Society's ChildS


Eye 1

New Illinois law allows school officials to demand access to students' Facebook passwords

Chris Matyszczyk
CNet
Tue, 20 Jan 2015 23:01 UTC
Facebook page
© Adrian Wyld/Canadian PressTechnically Incorrect: Conceived to combat cyberbullying, a new law in Illinois may result in schools demanding social media passwords, even if the posting was not done at school or on school computers.
Illinois can't seem to decide whether it's the home of midwestern gentlefolk or of the most draconian humans this side of Moscow.

One of the state's newest laws, for example, may have goodness at its heart. However, it may have something else in various of its extremities.

The law, which went into effect on January 1, is designed to curb cyberbullying, but it also could encourage schools to pry into students' personal lives.

KTVI-TV reported that the law was already making some parents deeply uncomfortable. That's because one of its stipulations is troubling.

Comment: This is America. Basic rights are fading fast.

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Eye 2

Man arrested after forcing woman to sign "slave contract" and torturing her

Tom Boggioni
Raw Story
Fri, 23 Jan 2015 22:47 UTC
Image
© Lincoln Police DepartmentNicholas Allen Talbot
A former sex offender has been taken into custody after Nebraska police discovered he had forced a woman in a long-term abusive relationship with him to sign a 'slave contract,' the Journal-Star reports.

Nicholas Allen Talbot, 35, was charged with second-degree domestic assault, after the unidentified woman showed injuries she had sustained to her pastor who contacted police authorities.

"They were horrific," said the Rev. Kathy Gouin of the Lincoln Foursquare Church.

According to authorities, Talbot forced the 32-year-old woman to sign what he said was a legal document titled "Slave Contract" on Jan. 15.

In an affidavit, Lincoln Police Officer Angela Morehouse said that document stated the woman "only had rights the master gave her."

The affidavit states that Talbot whipped the woman, burned her with cigarettes, and forced her to drink his urine several times a day.

Police discovered burn marks on the woman's spine, buttocks, and one breast where the woman said Talbot used a heated screwdriver.

According to Morehouse, the woman had "PROPERTY OF NICK" written on her left arm in black marker.

The woman explained to investigators that Talbot had been abusing her nearly 10 years, but she had been afraid to go the police because she had been led to believe they were part of Talbot's "company" or "gang," Morehouse said.

The woman stated that he had threatened to have her parents and grandmother killed in front of her if she didn't obey him.

The Rev. Gouin said she has known the woman for approximately one year and described her as "very sweet and innocent' and "vulnerable."

"She's very innocent and believes people," Gouin said.

Talbot previously served three years in prison for sexually assaulting a child twice in 1998, and is being held in jail pending bail.
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Sheeple

Chris Kyle vs. Casey Sheehan - The U.S. glorifies murderers while frowning upon the real heroes who refuse to kill

Cindy Sheehan
cindysheehanssoapbox.blogspot.com
Tue, 20 Jan 2015 21:35 UTC
Image
Casey and his Mom
"I only wish I had killed more." Navy Seal and American Shame (Sniper), Chris Kyle
"I can't kill anyone." US working-class soldier before his short deployment to Iraq, Casey Sheehan
This is something that I don't want to revisit - I never want to relive the worst experience of my life. However, with the 11th anniversary of my son's death in Iraq on 04/04/04 approaching and the new "blockbuster" infecting movie screens around the world, I really must get this off of my chest.

Most citizens of this nation are without a doubt addicted to wars and war "heroes" without stopping for more than a few cursory seconds to count the costs or evaluate the propaganda. I despair that a movie like American Sniper grossed over 105 million at the box office over the weekend where we are supposed to be commemorating the birth of a man of peace, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Everything in American Sniper is taken for fact when the author and focus Chris Kyle already had been proven to have been a blowhard and a liar, when the facts and political motivations ofSelma are being questioned.

As is the US addicted to its wars, it is also addicted to lying about them and I know this because I have my own case about Casey for proof. We got the news about Casey about 14 hours or so after his detail had been ambushed in Iraq. After I lie on the floor screaming for I don't know how long, the three emissaries of death couldn't really tell us much except that he was Killed In Action (KIA) - I still can't see a KIA brand car without my heart sinking.

Comment: It truly is a sad state of affairs in the U.S. when a psychopathic killer is lauded as a hero. It's hard not to see things the way Cindy does, and know that she is more than likely correct. See also:

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Newspaper

Seven kids removed from Arkansas family's home over use of bogus 'miracle' cure

Travis Gettys
Raw Story
Tue, 20 Jan 2015 00:00 UTC
Arkansas stanley children
© FacebookStanley children
Authorities removed seven homeschooled children from an Arkansas "prepper" family during a search for a bogus "miracle" cure their father uses.

State troopers and Garland County authorities executed a search warrant Jan. 12 at the home of Hal and Michelle Stanley, and their school-age children were taken by ambulance for a medical examination after officers found containers marked "MMS."
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Camcorder

Massive weekend air raid on Gorlovka (VIDEO)

Alexander Kots and Dmitry Steshin
Slavyangrad
Thu, 22 Jan 2015 20:46 UTC
gorlovka
"Gorlovka was under shelling from 7:00 until 20:00. Ukrainian army didn't hesitate to use number of various accoutrements. They had no target: shells landed on playgrounds, at hospitals and schools." - Alexander Kots, reporter for KP.

Gorlovka heaviest shelling: Aftermath. 19/01/2015

English subtitles by Olga Luzanova

War reporters for Komsomolskaya Pravda Alexander Kots and Dmitry Steshin visited Gorlovka the next day after massed air raid, in the result of which about 30 people were killed and many got serious injuries. Below you can find the transcript abstracts of the accounts by the locals.

Comment: See also:

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Pistol

Unarmed man killed by police as he stood in his doorway, no investigation, no criminal charges

Jackson Marciana
Alternative Media Syndicate
Fri, 23 Jan 2015 20:30 UTC
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© via Bill O’Leary/The Washington PostProtesters in Fairfax, VA on Thursday 1/22/15
Protesters calling for Justice for John Geer recently demonstrated outside the police department in the Massey building on Thursday in Fairfax, Virginia... Most of the protesters did not know Geer, but they said it was important for everyday citizens to take a stand against injustice and demand police accountability now!

"I feel like I could be next," Keith Harmon of Mount Vernon said. He was spotted holding a sign reading: "Q: Who investigates Fairfax Police? A: Themselves. FBI. No one."

Harmon explained that his neighbor "could well call the police, say I'm a madman with a gun, and the cops may show up and kill me."

That's about right...

It's been nearly 17 months since John Geer bleed to death after being shot in his doorway by a Fairfax County Police Officer on August 29, 2013. Geer had been standing, unarmed, with his hands his head on the doorframe, speaking with police officers for 50 minutes when one of them inexplicably fired one shot into his chest. When the SWAT team pushed into his house with an MRAP an hour later, John Geer was lying behind the door, dead.

It's important to note that Geer committed no crime. The entire incident started when Geer's partner, Maura Harrington, called the police to report that John was throwing her belongings out of the house. He'd become distraught after learning she was moving out and ending their relationship after 24 years. Harrington, one of Geer's two teenage daughters, his father, and his best friend were all on site, watching as the unbelievable tragedy unfolded before them. They have watched and waited for nearly 17 months as the Fairfax County Police Department and the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors have stonewalled all attempts to get even basic information regarding what happened that day.


Comment: That's how it happens, every time. The boys in blue close ranks, the prosecutors let the case drop, the officer in question gets a paid vacation. Rinse and repeat. Can we call them Nazi's yet?


Comment: Protesting these crimes, in anyway we're each capable, whether that's a phone call to elected officials, getting out in the streets, or a quick share on facebook or twitter is well worth the effort.

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Health

Humans vs. cyborgs: Donetsk doctors 'repair' wounded Ukrainian troops

Alexander Kots and Dmitry Steshin
Slavyangrad
Thu, 22 Jan 2015 18:33 UTC
donetsk
© Aleksandr Kots, Dmitriy Steshin
They have been captured but not killed; moreover, the doctors try to bring them back to life. Our special correspondents Alexander Kots and Dmitry Steshin report from the Donbass:

At Donetsk Airport the Militia captured sixteen ATO participants. Half of these "cyborgs" (as Kiev calls the Ukrainian soldiers who fought in the terminals and dungeons of Donetsk Airport) "entered captivity" by themselves - they drove in armoured vehicles into the hottest point of the battle for the Donbass - the airport, allegedly without even knowing that it had already long since passed under the control of DPR fighters. The 'fatherly' Ukrainian commanders somehow forgot to tell their subordinates about the true combat situation at the airport.

One of the captives said that they had been given the task not of attacking the Militia, but of evacuating the wounded in an armoured tractor. Thanks to the fog, they had quietly approached the remains of the airport, but had then been quickly disarmed and sent to Donetsk. The second contingent of "cyborgs," eight people, was pulled from the rubble of the new terminal by the Militiamen themselves. In the wreckage of metal and concrete they had lain for four days. They were immediately taken from the airport to the city's emergency department.

Comment: For more on the captured POWs and the recent fighting in general, see:

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Roses

Toddler fatally shoots himself with father's gun in Tarpon Springs, Florida

Lauren Gambino
The Guardian
Fri, 23 Jan 2015 18:20 UTC
Image
© WTSP The toddler ‘probably barely got the trigger pulled’, said Sheriff Bob Gualtieri. He described the .380-caliber handgun as a lightweight weapon usually carried in a pocket or on a hip.
Two-year-old Kaleb Ahles reportedly lifted gun from glove compartment in car and turned it so that it faced his chest and squeezed the trigger

A two-year-old Florida boy died on Wednesday after accidentally shooting himself with his father's .380 caliber handgun that he found in the family car.

The toddler, Kaleb Ahles, climbed into the front seat of the family's vehicle while his parents carried boxes to move out of their home in Tarpon Springs, located about 30 miles north-west of Tampa.

Kaleb, alone in the car, crawled across the seat and found the gun that was stored in the glove compartment, sheriff Bob Gualtieri of the Pinellas County sheriff's office said during a Wednesday evening press conference.
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Radar

American Sniper or American psycho?

Sonali Kolhatkar
Truthdig
Thu, 22 Jan 2015 16:06 UTC
american sniper
© skreenrantProgramming complete?
Breaking box office records, director Clint Eastwood's newest film, American Sniper, raked in $107 million in its wide release in theaters over the four-day Martin Luther King holiday weekend, the biggest-ever January weekend film opening. A week earlier, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences rewarded the film with six Oscar nominations, including nods for best picture and best actor. It even moved Vice President Joe Biden, who reportedly teared up while watching it.

American Sniper exemplifies a sense of macho, white male braggadocio that is symbolic of all that is wrong with the right-wing, pro-war, pro-gun, bully culture of the United States. Should we really be surprised that both the American public and the Academy are rewarding a film about a man who, judging by his own words, appeared to be a psychotic mass murderer?

Eastwood's film, starring Bradley Cooper, is based on the autobiography of Chris Kyle, considered the most lethal sniper to have served in the U.S. war in Iraq. Kyle served four tours of duty and was heavily decorated for his service. He is thought to have killed 255 Iraqis, with 160 of them being confirmed kills. His book American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History, co-written with Jim DeFelice and Scott McEwen, was published in 2012 and shot to the top of the best-seller lists, remaining there for months. In early 2013, Kyle was shot and killed in Texas by another U.S. soldier, who is currently awaiting trial.

Comment: See also:

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Heart

Best of the Web: A message from Gene Roddenberry to the world

Gene Roddenberry
messagetoeagle.com
Thu, 22 Jan 2015 17:36 UTC

Comment: The following is a short excerpt of a transcript of a live talk given by Gene Roddenberry, creator of Star Trek, to an audience. Today, his words are still as relevant as, if not more than, in his own days.


starship enterprise star trek
I think probably the most often asked question about the show is: Why the Star Trek Phenomenon?

And it could be an important question because you can ask:

How can a simple space opera with blinking lights and zap-guns and a goblin with pointy ears reach out and touch the hearts and minds of literally millions of people and become a cult in some cases?

Obviously, what this means is, that television has incredible power.
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