Society's Child

California has worst 'quality of life' in the nation, study finds

Alyssa Pereira
SFGate
Tue, 27 Feb 2018 13:02 UTC

© Tan Yilmaz/Getty Images
This national park tucked away in Northern California often goes forgotten, but it offers all the beauty of other popular outdoor destinations without the crowds—especially in the winter.

Stop bragging about your beaches, mountains and culture, Californians. The latest study by U.S. News editors say all those amenities add up to nothing short of the worst "quality of life" in the United States.

The annual Best States ranking was part of a study that scored all 50 states across eight categories: health care, education, economy, opportunity, infrastructure, crime and corrections, fiscal stability, and quality of life.

More weight was given to scores in categories that, based on a survey, "mattered most to people." Due to that factor, health care and education were weighted the heaviest (16 percent), followed by state economies (14 percent), citizen opportunities (13 percent), and then infrastructure, crime and corrections, fiscal stability and quality of life. The data was derived from management consulting firm McKinsey & Company's Leading States Index.

Comment: Sounds like California isn't all sunshiney beaches and beautiful mountains. It seems that when it comes to the important stuff, sunny California just doesn't stack up.

Jordan Peterson on the nihilism that can create a school shooter

Charlotte Hays
Independent Women's Forum
Wed, 28 Feb 2018 11:01 UTC

Canadian philosopher Jordan Peterson's remarks on what produces school shooters on Tucker Carlson last night are so worth hearing that I am simply going to post the Youtube link to the interview and urge you to listen to it.

I haven't been caught up in the Jordan Peterson craze, but last night Peterson addressed aspects of the shootings that are too often missed or left unsaid. Key among these is what Peterson called the "nihilism" that affects school shooters.

Comment:

Israel approves law to criminalize criticisms of IDF - targets whistleblower group Breaking the Silence

TeleSur
Tue, 27 Feb 2018 09:58 UTC

© Reuters
An Israeli soldier fires on Palestinian demonstrators during a protest against Jewish settlement near Tubas, in the occupied West Bank.

"The only way to stop us is to end the occupation," said the group being targeted, Breaking the Silence.

The Israeli Knesset approved the first reading of a bill that would prohibit organizations from being critical of the Israeli Army Monday.

The bill, which passed by 35-23 votes, was proposed by Education Minister Naftali Bennett. Bennett is the chairman of the right-wing Jewish Home party, a party seeking to criminalize any criticisms of the Israeli occupation.

The principal target of the bill is the group Breaking the Silence, an organization of veteran Israelis who expose the brutal nature of the occupation.

"Breaking the Silence has long ago crossed the line of legitimate discourse, when it chose a path of slander and lies against IDF soldiers on the international stage," said Bennett.

In response, the group said that Bennett is promoting "occupation education" and trying to "crush every democratic value on the altar of the settlement movement."

They further added that those who actually hurt Israeli soldiers are "politicians like Bennett, who send us to control the Palestinians and are silent when settlers routinely attack soldiers and Palestinians."

"The only way to stop us is to end the occupation," the group pressed.

The bill is just one among many recently passed by the Israeli Knesset to crush dissent. In November, lawmakers introduced a bill to criminalize those that support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Comment: Now you know. Next time you see something like this:

Palestinian teenager boy Israeli soldiers viral photo

© Wisam Hashlamoun / Twitter / @marro_lb
A photo of Junaidi being arrested, taken by the Palestinian photographer Wisam Hashlamoun, went viral on social media on Dec. 7, 2017.

or this:

or this:

Remember that the Israeli Knesset wants you quiet - so speak louder.

"Endless, bitter rancor lies ahead": Camille Paglia on films, #MeToo and modern sexuality

Camille Paglia
Hollywood Reporter
Tue, 27 Feb 2018 23:19 UTC

The social critic and academic questions special protections for women ("Speak up now, or shut up later!") and prescribes classic films to "inform the alluring rituals of attraction" amid Hollywood's harassment crisis.

© Illustration by Sonia Roy; Zeitgeist/Photofest (Cherbourg), Clarence Sinclair Bull/John Kobal Foundation/Getty Images (Thin), Twentieth Century Fox Pictures/Photofest (Stormy), iStock (Lights, Clapper, Film, Hand, Countdown, Chair)

It's open sex war - a grisly death match that neither men nor women will win.

Ever since The New York Times opened the floodgates last October with its report about producer Harvey Weinstein's atrocious history of sexual harassment, there has been a torrent of accusations, ranging from the trivial to the criminal, against powerful men in all walks of life.

Setting the record straight: Understanding Jordan Peterson

Rob Mackenzie
Medium
Tue, 27 Feb 2018 23:15 UTC

I'm convinced that among the many people who talk about Peterson, very few of them ever bother to examine what he's actually up to. I started writing this piece for all the people who care to form their own opinions about things. I finished it for all the people who I admire and whose opinions I value, but who I respectfully disagree with.

I was a psychology major at the University of Toronto and I took all of Peterson's courses between 2003-2006. I can't overstate his positive impact on me at that time in my life, and I want to suggest to anyone certain he's a bigoted mouthpiece for the alt-right that there might be something you're missing about Dr. Peterson.

Israel renews detention of Palestinian-French human rights defender, Salah Hamouri

Ali Abunimah
The Electronic Intifadfa
Mon, 26 Feb 2018 00:00 UTC

Israeli military occupation authorities on Monday renewed for four months the detention of Palestinian-French human rights defender Salah Hamouri.

Hamouri, who works with the prisoners rights group Addameer, has been held in "administrative detention" since Israeli forces detained him last August.

Under this holdover from British colonial rule, Israeli occupation authorities can hold Palestinians without charge or trial for periods that can be renewed indefinitely.

"This news is not a defeat for us, those who have worked since 27 August 2017 to defend the rights of our fellow citizen, but it is a profound defeat for French diplomacy," Hamouri's wife Elsa Lefort wrote on Facebook.

She criticized French President Emmanuel Macron, who claims to lead a "strong France," but "allows himself to be humiliated by Israel and lowers his head when he would be banging his fist on the table if Salah were detained by any other country."

Die Welt gaffe: Backlash at German newspaper over 'NATO's Eastern Front' piece

RT
Mon, 26 Feb 2018 22:05 UTC

An article mentioning "NATO's Eastern Front" in a headline got Germany's Die Welt newspaper in hot water, with furious readers accusing it of warmongering. The term Eastern Front is associated with the 1941 Nazi invasion of USSR.

Entitled 'The Bundeswehr lacks winter clothing for NATO's Eastern Front', the article was first published by the German DPA news agency and then reprinted by other German media outlets, including Die Welt, which eventually bore the brunt of the headline wording. The piece tells of shortages of winter uniforms and basic equipment required by Germany's military to lead the bloc's rapid deployment force known as the Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF).

The VJTF is officially described as a "spearhead force" within the Alliance's Response Force. It was designed to be able to "move immediately, following the first warnings and indicators of potential threats, before a crisis begins, to act as a potential deterrent to further escalation."

Comment: Who benefits from ramping up an absolutely primal fear in the German public?

Governors make a case for armed teachers in meeting with Trump

Benny Johnson
Daily Caller
Mon, 26 Feb 2018 22:10 UTC

President Donald Trump hosted governors from around the country at the White House Monday for an open conversation on gun policy.

Trump has proposed arming up to 20 percent of the nation's teachers in recent days. Some governors, specifically Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, argued against Trump's proposal for arming teachers.

However, two governors stood up and proudly defended their state's policy of allowing teachers to carry a weapon.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott gave a heartfelt explanation as to why his state allows teachers to carry firearms. Abbott said that 100 school districts in Texas allow teachers to carry and that some schools put "warning signs out front" to scare would-be shooters. Abbott said:

Comment:

New report: Parkland school shooter witnessed father's death at the age of 5

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Mon, 26 Feb 2018 22:03 UTC

In the latest bombshell report about the life and background of Nikolas Cruz, the 19-year-old school shooter who murdered 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and wounded more than a dozen more, the Florida Sun Sentinel describes how 5-year-old Cruz found his adoptive father's dead body, and other traumas he and his younger brother Zachary experienced as children growing up in and around Broward County.

The expansive report was compiled from police and school records, as well as interviews with people who knew Cruz.

Cruz was seemingly troubled from the beginning. By the age of 3, he had been diagnosed with developmental delays. By the time he was 6, he'd suffered the trauma of witnessing his father's death. By the time he was 16, he had become preoccupied with wars, death and killing, school records reveal. And of course, as he sits in the Broward County main jail, having confessed to 117 premeditated murders, there's a strong possibility he might face the death penalty.

The Cruzes - Nikolas Cruz's adoptive parents - married late in life. Lynda Cruz, who succumbed suddenly to pneumonia in November, was 49. Richard was 61. They arranged the adoption of Nikolas through a private attorney, insisting that his birth mother pass drug tests and make regular doctors visits. Soon after Nikolas was born, the same woman got pregnant again with a different man. The Cruzes then took in Nikolas's half-brother, Zachary. After they adopted the boys, they moved from Long Island to Parkland, where they build their home, which neighbors described as "a beautiful house"

If cops were doing their jobs the Parkland school shooter could have faced charges before killing spree, say experts

David Ovalle, Sarah Blaskey & Nicholas Nehamas
Miami Herald
Fri, 23 Feb 2018 21:48 UTC

Nikolas Cruz threatened classmates, posted photos of himself holding guns, made violent statements online and was repeatedly described to authorities as a potential "school shooter."

His troubling behavior gave law enforcement plenty of opportunities to investigate and arrest him - and even take away his guns - long before he shot up Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland last week, according to interviews with former South Florida prosecutors and legal experts.

In recent years, South Florida police detectives have arrested a slew of young men in unrelated cases who exhibited similar, troubling behavior on a variety of charges. Cops took them seriously.

It never happened with Cruz.

I ran a search on "Archbishop Viganò" for the last week - just 22,500 results and obviously nothing MSM related Even this SOTT article makes it to...

HashAttack2

Great interview with Professor Petrovsky, a very brave soul ! He is clear and concise from a Vaccine researcher /producer point of view and calls...

Gator

There's no mileage in anything the Smith's have to say, their well versed in interfering with things. So we can all sleep safely in our bed...

Winternights3

Seriously, lets break down these words, and I am fully equipped for this task that I give to myself NOW. gives OSHA the authority to act quickly...

Buffalo_Ken

Forensic pathologists performed a postmortem and concluded that the man had probably died mid-flight Let me see ... he walked onto the plane,...

HashAttack2

Society's Child

California has worst 'quality of life' in the nation, study finds

Jordan Peterson on the nihilism that can create a school shooter

Israel approves law to criminalize criticisms of IDF - targets whistleblower group Breaking the Silence

"Endless, bitter rancor lies ahead": Camille Paglia on films, #MeToo and modern sexuality

Setting the record straight: Understanding Jordan Peterson

Israel renews detention of Palestinian-French human rights defender, Salah Hamouri

Die Welt gaffe: Backlash at German newspaper over 'NATO's Eastern Front' piece

Governors make a case for armed teachers in meeting with Trump

New report: Parkland school shooter witnessed father's death at the age of 5

If cops were doing their jobs the Parkland school shooter could have faced charges before killing spree, say experts

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