Society's ChildS


Beer

Drunken navigator shares blame in Russian jet crash

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© Reuters/Timur Khanov/Komsomolskaya Pravda Emergency Ministry members work at the site of the Tupolev-134 plane crash outside the northern Russian city of Petrozavodsk June 21, 2011.
The carelessness of a "lightly" drunken navigator contributed to a plane crash that killed 47 people in Russia in June, investigators said in a report released on Monday.

The Tu-134 jet plowed into treetops, overturned and slammed into the ground while trying to land in fog at the airport in the northern city of Petrozavodsk, the first in a string of Russian air accidents in recent months.

In its report, the Interstate Aviation Committee said the plane crashed because the crew had failed to abort the landing even though the pilot could not see lights and other markers on the ground as the jet descended.

That error followed others made by crew members including the 50-year-old navigator, who "conducted the flight in a state of light alcoholic intoxication", the report said.

He had a blood alcohol content of 0.081 percent, it said -- just over the legal limit for driving in Britain and many U.S. states, although Russia has a zero tolerance policy for drivers.

Newspaper

US: "Banks Got Bailed Out; We Got Sold Out" -- Day of Rage Protest Builds on Wall Street

US,day of rage
© Snip

As corporate media continues to ignore the building presence in Manhattan to protest against the corrupt banking system, activists have gathered to document this Tahrir-square style gathering. Below are videos that illustrate the growing unrest, as well as a link to the current livestream of the area. The nature of the protests also has laid bare the absolute police state that has become entrenched in America. In the first video we hear the reporter conclude by saying, "As of now it's still unclear if the police will allow protesters to stay here..." As if that is a normal response to peaceful assembly for a redress of grievances in a free society.

Madison Ruppert has detailed this oppression in his intro article to the Day of Rage entitled: No right to protest in America: Occupation of Wall Street thwarted thanks to ignorant police. Additionally, we have received comments about social networks and e-mail programs blocking discussions centered on the term "Occupy Wall Street." If you are encountering this type of censorship, please drop us a note in the comments section.

Heart - Black

Strauss-Kahn Concedes 'Error' in Sexual Encounter With Maid

Dominique Strauss-Kahn
© Francois GuillotDominique Strauss-Kahn during his TV interview Sunday.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn said Sunday that his sexual encounter with a New York City hotel chambermaid was "an error" and "a moral failure" he would regret his whole life, but not a criminal act.

In his first interview since his May 14 arrest on charges of attempted rape, Mr. Strauss-Kahn was uncomfortable, intermittently angry and sounded bitter, saying that he had wanted to run for the French presidency and had missed his "appointment with the French people" because of his own actions.

"I wanted to be a candidate. I thought I could be useful. All that is behind me," he said.

He accused the maid, Nafissatou Diallo, of lying about what happened between them, and accused a Paris novelist, Tristane Banon, of lying about what she said happened between them in 2003, which she has described as an attempted rape - a case still being investigated by the Paris prosecutor.

Arrow Down

First-Ever National Survey Shows as Many as 3,000 Cases of Forced Marriage in Immigrant Communities in the United States

Forced Marriage
© Unknown
Today, the Tahirih Justice Center (Tahirih) released the results of a groundbreaking national survey, which identified as many as 3,000 known and suspected cases of forced marriage in the United States, in 47 states, among immigrant communities from 56 different countries. The survey is the first of its kind conducted in the United States and was designed to understand the scope and nature of forced marriage in immigrant communities.

Key findings of Tahirih's survey include:

500 service providers, community advocates, educators, medical/mental health professionals, law enforcement officers, religious leaders, and others from 47 states reported as many as 3,000 known and suspected forced marriage cases that they have encountered in just the last 2 years.

Some families are willing to go to great lengths to ensure that the marriage takes place and may send a young woman back to the family's country of origin until she submits, cut her off from financial support, withhold food and medical care, or limit a young woman's contact with those outside the family. Respondents also reported kidnapping, death threats, and even murder attempts.

Wall Street

The Federal Debt As Criminal Scam, The Federal Reserve As Criminal Syndicate

federal reserve,skull,dollar
© Unknown

Is the Federal debt a criminal enterprise, enabled by a criminal syndicate? Read on before you pass judgment.

Correspondent Doug laid out a compelling case that the Federal debt is fundamnentally a criminal scam, operated by the criminal syndicate of the Treasury and the Federal Reserve:
The Federal Reserve is a criminal syndicate buying debt that the government eagerly creates and sells for spending money that dumps the debt on us civilians. What perplexes me is that the scam is so simple and all the intellectuals either don't get it or are handcuffed by mega-corporate media owners.

Heart - Black

Oakdale, Minneapolis deaths are double murder, suicide

Oakdale deaths
© Kyndell HarknessMembers of the Bureau of Criminal house where three people were found dead in Oakdale, Thursday.
The couple's children will live with memory of bloody scene all their lives, a trauma expert says.

A man and two women found dead in an Oakdale house each died of a single gunshot wound to the head in an apparent double murder-suicide, the Ramsey County medical examiner's office ruled Friday.

The shooting scene at the blue split-level house, which involved two parents and a babysitter, left other victims as well. A 6-year-old girl returning home from school Thursday found the bodies and ran screaming into the street with blood on her hands. She and her two brothers, ages 3 and 8, were left orphaned.

"When I heard the child found the bodies it really did break my heart," said Washington County Attorney Pete Orput, who expects the county might be asked to help with foster care. "I don't know what it would be like walking in to see your mom and dad dead. That's something that child will never get out of her head, ever."

The dead were identified as Cintia Guadalupe Ornelas Bustos, 28; Jaime Anival Almaras Velasquez, 32, and babysitter Angela Uscanga Gonzalez, 43.

Police declined to say who was responsible for the shooting because the investigation is not complete. But the medical examiner's office has determined that Velasquez committed suicide, said officer Michelle Stark.

Family

California Bans Unvaccinated Children from Class

classroom
© NA

If your child hasn't received the whooping cough vaccine, he or she is now banned from attending class at many California schools. Despite legitimate religious or personal health reasons for rejecting the whooping cough vaccine, your child simply cannot attend class. Due to a law that requires all students entering grades seven through 12 be vaccinated, the San Francisco school district has begun sending home children who do not have proof of receiving the whooping cough vaccination.

Proof of vaccine ineffectiveness

Why are schools afraid of unvaccinated children spreading the disease to vaccinated children if the whooping cough vaccine is truly effective? How could an unvaccinated child spread the disease to someone who has already received the whooping cough vaccine?

Interestingly enough, scientists have found that vaccinating against the whooping cough is actually an ineffective waste of money. In fact, widespread vaccination of adults against whooping cough (pertussis) would do almost nothing to reduce infection rates among unvaccinated children according to a study conducted by researchers from the University of Michigan and published in the journal Science.

Passport

First versions of Canada's new electronic passport carry hefty price tag

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© The Canadian Press / Tom HansonA passenger holds his Canadian passport before boarding a flight in Ottawa, Ont. in this Jan 23, 2007 photo.
The first version of Canada's new electronic passport carries a hefty price tag - an ominous sign that the general version being issued late next year might cost triple or more what Canadians pay today.

Since January 2009 the federal government has issued 40,000 so-called ePassports to senior government officials and diplomats.

The secure document has a computer chip that stores key personal data, including an image of the bearer, that can be accessed with a scanner.

Passport Canada, which is required to run a break-even operation, has not yet announced what Canadians will pay for the more complex, high-tech document.

But an expense claim filed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper indicates the cost of the diplomatic version is far more than the $87 that adult Canadians pay now.

Harper purchased four diplomatic ePassports for himself, his wife and two children late last year, at $225 each, for a total bill of $900.

The cost was picked up by taxpayers through his department, the Privy Council Office, according to documents obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act.

Stop

World's biggest sperm bank, Cryos, tells redheads: We don't want your semen

alg_sperm
© Getty/Getty Images/3D4Medical.com
The world's largest sperm bank is telling redheads to keep their semen.

Demand for ginger-haired donors is so low that Cryos International says they needn't bother donating.

"There are too many redheads in relation to demand," Ole Schou, the director of Cryos, told the Danish newspaper, Ekstrabladet, according to London's Telegraph.

Men with scarlett manes sell "like hot cakes" in Ireland, Schou said, but that's about it.

Light Saber

US: Wall Street protests continue, several arrested

wall street, protests
© Michael Nagle/Getty ImagesPeople protesting the economic system walk down a sidewalk in the financial district as office workers head to work on September 19, 2011 in New York City. Organizers said the protests, which began Saturday, could last for weeks.

New York - At least five people were arrested on the third day of protests in New York's Financial District, spearheaded by a coalition of groups rallying against the influence of corporate money in politics.

Beginning on Saturday - on what was called a U.S. Day of Rage - several groups of activists vowed to occupy Wall Street, to express their anger over a financial system they say favors the rich and powerful, and about a democratic process they deem to be corrupt.

Organizers of the "Occupy Wall Street" demonstration have called for 20,000 people to "flood into lower Manhattan, set up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades and occupy Wall Street for a few months."