Society's ChildS


Light Saber

UK: Dale Farm Repels Eviction

It was an honour to be with the residents and activists who repelled the eviction of over 80 families from Dale Farm. The planned eviction of the Dale Farm residents is a human rights issue that everyone who cares about justice should be aware of.

Come to Dale Farm and increase the power of the people to compel justice.


Info

Emily Post on Manners in the Digital Age

Emily Post
© Emily Post Institute

Good etiquette in the brave new digital world isn't rocket science. It all comes down to common sense, consideration and communications, etiquette expert Daniel Post Senning told BusinessNewsDaily.

"Ninety-nine percent of rude behavior can be avoided by thinking before you act," Senning said. "The fundamental principles of etiquette are honesty, respect and consideration."

He should know - etiquette runs in his family. Senning is the great-great grandson of Emily Post, the doyenne of all that mattered in manners in the first half of the 20th century. He manages Web development and online content at The Emily Post Institute in Vermont, including the company's Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Next month, the 18th edition of Emily Post's Etiquette, the definitive arbiter of good behavior online and off, will be published (William Morrow, 2011). Senning is a co-author, charged with updating his great-great grandmother's venerable volume for the age of digital communications, mobile devices and social networking.

The particulars of what constitutes good etiquette vary with time and location, but the underlying principles are immutable, Senning said.

People

Japan: 60,000 Strong Anti-Nuke Demonstration in Tokyo

Image
Photographs of 60,000-Strong Anti-Nuke Demonstration in Tokyo: Japanese MSMs Called It "A Parade"

Looking at this aerial photographs taken by Mainichi Shinbun (one of the better ones in terms of even coverage on nuke issues in Japan; another is Tokyo Shinbun), it sure looks more than 60,000 to me. People who actually participated in the event seemed to have the same impression as mine (on this blog comment sections, and on twitter), that it was far bigger than official number by the police (30,000).

Mainichi quotes the organizers' number of 60,000 people, and also quotes the number by the police (30,000):
Image

Stormtrooper

US: Cops charged with murder of California man

Cops charged with murder of California man
© UnknownCops charged with murder of California man

One California cop has been charged with murder and another with manslaughter for the July 5 beating that resulted in the death of a mentally ill homeless man.

Kelly Thomas was assaulted by police officers for nearly 10 minutes earlier this summer after Fullerton, CA police officers approached him about a rash of automobile break-ins occurring in the area. The Orange County District Attorney says that the officers knew that Kelly was homeless and mentally ill when they responded to the scene, but that didn't keep them from using excessive force.

A 10-minute-long attack on Thomas left his thorax ravaged and he became unable to breathe regularly or deliver oxygen to his brain. Hospital records also show that Thomas choked on his own blood and was repeatedly shocked with two stun guns. DA Tony Rackauckas said in a conference yesterday that Thomas acted "in self-defense, in pain and in a state of panic" when officers unleashed on him. Audio recordings clearly contain screams and cries for help while Thomas is being attacked.

Dollar

China Pulls The Rug From Under Europe, Halts French Bank Transactions, Makes Good On Trade War Ultimatum

A flurry of headlines out of China suggest global macro-economic volatility may be ready to take it to the next level. We discussed last week how China's oh-so-generous offer of help to Europe was merely a veiled threat playing US against Europe in a game of who-gets-the-funding. Well, tonight, it seems, they are making good on some of those threats. Aggravated by EU's lack of market economy recognition, they pull trading lines with French banks, express concern at the EUR's safety (preferring US Treasuries), and indicate a clear preference for bonds over stocks - all the while warning of growing trade tensions - consider the sabre-rattled.

Blackbox

Pakistan spy agency accused of directing attacks against US targets

Washington - The Pakistani government, through its intelligence service, is "actively involved" in directing the militant Haqqani network to launch terrorist attacks against U.S. and Afghan government targets in Kabul, U.S. military officials tell NBC News.

The officials told NBC News the ISI, Pakistan's powerful spy agency, directed the attacks by Haqqani militants on the U.S. Embassy on Sept. 13 and on the Inter-Continental Hotel on June 28. It's suspected ISI also had a role in the massive truck bombing targeting an American base in eastern Afghanistan on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks, the officials said.

In a congressional hearing Thursday, Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen called the Haqqani network a "veritable arm" of the ISI. Testifying alongside Mullen, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the U.S. has warned Pakistani authorities it will not tolerate a continuation of the group's cross-border attacks.


Comment: Is there any truth to any of this? How to cut through the ongoing shenanigans of the growing world pathocracy? It's visible to see if one has only trained their eyes to see. The following articles are helpful in gaining a better perspective on the political situation we find ourselves in globally.
Exclusive: Osama bin Laden's Nose and Left Ear
Ponerology 101: Rising to the Top
COINTELPRO: Information Warfare


Heart

US delegation walks out during Ahmadinejad speech

United Nations - The U.S. delegation at the United Nations walked out Thursday as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad delivered a fiery broadside against the United States and what he called its "slave masters and colonial masters."

Ahmadinejad told the U.N. audience that the United States used "the mysterious September 11 incident" as a pretext for wars against Afghanistan and Iraq.

The Iranian president offered his criticism in the form of a series of questions, asking who had engaged in slavery, imposed colonialism, supported military regimes and triggered World War I, World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War.

"The answers are clear," Ahmadinejad said.

"By using their imperialistic media network which is under the influence of colonialism they threaten anyone who questions the Holocaust and the September 11 event with sanctions and military actions," he said.


[Video runs about 30 minutes.]

Arrow Down

Canada: Child rapist to get less time than pot grower

Marijuana Plant
© Luis Robayo, AFP, Getty ImagesUnder the Tories' omnibus crime legislation tabled Tuesday, a person growing 201 pot plants in a rental unit would receive a longer mandatory sentence than someone who rapes a toddler or forces a five-year-old to have sex with an animal.
Incarcerated weed offenders to skyrocket

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is getting tougher on pot growers than he is on rapists of children. Under the Tories' omnibus crime legislation tabled Tuesday, a person growing 201 pot plants in a rental unit would receive a longer mandatory sentence than someone who rapes a toddler or forces a five-year-old to have sex with an animal.

Producing six to 200 pot plants nets an automatic six-month sentence, with an extra three months if it's done in a rental or is deemed a public-safety hazard. Growing 201 to 500 plants brings a one-year sentence, or 1½ years if it's in a rental or poses a safety risk.

The omnibus legislation imposes one-year mandatory minimums for sexually assaulting a child, luring a child via the Internet or involving a child in bestiality. All three of these offences carry lighter automatic sentences than those for people running medium-sized grow-ops in rental property or on someone else's land.

Bizarro Earth

US: Troy Davis and Lawrence Brewer: 2 Executions, 2 Reactions

Image
© unknown
Troy Davis and Lawrence Brewer were executed Wednesday night. And the nation's reaction couldn't be more divided.

There was heartbreak and outrage at the news that Davis, 42, was put to death for the slaying of a Georgia police officer -- a crime that many, including former President Carter, do not believe Davis committed. Some say the execution of Davis could ultimately lead to the end of the death penalty in the U.S. by underscoring flaws in the legal system.

Among the tweets this morning, carrying the hashtag #TroyDavis: "A KKK member once said they dont need to walk around n sheets,they get us by becomin officers, judges, & lawyers" and "It's so sad it takes the death [of] an innocent man for folks to question the death penalty, so sad".

Davis used his dying breath to insist he was not responsible for killing Mark MacPhail, an off-duty Savannah, Ga., police officer gunned down in 1989 while coming to the aid of a homeless man. "I personally did not kill your son, father and brother," he told the victim's family as he was strapped to a gurney in a Georgia prison in preparation for the lethal injection. "I am innocent."

Attention

US: White Supremacist Executed for Texas Dragging

Image
© The Associated Press/David J. PhillipLouvon Harris, left, covers her face as Clara Taylor, right, both sisters of James Byrd Jr., looks back while answering a question after witnessing the execution of Lawrence Russell Brewer Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2011, in Huntsville, Texas.
White supremacist gang member Lawrence Russell Brewer was executed Wednesday evening for the infamous dragging death slaying of James Byrd Jr., a black man from East Texas.

Byrd, 49, was chained to the back of a pickup truck and pulled whip-like to his death along a bumpy asphalt road in one of the most grisly hate crime murders in recent Texas history.

Brewer, 44, was asked if he had any final words, to which he replied: "No. I have no final statement."

He glanced at his parents watching through a nearby window, took several deep breaths and closed his eyes. A single tear hung on the edge of his right eye as he was pronounced dead at 6:21 p.m., 10 minutes after the lethal drugs began flowing into his arms, both covered with intricate black tattoos.

Byrd's sisters also were among the witnesses in an adjacent room.

"Hopefully, today's execution of Brewer can remind all of us that racial hatred and prejudice leads to terrible consequence for the victim, the victim's family, for the perpetrator and for the perpetrator's family," Clara Taylor, one of Byrd's sisters, said.

She called the punishment "a step in the right direction."