Links - 17th April 2019 (1)

Woman drifts out to sea in Iceland after posing for photo on 'ice throne' - "A tourist who posed for a photo on an “ice throne” in Iceland had to be rescued after she starting drifting out to sea in freezing temperatures."

After cold, busy month at border, illegal crossings expected to surge again - "It was a surge in the border numbers in March 2018 that infuriated Trump and launched his administration's attempt to deter families by separating children from their parents. Trump stopped the separations six weeks later to quell public outrage. But the controversy the policy generated - and its widely publicized reversal - is now viewed by U.S. agents as the moment that opened the floodgates of family migration even wider, worsening the problem it was meant to fix. While arrests along the border fell in recent years to their lowest levels in half a century, they are now returning to levels not seen since the George W. Bush administration, driven by the record surge in the arrival of Central American families.For U.S. border agents, the strain has grown more acute, as they struggle to care for children using an enforcement infrastructure made in an era when the vast majority of migrants were Mexican adults who could be quickly booked and deported. The Central American families - called "give-ups" because they surrender instead of trying to sneak in - have left frustrated U.S. agents viewing their own role as little more than the facilitators for the last stage of the migrants' journey... U.S. court restrictions on the government's ability to keep children in immigration jails - and the sheer volume of people arriving - have left Homeland Security agencies defaulting increasingly to the overflow model Trump deplores as "catch-and-release."... Across rural Guatemala, Martinez said, word has spread that those who travel with a child can expect to be released from U.S. custody. Smugglers were offering two-for-one pricing, knowing they just needed to deliver clients to the border - not across it - for an easy surrender to U.S. agents."If this continues, I don't think there will be anyone left in Guatemala," Martinez joked. The men from his village near the town of Chiquimula were all leaving, he said, bringing a child with them. Martinez said he used the family home as collateral. He had four months to pay off the $2,500. "I need a way to feed my family, and this is it," he said... a growing portion of those who pass the initial screening never appear in court. They know asylum standards are tightening. Or, like Martinez, they have a prior deportation from the United States that all but disqualifies them from getting asylum.Once released into the U.S. interior, some shed their monitoring bracelets and slip into the shadows to remain in the United States, a country where wages are 10 times higher than in Central America."

County Sheriffs Take Sanctuary City Playbook To Defy Gun Control - "The Trump administration’s tough stance on immigration led many cities across the country to pass resolutions resolving not to defend current U.S. Immigration Law. Anti-gun control organizers have started to use the same tactic"

U.S. City Declares Itself A 'Sanctuary City For The Unborn' - "Members of the Roswell, New Mexico City Council voted Thursday to make their jurisdiction a de facto "sanctuary city for the unborn."... The resolution expressly “honors the rights of healthcare providers to object on moral grounds to performing abortions and opposes any regulation or law seeking to violate that right.”... Citizen Molly Boyles also spoke in support of the resolution. “Here in the United States, we have severe penalties for destroying eagle eggs or turtle eggs, but human children in the womb, with a heartbeat with feelings are being dismembered and killed”"

Amy Klobuchar's Anger - "As dawn must follow dusk, any unpleasant revelation about a successful woman must be immediately plumbed for any possible hint of sexism, and so it has been with the Klobuchar news. If a man threw a binder at his employees, he’d be appointed president for life, is the thinking. An American city would be renamed for him; women would compete to bear him sons; his picture would be printed on currency. Certainly a kind of sexism has accompanied the incident, and the proof is that Klobuchar seems to be surviving these reports, while a man never would... Nothing more exemplifies the relative powerlessness of women than the way we regard a story about a woman throwing something. When an angry man starts throwing things, people know that real danger is afoot. A man who is not in control of his ability to do physical violence isn’t fit for most things, and certainly not for governance. There was a time, perhaps, when this was different. But that time is long past.But when an angry woman throws something—whether it’s Scarlett O’Hara hurling a vase across the library at Twelve Oaks; or Hillary Clinton, in the rumor that will not die, heaving a lamp at Bill in the White House; or now Amy Klobuchar, supposedly throwing a binder across her office—the gesture is understood as puny, perhaps even comical... The inevitable impulse to characterize this bad behavior as some kind of feminist badassery has already begun. “Being a bad bitch is a good thing,” Meghan McCain said on The View; “For me, it’s like you’re tough and you’re strong and you’re going to get things done.”... Trying to sell cruelty and pathological behavior as a feminist victory is yet another reason that so many women who care deeply about equality don’t identify themselves as feminists."
Since feminism is about a puerile inversion of stereotypes, bad behavior in women is a good thing

Report: Facebook Used Sheryl Sandberg's Feminist Memoir to Win Support from Female EU Regulators - "Facebook reportedly lobbied George Osborne, the U.K.’s former Chancellor of the Exchequer, to influence the European Union’s data protection laws in the social network’s favor. Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg also reportedly used her feminist memoir Lean In to win over female E.U. legislators."

The Secret Life Of The Mala Xiang Guo - "the story of MLXG is undeniably a story about migration. It is about the Sichuan chefs who migrated to make money in other parts of China. It is a story of migrants who came to work and set up businesses in Singapore.Likewise, it is also the story of BreadTalk Group’s reverse migration into the China market, without which the MLXG might never have arrived in Singapore at all."

Bicycle helmets reduce risk of serious head injury by nearly 70%, study finds - "A major study of bike helmet use around the world from more than 64,000 cyclists has found helmets reduce the risks of a serious head injury by nearly 70%. The study also found neck injuries are not associated with helmet use... The compulsory wearing of bike helmets in Australia has long been a source of frustration for some cyclists, who argue it reduces participation rates. Previous studies have indicated helmet use encourages risk-taking behaviour or does not reduce serious injury to the brain... “Helmet use is associated with odds reductions of 51% for head injury, 69% for serious head injury, 33% for face injury and 65% for fatal head injury""

How male victims of domestic abuse often end up getting arrested themselves - "Male victims of domestic abuse are reluctant to report attacks because they are often subjected to false accusations themselves... Abuse charities also claim they are finding an increasing number of male victims coming to them to seek advice after becoming the subject false accusations... One male victim who took part in the study, but did not want to be named described how he had been arrested on three separate occasions following false allegations by his wife.He said: “In the latest incident I made the initial complaint to police as my wife assaulted me. But when they arrived, they showed little concern and instead arrested me because my wife made a counter allegation"

Why kids who watched Sesame Street did better in school - "access to the show was associated with improved elementary school performance in “the generation of children who experienced their preschool years when Sesame Street was introduced in areas with greater broadcast coverage.” In the 1980 Census cohort, for example, kids who had access to Sesame Street were “1.5 to 2 percentage points more likely to be at the grade level appropriate for their age.” The study also found that boys, kids who grew up in poor counties, and black children were particularly impacted by access to Sesame Street. However, the researchers found little to no effect on longer-term factors like college attendance and employment, save for “some small long-term labor market improvements.”"

Birmingham school stops LGBT lessons after parents protest - "A primary school that taught pupils about homosexuality as part of a programme to challenge homophobia has stopped the lessons after hundreds of children were withdrawn by parents in protest... about 600 Muslim children, aged between four and 11, were withdrawn from the school for the day, parents said... the assistant headteacher of the school was forced to defend the lessons after 400 predominantly Muslim parents signed a petition calling for them to be dropped from the curriculum... The issue was first raised by Fatima Shah, who pulled her 10-year-old daughter out of the school, saying children were too young to be learning about same-sex marriages and LGBT rights in the classroom.“We are not a bunch of homophobic mothers,” she said. “We just feel that some of these lessons are inappropriate. Some of the themes being discussed are very adult and complex and the children are getting confused.“They need to be allowed to be children rather than having to constantly think about equalities and rights.”"
What happens when diversity threatens diversity?

Birmingham Muslim parents withdraw 600 children from Parkfield Community School over LGBT lessons - "The children involved in the mass exodus represent about 80 per cent of the school's entire enrolment.The Alum Community Rock Forum told Birmingham Live the pupils were pulled out of the classroom, because the school was 'undermining parental rights and aggressively promoting homosexuality'... Some Muslim demonstrators said they would rather leave the UK than allow their children to continue attending Parkfield Community School.Some joined in with the chants and held placards reading: 'Education not indoctrination.'... 98 per cent of the 750 pupils are said to be from an Islamic background... 'A family who live near me have already returned to Pakistan because of it.'Some of the parents said Islam did not accept homosexuality, while others said they were not against it, but accused the teacher of promoting 'personal beliefs'."

Councillor backs Muslim mums who accused school of 'promoting homosexuality' - "Labour councillor Mohammed Idrees - who represents Alum Rock - has told Parkfield Community School it must listen to concerns being raised... "I cannot comment on what's being taught in the classroom but the school and teachers must be sensitive to Muslim parents and Islam."The school has to bare in mind it is a predominantly Muslim school.""

LGBT lessons row: More Birmingham schools stop classes - ""Leigh Trust said it was halting the lessons until after Ramadan"... "Morally we do not accept homosexuality as a valid sexual relationship to have. It's not about being homophobic... that's like saying, if you don't believe in Islam, you're Islamophobic.""

Plea for emergency help as 45,000 new migrants settle in Birmingham - "More than 45,000 migrants have settled in Birmingham in three years, putting huge pressure on schools, the NHS and housing services across the cash-strapped city"

Portland, Maine 'Struggling' as African Mass Immigration Overwhelms City - "The city of Portland, Maine is “struggling” due to mass legal immigration primarily from Africa being driven to the region as public resources and the state’s social safety net are strained. A new Wall Street Journal report details how Portland — a city of fewer than 67,000 residents — is being overwhelmed by mass legal immigration to the state. The resettlement of thousands of immigrants in the area has strained public services so much that local officials are warning that they cannot handle any more influxes of immigrants...
'Asylum seekers, who are primarily from African countries, now make up 90% of the people living in Portland’s city-run family shelter and overflow shelter, where new arrivals sleep on mats'"

Egypt's president decries migrants heading to Europe and refusing to integrate - "Egypt's President has told his people they should not expect the West to 'open their doors' to migrants who refuse to integrate.Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said that 'every country has the right to protect its people and their interests.'Speaking at a World Youth Forum in Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt, the country's leader told guests they had to 'completely abide by the laws, customs, traditions and culture' of a country they moved to... 'Instead of asking me why countries [in the West] close their gates to us, you should ask yourself why the people of Afghanistan don't take better care of their own country.'Why have they been killing one another for 40 years? This happens in other countries as well – in Pakistan, in Egypt, in Syria, in Libya, in Iraq, in Yemen, and in Somalia.'We fight amongst ourselves in our own countries, and then we expect countries that work day and night to achieve progress to protect their people and to maintain a certain standard of living for them – we demand that they let us in so we can have part of their [success].'Sisi, 64, told the audience that the leaders of 'Germany, England, Italy or any other European country' would protect their borders 'in order to protect the achievements of many long years'.He said: 'Do you expect them to open their doors so that we can go there demanding to keep our own culture?"

Neil deGrasse Tyson likens Albert Einstein to migrant caravan population, promptly roasted - "Neil deGrasse Tyson’s latest foray into the nation’s immigration debate ended with a social-media roasting this weekend when he compared a migrant caravan from Central America to Nobel physicist Albert Einstein. The astrophysicist and “StarTalk Radio” host was mocked on Twitter Sunday when he rhetorically paired the man behind the famous equation E = mc2 to rock-throwing migrants trying to force their way through a U.S. port of entry in San Ysidro, California... Mr. Tyson’s Twitter feed was soon filled with chastisements over his decision to equate Mr. Einstein’s orderly and legal entrance into the U.S. with men throwing projectiles at border agents.“He was a legal immigrant who fully embraced the ideals and mores of his adoptive country,” one user wrote, the social-media aggregator website Twitchy reported. “I don’t think he stormed a fence and threw rocks.”"

Migrant groups march to U.S. consulate in Tijuana demanding reparations - "Two groups of Central American migrants made separate marches on the U.S. Consulate in Tijuana Tuesday, demanding that they be processed through the asylum system more quickly and in greater numbers, that deportations be halted and that President Trump either let them into the country or pay them $50,000 each to go home... When asked how the group came up with the $50,000 figure, organizer Alfonso Guerrero Ulloa of Honduras, said they chose that number as a group.“It may seem like a lot of money to you,” Ulloa said. “But it is a small sum compared to everything the United States has stolen from Honduras.”The group’s letter criticized American intervention in Central America. They gave the U.S. Consulate 72 hours to respond. They said they had not decided what to do if their demands were not met."... Their letter also asked the U.S. to remove Orlando Hernandez from office.Getting $55,000 for each of the caravan members, Ulloa said, might allow them to go back home and start a small business."
Free money is always good

MS-13 gang member caught traveling with migrant caravan: Border Patrol - "Border Patrol agents announced Wednesday they nabbed an MS-13 gang member traveling with the thousands of Central American migrants hoping to seek asylum in the US."