UTC
Image
© RIA Novosti / Aleksandr Kondratuk
Some European food producers have reportedly asked Switzerland to provide an alternative supply corridor for goods embargoed by Russia.

The agriculture import ban imposed by Russia does not apply to Switzerland as it is not an EU member.

During the past week various European food and agriculture organizations have asked the Swiss authorities if there is an opportunity to export their products to Russia via Switzerland, Swiss Federal Office for Agriculture (FOAG) spokeswoman, Anne Rizzoli told Izvestia.

She did not specify the companies "for security reasons."

The European Milk Board (EMB), a body that brings together different national associations of dairy product manufacturers, confirmed it was looking at transit countries.
Read More...
Calendar

Doctors without Borders: Ebola spreading faster, out of control for next 6 months


RT
Sat, 16 Aug 2014 10:54 UTC
Image
© Reuters/Luc GnagoA woman stands at a pharmacy next to a poster displaying a government message against Ebola, at a maternity hospital in Abidjan August 14, 2014.
The spread of Ebola is outrunning efforts to stop it, according to international aid group Doctors Without Borders, which estimates it might take six months to get the situation under control.

The chief of the French-founded group, also known as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), Joanne Liu, spent 10 days in the disease-hit regions of West Africa, before voicing her conclusions at a Friday press conference in Geneva.

"[Ebola] is deteriorating faster, and moving faster, than we can respond to," she told reporters.

The deadliest ever outbreak of Ebola has already claimed 1,145 lives, according to official figures, which could in fact "vastly underestimate" the real magnitude of the disaster, the World Health Organization warned a day earlier.
#Ebola: international response to #Ebolaoutbreak dangerously inadequate http://t.co/4Qqd9FaccZ
- MSF UK (@MSF_uk) August 15, 2014
"It is like wartime," Liu said. "It's moving, and advancing, but we have no clue how it's going. Like in wartime, we have a total collapse of infrastructure."

She gave as an example a 40-bed treatment center in Liberia, where 137 people are being cared for. Overcrowded facilities there are "absolutely dangerous," Liu said.
Read More...
Red Flag

Wedding between Arab man and Jewish women in Tel Aviv incites media frenzy and picketing from far-right group Lehava


RT
Mon, 18 Aug 2014 15:56 UTC
Image
© Reuters / Ammar AwadGroom Mahmoud Mansour, 26, (C) and his bride Maral Malka, 23, celebrate with friends and family before their wedding in Mahmoud's family house in Jaffa, south of Tel Aviv August 17, 2014.
Several dozen Israeli police formed human chains to keep 200 screaming far-right Israelis at bay as they picketed the wedding of a Jewish woman and a Muslim man in this latest sign of escalating fallout from the Gaza situation.

"Death to the Arabs," they shouted, as several dozen officers, including Israel's elite units, prevented them from storming the wedding hall in the Tel Aviv suburb of Rishon Lezion. No one was injured, but four protesters were arrested. They violated a court order not to approach the wedding hall by closer than 200 meters, the Times of Israel reports.

Among those gathered outside were also supporters of the couple, but the atmosphere was tense, as police thoroughly checked more than 600 guests.

The mere possibility of this wedding had local media in frenzy in the current climate of anti-assimilation activism. Plans to picket the occasion were announced by the ultra-conservative Lehava group in advance.

The Hebrew initials in the group's name stand for 'Preventing Assimilation in the Holy Land'. It had published the couple's wedding invitation on its Facebook page, encouraging people to come with banners and bullhorns to protest.

The couple, Maral Malka, 23 and Mahmoud Mansour, 26, had unsuccessfully sought protection from the state by trying to ban the protest, but according to their lawyer, could only secure police protection. They had been receiving death threats in the run-up to the wedding.
Read More...
Newspaper

U.S. District Court Judge OKs retaliation suit by ex-police chief demoted after reporting cop's sex abuse photos

Travis Gettys
Raw Story
Mon, 18 Aug 2014 00:00 UTC
Male Judge
© Shutterstock
A former police chief who reported another officer for photographing the sexual abuse an unconscious woman has a case for retaliation, a federal judge ruled.

Chief Jeff Tayoun of Pittstown, Pennsylvania, police found 46 photos taken by Officer Robert Semyon on a department computer in October 2009 that showed a passed-out nude woman, reported Courthouse News.

In four of the images, the unconscious woman's anus and vagina were penetrated.

Tayoun immediately asked then-Mayor Donna Connors to suspend the officer, and the police chief met with City Council members and had the computer analyzed by the State Police Crime Lab.

The Pennsylvania attorney general's office opened a criminal investigation, and Samyon ultimately pleaded guilty to aggravated indecent assault and other charges.

He was sentenced to a year in prison.
Read More...
Health

Despite serious heart condition, Julian Assange denies he will be leaving Ecuadorian embassy in London


RT
Mon, 18 Aug 2014 15:41 UTC
Image
© Polly Boiko, RT
Julian Assange's lawyer Kristinn Hrafnsson has denied widespread rumors that the Wikileaks creator is planning to leave the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he has been holed up for the past two years, despite a serious heart condition.

The initial information was circulated by Sky News, which suggested the fugitive leaker was to spell out his next move following a public exit, while being in dire need of hospital treatment for a number of medical reasons.

Hrafnsson has told RT that it's no secret Assange would love a chance to see the outside world again, but strongly denied Sky's reports, saying that despite his wishes, the leaker has not made plans for an official announcement of a departure from the embassy in the immediate future.

RT's Polly Boiko spoke to a Wikileaks spokesperson, who also denied the rumors as entirely false, although much commotion could be seen happening around the embassy earlier.
Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Ricardo Patiño enters the embassy. Says nothing. #assange @lbc

- Tom Swarbrick (@TomsonSwarb) 18 августа 2014
Police are stationed around the clock at the London compound, ready to arrest the Wikileaks founder if he sets foot outside.
Read More...