Wait – What just happened? A roundup of the week in news, June 2, 2013
The German Cardinal of Cologne,
Joachim Meisner, who is 79 and retiring soon wanted to make sure he got a parting shot at women on his way out. He bemoans the encouragement of women to establish themselves in the workplace or develop any kind of autonomy. He says immigrants are too needed in their home countries and should be encouraged to learn new trades in Germany before shipping them back home. He’d also like to see childcare out of the home done away with.
Mississippi is trying desperately to hold onto its title as the most anti-abortion state in the union. Mississippi heard arguments in April about the state’s case against Nina Buckhalter, who delivered a stillborn baby back in 2009 and is being charged with manslaughter because of methamphetamine that was in her system. Doctor’s cannot conclusively say what will and will not be ‘THE’ cause of a stillbirth or a child that dies shortly after birth as the restriction list you get from a doctor while pregnant can range from weight lifting restrictions, to food restrictions, and many variables in between. The biggest question of all is, "if it’s legal for a woman to abort an unwanted pregnancy, why is she being charged as a murderer for the unintentional death of a wanted child?"
Kids for cash program in Pennsylvania brings in millions! How shocked were you to find out this week that Pennsylvania judge Mark Ciavarella, Jr has spent the last 5 years taking bribes from private prison institutions in exchange for maximum sentencing of all juveniles brought before him. Prisons, private or Federal are all funded by taxpayer money but try and understand why a “for profit” business is allowed to receive so much public assistance. The more prisoners they house, for longer, the more money they are able to bring in. Ciavarella’s request for leniency was ignored when he was sentenced to almost 30 years. For information on the 400,000 immigrants being jailed since 911 and those exorbitant costs, read this.
A Philly couple has lost their second child to illness. Catherine and Herbert Schaible don’t believe in medicine, but they do believe in the healing powers of prayer. That's why when their 2 year old son, Kent developed pneumonia in 2009, rather than take the child to the doctor they prayed. Kent died and the Schaible’s received 10 years of probation, presumably because no one wants to condemn prayer. Now their 7 month old son, Brandon has died due to a failure to seek medical attention yet again, but they have now been charged with 3rd degree murder. So glad a third child didn’t have to die.
In America, we are so lucky to have the ACLU. They’ve got our back again now that Ohio wants to add Glenn Beck’s delusion induced, tear-fest conspiracy theories, to its mandatory school curriculum. There has already been enough creative writing done with the ‘History’ books young American’s learn about in school. Please don’t further confuse them with the unintelligible, un-American, ignorant and hate filled ranting’s of an obviously unbalanced man who spawned from FOX.
‘Gender Bender’ day at a Wisconsin middle school incites fury from parents at an obvious attempt to turn their children gay. First of all, is anyone else flabbergasted that Wisconsin has a ‘Gender Bender’ day? Way to be progressive Cheese state. As we all know, and something the school board of the Tippecanoe School for the Arts & Humanities should have known as well is that, homosexuality is contagious. If you see cool people accepting, displaying, or supporting homosexuality that in turn makes you gay. Teaching your children to be informed, tolerant, and free of hate should be celebrated. It should make parents proud, not afraid.
Results of a recently conducted poll by the Pew Research Center stated that 40% of all American households are supported by either the mother being the only financial contributor, or earning more than her husband. The results of this poll have sent many into a tizzy but the fact remains that up from 11% in 1960 women are close to evening up the ‘breadwinner’ category with men. It’s hard to say who took this news the hardest, but Eric Erikson, editor & chief of Redstate.com, and Bryan Fischer, conservative radio talk show host, they had plenty to say! Erickson chastised anyone that didn’t understand that science tells us that males are dominant and females are subservient, just look in nature! Fischer wants everyone to remember that the Bible specifically says that men are to go to work. Women are to stay home, have babies, and make the bread, not be the breadwinners.
Speaking of polls, Readers Digest released one this past week also with similarly confounding results. Turns out more Americans trust celebrities over doctors, scientists, or politicians. Finding out how American’s rank their most trustworthy celebs, says a lot. #1 on the list is Tom Hanks, Clint Eastwood is #13 (which is scary), Michelle Obama #19, Judge Judy #28, Tim Tebow #40, Anderson Cooper #50, Adam Sandler is #64 right before Obama #65, Dr. Drew #90, and #100 is Shepard Smith (egad), just to give you some highlights, but check out the complete list to totally blow your mind.
New reason for Bee Apocalypse. High Fructose Corn Syrup. Turns out when we take the honey that bees manufacture for themselves, bee farmers have been replacing it with high fructose corn syrup. We know how damaging that stuff is to human bodies, now it could be the final piece to understanding how we are killing off all the bees, and what that could mean agriculturally not just for us, but the world.
Rutgers likes it rough! After firing head coach Mike Rice for calling his players ‘faggots’ and being physically aggressive with them as well as verbally abusive, they have brought on another controversial coach. Meet Julie Herman, she prefers to call her female athletes ‘drunk whores’ to motivate them. She was also at the center of a sex discrimination lawsuit filed by her assistant coach, who won that case. Whoever is hiring these kinds of coaches needs to understand, the players don’t want them, and refuse to respond to abuse masked as motivation.
It now seems foolish to expect American corporations to care about the safety and employment conditions of the people abroad that manufacture their products for a tenth of what they turn around and sell them for here. Nike has recently joined a growing list of companies that turn a blind eye to human rights violations in other countries, to make an extra buck. When a factory in Cambodia asked for an additional $14 dollars a month on top of their $74 a month wages to pay for transportation costs, police with electrified batons were sent in to disperse the 3000 workers, most of whom were women, sending 23 of them to the hospital and causing the miscarriage of one factory worker. The standoff continues.
In other gay news, are you gay? Tired of being bashed? There’s an APP for that! It’s presently only available in Belgium, but with its success we are hoping to get one ‘a-la-American’ style soon! After a rash of bashings in a predominantly gay community in Belgium, an app was created to tell you where, when, and to what extent gay bashing has happened in your current area. Basher! You can bash, but now you can’t hide.
You know those horribly timed, but vitally necessary rape-kits that rape victims must submit to after making an accusation of rape? Yeah they don’t do anything with those. Congress, most likely to save face in the wake of devastating military sexual abuse allegations, decided to take action for rape victims that have been denied justice, in some cases, since the 70’s, allowing rapists to continue their destructive and violent acts on more women, by insisting the backlog of 400,000 rape kits be tested.