Society's ChildS


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Saudi Arabian cleric says driving hurts women's ovaries


Raw Story
Sun, 29 Sep 2013 08:07 UTC
Women Drivers
© AFP_File/Fayez NureldineA Saudi woman gets out of a car after being given a ride by her driver in Riyadh on May 26, 2011.
A Saudi cleric sparked a wave of mockery online when he warned women that driving would affect their ovaries and bring "clinical disorders" upon their children.

The warning came ahead of an October 26 initiative to defy a longstanding driving ban on women in the ultra-conservative kingdom.

"Physiological science" has found that driving "automatically affects the ovaries and pushes up the pelvis," Sheikh Saleh al-Luhaydan warned women in remarks to local news website Sabq.org.

"This is why we find that children born to most women who continuously drive suffer from clinical disorders of varying degrees," he said.

His comments prompted criticism on Twitter, which has become a rare platform for Saudis to voice their opinions in the absolute monarchy.

"What a mentality we have. People went to space and you still ban women from driving. Idiots," said one comment.

"When idiocy marries dogma in the chapel of medieval traditions, this is their prodigal child," wrote a female tweeter.
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Cardboard Box

American workers hanging on by the skin of their teeth

Mike Whitney
Information Clearinghouse
Fri, 27 Sep 2013 00:00 UTC
graph private sector payroll jobs

After five years of Obama's economic recovery, the American people are as gloomy as ever. According to a Bloomberg National Poll that was released this week, fewer people "are optimistic about the job market" or "the housing market" or "anticipate improvement in the economy's strength over the next year." Also, only 38 percent think that President Obama is doing enough "to make people feel more economically secure." Worst of all, Bloomberg pollsters found that 68 percent of interviewees thought the country was "headed in the wrong direction".

So why is everyone so miserable? Are things really that bad or have we turned into a nation of crybabies?

The reason people are so pessimistic is because the economy is still in the doldrums and no one's doing anything about it. That's it in a nutshell. Survey after survey have shown that what people really care about is jobs, but no one in Washington is listening. In fact, jobs aren't even on Obama's radar. Just look at his record. He's worse than any president in modern times. Take a look at this graph.

More than 600,000 good-paying public sector jobs have been slashed during Obama's tenure as president. That's worse than Bush, worse than Clinton, worse than Reagan, worse than anyone, except maybe Hoover. Is that Obama's goal, to one-up Herbert Hoover?
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Igloo

UK climate scientist monitoring sea ice levels killed cycling to work in London

Nick Hodgson and Ross Lydall
London Evening Standard
Sun, 29 Sep 2013 08:22 UTC
Image
© London Evening Standard
A cyclist killed in a rush-hour horror crash in Victoria was today named as a top scientist responsible for pioneering work on global warming.

Dr Katharine Giles, a research fellow and lecturer at University College London, was crushed under the wheels of a tipper truck as it turned left into Victoria Street on Monday morning.

Colleagues spoke of the "devastating loss" of Dr Giles, who had explored the Arctic and Antarctic and last year gave a presentation to MPs.

Sinead Farrell wrote on Twitter that "a bright, shining star has gone out", while UCL palaeoclimatologist Dr Katy Wilson said that "UCL Earth Sciences [had] tragically lost another brilliant young scientist".

Dr Giles, who was in her 30s, worked at the Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling at UCL after obtaining her degree there in 2000 and PhD in 2005. She is thought to have cycled that route to work for a decade.
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Better Earth

Good news at last! U.S. government could be shut down over Obamacare impasse

Dan Roberts
The Guardian
Sun, 29 Sep 2013 08:06 UTC
Image
The US government is shutting down, let's celebrate!
Harry Reid says Senate will reject GOP attempt to delay health reforms - setting stage for government shutdown

US Republicans have voted to postpone Barack Obama's heathcare reforms, setting up a high-stakes clash with Democrats that could spark the first American government shutdown in 17 years.

With less than 48 hours to go until existing federal government spending authority expires on Monday night, House Republicans passed a continuing budget resolution until December, but only if Obamacare is delayed for a year and stripped of a key tax on medical devices.

But even before the vote took place in the early hours of Sunday morning, Democrats said they would reject the plan - and the White House issued a statement saying Obama would veto it should it ever reach his desk.

The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, issued a statement on Saturday saying his chamber would not accept the House Republicans' plan, and any attempt to delay the healthcare law would be pointless.

Comment: Of course, there isn't any real risk that the US government will be shut down. This is just a contrived affair to make us think that the US republic is still alive, when in fact it has long since been transformed into a corporate plantation run by 'CorpGov'.

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Bulb

Power failure snarls NYC commute for thousands

Yamiche Alcindor, Gary Stoller and John Bacon
USA Today
Thu, 26 Sep 2013 06:32 UTC
A power failure along one of the nation's busiest commuter rail lines has left commuters angry and waiting.
Image
© Mary Altaffer, APA Metro North costumer service agent helps a morning rush hour commuter with train information at Grand Central Terminal on Sept. 26, 2013, in New York.
Tens of thousands of commuters scrambled Thursday for alternative transportation between the Connecticut suburbs and the city as a power failure disabled one of the nation's busiest commuter rail lines for a second day.

Parts of Interstate 95 were backed up for hours as transit officials scrambled to find alternative power sources and avoid what they said could be weeks of snarled commutes.

Amtrak also felt the impact. The national carrier said it will offer refunds or vouchers to passengers who changed their plans because of disruptions on the Metro-North commuter railroad's New Haven Line. Amtrak trips between New York and Boston are running as much as 90 minutes late because of congestion caused by the commuter line outage, Amtrak said.
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X

Syrian woman raped in Turkish refugee camps by Obama backed terrorists


Friends of Syria
Thu, 26 Sep 2013 06:24 UTC
Turkish camps have become detention centers for rape and torture as Syrian women who returned to their homes stressed they were the victims of rape by armed terrorist groups and some Turkish Soldiers.
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Wolf

How eating dog became big business in Vietnam

Kate Hodal
The Guardian
Fri, 27 Sep 2013 15:54 UTC
Every year, hundreds of thousands of pets are snatched in Thailand, then smuggled into Vietnam, destined for Hanoi's top restaurants and street stalls. Demand for dogmeat is so high that supply has become a highly lucrative - and brutal - black market.
Image
© Luke DugglebyTrucks containing 130 dogs are seized on the highway between Thailand and Vietnam.
Nguyen Tien Tung is just the sort of man you'd expect to run a Hanoi slaughterhouse: wiry, frenetic and filthy, his white T-shirt collaged with bloodstains, his jean shorts loose around taut, scratched-up legs, his feet squelching in plastic sandals. Hunched over his metal stall, between two hanging carcasses and an oversized tobacco pipe, the 42-year-old is surveying his killing station - an open-air concrete patio leading on to a busy road lined with industrial supply shops.

Two skinless carcasses, glistening pure white in the hot morning sun, are being rinsed down by one of Nguyen's cousins. Just two steps away are holding pens containing five dogs each, all roughly the same size, some still sporting collars. Nguyen reaches into one cage and caresses the dog closest to the door. As it starts wagging its tail, he grabs a heavy metal pipe, hits the dog across the head, then, laughing loudly, slams the cage door closed.

Down the leafy streets of north Hanoi's Cau Giay district, not far from Nguyen's family business, sits one of the city's most famous restaurants, Quan Thit Cho Chieu Hoa, which has only one thing on the menu. There's dog stew, served warm in a soup of blood; barbecued dog with lemongrass and ginger; steamed dog with shrimp-paste sauce; dog entrails sliced thin like sausage; and skewered dog, marinated in chilli and coriander. This is just one of a number of dogmeat restaurants in Cau Giay, but it is arguably the most revered, offering traditional dishes in a quiet setting along a canal.
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Passport

Why are Americans giving up their citizenship?

Tom Geoghegan
BBC News
Fri, 27 Sep 2013 05:32 UTC
passport
© BBC
The number of Americans giving up their citizenship has rocketed this year - partly, it's thought, because of a new tax law that is frustrating many expats.

Goodbye, US passport.

That's not a concept that Americans contemplate lightly. But it's one that many of them seem to be considering - and acting on.

The number of expatriates renouncing their US citizenship surged in the second quarter of 2013, compared with the same period the year before - 1,131 cases to 189 in 2012. It's still a small proportion of the estimated six million Americans abroad, but it's a significant rise.

The list is compiled by the Federal Register and while no reasons are given, the big looming factor seems to be tax.

A new law called the Foreign Accounts Tax Compliance Act (Fatca) will, from 1 July next year, require all financial institutions around the world to report directly to the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) all the assets and incomes of any US citizens with $50,000 (£31,000) on their books. The US could withhold 30% of dividends and interest payments due to the banks that don't comply.
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Stormtrooper

Swat team shoots innocent man 22 times in front of his family - case settled in the millions


Police State USA
Thu, 19 Sep 2013 21:29 UTC
Jose Guerena
© wikipediaJose Guerena
A multi-million dollar settlement concludes the disturbing case of Jose Guerena, the Iraq veteran who was riddled with bullets in his own home during a faulty SWAT raid. Not only did these paramilitary police perform a haphazard assault on an innocent family's home, they prevented their victim's wounds from being treated after they shot him dozens of times. The hefty disbursement of tax dollars to the Guerena family may be warranted, but does nothing to reign in the aggressive department which is responsible for this murder, nor does it ensure the public that these inept Drug Warriors will not kill their family next.

On the morning of May 5, 2011, after working the graveyard shift at a copper mine, Jose Guerena and his wife were awoken at 9:30 AM to loud noises and voices outside their house. Guerena, a 26-year-old former U.S. marine who served 2 tours in Iraq, sprang from his bed began to secure his family. He and his wife thought that their home was being invaded. He hid his wife, Vanessa, and his 4-year-old son in a closet and grabbed his rifle.

He was correct that his home was being invaded. What he did not realize was that the invaders would be wearing uniforms labeled "police." The noises that jarred Guerena awake would later be revealed to be the detonation of concussion grenades in their back yard. Unbeknownst to him - only seconds earlier - an armored truck had parked in their front yard and a SWAT team was rapidly preparing to break down his door.
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Stormtrooper

Sadist cop shoots puppy in the head for no reason at all


Police State USA
Wed, 25 Sep 2013 20:12 UTC
ammo
© FacebookAmmo the Dog shot in the head
A woman says that her ten-month old puppy was shot in the head after asking officers not to shoot it - twice.

On September 22, Anna "Chrissy" Music-Peed, of Macon, GA, drove to the Jones County Sheriff's Department to request an officer come to and investigate a vehicle that had been brought to her property by an acquaintance, that both she and her roommate strongly suspected to have been stolen. Music told policestateusa.com that it was a Nissan Xterra from Virginia Beach, VA. As Music wrote in a blog post, "I will not have that influence around my family," saying she was trying to do the right thing by making a report. The acquaintance was still on the property and Music had not let on that she had gone to talk to the police. Music wrote on that while she was providing officers with details of the stolen property, and the individual who had brought it over, she also explicitly told the police not to shoot her dogs.

"The puppy may jump, we have been trying to get her out of that," Music explained, stating that the dogs were friendly puppies. She said the officers laughed and told her not to worry about it. Unconvinced, she emphasized again: "PLEASE don't shoot my dogs, they are my babies."
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