Society's ChildS


Heart - Black

Christmas poverty: 130,000 homeless children, empty food banks predicted


RT
Fri, 08 Dec 2017 12:11 UTC
child walking
© Christopher Furlong / Getty
Around 130,000 children will wake up homeless this Christmas the highest number in a decade, new figures reveal. It comes amid warnings that much-needed food banks may also run dry because of the staggering demand.

According to a report by housing charity Shelter, the number of homeless children has jumped by two-thirds in the past decade, in what has been branded a "national scandal." The number of youngsters spending their holidays in temporary accommodation such as B&Bs and hostels has gone up by 8,000 this year.
Read More...
Snowflake

Missouri: Student suspended for debating Islamic extremism with Muslim peer in debate club

Kayla Schierbecker
The College Fix
Thu, 07 Dec 2017 12:45 UTC
letter student debate Muslim


Officials allegedly said it could be 'harassing,' told him to observe 'social cues'

A Missouri high school that suspended a student for making critical comments about Islamic extremism says he's not allowed to appeal the finding of wrongdoing.

Senior Alex Lonsdale, a member of Liberty High's nationally ranked debate club, says he was just trying to have a friendly debate.

During his free period Oct. 17 at the public school near Kansas City, Lonsdale joined a spontaneous conversation among acquaintances about the nature of Islam.

He told The College Fix in a phone call Monday that he pointed to pro-terrorist sentiment among British Muslims, as indicated in polls by ICM Research for the 2016 Channel 4 documentary "What British Muslims Really Think." The program was presented by the former chair of Britain's Equality and Human Rights Commission, Trevor Phillips.

Comment: Schools are teaching young adults that it is wrong to put religions on the table for discussion - or anything that might hurt anyone's feelings, for the matter. If religions are exempt from critical analysis, then we, as a society, are heading for disaster. Religions also need to evolve, and how are they going to do it if they are not open to criticism? Yet, if the debate had not been about Islam, but about Christianism being 'patriarchal', the guy doing the criticism would have probably been given a medal.

Read More...
Briefcase

St. Petersburg court turns properties of banned Jehovah's Witnesses over to government


TASS
Fri, 08 Dec 2017 11:59 UTC
According to the court findings, the Jehovah's Witnesses administrative center in Russia transferred an estate on the shore of the Gulf of Finland to the Society as a donation in 2000

Jehovas Witness in Russia
© Alexander Demyanchuk/TASS
A district court in St. Petersburg passed a resolution on Thursday to confiscate 16 items of real estate in St. Petersburg worth more than 880 million rubles [$14.9 mln], which belong to the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania registered in the U.S., and to turn them over to the government, the united press service of city courts said on Thursday.

The Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania received the immovable property from the Jehovah's Witnesses administrative center in Russia that has been banned by the Russian authorities.

Comment: More on Jehovah's Witnesses:

Read More...
Cross

Pope Francis calls to adjust line in 'The Lord's Prayer'


RT
Fri, 08 Dec 2017 11:51 UTC
Pope Francis
© Global Look PressPope Francis
Pope Francis has called upon the Roman Catholic Church to adjust the translation of phrase on temptation in the most famous Christian prayer, 'Our Father', also known as 'The Lord's Prayer'.

The Italian and English translations of the prayer, better known as 'Our Father' among Catholics, ask God to "lead us not into temptation." "That is not a good translation," the pontiff said in a television interview on Wednesday evening, as cited by the Vatican Radio.

Comment:

Read More...
Stock Up

'Unstoppable bull run': Bitcoin juggernaut smashes $18,000


RT
Fri, 08 Dec 2017 05:12 UTC
Chinese high speed train
© Reuters
Bitcoin's unstoppable bull run continues with the world's most valuable cryptocurrency beating its own records day after day. After passing the $15,000, $16,000 and $17,000 levels the day before, bitcoin breached $18,000 on Friday.

Bitcoin peaked at $18,353 by 1:54 GMT, with the market value of the digital currency at the time exceeding $300 billion, according to data from CoinMarketCap. The price has since retreated to below $17,000.

Comment: More from RT:
Wall Street may be backpedaling on impending launch of bitcoin futures
7 Dec, 2017 13:42

While bitcoin enthusiasts are bracing for the much-anticipated investor acceptance of digital currency when futures trading starts this weekend, the world's biggest banks have reportedly halted the move.

The Futures Industry Association (FIA) has sent a cautionary draft letter to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which approved the start of bitcoin futures trading last week. The lobby group, which includes all the large Wall Street banks, warned the regulator over a swift launch of bitcoin futures that "did not allow for proper public transparency and input," the Financial Times quotes the letter as saying.

The price of bitcoin has surged to another record of over $15,000 on Thursday, with the market value of the digital currency now exceeding $250 billion, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

The FIA reportedly stressed that ill-prepared financial system wouldn't cope with the increased volatility of the cryptocurrency's price.

Last week, NASDAQ announced plans to launch bitcoin futures in 2018. Earlier, the Chicago-based exchanges CME and Cboe said they would start bitcoin futures trading on December 17, as the CFTC had approved the step.

The draft letter, obtained by the media, allegedly claims the exchanges should not be allowed to operate bitcoin futures under a self-certified regime as regulators will have minimal time to formally review them.

"A self-certification scheme for these novel products does not align with the potential risks that underlie their trading and should be reviewed," the letter says.

"We remain apprehensive with the lack of transparency and regulation of the underlying reference products on which these futures contracts are based and whether exchanges have the proper oversight to ensure the reference products are not susceptible to manipulation, fraud, and operational risk," the FIA said in the draft.
See also:

Read More...
Piggy Bank

'Holy crap': Experts find tax plan riddled with glitches that could be gamed for tax avoidance

Brian Faler
Politico
Wed, 06 Dec 2017 05:04 UTC
tax plan riddled with glitches
© Jon Elswick/AP PhotoThe Republican Senate tax bill, with handwritten notes outlining changes, is pictured.

Republicans' tax-rewrite plans are riddled with bugs, loopholes and other potential problems that could plague lawmakers long after their legislation is signed into law.

Some of the provisions could be easily gamed, tax lawyers say. Their plans to cut taxes on "pass-through" businesses in particular could open broad avenues for tax avoidance.

Others would have unintended results, like a last-minute decision by the Senate to keep the alternative minimum tax, which was designed to make sure wealthy people and corporations don't escape taxes altogether. For many businesses, that would nullify the value of a hugely popular break for research and development expenses.

Comment: See also:

Read More...
Penis Pump

The state of society: British YouTuber cements his head in a microwave, emergency services called


Sputnik
Fri, 08 Dec 2017 12:20 UTC
The state of society: British YouTuber Cements His Head in a Microwave
© West Midlands Fire and RescueBritish YouTuber Cements His Head in a Microwave
A YouTube prank gone awry resulted in a young man ending with his head stuck in a microwave full of wet cement, leaving the local fire department which leapt to his rescue "seriously unimpressed."

Jimmy Swinger, a 22-year old Briton and one of the authors of the TGFbro YouTube channel managed to land himself in a bizarre predicament after he deliberately stuck his head into a microwave oven filled with wet cement.

The YouTuber and his friends apparently intended to use the microwave as a mold, but then something went wrong and Swinger found himself unable to extricate his head from the cement. Fortunately, his friends managed to slip Swinger an air tube to enable him to breathe, allowing the hapless prankster to survive until the emergency services arrived.
Read More...
X

Lawsuit filed against 'X-Men' director Bryan Singer for alleged rape of teenage boy

Daniel Nussbaum
Breitbart
Thu, 07 Dec 2017 10:09 UTC
Bryan Singer
© DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/Getty Images
Director Bryan Singer is being sued for allegedly raping and forcibly performing oral sex on a 17-year-old boy in 2003.

According to a lawsuit filed Thursday and obtained by TMZ, Singer was in attendance at a party on tech investor Lester Waters' yacht in Seattle in 2003 when he allegedly offered to give then-17-year-old Cesar Sanchez-Guzman a tour of the boat.

Sanchez-Guzman claims in the suit that during the tour, Singer took him to a private room, where he then brought him to the floor, slapped him in the face with his genitals, and forced him to perform oral sex. The suit claims that Singer continued with the act as Sanchez-Guzman choked and pleaded with him to stop.

Singer then allegedly forcibly performed oral sex on Sanchez-Guzman, and then raped him, according to the lawsuit filed by attorney Jeff Herman. The suit also claims that Singer allegedly told Sanchez-Guzman that he could help him break into the movie business in exchange for remaining silent about the incident.

Comment: And the accusations continue... see also:

Read More...
Magic Wand

Male-to-female transgender weightlifter wins silver in women's competition


Sputnik
Fri, 08 Dec 2017 09:40 UTC
trans wightlifter
© North Sport Olympic Weightlifting / facebook
At the World Weightlifting Championships that ended in Anaheim, California, transgender athlete Laurel Hubbard won the silver medal among women in the heavyweight division.

Hubbard is a transgender athlete, who changed her sex. She was allowed to compete with women, as she met the IOC criteria for transsexuals. International sports federations are obliged to comply with IOC recommendations.

However, the coaches of other athletes encountered such rivalry with hostility, saying that she has an advantage.

Comment: While some may hail Hubbard's challenging of barriers, from these seats, it looks a lot more like cheating. It's well established that men on average have more physical strength than women. Just because a man changes his bits to that of a woman, s/he still has the biological characteristics for muscle distribution as a man giving him/her an unfair advantage over natural female competitors. Considering the hoopla surrounding the use of performance enhancing drugs in athletics, going so far as hypocritically banning the Russian team from the Olympics, one has to wonder how the IOC can advocate one form of cheating while denigrating another. For the latest on the trans hysteria, see:

Read More...
Pistol

Former police officer who shot unarmed black man gets 20 years in prison


RT
Fri, 08 Dec 2017 08:39 UTC
Walter Scott
© Randall Hill / ReutersA small memorial for Walter Scott marks the spot of his death in North Charleston, South Carolina April 8, 2015
A white police officer who was filmed shooting an unarmed black motorist has been handed a 20 year prison sentence. Michael Slager's case is a rare conviction in numerous prosecutions of police officers who have shot and killed unarmed African-Americans.

The officer, who was fired after the shooting, "acted out of malice aforethought, shooting dead an unarmed and fleeing Walter Scott," Judge David Norton said Thursday. "Slager's actions were disproportional to Scott's misconduct."

Slager, now 36, was a North Charleston Police Department officer when he pulled over Scott, 50, over a broken brake light on April 4, 2015. Scott had an outstanding warrant for missing child support payments. The two scuffled on the ground before Scott managed to get away. Slager then fired eight shots, with five hitting Scott in the back from 17 feet away, killing him instantly.
Read More...