Society's ChildS


No Entry

Ethnic cleansing: Israel cuts water supply off to 17 Palestinian communities in West Bank


Sputnik
Thu, 14 Feb 2019 03:40 UTC
water fountain
© Flickr/ Martina Yach
Israeli forces this week opted to cut off water supply lines feeding into more than a dozen communities in the West Bank city of Hebron, according to the Palestine News Network.

In total, the changes will affect 17 Mafasir Yatta communities, where an estimated 1,500 Palestinians reside.

The Wednesday move has been largely criticized by locals as yet another Israeli measure to force Palestinians away from their home in order to expand settlements, PNN reported.

A 2009 Amnesty International report on Palestinian access to water supplies notes that "Palestinian consumption in the [Occupied Palestinian Territories] is about 70 litres a day per person - well below the 100 litres per capita daily recommended by the World Health Organization - whereas Israeli daily per capita consumption, at about 300 litres, is about four times as much."

Comment: This isn't the first time Israel has barbarically cut off one of the most essential of human needs to Palestinians:

Read More...
Cross

Best of the Web: Is there really such a thing as the "Judeo-Christian tradition"?

Philip C. Almond
ABC
Thu, 14 Feb 2019 23:17 UTC
Ten commandments movie film drive-in
© J. R. Eyerman/Life Magazine/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesCharlton Heston as Moses in The Ten Commandments, in 1958.
The notion of a "Judeo-Christian tradition" conceals the Western history of anti-Judaism, even when seeming to extol the virtue of Jewish identity.

These days, the term "the Judeo-Christian tradition" is most often meant to evoke "those religious, ethical, or cultural values or beliefs regarded as being common to both Judaism and Christianity." Obvious enough, perhaps. But then, when asked to specify what these religious, ethical, or cultural values or beliefs really are, we quickly find ourselves struggling.

So before asking what the term "Judeo-Christian tradition" means or what its particular "values or beliefs" are, we first need to ask what work the term "Judeo-Christian" is doing in the modern West?

It may come as a surprise to many that it has a very short history. In its current dominant meaning, it is virtually unknown before the Second World War, only really coming into vogue in the mid-1940s. If we look at the peaks and troughs of the usage of "Judeo-Christian" on Google Ngram ― which is useful here simply as a heuristic device ― we can see that from 1800 to 1935 the term is virtually non-existent. Then, we note two surges in its usage, from 1935 to 1951 and then again from 1962 to 2000, with peaks in 1942 and 1992. From 2000, its usage begins to climb again.
Read More...
Bullseye

New Zealand publication gets it right: Jordan Peterson is the 'most misreported person of modern era'


Sputnik
Thu, 14 Feb 2019 11:09 UTC
Jordan Peterson
© CC BY-SA 2.0 / Gage Skidmore / Jordan Peterson
The brilliant Canadian polemicist, YouTube sage, and self-described "classical British liberal" has been called "one of the front line warriors in the culture war against wokeness, social justice and the perpetually outraged".

In anticipation of psychology professor and free speech advocate Jordan Peterson's upcoming tour across New Zealand, Sean Plunket, a local broadcast celebrity, stressed that the embattled thinker enjoys "massive mainstream support" in his country, something that the "woke left" needs to reckon with, he claimed.

Plunket, the host of Magic Talk's afternoon show and a long-time fixture in New Zealand broadcast journalism, told the AM Show that professor Peterson's stance against political correctness resonates well with his compatriots.

This follows and interview between Plunket and Auckland Peace Action activist Iris Krzyzosiak, in which the latter denounced Peterson as "homophobic, misogynistic, and racist".

Comment: If only the reactionary lefty would listen a little more to Peterson - and a little less to what their colleagues think Peterson is saying.

Read More...
Camera

Iranian photographer whose image Trump used to attack Iran says it's a 'great shame' for her


RT
Thu, 14 Feb 2019 21:05 UTC
Yalda Moayeri
© iranart.irYalda Moayeri poses with her photograph
A photographer who took a snap US President Donald Trump has used to call for regime change in Iran told RT that she did not want it to become a tool in the hands of the US government, stifling basic freedoms with sanctions.

Yalda Moayeri, a 37-year-old Iranian photojournalist, has lashed out at Trump for appropriating her work to boost his administration's hardline stance on Iran. Speaking to RT, the acclaimed photographer said that Trump's policies have brought much sorrow to the people of Iran and to her personally, effectively separating her from the part of her family living in the US.

"My family is in the US and we haven't seen each other for four years because of the travel ban, and it felt like my family was in a prison because we could not visit each other in another country."

The travel ban imposed by the Trump administration on several Muslim-majority countries, including Iran, has not only affected those living in these countries, but also their relatives in the US, who are afraid to leave out of fear they would be turned away when they tried to return.
Read More...
V

Vigilante group Soldiers of Odin announce hunt for rapists, paedophiles amid Finland sex attacks


Sputnik
Wed, 13 Feb 2019 20:04 UTC
finland vigilante soldiers of odin
© pedoflilien ja raiskaajien metsastysFinnish vigilante group Soldiers of Odin
The vigilantes' recent video, in which they claimed Finland to be overrun by "sex tourists" has arrived amidst a grooming gang scandal which has implicated immigrants and asylum-seekers from the Middle East.

The Finnish police and the National Prosecutor General's Office are investigating whether the new Soldiers of Odin video, in which they declare a hunt for rapists and paedophiles, constitutes hate speech and instigation to violence, the Finnish daily newspaper Hufvudstadsbladet reported.

In the video, which is provided with English and Arabic subtitles, the group claims that it has made false profiles in social media, posing as young girls. With the help of the profiles, the group seeks to reveal men in search of sexual contact with young girls on the web.
Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Pregnant ISIS teen wants to return home to UK, warned her actions will have consequences


RT
Thu, 14 Feb 2019 20:13 UTC
ISIS teen recruits
© AFP / Metropolitan Police(L to R) British teenagers Kadiza Sultana, Amira Abase and Shamima Begum at Gatwick Airport, UK
A British teenage ISIS recruit who left home to fight for the self-styled caliphate has called on her government to bring her home from Syria, but the UK security minister has warned that "actions have consequences."

Shamima Begum was one of three schoolgirls from Bethnal Green in East London who traveled to Syria four years ago to join Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS). She has pleaded to be allowed back into the UK in an interview with the Times.

However, government minister Ben Wallace told BBC Radio 4's Today program that he would not risk the lives of British officials "to go looking for terrorists or former terrorists in a failed state." He warned Begum that she had the right to return, but could face prosecution at the very least.

Read More...
Heart - Black

13 dead, more than 30 injured in bus accident in North Macedonia


France24
Thu, 14 Feb 2019 00:17 UTC
bus tetovo
The deadly accident took place when a tour bus crossed a barrier onto the other side of the Skopje-Tetovo highway, then veered off the road and overturned near the village of Laskarci, a North Macedonian official said AFP
At least 13 people were killed and more than 30 others injured when a passenger bus overturned on a highway in North Macedonia on Wednesday, health minister said.

Speaking to AFP, Minister Venko Filipce added that "the number of dead may increase because there are people in surgery and in critical condition" following the accident which happened around 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the capital Skopje. Around 50 people were on the bus.

"Thirteen people were killed," Filipce told reporters. "There are more than 30 injured."

Ilir Asani, head of the emergency centre at Skopje's main hospital, told local media that at least "five people were severely injured, including a pregnant woman".

Comment: Other crashes from the last month or so:

Read More...
Megaphone

Failed London Garden Bridge project cost £53m - overseen by London Mayor Boris Johnson then Sadiq Khan


BBC
Wed, 13 Feb 2019 12:00 UTC
london garden bridge
© Heatherwick StudioA review of the project said £43m of taxpayers' money had been spent
A failed plan to build a bridge covered with trees and flowers over the River Thames in central London cost a total of £53m, it has been revealed.

A Transport for London (TfL) inquiry showed the Garden Bridge Trust spent £161,000 on a website and £417,000 on a gala for the abandoned project.


Comment: 'Gala' aka a party - nearly £500,000 on a party for a project that had barely started.


The design of the bridge cost more than £9m and the charity paid its executives £1.7m.

Around £43m came from the public's pocket, TfL added.

Doubts began to surround the project, overseen by Boris Johnson, after it lost the support of London Mayor Sadiq Khan in April 2017.

It was officially abandoned in August of that year after a review recommended it be scrapped.

Comment: This is just one of a vast number of ridiculously expensive and seriously unnecessary, failed projects in London, from the millennium dome to an overhaul of its buses (which, ominously, burst into flames on a number of occasions). These failed schemes tell us a lot about those running things:

Read More...
Dollar

Sorry AOC, public support for capitalism is growing in America - new poll

Michael Snyder
End of the American Dream
Thu, 14 Feb 2019 18:06 UTC
ocasio cortes green deal
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (center) speaks on the Green New Deal with Senator Ed Markey (right) in front of the Capitol Building in February 2019
The meteoric rise of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other young progressive politicians has led many to believe that the American public must be warming up to socialism. But what if that isn't true at all? Certainly there is a certain segment of the population that absolutely embraces the message that AOC, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and other socialists are preaching, but could it be possible that the American people as a whole are actually moving in the opposite direction? According to a shocking Fox News poll that just came out, the percentage of Americans that want the government to leave them alone is going up, and the percentage of Americans that want the government to lend them a hand is going down...
The 34 percent saying "lend me a hand" is down from 41 percent last year and 39 percent in 2016. The 55 percent who would tell the government "leave me alone" is up from 51 percent in 2018 and 54 percent in 2016.
You would think that these numbers should be very encouraging for President Trump and the Republican Party, because traditionally the idea of "limited government" has been central to the conservative message in this country.
Read More...
Briefcase

Family sues Lakemore, Springfield Township police - who were cleared in unjustified shooting that seriously injured unarmed man

Robin Goist
cleveland.com
Tue, 12 Feb 2019 00:00 UTC
Four bullets struck the passenger door
© Courtesy of Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan WalshFour bullets struck the passenger door, and shattered the front passenger window, of a Ford Econoline van where passenger Matthew Burghardt and driver Christian Beard were shot by police Feb. 13, 2018, in Lakemore.
The family of a man left permanently injured after a Feb. 2018 police shooting in Lakemore filed a lawsuit Tuesday in federal court against the two police officers involved.

Lakemore officer Ezekial Ryan and Springfield Township officer Kristofer London shot 31-year-old Matthew Burghardt while he sat unarmed in a van Feb. 13, 2018, according to court documents.

Gunshot wounds rendered Burghardt blind and permanently cognitively incapacitated, according to the lawsuit. Burghardt's family, who filed suit on the eve of the anniversary of the incident, are seeking accountability in what his lawyers say was an unjustified shooting.

Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh in August wrote letters to the Lakemore and Springfield Township police chiefs in which she ruled the officers' use of deadly force was legally justified and appropriate "in light of the circumstances and risk posed" by Burghardt and the other man in the vehicle.
Read More...