Random News Stories

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

http://inplainsight.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/07/03/19119404-after-jobs-move-out-hunger-takes-root-in-factory-town?lite

It's pretty sad when people are grateful for THIS sort of job:

At the end of the day, after 11 hours on her feet, she picks up her kids from daycare and goes home to help them with homework and cook. Because Powell often works through her 10-minute lunch break, dinner is the first big meal of the day.

YAY!  It's 1904 again!

Good job, America. Good fucking job.

[Freeky]

http://www.mycenturylink.com/news/read/category/Top%20News/article/ap-court_upholds_parents_convictions_in_pra-ap

Kara, who had been growing weak for several weeks leading up to her death, eventually became too sick to speak, eat, drink or walk. Her parents, Dale and Leilani Neumann, don't belong to any organized religion or church but identify themselves as Pentecostal Christians and believe visiting a doctor is akin to worshipping an idol, the Supreme Court opinion said.

After the girl died, Leilani Neumann told police God would raise Kara from the dead.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

http://www.mycenturylink.com/news/read/category/Top%20News/article/ap-court_upholds_parents_convictions_in_pra-ap

Kara, who had been growing weak for several weeks leading up to her death, eventually became too sick to speak, eat, drink or walk. Her parents, Dale and Leilani Neumann, don't belong to any organized religion or church but identify themselves as Pentecostal Christians and believe visiting a doctor is akin to worshipping an idol, the Supreme Court opinion said.

After the girl died, Leilani Neumann told police God would raise Kara from the dead.

Oregon has a big problem with a sect that won't take kids to the doctor; it's led to a revision of the law here. http://www.oregonlive.com/oregon-city/index.ssf/2011/10/dale_and_shannon_hickman_of_fo.html

[Cardinal Pizza Deliverance.]

http://www.mycenturylink.com/news/read/category/Top%20News/article/ap-court_upholds_parents_convictions_in_pra-ap

Kara, who had been growing weak for several weeks leading up to her death, eventually became too sick to speak, eat, drink or walk. Her parents, Dale and Leilani Neumann, don't belong to any organized religion or church but identify themselves as Pentecostal Christians and believe visiting a doctor is akin to worshipping an idol, the Supreme Court opinion said.

After the girl died, Leilani Neumann told police God would raise Kara from the dead.

Oregon has a big problem with a sect that won't take kids to the doctor; it's led to a revision of the law here. http://www.oregonlive.com/oregon-city/index.ssf/2011/10/dale_and_shannon_hickman_of_fo.html

The Followers are not fundamentally different from a black-robed pagan group that sacrifices a sick child in the dead of night, Regan told the court. In the Followers, "we have a religious group sacrificing children's lives, year after year, decade after decade," he said. "We have to do something."

Pagans don't need the help, thx.

[Freeky]

http://www.mycenturylink.com/news/read/category/Top%20News/article/ap-court_upholds_parents_convictions_in_pra-ap

Kara, who had been growing weak for several weeks leading up to her death, eventually became too sick to speak, eat, drink or walk. Her parents, Dale and Leilani Neumann, don't belong to any organized religion or church but identify themselves as Pentecostal Christians and believe visiting a doctor is akin to worshipping an idol, the Supreme Court opinion said.

After the girl died, Leilani Neumann told police God would raise Kara from the dead.

Oregon has a big problem with a sect that won't take kids to the doctor; it's led to a revision of the law here. http://www.oregonlive.com/oregon-city/index.ssf/2011/10/dale_and_shannon_hickman_of_fo.html

I'm glad that this kind of thing is changing.  I'm conflicted on the right to freedom of religion but punishing them when they do what they believe vs. children getting hurt and dying for their stupid religious beliefs, though.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

http://www.mycenturylink.com/news/read/category/Top%20News/article/ap-court_upholds_parents_convictions_in_pra-ap

Kara, who had been growing weak for several weeks leading up to her death, eventually became too sick to speak, eat, drink or walk. Her parents, Dale and Leilani Neumann, don't belong to any organized religion or church but identify themselves as Pentecostal Christians and believe visiting a doctor is akin to worshipping an idol, the Supreme Court opinion said.

After the girl died, Leilani Neumann told police God would raise Kara from the dead.

Oregon has a big problem with a sect that won't take kids to the doctor; it's led to a revision of the law here. http://www.oregonlive.com/oregon-city/index.ssf/2011/10/dale_and_shannon_hickman_of_fo.html

I'm glad that this kind of thing is changing.  I'm conflicted on the right to freedom of religion but punishing them when they do what they believe vs. children getting hurt and dying for their stupid religious beliefs, though.

It doesn't infringe on their right to their religion, so I have no problem with it. It infringes on their right to impose certain aspects of their religion on people who are not capable of making that choice.

[Doktor Howl]

http://www.mycenturylink.com/news/read/category/Top%20News/article/ap-court_upholds_parents_convictions_in_pra-ap

Kara, who had been growing weak for several weeks leading up to her death, eventually became too sick to speak, eat, drink or walk. Her parents, Dale and Leilani Neumann, don't belong to any organized religion or church but identify themselves as Pentecostal Christians and believe visiting a doctor is akin to worshipping an idol, the Supreme Court opinion said.

After the girl died, Leilani Neumann told police God would raise Kara from the dead.

Oregon has a big problem with a sect that won't take kids to the doctor; it's led to a revision of the law here. http://www.oregonlive.com/oregon-city/index.ssf/2011/10/dale_and_shannon_hickman_of_fo.html

I'm glad that this kind of thing is changing.  I'm conflicted on the right to freedom of religion but punishing them when they do what they believe vs. children getting hurt and dying for their stupid religious beliefs, though.

It doesn't infringe on their right to their religion, so I have no problem with it. It infringes on their right to impose certain aspects of their religion on people who are not capable of making that choice.

Which is a distinction that passes the 1st amendment sniff test.

[Freeky]

Oh.  Well, good then.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

http://www.mycenturylink.com/news/read/category/Top%20News/article/ap-court_upholds_parents_convictions_in_pra-ap

Kara, who had been growing weak for several weeks leading up to her death, eventually became too sick to speak, eat, drink or walk. Her parents, Dale and Leilani Neumann, don't belong to any organized religion or church but identify themselves as Pentecostal Christians and believe visiting a doctor is akin to worshipping an idol, the Supreme Court opinion said.

After the girl died, Leilani Neumann told police God would raise Kara from the dead.

Oregon has a big problem with a sect that won't take kids to the doctor; it's led to a revision of the law here. http://www.oregonlive.com/oregon-city/index.ssf/2011/10/dale_and_shannon_hickman_of_fo.html

I'm glad that this kind of thing is changing.  I'm conflicted on the right to freedom of religion but punishing them when they do what they believe vs. children getting hurt and dying for their stupid religious beliefs, though.

It doesn't infringe on their right to their religion, so I have no problem with it. It infringes on their right to impose certain aspects of their religion on people who are not capable of making that choice.

Which is a distinction that passes the 1st amendment sniff test.

What's interesting to me is how many people argue that they are THEIR children, so they should get to do what THEY want with them.

It tells me an awful lot about how those people view children; not as people, but as possessions.

Curiously, many of those same people are anti-abortion, which I find completely inexplicable. How is the child merely a possession after it's born, but a human being while it's still developing in the womb? Makes no sense.

[Doktor Howl]

What's interesting to me is how many people argue that they are THEIR children, so they should get to do what THEY want with them.

It tells me an awful lot about how those people view children; not as people, but as possessions.

Curiously, many of those same people are anti-abortion, which I find completely inexplicable. How is the child merely a possession after it's born, but a human being while it's still developing in the womb? Makes no sense.

"These children are my congregation.  I can't push my weird views on you, but they are my captive audience."

[Cain]

I think now state authorities tend to be (rightly) suspicious of religious organizations and individuals who prevent their children and dependents getting medical treatment.  At the most benign, you have the classic JW-style argument, which should be dismissed for reasons given above.

But when a religious group or individual tries to prevent medical access to their children at all...well, it's sometimes because abuse worse than neglect is going on, and they don't want a medical practitioner to document it.

[Junkenstein]

Prisons, Pakistan and serious child abuse seems fitting here:

http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/breastfeeding-behind-bars-on-pakistani-death-row

ast year, Khadija Shah was apprehended under suspicion of carrying a suitcase that contained £3.2 million worth (approximately 63kg) of pure Afghan heroin through Islamabad Airport. The 25-year-old Birmingham resident claimed to have been given the bag by two men, most likely members of a drug smuggling ring who had been complicit in grooming her for months, if not years.

Anti-narcotics officers were notified that she would be carrying the shipment and she was arrested immediately. In Pakistan, the death penalty is applicable to anyone charged with carrying more than 1kg of heroin, entitling Shah to be hanged – the country's preferred method of execution – 63 times over. A moratorium on executions had been put in place by the Pakistan Peoples Party (formerly led by Benazir Bhutto) in 2008, but today that was lifted, opening Shah up to the real possibility of losing her life. However, her trial opened in March and is still some way off reaching a verdict. In the meantime, she's being detained at Pakistan's infamously unhygienic Adiala jail, where she's been held since her arrest.

Enduring these circumstances would be traumatic for anyone, but Khadija's story is exceptionally troubling due to the direct involvement of her small children. At the time of her arrest, Khadija had her five-year-old son Ibrahim and four-year-old daughter Aleesha in tow. She was also six months pregnant at the time and gave birth to her baby daughter Malaika during a one-day respite from prison in October last year.

Aside from the tremendous lapse in judgement,I suspect this is going to be more relevant to the west as the drive to fill prisons continues.

[Cardinal Pizza Deliverance.]

I didn't want to dump this in the evo psych thread so I'm putting it here.

http://www.sacbee.com/2013/07/07/5549696/female-inmates-sterilized-in-california.html

Doctors under contract with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation sterilized nearly 150 female inmates from 2006 to 2010 without required state approvals, the Center for Investigative Reporting has found.

The allegations echo those made nearly a half-century ago, when forced sterilizations of prisoners, the mentally ill and the poor were commonplace in California. State lawmakers officially banned such practices in 1979.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Well, that's disturbing.

[Junkenstein]

More of the FBI acting crazy:
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/06/wikileaks-mole/

On an August workday in 2011, a cherubic 18-year-old Icelandic man named Sigurdur "Siggi" Thordarson walked through the stately doors of the U.S. embassy in Reykjavík, his jacket pocket concealing his calling card: a crumpled photocopy of an Australian passport. The passport photo showed a man with a unruly shock of platinum blonde hair and the name Julian Paul Assange.

Thordarson was long time volunteer for WikiLeaks with direct access to Assange and a key position as an organizer in the group. With his cold war-style embassy walk-in, he became something else: the first known FBI informant inside WikiLeaks. For the next three months, Thordarson served two masters, working for the secret-spilling website and simultaneously spilling its secrets to the U.S. government in exchange, he says, for a total of about $5,000. The FBI flew him internationally four times for debriefings, including one trip to Washington D.C., and on the last meeting obtained from Thordarson eight hard drives packed with chat logs, video and other data from WikiLeaks.

The relationship provides a rare window into the U.S. law enforcement investigation into WikiLeaks, the transparency group newly thrust back into international prominence with its assistance to NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. Thordarson's double-life illustrates the lengths to which the government was willing to go in its pursuit of Julian Assange, approaching WikiLeaks with the tactics honed during the FBI's work against organized crime and computer hacking — or, more darkly, the bureau's Hoover-era infiltration of civil rights groups.

"It's a sign that the FBI views WikiLeaks as a suspected criminal organization rather than a news organization," says Stephen Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists' Project on Government Secrecy. "WikiLeaks was something new, so I think the FBI had to make a choice at some point as to how to evaluate it: Is this The New York Times, or is this something else? And they clearly decided it was something else."

The FBI declined comment.

FBI continues to (attempt to) discredit itself. More at 11.