Society's ChildS


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Five kittens found mutilated in Melbourne

Maine Coon Kittens
© ExoticPetPlus
The bodies of five kittens, only weeks old, have been found mutilated behind a Melbourne shop.

A passer-by found the kittens dead with multiple stab wounds behind a business in Blackburn South on March 19, police say.

A RSPCA forensic vet performed autopsies on the kittens.

"It appears these kittens would have all died a slow and painful death given the injuries they had," Constable Libby Harris of Box Hill police said.

"It's shocking to think anyone would want to harm any animal in that way, let alone five tiny kittens.

"It's also a concern as we know people prepared to kill or injure animals in this way may also be prepared to commit further offences."

Source: Australian Associated Press

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Man brutally beaten by NYPD for sleeping on a couch in a synagogue

Brutal Assault
© Screen CaptureNYPD Officer Luis Vega prepares to punch Ehud Halevy after being confronted about sleeping on a couch in a synagogue.

New York City, NY - Disturbing video captured a man being brutally beaten by police after he was discovered sleeping on a couch inside a synagogue. The man was struck dozens of times with fists and a baton, even though the man had permission to be there. The beating was ruled justified and the officers were cleared.

The incident took place during the early morning hours of October 8th, 2012. Ehud Halevy, 22, was sleeping in the back room of the A.L.I.Y.A. (Alternative Learning Institute for Young Adults) building in Crown Heights. The facility is a synagogue and outreach center for troubled youths.

Halvey had received permission to sleep there for the night, yet a security guard had evidently not been made aware. Although individuals were sometimes allowed to sleep there, the guard decided to call the police instead of simply talking to the man himself.

Two NYPD officers from the 71st Precinct arrived and roused Halevy, who was sleeping shirtless on a couch. Surveillance video shows Officers Luis Vega and Yelena Bruzzese getting grabby with the man, who in turn tried to keep himself from falling into their clutches.

That's when the cops unleashed a torrent of New York-style brutality on the man. Officer Luis Vega, 49, slugged Mr. Halevy in the face, toppling him backward onto the couch. Vega then got on top of his prey and repeatedly struck him with both fists, as Halevy curled up in a ball and tried to protect himself.

The onslaught continued as Officer Bruzzese assisted in pummeling Halevy with her truncheon. The bludgeoning continued as a third officer arrived and helped to drag the victim onto the floor.

Video

Hard Reality: New age of shocking TV deaths; no character is safe

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© HBO
Viewers were stunned by a major twist in the popular TV drama on Sunday night - but the show is just one of many dropping this particular kind of bombshell

Warning: this blog contains major spoilers for The Good Wife season five, episode 15. Please also be aware of spoilers for Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, Boardwalk Empire, Grey's Anatomy, Breaking Bad, Scandal and Mad Men. Do not read if you are not up to date with the most recent episodes of these shows.

These days, no television character is safe.

On CBS last night, The Good Wife's Will Gardner was gunned down by an unstable client, who had grabbed a security guard's weapon and unloaded into the courtroom, before trying to kill himself. (The barrel was empty.) Despite the showrunners recently revealing that actor Josh Charles had approached them about leaving the show almost a year ago, the sudden death of one of the series' biggest leads was an enormous shock - but Gardner is just one in a long line of bombshell TV exits.

Question

The anti-hanky-panky law: Massachusetts judge wants divorcing couples to get court approval before having sex at home

woman in bed
© shutterstock
There's nothing that sets the mood for a romantic evening like petitioning a judge for permission to have sex at the end of the night.

If Massachusetts State Sen. Richard J. Ross (R) gets his way, that's exactly what many women (and men) would have to do if they have children and are going through a divorce. In fact, not only would permission-less coitus be banned, but so too would the romantic evening and many dating activities.

Ross' bill seeks to amend Massachusetts divorce law with the following provision (emphasis added):
In divorce, separation, or 209A proceedings involving children and a marital home, the party remaining in the home shall not conduct a dating or sexual relationship within the home until a divorce is final and all financial and custody issues are resolved, unless the express permission is granted by the courts.
The legislation, S787, was first filed in early 2013. On Thursday, it received an extension for consideration in the State House until June 30. In its current state, the bill does not specify what the penalty is for pre-divorce copulation.

Light Saber

It's not just Crimea: Alaska petition to secede to Russia going strong at 18K signers

Alaska Russia
A petition that seeks to put Alaska back under Russian control has garnered more than 18,000 signatures in just a few days - about a fifth of what's needed to capture a formal White House look.

The petition, called "Alaska Back to Russia," was created by a resident of Anchorage who declined to list his name, but instead gave only the initials of S.V., United Press International reported.

The petition was first circulated last week and so far, it's garnered more than 18,000 signatures. If a total of 100,000 sign on by April 20, the Obama administration will supposedly issue a formal response.

Cut

Spanish judges ruled Catalonia can't vote for independence, but Catalans will go ahead anyway

Catalan demonstrators
© Josep Lago/Agence France-PresseGetty ImagesDemonstrators hold Catalan flags during a protest calling for independence from Spain in Barcelona, October 2013
"This will have no effect on the process," shrugs a Catalan government spokesman

In a Tuesday ruling, Spanish judges found Catalonia's planned independence referendum to be unconstitutional, but secessionists in the Spanish autonomous region (called a "community" in Spain) have vowed to proceed regardless.

"This will have no effect on the process," said the Catalan government's spokesman Francesc Homs on local television.

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How Australia continues to 'Breed Out the Color' of its aboriginal population

Aboriginal Population
© Parliament of the World's Religions; Screenshot/YouTube.com
The tape is searing. There is the voice of an infant screaming as he is wrenched from his mother, who pleads: "There is nothing wrong with my baby. Why are you doing this to us? I would've been hung years ago, wouldn't I? Because [as an Australian Aborigine] you're guilty before you're found innocent." The child's grandmother demands to know why "the stealing of our kids is happening all over again." A welfare official says, "I'm gonna take him, mate."

This happened to an Aboriginal family in outback New South Wales. It is happening across Australia in a scandalous and largely unrecognized abuse of human rights that evokes the infamous Stolen Generation of the last century. Up to the 1970s, thousands of mixed race children were stolen from their mothers by welfare officials. The children were given to institutions as cheap or slave labor; many were abused.

Described by a Chief Protector of Aborigines as "breeding out the color", the policy was known as assimilation. It was influenced by the same eugenics movement that inspired the Nazis. In 1997, a landmark report, "Bringing Them Home", disclosed that as many 50,000 children and their mothers had endured "the humiliation, the degradation and sheer brutality of the act of forced separation ... the product of the deliberate, calculated policies of the state." The report called this genocide.

Assimilation remains Australian government policy in all but name. Euphemisms such as "reconciliation" and "Stronger Futures" cover similar social engineering and an enduring, insidious racism in the political elite, the bureaucracy and wider Australian society. When, in 2008, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd apologized for the Stolen Generation, he added: "I want to be blunt about this. There will be no compensation." The Sydney Morning Herald congratulated Rudd on a "shrewd maneuver" that "cleared away a piece of political wreckage that responds to some of its supporters' emotional needs, but changes nothing."

Smoking

California again leads the way in anti-smoking laws: San Mateo County proposes banning people from smoking in their own homes

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Smoking inside apartments, condominiums and other multiple housing units soon may be a no-no in unincorporated San Mateo County.

Following a study session discussion that touched on the evils of second-hand smoke, the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday directed staff to return with a proposed smoking ban by this summer.

A draft of the potential ordinance already had been outlined in a March 7 memo by Health System Chief Jean Fraser and Family Services Director Brian Zamora to the board.

The proposed ban on indoor smoking was suggested by Supervisors Carole Groom and Adrienne Tissier and drew the support of their board colleagues.

"I'm pleased that we're going to look at it," Tissier said. "Having grown up with a smoker in the family and subjected to second-hand smoke, it would be a pleasure not to have that done to others."

During the meeting, Stanford researcher Neil Klepeis explained how cigarette smoke drifts between housing units through vents, ducts, cracks and gaps. A person living next door to a smoker is exposed to high levels of smoke particles, he said.

Newspaper

U.S. Senate trying to limit First Amendment rights by defining 'journalist' - bloggers don't count

citizen journalist
Journalists have to be employed to be called journalists in Chuck Schumer's eyes.

After the revelation that the Department of Justice had taken phone records from Associated Press journalists as part of a leak investigation, members of Congress reintroduced the Free Flow of Information Act, also known as the federal media shield law. The basic purpose behind the law is to protect journalists from having to reveal confidential sources to the government.

The bill's chief sponsor, Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY), claims it has wide support in his chamber, and has identified five Republicans who would vote to support it. It is expected to come up for a vote in April.

But the devil here is in the details. While the law does extend certain protections to some journalists, it is very particular about who exactly it covers. The Associated Press's Donna Cossata explains:
"The bill's protections would apply to a 'covered journalist,' defined as an employee, independent contractor or agent of an entity that disseminates news or information. The individual would have to have been employed for one year within the last 20 or three months within the last five years.

"It would apply to student journalists or someone with a considerable amount of freelance work in the last five years. A federal judge also would have the discretion to declare an individual a 'covered journalist' who would be granted the privileges of the law.

"The bill also says that information is only privileged if it is disseminated by a news medium, described as 'newspaper, nonfiction book, wire service, news agency, news website, mobile application or other news or information service (whether distributed digitally or otherwise); news program, magazine or other periodical, whether in print, electronic or other format; or thorough television or radio broadcast ... or motion picture for public showing.'"
Not protected by the proposed law? Bloggers and people who post on social media. In other words, the law almost naturally privileges journalists whose organizations have most money - like print media - rather than the most accessible forms of media that anyone can use to disseminate information quickly.

Che Guevara

2014 Worldwide Wave of Action: MLK's spirit rises for truth, justice and freedom

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The 2014 Worldwide Wave of Action (and here) begins ~April 4 on the anniversary of Martin King's assassination by the US government (civil court trial verdict), with this operation completing ~July 4.

Purpose of this operation