There’s a world of difference between being an active witness to bullying and abuse, and being merely a bystander. A bystander has already decided to be an uninvolved spectator, to look the other way, to pretend ignorance if called upon. A witness can make a tactical decision based on the circumstances – intervene now in some tactical way or speak up later. At work, co-workers or bosses are bullies; at home, abusive parents will harass and bully one young child while lavishing goodies on the other; in addition, toxic parents will favor one adult child over another with love and[....]
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Tag: US News
Ah, the wonders of organic farming and living in a rural tropical paradise. Right now, we are in the middle of rice growing season (which started later than usual because the rains came late). So time to make the fertilizer. To grow organic rice, it means more preparation of the fields (plowing under and flooding the fields so weeds won’t grow) before planting rice seedlings by hand. But we need fertilizer, which we “make” by mixing carbonized rice husks, good bacteria, chicken manure, and the minerals according to the analysis of the soil. As a result, when we sit out in[....]
Written By: John Sullivan The Palestinian terror organization Hamas, in their refusal to recognize Israel’s right to exist, is determined to railroad any peace treaty that may be attained from talks that started this Thursday. Dismissing Hamas is not an easy adventure, this week they executed back to back attacks on Israelis in the West Bank. Many analyst say though that the only way for U.S. led talks to succeed is for Palestinians to ostracize the terror group, but they cannot expect to succeed if they do not Jordan and Egypt are both involved in the renewed middle east peace talks;[....]
He was a rabid environmentalist. He considered babies “parasitic human infants”, and wanted all “pro-birth” programs to push “stopping human birth”. He was extremely anti-war, and equated having more humans with more war. He considered civilization “filth”, and its religious roots “disgusting”. And ThinkProgress, an extremely popular liberal blog, calls out the Right over this guy, James Jay Lee, who took hostages at the Discovery Channel, because one of his eleven points refers to immigration. [....]
Written by: John SullinvanVisit John’s Blog Here It is sad to hear stories of hate throughout history, but it is a part of human nature, it has been happening for thousands of years. In the case of NYC, the city has seen a good chunk of hate, the Irish, Italians, Blacks, Catholics, Indians, Spanish, and now Muslims, are all some of the different groups persecuted. Muslims stand out in the list though, reason being, it is a religious group rather than a race, but why a religion, and why now? Recently a film student was arrested here in NYC for stabbing a Muslim, it seems that hate is[....]
I just finished watching the “Restore Honor” rally at the Washington Monument, and the message from the rally moved me greatly. First, for those who do not know me, I am a Christian, and believe in the rapture, and of all that is spoken of in the book of Revelation. I say that because I realized today, that on occasion I have used this belief and knowledge to comfort myself in the fact that the degradation of morals and principles in our nation is all part of God’s plan….which, don’t get me wrong, I certainly still believe to be true and do take a certain[....]
The following is an article by Fathers & Families Board Member, Robert Franklin, Esq.: I’ve written a fair amount on parental alienation and parental alienation syndrome (PAS) or parental alienation disorder (PAD). I’ve said before that I’m in no way qualified to give an opinion about whether the behavioral changes displayed by an alienated child fit the American Psychiatric Association’s definition of a discrete syndrome or disorder. But what I do know is that certain parents attempt to alienate children from the other parent and that that effort can result in[....]
The following is an article by Fathers & Families Board Member, Robert Franklin, Esq.: Here’s yet another piece that lauds equality between mothers and fathers in childrearing, but uses some very questionable “facts” and figures to do it (Chicago Tribune, 8/20/10). The writer, Alexa Aguilar, wants to think of her marriage as non-traditional enough that both partners work and both do childcare. But she notices that, when push comes to shove, she’s more likely to control childcare and housework while her husband does the more traditionally male tasks around the[....]
Over-protective, inept or unskilled mothers sabotage their daughters. Almost all the women who’ve interviewed me on radio and TV or who’ve called in with comments have said that their mothers told them to rise above mean girls, to be nicer and kinder to bullies, to be nice because the mean girls were being bullied at home, to feel sorry for the bullies because they had low self-esteem or to simply forgive mean girls as a spiritual thing to do. That’s bad advice; those methods don’t stop real-world bullies and mean girls. Those mothers trained their daughters to be easy targets and[....]
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I’m old enough to remember when a doc took two dollars to see you in his office, and the entire staff was his wife (when I became a doctor, only 6 percent of docs were women, so yes, the doc was a “he). In the 1980’s, I had one secretary, one nurse.and a part time typist to help me. In 2000 I worked for the government, and we had three nurses for two doctors (and yet often I was left trying to find one to help me…this was a government clinic, after all, so coffee breaks tended to be long). Then we had 6 folks in medical records, and another four in the office [....]
I find three definitions of the term ‘barratry’ when I look it up – two of them are obscure, but the third is relevant, and if stretched a bit, can apply to the current blogosphere kerfuffle-du-jour – the Righthaven violation of copyright lawsuits. Well, that’s the politer term; a quick internet search on ‘righthaven’ also turned up qualifiers such as ‘trolling’, ‘extortion,’ ‘bottom-feeders’ and ‘barratrious a**holes.’ A more thorough search would, I am certain, turn up more pungent terms of abuse and a fair collection of lawyer jokes. (Sample –[....]
The following is an article by Fathers & Families Board Member, Robert Franklin, Esq.: (1) Parenting time shall be granted in accordance with the best interests of the child. It is presumed to be in the best interests of a child for the child to have a strong relationship with both of his or her parents. Except as otherwise provided in this section, parenting time shall be granted to a parent in a frequency, duration, and type reasonably calculated to promote a strong relationship between the child and the parent granted parenting time…(3) A child has a right to parenting time[....]
MISSOURI – Freedom is a daily endeavor dependent on the people, and it requires, at times, a call to action to ensure that justice is served–this is one of those times. Over the last few years we have seen a pattern of communication develop most prominently in the way of “Disasters” that are really not disasters. They are, however, opportunities for all Americans to consider the accuracy of the information they receive by the mainstream media: newspapers, network news, cable opinions, and in particular, the information available over the Internet. My attempt to draw a link[....]
Let’s analyze a worst-case scenario for loving, caring parents. You were pretty good parents but one of your children has turned out toxic – not a psychopath but someone who acts like she (or he) hates you. It’s not your fault, but she blames you for not giving her everything she wanted or wants now, she’ll be sweet one moment and then abusive, vicious and hateful the next, she harasses and bullies you relentlessly when she wants something; she tries to involve the rest of the family in her schemes and feuds. Or her boyfriend or husband hates you and she goes along with it and it[....]
Follow the money. Yes, that’s right, follow the money. You really didn’t think that the “Wikileaks” scheme was about being anti war, did you? From ZDNET, a computer related website: …Wikileaks founder Julian Assange…(is) now blackmailing Amnesty International and other human rights groups for $700,000 to remove names of Afghan civilians who might get killed by the Taliban if their names get released on Wikileaks. Ah yes. Must have money. Last week, five Human Rights groups asked Assange not to release documents with the names of innocent[....]
In medicine, if you have a patient who is awaiting a cash settlement in a court case, it is well known that their recovery chances are better if you let them get the case settled before you do surgery or start an extensive rehabilitation program. The slang term for this is the “Green poultice effect”, i.e. that the injury won’t get better until he gets money (in the US, the bills are green) because if they recover, they get less money. Sometimes this is due to exaggerating the injury or pretending it hurts to be rewarded with a settlement or with disability pension. (Time[....]
Tom Lehrer famously said that “political satire became obsolete when Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Prize” - we are in the same territory when we look at some of the things Tony Blair has done since stepping down as Prime Minister. Along with George W Bush Blair was the world leader most responsible for death and destruction in illegal wars across two Middle East countries – and yet he is a Middle East peace envoy. Blair was the leader of a political party founded on the principles of equality and social justice – and yet he has spent the last few years[....]
New Yorkers are rolling in the aisles. The summer of our discontent (economic, political, you name it) has been made glorious circus by the race for the governor’s seat. A clown car of candidates is lurching round the ring. This year’s Volkswagen– or is it a Volt?– is almost totally filled by state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. His war chest is bulging, his poll numbers mighty. When New York’s venerable Republican machine chose former Congressman Rick Lazio as challenger to Cuomo they knew what they were doing. Who can forget how Lazio wiped the floor with[....]
The Taliban did it again. Killed a medical team whose only crime was to travel into isolated areas to treat eye disease. Their “crime”? They were supposedly being “spies”, even though only a few of the medical team were Americans. Oh yes: And they were (gasp) Christians. Can’t have that, can we. Kill the infidel. Never mind that the lead optometrist was well known in Afghanistan, fluent in local dialects and working there for over 20 years. So what were this team of eye doctors doing there? From the BBC: Dr Woo gave up a well-paid job with private healthcare[....]