Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Following editorial content by I Praetorian


Ladies and Gentlemen. If you heard the crack of bone, numbness and the eventual smell of Gangrene fills the air, would you wait for more information (in a lesser format) to motivate you to seek out a doctor? Folks the stench has been progressing for years. How much more will it take? The tide has turned. Thousands of jobs lost every week. The millions of unemployed are a mask for the millions more that have fallen off the meager unemployment subsidies and thereby left out of the count and left out in the cold.


READ THIS - YOU ARE GOING TO LOOSE YOUR JOB. Our professional association... I mean union... No I was told we're not that... If not this year (2-3 more rounds of cuts this year.) Then within the next two years. By the time the California Deficit is fixed in reality not just on paper, the still out of control national economic recession, (how many times did Bush say "there is no recession"?) will have spiraled down down to depression. Or worse yet, fostered by years of artificially maintained ultra low interest rates, a cycle of prolonged deflation. Ask a real economist. One without a personal political bend or trying to sell a product and you will see that this is not just possible. Probable? More economic variables than I know or care to list have come together in existential harmony to make a shambles of the American Dream and Our middle class. Do you know that the American Middle Class has been steadily decreasing since the Johnson administration. With the exception of a couple of years during Clinton's? Do you know we are dependent on a bloody debauched dictatorship for our national economic future? The Saudi's. Saudi Arabia has by virtue of it's huge oil reserves (read power and dependence related access to our military) keeps OPEC from raising prices or switching payment for that oil from the US dollar to the Euro. Either would bring us to our knees. Either would greatly increase the wealth of the other OPEC nations. Most of which have a burning axe to grind for the U.S.


As for the Saudi's every spare bit of capitol not spent on devaluing US assets to try and maintain some value of their previous investments, is spent paying for US military protection and keeping their own people from over throwing the Saudi family. And for some vary good reasons. According to the organization "Human Rights Watch," the Saudi family which is estimated at over a hundred individuals, still require women to obtain permission from male guardians (usually husband or father) to conduct their most basic affairs, like traveling or receiving medical care, even speaking in the presense of another man. A Juvenile death penalty. Currently, judges evaluate a suspect's signs of puberty... to determine whether to try him or her as an adult. No examination of a child's mental capacity takes place. There is NO minimum age. They import 1.5 million Asian workers each with promises of decent wages to take back home but most are treated and live worse than they did in their native countries. The wages turn out to be grossly substandard and each takes away job that Saudi workers desperately need. Poverty is rampant in SA. Because of the ultra secretive and inaccessible inner circle of the government let alone the Saudi family, it can not be confirmed but some human rights investigators believe that within the Saudi inner circles, men still buy female slaves kidnapped from brothels and off the streets of foreign countries.


NOW, WHAT DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH THE CTA/NEA? Please read the story linked to the title at the top. I am not a Democrat or Republican but I find myself wading through the propaganda of both to assemble bits and pieces of the truth.

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This is the fight of our professional careers. Are You In or Out?

What's taking so long? This is the fight of our professional careers. Are You In or Out? "Hell has a special level for those who sit by idly during times of great crisis."
Robert Kennedy

The Art of SETTING LIMITS, Its not as easy as it looks.

Art of Setting Limits Setting limits is one of the most powerful tools that professionals have to promote positive behavior change for their clients, students, residents, patients, etc. Knowing there are limits on their behavior helps the individuals in your charge to feel safe. It also helps them learn to make appropriate choices.


There are many ways to go about setting limits, but staff members who use these techniques must keep three things in mind:
Setting a limit is not the same as issuing an ultimatum.
Limits aren’t threats—If you don’t attend group, your weekend privileges will be suspended.

Limits offer choices with consequences—If you attend group and follow the other steps in your plan, you’ll be able to attend all of the special activities this weekend. If you don’t attend group, then you’ll have to stay behind. It’s your decision.
The purpose of limits is to teach, not to punish.
Through limits, people begin to understand that their actions, positive or negative, result in predictable consequences. By giving such choices and consequences, staff members provide a structure for good decision making.
Setting limits is more about listening than talking.
Taking the time to really listen to those in your charge will help you better understand their thoughts and feelings. By listening, you will learn more about what’s important to them, and that will help you set more meaningful limits.
Download The Art of Setting Limits

SYSTEMATIC USE OF CHILD LABOR


CHILD DOMESTIC HELP
by Amanda Kloer

Published February 21, 2010 @ 09:00AM PT
category: Child Labor
Wanted: Domestic worker. Must be willing to cook, clean, work with garbage, and do all other chores as assigned. No contract available, payment based on employer's mood or current financial situation. No days off. Violence, rape, and sexual harassment may be part of the job.

Would you take that job? No way. But for thousands of child domestic workers in Indonesia, this ad doesn't just describe their job, it describes their life.

A recent CARE International survey of over 200 child domestic workers in Indonesia found that 90% of them didn't have a contract with their employer, and thus no way to legally guarantee them a fair wage (or any wage at all) for their work. 65% of them had never had a day off in their whole employment, and 12% had experienced violence. Child domestic workers remain one of the most vulnerable populations to human trafficking and exploitation. And while work and life may look a little grim for the kids who answered CARE's survey, it's likely that the most abused and exploited domestic workers didn't even have the opportunity to take the survey.

In part, child domestic workers have it so much harder than adults because the people who hire children are more likely looking for someone easy to exploit. Think about it -- if you wanted to hire a domestic worker, wouldn't you choose an adult with a stronger body and more life experience to lift and haul and cook than a kid? If you could get them both for the same price, of course you would. But what if the kid was cheaper, free even, because you knew she wouldn't try and leave if you stopped paying her. Or even if you threatened her with death.



Congress Aims to Improve Laws for Runaway, Prostituted Kids

by Amanda Kloer

categories: Child Prostitution, Pimping

Published February 20, 2010 @ 09:00AM PT

The prospects for healthcare reform may be chillier than DC weather, but Democrats in the House and Senate are turning their attention to another warmer but still significant national issue: the increasing number of runaway and throwaway youth who are being forced into prostitution. In response to the growing concerns that desperate, runaway teens will be forced into prostitution in a sluggish economy, Congress is pushing several bills to improve how runaway kids are tracked by the police, fund crucial social services, and prevent teens from being caught in sex trafficking. Here's the gist of what the new legislation is trying to accomplish:

Shelter: Lack of shelter is one of the biggest vulnerabilities of runaway and homeless youth. Pimps will often use an offer of shelter as an entree to a relationship with a child or a straight up trade for sex. In the past couple years, at least 10 states have made legislative efforts to increase the number of shelters, extend shelter options, and change state reporting requirements so that youth shelters have enough time to win trust and provide services before they need to report the runaways to the police. Much of the new federal legislation would make similar increases in the availability and flexibility of shelter options.

Police Reporting: Right now, police are supposed to enter all missing persons into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database within two hours of receiving the case. In reality, that reporting doesn't always get done, making it almost impossible for law enforcement to search for missing kids across districts. This hole is a big problem in finding child prostitution victims and their pimps, since pimps will often transport girls from state to state. The new bill would strengthen reporting requirements, as well as facilitate communication between the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the National Runaway Switchboard

We Must Never Forget These Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen and Women

We Must Never Forget These Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen and Women
Nor the Fool Politicians that used so many American GIs' lives as fodder for the fight over an english noun - "Communism"