Society's ChildS


Stock Down

Canada's mortgage crisis could be worse than US 2008 bubble

vancouver
© Gordon / Reuters
Hit by the sharp decline in oil prices the Canadian economy is struggling with a property market approaching the peak of a massive bubble, according to ex-Lehman Brothers trader and a financial writer Jared Dillian.

As Canada's mortgage market is not securitized, the property crisis is expected to last much longer than in the US, where the loans are backed, Dillian said in an interview with Mauldin Economics.

The former trader says when the bubble bursts; it will be quite different from the sharp and sudden crisis in the US in 2008, due to the structure of the Canadian mortgage market.

According to him, almost all mortgages in Canada are "recourse mortgages", with homeowners behind on payments not able to able to walk away.


Stop

No free speech zone: Clemson U forbids praying on campus, "not a free speech zone"

clemson
A man was stopped by a Clemson University administrator for praying on campus, telling him and a Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) activist that "this is not a designated free speech area," and asking them to leave the area. YAF's blog The New Guard released the video today.

The administrator, Shawn Jones who is the assistant director for client services, also called their praying "solicitation," and demanded that they would need to fill out paperwork to continue. Clemson receives state and federal funding, and many see these restrictions as disregarding the First Amendment to the Constitution by limiting free speech to certain zones.

The Young Americans for Freedom member, Kyra Palange, asked the administrator, "by that, you mean there are free speech areas on campus and that the entire campus is not a free speech area?"

Jones responded, "that is correct."


Comment: You see, evil Muslims hate America because of their freedoms, like the freedom to be free from religious freedom. But wait a second, the 'terrorists' are against religious freedom... Does that make them Americans? Turns out that there's not that much difference between U.S. culture creators and groups like Daesh. Daesh is just more in your face. Ironically, Syria - the country currently being destroyed by the Daesh/U.S. axis - is infinitely more free when it comes to religion.


Bomb

Bomb explodes at Brussels criminology institute, no casualties - UPDATE

Belgium's Institute of Criminology attack
© Geoffrey HenriotThe flames resulting from the bomb explosion blast could be seen for miles

Shortly before 02:30 local time (00:30 UK time), a car rammed through three fences - then 'one or more' suspects reportedly detonated a bomb near the scientific laboratories


A manhunt is underway for suspects behind a bomb explosion at top crime labs in Brussels in the early hours of this morning.

A car rammed through three fences before the blast at the Belgium's Institute of Criminology - setting fire to the building and causing extensive damage.

Police - who have been deployed in force in the area which is cordoned off - are hunting for at least one or more suspects who then detonated a bomb.

There were no casualties, Belgian media say.

Shortly before 02:30 local time (00:30 UK time), a car rammed through three fences, RTL Belgium reports.

"One or more" suspects then reportedly detonated a bomb near the laboratories.

Comment: Five men have been detained. At this point, police are thinking it was deliberate arson linked with organized crime:
Five men suspected of setting fire to the Brussels Criminology Institute have been detained, a prosecution spokeswoman told Reuters, adding that the attack was more likely linked to organized crime than terrorism.

"It was arson, deliberate arson, at the laboratory of the federal police," prosecutor Ine Van Wymersch said. "With a fire you get explosions, but it's not that explosives were thrown inside or installed."
...
It is suspected that the fire was set to get rid of "several files," Wymersch told AP.

"It is a path we are looking down. But certainly not the first one we are thinking about," Reuters cites the spokeswoman as saying. "We are thinking more of deliberate arson by organized crime. We have no indications that it was terrorism."

The blast heard by locals could have been caused by combustible substances stored inside the institute rather than an explosive, Wymersch added.



Attention

Fanning hatred: Polish hooligans burn Jewish effigies during soccer match

Widzew Lodz club
© ReutersPolish soccer fans of the Widzew Lodz club escorted by police
A group of soccer hooligans in Poland torched effigies representing Jews and displayed banners calling for Jews to be burned in a shocking display during a match last Friday, according to local media reports and a global anti-Semitism watchdog. The incident occurred when dozens of fans supporting the Widzew Łódź side rallied against the town rival ŁKS Łódź, which is often derided as "Jewish" by opposing teams' fans, in a similar fashion that the British team Tottenham Hotspur is regarded.

The rally took place ahead of the derby match at a local train station in the central Polish city that used to boast a large Jewish population prior to WWII. According to a weekend report by the Coordination Forum for Countering Antisemitism, the demonstrators at the rally unfurled a banner printed with the slogan "19.08, today the Jews were named," in reference to the year ŁKS Łódź was established.

"Let them burn, motherf***ers," continued the banner's illicit message. The report noted that images taken at the event showed the ruffians igniting strung-up effigies donned in attire apparently representative of Orthodox Jews.

Cult

What the Hell? Satanism on the rise in America

satan mask
© Rebecca Cook / Reuters
Satanists are not merely mystical eccentrics wearing black Gothic garb, sacrificing animals and operating in shady and secret societies. They are now ordinary people who call themselves 'secular' and praise reason and the individual freedom of thought.

In the US, explicitly satanic groups have begun drawing attention to themselves in the context of public governmental ceremonies.

Just this month, a member of the so-called Satanic Temple was allowed to make an opening prayer to Lucifer at a local council meeting in Alaska.

Assembly members stood around in a circle while the Satanist asked them to "embrace the Luciferian impulse to eat of the tree of knowledge." She then ended the surreal prayer with the words, "Hail Satan."

Mail

Got mail? California postal worker stashes nearly 50,000 pieces of onerous mail

US Mail
A U.S. Postal Service employee stashed nearly 50,000 pieces of undelivered mail in her California home, according to a criminal information filed against the worker.

Federal investigators charge that Sherry Watanabe hid "approximately 48,288 pieces of United States mail" in her apartment. The mail was intended for delivery to customers along Watanabe's route in Placentia, an Orange County city.

Watanabe, 48, was named in a one-count felony criminal information filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. In a plea agreement with prosecutors, Watanabe has admitted to the mail hoarding.

According to the plea agreement, Watanabe was hired as a mail carrier in June 2006, and she began collecting "large quantities of such mail" in her Placentia residence in 2011. While the undelivered mail was seized by law enforcement agents in late-2013, court filings do not indicate why more than two years passed before Watanabe was charged.

Though Watanabe faces a statutory maximum of three years in custody, prosecutors have agreed to recommend that a term of imprisonment not exceed "the low end of the applicable Sentencing Guidelines range."

In similar previous prosecutions, mail carriers have claimed that the volume on their routes was so onerous that they opted to hide the mail instead of delivering it.

Piggy Bank

Banks getting ready for 'economic nuclear winter'

Winter scene
© Osman Karimov / Reuters
Weak corporate earnings, a banking crisis, and the Brexit vote are forcing banks to prepare for the worst case scenario in the second half of the year. According to CNBC quoting a major lender, banks are "preparing for an economic nuclear winter situation

Camera

U.S. federal judge: Police shooting victim's corpse had no right to privacy

Samuel and Daniel Pauly
© Santa Fe Crime/Courtesy of FamilySamuel Pauly, left, was shot and killed by New Mexico State Police. Daniel Pauly, right, was arrested and charged with aggravated assault on a peace officer.
A federal judge ruled that when a New Mexico State Police officer took pictures of a man police had shot to death and texted the pictures to friends, no constitutional right to privacy was violated.

The late Samuel Pauly's father and brother sued the New Mexico Department of Public Safety and Officer Mario Vasquez in September 2015 after learning that Vasquez had sent cellphone photos of the crime scene to friends.

The complaint quotes State Police Chief Robert Shilling calling Vasquez's acts "unprofessional and appalling."

But U.S. District Judge Judith C. Herrera ruled on Aug. 10 that the lawsuit failed to "show that the constitutional right asserted — a privacy right of close family members to control dissemination of 'death scene photographs' under the Fourteenth Amendment — was clearly established at the relevant time."

Herrera agreed that Vasquez's conduct was "offensive and unprofessional," but said the officer is entitled to qualified immunity.

Samuel Pauly's 2011 death began with an incident of road rage. State Police officers responding to a report of someone running another vehicle off the road found Pauly and his brother Daniel in their home.

According to the Paulys' complaint, the brothers were "fearful that the people outside were intruders," and "informed the intruders that they had guns and fired warning shots into the air." An officer crouching behind a rock wall shot and killed Pauly.

In October 2012, a grand jury ruled that the shooting of Samuel Pauly was justified.

Whistle

Active shooter false alarm causes chaos at LAX

LAX airport
© APPolice officers stand guard as passengers wait in line at Terminal 7 in Los Angeles International Airport, Sunday.
Reports of an active shooter caused a sense of chaos at Los Angeles International Airport on Sunday night, bringing travel to a halt and causing delays to pile up into Monday morning.

Passengers breached security doors and spilled out onto the airport tarmac at around 9 p.m. after word of a shooting threat spread.

Fortunately, the report turned out to be a false alarm, but it caused 281 delays, two cancellations, and 27 flight diversions, according to LAX, which also said that one person was injured from getting trampled.

"Due to initial reports of an active shooter in Terminal eight at LAX, passengers in several LAX terminals self-evacuated onto the tarmac and rushed through federal security screening without being properly screened," the airport explained in a statement.

In a somewhat surreal twist, an individual in a Zorro costume was detained by airport police.

Cut

Flashback In Killary's pocket: Google excludes Donald Trump from 'presidential candidates' search

What's wrong with this picture?
google censorship trump
That's right—Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president, does not appear in the dedicated "active campaigns" results box at the top of Google searches for "presidential candidates." But that's not the only error here.

Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson is also excluded, and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who conceded to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton on Tuesday evening, is no longer running an active campaign. Nor does it include any of the other independent candidates running for president this year.

Interestingly, this issue first popped up earlier this month when Stein petitioned Google to include her in the "presidential candidates" results—which, at the time, also included Trump and Johnson.

The exclusion of Trump caught the attention of Reddit's highly active and contentious r/The_Donald community early Wednesday morning, where users speculated a Google conspiracy against their candidate of choice.

Claims of censorship are a mainstay on the internet and have percolated to the surface over the past week after WikiLeaks published nearly 20,000 emails stolen from the Democratic National Committee. Twitter was accused of censoring a trending hashtag related to the leaks. And Facebook faced similar criticism after blocking links to the whistleblower website. In both cases, the issues were attributed to algorithmic functions and not intentional censorship by Silicon Valley firms.