Planet of the Blind

Watch Anderson Cooper Friday on ABC.

From our friend Laura Castle:

Anderson Cooper is doing a program on child abuse at 10:00 a.m. Friday on ABC. There is a horrible book on raising children called "To Train Up a Child" by Michael and Debi Pearl. They advocate whipping babies on their bare skin, using whips, belts and tree branches and they recommend whipping a child as young as three until he is "totally broken." The Pearls are fundamentalist Christians who live on a farm in Tennessee. Their book has been implicated in the deaths of three children whose parents followed its teachings. Anderson Cooper is bringing this horror to the public's awareness.

Essay: Last Night

I came home and lay on the bed. The house was empty, no one was home. My dog lay down beside me. Outside I could hear rain in the trees, rain mixing it up with the last leaves. What a day it had been. Human misunderstandings, people reliving their old wounds, each room a proscenium arch. I fell asleep then. And I don’t know why but I dreamt I was in Norway and it was spring and I was walking an old ox up a hill, the two of us happy in the way of human-animal kinship that we had lived through another winter.  

 

Deaf Man Accuses Sheriff's Department Of Withholding Sign-Language Interpreter

 

BRIGHTON, COLORADO-- [Excerpt provided by Inclusion Daily Express] When Adams County sheriff's deputies knocked down the motel-room door of a deaf couple, slammed the man to the ground and locked him in jail for 25 days without providing a sign-language interpreter, they violated the Americans With Disabilities Act, a federal lawsuit says. 

Lawyers for Timothy Siaki claim the man was not provided an interpreter until he went to court on domestic assault charges last year. Siaki eventually was cleared of the charges, said Kevin Williams, an attorney who filed the suit on behalf of Siaki and his fiancee, Kimberlee Moore. 

"There were 25 days of his life that he had access to nothing -- no information on why he was being held, no information about his case or what was going to happen to him," Williams said. 

The Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition advocacy group is also a plaintiff in the suit.

Entire article:
Deaf couple sue Adams County sheriff over lack of accommodations
http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_19414901
Related:
It Seems Like Cops Should Be Aware of the Existence of Deaf People (Reason)
http://reason.com/blog/2011/11/28/it-seems-like-cops-should-be-aware-of-th
SBI probing use of stun gun on Halifax County man who died (WRAL)
http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/10418205/

 

Article: Scientists Create Virus That Could Kill Millions

Scientists Create Virus That Could Kill Millions

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/29/bird-flu-h5n1-avian-flu-virus_n_1118673.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003

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Pepper-Spray Creator Decries Use of Chemical Agent on Peaceful Occupy Wall Street Protesters

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/11/29/pepper_spray_creator_decries_use_of

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Nestle To Investigate Child Labor On Its Cocoa Farms

I found the following story on the NPR iPhone App:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2011/11/29/142891462/nestle-to-investigate-child-labor-on-its-cocoa-farms?sc=17&f=1001Nestle To Investigate Child Labor On Its Cocoa Farms
by Eliza Barclay
- November 29, 2011Politicians and food executives have been talking about ending the problem of child labor in the West African cocoa industry for the last decade. After shocking revelations that hundreds of thousands of children were forced to harvest cacao beans under abusive conditions, companies pledged to address the practice as "fair trade" entered their lexicon.But 10 years later, labor advocates say the chocolate industry doesn't have a lot to show for itself on this issue. In 2009, the U.S. Department of State estimated that there were still more than 109,000 children working in Ivory Coast's cocoa industry, and about 10 percent were victims of human trafficking or enslavement.Perhaps that's why Nestlé, the world's largest food company, has just hired an organization that specializes in accountability to investigate and document child labor on the farms that supply it with the cocoa that ends up in millions of chocolate bars.Beginning in January, the Fair Labor Association, Nestle's new partner, will send a team of independent assessors to Ivory Coast to map the cocoa supply chain. The group has conducted similar investigations with companies in the textile, manufacturing and other industries in countries around the world. But Nestlé is the first food company to open up its supply chain to FLA's scrutiny."Our system is a very robust system; it's really only for companies ready to 'walk the walk,'" Auret van Heerden, president of CEO of the Fair Labor Association, tells The Salt. "There's a lot of work to be done and Nestlé knows that, but they're showing commitment and seriousness."If FLA finds evidence of child labor, it will advise Nestlé on what to do about it, Nestle says. "Child labor has no place in our supply chain," said Nestlé's Executive Vice President for Operations José Lopez in a statement. "We cannot solve the problem on our own, but by working with a partner like the FLA, we can make sure our efforts to address it are targeted where they are needed most."Ivory Coast and other West African countries produce 75 percent of the world's cocoa. But as NPR's Maria Godoy has reported, bulk beans grown in Africa represent just a small sampling of the many flavors of cacao. That's inspiring chocolate explorers to scour the Amazon Basin in search of a new bounty of wild cacao. [Copyright 2011 National Public Radio]To learn more about the NPR iPhone app, go to http://iphone.npr.org/recommendnprnews

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Huffington Post: Senator: Bill Prevents Repeat Of Case Involving Adults With Disabilities Locked In Basement

 







Senator: Bill Prevents Repeat Of Case Involving Adults With Disabilities Locked In Basement







PHILADELPHIA -- U.S. Sen. Bob Casey unveiled legislation Monday that he said would close a loophole that may have allowed a woman accused of locking...





 

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Huffington Post: 'I Can Tell That We Are Gonna Be Friends': Deaf Children Perform White Stripes Cover

 







'I Can Tell That We Are Gonna Be Friends': Deaf Children Perform White Stripes Cover







The White Stripes may have disbanded last February, but their music is still making an impact. The band's early-2000s ballad "We're Going To Be Friends"...





 

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BBC E-mail: Chile seeks US man for 1973 death

I saw this story on the BBC News iPhone App and thought you should see it.

** Chile seeks US man for 1973 death **
Chile seeks the extradition of US ex-officer Ray Davis over the death of a US reporter killed after the 1973 coup that brought Gen Pinochet to power.
< http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-15953252 >

** BBC Daily E-mail **
Choose the news and sport headlines you want - when you want them, all in one daily e-mail
< http://www.bbc.co.uk/email >

** Disclaimer **
The BBC is not responsible for the content of this e-mail, and anything written in this e-mail does not necessarily reflect the BBC's views or opinions. Please note that neither the e-mail address nor name of the sender have been verified.

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Remembering George Harrison 10 years after his death via msnbc.com iPhone app

Thought you'd be interested in this article: http://on.msnbc.com/vm3Bwo -- Got an iPhone or an iPod Touch? Check out the free msnbc.com iPhone experience. Get it now in the App Store.

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