Society's ChildS


Cross

Disgusting sexual predators: Over 4,000 children alleged victims of Catholic Church sex abuse in Australia since 1980


RT
Mon, 06 Feb 2017 14:36 UTC
child shame
© imago stock&people / Global Look Press
More than 4,000 children, mostly boys, were allegedly sexually abused by Catholic priests in Australia over decades, an investigation says, adding that since the 1950s some 7 percent of priests in the country were alleged perpetrators.

The report was released on Monday by the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

The commission will resume its public hearing into the current policies of the Catholic Church on Tuesday.

The investigation analyzed all types of claims of sexual abuse, including against former priests, "religious brothers or sisters, or any other person employed in or appointed to a voluntary position by a Catholic Church authority."

"Between January 1980 and February 2015, 4,444 people alleged incidents of child sexual abuse made to 93 Catholic Church authorities. These claims related to over 1,000 separate institutions," the report says.
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Cow

Team US track and field athlete cleared of doping after 'contaminated meat' defense


RT
Mon, 06 Feb 2017 12:35 UTC
Fernando Cabada
© FacebookFernando Cabada
Team USA distance runner Fernando Cabada has been cleared of doping after the United States Doping Agency (USADA) ruled he had ingested banned drug clenbuterol by eating contaminated meat.

Track and field athlete Cabada, who competed at the 2007 World Championships in Osaka, Japan, tested positive for trace amounts of clenbuterol as the result of an out-of-competition urine sample he provided on December 6, 2016.

However, after an investigation that gathered evidence from Cabada and reviewed the athlete's whereabouts and dietary habits, USADA adjudged Cabada to have ingested clenbuterol due to the presence of the substance in contaminated meat.

Clenbuterol is an anabolic agent prohibited at all times under the USADA protocol for Olympic and Paralympic Movement Testing, the United States Olympic Committee National Anti-Doping Policies, and the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).

Evidence from laboratory reports also demonstrated very low parts per billion concentrations of the prohibited substance in Cabada's urine sample.
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Pistol

Flint, MI: Active shooter threat closes Mott Community College


RT
Mon, 06 Feb 2017 14:35 UTC
mott community college
© Mott Community College / Facebook
Mott Community College in Flint, Michigan, has been closed due to what the college is calling an "active shooter threat," it tweeted.

The threat was made in the morning, prompting the closure until 1pm local time, according to the report.

The police are handling the situation at the college campus, reported local channel WJRT.


The college has several campuses, with the main one affected by the alert boasting a student body of about 8,000.

"Continue to check email, social media and the college web site for updates before traveling to campus locations," the college said on its Facebook page.
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Heart - Black

Italian 'orgy & pimping' priest faces defrocking


RT
Mon, 06 Feb 2017 14:19 UTC
Catholic priests
© Kai Pfaffenbach / Reuters
An Italian Catholic priest - who is at the center of a scandal alleging he staged orgies, had up to 30 lovers and produced home porn videos - will most likely lose his job regardless of an investigation's findings, the Bishop of Padua said.

The scandal involving Father Andrea Contin, a 48-year-old priest at the church of San Lazzaro in Padua, broke in December 2016. Since then media have released some very unholy details of his clerical life.

"I am incredulous and pained by the accusations [against Contin]," Padua's bishop, Claudio Cipolla, said at a press conference on Thursday, as cited by the Local. He added that his position was like "a father of a son who has fallen into disgrace."
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Heart - Black

How Transgender Activists Got a Leading Psychologist Fired

Jesse Singal
NY Mag
Mon, 06 Feb 2017 13:33 UTC
Kenneth Zucker transgender psychologist
© Jim Ross/The New York TimesDr. Kenneth Zucker, a psychologist, is pictured at the Center for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto in 2006. Zucker encourages children to be content with their gender.
On paper, Dr. Kenneth Zucker isn't the sort of person who gets suddenly and unceremoniously fired. For decades, the 65-year-old psychologist had led the Child Youth and Family Gender Identity Clinic (GIC), in Toronto, one of the most well-known clinics in the world for children and adolescents with gender dysphoria — that is, the feeling that the body they were born with doesn't fit their true gender identity. Zucker had built up quite a CV during his time leading the clinic: In addition to being one of the most frequently cited names in the research literature on gender dysphoria and gender-identity development, and the editor of the prestigious journal Archives of Sexual Behavior, he took a leading role helping devise diagnostic and treatment guidelines for gender dysphoric and transgender individuals. He headed the group which developed the DSM-5's criteria for its "gender dysphoria" entry, for example, and also helped write the most recent "standards of care" guidelines for the World Professional Association for Transgender Health — one of the bibles for clinicians who treat transgender and gender-dysphoric patients.

An impressive career, yes, but it's doubtful any of this gave him much comfort on December 15. That was when he was called in from vacation for an 8:30 a.m. meeting with his employer, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), one of the largest mental health and addiction research hospitals in Canada. Given the long-brewing investigation of his clinic by the hospital, it's unlikely Zucker was feeling optimistic about what awaited him in downtown Toronto.

Comment: The madness continues, see:

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Stock Up

Jack Ma founder of Alibaba warns 'If trade stops, war starts'


RT
Mon, 06 Feb 2017 14:10 UTC
Executive chairman of Alibaba Group, Jack Ma.
© Sam Yeh / AFPExecutive chairman of Alibaba Group, Jack Ma.
Retreat from globalization will only result in trouble, warned China's second richest man Jack Ma during a visit to Australia.

"Everybody is concerned about trade wars. If trade stops, war starts," he said in Melbourne, where the e-commerce giant Alibaba opened its Australia and New Zealand headquarters.

"But worry doesn't solve the problem. The only thing you can do is get involved and actively prove that trade helps people to communicate," said Alibaba's CEO, as quoted by Business Insider Australia.
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Black Cat 2

Taiwan bans euthanasia of stray animals in shelters


Channel News Asia
Sun, 05 Feb 2017 16:47 UTC
Animal euthanasia in Taiwan
© AFP/Sam YehA protester holds a picture of dead dogs during a demonstration in front of the Taiwan government's agriculture council, in Taipei, in 2013.
Taiwan has banned euthanising animals in shelters, which follows the tragic suicide last year of a vet burdened with the task of putting down animals.

The law came into effect Saturday (Feb 4), two years after it was passed by parliament - a period meant to prepare shelters for the ban.

But during the wait, animal lover Chien Chih-cheng took her own life with euthanasia drugs, reportedly upset at having to kill animals at the shelter she worked at. Reports at the time said Chien was called a "butcher" by activists. Her death sparked calls for authorities to improve conditions for animals and staff at shelters.

An animal welfare group, Life Conservationist Association, estimated more than 1.2 million animals not adopted from shelters have been put down since 1999.

"Animal protection in Taiwan has moved towards a new milestone," the association's executive director Ho Tsung-hsun said in a statement. But Taiwan's Council of Agriculture warned the ban would lead to a deterioration in the quality of shelters through a surging intake or it may discourage the capture of strays.
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Alarm Clock

Four Texas fraternities suspended under reports of hazing, party where 20-year-old student found dragged to death

Kelsey Bradshaw
San Antonio Express-News
Sun, 05 Feb 2017 19:53 UTC
Jordin Taylor
© Courtesy/TwitterJordin Taylor
Memorandums sent to four fraternities at Texas State detailing their suspensions — one for up to 5 years — shed new light on the events of an October party held at the same venue a female student was found dead under a bus.

A university investigation found Pi Kappa Alpha, Alpha Tau Omega, Kappa Alpha Order and Delta Tau Delta each participated in hazing and serving minors, among other violations including submitting false documents to Texas State, according to the memorandums obtained by mySA.com.

Local law enforcement agencies called to Cool River Ranch for the Oct. 28, 2016 party found vomit in the facility's bathrooms, and passed out party-goers throughout the area. Additionally, the university investigation revealed that EMS officials were called to the party the night before a 20-year-old was found dead.

"The investigation found that attendees were intoxicated to the point of being unconscious as they laid on the ground or being intoxicated to the point of throwing up," each memorandum states.

In the notice sent to Alpha Tau Omega, officials said the fraternity was found to have texted a chapter member to tell university officials that the party was not one of their events, drinks were not being served from the bar and that everyone had their own drinks. However, the investigation found the fraternities were responsible for serving beer and boxed wine at the event.
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USA

South Carolina elects its first openly gay legislator

Seanna Adcox
The State
Sat, 04 Feb 2017 22:21 UTC
Rep. Jason Elliot
© Sean Rayford/APState Rep. Jason Elliott, South Carolina’s first openly gay lawmaker, represents a portion of Greenville that includes conservative Bob Jones University in the S.C. House.
South Carolina's first openly gay legislator hails from the unlikeliest of places: an ultra-conservative part of the state that is home to the Christian fundamentalist school Bob Jones University.

Republican Rep. Jason Elliott, a 46-year-old divorce attorney, said his sexual orientation was not an issue in his campaign and is irrelevant to his job at the Statehouse, as his focus will be on improving education, increasing jobs and repairing the state's crumbling roads and bridges. He expects his votes to align with his GOP colleagues.

"Every South Carolinian has equal rights, not special rights, and I believe each part of the constitution is equally important," he said. "In South Carolina, that means respecting other people's viewpoints and protecting religious freedom."

Elliott ousted four-term GOP incumbent Rep. Wendy Nanney, a Bob Jones graduate and daughter of the university's longtime academic dean.

Deeply Republican South Carolina is now the 43rd state to have an openly gay legislator. Elliott does not view his election as particularly significant.
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Stock Down

Economic analysis shows income inequality growing in US, but not as the result of globalization

Max Roser and Stefan Thewissen
Vox
Fri, 03 Feb 2017 10:00 UTC
boy in camden nj
© Spencer Platt / GettyA scene from Camden, NJ.
Boosting inclusive economic growth was one of the few issues on which Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump at least purported to agree. Clinton said she wanted to build a "growth-and-fairness economy," emphasizing that "you can't have one without the other." Donald Trump argued that "no one will gain more" from his America First Economic Plan proposals "than low-and-middle income Americans." And Bernie Sanders based his entire campaign on the distributional battle between the very rich and the middle class.

Inclusive growth is a hotly debated topic in the global context as well. Consider Branko Milanovic and Christoph Lakner's famous Elephant Curve (so named because of its shape). It reveals strong growth at the mean of the global income distribution (in the neighborhood of $5 to $15 a day), and among the top 1 percent (the truly rich), but identifies stagnation in the 80 to 85 percent region (which is where the bottom half of residents of most developed countries would fall.)

We know the United States faces challenges on the subject of inclusive growth. But how has the US performed compared to other rich countries? To answer these questions, we have to think about how we measure income growth. GDP per capita is usually the first metric people use for this purpose. Yet, growth in GDP per capita does not tell us anything about the extent to which growth is shared among the population.

Comment: This data would suggest then that it's been the government administrations (the Bush/Clinton/Obama dynasty) that have been in power in the US that have been contributing to the growing income inequality.

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