Society's ChildS


Handcuffs

Sick society: Violent predators to be released from prison to make room for non-violent drug users

drug bust
Jerome Arps, 58, began his sickening obsession with forcing himself on women as a teenager when he participated in the gang raping of a 14-year-old girl. Decades later, in 2006, after multiple other rapes, this monster's addiction to forced sex was so compelling that he grabbed a woman in front of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine and publicly raped her on the church's steps.

One would think that in today's society, such a vile serial rapist like Arps would never see the light of day after being apprehended. However, one would be wrong.

Because of the overcrowding of prisons in America, states like New York have revamped their rules. Sickos like Arps, cannot be held unless they are shown to have a mental disability, more serious than just a personality disorder — that causes him to repeatedly rape women.

The Court of Appeals for New York ruled in 2014 that the state has to prove that predators like Arps won't be able to control themselves once they are released back into society.

Comment: Sentencing drug users to long prison sentences while letting violent offenders off with a slap on the wrist is a crime. The War on Drugs is a sham and our criminal (in)justice system needs to be scrapped and rebuilt from the ground up.


Star of David

Judge rules Orthodox Jews can continue sacrificing chickens on Brooklyn streets

Kaporos chicken
© Getty ImagesThe Jewish ritual is allegedly over 2,000 years old
A Manhattan judge has allowed Ultra-Orthodox Jews to continue performing the religious slaughtering of chickens in the streets of New York City. The more-than-2,000-year-old ritual was challenged by animal rights group that called it "a public nuisance."

The ruling by Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Debra James came on Monday and marked Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. It starts the 10-day period leading up to Yom Kippur, or the Day of Atonement, the holiest day for Jews.

This is also when Ultra-Orthodox Jews practice "Kaporos," or the ritual killing of chickens, to transfer their sins to birds.

Before slitting the chickens' throats, men take roosters and women take hens, and then swing them around their heads three times, saying: "This is my substitute, this is my exchange, this is my atonement. This fowl will go to death, and I will enter upon a good and long life."

The meat is then handed out to the poor.

Comment: Spin a chicken, slit its throat, and there go your sins! If such a thing were possible, you'd think God would be more practical, like sending the sins into things like 'police brutality', 'government corruption', and 'religious extremism', which could then be destroyed as a sin-offering. Humans AND chickens could use less of those things, a lot more than they could use several thousand dead chickens.


Cross

Pope Francis calls for ending tax-exempt status of uncharitable churches

pope Francis
This might be the Pope's best idea yet.

On the eve of his visit to the United States, Pope Francis blasted religious institutions who are exploiting tax loopholes to make money instead of helping the needy.

In an interview with a Portuguese Catholic broadcaster, the Pope discussed the need for Christians to fight the temptation of the 'God of money', into which many religious institutions often fall. He then called out those institutions that have opted to enter into the hospitality industry while exploiting a legal loophole to keep from paying taxes on their business enterprise operating under the guise of doing "God's work."
"Some religious orders say 'No, now that the convent is empty we are going to make a hotel and we can have guests, and support ourselves that way, or make money.' Well, if that is what you want to do, then pay taxes! just like its neighbor. Otherwise it is not fair business."
This statement from the leader of the Catholic Church is part of his continuing call for the Church to set an example and create change in what he has continuously referred to as a "bad and unjust economic system," that continues to maximize profits at the expense of the masses.

In Italy, which the Pope is using as a litmus test for the rest of the world, the Church owns more than 100,000 buildings with an estimated worth exceeding $10 billion. In 2013 the Italian Church started paying taxes on those facilities which are solely commercial, but still avoid taxation on any building that contains a chapel.

In America, it is estimated that churches would generate $83.5 billion in annual tax revenue if the exemption was lifted on their $600 billion in untaxed properties.

Bacon n Eggs

'Criminals get fed better': Outraged Maryland students share moldy lunches, stomach-churning food items

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  • Students at Prince George's County Public Schools in Maryland have taken to social media to complain about school lunches
  • They posted to Twitter photos of expired drinks, moldy sandwich buns and other stomach-churning food items
  • Angry students said buns with mold and under-cooked meat are regulars on their lunch trays and are worried someone will get sick
Outraged students have taken to social media to complain about moldy and under-cooked food shared alongside pictures of stomach-churning meals allegedly served by a Maryland school district.

Students at Prince George's County Public Schools posted images of half-pink meat patties, sandwiches that had buns containing mold, expired drinks and hollowed out chicken nuggets on Twitter.

But the students said the horrid images of the food items are nothing new to their lunch trays, according to FOX 5.

Comment: This is food? What kind of world do we live in where these children have to take to social media to bring attention to the disgusting and unhealthy food they are being served?


Pills

US citizens loathe Big Pharma, study finds

anti-depressant drugs
© Tom VarcoU.S. prescription medicine costs are some of the highest in the world.
The pharmaceutical industry is one of the most loathed sectors in the United States, sitting alongside big oil and the federal government.

U.S. public opinion of the pharmaceutical industry has collapsed to its lowest level in years, according to research published by Gallup Tuesday. Forty three percent of participants in a survey by Gallup reported negative views of the industry, compared to 35 percent who expressed positive views.

"This leaves the industry with a negative net-positive rating of -8 in 2015," Gallup's Jim Norman stated.

The rating is the lowest for the industry since 2013, after the sector saw a short-lived increase in public approval in 2014.

According to Norman, the latest figures mean the pharmaceutical sector is "now rated one of the worst industries."

"The slide in net-positive ratings for the pharmaceutical industry, from +4 to -8, places it among the lowest-rated industries, which include the legal field (-5), the healthcare industry (-6), the oil and gas industry (-13) and the federal government, which comes in dead last (-29)," Norman stated.

Comparably, the most positively view industries in the United States are computing, restaurants and accounting.

According to Gallup, the pharmaceutical industry has long been viewed generally negatively in the United States.

"As far back as 1991, 73 percent of Americans said they considered the high cost of prescription drugs an important reason for rising healthcare costs," Norman added.

U.S. prescription medicine costs are some of the highest in the world. U.S. consumers spend more on medication than any other country in the OECD, with prescription medicines sometimes costing as much as double in the United States compared to countries like the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia.

Ambulance

After 3 successive wars in Palestine: 80% unemployment for young women, $1000 GDP per capita

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The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development ("UNCTD") issued a report (9/1/15) on the status of its assistance to the Palestinian people in the occupied territories (Gaza and the West Bank). The report paints a bleak picture. It does not clearly separate between the Gaza strip and the West Bank. For example, it does not spell out the revenues available to Hamas in its administration of Gaza. Nevertheless, the following can be gleaned with respect to Gaza. Gaza is predicted to be uninhabitable within five years.The population of Gaza is 1.8 million people, approximately the combined total of the cities of San Francisco and San Jose California.

Through eight years of military blockade and three successive wars in 2008, 2012, and 2014, Israel has destroyed and degraded the Gazan infrastructure and economy. Unemployment in the Gaza strip is at 44 percent. Six in 10 households suffer from food insecurity.

Since 2007 exports from Gaza are banned and imports and transfers of cash are severely limited. Flow of all but the most basic humanitarian goods has been suspended. Per capita GDP in Gaza is 74% of what it was prior to the Oslo accords. The report indicates a real GDP per capita in constant 2004 dollars of ~$1,000--about $2.70/day.

Among young women the unemployment rate is 80%. The ramifications of persistently high unemployment will be devastating in the long term, says the report, as training and education among the long term unemployed become obsolete.

The latest military operation in 2014 has destroyed virtually all of what was left of the middle class in Gaza, says the report, relegating "almost all of the population into destitution and dependance on international humanitarian aid."

Comment: Gaza will be uninhabitable in less than 5 years - UN report


Eye 1

Class-action lawsuit filed against Twitter for spying on direct messages

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© AP
To most Twitter users, URL link shorteners are a convenient way to stuff more into a 140-character message. But a proposed class action lawsuit filed on Monday alleges that the social media service is using them in violation of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act and California's privacy law.

The complaint brought in federal court in San Francisco from Wilford Raney and others similarly situated is claiming that despite Twitter's assurances that users are allowed to "talk privately" among one another, "Twitter surreptitiously eavesdrops on its users' private Direct Message communications. As soon as a user sends a Direct Message, Twitter intercepts, reads, and, at times, even alters the message."

The lawsuit uses a link to The New York Times as an example.

If a user privately tells a follower through the service to check out a story on nytimes.com, providing a full URL, Twitter will modify this into a custom link such as "http:/t.co/CL2SKBxr1s" (while still displaying the text "www.nytimes.com" to its users).

Radar

War against the citizens: Sixty police departments across the U.S. seek drone certification

drone protest
© unknown
Anyone who was called crazy for shouting from the rooftops back in 2005 when the first sign of drone testing in the United States was uncovered appears to have been vindicated. Small comfort as we are finally coming face to face with the consequences of our apathy.

North Dakota made international news recently as the first state to legalize weaponized drones for use upon its own citizens. But this still isn't enough evidence for those whose heads remain buried in the sands of (they hope) blissful ignorance.

Several stunning revelations come from a mainstream media article that seems to accurately identify the problem: "Drone Policing in US Seen as 'Wild West'." AFP cites the Electronic Frontier Foundation's discovery that "60 police forces across the country — from Houston, Texas, to Mobile, Alabama, North Little Rock, Arkansas, and Miami-Dade County — have asked for drone certification" and that, "Up to two dozen police forces are currently fully equipped with drones and trained to use them, including pioneers Grand Forks in North Dakota; Arlington, Texas; Mesa County, Colorado and the Utah Highway Patrol."

Crusader

Catholic hospital won't perform tubal ligation on pregnant mother with brain tumor, ACLU threatens action

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© Alex Lee/Reuters
The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan is demanding that a Catholic hospital carry out a sterilization request from a mother who is pregnant but has a brain tumor. The hospital denied the request on religious grounds, but the ACLU is contesting the decision.

The fight began when Jessica Mann, who is expecting to deliver her third child next month, was told by her doctor to make sure that she could not get pregnant again because of her pre-existing brain tumor. Mann decided that while she was under anesthesia for a Caesarean section during the birth, she would have a tubal ligation, a procedure that prevents further pregnancies.

Mann had read that Genesys Regional Medical Center, which is Catholic-run, changed its policies the previous year but her doctor said in May to make the sterilization request a medical exception.

Mann was recently informed that Genesys denied her request based on religious grounds. Officials said the church forbids procedures that cause sterilization, including vasectomies, and Mann didn't qualify for an exception.

"I was surprised and upset," said pregnant mother Jessica Mann, who sent a letter to the hospital through the American Civil Liberties Union threatening legal action, reported the Washington Post.

"And there was anger at the fact that they can disregard medical issues for their religious beliefs."

Comment: A hospital has no right to impose their will and religious beliefs on others. How disgusting that a hospital would deny a woman with a brain tumor her right to decide not to have another child.


Light Saber

Bernie Sanders exhorts conservative Christian students: 'There's no justice', inequality is a moral crisis

Bernie Sanders
Known for being a self-proclaimed socialist and his liberal views, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders ventured into a lion's den of sorts on Monday, telling students at a Christian university that they should view inequality as a moral crisis.

Speaking in front of 12,000 students at Liberty University, known to have strong conservative and Evangelical views, Sanders made no attempt to hide his support of abortion rights and same-sex marriage, issues that many conservative Christians fervently oppose. However, he said the two sides could still find common ground on serious moral issues and seek justice together in fighting inequality.

Sanders invoked the Bible several times during his speech, highlighting the Golden Rule of Matthew 7:12 - "In everything, do to others what you would have them do to you" - and Amos 5:24: "Let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream."
He also cited Pope Francis, who will be visiting the US next week and who traced recent global financial calamity to "the denial of the primacy of the human person" and to the worship of money.

Comment: Anyone professing to be a 'true' Christian should be all over Bernie's message. What is wrong with these people, that he needs to quote their own holy book to them??