February 7, 2016


News Clips For The Day


http://www.cbsnews.com/news/highly-radioactive-leak-discovered-at-indian-point-nuclear-plant/

Highly radioactive leak found at N.Y. nuclear plant
CBS/AP
February 7, 2016


Photograph -- A security boat sits in front of Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant on the Hudson River March 22, 2011, in Buchanan, N.Y. DON EMMERT/AFP/GETTY IMAGES


BUCHANAN, N.Y. -- Gov. Andrew Cuomo is calling for an investigation after an apparent overflow at the Indian Point nuclear power plant spilled highly radioactive water into an underground monitoring well, but nuclear regulators said the public isn't at risk.

Officials at Indian Point in Buchanan reported on Friday that water contaminated by tritium leaked into the groundwater under the facility.

The contamination has remained contained to the site, said Cuomo, who ordered the state's environmental conservation and health departments to investigate.

"Our first concern is for the health and safety of the residents close to the facility and ensuring the groundwater leak does not pose a threat," Cuomo said Saturday in a statement, according to CBS New York. "This latest failure at Indian Point is unacceptable and I have directed Department of Environmental Conservation Acting Commissioner Basil Seggos and Department of Health Commissioner Howard Zucker to fully investigate this incident and employ all available measures, including working with Nuclear Regulatory Commission, to determine the extent of the release, its likely duration, cause and potential impacts to the environment and public health."

The leak occurred after a drain overflowed during a maintenance exercise while workers were transferring water, which has high levels of radioactive contamination, said Neil Sheehan, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Normally, a sump pump would take the water and filter it into another treatment system, but the pump apparently was out of service, Sheehan said. After the drain overflowed, the water seeped out of the building into the groundwater.

It was unclear how much water spilled, but samples showed the water had a radioactivity level of more than 8 million picocuries per liter, a 65,000 percent increase from the average at the plant, Cuomo said. The levels are the highest regulators have seen at Indian Point, and the normal number is about 12,300 picocuries per liter, Cuomo said.

Contaminated groundwater would likely slowly make its way to the Hudson River, Sheehan said, but research has shown that water usually ends up in the middle of the river and is so diluted that the levels of radioactivity are nearly undetectable.

"We don't believe there's any concern for members of the public," Sheehan said. "First of all, this water's not going anywhere immediately -- and, again, because of the dilution factor, you wouldn't even be able to detect it were you to take a direct sample."

A spokesman for Entergy Corp., the New Orleans-based company that operates Indian Point, said the overflow was "likely the cause of the elevated tritium levels."

"While this instance of tritium in the ground is really not in accordance with our standards, there really is no health or public safety consequence," spokesman Jerry Nappi said.

In a statement, Entergy also said, "While the effect of these elevated values is less than one-tenth of one percent of federal reporting guidelines, Entergy made voluntary notification to the NRC, state agencies and key stakeholders."

There has been a history of groundwater contamination at Indian Point. A federal oversight agency issued a report after about 100,000 gallons of tritium-tainted water entered the groundwater supply in 2009, and elevated levels of tritium also were found in two monitoring wells at the plant in 2014. Officials said then the contamination likely stemmed from an earlier maintenance shutdown.



"This latest failure at Indian Point is unacceptable and I have directed Department of Environmental Conservation Acting Commissioner Basil Seggos and Department of Health Commissioner Howard Zucker to fully investigate this incident and employ all available measures, including working with Nuclear Regulatory Commission, to determine the extent of the release, its likely duration, cause and potential impacts to the environment and public health." It was unclear how much water spilled, but samples showed the water had a radioactivity level of more than 8 million picocuries per liter, a 65,000 percent increase from the average at the plant, Cuomo said. The levels are the highest regulators have seen at Indian Point, and the normal number is about 12,300 picocuries per liter, Cuomo said. …. There has been a history of groundwater contamination at Indian Point. A federal oversight agency issued a report after about 100,000 gallons of tritium-tainted water entered the groundwater supply in 2009, and elevated levels of tritium also were found in two monitoring wells at the plant in 2014. Officials said then the contamination likely stemmed from an earlier maintenance shutdown.”


As nuclear power plants spread across the country, often within cities near homes, the approval from conservative politicians continues to rise. They consider it “clean.” To me the only truly clean energy production methods are solar, wind, tidal, etc. See Wikipedia, for exhaustive lists of the many ways we can use to replace coal as our main energy source. Nuclear power, as we all know who have lived through the last 60 or 70 years of worry about the nuclear bomb, is never 100% secure. Leaks and meltdowns have been in the news since they have been in use. Radioactivity, like arsenic, is simply not what we want in our soil or water. As exciting and often very helpful as scientific/technological progress has been, it has its’ “unintended consequences.” As happy as I am to have lived in interesting times, I do understand why it is said to be a curse.

To feel a little better about this energy problem, read this Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy, Renewable energy. Excerpt: “Renewable energy is generally defined as energy that is collected from resources which are naturally replenished on a human timescale, such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, waves, and geothermal heat.[2] Renewable energy often provides energy in four important areas: electricity generation, air and water heating/cooling, transportation, and rural (off-grid) energy services.[3]
Based on REN21's 2014 report, renewables contributed 19 percent to humans' global energy consumption and 22 percent to their generation of electricity in 2012 and 2013, respectively.”




http://www.npr.org/2016/02/06/465587253/states-not-waiting-to-close-gender-wage-gap

States Not Waiting To Close Gender Wage Gap
JENNIFER LUDDEN
Updated February 6, 201610:26 AM ET
Published February 6, 20166:14 AM ET

Graphic image -- Source: National Women’s Law Center analysis of 2014 American Community Survey data, Credit: Alyson Hurt/NPR – Wage gaps by state
Photograph -- President Kennedy passes out pens on June 10, 1963, after signing the Equal Pay Act.

RELATED:
Lilly Ledbetter at a news conference on equal pay, BUSINESS, Despite New Law, Gender Salary Gap Persists
LAW, 50 Years After The Equal Pay Act, Gender Wage Gap Endures
THE TWO-WAY, To Shine A Light On Salary Gaps, Obama Wants Companies To Disclose Pay Data


Emily Martin created a state-by-state map of the gender wage gap in the United States. She calculated: Washington, D.C., has the smallest wage gap where women average nearly 90 cents to a man's dollar; Louisiana has the largest gap — women there earn just 65 percent of what men do.

Nationally, women earn an average 79 cents for every dollar men do. The gender wage gap is even wider for black and Hispanic women.

Martin is the vice president and general counsel of the National Women's Law Center. The gender wage gap that she reported is not a new issue. It was President Obama's priority from the start, and the first piece of legislation he signed into law was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act in 2009. On the seventh anniversary of the signing last month, he again made headlines by announcing new rules that would require companies to disclose pay data.

But the issue has gone nowhere in Congress.

There are lots of reasons for the gender gap, but Martin says a stubborn, small part is still discrimination.

"There's really disturbing social science studies out there that show that supervisors, male and female alike, without realizing it, will recommend lower salaries for women with equivalent qualifications to men," she says.

Facing pressure from a growing number of activists — who point out that more women than ever are primary breadwinners for their families — states are forging ahead on their own efforts. They have passed a string of equal pay laws in recent years, and more proposals have been introduced in two dozen states so far this year.

A Patchwork Of State Laws

President Obama speaks about the gap in pay between men and women on Friday, as he introduced a new proposal that would require large companies to disclose data about employee pay by race, gender and ethnicity.

The measures take a variety of approaches. At least five states have banned companies from retaliating if workers talk about their pay and compare notes. Some have made it easier for workers to sue over pay, while others have made it harder for companies to justify paying men more because of a "factor other than sex." Martin says some courts have interpreted that to mean just about anything. A few proposals would bar employers from asking job applicants up front or in an interview about their pay history.

"Because often your pay is set with some reference to how much you made at your last job," Martin says, "the impact of pay discrimination can follow people through their careers."

Another trend is moving beyond equal pay simply for the exact same job title. Nick Rathod heads the State Innovation Exchange, a network of progressive lawmakers. He says a law passed last year in California requires companies to offer similar pay for "substantially similar" jobs, such as a housekeeper and a janitor.

"They'll do worker-based evaluation on things like their skill, their effort, their experience, that type of thing," Rathod says.

Opposition Remains Despite Bipartisan Support

Although it is mostly Democrats proposing these measures, Rathod says an equal pay bill recently passed the Massachusetts Senate unanimously with the support of the local Chamber of Commerce.

"It is a bipartisan issue," he says. "And I think it's hard to be on the side of arguing that mothers and daughters should be paid less than men."

But that doesn't mean there isn't opposition.

"When we look at each one of these bills, I'm not sure if they're accomplishing the end goal," says Loren Furman, chief lobbyist with the Colorado Association of Commerce and Industry. She finds the newly proposed legislation redundant given all the other regulations that are already in place.

"We have a state wage act," she says. "We have an anti-discrimination act. We have the federal NLRB (National Labor Relations) Act."

Furman says companies worry more laws could mean more lawsuits. She says they also worry about a Colorado measure that would ban them from asking job candidates up front about their pay history. Employers tell her they need that to know who is serious about a particular job, and who may be looking for anything they can get.

"The worst thing for an employer is to hire somebody and then lose that person because they ultimately wanted (for example) $100,000," she says.

Whatever laws are enacted, states will be looking to see if they have any impact on a gender wage gap that has hardly budged for a decade.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_Innovation_Exchange

State Innovation Exchange
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

“The State Innovation Exchange (SIX), formerly American Legislative and Issue Campaign (ALICE), is a nonprofit organization established in September 2012 by the Center on Wisconsin Strategy (COWS) at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.[1] The organization provides an online database of model state-level legislation for politicians and activists to replicate and enact in state legislatures. ALICE focuses on providing liberal and progressive model legislation.[2]

The nonprofit, nonpartisan organization is supported by government grants and foundations, but does not receive university funding.[1] COWS receives formal support from the university in the form of tax status.[3]

In 2014, ALICE merged with the Progressive States Network (founded in 2005 by Joel Barkin as another progressive answer to ALEC) and the Center for State Innovation to become the State Innovation Exchange. It is expected to retain ALICE's library of model acts.”



“Emily Martin created a state-by-state map of the gender wage gap in the United States. She calculated: Washington, D.C., has the smallest wage gap where women average nearly 90 cents to a man's dollar; Louisiana has the largest gap — women there earn just 65 percent of what men do. …. It was President Obama's priority from the start, and the first piece of legislation he signed into law was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act in 2009. On the seventh anniversary of the signing last month, he again made headlines by announcing new rules that would require companies to disclose pay data. But the issue has gone nowhere in Congress. …. They have passed a string of equal pay laws in recent years, and more proposals have been introduced in two dozen states so far this year. …. President Obama speaks about the gap in pay between men and women on Friday, as he introduced a new proposal that would require large companies to disclose data about employee pay by race, gender and ethnicity. …. The measures take a variety of approaches. At least five states have banned companies from retaliating if workers talk about their pay and compare notes. Some have made it easier for workers to sue over pay, while others have made it harder for companies to justify paying men more because of a "factor other than sex." Martin says some courts have interpreted that to mean just about anything. A few proposals would bar employers from asking job applicants up front or in an interview about their pay history. "Because often your pay is set with some reference to how much you made at your last job," Martin says, "the impact of pay discrimination can follow people through their careers."


“Nick Rathod heads the State Innovation Exchange, a network of progressive lawmakers. He says a law passed last year in California requires companies to offer similar pay for "substantially similar" jobs, such as a housekeeper and a janitor. "They'll do worker-based evaluation on things like their skill, their effort, their experience, that type of thing," Rathod says. See Wikipedia below on this liberal opposite to ALEC.

This NPR article is on yet another nationwide problem which Congress is stubbornly fighting Obama about -- the equalization of employee pay in relation to gender. The “conservatives” stand for might over right every time, and that means men over women. The whole goal is to pay less money, and to heck with who has to starve as a result. Female primary breadwinners are more like not to be hired in the first place, rather than paying them more because they are supporting a family. That used to be the excuse given in my early working years for giving men more money – their greater “need.” After all, good women would be married and pregnant, so they didn’t need to work if they had a “good breadwinner” as a husband. All of that is total c**p, of course, but “conservatives” are still arguing points like that. We shouldn’t forget that married women, like slaves, children and farm animals, were considered “chattel,” in other words a possession.




http://www.cbsnews.com/news/north-korea-praises-rocket-fascinating-vapor-through-the-clear-blue-sky/

North Korea praises new rocket's "fascinating vapor"
CBS/AP
February 7, 2016

Photograph -- North Korean leader Kim Jong Un reacts as he watches a long range rocket launch in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang February 7, 2016. REUTERS/KCNA
Play VIDEO -- North Korea fires long-range rocket
Play VIDEO -- U.S. tries to reassure allies amid North Korea's H-bomb claim
Play VIDEO -- U.S. had no warning of North Korea bomb test


SEOUL, South Korea - For North Korea's propaganda machine, the long-range rocket launch Sunday carved a glorious trail of "fascinating vapor" through the clear blue sky. For South Korea's president, and other world leaders, it was a banned test of dangerous ballistic missile technology and yet another "intolerable provocation."

The rocket was launched from North Korea's west coast only two hours after an eight-day launch window opened Sunday morning, its path tracked separately by the United States, Japan and South Korea. No damage from debris was reported.

North Korea, which calls its launches part of a peaceful space program, said it had successfully put a new Earth observation satellite, the Kwangmyongsong 4, or Shining Star 4, into orbit less than 10 minutes after liftoff. It vowed more such launches. A U.S. official said it might take days to assess whether the launch was a success.

The launch follows North Korea's widely disputed claim last month to have tested a hydrogen bomb. Washington and its allies will consider the rocket launch a further provocation and push for more tough sanctions.

CBS News' Pamela Falk reports the U.S., South Korea and Japan called for an emergency closed-door U.N. Security Council meeting on Sunday in response to North Korea's launch, after delaying a response to a test of a miniaturized hydrogen nuclear device by North Korea in January because of divisions on the Council about how to respond.

"With this launch and the nuclear bomb test last month, North Korea is making a clear statement to the whole world that it is not only the only country developing nuclear weapons in the 21st century but is determined to continue to defy the community of nations," South Korea's U.N. Ambassador Oh Joon told CBS News. "For members of the UN, this is totally outrageous and unacceptable."

"As a Korean," Oh said, "it is pathetic to watch the staged celebrations on the streets of Pyongyang, as I know that the cost of the launch alone, estimated close to one billion dollars, would have fed the entire North Korean population for one year."

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called the launch deeply deplorable and called on North Korea to halt the provocative actions saying that he is committed to working with all sides to denuclearize the Korean peninsula.

World leaders, including from the U.N., the US, China, South Korea and Japan condemned the latest North Korea long range rocket launch, but the U.N. has limited options to control the erratic government of Kim Jong Un except to increase sanctions that, to date, have not worked to slow the nuclear program in Pyongyang.

North Korea's longtime ally, China, has become openly critical of the nuclear and missile tests.

North Korean rocket and nuclear tests are seen as crucial steps toward the North's ultimate goal of a nuclear armed missile that could hit the U.S. mainland. North Korea under leader Kim Jong Un has pledged to bolster its nuclear arsenal unless Washington scraps what Pyongyang calls a hostile policy meant to collapse Kim's government. Diplomats are also pushing to tighten U.N. sanctions because of the North's Jan. 6 nuclear test.

In a development that will worry both Pyongyang and Beijing, a senior South Korean Defense Ministry official, Yoo Jeh Seung, told reporters that Seoul and Washington have agreed to begin talks on a possible deployment of the THADD missile defense system in South Korea. North Korea has long decried the 28,500 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea, and Beijing would see a South Korean deployment of THAAD, which is one of the world's most advanced missile defense systems, as a threat to its interests in the region.

In a statement, North Korea's National Aerospace Development Administration, in typical propaganda-laden language, praised "the fascinating vapor of Juche satellite trailing in the clear and blue sky in spring of February on the threshold of the Day of the Shining Star." Juche is a North Korean philosophy focusing on self-reliance; the Day of the Shining Star refers to the Feb. 16 birthday of former dictator Kim Jong Il. North Korea has previously staged rocket launches to mark important anniversaries.

South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Moon Sang Gyun said a South Korean Aegis-equipped destroyer detected the North Korean launch at 9:31 a.m. The rocket's first stage fell off North Korea's west coast at 9:32 a.m., and the rocket disappeared from South Korean radars at 9:36 a.m. off the southwestern coast. There was no reported damage in South Korea.

The U.S. Strategic Command issued a statement saying that it detected and tracked a missile launched on a southern trajectory, but that it did not pose a threat to the United States or its allies.

Japanese broadcaster NHK showed video of an object visible in the skies from the southern Japanese island of Okinawa that was believed to be the rocket. South Korea's Yonhap news agency later backed away, without elaborating, from a report that said the rocket might have failed.

The global condemnation began almost immediately.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye called the launch an "intolerable provocation." She said the North's efforts to advance its missile capabilities were "all about maintaining the regime" in Pyongyang and criticized the North Korean leadership for ignoring the hardships of ordinary North Koreans.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe vowed to "take action to totally protect the safety and well-being of our people." U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice called the North's missile and nuclear weapons programs a "serious threats to our interests - including the security of some of our closest allies."

The Foreign Ministry in China, the North's only major ally and its protector in the U.N. Security Council, where Beijing wields veto power, expressed "regret that, disregarding the opposition from the international community, the (North) side obstinately insisted in carrying out a launch by using ballistic missile technologies."

South Korean opposition lawmaker Shin Kyung-min, who attended a closed-door briefing by the National Intelligence Service following Sunday's launch, said the NIS believes that the rocket's payload satellite was about twice as heavy as the 220-pound satellite it launched in 2012. The NIS estimates that if the rocket would have been used as a missile, it would have had a potential range of about 5,500 kilometers (3,417 miles), Shin said.

Kim Jong Un has overseen two of the North's four nuclear tests and three long-range rocket launches since taking over after the death of his father, dictator Kim Jong Il, in late 2011. The U.N. Security Council prohibits North Korea from nuclear and ballistic missile activity. Experts say that ballistic missiles and rockets in satellite launches share similar bodies, engines and other technology.

"If North Korea has only nuclear weapons, that's not that intimidating. If they have only rockets, that's not that intimidating, either. But if they have both of them, that means they can attack any target on Earth. So it becomes a global issue," said Kwon Sejin, a professor at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.

In 2013, North Korea conducted a nuclear test and then unnerved the international community by orchestrating an escalating campaign of bombast, including threats to fire nuclear missiles at the U.S. and Seoul.

North Korea has spent decades trying to develop operational nuclear weapons. It has said that plutonium and highly enriched uranium facilities at its main Nyongbyon nuclear complex are in operation.

The North is thought to have a small arsenal of crude atomic bombs and an impressive array of short- and medium-range missiles. But it has yet to demonstrate that it can produce nuclear bombs small enough to place on a missile, or missiles that can reliably deliver its bombs to faraway targets.

After several failures testing a multistage, long-range rocket, it put its first satellite into space with a long-range rocket launched in December 2012.

The North's recent activity comes amid a long-standing diplomatic stalemate. Six-nation negotiations on dismantling North Korea's nuclear program in exchange for aid fell apart in early 2009.



“North Korea, which calls its launches part of a peaceful space program, said it had successfully put a new Earth observation satellite, the Kwangmyongsong 4, or Shining Star 4, into orbit less than 10 minutes after liftoff. It vowed more such launches. A U.S. official said it might take days to assess whether the launch was a success. …. The launch follows North Korea's widely disputed claim last month to have tested a hydrogen bomb. Washington and its allies will consider the rocket launch a further provocation and push for more tough sanctions. …. after delaying a response to a test of a miniaturized hydrogen nuclear device by North Korea in January because of divisions on the Council about how to respond. …. South Korean President Park Geun-hye called the launch an "intolerable provocation." She said the North's efforts to advance its missile capabilities were "all about maintaining the regime" in Pyongyang and criticized the North Korean leadership for ignoring the hardships of ordinary North Koreans.”


“…a miniaturized hydrogen nuclear device….” If that means a “tactical” device which could be used on a battlefield, that sounds different from what we’ve seen before and dangerous, at least from the standpoint of nuclear fallout. See the Wikipedia article below on Tactical nuclear weapons, which of course we do have. It sounds better that a “baby nuke” is being used, but as the article says it can easily lead to the bombing of whole cities, as in WWII. There is no such thing as a good nuke.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tactical_nuclear_weapon

Tactical nuclear weapon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

“A tactical nuclear weapon (or TNW) also known as non-strategic nuclear weapon[1] refers to a nuclear weapon which is designed to be used on a battlefield in military situations. This is opposed to strategic nuclear weapons which are designed to be used against enemy cities, factories, and other larger-area targets to damage the enemy's ability to wage war. Tactical nuclear weapons were a large part of the peak nuclear weapons stockpile levels during the Cold War. . . . . There is no precise definition of the "tactical" category, neither considering range nor yield of the nuclear weapon.[2][3] The yield of tactical nuclear weapons is generally lower than that of strategic nuclear weapons, but larger ones are still very powerful, and some variable-yield warheads serve in both roles. Modern tactical nuclear warheads have yields up to the tens of kilotons, or potentially hundreds, several times that of the weapons used in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Some tactical nuclear weapons have specific features meant to enhance their battlefield characteristics, such as variable yield which allow their explosive power to be varied over a wide range for different situations, or enhanced radiation weapons (the so-called "neutron bombs") which are meant to maximize ionizing radiation exposure while minimizing blast effects.

Risk of escalating a conflict[edit]

Use of tactical nuclear weapons against similarly-armed opponents carries a significant danger of quickly escalating the conflict beyond anticipated boundaries, from the tactical to the strategic.[4][5][6][7][8][9] The existence and deployment of small, low-yield tactical nuclear warheads could be a dangerous encouragement to forward-basing and pre-emptive nuclear warfare,[10][11] as nuclear weapons with destructive yields of 10 tons of TNT (e.g., the W54 warhead design) might be used more willingly at times of crisis than warheads with yields of 100 kilotons.”



http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/outrage-after-video-attack-cerebral-palsy-stricken-teen-shared-online-n513116

Outrage After Video of Attack on Teen With Cerebral Palsy Shared Online
by TRICIA CULLIGAN
FEB 6 2016, 11:06 PM ET

Video -- Shows Student with Cerebral Palsy Being Kicked at School 1:35, Facebook Twitter Google Plus Embed


The mother of a 16-year-old with cerebral palsy is taking a stand against bullying, after a video showing students violently kicking her son to the ground and laughing was shared on social media.

"I cried when I saw that," Margaret Wooding told NBC affiliate station WPXI. "How can kids be so cruel? I don't want this to happen, not just to my child but to anyone."

Isaiah Wooding has cerebral palsy, a static neurological disorder the affects muscle coordination and body movement.

"I was kind of hurt and embarrassed," Isaiah told WPXI. "I had no idea that this was going on."

The video, which was posted to Facebook by a classmate, shows a student at Penn Hills High School kicking 16-year old Wooding to the ground. The student filming the confrontation laughs while the bullying occurs.

"I was so mad ... this is my child. Bullying is not funny," Margaret Wooding told the station.

Isaiah, whose favorite subject in school is chemistry, says this is not the first time students at Penn Hills High school have picked on him.

Now, Margaret Wooding is using this incident to encourage other students to stand up to bullying.

"We need to speak up. You don't have to fit in," she said. "You don't have to be like everyone else. If something is going wrong, everyone is responsible."

"People just need to stop, because it hurts other people," Isaiah said.

Penn Hills School District has responded to the video with a statement posted online Saturday: "Our full staff and Board are absolutely disgusted and embarrassed by the lack of compassion displayed by students closest to the incident and those who created further upset by recording and posting those terrible images online."

"Anyone having played a role will be dealt with accordingly, including referrals to local law enforcement," Superintendent Nancy Hines said. "That is NOT the Penn Hills Way."

Margaret Wooding hopes the school district will use this incident to take a stand against bullying.

"When I send my son out to school I want to know that he's safe when he's there. And I don't feel like he's safe," she said.



“The mother of a 16-year-old with cerebral palsy is taking a stand against bullying, after a video showing students violently kicking her son to the ground and laughing was shared on social media. "I cried when I saw that," Margaret Wooding told NBC affiliate station WPXI. "How can kids be so cruel? I don't want this to happen, not just to my child but to anyone." …. Isaiah, whose favorite subject in school is chemistry, says this is not the first time students at Penn Hills High school have picked on him. Now, Margaret Wooding is using this incident to encourage other students to stand up to bullying. "We need to speak up. You don't have to fit in," she said. "You don't have to be like everyone else. If something is going wrong, everyone is responsible." …. "Anyone having played a role will be dealt with accordingly, including referrals to local law enforcement," Superintendent Nancy Hines said. "That is NOT the Penn Hills Way." Margaret Wooding hopes the school district will use this incident to take a stand against bullying.”


Every school in the nation needs to have anti-bullying programs between adults and students in which the subject is discussed openly. Most of these things happen when there’s no adult around. As purely religious teaching is necessarily curtailed in public schools, that’s no reason for ethical teaching, mental health counselling, role playing, small group participation, etc. to be stopped as well. A child without empathy, or who feels that need to “fit in” even if it means participating in something like this, needs mental health care. The teaching of human decency doesn’t necessarily flow from a religious source at all, but rather from the compassion of a mentally healthy human being such as a loving parent or a well-trained teacher who works with students on a personal basis. Mentoring programs would be helpful, I would think.

I do think that kids who are known to behave in a bullying way should be placed in mandatory special group therapy with a qualified psychological specialist. Do that BEFORE removing them from the school to a “reform school” or to any other court involved program. I will say, too, that the school should not have differential treatment for minority kids. The opinion is often voiced that black and Hispanic kids are punished more severely, and I don’t doubt it, because that’s the way we tend to think about race. Black kids are “mean” and need to be “punished.”

The schools could easily hire psychologically trained people as staff members as the school nurse is. There’s so much turmoil on school campuses these days that I think group sessions of that sort would be really helpful. Perhaps if that were to happen the schools would be able to stop using the resident police officer to break up fights and put the kid under arrest. A couple of videos on the news of Police Officers in uniform roughing up kids didn’t look good at all.

If a bully, even after exposure to a psychological setting, still bullies other kids, then perhaps the police should be called in, as Superintendent Nancy Hines said in this particular case. There is a clear need for “consequences,” but retraining should be tried first. Many bullies have themselves been bullied and are disturbed emotionally as a result. All that excess anger doesn’t come from a vacuum.

Another thing which isn’t discussed as often is the fact that many or most of those kids who are bullied are either physically unable to protect themselves, as in this case, or they are psychologically unable to do so. A child who has been intimidated at home either by parents or siblings will often simply submit to whatever treatment he encounters. This should be stopped within the home where it first occurs and on the playground as well. I believe in teaching judo or other martial arts to such children so they will have a chance against a bully. Simply teaching self-confidence is very important in bringing up a child who can be self-sufficient when he or she needs to be.

The final thing is this business of the “bystander effect” in which peers either refuse to intervene or even emotionally abuse the kid themselves by taunting and laughing at the situation. Verbal and non-verbal abuse all need to be addressed with a combination of understanding help and consequences. If we don’t get back to teaching decent human behavior in homes and schools, we will be a totally unmanageable society soon, if we aren’t already.




http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/02/06/465834778/unicef-200-million-women-and-girls-have-suffered-genital-mutilation

UNICEF: 200 Million Women And Girls Have Suffered Genital Mutilation
CAMILA DOMONOSKE
February 6, 2016

GOATS AND SODA -- From 2015: A Rap Star And A Therapist Fight Female Genital Mutilation
Play Video -- Mummy why did you cut me?' Survivors share the pain of FGM | End FGM


Over 200 million women and girls in 30 countries have experienced some form of genital mutilation, according to a new UNICEF report. And if current trends continue, the number of girls cut annually will continue to rise year over year, the U.N. says, since population growth is outstripping efforts to reduce the practice.

But on Saturday, the U.N.'s International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation, the organization wants to sound a hopeful note.

"Never before has it been more urgent, or more possible, to end the practice of female genital mutilation," Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said in a statement leading up to the dedicated day.

"I am encouraged by the rising chorus of young voices demanding an end to the practice," he said. "We can end FGM within a generation."

Sister Fa campaigns against female genital mutilation. "You have got my support," her father told her.

Ban specifically highlighted the Masaai cricket players working to end FGM, the awareness campaign run by The Guardian newspaper in Great Britain and the work of Somalia's Edna Adan.

The fight against FGM has long been led by women, Teri Schultz reports for our Newscast unit, but that's changing.

"The latest U.N. report shows it's often men who are more opposed to the practice. A new European campaign to end FGM is being led by some of those men," she says. Female genital mutilation is banned in all European Union countries, Teri notes, but an estimated half a million women in Europe have been affected by the practice.

"Alpha-Ibrahim Diallo is originally from Guinea, where almost all women are circumcised. Now living in Belgium and the father of three girls, he is part of the "MenSpeakOut" project, educating others about the dangers of FGM."

"I know it won't be easy, but together we have to fight!" Diallo says.
Secretary-General Ban told The Guardian that it's time "for men all over the world to take up the fight to end FGM with real dedication."



This is one of those subjects that come up repeatedly in the news. I learned from my anthropology course that a “rite of passage” ritual occurs in most societies when a young person is considered sexually ready for marriage. That is more than just the new dress for a prom. In primitive societies it frequently involves a “circumcision” of sorts. The Jewish people do it the right way – at the 13th day of life rather than at 13 years old like so many of these tribal groups, and they give the baby a dose of wine beforehand. Usually both the men and the women in primitive groups from Africa to the Middle East are “cut” in that way. “God knows why” is my first impulse, but perhaps it has some survival value. The Jews say that male circumcision of the type that is used today prevents infections, and it may. It’s still a grueling procedure if the patient isn’t under anesthetic, and will be painful for weeks.

The notion that the deity requires it, or merely that it is traditional, and in a society that is very conservative in its' thinking, that can be reason enough to make it mandatory. The idea has been passed down from parents to children generation by generation that it has some beneficial healthful or magical effect. It isn’t just simple cruelty on the part of the adults. Unfortunately, with women it often means that the clitoris is damaged or removed, specifically so they won’t enjoy sex. The idea is that if a woman doesn’t enjoy sex she won’t leave her possessor (husband) for another man.

This is one of those things that I feel surely goes back to the beginning of human societies. Not everything about people shows our high intelligence. I have a number of times called things a pejorative term – “primitive” – but I think this one really is a throwback to the past. When we started making pottery rather than cracking rocks for tools we just didn’t give that custom up. In modern times, I believe a sufficient level of education and relief from terrible poverty will stop it cold. So far, that hasn’t happened yet, though.