Society's ChildS


USA

Huh? Glenn Beck admits "Liberals, you were right" on Iraq - updated w/Pat Robertson TOO

Reinvented Daddy
Daily Kos
Wed, 18 Jun 2014 20:37 UTC
glenn beck
© UnknownIt soooo sucks to be soooo wrong
(HuffPo)"From the beginning, most people on the left were against going into Iraq. I wasn't.... Liberals, you were right. We shouldn't have."

Beck made this surprising declaration on his radio show on Tuesday while discussing the widening rift between Republicans and Democrats. He urged both parties to come together to oppose another war in Iraq.

"Not one more life. Not one more life. Not one more dollar, not one more airplane, not one more bullet, not one more Marine, not one more arm or leg or eye. Not one more," he said. "This must end now. Now can't we come together on that?"
I really, really hate to give Beck credit but credit I doth give. Tony Blair can SYFPH, Bill Kristol can SYFPH, Paul Wolfowitz can SYFPH! We shouldn't be there and I am very glad our Democratic President of the USA has stated that we won't be sending US men and women into this Heart Of Darkness.

I am hopeful that the White House's current stance, that the USA will not use ground forces in Iraq regardless and air support unless the current regime restructures into an inclusive Shia/Sunni/Kurd structure. Preferably with al-Maliki resigning. I do not expect any buy-in from Republicans but this is an indication libertarians and tea partiers may not be seduced by neocon dreams.

I can hope.

BTW, this is not snark. I couldn't figure out how to embed the video but the Huff Post link has it.
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Popcorn

Indian teen with 7-inch tail worshiped as reincarnated Hindu god Hanuman

Emma Innes
The Daily Mail, UK
Tue, 17 Jun 2014 09:29 UTC
Image
An Indian boy - Arshid Ali Khan, 13 - is worshipped in the state of Punjab because he has a 7in 'tail'.
  • Arshid Ali Khan has been hailed a reincarnation of the Hindu god Hanuman
  • Local people believe their wishes will come true if they visit him
  • But, Arshid is considering surgery to remove the tail and help him walk
  • He has not been formally diagnosed but could have a type of spina bifida
An Indian teenager is worshipped as a god because he has a 7ins 'tail'.

Arshid Ali Khan, 13, has become a divine symbol in the state of Punjab.

Locals have hailed him a reincarnation of the Hindu monkey god Hanuman - and refer to him as Balaji.

However, Arshid has to use a wheelchair and he is considering having the 'tail' removed.

He said: 'This tail has been given to me by God. I am worshipped because I pray to god and the wishes of people come true.
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Stormtrooper

Creating a generation of Authoritarian Followers: Interview with 5th grade teacher reveals ideology behind Common Core creators

Benjamin Weingarten
The Blaze
Thu, 22 May 2014 18:24 UTC
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The below represents the second in a series of interviews with everyday Americans who are fighting back against Common Core, released in connection with Glenn Beck's new book, "Conform: Exposing the Truth About Common Core and Public Education."

We spoke with Brad McQueen, a 5th grade teacher from Arizona who after working on the development/review of rubrics and questions on the PARCC/Common Core test grew disgusted with what he was seeing and decided to speak out about it, ultimately self-publishing a book titled "The Cult of Common Core."

Our interview was conducted via email, with slight alterations for grammar and brevity.

For more content like this, be sure to give Blaze Books a follow on Facebook and Twitter.
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Handcuffs

Anti-paedophile police fight child porn 'epidemic': Too bad they ignore the worst of the worst

Angus Crawford
BBC News
Wed, 18 Jun 2014 17:38 UTC
pedophile arrest
A man was arrested as a result of the Los Angeles operation
The internet trade in images that show child sex abuse is now "an epidemic", according to the head of the global initiative to combat the problem.

Police officers from around the world serve on the Virtual Global Taskforce. Its chairman, Ian Quinn, tells the BBC there has been an "explosion" in cases handled by US authorities. The US alone has 61 Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) units, each made up of state, local police and federal agents.

BBC News joined a recent operation in Los Angeles. Twenty one officers were briefed at dawn in a parking lot in central LA. Lt Andrea Grossman, from the Los Angeles Police Department, told us they conducted such operations "three to five times per week". The amount of images of child sexual abuse on the internet, she says, is "beyond out of control, we're now just getting to the surface of it".

Their target was a man who had tried to send obscene images via his Gmail account. The team was led by an officer holding a pump-action shotgun, backed up by others with an assault rifle and hand guns. A suspect was detained. The man's computer was analysed in a mobile laboratory, housed in a large camper van parked outside the address.


Comment: The prevalence of internet child pornography is indeed disturbing. What's more disturbing is the prevalence of pedophilia, and worse, involving high-level politicians, businessmen, and judges. Are the members of these pedophile-hunting units unaware of the Franklin scandal? Dutroux?

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Arrow Down

Slave children used by major corporations to make chocolate

Jason Louv
ultraculture.org
Tue, 17 Jun 2014 14:55 UTC
Child Labour
© ultraculture.org

Lawsuit alleging that Nestlé, ADM and Cargill benefit from child slavery in their cocoa supply chain in back in court, throwing new light on decades-old concern that the chocolate industry is built on the backs of slave children

Swiss multinational Nestlé, the largest food company on the planet - and anybody who consumes their products - has a chocolate problem.

More specifically, they have a child slavery problem.

Since the late 1990s, allegations have continually surfaced that the company benefits from slave children in its supply chain, and that slave children are used in its cocoa production in West Africa.

The allegations - including reports from UNICEF and the US State Department - brought enough attention and heat, including coverage from the BBC, that Nestlé's CEO Bradley Alford signed an international agreement to end cocoa child labor in 2001, but by 2005 had not met the agreement's deadline for eliminating the worst child labor offenses from the company's supply chain.

In the same year, the International Labor Rights Fund filed a class-action lawsuit on the behalf of three children from Mali who claimed that between 1994 and 2000 they had been lured into Côte d'Ivoire by child traffickers promising them easy work for good pay, subsequently enslaved on a cocoa plantation and regularly beaten. The lawsuit was later amended to name three companies as complicit in the chocolate-production slave trade: Archer Daniels Midland, Cargill and Nestlé itself.
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Red Flag

Colorado man says he 'mercy' killed wife after accidentally shooting her

David Edwards
The Raw Story
Sun, 15 Jun 2014 09:40 UTC
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© El Paso County Sheriff's Department
A Colorado man who admitted fatally shooting his wife pleaded not guilty last week to murder after saying the first gun shot was an accident, and the second gunshot was a "mercy killing."

According to The Gazette, 46-year-old Black Forest resident Kenneth Lankford entered a plea of not guilty on Thursday to the first degree murder of his wife, 51-year-old Terry Lankford. Kenneth Lankford said that he was also not guilty of murdering 51-year-old Carol Fowler, and wounding her husband, 52-year-old Thomas Fowler.

The Colorado Springs Gazette reported last month that Kenneth Lankford had told deputies that he was forced to shoot and kill his wife because she had been injured when he accidentally shot her during an argument.

"He said he didn't mean to shoot his wife, and he didn't mean to hurt the man, but that the woman's death was definitely a murder," Sheriff's Sgt. Greg White explained at a preliminary hearing in May.
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Crusader

Atheist teacher files complaint against Indiana school who fired him for refusal to pray to 'mystical sky daddy'

Scott Kaufman
The Raw Story
Mon, 16 Jun 2014 10:30 UTC
Image
© Shutterstock
A high school German teacher in Middlebury, Indiana claims he was fired for complaining about the religious environment at the charter school where he taught, The Goshen News reported Sunday.

According to the complaint Kevin Pack filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) against Northridge High School Principal Gerald Rasler, his contract was terminated after he complained about the evangelical culture. "I was retaliated against and dismissed for filing the religious harassment complaint against Principal Gerald Rasler and for being an atheist," he told The Goshen News.

"I refused to pray, be a Christian or go along with any of [Rasler's] evangelizing in the school, and they dismissed me over it."

The school disputed that claim in a press release in which it said that poor performance was the reason his contract was terminated. "Middlebury Community Schools expects its teachers to place it students' educational growth and needs as a first priority," the release stated. "Unfortunately, some teachers do not meet those expectations; Mr. Pack was one of those teachers."

Comment: Great Question! Why Does Religion Always Get a Free Ride?

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Eye 2

Mother who chronicled son's illness on social media charged with fatally poisoning him

Marc Santora and Nate Schweber
NY Times
Wed, 18 Jun 2014 14:17 UTC
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© REUTERS/WESTCHESTER COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY'S OFFICE/HANDOUT VIA REUTERSLacey Spears, 28, is seen in an undated photo from the Westchester County District Attorney's Office in Westchester, New York.
Lacey Spears Is Accused of Intentionally Giving Her Son High Levels of Sodium

A 26-year-old mother was arrested and charged with the murder of her 5-year-old son on Tuesday, accused by the Westchester County authorities of systematically making the boy sick and ultimately fatally poisoning him in January with an overdose of sodium.

Investigators said they believe the woman, Lacey Spears, may suffer from Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a rare mental illness that often involves a mother either causing or inventing health symptoms so that her child gets medical attention.

Her case has attracted widespread attention because, for years, Ms. Lacey chronicled her child's illnesses on social media and a personal blog.

Ms. Lacey pleaded not guilty in court on Tuesday and her lawyer did not respond to calls seeking comment.

The indictment does not mention the syndrome, but instead details a pattern of behavior over the course of the boy's short life that would be consistent with the illness.
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Stock Down

Independent study reveals Britain's rapid decline in economic equality and widening gap between rich and poor


RT
Tue, 17 Jun 2014 14:00 UTC
Image
© Getty Images
The poorest 20 percent of UK households earn just $9,530 annually, a dramatically lower rate than in other countries with a similar average income, according to new research.

Few Britons would probably agree with the observation that "life is much worse (in the UK) than it is for the poorest fifth in virtually every other northwest European country," but that is exactly the conclusion the High Pay Centre, an independent British think-tank, has made in a newly released study.

Using figures from the OECD Better Life Index, the report shows that average UK household incomes of $53,785, which makes up the wealthiest 20 percent in the UK, ranked third in EU countries, lagging behind Germany and France.

But that is where the economic similarities between the UK and the EU come to a screeching halt.

The OECD estimates the average income of the bottom 20 percent of UK households at just $9,530, which is significantly lower than the poorest 20 percent in France ($12,653), Germany ($13,381), Belgium ($12,350), the Netherlands ($11,274) and Denmark ($12,183).
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Pistol

Man shoots ex-wife, boyfriend as 100 people watch at Illinois high school reunion

David Edwards
The Raw Story
Mon, 16 Jun 2014 09:15 UTC
Image
© Via facebookLori A. Moore and her boyfriend, Lance E. Griffel
An Illinois man reportedly fatally shot his ex-wife and her new boyfriend at a high school reunion in East Peoria over the weekend before being killed by an off-duty FBI officer.

WEEK reported that 33-year-old Lori A. Moore and her boyfriend, 36-year-old Lance E. Griffel, (pictured, above) were at The Fifth Quarter Sports Bar and Pizzeria on Saturday, when 40-year-old Jason A. Moore walked in and shot them both in the head at pointblank range.

Lori Moore was there to attend her reunion for East Peoria Community High School Class of 1999. More than 100 attendees witnessed the shooting.

According to the New York Daily News, an off-duty FBI officer shot and killed Jason Moore.

"It's very difficult to say. You can play the 'what if' game over and over again, but I think it's pretty clear in his case the presence of this officer and his ability to take very quick and very decisive action prevented a further tragedy," East Peoria Police Chief Ganschow explained.
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