Society's Child

17 killed, 78 injured as under-construction bridge collapses in Kolkata, India; many still trapped

RT
Thu, 31 Mar 2016 23:38 UTC

Seventeen people are reported killed and at least 78 injured, while 150 are believed trapped, after an under-construction flyover collapsed in a densely-populated area of Kolkata, India, causing chaos. The incident took place near Girish Park in North Kolkata.

Eyewitnesses told the Indian Express they heard a loud blast and a crashing sound. They also said they saw a cloud of smoke rising from the scene. Numerous photos on social media show people gathered near the scene of the incident trying to help those trapped or injured.

"The condition is pathetic. At this moment no one has any clue how many people are trapped," said Raichand Mohta, a police officer at the scene, told Reuters. The Indian Express cited locals who said they opposed the construction, saying the overpass crosses too close to multi-story buildings nearby.

Paramedics are working to free people from a minibus that was crushed in the collapse, a local witness told Reuters.
The flyover collapsed on to the traffic moving along the street, police said. "Cement and concrete were poured in yesterday only, it suddenly collapsed today," a local witness told India Today.

Those who happened to be near the scene were trying to pass bottles of water to people trapped in the rubble.

Ponerized society: Gang of 6-year-olds terrorize and beat up on train passengers

Matt Agorist
The Free Thought Project
Wed, 30 Mar 2016 21:55 UTC

© Patrick Coyle/Facebook
Spitting and cursing: The video depicts vulgar language from several very young aggressors while riding on the subway. One of the boys here is seen spitting at the man filming (front left)

Responsibility is a word which is increasingly vanishing in the modern nanny state. As government continues to take over every aspect of our lives, one thing is becoming crystal clear — the state is a lousy parent.

From the cradle to the grave, federal recommendations, ostensibly designed for our wellbeing, 'guide' us through our lives telling us what to eat, when to sleep, how to work, when to die — and what to think.

Public schools more closely resemble prisons than centers of learning as students are locked in buildings and given a little 'yard time' between hours of forced indoctrination.

The effects of such a system are becoming more evident by the day. In spite of the fact that the United States spends more on public education than any other country in the world, Americans, on average, fail.

When it comes to basic technological skills like using email, buying and returning items online, using a drop-down menu, naming a file on a computer or sending a text message — Americans rank dead last.

According to a recent study by the Department of Education, Americans with a high school diploma performed about the same as high school dropouts in other countries.

Aside from the educational failures in the Land of the Free, the nation's health is horrific too. Despite spending more on healthcare than any other country, America leads the world in obesity, heart disease, and cancer, while at the same time, consuming magnitudes more prescription drugs than the rest of the world.

Whether deliberate or a merely a symptom of empire — Americans are being dumbed down and becoming unhealthy.

A well-informed and healthy society is harder to rule over, which explains why America is descending into tyranny — we are less informed and sicker than ever.

Vermont man arrested with equivalent of 1,400 bags of heroin inside his body

RT
Wed, 30 Mar 2016 17:08 UTC

A New York man went through a lot of effort to try and hide the equivalent of 1,400 bags of heroin, but it was all for naught when Vermont State Police stopped him and discovered the stash - inside of his body.

Fernando Estrella, a 41-year-old from the Bronx, was pulled over in St. Albans City, Vermont early Tuesday morning for "numerous motor vehicle violations" when the search for contraband began, Vermont State Police (VSP) said in a press release. Police were alerted to the possibility of drugs by a K9 unit that was accompanying them.

The search came up empty at first, as police couldn't find anything in the vehicle itself. However, they did uncover a heroin needle and a cooking cap, according to the New York Daily News.

Estrella was detained and officers then sought a warrant for a body cavity search. Conducted at a local hospital, the search turned up"approximately 1,428 bags worth of Heroin," police said.

While the troopers did not officially state where the drugs were found when they announced the arrest, Sergeant John Helfant of the VSP told the Daily News that three condoms filled with heroin were found inside Estrella's rectum.

On top of the heroin discovery, police also found that Estrella was arrested in November 2015 for an incident involving cocaine and was on probation, VSP said.

Estrella faces multiple charges, including felony heroin possession, heroin trafficking, heroin importation, and violation of conditions of release.

Comment: The war on drugs has been a great success for the powers that be.

NYPD officer to explain why he shot 'friendly' pit bull at point-blank range

RT
Thu, 31 Mar 2016 21:49 UTC

A police officer will be made to explain himself after shooting a pit bull in the hallway of a Bronx apartment building. The friendly pooch had been wagging his tail when he was killed at point-blank range, according to his owner.

Yvonne Rosado had called the New York Police Department because her former boyfriend and current subject of an order of protection attempted to enter the building on E. 183 Street in New York City's borough of The Bronx in February. He had been long gone, however, by the time the officers showed up.

The 42-year-old woman was engaging in her weekly ritual of dancing with her dog, Spike, to a Kid Cudi song. "I dance around with him and I spin him with one paw," she explained to the New York Daily News. When she heard something in the hallway, however, she opened the door - and the 70-pound pooch slipped out.

Rosado claimed that she screamed, "he's friendly! He's friendly!" as Spike slowly approached the officer, his tail wagging. But the cop, identified as Officer Ruben Cuesta, 28, stepped back and opened fire from three feet away.

Rosado said she intends to sue the city, and plans to file a grievance against Cuesta as well.

More than half of Americans now oppose fracking

RT
Thu, 31 Mar 2016 21:45 UTC

$fracking protesters$

More than half of Americans are opposed to fracking in pursuit of oil and gas, according to a new Gallup poll. The results come amid mounting concerns about the links between fracking and earthquakes and groundwater pollution.

Asked whether they favored or opposed hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, as a means of increasing the production of natural gas or oil in the US, 36 percent of respondents said they were in favor, while 51 percent said they were opposed and 13 percent had no opinion, according to the new Gallup poll released on Wednesday.

That is an 11 point increase in opposition since last year. Answering the same question in 2015, 40 percent of Americans were in favor and 40 percent were opposed, while 19 percent had no opinion. The poll was conducted between March 2 and March 6.

Comment: See also:

Suicide bomb strikes police vehicle near bus stop in Diyarbakir, Turkey - 7 killed, 27 injured

RT
Thu, 31 Mar 2016 17:43 UTC

© Ilyas Akengin / Agence France-Presse
Turkish special force police officers walk at the site of a bomb attack in Diyarbakir, southeastern Turkey, on March 31, 2016.

At least seven police officers have been killed and 27 people injured after a suicide car bomber hit a police bus in the mainly Kurdish-populated city of Diyarbakir, Turkey, according to Minister of Development Cevdet Yılmaz.

Thirteen police personnel and 14 civilians are among those injured, the minister said in a statement cited by local TV channels. The attack took place near a bus stop, which explains the high number of civilian casualties.

New report shows the absolute uselessness of the war on drugs

Claire Bernish
The Anti Media
Thu, 31 Mar 2016 18:33 UTC

A crucial new study says the ubiquitous and dubious war on drugs has, in actuality, been detrimental to public health — and should be laid to rest in favor of decriminalization.

Laws and policies criminalizing drugs have had "no measurable impact on supply or use," according to the study as noted by the Independent, and serve no purpose either scientifically or in terms of public health.

Commissioned by Johns Hopkins University and The Lancet, a British medical journal, the study found mass decriminalization programs undertaken by Portugal and the Czech Republic have had enormously constructive results, including "public health benefits, cost savings, lower incarceration [rates], and no significant increase in problematic drug use."

Comment: Most people with a modicum of intelligence and common sense realize that the war on drugs is an epic fail. Unless you're a big bank or part of the military industrial complex ...or an owner of a for-profit prison... Oh, forget it! The war on drugs was an absolute success for the powers that be. It's the little people who get stomped, as usual.

Beware modern-day doublespeak

Makia Freeman
Activist Post
Thu, 31 Mar 2016 17:32 UTC

Doublespeak is a language that is alive and well in our world today. Doublespeak can refer to terms that are euphemisms (mild expressions designed to hide harsher or more direct ones), deliberately ambiguous (expressions designed to hide the truth) or actual inversions (outright lies which state the opposite of the truth). Although he never used the term doublespeak in his book 1984, many associate doublespeak with George Orwell. After all, it was Orwell who famously wrote that the motto of the totalitarian ruling party in 1984 was "War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength" - an example of an inversion. Orwell did however use the term newspeak to refer to a new kind of language which drastically reduced the scope of available words and terms, so as to concurrently reduce the scope of possible free thought among the ruled population.

Many doublespeak terms in the following list are oxymorons, meaning that the term itself is contradictory. Many hide the truth because it is too raw, unpalatable, uncomfortable or outright horrifying. It is vitally important we watch our language, because it plays a great part in how we shape our world and in how we create our reality. In many ways, by unconsciously using these terms instead of more accurate or truthful ones, we are quietly lying to ourselves, or at a minimum acquiescing to the process of being lied to and programmed. Political correctness is a great example of how language control, thought control and doublespeak can be introduced to an entire population without people realizing they are being deceived and manipulated. Below is list of the top 20 modern Orwellian doublespeak terms, with the first half focusing on military and geopolitical terms.

Corruption backfire: Companies have significantly lower values in areas where corruption is endemic

Phys.org
Thu, 31 Mar 2016 00:00 UTC

dollars covering face on billboard, corruption

State-level public corruption in the United States affects firms' value and disclosure policies, according to a new study from The University of Texas at Dallas.

Dr. Steven Xiao, assistant professor of finance, and Dr. Vikram Nanda, O.P. Jindal Distinguished Chair in Finance, studied state-level corruption in the U.S. and its effect on publicly listed firms.

The study, published in the Review of Corporate Finance Studies, found that firms have significantly lower value and informational transparency when located in areas that are more corrupt.

Using the Department of Justice's data on corruption-related convictions of public officials, the researchers found that from 1990 to 2011, firm value was substantially lower in more corrupt states and federal districts.

Comment:

Mark of the Beast: New poll shows support for torture in US grows to 63 percent

RT
Wed, 30 Mar 2016 19:46 UTC

Comment: If the following poll data doesn't send a chill up your spine, nothing will!

Almost two thirds of Americans believe torture is justified to extract information about terrorist attacks from suspects, according to a new poll. Just as many believe a terrorist attack on US soil is very or somewhat likely in the next six months.

The March 22-28 online poll, conducted by Reuters and Ipsos, asked if torture can be justified "against suspected terrorists to obtain information about terrorism." Some 25 percent of respondents said it was justified "often," while 38 percent said it would be justified "sometimes." Another 21 percent could justify it "rarely," while only 15 percent said torture should never be used.

Respondents identifying as Republicans backed the "often justified" option at twice the rate of Democrats, 36 percent to 18 percent, respectively. That figure was at 24 percent among the independents. Just over half of Democrats (53 percent) supported torture "often" or "sometimes," compared to 82 percent of the Republicans.

Only 4 percent of Republicans and 13 percent of independents were against torture outright, with that number rising to 21 percent among the Democrats.

Comment: See also:

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Society's Child

17 killed, 78 injured as under-construction bridge collapses in Kolkata, India; many still trapped

Ponerized society: Gang of 6-year-olds terrorize and beat up on train passengers

Vermont man arrested with equivalent of 1,400 bags of heroin inside his body

NYPD officer to explain why he shot 'friendly' pit bull at point-blank range

More than half of Americans now oppose fracking

Suicide bomb strikes police vehicle near bus stop in Diyarbakir, Turkey - 7 killed, 27 injured

New report shows the absolute uselessness of the war on drugs

Beware modern-day doublespeak

Corruption backfire: Companies have significantly lower values in areas where corruption is endemic

Mark of the Beast: New poll shows support for torture in US grows to 63 percent

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