Society's ChildS


Syringe

Doper's delight: Latvian coach says evil Russians may spike noble Latvian athletes' drinks with doping agents

Inessa Sinchougova
RT / Fort Russ
Wed, 07 Feb 2018 22:15 UTC
russians meme
The head coach of the Latvian skeleton team Dainis Dukurs stated that during the Olympics, Latvian athletes need to be extra careful so that 'nobody' can taint their food or drinks with doping.

He recalled that Russians "don't think favourably" of the Latvian skeleton team after the scandal with doping.

"Reading what they wrote about us in their media and social networks, it's like it was us who initiated the Richard McLaren report and the verification of the Denis Oswald commission," added Dukurs.

So, just in case any other athletes get accused of doping - you can always say the Russians spiked your drinks.

Comment: Dope all you want, world athletes. You can always blame Russia.

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Newspaper

UK: Anti-extremist think tank blasts Foreign Office's decision to pass out hijabs


RT
Thu, 08 Feb 2018 22:04 UTC
muslim woman
© Yasser Chalid/ Getty
The Foreign Office decision to hand out free hijabs on World Hijab Day has been branded "ridiculous." A counter-extremist think tank hit out at the FO for supporting an "oppressive culture."

Senior officials at the Foreign Office (FO) were offered the chance to wear the hijab to acknowledge "liberation, respect and security," on #WorldHijabDay, February 1.

Maajid Nawaz, head of the Quilliam Foundation, criticized the department for "supporting World Hijab Day and the institutional oppression of women through modesty culture, while brave Iranian women risk all to remove hijab tyranny."

FO staff chose to wear the headscarf - which covers the head and neck while still revealing the face - on the same day fellow women took to the streets in ultra-conservative Iran to burn the veils, Nawaz said. Women in the Middle-Eastern Muslim country are forced to wear the veil or risk being arrested and jailed.
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X

NY high school cancels Hunchback of Notre Dame musical after students complain that Esmerelda has been 'whitewashed'


RT
Wed, 07 Feb 2018 21:47 UTC
Esmeralda
© Walt Disney
A New York high school has cancelled a Hunchback of Notre Dame play after students complained about casting the main character as a white woman.

Ithaca High School group Students United Ithaca wrote a letter in January requesting the role of Esmeralda be re-cast after a white student was chosen to play the Roma character.

The students described the actress as being the "epitome of whiteness," due to her blonde hair and hazel eyes. "At best, this is cultural appropriation. At worst, it is whitewashing, a racist casting practice which has its roots in minstrelsy," the letter wrote.

The group called on the school to recast the role with some of "the many talented brown and black female students," at Ithaca. Alternatively, it urged the school to choose a different play with new auditions.

Comment: Who said Esmerelda was black?
Although it shouldn't matter, the source material for Hunchback, Victor Hugo's 1831 novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame, does not specify Esmerelda's race. "Esmeralda in the book is not 100% Romani (Gypsy). Her mother is a French women (sic) and while her Father could have been a Gypsy, it is never actually mentioned who was her father," one blog about the novel wrote in a 2011 post.


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Red Flag

Terrified 12yo girl called suicide prevention line convinced she was going to die as bullies banged on her toilet door

Richard Hartley-Parkinson
Metro UK
Thu, 08 Feb 2018 21:18 UTC
woman on phone
© ShutterstockShe called from a toilet at school saying that things had been made worse
Children as young as nine have phoned the Papyrus HOPELineUK service, the suicide prevention charity said. Recent callers included a 12-year-old girl who said she was convinced she was going to die after her school's attempts to stop her being bullied only made the situation worse.

Papyrus chief executive Ged Flynn told the Press Association: 'A girl of 12 was ringing from the school. '

She said: "The school has heard from me, and my mum and dad, and my uncles and grandmother that I'm being bullied.

"The school keeps saying they've fixed it. I can't go on any more. I'm ringing from the girls' toilets and I'm terrified. They're banging on the door now".
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Attention

Deadly Israeli siege tightens: Gaza hospitals shut down, total power blackout by end of February

Ali Abunimah
The Electronic Intifada
Tue, 06 Feb 2018 00:00 UTC
Nasr Hospital
© FacebookGaza's al-Nasr children's hospital: patients' lives at stake - need fuel for generators.
Emergency generators have run out of fuel in at least 19 health facilities in the Gaza Strip as Israel's deadly decade-old siege on the territory tightens.

The health ministry in Gaza announced Tuesday that the generators have shut down in 16 primary care clinics and three major hospitals, but that medical staff have been ordered to stay at their posts and do what they can to assist patients.

On Tuesday, the UN humanitarian coordination agency OCHA warned that "emergency fuel for critical facilities in Gaza will become exhausted within the next 10 days," unless donors step in to prevent a "humanitarian catastrophe." But for patients and medical personnel on the front lines, the catastrophe is already happening, and it is only the latest chapter in the forced collapse of Gaza's healthcare system.

At the al-Nasr children's hospital, head of intensive care Dr. Raed Mahdi said that the lives of dozens of children in his unit are at risk.

According to the health ministry, Mahdi said overcrowding and pressure on medical staff and supplies had reached a crisis point at his hospital as children were being transferred there from other facilities that had lost all power.

Comment: Israel destroyed Gaza. And now it expects the international community to pay for fixing it? This is unthinkable! How do other countries continue - for decades! - to condone Israel's actions and acquiesce as if it has global impunity for anything it does? It is a terrorist state cloaked in and dependent upon its ability to manipulate the belief systems of others in order to spread its evil and agenda. Blood is on the hands of Israel and the carnage is escalating.

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Magnify

US military investigation launched into death of green beret, SEAL Team 6

Matthew Cole
The Intercept
Wed, 07 Feb 2018 10:19 UTC
Logan Melgar
© Syracuse.comGreen Beret Staff Sgt. Logan Melgar
A criminal investigation into the death of Army Staff Sgt. Logan Melgar, who was killed last June while deployed in Bamako, Mali, has prompted a broad internal military audit and investigation into SEAL Team 6, according to a military official and two others briefed on the case.

Investigators suspect the two SEALs being investigated in the Melgar case were stealing cash from operational funds used for informants and other contingencies while deployed. The new investigation aims to determine whether such thefts are a routine practice among the members of the elite counterterrorism unit, according to the military official and two other people familiar with the financial investigation. All three sources requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation. The SEALs have denied stealing the cash.

The additional investigation sheds new light on the homicide case, which gained national attention last fall, and threatens to further tarnish the reputation of SEAL Team 6, the U.S. military's most storied and mythologized command.

Comment: Misconduct? Seal Team 6 - under criminal investigation for cover-ups, theft, lies, murders, and war crimes - is supported by the US government, condoned by the military and funded by taxpayer money.

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Stock Up

According to the Pentagon: War in Afghanistan to cost $45B in 2018

Ellen Mitchell
The Hill
Tue, 06 Feb 2018 06:39 UTC
US soldiers
© Military Index EssayUS Boots on the Ground
The Defense Department's top Asia official on Tuesday told Senate lawmakers that the war in Afghanistan will cost $45 billion this year.

Randall Schriver, the assistant secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific security affairs, said the figure includes roughly $13 billion for U.S. forces in the country, $5 billion for Afghan forces, $780 million for economic aid and the rest for logistical support.

Schriver was speaking before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in its first hearing on the war since President Trump announced a new Afghanistan strategy six months ago. The Pentagon official could not give a cost estimate for the new strategy.

Lawmakers were critical of the 2018 costs and questioned whether the administration's plan will force the Taliban to the table for peace talks and end the war, now in its 17th year.

Comment: And this is only one military operation's cost.

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Airplane

India claims approval of flights to Israel through SA airspace, Saudis deny report


Sputnik
Wed, 07 Feb 2018 20:11 UTC
India plane
© REUTERS/ Pascal Rossignol/KJN
Earlier, citing its sources in the Israeli flight industry, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported that Saudi Arabia had granted Air India permission to conduct direct flights from Delhi to Tel Aviv. According to Reuters, a spokesman for Saudi Arabia's General Authority of Civil Aviation denied the report, saying the agency had not given Air India approval to operate direct flights from Delhi to Tel Aviv.

If finally confirmed, a newly projected air route to Tel Aviv will be historic in every possible way: it'll cost passengers less money and time, but, most importantly, it will potentially signify a new era in Saudi-Israeli ties. The move would essentially mean that the flight duration would be reduced by two and a half hours compared to the current route, which would cut fuel costs and make tickets more affordable.

The only currently operating rival to Air India is Israeli El Al, which flies an 8-hour route to Mumbai via southern Yemen. As New Dehli is regarded as a new promising destination and has no direct routes to Israel, the airline will be getting a 750,000 euro grant for launching a new route.

Earlier, the airline sought Israel Airports Authority's approval for flights to and from Israel, but the question had not been seriously tabled until Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to India last month. The potential move is seen as a nod to India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi's influence in the region, who is due to arrive in the contested West Bank on February 10. Last year, he became the first Indian premier to go to Israel on an official visit.

Comment: Flights of fancy...something gained in translation?

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Light Sabers

Socialist David Alinsky wrote the ruthless rules that the radical and violent Left has adopted

S.Noble
Independent Sentinel
Sun, 04 Feb 2018 19:57 UTC
Antifa
© Amy Osborne/AFP/Getty ImagesRiot police stand before Antifa members and counter protesters during a rightwing No To Marxism rally on August 27, 2017 at Martin Luther King Jr. Park in Berkeley, California.
Socialist and Chicago thug Saul David Alinsky died decades before students of his ideology Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton reached the pinnacle of their careers. His insidious and ruthless methods put Machiavelli to shame.

They are devoid of conscience or limits.

Alinsky wrote Rules for Radicals for his demographic with an eye towards socializing the nation. It's a Socialist handbook to neuter the enemy.

The opening paragraph of the iconoclast's book dedicated to Lucifer explains his goal:

What follows is for those who want to change the world from what it is to what they believe it should be. The Prince was written by Machiavelli for the Haves on how to hold power. Rules for Radicals is written for the Have-Nots on how to take it away.
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Apple Green

Career opportunity? Texas man sought English teaching position with ISIS terrorists in Mosul


RT
Thu, 08 Feb 2018 12:48 UTC
Library University of Mosul
© Ahmed Jadallah / ReutersLibrary of the University of Mosul
A Texas man hoping to score a job with the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) sent the terrorist group a resume outlining why he'd be the best man for the job, according to a report by George Washington University.

"I am looking to get a position teaching English to students in the Islamic State," the jobseeker wrote in a letter to the 'Director' of a university in Mosul, northern Iraq. Warren Clark, who graduated from the University of Houston, referred to himself by his jihadi name, Abu Muhammad al-Ameriki, in his letter.

Clark went on to outline his experience teaching English, which includes a stint in Saudi Arabia. "I consider working at the University of Mosul to be a great way of continuing my career," he said. Mosul was an IS stronghold until it fell to coalition forces in July 2017.

"I am looking to get a position teaching English to students in The Islamic State," he wrote.
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