Society's ChildS


Blue Planet

Pakistan passes new anti-honor killing law - closes 'pardon' loophole, requires mandatory prison sentence


RT
Thu, 06 Oct 2016 16:17 UTC
Honor killings pakistan
© Aamir Qureshi / Agence France-PressePakistani human rights activists hold placards during a protest in Islamabad.
The Pakistani parliament has passed a new law against honor killings, closing a loophole that allows killers to be pardoned and avoid a prison sentence.

Under the previous legislation, the killer could seek forgiveness from a family member, which would effectively let them walk free. However, the new law passed on Thursday would only allow for this to happen if they were facing the death penalty, and even in that case they would still have to serve a jail term of 12 and a half years or more.


"No law will eradicate a crime entirely but the law should be a deterrent," former senator and author of the bill Sughra Imam said. "Laws are supposed to guide better behavior, not allow destructive behavior to continue with impunity."

A committee comprising lawmakers from both the upper and lower houses of parliament unanimously approved the bill which was voted on Thursday. The previous law, passed in 2005, stopped men from pardoning themselves as their murdered relative's heir, but this still left open the possibility of being pardoned by other members of the family.

"We have plugged all loopholes in the anti-honor killing legislation," said Law Minister Zaid Hamid.

Comment:

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Brain

15yrs into Afghan War: Psychologist warns 'veterans must not become a business' for health services


RT
Fri, 07 Oct 2016 16:13 UTC
UK soldiers in Afghanistan
© Dan Chung / Reuters
Mentally wounded military veterans must not come to be viewed as a business opportunity by charities and the NHS, a psychologist who works with military families has told RT.

In an exclusive interview, chartered psychologist Dr. Amanda-Jane Wood explained some of the achievements and failings of post-war mental health care and her hopes for a radical and holistic new way of dealing with wounded military minds.

Fifteen years since the UK commenced military operations in Afghanistan, there has been an upsurge in concern over mental health issues among veterans and serving personnel.

While exact figures are often heavily contested between charities, academics, medal professionals, and the Ministry of Defence (MoD), there are growing concerns about a post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) epidemic.

Comment: Of course stopping these illegal and unnecessary wars of aggression would be the ultimate step.

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Camera

Creeping surveillance state: NY to test facial recognition cameras at "crossing points"

Kevin Collier
Vocativ
Thu, 06 Oct 2016 14:18 UTC
Facial Recognition
© R. A. Di Ieso
New York will soon test facial recognition technology around Manhattan.

In a 35-minute speech detailing a landmark $100 billion investment into state infrastructure, largely focused on New York City and Long Island, Governor Andrew Cuomo made a number of promises that would thrill New Yorkers, like the promise of a renovated Penn Station, called Penn-Farley, a direct train from there to LaGuardia Airport, and the completion of the long-awaited Second Avenue Line. Oh, and facial recognition cameras around the city, he said:

"At each crossing, and at structurally sensitive points on bridges and tunnels, advanced cameras and sensors will be installed to read license plates and test emerging facial recognition software and equipment."

Comment: This increasing surveillance apparatus isn't going to stop state-sponsored terror nor will it do anything to stop lone wolves determined to cause harm, but it will be a very effective tool to scare people into being accepting of their fate as modern slaves.

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Caesar

Ave! New book marks Vladimir Putin's ascent to 'global cultural phenomenon'

Alec Luhn
The Guardian
Fri, 07 Oct 2016 11:58 UTC
Trump putin t-shirt
© AFP/Dominick RuterThe guy is everywhere! Putin merchandise shows up at US election rallies.
What can you get the man who has everything? In the case of Vladimir Putin, a pro-Kremlin website has decided the appropriate gift is a book of pop culture depictions of the Russian president, who celebrates his 64th birthday on Friday.

The book, In the Lead Role: Putin in Contemporary Culture, is 288 glossy pages of Putin in magazines and books, television and film, graffiti, sculpture, music and consumer goods. There are numerous photographs of public stunts in support of Putin, such as Russians holding letters reading "Happy birthday Vladimir", and the "I Will Rip It for Putin" rally at which young women tore off sleeveless undershirts with the president's face pictured in pink.

Since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, T-shirts and iPhone cases featuring Putin's image have become popular, found at any airport and in a new chain of army stores.


Comment: Alec, decorum, please! Since Crimea acceded to Russia in 2014...


putin book
'In the Lead Role: Putin in Contemporary Culture', by Viktor Levanov
Viktor Levanov, editor of the pro-Kremlin news site Gosindex, told journalists at a photo studio in downtown Moscow that the birthday book was meant to look at how Putin had "stepped outside the boundaries of personality and became a worldwide cultural phenomenon".

Comment: That's probably as close as the Guardian can come to wishing Putin a happy birthday. They HAVE to vilify him, but in the process they can't help but notice that the man is GLOBALLY POPULAR.

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Star

Police chief fired for no clear cause - after stopping the immoral 'war on drugs' in his city

Claire Bernish
Free Thought Project
Wed, 05 Oct 2016 21:34 UTC
police chief fired war on drugs
© Free Thought ProjectPolice Chief Leonard Campanello
Police Chief Leonard Campanello has been called a hero, a savior, and an innovator for opposing the war on drugs — implementing a program to assist addicts in his town — instead of arresting them and ruining their lives.

But he was just fired — under exceedingly vague circumstances.

"The war on drugs is over," Campanello previously declared in an interview. "And we lost. There is no way we can arrest our way out of this. We've been trying that for 50 years. We've been fighting it for 50 years, and the only thing that has happened is heroin has become cheaper and more people are dying."

Gloucester experienced an epidemic of heroin overdoses and addiction was rampant, until the chief came up with a spontaneous plan — allow anyone with a heroin addiction to walk into the police station, drugs and paraphernalia in hand, and assist them in getting help. No arrest necessary.

"If you are a user of opiates or heroin, let us help you," Campanello implored in a post to Facebook following news of yet another heroin overdose. "We know you do not want this addiction. We have resources here in the City that can and will make a difference in your life. Do not become a statistic."

Comment: One wonders perhaps whose local profits were being cut into by the police chief's program.

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Bell

"McDonald's, Hands Off My Buns": Employees protest sexual harassment in more than 30 American states


RT
Fri, 07 Oct 2016 05:26 UTC
Jim Young/Reuters
© Jim Young/Reuters
Female workers at McDonald's are sick of being treated like meat. They are accusing the Golden Arches of not protecting employees against sexual harassment. Backed by the minimum wage campaign "Fight for $15," workers are taking to the streets to demand better treatment.

McDonald's claims to have a zero tolerance policy towards sexual harassment, but over a dozen sexual harassment complaints against the fast food giant paint a different story. In the past month alone, 15 different sexual harassment complaints have been filled with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) against McDonald's.


Comment: McDonald's has 1.9 million employees...should this be an advertisement for how good the company's zero tolerance policy is?


As a result, workers in 30 US cities joined in a lunchtime protest to draw attention to what some believe is a widespread problem. Protesters held demonstrations outside of the restaurant, where they held up signs reading, "McDonald's, Hands Off My Buns," and "McDonald's, Put Some Respect in My Check."
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Crusader

German far-right leader likens societies with migrants to 'compost heaps', sez Merkel is a poor leader because she has no kids


RT
Fri, 07 Oct 2016 05:22 UTC
Leonhard Foeger/Reuters
© Leonhard Foeger/Reuters
The head of Germany's anti-immigration AfD party Frauke Petry has compared a society incorporating migrants to a "compost heap," triggering a barrage of criticism from the country's politicians.

Taking a stand against the idea that migrants make societies more diverse, leader of German anti-immigrant and Eurosceptic Alternative for Germany (AfD) party Frauke Petry said: "What should we make of the campaign 'Germany is Colorful'? A compost heap is colorful, too," Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported. Petry made the comments while giving a speech in Stuttgart, southwest Germany on Monday.

She harshly criticized the statements made by other politicians who said migrants made the country more "colorful." Blasting the notion of a "colorful" Germany she argued for a more "homogenous" nation instead.
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Cult

CIA claims ability to predict 'societal instability' anywhere, just days before it happens


RT
Fri, 07 Oct 2016 05:18 UTC
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director John Brennan Gary Cameron/Reuters
© CIA Director John Brennan, Gary Cameron/Reuters
"Three to five days" is all the time the CIA needs to predict the "development of social unrest" in many cases, the agency's newest office deputy director says. Open source data and deep learning algorithms are behind the forecasts built for policymakers.

Out of the Directorate for Digital Innovation, the CIA's first new official division in over a half-century, comes a whole new kind of secretive data gathering.

In less than a year since its opening, the office has "significantly improved its 'anticipatory intelligence," according to NextGov, which co-hosted an event featuring the CIA's Deputy Director for Digital Innovation, Andrew Hallman, at a conference earlier this week.

Comment: Total information awareness? Or supreme wishful thinking?

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USA

Police killing of a black man you never heard of before: Perry Jones, 19

Katherine Reed
ExtraNewsfeed
Wed, 28 Sep 2016 00:00 UTC
blacks killed
Every time a black person gets killed by a cop in America, I think about Perry Jones.

He was 19 years old and apparently homeless when he climbed onto the roof of a barbecue shack in Columbus, Georgia, shimmied down the chimney and hacked some meat out of a freezer with a cleaver. When he climbed up and out onto the roof of the restaurant, it was surrounded by cops — nine, by one officer's count.

A sergeant who was an excellent shot and had recently won a sharpshooting competition took a bead on Perry Jones and killed him as he stood up there on the roof — no more than eight feet from the ground.

The next day, it was my job as the morning police reporter for the Columbus Ledger to write about what had happened. All these years later, I still remember feeling shocked when the police department's internal affairs department quickly declared the shooting justified. I'm not sure Perry Jones had even been buried.

The NAACP was also shocked. How, the organization asked at a news conference, could the police have possibly determined in such a short time that the shooting was justified? The organization demanded an inquest into the young man's death.

The coroner, a guy named Don Kilgore (can't make this stuff up), agreed to perform an inquest if the family agreed.
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Family

Listening to a Trump supporter I know

David A Hill Jr
ExtraNewsfeed
Mon, 03 Oct 2016 00:00 UTC
populism
I talked at length with a Trump supporter I grew up around. I wanted to understand. I respected her growing up. I wanted to know why a person as kind and compassionate as I remember her is voting for someone like Donald Trump.

She was a family friend, a good person. In rural Ohio, everything was tight. Money, jobs. If you really needed quick cash, she'd put you to work doing landscaping. She'd pay fairly and reliably for the area.

She's voting for Donald Trump. I disagree with her choice, but I understand why she rejects Clinton so fiercely, and why she's been swept up in Donald Trump's particular brand of right-wing populism. I feel that on the left, it's increasingly easy to ignore these people, to disregard them, to write them off as racists, bigots, or uneducated. I think that's a loss for everyone involved, and that sometimes listening can help you to at least understand why a person is making the choices they make, so you can work on the root causes. For her, the root cause isn't racism. In fact, I remember her as one of the only people in the area who proudly hired black workers, in a place where that was a huge issue. She fought over that choice.

But that's enough background. Let me relay a bit of what she told me.

Comment: Michael Krieger had this to say about the above article:
The more deeply I think about this election, the more I agree that the above sentiments motivate Trump voters far more than feelings of racism or hate. As I noted in a piece published a few weeks ago, The Status Quo vs. Donald Trump:
This isn't about me. This is about the American voter, and the more time passes, the more I understand the motivations of the vast majority of Trump supporters. It isn't xenophobia or racism, it's a vote against the status quo and the way they've strip mined and destroyed this country. It's a FU vote and a major gamble, but it's not as irrational or hateful as you might think.
This doesn't mean that Trump won't betray his supporters and prove to be the Republican version of Barack Obama, but it does mean that the dominant media narrative characterizing Trump supporters as a bunch of racist, uneducated brutes is pretty much just dishonest, elitist propaganda.


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