What’s interesting in the news today?
Open thread, as always.
1. This one comes with a Hat/Tip to Karen O. Yesterday she posted a link about the story of the Pelletier family. It’s the story of a young lady taken from her family by a doctor with obvious conflicts, aided by a hospital, child welfare officials, and now the courts. To say it’s an example of govt. overstepping it’s authority is an understatement. The initial story was bad. The newer details are even worse. These details are only known because her father violated the judge’s gag rule in order to get the story heard. I don’t blame him, a desperate father can, and will do what he feels necessary to reunite his family.
Here’s the link from WFSB “A judge in Massachusetts ordered a daughter from West Hartford to be placed in foster care, denying a reunion with her family.
However, hospital officials insisted the 15-year-old’s problems were mental.
They said she was suffering from a condition called Somatoform Disorder. Doctors said that’s a mental illness where someone can actually experience physical pain.
Justina Pelletier’s family said she was experiencing physical pain, but the hospital brought in the Department of Children and Families. The state of Massachusetts took custody and said the teen’s parents were committing child abuse by not getting her mental health treatment.”
2. Now here is where her father shares more details,
From TheBlaze “Jessica, 25, is the second-oldest of the Pelletiers’ daughters and has mitochondrial disease herself. The disease can manifest itself in various ways, but at its root, results from a defect in the mitochondria, an organelle inside cells that produces energy. Jessica’s diagnosis was established medically through analysis of the cells of her muscle tissue.
In Justina’s case, a doctor evaluated her symptoms, considered her family history — mitochondrial disease can be inherited — and gave her a clinical diagnosis of the disorder. Under the care of physicians at Tufts Medical Center, Justina was treated for mitochondrial disease. But when she got the flu and her parents were told she should be transferred to Boston Children’s Hospital, things changed.”
“The physicians at Boston Children’s Hospital disagreed with her diagnosis of mitochondrial disorder and wanted to take a different approach to her treatment. At first, Lou Pelletier said, “we were game to try a new approach.” But when the hospital laid out their plan to take Justina off all of her mitochondrial and pain medication, her parents balked.
That was Feb. 13, 2013. The next day — Valentine’s Day 2013 — Justina’s parents went to Boston Children’s Hospital with a couple of advocates intending to have her discharged and brought to Tufts. Instead, they were met with security guards and served a 51A, a report of alleged physical or emotional abuse.”
It gets worse from there. It’s unbelievable what they’ve put this family through. Please take the time to read the whole thing.
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3. The lawlessness from the top law enforcement official in America continues. Never mind the law, just refuse to defend it and it’s like it doesn’t really exist.
From TheNYTimes “Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. on Monday injected the Obama administration into the emotional and politicized debate over the future of state same-sex marriage bans, declaring in an interview that state attorneys general are not obligated to defend laws that they believe are discriminatory.
Mr. Holder was careful not to encourage his state counterparts to disavow their own laws, but said that officials who have carefully studied bans on gay marriage could refuse to defend them.
Six state attorneys general — all Democrats — have refused to defend bans on same-sex marriage, prompting criticism from Republicans who say they have a duty to stand behind their state laws, even if they do not agree with them.
It is highly unusual for the United States attorney general to advise his state counterparts on how and when to refuse to defend state laws. But Mr. Holder said when laws touch on core constitutional issues like equal protection, an attorney general should apply the highest level of scrutiny before reaching a decision on whether to defend it. He said the decision should never be political or based on policy objections.
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4. Yep, media bias is definitely a myth. 🙄
Christie gets a 24/7 onslaught for a couple of lane closures, but a real scandal goes down with barely a mention from the same media sources. Why? Because these folks are Democrats, the official party of the MSM.
From PubliusForum “While the media gorges itself on the story of Chris Christie shutting down a bridge one day last year, a real political scandal is brewing in New Jersey filled with corruption, millions in fraud and waste, and a Democrat appointed official pleading the Fifth and the media? Well, the media is ignoring it all.
Even as Newark, New Jersey was laying off policemen and was pleading for more tax money and state bailouts, it has now been discovered that a heavily employed city contractor was stealing millions from the city with crony deals and bribery and it’s all tied to people appointed by Cory Booker–the man many Democrats think might be the “next” Barack Obama. There is even no-work jobs to buddies and other such criminal waste.”
“Linda Watkins-Brashear, the agency’s director and a political ally of former Newark mayor, now Sen. Cory Booker, wrote unreported checks to herself to the tune of $200,000, was awarded $700,000 in two severance packages, gave more than $1 million in contracts to her friends and ex-husband, and lost $500,000 in dubious stock ventures, the report states.
The director of the agency, Linda Watkins-Brashear, is now pleading her protections under the Fifth Amendment and reusing to say anything to investigators. But she did say through her attorney that she didn’t do anything that Senator Booker–who was Newark’s mayor at the time–didn’t know about.”
You tell me, which is the real scandal here?
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5. From CBSNews “Gunmen from Islamist group Boko Haram stormed a boarding school in northeast Nigeria overnight and killed 29 pupils, many of whom died in flames as the school was burned to the ground, police and the military said on Tuesday.
“Some of the students bodies were burned to ashes,” Police Commissioner Sanusi Rufai said of the attack on the Federal Government college of Buni Yadi, a secondary school in Yobe state, near the state’s capital city of Damaturu.
Female students were spared in the attack, said spokesman Abdullahi Bego. The attackers went to the female dormitories and told the young women to go home, get married and abandon the Western education they said is anathema to Islam, he said. He was relating to The Associated Press what survivors and community leaders told Gov. Ibrahim Gaidam when he visited the now-deserted and destroyed Federal Government College at Buni Yadi, a secondary school 45 miles south of the state capital, Damaturu..
Soldiers guarding a checkpoint near the government school were mysteriously withdrawn hours before the attack, said Abdullahi Bego, the spokesman for the governor of Yobe state.
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Wandering Views 
2. Child abuse laws are so vague. They seem to mean whatever the social workers wants them to mean. It has a lot a parents paranoid about taking their children to the emergency room.
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True, kBells. I know a young woman who called an ambulance when one of her little boys fell down the stairs and was unconscious for a couple of minutes. He was ok by the time the ambulance actually got there. However, social service was called and all her children checked for bruises and interrogated. They were all so scared by the end of it all, she said she would hesitate the next time. She is only one I have heard about. It is a difficult call for sincere social workers. Unfortunately, many have never had children and have no idea what they are doing.
This story just will make parents even more afraid. I hope it is settled quickly and the facts come out. I also hope those who did wrong are punished or lose credentials. No one should have to go through this.
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hwesseli, from February 24 News and Politics thread
“bob and chas — Obamacare was a compromise.”
It takes 2 to compromise. Most Democrats had little or no part in writing the ACA (ObamaCare). Republicans had NO input in ObamaCare. Heck, Nancy Pelosi even said something about, “You’ll have to pass the bill to see what’s in it.”
Where was the compromise? Who were the 2 parties in the compromise?
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As to Social Workers and overstepping, Yes, Yes they do.
Some are good, very good and then… In Los Angeles County when we were into adopting (ages 12, 9, 12) we were lucky to have a good worker. The case load of the workers was 130. That was higher than the recommended 40 to 60.
Talk with any one who has had Child Welfare called on them.
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It almost seems like there is a war on parenting. On the one hand the standards are higher as people overreact to normal childhood behavior such as kissing hands and playing with toy guns. People are less tolerant of children on airplanes and restaurants. Rowdy kids are drugged and labeled, sometimes against the parents will. On the other hand parents and teachers are constantly having the tools to control such behavior taken away. Spanking is illegal in some states and most schools. I overheard two parents discussing how their children had threatened them with the school counselor. Now teachers have make sure that punishments are demographically balanced. Heaven help the poor parents who’s over dramatic teenage daughter says she’s going to kill herself if they don’t let her see her boyfriend whenever she wants.
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Provocative stand-alone quote from Albert Mohler on Facebook today. He’s a careful thinker and someone I don’t think of as an alarmist. Time will tell:
“The most fundamental values of civilization itself are threatened, and we are witnesses to one of the most comprehensive and fast-paced moral revolutions ever experienced by humanity. The velocity and breadth of this revolution are breathtaking, and the consequences are yet incalculable.”
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Thanks, Donna J. Here is Mohler’s entire speech:
http://www.albertmohler.com/2014/02/25/strengthen-the-things-that-remain-human-dignity-human-rights-and-human-flourishing-in-a-dangerous-age-an-address-at-brigham-young-university/
Mohler and Mark Steyn do a great job of describing the importance of America’s moral collapse. Obamacare, the explosion of food stamps, wasteful government spending and all of the other Democratic domestic programs will make us poor. We can recover from being poor.
The killing of babies, the promotion and explosion of perversion and the destruction of the family will kill a nation. The US may already be mortally wounded.
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That’s a pretty good Mohler speech. This quote from it is on the mark:
There is no secular ground that can support and defend human rights.
I’m more ambivalent about Mohler’s apparent intention to be allied with Mormons in a culture war. The rotten fruits of the great evil of homosexuality are only more readily apparent than are those of the great evil of Mormonism. I’m not aware of any scriptural precept that would say indulgence of one is less likely to arouse God’s wrath (or hasten a culture’s decline) than the other.
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Interesting point, SolarP. I would note that Salt Lake City seems to have faired better than Sodom and Gomorrah while all three had/have similar locations (near a large salt lake).
I doubt Mohler would address a group of Muslim clerics even they also would be likely allies for us in the Culture Wars.
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Well, give it time, RickyW. Salt Lake City has only been around for 150 years. And I bet there are still more than 10 righteous who are there! But interesting observation about that lake…
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This is an interesting analysis by law professors on the proposed Arizona and Kansas religious freedom laws:
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/top-law-professors-arizona-religious-freedom-bill-has-been-egregiously-misrepresented_783466.html
It turns out the Arizona law (which we were told is draconian) is actually wimpy. I believe we can count on the Texas Legislature to develop something tougher than Kansas. At this point Texas is like the bad boy in high school. We are trying to get kicked out.
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1.&2. The only powerful person who ever gave my mother grief about homeschooling was a pediatrician. I had pneumonia nearly every year of my childhood. My mother always took me to her doctor and I was given antibiotics which cleared up the infection. One year it was so bad that my mother took me to the ER. I was admitted and diagnosed with asthma. The pediatrician took my mother aside and said that if I had been in school I would have been diagnosed much sooner. She ripped my mother up one side and down the other. The incident was concealed from me, but with a child’s instinct, I distrusted and disliked that doctor – hated is the more accurate term. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that I witnessed the grief of a mother whose little boy was taken from her by the pediatrician’s order because the child had fallen and injured himself while the mother was temporarily distracted. That wasn’t the last time I have seen a pediatrician throw their weight around – I wonder what they are taught in school that makes them see a potential abuser in every parent?
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5. The Real, could I ask you to moderate your tone a little. What Boko Haram did and does is terrible, in every sense of the word. However, it is what we can expect from the unregenerate. As Christ said, ” the time comes, when he that kills you will think that is he doing God a service.” (John 16:2) But He also said to love our enemies. By all means, express anger (“How could they do this!), express sorrow (“How long, Lord?”); but please do not express hatred (“Such scum do not deserve to live”). This blog represents Christians and there are brothers and sisters in those parts of the world risking everything to bring the Gospel to those who hate us so horribly. It is discouraging when they see those at home speak so bitterly and slightingly of the people they love enough to live among.
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Donna, I don’t think Mohler is being alarmist. He is being realistic. I have long thought that secular grounds are not strong enough to protect humans from abuses at the hand of other humans and the way the West is going, society will not be able to support law and order for long. The historian Arnold Toynbee believed that society’s broke down when too many small groups try to impose their will on the whole. With all the special interest groups clamouring for attention, we are rapidly approaching the breaking point. But I do not fear it. We know the Church will not fall, and we have the opportunity to be a light in a dark world. We can demonstrate marriage, when society has forgotten the meaning of the term, we can demonstrate sacrificial love when everyone seeks their own good to the detriment of others. Will it be easy? Of course not. But what is the point of being a Christian if we want an easy life?
Ricky, I wouldn’t assume Mormons are better allies than Muslims. The more I learn of the two religions, the more similarities I see. Both acknowledge Jesus Christ, but say their prophet supersedes Christ in importance. Both place the chance of a woman’s salvation on her marital status and encourage polygamous marriages for that salvation. Both had violent beginnings and formed exclusive communities. Both their prophets claimed special revelation from an angel. Both of their holy books quote from the Bible Mormonism is a Trojan horse.
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Roscuro, I didn’t say or assume Mormons are better allies than Muslims. I said I doubted Mohler would address a group of Muslim clerics. I said that based on my knowledge of Southern Baptists, to whom Dr. Mohler is accountable.
I think your comparison is very good. Dr, Ergun Canter agrees. I have heard him refer to Muslims as “medieval Mormons” and mention many of the similarities you noted.
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1. Social workers are damned if they do and damned if they don’t. As a teacher, I sometimes wonder where they are as the children who they are supposed to monitor continue to be mistreated or neglected. And sometimes I wonder why they get involved as I don’t see a problem. In many cases I think they are guided more liability rather than care. And when a doctor makes a pronouncement they usually start covering themselves.
2. I always counter charges of media bias with charges of media laziness or stupidity. Its easier to cover a traffic jam than to conduct investigative journalism (and its expensive/time consuming) and use the world alleged every second second.
However, I find the MSM to be right wing. Every newspaper in Canada with the exception of one endorsed the Conservative party last election. Now you may think its different in the US but the differences between the Democratic and Republican elite are far and few between. Witness the ACA wholesale plagiarism of the AEI.
This conservative bias is especially apparent in foreign news. In reporting on Venezuela, the media needed to borrow photos from Bulgaria, Chile, Honduras and Brazil just to make the socialist government look bad. CNN even used a famous photo of an Egyptian girl being beaten — they later removed it.
The article in this link is poorly written but the screen captures at the end are priceless and should make you think twice about seeing is believing.
http://daily-struggles.tumblr.com/post/76949406427/whats-being-faked-to-be-going-on-in-venezuela-in-a
5. If you want drones sent, Obama is your president — the heaviest use of drones of any president.
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HRW, The MSM is to the right of you. It’s just to the left of the rest of us.
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Today’s problems in Venezuela can be traced back to Jimmy Carter’s clueless meddling ten years ago.
http://infodio.com/260214/taking/stock/venezuela/crisis
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