Society's ChildS


Cow Skull

US: One million of the poorest to lose food assistance next year

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© PressTV
The United States will cut off about one million of the poorest people from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) also known as food stamps in 2016, a new report says.

The reason is the re-imposition of a three-month limit which deprives unemployed adults aged 18-50 who are not disabled or raising children of SNAP benefits.

The above mentioned group will lose their food stamp benefits after three months, even if they are still looking for jobs, according to the report issued by Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

The limit initially imposed in 1996 bans such people from receiving food stamps for more than 3 months in any 36-month period when they are unemployed or are not receiving any job-related training for at least 20 hours a week.

The limit also affects those SNAP recipients whose state operates few or no employment programs for them and cannot offer them a job or training program.

The 1996 welfare law is the most severe limit as it denies basic food assistance to people who are looking for employment and are ready to do any job or participate in any work program.

The food assistance averages approximately $150 to $200 per person per month for this group and its annulment will cause serious problems for many people.

SNAP provides food-purchasing assistance for low and no-income people living in the US. It is a federal aid program, administered by the US Department of Agriculture, though benefits are distributed by states.

Comment: The system in the U.S. was set up by and for psychopaths. The psychopath's moral ideology preserves the elite only. There is plenty of money for wars, but helping and feeding human beings just isn't in the 'budget'.


Arrow Down

Connecticut teen taken from mother and forced to endure chemotherapy

Cassandra C
© Photo courtesy of Jackie Fortin17-year-old Cassandra C.
Hartford - A 17-year-old girl has been taken away from her mother and forced to endure unwanted, risky chemotherapy treatments that she absolutely opposes. The teen has been turned into a ward of the state and has been detained against her will in a hospital room for weeks without any choice in her own life-altering medical decisions or future.

Cassandra C.'s difficulties began in September 2014 when she became ill. Her mother, Jackie Fortin, took her to Connecticut Children's Medical Center, where she was diagnosed with Stage 3/4 Hodgkin's lymphoma.

CCMC doctors surgically removed Cassandra a portion of Cassandra's lymph node, and then pushed her to take chemotherapy drugs. But the strong-willed teen was opposed to the treatment, which she viewed as unacceptably dangerous.

"She has always - even years ago - said that if she was diagnosed with cancer, she would not put poison into her body," Ms. Fortin explained to NBC Connecticut.

Despite doctors' objections, the mother and daughter left the hospital "to seek a second opinion" in another state. CCMC doctors proceeded to get the government involved. They called Connecticut Department of Children and Families (DCF) alleging "parental medical neglect."

Question

Mysterious plant resembling severed finger found on Darwin beach baffles NT police

Finger Like Plant?
© NT PoliceA man found this mysterious object on a Darwin beach and believing it to be a human finger, he reported it to police.
A Darwin man thought he had made a grisly find when he came across what appeared to be a severed human finger on a beach, but it turned out to be a mysterious plant instead.

The man was walking his dog along the beach at Lee Point, north of Darwin, when the animal took an interest in the object.

The man feared he had discovered the remains of a murder victim and quickly called Northern Territory Police.

Watch Commander Brendan Lindner said officers were initially unsure about what the man had found.

"They played it safe and treated it as though it were human remains," he said.

The finger was sent for forensic examination, but preliminary testing proved inconclusive and it was sent to pathology for analysis.

Binoculars

No kidding! Writers in democracies self-censor due to mass surveillance, says study

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© Reuters / Jason Reed
A study published by a top US literary organization on Monday, found that an increasing number of writers in democratic countries are censoring themselves due to fears about government surveillance.

The study entitled "Global chilling: The impact of Mass Surveillance on International Writers" surveyed 772 writers in 50 countries and concluded that writers and journalists are self-censoring for fear of reprisal.

A similar report published in November 2013 found that writers were "worried about mass surveillance, and were engaged in multiple forms of self-censorship as a result."

A full report from writers around the world will be issued in the spring of 2015. As writers are considered to be the "canaries in the coalmine" therefore they are likely to give an accurate picture of the impact of surveillance on privacy and freedom of expression.

Writers living in democratic countries were found to be nearly as concerned as those living in non-democratic states with long histories of mass surveillance.

It found that while 61 percent of writers living in the countries labeled as 'Not Free' by Freedom House avoided writing or speaking about a certain topic because of government surveillance this was now true of 34 percent of writers in 'Free' countries.

Comment: Fear is the name of the game when it comes to mass surveillance. While the NSA's spying programs may be used for blackmail on domestic and foreign officials, the purpose of mass surveillance on the people has more to do with creating a hostile environment for truth rather than sorting through the googolplex of data for any genuine threat. We know after all that the genuine threat to humanity comes from the psychopaths running the show, i.e. those who put these programs in place to begin with.


2 + 2 = 4

Two more women join Bill Cosby defamation lawsuit

Women allege Cosby's lawyer issued responses to their claims of rape and groping that said they were lying

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© Matt Rourke/Associated PressBill Cosby’s career has unravelled since the accusations.
Two women accusing Bill Cosby of sexual offences decades ago have joined a defamation lawsuit, contending the comedian publicly branded them as liars through statements by his representatives.

The amended complaint was filed on Monday in the US district court in Springfield, in western Massachusetts, where Cosby has a home in Shelburne Falls.

Cosby is the only defendant in the lawsuit, originally filed last month by Tamara Green, who said he drugged and assaulted her in the 1970s. The two new plaintiffs are Therese Serignese, who said he drugged and raped her in 1976, and Linda Traitz, who alleges he tried to drug her and then sexually groped her in 1970.

Comment: See also:

Cliff Huxtable was a lie: Bill Cosby revealed as calculating sexual predator

Model and TV host Janice Dickinson joins list of women accusing Bill Cosby of sexual assault


Camcorder

Sott Exclusive: Jake Gyllenhaal brilliantly portrays a non-violent psychopath in new movie, "Nightcrawler"

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© Bold Films
Nightcrawler follows the story of 'Lou Bloom', a garden-variety psychopath who's willing to do anything and everything to get what he wants. He's played by a rather gaunt Jake Gyllenhaal, whose hunger is obvious from the get-go. In the opening of the film we see that Lou is not beyond theft and robbery, demonstrating his lack of a conscience, but the back story is missing and we don't realize just how deep and essential that lack is. We also see him use a preternaturally persistent and manipulative dialogue to 'negotiate' his targets into succumbing to his will.

Lou is looking for cash, and his discovery of a potential revenue stream in filming and selling graphic displays of tragedy to TV news is the central arc of the plot. The brilliance in the script is apparent as we see Lou cruise through moral dilemmas, manipulate those around him with style and charisma, and a consistent lack of any pangs of conscience.

Syringe

17-year-old girl taken from parents and forcefully treated with chemotherapy

Chemotherapy
© UnknownChemotherapy is exhausting treatment for the immune system.
17-year-old Cassandra Fortin has been taken from her family against her will because she refused chemotherapy.

Cassandra was recently diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma, but like many people with cancer, Cassandra wants to look into natural options for treatment, instead of chemotherapy. While chemotherapy is heavily pushed by pharmaceutical companies and backed up by government funded science, there are other options for people and everyone should be free to chose their own path in healing.

Doctors at the Connecticut Children's Medical Center forced Cassandra to undergo chemotherapy against her will, so she quickly ran away from home to get away from the situation.

Her parents supported her decision to reject chemo, but unfortunately their hands were tied as well because they were pressured legally by the doctors.

Comment: People who are under 18 are treated as an adult in many other cases too: they can have driving licence, have an abortion without parental consent or be tried in adult criminal court. Why soon 18-year-old teen is being forced to these extreme treatments? Read these articles to learn more about the possible side-effects of chemotherapy:


Handcuffs

Son arrested after hedge fund mogul father shot dead in New York

Thomas Gilbert Jr accused of murder after his father was found dead following an argument over money

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© Associated PressThomas Gilbert Jr has been arrested on suspicion of murdering his father after a row over money.
A man is accused of shooting dead his father, a hedge fund founder, inside his Manhattan apartment after the two argued over the son's allowance.

Thomas Gilbert Jr, 30, was arrested on suspicion of murder and criminal possession of a weapon after the death of Thomas Gilbert Sr, 70. He was remanded in custody on Monday and his lawyers declined to comment.

Heart - Black

Psycho Pat Robertson says non-religious children should be beaten until they respect Christian beliefs

pat robertson
© Addicting Info
In another example demonstrating that Pat Robertson believes in persecuting non-Christians and indoctrinating children, the televangelist openly suggested that parents should beat their kids until they respect Christian beliefs.

During yet another shameful episode of the 700 Club, which runs on Disney-owned channel ABC Family, Robertson received an email from a woman who claimed that her grandson disrespects their Christian faith when they visit their daughter on Christmas and chose not to visit this past year.

"We declined going to our daughter's house on Christmas this year because there is always an argument, hard feelings etc.," viewer Karen wrote.
"One grandchild comes high on marijuana, cursing and challenging our faith. I correct him and have told my daughter to ask him to respect our beliefs, but he keeps it up. Our daughter say she is a Christian but will drink too much and offend her daughter and her husband. Were we wrong to not to attend another Christmas that leaves us upset or someone angry? I have shared my beliefs many times with them and am ridiculed by this grandson and son-in-law."
Robertson's immediate solution? Beat the child until he respects Christianity.

"Somebody take that kid to the woodshed and let him understand the blessings of discipline," Robertson advised before predicting that the kid would end up in prison if a strong male figure didn't start beating him right away.

"He needs a strong male figure. He's going to wind up in a correctional institution, and the next thing you know, he's going to be doing hard time in some prison. And then he would wish he wasn't such a smart, you know, wise guy. Because he'll be disciplined in a way that he'll never forget in some prison... He needs discipline in the worst possible way."

Pistol

The real life Serpico: The police are still out of control

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Frank Serpico
In the opening scene of the 1973 movie "Serpico," I am shot in the face - or to be more accurate, the character of Frank Serpico, played by Al Pacino, is shot in the face. Even today it's very difficult for me to watch those scenes, which depict in a very realistic and terrifying way what actually happened to me on Feb. 3, 1971. I had recently been transferred to the Narcotics division of the New York City Police Department, and we were moving in on a drug dealer on the fourth floor of a walk-up tenement in a Hispanic section of Brooklyn. The police officer backing me up instructed me (since I spoke Spanish) to just get the apartment door open "and leave the rest to us."

One officer was standing to my left on the landing no more than eight feet away, with his gun drawn; the other officer was to my right rear on the stairwell, also with his gun drawn. When the door opened, I pushed my way in and snapped the chain. The suspect slammed the door closed on me, wedging in my head and right shoulder and arm. I couldn't move, but I aimed my snub-nose Smith & Wesson revolver at the perp (the movie version unfortunately goes a little Hollywood here, and has Pacino struggling and failing to raise a much-larger 9-millimeter automatic). From behind me no help came. At that moment my anger got the better of me. I made the almost fatal mistake of taking my eye off the perp and screaming to the officer on my left: "What the hell you waiting for? Give me a hand!" I turned back to face a gun blast in my face. I had cocked my weapon and fired back at him almost in the same instant, probably as reflex action, striking him. (He was later captured.)