Society's ChildS


Handcuffs

Invisible Children Co-Founder Detained

Jason Russell
Jason Russell is shown in this NBCSanDiego interview after he launched the KONY 2012 campaign.

A co-founder for Invisible Children was detained in Pacific Beach on Thursday for being drunk in public and masturbating, according to the San Diego Police Department.
Jason Russell, 33, was allegedly found masturbating in public, vandalizing cars and possibly under the influence of something, according to the SDPD. He was detained at the intersection of Ingraham Street and Riviera Road.

An SDPD spokesperson said the man detained was acting very strange, some may say bizarre. Video: SDPD statement

"Due to the nature of the detention, he was not arrested," Lt. Andra Brown said. "During the evaluation we learned we probably needed to take him to a medical facility because of statements he was saying."

Police said they received several calls Thursday at 11:30 a.m. of a man in various stages of undress, running through traffic and screaming.

People

Lost Principles And Social Destruction

no peace

...we are here dealing with a totalitarian state of which the philosophy included an utter contempt for the individual... any freedom of thought or action was inconceivable in the Aztec world... dependence and instability were absolute, fear reigned. Death lurked ceaselessly everywhere, and constituted the cement of the building in which the individual Aztec was prisoner... Clearly the spirituality of some aspects of Aztec life must have sprung from an old pre-Aztec tradition, later betrayed... -- Laurette Sejourne ('Burning Water')

The life of a nation, of a culture, is sustained by very few but very critical social circumstances. These pillars must stand strong, maintained with the utmost care and caution; as one would fight to maintain the beat of his own heart. If these vital foundations are dissolved or destroyed, the nation and the people contained within are subject to the most heinous of generational afflictions. The citizenry and all that nurtures their progress begins to die. Slowly suffocating in a corrosive atmosphere of dishonor, men turn toward pure self interest at the expense of their greater selves, giving rise to hatred, desperation, and an environment of disturbed malleability that is easily exploited by those who seek power.

Eventually, the entire edifice comes crashing down, sometimes so far into the pits of black and terrible times that it is all but lost, even to memory....

As I look out past the near horizon of this time, and this nation, I see considerable potential for a revitalization of that which is best in humanity. I see a population that strives for independence. I see a return to the entrepreneurial spirit of discovery. I see unhindered freedom of thought and action feeding a fire of creativity that inspires us to unimaginable heights. I see new expression given license not just by the masses, but by structures of a government which truly follows the will of the common man, and not the will of an elite few. I see America breathing full, eyes wide open and alive.

However, this potential future would have to come at a considerable cost.

Attention

Vatican Opens Rare Criminal Probe Into Leaks

Pope
© Reuters/Tony GentilePope Benedict XVI waves during his Wednesday general audience in Saint Peter's Square at the Vatican March 14, 2012.

The Vatican has opened an extremely rare criminal investigation into embarrassing leaks of top-level sensitive documents alleging corruption and mismanagement in several of its departments.

The investigation, announced in the Vatican newspaper on Friday, will be carried out by an internal tribunal in a bid to find out who leaked the material.

A separate, administrative investigation will be conducted by the Secretariat of State, which manages Vatican bureaucracy. Pope Benedict had also ordered a "high-level commission" to shed light on the affair, the newspaper said.

The scandal, which has come to be known as "Vatileaks," involves the leaking of a string of sensitive documents to Italian media in January and February, including personal letters to the pope.

The two investigations and the establishment of the papal commission were announced in an interview with Archbishop Angelo Becciu, the deputy secretary of state.

Becciu denounced the leakers as cowardly and disloyal people who took advantage of their privileged position to leak documents "whose privacy they had an obligation to respect". The archbishop said the pope was very "hurt" by the leaks.

Becciu also rejected media portrayals of the Curia, the Vatican's central administration, as being populated by ambitious clerics more interested in advancing their careers than serving the Church.

Criminal investigations are very rare in the Vatican.

One of the most sensational was opened after Cedric Tornay, a 23-year-old Swiss Guard who had been turned down for a promotion, killed his commander and the commander's wife before committing suicide.

The Vatican investigator determined that Tornay had acted in a "fit of madness".

Heart

An ex-bullfighter tells why he became an animal rights activist

Álvaro Múnera
Alvaro Munera - Make the Connection

"And suddenly, I looked at the bull. He had this innocence that all animals have in their eyes, and he looked at me with this pleading. It was like a cry for justice, deep down inside of me. I describe it as being like a prayer - because if one confesses, it is hoped, that one is forgiven. I felt like the worst shit on earth."

This photo shows the collapse of Torrero Alvaro Munera, as he realized in the middle of the his fight the injustice to the animal. From that day forward he became an opponent of bullfights.

Múnera became a hardcore animal rights defender and nothing less than the Antichrist for tauromachy [the art of bullfighting] aficionados. He currently works in the Council of the City of Medellín, using his position to defend the rights of disabled people and to promote anti-bullfighting campaigns.

Green Light

Greece develops cashless, Euro-free currency in tight economy

greek,cafe

In recent weeks, Theodoros Mavridis has bought fresh eggs, tsipourou (the local brandy: beware), fruit, olives, olive oil, jam, and soap. He has also had some legal advice, and enjoyed the services of an accountant to help fill in his tax return.

None of it has cost him a euro, because he had previously done a spot of electrical work - repairing a TV, sorting out a dodgy light - for some of the 800-odd members of a fast-growing exchange network in the port town of Volos, midway between Athens and Thessaloniki.

In return for his expert labour, Mavridis received a number of Local Alternative Units (known as tems in Greek) in his online network account. In return for the eggs, olive oil, tax advice and the rest, he transferred tems into other people's accounts.

Heart - Black

Hunger: The Real Irish American Story Not Taught in Schools

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© unk
"Wear green on St. Patrick's Day or get pinched." That pretty much sums up the Irish American "curriculum" that I learned when I was in school. Yes, I recall a nod to the so-called Potato Famine, but it was mentioned only in passing.

Sadly, today's high school textbooks continue to largely ignore the famine, despite the fact that it was responsible for unimaginable suffering and the deaths of more than a million Irish peasants, and that it triggered the greatest wave of Irish immigration in U.S. history. Nor do textbooks make any attempt to help students link famines past and present.

Yet there is no shortage of material that can bring these dramatic events to life in the classroom. In my own high school social studies classes, I begin with Sinead O'Connor's haunting rendition of "Skibbereen," which includes the verse:
... Oh it's well I do remember, that bleak

December day,

The landlord and the sheriff came, to drive

Us all away

They set my roof on fire, with their cursed

English spleen

And that's another reason why I left old

Skibbereen.

Beer

Houston Teen Killed at 'Project X'-Inspired Party


US, Texas - A spring break rave in a Houston mansion that was meant to emulate a movie turned deadly early Wednesday morning after several attendees fired guns, killing one person as police tried to break up the party.

The unidentified male victim suffered multiple gunshot wounds and died at Ben Taub General Hospital, Houston police told ABCNews.com.

The party, which attracted between 500 and 1,000 guests, was meant to copy the party thrown in Project X.

The 2012 movie follows three high school students who throw the ultimate "anything goes" party that spirals out of control. While a damaged home and a bad hangover may be the only consequences partygoers faced in the movie, a string of copycat parties have caused over $100,000 in real damage, handfuls of arrests and the Houston fatality.

Daniel Menjivara, a 22-year-old college student, said Project X and the fact it was spring break were the reasons he and many others attended the Houston house party. Menjivara said he was "the exception" at the party and was surprised to find the crowd was mostly composed of teenagers.

"The house got pretty full. You could barely move around," he said.

Eye 2

Psychiatrist Says Man Who Killed His Children is Ready for Release

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© The Canadian Press/Montreal La Presse/HOGuy Turcotte holds his daughter Anne-Sophie in an undated handout photo.
Canada, Montreal - A psychiatrist says a man who fatally stabbed his children dozens of times in 2009 is fit to be released from a mental hospital.

Louis Morissette said Thursday that Guy Turcotte has changed considerably and is not the same man as before.

Turcotte was found not criminally responsible in the deaths of his five-year-old son Olivier and his three-year-old daughter Anne-Sophie.

He admitted causing the deaths in February 2009 but denied intent.

Turcotte said he was distraught over the breakup of his marriage and didn't remember commiting the act.

Morissette was testifying at hearings on whether to release Turcotte from a psychiatric hospital or keep him there for another year.

House

Families in Spain Face Eviction Over Stranger Loans

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© Agence France-PresseEcuadoran homeowner Kelly Herrera waits to be evicted from her house in Madrid.
Fighting eviction for failing to pay the mortgage on his home in Spain's capital, Nelson Castillo is now grappling not only with his own debts but also those of a family he does not know.

The 39-year-old and his wife acted as guarantors of another Ecuadoran family's loan under a programme run by an agency that negotiated loans for immigrants.

In return, that family acted as the guarantor for Castillo's loan.

Now, both families are in arrears.

And each of them is legally responsible for its own loan and for the loan it guaranteed.

"We were two families and we did not know each other. Ecuadorans are like that. We had to sign the papers and that's it. Goodbye, and each side went its own way," said Castillo.

Light Saber

Best of the Web: Millions of Syrians Demonstrate Support for Syrian Leadership

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In a national scene conveying a message to the whole world of the Syrian people's commitment to national unity away from foreign interferences and dictates, millions of Syrians on Thursday streamed into the homeland's streets and squares throughout the provinces in a global march for Syria.

Waving Syrian flags and banners with national slogans on them, the jubilant participants voiced rejection of foreign interference in the Syrian people's internal affairs and support to the comprehensive reform program led by President Bashar al-Assad to build the renewed Syria.

The reverberating echoes of pro-Syria and pro-leadership chants were heard all through the Umayyad square in Damascus, and Saba Bahrat Square in Deir Ezzor, Saadallah al-Jaberi Square in Aleppo, al-Mohafazeh Square in Lattakia and al-Raqqa, along the cornice in Tartous, the President Square in Hasaka, al-Baladieh in Misyaf, the main street of Salhab, the Post roundabout in Daraa and the neighborhoods of al-Zahra, al-Nuzha, al-Hadara and al-Sheirat in Homs.