Society's ChildS


Heart - Black

Twisting young minds: Lego joins the toymaker violent 'arms race'

lego violence
© Tyrone Siu / Reuters Toy Lego characters depicting a scene of protesters confronting riot police are seen on a table outside the government headquarters in Hong Kong
There's a new "arms race" gripping the globe, but this time happening in the world of toys, according to New Zealand researchers.

The beloved and iconic Lego brand has increased the amount of pieces depicting violent weapons in bid to boost sales, according to a study by NZ's University of Canterbury.

The interlocking brick manufacturer has released more than 12,000 sets since 1949, but the first weapons didn't appear until 1978.

Back then, they were tiny axes made for a medieval castle set, but since then "violence in Lego products has increased significantly," found research published in the Public Library of Science journal.

"This increase is not in line with their policy that 'Lego products aim to discourage pretend violence as a primary play incentive'. The violence in Lego products seems to have gone beyond just enriching game play," writes the study's authors.

"To catch the attention of their customers, toy manufacturers are locked in a metaphorical arms race for exciting new products," added the authors. "In this race they do not only compete with other toy manufacturers but also with television and video games, which have become more violent over the years."

Comment: The fact that toy manufacturers must resort to using violence to capture the attention of young children speaks volumes about the moral degradation of society.


Quenelle - Golden

Best of the Web: The mental disease of late-stage capitalism

late-stage capitalism
You are “supposed” to feel shame when it’s not your fault.
I've been talking with a lot of my friends recently — in private where they felt comfortable letting their guard down — about the dirty little secret no one is supposed to talk about.

The shame people feel when they can't find a job...

...or pay their bills.

...or go to the dentist.

...or that they have to move back in with their parents.

...or they can't afford to have children.

We are supposed to pretend, in this stupendously individualist culture, that it is our fault. The buck stops here. I am responsible for my failings in life.

Comment: Free-market capitalism: Reducing humans to cash cows
Far from protecting her own citizens' property and economic interests, however, the domestic activities of the US increasingly reveal finely honed mechanisms resulting in asset seizure and transfer of wealth. In order to accomplish these aims, certain established checks and balances have been nullified or bought off...

There is a quasi- religious aspect to the worship of the free market. The free market, we are told, will inherently provide for the crème de la crème to rise to its proper altitude. The invisible hand of the free market will enable only the best products to succeed. And the devotees will tell you that this is in everyone's best interest.

However, consumerism has a dark side. Where everything is commodified, everything becomes gauged by its monetary value alone. Other considerations—truth, beauty and emotional attachment come to mind—may suffer under a bottom line valuation system.



Eye 2

Lord of the Rings star Elijah Wood: Hollywood is in the grip of powerful pedophiles

elijah wood
Elijah Wood
Elijah Wood has been in the entertainment business most of his life. Starting out doing local modeling and commercial work in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, he quickly moved out to Los Angeles with his family as an eight-year-old in the mid-1980s, where he got work on the Paula Abdul music video "Forever Your Girl" and gained acclaim in the 1990s movie "Avalon."

Though it seems like a glamorous way to be brought up, Wood, 35, is revealing for the first time that Hollywood is dealing with a child sexual abuse epidemic. In a revealing piece on the "Lord of the Rings" star for The Sunday Times, Wood is quoted saying child actors are regularly "preyed upon" by "vipers" in Hollywood.

Wood told the Times he "never went to parties where that kind of thing was going on," because his mother, Debra, protected him from interacting with people who could take advantage of him. But he did note, "I've been led down dark paths to realize that these things are probably still happening."

Wood is not the first former child star over the years to make this claim. In 2011, Corey Feldman told ABC's "Nightline" that he has been a victim of sexual abuse by men in Hollywood.

"I can tell you that the No. 1 problem in Hollywood was and is and always will be pedophilia," he said. "That's the biggest problem for children in this industry... It's the big secret."

Comment: From London, to Washington DC, Tel Aviv and Hollywood - pedophiles in very high places are regularly discussed and exposed, but rarely do we ever see action taken by law enforcement.

Men Who Hate Women: The Franklin Scandal and the Truth About Our Leaders

Pedophiles run the government and nobody gives a damn!

UK 'Establishment': Unmasking psychopathic faces - Pedophilia and murder in VERY high places


USA

Baltimore officer Edward Nero acquitted of all charges in Freddie Gray case

officer Edward Nero
© Baltimore SunOfficer Edward Nero found not guilty on all four charges related to the arrest and death of Freddie Gray.
Baltimore Circuit Judge Barry Williams on Monday acquitted Officer Edward Nero of all counts for his role in the arrest and death of Freddie Gray.

The judgment, following a five-day bench trial, is the first in the closely-watched case. Nero, 30, faced four misdemeanor charges of second-degree assault, reckless endangerment and two counts of misconduct in office.

Prosecutors had argued that Nero committed an assault by detaining Gray without justification, while the reckless endangerment charge related to Nero's role in putting Gray into an arrest wagon without buckling a seat belt. In closing arguments Thursday, Williams had skeptically questioned prosecutors about their theory of assault, which legal experts said was unprecedented.

Comment: Video evidence, eyewitness testimonies...none of it matters. The police abuse and murder with impunity.


Binoculars

The human cost of cheap highs: A journey into Newcastle - Britain's most addicted city

legal high
© RDImages/Epics/Getty ImagesBy 2015 the Newcastle office of a national drugs agency was reporting a higher ambulance call-out rate for NPS-related incidents than anywhere else in the country'
Described by some as being more addictive than heroin, legal highs are not going to be legal much longer. And amid warnings a Government ban will only make things worse, Adam Lusher travels to Newcastle - the epicentre of Britain's growing addiction

James is pacing the room. He's agitated and suffering withdrawal symptoms from the newest drug in town that can turn him into "a bomb ready to detonate".

"It's called 'Insane'," he says. "Everyone's on it, and it's knocking everyone daft. Everybody's like a zombie in the town."

He's talking about the latest legal high - of many - to hit the streets of Newcastle. Because Newcastle seems to have become the epicentre of Britain's legal high problem.

Comment: 'Addict' Britain is worldwide hub for sale of legal highs


Arrow Down

Ugly face of US military: Rapes just keep happening in Japan

japan protests Us military base
© Kyodo / Reuters
The only case that we've ever heard about was when somebody was able to win a court case, basically within the last 15 years was only my case. So what happens to the rest of the victims, asked Catherine Jane Fisher, rape survivor and women's rights activist.

Japanese protesters rallied on Friday after an American military worker confessed to killing a young Japanese woman. The former US marine is under arrest over the murder on Okinawa Island. Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe also expressed his outrage about the incident.

RT: A large amount of people took to the streets to protest in Okinawa lately. How can you describe people's feelings?

Catherine Jane Fisher: At the moment everybody is really outraged about what has happened. This young woman should never have died. It's stunningly clear that these rapes and murders have been happening for over 70 years. The death of this woman is a responsibility of the Japanese government.

RT: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he is outraged at the murder of a 20-year-old Rina Shimabukuro. What do you make of that? Do you think that some measures are going to be implemented any time soon?

CJF: I think that the same rhetoric has been happening for the last 70 years, when the Japanese prime minister would come out, and the US military or government official would come out, and they will say the same thing over and over again: "We are angry about what has happened and this will never happen again!" But it has happened again. Now Ms. Rina Shimabukurois dead, and that is just the same thing that keeps on happening every time.

Comment: The US military's treatment of the women of Okinawa is representative of America's culture of rape, where the system protects the predators and further victimizes the abused.


Light Saber

Smart move: France will ban glyphosate regardless of EU decision to renew authorization

glyphosate
R962 trailed sprayer
Glyphosate will be banned in France - whether or not the EU decides this week to renew the authorisation of the chemical, the French Minister for Health, Marisol Touraine has said.

Speaking to France Info Radio, she said that the French President Francois Hollande said clearly during the last environmental conference that glyphosate would not be authorised in France.

"Regardless of debates around whether it causes cancer or not, the studies we have show it's an endocrine disruptor," she said.

The French Health Minister's comments come as MEPs from EU Member States vote this week on the continued use of glyphosate in weed killers.

Comment: Corrupting influence: EU commission relying on chemical industry safety studies in decision to re-license glyphosate


Info

French workers blockade oil refineries and depots in protest of unpopular labor reform

France gas blockade
© PHILIPPE HUGUEN / AFP
Prime Minister Manuel Valls said on Sunday France had enough fuel reserves to tackle shortages at hundreds of gas stations caused by workers blocking oil refineries and depots in protest at an unpopular labour reform.

About 820 stations out of a total of 11,500 petrol stations in France were out of all fuel on Sunday and another 800 were lacking at least one type of fuel, Transport Minister Alain Vidalies told Europe 1 radio.

France has been hit by strikes after President Francois Hollande's Socialist government forced labour reforms through the lower house of parliament on May 10 without a vote. Unions consider the bill unfavourable to workers and want it withdrawn.

"We have the situation fully under control. I think that some of the refineries and depots that were blocked are unblocked or will be in the coming hours and days," Prime Minister Valls told reporters during a visit in Israel.

"In any case, we have the reserves to deal with these blockades."

Laptop

Best of the Web: Edward Snowden's slow data dump: Where's the beef?

Former US intelligence contractor and whistle blower Edward Snowden
© Lotta Hardelin / AFP
After a big announcement on May 16, 2016, The Intercept made 166 documents available to the public. At this rate, it will take an estimated 600 years to read all of the documents! I would like to ask The Intercept, 'Where's the beef?'

Last updated on May 16, 2016, Pierre Omidyar's The Intercept released its first data dump of the Snowden NSA files. For a long time, I wondered why the Snowden files weren't available to us like the WikiLeaks files were. After all, the information could further research on US "asymmetric warfare." I wanted to search them just as I had done with WikiLeaks. And then, perhaps it was fate that gave me a partial answer: I used Wikileaks documents for my dissertation and was forced to scrub every WikiLeaks reference in order to get my dissertation published and receive my Ph.D.

You see, in its zeal to crack the whip on whistle blowers revealing the government's multitudinous dirty dealings and to deter even more acts of conscience from potential whistle blowers, the Obama Administration chose to prosecute and imprison journalist Barrett Brown who had merely republished via hyperlinks some of the same WikiLeaks sources found in my dissertation.

Snakes in Suits

Trump's bullying a reflection of a bully nation

Trump bully
Donald Trump's flagrant bullying -- much denounced even by the Republican Party establishment, with both President Bushes refusing to endorse him -- is no sign that he will lose the presidential nomination or election. The dirty secret is that GOP leaders secretly admire and envy his power as a bully. Worse, Trump's bullying resonates not only with his hardcore supporters, but also to many in the elite classes and much of the population.

There has been endless elite and media bemoaning of Trump as a bully. Much of this misses the key point and is hypocritical, for Trump's bullying is largely a reflection of the establishment's own bullying and the centrality of bullying in our culture and society.

The mainstream media and party establishments say, "Isn't it terrible that Trump is such a bully?" Many ordinary people say the same thing. But the truth is that Trump's bullying is a deep part of US culture. If we look honestly in the mirror, we will likely see some reflection of Trump. This is especially true of the political and media establishments, who present themselves as being civil and anything but bullies.

The inconvenient truth is that bullying is embedded in our culture, our governing elites and our most powerful institutions: the military, the corporation and the state. Whatever our personal values, we all live in a bullying society -- militarized capitalism -- and must learn to play by its rules.

Comment: The thing about bully culture is that - especially in the US - it exists in a hierarchy. And though Killary may know it already (and not mind the arrangement), the Donald may be in for a rude surprise if he should actually gain the Presidency. There will be people telling him exactly what to do, and what not to do - right down to which days he can wear his pink ties.

Unless and until that happens though, let us take note of Trump in an earlier stage of his bullyness progression and lament that he did not follow this line of work more diligently: