Group Innovatively Uses Mockups of Famous Magazines To Highlight Abused, Exploited Girls

One of the fake magazine covers from Catapult.  

Imagine if Good Housekeeping magazine suddenly became "Good Slavekeeping," with cover teasers like "35 Days to Train the Perfect Slave - How to Whip Her Into Shape, Fast!"

Or what if Seventeen magazine became "Thirteen" a magazine for young girls forced into prostitution, with headlines like "Hide those Bruises With 35 Easy Makeup Tricks"

How about, instead of Bride magazine, we get "Child Bride" for children forced into marriage against their will. "Dazzling Bridal Gowns! Now For Ages 7-12`!"

The above examples are beyond sickening, but that's the point. As part of an International Womens Day effort to expose, fight and stop exploitation and abuse of young girls all over the globe.

Catapult, a crowdfunding group advocating for equal and human rights for girls and women worldwide, has put out the provocative magazine covers.

According to Mashable, Maz Kessler, Catapult's founder and creative director say she was glad people and marking International Womens Day by highlighting inspiring women and important causes, but she wanted to get people fired up to improve the situation for the world's women.

Another Cataputl fake (thankfully!)
magazine cover  

"Thankfully these are fake magazines. Unfortunately, these are real problems," Kessler told Mashable.

She said 14 million girls, some as young as eight years old, will be married against their will in 2014. About 1.2 million children, most of them girls, will be trafficked into slavery. And in New York, girls as young as 13 are exploited for sexual exploitation, according to Catapult.

So yes, the fake magazine covers hit new lows in tastelessness and shock value. But sometimes it's worth it, if it inspires somebody, anybody to make the world a better place for exploited and abused girls and women.

Because strong women make a strong world. Which is what we really need right now.

Medical Device Scammers Steal $13 Million From Elderly, Deserve Worst Place In Hell

All criminals deserve punishment. We know that.

The FTC is cracking down on
robocall scams, but if
you get such a call, hang up
right away.  

For some reason, I have a special, extra hate for those outfits who scam elderly and/or defenseless people of their life savings through fraud, and out of horrible greed.

According to the Federal Trade Commission and the Florida Attorney General's Office, some horrible medical device fraudsters did the following: 

"A U.S. District Court has temporarily halted and frozen the assets of an Orlando-based operation that used pre-recorded telephone calls, commonly known as robocalls, to pitch purportedly "free" medical alert devices to senior citizens by falsely representing that the devices had been purchased for them by a relative or friend.

The defendents also allegedly led consumers to believe that the devices were endorsed by various health organizations and that they would not be charged anything before the devices were activated."

If the person receiving the call was duped into wanting more information, they were told to press "1" on their phone where the deception continued.

The FTC says the Orlando ompany operated under several names, including Worldwide Info Services, Absolute Solutions Group Inc, and Global Service Providers Inc.

So the people at those so-called corporations ought to just have a torturous death or something.

Instead, the FTC is planning on trying to recover money from these outfits and return it to defrauded people. Which is great, but doesn't go far enough.

Why doesn't the FTC put the names, photos, and addresses of the chief fraudsters at these companies on line. Yes, I know vigilante justice isn't a great solution, but this makes my blood boil so much I can't help myself.

Some of the names have surfaced. Courthouse News Service published some of the federal complaint against the company, and they list officers associated with the fraud scam. 

The three named defendents, Michael Hilgar, Gary Martin and Joseph Settecase, are of course innocent unless proven guilty, but I hope if they are found guilty, they don't just get fines, but a sentence in some horrible jail somewhere.

This isn't the first time scammers have targeted the elderly on a large scale

According to Consumerist:

'"On June 2013, the FTC scolded a Brooklyn-based company for using deception and threats to trick the elderly ito paying for unordered medical alert systems. Around the same time, the Better Business Bureau warned seniors of deceptive telemarketing calls offering free medical alert devices." 

So this type of scam is pretty common.

Of course, anyone who gets a call out of the blue from one of these outfits should just hang up, but that's hard to tell a desperate, lonely, or adled elderly person to do.

Buyer beware!!

Kid Dances Incredibly, Meditates on Bullying, While Another Kid Just Suffers.

Every once in awhile, I'll share in this blog a video of a really cool, talented dancer doing his or her stuff.  I'm kinda fascinated with great dancers. I guess it's to make up for my dancing abilties, which would remind one of a rat with epilepsy.

This video one is different.

Yes, the kid's dancing is incredible. Supposedly he's 12, but the control he has over his body is just amazing, like he's been practicing for 30 years.
But the video tells a story of bullying, of suffering, of people around kids who don't have their best interests at heart. You want to believe the story line, that the kid perseveres through the awfulness, and finds his mojo in dance. So much so that other people come around to him.

Happily ever after.

The video is really a work of art, not just because of the dancing.

Now for a reality check. The video above is a fictional storyline. Inspiring, beautiful, artful, yes. And the dancing is certainly real. But real life, unfortunately, doesn't always end well. I hate to be so depressing, but there you go.

The reason I'm being Debbie Downer is the video below. Because as far as I can tell it's real life. And it's far from pretty or inspiring or hopeful.

Apparently, some shoppers in a Vineland, N.J. Walmart heard an awful mother yelling at her daughter. Supposedly, you could hear it all over the store, and it lasted a long time.

As everybody seems to do nowadays, somebody whipped out a video recorder, and caught the mother in what looks like a deliberate attempt to make the young girl take a nasty fall from a shopping cart.

It's painful to watch, but do it anyway. It's a sad commentary on what looks to be a little girl's lousy childhood:


As people confront the woman, she says "I didn't mean to do that one."

That one, lady? Does that mean you regularly pull mean, injury causing abuse on your young daughter? Is it a coincidence there's a pink cast on the girl's arm? Or did you cause it?

In the video, you see people who saw the incident confront the wicked mother. Those confrontations are well meaning of course. What are you supposed to do when you see something like that?

But it escalates, and the mother who pulled the cart out from under her daughter makes excuses, and resorts to yelling, out of control. That's what bullies do to discourage people who confront them.

While this is going on, look at the daughter. The mother makes gestures to comfort her, but it looks fake, and the girl knows it.  All the yelling from everybody makes her an embarrassing center of attention, and she just wants to fade away.  If anybody in the world needed a hug, a safe place, the girl is the one.

She knows that, probably, she's not going to be rescued. And since everybody made a big deal out of the abuse, she knows she will get more of it at home. It will be her fault, of course, at least in her mother's twisted view.

I haven't been able to find out what happened to the girl and her mother.

Maybe I'm assuming everything incorrectly, but to me, that's how things usually work out, unfortunately.

What will happen to that girl?  Somehow, I doubt it will be a Hollywood ending, like the kid in the dance video who finds joy in his talent. No matter  how smart or talented the real little girl is in that sad video from Vineland, New Jersey, there's no escape, or so it seems.

Will she have the strength to make it to adulthood? Will she be a damaged adult, one who either shrinks from the world or becomes an abuser herself, because that's the only thing she knows?  Or was this just a rare, bad moment,?

And will she find the strength to soar, like the kid in the dance video? I sure hope so.