My dearest Dom, my heart continues to bleed for... - In memory of Dominique Sarron Lee - "What do I know? They are the experts in their fields. They must know best. They do no wrong. Dom, in these past 3+ years, I have been worn-down, beaten and defeated by the very government I taught you to trust; worn-down, beaten and defeated by the very system I counseled you to have faith in; worn-down, beaten and defeated by the very people I advised you to respect and honor. Dom, forgive me. I taught you wrong."
If fewer people have blind faith in the System, perhaps his death wouldn't have been entirely in vain
JK Rowling under fire for writing about 'Native American wizards' - "JK Rowling has been accused of appropriating the “living tradition of a marginalised people” by writing about the Navajo legend of the skinwalker in a new story... campaigner Dr Adrienne Keene told Rowling on Twitter that “it’s not ‘your’ world. It’s our (real) Native world. And skinwalker stories have context, roots, and reality … You can’t just claim and take a living tradition of a marginalised people. That’s straight up colonialism/appropriation.” The academic also took issue with Rowling’s use of the phrase “the Native American community”, saying that “one of the largest fights in the world of representations is to recognise Native peoples and communities and cultures are diverse, complex, and vastly different from one another”... Navajo writer Brian Young wrote on Twitter that he was “broken hearted” about the new piece of writing. “JK Rowling, my beliefs are not fantasy. If ever there was a need for diversity in YA lit it is bullsh!t like this,” said Young. “My ancestors didn’t survive colonisation so you could use our culture as a convenient prop.”
Oddly enough on Twitter many native Americans are supporting Rowling, and some are criticising the SJWs
Maybe minorities are underrepresented in popular culture because even if you make an attempt to include them you get flamed anyway
Comment: "I'm still seething about Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins. As a born and bred cockney from Whitechapel, having an American in an American film appropriate my culture is very upsetting. And as for the "Cockney" accent, gor blimey, guv, words fail me. If Americans cannot do their research and treat other cultures with respect, then leave them alone."
"The only appropriation going on here is the appropriation of Rowling's well-deserved fame by a bunch of obscure philistine pedants trying to make a career out of the historical sufferings of the people they claim to represent."
"Giants, leprechauns and banshees are part of Northern Ireland's (where I live) folklore but you don't get us or the Republic of Ireland moaning, when she used them. You don't get the British, French and Spanish moaning about being grouped together as European (by JKR) so why do some silly people find the term Native American offensive?"
Magic in North America Part 1: Ugh. | Native Appropriations
Comments: "This is the catch-22 that no one is addressing. If Rowling chose "not to go there", you can bet your bottom dollar on these very same people crying out "erasure!" for not being represented... Some people are never happy."
"I'll grant you it doesn't focus on queer issues, but as a gay person myself I don't see why that matters. Aren't we more than our sexuality? Not every book has to focus on sexual orientation - or even bring it up. LGBT people make up maybe 5-10% of the population. As such, unless the book specifically revolves around that theme it's not a requirement to in, rather a nice bonus. There's no need to expect authors to go into the sexual lives of background characters if the main characters are not LGBT themselves. That's just picky. If you want books catered to your every demand, your best bet is to write them yourself because no author can please everyone's pet agenda. Very white? Come off it - have you even read the books? Dean Thomas, Angelina Johnson, Lee Jordan, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Cho Chang (I know people have issues with the name), Parvati and Padma Patil etc.. are non-white characters I can come up with off the top of my head, playing relatively big roles outside of the main trio. Again, catch-22... everyone says we shouldn't focus on skin colour, race etc... and then when authors don't bring it up, people like you complain they aren't there! Do you just enjoy complaining?"
"That's one thing that really gets my goat about a large part of the LGBT community, their sexuality is literally their whole identity."
"If she had to write a book by committee, can you imagine what that would be like? Basically, it would stink."
"She mentioned African wizards in passing during Goblet of Fire. She has now mentioned Native American wizards in passing during this writing. So I assume that you'll be demanding a full apology and a series of short stories about colonial wizard powers in Africa."
"Jesus, this is like trying to explain hobbits to someone who wants to insist that J.R.R. Tolkien hated short people."
"There's no mention of talking cats in Britain, but Hello Kitty is supposed to be British and is made by a Japanese person, which does wonders for the promotion of Britain there. Are you going to call appropriation for that? If the fear of misrepresentation is rooted in the fear of extinction, realize that Natives will be learning Chinese by 2040 more likely than anyone will try to learn anything about Native culture if they stop any spread of their image."
"there is even a game featuring Native Americans called "Shadow Hearts 3: From the new world"... it carries all the features of what you might call "appropriation" but hey, at least a White person didn't make it so the standards don't have to be the same."
"I don't understand how someone can be critiqued for being ignorant of a culture while simultaneously being told it is none of their business to learn more?"
"Prior the 60s, Chinese martial arts martial arts masters believed that Kung Fu should only be taught to Chinese. Bruce Lee disagreed. He believed Kung Fu should be available for everyone, Chinese, white, black, whoever. Did Bruce Lee sell out Chinese culture by allowing for this cultural appropriation? Are the Kung Fu elders racist for objecting to black people being taught Kung Fu?"
Is Luke Skywalker Gay? Mark Hamill Opens Up About 'Star Wars' Characters' Sexuality - ""Fans are writing and ask all these questions, 'I'm bullied in school ... I'm afraid to come out,'" Hamill told the Sun. "They say to me, 'Could Luke be gay?' I'd say it is meant to be interpreted by the viewer. If you think Luke is gay, of course he is. You should not be ashamed of it. Judge Luke by his character, not by who he loves.""
I judge characters by their character. Which is why I don't care if Luke is gay and people gushing about this are stupid
Paul Denlinger's answer to Do foreign journalists intentionally misrepresent or even lie about China? - Quora - "Many Chinese who grew up in the PRC are taught to think that the west has deliberately plotted to humiliate China, the nation, and Chinese for nearly two centuries. It has done this by taking sides and backing certain parties when China was internally divided. According to this narrative, this internal division was brought to an end with the founding of the PRC, which presented a united front against the west, and stood up for the best interests of the Chinese people. Through good policies, China, and Chinese, are now respected all over the world. This narrative presents the view that the west intentionally puts down China's rise as much as possible, which is why Chinese must extend their influence, mostly by acquisitions of companies in other countries. The important notion about this view is that it makes what the west does part of an intentional policy."
Mystery cancers are cropping up in children in aftermath of Fukushima - "The March 2011 meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant caused extensive human suffering—evacuations, emotional trauma and premature deaths, disrupted jobs and schooling. What they have not caused, so far, is radiation-related illness among the general public, and few specialists expect dramatic increases in cancers or other ailments. The reactors spewed just a tenth of the radiation emitted by the Chernobyl disaster, winds blew much of that out to sea, and evacuations were swift. Yet one wave of illness has been linked to the disaster—the ironic result of a well-intentioned screening program... One result, says Kenji Shibuya, a public health specialist at University of Tokyo, was “overdiagnosis and overtreatment,” leading dozens of children to have their thyroids removed, perhaps unnecessarily"
Voter ID Laws: Reasonable, Not Racist - "the idea that voter ID laws exist so that racist southern governors can prevent minorities from voting is absurd on its face: Connecticut, Rhode Island, Delaware and Washington State all require some form of identification to vote. The record amongst other nations is even more telling. Our friendly neighbor to the north, Canada, requires citizens to show proof of address to vote. Sweden, Switzerland and Ireland all require some proof of identification to vote. In the Netherlands, where practically everything is legal, voters need to show both a government issued polling notification and a photo ID in order to vote. That’s Canada, Sweden, Switzerland, Ireland and the Netherlands – hardly a roll call of institutionally racist countries. Indeed, most other countries in the civilized world look at the United States in disbelief that we don’t require proof of identification to vote. Even our own bipartisan Commission on Federal Election Reform recommended a voter ID requirement when they issued their comprehensive recommendations in 2005. Their report called voter identification one of “five pillars” that would “build confidence” in the integrity of federal elections... National opinion polls continually show about 70% support for voter ID laws. Does anyone really believe that 70% of Americans want to suppress minority voting rights? But the first instinct of too many on the left is to brand those who would protect the time-honored tenet of “one citizen, one vote” as “racists” is a sad commentary on the state of our discourse. As Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal recently put it, “there is no more shallow, hollow, or soulless way to think about human beings than in terms of their skin color.”"
It's racist for employers to hire people with college degrees because minorities are less likely to have college degrees
Law Graduate Gets Her Day in Court, Suing Law School - The New York Times - "As her debt mounted and her job prospects faltered, she filed a lawsuit in 2011, arguing that she would not have enrolled at Thomas Jefferson if she had known the law school’s statistics were misleading... Thomas Jefferson, like other accused law schools, maintained that it filed only the data that the American Bar Association’s accrediting body required. And judges largely agreed. Students would have to be “wearing blinders” not to see that a “goodly number of law school graduates toil (perhaps part time) in drudgery or have less than hugely successful careers,” Justice Melvin L. Schweitzer of New York Supreme Court wrote in 2012, dismissing a lawsuit by nine former students against New York Law School."
Is the Cretan Diet the “real” Mediterranean diet? - "Twenty-three countries surround the Mediterranean Sea. How can all these countries, which differ in culture, religion, geographical location, products, socioeconomic status, have a single diet, called the Mediterranean Diet? Is the term Mediterranean Diet misleading? Not all Countries in the Mediterranean have a Mediterranean Style diet"
We must stop indoctrinating boys in feminist ideology - Telegraph - "By all means, let’s teach children about healthy relationships, but that’s not really what these campaigns are about. Instead there is an overwhelming emphasis on imposing an ideological worldview that first and foremost sees young men as potential abusers and perpetrators, while routinely ignoring and minimising the very real threat of violence, both physical and sexual, that boys and young men face themselves"
Danish ‘Sharia council’ voluntarily disbands - "After the existence of the so-called ‘Sharia council’ came to light, members decided to voluntarily disband the council “out of respect for Danish values”... three members of the Sharia council told a woman that she could not divorce her husband even though she had been subjected to physical abuse... hidden camera footage showed imams at the highly controversial Grimhøj Mosque saying that adulterers should be stoned and that children should be beaten for not praying."
Harvard Law School dean asks to change the school’s shield because of its ties to slavery - "A committee at Harvard Law School has recommended that the shield that has long been used as a symbol should be retired, because it is the family crest of a slaveholder and does not reflect the values of the school. The shield is a powerful symbol: For decades, it has represented one of the world’s most prestigious institutions, and for many alumni, their pride in the school and their accomplishments... From Princeton to the University of Mississippi to Yale, students have demanded long-held traditions be changed, redefining the legacy of benefactors such as President Woodrow Wilson and John C. Calhoun and rejecting banners and titles such as the Confederate flag and “masters” of houses because of their connotation of slavery... a Harvard Law Record straw poll found 55 percent of the more than 500 respondents supported changing the shield, while 31 percent preferred to keep the shield and acknowledge its history. More than a thousand people contacted the committee with their opinions, which did not fall along predictable lines such as age, race, or political leanings... Many older African American alumni were deeply attached to the shield, not knowing its history, the report noted, “as a proud, even defiant, symbol of their accomplishment at a time when the larger world often refused to recognize their merit.” Some felt removing it would be an erasure.any older African American alumni were deeply attached to the shield, not knowing its history, the report noted, “as a proud, even defiant, symbol of their accomplishment at a time when the larger world often refused to recognize their merit.” Some felt removing it would be an erasure.
Might as well abolish Harvard since its history is tainted
Details of 22,000 jihadis revealed in huge cache of leaked ISIS HR forms - "Only when a recruit had filled in the 23-question registration card were they allowed into the group, also known as Daesh. Questions on the form included date of birth, marital status, previous jobs, who recommended them, if they had fought before, what role they would take – for instance, ‘fighter’ – and any ‘specialist skills’. The forms even includes contact details for next of kin. Many of the names on the registration cards are well known."
Ontario Human Rights Commission calls for end to skimpy dress codes - "Hooters U.S. parent company did not respond to requests for comment on the dress codes in its restaurants across Canada."
Women are too stupid to not work at restaurants with skimpy dress codes if they don't like them
2 male former Hooters employees in Costa Mesa file sex-harassment suit - "The lawsuit alleges that Leukert threw Cagnina to the ground in the parking lot after a bikini contest in Costa Mesa and forcibly simulated sodomy in front of spectators"
Women Are Paying Strangers To Stroke Their Vaginas, Because 2016 - "The peculiar sex trend involves women paying strangers to touch their private parts in order to reach a ‘larger state of consciousness’ while also ‘improving intimacy’ and ‘increasing your orgasm skills’."