Society's ChildS


Heart

UN spokesman breaks down talking about Gaza child deaths

chris gunness
Haunting video clip shows former BBC reporter reduced to sobs as he discusses latest deaths of Palestinian refugees in what was supposed to be a shelter

For a moment, he holds back the tears, coughing and blinking hard, trying to maintain his professional composure.

Then it is all to much for Chris Gunness, a United Nations spokesman, who broke down in a television interview with al-Jazeera as he described the devastating human impact of fighting in Gaza.

The clip offers a painful insight into the emotional toll among aid workers - and in particular that of a UN agency trying to protect Palestinians in schools, designated as shelters, which are still being hit by missiles.


Comment: It is too much for every thinking feeling human being to witness the senseless horrific actions of those without heart, but with weapons at their disposal.


Newspaper

Conservatives are more negative, more paranoid

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© AP
"John Stuart Mill called it 'commonplace' for political systems to have 'a party or order or stability and a party of progress or reform.'" So begins a recent paper in the journal Behavioral and Brain Sciences. But is this "commonplace" observation rooted in our brains? Is it even true?

The paper, "Differences in negativity bias underlie variations in political ideology," by lead author John R. Hibbing of the University of Nebraska, answers yes to both questions. It advances three successive waves of evidence, which combine to show that conservatives differ from liberals by having stronger, more intense reactions to negative aspects of the environment - such as physical threats, or potential sources of disease - which are ultimately physiological. At the same time, with multiple forms of mass hysteria going on at once, American conservatives seem dead set on proving the scientists right, and underscoring the importance of the work they're doing.

But here's the twist: The scientists themselves insist that "citing differences in the psychological and physiological traits of liberals and conservatives is not equivalent to declaring one ideology superior to the other." While this may be true in an abstract sense, and a mix of psychological tendencies makes a society more robust in the long run - balancing needs for caution and self-preservation with needs for exploration, innovation and renewal - in 21st century America, things look strikingly different.

Handcuffs

Illegal conscience: U.S. activist sentenced to prison for photographing a war protest

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© Ellen M. Blalock / The Post-StandardClare Grady (hands up) and her sister, Mary Anne Flores-Grady (on the left) are being arrested for protesting against drones, at the Thompson Road entrance to the New York Air National Guard.
Warplanes have long been based at Hancock Field Air National Guard Base in Syracuse, NY. But in 2009, something new arrived: MQ-9 Reaper drones that were flown remotely over Afghanistan, dropping missiles and bombs and unleashing terror.

Organizers in Upstate New York started protests soon after the drones arrived and founded Upstate Drone Action in 2010. In 2011, one longtime activist and member of the Catholic Worker movement, Mary Anne Grady Flores, 57, joined the struggle. As part of the "Hancock 38" in April that year, she was arrested for protesting at the base's main entrance by participating in a die-in to illustrate the indiscriminate killing of civilians overseas by drones.

She was arrested again in October 2012 for another act of "civil resistance," as she puts it, not "civil disobedience," to uphold the U.S. Constitution and international treaties the U.S. signed. That led to Grady Flores and the 16 others being placed under court orders restricting their protest rights. Frustrated by the protesters' persistence, a base commander, Col. Earl Evans, sought and received an orders of protection - usually reserved for domestic violence victims - which was used over time to bar approximately 50 protesters from the base's grounds.

Comment: See also:
  • Psychopaths on the Hill: "Unmanned: America's Drone Wars"



Star of David

Charts don't lie: Staggering number of Palestinian deaths far outnumber those of Israelis

israeli tank
© ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP/Getty ImagesA September 2005 photo shows an Israeli tank near the Gaza town of Khan Younis
It's no secret that the death tolls in the Israel-Palestine conflict are lopsided, with Palestinians far more likely to be killed than Israelis. But just how lopsided is driven home by looking at the month-to-month fatality statistics, which the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem has been tracking since September 2000. Those numbers also tell some important stories about the conflict, how it's changed, and maybe where it's going.

Here are the monthly, conflict-related deaths of Israelis and Palestinians since September 2000:
palestinian deaths
You'll notice right away that the overwhelming majority of the deaths are Palestinian, and have been for the almost 14 years since B'Tselem began tracking. Overall, the group has recorded 8,166 conflict-related deaths, of which 7,065 are Palestinian and 1,101 Israeli. That means 87 percent of deaths have been Palestinian and only 13 percent Israeli. Put another way, for every 15 people killed in the conflict, 13 are Palestinian and two are Israeli. (Statistics for the past two months are from United Nations Office for the Coordinator of Humanitarian Affairs.)

Light Saber

Murdered presenter tried to expose pedophile culture within BBC but 'No one wanted to know'

Jill Dando
© Rex FeaturesJill Dando, London, 1999
Popular TV presenter Jill Dando, who was shot dead outside her London home in 1999, tried to instigate inquiries into alleged paedophile activities within the BBC in the mid-1990s, it was claimed today, but "no-one wanted to know."

In an exclusive report on Sunday, Britain's Daily Star said that a source close to Ms Dando recalls her compiling a dossier of complaints about sexually abusive behaviour within the corporation and handing it over to bosses because she herself was a presenter rather than an investigative journalist.

"They gave it back. No-one wanted to know," said the source, herself a former BBC worker who asked not to be named.

The source said that lots of people would talk to Ms Dando, who was the presenter of hugely popular programmes such as Holiday and Crimewatch. She was told that BBC staff, DJs and stars were involved in organised abuse.

Comment: As the British government and the BBC have been so desperate to cover up this scandal, this makes the death of Ms. Dando all the more suspicious.

UK government ignored warnings about pedophiles: "There's too many of them"
Britain's plague of pederasty and power
Protecting pedophile networks: BBC ordered cover-up of its own investigation into serial child rapist Jimmy Savile


Cow

Herd of cows kills German woman hiker in Austria

Cows
© AlamyA herd of cows in Austria. The unnamed woman was killed while walking with her dog on a lead.
Vienna - Police say a herd of cows attacked and killed a German woman hiking through their fenced-in pasture after apparently being riled by the sight of her leashed dog.

They said Tuesday the 45-year old victim was rushed by about 20 cows and their calves. Attempts by an emergency crew to revive her were unsuccessful.

The attack occurred Monday on a mountain pasture in Austria's Tyrol province. The woman's name was not released, in accordance with Austrian confidentiality rules.

Dollar

America's dumbest move yet: Seizing a foreign bank to spite Russia

FBME bank cypress
Ten dark suited men entered the premises of FBME bank in Cyprus on Friday afternoon and took it hostage.

It must have looked like a scene from the Matrix. And given the surrealism of how this conflict is escalating, maybe it was.

The men were from the Central Bank of Cyprus (CBC). And they commandeered FBME because an obscure agency within the US government recently issued a report accusing the bank of laundering money.

It just so happens that FBME... and Cyprus in general... is where a lot of wealthy Russians hold their vast fortunes.

Bear in mind, there has been no proof that any crime was committed. There was no court hearing. No charges were read. It wasn't even the government of Cyprus who accused them of anything.

There was just a generic report penned by some bureaucrat 10,000 miles away.

Funny thing - when HSBC got caught red-handed laundering funds for a Mexican drug cartel last year, the US government gave them a slap on the wrist. HSBC got off with a fine.

Yet when the US government merely hints that FBME could be laundering money, the bank gets taken over at gunpoint.

Bad Guys

Gaza: At least 20 killed and 90 injured as another UN school is hit by bloodthirsty IDF

un school attack gaza
© Marco Longari/AFP/Getty ImagesAftermath of the strike on a UN school in Gaza City
UN official condemns 'in the strongest possible terms this serious violation of international law by Israeli forces'

At least 19 Palestinians were killed and about 90 injured early on Wednesday when a UN school sheltering displaced people was hit by shells during a second night of relentless bombardment that followed an Israeli warning of a protracted military campaign.

Pierre Krahenbuhl, commissioner-general of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, condemned "in in the strongest possible terms this serious violation of international law by Israeli forces".

He said in a statement: "Last night, children were killed as they slept next to their parents on the floor of a classroom in a UN-designated shelter in Gaza. Children killed in their sleep; this is an affront to all of us, a source of universal shame. Today the world stands disgraced.

"We have visited the site and gathered evidence. We have analysed fragments, examined craters and other damage. Our initial assessment is that it was Israeli artillery that hit our school, in which 3,300 people had sought refuge. We believe there were at least three impacts.

Comment: An Israeli soldier's realization that the war against Palestinians is an excuse for the Israeli army to test their new weapons before they sell them to other regimes!


Umbrella

UCLA campus flooded by broken water main amid worst drought and strict water-use restrictions

UCLA flooding
© Reuters/Danny MoloshokA woman looks up from an underground parking structure outside UCLA's Pauley Pavilion sporting arena as water flows down the stairs from a broken thirty inch water main that was gushing water onto Sunset Boulevard near the UCLA campus in the Westwood section of Los Angeles July 29, 2014
An official at the city's Department of Water and Power, or DWP, was questioned about the delay in stopping the flow of water after an estimated eight to 10 million gallons of water poured out from a ruptured 93-year-old water pipe, according to the Los Angeles Times.

"We had to do research to get to the correct valve," Jim McDaniel, a DWP senior assistant general manager, said, according to the LA Times, adding that the closure of a wrong valve could have left many people without water. The water had been reportedly flowing for more than three hours before the flow was cut off.

Los Angeles Councilman Paul Koretz reportedly said: "Unfortunately, we lost a lot of water, around 35,000 gallons a minute, which is not ideal in the worst drought in the city's history."

Yoda

El Salvador, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador and Peru recalled ambassadors to protest Israel's operation in Gaza

gaza attack
El Salvador recalled its Israeli ambassador from Tel Aviv on Wednesday to protest the military operation in Gaza, making it the fifth Latin American country to do so.

Brazil, Chile, Ecuador and Peru have already recalled their ambassadors.

Yigal Palmor, the spokesman for Israel's Foreign Ministry, said recalling ambassadors encourages Hamas.

"Israel expresses its deep disappointment with the hasty decision of the governments of El Salvador, Peru and Chile to recall their ambassadors for consultations," said Palmor. "This step constitutes encouragement for Hamas, a group recognized as a terror organization by many countries around the world."

Such countries are handing terrorists a prize, said Palmor.


Comment: That these countries recalled their Israeli envoys as a protest only means that they are able to recognize terrorists - and their actions! - when they see them. You can skip the following paragraph too. More Palmor BS.