Those sound like 2 very american reactions to this horrible news.

More on the parasite, Merck, and General Mills

From Grist: Zombie bees! (the article that inspired the cartoon)
From NaturalSociety: Anthony Gucciardi Speaks on Gardasil Dangers, Merck’s Political Corruption
From Cornucopia: The General Mills Cereal Scorecard

Follow the rest of the Hank D and the Bee series at JoeMohrToons.com. For cartoon updates and other green goings-on, follow Joe on Twitter @GreenCartoons.

Hank D and the Bee: 3 Bees Discuss Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) is a post from: Eco Child's Play

More on the would-be treehuggers

From ThinkProgress: Dirty GOP: The Republican Plan To Abolish The EPA
From Grist: Richard Burr introduces bill to abolish the EPA
From Care2: 50% of Americans Regularly Breathe Unhealthy, Polluted Air

Show ur love for green humor. Tweet “@GreenCartoons, I’m a #hankhead!” and share your favorite Hank D and the Bee cartoon with the twitterverse!

Hank D and the Bee: Republican Treehuggers is a post from: Eco Child's Play

More info
From Grist: Obama’s energy gambit: a call for less coal
From EcoSnobberySucks: Did Obama double talk the State of the Union?
From PlanetSave: Obama’s State of the Union Address [VIDEO]
From Popular Science: World’s Largest Underwater Turbine Installed

Follow the rest of the Hank D and the Bee series at JoeMohrToons.com. For cartoon updates and other green goings-on, follow Joe on Twitter @GreenCartoons.

Hank D and the Bee: D-U-M Dumb is a post from: Eco Child's Play

Photo:   Some rights reserved by jphilipg

We are going solo!

After two years with Green Options/Important Media and one year with Simple Earth Media, we have decided to return to our independent roots.  We’ve learned a lot from our experiences in blog networks, and we are thankful for all of the wonderful people we have met; however, ultimately, our readers have inspired us to go solo.

Please bear with use over the next couple of weeks as we work through revamping the site.  Our goal is to rebuild our community and bring back many of the great writers we miss!  We also think it is a priority to maintain our integrity with advertising.

If you have any ideas or suggestions for the new Eco Child’s Play, please feel free to contact jennifer [at] ecochildsplay [dot] com or leave a comment.

We owe Derek Markham of Natural Papa an extra big thanks for helping us with the technical aspects of our move to independence!

Under Construction and Independence is a post from: Eco Child's Play

Follow the rest of the Hank D and the Bee series on JoeMohrToons.com. And follow Mean Joe Green on Twitter @GreenCartoons.

Hank D and the Bee: Hank Stops the Oil Leak! is a post from: Eco Child's Play

Earl Bradley, Accused of Abusing 103 Children

A Delaware pediatrician, Earl Bradley, was indicted this week for 471 counts of rape, assault and child endangerment on over 100 children, one as young as 3 months old.

Makes you gasp, doesn’t it?

And in the aftermath of these abhorrent crimes, there is another horror being perpetrated: Blaming the parents.

I love my sons’ pediatrician. I love everyone in that doctor’s office. But no, I never leave my children alone with anyone there. In fact, I only leave them alone with trusted friends. Much like you do.

But what I’m seeing time and again across stories on this disgusting abuser is, “Where were the parents?”

Stop. Blaming. The.  Parents.

When we blame the parents of this doctor’s victims, we are fooling ourselves. We’re patting ourselves on the back for being “good” parents who would “never let this happen to my child.” And indirectly, we are becoming apologists for the abuser.

This is the truth about abusers: they are called “predators” for a reason. Because they are manipulative. They are conniving. They make an art out of their need to fulfill their sick desires. They know how to take advantage of a moment of uncertainty or a moment unguarded. They don’t wear bells and whistles, no matter how creepy Earl Bradley may look in his mugshot. They don’t glow in the dark. Pedophiles, like all abusers, walk among us. But even worse, they hide among us.

The truth is, vigilance will not prevent abusers from our lives. Vigilance doesn’t keep 1 in 4 women from being raped. Vigilance doesn’t stop people from being robbed. Vigilance does not separate the “good” parents from the “bad”. Abuse happens across all social strata and backgrounds, and often is perpetrated by those we trust.

I would love to think  vigilance could keep us safe. And you, I’m sure, would like to believe the same. But when we turn to vigilance instead of laying blame where it is deserved, we are giving abusers a pass. And then we put more people in danger of predators by simple, willful ignorance.

Perhaps it’s the anonymity of the internet, but I even saw the same when I posted the NPR story on my Facebook page. Quotes like these, from the Huffington Post:

These children will never get over the trauma they have suffered because of some ass, and because of incompetent parents.

-georgiegirl

W…T…F…is wrong with the parents?

…There is a reason chikdrn [sic] have parents: they’re more experienced and that experience helps them to PROTECT their kids. People are creeps. Watch over your kids.

-bloominglater

Really?! “Because of incompetent parents?” The doctor abused the children. The doctor did. At least once, right in front of the mother (see comments), who said she didn’t realize that he was going beyond the bounds of a normal exam until her daughter was questioned by the police.

This victim-blaming is symptomatic of what I saw time and again across the Web. And yes, the parents are victims, too. Would we blame the parent of a teen girl who was raped by her peers? Would we blame the parents of a child molested by a priest or coach? Doubtful. And if you would, perhaps you should look at your capacity for compassion.

This man is a predator. Frankly, he is a sick excuse for a human being. His abuse is his fault, his problem.

Should we hold some people accountable for not stopping him? Certainly. That includes his business partner and fellow pediatrician. His staff, which perhaps noticed his questionable practices. His office manager (and sister), who reported him not for sexual abuse, but for billing discrepancies. The Delaware medical board, which received reports of “strange behavior”. The police and prosecutors, which in 2005 received a report from a 3-year-old that the doctor had kissed her.

All of these people probably gave this creep the hairy eyeball at one time or another. Many were in contact with him daily and probably had suspicions about him.

But the parents? Though perhaps, *perhaps*, they let their guard down, Bradley’s abuse is not their fault.

Let us pray for peace and healing for the victims of this sick man… and their families.

Listen to the story on NPR’s All Things Considered.

I’m on Twitter here.

"Where Were the Parents?" Delaware Pediatrician Victimizes Families is a post from: Eco Child's Play

We hope your transition to 2010 was filled with safety, love, health, and jubilance. It’s been an exciting year for Eco Child’s Play, as we have progressed from Green Options to the Simple Earth Media (SEM) family.

1. World’s Youngest Transsexual: 16-Year-Old Undergoes Sex Change Operation:

A German 16-year-old named Kim (born Tim) has become the youngest person to undergo a sex change operation.

Paid for by the German health service, psychologists stated he/she was “without doubt a girl in a boy’s body“. Since the age of 12, Kim has been undergoing hormone therapy.

2. Midwife Commits Suicide After Baby’s Death

After a colleague went on break, Ms. Naish was left in charge of a birth occurring at King’s College Hospital in South London. While the baby was in utero, a balloon was placed in his throat “to help his lungs develop”. The balloon has to be removed before birth, or he would not be able to breath. Ms. Naish did not pass this critical information on to doctors, and thus blamed herself for the premature infant’s death. Doctors believe the baby’s health was so poor, he would have not survived even if the balloon had been removed. Unfortunately, the midwife was not told she was not to blame, and she took her life as a result.

3. Cooking from Scratch: 5 Must-Have Staples

If you’re a typical Eco Child’s Play reader, you probably don’t need much coaxing on the value of cooking from scratch: it’s generally cheaper, healthier, and provides opportunities for family time and even education about food. It turns out that it’s also more climate-friendly: as Leslie Berliant points out at SolveClimate, the contributions processing and packaging make to greenhouse gas emissions aren’t huge, but they’re definitely significant.

4. Study Finds Cheeseburgers More Nutritious Than Baby Food

If asked which is more nutritious baby food or a cheeseburger, you’d probably guess infant food. Guess again…a study out of Britain has discovered that those little jars of mush aren’t that healthy. In fact, researchers found that cheeseburgers and chocolate biscuits were more nutritious than many leading brands of baby food sold in Great Britain. We aren’t even talking about a homemade cheeseburger but one from a fast food chain.

5. How to Make Homemade Almond Milk

Making almond milk is incredibly easy once you get your system down and my kids think it is incredibly delicious. They will drink it straight, add it to cereal, or use it to make chocolate milk or banana milk smoothies. Since I use raw organic almonds, I get to rest easy knowing that their milk, or “mylk” as many refer to it, is healthier for their little bodies and healthier for the planet. Nuts are an essential fuel for the body too.

I can’t help but feel that several of these posts hint at sensationalism; however, we felt compelled to pass on this information to our readers. We’ve also provided you with a lot of great advice on living healthier lives. We hope you have a wonderful year ahead!

Top 5 Natural Family Living Posts of 2009: From Almond Milk to Baby Food is a post from: Eco Child's Play

Eco Child’s Play is proud to announce that it is now part of a great new blog network, Simple Earth Media, founded by Sean Daily, CEO of Green Living Ideas, Inc. and Adam Shake, founder of Twilight Earth.

A group of the Web’s leading environmental blogs, podcasts, and social media outposts recently combined to form a single environmental publishing and social media powerhouse. The resulting new entity, named Simple Earth Media, includes top environmental media and publishing entities such as Green Living Ideas, Blue Living Ideas, Twilight Earth, GreenTalk Radio, EcoTech Daily, Natural Papa, and now Eco Child’s Play.

Simple Earth Media’s brand mission is to create a compelling, organic, educational network of environmental online venues that engage an ever-growing audience concerned with sustainable lifestyle habits and business practices.

What makes Simple Earth Media different from other environmental blog networks is that each one of the channels are fully established and have their own social media followers.

“Bringing the Green Living Ideas and Twilight Earth site networks together was a natural fit all around,” said Sean Daily, Simple Earth Media’s CEO and President. Daily continued, “Adam and I share a very similar outlook and perspective, not only on the type of editorial content that is necessary and relevant for the future of humanity and the planet, but also in regards to the types of companies we want to work with as sponsors and advertisers supporting our network. We are also really fortunate to have a combined staff of the best writers in the business.”

In addition to the sizable daily web traffic and newsletter subscribers of the constituent sites, the combined social media audience and following of the Simple Earth Media network is unprecedented, totaling over 50,000 Twitter followers in addition to tens of thousands more friends and subscribers on FaceBook, LinkedIn and other social media platforms — making it one of the largest online environmental social media communities in the world.

The Simple Earth Media family of websites and audio/video podcasts (Including the popular GreenTalk Radio Show, which is syndicated on numerous sites including Apple iTunes, PersonalLifeMedia.com and Sustainablog.org), cover the topics that conscious consumers are most concerned with, including sustainable living tips and ideas, alternative energy and alternative fuel vehicles, water, ocean, and marine life conservation, clean tech, environmental news, and natural health and parenting topics.

“Our success is measured on the change that we make in helping to protect and nurture our environment, our families and our health,” says Adam Shake, founder of Twilight Earth. “It’s not about saving the environment, it’s about saving ourselves. Clean air, water and soil are basic human rights. We’ve got to continue to fight for those rights.”

Simple Earth Media employs some of the Web’s best-known and most highly-regarded environmental writers, including Derek Markham, Jennifer Lance, Ariel Schwartz, Susan Kraemer, Scott James, Wendy Gabriel and numerous others. The company’s tagline is “New Media Making a Difference.”

Coming up, Green Talk Radio will be interviewing top environmentalists and sustainability experts such as Fabien Cousteau, Celine Cousteau and Ed Begley Jr. In addition, we will have reporters and journalists on the ground in Copenhagen to bring you the most up to date and original content in reference to these historical talks.

As a family of environmental websites, Simple Earth Media can better assist you in finding the information you’re looking for, to help educate you on the changing world you live in. As always, we continue to offer our support to you, our readers, as we continue to grow.

Here’s to working together in a much bigger way, and to making positive change to our planet and its inhabitants!

Green Living Ideas provides ideas, tips, and information to help you improve the environmental sustainability of every aspect of your life: home energy, green building and remodeling, cars, food, waste recycling—and everything in between.

Twilight Earth is the place to go for in depth Environmental news, advocacy and activism with a deep Green editorial twist. We realize that environmentalism is less about saving the planet than it is about saving ourselves and it’s through the protection of our environment that we ultimately protect each other. Twilight Earth is about clean Air, Water and Soil, three basic human rights that are essential to our survival.

Blue Living Ideas is the most comprehensive water-focused site ever assembled and is the ultimate Web resource for information, tips, news, and events related to Earth’s most precious resource — Water. Planet Earth and human beings alike are comprised of over 70% water, and issues such as the availability of adequate supplies of drinking water for Earth’s inhabitants, water pollution, droughts, and marine life protection are among today’s most critical environmental and humanitarian concerns.

EcoTech Daily is the continuing journal of a green revolution. We’re here to help you make sense of change. We’ll keep you in touch with the latest green technology, gadgets, and news. Track the hottest CleanTech startups. Learn about alternative energy technologies that can power your community’s future. Discover cool and useful green gadgets designed to make your life simpler and more eco-friendly.

GreenTalk Radio is a Internet radio show/podcast that helps listeners in their efforts to lead more eco-friendly lifestyles. Navigate the explosion of green and ecology-oriented products and services with host Sean Daily. Sean entertains and educates you with smart choices on products and services in the green world through interviews with innovative and caring companies, authors and experts from around the world. Green Talk Radio series is also distributed on iTunes.

Natural Papa focuses on natural parenting and fatherhood, home remedies for common children’s ailments, homeschooling, green and simple living for families, and natural foods. We hope to be a valuable reference for parents and parents to be, and to engage in a conversation with our readers about issues in raising a family in an environmentally friendly way.

Eco Child's Play Joins Simple Earth Media is a post from: Eco Child's Play

Scott James and his family founded Fair Trade Sports, a company providing premium quality sports balls stitched by adult workers, paid fair wages, and ensured healthy working conditions. Fair Trade Sports offers guilt-free soccer balls, rugby balls, volleyballs, and hip apparel. Scott and his family are devoted to helping at-risk children around the world. 100% of Fair Trade Sport’s after-tax profits go to children’s charities. Scott previously worked as director of marketing at Pura Vida Coffee, a sustainable, fair trade coffee, tea, and cocoa company. Fair Trade Sports helps Scott fulfill his mission to "Help others."

Green Options: What gave you the idea or motivated you to launch Fair Trade Sports?

Scott James: My passion is fighting extreme poverty and the problems caused by it. Fair Trade Sports is built to generate after-tax profits for children’s charities, from a Fair Trade foundation (e.g. adult workers – not coerced children – paid fair wages and ensured healthy working conditions). It also helps that I believe in the Fair Trade model and I’m a lifelong soccer player.

GO: You’ve gotten a lot of recent attention lately from Outside and Plenty magazines. Describe your "guerilla marketing" techniques and how this fits into a green business model.

SJ: (Laughing) It starts with having no marketing budget! We don’t need to support multi-million dollar marketing campaigns and sports star’s paid endorsements; instead, we ask our customers and champions to spread positive word of mouth about our mission and our quality products. True word-of-mouth is a great fit for any green business – just think of the resources you are saving (e.g. the trees needed and transportation costs for a direct mail postcard).

GO: Why are 70% of the world’s soccer balls made in Pakistan?

SJ: According to a myth, the sporting goods industry started in Sialkot, because an English man broke his tennis racket and, since an immediate replacement was not possible, he asked a local to repair it. The man did a perfect job, and the sports goods manufacturing industry took root in Sialkot.

Recorded history of the industry goes back to 1895 when the city started becoming famous for its tennis racquets. By 1903, cricket bats were being crafted from imported English willow and exported to different parts of South Asia and beyond. In 1922, one Mr. Syed, was awarded the British Empire Export Award for supplying footballs to the British Army. Over the years, the industry grew to include a variety of wood and leather-based sports equipment, and diversified into related industries such as sports apparel and riding equipment and even the Scottish bagpipes.

GO: Have you ever visited your manufacturer Talon in Pakistan?

SJ: Not yet; several of my business partners have multiple times. I started this company while my wife was pregnant (perhaps not the best timing). We just had our daughter a few weeks ago, so I expect to go sometime soon. I’ll take a video and photo crew to capture the story of our workers there.

GO: What is considered a living wage in Pakistan?

SJ: 4X the standard wage paid to adults.

GO: How are you assured that fair trade practices are utilized in the production of your merchandise?

SJ: FLO does unannounced spot checks of facilities and records for compliance. Their documentation is fairly complete.

GO: Fairtrade Labeling Organizations International (FLO) states that child labor has been "virtually eliminated" from this industry; however, you do not agree. Please explain.

SJ: The FLO document that makes that incorrect statement is still a good overall document on the positive programs happening at Talon, including their medical program – a first in the sporting goods industry in Pakistan. However, child labor has definitely not been "virtually eliminated" from the industry…not even close. Anyone can Google "Nike and Saga Sports" to see a long, repeated history of failures in this area.

GO: How can you afford to donate all of your after tax profits to charity?

SJ: Like Newman’s Own (the salad dressing and popcorn brand), we’re committed to giving away our "after-tax profits". Keep in mind that after-tax profits are defined as what’s left over after you pay items like salaries, utilities, and of course, your raw inventory. Each year, we’ll also retain a small portion of our proceeds to fund the following year’s growth (likely ~10%).

What’s left over usually gets distributed to shareholders. Given that my wife and I are the sole shareholders, and we are not interested in making Fair Trade Sports a wealth-generating operation, we decided to funnel the after-tax profits towards children’s charities. We expect to reach profitability in late 2007. Until then, we are donating $1000 annually to these organizations to benefit at-risk children worldwide.

GO: Can you describe some of the charities you donate to?

SJ: Yes, right now we donate to Room to Read (international children’s libraries) and the Boys & Girls Club of America. The idea is to help at-risk kids both here in the states and the communities where we source our sports balls.

GO: I love the alternative sleeve t-shirts! These shirts are produced by independent trade members. How do independent trade unions provide a solution to sweatshops?

SJ: The tee shirts are hip, for sure. The alternative sleeve gets alot of double-takes from people when you walk down the street. Everyone should check out USAS (http://www.studentsagainstsweatshops.org/) as well as the ILRF (http://www.ilfr.org/). Just a little bit of reading will show you a world of alternatives out there to sweatshops, as we’ve used for our tee shirt line and new technical training shirt line.

The Green Options Interview: Scott James, Founder of Fair Trade Sports is a post from: Eco Child's Play