Feminist politician Barbro Sörman says 'Swedish men rape by choice, migrants rape by ignorance' - "Here we have a simple case of a woman trying to excuse rape by simply saying, ‘they do not know any better’. This type of logic is an extremely slippery slope once implied to other crimes."
Palestinians: Abbas "The Jew" - "Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas is facing a barrage of criticism for attending the funeral of former Israeli President Shimon Peres in Jerusalem. The fury directed towards Abbas comes as no surprise to those who are familiar with the unrelenting campaign of anti-Israel incitement that has been taking place for many years in Palestinian society. If attending the funeral of an Israeli leader, especially one who devoted the past two decades of his life to peace between Israel and the Palestinians, draws such condemnation, it is easy to imagine the result of a Palestinian leader making a peace overture to Israel."
A University Professor Speaks Out - "the only solution on social media is to delete comments - which Social Justice Warriors and Feminists have started to do. Because when you say, "All men are potential rapists," and you find out women rape, too; when you say, "Men do domestic violence," and you find out Lesbians have the highest rates of domestic violence, this is what happens. People started producing data and questioning the mainstream narrative. And the media started say: "Let's not have this anymore." That's where we are now. The people asking the questions have not stopped doing it and now we have the proverbial "emperor has no clothes."... What's happened since 1985–2015 has been the rise of Cultural Marxism to equal Economic Marxism and the result is what we colloquially call the "Oppression Olympics". They arose for a reason - not by accident...
MM: Moving on, as a professor and Person of Color how are you treated by your colleagues or students when you don't buy into the popular narrative?
P: I've been called a racist. I get called a racist by white undergraduate girls because I don't believe their definitions from Introductory Sociology 101... "Brown people can't be racist; Black people can't be racist - only white people can be racist." I say to them the most racist people I know are my kind and they call me a racist for that...
MM: This is a bigger problem and what irks me. Any criticism or questioning of the narrative and you are automatically "problematic". If you question structural oppression of minorities you're immediately a bigot, if you question the 3rd Wave Feminist narrative you must have some misogynistic motives. I read this article on www.everdayfeminism.com by one of the lead editors which pretty much made the claim that by trying to logically, rationally look at facts, statistics, etc., individuals were "undermining lived experiences of women," and "insulting their critical thinking skills."
P: I read that article. It's actually worth saving as a historical record - I'm serious about this. I have two children and I'm going to show it to them. As a case in point, www.everydayfeminism.com is a goldmine - a historical goldmine - that we didn't have for the Nazis or the KKK for how warped their thinking was. And this is part of my historical readings, - guess where racism came from? Academic Professors - Liberals. Yes, racism was the leading theory of academic liberals about 150 years ago - to help people... No one is the bad guy in their own narrative, and that's the larger point I wish to make. In the 20th century we got the idea that the good guys want to liberate people and the bad guys want to oppress people. No - everybody wants to liberate people but the question is who do you want to liberate and how? The Christian Crusaders wanted to liberate the Muslims from their Paganistic beliefs and have them go to heaven. It's all good intentions."
Western Fashion Is Shaping Air Conditioning Around the World - "A better understanding of how non-western clothing keeps people warm or cool could translate to energy savings: If a loose-fitting Indian outfit is cooler than a western men’s suit, buildings don’t need to be cooled to the same (very cold) western standard."
Oxytocin Enhances Spirituality, New Study Says - "In the study, men reported a greater sense of spirituality shortly after taking oxytocin and a week later. Participants who took oxytocin also experienced more positive emotions during meditation"
Please believe us – Stomping Grounds - "“Your sister looks Indian. But you look Eurasian.” She smiled. She was paying me a compliment, and it made me feel pretty. Mostly, I was happy she didn’t think I looked Indian... One of my classmates asked me one evening if I had a boyfriend. I told him that I didn’t. “Oh, good,” he replied. “I want to introduce you to my friend. I think you guys will hit it off. He’s Indian, too.” I was shocked into speechlessness that an adult in the 21st century would think of setting two people up based purely on their ethnicity. Mostly, I was upset he thought I was Indian."
Apparently Indians themselves don't prize fairness. And there aren't a significant number of Indian families who get upset when their kids date non-Indians, and assortative mating does not exist within races
Sacha Baron Cohen: FBI Was 'Compiling a File' During Borat - "“[The FBI] got so many complaints there was a terrorist traveling in an ice cream van,” the actor said. “So the FBI got so many complaints that they started compiling a little file on us and eventually they came to visit us at the hotel. I obviously went missing when I heard because [the film crew] were like, ‘FBI’s downstairs. Sacha, disappear.’”"
Attractive Women May Impact A Man’s Desire To Wear Condoms: The Hotter The Girl, The Less Likely He’ll Wear One - "men who considered themselves attractive also had a higher tendency to avoid condom use during sex. Perhaps more interesting was their finding that men were still unlikely to wear condoms even when they thought the woman was at a higher risk of STDs"
Cure for baldness could be possible after researchers find new clue in cells - "A series of mouse experiments showed how Tregs in the skin send out signals that stimulate hair follicle stem cells to regenerate and spark new hair growth."
Man Stuck Inside ATM Rescued After Slipping Customers Terrifying Notes
Labour's 2017 election campaign worst in almost 70 years at turning votes into seats, analysis finds - "Labour’s increase in vote share was largely a result of the party stockpiling support in seats it already held. That will come as a boost to opponents of Mr Corbyn who have argued that he is popular among traditional Labour voters but is unable to win over enough swing voters to deliver a parliamentary majority."
In 1990, more than 60% of people in East Asia were in extreme poverty. Now only 3.5% are.
The horrors of neo-liberal capitalism and globalisation
If Disney Princesses Were Historically Accurate - "Pocahontas would have been considered a woman in the tribe once she turned 13. The daughter of the Powhatan chief, she would’ve worn a deerskin wrap around her waist with only strands of white shell beads around her neck. In the winter, she may have worn a leather cloak around her shoulders to keep warm. When unmarried, Powhatan women wore their hair in one long braid; women would cut their hair short after marriage. High-status Powhatan women like Pocahontas tattooed their faces and bodies with abstract patterns, sometimes of plants and animals. The ink was made of mashed roots, berries, and oils. Pocahontas most likely had face tattoos!"
Percentage of Europeans Who Are Willing To Fight A War For Their Country - "Europe is the continent with the fewest people willing to fight a war for their country. Globally, an average of 61% of respondents in 64 countries said they would. Morocco (94%), Fiji (94%), Pakistan (89%), Vietnam (89%) and Bangladesh (86%) had the highest percentage willing to fight. The country with the fewest people willing to go to war was Japan, with just 11% of respondents saying they would fight"
The Poorest Americans Often State the Least Support for Wealth Redistrubtion - "over the years, black Americans have become slightly less supportive of redistributive efforts while white Americans have become slightly more supportive. The number of black Americans who say that getting ahead is based on luck has decreased, while those saying that success is largely tied to hard work has increased. “Blacks view the economic system as becoming increasingly fair and are decreasingly supportive of government targeted aid based on race,” the authors write. And they say that this shift in views accounts for about 45 percent of the decreased support for wealth redistribution among the group.
Is it racist to say blacks have false consciousness?
Cultural differences: Within Singapore’s Indian community, a clash between the old and the new - "the Tamil hegemony that defines Indianness in Singapore may be threatened... “For long Indianness in Singapore was strongly defined by Tamilness,” said Rajesh Rai, a historian at the National University of Singapore. “Today Dravidian consciousness has to negotiate, even struggle, with alternative notions of Indianness.” Perceived cultural differences are exacerbated by socio-economic inequalities. The new Indian migrant is often professionally qualified and in well paying jobs in IT, and banking and finance. “The extent of income inequality amongst the Indian community is the highest as compared to other major ethnic communities such as the Chinese and the Malay,” said Rai. Norms of behaviour are often a problem. The expatriate Indian is often perceived as pushy and aggressive and coming in with a strong sense of entitlement."
If racism = power + prejudice who is more of a victim - rich Indian Indians or poor Singaporean Tamil Indians with official state recognition?
This Futuristic Water Bottle Is an Edible, Gelatinous Blob - "Though they might raise eyebrows, the globs have a honorable and pressing purpose: to battle the worldwide epidemic of plastic pollution"
Singapore Study Finds No Significant Relationship Between Access to Green Space and Well-Being - "neither access to nor use of Singapore’s green spaces had a significant impact on the respondents’ well-being. The most significant influence on well-being, in fact, was the underlying emotional stability and personality of the respondent. Stable, extraverted people tend to feel happier—and this doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with nature. These results fly in the face of numerous studies extolling the benefits of green space on human health... Singaporeans may derive less enjoyment from the outdoors than their European counterparts—simply because it’s so damn hot outside."
Why Some People Find Crowded Cities Relaxing—And Others Don’t - "neurotic people found “high-anxiety” situations to be more calming for their minds"
Why not fund the welfare state with a 100% inheritance tax?
Naturally this appears in the Guardian
Comments: "Inheritance tax is the most punitive and irrational of all taxes. The implications of inheritance tax are (1) I am permitted to squander my estate, but not give it to my children; (2) my children are not permitted to inherit my money, but total strangers are. As if we needed reminding, the thievery and parasitism of the envious left leaves them mired in the most hopeless absurdity."
"This article provides an example of why so many hate the left. Under leftism, someone who has been careful with their money, and spends their whole life sacrificing and working hard for the sake of their children must be punished and others, many of whom have been indolent, should have the right to that hard earned wealth."
"People don't work to create wealth for no reason. They do it because they think they will get to spend it and pass it on. Take away that motivation and there are significant social and economic downsides"
China's forcing its citizens to install a Big Brother app or go to jail - "The app, known as Jinwang, is said to monitor files on your phone and “automatically detect terrorist and illegal religious videos, images, e-books and electronic documents.” If it finds any such content (by matching the files’ MD5 digital signatures with those in a database), users will be prompted to delete them. It’ll also grab your Weibo and WeChat records, SIM card info and Wifi login data and relay them to a government server."
Rahman: Fans walk out of A.R. Rahman's concert in UK because he did not sing enough Hindi songs - "fans started leaving the concert after Rahman started singing Tamil songs."
Racists!
A Marxist Education In 'Hypersensitivity' As A Cause Of Violence On American Campuses - "39.6 percent of the 449 colleges and universities it analyzed “maintain policies that seriously infringe upon the free speech rights of students.” (As alarming as this statistic is, censorship on campus has become so bad that this latest percentage of 39.6 actually represents an improvement over the recent past.)... "Hypersensitive people, who often think their pride is being assaulted, are potentially dangerous.” He goes on to explain how “hypersensitivity to insults also makes it possible to understand what might otherwise appear to be senseless violence. . . . Many violent people believe that their actions were justified by the offensive acts of the person who became their victim.”"
Finland's Miss Helsinki suffers racism and 'ugly' row after winning - "Fans of the competition felt that Sephora should not have been able to enter as she was not born in Finland while others felt she was not beautiful enough. Hundreds, who felt she lack the good looks to win, took to social media to voice their opinions. One Facebook user wrote: "Political correctness won. She's damn ugly and not even from Finland.""
She probably wouldn't have won Miss Nigeria, so...
Finland: Bus driver who refused Somali to board without a ticket gets fired from job, received threats from another Somali driver…… - "According to the employer, Simanov engaged in describing immigrant young people without tickets in an “inappropriate and racist behavior”."
Study: Density and Public Transit Access Might Be Good for Your Mental Health - "good accessibility to public transport, as well as a dense urban structure (versus sprawl), could contribute to reduced risk of depression, especially for women and elderly, by increasing opportunities to move around and have an active social life."
Calibri, Nawaz Sharif and Fontgate: How a Microsoft Typeset Could Bring down the Pakistani Government - "A report stated that she had disclosed her ties to the British Virgin Island's firm in 2006 in a statement written in Calibri font. But Microsoft only made the font publicly available in 2007, leading to speculation that the documents could have been forged."
ISIS jihadis trying to flee terror zone in make-up and dresses CAPTURED - "The Jihadi had powdered his face, applied obscene amounts of purple eyeshadow with thick black eyeliner, plucked and heavily filled in his bushy eyebrows, drawn on some beauty spots and finished the look with painted on red lips. He was also wearing a headscarf to try and make his outfit look more authentic. But the fanatic had overlooked one crucial part of his look - he had forgotten shave off his beard and moustache which - an immediate giveaway that he was not a real woman."
Australia: land of eccentric election candidates - "The key to understanding Australian politics is that voting is both compulsory and preferential (or “Alternative Vote” as the UK knows it). This means that in order to win elections, candidates have to appeal to people who don’t care about politics and also to people who plan to vote for someone else anyway. The result is two major parties who, despite some genuine ideological divisions, basically disagree within a fairly narrow band. Unthreatening centrism and a “don’t scare the horses” mentality is the order of the day."
There're many advantages to first past the post after all