Society's ChildS


USA

Crisis of meaning in America: Youth suicide skyrocketed over 70% in the last decade

Ben Shapiro
The Daily Wire
Tue, 20 Mar 2018 15:28 UTC
flowers on headstone
© Helen H. Richardson/Denver Post/Getty Images
According to the Centers for Disease Control, youth suicide is in the midst of a precipitous and frightening rise. Between 2006 and 2016, suicides by white children between ages 10 and 17 skyrocketed 70%; while black children are less likely than white children to kill themselves, their suicide rate also jumped 77%. And as The Blaze points out, CNN reported last year that "the suicide rate among girls between the ages of 15 and 19 rose to a 40-year high in 2015."

It's not just young people. According to Tom Simon, a CDC report author, "We know that overall in the US, we're seeing increases in suicide rates across all age groups." As of 2016, suicide levels were at 30-year highs.

So, what in hell is going on?

A few years back, the trendy explanation was economic volatility - the market crash of 2007-2008 had supposedly created a culture of despair, cured only by suicide. But the economy is booming, and has been growing steadily since 2009. There are those who blame the rise in drugs as well, particularly opioids - but according to a study from the National Institute of Drug Abuse, drinking, smoking and drug use may be at the lowest levels "seen in decades," as the Los Angeles Times reports.

Comment: Jordan Peterson discusses the need for meaning in his books and lectures and offers a message of hope to despairing youth who need it most. See:

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Eye 2

Woman accused of killing mother with glass shards - Removes eyes and leaves them on top of cardboard box

Linda Trischitta
Sun-Sentinel
Mon, 19 Mar 2018 15:38 UTC
Camille Balla
Camille Balla
A blood trail along a living room floor grew heavier in the kitchen and led to the garage of a Royal Palm Beach home. There, detectives say, was the body of Francisca Monteiro-Balla, 55, who had been slashed in her head, arms, chest and stomach.

Placed on top of a cardboard box: Monteiro-Balla's eyes, which had been removed from their sockets.

Detectives say Monteiro-Balla's daughter Camille Balla, 32, killed her using glass shards.

Deputies were called to the 100 block of Country Club Way around 1:40 a.m. Friday. A colleague of Camille Balla had called authorities after finding her covered in blood in front of the house.
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Handcuffs

California judge bars L.A. from enforcing gang injunctions that reduce crime

Gregg Re
Fox News
Fri, 16 Mar 2018 15:15 UTC
LAPD arrest
© ReutersLos Angeles has been precluded from enforcing most of its '90s-era, contentious gang injunctions, a federal judge has ruled.
The city of Los Angeles has been barred from enforcing the vast majority of its gang injunctions, which applied restrictions on gang associations that authorities have long credited with reducing crime.

The ruling Thursday by U.S. District Judge Virginia A. Phillips, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton, agreed with the American Civil Liberties Union that the injunctions were likely to be unconstitutionally broad, and affect people who did not have adequate opportunity to challenge them in court.

The gang injunctions are civil court orders that have applied to nearly 9,000 people and 79 gang sets since 2000, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The orders can effectively prevent individuals from legally associating with people in gang-ridden neighborhoods or networks.
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Bullseye

Michael Moore blasts corporate media for non-stop anti-Russia coverage


RT
Wed, 21 Mar 2018 15:18 UTC
Michael Moore
© Darren Ornitz / ReutersMichael Moore
Liberal firebrand and documentary filmmaker Michael Moore lashed out at corporate media for their non-stop coverage of alleged Russian malfeasance, distracting Americans from discussing high poverty rates and inequality.

"You turn on the TV and it's 'Russia, Russia, Russia!'" Moore said during a live-streamed town hall event attended by Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. "And don't forget Stormy Daniels!" Sanders jokingly added, referencing the porn star who claims to have had an affair with Donald Trump before he ran for president.

The town hall, watched by an estimated 1.7 million people online, focused on confronting and combatting inequality in America. According to Moore, the media's obsession with Russia is a distraction used to avoid dialogue on issues such as child poverty and income inequality.
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Heart - Black

Fmr Abu Ghraib detainees describe the physical and mental trauma they continue to experience thanks to US torture methods


RT
Wed, 21 Mar 2018 14:12 UTC
Abu Ghraib 2
© Agence France-PresseThis handout photo from SBS TV received 15 February 2006 allegedly shows a hooded and bound prisoner being attacked by a dog in Iraq's notorious Abu Ghraib jail supposedly during interrogation by US soldiers in Baghdad in 2004
Former Abu Ghraib detainees say time has not fully healed the physical and mental pain they suffered at the infamous US prison. Iraqis spoke with RT on the 15th anniversary of the US-led invasion of their country.

"The time I spent in that prison felt like a lifetime. An hour of that pain, humiliation, and injustice stays with you forever," Anwer Al-Sudani, a former Abu Ghraib detainee, told RT.

Once used by Saddam Hussein to lock up political dissidents, Abu Ghraib prison was converted into a US Army detention facility shortly after the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

In April 2004, photographs showing prisoners being subjected to torture, sexual humiliation, rape, and other forms of abuse at the hands of US soldiers were leaked to the press.
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Arrow Down

Diversity trumps quality: Catholic university cancels women's conference because the speakers are too white

Amanda Prestigiacomo
The Daily Wire
Tue, 20 Mar 2018 14:59 UTC
catholic church
© McGhiever
A Catholic university in Minnesota canceled an annual women's conference because the qualified women chosen blindly to speak at the touted event ended up being too white, and thus not reflecting the proper "diversity" values of the school.

St. Catherine University's Leadership Imperative Conference was set to be held on January 19, with some 30 prominent women ready to speak at the event. The speakers, picked through a blind call, were chosen "solely based on their fit" with the themes of the conference, indicates an email from the school's associate provost.

The conference was hyped by the university as "the event of the year for professional women in the Twin Cities."

"You won't want to miss out," the university site boasted of the conference. "Space is limited! Last year, the event sold out quickly."

But when the speakers submitted their photos and bios, everything changed. The group of qualified women chosen for the event were too white for St. Catherine. So the conference was canceled in December, the Star Tribune reported last week.
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Bulb

In Salisbury, where ex-spy & daughter were allegedly poisoned, people own stake in Russian financial markets


RT
Wed, 21 Mar 2018 14:12 UTC
UK church
© Toby Melville / ReutersSalisbury Cathedral
While the UK government angrily accuses Russia of poisoning of an ex-spy and his daughter, a regional British pension fund continues investing in Russian bonds and shares of state-run Sberbank.

The Wiltshire County Council pension fund had 10.6 percent of its cash invested in emerging markets through a fund operated by the Investec Asset Management. The latter held Russian obligations along with shares in Russia's state-owned banking major as of January, as data revealed by Bloomberg shows. Notably, the town of Salisbury, where the former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were allegedly poisoned earlier this month, is located in the region of Wiltshire.

"It raises a broader question about what investment funds do with their money," Richard Connolly, a lecturer at the University of Birmingham focusing on Russian political economy, told the agency. "If the yield is good, the money will find its way there. It's such a difficult question for anyone to address legislatively."

Combining investments is part of a long-term plan, aimed at eliminating risks and reducing the fund's deficit, according to a spokesman at the Wiltshire County Council pension fund.

Comment: See also:

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Donut

Poor children officially fatter than rich kids, study reveals


RT
Wed, 21 Mar 2018 09:00 UTC
Obese child
© West Coast Surfer / Global Look Press
Poor children are now officially fatter than their rich-kid counterparts. A new study has revealed that kids from poorer families weigh more for the first time in history - a reversal of the traditional weight-wealth pattern.

Researchers looked at data collated from 5,400 babies born in 1946, 17,200 born in 1958, 17,300 in 1970, and 16,000 in 2001. The average child is 6.35kg heavier by the time they reach 15 years than kids born in the 1940s. They also have a higher body mass index (BMI) despite an increase in height. The study also found that 11-year-old children from poorer households have closed the 4.1cm height gap that existed in the 1940s to 1.2cm, but now weigh more.

University College London research officer David Bann carried out the study. He said that the introduction of fast food into the modern diet has had a significant impact. "From the 1980s onwards is when the obesity epidemic really hit the UK," he said.

Comment: See also:

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Heart - Black

Angry and upset: Daughter forced to show mum's ashes to disability inspector to prove dead woman is not fit to work


RT
Wed, 21 Mar 2018 07:38 UTC
Mom and daughter
© Hatti Broxton / Facebook
An outraged daughter handed an urn containing her deceased mother's ashes to a disability inspector when he showed up to assess the mother's ability to work. She had passed away seven months before.

Hatti Broxton said she was left "angry and upset" over the incident, which saw the Work and Pensions Department send a disability inspector to assess whether Hatti's mother Louise was fit to work. She claims the department had previously acknowledged the death and offered their condolences.

Hatti, 27, said she had immediately informed authorities of her mother's death in August and the benefits were then ended. But she nonetheless received a letter in February addressed to her mother stating doctors would turn up at the property in Wolverhampton, West Midlands, for an assessment on March 13 between 11am and 2pm.
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Fire

1 injured in another Texas blast 'unrelated' to Austin serial bombing


RT
Wed, 21 Mar 2018 00:00 UTC
Austin texas bombing on March 20, 2018 FBI
© Sergio Flores / ReutersLaw enforcement personnel are seen in Austin, Texas on March 20, 2018
One person has been seriously injured by an "incendiary device" in Austin, Texas, on Tuesday evening. Police and the FBI are so far reluctant to link this incident to the series of "package bombings" that rocked Texas recently.

The incident occurred in the vicinity of a Goodwill store on Brodie Lane, according to Austin Fire Department. Police and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are on the scene.

While initial reports indicated that the explosion was caused by yet another mail blast, after examining the scene, the ATF announced that "it was not a package bomb," but rather an "incendiary device" which left one person injured.

"At this time, it does not appear to be related to the #packagebombmurders," the ATF said on Twitter. The Austin Police Department also noted that "items inside package was not a bomb, rather an incendiary device," and insisted that, so far, there was "no reason to believe this incident is related to previous package bombs."

Comment: See also:

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