Society's ChildS


Heart - Black

Social services remove child of Britain's oldest parents who spent £100,000 on surrogate

Michael Hamilton
The Sun
Sun, 29 Apr 2018 13:37 UTC
grandparents child
Couple become Britain’s oldest new parents — only to have baby taken into care, stock image
A couple have become Britain's oldest new parents - only to have their baby taken from them by social services.

The 63-year-old mum and her partner, 65, are "devastated" after bosses stepped in and took the child from them.

The couple's age is thought to be a factor in fears over the one-year-old's well-being. A source said: "They are devastated.

Social services have been dealing with them since last year and told them to make improvements in how the child was being looked after.

Comment: What is wrong with the West? Parenting is no longer seen as an honourable duty with consideration for the child and society but merely an act which fulfils the ambitions of narcissistic adults.

Then there's the question of social services who do an extremely difficult job, but who too often have been shown to either fail to act in cases of extreme abuse, or remove children without good reason.

All these trends we see throughout the West are signs of a society in terminal decline: Also check out SOTT radio's: The Truth Perspective: Tammi Stefano - The Truth About Child Protective Services

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Quenelle - Golden

'With my head held high': Conscientious objector freed after 110 days in Israeli prison

Orly Noy
+972
Sun, 29 Apr 2018 20:05 UTC
The Israeli army had sentenced Helman to six separate prison sentences for his refusal to be conscripted into the military and, in his words, 'take part in the occupation and Israel's policies of oppression vis-a-vis the Palestinians.'

Matan Helman
File photo of Matan Helman (Photo by Edo Ramon/Mesarvot)
"But I believe that I am following my truth and that is what will keep me strong in prison," he added, "and I have a lot of support from my friends and those around me."

Military service in Israel is compulsory for non-Orthodox Jews and for young men in the Druze community. A small but growing movement of youngsters has taken a public stand in refusing to be conscripted, almost always resulting in prison sentences.

Helman has served his six prison sentences in "Military Prison 6," where most male conscientious objectors are held alongside soldiers who have been imprisoned for various other reasons.
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Gold Bar

If you want to preserve your wealth for times of turmoil, buy physical gold


RT
Sun, 29 Apr 2018 06:41 UTC
gold
© Heinz-Peter Bader / Reuters
Gold, which is traditionally seen as a safe haven, is usually subject to the whims of supply and demand. Its value changes quickly, pushing the bullion price to extremely high levels at times.

The yellow metal also makes a habit of performing poorly when the stock market is doing well. But gold is the ultimate store of value, according to precious metals expert Ronan Manly of Singapore's BullionStar.

"What this means is that gold retains its purchasing power over long periods. Gold's purchasing power is not eroded by inflation as it is an inflation hedge," the analyst told RT. "In contrast, fiat currencies such as the US dollar are not stores of value. Fiat currency purchasing power is consistently eroded by inflation, and over time fiat currencies, such as the US dollar, lose nearly all of their purchasing power relative to gold."


Comment: See:

Widely accepted as a safe haven, gold is commonly seen as financial insurance in times of crisis, conflict or war, with investors rushing to the asset during these periods, according to Manly. He compares the precious commodity to a "safe harbor when there is geopolitical turmoil."

Comment: Silver too.

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2 + 2 = 4

Jordan Peterson explains the gender pay gap to the media

Suzanne Venker
Washington Examiner
Mon, 30 Apr 2018 22:14 UTC
Peterson
© Image courtesy screenshotJordan Peterson is the clinical psychologist and author of the book "12 Rules for Life."
Earlier this year I rented an office in a building I now share with a man named John, a husband and father who sells insurance. One of the first things I (and, I'm sure, he) noticed after about a month is that John is always at his desk, but I am not. Some days I'm not in my office at all; some days I come in at 9 or 10 a.m. and then leave at 2 p.m.; and still other days I might not arrive until close to lunchtime. I don't think I've ever left my office later than 4:30 p.m.

That's because my work schedule is entirely based on my teenage kids' schedules and on the countless errands I have to do on any given day that are related to, well, life. But no matter what time I arrive or what time I leave, John is always there.
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Gold Bar

House Monetary Policy Committee member pointedly questions Treasury and Fed regarding gold activities


Money Metals Exchange
Wed, 25 Apr 2018 00:00 UTC
US gold reserves
© Hoosier EconUS Gold Reserves
A Member of Congress posed some pointed questions to the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Treasury this week about their activities involving America's gold reserves, including, apparently, efforts to "drive gold out of the world financial system in favor of the Federal Reserve Note or Special Drawing Rights issued by the International Monetary Fund."

In a letter dated April 24, Representative Alex Mooney (R-WV) wrote to Jerome Powell, Chairman of the Federal Reserve, and Steven Mnuchin, Secretary of the U.S. Treasury, raising concerns about their formal policy to devalue the Federal Reserve Note (e.g. "inflation targeting") and requesting information about the United States' use of, and position on, gold.
"The purchasing power of our currency has fallen some 97% since Congress passed the Federal Reserve Act in 1913, with an acceleration in the rate of decline occurring since the early 1970s when the final link to gold was severed," wrote Mooney while also pointing out there had been almost no inflation in the U.S. prior to the creation of the Federal Reserve System.

"This Fed policy of creating inflation has the effect of driving up the cost of virtually everything my West Virginia constituents consume, while simultaneously reducing the real value of their pensions, savings, and fixed income payments," Mooney continued.

Comment: Congress shouldn't even have to ask these questions.

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Star of David

Journalists targeted by Israeli snipers in Gaza

Hamza Abu Eltarabesh
The Electronic Intifada
Thu, 26 Apr 2018 00:00 UTC
Gaza journalists
© Mohammed Zaanoun ActiveStillsDozens of Palestinian journalists have been injured while covering the Great March of Return protests in Gaza.
The Great March of Return series of protests have been bloody.

The Israeli military has reacted with deadly and purposeful force, killing and wounding at seemingly random. And still people have come from all over Gaza to demonstrate and protest their right of return to the lands from where they, their parents and grandparents, were once evicted.

With them we came, the journalists, watching and filming, bearing witness to the events as they transpired and talking to people to hear their stories and motivations.

For us, too, the protests have been dangerous. I was lucky to have a dermatologist father-in-law who could give me the required cream for a rash on my shoulder and abdomen that appeared hours after being exposed to tear gas on the day of the first demonstration on 30 March.

And from that relatively mundane example to the deadly, journalists have been very much in the line of fire.

So far, there have been two fatalities among those covering the protests. There have been a high number of injuries to journalists - as many as 66 over the four demonstrations held so far, according to Ashraf al-Qedra, a spokesperson for Gaza's ministry of health - prompting calls for the protection of journalists and investigations into the violence. Human right organizations and international watchdogs like the Committee to Protect Journalists have been at the forefront of these calls. These have had little effect on Israel's behavior.

Comment: Kill the messenger to stop the message by sending another.

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Briefcase

Might Joy-Ann Reid or MSNBC face legal trouble for submitting apparently false hacking claims to FBI?

Colin Kalmbacher
Law & Crime
Sat, 28 Apr 2018 06:49 UTC
Joy Reid
© Gabriella Demczuk/Getty ImagesMSNBC's Joy-Ann Reid
MSNBC personality Joy-Ann Reid appears to have changed her story about those homophobic blog posts. And with this sea change in Reid's defense, there could be legal trouble ahead.

At first, Reid claimed she was hacked. That story completely fell apart when The Daily Beast - where Reid had her own column until it was suspended over those same posts - published a thorough dissection and dismissal of Reid's claims.

In no uncertain terms, Kevin Poulsen writes, "the evidence provided crumbles under scrutiny." Citing to alleged "evidence" obtained by Reid's "cybersecurity expert," Jonathan Nichols, Poulsen observes, "Blog posts that Nichols claimed do not appear on the Internet Archive are, in fact, there. The indicators of hacked posts don't bear out."

Throughout Poulsen's piece, various of Nichols' statements are walked back and Reid's story is thoroughly undercut by actual data and evidence. Let's underscore this next bit for Reid's erstwhile defenders on Twitter and elsewhere:
Today Nichols says Reid and her team no longer believe the archive was hacked, and the Internet Archive has denied any such manipulation could have occurred.

Comment: See also:

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Clock

North and South Korea to merge time zones in May


RT
Mon, 30 Apr 2018 01:30 UTC
Kim Jong-un clocks
© photos.medley/photo.imagesIn the Zone
North Korea will synchronize its time with South Korea as early as this week, Pyongyang announced on Monday. The North created its own time zone in 2015, turning back the clocks by 30 minutes to defy Japanese colonial legacy.

The decision to return to the same time is one of the many symbolic highlights of the historic Friday summit between North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in. The state-run KCNA agency reported that Kim said it was a "painful wrench" for him to see the two clocks hanging above the negotiation table at 'Peace Village' in Panmunjeom showing a different time.

The gesture should pave the way for rapprochement between the North and the South, and serve as "the first practical step for national reconciliation and unity," according to Kim, as cited by KCNA.

On Monday, North Korea's Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, the highest state body between the assembly's sessions, voted to adopt a decree codifying the changes that will take effect on May 5.

At present, North Korea's time is lagging 30 minutes behind that of South Korea. North Korea introduced its own "Pyongyang time" in August 2015 to mark the 70th anniversary of liberation from the Japanese rule. The time, which will be now shared by the two Koreas, was set by Japan, which ruled the peninsula from 1910 to 1945, to coincide with its own.

Comment: Time for a change!

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Heart - Black

University of Texas starts program to treat masculinity as 'mental health' issue

Toni Airaksinen
PJ Media
Fri, 27 Apr 2018 00:00 UTC
toxic masculinity
The Counseling and Mental Health Center at the University of Texas at Austin recently launched a new program to help male students "take control over their gender identity and develop a healthy sense of masculinity."

Treating masculinity as if it were a mental health crisis, "MasculinUT" is organized by the school's counseling staff and most recently organized a poster series encouraging students to develop a "healthy model of masculinity."

The program is predicated on a critique of so-called "restrictive masculinity." Men, the program argues, suffer when they are told to "act like a man" or when they are encouraged to fulfill traditional gender roles, such as being "successful" or "the breadwinner."

Though you might enjoy "taking care of people" or being "active," MasculinUT warns that many of these attributes are actually dangerous, claiming that "traditional ideas of masculinity place men into rigid (or restrictive) boxes [which]... prevent them from developing their emotional maturity."

Comment: Who needs evidence of what works in a mental health program if you can use radical leftist ideology?

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Gift 2

South Koreans surprised to hear Kim Jong-un speak in strange accent

Crystal Tai
South China Morning Post
Mon, 30 Apr 2018 20:45 UTC
Livestreaming reveals that the North Korean leader has a unique 'Swiss-influenced' accent, a result of his years studying at a German-language boarding school near Bern
moon kim korea
While all eyes have been on the historic summit meeting between the two Koreas, those who kept their ears cocked were in for a surprise.

Kim Jong-un's multicultural accent stole the show as viewers around the world were able to hear the North Korean leader address South Korean President Moon Jae-in, with parts of the sessions livestreamed over the internet. South Korean viewers were surprised by Kim's non-North Korean sounding "Swiss-influenced" accent. After all, he is the leader of the world's most isolated country - one that has historically stressed ethnic and cultural purity.

Kim spent his formative years studying at a German language boarding school near Bern, Switzerland, where he lived under the pseudonym "Pak-un" from the age of 15, which explains his unusual accent.
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