Society's ChildS


Red Flag

Anger in China as bodies 'fall from carriages' during train crash clean-up

Malcolm Moore
The Telegraph
Tue, 25 Oct 2011 15:58 UTC
There was growing public anger in China in the wake of a major rail crash at the weekend after a video appeared to show bodies tumbling out of wrecked train carriages as officials hurried to clear up the scene of the disaster.


On Sunday, less than a day after two bullet trains collided in the south of the country, killing at least 43 people and injuring a further 210, eight mechanical diggers began to dig trenches to bury two twisted and broken train carriages.

The crash occurred on Saturday night after a bolt of lightning hit one bullet train, causing it to lose power and grind to a halt. A second train then hit it from behind, causing six carriages to derail and two to fall off the side of the elevated tracks.

Locals immediately accused the government of trying to cover up the disaster and questioned how a full investigation could be carried out without an inspection of the wreckage.

A video then emerged which appeared to show at least two bodies falling out of the carriages as they were being moved. The video has now been watched over 1.2 million times in less than a day.
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Handcuffs

US, New York: Feds Arrest 11 People Connected to Multimillion Dollar LIRR Pension Scam

Scott Shifrel and Larry Mcshane
New York Daily News
Thu, 27 Oct 2011 08:20 UTC
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© Jefferson Siegel for NewsThe arrests capped a three-year probe into the stunningly high approval rate of disability pensions for retiring LIRR employees.
A $1 billion disability scam for retiring Long Island Rail Road workers was exposed Thursday with the arrest of 11 people - including a pair of crooked doctors, authorities said.

Orthopedists Peter Ajemian and Peter Lesniewski recommended nearly 1,000 LIRR employees for illegal benefits between 1998-2009, turning their offices into "disability mills," according to a criminal complaint.

Arrested along with the two physicians were Ajemian's office manager, a former LIRR union president, a one-time official with the Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) and a half-dozen ex-LIRR employees.

"The defendants and their co-conspirators participated in a massive fraud scheme in which LIRR workers who were ready to retire falsely claimed to be disabled," federal authorities charged in a 74-page criminal complaint.

The arrests capped a three-year probe into the stunningly high approval rate of disability pensions for retiring LIRR employees.

The complaint charged that Ajemian recommended at least 734 LIRR workers for disability over the 11-year stretch, while Lesniewski approved 222 railroad employees.
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Pumpkin

US, Ohio: Halloween No Excuse for Racism, Ignorance

Kristina Bui
Daily Wildcat
Sun, 23 Oct 2011 09:54 UTC
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© Students Teaching Against Racism in Society (STARS) / Ohio University

Halloween is just a week away, and this year, I'm going to dress up like a white person. But wait, won't that be kind of offensive? I mean, most of the real-life white people I know don't even actually like mayonnaise.

A white-person costume sounds pretty stupid, doesn't it? Absurd, really. But costumes of any minority are totally cool. Super funny. Not awkward at all. Unless, of course, you're the minority. In that case, you're kind of like, "What the hell? Do you know any Asians who walk around in kimonos?"

In the parade of trendy movie character costumes and sexy (insert small animals here) outfits, there is always that one guy who decided it would be funny to be another race for the night, based on every stereotype in the book.

That guy is why I'm glad for Students Teaching About Racism in Society, the force behind one of the best campaigns I've ever seen.

STARS, a student organization at Ohio University, created a series of posters just in time for Halloween. In one, a Latino man holds up a picture of a white guy wearing a handlebar mustache, sombrero and poncho. There's a stuffed donkey attached to the front, so that he looks like he's riding it. Similar posters feature an Asian woman, a black woman, an Arab man and a Native American man. Across the top of each poster, the text says, "We're a culture, not a costume. This is not who I am, and this is not okay."
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Info

Canada, Halifax: University of Manitoba president apologizes for its role in residential schools


The Canadian Press
Thu, 27 Oct 2011 00:00 UTC
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© The Canadian Press / Andrew VaughanDavid Barnard, left, president of the University of Manitoba, is embraced by Gordon Williams, chair of the survivor committee and one of the first aboriginal graduates of the university, as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission holds its third round of national hearings in Halifax on Thursday, Oct. 27, 2011. Barnard delivered a public apology for the university's role in perpetuating the damage caused by Canada's native residential schools. The commission has a five-year mandate to document the history of residential schools, inspire reconciliation and produce a report by 2014.
The president of the University of Manitoba has issued a public apology for the university's indirect role in perpetuating the damage caused by Canada's native residential schools.

David Barnard appeared today in Halifax before the federal Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Barnard says the university failed to challenge the policy of forced assimilation that was central to the 130 residential schools that operated for more than a century.

He says the physical, sexual and emotional abuses that occurred at residential schools were among the most deplorable acts committed at any time in Canada's history.

Barnard says the university played a role in perpetuating the system by educating clergy, teachers, civil servants and politicians who carried out the assimilation policies.

Phil Fontaine, a residential school survivor who is also a former grand chief of the Assembly of First Nations, was on hand to witness the apology.
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Cheeseburger

US, Arizona: Exposé gets Valley mom banned from McDonald's

Jared Dillingham
AZ Family
Wed, 26 Oct 2011 05:29 UTC


An Arizona State University professor's campaign against dirty restaurant playgrounds got her banned from several McDonald's in the Valley.

Dr. Erin Carr-Jordan, a mother of four, started recording and posting videos of trashy playgrounds, and quickly built an international following. Her lab tests, which revealed dangerous bacteria on the equipment, have been featured on network broadcasts and in major national newspapers.

This week, Carr-Jordan was notified by an East Valley franchisee's attorney that she is no longer allowed in any of his McDonald's restaurants that have playgrounds.

"Rather than have someone come into the playgrounds and do the right thing and make them clean and safe, they told me not to come in anymore," Carr-Jordan said.
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Stormtrooper

Marines to Oakland Police: 'You Did This To My Brother'

Robert Johnson and Linette Lopez
Business Insider
Thu, 27 Oct 2011 13:42 UTC
marine, occupy wall street

Marines around the world are outraged by the injuries inflicted by police on Scott Olsen at Tuesday's Occupy Oakland protests. Olsen is in a medically-induced coma after getting hit in the head by a police projectile.

The following picture is taken from the Reddit thread "How I feel, as a United States Marine, about what occurred in Oakland."

This man is not alone. In the five hours since the thread went up there have been over 600 comments.
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Wolf

Top Romney Adviser Tied to Militia That Massacred

Adam Serwer
Mother Jones
Thu, 27 Oct 2011 11:19 UTC
walid phares
© Photo courtesy of An-NaharWalid Phares lecturing in front of a Lebanese Forces banner in 1986

Walid Phares, the recently announced co-chair of GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney's Middle East advisory group, has a long résumé. College professor. Author. Political pundit. Counterterrorism expert. But there's one chapter of his life that you won't find on his CV: He was a high ranking political official in a sectarian religious militia responsible for massacres during Lebanon's brutal, 15-year civil war.

During the 1980s, Phares, a Maronite Christian, trained Lebanese militants in ideological beliefs justifying the war against Lebanon's Muslim and Druze factions, according to former colleagues. Phares, they say, advocated the hard-line view that Lebanon's Christians should work toward creating a separate, independent Christian enclave. A photo obtained by Mother Jones shows him conducting a press conference in 1986 for the Lebanese Forces, an umbrella group of Christian militias that has been accused of committing atrocities. He was also a close adviser to Samir Geagea, a Lebanese warlord who rose from leading hit squads to running the Lebanese Forces.

Since fleeing to the United States in 1990, when the Syrians took over Lebanon, Phares has reinvented himself as a counterterrorism and national security expert, traveling comfortably between official circles and the GOP's anti-Muslim wing. In a little over two decades, he's gone from training Lebanese militants to teaching American law enforcement and intelligence officials about the Middle East, and from advising Lebanese warlords to counseling a man who could be the next president of the United States.
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Bad Guys

US: North Dakota oil boom creates thousands of jobs

Catherine Kim & Jessica Hopper
MSNBC
Thu, 27 Oct 2011 01:43 UTC
Those hurt hard by the ailing economy are flocking to Williston, N.D., where an oil boom has turned a sleepy prairie town into a place producing thousands of jobs.

"There's opportunity here and that's what we all need is opportunity," said Williston Mayor Ward Koeser. "It's kind of been an oasis for the country. You know, there's a lot of jobs here, good paying jobs in the oil industry."

Williston is situated on the Bakken formation, an oil field that some say will produce the biggest boom in North America since the 1960s. Koeser said that his town currently has 2,000 to 3000 jobs and they haven't been able to fill the openings fast enough.

"A lot of jobs get filled every day, but it's like for every job you fill, another job and a half opens up," Koeser said.

A job on an oil rig can pay as much as six figures. The starting salary for truck drivers is around $80,000. While the nation's unemployment rate is 9.1 percent, Williston's unemployment rate is less than 1 percent.

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Eye 1

Catholic cardinals and Bishops revolt against Benedict XVI


Third Secret of Fatima
Thu, 27 Oct 2011 10:23 UTC
Catholic Cardinals and Bishops Refuse to Shake Pope Benedicts Hand


The Cause is that many Cardinals around the world think that Benedict XVI's authority was removed by God publicly, this happened during the World youth Day this year.

In this shocking video, a violent storms attacks Benedict XVI and removes his zucchetto, (hat) which is the symbol of authority, this is called ''Defenestration''.

As recorded in the book of Kings II in the Bible, Jezebel was defenestrated at Jezreel by her own servants at the urging of Jehu. (2 Kings 9: 33)
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Chess

US: Campaign team walks out on Bachmann

David Usborne
Independent UK
Wed, 26 Oct 2011 07:36 UTC
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© Rex FeaturesRepublican presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann has seen support for her slump since August
Staff in key state of New Hampshire quit in a huff over 'cruelty' of candidate's inner circle

The star of Michele Bachmann, who wants to ride the energy of the Tea Party all the way to the White House, is dimming quickly - at least in the key state of New Hampshire, where her entire team has resigned in a huff over the "cruel" and "dismissive" way they were being treated by the congresswoman's national campaign team.

While personnel struggles and high-dudgeon walk-outs are hardly uncommon within presidential campaigns, few can remember a candidate being ditched by every one of their hires in a state, particularly one as important as New Hampshire, which holds the first Republican primary on 10 January.

The drama in the Bachmann enclosure is the latest in a series of squalls to ruffle the Republican field. Causing fresh consternation yesterday, at least in the camp of long-time front-runner Mitt Romney, was a New York Times/CBS News poll showing him slipping to second place nationally behind Herman Cain, the former Godfather's Pizza chief executive and radio talk show host.
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