Society's ChildS


Bulb

Why Anderson Cooper won't receive an inheritance from mom Gloria Vanderbilt

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© Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty ImagesGloria Vanderbilt, left, and Anderson Cooper, right, are pictured on Nov. 4, 2010 in New York City.
Anderson Cooper may come from a family with money, but he won't be seeing a dime of it. Though his mother, Gloria Vanderbilt, inherited a fortune before making her own millions, Cooper will not receive an inheritance.

"My mom's made clear to me that there's no trust fund. There's none of that," he told Howard Stern. "[And] I don't believe in inheriting money."

Cooper, 46, said that inherited money is an "initiative sucker" and a "curse." Because of that, he's grateful that his mother always gave him an incentive to work.

Arrow Down

Kansas family raided by SWAT because cops found discarded tea leaves in trash

Bob Harte_1
© AP Photo/Orlin WagnerBob Harte demonstrates how he was forced to the floor as masked SWAT agents raided his home.

Leawood - An innocent family was terrorized by a paramilitary SWAT raid on their home that lasted 2.5 hours; yielding nothing. It took the family 2 years and $25,000 to discover the real reason their house was targeted: discarded tea leaves in their garbage and the purchase of indoor gardening equipment.

'You're in the wrong house!'

Robert and Adlynn Harte discovered how easily an innocent family can become the targets of state-sanctioned violence when a SWAT team showed up at their home looking for contraband. The terrifying experience took place at 7:30 a.m. on April 20, 2012.

"It was just like on the cops TV shows," Mr. Harte told the AP. "It was like Zero Dark Thirty ready to storm the compound."

The Harte home was surrounded by paramilitary police. There was a sudden pounding at the door, which Robert quickly answered. If he had delayed opening the door, a man carrying a battering ram was prepared to breach the front door.

Robert was pushed to the floor and made to clasp his hands behind his head as strange men poured into his home. Rifle-toting, armored troopers stood over him with rifles screaming, "Where are the children in the home?"

The Hartes' 7-year-old daughter and 13-year-old son had both been sleeping in their bedrooms, and were "shocked and frightened" as they were shuffled into the living room and made to watch as the invaders snooped through their belongings.

"We just kept saying 'You're in the wrong house!'" Mrs. Harte told KSHB.

Johnson County Sheriff's deputies and police canines tore through the family's living space for 2.5 hours. They took interest with the Hartes' indoor garden, which was a family project to grow vegetables such as tomatoes, squashes, and melons in the basement.

The Hartes said that the deputies "made rude comments" and implied their son was using marijuana. Yet the deputies left empty handed. A receipt was left, saying "no items taken."

Eye 2

Egyptian Islamists murder young Christian, after dragging her from car

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© Al-Mehwar/YouTubeA screenshot from Egyptian television's 90 Minutes program shows a picture of 25 year-old Mary Sameh George, beaten and stabbed to death by a Muslim mob on Friday, March 28, 2014.
Eyewitnesses have given a harrowing account of the murder in Cairo of a young Coptic Christian woman, hauled out of her car and beaten and stabbed to death by a Muslim mob, apparently targeted because of a cross hanging from her rear-view mirror.

The incident occurred in the Cairo suburb of Ain Shams after mosque prayer services on Friday, when police clashed with Muslim Brotherhood supporters angered by army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's decision to run for president.

An eyewitness appearing on "90 minutes," a program on the al-Mehwar satellite network, said 25-year-old Mary Sameh George was attacked in her car near a church, where she planned to deliver medicine to an ill and elderly woman.

Protestors climbed onto her car, collapsing the roof, then hauled her from the vehicle, beating and mauling her - to the extent, he said, that portions of her scalp were torn off. She was stabbed multiple times, her throat was slit and when she was dead, the mob torched her car.

Chalkboard

Why are U.S. schools unable to reduce bullying?

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© UPI/Ron Sachs/PoolAn analysis on school bullying found that K-12 schools' efforts to curtail bullying are often disappointing.President Barack Obama visits a classroom of 4 and 5 year old children at Powell Elementary School in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, March 4, 2014.
Schools that conduct limited programs to reduce bullying have had limited success, while more comprehensive programs have had some success but require enormous commitment and school resources. Overall, a new study suggests that efforts to reduce bullying in K-12 schools are not making the grade.

Lead author Jaana Juvonen, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles, and study co-author Sandra Graham, a UCLA professor of education, thoroughly analyzed more than 140 studies conducted in six countries: the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Finland, Norway, and Sweden.
Band-Aid solutions, such as holding one assembly a year that discourages bullying, do not work," Juvonen said in a statement. "We are trying to figure out the right balance between comprehensive programs that are costly and require a lot of staff training versus programs that require fewer school resources,

Comment: From UCLA Newsroom- 'Schools have limited success in reducing bullying, new analysis finds':
Previous studies on bullying by Juvonen and her colleagues have found that: Students who get bullied often have headaches, colds and other illnesses, as well as psychological problems. Juvonen advises parents to talk with their children about bullying before it happens, to pay attention to changes in their children's behavior and to take their concerns about bullying seriously.
The bully problem seems to reflect the psychopathic values and worldview metastasized in society and it also seems these school programs are ignorant about this core problem of our world. Of course this problem is more complicated than just counting the mere presence of psychopaths but if schoolchildren were to learn about the psychopathic menace in our midst and how it has run amok, they would profit immensely in being able to understand the 'contagious' threat and predation which is almost incomprehensible within the crucible of mainstream society.




Family

Britain plans to introduce 'Cinderella law'

Cinderella law
© Reuters/Mansi Thapliyal
For the first time in history, the UK is planning to introduce the so-called "Cinderella law", which will jail parents failing to show love to children for up to 10 years in prison, putting it alongside physical or sexual abuse, local media reported.

The UK government is planning to introduce changes to child neglect laws, which will make "emotional cruelty" a crime for the first time, according to Daily Telegraph report. The law will protect children's emotional, social and behavioral well-being.

The offence will include deliberately ignoring a child, not showing them any love over prolonged periods, forcing degrading punishments or to witness domestic violence, and making them a scapegoat.

Gift 3

Low birthrate kicks campaign urging Danes to have more sex: 'Do it for Denmark!'

Do it for denmark
© Still from YouTube video/Spies Rejser
A Danish travel company is calling for Danes to have more sex while they're on holiday - to save the country. They even launched a competition to encourage the people to take a break and conceive kids, as the birthrate is now at its lowest in decades.

Spies Rejser Travel has promised three years of free baby supplies and a child friendly holiday for a couple who can prove that they conceived while on a Spies' holiday. The travel company said it is trying to help tackle the country's low birth rate by encouraging couples to do it for Denmark.

The birth rate in Denmark is currently the lowest it's been in 27 years. Almost 58,000 children were born in 2012, but the present rate of 1.7 children per family is not enough to maintain the population.

Comment: It's not only Denmark, it is a sign of our times. South Korea, Japan, and a host of other countries see a decline in birthrates in recent years - About that overpopulation problem.


Airplane

Sober admission: Flight MH370 mystery 'may never be solved'

Search for MH370
© ReutersThe search involves at least nine ships and nine planes, covering an area of 221,000 square kilometres
Police say cause of plane's disappearance may never be known as all 227 passengers are cleared of involvement.

Malaysia's top police official has said that authorities may never learn what caused the mysterious disappearance of Flight MH370, while the criminal probe has been narrowed to crew.

Inspector General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar told reporters in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday that they would need more time, indicating that the three-week-old- criminal investigation has so far been inconclusive.

Comment: What if the mystery regarding the disappearance of Flight MH730 has an explanation outside the paradigm within which the officials have been doing their investigation?

CNN host Don Lemon 'puts it out there': Was lost Malaysian flight taken by 'supernatural' forces?


Cloud Grey

Smog alert in England and Wales as Saharan dust storm smothers south

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© Steve Parsons/PAPlanes taxi in fog at Terminal 5 after the weather has led to delays and cancellations at Heathrow airport near London on Monday.

Millions of vulnerable people in southern England and Wales were advised to stay indoors as unusually high levels of air pollution smothered London and other cities, just weeks after heavy pollution led to restricted car use and free public transport in Brussels and Paris.

"That most important advice is for those people who are vulnerable, if you're in a high-pollution area, to reduce the amount of strenuous exercise outdoors over the next few days," Dr Paul Cosford, of Public Health England, told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

"Carry on life as normal - be aware you may need to use your inhalers more frequently - but carry on your life as normal. We do have problems with air pollution in our cities. The main sources we have are vehicle transport and the industrial process, when you put that alongside the unusual weather consequences like the Saharan dust ... then that's when you get these few days of unusually high pollution."

People

Europe's young people: Denied their dreams of education and jobs, their anger is growing

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© Pedro Armestre/AFP/Getty ImagesPeople protest in Madrid in 2011 against Spain's economic crisis and its sky-high jobless rate. ‘The frustration cannot find an outlet in mainstream parties, which strike many young people as far too timid
In December 2008, in Athens, a "special security officer" shot dead a young student, igniting demonstrations, strikes and riots. Young people were at the forefront of the protests, in a country with a long tradition of youth participation in social and political movements. Several commentators at the time spoke of a "youth rebellion".

In late 2009 it became clear that Greece had been living through a period of false prosperity and was in effect bankrupt. The country fell into the tender embrace of the troika - the EU, the IMF and the European Central Bank. Following severe austerity measures in 2010-11, there were again mass demonstrations and strikes, culminating in the "movement of the squares" - protests against the destruction of private and social life. Young people were again prominent, lending enthusiasm and spirit to the movement.

Then there was nothing. As economic and social disaster unfolded in 2012 and 2013, the youth of Greece became invisible in social and economic life. The young have been largely absent from politics, social movements and even from the spontaneous social networks that have dealt with the worst of the catastrophe. On the fifth anniversary of the events of 2008, barely a few hundred young people demonstrated in Greek urban centres. There was no tension, no passion, no spirit, just tired processions repeating well-known slogans. Where were the 17-year-olds from five years ago?

Pistol

Militarization of American police: Skyrocketing SWAT team raids causing needless deaths of innocent suspects

police raid
© unknown
The militarization of America's police is well documented. Hundreds of articles, books, and studies have been published in recent years showing that local police departments are increasingly using tactics and equipment formally reserved for the military.

"Billions of dollars' worth of military weapons and equipment is available to local police departments through grant programs administered by federal agencies such as the Departments of Defense, Justice, and Homeland Security," the American Civil Liberties Union writes on their page discussing police militarization.

Between 1995-1997, the Pentagon distributed 3,800 M-16s, 2,185 M14s, 73 grenade launchers, and 112 armored personnel carriers to local police departments across the country.

Among the eye-opening changes in the tactics used by American police departments is the sharply increasing number of SWAT team raids being executed across the country. Let's take a look at statistics for one form of a raid known as the "no knock warrant" raid.

Comment: There is an epidemic of police brutality sweeping the U.S. At least 500 innocent people are murdered by police in SWAT team raids numbering 40,000 every year:
Militarization of local police means that now cops kill 8 times more Americans than terrorists do
Why Do the Police Have Tanks? The Strange and Dangerous Militarization of the US Police Force
Police States of America: Americans killed by cops now outnumber Americans killed in Iraq war