#also does anyone know if vets are allowed to operate on humans in emergency situations and not lose their license?

[eldritch-bf]

Nothing is funnier to me than Ian Malcolm, sweaty, half-dead, half-delirious, resisting the pull of sleep from morphine in order to lecture everyone about unethical science.

“Ellie. Ellie go fill the bathtubs with water Ellie. Nuclear reactors. Hammond you’re a moron. You can’t control nature. Can I have some more morphine?”

[admiral70]

Mandy was 16 years old, which would have made her 112, depending on which scale you use, when she tried something new for her crippling leukemia.

Chronic leukemia in dogs is heartbreaking to see. Its symptoms can include a loss of appetite, lethargy, anxiety, increased thirst and urination, and swelling in the abdomen. Mandy faced a hard end, which would’ve eventually made for a hard decision for her owner, Christine Leogrande, from Utica, New York.

Leogrande sought pet products that would ease Mandy’s discomfort and pain and help promote a healthy life so their cherished time together could continue. Looking for guidance from experts, Leogrande turned to her veterinarian, who mentioned CBD oil to her, as had people in a rescue group she belongs to. Hopeful for results, she ordered CBD oil drops and began trying them.

Leogrande says the difference in Mandy has been noticeable. “It has increased her appetite, and made her less restless and less anxious,” she says. “It may be helping with her mobility as well.”

Leogrande is not alone. A growing number of pet owners are looking for products infused with CBD. And a growing number of retailers are rising to meet market demand. These retailers, many of them online, offer an array of pet products with CBD, including tinctures, capsules, powders, chewies and treats. 

According to the American Pet Products Association (APPA), in 1994, Americans spent $17 billion on their pets. By 2017, that number grew to $69.51 billion. The APPA estimates that spending could surpass $96 billion in sales by 2020, setting the stage for an increased demand in natural pet products.

Pet owners are hopeful CBD could be beneficial to help manage pain from arthritis and other conditions, reduce epileptic seizures, alleviate separation anxiety, expand mobility, improve cognitive function and lessen insomnia. As CBD breaks into the mainstream, some of the earliest adopters have been dog owners and their pups. They won’t be leading the pack for long, though. As more research surfaces, a variety of pets may benefit.

“Vets everywhere are dealing with pet parents reaching out to them for information,” says Dr. Casara Andre, a veterinarian and founder of Veterinary Cannabis Education and Consulting, based in Wheat Ridge, Colorado. “We were seeing this huge need and tried to address that need in our community. 

There are so many positive stories and anecdotal evidence about using cannabis in veterinary medicine.”

For many pet owners whose animals suffer from debilitating diseases or conditions, CBD-infused products may offer a shot at helping to alleviate their loved ones’ pain and discomfort. And new research is increasingly coming to light.

Emerging Evidence 

One example of such research is a new study called “Efficacy of Cannabidiol for the Treatment of Epilepsy in Dogs,” led by Dr. Stephanie McGrath, a neurologist at Colorado State University’s James L. Voss Veterinary Teaching Hospital. McGrath initially decided to pursue this line of research after receiving frequent calls from clients and other veterinarians with questions about CBD.

Based on her study, McGrath found that 89 percent of dogs who received CBD in a clinical trial had a reduction in the frequency of seizures.

Although more research may have been done on the benefits of CBD for dogs with seizures, these benefits may also project positively for our feline companions. Humans, dogs, cats and other animals all have common endocannabinoid systems in their bodies, which have receptors that are responsive to CBD. Seizures are caused by disrupted electrical activity in the brain, and CBD has been demonstrated to restore order to these neural pathways.

Although cannabis pet products come in a variety of formulations, Andre recommends choosing a tincture or liquid formulation to start. “Tinctures are the easiest products to work with because they allow pet parents and the veterinary health care team to start really low and creep up slowly in dosage based on how the pet responds,” she says.

How can pet owners get their pets to take CBD? Some early adopters use a CBD tincture or oil and apply a few drops under their pets’ tongues. This method of delivery is intended to optimize the CBD’s bioavailability, which means it will be more readily usable for the animal.

However, some pet owners may have trouble prying open their pet’s mouth and getting the pet to cooperate. In this situation, another option is to add drops of CBD oil onto the pet’s food. Pet owners can also give their pet a treat with CBD already incorporated. Keep in mind, however, that because CBD added to food or treats has to pass through the digestive tract, it may need longer to take effect. Consult your veterinarian before beginning a CBD regimen for your pet.

Stephanie Farrar, owner of The Canine Cookie Company, an online wholesale and retail operation with a brick-and-mortar store in McKinney, Texas, recently developed a dog treat that contains approximately 15 mg of CBD per cookie.

“People are giving me feedback that their dogs are moving again; they’re not in pain; their arthritis is not the issue that it was,” Farrar says. “The CBD pet product category is growing by leaps and bounds.”

And, Farrar says, that’s probably good news for aging pets.

“Our store does birthday cakes for dogs who are 12, 14, 15 years old and higher,” Farrar continues. “You don’t have to write your friends off.”

Longtime pet owners know the heartache of seeing pets aging with discomfort, particularly arthritis, which causes the animals to move slowly and with great difficulty. They can even hurt to the touch.

“Dogs age just like we do,” Farrar says. “They get arthritis, they get aches and pains; they get dementia too. They get some of the other problems that we get as humans. By calming them and relieving their inflammation and their pain, you are making for a happier dog. It’s about quality of life.”

Farrar’s own dog, Wally, is nearly 14 years old. “We thought a year-and-a-half ago we would have to put him down, because his arthritis was crippling,” she says. “We had a daughter in Colorado and we started buying CBD and bringing it home for Wally. We started to see vast improvement in Wally. That is when I became bent on making my own CBD pet product.”

Desperate to find something that could help Wally, Farrar was ecstatic with what she observed from CBD. 

“Your pet is your best friend,” Farrar says. “You won’t get that kind of unconditional love from anyone but your pet. We love our pets, and we would do anything for them. Just like they’d do anything for us.”

This article originally appeared in the May/June 2019 issue of CBD Snapshot. Never miss a story; subscribe today!

The post CBD Shows Early Promise for Aging Pets appeared first on CBD Snapshot.

from CBD Snapshot https://ift.tt/2LMbMyi

[hudsonespie]

Solid Bulk and the Connected Dangers in Enclosed Spaces

On March 2, 2019, The Maritime Executive published an article "Another Five Fatalities with Solid Bulk Cargo."

Basically, I share the opinion of the author of this article. The recent casualties on bulk carriers caused by lack of oxygen in loaded holds, fumigated holds and adjacent areas show us that there are significant deficiencies which the IMO, its safety committees, shipping companies, surveyors, fumigation companies, shippers and port authorities must wake up to. 

But it would be too easy to only turn the screws of administrative regulations to tighten existing safety regulations again and again. How would it be if, before this happened, all the existing international and national regulations were consistently and effectively implemented and enforced? We would then quickly realize that the number of serious accidents involving cargo holds can be drastically reduced.

That regulations must be revised and adapted over time is beyond question as we:

• Gain new insights through the evaluation of tragic accidents, • Adopt new technical innovations which ensure a considerable improvement in the analysis methods of the cargo space atmosphere • Improve systems and simplify their handling • Use new chemicals for fumigation of cargo holds • Develop new breathing and filtration systems

But the other side of the issue should not be hidden!

The vast majority of fatal accidents on bulk carriers are not caused by tank inspections, they are based on careless handling of existing safety regulations during cargo hold inspections or careless entering of cargo compartments, ignoring all associated hazards. This has been shown in the evaluation of numerous investigation reports. The so-called human error must therefore not be trivialized

The consistent observance and enforcement of the applicable safety regulations for the entry of closed, loaded and fumigated spaces by the crews is subject to the particular responsibility of the captains and officers.

Most accidents are due to:

•  failure to comply the criteria of effective and maximum-safety existing Risk Assessment.

• the inadequate adherence to ship management and safety management systems and their onboard enforcement, as well as their ongoing review to promptly identify and eliminate identified shortcomings.

• a faulty, inadequate risk management is carried out.

• external time pressure on the crews. How tight is the onboard organization to ensure maximum enforcement of existing safety policies without being influenced by the time pressure from the outside?

• inadequate technical and scientific knowledge of key personnel, i.e. the captain and officers. e.g. grain (enrichment of the cargo hold atmosphere with CO2 and concomitant reduction of the O2 content) or steel bars (reduction of the O2 content by oxidation processes on the steel), to name only two, with life-threatening potential

• inadequate information for the crew about the chemicals used for the fumigation of holds, their potential hazards and risks, the mandatory safety regulations with clear indication that entering these spaces is strictly prohibited and only entered in exceptional circumstances with the express permission of the Captain. I have handled it in the manner that the crew got an extensive safety instruction before arrival. In all the corridors of the deckhouse, on the bridge, in the mess rooms and in the ECR appropriate data sheets with warnings and with the corresponding first aid measures in the event of an emergency were posted. All hatch covers and cargo hold accesses were clearly marked with warnings for everyone and locked. The keys to this were in the care of the CO.

• what about the nautical officers' knowledge of using gas detectors to analyze the room atmosphere and the right evaluation?

• What qualitative and quantitative technical equipment level is available with circulating-air-dependent respiratory protection equipment and the associated filters to be used and knowledge of their proper use? I would like to refer as an aid: www.berner-safety.de/filter_selection_guide_for_draeger_respiratory_masks_en_1078.html. Please note: These systems may only be used if the oxygen content of the breathing air is at least 17 percent by volume.

• What level of equipment of gas testing equipment is on board, and are the manufacturer's calibration periods and specified periods of use complied with?

• How is the replacement of filter stocks on board secured to prevent overlay beyond the expiry time (particle filter / gas filter /combination filter)? 

• What is the level of knowledge of the crew in testing, operation and application of self-contained breathing apparatus?

• What training is provided to the crew? What qualification level do the trainers, i.e. the officers, have? Monthly safety meetings are not enough. It requires qualified briefings.

• What training on rescue from enclosed spaces is conducted? Safety takes time. It has to take into account all the required aspects and can only be guaranteed in reliable timeframes.

As a matter of principle, it must be clearly stated that access to enclosed spaces requires explicit ship-authorizations by the Captain which may only be granted if all measures have been taken in the Risk Assessment and the Guidelines for Entering Enclosed Spaces. All steps taken in preparation for entering closed spaces must be recorded accordingly. Only if all the required criteria are met is a permit to enter issued.

Guidelines applicable to maritime shipping include:

• MSC.1 / Circ. 1477 - 09 June 2014, GUIDELINES TO FACILITATE THE SELECTION OF PORTABLE ATMOSPHERE TESTING INSTRUMENTS FOR ENCLOSED SPACES AS REQUIRED BY SOLAS REGULATION XI-1/7

• MSC.350 (92) - 21.June 2013, AMENDMENTS TO THE INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION FOR THE SOLAS 74, AS AMENDED CHAPTER III LIFE-SAVING APPLIANCES AND ARRANGEMENTS Part B Requirements for life-saving appliances Regulation 19 - Emergency training and drills

• IMO Resolution 1050 (27) - November 30, 2011, REVISED RECOMMENDATION FOR ENTERING CLOSED SPACES

• IMSBC Section 3 - Safety of personnel and ship and publications in specialist maritime panels such as The Nautical Institute and maritime insurers on this topic are helpful: 

www.nautinst.org/filemanager/root/site_assets/forums/enclosed_spaces/a-masters-guide-to-enclosed-space-entry.pdf

There are also very good recommendations for enclosed spaces in other areas of shipping, such as inland navigation. It is interesting to note that inland navigation discusses enclosed spaces in Chapter 10 of ISGINTT, First Edition, 2010 ("International Safety Guide for Inland Navigation Tank-barges and terminals") and provides an excellent guide to action.

www.cbrb.nl/nieuws/documenten/doc_download/984-isgintt-en

Futhermore for all cases of required fumigation in cargo holds on bulk carriers refer to the:

Code of Practice - On Safety and Efficacy for Marine Fumigation - by the International Maritime Fumigation Organisation (IMFO). This Code should be taken under consideration for company safety staff and crew training in preparation of fumigation practice and all therewith connected urgent safety procedure. It is a good guide about required emergency procedures with helpful checklists.

www.imfo.com/IMFO_Code_of_Practice.pdf

Additional I want recommend for all QHSSE departments in bulk carrier companies the home page of IMFO in World Wide Web: www.imfo.com/standards.html. Here are IMO, U.S. and Canadian Fumigation standards, revisions, updates and new information related to all matters of fumigation and safety procedures.

By this documents, the IMO could certainly get some suggestions to implement in SOLAS 74, Chapter 3, Part B, Regulation 19 and in IMSBC Section 3. The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) too could borrow aspects and develop general rules. The in tank shipping fleets valid standard procedures can also be readily adapted for bulk carrier and for all other specialized maritime shipping sectors. Loaded, fumigated, sealed holds definitely meet the criteria of enclosed spaces and require the utmost caution.

Of course, it is possible and, if necessary, essential to introduce shipbuilding modifications to improve safety standards on board. The main problem is the sensitization of crews, management, class societies, flag states, surveyors etc.

Conclusion

The issue can only be resolved with extensive specialist training, intensive training for emergency situations, the sense of responsibility by management personnel aboard and ashore and with consequent in-depth inspections by Port State Control.

I even go so far as to plead for unannounced vetting by experienced superintendents. Only then we get an actual picture of the real conditions on board and only then is it possible to counteract deficiencies consistently. It also awakens sensitivity to all safety issues, because no one on board knows when the next safety inspection will be. I already hear the critical voices from all camps. But the critics should explain to me how they want to deal with the loss of human life which is based on substantial proof of the non-compliance with existing security standards. 

Extraordinary circumstances require extraordinary measures. Here, assertiveness, consistency and discipline are required. This can only be achieved by unpopular measures. Occasionally you have to force people to their happiness.

Those who save on high-quality safety equipment, saves in the wrong place. It does not even have to be expensive. It must be available and above all, fully functional. The protective equipment on board must be in perfect technical and maintenance condition; its handling must be intensively trained in order to be prepared for emergencies.

And the ship's command should not allow themselves to be forced into unjustified speed by agents, surveyors, port authorities, charterers or shippers. They should have the opportunity to intervene and put safety first. Anyone who thinks they have to ignore this must then live with the consequence - that the Captain will SOLAS XI-2 Regulation 8 (1) applies. That is their right and their duty. Be consistent and insist as captains on compliance with all safety aspects, as captains have a duty to their crews to protect their health and life. 

In German there is the saying: “what lasts long, lasts well.” And it's true. Prudence and thoughtful action is the key to a safe working environment and avoiding accidents. If the ship's command team refer to that and put it in practice, the crew will act accordingly.

In this respect, we are again talking about human error, what is not limited to crews, but refers to all parties involved, including authorities and managers ashore. So it's a very complex issue.

View the original editorial here.

from Storage Containers https://www.maritime-executive.com/article/solid-bulk-and-the-connected-dangers-in-enclosed-spaces via http://www.rssmix.com/

[oselatra]

One faith-based group recruits almost half of foster homes in Arkansas

The CALL operates in 44 counties with plans for expansion. This story was produced by The Chronicle of Social Change. When Ashley and John Herring of Heber Springs decided to become foster parents in 2009, they were told there were just four foster homes in Cleburne County. Children taken into state custody in this rural county in the Ozark foothills were often sent to homes or short-term placements in other communities, sometimes hours away. For kids, being abruptly separated from school and other community supports only compounded the inherent trauma of family removal. For overburdened staff at the local office of the state Division of Children and Family Services, out-of-county placements entailed lost time and bureaucratic headaches. Yet DCFS workers had little choice: There simply weren’t enough placement options in Cleburne County (pop. 25,970) to keep up with the number of children coming into care. Today, the county has 23 open foster homes, a five-fold increase since 2009. “On average, in our county right now, there are about 33 kids in care,” Ashley Herring said. “I have three right now, and some other families will have three, so we meet our need. We don’t get ahead, [but] we haven’t been in a situation in a while where we’ve just been terribly behind, and have to send, send, send out of county … . We would get very upset if a kid has to leave our county.” The vast majority of the county’s new foster homes have been recruited into Arkansas’s network not by a statewide campaign, but by The CALL, a Christian nonprofit that takes no state funding. The CALL moved into Cleburne County in 2009, and has expanded its operation across the state since. Herring, who is a nurse, and her husband, a family practice doctor, have opened their home to 42 foster children over the past six years. In addition to the couple’s five biological children, they have adopted one former foster child and are in the process of adopting two more. Herring now serves as The CALL’s volunteer county coordinator. The organization recruits potential foster parents, trains them, guides them through the state’s certification process and provides ongoing assistance once the kids begin arriving. It has become the source of 40 percent of all foster homes in Arkansas, according to the DCFS, and “CALL families” have also adopted hundreds of children in the DCFS system. All of this is done without any public money — state, federal or local. The CALL’s $1.7 million budget comes from individual donations, churches, businesses, foundations and other private sources. That also gives The CALL greater operational freedom than most child welfare providers. It means the faith-based organization is allowed to limit its recruitment and training only to those Christian households that meet its criteria. The CALL does not work with cohabiting couples, same-sex couples or couples who follow other faiths or who are nonreligious, instead referring such families to the DCFS directly. “We really don’t have any families in our county who are not CALL families, because even if they went through the state [training process] for some other reason, they end up just being a part of us and supporting and being supported by us — as long as, you know, they agree with the Apostle’s Creed,” Herring said. National advocates have expressed concern that LGBT youth may face bias and discrimination within state foster care systems. Ellen Kahn, the director of the Human Rights Campaign Foundation's Children, Youth & Families Program, indicated by email that she was not familiar with The CALL specifically. However, she wrote, “based on what is publicly known about The CALL, we would certainly have concerns about whether their families are safe placements for LGBTQ youth."

Making The CALL

The CALL was founded in 2007 by a group of church leaders and child advocates in Pulaski County. It now operates in 44 of Arkansas’s 75 counties, with an additional 10 county outposts planned for 2018. The DCFS needs the help: It has seen a record surge in numbers of fosters in the past two years, with 5,079 children in care as of early November. That’s down slightly from a high of 5,200 last year, but still represents a 38 percent increase since 2012. In a 2016 report, the DCFS itself bluntly stated that “the system is in crisis,” an assessment echoed by Governor Hutchinson, who has pushed for more aggressive foster parent recruitment. Hornby Zeller Associates, an outside contractor hired by the state to assess its foster care surge, found in 2016 that the state might be removing more kids than necessary. “The increase in foster care is due largely to two factors: the DCFS removing more children [from their homes] immediately upon investigation and the courts ordering removals against the recommendations of the agency,” the consultant firm stated in its report. Whatever the cause of the increase, the DCFS has come to consider The CALL an indispensable partner. In 2008, DCFS Deputy Director Beki Dunagan was working as a supervisor in Lonoke County, the second site The CALL targeted after its founding. “Being in the field, in the weeds, I know what it is like,” Dunagan said. “You remove children, and sometimes you might be in that office for seven hours trying to find a placement. Then you might end up with that child in an emergency shelter or a placement just for the night, and you start all over the next day.” After The CALL took off, she said, “it was like day and night. … Within an hour, we’d have children placed.” When Lonoke County DCFS told the upstart nonprofit that it needed help providing snacks to kids visiting their parents after school at the DCFS office, The CALL mustered resources to do just that. “I can’t even articulate to you the support I felt in Lonoke,” Dunagan said. Lauri Currier began working with the original Pulaski County chapter in 2008. In 2011, the growing number of county affiliates were organized into a statewide, 501(c)(3) nonprofit at the behest of the DCFS, and Currier was hired as its executive director. The DCFS wanted The CALL to include “a central hub to create best practices, to do training … so there was consistency in how we were operating at the local level,” she said. Currier, who has been a teacher, a marketing director and a small business owner, said she was drawn to The CALL after “a self-discovery Bible study” led her to conclude her life’s purpose was to “positively affect the lives of the fatherless.” Currier’s own family history played a role: When she was an 18-year-old college freshman, her father revealed to her that he was adopted. “My dad was brought into foster care in 1939, with four siblings,” she said. “He had a younger sister and three older brothers, and they got split up and never got back together until much later in their lives, when they were in their 40s and 50s. There was such a stigma about adoption that my grandmother’s wish — my father’s adoptive mother — was that he not tell anyone until after she passed. … That is why I do the work that I do.”

Between church and state

Currier said the key to The CALL’s recruitment success is building relationships within each church it works with. The group partners with about 700 of the estimated 5,000 churches in the state, Currier said. “We identify generally someone in that church who is a layperson — somebody that's passionate about kids in foster care,” she said. “Maybe it's a foster parent or adoptive parent or someone who was a foster child when they were young. We train that person to kind of be our representative in the church.” The representative will then connect any member of the congregation who expresses an interest in foster care to The CALL. Recruitment is only the first step. The foster care certification process “can be very daunting in that there a lot of requirements, a lot of hoops you're having to jump through,” Currier said. “We're walking alongside [the family] and helping them stay on track.” At the same time, “we want to make sure that we're appropriately vetting families, and we do that according to what DCFS' standards are.” Potential foster parents in Arkansas have often complained of lost paperwork and endless delays, so The CALL’s assistance can make a major difference. In 2015, a review of the DCFS commissioned by the governor and conducted by consultant Paul Vincent of the Child Welfare Policy and Practice Group found the overstretched agency was having trouble moving new foster parents through the certification process. “Difficulty in securing staff and other barriers ... resulted in a large backlog of prospective foster parent inquires, applications and background clearances that the system couldn’t respond to in a timely manner,” Vincent wrote at the time. (The DCFS said later that it resolved the backlog issues.) Foster parent Ashley Herring said local DCFS employees were dedicated and diligent — and also “the most overworked people I’ve ever seen.” That’s why Herring maintains her own tracking system to keep up with potential foster families as they move through the process. Herring said her local DCFS resource worker told her she manages 83 cases spread over four counties. (Resource workers are responsible for opening and closing foster homes; they are distinct from caseworkers, who manage individual child welfare cases.) “If I only counted on her to walk my families through, you can imagine which files would be on the bottom,” Herring said. “I go meet with her once a month. We sit down together and I say ‘This family, right there — where are they? Have they had their fingerprints? Have they done this, or this?’” Perhaps the most visible advantage of being a “CALL family” is a compressed training schedule. Arkansas statute requires foster families to undergo a specific 30-hour training model called Foster/Adopt PRIDE, which the DCFS provides through a nonprofit contractor. PRIDE classes take place each Saturday over a two-month period in just five sites throughout the state, meaning families in remote areas may have to drive hours to attend. In contrast, The CALL’s training is delivered locally and compresses the PRIDE curriculum into two weekends. “We knew there are awesome Christian families that would be available to do something like this, but they're busy families,” Currier said. So, The CALL obtained permission from the DCFS to create an adapted version of PRIDE. “We'd have a weekend of training which would start on Saturday morning at 9 o’clock and go until 7 in the evening,” Currier said. “Then, on Sunday, they'd show up at 1 and stay till 7. And then we skip a weekend, and then they'd come back for that marathon again.” In 2010, the independent consultant Hornby Zeller Associates performed a study at the request of the DCFS that compared the experience of CALL-recruited families to DCFS-recruited families. Hornby Zeller found a strong preference for The CALL’s expedited training schedule and also found that CALL families “averaged roughly 37 days between their home study date and approval date. Meanwhile, the DCFS-recruited families waited nearly twice as long (73 days) between their home study date and approval date.” Evidence suggests The CALL has reached families that the DCFS could not recruit on its own. A 2013 paper authored by Michael Howell-Moroney, a researcher at the University of Memphis, found that 36 percent of CALL families said they probably would not have become foster or adoptive parents if it had not been for the nonprofit. Hornby Zeller similarly found that “several CALL-recruited parents stated that they would not have fostered if not for the Christian environment promoted by The CALL.”

Questions of equity

Arkansas is an overwhelmingly Christian state, with 79 percent of adults identifying as such in a Pew Research Center poll. The number is likely higher in many rural counties. For non-Christians and unmarried potential foster parents, The CALL is simply not an option. Any prospective family is asked to provide a letter of reference from their congregation, and must sign a statement of faith, which Currier described as an adaptation of the Apostle’s Creed. “There’s no unkindness involved in that decision. It’s just who we are as an organization,” Currier said. “We will always kindly refer those families [to the DCFS] ... for them to be able to become foster and adoptive families.” The desire by some faith-based groups to limit their recruitment to Christian couples has become a hot-button political issue. Several states, including Texas, Virginia, Mississippi and Michigan, have passed laws that exempt faith-based providers from working with same-sex foster and adoptive parents. But those laws relate to organizations that receive funding from state child welfare agencies. The CALL does not receive a single government dollar for supplying nearly half of Arkansas’s foster homes. "We would hope that the Arkansas [Division] of Children and Family Services is doing its due diligence to insure a safe placement for all children and youth in foster care,” said Ellen Kahn, of the Human Rights Campaign Foundation. “Not all families will be suitable for supporting an LGBTQ child.” Asked whether The CALL’s limited focus on certain types of families creates challenges for the DCFS, Dunagan noted that the onus for recruitment ultimately lies with the agency. “It takes a village … and The CALL is just one part, although it’s a major part, of our village,” she said. “I will tell you that I think in years past we did not do a very good job of engaging other training partners or having specific targeted recruitment.” Dunagan said the DCFS has ramped up its own foster care outreach in communities across the state, thanks in part to a grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. “I do think we do need to do some additional work with LGBT,” Dunagan acknowledged. The DCFS is making efforts to recruit more same-sex couples interested in becoming foster parents, she said. Amy Webb, a spokesperson for the Department of Human Services, the agency that oversees DCFS, wrote in an email that the agency does not necessarily avoid placing youth who identify as LGBT with CALL-recruited families. It does take into account the preferences of the child and the foster parents, she said, so as to ensure stable placements. “We may have youth who prefer not to be in a home with a same-sex couple or who would prefer a same-sex couple home because that is what they are used to,” Webb said. “Or we may have great foster parents who honestly say they don’t know how best to support LGBT youth and asked that they not be placed in their home.” Currier said the state-mandated training curriculum delivered by The CALL “addresses the topic of appropriate interactions with LGBT children and youth in foster care.” Asked whether The CALL avoids proselytizing to LGBT foster children, Currier replied that “DCFS provides policies and guidelines regarding respecting the beliefs of children and youth in foster care. The families recruited by The CALL follow these policies and guidelines. These families simply live out their Christian faith on a daily basis as an example of a way of living.” The Chronicle of Social Change is a national news outlet that covers issues affecting vulnerable children, youth and their families. Sign up for its newsletter or follow The Chronicle of Social Change on Facebook or Twitter. One faith-based group recruits almost half of foster homes in Arkansas

[thebewisepodcast]

Global Governance Versus The People: Big Stakes in the French Presidential Election

The 2017 French Presidential election is no joke. 

 It is shaping up as a highly significant encounter between two profoundly opposing conceptions of political life. On one side, governance, meaning the joint management of society by a co-opted elite, on the model of business corporations. 

 On the other side, the traditional system called "democracy", meaning the people's choice of leaders by free and fair elections. Historically, French political events tend to mark epochs and clarify dichotomies, starting with the waning distinction between "left" and "right". 

 This election may be such an event.  

   What is "governance"? It has become increasingly clear that the trans-Atlantic power elite have long since decided that traditional representative democracy is no longer appropriate for a globalized world based on free circulation of capital.

 Instead, the favored model is "governance", a word taken from the business world, which refers to successful management of large corporations, united in a single purpose and aiming at maximum efficiency. 

 This origin is evident in aspects of political governance: 

an obligatory unanimity concerning "values", enforced by corporate media

the use of specialized committees to provide suggestions concerning delicate issues, a role played by "civil society"

the use of psychology and communications to shape public opinion

isolation of trouble-makers

co-optation of leadership

These features increasingly describe political life in the West.

 In the United States, the transition from democracy to governance has been managed by the two-party system, limiting voters' choice to two candidates, selected and vetted by principal shareholders in the national business on the basis of their commitment to pursuing the governance agenda. 

 This was going smoothly until Hillary Clinton, the overwhelming favorite of the entire elite, was shockingly defeated by an unvetted intruder, Donald Trump. 

 The unprecedented negative reaction throughout the West shows how little the global governance elite is ready to cede power to an outsider. 

 The situation in the United States remains uncertain, but the upset reflected rising, although poorly defined, popular resentment against the globalizing governors, especially due to economic inequality and the decline of living standards for much of the population. Hillary Clinton actually chose to use the word "governance" to describe her goals, in partnership with Goldman Sachs and other representatives of "civil society". 

 But even she was not as much a pure product of the globalization system as the French candidate Emmanuel Macron. 

       Governance Personified The first way to spot the role assigned to Macron is simply to glance at the media: 

the endless magazine covers, puff pieces, platitudinous interviews - and never a word of criticism (whereas his leading rivals are systematically denigrated). 

In January, Foreign Policy introduced its readers to Macron as "The English-Speaking, German-Loving, French Politician Europe Has Been Waiting For". His career trajectory makes it clear why Western mainstream media are hailing Macron as the Messiah. Born in Amiens only 39 years ago, Emmanuel Macron has spent a lot of his life in school. Like most of France's leaders, he was educated in some of the best, but not the best, of France's elite schools (for connoisseurs, he failed entrance to ENS but did Sciences Po and ENA). 

 U.S. media seem impressed by the fact that along the way he studied philosophy, which is no big deal in France. In 2004 he passed the competitive exam to be admitted to the Inspection Générale des Finances (IFG), one of the corps of experts that have distinguished the French system since Napoleon.

 IGF inspectors have lifetime security and are assigned as economic advisors to government officials or private entities. 

 In the IGF he gained the attention of the particularly well-connected senior official Jean-Pierre Jouyet, who recommended him to Jacques Attali, the most spectacular of the intellectual gurus who for the past 35 years has regaled French governments with his futuristic visions (Jerusalem as capital of a future world government, for example).

 In 2007, Attali co-opted Macron into his super-elite "Commission for the Liberation of Growth", authorized to provide guidance to the Presidency. 

 A star was born - a star of the business world.

The Attali commission prepared a list of 316 proposals explicitly designed to "install a new governance in service of growth".

 In this context, "growth" naturally means growth of profits, by way of measures cutting back the cost of labor, tearing down barriers to movement of capital, deregulation. 

 The 40 elite members planning the future of France included heads of Deutsche Bank and the Swiss firm Nestle. They also provided the young Macron with a valuable address book of useful contacts. In 2008, on recommendation from Attali, Macron was taken into the Rothschild Bank at a high level. By negotiating a Nestle purchase worth nine billion dollars, Macron became a millionaire, thanks to his commission. To what did he owe a successful rise that two centuries ago would have been a subject for a Balzac novel? He was "impressive", recalls Attali. 

 He got along with everyone and "didn't antagonize anyone". Alain Minc, another star expert on everything, once put it this way: 

Macron is smart, but above all, he makes a good banker because he is "charming" - a necessary quality for "a whore's profession" ("un métier de pute").

Macron is famous for such words of wisdom as:

"What France needs is more young people who want to become billionaires."

Or:

"Who cares about programs? What counts is vision."

So Macron has launched his career on the basis of his charm and "vision" - he certainly has a clear vision of the way to the top.  

   Formation of the Governance Elite This path is strewn with contacts. 

 The governance elite operates by co-optation. They recognize each other, they "smell each other out", they are of one mind. Of course, these days, the active thought police are quick to condemn talk of "governance" as a form of conspiracy theory. But there is no conspiracy, because there does not need to be. 

 People who think alike act together. Nobody has to tell them what to do. And people who decry every hint of "conspiracy" seem to believe that people who possess immense power, especially financial power, don't bother to use it. Instead they sit back and tell themselves, 

"Let the people decide." 

Like George Soros, for instance. In reality, people with power not only use it, they are convinced that they should use it, for the good of humanity, for the good of the world. They know best, so why should they leave momentous decisions up to the ignorant masses?

 That's why David Rockefeller founded the Trilateral Commission forty years ago, to figure out how to deal with,

"too much democracy".

These days, ideologues keep the masses amused with arguments about themselves, which identity group they belong to, which gender they might be, who is being unfair to whom, who it is they must "hate" for the crime of "hating". Meanwhile, the elite meet among themselves and decide what is best. Thanks to Jouyet, in 2007 Macron was co-opted into a club called Les Gracques (after the Roman Gracchus brothers), devoted to "values" based on recognition that the Keynesian welfare State doesn't fit globalization and European Union development.  

    In 2011, Macron was co-opted into the Club de la Rotonde, which undertook to advise President Hollande to hit France with a "competitiveness shock" - favoring investment by lowering public expenses and labor costs. In 2012, Macron was welcomed into the French-American Foundation, known for selecting the "young leaders" of the future. In 2014, Macron made it to the really big time. On May 31 and June 1 of that year he attended the annual Bilderberg meeting, held in Copenhagen. 

 This super-secret gathering of "governance" designers was formed in 1954 by Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands.

 No journalists are allowed into the Bilderberg gathering, but leading press barons are there to agree on the consensus that must be spun to the masses.  

   And Policy? Program? What's That? With all these credentials, Macron went from being an economic advisor to François Hollande to Minister of Economy, Finance and Digital Industry, under Prime Minister Manuel Valls, where he vigorously promoted the Attali agency on pretext of promoting "growth". 

     Among other things, he reversed the position of his predecessor by approving the sale of the crown jewel of French industry, the Alstom energy sector responsible for France's nuclear power industry, to General Electric. As Minister, Macron was responsible for the most unpopular measures of the entire unpopular Hollande presidency. 

 His so-called "Macron Law", featuring massive deregulation, conformed to European Union directives but was unable to win a majority in parliament, and had to be adopted by resorting to Article 49.3 in the Constitution, which allows the Prime Minister to adopt a law without a vote. His next accomplishment was more veiled. 

 He designed the "reform" (partial dismantling) of French labor law, presented to the public as the El Khomri Law, named after the young labor minister, Moroccan-born Myriam El Khomri. 

 Mme El Khomri had virtually nothing to do with "her" law, except to put a pretty face and an "ethnic diversity" name on wildly unpopular legislation which sent protesting workers into the streets for weeks, split the Socialist Party and obliged Prime Minister Valls to resort once again to Article 49.3 to pass it into law. Here the story becomes almost comical. Macron's slash and burn dash through the Hollande/Valls government virtually destroyed the French Socialist Party, leaving it divided and demoralized. 

 This opened the way for Macron to emerge as the heroic champion of "the future", "neither left nor right", "the France of winners" in his new party, En Marche (which can mean "it's up and running").  

    At present, Macron has risen to the top of the polls, neck and neck with the front runner, Marine Le Pen, for the April 23 first round, and thus the favorite to challenge her in the decisive May 7 second round. 

 Being "charming" assured Macron a successful career as a banker, and the sycophantic mass media are doing their best to assure him the Presidency, mainly on the basis of his youthful charm.  

   The Media and the People As never before, the press and television from which most people get their news have become not only unanimous in their choice and unscrupulous in their methods, but tyrannical in their condemnation of independent news sources as "fake" and "false".

 They should be called the Mind Management Media. 

 Objectivity is a thing of the past... There are eleven official candidates running for the office of President of the French Republic. The Mind Management Media lavish admiring attention on Macron, treat his serious rivals as delinquents, toss a few bones to sure losers and ignore the rest.

 Backed by the Mind Management Media, Macron is the candidate of authoritarian governance running against all the others, against French democracy itself. This is the first of two articles on the French Presidential election.  

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