TSA Recruiting ‘Junior Officers’ at Airports
Via InfoWars:
Remember when you were growing up and wanted to be a police officer, fire fighter or other public servant?
Now the TSA appears to be tapping children as future recruits for airport checkpoints, as evidenced by this novelty “Junior Officer” badge handed out at Austin Bergstrom International Airport. Not only are young, impressionable fliers indoctrinated by the unconstitutional checkpoints themselves, but now by a subtle driver to join the team someday when they can get the power to conduct their own pat-downs and body scans.
8 Reasons Young Americans Don’t Fight Back: How the US Crushed Youth Resistance
Bruce E. Levine writes on Alternet:
The ruling elite has created social institutions that have subdued young Americans and broken their spirit of resistance.
Traditionally, young people have energized democratic movements. So it is a major coup for the ruling elite to have created societal institutions that have subdued young Americans and broken their spirit of resistance to domination.
Young Americans—even more so than older Americans—appear to have acquiesced to the idea that the corporatocracy can completely screw them and that they are helpless to do anything about it.
A 2010 Gallup poll asked Americans “Do you think the Social Security system will be able to pay you a benefit when you retire?” Among 18- to 34-years-olds, 76 percent of them said no. Yet despite their lack of confidence in the availability of Social Security for them, few have demanded it be shored up by more fairly payroll-taxing the wealthy; most appear resigned to…
South Africa’s Youth Face A Grim Future
School Children at Imperial Primary School in Eastridge, Mitchell's Plain (Cape Town, South Africa).
“Don’t Know Much About History”
School Children at Imperial Primary School in Eastridge, Mitchell's Plain (Cape Town, South Africa).
DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA: I got into South Africa before I got there.
I did so through meeting a young woman whose given name was Pony, in the tradition of South Africans who call their daughters “Beautiful” or “Truth” or some other creative appellation.
She was on her way home to a small country town, after a year spent in Cuba where she was in a course teaching scientific sport. She was one of a number of scholarship students traveling on the plane with me from Madrid. Cuba had adopted the systematic training system, or Sports institutes, used in East Germany and put it to good advantage in its award winning State backed athletic program. Now they are sharing their knowledge with other Third World countries
Pony, in her late teens, was one of a large number of…
Majority of Teens Don’t Know Who Osama Bin Laden Is, Search Data Shows
I did wonder how many college kids in those crowds cheering Sunday night the news kept reporting extensively on, even remembered in detail the events of 9/11. One figures that any herd, regardless of its intent, will attract those without the lights on upstairs.
While this article focuses on people younger than most of those in the crowds (so I guess teens aren’t hearing about 9/11 from their parents or in school) … more surprising to me, is it seems like a good percentage of people, the college age (and even older!), were searching for “Who Is Osama Bin Laden” shortly after the president’s speech Sunday night. Chloe Albanesius writes on PC Mag:
As I watched the crowds outside the White House on Sunday night, it seemed like many were college students from nearby George Washington University, and I wondered what many of them remembered from 9/11, seeing as how they were…
The Push To Suppress Young Adult Voting
Ever heard baby boomers bemoan young people’s lack of political engagement? Well, some feel the opposite.
William O’Brien, the newly-minted speaker of the state House in New Hampshire, is peeved that college students are able to vote: “Foolish…Voting as a liberal. That’s what kids do.” They lack “life experience,” and “they just vote their feelings.”
State Republican lawmakers across the country share O’Brien’s sentiment. In disregard of the Twenty-Sixth Amendment, they are mounting a concerted and sustained push to reduce young adults’ voting rights, the Washington Post reports:
New Hampshire’s new Republican state House speaker is pretty clear about what he thinks of college kids and how they vote. They’re “foolish,” Speaker William O’Brien said in a recent speech to a tea party group.
“Voting as a liberal. That’s what kids do,” he added, his comments taped by a state Democratic Party staffer and posted on YouTube. Students lack “life experience,” and “they just vote…
Letters To Santa Have Taken A Sad Turn
Has the “modern family” structure put pressure on children to grow up too quick, or just be more considerate? Letters to Santa usually contain kids’ materialistic desires, but lately they’re more concerned with the happiness of their family and education of their siblings. Via NPR:
This year, postal workers opening and processing letters to Santa Claus have noticed a significant change in tone from years past.
“Normally the letters would be greedy-type things — big televisions, Xbox, Wiis, things of that nature,” Pete Fontana, the head elf in New York City’s main post office, tells NPR’s Robert Siegel. “This year, the letters are single moms, three kids, no winter coats, no shoes, blankets, can’t pay the bills, not enough food in the pantry. So the need has changed tremendously.”
Fontana, who has been working in U.S. Postal Service’s Operation Santa Claus program for 15 years, shares an example:
Dear Santa, my name is Chisertopher.…
Suicides In Japan Cost Economy $32bn
I would think the number one problem is that Japan has the highest suicide rate in the world, not the fact that it’s hurting the economy. BBC reports:
The government in Japan says suicides and depression cost its economy almost 2.7tn yen ($32bn; £21bn) last year.
The figures refer to lost incomes and the cost of treatment. It is the first time Japan has released such figures.
Japan has one of the world’s highest suicide rates, with more than 32,000 people killing themselves last year. PM Naoto Kan sees it as proof of an economic and emotional downturn.
The government is setting up a task force to try to reduce the rate.
From Friday, it will run a video clip of a footballer from the J-league on its website, urging people to be more aware of the problem.
Continues at BBC News …
Teenagers Using “Digital Drugs” To Get High?!?
I’m finding this, strange. Maybe I am old-fashioned about so-called drug use … but where there is a perceived threat to young people, your local TV news folks will be on the story. Ryan Singel writes on WIRED’s Threat Level:
Kids around the country are getting high on the internet, thanks to MP3s that induce a state of ecstasy. And it could be a gateway drug leading teens to real-world narcotics.
At least, that’s what Kansas News 9 is reporting about a phenomenon called “i-dosing,” which involves finding an online dealer who can hook you up with “digital drugs” that get you high through your headphones. And officials are taking it seriously.
“Kids are going to flock to these sites just to see what it is about and it can lead them to other places,” Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs spokesman Mark Woodward told News 9.
I-dosing involves donning headphones and listening to “music” — largely a droning noise — which the sites peddling the sounds promise will get you high. Teens are listening to such tracks as “Gates of Hades,” which is available on YouTube gratis (yes, the first one is always free).
New Supernova Discovered By A 14 Year Old
From ScienceBlogs:
There is no age restriction on the chance to make a significant contribution to our understanding of the universe. Caroline Moore, a 14-year-old from Warwick, NY, has made such a mark on astronomy with the discovery of Supernova 2008ha. Not only is she the youngest person to discover a supernova, but this particular supernova has been identified as a different type of stellar explosion.
