Society's ChildS


Question

Riddle of the 'safe' plane: Still no trace of the Indian Air Force AN-32 that disappeared over the Bay of Bengal on July 22

Mihir Srivastava
Outlook
Fri, 29 Jul 2016 14:15 UTC
A C-130 returns after a failed mission to trace the missing AN-32
© GettyA C-130 returns after a failed mission to trace the missing AN-32
At the Air Headquarters in South Block this Wednesday, an officer called up the operational command and asked, "Any joy?" The reply: Nope. There was still no trace of the AN-32 that disappeared over the Bay of Bengal on July 22 while on a routine sortie to Port Blair. There were 29 people on board when it took off from Tambaram Air Force Station, located in a suburb of Tamil Nadu's capital Chennai. Forty-three minutes into the flight, it went off the radar.

Air traffic control did not panic, though. It was, they explained later, normal for an aircraft to enter what is known as a 'space void' when all communication with the cockpit gets snapped. But when contact was not re-established even after the 'normal' gaps of 45 minutes to an hour, the aircraft was declared 'overdue'. When it didn't make it to the destination by the scheduled landing time of 1145 hrs, only then were the panic buttons pressed. Under thick cloud cover and in inclement weather, one of the biggest ever search-and-rescue ope­rations in the Indian seas was launched, involving 16 ships, 17 aircraft and a submarine. But the pleasure of listening to the 'ping' from the missing aircraft's Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT) was not to be theirs. At least twice earlier, when Dorniers had crashed, their ELTs had failed to respond, say old-timers. This time, the air force had also deployed two C-130 aircraft equipped with electro-optical and infra-red sensors and the Indian navy pressed a Poseidon-81 aircraft equipped with synthetic aperture radar.

Comment: See also: Indian Air Force plane with 29 on board missing over Bay of Bengal

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Nuke

'Worse than Hiroshima' - the toxic legacy of US' murderous assault on Fallujah

Patrick Cockburn
The Independent
Sat, 23 Jul 2016 13:33 UTC
fallujah toxicity
© GettyToxicity 'worse than Hiroshima'
The shocking rates of infant mortality and cancer in Iraqi city raise new questions about battle

Dramatic increases in infant mortality, cancer and leukaemia in the Iraqi city of Fallujah, which was bombarded by US Marines in 2004, exceed those reported by survivors of the atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, according to a new study.

Iraqi doctors in Fallujah have complained since 2005 of being overwhelmed by the number of babies with serious birth defects, ranging from a girl born with two heads to paralysis of the lower limbs. They said they were also seeing far more cancers than they did before the battle for Fallujah between US troops and insurgents.

Their claims have been supported by a survey showing a four-fold increase in all cancers and a 12-fold increase in childhood cancer in under-14s. Infant mortality in the city is more than four times higher than in neighbouring Jordan and eight times higher than in Kuwait.

Dr Chris Busby, a visiting professor at the University of Ulster and one of the authors of the survey of 4,800 individuals in Fallujah, said it is difficult to pin down the exact cause of the cancers and birth defects. He added that "to produce an effect like this, some very major mutagenic exposure must have occurred in 2004 when the attacks happened".

US Marines first besieged and bombarded Fallujah, 30 miles west of Baghdad, in April 2004 after four employees of the American security company Blackwater were killed and their bodies burned. After an eight-month stand-off, the Marines stormed the city in November using artillery and aerial bombing against rebel positions. US forces later admitted that they had employed white phosphorus as well as other munitions.
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Rocket

Cold War lives: Majority of Britons back PM May on launching nuke attack that would kill 100,000


RT
Sun, 31 Jul 2016 13:34 UTC
Trident nuclear submarine HMS Victorious
© Danny Lawson / Reuters
PM Theresa May was right to give an unequivocal "yes" according to 66 percent of Britons, when asked if she would personally launch a retaliatory nuclear strike that would kill 100,000 civilians, while 59 percent say they would push the button themselves.

The British Prime Minister May said she would use the UK's nuclear arsenal in response to a nuclear attack by a foreign nation, as she was promoting the renewal of the Trident missile system in Parliament. She argued that threats to the UK from such countries as Russia and North Korea "remain very real."

May's attitude was overwhelmingly supported by two-thirds of Britons polled by YouGov on Tuesday and Wednesday. Only 19 percent said she was wrong to say what she did.

Sixty-six percent of respondents said they would support a nuclear retaliation while 59 percent said they would personally launch one, if they were in May's position.
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Megaphone

Couch potatoes rise up! Pope Francis tells youth get rid of gadgets and sofa-happiness


RT
Sun, 31 Jul 2016 13:19 UTC
Pope Francis
© Stefano Rellandini / ReutersPope Francis walks through Holy Door with youth at the Campus Misericordiae during World Youth Day in Brzegi near Krakow, Poland July 30, 2016.
Stop being couch potatoes; throw away your gadgets, which make you drowsy and dull and go out to explore the world, Pope Francis told crowds of young people in Krakow. The pontiff certainly knows about living an active life as pictures on social media show.

"...In life there is another, even more dangerous, kind of paralysis...[It] comes from confusing happiness with a sofa. 'Sofa-happiness!' A sofa that promises us hours of comfort so we can escape to the world of videogames and spend all kinds of time in front of a computer screen," Pope Francis told the crowds on Saturday.

"And little by little" computers and other gadgets only help children to "grow drowsy and dull," said the 79-year-old head of the Catholic Church.

"Dear young people, we didn't come into this work to 'vegetate,' to take it easy, to make our lives a comfortable sofa to fall asleep on. No, we came for another reason: to leave a mark."
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People

Germany divided: One rally in Berlin slams open-door refugee policy while another embraces it


RT
Sun, 31 Jul 2016 13:06 UTC
Berlin protests
© Ruptly
A large demonstration against German Chancellor Angela Merkel's refugee policies has been held in the German capital of Berlin, with protesters shouting "Merkel must go!" A counter-rally has also been staged in the city.

Hundreds of people gathered for a right-wing rally at Berlin's central railway station demanding that Angela Merkel step down. The crowd was waving German national flags, as well as the flags of the German empire and those of the German anti-Nazi resistance movement from World War II.

The protesters were shouting "We are the people!" and "Merkel must go!" Some were also holding up placards and banners reading "Merkel must go" and "The queen of smugglers. Merkel must leave."
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Pistol

Indianapolis police officer shot by fellow 'hero' cop

Matt Agorist
The Free Thought Project
Sun, 31 Jul 2016 12:53 UTC
Adrian Scott Aurs
An 18-year veteran of the Indianapolis police department, with a less than stellar past, has been arrested and charged with attempted murder for shooting a fellow cop.

IMPD officer Adrian Aurs shot a fellow cop on Friday and then fled to Cincinnati, where he was arrested after a standoff with SWAT.

The incident began around 8 p.m. Friday when officers responded to a call from Aurs' estranged wife about domestic violence, according to Sgt. Kendale Admas of the IMPD.

After the initial visit from officers, a special investigations unit detective was sent to do follow-up work at the scene because it involved the wife of a police officer, according to the report.

The SIU is tasked with investigating criminal complaints or allegations involved police officers.
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Pistol

Germany sees record permit requests for self-defense weapons amid fears of lone-wolf attacks


RT
Sun, 31 Jul 2016 12:17 UTC
Glock handgun
© Tami Chappell / Reuters
Requests in Germany for self-defense weapons permits are hitting record highs in 2016, police data reveals. Firearms ownership experts say people wanting to purchase non-lethal weapons come from all sections of society, "be it workers or professors."

The new police data shows that Germans are feeling increasingly unsafe in the wake of recent lone-wolf attacks and shootings, which has sparked a demand for non-lethal self-defense weapons.

"As of June 2016, there were 402,301 small arms carry permits in the National Weapons Register," the Interior Ministry said, as cited by Die Welt.

This figure is almost 50 percent higher than last year when there were just fewer than 270,000 requests for permits in the first half of 2015.
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House

Goodbye middle class: Rate of home ownership in U.S. is the lowest ever

Michael Snyder
Economic Collapse Blog
Sun, 31 Jul 2016 03:12 UTC
abandoned house home ownership unemployment
The percentage of Americans that own a home has fallen to the lowest level ever recorded. During the second quarter of 2016, the non-seasonally adjusted homeownership rate fell to just 62.9 percent, which was exactly where it was at when the U.S. Census began publishing this measurement back in 1965. This is not what a "recovery" looks like. All throughout the Obama years, the percentage of Americans that own a home has gotten smaller and smaller and smaller. The reason for this, of course, is that the middle class in America is dying. Last year, we learned that middle class Americans now make up a minority of the population for the first time ever. In order to have a high rate of homeownership, you need a thriving middle class, and you can't have a thriving middle class without good paying middle class jobs. This is why I write about the evisceration of the middle class so extensively, because the U.S. economy is systematically being hollowed out and most Americans don't understand what is happening.

Traditionally, owning a home has been a sign that you have arrived as a member of the middle class, but under Barack Obama the percentage of Americans that own a home has fallen every single year. In the past, we have talked about how it had fallen to the lowest level in decades, but now it has officially fallen to the lowest level ever. The following comes from CNBC...
After rising just over a decade ago to its highest level ever, the nation's homeownership rate fell to match its all-time low and could drop even further in the months to come.

In the second quarter of this year, the rate fell to 62.9 percent, not seasonally adjusted, which is the same as it was in 1965, when the U.S. Census started tracking the metric. During the epic housing boom in the mid-2000s, the rate soared as high as 69.2 percent. That was when politicians touted the so-called "ownership society."
So why is this happening?

Comment: With a little bit of sacrifice each day, it is possible to create a supply pantry to carry one through leaner times.

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Handcuffs

Best of the Web: BC Supreme Court Justice slams RCMP: "The world has enough terrorists, we do not need the police to create more" - Entrapped couple's terrorism conviction overturned

Ian Mulgrew
Vancouver Sun
Fri, 29 Jul 2016 09:49 UTC
Couple reunited
© Darryl Dyck/The Canadian PressJohn Nuttall, back, and Amanda Korody embrace each other at B.C. Supreme Court after a judge ruled the couple were entrapped by the RCMP in a police-manufactured crime, in Vancouver on Friday, July 29, 2016.
Former Surrey residents John Nuttall and Amanda Korody embraced in the lobby of B.C. Supreme Court on Friday, passionately kissing, free after 37 months imprisonment, their terrorism convictions overturned.

"We're just happy," Nuttall said to reporters before leaving in a cab.

But within hours, after "a nice lunch on The Drive," four Vancouver police cruisers screeched to a halt and the couple was taken away in handcuffs.

Late in the afternoon, they went before B.C. provincial court Judge Reg Harris and agreed to peace bond terms that included geographic restrictions banning them from the legislature grounds, Canadian Forces Bases, synagogues and Jewish schools.

They were then released again.

Comment: This is huge news. B.C. Supreme Court Justice Catherine Bruce is saying the same thing we at SOTT have been saying for years. How many of these stories have we been seeing in the U.S. since the bogus 'war on terror' began!? Too many to count! Canada's "CIA" - CSIS - got in on the act of entrapping gullible and mentally challenged individuals - thanks to the instruction manuals and direction of their psychopathic buddies to the south, no doubt. But this case sets a precedent that will hopefully make them think twice about doing it again (it's a long shot, but it's more than the U.S. has).

Like the CIA, NATO and many other "security" agencies that exist, CSIS needs to manufacture acts of terror in order to justify its existence and payroll. These are the real terrorist nut jobs; demanding a salary for being able to act out their U.S. and Israeli-inspired pathological tendencies. Now if only something similar were to happen in the States.

Just a sampling of the hundreds of stories we have covered here highlighting the problem:

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Handcuffs

Man arrested for child abuse said God told him to throw boy into pool and repeatedly dunk him

Jennifer Ortega
clickfororlando.com
Fri, 29 Jul 2016 01:41 UTC
henry love
Henry Love
Police said Henry Love woke up an 11-year-old boy at his home and took him over to a neighbor's house, where he dropped him in a pool and dunked him over and over.

"I don't know why he would have done that," neighbor Patty Tutoni said. "Baptism is in the church; it's not in your pool. I don't have any answer for him to do that."

Tutoni said she's been living next to Love for six years and that he's a quiet, decent man. "Any time I see him, he's always waving hello," Totoni said. "(He's a) very conservative neighbor. I love him as my neighbor, to be honest with you."
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