Society's ChildS


Heart - Black

Daughters of Maire Rankin speak about their 'living nightmare'

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Marie Rankin, brutally attacked on Christmas day 2008
The Truth about what happened the night Maire Rankin was murdered will never be known, according to her daughters Brenda and Aine.

The two daughters gave their first interview to TV3′s Midweek programme tonight, in which they described the past two years and 10 months as a "living nightmare".

Their 81-year-old mother, Maire, was killed in the early hours of Christmas morning in 2008. Her neighbour, Dublin pharmacist Karen Walsh, was convicted of the brutal murder and jailed for a minimum of 20 years last Friday.

"The past two years and 10 months have been about Karen Walsh," Aine told presenter Colette Fitzpatrick during the interview. "We have been in court 50 times and have been completely and utterly obsessed with the trial. It has taken over.

Magnify

Best of the Web: Corpses Don't Rebel: A former follower of Michael Pearl's "To Train Up A Child" reacts to the death of Hana Williams

Trigger Warning: This article contains graphic descriptions of infant and child abuse.

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© AP
The death toll from parents following Michael and Debi Pearl's teachings continues to mount. Another child is has been "biblically chastened" to death via corporal punishment, and Michael Pearl is defending his teachings in the mainstream media while promoting his new book. Gary Tuchman and Anderson Cooper both reported on the death of 13-year-old Hana Williams, whose adoptive parents Larry and Carri Williams subjected her to beatings and neglect while following the teachings of the Pearls.

Michael Pearl defends himself and his teachings during his CNN interviews using two arguments:

First, the presence of his book, To Train Up a Child, and the presence of his other teaching materials on "biblical chastisement," in the homes of homicidal parents, is purely circumstantial. It makes no more sense, Pearl argues, to blame To Train Up a Child for discipline-turned-abusive-turned-murderous than to blame Alcoholics Anonymous brochures in the home for deaths due to drunk driving, or weight-loss materials in the home for obesity.

As Anderson Cooper pointed out, this defense is illogical. AA literature says not to drink, especially while driving. Pearl literature emphasizes inflicting physical pain on children in order to break their wills and achieve total obedience to parents. In the Cooper interview, Pearl talks about physically chastising to "get the child's attention." What if your child still isn't paying attention?

Pearl's second argument comes up every time his teachings are linked to children beaten to death: kids end up abused and killed because parents, despite owning copies of his teachings and trying to follow them, aren't really following his teachings. They are missing the joy part, the reconciliation part, the praying part, the loving part, or whatever. They discipline in anger instead of in love.

Or - and I suspect this is what Pearl really thinks but can't say without contradicting his own child-training directions - they should have known when to stop, when they were being cruel and abusive instead of loving, even if the child was still in rebellion and hadn't budged an inch. At some point, a loving parent with some sense and a conscience will stop inflicting more pain. This is what Pearl believes, or at least one would hope this is what he believes. This isn't what he teaches.

Heart

We Will Never Pay, So Stop Harassing Us

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© Unknown
To: Whom it may concern in the Internal Revenue Service (hereafter known as IRS).

From: Cindy Sheehan, grieving mother of Spc. Casey Austin Sheehan, KIA in Iraq on 04/04/04

From: Christy (Dede) Miller, grieving aunt of Spc. Casey Austin Sheehan, KIA in Iraq on 04/04/04

RE: Recent Notices of Levy and SUMMONS to appear from the IRS to Cindy Sheehan

COPY: The American People

"How does it become a wo(man) to behave towards the American government today? I answer, that s/he cannot without disgrace be associated with it".

Henry David Thoreau

Footprints

Papandreou resigns as Greek PM

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© Unknown
Athens - Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou pledged his support for his yet-to-be named successor Wednesday as he formally stepped down as leader of the debt-wracked country.

"I want to wish every success to the new PM and the new government. I will support this effort with all my strength," Papandreou said in a solemn televised address to the nation, without naming the next leader.

But the outgoing PM said his successor would be an "institutional" choice as reports suggested 60-year-old parliament chief Philippos Petsalnikos, a long-term socialist member and former minister, would be given the nod.

"This is a historic day, the fact that several political powers are able to co-operate," Papandreou later told head of state President Carolos Papoulias ahead of a meeting with other parties to finalize the new administration.

"It opens a new page in our country's history," he said.

Attention

Student fees protest: who is behind latest London demonstrations

Thousands of students and demonstrators are expected to gather for protests against tuition fees on Wednesday. Here is a look at some of the groups involved in the large scale demonstration.

Police said around 4,000 officers will be on duty for the protest against a hike in tuition fees and cuts to funding, with organisers expecting about 10,000 students to take part.
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© EPAAnti-riot police in Hackney, north London

The National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts, led by Michael Chessum, is said to be the protest's "organiser".

Mr Chessum the group supports non-violent direct action. He accused police of making it "more likely that trouble will occur".

"This is the biggest peacetime betrayal of a generation in modern British history," he said.

"The failure of the democratic process has led people to take it to extremes. Anything that does happen will be other people doing what other people do and not our responsibility."

Comment:
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© C.H.



Dollar

US: Goldman faces suits over $15.8B in mortgages

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© Ingram Pinn
Goldman Sachs Group Inc faces lawsuits over $15.8 billion worth of mortgage securities, the bank said in a regulatory filing on Wednesday, a more than 30-fold increase from the amount disclosed three months earlier.

The aggregate figure, which is up from $485 million previously, does not represent how much money Goldman management estimates it may lose on the litigation. Goldman lifted that estimate of "reasonably possible" losses to $2.6 billion from $2 billion.

The bigger dollar figures come as investors in mortgage-backed bond deals have raced to take legal action or enter settlement negotiations before statutes of limitations expire, and as investors continue to worry about banks' exposure to big lawsuits.

Goldman also added three European financial firms to a list of parties that have threatened to sue it, a more fulsome disclosure than some of its peers.

Goldman said HSH Nordbank, Norges Bank Investment Management and IKB Deutsche Industriebank AG have threatened to assert claims related to mortgage offerings, in addition to insurance giant American International Group Inc and Manulife Financial Corp's John Hancock unit, whose legal threats it disclosed last quarter.

Attention

US: Mental health worker who reported child porn fired

'We're not allowed to go to police' unless actual child abuse is observed, supervisor says

Missoula, Montana - An employee of a Missoula mental health center who reported a client's computer search for child pornography was fired after reporting him to police.

The client, John Gribble, is charged with sexually abusing a child after a DVD with photos of nude children was found at his house.

The Missoulian reported Wednesday that an employee of Three Rivers Mental Health Solutions contacted police about Gribble on Oct. 17.

The employee first told her supervisors, who told her not to report Gribble. Three Rivers administrator Shea Hennelly says reports that break medical confidentiality must include the names and address of the child involved and the extent of the child's injuries.

"In order to provide mental health services, we can't engage in dual roles. We're not allowed to go to police" unless actual child abuse is observed, Hennelly told The Missoulian. "She didn't witness someone abusing a child. What this woman reported to this office was she saw the tab of Web browsers that said teenage girls. That's a lot different."

Pistol

US, Wisconsin: Tasers now legal under concealed carry law

Taser
© Unknown
For months, the focus of discussion about the new concealed carry law has been on guns. But, the law is not just limited to deadly weapons.

The new law defines a legally concealed weapon to be a handgun, a non-switchblade knife, a billy club, or an electric weapon -- like a taser.

Up until November 1, it was illegal to even own a taser in the state of Wisconsin. But now, stores are starting to consider selling them to appeal to a customer who's not necessarily comfortable with a gun but wants to protect themselves.

Attorney General JB Van Hollen says it's a good idea for people to protect themselves, as long as they're properly trained.

Comment: You'd have to be living under a rock at this point to consider tasers anything other than a "deadly weapon":

Taser-related deaths in US accelerating


Attention

US: National Test Has Emergency Managers, Broadcasters on Alert

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If your co-workers rush in from lunch to tell you that World War III is starting, tell them this:

It's only a test.

Except ... it's not "only" a test.

For the first time in history, every radio and TV station, every cable and satellite operator, will interrupt all broadcasts, at 1 p.m. today, for a nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System, or EAS. (Fans of "The Talk," Maury Povich, "One Life to Live," you have been warned ...)

Two years in the planning, the minutelong drill is designed to expose weaknesses in a 60-year-old readiness system that has never been used - not even on 9/11.

The test is a joint venture of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Federal Communications Commission's Public Safety & Homeland Security Bureau, headed by retired Navy Adm. James A. Barnett Jr.

Star of David

Helen Thomas Skewers Zionism - Again

Helen Thomas
© unknownHelen Thomas
Veteran Washington insider and reporter 91-year-old Helen Thomas created shockwaves a year ago when she declared Israel should "get the hell out of Palestine." A disapproving statement came from President Obama and Thomas suddenly faced a vendetta from Jewish attack groups such as the Anti-Defamation League. They persuaded her alma mater, Wayne State University, to rescind her Lifetime Achievement Award.

"They took away basically my lifetime achievement award and they wanted to take away the worst of all - the first amendment right to speak freely - to speak and to write," she said on Republic Radio in August.

Polls show Thomas is admired by most Americans, many of whom share her conviction that America has no business supporting the strife-engendering Jewish state. In an August 5 interview with Deanna Spingola on the Republic Broadcasting Network, Thomas spoke out again. Here are her remarks, arranged according to topic. To listen to the complete two-hour broadcast commercial-free, go here at truthtellers.org.