Research & Rescue

Action Alert: Combat Sex Trafficking in the U.S.

Received this action alert via e-mail:

The FBI estimates that more than 100,000 underage girls are exploited for sex in the Unites States each year. Sex trafficking is a modern form of slavery, yet all too often victims are difficult to identify and trafficked persons are often prosecuted as prostitutes or deported as undocumented immigrants.

The Senate has already passed a bill by unanimous consent that would call victims of sex trafficking what they are -- victims -- and establish pilot programs which would provide counseling, education, and basic support for these young women. This bill, the Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking Deterrence and Victims Support Act (S. 2925/H.R. 5575), would also mandate participation at all levels of law enforcement and educate officers and prosecutors in how to identify, investigate, and prosecute traffickers.

With just days remaining in the lame duck session, we cannot allow the House to fail to take action to support young women exploited by sex traffickers in our very own country. To act now is to make a real difference in the lives of thousands of women and girls.

Combat Sex Trafficking in the U.S.

Stephan Wolff on Ending Ethnic Conflicts

Can leadership, diplomacy and institutional design be used to wage peace? Seems like a no-brainer. Historically, there's been a gap between power and leadership. Hopefully a global change in thought will result in a change in the trend.

Video: Think Different

I've mentioned Michael Lloyd-Billington before, a wonderful, inspiring man who has a personal training and yoga business up in Fort Collins. This is a beautiful short vid he shared on Facebook this week and I will share it with you.

Be who you are. If you want to change something - in the world or in just yourself, work to do that - even if there are saboteurs looking over your shoulder. Chances are that you're not as crazy as people make you out to be.

The Disappearing Intellectual in the Age of Economic Darwinism

This piece is rather lengthy but Henry Giroux really hits the nail on the head. Thanks to Barb Wold of Democracy for New Mexico for sharing it on Facebook

We live at a time that might be appropriately called the age of the disappearing intellectual, a disappearance that marks with disgrace a particularly dangerous period in American history. While there are plenty of talking heads spewing lies, insults and nonsense in the various media, it would be wrong to suggest that these right-wing populist are intellectuals. They are neither knowledgeable nor self-reflective, but largely ideological hacks catering to the worst impulses in American society.

Read the rest at www.truth-out.org

Child Poverty in the US worse than other developed nations

David Frum posted a blog entry about an Urban Institute report that said that...

American children experience poverty than we might suppose – and... their odds of escape over time are much lower than we might hope.

• More than 1 out of 3 American children will be poor at some point in their childhood.
• You might imagine this experience as a brief or temporary one: the child on food stamps as his mother seeks work after a divorce for example. In fact, even children who experience poverty only temporarily tend to experience it recurringly: they cycle in and out of poverty, bad years following good.
• Children born into poverty are much more likely to remain poor in adulthood than children who are not born into poverty.
• Race predicts poverty: black children are 2.5x more likely to experience poverty than white, 7x more likely to be persistently poor.

Such sad statements about a nation as wealthy as ours...

via www.frumforum.com

The Skinny on the Global Poverty Gap (Clue: It's Not Skinny)

In all the ruckus about the protesters at the G-20, the mainstream media has lost the real message. Watch this video recorded speech by Maude Barlow from Democracy Now. It's sad that the mainstream media concentrates so much on conflict and rhetoric instead of covering the real tragedy at hand. Glitz sells, I guess.

Maude Barlow: "The World Has Divided into Rich and Poor as at No Time in History"

Books for Thinkers

So, I have decided to indulge in the nirvana of nerdiness and I put a page in the Research & Rescue Amazon Store, called Thinkers - Global Issues. As I discover new books (or books that have been around but I hadn't noticed them), I'll add them in. Some of these are ones I've read; others are wish list items (if you're a personal friend, there's a hint). This is the first of a series of store pages in the Books for Thinkers category but I haven't quite decided what the others will be. Since I have a background in AI, perhaps the next shelf will be technology books with a bent toward philosophy and cognitive science.

Not to worry, I don't make a fortune of of Amazon Associates fees. In fact, I make pretty much nothing. You're welcome to change that, of course! In the meantime, think of this as just another venture into internet curation :-)

Happy reading!

 

Action: Don't reduce Medicare payments to doctors

Received from Democrat Women of Sandoval County via e-mail today:

Doctors accepting Medicare are scheduled to receive a 21% reduction in reimbursements based on current Medicare law. AARP has been lobbying strongly to get Congress to stop this reduction – we believe that such a reduction will discourage doctors from accepting Medicare. AARP has been pushing Congress to take action before the upcoming summer recess.

Please call 1-800-944-6711 (toll free) to reach our U. S. Senators and provide the following message: "I need access to my doc. Please fix this before the recess!”

Supreme Court upholds anti-terror law

The Supreme Court on Monday upheld a federal law that forbids providing training and advice to terrorist organizations even about entirely peaceful and legal activities, saying it does not violate the free speech rights of those who want to help.

The court ruled 6 to 3 that Congress and the executive branch had legitimate reasons for barring "material support" to foreign organizations deemed to be terrorists in the USA Patriot Act.

via www.washingtonpost.com

Fearmongering About a White Minority in America

From this morning's Alternet:

Whites are projected to become a minority in the United States in the year 2050. It’s a terrifying prospect for Americans who fear the loss of their privileged status. 

But the truth is that in 2050, “whites,” as most people understand the term, will still make up 74 percent of the population (if the projections are right). Only “non-Hispanic whites” are expected to become a minority. But there’s little chance that the designation -- which the Census Bureau only added in 1980 -- will live until that time. History tells us that “white Hispanics” -- light-skinned people with an Hispanic heritage -- will soon become, simply, “white people,” as part of the American “mainstream.”  

In 2050, white people will not only remain a majority, but they’ll also retain their disproportionate cultural, political and economic influence. In other words, people freaking out about the loss of white privilege have no cause for alarm -- it is safe. As Chauncey DeVega put it, “whites are by definition the majority group in the United States,” and “while heavily policed,” the definition of “whiteness as a racial grouping is ever expanding.” 

Read the rest at www.alternet.org