Society's ChildS


Pistol

Why does NASA need a SWAT team? To steal moon dust from retirees!

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© tactical-life.comNASA’s SWAT team
A recent weapons purchase by NASA piqued the interest of some of my readers, prompting questions such as, "What is NASA doing with assault rifles?" In post 9/11 America, no self-respecting federal agency - from the Environmental Protection Agency to the Department of Education - can exist without its own SWAT team. A strong trend of militarizing law enforcement has been occurring for some time, and if this is a surprise to you, its time to catch up. Yes, even NASA has a SWAT team, and you may be surprised with some of their assignments, which include militarized perimeter security and robbing grandmothers of heirloom decorative paperweights.

NASA's recent purchase of Armalite AR-15 rifles, documented on FedBizOpps.gov, is only the tip of the iceberg regarding NASA's equipment and capabilities. The space agency also has its own police department and round-the-clock SWAT team.

The purpose of all this security is protection from "troublemakers," as the agency states, as well as criminal investigations, which I will discuss shortly.

Some security is surely warranted to protect NASA's equipment and personnel. How much? I will leave that for you to decide.

NASA.gov describes its SWAT team in a post they titled, SWATting Trouble:

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© LuisSantanaPhoto.comOne of NASA’s $250,000 Lenco Bearcat
Along with the formidable force of standard security at Kennedy, a highly trained and specialized group of guardians protect the Center from would-be troublemakers. They are the members of the Kennedy Space Center Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team and they mean business.

"We're here 24-7," said SWAT commander David Fernandez. "There's never a point when SWAT is not here, so we're ready to respond to something if needed at a moment's notice."
The SWAT team is equipped with helicopter(s) and armored Lenco Bearcat vehicles - priced at $250,000 each - both of which the agency enjoys taking selfie pictures with

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© tactical-life.com
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Sheriff

Indiana man sentenced to 8 months in federal prison for teaching people to beat lie-detectors

Is teaching others to lie a protected form of free speech? Apparently not.

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© The Telegraph
An Indiana man thought he had the freedom to speak about controversial topics and teach others what he knows. The Federal Government disagreed. This week that man found out that the penalty for free speech is 8 months in federal prison. He taught people how to beat polygraph tests. The case has sparked a debate about whether or not the right to lie, or teach others to lie, should be protected under the First Amendment.

"My wife and I are terrified," said Chris Dixon, of Marion, Indiana. "I stumbled into this. I'm a Little League coach in Indiana...never in my wildest dreams did I somehow imagine I was committing a crime."

Dixon, 34, had been struggling to find work as an electrical engineer and began working as a polygrapher. He soon began giving lessons on defeating the polygraph test.

A polygraph test measures blood pressure, sweat activity, respiration and movement to identify people who lie or try to beat the test. While polygraph data is not admissible in court, polygraphers use the information to detect what they believe are lies, followed by an attempt to elicit a confession to confirm their suspicions.

Polygraph instructors, like Dixon, claim to teach methods that help the test-subjects avoid scrutiny. Polygraph countermeasures include controlled breathing, muscle tensing, tongue biting and mental arithmetic.

"It may be unfortunate for federal law enforcement ... but it is protected speech to tell people how to lie on a polygraph," Dixon's lawyer, Nina Ginsberg, said.

Despite having no criminal record, the Federal government found out about his lessons and began pursuing him for obstructing federal proceedings and wire fraud.

People

Camp 22 inmates disappear: Over 22,000 prisoners unaccounted for in North Korean labor camp

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© Screenshot/HRNKA screenshot of the cover of the new report that in part covers the prisoners that disappeared from Camp 22 in North Korea.
Over 22,000 inmates at Camp 22, a labor camp in North Korea, have disappeared, according to a new report.

The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, based in the U.S., reports that the number of prisoners in the camp dwindled rapidly from 30,000 to between 3,000 and 8,000 amid reports of severe food shortages inside the camp.

Prison camps in North Korea, which has a communist-like regime, hold prisoners that are deemed "wrong-thinkers" or "wrong-doers." They are mostly punished through forced labor and sometimes through more extreme measures such as strict rationing and torture.

Camp 22, an area that covered about 31 miles by 25 miles, was recently closed - but a number of missing prisoners haven't been accounted for.

Drawing on several media outlets that have sources inside the closed-off country and several other sources such as a former prison guard, the report outlines that some of the "missing" prisoners were likely transferred to a nearby camp, but about 22,000 are still left unaccounted for.

Stock Down

Slave nation: Number of Britons on 'zero-hours contracts' is actually 5.5 million, not 1.1 million, as reported one month ago

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Unite survey finds 22% of workers employed by private firms are on contracts promising less than three hours a week

As many as 5.5 million Britons could be signed up to work contracts that promise them less than three hours of work a week, five times more than existing estimates, new figures suggest.

A survey of 5,000 members of Unite, Britain's biggest union representing more than 1 million people, found that 22% of workers employed by private businesses had deals that offered little or no guarantee of work and pay.

Across the entire UK workforce, the figures suggest millions could be employed on zero-hours contracts, which often provide no holiday or sick pay but can leave employees having to ask permission before seeking additional work elsewhere.

Pistol

Iowa grants gun permits to the blind

Blind with Gun
© Andrea Melendez/The Des Moines RegisterMichael Barber examines a gun with his hands at Bass Pro Shop in Altoona last month. 'When you shoot a gun, you take it out and point and shoot, and I don't necessarily think eyesight is necessary,' said Barber, who is blind. /
Des Moines -- Here's some news that has law enforcement officials and lawmakers scratching their heads: Iowa is granting permits to acquire or carry guns in public to people who are legally or completely blind.

No one questions the legality of the permits. State law does not allow sheriffs to deny an Iowan the right to carry a weapon based on physical ability.

The quandary centers squarely on public safety. Advocates for the disabled and Iowa law enforcement officers disagree over whether it's a good idea for visually disabled Iowans to have weapons.

On one side: People such as Cedar County Sheriff Warren Wethington, who demonstrated for The Des Moines Register how blind people can be taught to shoot guns. And Jane Hudson, executive director of Disability Rights Iowa, who says blocking visually impaired people from the right to obtain weapon permits would violate the Americans with Disabilities Act. That federal law generally prohibits different treatment based on disabilities

People

In Sicily, a lesson of altruism as Syrian refugees arrive

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© Filippo Monteforte/AFP/Getty ImagesA boat carrying Tunisian migrants enters the port of Lampedusa, Sicily, on April 12, 2011. Sicily is now dealing with an influx of Syrian migrants, as they must pass through Italy on their way to central European countries as they flee violence at home.
Located on the Mediterranean Sea the island of Sicily has become a destination for Syrians fleeing the war-torn nation by boat.

Refugees on their way to central European countries, such as Germany, Austria, or Switzerland, have to pass through Italy first. The number of Syrian refugees has increased especially in the Syracuse Province of Sicily this year.

It presents a challenge for Syracuse, which is relatively unprepared, but it's a challenge that the medical director at the Health Association of Syracuse Province, Anselmo Madeddu, is welcoming.

Madeddu said he has come across many "touching experiences" in his work as a physician with the immigrants. They have given "all of us a lesson in civility," he said in an interview with Epoch Times.

The situation is different from previous years and not only in the numbers. Before immigrants were predominantly males in search of a job, but now they are full families with women and children, and even with pregnant women. Moreover, their social status is generally high - including engineers, doctors, and lawyers - according to Madeddu.

Eye 2

Homeowner finds 6-foot rat snake in sink drain, Texas

A China Spring homeowner was surprised by an unwelcome guest slithering through the drain of his bathroom sink Friday afternoon.

About 3 feet of what officials think was a non-venomous rat snake made it through from the opening of the drain before it got caught in the pipe, Lt. Chris Eubank said.
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© McLennan County Sheriff’s Office photo

"(The homeowner) called us as soon as he saw it - he didn't want to mess with it," he said.

McLennan County sheriff's deputies, who responded to the scene on Norm Street about 12:40 p.m., were forced to disassemble the piping, then take the sink, with 6 feet of snake still stuck in the opening of the drain, in an attempt to free it, Eubank said.

Sheriff

Barbaric video of Georgia Prison Guard beating man with a hammer finally released

Recently, the video footage of a Georgia victim of the prison system was released, in which he is barbarically beaten with a hammer by a guard.

Because officers, prison guards, and people committing violence for the government never face the consequences of their crime, the violent offender, the guard in this video (who hasn't even been identified because he is protected by the other criminals), was never prosecuted, and never faced any consequences at all. The man was handcuffed, and completely defenseless. He could have been murdered, it was that bad. Originally, it was denied that this even happened, but now we know the truth. Perhaps in part because It's taken two years and almost eight months for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to release this video. The assault occurred on New Year's Eve, right before midnight, on Dec. 31, 2010. A very persistent family member of one of the victims finally persuaded them to give the video to her. A determined advocate for justice for prisoners, Rev. Kenneth Glasgow, posted it to YouTube.

The family member who retrieved the video says-

"The family is demanding justice for this barbaric, inhumane act. We ask everyone to help by contacting District Attorney Tom Durden at (912) 876-4151.

Cult

40 children taken away from German Christian sect

foster families
© Daniel Karmann/DPAThe children were temporarily handed into the care of foster families.
German police have raided a Christian sect, taking away 40 children, alleging that they had been beaten and abused, according to reports.


More than 100 police targeted two locations of "The Twelve Tribes" in the southern German state of Bavaria, the local Augsburger Allgemeine and Spiegel Online said.

The dawn raids followed "new evidence pointing to significant and ongoing child abuse by the members", local officials were quoted as saying.

In all, police withdrew from the community's custody 28 children from one monastery near the town of Deiningen and 12 from a second location, Woernitz.

X

Afghan militants drag female author out of her home, shoot her dead

Sushmita Banerjee
© SEBASTIAN D'SOUZA/AFP/GETTY IMAGESAuthor Sushmita Banerjee, writer of the novel "Kabuliwala's Bengali Wife" based of her life, poses at a press conference announcing the launch of the movie "Escape From Taliban" in Bombay, Dec. 17, 2002.
Suspected Taliban militants in Afghanistan on Thursday shot dead an Indian woman whose memoir about marrying an Afghan and life under the Islamist militia was made into a Bollywood movie, officials said.

The killing of Sushmita Banerjee was the latest in a string of attacks on prominent women in Afghanistan, adding to fears women's rights in a country where many are barely allowed outside the house will recede even more after U.S.-led foreign forces fully withdraw in 2014.

The militants arrived before dawn at Banjerjee's residence in eastern Paktika province, which lies in Afghanistan's east - a region where the Taliban are especially influential.

Her husband, Jaanbaz Khan, answered the door, only to be quickly bound and blindfolded, provincial police chief Gen. Dawlat Khan Zadran told The Associated Press.