Society's ChildS


Stormtrooper

In America the Rule of Law Is Vacated

SWAT team
© Wikimedia
With bank fraudsters, torturers, and war criminals running free, the US Department of Justice (sic) has nothing better to do than to harass the famous Tennessee guitar manufacturer, Gibson, arrest organic food producers in California and send 12 abusive FBI agents armed with assault rifles to bust down yet another wrong door of yet another innocent family, leaving parents, children, and grandmother traumatized.

What law did Gibson Guitar Corp break that caused federal agents to disrupt Gibson's plants in Nashville and Memphis, seize guitars, cause layoffs, and cost the company $3 million from disrupted operations?

No US law was broken. The feds claim that Gibson broke a law that is on the books in India.

India has not complained about Gibson or asked for the aid of the US government in enforcing its laws against Gibson. Instead, the feds have taken it upon themselves to both interpret and to enforce on US citizens the laws of India. The feds claim that Gibson's use of wood from India in its guitars is illegal, because the wood was not finished by Indian workers.

Heart - Black

The World Gone Insane! US: Four Year Old's Fake Breasts Spark Outrage

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© UnknownThe four-year-old 'adult' who was ...
While a regular 4-year-old might not even be acquainted to the adult's world, this toddler is seen sporting fake breasts and buttocks and behaving like a 20-year-old, in order to be the judge's favorite in a US reality show, Toddlers and Tiaras.

While other toddlers on the show look their age, the 'unnatural' portrayal has sparked an outrage. Social media is abuzz with discussions whether such acts would have a bad influence on kids and youngsters.

The campaigners have even set up a Facebook group, 'Take "Toddlers And Tiaras" off the Air!' in a bid to have the plug pulled on the show.

One fan, Teresa Spence Bruce commented: 'I just saw a commercial where they strapped silicone breast to a 4-5 yr old absolutely disgusting.'

Arrow Down

Chileans Begin Finding Bodies from Air Force Plane That Crashed with 21 Aboard

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© AP Photo/Jorge SanchezChilean entertainer Felipe Camiroaga embraces Soledad Onetto during the 51th Vina del Mar International Song Festival in Vina del Mar, Chile.
Chilean officials said Saturday they has begun recovering bodies from the crash of a military airplane that went down in the Pacific Ocean with 21 aboard.

The bodies of two women and one man were recovered by searchers or fishermen, said Air Force Gen. Maximiliano Larraechea. He said they had not yet been identified. Six women were on the flight.

Vice Admiral Cristian de la Maza said searchers were finding many pieces of the CASA 212 plane that crashed Friday afternoon after two failed attempts to land in difficult weather on the Juan Fernandez islands.

Officials say they believe all aboard died.

Among those aboard was popular Chilean television personality Felipe Camiroaga.

Arrow Down

US: Pilot Killed After Midair Collision with Another Aircraft in Alaska

A pilot was believed to have died Friday when he crashed his cargo plane after a midair collision with another aircraft near Nightmute, in southwestern Alaska, the Anchorage Daily News reported.

The pilot of the second plane, a Ryan Air cargo jet, managed to land safely nearby on the tundra.

Alaska State Troopers spokeswoman Megan Peters said the midair collision was reported at about 4:00pm local time, with troopers and medics flying to the remote scene in a helicopter from Bethel, about 100 miles (160km) east of Nightmute.

Ryan Air pilot Kirsten Sprague, 26, showed no apparent signs of injury when she was found by rescuers but was taken to a Bethel hospital as a precaution, Peters said.

The pilot of the crashed plane, Scott Veal, 24, was believed to be dead, troopers said. Peters said his body was not recovered from the wreckage, but there were no signs of life found at the scene.

The Cessna 208 Caravan Veal he was flying, operated by air taxi and cargo operator Grant Aviation, burst into flames after it crashed.

Info

Best of the Web: Inside the Christian Right Dominionist Movement That's Undermining Democracy in US

Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin have all flirted with Christian Right Dominionism, but there's lots of misinformation about just what that means.

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Dominionists want to impose a form of Christian nationalism on the United States, a concept that was dismissed as eroding freedom and democracy by the founders of our country. Dominionism has become a major influence on the right-wing populist Tea Parties as Christian Right activists have flooded into the movement at the grassroots. At the same time, legitimate questions have been raised about whether or not potential Republican presidential nominees Rick Perry, Michelle Bachmann, or Sarah Palin have moved from a generic form of Christian Right Dominionism toward the more totalitarian form know as Dominion Theology.

Clueless journalists and crafty Christian Right pundits have mocked the idea that Dominionism as a religiously motivated political tendency even exists. Scholars, however, have been writing about Dominionism for over a decade, some using the term directly, and others describing the tendency in other ways.

Handcuffs

US: Naomi Klein Arrested at D.C. Pipeline Protest

Protesters are arrested in front of the White House
© Luis M. Alvarez/APProtesters are arrested in front of the White House on Friday as part of a two-week civil disobedience campaign against the Keystone XL oil pipeline.
Canadian author and activist Naomi Klein was among dozens of people, including a Canadian aboriginal protester, arrested on Friday outside the White House at a demonstration against a contentious Alberta-to-Texas oil pipeline.

Klein was arrested alongside fellow Canadian Gitz Deranger, from the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, as well as several U.S. indigenous leaders.

They were part of a two-week-old civil disobedience campaign aimed at pressuring U.S. President Barack Obama to block Calgary-based TransCanada Corp.'s proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline.

Klein later told CBC's Power & Politics she wasn't planning on getting arrested - for the first time in her life - because of the possible difficulties it could cause for future travel to the United States.

Pistol

White House received emails about Fast and Furious gun-trafficking operation

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© John T. Greilick / Detroit NewsA hearse containing the body of U.S. Border Patrol officer and former U.S. Marine Brian Terry drives past a line of law enforcement officers from various departments after his December funeral service in Detroit.
Three national security officials were given some details about the operation. But an administration official says the emails do not prove that anyone in the White House was aware of the covert tactics of the program.

Newly obtained emails show that the White House was better informed about a failed gun-tracking operation on the border with Mexico than was previously known.

Three White House national security officials were given some details about the operation, dubbed Fast and Furious. The operation allowed firearms to be illegally purchased, with the goal of tracking them to Mexican drug cartels. But the effort went out of control after agents lost track of many of the weapons.

The supervisor of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives operation in Phoenix specifically mentioned Fast and Furious in at least one email to a White House national security official, and two other White House colleagues were briefed on reports from the supervisor, according to White House emails and a senior administration official.

Smiley

Five NASCAR Drivers Decline President Obama's White House Invitation

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© Unknown
President Barack Obama will honor NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson and the 11 other Chase drivers from last year in a White House ceremony on Wednesday - but nearly half of the 2010 playoff contenders won't be there.

NASCAR said Thursday that five drivers - Greg Biffle, Kurt Busch, Carl Edwards, Kevin Harvick and Tony Stewart - will not be attending the White House visit due to "schedule conflicts."

They must be very busy people. Regardless of one's political views, the president is still the president - and an opportunity to speak with the leader of the free world is a rare and special one.

You'd think whatever photo shoots or sponsor appearances these drivers have lined up on Wednesday afternoon - if that's indeed the reason - could be rescheduled. After all, this is the President of the United States we're talking about here.

For a sport that prides itself on patriotism, having so many drivers turn down the president's invitation simply seems strange.

Heart - Black

UK: Paedophile raped girl 400 times

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© UnknownBrown raped one girl in the town hall where he worked as a caretaker
A paedophile who was said to have raped one of his victims up to 400 times has been jailed.

Prosecutors told Exeter Crown Court David Brown treated the girl like "a sexual plaything".

The 62-year-old, of Highland Terrace, Uffculme, was convicted of 15 rapes and two indecent assaults on two young girls when they were as young as nine.

Former town hall caretaker Brown, who had denied all the charges, was sentenced to 22 years.

Wolf

US: San Diego sheriff says mansion death of pharmaceutical magnate's girlfriend was suicide

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San Diego-The San Diego County sheriff says the deaths of a 6-year-old boy and a 32-year-old woman at a historic Coronado mansion earlier this summer were not homicides.

Sheriff Bill Gore told a press conference Thursday that young Max Shacknai's death was an accident and the death of Rebecca Zahau was a suicide.

Max had suffered a fall down a staircase while under Zahau's care and died days later. Zahau subsequently was found hanging.