Society's ChildS


Smoking

100,000 sign petition against smoking ban in Russia


Russia Today
Sat, 17 May 2014 18:51 UTC
Smoking
© RIA Novosti/Alexandr KryazhevCould cigarettes contain the latest clue to an anti-ageing drug?
100,000 signatures have been collected for the petition calling Russian lawmakers to backpedal on the smoking ban. Also, restaurants and bars have found a way to partially avoid the ban that's due to come into effect on June 1.

The Association of Restaurateurs and Hoteliers of Russia that unites over 3,000 food and beverage establishments is also demanding to postpone or cancel the ban on smoking in restaurants, cafes and bars.

The organization, along with the all-Russia movement "For the rights of smokers," has drafted a list of amendments to the legislation and launched a petition, which collected 100,000 signatures in favor of the changes.
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Dollar

Millions of taxpayer dollars wasted on Obamacare websites that still don't work

Lily Dane
The Daily Sheeple
Tue, 13 May 2014 16:18 UTC
obamacare cartoon
© Joe Heller
Obamacare was officially launched nearly seven months ago, and there are still four states that still have broken exchanges.

Maryland, Massachusetts, Oregon and Nevada have spent $474 federal tax dollars on their websites so far, and will likely spend far more repairing them, or on moving them to the federal exchange.

The Fiscal Times reported the numbers, and they are shocking:
Maryland will spend an additional $40 million to save its website, which has already cost $90 million. Nevada has spent $50 million to date and will decide in the coming weeks how much more it will spend on repair efforts. Massachusetts will pour an additional $121 million into fixing its severely troubled state portal, while also using the federal portal as a back up plan.

Meanwhile, Oregon's website, which already cost $259 million, is so troubled that the state has opted to scrap the site entirely and spend an extra $5 million to use Healthcare.gov instead. CoverOregon executives said repairing their website would cost an additional $75 million.
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Bullseye

Comedian Rob Schneider: We are sliding very fast towards fascism

Chris Stigall
CBS News - Philadelphia
Fri, 02 May 2014 10:20 UTC
Image
© Noel Vasquez/Getty Images
Chris Stigall spoke with comedian Rob Schneider on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT about the struggle comedians face in today's current political environment.

Schneider struck on ominous tone when discussing the path he sees the country on.

"Democracies don't end well. We are sliding very fast towards fascism. It's an ugly kind of thing. There's this kind of mob mentality that we have to be careful of," he said.

He believes comedians are pressured toward one side of the political spectrum.

"There's a polarization that's happening...I do think you look can look at government and go, 'Wow, it is out of control now,' and if you do criticize or tend to be not directly along a liberal stand, you can get murdered," Schneider commented.

Schneider was very critical of the President's handling of the economy and he feels certain policies are impacting businesses.
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Snakes in Suits

Snakes in suits: Turkish politician reveals his true nature by kicking mining disaster protester

Harriet Sherwood
The Guardian
Thu, 15 May 2014 08:51 UTC
Image
© APYusuf Yerkel kicks a protester already held by special forces.
Incident came as Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was jostled by crowds during visit to scene of country's worst mining disaster

His face contorted in anger, a man in a suit and tie takes aim for a running kick at a protester pinned to the ground by two soldiers.

Yusef Yerkel, an aide to the Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, was photographed making the violent assault during a visit to the town of Soma, the scene of the country's worst ever mining disaster. He kicked the man three or four times, according to Turkish media.

The image of Yerkel - a former PhD student at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies - caused a furious response on social media and could fuel anti-government protests in the aftermath of the mining accident. He later promised that an explanation of the incident would be delivered in a statement on Thursday.

The incident happened on Wednesday as Erdoğan was jostled by a large angry crowd as he tried to enter a building. Amid jeers, whistling and chanting, security aides were forced to hold back protesters to allow a visibly shaken Erdoğan to pass.
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Bacon

The meat crisis is here: Price of shrimp up 61% - 7 million pigs dead - beef at all-time high

Michael Snyder
The Economic Collaspe
Thu, 15 May 2014 07:25 UTC
As the price of meat continues to skyrocket, will it soon be considered a "luxury item" for most American families? This week we learned that the price of meat in the United States rose at the fastest pace in more than 10 years last month. Leading the way is the price of shrimp. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the price of shrimp has jumped an astounding 61 percent compared to a year ago. The price of pork is also moving upward aggressively thanks to a disease which has already killed about 10 percent of all of the pigs in the entire country. And the endless drought in the western half of the country has caused the size of the U.S. cattle herd to shrink to a 63 year low and has pushed the price of beef to an all-time high. This is really bad news if you like to eat meat. The truth is that the coming "meat crisis" is already here, and it looks like it is going to get a lot worse in the months ahead.

A devastating bacterial disease called "early mortality syndrome" is crippling the shrimping industry all over Asia right now. According to Bloomberg, this has pushed the price of shrimp up 61 percent over the past 12 months...
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Stormtrooper

Cops gone mad! Taser 10-year-old boy at day care center

Matt Savoy
Free Thought Project
Sat, 17 May 2014 06:50 UTC
Image
Never could I imagine a situation in which two grown men would need to taser a 94 pound, 10 year old child to subdue him. But apparently Indiana police can.

In the video below, the shill for the police department tries to spin the situation and somehow justify the actions of these two overzealous cops. It is laughable and equally daunting to think that someone can get on television with a straight face and say that tasering a child could somehow have been called for in any situation.

Luckily SWAT wasn't called in and the other children at the daycare weren't forced on to the ground at gun point or dismembered by German shepherds.
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Footprints

Descendants of ex-Soviet Germans ready to return to Crimea

Lyudmila Alexandrova
ITAR-TASS
Sat, 17 May 2014 03:18 UTC
Crimea
© ITAR-TASS/Valery Sharifulin
Descendants of ex-Soviet Germans, who were deported from Crimea to remote parts of the USSR at the beginning of World War II battles on the Soviet front, would like to return to the Crimean Peninsula, their historical homeland. Their hopes for this have been sparked by the Russian President's decree on honoring the rights of deported ethnic groups.

More than 2,500 people have already asked the Republican Society of Crimean Germans to help them resettle to Crimea. Before the 1940's, the German townships were mostly located on the territory of today's Krasnogvardeisky and Sovietsky districts and even all the paperwork at official agencies there was done in German then.

"Descendants of the Germans whose parents lived and worked in Crimea before the outbreak of combat operations on the Soviet territory are now asking to let them come back," Alexei Nusbaum, a deputy chairman of the Crimean Germans Society told the Komsomolskaya Pravda daily.
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Light Sabers

People action! Italian peace activists to protest against EU support for neo-Nazi Ukrain junta


RIA Novosti
Sat, 17 May 2014 02:46 UTC
Neo-Nazis in Ukraine
© Unknown
Italian peace activists will gather in Rome to protest against the EU support for the Kiev government which they see as neo-Nazist, Italian antiwar activist Marinella Correggia from the No-War Network told RIA Novosti Friday.

"Several Italian organizations are concerned about the behavior of the European Union and US which supported coup d'état in Ukraine and then closed the eyes on the neo-Nazist and fascist organizations which are collateral to the new so-called government of Kiev," Correggia said. "The EU and US criticized Crimea for its referendum on independence, but they closed eyes on the criminal act of the neo-Nazist groups in Odessa."

Thousands of people are expected to join the demonstration in Rome starting at 6:00 pm local time (4:00 pm GMT). Similar demonstrations were held in Naples last Friday and in Rome earlier this week. May 17 demonstration however is expected to be the largest.

Correggia said Italian peace organizations, trade unions and social organizations will be part of the Saturday event, as well as members of the Russian community in Italy.

"The media did not speak enough about that criminal act and the fire in that building of Trade Union in Odessa, at the same time EU and US criticize Moscow for I don't know exactly what," Marinella Correggia told RIA Novosti. "In spite of negative information in the Italian media, different groups understood what was happening," she added.
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Stormtrooper

Latvian mayor complains about NATO sailors: They behave like occupiers


RT
Sat, 17 May 2014 02:20 UTC
NATO warship
© Reuters/Fabian BimmerDutch mine hunter "Makkum" (R), departs as part of the Standing NATO Mine Counter-Measures Group ONE (SNMGMG1) in the harbour of Kiel, April 22, 2014.
Crewmembers of NATO warships deployed to the Latvian port city of Ventspils are behaving like occupying forces, who don't consider local laws apply to them, the mayor of the city charged. This discredits the alliance in the eyes of Latvians, he added.

"NATO sailors in Ventspils were behaving like pigs, ignored Latvian laws and municipal rules," Aivars Lembergs told LETA news agency. "Drunk, they urinated in public, right on shop windows, vomited, drank in public, which is not allowed. They picked flowers from flowerbeds and gave them to prostitutes."

Lembergs, a vocal critic of Latvia's cooperation with NATO, added that the foreign military personnel "behaved like occupiers, who do not recognize Latvia's sovereignty."

The unflattering description comes as the mayor was commenting on an incident in Ventspils, in which several NATO sailors clashed with locals at a night club last weekend. One of the sailors, a 21-year-old Dutch national, sustained serious injuries and had to be taken to hospital with several broken face bones and a concussion.
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Airplane Paper

Military plane with top officials and defence minister aboard crashes in Laos


Voice of Russia
Sat, 17 May 2014 01:28 UTC
Laos plane crash
© RIA Novosti
Military plane with 18 people aboard including the defence minister and other government officials crashed today in northeastern Laos, a Thai diplomat said. According to the diplomat in Vientiane, the aircraft left the capital early Saturday heading to Xiangkhouang Province for an official ceremony but crashed before landing.

The 18 people include Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Douangchay Phichit, his wife and Vientiane governor Sukan Mahalad, according to the diplomat.

The Lao government has not confirmed casualties, but local media reported some people survived the crash, the diplomat said.
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